Oliver tore his gaze from the metal table, feverishly nodding to persuade himself he wanted to continue. He had not expected a long, carved cavern leading from the basement to places he could not see from the hall's twists and turns. The walls were packed dirt, and cheap strings of industrial lights dangled from the ceiling. He shivered, and thought of bustling around the warm kitchen to get a delicious scented order in the oven. Several benches were pressed into the walls, and the furthest one held an enormous beast ordained in a surgeon's vibrant outfit. He stared at the stranger, stiff as the man turned his head in their direction. His entire face was hidden in a facial mask and buggly goggles.

"They are late," he crooned. Anabella drew closer to him, gesturing Oliver to do so as well, but he only took a few short steps before stopping. "Is this the charge you spoken about?"

"Yes," the elder said, easily understanding his thick tone. "This is Oliver. Oliver, come meet Nikolai."

The man held out a glove that ran to his elbow. "I will not bite, unless you want me to."

"Eugh!" Lila exclaimed, shrinking in Oliver's hair. The teen clenched his teeth, performing a quick bow, bending at the waist like he had seen Kuro do when he wanted to avoid conversation.

Nikolai made a noise of delighted thought, using his unshaken hand to flip a dark scarf over his shoulder, despite the garment not fitting his scrubs at all. "You know what we do under the ground, yes?"

Oliver guessed, "Not a drug cartel, right?" Anabella chuckled to herself, which caused his ears to turn red.

"No, we do not, so, in a way, you are right. I will give the details since the others still have to arrive yet. This lovely woman has employed a network of workers loosely involved in a medical run. We do things that the law would strongly advise against, but what are a few written words next to large stows of cash?"

The teen gave Anabella a worried look. She smiled sweetly, "Oliver, do you think I could support myself with a simple bakery? I would go bankrupt in a few months with the business I get!"

"S-so what do you do?" He asked, already having a solid idea with the metal slab, Nikolai's surgeon wear, and once with Louis taking the mysterious coolers, dressed in a doctor's jacket. "Though, I do believe I should not ask that, since I already know."

"Oh?" Nikolai tipped his head, his expression unreadable through his goggles and hazard mask.

The boy's fingernails prickled his palms, not enjoying the chilling presence. "You...you deliver organs for medical purposes, since hospitals do not help with how much they cost."

"I do not deliver the goods. That is what Anabella does."

"You know what I mean."

Nikolai giggled-yes, giggled- at the boy's scowl. "Of course. You see, I can be smart, too. Once I pull the bodies to pieces, I will go on my merry way, and we will not speak of this ever. No one that does not work for Anabella will not know of this, or else they will be the next ones on the slab!"

Anabella scoffed loudly, and swished a hand in the man's direction. Her laughter covered Oliver's and Lila's sharp intakes of breath. They were surrounded by crazy people! The others shared more snickers and knowing looks, and Oliver smiled uneasily from the merrymaking. It was better to be on their good side, than being targeted by them. "As long as I do not have to cut open dead bodies, then I have no qualms about baking and running coolers to their destinations."

The surgeon made a hissing sound, or perhaps he was laughing. "No, the dissecting is my job." His voice leaped, "And I cannot do that if you are late all the time!"

Oliver's eyes widened in horror. For a moment, he thought this man he never seen before was shouting at him, until he caught exclamations of fright down the hall. A pair of boys scurried into view, huffing as they carried another one slung over their shoulders. Oliver thought he was unconscious or injured, as the unresponsive person's legs dragged the ground. That quickly changed when the duo hurried past them, and he caught a hole in the man's head, still dripping red on the dirt floors.

Lila whispered, "I think I am going to be sick."

Anabella sighed, "You will have a little more to clean up, Nikolai."

The operator shrugged. "It would be the cherries on my whipped cream." He rose to his feet, almost doubling Oliver's height. The boy took a step back without thinking. Nikolai lifted a huge hand, and ruffled his hair as he passed by, earning an exclamation of fright.

"Excuse you!" Lila spat, just missed as she dropped down to latch onto Oliver's collar.

