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𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃 by Jesper's hands holding his eyelids tightly shut, Wylan was guided into unknown territory under the pretence of 'a surprise' his dear boyfriend had seemingly set up. Though, as Jesper continued to whisk him further away down the streets of Ketterdam, Wylan was starting to question the man's trustability. He did have a tendency to get himself in tough situations. For all Wylan knew, he was being whisked off, straight into the centre of a Jesper problem.
Though, Wylan swallowed down his instinctive fear and distrust, bred into him by his father over time, but he knew better, especially with someone like Jesper whom he would swear his life to. He wouldn't let his father ruin anything else for him.
"Okay... just a little further." Jesper spoke, directing Wylan from behind as the louder masses of Ketterdam slipped into the role of merely background noise - though never truly gone. "Aaaand here."
Jesper came to a stop, holding Wylan in place in front of something, sounding more and more excited as he held his boyfriend's eyes shut reluctantly. "Now, I know this will be a big commitment, but know it's more of a commitment from me to you. So you know how serious I am about you."
His tone grew more cautious, almost nervous sounding, Jesper never got nervous, and slowly edged away from Wylan's petite frame. Unsure on whether Jesper was waiting for some sort of confirmation or response, Wylan slowly mumbled, half to himself. "Okay..."
His soft brown hands lifted away, the cool touch of his rings against Wylan's eyelids disappearing instantly, as Jesper moved back a few steps, in a typical Jepser fashion, dressed in a plaid suit with a trademark hat. However, the more Wylan's eyes adjusted to the sudden immense light, a building came into view - an empty store with a large window at the front.
"Jesper... what-" Wylan started, confused and somewhat nervous for what this all entailed, looking at Jesper slowly. Jesper cut him off by taking Wylans hand in his own and stepping in front of him with an eagerly nervous smile like a family member on your birthday hoping you liked the gift they'd bought. "Just trust me, come here."
Jesper held Wylan's hand behind him and led him into the building, having a set of keys. The building was desolate inside: an empty slate. It was moderately sized, with a cute front desk and a larger area in the back that Wylan saw looked like a kitchen. Before Wylan could ask any further, Jesper stopped him in front of the desk, standing and facing him, their hands still held tightly together, perfectly milder for each-other.
"Wylan... I know this is a lot but I just want you to know that Im serious about you. We'll still be crows first and foremost, but I want to give you more stability than just crime and cons." Jesper paused, pulling his hands out of Wylans, now looking nervous. "And I know how much we both love baking, especially together, so..."
Jesper reached into his pocket and pulled out a spare copy of his keys he'd earlier used to enter the building, however two small keychains was attached. Wylan slowly took them, in awe, and lifted them in his hands to see clearly. One of the keychains was a small cupcake keychain and the other one was a rectangular one with Jesper posing on it, cursive writing on top. Jesper immediately pointed at it, reading 'The Bakery.' Another small feature Wylan noticed was even smaller writing at the bottom, hand carved in Jesper's handwriting that Jesper read as 'Wylan's Set.'
Wylan froze, staring at the set wide-eyed as Jesper stepped back again, now nervous and frowning at the prolonged silence. "Wylan, I'm sorry for not asking you. If you don't want this, I can-"
"No." Wylan cut in sharply, leaving a moment to pass as a comfortable silence was shared. Wylan began to stumble over his words, though his face softened and he gleamed up at Jesper. "No, no one has ever done anything like this for me before." Wylan stopped himself from speaking and took a short breath, staring at Jesper as if he were a breath of fresh air after being locked away for a lifetime.
Before Jesper could even think of a response, Wylan dove in and kissed him eagerly, taking Jesper's face in his hands passionately. Jesper quickly reciprocated the kiss, biting Wylan's lip lightly as Wylan let his tongue slide into Jesper's mouth, leaving no room for any doubt on Wylans part about the bakery - a clear answer for Jesper.
They shared the sweet and soft moment, privately in the comfort of their soon-to-be own bakery. Wylan could already imagine Jesper flirting with him at the register while he tried to serve customers and decorating the store with him, painting the walls messily together and picking out a couple of sets of tables and chairs for customers.
They broke apart slowly and Wylan instantly laughed, looking around wide-eyed. "Saints, I can't believe this is real." He glanced back at Jesper to find his expression taken over by a devious smirk. "Jesper... what-" Wylan stared cautiously with a raised eyebrow, unsure of what devilish things the man had in mind.
Jesper suddenly grabbed his hand and led him through into the back. The kitchen was already set up, some ingredients on the side as Jesper hurried to grab two aprons, throwing off his coat and putting on his own apron. He handed Wylan his apron with an excited gummy smile as he tied his own apron behind his back, readjusting his hat on his head as he washed his hands.
