[水] - They were like potato nuts. He was now imagining potatoes being added into trail mix for people to munch on while they were going hiking. It was full of carbs so it would give you lots of energy. Potatoes are really big though, so they wouldn’t be very travel friendly.
“Potato nuts, heh. Makes me want to replace all nuts with potatoes.”
Just to see what would happen, of course.
With Kyouhei’s reaction to being called short, Mizumachi was taken aback. Thinking on it, he could guess why he was upset by it. The blond has always been on the taller side, so he couldn’t really understand how anyone who was short felt about their vertical challenges. Looks like he may have offended his friend with the comment he made nonchalantly without thinking much on his words.
“Ah… sorry dude, I didn’t mean anything by it. Just saying you were short compared to me, but lots of people are. You’re average in height and that’s fine. Some of the best athletes I know are your height or shorter.”
He used to look down (figuratively speaking) on people who were shorter than him, but after playing football with many teams, he started to realize that height wasn’t the only quality one needed as an athlete. Skill, heart, and strategy was needed. He didn’t see shorter athletes as being beneath him. Mizumachi respected all of them.
“Haha, I was born this way! Though I guess drinking lots of milk would help?”
Well, if all nuts were replaced by potatoes… he wouldn’t have to worry about his allergy anymore, maybe? Wait, wait, it couldn’t be that simple, right? His allergy was something he’d always lived with and had had to take precautions against… but just removing them altogether… would his body, just on policy, develop an allergic reaction to another food?
Ah, crap, he’d snapped. Kyouhei wasn’t used to playful poking at his height and so he’d reacted defensively… Mizumachi didn’t even have anything to apologize for!
“Aha, it’s fine, ‘Machi, my fault for getting all prickly. I know you wouldn’t tease me about something I can’t help with the purpose of hurting me. You’re too nice for that.” Too nice and… how could Kyou say that his tall friend didn’t seem smart enough to bully someone without accidentally insulting him?
That was interesting. The brunet had never dared to get invested in any sports because one; he was short for his age all across the globe and two; sports seemed like something you needed a lot of energy and aptitude to participate in.
“Makes me think of a song, but I can’t recall it completely.” He let out a soft huff and then tilted his head back, eyebrows furrowed. “Milk, huh? Can’t say I like milk by itself all that much.”
[水] - Yep! Just about anything was good with Mizumachi. He didn’t have any complaints or anything to give with what he’d added to the blender so he kept quiet as he watched Kyouhei preparing the smoothie. With the smaller male almost running into his arm, the athlete lifted his arm up and out of the way so he didn’t run headfirst into his bicep.
“Yeah? Where do they come from then? Are they like potatoes?”
Mizumachi wasn’t allergic to anything himself so he didn’t know firsthand what it was like to suffer an allergic reaction. He could only assume that it seriously sucked. He was going to have to be careful around Kyouhei then if he had peanuts with him. Don’t want to hurt your friend after all.
“Nhaa~ Sounds good! We should set up a trip one day! I can show you around the beach!”
With a big grin, he moved in close to wrap an arm around Kyouhei’s shoulders. A bit of a reach… and a stretch, mind you but that’s okay! He’s flexible enough to pull it off. Okay no, just less than a minute of this was starting to hurt with the awkward posture he had to twist his body into.
“You’re pretty short, huh?”
Sometimes Mizumachi just spoke without thinking much on what he was saying. He didn’t mean anything by it, but it was true that Kyouhei was just ‘short’ in comparison to Mizumachi.
Cheeks puffed out slightly in embarrassment, Kyouhei mumbled a quiet thanks at Mizumachi for moving at the last second and slipped over to his cabinet to snag some large cups, perfect for big drinks.
“I think so…?” They grew out of the ground, right? Or something equally odd. He nearly snorted while putting his answer together. “Yeah, they’re the potato nuts.”
A beach day… that sounded really nice, actually. Kyouhei was already imagining how the sand would feel under his toes, how the salty breeze would hit his face when Mizumachi brought him into a bit of an awkward side hug.
