Chapter Text
"Thank you for visiting us!"
Valeria has a bright smile on her face as she says goodbye to her latest customer. As soon as she hears the bell above the door ring and the click of the doorframe her face contorts into anger.
"That bastard cheated on his wife and now he's not paying alimony for their kids" She sneers. Simon snorts at her comment.
"Where do you always get so much details about those people?" He laughs as he stocks the bread on the shelf. Valeria scoffs and turns over to face her best friend. She leans on the counter, currently empty of any customers. It's still early in the morning, the big rush is yet to come.
"It's called /talking/ to people, Simon, you should try it some time" she raises her eyebrows at the tall man. All he does is turn away from her, concentrating on the bread.
"I am talking to people, yesterday I ordered food over the phone" He keeps on putting all kinds of breads in to the tall shelf behind the counter. Valeria just rolls her eyes at the comment.
"That's not what I meant and you know it. Some more friends would do you good"
Simon can hear the concern in her voice. He knows his two friends aren't exactly a lot but it's enough for him, he's happy. Before he can reply though the bell rings again and Valeria is taking care of the new customer. She's way better at this than him and usually, people gravitate more to her anyway. It's not long until the small store is buzzing with people on their way to work and Simon is forced to serve some of the customers himself.
He likes his work, but being in the back making the bread is a lot more fun than having to talk to strangers on the daily basis. Around 7.30 a familiar face stands at the counter ordering his usual.
"Roach, you will have a heart attack at 30 with how much coffee you drink" Simon mumbles at his other best friend who is on his way to the office. The small man has been his best friend ever since they were 6 years old and met in school. They were inseparable ever since. And then Valeria came into the group after Simon met her at his apprenticeship. She is by far the most social out of the three of them and the only reason Simon and Gary ever went to a party in their teens.
"Every functioning adult has a caffeine addiction, Si, I'm just fitting in" The redhead replies as he fixes his dress shirt that's at least 2 sizes too big for him.
Simon rolls his eyes as he hands over the 7 espresso shots drowned in a bunch of milk and sugar.
"You have a mullet Gary, no fitting in with that thing" He smirks which earns him a middle finger right in his face.
"Love you too, Roach" Simon blows him a kiss as the man rushes out of the store, already running late. Like every morning.
Rush hour is over and Simon and Valeria finally have some time to breath and take a breath. There are still he occasional customers getting their bread or coffee and a few sitting at the tables working or reading. Valeria is off to the back taking care of /something/. Simon saw her phone light up with her current boyfriend's mug on full display. He doesn't want to be a part of that conversation anyway, he doesn't really like the guy. He wipes down the counter as the small TV in the corner of the store lights up with football news.
Maybe Simon changed the channel so that he gets all the football news every morning . Valeria hasn't noticed so far that's it not the usual channel anymore. His eyes are immediately fixed on the screen. He's glad the big rush of people is already over, now he can concentrate on the important things in life. At first the black haired man talks about the scores of the games that were the night before.
Simon hates his jobs in times like this. He can never watch any of the games on the night they're on. Being a baker meant he had to wake up in the middle of the night to go to work. He's done with work around noon, which is great but not for his football addiction.
After the man talked about the scores he talks about other important news currently going on.
"Now we come to exciting news for the Manchester Waves! Goalie John MacTavish has been promoted to Captain starting today, making him the youngest captain currently in the league. After their old captain, Enzo Reyes, stepped away from football entirely the team was without a leader for quite some time. Just now Coach Charles MacMillan announced that the young goalie will take over. "I, and the entire team trust in John and his abilities, we need new wind on our pitch, it's the young one's turn now" Stated MacMillan in an official statement. We're excited to see MacTavish lead the team to new successes, good luck!"
Simon can't take his eyes off of the screen. MW is his favourite team, of course it is. He grew up here, playing as a young boy on his school's fields he was dreaming of playing in the big stadium one day. To be surrounded by the black and green that shaped his childhood, hearing cheers and songs aimed at him, at /his/ team. But it wasn't meant to be.
He stares at the screen and at the photo of John "Soap" MacTavish, now the youngest captain in the league. They're the same age, Simon is reminded as he sees the 22 pop up under his name. He's liked Soap ever since he got on the team. A lot of fans were wary of him since he was so young and pretty quickly benched their goalie at the time. But he proved himself, now he's considered one of the best goalies in the league and he wears it with honour.
"He's so handsome!" He hears one of the elderly ladies who sit near the the telly say as she points up. He can't disagree with that, neither could the multiple fan clubs that revolve solely around Soap. He's a fan favourite and not just because of his skills. Simon is curious what he will accomplish as captain now.
"Wake up, nerd" He gets startled out of his daydreams by a very familiar voice calling him from the other side of the counter. He didn't ever hear the bell ring when he walked in.
As he looks up the ugly mug of his older brother stares back at him.
"What are you doing here, Ollie?" He has never seen the older man at his workplace before. The only people ever visiting him at work are his parents and he would really wish they would stop with that because they can't be normal about it.
"I need your help" Of course. Oliver would never just come here to buy bread or get some coffee. Simon looks at him very unamused. He doesn't know if he wants to help his older brother if he's honest. They don't have the best relationship, always fought over who is really the oldest sibling among all of them. The tension never fully settled, though it got a lot better over time. They still aren't exactly close.
"What is it?" Simon tries to keep the wariness out of his voice as good as possible. He's still at work and he doesn't want Valeria's dad to find him slacking. The man can be brutal with his punishments. Simon still remembers when he and Valeria got punished with cleaning all the pots for a whole month because they snuck off to smoke during work.
"Dean's football coach quit and they don't have anyone who can cover, can you do it?" What Simon always hated about Ollie is the way he assumes that everything he set in his brain /will/ happen. Their personalities clash a lot in that regard. Where they don't clash is their shared love for football. Their father made a lot of effort to get them all into the sport. Growing up whenever they were fighting and they just couldn't stop their dad put on a game and all of their differences were washed away. It probably wasn't the best tactic to settle their conflicts but it worked for the time.
"You want me to look after a bunch of 5-year-olds? Seriously?"
Simon can't really comprehend why Oliver is coming to /him/ of all people. Like sure he likes his little nephew but that doesn't mean he wants look after other people's kids for one and a half hours each week.
"You love babysitting Dean, don't you? There's not that big of a difference!"
He can't suppress the grunt he lets out at that comment. Sometimes he asks himself if Ollie is just oblivious or really that stupid. It makes him glad that there is no blood relation between the two.
"There is a huge difference! One is looking after my single nephew and the other is looking after 15 little kids!"
Arguing probably won't do much. Ollie gets what he wants, always has, probably always will. And Simon already feels himself caving in just because he doesn't want Valeria's dad to see him and because he's getting way too much attention for all of this. He doesn't want to be the centre of attention at most times, especially not when he's at work and just there to sell bread
"Please, Simon. I couldn't find anyone who's free on afternoons, it will only be once a week, come on".
Simon hates the big grey eyes looking at him. He can't stand his brother sometimes, but his begging is making hum buckle. It's for his nephew, he's doing this for Dean.
"Fine, send me the details" He finally relents with a defeated sigh. His brother lights up and pulls him halfway across the counter and gives him a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you, Si, you are the best" He beams as he walks out of the bakery. He could've at least bought something. Simon wipes his brother's spit off his cheek with a napkin.
What has he gotten himself into?