Carlos was nervous. It was his first day at his new job at the Night Vale firehouse. He was just going through orientation today, but it was still nerve-racking. Carlos did his best to come across as friendly and a team player. It seemed to work well enough since everyone else was equally kind to him and they had even invited him to eat lunch with them when they ordered a pizza from Big Rico's.

Overall, Carlos thought. Not a bad day. It was a long day, however, and Carlos was hungry by the time that he got off work that evening. He began walking down the street to get downtown where there was a variety of shops to pick up a small dinner.

One of the first stores that Carlos came across was a little bakery. It was quaint and nicely decorated inside. There was no one inside when Carlos entered, save for one person behind the counter.

The man greeted him and Carlos smiled as he ordered a pastry and coffee.

"Not very busy at this time of day?" Carlos asked conversationally as the man—whose nametag read 'Cecil'—was pouring his coffee.

He laughed. "Not very busy at any time of day!" he said jokingly. "That's why I'm usually the only one here. Well, me plus Earl, but he comes in the morning. I take the afternoons and evenings so he can go to his classes. I figure, why pay a bunch of employees when we only get a few customers each day?"

Carlos laughed with him. "So you're the manager then?" Cecil nodded his head. "That's cool; owning a nice little place like this, that is."

"Yeah," Cecil agreed with him. "I love the place. Not a big money maker, but that's hardly ever important in a town like this."

Cecil brought Carlos his coffee and pastry and he paid for the food. As he was about to turn to leave, Carlos stopped and asked Cecil if he wanted to sit with him before he could change his mind and bolt out the door to get home after a long first day at work. Much to his surprise, Cecil agreed and laid his apron on the hook next to the counter. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge underneath and followed Carlos to one of the tables next to the window.

"So," Cecil said after allowing Carlos to take a couple bites of his pastry. "Have you been in Night Vale long? I've not seen you around."

Carlos nodded slightly as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. "I just got in last week and today was my first day working at the firestation," he told him. Cecil leaned back in his chair and stared at Carlos.

"Wow, a firefighter," Cecil all but purred. Carlos blushed and turned his eyes back to his pastry. Cecil continued.

"Are you staying long?"

"I hope to," Carlos answered truthfully. Cecil smiled.

"So I'll see you around more often then, yes?"

Carlos lifted his head, looking right at Cecil, who was beaming ear to ear. Carlos took a minute to just look at the man sitting across from him. There wasn't so much a flirting tone to his voice as there was more of general curiosity and friendliness. He was just a genuinely kind person.

Carlos mimicked Cecil's smile and told him, "Yes, I do believe that you will."

The pair talked quietly even after Carlos had finished his danish and coffee. Carlos bid Cecil goodbye when a couple walked into the bakery and Cecil had to get back to work.

Carlos enjoyed his time at the bakery. Though it was small, there were many different options for pastries, cupcakes, scones, cookies, muffins, croissants, doughnuts, cakes, pies, tarts, everything that Carlos could think of!

So he made it a goal to try everything on the menu; one different item per day. And that's what he set out to do. Stopping by after work everyday, Carlos would order a baked item and a coffee and invite Cecil to sit and chat. Sometimes, when the bakery was surprisingly busy, Carlos would stand at the end of the counter next to the utensils, just eating and talking with Cecil between customers.

The two of them never ran out of topics to chat about, or interesting factoids about themselves and their lives, or just talking about the news. Current events was one of Cecil's favourite topics. And Carlos couldn't think of a better way to spend his time after work.

He would even sometimes bring up the bakery at work to see if his fellow firefighters ever went there. Some of them hadn't even known that there was a bakery downtown, while others were expressly fond of it, and especially of Cecil.

"Cecil is the greatest," Dana Cardinal, one of the volunteer EMTs with the station, said at lunch when Carlos brought up the bakery. "You know that I used to work there? Just got into college, no idea how to pay for anything, and Cecil just up and hires me! In two days, nonetheless."

Teddy Williams said that he was Cecil's doctor and the man always, without a doubt brought in Teddy's favourite pastry along with muffins for the staff on duty whenever he came in for any reason.

It seemed that Cecil was just all around popular amongst the town, which wasn't very difficult to believe from the time that Carlos has gotten to spend with him.

The more Carlos talked about Cecil and the bakery, however, the more Dana and two specific firefighters—Rachelle and Dave—asked about their relationship. Random questions like, 'So you see each other every day?' and 'What do you think of him? Relationship-wise? Friend?' Carlos was often flustered by the questions and had to stuff his food into his mouth to keep from having to answer.

Carlos was grateful for their teasing, though. They weren't being mean about it; they were genuinely interested. And Carlos could talk about Cecil all day, so he secretly didn't mind.

One day, Carlos got into work and found that one of the trucks was gone along with all of the other firefighters. This was not a strange sight, considering that there were people at the station all night long, always on call. Carlos walked back to the office and picked up the walkie-talkie to connect to the chief, Danielle Dubois.

"Danielle?" Carlos called into the communication device. After a minute, he tried again. This time she picked up.

"Carlos?" Danielle sounded extremely tired. "Oh thank god. There's a fire downtown. You'd better get down here. Quickly."

