Sweet Love
by Tr-8r810
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Nisekoi. This story is strictly for entertainment purposes and not for profit. Also Nisekoi spoilers! This story has spoilers of the ending of Nisekoi. I know the series is still coming out in manga, so not everyone has seen it yet. So here's your spoiler warning.
Author's Notes: (Some of this is spoilers for the chapter, so if you want you can read this later.) This chapter is mostly the other half of Chapter 3, do to Chapter 3 being long enough already. This chapter also shows more of Alex and Onodera warming up to each other. However Alex is still hesitant about getting close to other people. And Onodera shows more of her maturity on dealing with her feelings.
Side note: From this point onward, the description of the story may change a little, mostly in the rating. As the storyline continues some details may need to be added. I don't have any intention on changing the T rating though. Just as a heads up.
Special thanks to thatguywhowrote for taking the time to be a beta reader for this story.
Alex walked into the kitchen hoping to find out what that crash sound was. He found out pretty quickly as a plate smashed against the wall next to him, almost hitting him in the process. No one seemed to have noticed him as they were focusing on the blonde baker.
"I'm sorry, they said that was the earliest time they could get here." Onodera said nervously, trying to calm Taylor down.
"But six o'clock?! We can't wait that long! You told them that this was urgent, right?!" Said Taylor, just about ready to blow a gasket.
"Calm down sis, we'll think of something. Breaking everything isn't going to do us any good." Tim was getting tired of her violent behavior.
"Oh, shut up! Why do you care anyway, this is just a part time job for you. You'd probably like it if you didn't have to come here anymore, wouldn't you?!"
Tim sighed. "Look, we'll just close for the rest of the day and try to make up for it tomorrow."
"Who's says it'll be fixed by tomorrow? For all we know, we might need to get a new one! You think we can just "make up for it tomorrow" if that happens!?" Taylor was losing her temper.
The two continued to argue amongst each other. Meanwhile Alex, still unnoticed by the employees, felt more confused than he did coming in, he was still in the dark about what was going on. But he noted that Onodera had started picking up pieces of the broken plates scattered about the room. She then turned to his direction as one broke next to him, much to her shock to see Alex standing there.
"E-eh?! A-Alex!? W-w-what are you doing here?" Said Onodera.
"I heard a crash coming from the back of the store and thought I'd see if everything was okay. Next thing I knew, a plate was flying by my face."
Onodera placed her hand on her head and sighed. "I'm sorry, Taylor was upset and-"
"It's fine, you don't need to explain it to me." Alex interrupted. "We all have off days, don't worry about it."
Onodera was surprised by Alex's reaction. He was taking almost getting assaulted rather well.
"Either way, I'm glad you didn't get hurt. But what were you doing around here anyway?" She asked.
He cocked his head. "Well... It would be rude to turn down an invitation, wouldn't it? Especially since I haven't bought anything here yet. I can't keep coming here just to take up your time."
Onodera blushed a little. 'Did he mean... he came back because of me?' She thought.
"But you guys looked like you're having some problems. I asked the guy out front, but he didn't seem to be in the best mood. I was just wondering what's wrong." He asked.
"Well..." She wondered if she should tell him, after all she didn't really know him that well. But on the other hand, it wasn't like there was any harm in telling him. "We're having some problems with our oven, it suddenly stopped working this morning. We've been busy trying to make the most out of today as we could, but we're running out of options. The repairman said they could be here by six o'clock, so we'll probably have to close the store for the rest of the day."
"Jeez, really? That's rough." Alex placed a hand on his hip while thinking.
"You wouldn't happen to know anyone who could maybe come here sooner, would you?"
Alex made a sour face. "Yeah I do... but he's out of town right now. If he wasn't, I'd call him in a heartbeat."
"...I see. Sorry, that was silly of me."
There was an awkward pause with the both of them unsure on what to say. Alex then tried breaking the silence.
"While I'm here, I might as well help you pick up some of these broken glass." He bent down and started carefully picking up the shards.
"Y-you don't need to do that, I can handle it by myself."
"It's no problem. Besides, this needs to be cleaned up before someone hurts themselves, right?"
At this Onodera smiled a little. "I guess you're right."
The two then started collecting the glass scattered about the room. As they did, Alex found one in front of an oven. He then stared at it with a confused look on his face.
"Is everything okay?" Onodera asked.
"I take it this is your busted oven?"
"Oh, yeah. It's a little old, but it works great. Apparently it's been in this store for a long time... or so I've been told."
Alex took a closer look. "You wouldn't happen to know its model year, would you?"
"No, not exactly, Taylor might though. Why? What are you thinking?"
"It's just that... for some reason this looks familiar. Do you mind if I take a look?" Alex asked.
"Uhh, sure I guess. Just please try not to do anything that might make it worse."
