Timestamp fic: Monday Morning (Antique Bakery)

[louiselux]

Fandom: Antique Bakery
Rating: worksafe
Notes: This is a short sequel to my Antique Bakery story Adrift (the unholy Ono/Tachibana/Chikage story). Thanks to emungere for helpful comments.

kanzenhanzai wanted to know what things were like two days after...


Monday Morning


Monday mornings were the worst, thought Tachibana.

He steered his thoughts carefully away from Friday night. He'd been practising doing that all weekend, in between pretty much uncontrollable bouts of reliving it. Personal relationships at work ended badly. He didn't need a crowd of angry Ono-obsessed pastry chefs to tell him that, and this was about as personal as it got. His face went hot at the memory. What had he done?

The kitchen was still chilly. He filled the percolator with water, put in six big spoonfuls of bitter-smelling coffee and switched it on. It hissed and muttered to itself in the quiet kitchen and the little orange light stared at him. The sound echoed, bouncing off the white tiled walls and the shining stainless steel surfaces that Ono and Kanda toiled over every day.

A cold draft swirled round Tachibana's ankles and outside in the yard a bird shrilled, sounding lonely in the dawn. The coffee smelled good. Perhaps 6am was a little early to open up, even for him.

An hour later, the outer door slammed and footsteps pattered into the kitchen. Tachibana knew each sound: the staff room door squeaking open, the dim whoosh of the ovens being lit, the sudden quiet burble of the kitchen radio, new last year and now dusted with flour and sporting a bent ariel where Chikage had dropped it. Ono’s soft tread, coming down the hallway to Tachibana's dark, poky office.

"Hi," Ono said, leaning around the door.

His freshly starched chef's whites rustled as he moved. He was smiling. Tachibana found it hard to look. Was it a normal Monday morning smile? Or was there something different there now? Something new. Tachibana had no idea. He remembered Ono above him, face tucked into his neck, hot breath and moans and melting against him.

"Hello," Tachibana managed. He raised his cup of cold coffee to his lips, missed his mouth and splashed some onto his chin.

Ono didn’t move. His eyes seemed very bright but his smile was fading. "Are you okay?" he said, after a pause.

Tachibana nodded, dabbing at the coffee with a napkin.

"I'm fine," he said.

Ono lifted his chin in a half nod, as if he didn’t quite believe him and then their gazes caught and held. After a moment, Ono's lips curved into a different smile: more knowing, less polite. Tachibana's heartbeat picked up.

"I'm fine," Tachibana said, again.

It wasn't entirely untrue.

Comments

[crystal-lilly.livejournal.com]

Oooooh! So awkward and realistic and so perfectly them while managing to be sweet somehow. How do you do it??

It's a perfect morning-after feeling, and gives the hope that this might be happening again. *grin* Because of course, we can all hope, right?

He'd been practising doing that all weekend, in between pretty much uncontrollable bouts of reliving it.

I love this line... it so completely describes the way people think, and it fits Tachibana perfectly.

Thank you for posting this!!! (And to think, it is entirely work safe... shocking.)

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you so much. I'm so pleased you liked it so much.

I think it does happen again between them. Maybe not straight away, but at some point.

[sedens.livejournal.com]

This went perfectly with my morning coffee, mmmmmmm.

A lovely detail here: He raised his cup of cold coffee to his lips, missed his mouth and splashed some onto his chin. Poor Tachibana. So uncool, while trying so hard . . .

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I wanted to get across, so I'm glad you liked it.

Thank you!

[aqua-eyes.livejournal.com]

♥

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Oh, so perfectly awkwardly Tachibana-ish! It's lovely, and very human.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I'm so glad, because I wanted it to be a very awkward, sweet moment, you know, stuck in the middle of every day things.

[hibem.livejournal.com]

:weeps: Wonderful. Eee, Tachibana. This is the perfect amount of information for a time stamp fic -- just enough that we can infer all sorts of things about the events before and after. Tantalizing!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! Thank you! I did want to tantalize a little with this-- because in my grand scheme of things plot things do happen between Tachibana and Ono in the future.

[kanzenhanzai.livejournal.com]

Eee! I think daegaer and hibem said exactly what I would have. It is just perfectly Tachibana and perfectly presented. Lovely!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you like it. :)

[stormcloude]

I like how you say so much with such little dialogue. That seems like it would be hard to do.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I actually find it easier than trying to get the same impact with actual dialogue - building an atmosphere slowly with details actually helps me quite a lot to get into the scene and into what is happening between them. I'm really glad you liked that aspect!

[mendax.livejournal.com]

*happiness* I love how you work with setting in this one. The gleaming, pristine kitchen that's so stark and cold and waiting, the lonely-sounding bird, the sense of things coming awake but slowly, with the grumbly coffeemaker and squeaky door; quiet sounds you would only hear in silence, like the rustle of starched cloth and the poof of gas lighting.

Tachibana found it hard to look. Was it a normal Monday morning smile? Or was there something different there now? Something new. Tachibana had no idea.

[lunargeography.livejournal.com]

I have a funny feeling it's going to take Chi to get Tachibana to accept what happened... I do hope you continue this!