Archie really, really wanted to kiss Blanche.

He had dreamt of it nearly every night since she slept just a room away in Sain. Well, almost dreamt of it. His dreams always found the two of them alone, whether it was in the cave, or in his childhood bedroom, or in the greenhouse, or in some fuzzy nowhere that only had the two of them and all that tension between them. And in every dream, he would lean in, close his eyes, and…

Nothing. He either woke up or his dreams took him to some faraway concept. It was torture, but Archie knew the solution. He had to experience it in the real world. And with his father gone and classes about to start, he had a clear mission.

The plan was harder to come by. He stayed up late into the night as struggled to reconcile two pieces of advice. Rowan told him to meet Blanche where her interests were. Not his. That meant no arenas. No kitchens. Archie would probably have to figure out how to bring some romance into the greenhouse. Meanwhile, Mindy's advice had been to shake things up. Do something different. But the greenhouse was the everyday. How was Archie meant to do something totally unique while also within Blanche's interests?

He figured it out, fell asleep, and dreamt of leaning in for that kiss that never came…

A couple of days later, on the last day before class, Archie loaded up two wicker baskets with carefully stacked cakes, tarts, fruits, cheeses, and dried meats.

Blanche laughed when she saw him hauling the large baskets. "We're just going down to the Roots, Archie."

"I like to be prepared," he answered with a grin. "You know, in case we get stuck in a cave again."

Blanche looked at the sun pouring into the great hall. "It does look like it might snow."

"Right?" Archie adjusted the sack's strap around his shoulder and nodded to the exit. "You got everything you need?"

Blanche snorted and lifted up a small waterskin that she had slung around her shoulder. "I packed heavy, too. Want me to take one of these?"

She reached for a basket with one hand and flipped her hair over her shoulder with the other, sending a gust of air laden with intoxicating perfume. Archie reflexively closed his eyes and took in the scent, his mind whisked away to that dreamland where he was perpetually leaning in. The weight of the basket being lifted off his forearm brought him back to reality. He twisted away. "It's okay, I got it."

Blanche moved quickly this time, yanking the basket free from Archie. "I'm not going to let you carry everything. Now come on."

With the Summit over, the Crown felt empty, but at least they could actually feel the breeze as they made their way to the tram rather than sweat in the crowds. The day promised to be a hot one, and Archie kept an eye on the sun as it approached its peak.

"You know, Blue Orchards is kinda what you'd expect," Blanche said. "What's with wanting to go there all of the sudden?"

Archie shrugged as he handed the toll to a guard and stepped onto the tram. "You spend so much time there, and I've never seen it."

Blanche looked warily at the roof of the car. She hadn't been on the tram many times and still had a hesitancy about heavy machinery operating by noodle. Archie could use that. He stood near a pole and positioned himself to the rear of the car.

"Hm." Blanche pursed her lips as she grabbed the pole. "It's really not that interesting."

Archie took a deep breath through his nose. Time to man up. "Maybe not. But it's a good excuse to spend the day with you."

The tram lurched into motion, making Blanche's body bump into Archie's. She grabbed his forearm to stabilize herself. The tramcar steadied to a gentle wobble, but she did not let go. "Smooth," she teased.

Archie raised his eyebrows and grinned. The tram continued along, the breeze coming in and blowing Blanche's hair across Archie's face. A thought struck him—what if he kissed her now? He certainly wanted to. Why did decorum dictate that he should wait until the end of the day? He could brush that free-flowing hair aside, lean in, and…

"So what's our class schedule this year?" Blanche asked.

Archie rubbed his eyes as he woke from his daydream. "Tarragon first. I know that much for sure."

"You're excited to fight, aren't you?"

Archie grinned. "Is it that obvious? After a few weeks of that, I think we have Anise."

"Potions and poultices," Blanche said, recalling those few days that Anise had spent in Sain.

"Would have been good to know when we were hiking with Barley. And then we have…"

"Quince. Fishing and winter crops."

"Right. That leaves the kitchen classes for the second semester. Not sure which order."

"I hope Colby's first so we can get it over with."

The tram continued to rumble down from the well-maintained tracks in the Crown to the downhill slopes of the Trunk—Blanche squeezed Archie's arm out of nervousness more than once. Archie and Blanche got off on the second to the last station on the Trunk before the track curved through the Roots and the stone buildings were replaced by wood and the paved street became dirt.

"I thought Blue Orchards was in the Roots," Archie said.

"It is. But I'm gonna let you in on a little detour. It's supposed to be a secret, so no telling." Blanche raised a finger to her lips. Her finger dropped, but Archie's gaze remained, everything in the world fading away except for those red lips. But then Blanche moved along, and the world faded back in.

