Sweet Treats in More Ways than One

[safetypinalert3]

As soon as she left the skating rink, she had all but raced home. She paused at her closer, and chewed on her lip. She REALLY wanted to dress normally—her usual bangles, wild hairstyles, loads of makeup, and layers, upon layers of clothing. But at the same time…she was going to be cooking—or at least attempting to. And as difficult as it was, she pulled on only a pink t-shirt, and a jean skirt. She laced up her pink converse, then swept her pink hair in a side ponytail, keeping all stray strands from flying around.

She then grabbed her favorite apron—a full body, pink number, edged with lace, and decorated with tiny little cupcakes. She smiled, and tossed it over her shoulder. She unzipped her Hello Kitty purse, as Carpet flew out of it. “I’m going to the bakery, you have run of the house. Don’t make a mess, and if anything happens that is an emergency, then you can come find me. But be discreet.” She instructed, staring at the miniature carpet hovering in front of her face. Magic Carpet saluted her with a tassel and rubbed against her cheek affectionately. She carefully cupped it in her hands, then picked up her keys and left the house.

She hopped into her car, taking off to the bakery. She pulled into a parking lot, and stared at the bakery from her car. Was it a joke? He really was Rhys Sprinter, so why would he offer to let some random ice-rink girl into a little piece of his life. Granted it was something friendly, he took baking very seriously. She’d probably be wary if she were to take him into her rug store…if she even had one. The idea clicked, and she smiled. Maybe she could ask him about business advice…She didn’t have a store, and was working from home on simple hand-made accessories. It was fun, but she’d really like to own a store, surrounded by luxurious rugs.

She shook her head, and snapped out of it, pulling her keys out of the ignition, and grabbed her apron. She locked her door to the car, and approached the bakery, tugging the door open, and glanced around nervously.

Notes: Rhys/Trey! Yaaay!
Outfit:Daww.

[RHYS SPRINTER]

Rhys had drove like a mad man.

Which was why he had a ticket.

But not even the scowling face of the pudgy police officer giving him the evil eye as he wrote him up could dampen his spirits.

Because Rhys had a date.

Well, it wasn't really a date, per se, but it was an important get together with a maybe potential significant other. And he was excited.

He practically crashed into the minute parking in front of the store, and dashed inside. Thankfully, because he had taken care to have the store well stocked so that none of the dimwits that worked for him had to do anything more than slip pastries into paper bags, the back room was clean. As a whistle. Rhys grinned, and went about setting everything up.

He pulled out flour and sugar and cinnamon and vanilla and other baking things, dug around in a cupboard for the measuring cups and pulled the measuring spoons out of a drawer. He dug into the fridge and pulled out everything he thought he would need, and then went in search for the mixing bowls.

When everything was gathered ingredient wise, Rhys ducked back outside to the trunk of his car. He could not work without music. There was something about hopping around to some rock jam or alternative thing that just made baking.....exhilarating.

Although, Adeen was plenty exhilarating...

He grinned, and hummed a little tune. The radio was sat in a corner, far out of their way, and loaded with all the CD's he could fit into it. It paid being rich, at times like these.

He had just set the first song, Cave In by Owl City, when he heard the front door open.

The front of the store was dark, with only the light from the back room shining through the open door. Rhys poked his head through, and grinned at the site of the pink hair.

"Hey." He probably looked like a complete fool. "Could you lock the door? The key's in the lock. When you're done, you can come right through."

He ducked back in, sure that if she had to look at his stupidly smiling face for any longer she would start to think he was odd in the head.

"I hope you don't mind music. It helps with the baking, I promise."

[safetypinalert3]

She grinned, her nerves momentarily disappearing when she say Rhys’ head peek through and look at her. Adeen nodded, and turned to lock the door behind her, then followed in to the back room where she saw him look out from. Without heels, or skates, she was a little shorter, but tall enough to still look Rhys in the eyes.

“I don’t mind at all, silence can be a bit maddening.” She agreed, doing her best to not bounce on her toes. Happy, and excited, but still a little nervous. She didn’t feel like being laughed out of the store, after all…she hadn’t had a date in a very, very long time. Then again—it wasn’t a date. It was just…hanging out with a cool, random guy she had met at an ice rink. Totally not a date.

