Chapter Text
Sylvie declared Magic Touch closed for the remainder of the day, not that they were going to lose any money in doing so. She was quick to find a recipe and pull out all the needed ingredients, frowning a bit realizing some were missing.
“I’ve got to go to the store,” she announced when she finished a list of everything she’d need for all that she was planning to make, “Don’t touch anything while I’m gone.”
“Need I remind you it’s my bakery?”
“Sure, and while you’re at it, remind me how often you’ve been here in the last decade.” Sylvie rolled her eyes, just don’t mess with anything. I’ll be back soon.”
Loki glanced around as she left, noting how bland it looked inside. If they were going to be making Frigga’s Christmas sweets…well, what good would it do if it looked this sad inside? It wasn’t drawing any attention to the store, and that needed to change. Nope, if they were going to do this, they were going to do it right.
Sylvie ended up spending a lot more time at the grocery store than she thought she would - evidently, in the week before Christmas everyone in existence had decided that they needed to get baking ingredients. She felt victorious as she grabbed the last bit of ginger spice, seeing someone else running up to try and get it first. And no, she wouldn’t feel guilty about it - she could almost guarantee she needed it more than the other woman.
By the time she got back, she nearly dropped her shopping bags when she walked into the bakery. “Loki…” she said, “What happened here? Where did you get that?”
Loki popped out from around the Christmas tree with a grin, “I ran back to the house and got some of their old Christmas decor, though I don’t think it’s been touched in a while. I also found some of the ones that mother put up here every year, and somehow they still work. If we’re relying on the holiday magic to revive this place, then it should look the part. However, it’s going to take me a bit to get it all up…I could use some help.”
“I’ve got to get baking, I can’t exactly help hanging ornaments…I’d rather not mess anything up… Oh! I bet I could get Wanda to come help me in the kitchen…she’s the one you met the other day. And Peter can come help you decorate…he’s the other employee, by the way.”
“How did you convince anyone to work here, by the way? I can’t imagine the pay is…well, anywhere near decent.”
She gave a small smile, “They’re like me, without families. They’re happy to make anything at all, and I was the only one really willing to hire them…plus, I think they like that I can relate to them. So they stay. But anyways, I’ll give them a call. Stay tuned.”
Soon, Sylvie and Wanda were busy baking while Loki and Peter were decorating. Things were moving along smoothly, somehow, and once the first batch of cookies came out of the oven everyone impatiently waited for them to properly cool so that they could taste-test them.
“Oh my god,” Peter shoved one of the cookies into his mouth as soon as he had deemed enough time had passed, “Nothing this good has ever come out of that oven before.”
As soon as Sylvie had tasted one herself, she swore she would’ve jumped into Loki’s arms and kissed him right that instant. It was exactly how she remembered it, and now she had no doubt that as soon as word got out, the bakery would be swarmed by customers in no time. But of course, first they had to finish decorating the place and preparing more dough for the following morning. Everything had to be fresh when they opened, as Frigga had always done. If it meant waking up hours earlier than usual and calling out from her afternoon shift at her actual job, so be it.
“Soo…” Wanda started as the two girls continued to mix the ingredients together, “What’s with you and Loki?”
“Huh?”
“Are you two like, together? You’ve never mentioned him before.”
“What? No! Why would you-”
“It’s the way you two look at each other,” Wanda shrugged, “He looks at you like you’re his entire universe, and I’ve never seen you look so longingly at someone before.”
Sylvie stayed silent for a second, “We used to be together, and there was some miscommunication that ended it. But that’s ancient history now.”
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
“Just drop it, okay?”
“Fine,” Wanda wiped her hands on her apron, “I’m going to go grab more sugar, we’re running a bit low out here.” Sylvie didn’t pay this much mind as they had been using quite a bit, completely missing the other go over to Peter and whisper something in his ear before disappearing into the stock room.
Peter had a huge grin on his face now - and a mission to complete.
