This is also day 14 of my October prompt list and part 3 of 10.-Ravens
CW: Remus being Remus, calling someone an it, mentions of sex and suggestive language
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Remus wasn't expecting this to happen at all. He was working his usual shift when all of the sudden a freaking black hole appeared under the car he was working on. He only slid closer to take a look at it before being sucked in, and now here he was, on a pile of several trinkets and gems.
He looked up to try and figure out where he had came from… but the hole was nowhere to be seen. Ok, Remus was stuck in what looked like the deposit of an antique shop, no big deal! But how was he getting out of here?
Looking down at the end of the pile, Remus carefully slid down until he touched the ground. How tall was this thing? How did anyone even get something from the top? Then the ground started shaking… oh shit, he needed a safe place to hide.
As Remus looked around he couldn't help but notice the items were so random. There were random pieces of crockery that didn't seem to go together at all, several old and rusted metals, but also a lot of jewels and coins… this really looked like a dragon’s hive, if dragon’s were real of course.
A large shadow appeared behind Remus and he slowly turned around, and looked up, and up, and up until he met the face of a motherflipping dragon! No way he actually got that right.
The dragon didn't seem to notice Remus though, what a bummer. Maybe he would get eaten if he got it’s attention? It didn't hurt to try, well it did but that was the whole point.
Remus followed the dragon to a deeper part of the… cave? Were they in a cave? They were most likely in a cave, so a deeper part of the cave. He wanted to observe it for a little while before anything happened, after all he couldn't get a chance to see a real life dragon and just run to his death instantly. He was curious!
The dragon stopped and left a bunch of items it was carrying on it’s mouth on the floor. A thin cloud of pink smoke started forming around it and Remus' mouth went wide. The dragon was shrinking? Why would it want to shrink? Remus could only imagine everything he could do if he was fifty feet tall!
It seemed to stop ar around five feet tall, but then it stood up? And was suddenly ten feet tall?! Ugh this pink cloud thing made it harder to take a good look at it.
Once the smoke started dissipating, Remus could actually distinguish the dragon’s shilouette. But it wasn't a dragon anymore.
It… they? They had changed into a humanoid figure, keeping their wings, horns and some of their scales.
Woah, they were gigantic! Not as gigantic as before but still! Oh now Remus was interested.
The giant- dragon-person picked their items back up and started leaving them across the room. Okay, it was now or never.
Remus walked closer to them, but they didn't seem to pay attention. Comparing their heights really made him feel like a child, nah not a child, he was too horny for that. Remus was so small they hadn't even noticed their presence even when they were next to each other! It was amazing! And to think this was only a four feet difference, “Hey! What are you doing up there?”
They froze, clearly not expecting a dwarf to just randomly talk to them. The giant-dragon-person looked down at Remus with a confused look, “...organizing the new items of my hoard?”
“Oh cool,” Remus nodded and looked around. He was too focused on how random every item was earlier that he hadn't noticed they all had a specific place, and it actually looked like an organized mess somehow!
The only thing Remus had as a warning was the clatter behind him before he was picked up. “W-hoa!” That certainly took him by surprise, he was turned around only to meet the dragon face to face, “uh… hi?”
They tilted their head and examined Remus closer, “are you a human? I thought they didn't exist anymore.”
“Well I still exist! Or at least I think so.” Remus let himself be handled and twisted around, the touch was so gentle he barely even noticed, “getting touchy there are we?”
The comments seemed to startle them because they immediately let go of Remus with a yelp, only to catch him only a few feet from the ground.It was quite an awkward position since they only managed to grab his leg, “sorry! I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Remus shook his head, “not at all! I like it when someone gets touchy! If you know what I mean.” He wiggled on the dragon's grip with a suggestive look, trying to have sex at this size would be quite interesting.
The dragon-giant blushed and shifted their grip on Remus. They sat down, as to have less chance of him getting hurt if they dropped him. “Are all humans this… excited? No wonder why you got extinct if you have no filter.”
“I’m the one with no filter, not all humanity. But is a lot more fun this way!” Remus smiled brightly, maybe he could convince them to try having sex before eating him!
They giggled, “you look adorable when you smile like that.”
“Well I think you're huge and handsome! I usually don't bang guys taller than me, but I’ll hive it a shot because it's a special occasion.”
