Your eyes fluttered open to the warmth of the sun on your cheeks. You'd fallen asleep with your curtains open, and now you were severely regretting it, as you'd just been blinded awake at the crack of dawn. You yawned and sat up straight, stretching your arms above your head before climbing out of bed. The yellow squares of light left by your apartment's open windows covered the floors throughout the kitchen and living room, adding a touch of vibrance to the flat's mostly brown and gray decor. As you rubbed your eyes and stepped into the kitchen, you couldn't help but shake the feeling that something important was happening today. Not something life-changing or soul-wrenching, but something like a...
"Oh!" you remarked quietly, lightly hitting the kitchen table with your fist as you walked past in triumph. There was a fair today in the village, celebrating the one-year mark since the war with Paradis--or, rather, the war against Eren Jaeger. You had planned to simply watch for your fourth-floor window, as the food and vending stalls were being set up just beneath your apartment block, but now you were thinking otherwise. It was such a beautiful day, and it would be nice to get some fresh air. You opened a wooden cabinet above your slightly-rusted stove to grab a piece of bread, but then lowered your hand as you realized if you had breakfast you wouldn't have time to ask anyone to accompany you to the fair. No, you didn't really want to go with anyone anyway. Going alone might give you more of a chance to leave in case you changed your mind again.
You grabbed the bread and a pan from a separate cupboard and twisted the knob on your old stove. It took a few seconds, but the stove eventually sputtered to life, the flames threatening to burn down the whole block before receding to tiny sparks beneath the pan. You wondered for a moment if you could even make toast on that in under an hour, and decided it was unlikely, so you finally made the decision on whether or not to eat breakfast, placing the bread back in the cupboard. You grabbed your shoes and walked out the door, figuring it would be nice to go see how the fair was coming along.
Sure enough, when you turned the corner around the front of your apartment block, you were almost overwhelmed by the bright colors of the stalls selling food, toys, trinkets, paintings and more that filled the entire street.Sure enough, when you turned the corner around the front of your apartment block, you were almost overwhelmed by the bright colors of the stalls selling food, toys, trinkets, paintings and more that filled the entire street. Small, colorful shops took up almost every inch of the road, leaving barely five feet of space for customers and citizens to roam the street. You were surprised to see how many people were already there, but the majority of them were setting up their shop or seemingly on their way elsewhere.
Seeing so many people proudly putting together their stalls made you wish you had a stall of your own to attend to--or better yet, a friends' shop that you could help out with. You didn't have a particular talent you were keen on sharing in a brightly-colored stall, but the idea still seemed entertaining. You strolled down the cobblestoned street, slowing down in front of a few shops you found interesting, but never coming to a complete stop as you didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable. You passed in front of a larger stall where a man was hanging rugs from a rack in the back of the stall. He closed his eyes when he smiled and waved, giving you the impression he was someone who smiled often. You waved back and continued down the street, still not stopping to ask vendors what they were selling since you were one of the only pedestrians out at the time. That is, of course, until you saw her.
She was wearing a tan shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows with a long brown skirt flowing around her knees, both of which were dusted with what appeared to be flour. Her dark hair was pulled back in what appeared to be a ponytail, but so many strands of hair were hanging around her face and cheeks you weren't exactly sure how she'd managed to pull it off.
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