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KHR Rarepair Week Sky: Bakery AU
"I'm going to fucking kill that sonovabitch," Gokudera snarls from his position pressed up against the glass of their front windows, and Tsuna ponders just turning right back around to take a sick day.
He doesn't. Probably, he should. But he doesn't. Instead, all he does is stand there in place for a second, his desire to still be standing leaving via his eye sockets for a moment, before he takes a breath and tries to muster up some sort of... boss-like energy. He still doesn't entirely know what that means, exactly, but he tries to at least fake it. A little bit. "Are we talking about Kokuyo Bakery?" he asks, unable to stop himself from sounding tired.
Not that it really matters in the end, of course. Gokudera sometimes get so wrapped up in his own head that he's laser targeted on the subject of his ire. He's sure laser targeted now, as though he can make lasers appear out of his eyes to burn down Kokuyo Bakery right where it stands. "What kind of freaks start up a rival business literally right across from the other?" he hisses, bristling like the stray cat he feeds out in the back alleys. "They're spoiling for a fight, boss. Just one good sucker punch, and they'll think twice about all of this."
Tsuna looks out the window to where he can see, from across this tiny little patch of street in the shopping center, the Kokuyo Bakery gang getting all set up for the day. Most notable amongst all of them is a short blondie with a huge scar on his face and yells (presumably) with a mouth full of teeth.
He looks like he got into a fight with a feral racoon full of rabies in their back alleys, and does so on the regular.
"Are you sure?" Tsuna asks.
From where he's getting some of the dough ready for baking and thus ready for when they flick around the 'open' sign, Yamamoto just laughs. "Well, as long as we're still making really good food, then it doesn't really matter if there's another bakery just across the way, right? We've been here for a little longer anyway, so we're definitely more established than them. Our regulars should definitely come over here more than some new thing, right?"
"Yeah, Yamamoto is right," Tsuna says, trying to be a little cheerful and optimistic. He doesn't think he's landing it. "We do a really good job here, and we can't do that if we're too focused on what they're doing over there, right? Let's get some of the muffins out on display before we open the doors!"
The muffins can be on display out front, but Gokudera can't. Even on a good day, his customer service is... lacking just a little bit, Tsuna has to admit, and it only gets fifty times worse when he's in A Mood (tm) like the one he's in now. So they keep him in the back kitchens, furthest away from some of the more public-facing baking areas that Yamamoto shines in better, and honestly Tsuna has to admit that it's a little bit of a relief. He stumbles through making sure he's counting the cash in the register just all on his own. Gokudera stressing him out would only make this worse.
Besides... When he doesn't have to worry about reassuring Gokudera for the moment, that spares him a little bit of time to glance back over to the bakery across the street directly from them.
New businesses really do have to struggle sometimes to get a foot in the door. Tsuna would know. While their business has been around longer, that doesn't really mean it's old. Just... established. Recently established. And only able to maintain the sort of establishment it does because he had to run around, making embarrassing noises and various baked goods like his life depended on it. Those were some tough days, really. He thinks they came close to broke from all the sample goods the three of them frantically made.
The bright side, he supposes, is that it really did make a sort of impression on the customer base. Even if someone didn't get a sample cupcake from him, they inevitably seemed to hear about the embarrassing run he had to make throughout town. That, along with the quality of their sweets, seems to have really helped their reputation.
In the days since Kokuyo Bakery has opened, or was in the process of opening, he's kind of wondered if they would do the same thing. Word of mouth, samples - those are pretty important in the early days. Yet in that time, he's not really seen them go out too much. Sure, he's seen either the dark haired guy or sharp toothed blond wander out, but those never seemed really with any intent beyond lazily going for a walk or whatever. No real advertisement.
And, like. That's fine, Tsuna guesses. He can't really tell a business how to run itself. He's not Reborn, who threw pebbles at him (literally and metaphorically speaking) throughout the entire business process, from paperwork to groundwork.
It just makes him wonder what they are doing, over there. Some people seem to poke in, now and then - in fact, more people seem to go in during their busy morning rushes, which Tsuna guesses is a pretty valid business strategy at the end of the day. If one place already seems pretty busy and has a long line, there's always going to be people who decide that it's just not worth the wait. That's partially why multiple restaurants can thrive in the same area, to at least a degree.
But... it can't be just that, right? Tsuna can't say he's a business expert like Reborn would probably want him to be, but he still knows enough to know that's not a way to run things. Not in the long term.
Maybe they ran out of money to do anything too fancy? He gets that. Or maybe they have some sort of big event planned? That wouldn't hurt, it's not good to copy other businesses too much. But even with various chatterboxes in his life, like his mother who always makes sure to keep in touch, or the girls who stop by the bakery regularly, he doesn't hear anything about that. At least, not yet.
"Their storefront is pretty plain too, huh?" Tsuna says, once the morning rush has ebbed away to let them catch their breath, and he can look back across the street again. It doesn't seem like it's too busy right now either, but it's harder to see inside now due to how the sun has changed positions in the hours since he first came in. "Actually... Maybe it's just the timing, but it kind of looks gloomy from this angle..." Just something about the windows, he guesses? Yeah, it definitely has to be the lighting.
Yamamoto just laughs from where he's checking on some dough that's been resting, doing a few quick little punches. "Well, maybe we should check it out sometime!" he says cheerfully. "I mean, we've all been so curious about the place, but we've done nothing except talk about it."
"Yamamoto, no, don't talk about it so loudly-"
He's too late. With Yamamoto's loud voice and the utter silence of an empty bakery, that's more than enough for a certain someone's sharp ears, and they both hear the sound of Gokudera's furious stomping long before it actually reaches the doors leading into the back. "You want to what!?" he shouts, although it's almost feral enough to be called a 'snarl'. "You want to go into that talentless copycat of a bakery when we're already so busy? What the hell is wrong with you? What goes through that stupid empty skull of yours besides worthless baseball trivia!?"
