PROLOGUE – year one

—

it's not always easy

and sometimes life can be deceiving

i'll tell you one thing

it's always better when we're together

—better together, jack johnson

—

He's moving clumsily around the counter during work, and he feels his elbow strike something firm and suspiciously bag-shaped. There's a crash, and the next thing he knows, he's covered in flour. A lot of it.

(Great. Now I have to explain to the boss why a good chunk of her flour suddenly went missing.) Phoenix sighs before coughing a bit when he inhales some of the flour, waving his hand in front of his face to direct the white powder away from him. Somewhere in the sea of white, he hears a voice pipe up, "Ah! Let me help you with that, Nick!"

"Nick…?"

He blinks a couple of times, his field of vision becoming clearer by the second. It's his co-worker, Maya Fey, brandishing a broom and dustpan from the corner of the room by the storage cabinet.

They've been working together for about a week, now, after he stumbled here and there in pursuit of a steady job and a place to settle down. Labyrinthia seemed to be his big break. Patty Éclaire was nice enough to take him in despite his inexperience, but he thinks a lot of it is due to the upcoming holiday season when the weather usually fell below freezing and the townsfolk begun their vacations. There was also the simple fact that she was growing older, now, and found herself in need of a couple of extra hands.

And while there was someone else, a young teenage girl that Patty has taken in years prior, who sometimes helped around in the bakery and went on runs with the boss, Espella Cantabella seemed more a doting niece than a co-worker of his.

Phoenix supposes he'd been lucky to end up paired with Maya.

After all, Maya's just as new as him, and he's grateful that he's not alone in this.

"It's a nickname for you – ha, get it? Nickname?" Maya spins on her heel to look back at him, resting her cheek on the tip of the broom handle. "Anyway, I spent all night trying to think of one for you, and this was the best I could come up with!"

"That's an… interesting take on my name." Phoenix says, the corner of his mouth curling up into a bemused smile as he brushes more flour off his suit. (It's a new change, but I guess I'll just have to get used to it… just like with everything else in this city.) "Thanks, Maya."

Maya grins in return.

"No problem, Nick. Just hurry and wipe down the table before the boss comes back from the market!" She tosses him a rag, and Phoenix just barely catches the cloth by its corner.

Their synchronization reminds him of their very first day on the job together, when Patty had been teaching them the ropes and they just had their first few exchanges. It was as awkward as any situation where you just met your co-worker and promptly forced into situations together, but Patty had only laughed it off.

"Oh, I'm so excited for you both – I can tell that you two will get along well, just like bread and butter. Or, hmm, is it bread and jam? Or perhaps just two loaves of the finest bread combined…?" Patty mused, mostly to herself, as she pulled them aside to show them how she prepared her dough.

(At least there's Maya.)

.

"A baker should be warm and giving." Patty starts off her lecture in a sugar-sweet tone, pacing around the counter. Phoenix can feel the sweat drip off his forehead, and he can tell that Maya's attention is on them from the other side of the room where she is carefully shifting around the barrels so that she can sweep around them.

Then, she slams a fist on the island, eyes narrowed, "Yelling does not a baker make! Do you understand me, Phoenix? One more incident like that, and I'll throw you in the oven!"

"Y-Yes, boss!" (Ironic how she's making my eardrums ring while telling me not to shout.)

He's just finished scaring away yet another customer, which was something he was prone to doing this whole week, the only difference being that this time Patty was a witness to the fact. The crying baby that needed to be cooed back to sleep along with the death glare they both received for their 'terrible service' has probably also attributed to the severity of his lecture.

Phoenix shudders internally.

Patty's one of the sweetest people he's ever met and yet… so dedicated to her craft. Sometimes in the worst of ways.

"Say, why don't you two clean up down here and then turn in for the night? Tomorrow is a new day, ho ho ho!" Patty returns to her usual self, even going as far as to giggle into her mitts. Phoenix can only sigh in relief as she stalks her way back upstairs, leaving them the responsibility to close for the day.

Phoenix watches as Maya handles the last of the customers, smiling widely and batting her eyelashes expectantly. ("Check out my 'give me a tip' smile! No one can say no to a cute girl." she had told him on the first day, and he'd only smile back in politeness – he didn't really know how else he should've reacted.)