The Trunk had the typical weekend crowd, especially this near the Roots. The lowest section of the Trunk filled a very specific niche, packed with "low luxury" restaurants that delivered an affordable yet elevated experience to the people from the Roots that crossed the gate into the Trunk.

These day-tourists were easy to spot, always wearing their best clothing and lingering so that they might seem like they belong. The people that actually lived in the area dressed as their work demanded and moved quickly from place to place. Not many Chefs roamed the streets, so Archie and Blanche drew the eyes of laborers who grew up on tall tales that one in every two people in the Crown were Chefs. Archie barely noticed these people, unable to focus on anything but Blanche. He had no idea how they got there or how long they had been walking and talking, but Blanche stopped in the midst of a crowded street of shops.

"This is it," she said.

Archie looked at the sign. "Hatteries and Flatteries? Looks a little small to fit an orchard, doesn't it?"

"Come on. You need a hat."

"I do?" Archie rushed after Blanche into the building, entering a quaint room with wooden floors and sparse shelves of alternating hats and flowers.

"You wanted the Blue Orchards experience, you gotta show up right."

"You don't have a hat."

Blanche looked up. "Huh. Tell you what, how about we pick one out for each other."

She scooped a dark green bycocket hat off a shelf and fixed on Archie's head, plucking at the point in the back to straighten it. Archie had never been particularly stylish, but he could tell that this hat was one of the less aesthetically offensive of the bunch.

"Sure. I think—"

"Oh, hi there miss Blanche!"

"Mr. Kupel!" Blanche turned to face the old hunchbacked man behind the counter. "How was your summer?"

"It was wonderfully uneventful. And yours?"

Blanche raised her eyebrows and blew raspberries. She lifted a yellow flower from its vase and assessed its baby blue stem. "Benedict did a good job, looks like."

"Heh, after a while. He struggled for about a month. I thought I was going to run out of blue stems. But young Benedict can become quite motivated."

Blanche pinched the stem, sending a dark blue streak spiraling up through the brighter blue. "I can take over again."

"Who am I to say no to the most talented Chef of a generation? But still send Benedict around every now and then. I do like the boy."

Blanche shooed at Mr. Kupel and turned her attention back to Archie. "So we're picking each other's hats?"

"Sure."

"You look like a woodsman."

Archie adjusted the hat. "Is that a good thing?"

"If you want to look cute, sure." Blanche swiped it off his head. "But we're trying to make you look like a farmer. You need something with a brim. Like—"

Archie slid a hat from the shelf onto Blanche's head. It was a wide-brimmed hat with one side pinned up to the middle, putting ten years and an air of aristocracy on her. "This one."

Blanche took the interruption in stride, pulling down the loose lip of the hat and striking a pose that would be imprinted onto Archie's mind for weeks.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"How do I look?"

Archie's mouth opened and shut and opened again as he considered how flattering and forward he should be.

Blanche flashed a mischievous, tight-lipped smile that Archie knew belonged only to him. "Breathtaking," she answered for herself. "Now for you, I'm thinking…Oh, yes."

She grabbed Archie's forearm and dragged him through the store toward a hat that Archie prayed wasn't the one she had chosen. His prayers were not answered.

Blanche took the massive straw hat with two hands so that it wouldn't bend under its own weight and swung it onto Archie's head. He stuck his arms out straight in front of him, the brim extending past his elbows.

"Oh, come on…"

"It'll keep the sun off you!"

Archie snatched Blanche's hat and replaced it with another large straw hat. Blanche reared her head back as she giggled, the brim of her hat nearly knocking over a vase. Archie shook his head and laughed as he walked to Mr. Kupel.

"How much do I owe you?"

Mr. Kupel dismissed the notion with a wave of the hand. "Please, for as much as Blanche does for me, take them."

"Thanks." Archie turned to look at Blanche, who had found a mirror and was figuring out how to make the wide-brim look more alluring.

"And uh…" Mr. Kupel coughed and whispered to Archie. "Maybe you should take some flowers?"

Archie gave Mr. Kupel a look of understanding and appreciation. He grabbed a bundle of flowers from a vase and managed to get them into his basket before Blanche could notice.

Archie felt ridiculous wearing the large hat in the store. He felt even more ridiculous once he stepped out into the street. He doubled over and hung his head as he chuckled. "These damn hats…"

Blanche crouched down to bend the front lip of his hat to see his face, her body shaking with a barely contained giggle. "What about them?"

Archie stood back up and unleashed a moment of pure chaos. The top of his head knocked Blanche's hat up, causing her to let go of Archie's hat, its brim unfolding into Blanche's forehead. She recoiled and let out a gleeful scream that broke down into laughter a moment later.

"You okay?" Archie asked.