"Worthless baseball trivia that won us that trivia night over at the cafe that one time," Yamamoto says cheerfully, a victory that he will hold onto forever, especially since 'forever' is how long Gokudera's incredulous fury lasts for that particular event. "And anyway, what's yelling about them over here going to do? We may as well do some investigating!"
Gokudera looks as though he is seconds away from grabbing a rolling pin and going to jail for criminal assault. Tsuna really wishes he wouldn't get that look on his face, honestly, even if Yamamoto would never press charges. "And deal with people like them!?"
"Ha ha, we don't even know what kind of people them is!"
"The kind of people who try to pick a fight by putting their bakery right across from ours!?"
It's all a moot point anyway. The real reason that they can't all go check out the bakery together is because they're working. For all of them to go would mean to shut down the bakery, which just isn't happening. At the very least, someone has to attend the register even if they somehow managed to get everything timed just perfectly in terms of what's in the ovens and freezers.
So Tsuna makes an executive decision. He sends over just Yamamoto, while him and Gokudera stay back to get ready for the lunch time rush that blazes through for people who want something nice and sweet. It is, at the very least, enough to keep Gokudera distracted and with something that can channel all his otherwise destructive energy.
And... they don't actually have to wait too long for Yamamoto to come back. It takes him maybe one minute to cross the road separating them; it's not honestly that big. The traffic in the shopping plaza is majority foot traffic in the end. He's actually inside Kokuyo Bakery for, like... maybe some five minutes? If it feels any longer, it's because Gokudera keeps pacing over by the window inbetween all the work he's doing, like a frantic guard dog who's spotted his mortal nemesis the mail man outside the window. But then he's coming back with a cheerful skip to his step and... a croissant in his hand?
"You let them feed you!?" Gokudera exclaims, so betrayed that he could give any heroine in an Italian soap opera a run for her money. You'd think that he was talking to his old ex-lover who turned out to be his cousin and who had just revealed they had sabotaged his inheritance from his beloved twin. It's kind of impressive.
Yamamoto swallows the bite of croissant that he'd had tucked into his mouth. "Oh, hey. I mean, why not, right? I was over there, and the guy at the register held it out to me, so, I thought it'd be a shame not to!" He beams. "It's not bad!"
Of course, he barely had a second to get out that word before Gokudera is taking him by the front of his shirt to violently shake him. "I can't believe that you would do something like that! Those are our rivals! You can't just go over there to be friendly with them and eat their food!!!!"
It takes approximately five minutes to pry Gokudera off of Yamamoto, and get them all seated down in the chairs right there in the little dining area they have. It's probably not the best idea to do this just right there in a public space, but, well. They probably have enough time before it might actually become any sort of big deal. Also, honestly, Tsuna isn't sure if he could get Yamamoto and Gokudera into the back before the former said something the latter took grave offense to.
The back rooms really aren't that far away, since their bakery isn't some huge thing or whatever, but that's just how fast Gokudera is prone to snapping.
"Well, at least it was nice of them to give you that croissant," Tsuna offers, trying to help apply a balm to this volcanic rash of a situation. "Especially since they have to know who we are." Even if they didn't have a habit like Gokudera of peering aggressively across the street to their 'rival' then certainly they would have at least recognized that Yamamoto went over there still wearing his apron that proudly displays their bakery name right there on the front along with a little cartoon lion. In that case, maybe they're seriously just overthinking this, and the Kokuyo Bakery is full of nice people-
"Oh, no, the guy over there made me pay for it," Yamamoto says cheerfully.
Another two minute break is required so that Gokudera can spend it screaming curses into his hands, going through a few different languages while he does so. It's far better than him attempting to throttle Yamamoto for potentially the third time today, so Tsuna allows it. "That's even worse," he finally groans when he's pried his hands away from his face. The incoherent rage seems to have simmered down into the embers of confusion; Yamamoto is the only person who seems to induce this in him. "You literally just went across the street to buy from our competitor."
Typically, Yamamoto shrugs and laughs. Not for the first time, Tsuna wishes he had his confidence and ability to go with the flow. Instead, it's just anxiety and stress, all the time. "Well, he kind of handed it to me," he says. "I just walked in there to say hi and introduce myself. But the second I was close enough to the counter, he just shoved the croissant in my hand, and then told me what the price was!"
"And you just let him!?"
"Well, I thought it was kind of funny," Yamamoto says, still smiling.
Gokudera twists around in his seat so hard and fast that it actually carries through with his movement with a loud screech against the floors. "Please let me go over there instead," he pleads, although what would normally be a pretty desperate tone is kinda offset from the simmering rage that Tsuna can pick up underneath the words. "We clearly can't trust this idiot with a doughball for a head."
Fortunately, Tsuna doesn't have to worry about working Gokudera down from his homicidal anger. Instead, he can shelve it and make it a problem for Future Tsuna, because they can all see one of the first customers signaling the approach of their lunch rush. That means no more break time. Only time to get everything right back into order with the kitchen, and the register. Tsuna doesn't think he's ever been more relieved to see a customer in his life, despite how he looks upon the clock approaching noon with dread most days.
An hour or so in, and it's looking as though they might actually get through the rest of the day without any major incident. Tsuna's ability to aggressively avoid whatever terrible thing in his life might actually work out for him just this once.
So of course, just as the lunch rush is starting to finish its steady flow out the doors is when a lanky guy in a green apron slouches through the door.
Tsuna doesn't notice him immediately at first, because he's still double counting the fistful of dollars he just got to make sure that there's nothing messed up before it goes into the til. It's only when he sees a whole thing of dark green in the upper periphery of his vision does he raise his head. Coincidentally, this is an action that sends an ice cube all the way down into the pit of his stomach.
The Kokuyo baker stares down at him.
Tsuna stares right back up at him.
