The Whole Bakery

“No, and no, and no–” and so on and so forth, because of course that nothing was ever good enough for Viago. To himself, Lux thought the other man was antsy because they’d been cooped up for days. Nex was standing next to Viago as the man was collecting the dough they’d separated on the table. She didn’t say anything, but Lux was sure she agreed with him.

Rain had been falling in uncharacteristically long intervals, which left them cooped up more often than not. Neither him nor Nex minded, but Viago had always been more of a traveller. Even Lux had to admit that it was strange that Viago’s room was actually occupied by its owner for longer than a week or two.

It had been unnerving, at first. Viago had been Lux and Nex’s roommate almost since they met, but he’d never fully been there. He travelled a lot and came back with stories and personalised presents, but it was hard to know where he was and how he was doing. Nex had never gotten over the worry; Lux didn’t think he did, either.

“Alright, cooking master,” he said as he watched Viago work the dough, “Show us how it’s done.”

“It’s baking master, actually,” Viago shot back, a frown scrunching his face almost adorably, “We’re going to shape them like bunnies.”

“Bunnies,” Nex echoed. She sounded sceptical, but not miraculously not dead inside. Dead inside wasn’t her default, not at all. It was just that neither of them knew how to handle Viago when he got into one of his moods, when the wanderlust rendered him rude and irritable. Lux thought it was usually best to let it past, because otherwise he’d let it get the best of him.

“Yes, bunnies. Like us, you know?” The more Viago spoke and the more he worked on the dough, the more relaxed he became and easier he was to handle.

“Is mine going to have pink hair?” Nex asked.

“Mine has to have my exact hairstyle too,” Lux added.

Viago turned his eyes away from the dough he was shaping, then looked at the both of them through narrowed eyes.

“Pink’s fine if we have food colouring,” He said eventually, “For Lux I’m just going to burn the cookie.”

“Hey!” Lux retorted, nearly jumping over the kitchen aisle to grab at the pan with dough. But Viago was faster, and with a delighted shriek of amusement, swiped everything he was holding out of the way.

They lost patience for the cookies barely half an hour later. Well – Lux had never had it to begin with, but Nex was the one who suggested baking something. Viago finished the entire work for them, but that evening, they were munching on regular cookies. Only three of them were shaped like bunnies, and before they’d baked them, they had chocolate hairstyles to match the three of them. The final result was a disaster – though Lux had to admit it was a delicious one.

Sitting there, bickering about what to do the next day, he hoped for more rain, and perhaps a little more baked good in their lives too. He knew that Viago would still travel, but he also knew that these things were an excuse for him to stay.