From the moment Kai stumbled into her bakery on a fine, summer day, Cinder already knew that he was going to play an important part in her life.
She had been standing behind the counter, wiping her hands on a wet towel after popping a batch of bite-sized cakes in the oven. Then the bell attached to the door had rung, and Kai had stepped into her bakery, walking only a few steps before promptly tripping over his own feet.
He managed to catch himself before face planting on the floor. Cinder giggled a little, and Kai lifted his head. When they made eye contact, his cheeks immediately flushed a bright pink - crawling up his neck and extending to the tips of his ears. Clearing his throat, he straightened, eyes darting everywhere but her.
"I…" He coughed awkwardly again. Cinder watched him intently, still holding the towel. "I was here for the new job offer?"
"Oh!" Quickly, she set down the towel, stepping out from behind the counter. "Hi, I'm Cinder, the owner of this bakery." She held out her hand to shake, which Kai took hurriedly. "And you?"
"Kai," he breathed.
She smiled. "Kai," she repeated. "Do you have any baking experience?"
Chuckling nervously, he scratched the back of his head. "Not really. The only experience I have is from watching baking shows. Does that count?" Cinder tilted her head to the side, staring at him in amusement. "But I can learn!" he piped up. "I'm a quick learner."
Cinder hummed, allowing her eyes to subtly scan Kai's face. His eyes were wide, holding a sort of childish innocence in them. He was gnawing on his bottom lip in anxiety. "Okay," Cinder said after a pause.
Kai blinked. "Okay?"
"Yes." She grinned at him. "Okay. Come early tomorrow morning, okay? Your shift will usually start at eight, but I want you to come at six tomorrow so you can help me prepare." She shot him a glance out of the corner of her eye, stifling a giggle at his baffled expression. "Is that okay with you, Kai?"
"Y-yeah." He stared at her for a second longer before hurriedly bowing. "Thank you!"
"It's no problem. Thank you for volunteering." Slowly, he started to back up towards the door.
"I'll come tomorrow, then?"
"Yes, Kai." Cinder nodded. "Tomorrow."
Kai arrived six o'clock sharp the next morning in similar fashion. This time, he had tripped over the uneven doorstep, causing the door to slam into his back as it closed. He let out a sharp yelp of pain, and Cinder had laughed at him again.
"Good," she said, glancing at the clock. "You're on time." She nodded to the sink. "Wash your hands first." He complied, rinsing his hands with water and soap before drying his hands with a paper towel.
"What am I doing today?"
"Nothing too hard. Just icing a few cupcakes."
"Oh." His twisted expression said that icing cupcakes did, in fact, seem difficult.
"Don't worry," Cinder said, patting his shoulder comfortingly. "I'll walk you through it, okay? It's your first time, anyways. I'm not putting any kind of pressure on you." Visibly, relaxed. "Come on over here." She waved him behind the counter, where freshly baked cupcakes sat in their paper wrapping, void of any frosting. "Take this."
She placed a piping bag in his hands. Kai stared at it like it was an alien object. Then, she grabbed a single cupcake and put it in front of him. "Watch." She grabbed her own piping bag filled with cream cheese frosting. "Start from one end and squeeze lightly." She demonstrated the motion, a bit of the icing coming out from the tip. "Then just move the bag in a circular motion until the frosting piles up on top of each other, finishing in a small tip." Easily, she swirled the piping bag, the icing perfectly settling in an intricate pattern. "Simple, right?"
"Uh…"
"Alright, Kai!" Cinder chirped, setting down the piping bag. "Let's see it."
Gulping, Kai adjusted the piping bag in his hands, trying to hold it like how he saw Cinder doing it. It felt awkward and heavy. Squeeze lightly. He squeezed too hard. A gigantic blob of frosting burst from the tip. He made a surprised sound in the back of his throat, hoping that Cinder didn't notice it. Move the bag in a circular motion. Kai tried. He really did, but instead of the beautiful pattern that Cinder had created, it came out as a messy, lopsided pile. End in a tip. He flicked his wrist.