What feels like half an hour passes, and uncomfortably. It is probably just ten seconds.
"Hi," he squeaks out after a minute, when he remembers how to use his own vocal chords, and when the social awkwardness of the entire situation has just become far too much for him to bear. "Welcome. What can I get for you today?"
A very slow blink, which distantly reminds Tsuna of some sort of stray alley cat. The words take even longer to come out. "Does this bakery actually.... bake things."
Despite that it couldn't be anything but a question, it actually takes Tsuna a moment to recognize it as such. The guy's tone is just the opposite of what it should be, and that's before they get into what is sure A Question. "Uh.... Yeah?" he says, forgetting customer service politeness for a second. It's very easy to forget that sort of thing in the face of someone just so flagrantly apathetic. "That's... how bakeries work?"
It is a super rude thing to say. The Kokuyo baker doesn't seem to care. Or, well, if he cares, Tsuna can't make heads or tails of it past that deadened stare of his. There's a faint noise that Tsuna thinks comes from him, that might be indication of some sort of emotion, but his lips don't move and his throat doesn't bob, so maybe he's just lost his brain a little bit.
"Give me one then," he says after another moment that is possibly becoming traditional in this awkward conversation.
Tsuna has to wonder if he's somehow wandered into some sort of weird alternative dimension where all the social niceties he's ever known have been turned completely on their head. It's just baffling that he has to ask, "Well, I mean, what exactly do you want...?"
Alright, yeah - the dead eyed stare seems a little more purposeful now. "A baked good," the guy says, like this is just a non-starter.
He is so tired. He is so tired and he wants to go have a break right now. Still, something something, the customer is always right, whatever. Tsuna turns around to survey what is immediately available to him within grabbing distance. At least he's proud to say that even though he might be in a somewhat frazzled state, he knows better than to just grab anything. Some of the things they put on display for customers are really nice pastries. The kind of cute cupcakes and time-consuming donuts which really require a steady hand and decoration skills to bust out.
Those are also some of the more expensive things around, so of course Tsuna isn't going to grab that just on a random whim. If the guy hasn't asked for something really expensive, then he's not going to get it. Maybe that's impolite, not giving him something super nice to start with, Tsuna doesn't know. He just knows he doesn't want to seem like some sort of gold digger.
So he settles for a nice cupcake that's nothing fancy. The kind of thing that's practically a textbook cupcake. The kind of cupcake you see in the coloring books for elementary schoolers, from the white frosting to the little cherry balanced perfectly on top.
Tsuna would never in a million years say that he's particularly good at baking, honestly. It's just way too precise for him and he tends to get so lost in his own head about the process that he often fucks up in some very small but vitally important way, because that's how baking works. The only time he's good at it is when he's so stressed that he thinks that he might be doing something with his literal dying will and the last remnants of his energy, which, don't ask him how that works.
Yet somehow, little chocolate cupcakes with their pretty white frosting and a dainty cherry balanced on top? He can nail that every time.
And they're plentiful, too, which means he doesn't feel too bothered about holding one up at the counter for this guy's inspection. "Then, would this do?" he asks, because it's not like he knows anything about this guy's tastes.
He guesses he shouldn't be too surprised when it's just taken straight out from his hand for a more up close and personal inspection. The Kokuyo baker stares at it for a long moment; at least Tsuna is expecting it this go around. "I guess it should do well enough," he says at last, before he just.
Turns around.
And walks straight out of the bakery.
In all his time existing on this good green earth, Tsuna cannot say that he has ever seen someone just do that. At the very least, for most theft, you'd think there'd be something else to it, right? Like a distraction, or sleight of hand, or something like that, right? It's not as though no one has ever robbed them before, he understands how the whole thing should work!
It's just that should is the keyword here, just like Gokudera's outraged yell right over to the side is the key sound in the entire bakery. A couple of customers still hanging around at the tables jolt a bit, although none so bad as Tsuna himself. "Oh, shoot," he mutters to himself, which is all the time Gokudera needs to haul himself right over the counter, still wearing his own baking apron. Of course now would be the time that Gokudera came out from the back for whatever reason.
Unlike some people, Tsuna isn't the kind of guy to fling his whole body right over counters - both because of personality and, frankly, a lack of ability. So he has to rush around the long way, in contrast to Yamamoto, as they both do their best to get over to where Gokudera has grabbed the other baker by the front of his shirt.
"The hell is your problem!?" he snarls, jaw clenched like there should be a cigarette between them. Bad habit for baking, however, that Tsuna convinced him out of ages ago. Now he's just in danger of cracking his teeth every other day. "What kind of absolute bastard just comes in and takes food without paying!? I knew you were just coming in for a fight, and now you've got one!"
Gokudera has caused many a problem in the past with his resting thug face, which is why Tsuna has him in the back so much. Freaks out customers. It's freaking out the few customers they have right now in this moment, as a matter of fact.
Yet the Kokuyo baker doesn't even seem to bat an eye at being shaken, or having his personal space invaded so badly. There's just that deadened stare of his. "It sounds like the person who really wants a fight is you... How troublesome." There's an exhale of breath that can't even muster up the energy to be a sigh. "Anyway... This is just the proper way to do things. Right?" Except he's not talking to Gokudera with that last word.
Instead, he turns his head with the bare minimum effort until he's looking over to where Yamamoto is standing right there at the ready with one hand on Gokudera's elbow. Blinking, Yamamoto points at himself. "Is it?" he asks.
"Mmm... Since you came over to our bakery to have food... And you paid properly. So I came this time."
Gokudera looks as though he's a split second from bursting a blood vessel somewhere around his temple, perhaps putting him into a coma. With the way this conversation is going, he might prefer that. "You made him pay, and then didn't even pay for the cupcake that the boss gave you!"
Despite the clear flaw in logic here, the Kokuyo baker doesn't seem even remotely ashamed at the reminder. All he does is raise an eyebrow. "That's because it's just what you do..."
