Waffle
Kaelith had been a knight of the Silver Sun Order since he was sixteen.
Sixteen.
While other boys had been chasing girls behind taverns or writing embarrassing poetry about freckles and dimples, Kaelith had been learning how to disarm a man twice his size and march for three days without sleep.
Love had never made the list of priorities.
Honor.
Duty.
Discipline.
Yes.
Love?
Absolutely not.
And yet somehow… here he was.
Staring.
Like an idiot.
Because of her.
Nylana.
Her inky black hair spilled down her back in soft waves, with feathery bangs brushing over her brows. When she tilted her head, the light caught the tiny diamond piercing on her cute button nose. Her brown eyes -warm and bright- met his emerald ones for a heartbeat too long.
Her lips were glossy, full, and curved in the kind of smile that made disciplined knights forget entire battle strategies.
Which was extremely inconvenient.
A neat diner uniform hugged her perfect curves as she stood beside their booth, pen poised over her notepad.
“What can I get you?” she asked cheerfully.
The table of armored warriors immediately forgot how to behave like dignified men.
“I’ll have a loaded burger with waffle fries and a coke,” Caleb said, leaning forward like he’d discovered treasure.
“Same,” Drakan added.
“Make mine two burgers,” Max said proudly.
Nylana scribbled everything down quickly, nodding along.
“And for you?” she asked, finally turning to Kaelith.
Her eyes met his again.
And suddenly the seasoned knight who had faced charging war beasts without flinching forgot how restaurants worked.
“…Food,” he said.
Caleb slowly turned toward him.
Drakan blinked.
Max lowered his drink.
Nylana’s lips twitched.
“Yes,” she said sweetly. “That is usually what we serve here.”
Kaelith cleared his throat, sitting straighter.
“A burger,” he corrected stiffly. “With fries.”
“Regular fries or waffle fries?” she asked.
He stared at her.
She stared back patiently.
“…the square ones,” he said finally.
Max leaned across the table. “He means waffle fries.”
Nylana wrote it down, trying very hard not to laugh.
“Drink?”
“Water.”
The other three knights groaned in disappointment.
“You always order water,” Caleb muttered. “Live a little.”
“I live every day,” Kaelith replied flatly.
Nylana tilted her head slightly, studying him.
Serious.
Quiet.
Broad shoulders filling his knight’s cloak.
And the most intensely focused emerald eyes she had ever seen.
He looked like the kind of man who fought dragons before breakfast.
Yet somehow he seemed deeply uncomfortable ordering fries.
Interesting.
She snapped her notepad closed.
“Alright,” she said brightly. “Four burgers. Three cokes. One… thrilling water.”
Max snorted.
Drakan choked on his drink.
Even Caleb laughed.
Kaelith did not.
But the corner of his mouth twitched.
Just barely.
And Nylana noticed.
“Food will be out soon,” she said, turning away.
But before she walked off, she glanced back over her shoulder.
Right at him.
Kaelith immediately looked at the table like it had become extremely fascinating.
Across the booth, Caleb grinned slowly.
“Oh no.”
Drakan leaned forward. “What?”
Caleb gestured subtly toward Kaelith.
“Our fearless dragon-slayer,” he whispered.
Max followed his gaze.
“…has a crush.”
Kaelith looked up sharply.
“I do not.”
“Brother,” Max said gently, “you just forgot the word waffle.”
“That happens.”
“You said ‘the square ones.’”
Kaelith went quiet.
Across the diner, Nylana peeked back toward the booth again.
Their eyes met.
For the third time.
She smiled.
And Kaelith suddenly felt like facing dragons might actually be easier than this.
