"𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 good day Mr. Weston." You smiled at the man who was a regular customer. He always gets one chocolate muffin and two donuts for his kids. "You too y/n." The man said as he walked out of the bakery.
Your mother had you run the shop for the day as she went out with your brother, for what you weren't too sure. You happily ran it for the day though, you were glad to interact with people. You took the pan of baked goods from off the top of the glass case and began restocking the baked goods that we're running out of.
In the process of doing this your thoughts seemed to drift away from restocking and go to your memories. The memories of you and your father.
"Papa!" You tugged at his apron, his hands full with pans of varis cookies. "Yes honey?" Your father said kindly. His words seemed to always lace with a feeling of safety. "Do you think I could have a cookie?" You asked, a smile on your face.
"Y/n, honey, you have had four already. Your mom would be mad if you had another." He laughed, "Come on papa, it's just one!" You whined, your goal was to eat every cookie your family made. From oatmeal raisin to chocolate chunk. Your dad placed the two pans of cookies on top of the glass case and grabbed one sugar cookie.
"Ok listen," He spoke crouching down to your level. You put all your attention onto your dad, your eyes going from his to the cookies. "If I give you this cookie, you can't tell your mother-"
"Can't tell me what?" Your mom leaned against the doorway of the back. An eyebrow cocked at you and your father. Your dad shot up and turned his back to you facing your mother. "Oh! Hey beautiful!" Your dad said nervously. "We were just talking about-" "What to get you for your birthday!" You smiled at your mom, your dad turning his head to you.
"You two are too sweet." Your mom smiled, your father handed you the sugar cookie behind his back, once you took the cookie from his hand he gave you a thumbs up. You shoved the cookie into the pocket of your baby pink dress. You smiled widely, though your father couldn't see your smile; he knew that you were smiling.
As the memory faded your mind you couldn't help but smile to yourself, you felt your cheeks damp a bit wet. You took your free hand and wiped your cheeks, though the memory wasn't sad you couldn't help but shed a few tears.
You missed your father more than you could ever imagine, you often cried while thinking about the memories of you growing up at the bakery. But you told yourself you'd never show that because you wanted to be strong for yourself and mother. Deep down you knew your mother struggled more than you ever did. She did lose her lover of almost ten years after all.
You took a deep breath and tried to get yourself together before a customer walked in; not wanting to have to explain how you were crying while restocking cupcakes thinking about your father who passed. You picked up restocking cupcakes, trying not to start thinking about memories with your father again.
As you finished restocking the vanilla cupcakes you moved to the red velvet ones. Sliding them gently into the glass case. The shop seemed to be quiet. The only thing that could be heard was the faint radio your mother always had playing in the back. But the quietness faded as the bell to the front door bell seemed to vigorously chime as the door swung open the person who opened it seemed to be in a panic. Which put you into a panic.
"Y/n!" You whipped your head up and was met with your best friend; Elizabeth. "Liz? What the hell are you doing? You scared me to death! I thought we were getting robbed!" You barked at her, your heart seemed to pound out of your chest. You sighed and placed the pan of cupcakes back onto the top of the glass case and shot daggers at her.
"The devi- paradise people are here! They got here awhile ago but it was just announced y/n!" Your eyes seemed to widen at her words. "How many?" You quickly asked, "People are saying eight or nine!" "Do you think they'll come here?" You asked, you were very interested in seeing them. You wanted to see what they looked like if they looked scary or if they looked normal, how many girls were there and how many boys, you were practically dying to know.
"Why would you want them here y/n? They'll shoot you dead!" You scold at your best friend, "You know I don't like judging people Liz." You said, "Y/n they are devils! You can't trust them! You'd be stupid too!" She protested as she walked closer to the glass case. "There you go, just like my mom with the devil thing." You rolled your eyes as you grabbed the pan of cupcakes; restocking them.
"Well your mom must be smarter than that brain in that thick skull of yours." Elizabeth laughed, you couldn't help but have a light smile form on your face. You were told by many you were hard headed but yet kind and Elizabeth seemed to know this the best.
"Well Liz, if they come into the shop I will happily be serving them. No matter if they have guns or not. I'm not one to judge people." You spoke, grinning at her knowing this was making her a tad bit upset. All your friend did was roll her eyes at you. "Ok but when you get shot in the kidney I'm not giving you my other one." She laughed, "Oh shut up they won't shoot me."
As the chatter between you two seemed to die down it was silent again, but a comfortable one. Elizabeth watched as you restocked all sorts of baked goods back into the case hearing the faint song playing in the background coming from the radio. You didn't mind her just relaxing in here with you, you always enjoyed some kind of company no matter if it was quiet.
You heard the soft chime of the door to the shop and perked your head up. You were met with unfamiliar faces; seven of them. You furrowed your eyebrows, you found this weird. You had almost served all of Marley while you were working here. You very rarely saw new faces. You looked at Elizabeth's face and hers was the same, she seemed to be just as confused as you if not more confused.