"Is it?" Tsuna squeaks out, his voice maybe a little tight as he wraps his arms around one of Gokudera's so he at least has a slightly harder time if he opts to go in for a punch to this guy's face. No brawling in front of customers. That's all he asks for. Just no brawling in front of the customers.
A nod. This guy does Not understand how much work is being put in to save him from getting a black eye, or worse. Gokudera doesn't care about punching a guy wearing glasses. "I'm just here to show... appreciation or whatever, for visiting," he says, which would be almost vaguely sweet, if not for the entire context of this situation. "Since you did actually buy one of our croissants. So I should eat your food... probably. Although I don't really like cupcakes..."
Tsuna would of course never get into a public fistfight with a stranger in the same way that Gokudera does (unless he was trying to give out free samples and was running out of a time and had to sucker punch someone and he barely remembers it, ok, this is all Reborn's fault). It's just not the way he was raised. Not his personality, either.
He does, at the very least, ponder letting go of Gokudera to maybe scream into his hands, and if Gokudera takes that moment to slug this guy, well, that's just life.
Of course, that just has Yamamoto laugh. "Oh, yeah, I get it entirely then!" he says cheerfully, and both Tsuna and Gokudera have to stare at him. Gokudera more aggressively than him. Tsuna more befuddled than Gokudera. "Well, in that case, I'll cover it, but remember to pay for the next time, okay? It's a business here, ha ha!"
That sort of line would so much more serious if he weren't laughing as he said it... But at least it's enough to redirect Gokudera's rage a little bit, grip going loose as he points aggressively to his coworker. "Stop laughing! You can't just reward this kind of behavior- HEY WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING." Because of course with the grip on his shirt loosened, the opposing baker takes the opportunity to just beat feet.
Predictably, the other baker doesn't bother to answer. He does, at least, take a bite of the cupcake.
There's no point in Tsuna holding onto Gokudera's arm any further, at least not while he's this incensed, so he lets him chase after the baker with a sigh. "Is this actually alright?" he asks.
Yamamoto keeps that utterly relaxed smile on his face, which only matches the way that he tucks his hands into his pockets. Pants pockets, not the apron one. "Oh, yeah, it should be fine. And you know, we don't actually have to worry too much about them being our competition or anything, actually. It turns out that their whole line of work is pretty different from ours!"
Tsuna wants to ask how exactly that works, except then there's the sound of bodies hitting the floor hard right as the two of them exit out the front door, and then an unheard amount of Italian swearing from Gokudera. Yelping, Tsuna skitters to the side, even as his brain takes in the sight of his friend and a green apron-clad body crashing right there against concrete. Except, rather than dark hair and glasses, there's just a whole mess of blond hair that is - oh ok he's just trying to bite Gokudera yeah sure that's a normal thing that's happening!
"What the hell," he asks quietly, only to catch onto the sound of munching right besides him. How he can hear it over the sound of Gokudera and this other Kokuyo baker absolutely screeching at each other is a mystery for another time. Right now, all he can do is stare blankly up at the guy in glasses and a beanie.
Another bit of the cupcake. A chew. He finally seems to realize that he's being stared at and, in turn, looks down at Tsuna dully. "Ken," he answers, although that's not exactly the question Tsuna was asking. "...I'm Chikusa."
"Good to know," Tsuna says in the sort of tired tone where he's just kind of given up on it all at this point. This is going to be in the local papers. People will gossip. It's all going to be so very dumb and it's already happened, so whatever. He's here now. "So why are you here again?"
"Flirting."
.........God he's so tired.
While Tsuna stares off into some far off distance he can't see, not even bothering to try and understand the answer he's just received, Yamamoto perks up from besides him. "Oh, I thought that was what you were trying to do!" he exclaims. "Ha ha, I thought maybe it was something like that, but I wasn't entirely sure, since we'd just met. You have a real style to it, huh?"
"....If that's what you want to call it.... Sure."
"How the hell was that flirting when he just stole a cupcake from us," Tsuna whispers quietly. Over his head, the other two keep talking and, before him, Gokudera and the other Kokuyo guy are still brawling, so, like, he's not really expecting an answer.
Which is good! Because he doesn't get one. Instead, there's still just the violent fight happening at his feet which he figures he should probably break up at some point, but he's not sure how. While he's stewing over that, having given up on the virtues of human language, Chikusa speaks up again. "Oh right... I almost forgot. We're not competing... or whatever."
Tsuna blinks. He blinks a couple of times, actually, if only to remember what it's like to have his body again and use it for things like blinking, and speaking. "Uh, okay?" he says to start with, because that's a good filler phrase that never steers him wrong.
Fortunately, while it doesn't look like Chikusa's hard to read stare will give him any answers anytime soon, Tsuna does have someone who isn't so opposed to speaking plainly now and again. Speaking plainly way too often, actually, even if he sometimes seems tuned into an entirely different universe than the one Tsuna is experiencing. "Oh, yeah, when I looked over to them, they're doing a whole different kind of bakery," Yamamoto says. "Less really cute fun desserts, all of that, but more like really homey and basic stuff. Fresh bread, and a ton of muffins, you know. The kind of things that aren't really sweet, more earthy."
"...Oh." It's not the complete solution to his headache, but it's enough for Tsuna to straighten up a little bit more and for the headache to abate a bit. "Really? Yeah - then that's definitely pretty different from how we do things." Totally different, actually, and he perks up even more before smiling in pure relief at Chikusa. "Sorry if we were making you feel awkward then. I guess there wasn't any reason to worry about any competition between our two businesses at all, huh?"
"Nope." Finishing off the cupcake, Chikusa wipes a bit of frosting off of his mouth. "Besides, we're just a money laundering front anyway." And he walks away.
All Tsuna can do is stare for a minute, but a minute is all Chikusa needs to speed walk straight back to Kokuyo Bakery. He's left just yelling, "WAIT, WHAT!? AND WHO WERE YOU FLIRTING WITH!?"
