Carlos leaned into him without really thinking about it. “It’s not the same,” he told Hancock. “Chocolate was the first thing to go when the food stores were discovered in the Vault, so it’s been a few years for me, but I know that chocolate flavored stuff isn’t the same at all.”
But then he was curious. “Do you really have coffee? We still have some milk and sugar too, right?”
“You’ve actually tried it? What was it like? Good, right? I’m a little jealous, heh.” When they stepped out onto the street, Hancock huddled a little closer to Carlos, gripping his arm tight as the brisk night air hit him.
“I like to keep some real coffee around, yeah. Not sure about the milk, don’t remember when we picked it up, but there’s definitely some sugar.”
Carlos smiled at Hancock. He wished he had a bigger coat, but the labcoat was not meant to be used for warmth at all, and Carlos’ sweater was only built for one person. He cuddled back against Hancock as best as he could – at least it was a short walk back to the Statehouse.
“I’d like to look and see if we have milk too,” Carlos said. “If that’s okay.”
Now… back to chocolate… “Chocolate… it has like a sort of weird, rich flavor to it,” he started to explain. “I don’t know how to describe it… it felt kind of like warm milk when you chewed it because it had a low melting point and would spread all over your tastebuds. Kind of like ice cream, but not exactly the same.” Carlos laughed. “Gosh, I really don’t know how to make that make sense… but the science behind it is that chocolate can help improve blood flow and oxygen availability when you breathe. It just… feels really good to eat.”
The Perfect Scientist 