“Oh, is my size intimidating? I hadn't thought about that, hold on.” They left a confused Remus on the ground and closed their eyes. A pink aura surrounded them and they began to shrink again. Remus lowered his sight to follow the not so giant now-dragon’s change of size.
They opened their eyes and looked up at Remus, “woah woah enough stop!” He had quite some trouble making his magic stop.
Remus wasn't great with proportions, but they looked really small even sitting down. His suspicions were only confirmed when they stood up, at about four feet tall.
“Uh… I think I went too far.” They chuckled awkwardly.
“Okay now this,” Remus reached down and picked them up the same way they did with him before, “is adorable.”
They let out a yelp and flapped their wings to stabilize themselves, “is this how being picked up feels? I wouldn't have done it earlier if I knew…”
Remus shook his head, “it’s fine. I liked it!”
Having them like this actually helped to get a better look at them. The beautiful baby blue scales decorating their body looked so shiny! Almost like they had glitter on them! Their horns matched but had pink spots here and there, as well as the boning of his wings. And that tail! The spikes on it alternated between a darked blue and the same pink, but they were more rounded than sharp.
“Well… I don’t, can you put me down please?”
“Sure!” Remus put the dragon down and looked around again. “This is a pretty great dope collection you have going on here… uh,” when he looked back at the dragon, he was just a couple of inches taller than him, “I think we don’t know each others names yet”
They nodded, “right, where are my modals?” They chuckled and extended their hand, “I’m Patton”
Remus took their hand and shook it, “Remus. He/him pronouns.”
Paton gave him a confused look, “uh… then I guess I’m a he too”
Remus snickered “I suppose dragons don’t care about pronouns”
“We don’t,” Patton took his hand back and looked around as he thought. “At least the dragons I know don’t”
Remus tilted his head, “is there something on your mind?”
Patton looked back at him, “Oh. I’m just wondering where I could keep you, you would be perfect for my hoard!”
Summary: After another tiring and grinding day of recording his next single, Patton meets up with Remus at his favorite diner.
Tags: Swearing, Innuendo, (Referenced/Implied) Neglectful Parents, Food, detailed descriptions of eating food (just in case), (referenced) aphobia, let me know if I missed any!
Pairing: platonic Intruality.
Word count: 3,827
[AO3]
...
“And… it’s a wrap!”
With a short huff, Patton grabbed both ends of the noise-canceling headphones and slid them off his head, hanging them back over the stand of the microphone. Even without hearing the operator’s voice, he could see him mouthing the familiar closing line from outside the recording booth. With his signature thumbs up from behind the panel. Swallowing the strain in his throat, Patton shot him his, or “Heart’s”, characteristic bright smile. Turning his eyes to Logan, he was standing upright with his arms crossed, expression unreadable.
Like always. Nothing ever changed during their routine recording sessions. Maybe that was why Patton was so unusually giddy tonight, knowing he was going to meet up with Remus soon. The single event in his day that would bring some spice after the seemingly endless hours of singing and writing and meetings.
Which had been going non-stop ever since the press caught the two of them at the club two weeks ago. Luckily gossip like that in the entertainment world could die out fast, especially when another rumor happened to come out concerning an actual affair that had a lot more evidence to back it up.
One of the rare occasions when Patton would be grateful for the world’s obsession with romance and the like - if it meant people would stop poking their noses in his private life for a change.
“Well done, Heart!”
Joey rolled his chair back from his operating panel and slapped his thighs enthusiastically, as Patton walked back inside the monitoring room. “That final high note you sang gave me chills.”
“Thanks! Happy to hear it got you riled up,” Patton beamed. He could already picture Remus twisting his face into a lewd expression just to tease him. The thought alone was enough to make him chuckle.
Someone cleared their throat.
Not having moved an inch from his uptight posture, Logan adjusted his glasses and gave Patton a stern look. Even though he should be used to it by now, the recent tension after the whole night club fiasco got Patton on edge a little when they locked eyes.
“We will just have to hope our target listeners will have the same response, after what happened,” Logan said in a monotone voice, but with undeniable judgment underneath. “I know it is past 8 PM, but there are some matters that I have to speak to you about over-”
“I actually can’t, tonight!”