He doesn't. Probably, he should. But he doesn't. Instead, all he does is stand there in place for a second, his desire to still be standing leaving via his eye sockets for a moment, before he takes a breath and tries to muster up some sort of... boss-like energy. He still doesn't entirely know what that means, exactly, but he tries to at least fake it. A little bit. "Are we talking about Kokuyo Bakery?" he asks, unable to stop himself from sounding tired.
Not that it really matters in the end, of course. Gokudera sometimes get so wrapped up in his own head that he's laser targeted on the subject of his ire. He's sure laser targeted now, as though he can make lasers appear out of his eyes to burn down Kokuyo Bakery right where it stands. "What kind of freaks start up a rival business literally right across from the other?" he hisses, bristling like the stray cat he feeds out in the back alleys. "They're spoiling for a fight, boss. Just one good sucker punch, and they'll think twice about all of this."
Tsuna looks out the window to where he can see, from across this tiny little patch of street in the shopping center, the Kokuyo Bakery gang getting all set up for the day. Most notable amongst all of them is a short blondie with a huge scar on his face and yells (presumably) with a mouth full of teeth.
He looks like he got into a fight with a feral racoon full of rabies in their back alleys, and does so on the regular.
"Are you sure?" Tsuna asks.
From where he's getting some of the dough ready for baking and thus ready for when they flick around the 'open' sign, Yamamoto just laughs. "Well, as long as we're still making really good food, then it doesn't really matter if there's another bakery just across the way, right? We've been here for a little longer anyway, so we're definitely more established than them. Our regulars should definitely come over here more than some new thing, right?"
"Yeah, Yamamoto is right," Tsuna says, trying to be a little cheerful and optimistic. He doesn't think he's landing it. "We do a really good job here, and we can't do that if we're too focused on what they're doing over there, right? Let's get some of the muffins out on display before we open the doors!"
The muffins can be on display out front, but Gokudera can't. Even on a good day, his customer service is... lacking just a little bit, Tsuna has to admit, and it only gets fifty times worse when he's in A Mood (tm) like the one he's in now. So they keep him in the back kitchens, furthest away from some of the more public-facing baking areas that Yamamoto shines in better, and honestly Tsuna has to admit that it's a little bit of a relief. He stumbles through making sure he's counting the cash in the register just all on his own. Gokudera stressing him out would only make this worse.
Besides... When he doesn't have to worry about reassuring Gokudera for the moment, that spares him a little bit of time to glance back over to the bakery across the street directly from them.
New businesses really do have to struggle sometimes to get a foot in the door. Tsuna would know. While their business has been around longer, that doesn't really mean it's old. Just... established. Recently established. And only able to maintain the sort of establishment it does because he had to run around, making embarrassing noises and various baked goods like his life depended on it. Those were some tough days, really. He thinks they came close to broke from all the sample goods the three of them frantically made.
The bright side, he supposes, is that it really did make a sort of impression on the customer base. Even if someone didn't get a sample cupcake from him, they inevitably seemed to hear about the embarrassing run he had to make throughout town. That, along with the quality of their sweets, seems to have really helped their reputation.
In the days since Kokuyo Bakery has opened, or was in the process of opening, he's kind of wondered if they would do the same thing. Word of mouth, samples - those are pretty important in the early days. Yet in that time, he's not really seen them go out too much. Sure, he's seen either the dark haired guy or sharp toothed blond wander out, but those never seemed really with any intent beyond lazily going for a walk or whatever. No real advertisement.
And, like. That's fine, Tsuna guesses. He can't really tell a business how to run itself. He's not Reborn, who threw pebbles at him (literally and metaphorically speaking) throughout the entire business process, from paperwork to groundwork.
It just makes him wonder what they are doing, over there. Some people seem to poke in, now and then - in fact, more people seem to go in during their busy morning rushes, which Tsuna guesses is a pretty valid business strategy at the end of the day. If one place already seems pretty busy and has a long line, there's always going to be people who decide that it's just not worth the wait. That's partially why multiple restaurants can thrive in the same area, to at least a degree.
But... it can't be just that, right? Tsuna can't say he's a business expert like Reborn would probably want him to be, but he still knows enough to know that's not a way to run things. Not in the long term.
Maybe they ran out of money to do anything too fancy? He gets that. Or maybe they have some sort of big event planned? That wouldn't hurt, it's not good to copy other businesses too much. But even with various chatterboxes in his life, like his mother who always makes sure to keep in touch, or the girls who stop by the bakery regularly, he doesn't hear anything about that. At least, not yet.
"Their storefront is pretty plain too, huh?" Tsuna says, once the morning rush has ebbed away to let them catch their breath, and he can look back across the street again. It doesn't seem like it's too busy right now either, but it's harder to see inside now due to how the sun has changed positions in the hours since he first came in. "Actually... Maybe it's just the timing, but it kind of looks gloomy from this angle..." Just something about the windows, he guesses? Yeah, it definitely has to be the lighting.
Yamamoto just laughs from where he's checking on some dough that's been resting, doing a few quick little punches. "Well, maybe we should check it out sometime!" he says cheerfully. "I mean, we've all been so curious about the place, but we've done nothing except talk about it."
"Yamamoto, no, don't talk about it so loudly-"
He's too late. With Yamamoto's loud voice and the utter silence of an empty bakery, that's more than enough for a certain someone's sharp ears, and they both hear the sound of Gokudera's furious stomping long before it actually reaches the doors leading into the back. "You want to what!?" he shouts, although it's almost feral enough to be called a 'snarl'. "You want to go into that talentless copycat of a bakery when we're already so busy? What the hell is wrong with you? What goes through that stupid empty skull of yours besides worthless baseball trivia!?"