"Uh hello, welcome to Yum Goods. What can I get you?" You placed the finally empty pan onto the top of the glass as Elizabeth seemed to move closer to the wall; giving them a clearer look at what was in the case.
"Connie! Look at all this food!" A brown haired girl seemed to rush straight to the case full of you and your moms hard work. "Are you sure this is food Sasha? It sure looks... different." The bald boy who you took as Connie said. You looked over at Elizabeth who were looking at the boy and girl as if they were stupid.
"Of course it's food you idiots. Look there's sweet bread right there." a boy with sandy hair pointed to the sweet bread you had only made last night. That's when it clicked. You looked at all their arms and saw no wrap on them like everyone else is Marley, listening to the talk and noticing their accent and their slightly different appearance from people on Marley.
These were the people from paradise.
Your eyes widened as you looked at them, the people you so badly wanted to see standing right in front of you like a painting.
"I'm sorry for how rude they are," A short man spoke, he looked as if he didn't want to be there almost annoyed or bothered by something. "It's their first time away from home so they don't know how to act." You stood still at his words, your breathing seemed to increase. Why were you scared? They weren't doing anything but talking and looking at the sugary foods like anyone.
"It's ok sir, I'd act the same if it was my first time here as well." You smiled, trying to hide your nervousness. "Thank you for your understanding." He said, not a trace of a smile on his face only the same annoyed expression. "Sasha, pick out what you want. We need to be on our way." The same man spoke. All the other people seemed to be looking around your shop as if it was groundbreaking.
"Alright alright! No need to rush a woman captain." She teased the shorter man. The brown haired girl and her two boy friends looked into the case until Sasha was met with your cupcakes. "What are those?" She asked looking at you. Once you saw where her finger was pointing you smiled softly.
"Cupcakes, we have four flavors. Chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, and carrot." You spoke softly. "We will take two of each." The sandy brown haired boy spoke. Staring at them in awe. You grabbed a small box where you put the various flavors of cupcakes in the box, making sure to get two of the four flavors you carried. Setting the box near the register as you looked back at them.
"Anything else?" You asked, "Sorry ma'am what are these?" A blonde boy asked; he looked like a puppy who had been kicked one too many times. "Those would be donuts." You smiled, "Are they made out of nuts?" A woman with an eye patch spoke. You giggled at her words and looked up. Nobody in the group of seven seemed to be laughing along, then it hit you that she wasn't cracking a joke. "Oh, no they aren't. They are just dough like bread." The woman nodded. "Well we will take two." She smiled.
Nodding at her words you took a brown bag and put two glazed donuts into the bag and set them on top of the cupcake box.
The short man began looking into the case, looking at all the foods. A stern look on his face. "Do you guys have pies?" He asked, looking up at you. You nodded pointing to the far end of the case, where four pies sat. He looked at them and his eyes seemed to light up a bit when looking. "We will take the lemon pie." He said firmly. You nodded and pulled it out, you made sure to put it in a box for him; something you or your mother didn't seem to do often.
"Since when did you like food Levi?" The woman with the eye patch teased, "It's food, Hange. Everyone likes it." He spoke flatly, making her laugh. "Would this be all?" The brown haired girl turned to the girl behind her with short black hair and a red scarf. You hadn't noticed her till the brown haired girl looked back at her.
"No thank you." She said softly. "Well do you think Eren would want something Mikasa? He was upset he had to miss out on exploring." The blonde boy spoke. "If they have sugar bread, get some. He likes it a lot." You smiled softly, you grabbed a slice of the sugar bread and put it in a brown paper bag. You placed it on top of the pie that sat next to the box of cupcakes.
"Now that's all, before you all make me go broke." The short man spoke. "You looked at all the items and calculated the price in your head, you could almost feel the gears in your head shifting. "That'll be... 20 coins." The man's face fell more annoyed than ever when you spoke of the price. He mumbled under his breath as he pulled out a small bag of coins. As you watched him open it your mouth seemed to speak on it's own.
"You know what it's on the house, take it as a welcome to Marley." You smiled, the man looked up at you, his eyebrows raised a bit at you. He shoved the small coin bag into his pocket- you surely wouldn't have to tell him twice. "Thank you miss. We appreciate it a lot." He said, bowing his head quickly as you smiled.
"Geez if I knew it would be free I would have gotten more." The brown haired girl smiled, you laughed at her words. The sandy haired boy picked up the two boxes and the bald boy picked up the two bags. "Thank you, have a nice day." you said. They all gave a 'you too.' As the bell of the door chimed as all seven of them walked out.
"I know you didn't just give devils free food." Elizabeth spoke from the wall of the store. Her sage green dress swung in as she walked back in front of the case. "They were kind people Liz, I wasn't going to be rude just because you think they are devils." Elizabeth sighed at your words. "You're a lost cause y/n."
"I'd rather be a lost cause then someone you judge people based on their past."
‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙
hello! i am the writer of this story! (obviously) but i just wanted to say that yes the story falls slowly with meeting eren but the best stories fall slow right? i hope you all stay tuned for the story, i have a feeling it'll be good.