Sweet Things Come to Those who Wait Ch 2

Slamming down a slab of dough, Joshua growled. “Cat. Cat am I?. Stupid friend of Mingyu’s.” He mumbled, “I’m more than a cat. I’d spit in the cake but there’s more people than just him eating it. er.”

Soonyoung came in for his shift, flinching. He whispered to Jun, “What happened?”

Jun shrugged. “I don’t know. I came in and he was like this already. Ask Minghao. He’s out in the front with Vernon.”

He nodded, flinching once again as Joshua slammed the dough into the workspace. Inching out the kitchen doors he saw Minghao’s tail hairs on end as he must’ve heard the slam of the dough. “What happened this morning,” Soonyoung whispered.

Vernon shrugged as he took a plate of cake to a customer.

Minghao winced as another slam must’ve reached his also sensitive ears. “Someone insulted Shua hyung. Called him a cat. Saying he was surprised that a cat could cook so well.”

Soonyoung pulled a face. Breathing out in an incredulous tone, “He didn’t?”

“He did.” He shook his head as his tail relaxed. Joshua must have stopped slamming the dough. “Hyung looked close to slamming his fist in the guy’s face.”

“He didn’t?”

“It was the friend that Mingyu brought in. The one that involved some sort of birthday cake.” Minghao paused, “Mingyu did take him out of the place really fast though. His face turned pasty white and he dragged his friend out. Guess his friend told him.”

“Lucky for the friend.” Placing his hand on the clean counter, causing Minghao to give him a dirty look, “Are we still taking the order then?”

“Yea. Scheduled to make it two days before the delivery. With assembling the fine details the morning of.”

“Who’s on the schedule for the cake?”

“Don’t know yet. He said something about thinking it over tonight after looking at pictures of the person and giving it out tomorrow when we’re all there.”

“Ah. I didn’t see Wonwoo here.”

Vernon shook his head as he came back behind the counter. “Nope. His day off.”

“And Chan does his normal part timer work like you,” Soonyoung said. “Right. Maybe he’ll give you two something interesting tomorrow morning. Instead of piping frosting onto cupcakes and placing our premade decorations on the cakes.”

“Nuh uh. I’m too afraid to mess up,” Vernon said backing away from Soonyoung.

Wincing once more, Minghao said, “Well considering the amount of anger Joshua is feeling you probably won’t have too. He will either want to completely the cake up or make it so perfect nothing will be out of place.”

“Bets?” Soonyoung asked with a grin.

“Perfect,” Minghao calmly said. He was ok with betting with Soonyoung. It was like taking candy from a baby, he was so bad at choosing.

“No way. Not betting on this,” Vernon said.

Soonyoung nudged him playfully, wriggling his eyebrows in an exaggerated manner. “You know you want too.”

Vernon shook his head wildly. “Nope. Nuh uh.”

Minghao nudged him this time. “Come on. It’s only for fun Vernon.”

“What are we betting first?” Vernon asked. It was always best to ask first before making bets. Often times it would involve embarrassing things or one week lunches being paid. Or giving up their privilege of getting first pick of left overs that didn’t sell and wouldn’t be good the next day. Getting first pick was done by lottery every evening the store closed.

“Hmmm. The pleasure of going with Joshua to make the cake delivery to see what he’ll do to that dude who insulted him.”

Vernon his chin. “All right. I’m in. I’m with Minghao. Perfect.”

Placing his hand on his aproned chest, Soonyoung declared, “Ugly as hell.”

Minghao laughed. “May the best hybrid or human win then.”

Morning dawned and everyone had a cup of tea or coffee in their hands. 6 AM was an early wake up call. But they knew that Joshua at 4 AM prepped all the batters and the frostings, and even made half of the baked goods by the time they rolled into the bakery to do the other half, frost the cupcakes, bake cakes and pies and decorate them.

“So this month is a slow one. We only have three custom orders. One that is coming up soon in about two weeks. A birthday cake for a friend of Mingyu’s. The guy is turning twenty-eight and recently got a promotion.” Tapping the screen of his IPad Joshua slid it on the table gently. “This is the design, a flat sheet cake, then a desk made on top, with a mini version of the guy sleeping on it.” Joshua grabbed the pictures. “This is the guy in question,” he said jabbing at his face. “For the family and friend photos we can print on edible paper and ink and call it a day. The other small details though will be made by hand.”

Soonyoung raised his hand, “Who’s taking the sculpting of the dude?”