Alex opened the oven's door and looked inside. It looked fine for the most part. It was a little older like Onodera said, but there were no major problems.
"So what are you looking for anyway?"
"I'm not sure yet, I'll let you know if I find it."
Just then across the room Taylor called out. "Hey Onodera!"
"Taylor, are things okay with you and Tim?" Onodera asked as Taylor was walking over.
"Yeah. It's just been a long day. Sometimes we push each other's buttons, but we're cool. By the way... who's that?" Taylor asked, noticing someone was fiddling with their oven.
"Oh, right." She moved closer to Taylor and whispered "Remember that guy from yesterday? When I was talking to him, I told him about the sale so he came over to see how it looked."
"Ahh... I see." Taylor said with a smirk on her face. "Trying to get the guy's attention by inviting them to our store? You sly devil."
"W-w-w-what!? H-how could you even think that?!" Onodera's face started becoming a bright shade of red.
Taylor was only joking. She had a bit of a habit of teasing Onodera on such subjects. Onodera was so serious about the topic that she just wanted to loosen her up a little, with various results.
"I would never do something like that just to-"
Onodera was cut off by a loud sound from the oven, to which they both turned towards.
"Ha! I knew it!" Said Alex as he pulled his head out of the oven.
"What the heck was that?!" Taylor said angrily. "You better not have broken it any more!"
"This oven was made in 2010, wasn't it?" Alex asked while wiping some grime off his hands.
"What? Yeah, I guess that sounds about right. But what does that have to do with-"
"Because my dad's a mechanic. And back in 2010, there was a brand of oven models that had a defect when a part would disconnect, causing the oven to stop working. My dad and I fixed those so many times we had basically memorized how to do it." Alex said with a laugh.
"Wait, you're a mechanic!?" Onodera asked with a shocked look on her face.
"Not exactly. My dad taught me a lot, but if this was any other model, I wouldn't be much help."
Taylor grabbed Alex by the shoulder. "Hold up. Are you saying you fixed it?!"
"Umm... yeah." He then turned the oven on, "It wasn't a perfect fix so it may disconnect again, but in the meantime it should be fine."
Taylor let out a sigh of relief. "You don't know how much this helps us. Tim, we're back in business! Get ready, we're gonna be kicking things into overdrive. You too, Onodera." Taylor said preparing herself for a long baking session.
"I take it she's always like that?" Alex asked.
"Only when she's focused on something." Onodera responded.
"So you guys are going to be pretty busy with your oven working again?"
"Yeah, we have a lot of ground to cover from this morning."
"Then maybe it would be best if I leave you guys to focus on your work. Unless there's anything else I can do?"
Taylor poked her head in between the two of them. "Hey, are you serious? Because we could really use some extra help."
"Taylor, we can't ask him to do that. He's done enough already."
"Hold on Onodera." Alex said, turning his attention to the blonde baker. "Umm, Taylor was it? Are you sure you want my help? I'm not the greatest cook in the world, so I don't know how much help I would be."
"That's fine, I wouldn't have you making anything anyway. The problem is we're going to be moving around. A lot. Between making the batter, moving them into the oven, pulling them out and taking the finished product to the front. It's a lot for only three people. But if we had some extra help, it would be great. Then Onodera and I could focus on our work. So please, could you help us?"
Alex thought for a moment. He looked at Onodera for a second, then back to Taylor. "Alright sure, what do you need?"
Taylor smiled. "Great. First we need a new bag of flour. There's one over here, give me a hand with this, umm..."
"Alex."
'How did all this happen?' Onodera thought to herself, trying to take in all that had just transpired.
"Hey come on Onodera, we're waiting on you!" Taylor called out.
"Right, I'm coming."
Soon after that, everyone was in high gear. Taylor and Onodera were baking like there was no tomorrow, Tim on the other hand was selling in the front. Alex meanwhile was in the middle, he helped the girls at the back preparing and moving their work to the front. He also helped Tim with the customers. It was a hard day, but in the end they managed to sell almost everything they were making, easily making up for the morning. Despite not being an employee, Alex stayed and helped for the whole day, at least until...
"Closing time." As the sun started to set, Onodera flipped the sign to "closed" in the front of the bakery.
She and Alex were packing up in the front, while the siblings were cleaning the back.
"What a long day." Onodera sighed. "I'm sorry you had to work here so late."
Alex waved his hand dismissively. "It's fine, I wouldn't have stayed this long if I didn't want to."
"But you still spent most of the afternoon helping us, and you even fixed our oven. I don't know how we could ever repay you." Onodera said, her voice softer than usual.
Alex blushed a little. "W-well... you could let me sneak out a cupcake and we could call it even."
Onodera laughed. "By all means, here." She handed him one.
Alex looked at the cupcake and thought to himself for a moment. "Hey, if you don't mind me asking, how are you doing with the whole cooking thing?"