Similarly, this would have been the fifth time this week they’d have to work overtime. Like Remus had tried ramming into his head before, he’d have to start setting his boundaries before he’d exhaust himself beyond repair.
“You can’t?” Logan responded, raising an eyebrow at him. “If you have any more plans with that man from-”
“No, no, I’m… just meeting my mom,” Patton waved his hand dismissively, faintly hoping he’d cover up the blush on his face. He heard Joey doubtingly humming from his seat. “She’s in town and asked me out for dinner. So…”
Was that convincing enough a lie to get away with? Probably not, but Patton counted himself lucky that Logan wasn’t as good at picking up cues. He just let out a sigh and grabbed both their coats from the hanger.
“Alright then, don’t stay too long.” Logan handed Patton his jacket as Joey’s phone seemed to ring. He had mentioned he had another singer coming in after them. “I need you energized tomorrow morning for our meeting.”
“Yes, Logan, I won’t stay too long,” Patton nodded obediently, tucking both arms into the sleeves of his thin beige jacket. Logan wrapped his pitch black coat over his waist, tying them together with his belt. So methodical, always in the same rhythm and the same time frame.
Always the same coat.
“Yep, this is Joey,” it echoed from behind them. Joey spinned in his chair and waved at the two of them silently, holding his phone close to his right ear.
Their cue to leave.
Logan held open the door, then impatiently gestured towards the opening. Forcing his lips to curl into another scripted smile, Patton tilted his head at Logan and escaped out of his tiny boxed office for the day.
“What restaurant are you planning to go to?”
They hadn’t set two foots outside the studio, before Logan raised his voice again over the loudly whooshing wind outside. The cold slapped Patton on his cheeks and crawled along his neck.
“Oh, just… a diner,” Patton mumbled. He tapped the top of the shoes against the pavement, a dark road running along for a couple miles in the center of town, sporadic lanterns painting the scenery a golden color. Aside from a few cars and a bus driving past, fellow pedestrians were few and far between tonight.
“What’s it called?” Logan insisted, turning towards Patton with his hands in his pockets. Patton now took a turn in clearing his throat, sticking his hand in his pants’ back pocket to take out his phone. Because even if he would tell Logan, he wouldn’t have remembered the name of the place Remus suggested without checking his messages either way. Not to mention, the type of judgment he’d face after suggesting a pristine up-and-coming singer like him would be seen at a ‘mere’ family diner at the outskirts of town…
That frustration tickling his vocal chords had apparently been more severe than Patton realized.
“Can you just- get off my back for tonight? …Please?”
Patton only shot a glare at Logan for a second, before staring back at his phone’s screen. But that second was long enough to see Logan’s eyes widen in surprise.
He was expecting to hear another resigned sigh, a preach about what happened the last time he left Patton alone on a night after work, another incessant remark that he’d better keep him updated about where he spent every second of his day-
“...Alright.”
Logan almost sounded similarly monotone like he always did after rehearsals or recordings, and would give Patton his ‘final pointers’ - hardly any compliments anymore, because Logan would remind him those would ‘get to his head’ if he did that too much.
Looked like that was becoming a pattern in higher-ranking adults involved with his growth and development in any capacity. Negative outweighing the positive reinforcement - Patton wondered how he was ever perceived as the cheery and kind-hearted and loving performer with that kind of upbringing and guidance.
He couldn’t think of that of Logan, though. He was still his friend… wasn’t he? Working with your friend as your manager just… complicated things. That must be it.
His friend’s, his manager’s, voice of guidance had sounded similar tonight than any other day… except for that high pitched intonation near the end of his response that actually made Patton feel a little guilty all of a sudden.
“I’ll… leave you to it. Enjoy your evening with your mother.” Logan breathed out a huff of damp air into his cupped hands, then rubbed them together close to his face. “...I will see you tomorrow.”
He gave Patton nothing more than a small affirmative nod, before turning the other direction and walking towards the nearest bus stop down the road. It left Patton with a weird empty feeling in his heart - he clutched his phone in his right hand and let his gaze linger on Logan’s back for a moment before he vanished into an upcoming group of pedestrians.
Was his tone that out of place? Did Patton really snap at him harsher than he thought? This wouldn’t be the first time he burst out a thought like that so unfiltered.