“Ghck!” Kyouhei coughed, nearly dropping the cups but managing to land them both on the counter. “Yeah! I’m short! That’s fine! It’s great, I’m just. I’m not even five and a half feet tall, was there something you were trying to say?”
This was all said with his palms steadily dragging down his cheeks, which not only made some of the words slur together but also steadily stretched his face out so that when he looked up at Mizumachi to confront him, it looked like he was pouting. And he was.
“… you’re really tall, man. What is your secret? Please tell me.”
[水] - Smoothies~! Always a wonderful thing to have when you are soon to get ready to abuse your brain with studying—or you know… getting knocked around while on the field. Either or works. Mizumachi was following after Kyouhei out of curiosity to watch him gather stuff for the blender.
“Huh? Me? Uh… I don’t think so.”
Well, did boredom count? Sometimes if he got too bored, he like breaks into hives (okay, that’s a joke) and has this intense need to break out into— well, something! Kyohei has been spared this, but sometimes when Mizumachi got excited enough, he’d start stripping. Just down to his boxers, no worries! Sometimes they were swim trunks!
“You allergic to something? Like chlorine maybe? That would be sad. Then you can’t swim in the swimming pool.”
What is life without swimming? It is a life instead full of American football, that’s what! Haha!
Kyouhei hummed, happy he didn’t have to pull anything out of his usual smoothie recipe and began to peel a banana with one hand and his teeth while opening his small-ish jug of milk with the other.
Into the blender, they went and the semi-talented chef plopped the top on before turning to answer, grinning.
“I’m not allergic to chlorine - unless it’s made of peanut butter. I have a nasty strong peanut butter allergy. Found out after trying a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup for the first time. It really sucked. Although, yum.”
He wasn’t sure why it would be thought he was allergic to chlorine - maybe Mizumachi was trying to figure out why he was so pale?
[水] - Hmmm cookies were nice, as was popcorn! Veggies and fruits? Yeaahhh sign him up! The essentials for any athletics buff! Gotta eat well and stock up on calories!
“A smoothie sounds great! A healthy snack alternative. Popcorn is great if you want to have a competition.”
A– ‘see how many popcorn pieces you can throw in the air and catch in your mouth’ competition. He was pretty good at it you know? By now Mizumachi had already long since forgotten what it was that he was supposed to do– which was doing his work. Sustenance was the most important thing on his mind now.
At this rate, it was a true wonder whether or not they were going to get any work done. Mizumachi needed to find someone like Kakei who would constantly nag him into doing his work. Boy did he miss Kakei.
“Smoothies it is~!” Kyouhei sang out, running a quick eye over all his kitchen wares while taking out the pieces of his blender and putting it together with practiced ease.
He was no master chef but smoothies and shakes were super easy, not much to mess up. First came the bananas, yogurt, and milk which he usually used as the base for the refreshing meal or snack - wait.
[水] - Snacks would definitely help. His brain needed the calories. They say that your brain uses up a lot of your calories when you think hard. Pretty selfish of it, huh? He needs those calories for his muscles during practice! Don’t be stingy and share.
He slumped himself over onto the table, groaning. He felt like his heard was going to burst. He was just not very smart. It was a grand thing he got in on a scholarship for the swim team.
“Snacks would be great. I feel like my brain is mush. I could tell you how to make a lineman see ‘Sky blue’ but not this. I don’t know how to do this stuff. Physics.”
Gross. It was important, sure, but did he really need to know how it worked?
Kyouhei honestly felt like lying on top his notes forever - ignoring emails, homework, any adult-like responsibility that would dare show its ugly face in his life.
Still! Grabbing snacks (and eating them) was the perfect temporary excuse for a break. Mizumachi didn’t deserve to suffer at the hands of physics for much longer.
“I have some chocolate cookies in the fridge and some popcorn I can pop - on top of fruits and veggies. Want me to make a smoothie?” The aspiring biochemist put away his scientific theory for food art - a much-preferred activity.