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[personal profile] 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 [livejournal.com profile] emungere for helpful comments.

[livejournal.com profile] 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.
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