She glanced at the radio, nodding her head, “Hey, this is really good.” She pulled her apron over her shoulder, and lowered her head to toss the loop around her neck, then reached behind her to tie the pink ribbons in. “So, Rhys,” Adeen showed off the fact that she remembered his name, “What are we doing?” She paused and looked up, “There’s no cameras, right? This isn’t like Candid Camera, or a group of staff members ready to jump out and laugh at me.” She asked, crouching to peek underneath things, making sure there wasn’t a sneaky little staffer hidden underneath.

[RHYS SPRINTER]

He wanted to laugh at the sheer silliness of Adeen's assumption, but he just couldn't make it happen. He watched her peek under counters and peer into cupboards, and had to will himself not to snarl. The topic of his employees was a bit sore at the moment, and Rhys had to wrack his mind for something else to talk about.

"Cute pink shirt," was the first, admittedly stupid, thing to come out of his mouth. Back in high school, when he was considerably less cool than he was now, talking about a girl's shirt or blouse or whatever somehow gave the impression that you wanted to take it off. It had been a painful month before he learned to keep such honest and sincere compliments to himself. He just hoped the women here, especially the one in front of him, didn't subscribe to the school of thought, or else he was in for it.

Or maybe not, if he could talk himself out of it.

"I mean, that's not what I wanted to say. I just didn't want to talk about my employees, they're not very good ones, at the moment. But that's not to say you don't look nice. Because you do, you look very nice. All that pink makes your skin look all rosy and stuff. Not that I think you're pale, or anything." Rhys groaned, and shook his head. "I'm going to shut up now."

He turned back to the counter, picking up the bag of flour and cuddling it, simply because he knew he looked silly. In his experience, the surest way to smooth over any stupid instances of word vomit was to get the girl laughing.

But what was this, high school?

"About those muffins....you ready to get started?" He looked around, ripping open the flour and setting it down. "They're pretty easy to make, actually..."

Rhys, you idiot.

[safetypinalert3]

When Rhys complimented her shirt--it took it perfectly innocently. Sort of. It was just a plain pink shirt, worn, with fadded letting. "This old thing?" Then he went on to say...he didn't mean to say that, and her brows scrunched up. What...he...huh? Her expression relaxed, ehr her lips tightened, tilting upwards to one side, doing her best to not laugh at him. He was nervous, so he was back peddling. And watching a guy try to back peddle, was honestly--the most adorable thing ever.

She put one arm over her stomach, resting her elbow on her crossed arm, and covered her mouth with her hands, to conceal a grin. He was holding the bag of flour like a security blanket. Smiling, and ch uckling, even a slight case of the giggles was fine. But when Adeen full out laughed, one of those deep belly laughs where you have to gasp for air--her legs tended to stop working. It brought "rolling on the floor, laughing my ass off" to an entirely new meaning.

She moved in closer, lowering her hands to tuck them into her back pockets. "And we won't talk about your idiot employees. Just pretend I'm a new intern, hot off the press from YumYumInMyTumTum Tech School. And I completely failed in the baking section," She stared off, painting the image, "And you're teaching me how to make a muffin that doesn't cause my entire class to break out into hives, or fight over which trash cans to heave into." She paused, letting the imagery sink in. That last bit she could have done without. She shook her head, and focused, "Alright Mr. Sprinter, show me how it's done."

[RHYS SPRINTER]

He was grinning again. Rhys smiled, ducking his head to hide the impossibly large grin on his face. "YumYumInMyTumTum? Tech?" Adeen was...something. Something special.

"You're not really that bad in the kitchen, right?" He painted an apprehensive look on his face, plucking an apron from a nearby hook. These were pretty casual jeans, but flour was hell to wash out. Not that he did his own laundry, but still.

"Should I be frightened? There's a fire extinguisher around here, somewhere, you know." he flashed her a smile, just to show he was joking. "Don't worry. I'll keep all your experiments from endangering anyone, I promise."

Rhys closed his eyes, and straightened out his back till it hurt, putting on a professorish expression. "Now, miss Auer. The first thing to do is sift the flour. To do this, firmly grasp your sifter, like so." He didn't really pick up the sieve, partly because it was still in the cupboard above his head, and partly because Rhys didn't do the sifting flour thing. He just didn't. He couldn't remember the last time he even thought to do it, really. "Actually, no. Let's not do that. This is your bowl, and this is the flour. C'mere, lemmie show you."

He gestured for her to come closer, because he had this idea that he would be a better teacher of muffin making if he could watch what his student did from over their shoulder. As tall as Adeen was, it was nice to realize that she wasn't too tall to stand comfortably in front of him.

