Chapter 10: Lime, Alime again! / Perfect Drink!

“Lime. I’m back. You okay? You seem to be doing better.” Evan asked, climbing into bed.

“Pretty much. If there’s one good thing about magic, it’s getting rid of colds faster.” Lime said, stretching.

“I see. As long as you're healthy enough, I guess it’s fine. Are you sure I didn’t need to stay by your side all day?” Evan asked, feeling guilty for not being there.

“Stop that. Bad.” Lime said, swatting Evan gently on the nose.

“That’s your guilty face. No. I’m fine, dear. Really. It’s just a cold. I would have been fine, even if I was alone. Besides, I actually didn’t have anything I really needed.” Lime said.

“I’m still sad you rejected my food.” Evan said, pouting.

“You would have gone all out if I let you cook for me. Dear, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Your cooking is addictive. The hot cocoa was enough. I’m pretty sure the magic you mixed in helped a lot.” Lime said.

“Yeah! I’ve gotten so good at making hot chocolate and ice cream that I can mix as much magic as I want into them. Rather than being unhealthy sweets, they become delectable superfoods.” Evan said.

“Dear, that’s an understatement. it’s gotten to the point that you make it step by step with creation mana, perfecting how it should be on an atomic scale. With that, be it heat, method, size, literally everything, mixing in all kinds of mana types, it’s nearly an immortality potion.” Lime said.

“Lime, you can read item screens, right? Here, look at this.” Evan said.

He snapped his fingers and his mana started creating, mixing, pouring, heating, straining, concentrating, restraining, shaking, twisting, adding, and more.

Evan held out his hand, and made a chocolate appear, in the shape of a heart. It got swept out of his hands and into the hot chocolate creation process. As it went in, he temporarily increased the heat to soften the heart. It stopped in limes hands, the perfect warmth, kept at that temperature by Evans new and improved stasis tech. He had designed it specifically for the hot chocolate and the ice cream.

As it stopped, a soft, melting heart that floated on top, sank, mixing the middle part of it with the hot coco. It was in a glass mug, and it started to change. It went to lime green, then pink. A heart pattern floated on top, never breaking, and when disturbed, the heart immediately reformed afterwords.

“Oh my! It’s pink!” Lime said.

“Do the item description thingy.” Evan said, pointing.

“It says…. potion of immortality?!? You’re joking! Your hot chocolate is so good now that it can make people immortal?!” Lime asked, surprised.

“Drink.” Evan said.

“I’ll do that in a second. Explain first.” Lime said.

“I’ll explain. I spent about, what, two hours designing this chocolate? Do you remember how I made you immortal?” Evan asked.

“No. You told me ages ago, if at all.” Lime said.

“Well, it was when I fed you that amazing tasting chocolate at the 7/11.” Evan said, chuckling.

“What?! Chocolate? Chocolate makes you immortal?” Lime asked.

“No, of course not. My chocolate is made special. It takes a bit more than just normal chocolate to make hot cocoa turn green then pink. It has to do with how it messes with what kinda cocoa bean was used to make the chocolate, if that makes sense. Its stage of growth and what kind it is. This chocolate is ruby chocolate. It’s not all too different from white chocolate. Well it’s very different but also not. What ruby chocolate is doesn’t really matter to this conversation. It just has a little bit of fruit flavor to it. Technically it’s the fourth kind of chocolate. It’s what’s used to make it pink. The lime green is caused by the process in which the chocolate heart changed the type of chocolate in my hot chocolate.” Evan said.

“Why not just start with ruby chocolate? Also, you’ve ranted about ruby chocolate before. It’s good. Most chocolate is.” Lime said.

“Well that takes a bit to explain. You know how alcohol is fermented right? A similar process is used here to make the ruby chocolate a bit different from plain ruby chocolate. It can only be made by me, and it’s a result of the mana that gets put into it. I have two types of the hot chocolate one, and achieved similar results in some other foods and drinks. Try tasting the cocoa, seriously.” Evan said.

“Alright.” Lime said, taking a sip.

“What the? It’s like the best food in existence! It’s like every single food's greatest peak combined in a chocolate flavor. Dear, Doesn’t mixing everything make things taste bad?” Lime asked.

“Usually, yes. But it’s the essence of greatness from every single food that it takes. It causes all of the best sensations of flavors and texture, scent and temperature, the stuff we love. It hits you in that part of your brain just right. That's why it isn’t disgusting, and it still tastes like hot cocoa. I’ve made the essence tone down to barely a wisp of flavor. You barely get a hint of it being there consciously. So it hits it with those flavors in your subconscious. That way the only thing your mind thinks you’re drinking is delicious hot cocoa. I’ve made sure to leave certain textures alone, like solid or liquid. That’s why you don’t get the subconscious feeling of eating solid food. Everything still registers as a liquid. Despite the fact that it couldn’t emulate a lot of those flavors and textures in reality. It’s your mind. That’s why I made different types of foods like this one. I call it…. hot cocoa.” Evan said.

“Evan, this is like the universe was condensed into a single dish. This is way better than that.” Lime said.

“Ah. Right, it also affects your mana, so a god or mage would have a significant increase in how good the drink or food tastes. Even mana itself seems to enjoy it. The living mana at least. It would be interesting if all mana was alive. It isn’t, but it would change how people use magic much more significantly.” Evan said.

“Um. I have a question, dear.” Lime asked.

“Yes?” Evan asked.

“How do you plan on fixing people’s addiction to this?” Lime asked.

“Are you addicted to it? I could have sworn I turned that down.” Evan said.

“No, dear. I can’t get addicted to anything. I just enjoy it. Well, I guess there’s one thing I’m addicted to.” Lime said.

“Wait, really? Is it the hot cocoa after all? Maybe another dish I made?” Evan asked, slightly concerned.

“It has to do with you, yes.” Lime said.

“That… doesn’t really give me too much to work with using my tiny head.” Evan said.

“It’s you, dear. I’m addicted to you.” Lime said, pointing.

“Oh! That’s not good! Ummm how do I fix that?” Evan said.

“No, dear. It’s not a bad addiction. It’s a good one. Like how you are addicted to me.” Lime said.

“Ohhhhh. Lime, am I stupid?” Evan asked.

“No, dear.” Lime said.

“Then hug me. My brain says it’s what I should ask. If it isn’t stupid, I’ll ask it.” Evan said.

“Oh my. More direct than usual, dear.” Lime said, smiling. She hugged him, laying his head in her lap.

“Uh oh. Lime I think I may have made a mistake. It’s time to bed. Sleep. Thing!” Evan said, struggling to get up. It was no use. He was trapped.

“There’s no use struggling, dear. It’s too late to go back now. Tonight can be normal.” Lime said.

“Oh uh, but you’re still sick aren’t you?” Evan asked.

“Nope.” Lime said.

Everything faded to black.