Blanche responded by gritting her teeth and pushing the brim of her hat into Archie's, the woven straw bending this way and that as she tried to knock his hat off.

This was the moment, he thought. He could push back and let the hats fold and lean in and…

No, not yet. There would be a better moment. And he had flowers now. Oh, there would be a perfect moment later. He just knew it.

And so they made their way to the side edge of the Trunk, walking four-feet apart as their hats necessitated and drawing the eyes of all that they passed. Blanche broke the sanctioned space between them every minute, starting endless skirmishes in the great-brimmed hat war.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at the elevators on the west edge of the trunk. Archie had never seen Ambrosia City from the west, so the sight of a dozen elevators of various sizes amazed him. Small groups of people came up in small caged lifts that ran on noodles, and horses and carts came up on wide platforms that had massive clinking chains that ran along the cliff faces. Once on the lift, Archie nearly plucked the noodle out of habit, but the Acorn Guard shot him a look that made him lower his hand to his side—they had already drawn the guard's ire by accidentally hitting him with their wide-brimmed hats.

Down below, Archie and Blanche didn't seem so out-of-place walking amongst lumberjacks and fieldhands. They walked half a mile to Blue Orchards, where Archie realized that Blanche had the right of things. If it weren't for the oddly colored fruit, the orchards would have been wholly unexceptional. And even the novelty of blue fruits wore off quickly, leaving Archie disillusioned halfway through Blanche's tour.

"But like, why blue?"

"It's one of the rarest colors in nature," Blanche said as she moved along a row of trees and picked a grapefruit—at least, Archie thought it was a grapefruit.

He didn't say a word and just looked up at the sky. It was slightly cloudy, but definitely blue. Blanche took his point with an exaggerated roll of the eyes.

"It's rare in nature aside from the sky," she said. Archie opened his mouth, but Blanche cut him off. "And in water, I know. But like, for animals and plants and things you eat, it's rare, okay?"

Archie threw a conjured blueberry at Blanche. She swatted it down. "So…why blue?" he repeated. "Why color it at all?"

Blanche sighed. "It's a marketing thing. Look, it's some of the best fruit in the city, but that's not a very strong selling angle, is it? Anyone can claim that. But only we can claim to be blue all the way through."

Archie smiled and looked up again. The sun had peaked and started its descent. They were proceeding right on his timeline—not that Blanche knew anything about that. At Archie's request and Blanche's pleasure, they stopped the tour early for lunch, sitting in the grass and emptying Blanche's basket while leaving Archie's untouched. They ate breads and cheeses that they supplemented with freshly picked fruit.

There was a moment again as Blanche shoved a peach into Archie's face that he thought he should grab her arm and pull her in all the way. But they were at her place of work and he didn't want to cause a fuss. Besides, there'd be a more perfect moment, surely. So he let his daydream be just that and checked the sky for the tenth time that hour.

"Why do you keep looking up?"

Archie grinned. "I have a surprise for you. Someone I want you to meet. What do you think about giving out free samples at the bottom of the Trunk?"

Blanche squinted at Archie in an attempt to figure out the mystery. Archie's face revealed nothing but mischief.

"Soooo, what're we doing here?" Blanche asked. They stood in a large crowd of vendors, buyers, busybodies, and wanderers just north of the first gate of the Trunk.

"When I came here last year, the carriage let me out just a couple minutes down from here." Archie looked up at the sun's position halfway down the sky and smiled. He had timed their arrival just as planned.

"Feeling nostalgic?"

"I wanted to visit an old friend."

"Oh yeah? Who's that?"

"He goes by Barney." Archie pointed at the sign atop a wooden food stall.

"Barney's Basket," Blanche read. "Selling certified Blue Orchards! Wait! This is the guy! The one that ripped you off!"

"The very one." Archie grinned as he watched the bald, overweight man work.

"Oi oi! Sun's out, you gotsta stay hydrated, ya do! Get something juicy like an orange—but here, we may as well call 'em blues!" Barney sold with force, grabbing a teenage boy's sleeve to pull him toward the basket of blue oranges. "Since it's hot out, I'll give you a special deal. An orange for eight coppas."

"I only have five," the boy said as he showed his coin.

Barney snatched it and planted an apple in the boy's hand. "That's good for one of these!"

"But I—"

"Off you go, gots customers!" Barney stepped back toward the street, his hand out and ready to grab the next pedestrian that let their guard down.

Blanche watched until the teenage boy took a bite and revealed the white core. "It's fake!" she said.

"He's ripping people off with your marketing."

"Well, we have to stop him, right?" Blanche frowned as she watched Barney sell a counterfeit pear. "What do we do?"

"Stay here." Archie exchanged his hat for Blanche's basket and walked next to Barney's stall. "We got free samples from Blue Orchards!" he yelled to the crowd.

