Us Against the World

Chapter 3- Familiar Faces

aLL aRoUnD mE aRe fAmILIaR faCeS...

sorry not sorry i had to.

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TW/CW: Minor Personal Injury (Bruise), Food

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Using his employee key, Tommy slips in the back of the bakery, quickly grabbing a clean apron from the hooks near the back door. He ties it on as he hurries into the main kitchen.

"G'morning Niki!" Tommy shouts across the kitchen as he washes his hands.

"Morning Toms! Can you grab that tray and bring it out front?"

"Kay!" Grabbing the tray Niki indicated, Tommy hurries out to the front of the shop. Emerging behind the counter into complete chaos.

Niki opens the bakery at six am and Tommy's shift starts at eight meaning that he always arrivers right at the hectic tail end of the morning breakfast rush.

Ignoring the chaos around him, Tommy expertly puts the fresh pastries into the case on the counter as quickly as possible before quickly moving to the coffee machines and working on the orders coming in.

For the next couple of hours, it's business as usual for the small bakery: after the morning rush, only a few customers in the store until lunch, when they get swamped with people on their lunch break coming to the best bakery in the city.

A half-hour before Tommy's eight-hour shift is over the bell at the door rings again, causing Niki and Tommy to look over from where the pair had been starting to tidy up.

"Will!" Niki calls as a lanky man with curly brown hair walks into the bakery, followed by two others. An older blonde man in a loose black shirt and white-and-green bucket hat and someone with pink hair, ruffled white button up shirt and scars crisscrossing his face.

Niki pops her head out from the back and gestures to a table by the window, "Toms can you sit them just over there? I'll be right over!"

"On it, Niki!"

Tommy walks over and puts on a surprisingly good customer service face, "Hi, I'm Tommy. If you'll follow me, Niki'll be right over," Two of the three are really familiar to the blonde, but he brushes it off as Niki obviously being close to them. They must've just come in before.

The brown-haired guy nods and gestures for Tommy to lead the way. He takes them to the table Niki indicated and waits for them to sit down as patiently as he can, "D'ya guys want any drinks or shi-something?"

"I'll have a medium coffee with milk and a fairy cupcake."

"Small black coffee."

"Carmel latte, lemon square and a cinnamon roll please."

Tommy scribbles their orders down in his notebook before looking back up at the three, "Uh... do ya want icing on the cinnamon roll?"

"Yes please."

"It'll be about ten minutes and Niki should be over soon."

As Tommy said, it's only a few minutes before Niki hurries over to the group and chats animatedly with the three. When Tommy's about halfway through making their order, Tubbo and Ranboo enter the bakery. Niki looks up from talking with her friends.

"Hi Niki!" Tubbo waves enthusiastically, "We're just here to pick Tommy up once his shift's over."

Niki nods and gestures behind the counter where Tommy's working, "If you guys wanna help him get that last order ready and clean up the front, I'll start on the back and get a box of yesterday's stuff for you guys."

As the pair walk behind the counter and start washing their hands, Tubbo turns to Niki and says, "You don't have to do that Niki."

"I'm not letting the three of you live on Domino's and cheap pasta," Niki tells the pair with a smile before turning back to the three men and briefly excusing herself.

Tommy walks over carrying the three's food, "Here's your order, Niki will be back over in a minute."

"Thanks, uh..." the bucket-hat guy looks at Tommy's chicken-scratch scribble of a nametag.

"Tommy. Can I get you anything else?"

"No, we're good, thanks mate."

Tommy nods and quickly hurries back to help Niki and the others clean up. A few minutes later, the four come back into the main shop.

Tubbo is carrying a box of stale sweets and sandwiches Niki had given the trio while Ranboo protectively pets a chocolate chip muffin, also given to him by the pink-haired baker. Tommy and Niki emerge from the back together, Niki carrying both their aprons and trying to wipe something off his face with the hem of one.

"Stop mothering me!" Tommy struggles to get away from the older's attempts.

"Toms you have powdered sugar on you face," Her irritation is making Niki's faint accent more prominent as she struggles with the younger teen.

"It's fine I can wipe it off at home!"

"Just... come... here!" With the last word Niki finally manages to wipe the powder off the teen's face, unintentionally wiping some of his concealer off as well.

Niki lets out a quiet gasp at the dark bruise on her employee's face, "Tommy what happened?"

"Nothing! I'm fine! I'm a big man!" Tommy half-yells before hurrying outside, Tubbo on his heels. Ranboo stays behind a moment and mutters something to Niki which seems to assuage her concerns.

853 words

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