Wylan copied and followed quickly behind, both of them now with aprons on and their hands washed. "Oh, Saints, what are you getting me to do now." Wylan groaned jokingly as Jesper set out countless utensils and ingredients. "I can only imagine how messy this can get..."
"Well that's all part of the fun, my dear," Jesper laughed, and his lip quirked up as Wylan grew nervous, laughing at the seductive nicknames as he shifted his gaze to the ingredients, his fluster falling to curiosity as he went to turn to Jesper, his eyes still locked onto mostly generic stuff. "Jes, what are we making? I hope you're not expecting us to wing it."
Wylan let out a faint laugh, though silently praying it wasn't the case, as Jesper laughed too. "No, don't worry. I... have a recipe my mother used to use." His voice trailed off slightly as he started to talk about his mother. Wylan knew he had a complicated past and wasn't keen on bringing it up - he gave him a soft smile, knowing how meaningful the recipe must be to him, and went to move on.
"So, you're just going by memory?" Wylan posed the question, inquisitively but also somewhat worried, a small wobbly smile on his face as he watched Jesper reach to pull out some of the first ingredients. He laughed. "I'm surprised I remember it as clearly as I do. They're going to be vegan strawberry cream Danish pastries. We need to prepare the pastry first..."
Jesper trailed off, focused now as he reached for a large baking tray and started to line it with grease proof paper. He faced Wylan and gave him a gentle smile. "Can you preheat the oven for me at one hundred and eighty degrees please?"
Wylan quickly nodded and rushed to it, before coming back to see Jesper unrolling the already done sheets of puff pastry he'd prepared. Wylan grabbed a rolling pin and held it up lightly. "Want me to help with that?"
Jesper scoffed and stepped back with a grin. "Of course! You're the better one at baking here, I just wanted to share the recipe." Wylan didn't wait for permission as he scoffed playfully and stepped forward to slightly flatten out any wrinkles in the pastry. Jesper leaned against a nearby counter with a devious look, staring at Wylan the entire time.
As he swiftly came to finish flattening it, Jesper strode up to him slowly and reached into a bag of flour, lifting a pinch with a smirk. "We should dust some flour over it." Smirking, he went to sprinkle some over the pastry before blowing some on Wylan with a smirk.
Wylan could only think to stand there astounded, his eyelids blinking slowly as his mouth spat out a small amount of flour and then stayed open in shock. Jesper broke down into laughter. "Be careful with your mouth open like that, I could always chuck some more flour into it."
And with that, Wylan was out for revenge, grabbing a fistful of flour and hurdling it at Jesper while he tried (and failed) to dodge it, laughing and pleading for Wylan to take mercy as they dodged back and forth with flour in their hands. Soon, Jesper was covered too, and they had both fallen quickly into a playful banter, dancing around the counters back and forth with flour in their hands, Jesper even attempting to deflect it as he held a frying pan in-front of his face. "No, please have mercy, I look too good to be covered in flour!"
He cried out dramatically and yelped as Wylan hurled more with a laugh. "Saints, even your hats covered." Jesper soon dropped the frying pan and pulled off his hat in desperation, looking at in fake mourning as he tried to dust away the flour covering it. "No... not my beloved."
They'd not long after mad their way back to the station, still covered in flour, but slightly more comfortable and loosened-up. Jesper had put his hat back on to, as he put it, 'complete the look' since he was already covered in flour anyways.
"Wait a minute." Jesper murmured, then shuffling through a cupboard before producing small heart-shaped cookie cutters with a beaming smile, somewhat nervous. "Ta-da! Maybe a little cheesy but they were all I could find..." He groaned and mumbled under his breath about the shitty convenience store having only hearts and christmas trees in stock when it was neither Valentines nor Christmas.
Wylan chuckled as Jesper slowly handed Wylan a cutter and they started to chomp out the shapes and place them on the tray lined with grease proof paper, re-rolling out and cutting more shaped into any leftover pastry to not waste any. "Okay..." Jesper pulled out a smaller shaped heart cookie cutter with a lip-sided smile. "Now you have to trust me here."
Wylan gave him a cautious smirk, but quickly mumbled agreement as Jesper came over and placed the smaller cutter in the centre of the larger heart and pressed down gently, as to not cut it out but make an indent. "Do you trust me?" Jesper offered Wylan the cutter with a false serious look.
"I'd be concerned as to why I'm doing this if I didn't trust you, of course." Wylan scoffed lightly, with a gentle smile as he took the cutter and followed Jesper's instructions to make similar small hearted indents into each larger heart while he moved onto the cream cheese filling.