The man blushes, ducking his head to avoid her eyes as he reaches into his pockets in search of loose coins. He hands them over with a sheepish grin, and Maya gladly accepts the tip.

"Thank you for your purchase, come again soon!" She says, waving him off.

Maya is brilliant. Phoenix doesn't know how she does it.

And as he gets to reorganizing the display outside of the shop, probably even messing up Maya's careful system, he just wishes he could get the hang of things as quickly as she does.

.

"Hey, I overheard your… erm… talk with the boss earlier. How are you doing?"

Maya cautiously pokes her head into their shared room provided by Patty – the bakers' quarters, she'd called it when she gave them a tour of her home sweet home on the first night – before walking inside and softly shutting the door behind her.

Phoenix is laying on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head. His is the one nearest to the window, and the sound of Birdly and Bardly in one of their signature sing-offs drifts into the room through the open shutter. He's in no mood to get up and close the window, though, so he lets the tune of the lute go into one ear and out the other.

(Of course Maya 'overheard'. She'd practically been watching us.)

What was left of the Labyrinthian sun bleeds through his eyelids when he closes his eyes, voice quiet when he says, "…Maybe baking isn't my strong suit."

She starts to tug off her apron, which gets caught on her top knot for a bit, and when she finally pulls it off, her hair is mussed and frizzy. Maya carefully hangs the piece of clothing in her dresser and then she makes to grab a pillow sitting on top of her bed. She hugs it to her body before navigating herself across the room to plant herself on the corner of Phoenix's bed, crossing her legs.

The pillow acts as a barrier of sorts to divide their spots on the bed, and Maya is courteous enough to respect his space. They're still getting to know each other, after all.

"Hey, lighten up, Nick! I'm no good at baking, either." She cocks her head in thought, combing her fingers through her hair. "Everything I've made this week tasted like charcoal, too, remember?"

"Well, at least you have customer service skills." Phoenix points out sourly, turning onto his side so he can face her. "All I seem to do is point and yell."

Maya dismisses his statement with a wave of her hand. "Okay, sure, but yours can be improved! It's only been a week, Nick. You can't give up now. My sister always told me that the only time you can cry is when it's all over – and it's not over yet."

(Did I look like I was going to cry…?)

"Besides, we're partners now!" Maya continues. "I wouldn't want to be receiving the end of the boss' temper all by myself."

Phoenix can feel his lips tug into a smile. "You're right, Maya. I can't give up now – there's still a lot I have left to learn." And then, he groans, flopping onto his back again. "But, ugh, where do I even start?"

"Hmm…" She rests her chin on her palm, tapping the side of her face with her index finger. As if a lightbulb has gone off in her head, she claps her hands together, gathering his attention. "Hey, I know what we can do! We're done for today, right?"

Phoenix nods. "Yeah, we closed up shop and everything."

There's a mischievous grin on her face which leaves Phoenix wondering if he should be worried or curious. Then again, her enthusiasm is contagious, and Phoenix sits up against his bed frame so that she could lean in closer to explain. "Then let's go to the marketplace to buy some ingredients and try our hand at baking tonight when the boss is sleeping! That way, we won't waste any stock, and we get to practice together!"

It wasn't a bad idea – in fact, it was probably better than anything he could've come up with at the moment.

She hops off the bed and holds her hand out to him. "Let's show her what team Fey-Wright can really do!"

.

It's their third batch now.

The long, flattened loaf of bread is sitting there precariously on the countertop, still on the wooden peel. Maya's crouched down so that the baguette was eye-level with her, carefully examining the bread.

"That's it, right? We didn't forget anything, like the oil or the milk?"

Phoenix double-checks the recipe book, and then shakes his head. "No. I'm pretty sure we got everything this time."

"Ooh, this batch looks good. I mean, it's not burnt." Maya adds with a sheepish smile, having remembered the incident from a few hours ago when she and Phoenix had to fan the smell of charcoal coming from the oven with some of the spare aprons lying around the bakery before it rose to the second story. She inches closer to the loaf and takes a whiff, "And it smells right. When is it good to eat? Has it cooled down yet?"

