Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or 'At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum'

Chapter 1

Bakery

During the week that followed, Jaden and Aster got the shop running. They baked fine breads and cakes and buns. Aster did the skilled work - he'd been taught by Uncle Haou, as he'd had the patience to learn - and Jaden did all the decorating and presentation necessary to lure people into the shop.

Over the week, he'd gotten to know some of his new neighbours. Aster preferred not to talk to people and to work away inside, but Jaden liked the company of the people around him and began to seek out their company on a daily basis. As well as the kindly Hasselberry, Jaden had become friends with two of his other neighbours whom he saw daily - a very tall man with black hair and a bandage over one eye, named Jim Cook, and a shorter man with grey hair named Bastian Misawa. Jim was married with two young daughters and Bastian was married with one son. Jaden hadn't meet either of their families but had quickly become friends with the two men.

Business got steadily better over the week as kindly neighbours and satisfied customers spread the good word of the bakery. As business got better, so did Aster's mood, and he gradually began to be kinder to the people around him. He served customers politely and spoke with a few neighbours. He even let Jaden assist him in some of the skilled work and serve some of the customers - although he didn't dare let his cousin deal with the ladies who came into the shop. Not that Jaden would've put them at any threat or had any desire for them.

Aster was the only one that knew that Jaden wasn't exactly into women. In that year, 1665, it was considered improper and a disgrace to have interests in a person of the same sex, and so Jaden dared not to tell anyone his secret. He hadn't told his own parents or the rest of his family. Only his cousin, who he trusted to keep that secret, because Aster had a few of his own that he didn't want anyone else to find out - secrets that had fallen into Jaden's hands one night when Aster got drunk enough to tell his secrets to his boisterous little cousin.

"Hey, mate" Jim said as he walked through the open shop door.

"Hi, Jim" Jaden greeted, as he weighed out a good amount of sugar to go into a quantity of little cakes. The dough for those was being formed at that moment by his cousin. "Hey, Aster, that almost ready for the sugar?"

"Concentrate on your work, Jaden, and let me concentrate on mine" Aster snapped, winking at his cousin to show he was joking. He took the sugar from Jaden and gestured to Jim. "Serve our neighbour what he wants, Jay."

"Yeah, yeah." Jaden didn't exactly like that Aster was in charge, but what could he do about it? "So, Jim, what's going on?" He was also kind of pissed that Aster hadn't let him venture further than the well at the end of the lane to get water yet. He longed to see the shops and meet new people. "What am I not getting to see?"

"The world, mate" Jim laughed, grinning sympathetically at Jaden. It was well known in the neighbourhood after about five days that Aster was going to made a success out of the business by working hard, long hours and that he expected Jaden to do the same. Out of sheer good will, the brunette didn't complain. "When you get let off your leash, you have to go see the clothes they've got in the little tailors in the lane by The Duck And Goose. The father of the Princeton family just died and he left it to his youngest son - he's turned it into a fashionista heaven!"

"Sweet! I gotta see this!" Jaden grinned, then he sighed. "Some day."

"Princeton's even got this whole line of red clothes" Jim said, knowing it would interest the brunette. "Weird thing, that, 'cause Princeton only ever wears black. He's a strange one and a grumpy sow to boot, but I think you'd get on okay with him."

"I can't wait!" Jaden grinned, and he meant it.


Please R&R