Jesper had a bowl out and was mixing together the cream cheese, flour and sugar by the time Wylan was done, though it was obvious Jesper had gotten distracted by Wylan joking during the time, the mixture still very lumpy, until Wylan got his hands on it, taking over instinctively. Jesper raised and eyebrow, impressed, and stepped back to let Wylan take the baking spotlight proudly until the mixture was perfectly thick and creamy. "Well... I should've known mixing messy ingredients together is your talent given you being my demo man."
Jesper directed Wylan as he grabbed a piping bag and transferred the filling mixture into it, snipping off the tip, which made Wylan give Jesper a glare while adding the filling as to not even think about making a joke. Jesper was then sent off to wash and slice some fresh strawberries while Wylan finished off, then heading back over to him to add a few slices on top of the cream cheese.
"Now we need to brush milk over the edges of the hearts and sprinkle some sugar on it to help it brown." Jesper then stepped into an instinctive cooking mode that stunned Wylan, seeing as the man rarely focused long enough to go into anything like this. However, he would've dared to argue Jesper had fallen into repeating what his mother had said when baking this for him as a child.
They then soon slid the tray into the middle of the oven, turning to each other as Jesper picked up a spare strawberry slice and ate one joyfully, then offering Wylan one, feeding it to him while Wylan fought back a blush, both waiting for the cooking time to rush by and for it to never end: it came sooner than expected. The time was over and the pastries were already golden in colour and flakey, perfectly done.
"Well aren't you Wylan Van Sunshine? Look, you've done so well on these, they look so good!" Jesper sang praises as he removed the tray from the oven, setting them aside to cook for a minute and dusting some icing sugar on top to finish them.
Jesper stood before the cooled-down tray with his hands on his hips in a proud awe. "Well holy shit, we did so well with them. They should be alright try try now." He picked up a pastry and headed over to feed Wylan a bite. "Here, the baker should get the first honorary bite."
Wylan went to speak but stopped himself, knowing he'd only stumble on his words, and instead opted to take a bite, at least then he wouldn't have to try and stutter through more flirting. His face soon lit up as he raised a hand to cover his mouth as he finished off his large bite. "Saints, that was delicious, Jes."
Jesper had stood eagerly, awaiting his reaction, and practically glowed now with pride for his baker boyfriend. "Really? I never doubted it." Jesper then raised the remained of the pastry and ate it, his own face lighting up with a pure joy only amazing food could cause.
Wylan had already almost finished his second heart-shaped strawberry cream Danish pastry as Jesper stifled back a laugh, causing Wylan to make a sad frowning face, which only made Jesper laugh harder, feeling bad for him as he hadn't even realised. "Come here."
Jesper took a step closer and raised his hand to the corner of Wylan's mouth as Wylan froze, baffled and embarrassed as he still had half a pastry in his mouth, quickly swallowing it down as Jesper smirked and wiped away cream cheese from the corner of his mouth and his lips. "You're so messy, Saints."
He laughed and grinned, then raising his fingers to his own mouth and licking off the cream cheese, Wylan only growing more and more baffled by each moment. Jesper then rolled up his sleeves again, having fallen down over time, leaning back on an opposing counter with a smirk and looking at the surrounding area. "Though, I will admit partial responsibility for the flour..."
"Partial? You threw it first!" Wylan scoffed, smiling as he crossed his arms in protest. Jesper gave him a raised eyebrow and a dark look, reaching for more flour like a predator, waiting to strike.
"Oh, Jes, wait!" Wylan ducked, and they were soon exhausted, all the flour on the floors and over them, leaving none left to throw as he sat beside each other on the floor, eating pastry's and laughing. They shared a moment of comfortable silence before Wylan turned to face Jesper with a serious glint in his eye. "Jesper."
He turned to face Wylan, silently waiting. "I just want to thank you. This is amazing, truly." The two locked and stared for a moment, exchanging soft smiles before sharing a flour-covered kiss of passion and joy, leaving them both laughing with tears in their eyes the flour remained leaving them like two nostalgic ghosts abandoned in an empty bakery.
"I can imagine it now: we opened the store forty years ago and we died old and happy in a shared small cottage somewhere nearby where we'd spent our long marriage living with our pet dog." Wylan couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah, and Kaz would be the grumpy neighbour who lives by himself but won't admit he loves the visits everyone in the village would make to check on him." Now it was Jesper's turn to laugh as the two laid in their own flour-covered defeat, imagining alternative lives.
Jesper took a bite from a pastry before feeding Wylan the other half and staring absentmindedly as Wylan tried not to choke on his food. "I hope you don't end up being this messy when we open the bakery. I can only imagine coming back here for more donuts and finding you covered in sticky sugary syrups, about to cry."
Wylan hurried down his food to defend himself, still having half in his mouth as he covered it with his hand and protested. "I would never!" Jesper snored. "We'll have to see."