“I am,” Joshua said. “Wonwoo,” he turned, “you and Jun are on the cake and the desk. Minghao you are on sculpting the tiny decorations and teaching Chan how to print out the pictures on edible ink and paper. This cake is going to be perfect.” Joshua swiped right on the IPad mumbling, “I’m going to shove my skill up that idiot’s face.”

Minghao and Vernon smirked at Soonyoung whose face fell.

“The next cake on the list,” Joshua said starting to explain the details.

“,” Soonyoung muttered under his breath.

 “We’re done covering the cake and putting the desk on. Do you need us to do anything else?” Wonwoo asked.

“Put the base into the fridge. I’ll put my part on it later when I’m done,” Joshua said, carefully molding the head. “You and Jun can move onto the regular stuff.”

“You’re putting a lot of work into this one piece,” Wonwoo mentioned.

“And?”

“More than your normal 110% work ethic. Why?” Wonwoo only asked because he was concerned. He hadn’t seen Joshua this sort of fervor since he first opened the bakery and Joshua wanted to show everyone that a hybrid could own and run a successful business.

“Pride,” Joshua said softly. He stopped and looked up at Wonwoo, those big eyes of his looking as vulnerable as they were on opening day of the bakery.

“Mingyu didn’t say anything. He wouldn’t,” Wonwoo said slowly, “was it his friend? What did he say to make you question your skill?”

“Not question really,” Joshua replied, “more like shove my skill in that guy’s face. He insulted me.” Joshua opened his mouth mid snarl. “I haven’t been called that in a long time and I still hate it.”

“He called you cat,” the wolf hybrid said quietly.

“Yes,” Joshua growled. “In my own bakery. The piece of shi—“

“Hyung?!” Chan called from the front. “Mingyu’s on the phone. I think he wants to add to the order of the cake. Something about some more baked goods.”

Joshua put down the head. “Tell him to give me a few minutes while I wash my hands,” Joshua called out to Chan.

“Got it!”

“You don’t have to prove anything to anyone you know? We know and everyone who comes here knows how good everything looks and tastes,” Wonwoo said.

“I know,” Joshua responded over the running water. “It’s more for that feeling of satisfaction I’ll get when I show up with the cake tomorrow.”

Wonwoo laughed abruptly. He was trying to make Joshua feel better because he thought Joshua was sad. But no. Instead Joshua was pissed as hell and he wanted to one up the dude who insulted him. “I got it. Give him hell tomorrow hyung.”

Joshua winked at him. “You bet.” He walked out to the front counter, grabbing the cordless phone. “Mingyu?”

“Hey hyung,” Mingyu said sweetly. Too sweetly.

Joshua’s face scrunched up. “What do you want?”

“Shua hyung. Come on now. Don’t be like that. You’re a nice guy,” Mingyu pleaded.

“I can hear the desperation in your voice and the fact that you’re trying to butter me up. What are you going to ask me that will make me most likely say no?”

Spilling it, Mingyu blubbered, “They couldn’t make an order of food at another place and then I mentioned that you do make savory items too, like meat pies and quiches. Now they want an order of your meat fried breads and the potato balls.”

Joshua massaged his temple. “Mingyu,” he said, dragging out the name, “what in the world were you thinking? This is very last minute. Like tomorrow I’m delivering a cake and you want to add more food to the order? Are you kidding me?”

“We’re willing to pay!” Mingyu shouted over the phone.

Joshua moved the phone away from his ear for a second, wiggling the hybrid ones. Honestly the shouting hurt. “The money isn’t enough to make me take on another order. Do you think I have that much left over ingredients to make more than normal? Tomorrow’s a weekend too. I get a lot of customers in on Saturday Mingyu,” he said rather testily.

“$200. That’s double your regular price for a party order. The extra for the trouble. Please hyung.”

“You can just use that money to order something from another restaurant the day of. It’ll be cheaper and you’ll save money.”

“We can’t,” Mingyu whimpered.

“Why not? It’s not rocket science Mingyu. Order something from other places.” Joshua was getting tired of this talk. He had a cake to finish.

“Jeonghan hyung made us promise only good food and since it’s his promotion and birthday it had to be more upscale,” Mingyu cried. “Joshua hyung please!”

Sighing Joshua leaned against the wall. “How much again?” He couldn’t believe that he was even going to do this.

“$200.”

“Ok,” he let out a long breath of air.

