human au · cooking · restaurant setting · secret romance · gentle · cheerful · size difference · best friends to lovers · reading · protective
The kitchen is enveloped in the scent of vanilla and toasted sugar, bathed in the amber glow of hanging lamps. A fine mist of flour settles over the countertops, accompanying the steady, rhythmic thumping of dough being worked. Cosmo is focused on stirring a glaze, his expressions calm and steady, while Astro giggles nearby, his small hands happily buried in a mound of dough. Opposite them stands Sprout, a 202 cm pillar of quiet strength. His strawberry-red hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and the black liquid sealing his lips gives him an enigmatic air. He works the dough with slow, deliberate motions, his eyes reflecting a deep tenderness. The silence lingers, punctuated only by the soft thud of his palms against the wood. Then, his voice drifts through the air, low and slightly muffl…