Night had fallen before any of them knew it. The entire place had been decorated top to bottom in Christmas decor, and there were batches of dough ready to be put into the oven prior to opening the next day. They had come up with a bit of a plan: Peter and Wanda were going to be in charge of putting things into the oven, making sure they don’t burn, and setting them out. Loki and Sylvie were going to be outside advertising the return of the old favorites, hoping that some of the older locals would give it a chance and help spread the word.
“Think they’ll notice we only decorated like…two days before Christmas?” Sylvie asked the following morning as they stood outside.
“Probably, but I doubt they’ll say anything about it.”
“No, they’ll be more focused on the fact that an Odinson is actually standing near it again.”
“I’d hope the focus would be on the food, seeing as that’s what we’re trying to sell here.”
Sylvie glanced over at him, “I feel like you underestimate the amount of gossip that goes on around here about your family. Hence why everyone in town thinks this place is about to get sold…you showed up dressed like your lawyer self, seeming to have forgotten all about this place.”
“I-” Loki glanced around, hoping to see any other human being walk by so he could excuse himself and go start handing out the flyers that Peter had decided to make the night before. “I’m going to go walk around the corner and maybe hang one of these up, get the word out around the block.”
The first hour of the business day was as slow as ever, despite all the people rushing around to do their last minute shopping. Sylvie was trying not to feel defeated, coming up with any reason as to why nobody had really stopped by yet. They ate breakfast at home, were rushing to make sure they got something before it sold out, food was the last thing on their mind- that had to be it.
Loki had on a corporate smile, trying to talk like a businessman to every person he spoke to. Obviously, that wasn’t going to help either.
“Is that Loki Odinson standing there? My eyes must be deceiving me.” a voice said from behind the two, “Surely not, he hasn’t been around in oh…how many years has it been now? Decided he was too good to be associated with any of us anymore.”
“Ah, Sif,” he turned around slowly, “Lovely to see you too. Home for the holidays, as they say.”
“You just had to wait until none of your family was left here? Oh no wait let me guess,” Sif looked between Loki and Sylvie, “You two finally got back together. About time, honestly…but I think everyone’s lost the bet on how long it would take now.” Both went to correct her at the same time, but she paid no mind to them as she turned towards the bakery. She eyed it for a second before snatching one of the flyers from Loki, “Frigga’s recipes are back? If that were the case, wouldn’t more people be here right now?”
Sylvie crossed her arms with a slight huff, “You would think. Either nobody cares or nobody believes us.”
“Well you know how it is here…as soon as one person starts talking about this place, everyone’s going to want to stop by to see what it’s about. I’ll take the bait and try a muffin or something, and if it’s as good as they used to be then maybe I can get the ball rolling. A lot of our old friends are in town right now, you know? We could get the word out.”
“Thor’s friends,” Loki mumbled the correction underneath his breath for only Sylvie, “Not mine.”
“Well,” Sylvie said as Sif disappeared inside, “If they get people to actually start showing up here, they’ll be my friends. And not just because that’ll mean we get to step inside and not be out in the cold all day.”
“Why don’t we take a break and go warm up a bit?” he suggested, “Us being out here hasn’t done any good anyways.”
Sylvie considered this for a moment before agreeing, allowing them to step inside as Sif stepped away from the counter and quickly pulled out her phone, sitting in the corner but not saying another word to them.
There was no more movement in the shop for a few minutes, Loki and Sylvie having taken a seat on the other side of the store from Sif and the counter. “You didn’t correct her when she said we were a couple,” Sylvie pointed out after a bit.
“You didn’t either.”
“Not like I had much chance to.”
“I had just as much as you did.”
“Well-” Before she could say anything else, the little bell rang indicating that the door had been opened. A group of Thor’s old friends walked in, being greeted by Sif. Loki got up to welcome them as well, but before he could do or say anything they all left again, just as quickly as they had entered.
Sylvie’s voice was small as she spoke, “Guess she wasn’t impressed. I bet they’re going to go tell the entire town to avoid this place now. Actually, you know what? I don’t think she ever even liked you. Of course she would pull something like this.”
