She laughed and waved quickly in response. “It’s nice to meet you, Melanie! Are you American? You sound like it! I like your name a lot! You’re pretty!” An incessant babble began to leave her lips habitually—she never did well with nerves.

“Woah, you talk a little fast,” she whispered breathlessly though, in actuality, she had the same problem herself; though, it normally only occurred when she overly-excited or hyper from sugar intake. “I’m from Italy; but, I grew up speaking English. What about you? Autumn’s not a common name, either–” The compliment on her looks earned a faint flush of colour and shake of the head before she laughed happily. “Goodness, thank you! So are you - quite lovely!”

 

And some people are allergic, and eating it could kill them.

“Some people are also really stubborn; I know someone who ate something that they were allergic to and it put them in the hospital–but, it didn’t stop them.”

 

Unless you can’t eat dairy.

“But, there are some people that eat it even though they can’t - or they aren’t supposed to.”

 

“Stop insulting my face. But no, your hair.”

“Stop threatening my hair and I’ll stop insulting your face.”

 

"I will drag you by your hair to hell—”

“Can’t you drag me by my foot, instead? Besides, I thought you wanted to keep me away from Hell’s gates?”

 

“I could show you pictures of me.”

“Dante, I’m trying to wake up, not go blind–”

 

“Attractive.”

“I’m the most attractive person on the planet when I’m just waking up, I know. You don’t have to remind me.”

 

Melanie-ssi, what’s wrong? {/furrows brows}

“Aster?” It’d been awhile since she’d seen the other woman, but the distinct sound of her voice was something that Melanie wouldn’t forget any time soon. Cheeks flushed a faint coral in colour, she tipped her head back to look at her recently-made friend and sighed. “There’s a lot of…things going around. Unnie showed me something similar once, but it’s embarrassing–”

 

Mhmm.

“Give me a soda—”

 

“Shhhh,” he pets the top of her head. “Just let it happen.— AND I MEANT UMMA, NOT UMME.”

She blinks up at him, chocolate orbs widening a bit before she reached up to fix her hair. “Umma–”