There was a long pause. "Well. At least it has a nice tip," Cinder quipped. His cheeks flared, and Cinder started to laugh.
"Don't laugh at me!" Kai said, embarrassed.
"I'm not laughing at you," Cinder said, snuffling her giggles. She held up the poorly iced cupcake. "It's just… cute."
"Oh." Immediately, Kai's face flared a brilliant shade of red.
"Alright, I see." She patted him on the back. "I guess you're working with the customers, then."
"For the sake of the future of this bakery, yes, I think that's better." Cinder giggled at his words.
"What the heck?" Both of their heads snapped to the right in the direction of the new voice. Scarlet stood at the door, apron clutched in her hand. Her red hair was flying in frizzy curls around her face, shocked expression making her mouth drop open. "I haven't heard you laugh like that in ages!"
"Shut up!" Cinder said, appalled. It was her turn to blush. Scarlet's eyes slid to Kai, eyeing him up and down with a suspicious look.
"Who's he?"
"Be nice, Scarlet," Cinder warned. Scarlet smirked. "This is Kai, our new employee."
"Did he make that?" She pointed to the deformed cupcake still held in Cinder's hands. Hands on her hips, she continued, "I thought we were looking for more bakers, not customer service."
"Listen, Scarlet. If he's helping the customers, that gives us more time behind the scenes to make new pastries."
"I smell lies." Cinder shot her another dirty look. Kai's eyes darted between them, feeling extremely uncomfortable in this situation. Slowly, Scarlet's eyes narrowed at Cinder. "Are you sure you didn't hire him just because he's-"
"Would you look at the time!" Cinder exclaimed, lunging forward and slapping a hand over Scarlet's mouth, effectively cutting off her speech. "Shouldn't you help me ice the rest of the cupcakes, Scarlet?" Scowling, the red head nodded, breaking away from her grip. "And Kai, you can just go rest for now, alright?"
He nodded. "Sure."
Cinder smiled. "Thanks." Before following Scarlet to help with icing the cupcakes, she added, "Don't worry about Scarlet. She's not all that bad." And then she winked, leaving Kai as a blushing mess.
Kai found himself staring at his boss in his free time.
Well, his free time, and all the time in between.
It's hard to keep his eyes off of her. He can't - not when Cinder is glowing with the light of a thousand stars. You can't think this way about your boss, he had constantly chastised himself. But no matter how many times he repeated that, it never stuck. He found himself gravitating towards her, as if he were the helpless earth and Cinder the sun.
"Hey." There was a tap on his shoulder. Kai didn't answer, too busy staring at Cinder, who was currently focusing on sprinkling powdered sugar on a batch of mini madeleines. "Hey." A harsher tap.
"Huh?" Kai's eyes focused on a smug looking Scarlet. She nodded her head towards an annoyed customer who was tapping his fingers impatiently on the counter.
"Too busy staring at Cinder to realize that this customer has been waiting for the past two minutes, hmm?"
His eyes widened, cheeks flaring at being caught. "I-"
"Hello, sorry for the wait! How may I help you?"
Kai groaned, stepping away from the register to lean on the counter, arms crossed. I wasn't staring at her, he thought. Still, his eyes slid towards Cinder. I wasn't.
"Actually, I think it's kind of cute." Kai jumped at Scarlet's voice. She had finished with the customer and was now bothering him with a catlike grin. "Can you guys just date already?"
"W-what?"
"She likes you, too, you know." Scarlet rolled her eyes. "Please save me. All she ever talks about is you. Oh, Kai's hair smells like peppermint. Oh, Kai's eyes sparkle. Oh, when Kai blushes he's adorable. Blah, blah, blah."
"She really says that about me?"
"Do you think I can make up that many good things about you?"
He wrinkled his nose. "Thanks," he said dryly.