“Oh my god! Thank you so much! You don’t know how much I appreciate this!”

Joshua held the phone away from him. “I got it. I definitely got it. I’ll be there an hour before the party to set up the cake and deliver the rest of the stuff. You will be there to pay me for the new order I’m assuming?”

“Yes. I’ll be there,” Mingyu nearly shouted.

“Ok. I’ll see you tomorrow then Mingyu.” Abruptly Joshua pressed the end call button. Why he did these things to himself he didn’t know?

He walked into the kitchen again. “Wonwoo, Jun. Make an extra party sized batch of the fried meat pies and potato balls. Mingyu called in an order for tomorrow. Of course, I’m charging him extra for this.”

Wonwoo sighed. “Stupid Mingyu.”

Jun nudged him lightly. “Don’t be mean now darling. Extra charge means more money for us.”

Laughing Wonwoo said, “We should charge Mingyu for all the noise he and Minghao make when they get near each other.”

Getting back to work on the Jeonghan figure, Joshua added, “If only we could.”

Joshua dropped the last fried potato ball into the box, sighing as he tied it gently. “Is the cake and the decorations ready to go?”

“Yup,” Vernon answered back. “Loaded in the back with Minghao.”

Nodding Joshua grabbed the box with potato balls. “Good. Get the meat pies and let’s get going.”

“Roger that.” Vernon swooped in and grabbed the other box, the two of them going out the side door into the parking lot. “I’m driving?”

“Yea. Can you handle it?” Joshua asked as he placed the box at the foot of the passenger side.

“No problem. I got this,” Vernon grinned at Joshua.

“Good. I’m going in the back with Minghao then.” Climbing in the back he sat near the decoration box, nodding to Minghao.

“Everyone good back there?” Vernon asked as he slid into the driver’s seat.

“Yea,” Minghao shot back.

“Let’s roll out then.”

Arriving at the address Vernon let out a little whistle. “Wow. Whoever this house belongs to must be rolling in the dough.”

Joshua gave him a light shove. “Now isn’t the time to admire the house. Go ring the doorbell and get Mingyu here.”

“Got it boss.” Vernon climbed the short stairway up to the house.

Joshua and Minghao hauled the boxes closer to the edge of the van door.

“Oh my god hyung! Thank you for taking on the order last minute!” Mingyu cried as he reached them, hugging Joshua hard.

“Get off him, giant,” Minghao hissed, “you’ll crush Joshua.”

Mingyu lifted himself, allowing Joshua to breathe. “I will not,” he snapped at Minghao.

“Stop!” Joshua barked. “Now isn’t the time to argue. Mingyu get the savory stuff that you owe me money for in the passenger’s side of the car. Me and Minghao will take the cake in. To the living room or the kitchen?”

“Straight through the door and into the kitchen. The counter is empty for you to finish the assembly.”

Joshua nodded. “Good. Now go.”

Mingyu scrambled to the front with Vernon, leaving Joshua and Minghao to heave the cake into the house.

Grabbing one side of the box, he looked at Minghao who grabbed the other. “On the count of three ok?”

Minghao nodded.

“One, two, three.”

The two of them heaved the box up, walking slowly towards the house and up the stairs. Once inside they maneuvered into the kitchen, laying down the box in the middle.

“Go get the decorations and the tools,” Joshua ordered.

Tail waving, Minghao saluted him and bounded out the house.

He started to cut the box open at the sides.

“Decorations and supplies here,” Vernon interrupted.

“Where’s Minghao?” Joshua asked as he cut into another side so he could slide the cake out of the box easily.

“Got caught up with Mingyu,” he explained.

Sighing Joshua shook his head. “Well help me slide the cake out of the box then you can go get him back in here. I’d like a bit of help. You can come back and watch me put it together.”

“Kay,” Vernon chirped, laying down the decoration box on the other side.

Together the two of them moved the cake out. Joshua lifting the cake while Vernon slid the box from under it. Once down on the counter Joshua let out a sigh of relief. “Go get Minghao now.”

He heard Vernon leave. Moving he opened the box of decorations and his supplies. Gently he grabbed the Jeonghan look alike he sculpted and with a little water on the fondant he gently slid the figure into place, using toothpicks to pin securely into the cake. He nodded as he looked at it from several angles, making sure he didn’t accidentally mar the face while the slid it in.

Hearing footsteps, he said, “Oh good. You’re here Minghao. Hand me the computer and the accessories.”

