Who: Tsuzuki and Audrey When: December 3 Where: Baxter Bakery What: Pie! Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
If there was ever a time for a hot beverage and some pumpkin pie, this was it. It had snowed every December since he’d gotten out of the hospital, and he loved it. It was a little chilly, but it wasn’t too bad, and this year, his dreams had given him a long trenchcoat which was perfect for this weather.
He came into Baxter’s, the collar of his jacket pulled to his ears and a light dusting of quickly melting snow on his shoulders and hair, but he was smiling as he made his way to the counter and began to look at all the desserts. Including the delicious looking pumpkin pie.
Audrey was manning the register today, as it wasn’t all that busy. The snow was keeping people out, which was a shame. It might have been cold, but it was so beautiful! But whatever. The redhead looked up and over at the guy in the trenchcoat and smiled a bright smile. The bakery was warm, cozy, and smelled like sweet and spice.
“Welcome to Baxter Bakery!” Audrey said. “Can I tempt you with a sparkling latte today?”
Tsuzuki turned to Audrey, blowing on his hands to help warm the chilled fingers. “You sure can!” Tsuzuki said. “I was also told that if I mentioned Valar I could get a piece of pie for half price.” Though, actually looking at the pies, he was pretty sure he was going to need to get more than one slice.
“Oh! Of course!” Audrey brightened at the mention of Valar. Of course, there were a bunch of people in the cafe who’d heard of the website, but it was like its own little secret. Some sort of a code. If someone mentioned Valar or Valarnet, they were most likely a Dreamer. It made some of the insane stuff that happened in and around Orange County a little easier to explain.
“Yes, for sure. Come on in and pick your favorite. I’ll start on a latte for you. Would you like a flavoring?” Audrey always gave her Valar customers a hefty discount. (They had enough to deal with in their lives.)
There was no way that Tsuzuki was going to be able to limit his pie choices to just one, and he quickly ran through his finances in his head. Two. He would have to limit himself to two, which really was quite the disappointment. “Pumpkin flavouring, to go with the pumpkin pie,” he said. He had, after all, come in because of the delicious looking pumpkin pie that had been posted on the Net. “And I’ll also have a slice of blueberry, please. I’m Asato, by the way,” he said, holding out his hand for a handshake. “Asato Tsuzuki.”
Audrey set up the milk to steam, then reached over the bar to shake his head. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Asato. I’m Audrey. I own this place.” She grinned brightly. “And blueberry is one of my all time favorites.” Though, by the looks of her hips? They were all her favorites. She’d always had a little extra padding. Having the baby just made it worse.
“You’re a Valarnet guy, then?” Audrey asked as she moved around behind the bar with grace and ease. She could do about six things at once on her side of the counter.
“Mine too!” Tsuzuki said. Though, like Audrey, nearly all pies were one of his favourites. He was luckily blessed with a high metabolism, so his hips remained narrow and his shoulders broad. “I am! I’ve been on the Network for a couple of months now. How long have you been on it?”
Audrey had the excuse that she’d had a baby, and that’s why she carried some extra pounds around. Though, her baby was a year old now, and it was probably time to seriously consider going back to her pre-pregnancy weight. Eventually. She and her husband were talking about having a second, so that time might have to wait.
“Oh gosh…” Audrey said, pulling together his pieces of pie, pouring the shots for his latte, and generally being a badass when it came to stuff behind the counter at her bakery. “It’s been… a couple years now. How are you liking it? Are you experiencing the weirdness?”
“It’s certainly been an experience thus far,” Tsuzuki said. “I’m not quite sure how I feel about it though.” The dreams weren’t awful, but he was still coming to terms with the fact that being a shinigami meant that he had to make sure people died when they were meant to, even if he absolutely didn’t want to. And just because he seemed to heal right away after serious injuries didn’t mean things like having his spine blown out didn’t hurt. The fact that the healing powers seemed to have carried over was an asset, but Hisoka’s empath powers seemed so hard on him. “I’ve only had a couple of dreams, but the good seems to be balanced out with the bad. I have noticed some of the other Orange County strangeness. You know, I was turned into a woman not long ago. Have you been dealing with strangeness like that the whole time?”
Audrey raised an eyebrow. “Turned into a woman? That sounds like an interesting experience. Thankfully, I avoided that stuff… I have for a while, honestly. I’ve got a one year old, and it seems like Orange County gives me a little space to deal with him instead of toying around with me like a puppet.” She smiled softly. “Though, I do enjoy the snow.”
“It sure was!” Tsuzuki said. “I was startled at first, but it was actually kind of fun. I’m sure everyone wonders at least once in their life what it would be like to be the opposite gender, so I’m glad I got a bit of a taste on life on the other side.”
When she mentioned the snow, he couldn’t help but look out the window and smile. “I do too,” he said. “As a gardener, I probably shouldn’t like it as much as I do, but I just replanted some of my more delicate plants in planters and brought them inside, and I can’t really complain now that my house is filled with some of my favourite flowers.” It had certainly brightened the place up, at least.
“I hope the rest of your plants are okay?” Audrey said, looking a little concerned. Her wares were inside all the time. It would be awful if someone lost their whole livelihood because of the snows in the area. She hadn’t thought about that--but there were likely people who were losing crops to the snow. That was a sad thought.
She stepped back to where he was standing and passed the pie and drink over the counter to him.
Tsuzuki nodded. “They will be. The current bloom might die, but they’re resilient and once the weather warms up they’ll be healthy again. I’m just glad most of the flowers I grow at work are already indoors,” he said. While some of them might survive the cold, he did have some fairly delicate plants growing in there.
His face lit up when she handed him the pies and the drink. “I suppose your one-year-old is too young to enjoy this, but these pies look great. They’ll be very lucky once they can enjoy all this great baking!”
“Oh, Ben does get treats every once in a while,” Audrey admitted. Of course, so many of the parenting books and the like suggested not to give children under one year old sweets and whatever… but then again, they weren’t bakers trying to raise their first children. So nyeah.
“But you’re welcome! Please, enjoy! And leave us a Yelp review, or whatever. I can use any help I can get when it comes to advertising and publicity… I’m not great with social media!” She laughed. “I’m better with puff pastry than Facebook.”
“Oh good!” Tsuzuki said. He’d never read a parenting book in his life, but he did know that it would have been tragic if the son of a baker didn’t get the occasional delicious snack.
“Well, you do a great job of it on Valar. I wouldn’t sell yourself too short,” he said with a wink. “If your pie tastes half as good as it looks though, you can bet you’ll get a positive review from me.”
Audrey gave a little laugh, grinning, blushing, generally speaking quite happy. She nodded. “I’ll do my best not to. The Valar discount certainly helps.” She finished up the transaction and made sure that he had his drink and pie. “Is there anything else I can do for you today?”
“I think this is about it,” Tsuzuki said, giving one last longing look at the display case of delicious looking baked goods. On the other hand, he had the sparkling latte in hand and it looked both different and delicious. “Thank you so much. You can be sure I’ll send my friends here.”