“Yeah! It’s a rarberry cake. It’s a berry native to Tanin’s home planet.” She smiled at him. “I thought you might enjoy a taste of home.
Tanin cocked his head. “I’ve never been to Tella’za. Never had a rarberry either.”
“Oh?” Garnet deflated a bit. Right. Because he was born and raised on Rik-Vane. She didn’t know why she assumed he’d, at least, have eaten food from his home planet. Or maybe somehow just had a natural taste for those things.
“And I can’t eat cake like this,” Trove smiled at them. “I’m domini, lovelies. Domini can’t really eat wheats and grains.”
Garnet slumped over, disappointment, hot and twisting, pooling in her guts. “Oh…”
“But it looks great!” Trove said quickly. “I can still eat the fruit! And cap can try a rarberry for the first time. That will be nice too, right?”
That was so obviously an attempt to pacify her feelings, she couldn’t even pretend to let it work. She made a cake for a guy who was sensitive to gluten, picked a familiar flavor for a guy who’d never tried it before, and their attempt at a surprise had led to two fights – the twins finally joined in without waiting to see who won the first fight.
“I’m sorry,” she grimaced, sharing a look with Goldie. Maybe they should have just been upfront about it and not tried to keep it a secret. Then, at least, they could have made something that all of them would enjoy. Her sister looked just as disappointed about their lack of success.
“This is good.”
Garnet and Goldie turned at the same moment to see that Sway, while the others talked and fought, had already cut himself a slice of cake and was eating it with all apparent enjoyment.
Alred popped up, his light form shimmering with joy as he stood beside them. “You don’t have to thank us for protecting you. We agreed to do it. But we appreciate this anyway. It’s very nice of you. Thank you both.”
Garnet smiled at him weakly. “You don’t have to lie to make us feel better. We couldn’t even think of anything to do foryou.”
“And we did try,” Goldie said quickly, like she felt she had to make sure he knew that he hadn’t been forgotten. It was just hard to get something for someone whose body was a spaceship and who didn’t need anything and couldn’t even enjoy something simple like food.
This was the worst surprise party ever.
And even as Garnet had that thought, one of the twins went flying. Thrown by Vytln, who had the other twin clinging to his back, while Rok was getting up, shaking his head as if to try to clear it, sending blood from his lip flying. Vytln was bleeding from his nose, and the twin who went flying had a cut over his eye.
“Will youeejitsstop?” Trove snapped at them. “You’re disturbing the females.”
The twin who went flying – Tebros, judging by the side of his head that was shaved – hit the wall and bounced right off. But when he would have charged back into the fray, Tanin caught him by the neck and jerked, throwing him to the ground with surprising ease. Tebros hit with a grunt and immediately scrambled to right himself but, before he could get up, Tanin put a foot on his chest, trapping him.
“Calm down,” he ordered firmly but not loudly, looking at the other three.
“He started it,” Rok grumbled, pointing at Vytln even as Sorbet was climbing off him.
“Thank you for thinking of me,” Alred was saying to Goldie, ignoring the others completely. “I like the ribbons on my walls best. Those are very nice.”
Goldie smiled back at him, grateful for the kind words, if nothing else, while Garnet approached Tanin who was staring balefully down at Tebros. She put a hand on his shoulder.
“Sorry,” she said with a wince. “I just assumed you’d like berries from your home planet. Y-Your species, home planet, I mean. Notyourhome obviously. I just meant-”
“Hey, thesearegood,” Trove said, drawing her attention to where he had just taken one of the maroon red rarberries from Sway’s plate – earning a dull glare in return.
Tanin took his foot off of Tebros’ chest, allowing him to stand, as the two big guys approached the cake with curious looks. Sorbet seemed to magically appear at his twin’s side. All four of them were now focused on the cake that Goldie was cutting for them, offering everyone a nice, thick slice. Tebros was bleeding brown-red colored blood that he wiped away without looking. The others didn’t even mind them bumping into each other now. Like the fight hadn’t even happened.
Was it an alien thing, a product of their upbringing, or were all males just like this?
Goldie divvied out the cake, Tanin taking a piece last. Garnet already had hers in hand, watching the others anxiously. The cake had been her idea, and if it went as badly as the surprise part of this party, then she really messed up today badly.
But everyone was eating with all apparent enjoyment. Even Trove, who couldn’t eat the cake itself, was happily licking up the jammy filling from his fingers. She looked at Tanin last, eyes darting down to his cake, then back to his face.
He picked up the less than subtle hint and proceeded to use the spork-like utensil to cut off a nice, big bite and bring it to his lips. He chewed and swallowed without a single change in expression while her gut tore itself into pieces. It seemed to take forever for that one bite to go down. He cut off another piece and gave her a gentle smile.
“It’s good,” was all he said before pushing the next bite past his lips.
But she thought her heart was going to burst from her chest, it soared so high at those simple words. He wasn’t one to lie to spare her feelings, so if he said it was good, it must be.