Onodera started cleaning off one of the shelves, her back facing Alex. "I'm getting by, but my work hasn't been its best, even today. I guess I'm still not quite myself yet."
"Sorry to hear that. I hope everything turns out okay."
"Thanks. I hope to get back to my old self. Hopefully I'll be better by next week."
"Next week?"
Onodera turned. "Oh, u-umm... I mean..." Onodera started acting flustered, realizing she may have said too much.
"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. I'm not going to push you for it or anything." Alex reassured her.
"No, actually I don't mind." Alex was still a bit of a stranger to her, but after everything he did that day, she could hardly say he wasn't an honest person. Plus for some reason she kind of felt like talking about it.
"I told you there's been a lot on my mind lately, right? The truth is I've been depressed lately."
Hearing this hit Alex like a bolt of lightning. He hated hearing that word even in his own head, but someone else saying it really put him on edge. He tried not to show it by staying focused on Onodera's matter at hand.
"You see, there was this boy I liked in high school, REALLY liked. I wanted to tell him my feelings but every time I tried to, I would lose my nerve for one reason or another." She fiddled around with her hair out of embarrassment. "Eventually I did find the courage to tell him, but..." She paused for a second. "It wasn't meant to be. This time of year reminds me of those memories, that's why I've "lost my edge", as you would put it." She gave off a weak laugh.
There was an awkward silence. Alex was slightly relieved that Onodera was just down instead of having depression, like he had originally feared. On the other hand she sounded like she was going through a hard time.
"I don't really know what to say, 'sorry' feels kind of redundant..."
"You don't need to say anything. I didn't tell you for the sake of pity, I did because you seem to care."
"What do you-"
"Earlier when Taylor asked for your help, you turned to me. That's why you stayed isn't it? Because you were worried about me."
"I-I... umm, t-that's not..." Alex was at a loss for words.
Onodera smiled before she continued. "You know, there was something really important I learned from my high school days. You should always tell people how you feel about them without delay. If I had told Ichijou... That boy I was talking about how I felt from the beginning, things may have turned out differently. That's why I promised myself If I ever feel that way about someone again, I wouldn't hesitate to tell them how I felt. You never know what life will bring, so I want to tell people how I feel while I still can."
Alex knew what Onodera was getting at, she was wanting him to be honest with her.
"I just... I didn't know how much you guys could handle with just the three of you, especially with this thing you're going through. I thought an extra pair of hands could help a little. That's all."
"You've been more help than just an extra pair of hands, what with fixing the oven and everything. We really owe you one." Onodera smiled.
"..." Alex on the other hand remained silent.
She then picked up a tray of leftovers and started heading for the kitchen. "Well, I thought you were more helpful then someone who didn't care would be."
As she was heading back, Alex spoke up. "Do you need a hand with that?"
"Oh no, I'm good. We're pretty much done for today." She said as she went out of sight.
With Onodera out of earshot, Alex got up. "Good, then if you guys don't need me, I'll see myself out." He said to himself as he placed the cupcake back on the counter.
In truth, Alex didn't really want any appreciation or thanks, which he knew was coming up. All he wanted was to help Onodera and the others out and move on. It was the same with Jess and the old radio earlier that day. He found himself in general... quite useless compared to everyone else.
"If your usefulness is at its end, you might as well stop taking up space and leave." That was the kind of stuff that went through his head. And he thought he would do just that.
'You're more than just an extra pair of hands she says. You have no idea how wrong you are.' Alex thought to himself as he tightly gripped his right arm.
Taylor and Tim were both cleaning the dishes when Onodera walked into the kitchen.
"I finished closing up the store." Onodera told them as she came in.
"Finally, today went on forever!" Tim groaned.
Taylor signed "Good. I really want to thank you two. Today could have been a disaster, but we managed to come out on top. I couldn't have done it without your help."
"Don't be so modest sis, you worked just as hard as we did."
"Well either way, I was thinking of taking you guys out to dinner, just as a way to say thank you. My treat."
"That actually sounds pretty..." Onodera's foot bumped into a backpack. "Huh? Whose backpack is this?"
"Wasn't that Alex's? I think he had it when he came in." Tim said.
"Hey, Onodera. How about you see if Alex would want to come with us. He's been a big help today, it's the least we could do."
"Sure thing." Said Onodera.
"So what do you think we should get Timothy? Chinese, Italian..." Their voices faded as Onodera walked back into the front.
"Excuse me, Alex. I found this backpack at the back and I was wondering if it was..."
When she looked around, Alex was nowhere to be seen.
"Huh? Alex?" She started looking around the bakery. She noticed the cupcake was back on the counter, but she couldn't find him anywhere.
"Alex...?" Onodera said with a soft voice, slightly echoing as she stood alone in the room.