"Worthless baseball trivia that won us that trivia night over at the cafe that one time," Yamamoto says cheerfully, a victory that he will hold onto forever, especially since 'forever' is how long Gokudera's incredulous fury lasts for that particular event. "And anyway, what's yelling about them over here going to do? We may as well do some investigating!"
Gokudera looks as though he is seconds away from grabbing a rolling pin and going to jail for criminal assault. Tsuna really wishes he wouldn't get that look on his face, honestly, even if Yamamoto would never press charges. "And deal with people like them!?"
"Ha ha, we don't even know what kind of people them is!"
"The kind of people who try to pick a fight by putting their bakery right across from ours!?"
It's all a moot point anyway. The real reason that they can't all go check out the bakery together is because they're working. For all of them to go would mean to shut down the bakery, which just isn't happening. At the very least, someone has to attend the register even if they somehow managed to get everything timed just perfectly in terms of what's in the ovens and freezers.
So Tsuna makes an executive decision. He sends over just Yamamoto, while him and Gokudera stay back to get ready for the lunch time rush that blazes through for people who want something nice and sweet. It is, at the very least, enough to keep Gokudera distracted and with something that can channel all his otherwise destructive energy.
And... they don't actually have to wait too long for Yamamoto to come back. It takes him maybe one minute to cross the road separating them; it's not honestly that big. The traffic in the shopping plaza is majority foot traffic in the end. He's actually inside Kokuyo Bakery for, like... maybe some five minutes? If it feels any longer, it's because Gokudera keeps pacing over by the window inbetween all the work he's doing, like a frantic guard dog who's spotted his mortal nemesis the mail man outside the window. But then he's coming back with a cheerful skip to his step and... a croissant in his hand?
"You let them feed you!?" Gokudera exclaims, so betrayed that he could give any heroine in an Italian soap opera a run for her money. You'd think that he was talking to his old ex-lover who turned out to be his cousin and who had just revealed they had sabotaged his inheritance from his beloved twin. It's kind of impressive.
Yamamoto swallows the bite of croissant that he'd had tucked into his mouth. "Oh, hey. I mean, why not, right? I was over there, and the guy at the register held it out to me, so, I thought it'd be a shame not to!" He beams. "It's not bad!"
Of course, he barely had a second to get out that word before Gokudera is taking him by the front of his shirt to violently shake him. "I can't believe that you would do something like that! Those are our rivals! You can't just go over there to be friendly with them and eat their food!!!!"
It takes approximately five minutes to pry Gokudera off of Yamamoto, and get them all seated down in the chairs right there in the little dining area they have. It's probably not the best idea to do this just right there in a public space, but, well. They probably have enough time before it might actually become any sort of big deal. Also, honestly, Tsuna isn't sure if he could get Yamamoto and Gokudera into the back before the former said something the latter took grave offense to.
The back rooms really aren't that far away, since their bakery isn't some huge thing or whatever, but that's just how fast Gokudera is prone to snapping.
"Well, at least it was nice of them to give you that croissant," Tsuna offers, trying to help apply a balm to this volcanic rash of a situation. "Especially since they have to know who we are." Even if they didn't have a habit like Gokudera of peering aggressively across the street to their 'rival' then certainly they would have at least recognized that Yamamoto went over there still wearing his apron that proudly displays their bakery name right there on the front along with a little cartoon lion. In that case, maybe they're seriously just overthinking this, and the Kokuyo Bakery is full of nice people-
"Oh, no, the guy over there made me pay for it," Yamamoto says cheerfully.
Another two minute break is required so that Gokudera can spend it screaming curses into his hands, going through a few different languages while he does so. It's far better than him attempting to throttle Yamamoto for potentially the third time today, so Tsuna allows it. "That's even worse," he finally groans when he's pried his hands away from his face. The incoherent rage seems to have simmered down into the embers of confusion; Yamamoto is the only person who seems to induce this in him. "You literally just went across the street to buy from our competitor."
Typically, Yamamoto shrugs and laughs. Not for the first time, Tsuna wishes he had his confidence and ability to go with the flow. Instead, it's just anxiety and stress, all the time. "Well, he kind of handed it to me," he says. "I just walked in there to say hi and introduce myself. But the second I was close enough to the counter, he just shoved the croissant in my hand, and then told me what the price was!"
"And you just let him!?"
"Well, I thought it was kind of funny," Yamamoto says, still smiling.
Gokudera twists around in his seat so hard and fast that it actually carries through with his movement with a loud screech against the floors. "Please let me go over there instead," he pleads, although what would normally be a pretty desperate tone is kinda offset from the simmering rage that Tsuna can pick up underneath the words. "We clearly can't trust this idiot with a doughball for a head."
Fortunately, Tsuna doesn't have to worry about working Gokudera down from his homicidal anger. Instead, he can shelve it and make it a problem for Future Tsuna, because they can all see one of the first customers signaling the approach of their lunch rush. That means no more break time. Only time to get everything right back into order with the kitchen, and the register. Tsuna doesn't think he's ever been more relieved to see a customer in his life, despite how he looks upon the clock approaching noon with dread most days.
An hour or so in, and it's looking as though they might actually get through the rest of the day without any major incident. Tsuna's ability to aggressively avoid whatever terrible thing in his life might actually work out for him just this once.
So of course, just as the lunch rush is starting to finish its steady flow out the doors is when a lanky guy in a green apron slouches through the door.
Tsuna doesn't notice him immediately at first, because he's still double counting the fistful of dollars he just got to make sure that there's nothing messed up before it goes into the til. It's only when he sees a whole thing of dark green in the upper periphery of his vision does he raise his head. Coincidentally, this is an action that sends an ice cube all the way down into the pit of his stomach.
The Kokuyo baker stares down at him.
Tsuna stares right back up at him.
What feels like half an hour passes, and uncomfortably. It is probably just ten seconds.