Silently Minghao, slid into his hands the tiny computer decoration, mouse, and keyboard. Joshua placed a bit of frosting and gently slid the computer into place, wiping away the excess frosting he used as glue, doing the same for the mouse and keyboard.

“The pictures next,” Joshua ordered, holding out his hand, eyes never leaving the cake.

Minghao silently placed them in his hands once again. Odd, Joshua noted. For some reason Minghao’s hands felt smoother than normal. He shook his head. It was probably the sticky residue on his fingers and hands. Bit by bit he asked Minghao for the decorations, putting them into place until he placed the last thing on the cake, the little birthday crown for the Jeonghan figure.

Smiling Joshua said, “Perfect,” as he took in his creation, tail moving gently in happiness.

“It really is. Not to mention it’s really like me too,” said a voice that wasn’t Minghao’s at all.

Joshua turned quickly, letting out a small eep. Whirling in place, he took in black hair, shortened at the back yet slightly long in the front, a face that he was rathe familiar with after spending two hours yesterday molding it. High cheekbones, square jaw, long almond shaped eyes, strong nose. “Jeonghan,” he breathed out.

Jeonghan laughed. “Yea. That’s me,” pointing to the sleeping fondant version of himself, “and that’s me too.” He bent down, taking a closer look at it. “Who made me? It looks so much like me. Amazing.”

“I did,” Joshua replied. He couldn’t believe he asked the birthday guy accidentally to help him with assembling his cake. Oh dear. Was he even supposed to be here seeing the creation before the party?

The man’s eyes lit up. He stared at Joshua, a smile on his face. “You’re really good.”

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

Jeonghan moved forward, picking up Joshua’s hands in his. “These hands make some amazing things it seems,” he said, smile turning flirtatious. “I’ve heard lots of things of the creations you make. About how good they taste and how warm the bakery feels.” Giving Joshua a sly look, “I didn’t hear anything about a pretty, cute, baker though. Mingyu forgot to mention that.” He looked Joshua up and down, “A really cute, pretty, baker.”

What was up with this dude? Pulling his hands away, Joshua cleared his throat. “Thank you for the compliment. But I have to go now,” he said with that sweet but I don’t really mean it smile, “I need to get the last of my payment.”

Turning away Joshua collected his supplies and placed them in the box. He picked it up and walked away, ignoring Jeonghan’s gaze on him.

“It’d be nice to know the bakery that made my cake. And the name of the person who made tiny me,” Jeonghan said as Joshua walked past him.

Scoffing gently, Joshua turned his head. “I don’t give out my name for free. And I’m sure you can find out from Mingyu. Have a nice birthday Jeonghan-ssi.” Joshua made sure to add the honorific to indicate that he didn’t know the guy and he didn’t want to.

Jeonghan laughed as Joshua walked out of the kitchen. “I’ll make sure to ask Mingyu. Expect to see me at your establishment soon mysterious cute baker.”

Joshua’s tail lashed out as he walked out the door, ignoring Jeonghan’s delighted laughter. Some men were too flirty, who the hell grabbed a stranger’s hands and started to eye them.

Outside he saw Mingyu and Minghao shouting at each other, the fox hybrid nearly lunging at Mingyu but was restrained by Vernon grabbing him by the waist. Inserting himself between them, he blocked Minghao’s assault and Mingyu’s pouting expression. He jabbed Mingyu. “My payment?”

Attention diverted away from Minghao, Mingyu looked down. “Oh right.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope.

Joshua took it gently, counting the bills. “Well my work here is done. Enjoy the cake and the other goods. Minghao. Vernon. In the car now.” Joshua moved to the driver’s seat, climbing in. as the other two clambered into the other side. He leaned his head out the window to Mingyu, “Your friends are weird and I hope I don’t see them in my store again. No offense.”

“Weird? Who did you meet inside hyung?”

Pulling a face, Joshua started the car. “Jeonghan was there. Which going by your face,” Mingyu’s face turned an ashy gray color, “he isn’t supposed to be here yet. Better get on that then. Bye Mingyu.” He waved as Mingyu scrambled into the house shouting at the top of his lungs.

He addressed Vernon and Minghao. “If you see those two guys ever again in the store, serve them and make them leave. Do not come and get me.”

“The dude who insulted you?”

“Yes.”

“Who’s the other dude?” Vernon asked.

“Birthday guy?” Minghao guessed.

“Yup. Never let me see those two again.”