Chapter Text
"P'Rain, P'Rain!" Rain looks up and smiles as Lys races into the bakery, pigtails flying out behind her.
"Lys," he says, trying to sound like a firm older brother but failing miserably, "slow down and don't shout. You haven’t even said hello to Sky."
Lys stops and gives Sky a polite wai, "hello, P'Sky, nice to see you."
"Hello, Lys, I brought you a gift." He hands her a manga.
Her eyes grow wide. "Is this the new One Piece?" she asks excitedly.
"Just got them in today," he says.
She gives a happy squeal and gives him a hug.
Rain shakes his head at the two of them, "Congratulations, you have managed to turn my little sister into a complete nerd."
Sky rolls his eyes and says, "You wish you were as cool as us." Lys nods at this.
Rain turns to Lys, "Oh, what did you want to tell me?"
She pulls off her backpack and rummages around in it for a minute. She pulls out a crumpled piece of paper and hands it to him.
Rain sees it's a flier for a famous bakery chain called, "Tasty Treats." At the bottom it says, "coming to your town this November".
Rain feels his blood run cold. Their town is small. Why would such a big chain open here? It’s not fair. He knows he won't possibly be able to compete with them.
He can't let Lys know he is worried. "Thank you Eerie, go do your homework then you can read your manga." He ruffles her hair.
She pouts and says, "Don't call me that." She takes her bookbag and new manga to the back of the shop where Rain has made her a little study corner.
Once she is out of earshot Rain shows the flier to Sky. "This is bad."
Sky frowns but says, "maybe it will be okay, people love your homemade treats. They are much better than anything a big chain can make."
"Maybe but look, they are opening in November. November through New Years is my busiest season. I count on it to put back money for Lys's education. You know how people are when anything new opens. Especially in a small town. Even if they prefer my bakery, they will flood the new business at first." Rain says.
Sky wants to say something comforting, but it is an undeniable fact that people get excited by anything new.
Sky has it a little better, even if people here don't understand the greatness of manga and western comic books, he has an inheritance from his uncle that is enough to support him and run his little shop at a loss.
With a little sister to support Rain doesn’t have that privilege.
"I need to get back," Sky says, pumping his fist in the air. "Fighting."
Rain laughs at this; meeting Sky has been the best part about moving to this small town. Rain never had a best friend when he lived in Bangkok, but Sky is like a brother to both him and Lys now.
Rain sighs and wipes down the already clean counter trying to distract himself.
Phayu looks around the small town and scowls. Why Pai thinks it’s such a good idea to open a branch of Tasty Treats in such an out of the way place is a complete mystery. This town is in the middle of nowhere. He had only passed an electronics factory and a high school on the way into town. When he asked Pai about it, he just got some vague answer that Pai had passed through the small town on his way to his vacation home last summer and had found it charming.
To Phayu it looks like every single other little town he has ever seen. Pretty enough but nothing spectacular. There isn’t even a major highway near here to attract vacationers. He walks down the street taking stock of the businesses. There aren’t many, there is a small convenience store and a grocery store. There is a book shop, Phayu raises his eyebrows at this one because on closer inspection he sees it’s a comic bookstore, that seems a little out of place here. At the end of the block Phayu sees a family-owned hardware store and a small bed and breakfast. That’s where Phayu will be staying while he’s here.
Phayu starts to turn back where he left his bike then freezes, there is a tiny business he missed on first inspection. A charming pink and white round awning bears the name “Rainy Day Bakery”.
Not good, there is no way this town will support two bakeries, Phayu is a little surprised it even supports one. A small place like this would have no chance against Tasty Treats. Phayu sighs reminding himself it’s just business, he can’t let himself worry about it. He will just go in and check out the competition.
The inside of the bakery is as cute as the outside. It’s tiny with a couple of bistro tables in one corner and the large display counter of pasties up front. The design reminds Phayu of a picture of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor they looked at in business school. It is spotless and the entire room is white and soft pink.
“Hi, may I help you?” Someone asks, and Phayu looks up to see the cutest omega he has ever seen in his life. The omega is giving him a sunny smile that lights up his whole face.