"Hi," he squeaks out after a minute, when he remembers how to use his own vocal chords, and when the social awkwardness of the entire situation has just become far too much for him to bear. "Welcome. What can I get for you today?"
A very slow blink, which distantly reminds Tsuna of some sort of stray alley cat. The words take even longer to come out. "Does this bakery actually.... bake things."
Despite that it couldn't be anything but a question, it actually takes Tsuna a moment to recognize it as such. The guy's tone is just the opposite of what it should be, and that's before they get into what is sure A Question. "Uh.... Yeah?" he says, forgetting customer service politeness for a second. It's very easy to forget that sort of thing in the face of someone just so flagrantly apathetic. "That's... how bakeries work?"
It is a super rude thing to say. The Kokuyo baker doesn't seem to care. Or, well, if he cares, Tsuna can't make heads or tails of it past that deadened stare of his. There's a faint noise that Tsuna thinks comes from him, that might be indication of some sort of emotion, but his lips don't move and his throat doesn't bob, so maybe he's just lost his brain a little bit.
"Give me one then," he says after another moment that is possibly becoming traditional in this awkward conversation.
Tsuna has to wonder if he's somehow wandered into some sort of weird alternative dimension where all the social niceties he's ever known have been turned completely on their head. It's just baffling that he has to ask, "Well, I mean, what exactly do you want...?"
Alright, yeah - the dead eyed stare seems a little more purposeful now. "A baked good," the guy says, like this is just a non-starter.
He is so tired. He is so tired and he wants to go have a break right now. Still, something something, the customer is always right, whatever. Tsuna turns around to survey what is immediately available to him within grabbing distance. At least he's proud to say that even though he might be in a somewhat frazzled state, he knows better than to just grab anything. Some of the things they put on display for customers are really nice pastries. The kind of cute cupcakes and time-consuming donuts which really require a steady hand and decoration skills to bust out.
Those are also some of the more expensive things around, so of course Tsuna isn't going to grab that just on a random whim. If the guy hasn't asked for something really expensive, then he's not going to get it. Maybe that's impolite, not giving him something super nice to start with, Tsuna doesn't know. He just knows he doesn't want to seem like some sort of gold digger.
So he settles for a nice cupcake that's nothing fancy. The kind of thing that's practically a textbook cupcake. The kind of cupcake you see in the coloring books for elementary schoolers, from the white frosting to the little cherry balanced perfectly on top.
Tsuna would never in a million years say that he's particularly good at baking, honestly. It's just way too precise for him and he tends to get so lost in his own head about the process that he often fucks up in some very small but vitally important way, because that's how baking works. The only time he's good at it is when he's so stressed that he thinks that he might be doing something with his literal dying will and the last remnants of his energy, which, don't ask him how that works.
Yet somehow, little chocolate cupcakes with their pretty white frosting and a dainty cherry balanced on top? He can nail that every time.
And they're plentiful, too, which means he doesn't feel too bothered about holding one up at the counter for this guy's inspection. "Then, would this do?" he asks, because it's not like he knows anything about this guy's tastes.
He guesses he shouldn't be too surprised when it's just taken straight out from his hand for a more up close and personal inspection. The Kokuyo baker stares at it for a long moment; at least Tsuna is expecting it this go around. "I guess it should do well enough," he says at last, before he just.
Turns around.
And walks straight out of the bakery.
In all his time existing on this good green earth, Tsuna cannot say that he has ever seen someone just do that. At the very least, for most theft, you'd think there'd be something else to it, right? Like a distraction, or sleight of hand, or something like that, right? It's not as though no one has ever robbed them before, he understands how the whole thing should work!
It's just that should is the keyword here, just like Gokudera's outraged yell right over to the side is the key sound in the entire bakery. A couple of customers still hanging around at the tables jolt a bit, although none so bad as Tsuna himself. "Oh, shoot," he mutters to himself, which is all the time Gokudera needs to haul himself right over the counter, still wearing his own baking apron. Of course now would be the time that Gokudera came out from the back for whatever reason.
Unlike some people, Tsuna isn't the kind of guy to fling his whole body right over counters - both because of personality and, frankly, a lack of ability. So he has to rush around the long way, in contrast to Yamamoto, as they both do their best to get over to where Gokudera has grabbed the other baker by the front of his shirt.
"The hell is your problem!?" he snarls, jaw clenched like there should be a cigarette between them. Bad habit for baking, however, that Tsuna convinced him out of ages ago. Now he's just in danger of cracking his teeth every other day. "What kind of absolute bastard just comes in and takes food without paying!? I knew you were just coming in for a fight, and now you've got one!"
Gokudera has caused many a problem in the past with his resting thug face, which is why Tsuna has him in the back so much. Freaks out customers. It's freaking out the few customers they have right now in this moment, as a matter of fact.
Yet the Kokuyo baker doesn't even seem to bat an eye at being shaken, or having his personal space invaded so badly. There's just that deadened stare of his. "It sounds like the person who really wants a fight is you... How troublesome." There's an exhale of breath that can't even muster up the energy to be a sigh. "Anyway... This is just the proper way to do things. Right?" Except he's not talking to Gokudera with that last word.
Instead, he turns his head with the bare minimum effort until he's looking over to where Yamamoto is standing right there at the ready with one hand on Gokudera's elbow. Blinking, Yamamoto points at himself. "Is it?" he asks.
"Mmm... Since you came over to our bakery to have food... And you paid properly. So I came this time."
Gokudera looks as though he's a split second from bursting a blood vessel somewhere around his temple, perhaps putting him into a coma. With the way this conversation is going, he might prefer that. "You made him pay, and then didn't even pay for the cupcake that the boss gave you!"
Despite the clear flaw in logic here, the Kokuyo baker doesn't seem even remotely ashamed at the reminder. All he does is raise an eyebrow. "That's because it's just what you do..."
