The Prince

Part 13

It had been a few weeks since Noah had started at the bakery and had now moved on to bussing tables, which he had to admit was much better than being stuck behind the sink all day, although he couldn't escape it completely.

Having extra cash in his pocket was great, but escaping from the house was the real bonus. He felt less stressed, now that he'd made peace with Skye, but it still felt strange to be around him. Not that he seemed to notice anything, he came, did his job and left. Very rarely would he stay to talk to the others, but they all thought his mysterious air made him much more desirable.

Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong, Noah thought. Maybe acting uninterested and cold was the new way of becoming popular. Grabbing himself a hot chocolate and pastry, he sat in the kitchen watching the activities around him. He was dying to do some actual baking, but it didn't look like that was on the cards for him.

"Hey," Skye sat down next to him with a drink in hand.

"Oh, hey Skye," he was somewhat surprised that Skye would initiate a conversation between the two of them.

"Are things getting a bit better now?"

"Yes, they are. At least I'm off scrubbing duty for most of the time and can see the front of the shop." He happily chomped down on the biscuit. 

"That's all part of the initiation," he laughed.

"Is there more to come?"

"Not sure, when I started they dumped a bucket of flour and water over my head, so anything is possible."

Noah looked at him properly, noticing a slight smile, which had him captivated. If his personality wasn't that awful, then he might want to fall for him, but so far, even though he was nice, the jury was still out on everything else.

"You'd better tell me if they're going to do something like that to me."

"Why should I?" He countered. "If I had to go through it, then you'll have to suffer it too."

"Some friend you are," he grumbled scowling.

Before Skye could respond, Jackson came purposefully walking over to them with a big smile plastered on his face. Skye knew that look and it could only mean one of two things. Either Jackson did something that he thought was the right thing to do, which it wasn't, or he'd messed up so much that he was trying to make the situation look better than it really was.

"Isn't that your dad?" Noah asked.

"Little One and your Little Buddy!" He exclaimed, giving Skye a one-handed hug, he kissed the top of his head

"Hi, Mr. Dealer." Noah waved at him, again not sure if hugs were the going rate for saying hi.

"Picking up another shift?" Skye asked.

"No, nothing like that. I've come to check on how things are." He appeared somewhat uncomfortable looking around.

"There's something else going on, isn't there Dad?" He watched a flush creep across Jackson's face.

"The thing is, your Papa has given me strict orders to take you home after work..." He looked guiltily at Skye.

"But you have something else planned that you forgot about and now you want me to get you out of it?" He knew his dad all too well, even though there may be times when he did something completely unpredictable.

"Em, I can't really cancel, see? Asuka and I have to leave from here in the next ten minutes, so I thought..." he trailed off.

"Of course, I don't mind taking the bus, Papie. It's not like I haven't done it before."