A stream of pedestrians diverted and crowded around Archie. He took out his omnihandle and transformed it into shears that he used to cut an apple in half, revealing its bright purple core. He lifted the apple high and showed it off to the crowd. "You see, you can tell it's real Blue Orchards because it's blue! All the way through!"

Archie spotted Blanche on the other side of the road—it was easy enough since she was wearing both of their ridiculous hats on top of each other—and shot her a wink that she received with a grin. He tossed the halved apples to a couple of kids that walked away, clearing enough space for Barney to stomp right up to Archie and whisper-growl into his ear. "What's the big idea?"

"Don't worry, don't worry." Archie fetched a peach from the basket and tossed it to a bystander. "We only have a basket's worth of fruit, then you can go back to selling your authentic Blue Orchards."

Barney scowled and looked around. "If you think this little—"

"Remember folks! They're blue all the way through! That's how you know it's the real deal!"

Barney grabbed Archie by the collar. "You little—"

"Stop there," another voice commanded. A guard stepped through the crowd, his long black curls bouncing with each step. "What's happening here?"

Archie grinned. "Just a little misunderstanding."

The guard looked at Barney as he released Archie and retreated to his stall.

"Nothin' happening. Nothin' doing. Sorry."

The guard nodded at Archie. "You got a permit to sell here?"

"No sir, sorry," Archie said, his voice giddy even as he apologized. "I was just giving away my spare basket. No sales."

The guard squinted at Barney. "And you? Lemme see your permit. And your certificate from Blue Orchards. We've been having a bad counterfeit problem."

Barney froze up. "I, uh…I don't know that I remembered to bring it."

"A likely story," the guard scoffed. He took both of Archie's baskets, nearly smiling as he did so. "You can't be giving stuff away on a vendor street like this, so I'm taking these." He glared at Barney. "And when I get back, you best have a certificate, or them apples best be red."

Barney cursed under his breath and started rubbing an orange on his apron, the blue coming off with significant scrubbing. While the man cursed and fussed, Archie crossed the river of pedestrians to Blanche, who let out a little gleeful squeal.

"That was amazing," she said. She grabbed Archie's arms, and he saw his moment. He could lean in and…

No, no. Not yet. It wasn't perfect enough. There were too many people around. And it was still too bright outside. It seemed indecent. No, better to wait until it got dark. The sunset was fast approaching.

"Alright, ready to head back?"

"Let's do it." Blanche looped her arm through Archie's and started her way toward the tram. "Hey, that guard looked familiar. Was that the one from the other day?"

Archie shrugged. "Maybe. I dunno."

Blanche spent the tram ride recounting the events of the day. Archie spent it wondering when he'd finally have the right moment to kiss her. Maybe he wouldn't have another chance. They were almost back to the Academy, and then they'd eat with their friends, and maybe Blanche would run off with one of the other girls or maybe she'd be tired and go to bed or maybe she'd be distracted just enough so that the magic would be gone and then Archie wouldn't be able to kiss her. The day had all started with him not wanting their first kiss to be in the greenhouse. He wanted something exceptional, something new, something unique, but now here they were, off the tram, walking down the street, and the sun was setting, and there were too many people around, and the Academy was close, so close. He winced as he scratched the cuticle off his fingernail. He could maybe make a dessert for her. Girls loved desserts. And then he could find a way to give it to her in private, and he'd kiss her then, maybe. But wait, maybe she wouldn't want to kiss right after eating. Even the hypothetical moment wasn't perfect enough, and Archie started to wonder if maybe he had passed up too many perfect moments, and maybe he wouldn't get a chance to kiss her today or maybe ever, and the dreams would continue, and he would always lean in but never feel her lips on his. No, no, he couldn't think like that. The perfect moment would come. He could give her the flowers and—

The flowers were in the basket.

And the basket was in the Roots.

And Archie was in the dumps.

And Blanche was talking. She had been talking the whole time, only Archie hadn't been listening. And then she stopped talking and looked at him expectantly. Had she asked something? What was he supposed to say? Oh, everything was going wrong, and he just wanted to…

He tilted her ridiculous hat up with one hand, cupped her neck with the other, leaned in, and kissed her.

Her lips were hard, and she recoiled ever so slightly at first, but then she moved her lips to gently part his and they were soft and Archie felt more deeply asleep and dreaming than he ever had in his life. Even when Blanche leaned back, he hardly woke from the bliss.

"About time," she groaned. "You literally had hours left. If you didn't kiss me before class started, I was going to be done with you."

Archie thought it was funny, but he didn't laugh. Instead, he kissed her again on a too-hot day in a busy street between a tavern and a shoe shop in a perfectly imperfect moment.

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