Charlie's Coffeehouse [Open to Multiple]

[rae_of_sun]

As if to make up for the previous evening's kali horror show, Sunshine's dream is warm and familiar. She's in a bakery - her bakery in her stepdad's coffeehouse, though elements of her new workplace sneak in here and there. She hardly notices the inconsistencies as she churns out trays of muffins and sheets of cookies. Charlie's working the register, Mel's in the kitchen, Mary's waitressing, and her mom is probably in her office giving someone hell over the phone. All is as it should be.

If she knew she was dreaming, she would probably think it fitting that anyone drop in, relax, and eat some cookies (well, okay, if she knew she was dreaming she might not recommend eating anything, but whatever, she breaks that rule all the time). Last night was rough, and people deserve a break - and a toxic sugar concoction or two. As it is, she's not paying any particular attention to the customers as she carries out a tray of Killer Zebras and transfers them into a display case.

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[watchesthebeans]

Maybe it's Sunshine's feelings seeping through or maybe it's as simple as feeling back in his element, but Aglet feels like he's in his element right now. That he's never had opportunity to raid a kitchen quite as large and as wonderful doesn't occur to him; he's been in a couple and a kitchen is the best place for borrowing. He's tense and cautious, but it's a good kind of alertness, the kind of rush that comes with being on a mission.

He watches the bean as she finishes what she's doing to a tray of something that smells delicious. In the waking world he'd never take this kind of chance; while he has the opportunities afforded by pastries and ingredients out on the counters, in real life it would be worth dealing with breaking into a refrigerator or other storage for the sake of waiting until the lights were out and the beans gone home. In the dream, though, he feels cocky. Darting out from his hiding spot, he darts across the counter in a beeline for the nearest baked good. Grab and run, that's the plan. That's usually the plan.

[rae_of_sun]

Unfortunately for all parties, the dish Aglet targets is one Aimil's named the Death of Marat. It looks like a standard, light, fluffy pudding, and sits innocuously in a white ceramic dish. Inside, however, is a surprising amount of raspberry and blackberry filling. Hey, sometimes Sunshine likes to experiment, and while light puddings with heavy fillings are beasts to make, this one has proved popular enough that she'll still occasionally churn one out if she likes you enough.

She definitely doesn't notice Aglet making a beeline for it. And if her charms notice, their objections are drowned out by the ambient noise of the bakery.

[watchesthebeans]

Aglet steals closer, eyes on the prize. He checks his feet for dirt before stepping carefully onto the dish and crouching at the side of the pudding, not wanting to leave any marks on the plate. This kind of thing takes finesse, and he glances in the direction the bean went one more time before slipping his knife from its sheath and carving away a neat little sliver from near the bottom of the pudding, the cuts expertly placed to look like an naturally formed crack.

And then everything goes wrong. Though he didn't cut deep enough to open the reservoir outright, the weak point he just introduced into the structure is no match for the pressure of the filling. Just as Aglet rises to run back the way he came the dam gives way, colorful berry filling gushing forth and splashing against his feet. He slips in the viscous fluid and falls hard against the pudding -- indeed, falls right through it and has to flail and splash in ruined pastry to haul himself out of the sodden mess and off the plate. He takes off running for lack of other inspiration, slipping and sliding and leaving a trail even the blindest of beans could follow back toward his last hiding place.

[rae_of_sun]

When Sunshine turns and sees the ruined pastry, her first thought is that it must have collapsed on its own. It's happened before, especially when she was first getting the hang of it. She knows her business well enough that it shouldn't have happened, but what other explanation could there be?

Oh. She surveys the damage, eyebrows creeping up her forehead. So here's another explanation: a very tiny person broke her masterpiece and then scrambled off, leaving a trail of berry filling behind them.

"Okay," she says quietly, following the little trail of footprints, "come on out and face the music, little person."

[watchesthebeans]

As far as hiding places go, behind a couple containers of ingredients already isn't the greatest even before you add in the trail of tiny footprints pointing to him like a flashing neon arrow. What on earth he's going to do Aglet doesn't know; it's not like he has any way of getting the gunk off him without stripping naked....

