Thump
A hand was placed next to Barrow's head as a water droplet drips from the corner of his face from his disheveled hair.
"Stop squirming around,"
A red head in front of him muttered, grabbing the other's head gently into his own hold. Barrow could never believed what was happening to him right now;
"You're going to make a mess out of my place if you keep this up,"
Cale touched the back of his ear and cares it caringly.
Barrow tensed up, he couldn't believe what was happening.
A fluffy towel landed on his head, covering most of his sight. The dim lightning wasn't helping at all with the situation.
Barrow sighed,
He was being treated like a stray cat!
"I can dry up my self" He frowned, trying to take control of the moving towel on his head. Of course, Cale didn't let him.
Cale ruffled the other red head's hair to dry it.
Barrow has been a regular in his bakery since three months ago, he always came every day to buy some sweet breads at 5pm sharp. Today was probably not much different than any other day. "Another batch of sweet breads as usual?" he asked nonchalantly,
"...yea" By now, Barrow had given up on trying to take the towel away and just let Cale do what he wants,
Cale eyed the broken umbrella and the drenched satchel bag near his bakery's door.
The poor guy was probably on his way to buy the usual, when a rather huge storm came pouring into the streets like its raining cat's and dogs.
Nyaa
Ngeaoww
Two kittens peeked out from behind the counter; Their eyes were filled with curiosity at the stranger.
"I never saw them before," Barrow commented, one of his eyes still covered with the towel.
"I taken them in for today since it's raining outside,"
Cale answered, taking the wet towel off of Barrow's head and changed it to a new one and placed it on top the other's head. "Dry your self up, I'll prepare something warm to drink"
Barrow didn't say anything and accepted the gesture,
He looked around the store he had became familiar to; He first came here purely because of curiosity, Especially about the rumor's how the Count's eldest son had ran threw away all his right's as an heir to the 2nd and started a small Bakery in the outskirts of the city.
Who would have thought the store would sell soo many unique looking kind of breads and sweets?
The second time was because he was just passing the store, The third and fourth time was because some of his subordinates said they wanted to try the sweets. and somehow, by the fifth, It became a habit to buy some bread.
A warm cup touched his cheek,
"Drink, it'll warm you up."
"Ah..." Barrow took the cup and looked at the contents inside it, it was a warm chocolate swirl with a white marshmallow in the center.
Pity,
He won't be able to taste anything regardless how it tasted,
"Thank you,"
"Sure," Cale took a sip of his own cup, savoring the sweet-bitterness of his hot chocolate.
He also saw how the other didn't even blew the drink and simply drink it as if it was a room temperature water. Cale immediately took his attention away,
'No, don't think about it. He probably just has a higher heat tolerance'
Pat pat
Cale felt a tug on his knee,
It was the red kitten he had let in for the day, It seem it wanted something to eat. Had it been that long since the meal that he gave them? "Wait a second,"
Barrow perked up,
He saw Cale putting his cup down to the table and carried a red kitten in his arms, The silver kitten looked at him once and also left to behind the counter. Though, it didn't take long before Cale came out with a plate filled with different breads in one hand and the kitten at the other.
The red head put down the plate onto the table, "Feel free to get some"
'If I treat him nice, he would come back and buy more breads in the future, right?'
Cale hummed at the thought of having a nice regular that doesn't talk much, while taking a ham filled bread and started feeding it to the red kitten.
Ngeaow
"Do you also want some?" Cale took the silver kitten that was patting his knees to his lap, also giving her some of the bread.
Barrow doesn't know what to feel about this, did this baker knew about him? Was there an ulterior motive? Why was he being like this to him?
The communication orb in his bag flashed a light, thankfully the other didn't notice it because of being preoccupied with the kittens. But he can't really take it while his with someone like this, moreover there wasn't any mage near him to activate it.
He can only hope it's not urgent,
Barrow kept on sipping the chocolate that was in his cup until there was no more. He didn't even realized he had finished it.
