Okay so this is way fluffier than I usually write but i figured Trowa could use some fluff.
Back to the circus, Trowa thought and no matter how often he reminded himself that this was his life now, he couldn't get used to it. He was happy, he supposed. His life was peaceful, quiet, predictable… boring. It was a life significantly more interesting than most people lived; after all he was in a traveling circus. But when comparing the life of a rebel Gundam pilot to the life of a traveling circus clown, the clown is the less exciting option.
He sighed. He shouldn't be complaining. He wasn't complaining. Was he? Since when did he complain? He shook his head and went back to walking down the street, not quite sure when he'd stopped walking.
He glanced in the windows of the passing shops listlessly. One caught his eye and he back tracked to look in the window. On second glance it was not a shop, it was a bakery. Small and decorated in shades of brown and green and blue, it reminded him of the woods on Earth. He smiled to himself and decided he could indulge in a sweet before he had to get back to the big top for rehearsal. He pushed the door open and a little chime sounded.
There were a few tables, but none of them were occupied. If not for the open sign he would have thought the place was closed. He looked at his watch; it wasn't exactly rush hour though.
"I'll be right out," a woman's voice called from the back room he assumed was behind the counter.
He looked at the treats behind the glass counter, petits fours, black and white cookies, cupcakes and brownies and they all looked delicious. Trowa had never really seen the appeal of eating copious amounts of sweets like his American friend Duo. He smiled at the thought and made a mental note to email Duo and see how he was doing.
When he looked up again, he was shocked to see a woman standing directly in front of him behind the counter. Either she was very quiet or he was getting soft. She wasn't at all what he expected someone who worked at a bakery to look like. He had expected an elderly or middle aged woman, portly and frumpy. But she was petite and thin, and had curly auburn hair that was gathered up in a messy bun at the base of her neck, and deep cobalt blue eyes that reminded him of Heero. And right now those eyes were giving him a look of well restrained amusement.
"Can I help you?" she asked with a bright smile as she dusted the flour off her hands on her apron.
He nodded mutely. He didn't really know what he wanted so he just stood there for a few moments. This was enough to earn him that same look of contained amusement. "I don't quite know what to get," he admitted finally, as a way of explaining his silence.
She nodded. "Just let me know once you've decided," she said as she started cleaning off the racks that weren't occupied by colorfully decorated confections.
He looked back at the assorted treats in the case. He really didn't know much about sweets. Like, what's the difference between the cupcakes with white icing and the ones with pink icing? Did they taste different or was it just the color?
After a few minutes he gave up on trying to differentiate between all the different pastries and decided he would just ask her for whatever was best. Just as he was about to ask, she turned around and gestured at the case on the other side of the register that held cakes and pies. "There's more, if you can't find anything you like over here."
He chuckled a little, earning him a slightly confused look. "I was actually going to ask what you would recommend."
She brightened immediately and looked like she was about to say something then paused and started to say something and paused again. "Well, it depends on what you're in the mood for. My personal favorites are the red velvet cupcakes; unless you want something more filling then my favorite is the raspberry swirl cheesecake." She shrugged and smiled at him.
He offered a small smile in return. "Well, then I'll take one red velvet cupcake and a slice of that cheesecake."
"Great," she replied sweetly as she grabbed a plate off the back counter and put a generous slice of cheesecake on it along with a red velvet cupcake. "Need anything to drink with that?"
"Yes, please. Do you have iced tea?"
"Coming right up," she said as she bustled over the to the drink machine and got him a glass of ice tea. "Here you go. That'll come out to $11.85, please."
He nodded and then paused. "Can I get… three dozen assorted cupcakes also?"
She looked taken aback by the sudden request but nodded. "You can go ahead and sit, I'll take care of your tab when you're finished." And then she proceeded to box up thirty-six of the delicious looking cupcakes. "Office party?" she asked after a few minutes.
He smiled after swallowing a bite of cheesecake. "Something like that."
"I cater too, if you ever need that sort of thing," she said as she closed the second box of cupcakes.