Carlos was momentarily stunned and about to ask Danielle what was going on, but he heard the click of the firetruck's walkie being put away until needed again.

As fast as he could, Carlos grabbed the keys to the station's SUV and drove downtown. He didn't have to ask where the fire was; he could still see smoke and hear sirens. And they were coming from . . .

The bakery. Where Cecil was. Oh god. . . .

Carlos pulled into an alley and parked, jumping out of the car as quick as he could and running to find someone. He saw Dave by the truck. Luckily, Dave saw him, too and pointed in the direction of the door with the fire suits, telling Carlos to get one on and get in there to help.

Carlos dressed quickly and found Rachelle by the front door helping the others man the hose. When Carlos got to her side, however, she shouted, "Carlos! We think that Cecil's still in the building!"

That made Carlos stop dead in his tracks for a second before sprinting into the smoke and flames, which were thankfully almost extinguished. Carlos did his best to yell for Cecil, but he could barely breath himself and it wasn't from the smoke. He couldn't bear the thought of possibly losing Cecil. That only made him search even harder.

Seeing Danielle leaning down as Carlos burst into the back room made his heart stop. Danielle turned around and motioned for Carlos to help her lift Cecil to get him out of there. They did so, finally bursting out of the burning store, bringing Cecil over to the waiting EMS where Teddy Williams and Dana were ready to intubate him because they were unsure of the amount of smoke inhalation. Before they could, however, Cecil began coughing and gasping.

"Cecil!" Dana called to him over the noise, resting her hands on his shoulders to keep him from getting up. "You have to stay calm, okay? I'm going to put this mask around your nose and mouth and I need you to breathe."

Still coughing, Cecil nodded and let Dana place the oxygen mask on his face. Dana turned to Carlos, who had taken off most of the fire suit.

"Carlos, we're bringing him to the hospital," she told him before she and Teddy lifted the gurney into the ambulance.

Carlos nodded and told her that he'd follow in the SUV after checking in with Danielle. Dana nodded and clammered into the ambulance, which took off in the direction of the hospital.

Once Carlos found Danielle, she asked how Cecil was.

"He's at the hospital," he told her.

"Good. That's where he needs to be," she told him and Carlos nodded and went back to extinguishing the rest of the flames. Luckily, it didn't take long since it was a small store. But everything was gone. There was nothing left except for ashes and dust. Danielle found him when they were finished.

"Okay, we're pretty much done here. You should go see him."

Nodding and thanking Danielle, Carlos fumbled for his keys as he ran to the car and drove to hospital. He found Dana outside the ambulance loading area talking with the driver. Carlos ran to her, panting so much that he could barely ask her where Cecil was.

"Calm down, Carlos," she told him. "He's doing fine. He got checked out and he's looking good. Come on." He followed her into the hospital. She stopped at the triage center and told the nurse there that she was going back with Carlos. The nurse nodded and opened the double doors for them.

Dana led them through the mess that was the emergency wing of the hospital. Stopping at one of the Nurses' Stations, Dana scrolled through the medical entries list on the computer and then motioned for Carlos to follow her once again.

Carlos was getting impatient and worried. Finally, after walking down endless hallways, they stopped outside a room in the less busy part of the hospital.

"Wait here for a second," Dana told him and slipped inside. Carlos let out a breath that he was holding subconsciously, and leaned with his back against the wall. A minute later, Dana came back out and told Carlos that he could come inside.

When he entered the small room, the first thing that he saw was an oxygen mask covering most of Cecil's face. The next was the large wound on his forehead that looked like it had been stitched up. The last thing that he noticed was that, despite leaning back against the pillow on the bed, Cecil was awake and looking right at him.

Carlos stepped forward, closing the space between him and the bed. He carefully took Cecil's hand in his and sat down in the chair pushed up against the wall yet still next to the bed.

"Hi," said Cecil softly, slightly muffled by the mask.

"Hi," Carlos said back. Neither man noticed Dana leave the room.

After a few seconds of silence, Carlos dropped his chin to his chest and said softly, "God, Cecil. I was so worried. I thought I had lost you and I can't—I can't let. . . ." Carlos trailed off as his voice began to break. Cecil put his other hand on top of Carlos' that were still holding Cecil's.

"It's okay," he told Carlos, whose head shot up.

"No," he all but sobbed. "I cannot lose you. I won't do it. I wouldn't be able to live without you. And I was so scared today that it physically hurt."

Cecil looked down, saying, "I'm so sorry, Carlos."

Carlos just looked at him for a second, then took one hand back to push Cecil's hair away from his forehead so that Carlos could lean down and place a kiss there.

When he pulled away, Carlos saw that Cecil was smiling up at him, and Carlos smiled back.

Person A is a baker in a small urban community while person B is a firefighter. A likes to cook B cute little snacks and meals every time B comes to the bakery, and they'll eat together and chat in the alley. One day, a call comes in to the fire station saying that there is a huge fire at the bakery A is at. B rushes over and saves A. That night, still shaken up after the tragedy, B confesses their feelings to A, saying "I couldn't bear to lose you" or "I'll try to keep you safe forever."