Epel knew people who loved apples. It is the Felmier’s life blood and family business, heck he liked apples but he’d never met someone like you. Someone who’d ask if anyone wanted any of the apple sauce he was giving you before chugging it like it wasn’t nearly an entire pint. He’d seen the other burlier men in his old town chug it like that after working all day without taking a break but you were just an average student at Night Raven, right? Other than the baffling circumstances in your arrival to said school he couldn’t find any reason as to why you so aggressively consumed apple products. He knows you do. He’s checked many times:
“Hey my family sent some apple-cider so”
“Gim-sama doesn’t want such dis–”
“OMG THANKS EPEL!!! GOSH I LOVE THIS STUFF”
Or that other time he had a full crate.
“Hey can I have that crate back for–Whoa! WHERE ARE THE OTHER APPLES.”
“Oh sorry Epel I kind of went ham on them. Sorry!”
“There were over a hundred in there!?”
He was both prideful and really concerned you consumed so many of his family’s products. He was well aware of the cyanide properties in the seeds; that usually no one worries about because the number for eating enough of them to activate the poison is really high…like 100…like the amount he’d found nearly gone a week after giving it to you.
“Oh no worries I avoid the seeds, plus I switch it up with different versions, y’know?”
Oh, he knew he’d been watching you chow down on apples or sipping on apple sauce everywhere. He’d seen you do it in your lonesome of the Ramshackle common room , during class, at lunch, in the library, really just everywhere.
“You’re worried about the Prefect?” Vil spoke not looking away from his own image in the mirror touching up on makeup.
“I guess I just don’t know if they understand how addicted they are. I mean they seem to really enjoy it but I’m worried they let their obsession run their lives.”
“Well don’t you sound like you're obsessing over them a little? You’ve been yapping to everyone lately about this concern of yours, that's what all the potatoes have been saying.”
Epel snapped up from his previous position, bumping the bottom part of the dresser with his knees before giving an apologetic look to the glaring Vil. Turning to Rook who was happily working behind them Epel spoke.
“Is this true?”
The hunter laughed, squinting his eyes as he spoke.
“You have been talking a lot about Trickster…perhaps you do have deeper feelings past just concern?”
A blooming heat exploded onto Epel’s face and subsequently followed by the short-circuiting student.
When he finally was able to escape Rook’s questioning and Vil’s training, he went to indulge in his favorite hobby. Epel lazed about watching from afar as you happily accepted a crate of apples from none other than Floyd and Azul. As he had overheard, you had discovered a variant of apple-like fruit from the Coral Sea and had come to the Octavinelle trio to be your guide. For someone who was so quick to tell your monster-tenant no more money to cans of tuna but perfectly prepared to buy a whole crate of sea-apples. You all too quickly walked into a shark’s den just to satisfy your apple-cravings and he was worried about you.
“You know with how (Y/n) eats apples it’d just be so easy to…”
He stopped himself thinking about the words he spoke in the lonesome of his watching area at the edge of the wood. Realizing the implications of what he said he, at first, scolding himself before really thinking about it.
You so blindly just ate and drank everything that was handed to you as long as it was from an apple or some variation of one. He tried to ignore the dark thoughts that were brewing from that little comment alone.
It just kept popping up with everyone else just knowing you wanted apples. So easily did you immediately trust anyone who so much as waved an apple product in front of your face. He’d seen it so many times Azul making you work for an apple-cider drink, or Ruggie who promises to get you more applesauce if you collect a bunch of dandelions for him.
It would be far too easy to learn how to inject a love potion.
It was too easy to inject one.
“Ah, (Y/n) I’ve been trying this new type of apple. Would you try it for me?”
“Sure.”
And like clockwork you took a heft bite of that apple and just as you should your (y/e/c) irises flashed pink. Now he found that when people talked it was you who had recently been speaking about him and when you wavered as if coming to some realization he didn’t mind offering you a cider or applesauce that would have your eyes flashing pink for as long as he pleased.
Just a year ago vulnerabilities in Android allowed hackers to quietly spy on nearly a billion phones with one specially-crafted text. iPhone owners should now take note: a security researcher today…