"I'll keep that in mind," Trowa said with a nod. He was trying his very best to be amicable. As Quatre was always so quick to point out, his people skills were sorely lacking. He didn't talk much and that tended to make most people uncomfortable. He was also very matter-of-fact and his answers were rarely more than a few words long which for some reason tended to make people think he was irritated. He shook his head to himself.
The woman continued her work in silence for awhile, stacking each box she finished on top of the counter then ringing it up on the register. He watched her for a couple minutes as she worked the register, she was actually rather attractive. He didn't quite know why that surprised him, but he'd never really taken time to notice things like that about women. He usually didn't even give them a second glance, but she was different. Now, he didn't think she was profoundly different like he'd read in old books about love. She was just the first woman he'd been around aside from Catherine, since he'd last talked to Quatre.
His friend had called him from a hospital on Earth where his wife, Blaire had just had their first child, a little boy named Emmet. The child was adorable, even Trowa admitted it. He had a small mop of dark hair like his mother's and Quatre's wide blue eyes. Quatre had asked about the obvious things like how Catherine was doing and how the circus was going, but Trowa could tell he wanted to ask about Trowa's nonexistent love life. And Trowa would have been forced to admit to his closest friend that he didn't have a love life nor did he really want one. He was perfectly content with his single, peaceful, quiet, predictable, boring life. He sighed; he was complaining again.
The truth was he wasn't content with his boring, single existence. He'd never admit that to Quatre though. He'd try to fix Trowa up with some rich, refined woman and Trowa certainly didn't want that. Trowa would find his own type of woman. He didn't quite know what that type was but he figured it'd be obvious when he met her.
He blinked and refocused his vision, it seems he had been staring rather impolitely at the girl behind the counter and now she was looking at him with a small amount of concern on her face. He was appalled to feel color rising in his cheeks; he quickly smiled and went back to eating his cheesecake, hoping she realized that he'd simply been lost in thought. He finished the rest of his cheesecake then wiped his mouth with his napkin.
And then suddenly she was there, right next to him. He didn't let her see his surprise. He was getting soft; there is no way she would have gotten that close without him knowing if he had been younger. Younger. He wasn't even twenty-seven and he was complaining about being old.
"Finished?" she asked politely.
"Yes, thank you."
She picked up the plate and napkin and his utensils and took them back behind the counter to an industrial sized sink and set them in as he walked to the counter.
"Cupcakes are on the counter, and your total comes to $101.34," she said as he handed her his credit card.
That price didn't seem right. Even for someone who knew nothing about cupcakes, Trowa knew they were more expensive than that. He checked the prices on the back wall and noted that it said that a dozen cupcakes were $30. He worked through the math in his head quickly, adding on the price of the things he'd gotten individually and taking into account that there was an extra box of cupcakes sitting with the others. She had severely under charged him. The total he came up with was closer to $130 than $100. She must have made a mistake. Unless, Duo had told him that some waitresses and other employees would give discounts as a way of flirting, a way of showing interest. Huh, that was interesting. He wasn't sure what to do; point out her error and show disinterest but do the right thing or accept her advances and feel guilty.
He settled for not mentioning the error but giving her an egregiously large tip, nearly thirty-five percent. "Thank you," he said with a smile after handing her the signed receipt. He picked up the boxes of cupcakes and headed for the door, which she hurried to open for him.
"Come again soon," she said cheerfully as she closed the door behind him.
Lily watched him go with a smile. She could tell he was shy and he had been trying to be social. He'd obviously been thinking of something important when she'd walked over. He covered his surprise so quickly that she almost missed it, but it was there. And it was obvious he was someone who was unaccustomed to being taken by surprise.
She shook her head. He was an odd one. But he was cute, actually cute was an understatement, he was gorgeous. But for some reason he seemed more cute than sexy, just because of his lack of social aptitude. The best part about him? He was interested.
You can tell a lot about a guy just by the way he responds to discount flirting. By accepting the discount but giving an enormous tip, he showed that he was at least somewhat interested but that he was a nice guy and didn't want to take advantage of her interest.
He'd be back. And if she knew guys as well as she thought she did, he'd be back tomorrow.
REVIEW PLEASE!!! 3