"Patience, Maya." Phoenix says, though he was quite antsy himself.

Bread took a much longer time than they both expected, especially preparing three different doughs in the dead of night. During their planning session, they forgot to consider the entire process of kneading, rising, and baking – which they spent hours on for each batch. Phoenix can see the night sky start to lighten through the small window in the bakery. This has to be the one if they want to get something right tonight.

"Well, it's almost sunrise, so there's no time to be patient."

"Have fun burning your tongue."

"Hmph! You're no fun, Nick." Maya pouts melodramatically before resting her chin on the counter, inches away from the bread. "…It does look better than the other two batches, right?"

"Yeah. It's definitely an improvement."

Maya slumps down to the floor, her back against the side of the counter. He makes to sit down next to her, and he watches as the flames of the oven start to dissipate and the wooden logs shrivel up into nothingness. As time ticks on, Maya's head starts to nod back and forth, dangerously teetering from consciousness into sleeping territory.

After the last flame dies out and the only thing keeping the kitchen lit is the one candle they set up by the countertop, Phoenix finds it harder for him to stay awake, too.

He closes his eyes tightly and opens them again, rubbing away at the tears that were starting to form from his yawning. He wobbles onto his feet to check on the bread again.

"I think it's about done…" Phoenix says, leaning down to gently shake Maya awake. She's rather disoriented at first, but she shakes her fatigue off and jumps up to stand next to him.

He cuts the loaf of bread with a serrated knife, sliding the peel closer to her. "Okay, go ahead. It's just cool enough to eat."

They take their own halves and then return to sitting on the floor together, this time closer to the fireplace.

It's been nearing winter, meaning the nights begun nearing subzero as evidenced by the wispy puffs of white whenever one of them would breathe. One of the plus sides about working in a bakery, though, was the warmth that envelopes their body from the working oven and delicious baked goods that surrounded them all around.

Phoenix takes a bite.

It's edible and his first reaction isn't to want to spit it out of his mouth. He was right to say it was an improvement.

"Yes! We did it!" Maya exclaims through a mouthful of bread. She stretches her arms out, and then promptly leans backwards until she's laying on the floor, cuddling her half of the baguette closer to her body. She yawns. "Wow, I'm beat! Work starts in a few hours, huh?"

"Yeah… we really did end up staying up all night."

A part of him wants to remind her that the floor was dirty from the night's work, but after seeing how peaceful she looked and realizing just how tired he was, he supposes that the floor did seem rather inviting. He follows suit, laying in their mess.

"Cheers, to us!"

Maya raises her half of the bread in the air, waving it in front of Phoenix's face.

"To us." He echoes, bringing his half to toast hers.

Phoenix takes another bite of the bread, and with each chew it tastes better and better, and he feels a bit warmer inside, too. Maybe it was the oven, still hot from the flames. Maybe it was the exhilaration. Maybe it was because something is finally working out for him, maybe it was because there was someone who believed in him.

Where he came from, he never really had a close friend. Sure, growing up, he had the other kids in the town to play and run around with, but it was nothing more than that. No one really tried to stick with him, through and through, and over the years he just watched as everyone else grew up with their newly found skill-sets and left. What he assumed was friendship was superficial at best.

But here… Labyrinthia's different. New. Unexplored.

He looks to his co-worker laying besides him, eyes already shut tight. A soft snore escapes her mouth as she uses her half-eaten baguette as a makeshift pillow. She'd fallen asleep quite easily, and he would have to carry her back upstairs and clean up their mess without her.

However, Phoenix thinks to himself, a wide smile spreading across his face before he even realizes it. He wouldn't want to start an 8-hour shift with anyone else.

(Whatever it is… this could work.)

—

Note: I took some liberty with their backstories since I totally forgot that all inhabitants are supposed to have "lived" in Labyrinthia their whole lives, but eh, details, details. Let's just say that because Nick and Maya were inserted into the town much later, the Storyteller just scrambled and filled their heads with false backstories and stuffed them into Patty's bakery. Think of this mostly as an extended AU of the one we saw in PLvsAA, so take it all with a grain of salt tbh lmao.

Nice comments/feedback make me a happy bean!