His boss turned to the teen, who was swishing his locks back into their unassigned places and mumbling quiet apologies. "Oliver, will you be able to carry out these operations? You do not have to handle anything bloody, if that is what worries you. The police will not bother with your business...especially yours, since you will just be transporting coolers from place to place. Half of the town's officers had some of the very blood and organs we deliver. No one will shoot a spoiled eye to an innocent baker, will they?"

A grin lifted Oliver's cheeks. "No, I would say not." Anabella was waiting for a legit answer. "I will stay with you, Bella. Who knows? It may be interesting..."

Lila did not seem as interested. "You can count me out."

The elder beamed, exposing missing teeth from age. "Then let us bake, and when Nikolai is finished storing our goods, we will take them where they need to go."

Oliver nodded, silently following his boss back to the basement. The body lain on the metal slab, and the two boys who brought it in scurried away, frightened, and in a great rush to leave. Anabella went for the stairs, but the teen slowed, staring at the pale corpse. Nikolai had his back to him, rummaging through a large bag, and pulled out medical tools. At least the body was no longer alive, from the looks of the scalpels and tweezers.

"Oliver," Lila whimpered when he approached the table, "what are you doing?" The dead man looked too pale, too still to be sleeping, but he did not stink like Oliver heard deceased people do. Wondering how fresh it was, as the trail of blood from the hole in his head was dripping, he slowly reached out.

He did not know what to expect from a cadaver, but he figured it did not include a large hand clamping onto his wrists. Nikolai grabbed him before his fingertips touched the dead man's forehead. Oliver drew a sharp breath, gawking at the surgeon with wide eyes. "No touching." After a heavy moment of staring, he released Oliver's arm, and resumed the excavation of his bag. The teen took several steps back, cradling his hand to chest. The operator turned his head in curiosity when he did not flee. His cheeks uplifted through his mask. "I do not want fingerprints on my canvas."

"Of course not," Oliver tightly quipped, and spun away to escape the dank room. He slammed the basement door louder than necessary, letting out a breath he was holding. The warmth and constant scent of baked goods wafted in his nostrils, easing both him and his friend.

The fairy shuddered. "I do not want to go down there ever again! Are you sure you want to involve yourself in that kind of business? Did you see how the coal tars were swarming that scary man?"

"Scary," Oliver weakly agreed, braced against the door. "I have decided..."

Lila clenched a large clump of his hair. "Decided on what?"

"Since I am going to be doing this, I will perform solely on Neutral and Light magic. Even though that means I will not be able to curse people..."

"Oh! That's a great-"

"Oliver," Anabella's voice echoed from peering into the refrigerator. "Are you speaking to yourself or me?"

The boy hissed under his breath, pushing from the door. He straightened his shirt collar, and uncertainly approached her. "Do you need anything?"

To answer his question, the bell on the front counter snapped out, followed by the sound of it hitting the floor. Both bakers flinched from the shatters, and exchanged a disgruntled look. "Remind me to get one of those plastic dingers instead of a ceramic one."

Stifling a giggle, Oliver cut through the kitchen, bracing for the mess. He stopped in front of the counter, glancing from the poor bell, to Allen (of all people in that town) leaning over the surface, staring at him with wide eyes. "Did you do that?"

"Nah, that was like that when I got here."

"Hey!" Lila called out, "That's one of the new kids! Hey, new kid!"

Oliver nonchalantly drew a hand over his head, disturbing her perch. "Do not hit it so hard next time."

Something about his suggestion was funny, and he could hear Allen's giggles and snorts from the back room, where the broom and dust pan were stored. Anabella glanced behind herself as Oliver came back through the kitchen. "Who is it?"

"One of the kids from the House."

"Howdy!" Allen said, as if he did not see Oliver less than a minute ago. "You got cupcakes?"

Oliver bent down to sweep the shattered ceramic. "Well, it is a bakery. The Queen's Cupcakes, to be exact."

Another deep giggle. Anabella emerged from the kitchen, her eyebrows raising in curiosity. "What do we have here? Another one from the House?"