Speaking of unfiltered…
As Patton had managed to unlock his phone, he was welcomed with about seven messages and one missed call from Remus. The faint panic that something might have happened quickly subsided though, as Patton opened his text notifications and browsed through them.
Today 7:48 PM
Heeeey superstar you done with work yet?
Ik its early but Im so fuckin bored
Today 8:04 PM
I wanted to leave you a steamy voicemail but I wouldnt wanna jeopardize your carreer with more of my slander and abominable presence or whatever the fuck your manager called it
xoxo jk jk
Today 8:07 PM
Omfg Im at the diner and they got a new daily special youre gonna LOVE and im gonna BARF
Today 8:13 PM
So I ordered your drink already cuz youre late and Im lonely ;-;
Im at the table near the window btw, guy with the greasy green hair and yellow teeth and septum piercing in his nose!! Cant miss it!! Miss you!!!
Patton couldn’t help but giggle at the procession of messages Remus had sent so far. He shouldn’t keep him waiting any longer, or he would have to chug a tomato juice cocktail or whatever monstrocity Remus had in mind for him.
Pushing away the possible breweries he’d have to stomach and he knew was probably going to love anyway - aside from the fruit that must not be named, Remus and Patton’s food preferences were surprisingly similar - Patton jogged over to his car with a gleeful smile on his face the whole ride there.
“...’s absolutely delicious!”
Patton licked his lips, the sweet foam from his homemade vanilla milkshake melting in his mouth. He hadn’t had this particular drink in years, since his early childhood even, and he hadn’t thought his appetite would have reawakened as a result.
“Told ya they got the best milkshakes in town here!” Remus grinned from the other side of the table, chin in his hand and playfully twirling his paper straw with his tongue. He had redyed his hair, bold green streaks now even bolder and lovelier, and the new septum piercing fit his aesthetic perfectly.
Patton was almost surprised he didn’t even bat an eye at Remus’ appearance anymore, even though he remembered being taught from his parents to stray away from… ‘eccentric’ figures. Those with tattoos and torn clothes and piercings in their face.
Part of him wanted to see the look on his parents’ faces when they’d see him hanging out with Remus. Speaking of, Patton trailed his eyes along the golden dragon tattoo he only now got a decent look at, on Remus’ dark and muscular right arm, till he found his way to his eyes.
“You checkin’ me out, superstar?” Remus wiggled his eyebrows and enclosed his lips over his straw afterwards to take another sip.
“I’ll happily give you an ego boost if you want,” Patton smirked with a giggle, then wrapped his hands around his cold glass. The green bench they were sitting on was quite worn, but nonetheless comfy. “No, I just… really love your tattoo. My parents were so heavily against it, I used to always scrunch up my nose whenever I saw someone with one in public… I’m glad I’ve outgrown that. They’re gorgeous.”
Remus took a second to respond, then scratched his mustache and chuckled.
"Well… If you’re interested, hit me up!” He winked, clinking the rim of his glass against Patton’s. “I know someone who's got a knack for tattooing and can offer a family discount.”
"Oh, me? A tattoo? No no no, Logan would have a heart attack on the spot if he spotted me with one!"
Patton laughed in the way he was used to. High-pitched, with an innocent-sounding giggle near the end, one he’d have rehearsed for interviews at particularly invading or uncomfortable questions too. Patton wished he didn’t use it sitting across from Remus, though.
Especially considering they both noticed the forced and scripted nature of it right away. Remus raised an eyebrow, as Patton peered into his already half-empty glass and spun it around between his palms.
“I wasn’t asking what Logan thinks, though.”
The pitch in Remus’ voice shifted a little, a bit lower and maybe even… judgemental? Since the last couple months, Patton had grown so detached from reading people’s feelings anymore. Most of the people he met were often wearing masks or happy faces around him, anyway. Or rather, Mr. “Heart”.
Really, Remus was the first one in a while who-
“Your orders are up, boys!”
A tall, ginger-haired woman with her hair in a bun carrying two wooden planks of hamburgers and fries had walked up to their table in the meantime. Her green apron seemed just a bit too small a fit for her, featured some half-torn pouches and a name plate with Judy on her plain black T-shirt. Her oval face and wrinkles along her cheeks made Patton think she’d be a couple years older than either of them.
“Fucking finally!” Remus cheered teasingly. “You’d better have gotten me that angus beef cooked juicy to perfection then.”