And the bean has spotted the mess he left. He grimaces, waiting a beat. For some reason, it doesn't seem odd that she knows what happened to her pastry. It doesn't feel like a death knell, either, that she does. Slumped of shoulder, he shuffles out to the edge of his hiding place and gives her a look that's almost as much accusation as apology.

"How was I supposed to know it was going to explode?" he asks petulantly.

[rae_of_sun]

Under normal circumstances, Sunshine might be a bit more alarmed by the presence of a tiny person in her bakery. The place is well warded enough that trespassers shouldn't be able to sneak in, and the sort of Others who tend to masquerade as charmingly tiny people are rarely the sort you want to actually tangle with. She can't say she recognizes Aglet underneath his generous coating of berry filling, but his voice is familiar enough to keep her from, say, reaching for a rolling pin.

Instead, she finds herself choking back a laugh. "Well, exploding is sort of what that dish does," she says. It's too bad the dish is ruined, but she can't help getting some pleasure out of the knowledge that it died gunking up a little thief.

… A little thief that's going to track said gunk all over her bakery if she lets him leave in his current state. "Sit tight; I'll get you a bowl of soapy water," she says. Hopefully he won't try to sneak off while she runs him a tiny little bath, though if he does, it won't be that hard for her to track him down.

[watchesthebeans]

Funny how people keep thinking his titchy size is an indicator that he's actually something awful and powerful. Funny how people keep thinking of him as a thief, too, when clearly he's nothing of the sort.

He frowns at her, somehow taking offense at what amounts to an offer of help. Maybe it's the part where her attempts not to laugh aren't fooling him. "It's a dumb thing to make food do," he informs her haughtily. He does consider stalking off while her back is turned, but...gunk. Even if he can find a way off the counter quickly enough to slip away, he's going to leave a trail.

[rae_of_sun]

"It's an inspired thing to make food do," she corrects as she squirts a dollop of hand soap into the bottom of a shallow bowl and fills it with warm water. "I don't invent desserts with the presumption that a tiny person is going to dash up and try to take a chunk out of them." And why should she? This is the first time it's ever happened.

She sets the bowl close enough to the little guy so that he won't have to trek to reach it, but far enough away so it won't look to him as if she's dropping it right on his head. "Climb on in," she says. Not that a fully-clothed bath is all that enticing a prospect, but she's not exactly equipped to deal with dirty fair folk, here. She can make an impromptu bath, but scaled down laundry facilities are more than she has the time or inclination for. Instead, she grabs a dishcloth and focuses on wiping up the berry filling he's tracked all over the counter.

[watchesthebeans]

"You wouldn't have even noticed," he huffs, thinking with injured pride of the neat little incision he'd made. "It was going to be a tiny piece a bean like you couldn't even see."

Sighing, he acquiesces to come to the edge of the bowl. He hadn't really thought about the implications of taking a bath out on the counter -- he glances up at her, but she's busy wiping up after him. Does she mean for him to get undressed out here? Well, he won't do it. He'd rather be in wet clothes, thankyouverymuch. Hiking a leg up over the lip of the bowl, he gets about halfway over before slipping and falling in with a little splash.

[rae_of_sun]

Well, she's not going to set up a privacy screen for him, and his clothes need scrubbing as much as the rest of him. She's assuming he'll just pile in, fully clothed, which is just as well. If he had more privacy, he'd probably just use it to sneak off.

"'Bean'?" she asks as she wipes down the counter. "What is that, some kind of slur?" Her tone is more playful than reproachful, but even harmless slang isn't the sort of thing you honestly use to address people to their face.

[watchesthebeans]

"It's just a word for what you are," he says defensively. Honestly, what is it with beans and not wanting to be called beans? "I'm a borrower and you're a bean. You wouldn't call a cat a -- a something other than a cat."

Very coherent, cogent argument there. Aglet rubs off gobs of goop into the water, which is quickly thickening.