"Do you want some more?" The call shook him out of his thoughts,
Barrow turned his head and saw Cale pointing the cup he was holding, it was already empty. "Ah, if you don't mind" He gave the cup to the red head in front of him.
This time, the two kittens didn't follow the red head to the counter and chose to enjoy the bread they were given instead. Seeing how the two kitten eats the bread so eagerly, it must have been good.
To those who don't know, who would have thought the man in front of him was formerly a young master from a wealthy family.
"Hey," Barrow started, "Does he know what you really are?" his voice was low, barely audible, but he knows the two kittens were able to hear him.
The kittens stopped nibbling on their bread and stared at Barrow hard;
That made the later grinned,
"What, you think I wouldn't noticed?"
The silver kitten hissed at him, bringing the red kitten behind her protectively; "What are you going to do?"
"Me?"
Barrow raised an eyebrow,
"Nothing, what do I get if I were to do anything to begin with?"
He took a bread that was coated with cheese from the plate and took a bite off of it.
Taste like sand as usual,
But he kept chewing it and swallowing it,
Bite by bite,
"Hey," Cale came back with another two cups of hot chocolate, one was for himself and the other was for his guess, "Careful. It's still hot" He put both the cups onto the table.
Cale noticed how the kittens seemed tense all of a sudden, "...did something happen?"
"I think the cat's might a be a bit intimidated by me,"
"??"
"Don't worry, it happens a lot" Barrow chuckled,
"Okay?"
Cale frowned, but did not question it any further. and soon the kittens also let their tensed back down a bit before they scoot closer to Cale and continuing their meal.
Kriiing
The door to the shop opened, and an old man with a benign smile entered,
"Ron..." Cale who just sat down stood up again, "What brings you here?"
Annoyance was clearly visible on his face,
"Young master, this humble servant is simply delivering this by the orders of the Count" In Ron's hands was a neatly wrapped basket filled with delicacies that isn't localize in Rain city.
Barrow doesn't know what this old man was on about, but his eyes were definitely looking at him like he was a prey.
"I already told him there isn't any need, and I'm no longer a young master"
"The count insist, and you will always be my young master" Ron gave Cale the basket,
Cale doesn't have any idea how this Butler managed to arrive in such a pristine manner when it was raining like a hurricane outside. Though, he already knew about his vicious former butler origins, there were still things he prefer not to question.
"...sigh, deliver my thanks to him from me then." Cale had given up in persuading the old man,
"Young master,"
"What is it?"
Cale didn't bother to look at the butler, and opted to focus in taking out the sweets and fruits that were given to him.
"Who is this gentleman over here?"
Ron didn't even bother to hide his hostility, Barrow also let out his own aura in response;
The kittens flinched at their stare off, they ran to behind the counter and merely let their head peek through the corners of the table.
CLACK
Before the fight could escalate any further, Cale slapped the table-- gaining their attention almost immediately;
"Hey, if you want to fight, fight outside"
Cale glared at the 'guess' of his, prompting that any fight that occurs, will lead them to be kick out immediately.
Barrow looked away and sipped his cup while Ron took a step back and his benign smile was back on his face, no trace of hostility was left in the air.
The two kittens who were watching from afar were astonished at their self proclaimed human to be able to handle two vicious individual himself.
"Good, now sit down. I'll prepare some warm lemonade for you Ron"
Cale had already turn back to head towards the kitchen before he could catch how Ron's face turned sour for a split second at the mention of the drink, and how Barrow manage to catched that and laughed at the old man quietly.
Whether it was a good thing Cale had already turn back to go to the kitchen or not, remains to be debatable.
A/N;
Like the opening? Happy April fools~
Joke's on you, There's just fluff here > ( ╥ω╥ )ヾ('∀'* )
= I can say one thing for sure, I was cackling at my own humorless joke.
('∀｀) Have a great day or night dear readers~ ✿