“Wouldn’t strive for anything less for you, doll,” Judy clicked her tongue, then set both their planks on the table in front of them. For this relatively simply-decorated and cheap diner, the plating came closer to a middle-class burger restaurant with its modern wooden planks and small iron bucket holding the home-made fries sprinkled with some oregano.
“Since when did you upgrade to this fancy shit?” Remus echoed Patton’s thoughts, just worded a bit differently. Judy crossed her arms and chuckled.
“Got a new kid running for manager now, fresh out of college. He reckoned we needed to ‘modernize’ or whatever.” Judy sighed, rolling her eyes at Patton as if to symbolize her not understanding the manager’s executive decisions. Patton just smiled at her with pursed lips, his rehearsed one.
…Maybe he shouldn’t have. Judy kept her gaze trained on him a few seconds longer, like one of those countless strangers who’d stare at Patton in the bus or train and calculated in their heads where they’d seen him befo-
“This doll your new boyfriend?” she winked at Patton, and - again, like it had been scripted - Patton feigned an ignorant gaze and tilted his head at her. Smile unfaltering.
“Fuck, Jude, what’d I tell you about making assumptions?”
Demonstratively, Remus leaned over his dish with both his elbows. He raised his voice more than how he’d been speaking until now. It managed to tear Judy’s eyes away from Patton, to his relief.
He really wanted to stop letting his persona take over his night of freedom.
“I’m just askin’, you keep bringing people in here that are just ‘friends’ and I wish you’d get yourself a sweet partner sometime soon, doll.”
Judy probably meant well. Remus blushed slightly at her comment and scratched the side of his mohawk with a chuckle. He didn’t seem bothered by her attitude, and unless Patton had been so naive that he’d misjudged Remus all along, he wouldn’t have ground reason to hold anything against their waitress.
Still… her words hit Patton at the exact spot where it hurt. He felt his chest tighten a little, a flashback of his parents’ nagging voices in the back of his head. The one time they’d grant him attention, was to scold him on how far ‘behind’ he was and how he needed to be more ‘assertive’.
Assertive like… everyone else.
Staring at his hamburger with ciabatta bun, grilled chicken topped with sliced pineapple, onions, lettuce, and a bucket of fries, Patton swallowed his resentment and listened to Remus dismissing Judy’s remarks.
“You gonna dip your nose in my mayo if you stick it any more in my business tonight, Jude,” Remus teased her, sticking out his tongue playfully to take the edge off his retort. “And if I wanted your boogers, I would have ordered it.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll leave you to it,” Judy grinned. She gave Patton somewhat of an apologetic smile. “Welcome to Meaty Monday’s, doll. Enjoy your meal, yeah?”
Rolling her shoulders in quite a nonchalant fashion, Judy stroddled back towards the kitchen. Apart from a few tables in the back, the place was mostly empty. Which was good; Patton felt like he needed some breathing space after that.
“Sorry ‘bout that, Pat,” Remus said with a hint of guilt in his voice. He grabbed three fries and dipped them half-length into his mayo on the side. “She’s good folk, just kinda nosy… like me. And from the old garde, you know?”
“Yeah… it’s fine.” Patton huffed as Remus stuffed his mouth full with fries. The knot in his stomach wouldn’t fade easily, however. Neither did that plastic “Heart” smile on his face. If he wanted to get rid of it, he’d have to be more…
‘Assertive’, huh? Kinda like… Remus.
“You know what? No, it just… sucks.”
After letting out a scoff, Patton squeezed two crunchy yet oily fries between his thumb, index and middle finger, then dipped them deep into his small bamboo cup of mayo.
“It’s exactly the kind of thing I always…” Patton waved the fries in front of his mouth, seeing Remus float his hands over his double beef burger and awaiting his response with wide curious eyes.
“...I always had to hear my parents say.”
Patton couldn’t even remember the last time he’d eaten food this ungracefully. From Remus he hadn’t expected any better, honestly. But table manners had been rammed into his head from the first day he’d be able to get his own plate of food for each meal.
Like a ‘bird’ to his parents after their two decades of Pavlovian conditioning, Patton stuffed the fries into his mouth and chewed down. Not bothering to stop speaking while munching on his food.
Which was delicious, by the way. Salty and greasy and everything he’d been denying himself for months now.