Phayu shakes himself and goes to look in the display case. He expects to see standard bakery fare but what he sees stuns him instead. There aren’t just Thai and common western pastries, there are pastries he doesn’t recognize, despite the fact that Phayu has studied desserts from all over the world in his position as co-owner of Tasty Treats.
He picks out an interesting looking cheese filled pastry and says, “You have an amazing variety here.”
The man behind the counter blushes and says, “I like to find new recipes and experiment with them. Would you like a cup of coffee or tea to go with that?”
“Coffee would be nice.” Phayu says. “Do you get a lot of business here?”
The man says, “It’s okay. The high school will let out in an hour, and I will get quite a few teenagers and some people will stop in on their way from work to pick up desserts for dinner. It’s a small town but it’s close enough to three other towns to get people passing through from school and work.”
Phayu raises his eyebrows at that, if the bakery draws people from other towns that’s a good sign that maybe Pai isn’t as crazy as he seems.
“Are you passing through?” the omega asks as he rings up Phayu’s purchase.
Phayu shakes his head, “I am staying in town on business for a few weeks.”
“Oh, staying at Ple and Som’s bed and breakfast?” he asks.
Since there is only one bed and breakfast in town, Phayu feels pretty confident in saying yes.
The man hands him a small plate and a mug, “I hope you enjoy it,” he says with a cute bunny smile that Phayu finds endearing.
Phayu takes his food over to one of the tables and grabs his laptop out of his bag. He is pretending to work but spends most of his time watching the omega as he cleans the counter and hums happily. Maybe this little town does have some appeal after all. Phayu tries to suppress that thought, after all he may be here to put the omega out of business.
Phayu takes a bite of the pastry and closes his eyes in pleasure. It’s all he can do not to let out a moan. If all the omega’s pastries are this good, he is wasted being hidden away in this small town. Tasty Treats has several classically trained pastry chefs on staff, and he hasn’t ever tasted anything half as good as this from one of them.
“P’Rain.” Phayu looks up as a little girl’s voice pipes from the back of the shop. An adorable girl of about eight pokes her head out of the back. It's obvious that this is the omega’s sister; they share the same looks of someone from Korean descent. “I finished my homework, can I read my manga now?”
“All of it?” The omega, Rain, answers.
The little girl nods.
“Okay, do you want a snack?” Rain asks her. She nods and he takes out a couple cookies. “Get yourself a glass of milk from the back.”
Just then she spots Phayu and her eyes go wide. She leans in and whispers something to Rain. Rain shakes his head, and she whispers again. The omega sighs.
He stands up and says to Phayu, “My sister wants to know if you are a movie star.”
Phayu chuckles at this and says, “thank you for the compliment, nong but I am afraid I’m just a businessman.”
“What’s your name?” she asks.
“Lys, you should greet him politely and tell him your name first.” Rain admonishes.
She stands up and gives him a polite wai and says, “My name is Eirlys. You can call me Lys for short, just don’t call me eerie.” She gives a slight pout at Rain for this last part and Phayu bites back a laugh.
“Hello, Lys, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Phayu," he says.
She whispers something else to Rain who smiles and says, “Lys wants to know if she can call you uncle.”
Phayu smiles at the little girl and says, “I would like that.”
“Now go read,” Rain tells the little girl. “P’Phayu probably want to work.”
She nods and takes her cookies to the back.
“Is it just you and Lys here?” Phayu asks Rain.
Rain nods, “Our parents died a couple years ago so I brought Lys here for a new start.”
Rain looks to be twenty at the most. It must be a lot of responsibility looking after his sister and running the bakery. Phayu feels a twinge of guilt go through him. It’s hard to tell himself it’s just business when seeing the bakery owner and his little sister. He makes a note to talk to Pai.
Just as Rain predicted the bakery soon fills up with teenagers, most of them didn’t even look in the case and just immediately called out their favorites so it’s obvious many of them are regulars in the bakery. Rain laughs and jokes with many of them calling them by name.
“P’Rain did you see that a new bakery is going to open?” one of the girls says and Phayu stiffens at this.