And, wanting to wrap his arms around her had nothing to do with it. At all.

[safetypinalert3]

"No! God, of course not. I just ment like..a hypothetical situation." She smiled serenely, and resisted the urge to smack Rhys' arm when he made the comment about the fire extinguisher. But they wern't on those terms yet. It was weird. It was strangely easy being around Rhys--granted she'd only known him for a matter of hours. Everything clicked into place like she had known him for much longer.

She straightened herself also, and stared at Rhys' hands when he was explaining the sieve. She adjusted her hands to hold the imaginary tool, before he completely veered off in the opposite direction. Adeen wandered over to him, and stared down at the ingredients, then glanced over her shoulder at him. "Dear, aren't you supposed to be teaching me?" She teased, raising her brows at him.

Her hands lifted for the flour, then paused. She'd make it completely different--wouldn't she? Adeen pressed her lips in a thin line, and suddenly felt very, very nervous. What the hell was she doing, anyway? Alone, in a closed, locked up bakery. With a complete stranger she'd met like. Two hours ago. And now she was going to humiliate herself infront of the Rhys Sprinter, by completely butchering his recipie. Adeen swallowed hard, and smiled sheepishly.

"Would you believe me if I told you my mind just completely blanked out, and I have completely forgotten what the hell I'm doing?"

[RHYS SPRINTER]

"Dear, aren't you supposed to be teaching me?

Rhys pinked. Someone should really tell Adeen the effect her words had on people who may or may not be attracted to her. Really. As it was, he kind of had his hands full with the lesson he was supposed to be conducting, and the butterflies he wasn't supposed to let her know about.

He had just about formulated a snappy comeback to that, when that soft voice drifted around him again.

"Would you believe me if I told you my mind just completely blanked out, and I have completely forgotten what the hell I'm doing?"

"Well, I would say I tend to have that effect on people," Rhys began, "but you kind of didn't know what you were doing in the first place, so..."

He grinned, reaching around her to hold the bag of flour in his hands. "We'll make a small batch,like thirty or so, for starters. Since I make the brownie bits fresh for each batch, we'll do that too, k. Now, be a good girl and pour for me."

He was going to have far more fun than was strictly necessary with this. It wasn't everyday he found someone cute enough to catch his eye that was brave enough to stand with him in a kitchen and pure enough to not be out to dig into his trenches. It wasn't his fault Adeen was adorable, and that Rhys had a soft spot for adorable. It wasn't.

Rhys made a mental list of everything they would have to do, and figured the entire process would take up to two hours, more than double the amount of time he could do it in, but he didn't much care. It was two hours of happiness more than he would have had today. Thank goodness fo rice rinks.

He led her through making the brownie batter, since that had to be partially baked first, giving into his mischievous side and smearing a streak of it down her cheek. "Oops," he said, looking completely unapologetic. 'it looks good on you, though."

"This is almost done! And it's absolutely fine, even if your apron isn't." Rhys grinned. One of the benefits of standing behind the person who was doing most of the mixing and general handling of ingredients was that the got dirty and covered with stuff, and he got to grin about it. "But don't worry; you still look amazing."

[safetypinalert3]

"Hey now." She grumbled at his comment. She knew how to bake, she just...didn't know how to bake with Rhys Sprinter, THE. RHYS. SPRINTER. Standing right behind her. It was almost like trying to make mac'n'cheese with Chef Ramsey staring over your shoulder. Terrifying, but strangely...enough to stroke your ego.

She didn't realize how absolutely tiring it could be, trying to bake, but she was laughing, and enjoying herself. In the moments of quiet, she felt a slight ache that itched through her veins. Like she was missing something in her blood, the craving of a cigarette. And then Rhys did something else--and would distract her from the craving of her own, special blend. This time--it happened to be a smear of batter down her cheek.

She stared at him, her eyes wide at him, her mouth comically wide. She gasped, and wiped part of it off her cheek, and with the stame, astonished, opened mouthed shocked face, smeared it down Rhy's nose. "Two can play at that, Mr. Sprinter." She warned, closing her mouth, pointing at him with a long finger, before turning back to finish the brownies. Adeen stepped back, and raised the end of her apron, like she was going to wipe her face. "Shit...Well." She blinked, "I guess that's what they're for. Nothing a little soap and water can't cure." She nodded in seriously, and gave his shoulder a friendly pat, leaving a white print on his shoulder.