"Yeah!"

"Are you a friend of Oliver's?"

Allen repeated with a grin, "Yeah!" at the same time Oliver said, "Not really."

Anabella glanced between the two as her worker dumped the pieces in the trash bin. "Oliver, shame on you."

The boy's ears reddened. "What for?!"

"Yeah, Ollie, shame!"

"Oh, belt up," Oliver turned away for the kitchen to put the broom and dustpan back.

Lila asked, "How about it?"

"How about what?"

"The new kid! Oliver, he's a smiler! Isn't that great?"

"Is he? I thought he was a little...slow in the head."

"You think he's flying crookedly?"

"That is what they say about all smilers, is it not?" Oliver crossed the kitchen, stopping to eye what Anabella was making. He knew what it was, based on the bag of chocolate chips, and decided to get to work while his boss was making friends.

Halfway through the mixing, she crept behind him, and barked, "What are you doing?!"

Oliver gasped, dropping the wooden spoon in the bowl. "Y-you are making cookies, right?"

Anabella sniggled at his fright. "I was." She looked to the batter pointedly. "If I may..."

"Oh..." Oliver backed away from the counter, watching her take over. "Do you need anything?"

"Yes, actually. There is a customer out there. Make sure he is not left to his own accord."

"Who? Allen?"

"You know how boys from the House are." Anabella added with a light chuckle, "Well, most of them."

Oliver did not say anything, not feeling eager to entertain. When he reentered the front room, Allen looked up from squinting at the trifold menu on the counter. "Bella is making chocolate chip cookies. If you want any, it will be a little wait."

"Aw, yeah, that's great!" Allen roughly set the menu back on the surface. He went to lean against the counter with one hand, but misjudged the distance, and missed. His cry of surprise was cut off as his head collided with the plastic, and crumbled to the floor.

Lila flew off of Oliver's head. "Mother nature!"

"Oh, gosh!" Oliver rushed around the counter, hands over his mouth. "You all right?"

Allen picked up his head, revealing a mean dent on his forehead. In turn, the cheap counter had a chip missing from it. "Yeah, this is nothin'."

"Nothing?!" Oliver exclaimed. He glanced around the bakery, as if a few empty tables and a cash register would help. "Uh...I will get you some ice. You will be wanting it in the next moment or so."

The fairy muttered, "Oh, yeah, something is missing in there."

At the sight of her worker making an appearance again so soon, Anabella asked, "What was that racket?"

"Err...Allen fell."

"What did he fall for?" The elder winked.

"The counter?" Oliver said uncertainly, wrapping an ice pack with a dishrag. She stuck the cookies in the oven, and tapped the timer as he breezed into the front room. Allen situated himself at one of the tables, clutching onto his head. The hit was enough to calm him down, and he stopped smiling for once. "Here." The other teen glanced up, looking at the wrap in slight confusion. "Y-you put it to your bruise..."

"I know that!" Allen took it, and pressed the cloth against his face with a muffled grunt. So soon, he started grinning again. "Hey," he startled Oliver from his staring. "Thanks. You can be a real pal, y'know?"

"Uh, thank you?"

Lila made exaggerated thinking noises, most likely being obnoxious on purpose. Anabella emerged from the kitchen with two glasses of milk, smiling like she had secrets as she usually did. "The cookies will be out in less than twenty minutes."

Allen wiggled in his seat. "Boy, am I excited!"

Anabella seemed delighted. "I can tell! It is good to have someone so enthusiastic about the art of baking." She set one cup in front of him, and the other in the adjacent seat with a narrow look to her worker. "So! That is certainly not a Boston accent I am hearing."

At the signal of a potentially long conversation, Oliver settled in his assigned seat, but kept his eyes on his milk glass. Lila crept closer to his forehead, probably wanting some of the cool beverage. The other boy perked as if he did not have a huge gash near his temple. "I sprouted from the ol' sunny southern United States!"

"Texas?" The elder guessed.

"Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama. I even lived in Kentucky briefly." Allen admitted, "There was lots o'...relocatin'."

"It sounds like you have gotten around!" She put a hand on Oliver's shoulder. "It is good to hear we are not the only ones. Did your parents change jobs frequently? That is a very common reason kids are hauled all over the place."

"Naw, it's just been me an' my bro...uh, brother, Matt."

"I see." At last, Anabella took her hand away. Oliver sipped on his milk as a distraction. "Oh," she said, her gaze wandering to the kitchen. "I forgot...something. Silly me."

"Psst, psst!" Lila hissed, desperate for some milk. The boy set the glass a little ways from himself, so she could perch on the edge without his hands getting in the way.

"You know..." Allen began. "It'll make things easier if you told me y'don't wanna talk to me."

"What!" Oliver forced himself to speak in an even tone, if a bit snippy, "Who says I do not want to..." Lila lifted herself from scooping milk in her palm, tossing a curious look at the teen's pinked cheeks. "I said no such thing!"

"How am I supposed to know when you look at me like I'm an idiot?"

"Oh, you are more self aware than I thought. How is your head?"

Allen grumbled, switching his hands that were holding the dishrag to his wound. Lila laughed at him, swooping down for more milk, but of course, he had not heard.

"Have you not gotten the memo?" Oliver raised a hand in the air, as if addressing to a crowd, "By decree of some unspoken rule, no persons of society will freely express themselves, be it art, or be it emotion, unless they wish to be outcasted. Thank you, and do not have a good day."

The other boy gaffed, not bothering to cover his mouth to stifle himself. "So what? That means you can't be a generally tolerable person?"

Oliver shrugged. "Apparently so! That is all I know!"

"Heh, heh, yeah, I got the memo, an' I tore it to shreds before burnin' it." Allen leaned against the table, his voice dropping. "You know why?"

Oliver pressed the back of his hand against his lips, lightly laughing at his own joke, too. "Because it is absolute rubbish?"

"That too! But Ollie, I woke up too many times from dirt roads, wonderin' to myself if that was my last day, if somethin' would happen to Matt, wonderin' if we'd get somethin' to eat..."

"Allen?"

Lila flinched, but smiled from being nearly inside the glass. Her voice echoed, "Ooh, things got serious real fast!"

The boy blinked out of his distant gaze, peeling the ice pack from his forehead. "That got too cold. When I clicked it all together, wit' the way people be lookin' at us like we had three heads whenever we smiled an' laughed, I realized there was a whole 'nother world out there that they waste their time worryin' about."

"I..." Oliver did not know what to say. The fairy dipping dangerously low in the milk glass pulled herself up, and hurried to her usual perch on his head. "I am sorry." His eyebrows furrowed as Lila suddenly belched, and slapped a hand to her stomach, giggling.

"Aw, shucks, don't apologize!" Allen set the dishrag on the table, and gave his bruise a light rub. "You were just lookin' out fer me, right!" He performed another excited wiggle as the stove beeped, signaling that the cookies were done. He spoke over the clattering as Anabella pulled them out of the oven, "That's 'cause you don't care what they say, too. You ain't like 'em."

"Like who?"

The oven door slammed shut, and the other boy left his question unanswered in prospect of fresh goods. Lila was eager about the cookies, too, as she stirred around his hair. Allen tossed a wink, "People like us gotta stick together. What d'you say?"

Oliver glanced up, pleasantly surprised. "You would like to be friends?"

"Yeah, I'll be your friend. We could do friend stuff like going out for sandwiches, hug, an' maybe point an' laugh at people that talk shit on us."

The fairy gave one last twitch as Anabella walked through the doorway with a platter of cookies, smiling at Oliver's giggles. Lila clicked her thoughts together with, "Oh!" but the teen was too involved with other things and people to pay her any heed.

"Wow, I am suddenly feeling very popular lately!" Oliver would feel stupid to refuse, "Of course I'll be your friend."

Author's Note- Nikolai- 2p!Russia; creepin' in yo' basements. Ignore the muffled laughter coming though the floorboards.