Phayu notices Rain’s lips tighten slightly, so he does realize what the new bakery will mean, but then he smiles at the girl and says, “I did. Looks like our little town is growing to have such a big chain open here.”
The teenagers all take their bags of pastries and wave goodbye to the omega. Rain sighs in relief and leans against the counter for a minute. “I’m grateful for their business but teenagers have so much energy.” He says as if he is a middle-aged man instead of barely older than the students himself. “I dread Lys being that age. Did you enjoy your pastry?”
“It’s delicious, do you make everything from scratch?” Phayu asks.
Rain nods, “I really enjoy baking. It’s the only time I can really focus on something.”
“You are very skilled; did you train with someone?” Phayu has been wondering about this.
“No, I had actually never even tried baking until a couple years ago. While we were cleaning out my parents' house and preparing for the move, I found a box of my grandmother’s recipes and decided to try a few. That’s when I fell in love with baking. I had insurance money from my parents and decided to invest it in this place. It was probably a dumb thing to do but it’s turned out pretty well.” Rain says.
“You are very talented,” Phayu says and Rain blushes prettily at this. Phayu takes his plate and mug back to Rain and says, “I will definitely be back.”
Rain watches the alpha leave and sighs wistfully. Lys isn’t the only one who thinks he is as handsome as a movie star.
“Enough, Rain.” he tells himself, “You don’t have time for all of that.” Rain has resigned himself to not having relationships. He is at the bakery six days a week and the one day the bakery is closed, Monday, he spends trying out new recipes and spending time with Lys. There isn’t room in his life for anything else. It doesn’t stop him from dreaming about what it would be like to know the alpha better.
He washes the plate and mug and gets ready for his second rush of the day. Almost like clockwork the after-work crowd files in. They almost empty out his case, over the last two years Rain has how many pastries to make down to a science. He will box up the few remaining and drop them by Sky’s shop on their way home. With one reserved for him and Lys to have for dessert that night.
He cleans the shop and shuts down the register, he will take the receipts and sales information home to log it in his accounting app after Lys is asleep tonight. He calls Lys to get ready to go. They have a short walk home. If it were just him, he would sleep in his shop like Sky does but he feels like Lys needs a proper home where she can have her own bedroom and private space. That’s why he rents a house on the edge of town. It’s tiny with barely enough room for the two of them, but Rain has done his best to decorate it and make it cozy with some of their parents' and grandparents’ things he hasn’t sold.
At dinner that night he talks to Lys about her day at school and discusses new recipes he would like to try. After dinner Lys takes a bath and dresses in her favorite PJs. They watch a cartoon, One Piece of course no cute Disney cartoons will do for Lys, until her bedtime. Then Rain does his accounting and has a nice cup of tea. Once he is alone, he can’t help but to think about the handsome alpha from that afternoon.
Phayu tries to work but he keeps seeing Rain and his sunny smile in his mind. Finally, he gives up and calls Pai.
“Did you know this town already has a bakery?” He asks.
There is silence from the other end of the phone for a moment, then Pai says, “No I didn’t actually make it into town last time I was there. I just assumed the town would be too small to have anything like that.”
“But you didn’t check.” Phayu says.
“No, I didn’t.” Pai admits.
“Why did you choose this town, be honest this time.” Phayu says.
“Well, I met an omega at a bar in the next town over and we spent a very lovely weekend together. I asked around later and found out later that he was from that town, he owns some sort of business there.” Pai admits.
Phayu sighs, trust Pai to be thinking with the wrong body part. It’s too late to change their mind about opening a branch here, contracts have already been signed, but maybe they can figure something out.
As if reading his thoughts, Pai says, “Maybe we can absorb the town’s bakery into our business. Would the owner maybe come to work for us? Did you try his pastry, is the owner any good?”
“Some of the best I have ever tasted, and he’s a natural talent.” Phayu says. “No training. He might work for us.” Phayu thinks of the cute little shop with regret. The tasty treats shop will be much larger and employ several people. Rain wouldn’t have the creative freedom he enjoys now. That seems to be the only answer if he is going to help Rain and his sister, and he does want to do that despite the fact he just met them today.