[RHYS SPRINTER]

Rhys threw his head back and laughed. There was brownie batter on his nose, a hand shaped flour print on his shirt and a mess of a woman in front of him. Best Thursday night ever? Just might be.

"You know I'm going to get you for that, right?" He took a hanky out of his pocket, not caring if the chocolate would leave a stain, and cleaned off his nose. "And to think, I would have let you use my hanky, but nooo..."

He drew out a baking pan and poured the batter into it, grinning as the first strings of Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You drifted through the air. "Do you like music? Like, actively, or are you one of those people who deal with it when they have to, but don't really care for it?"

So he was fishing for information, like a good guy. It couldn't all just be him blushing and being mischievous till the muffins were done. Besides, if this..whatever was going to go anywhere, they had to get to know each other. "I love music. I'm not as active about it as I used to be though. There's a whole bunch of recent Jpop that I haven't gotten to yet."

With the brownie batter in the oven, he turned back to the muffin mix, picking u[ a bag of chocolate chips to snack on. "Why're you so far away? Come back over here, so we can do this thing."

[safetypinalert3]

Adeen’s brown eyes rolled when he said he was going to get her for that. “I’m shaking.” She teased, then watched him as he poured the batter into the baking pan. At first she had been a little star struck, admittedly. But now it was simply…just cool to be able to see Rhys work his magic. There were few people with gifts like that, So many people ignored their talents and missed out. But it seemed like Rhys had fully acknowledged it, and was reeling in the benefits.

“Oh! Nono, I love music. I have a weakness for Bollywood though.” She smiled sheepishly. She had Carpet to thank for that one. “I have to have my fix of it every day, which includes singing as loud as I possibly can to it.” She grinned, and tugged her apron over her head, bunching it up in her arms when she moved over to Rhys. She took his snacking on the chocolate chips as a sign it was a moment for a break. She held her hand open, and grinned at him.

Then she nearly fainted when the words Jpop came out of his mouth. “JPop?” She echoed. Adeen wasn’t one of those weeabo freaks that worshipped Japan, thought Japan was superior in every way, or threw in Japanese words along with her English ones. But by god, did she love the fashion. And most fashion stemmed from music, so they kind of went hand in hand. Remain calm. Remain calm.

“Where the hell have you been all my life?” She grinned, her face almost hurting from it. “I love it, if not just for…how cute JPop can be. And the fashion…it’s marvelous.” Adeen nodded, doing her best to stay calm. It was just one thing after another. Did Rhys ever stop being awesome? Would this continue on for the rest of eternity? Cause that’d be amazing.

“Here, I got a fun one for you.” She grinned, and reached into her short’s pocket, and pulled out a pink(duh) iPod, stamped with Hello Kitty stickers. She tucked one of the ear buds into her own ear, then held the other for Rhys. She flicked through the songs, before landing on one of her favorites. “This is one I’ve been obsessed with for such a long time.”

[RHYS SPRINTER]

"Are they saying...Shanghai Honey?"

It had been a small relief to find out Adeen loved music as much as he did, though the small part of his brain that usually got him into trouble was having a hard time accepting that she was for real. It was a reasonable worry, he thought. He knew the woman for all of three hours and she was, albeit unknowingly, filling up all his little requirements for a special someone.

"I'm more partial to Ikimono Gakari, and the like. Boy bands are so 1990's."

Or was she? For some reason, as good as Adeen made Rhys feel, as much as he felt himself falling headfirst fast, he couldn't shake the feeling that something about her was going to pop up and rip a hole in his wonderful world.

But since that thought was pessimistic and completely contrary to the vibe he had been feeling till a few seconds ago, Rhys shoved that thought to the furthest corner of his brain, and pasted a grin on his face.

"So, back to work, you. Unless you want to stay with me all night, we really should get back to these muffins. The brownies only need a few more minutes to firm up, since they're going back into the baker anyway."

He turned back to the counter, only to wish the ground would open up and swallow him whole. 'Boyfriend' by Big Time Rush had just come on. Kill. Him. Now.

[safetypinalert3]

“Shanghai Honey, meeting for an Asian Rendezvous.” She laughed, and grinned, “It’s a fun song, and the video’s cute-slash-funny. I’ll have to show you sometime. But I’m not familiar with Ikimono Gakari.” She tilted her head at him, before pushing her side ponytail out of her face, and slipped her apron back on when he turned to the counter.