“Now wait, we don’t know–”
“Oh just shut up,” Sylvie stormed over to the backroom, slamming the door shut behind her. Loki stared at the door, wondering what exactly he was supposed to do now.
Peter cleared his throat from behind the counter, “She told me it was amazing, for what it’s worth.”
“Yeah,” Wanda chimed in, “I thought that woman said something about getting others here. But why bring them here to just leave again?”
Loki didn’t know what to say, honestly he still really wasn’t sure what to do. It made no sense for Sif to call everyone here to just leave again, he couldn’t wrap his head around it at all. But he had promised Sylvie that he was going to try his best to save this place, and he wasn’t going to let one setback stop him.
He was searching for anything he could do now…samples, that had to be it! If they made samples to hand out, people could judge for themselves. How they hadn’t thought of that before, he wasn’t sure. Just as he turned to direct the two teens to start cutting up some of the cookies into smaller portions, the bell chimed again.
“A little birdie told me that my dear friend’s bakery is back to its former glory,” an older woman smiled as she walked in, “Had to come see it for myself. Loki, it’s good to see you again! Oh, it’s been too long. Finally come to steal our Sylvie away from us though, I hear.” Loki recognized the woman as a neighbor from when he was growing up. Her name escaped him, though he believed it was something along the lines of Eir.
Peter smiled brightly, “Hello! What can we get for you today? We’ve got a lot of the seasonal flavors out right now, but also some of the classics!”
As Eir walked up to the counter and began chatting with Peter, the bell chimed again alerting that someone else had walked in. Before long, the chiming was a constant filling the air as people walked in and out.
Sylvie poked her head back out after a few minutes of this, wiping her eyes as she stepped out and walked back up to Loki, “What the…? What happened?”
“I…don’t know,” Loki admitted, motioning to the old woman who had yet to leave, “Eir walked in and suddenly…well, everyone else did too. Are you alright?” he looked down at her, noting that she had obviously been back there crying. “I was going to come check on you, but…”
She wasn’t listening anymore, too busy taking in the sight of the bakery being the busiest it had been in years. Everyone seemed happy, and she noted that it looked like some people were going back to order goods to take home with them. How Peter and Wanda were keeping up with it, she wasn’t sure…but she was impressed. Before she could think better of it, she threw her arms around Loki and pulled him into a hug.
Loki returned the hug, taking the chance to hold her tightly. He had missed this, missed the feeling of her in his arms. And if this was going to be the last time he ever got to experience it, then…
“Told you we’d get the word out,” Sif said as she walked up, having walked back in at some point disguised by the sea of others, “Hope there’s plenty left…I told the boys that they couldn’t get anything until people were actually in here. I knew the second they got a taste of it they weren’t going to be leaving anytime soon.”
Sylvie’s grip on him loosened, “Thank you,” she said, “Seriously, thank you. This is…amazing. Frigga would be so happy.”
Sif nodded, “She would be. To see this and the two of you together again.”
“Oh,” Loki went to let go of Sylvie now, remembering her comment from earlier, “We aren’t-”
“Hey!” Wanda called out to them, leaning over the counter, “You aren’t supposed to just hug under those things.”
Loki looked over at Wanda, who along with Peter had huge grins on their faces, before looking above where he was standing.
“Who put mistletoe up?” Sylvie questioned before he was able to, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Not me,” Loki was quick to defend himself, “We don’t have to- I don’t know how that-” he was cut off by Sylvie’s lips on his, her arms wrapping themselves back around him. Not caring about the audience of customers, Loki re-tightened his grip on her and deepened the kiss. Neither caught Wanda’s “told you so,” to Peter.
When they broke apart, Loki rested his forehead on Sylvie’s, waiting for her to dictate what was going to happen next. “You know,” she said after a second, “I’m not going to let you get away so easily this time.”
“Or perhaps I’m not going to let you push me away this time.”
Sylvie pulled back a bit, looking him in the eye, “What if I said that I don’t want to leave this place forever? If we really did just get this place up and going again, I can’t just leave.”
Loki thought for a minute, “How opposed would you be to my living here now?”