“They would always… keep asking me ‘bout… girlfriends and dating and sit me down for the ‘big talk’ when I was twelve and couldn’t care less about any of that.”
Remus listened patiently. He didn’t let his food grow cold; instead kneaded his hamburger between both hands and took it upon himself to get all the layers packed in one bite.
“It was this constant pressure they’d put on me; sometimes it felt like they didn’t care about who I’d end up with as long as they wouldn’t be those parents without grandkids later.”
“Geez, Pat,” Remus hummed while almost choking on his food. After swallowing, he dropped his burger on his plank again. “That seems like a lot for a kid to deal with.”
“I’ve never come out to them, either,” Patton continued without a breath of air to pause. He took another decent bite from his burger. He remembered how much he used to love chicken, judging from the taste of the juicy and tender meat. Patton Heart had been vegetarian for a couple years now. Not that there was anything wrong with that; quite the opposite. More so that it’d been something shoved in his face as one of his persona’s attributes rather than a conscious decision.
“I couldn’t really talk to them about anything. I had friends, though. Well, ‘friends’ - I just wanted people to like me so I hang around a bunch of my peers all the time. But because they were my only kind of outlet, I was always ‘too much’ or ‘too sentimental’ or…”
It was then that Patton came to his senses - he’d been mindlessly chewing on his burger for more than 10 seconds until it had become an unidentifiable mush with hardly any taste left. Just another lump in his throat where words were wriggling from that he’d been keeping to himself for… how long?
How long had he been rambling? Why did he? Remus had made an effort to treat him to dinner, and he repaid him by complaining about his sad life as a rich kid who had everything handed to him and got to be famous.
“Oh, God… I-I’m so sorry,” Patton quickly finished chewing on his meal and taking a big gulp with some of his milkshake. “I didn’t mean to dump this all on you.”
“Ooh Pat, the toilet’s over there you know!” Remus grinned, chin in his hands again. “No but really, it’s all good. Don’t want you to get constipated, if you know what I mean.”
He winked, and Patton surprised himself with how easily he chuckled in return.
“No, I mean…” Remus cleared his throat, sat a bit straighter in his seat and ran a hand through his hair. “I mean if you wanna vent, do it. I for sure as hell am not gonna judge you for anything. It sucks if you don’t have anywhere you can just… spill it, so. You can spill it with me.”
Patton didn’t really know what to say to that. It definitely didn’t lift the invisible weight from his shoulders, needlessly burdening Remus with his misplaced resentment. But… the amount of comfort fostered between them, the ease at which Patton had felt compelled to talk to him, the sensations and tastes and feelings that had been resurfacing that Patton had feared he’d lost…
“Don’t spill your milkshake, though.”
Lost in his thoughts, rather, Patton flinched a little when he felt Remus’ large hand covering his own holding his glass. He’d been tipping it dangerously close to his small bucket of fries as he was stirring the thing in his hand. “Don’t let those boys in your yard get a taste of it, either. You need to savor every last drop!”
“Yeah… Right!”
Patton smiled warmly. Not scripted, not forced, not “Heart”.
Just Patton.
He caught Remus blushing a little, the lingering touch becoming a tad too uncomfortable for Patton’s liking after five seconds or so.
“...And your burg! I told you this diner was gonna be worth it - I come here at least every week and have built up a regular customer discount along the way,” Remus retracted his hand and started talking at a slightly elevated pace. He grabbed his bun without looking, the same hand that had just gingerly laid over Patton’s was now grabbing his dinner with such a clutch that its ingredients slipped out from the ends of it.
Patton followed his example. The burger was already falling apart anyways.
“You think… I could build up a discount, too?” Patton suggested on a whim, twisting his food in his hands to determine the exact angle to take a proper bite out of.
“You bet! Guess…” A hard swallow, after which Remus beamed a wide smile at him with remainders of lettuce sticking in between his teeth, “Guess we gotta make a weekly habit out of this then, huh?”
Patton huffed, as he allowed his lips to naturally curl into another smile.
Knowing his prospects, a break in his week, something other than endless meetings and recordings and rehearsals, a place to vent… It lifted the weight off his shoulders just a little.
With a newfound appetite, he let go of his milkshake glass and took hold of his burger with both hands.
He was gonna make sure to savor every bite. Every sip.