She froze in her steps, and looked at the stereo, taking a step towards it. Her arms at her side, staring at the stereo like it was going to jump to life and attack her. “I thought you said boy bands are so 1990’s?” She grinned, looking at him. She curled her hands into fists, her body rolling from her shoulders down to her legs, holding her arms out in front of her. Her shoulders shimmied up and down, her toes then pointed outwards, then back in; her ponytail bobbing. Doing an absolutely funny rendition of a typical 90’s pop girl-dance of sort. Very twitchy, and bouncy--which was rather comical with her in a completely messy apron, and brownie batter still caked onto her cheek.

Adeen reached behind her to tap the CD player to start the song over, “The brownies don’t need to be under your watchful eye to firm up.” She wiggled comically towards Rhys, gesturing him in with her index fingers, “This song is amazingly 90’s. Let’s see what you were doing back then.” She joked, grinning brightly. “C’mon, this is fun, Rhys. Not business, loosen up.” She held her hands out to him and grinned. She mouthed the words, “Your boy b-b-b-b-b-b-b-boyfriend.” With a wide eyed, fish-like expression on her face while relaxing. “Don’t be so tense, I promise I don’t bite.”

[RHYS SPRINTER]

“Don’t be so tense, I promise I don’t bite.”

Rhys grinned, and hesitantly took her hand. "I'm not too sure about that..." Someone had to have hit him over the head earlier, because there was no way he could really be doing this. Dancing. In his bakery. With a pink haired, pink-wearing wonder of perfection. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't dance if his life depended on it.

"In the 1990's I was at home, thinking up recipes, not dancing." And it showed. He tried a awkward foot-shifting thing, wiggling his bum while trying to keep his hand wrapped around Adeen's smaller one. "You're just enjoying me make a fool of myself, don't think I don't know it."

He tugged on her arm, pulling her closer, and settled a hand in the small of her back. "I can do this, see?" He rocked slightly, moving completely off beat with the mid-tempo song. "This is safe, for my dignity, as well as my old man muscles. What say you?"

Of course, he immediately felt guilty. Hadn't she asked him to relax? He was being really uptight about this dancing thing, and there was no one here to laugh at him. Well, Adeen might laugh, but he could always poke her in the side, or soemthing. he was sure she had to be ticklish.

The last strains off the song died out, he pulled the player's remote control from his back pocket. "Wait, this is Ikimono Gakari." He had an entire CD of their work, and felt he could relax and let loose better, since he didn't know what the heck the lead singer was saying.

"kirameite yurameite, aoki yume mai hanatsu, hana moe yuku," he sang along with the singer. "I have no idea what that means, but I think the song is awesome." Pocketing the control again, Rhys finally let himself loose, starting with a weird 'sstalking prey' move that he knew made him look liek an idiot. Soon he was bouncing around, not caring if Adeen laughed anymore.

He really did love this song.

[safetypinalert3]

“When you dance to 90’s songs, you just have to dance as cheesy, and lame as possible.” She laughed, watching him wiggle. Absolutely hilarious, then again, she couldn’t dance very well either, but she learned how to dance without really caring about what other people thought of her. Her smile faded slightly when he pulled her in.

That was dangerously close. She stared him in the face, and felt her stomach fall to her ankles, her throat tightening. She chuckled nervously, and lowered her head as she rocked with him off beat. Adeen couldn’t look him in the face, temptation was entirely too much. Color prickled in her face, and she mentally wanted to beat herself up. Just a short time, and she already felt that strange necessity that told her she needed to be around him. “I highly doubt you’ve got old man muscles.” She raised her eyebrows, and squeezed his upper arm pointedly. “And if you’re old, than I’m ancient.”

Adeen felt momentarily disappointed when he moved back, when the song changed. She grinned, listening to him sing, before it finally happened. She laughed, that ‘stalking’ dance he did made her absolutely lose it. It started off with small giggles, before it erupted in a loud laugh. She wrapped one arm around her middle, covering her mouth to stop the laughing, and then she hit the ground. She knew it was happening, but she couldn’t stop laughing.

The dance, along with how happy she was, just finally burst out of her and she was on her back gasping for air, laughing hard enough that tears were leaking out of her eyes. She stared up at the ceiling, giggles still bursting out of her mouth, turning her brown eyes down to watch Rhys. Her face was now bright red, but she was still absolutely losing it like a hyena.

"Mr. S-sprinter, what on earth..." She broke up into more giggles, "I re-repeat, where have you been all my life?" She gasped, her giggles slowly dying down, but not enough for her to attempt to stand up again.