AN: OMG I JUST FOUND THIS FIC I WAS WRITING BEFORE THAT I NEVER FINISHED OR UPLOADED. Hahahaha it's so random XD. I'm posting it...why...idk... I already have 2 ongoing fics...planning a 3rd...now this...I'm a sucker for punishment. It has so much pun potential thoughhhh XDDD.

Welcome to Cross Confections!

Disclaimer: VK is not mine, ofc.

Crash.

The resounding sound throughout the small shop was a disaster alert impossible to miss. Yuki winced, staring at the broken mess at her feet that had once been a plate. She'd only been employed at her foster father's shop for a scant three months, and already she had managed to break half of the original tableware. Not that it was really her fault, though. After all, she couldn't help it if that strawberry cake looked so delicious and she so wanted to taste just the littlest bit. Nope, definitely not her fault. It wasn't as if the plate had reminded her that it was there, either. As she'd raced over to the counter to admire the confection, the plate had never once made a single move to make itself known.

She folded her arms, now giving the object an admonishing stare. Regardless of the circumstances, though, the main dessert maker of the shop, Zero Kiryuu, would be angry with her yet again. Sighing, she bent to collect the shattered fragments. The last thing she wanted was for him to send her another of his formidable glares as he scolded her. What she wanted to see most of all was his smile—she shook her head, clearing it and delicately placing a few shards in the palm of her hand. She didn't have time to think about that; she had to pick up the plate before he noticed! Not that the sound hadn't been painfully audible…

As if to echo her fears, a shadow fell over her, and she glanced up to see Zero's form looming over her, scowl in place. She almost giggled at his expression, despite the fact that she saw it at least ten times a day. It was completely out of place with the cooking apron he wore while in the kitchen, dusted with flour after hours of baking. That scowl seemed more fitting for a hoodlum than a baker, but she managed to stifle her laughter. Laughing at him now would definitely provoke him further, after she'd already broken the umpteenth plate of the month.

"Don't touch it," Zero ordered brusquely, irritation worn plainly over his handsome features.

"I didn't mean to drop it," she began guiltily, biting her lip. "I'm sorry, Zero…"

"It's alright," he said after a moment, kneeling down beside her and gingerly placing each piece of the plate into a thick plastic bag. "Just be more careful next time, okay?"

"Okay," she replied easily, dropping her own handful of shards into the bag.

"And don't try to help me. Anytime you try to help, you end up hurting yourself more than anything else," he continued, voice taking a sardonic edge.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, smacking him on the shoulder. "It's the thought that counts!"

"It's the thought that will send you to the hospital to have your finger sewn back on…," he muttered, but his eyes had softened, and she could tell he wasn't really upset with her for having broken the plate. "And get back to work. You're not paid to stand around," he shot her a hard look.

"Yes sir!" she leapt to her feet, giving him a mock salute before rushing out to the seating area to continue her waitress duties.

Cross Confections had long been the most popular bakery in town, and for good reason. Yuki's foster father had put a great deal of work into the business, founding it just after graduating college. At first, he had run the shop entirely on his own, baking and serving his customers by himself. Over time, however, as the shop had grown in popularity, he had employed several others, the most recent being his adopted daughter. Yuki was the only girl out of her four coworkers, all of them seniors at her high school. Although Kaien Cross had been a little hesitant to let his precious daughter work closely with four teenage boys, she hadn't let that fact deter her, and now she was a happy member of the shop family.

The bakery certainly had a good atmosphere, Yuki noted as she made her rounds. The customers were smiling and laughing comfortably, charmed by both the cakes and the service. To Yuki, there was no place more precious than the shop. The presence of her coworkers, the sweet scents of the cakes, and the faint hum of conversation in the background were an irresistible combination for her. This was the place she thought of first as her home.

"Everything alright, Yuki?" the melodic voice of her coworker, Takuma Ichijou, jerked her from her thoughts.

"Ehh, I broke another plate," she admitted guiltily, blushing slightly.

He laughed, eyes sparkling with amusement, "Don't worry. You wouldn't be yourself if you didn't break something." He winked at her and moved off to take an order, much to the delight of the young girls sitting there.

"I don't know why they let you carry plates anymore," the other waiter, Hanabusa Aidou, remarked dryly as he sidled up to her, draping an arm around her shoulders casually. "If it were up to me, I'd give you some frosting and a cherry and serve you right alongside the desserts—OW!" he exclaimed as a whisk smacked the side of his head with a resounding thunk. He stepped forward angrily as Zero stepped out of the kitchen, eyes smoldering with suppressed violence. It was no secret that Zero and Aidou were not particularly fond of one another.

"What the hell was that for?!" Aidou demanded hotly, blue eyes flashing.

"Don't harass the workers," Zero growled. "And someone wake this slacker up," he jerked a thumb at the last of the staff, Senri Shiki, who had fallen asleep as usual at his post by the cash register. Between his modeling career and job at the cake shop, he was nearly always asleep or halfway there, and the quickest way to wake him was with a stick of his favorite snack: chocolate pocky.

That stated, Zero stalked back into the kitchen. Yuki skipped over to Shiki, brandishing the box of pocky she kept on her at all times, and slipped one of the thin sticks into his mouth. Within seconds, he was blinking sleepily, rubbing his eyes and nibbling on the treat. Aidou muttered something under his breath, presumably about Zero, and then turned his attention over to the customers. That could be another reason for the success of the shop. With four attractive young men working here, how could any girl resist?