"Always here to help," Scarlet chirped.
"What are you guys talking about?" Cinder was washing the powdered sugar off of her fingers, glancing at them curiously.
"Nothing!" Kai said tightly.
"Oh." Cinder blinked. "Oh, okay."
Scarlet jabbed him in the side as Cinder walked away, her shoulders slumped. "Idiot," Scarlet hissed.
"What did I do?"
Shaking her head, Scarlet left him, too. "Too many things, Kai," she sang. "Too many."
"Kai?" His head swivelled towards Cinder, whose head was peeping out from behind the counter. "Can you help me with this?"
"Sure." He walked over, peeking curiously at what she was doing. In front of her was a fresh batch of macaron cookies, without the filling inside. They were all a different shade of brown - some a light beige, others a dark chocolate. His eyebrows furrowed at the array of sweets. "You know I'm no good with baking."
"That wasn't what I was asking, silly." Lightly, she bopped him on the nose. "I was just going to ask you to try one of each flavor. To see if it's good enough for the customers to eat."
"Anything you make is good," Kai blurted out.
"Oh." Cinder stared as his face went from a healthy tan to a firetruck red. "Thank you," she said softly.
"Y-yup."
Averting her eyes to the cookies, she gestured to the different flavors. "Which one first?"
"This one?" He pointed at a tan colored macaron. Cinder hummed, picking up two pieces and piping it with the same colored filling before sticking it together like a sandwich.
"Caramel," Cinder said as Kai took a dainty bite of the treat. "Sea salt caramel." Almost immediately, his eyes lit up at the explosion of the sweet and salty combination and the crumbly texture of the macaron.
"It's good!" Cinder smiled.
"Really?"
"Really good," Kai said, finishing off the rest of it. He even licked the filling off of his fingers, trying to get every last taste.
"Coffee next?" He nodded, and Cinder handed him a light brown macaron. It was just as brilliant as the sea salt caramel, with the bitter taste of coffee mixed with sugar and milk and cocoa powder.
His eyes lifted to see Cinder intently staring at him, and he blushed again. "Sorry," he said, clearing this throat.
"No, I'm glad you like it."
As she was preparing the next flavor - with a light pink dusting the apples of her cheeks - Scarlet's words suddenly popped into his mind. She likes you too, you know?
"Hey, um, Cinder."
"Yes?" She looked up at him expectantly, halfway done with another macaron. Kai's heartbeat sped up at the sight of her unwavering gaze, confidence lowering.
"I-I just wanted to ask you something."
"Go for it." She set down the piping bag, crossing her arms and giving him her full, undivided attention.
Kai gulped. "D-do you like me?"
Cinder blinked. "Of course," she said after a pause. "Of course I like you. You're a sweet friend, Kai."
"N-no, I mean… as… more than a friend." His voice trailed off at the end. When he looked up, Cinder was staring at him, her expression scarily blank. At that moment, he wanted a hole in the ground to swallow him up. "Forget about it," he muttered. "Sorry, I wasn't-"
"Shut up, you idiot." Cinder grabbed onto Kai's wrist before he could run out of the bakery. "I like you too, okay?"
Surprised, he turned back around. Her head was lowered. This was his first time seeing her so shy. Admittedly, it was cute. "You… you like me?"
"Is that so hard to believe?" Cinder sighed, letting go of his arm to run her fingers through her hair in distress. "I've been talking to Scarlet all about you."
"I know."
"You know?"
"Scarlet told me."
Cinder's eyes widened almost comically. Then, her face flushed, almost rivalling Kai's in its color. "Oh my gosh. I'm so embarrassed. I'm sorry - I'm going to kill her-"
Kai cut off her stuttering with a kiss. It was awkward, with their noses bumping together harshly, but it was cute, and innocent, and warm. It didn't matter, because to Cinder, Kai was sweeter than any treat she could ever bake.
AN: Please tell us what you think! Again, if you have any ideas for future stories, message us!