"Is it?" Tsuna squeaks out, his voice maybe a little tight as he wraps his arms around one of Gokudera's so he at least has a slightly harder time if he opts to go in for a punch to this guy's face. No brawling in front of customers. That's all he asks for. Just no brawling in front of the customers.
A nod. This guy does Not understand how much work is being put in to save him from getting a black eye, or worse. Gokudera doesn't care about punching a guy wearing glasses. "I'm just here to show... appreciation or whatever, for visiting," he says, which would be almost vaguely sweet, if not for the entire context of this situation. "Since you did actually buy one of our croissants. So I should eat your food... probably. Although I don't really like cupcakes..."
Tsuna would of course never get into a public fistfight with a stranger in the same way that Gokudera does (unless he was trying to give out free samples and was running out of a time and had to sucker punch someone and he barely remembers it, ok, this is all Reborn's fault). It's just not the way he was raised. Not his personality, either.
He does, at the very least, ponder letting go of Gokudera to maybe scream into his hands, and if Gokudera takes that moment to slug this guy, well, that's just life.
Of course, that just has Yamamoto laugh. "Oh, yeah, I get it entirely then!" he says cheerfully, and both Tsuna and Gokudera have to stare at him. Gokudera more aggressively than him. Tsuna more befuddled than Gokudera. "Well, in that case, I'll cover it, but remember to pay for the next time, okay? It's a business here, ha ha!"
That sort of line would so much more serious if he weren't laughing as he said it... But at least it's enough to redirect Gokudera's rage a little bit, grip going loose as he points aggressively to his coworker. "Stop laughing! You can't just reward this kind of behavior- HEY WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING." Because of course with the grip on his shirt loosened, the opposing baker takes the opportunity to just beat feet.
Predictably, the other baker doesn't bother to answer. He does, at least, take a bite of the cupcake.
There's no point in Tsuna holding onto Gokudera's arm any further, at least not while he's this incensed, so he lets him chase after the baker with a sigh. "Is this actually alright?" he asks.
Yamamoto keeps that utterly relaxed smile on his face, which only matches the way that he tucks his hands into his pockets. Pants pockets, not the apron one. "Oh, yeah, it should be fine. And you know, we don't actually have to worry too much about them being our competition or anything, actually. It turns out that their whole line of work is pretty different from ours!"
Tsuna wants to ask how exactly that works, except then there's the sound of bodies hitting the floor hard right as the two of them exit out the front door, and then an unheard amount of Italian swearing from Gokudera. Yelping, Tsuna skitters to the side, even as his brain takes in the sight of his friend and a green apron-clad body crashing right there against concrete. Except, rather than dark hair and glasses, there's just a whole mess of blond hair that is - oh ok he's just trying to bite Gokudera yeah sure that's a normal thing that's happening!
"What the hell," he asks quietly, only to catch onto the sound of munching right besides him. How he can hear it over the sound of Gokudera and this other Kokuyo baker absolutely screeching at each other is a mystery for another time. Right now, all he can do is stare blankly up at the guy in glasses and a beanie.
Another bit of the cupcake. A chew. He finally seems to realize that he's being stared at and, in turn, looks down at Tsuna dully. "Ken," he answers, although that's not exactly the question Tsuna was asking. "...I'm Chikusa."
"Good to know," Tsuna says in the sort of tired tone where he's just kind of given up on it all at this point. This is going to be in the local papers. People will gossip. It's all going to be so very dumb and it's already happened, so whatever. He's here now. "So why are you here again?"
"Flirting."
.........God he's so tired.
While Tsuna stares off into some far off distance he can't see, not even bothering to try and understand the answer he's just received, Yamamoto perks up from besides him. "Oh, I thought that was what you were trying to do!" he exclaims. "Ha ha, I thought maybe it was something like that, but I wasn't entirely sure, since we'd just met. You have a real style to it, huh?"
"....If that's what you want to call it.... Sure."
"How the hell was that flirting when he just stole a cupcake from us," Tsuna whispers quietly. Over his head, the other two keep talking and, before him, Gokudera and the other Kokuyo guy are still brawling, so, like, he's not really expecting an answer.
Which is good! Because he doesn't get one. Instead, there's still just the violent fight happening at his feet which he figures he should probably break up at some point, but he's not sure how. While he's stewing over that, having given up on the virtues of human language, Chikusa speaks up again. "Oh right... I almost forgot. We're not competing... or whatever."
Tsuna blinks. He blinks a couple of times, actually, if only to remember what it's like to have his body again and use it for things like blinking, and speaking. "Uh, okay?" he says to start with, because that's a good filler phrase that never steers him wrong.
Fortunately, while it doesn't look like Chikusa's hard to read stare will give him any answers anytime soon, Tsuna does have someone who isn't so opposed to speaking plainly now and again. Speaking plainly way too often, actually, even if he sometimes seems tuned into an entirely different universe than the one Tsuna is experiencing. "Oh, yeah, when I looked over to them, they're doing a whole different kind of bakery," Yamamoto says. "Less really cute fun desserts, all of that, but more like really homey and basic stuff. Fresh bread, and a ton of muffins, you know. The kind of things that aren't really sweet, more earthy."
"...Oh." It's not the complete solution to his headache, but it's enough for Tsuna to straighten up a little bit more and for the headache to abate a bit. "Really? Yeah - then that's definitely pretty different from how we do things." Totally different, actually, and he perks up even more before smiling in pure relief at Chikusa. "Sorry if we were making you feel awkward then. I guess there wasn't any reason to worry about any competition between our two businesses at all, huh?"
"Nope." Finishing off the cupcake, Chikusa wipes a bit of frosting off of his mouth. "Besides, we're just a money laundering front anyway." And he walks away.
All Tsuna can do is stare for a minute, but a minute is all Chikusa needs to speed walk straight back to Kokuyo Bakery. He's left just yelling, "WAIT, WHAT!? AND WHO WERE YOU FLIRTING WITH!?"