"Was I asleep?" Shiki yawned, finishing off his snack.

"Yep," Yuki grinned, replacing the box of pocky in her pocket. "Remember to eat to keep yourself awake!"

He merely nodded, and she retrieved the whisk, returning it to the kitchen while merrily humming a tune under her breath. Surprisingly, Zero wasn't in sight, and judging from the slight movement of the door at the back, her adopted father had called him back to talk briefly. Glancing around, she scuttled over to the carefully laid out ingredients for the next cake. They stared back at her innocently, and an idea slowly formed in her mind.

Zero's birthday was tomorrow, and every year he insisted that he didn't want a cake. He didn't like sweet things, but really she thought that everyone should have a cake on their birthday. Zero did like salty food, on the other hand. Maybe she could make a salty cake..? She beamed suddenly. It was a perfect idea! And making a cake couldn't be that hard. She'd seen Zero and her adopted father do it dozens of times.

Determined, she rolled up her sleeves, setting about putting in the ingredients as she saw fit. Zero didn't really like baked goods, so she added less flour. Eggs, he did like, so more of those. And a lot of salt, definitely. She gave the mixing bowl a generous helping of that, sending a puff of it up her nose. Nose itching tremendously and unable to stop herself, she sneezed violently, falling backwards and hitting her hand hard against the side of the bowl. With an ominous sound, the bowl lurched upwards, falling on top of her and knocking the breath out her lungs effectively before rolling off and away across the kitchen floor.

For one long moment, Yuki lay on the floor, fighting to regain the air that had been snatched from her lungs so forcefully. She coughed, sneezing again, and groaned. Not only did her stomach hurt from absorbing the blow, but now she was covered in the cake mix, too. She struggled to sit up, rubbing her aching belly. Who knew making a cake could be so dangerous? She'd never known, but maybe Zero's life was in danger every day. Mixing bowls were vicious!

As she sat up, the door in the back swung open, and suddenly a few rapid footfalls thudded across the room to where she was. Zero's concerned face appeared in her vision, eyebrows shoved together in a characteristic expression of worry. She tried to smile, but her stomach was feeling slightly queasy and she wasn't sure if it was having the proper effect.

"Yuki, are you okay?" he asked, his violet eyes darting across the room, taking in all the signs of the chaos she had inadvertently created, and then flicking back to her.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she replied, a touch shakily, letting him help her up.

A pause, then, "What happened in here?"

"Um, well," she fumbled for words, not wanting to ruin his birthday surprise, "I tried to make a cake..?" She grinned, hoping to smooth out the wrinkle in his brow, but her words only caused it to deepen.

He let the words absorb for a moment, then, "You tried to make a cake? By yourself? Yuki… Honestly, I just told you to be more careful! You could have gotten hurt! What if that bowl had landed on your head instead?"

"I'm sorry," she murmured sheepishly, chest constricting a little. She'd only wanted to make him a birthday cake. Maybe it would have made him smile for her. But she hadn't even been able to do that without making Zero worry.

"What on Earth possessed you to want to make a cake?"

She looked up at him helplessly, "…I wanted to make one for your birthday…"

Silence stretched between them for a long moment. Zero stared at her, processing all this and clearly surprised. Yuki fidgeted, feeling somewhat depressed over her failure and Zero's reaction. She really hadn't meant to make a mess of everything. But, as usual, she had. And now she had no choice but to reveal her intentions.

The moment passed, and he pointed out gently, "You can at least ask someone for help."

She blinked. His miffed expression had evaporated without a trace. "But you were talking to Manager so I couldn't ask him…" Her adopted father would have been heartbroken to hear her call him that, but somehow she never felt quite right calling him 'Father' or 'Daddy.'

Zero's face took on a somewhat bland expression, and then Yuki continued, "Besides, I couldn't ask you when it was a surprise for you! Then it wouldn't have been a surprise."

To the petite girl's shock and delight, Zero's lips twitched upwards into a faint, crooked smile, and he ruffled her hair with a pale hand, "Thank you."

Yuki's heart swelled unexpectedly, skipping a beat as the smile hovered across his mouth. She had waited so long to see that smile. It wasn't a big smile, or a radiant one, but somehow it felt very warm, very…Zero. That warmth spread through her body slowly, and she felt her own lips nudge upwards in response, pulse speeding ever so slightly.

Ichijou, whose presence had gone entirely unnoticed until this point, chose this moment to announce himself, saying brightly to Yuki, "If you wanted to give Zero something sweet that badly I could always put a bow on you."

"Huh?" she asked in confusion as Zero whirled, penetrating the blonde with a black glare.

"Only joking!" he grinned, retreating from the room before Zero followed up on the promise of death held within his eyes.

"Anyway, I'll clean it all up!" Yuki promised, running towards the bowl despite Zero's sudden exclamation of warning. The floor seemed to slide from beneath her feet as the soles of her shoes made contact with the floury puddle there. A moment later, yet another crash filled the shop. Yuki rubbed her head, laughing, as Zero hurried over to ensure that she was uninjured.

Yep, it was just another ordinary day at Cross Confections.

AN: I know I already have 2 fics ongoing rn but... Continue? XD Thoughts? -FLEEZ-