eloquence ➪ aot oneshots + prefs

bundt // pieck

She had been bent over slightly when you first saw her, but when she stood up you really noticed her face—specifically her eyes. They were big and downturned, tired-looking but in a bittersweet way. Her irises were steel-colored and breathtaking.

Her gaze met yours, catching you off guard. She smiled and waved at you, tilting her head slightly to the side. You're overwhelmed with embarrassment, as you hadn't processed yet how long you'd been staring. Hurriedly, you waved back and smiled before shifting your gaze to the cobblestones at your feet. You could feel your cheeks flush.

And now you were in a terribly awkward situation, and the longer you thought about it, the more awkward it would get... so you didn't think. You just looked back up, smiled politely, and gestured toward the stall.

"Need any help with that, Miss?" you asked.

She looked up from a shelf beneath the main wooden counter. "Well, I definitely wouldn't mind some company," she replied, still smiling. Her voice was light and graceful, but still full and a bit low—almost like the butterfly feeling you were experiencing.

"How can I help?" you asked, worried for a moment you wouldn't be able to formulate a sentence correctly. You took a few steps closer to the stall.

"Let's see..." the woman said, looking around the stall. After a moment, her gaze rested on a tray filled with natural-looking cupcakes. They were a beautiful shade of brown, with a spiral of creme-colored frosting on top. A bit of cinnamon was sprinkled across the top of the frosting, with a slice of a strawberry perched at an angle on the very top. "Would you put those in boxes for me?" the woman said, reaching under the counter and placing a stack of small, minimalistic boxes made of thin cardboard.

"Of course," you answered, walking around to the side of the stall where it was open. You picked up the boxes and out them next to the tray of cupcakes so as not to be in the woman's way.

"Just leave a cupcake or two for display," she told you as she bent down to grab some more things from beneath the counter and around the sides. You carefully began picking up the delicate cupcakes and placing them in the boxes as the woman took even more cakes from the shelves and put them on trays. With each new set of cakes, she brought them over to you to put into a box. You hadn't noticed before, but you realized as she picked them up that the shelves at the bottom of the stall were full of all different types of little bundt cakes and a few types of cupcakes.

You couldn't help but wonder how she'd managed to bake so much in so little time, so you asked.

"Ah," the dark-haired woman replied, "It's just so nice in the mornings, and I don't really mind waking up early if it's to bake."

"You baked all this this morning?" you asked as she brought over the final tray of cakes: a magnificent looking bakers dozen pale brown bundt cakes with sage green frosting.

The woman nodded her head and hummed a yes. "Mhm!"

Now that all the trays were moved, she came over to the back of the stall to help you put some of them in boxes, but people were already starting to arrive, and in a flash, the street was full.

——

Or, rather, you'd thought it was full. You were now aware that the street festival was no small affair, and that every time you thought that the visitor count had reached its peak, it would just climb higher.

Eventually, at around 4:30 when the group of pedestrians was so large and dense you were sure you'd get lost inside it, the two of you hd to start whipping up more batter for even more cakes. You had also run out of boxes three hours prior to making new cakes.

Now, you guessed it was around 9:15 and to your relief, the mob was beginning to die down. Customers were only arriving one at a time, rather than having to form a line.

A tallish woman with sharp bone structure and light colored hair whose arm was linked with an even taller blonde man's strolled up to the stall.

"'Evening," she said to you, manning the counter at the moment, "I was wondering if you happened to have any red velvet left?" She was surprisingly more polite than the other customers you'd met that day, and you offered to check for her, though to be honest, you weren't sure you had a whole lot left of anything.

Just as you turned around, you bumped directly into the woman, the red velvet bundt cake in her hand. Your cheeks flushed, and you were fairly certain you noticed that hers did too, though you didn't dare think it was because she thought you were—

"Ah, sorry!" her lovely voice apologized, "This was our last red velvet," she told the customer, "It's a bit smushed, but it's still in the box if you do want it."

"Of course," the light-haired customer replied, smiling slightly, "it adds character."

Once the customer left with her partner and slightly squashed cake, you helped the woman clean up for the night. You wiped down the counter in the back and stacked up the bowls and trays you used to mix the extra batter and sort the cakes.

"Oh, you don't have to do that," the woman had said, grabbing a rag herself.

"Already done," you'd replied, smiling.

And now, it was over. You could finally go home to bed, where you would sleep for only a couple of hours before inevitably waking up too early and laying there until dawn to go get a piece of toast. You had always looked forward to routine, but now, for some reason, you were awfully disappointed for this spontaneous adventure to come to an end.

"Good night!" the woman called as you stepped out of the stall.

"Good night!" you called back.

You were halfway to your apartment when you realized you'd never even asked her name.

a/n
literally about to write a book about this