"Don't you know you're supposed to blow on food at ridiculous temperatures?" Kori said, waving a hand while laughing.
"Ih dhidn't khnow ih wash for chold shtuff ash well—"
"Well, now you do."
Raizen sat with his tongue out and his eyes streaming, breathing in and out fast enough to make himself dizzy, while Arashi laughed so hard he had to hold the arm of the couch.
Then slowly, the ice on his tongue melted and the spoon started unsticking, but he stopped caring about any of that.
It was fresh. Unnaturally fresh — apple flavour, but more apple-like than any apple-flavored thing that had ever been, the whole of the flavour arriving at once with nothing in front of it and nothing behind it. No aftertaste, just apple. It was fine as powder and it dissolved into water and taste in the same instant, and the ice didn't get in the way of the flavour at all. The two of them were the same thing.
He got his tongue back in his mouth. Everyone was watching him.
