fic: The Lone Star Bakery and Comanche Moon (J2 AU)

[tsuki_no_bara]

title: The Lone Star Bakery and Comanche Moon
rating: PG-13
pairing: jared/jensen
words: 6110
summary: Jensen takes a liking to the owner of the bakery down the street from his tattoo studio. Fortunately the owner of the bakery takes a liking to him in return.
notes: Written for petite_madame and originally posted at to_pm_with_love. Inspired by this pic and this pic, with cameos from these guys. :D Thanks to dear_tiger for looking it over.

July

The day the bakery opens down the street from Comanche Moon Tattoos, Jensen misses almost the entire celebratory grand opening because he's booked solid until after six. He cleans up his station, announces that he's taking a break and someone else will have to handle any walk-ins, and goes outside. It's a Saturday, so there are people out and about, and while it's hot there's also a good breeze, and mostly he's just glad to be able to stretch his legs, crack his shoulders, and breathe some fresh air.

The Lone Star Bakery is open until seven, and there are a lot of people still inside. Jensen isn't particularly interested in dealing with a crowd just so he can get a pastry, especially since this crowd seems to be dissipating particularly slowly, but he's curious, and more importantly, he's hungry.

He takes a number and manages to get a decent look at the bakery cases - rows of cupcakes with neat handwritten labels, black and white cookies covered with fluffy two-tone buttercream rather than the standard icing, giant cream puffs, turnovers glittering with sugar crystals, tiny fruit tarts, round cakes blanketed in frosting, macarons lined up in pastel rainbow rows, single-serving wedges of layer cakes, trays of assorted cookies. Jensen's mouth waters. He never had much of a sweet tooth, but he never says no to a cupcake.

There are three people behind the counter - a chatty guy about Jensen's height with blond hair sticking out of his backwards baseball cap, a slight blonde girl with her long hair in a ponytail, and a tall guy in a knitted beanie. They're all wearing yellow t-shirts with "Lone Star Bakery" printed on them in an old-west style typeface, and even though they've no doubt been very busy all day, they're all cheerful and smiling and seem genuinely happy to be here, serving the hordes.

"Welcome to the Lone Star's grand opening," says the guy with the beanie, after Jensen's number is called. "What can I get ya?"

"Uh," Jensen says, his mind going blank. Here's this tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking baker wearing an ugly knitted beanie and asking him what he wants, and there's too much choice, and he has no idea. "Cupcakes." He'll bring them back to the shop. Danny will probably wave them off, but Aldis will probably eat two.

"Good choice." The baker grins, dimples appearing in his cheeks, and Jensen tries to ignore him in favor of what suddenly seem like a thousand flavors of cupcakes. "A lot of choice, I know. What are you into? The mojito ones have been selling really well, but if you want a recommendation, I like the peanutbutter-chocolate. It's a peanutbutter cupcake with chocolate frosting sprinkled with chopped peanuts. It's really peanutty. The strawberry shortcake ones are good too, if you're not a peanutbutter kind of guy."

"Get the lemon chiffon," says the blonde girl, walking around Beanie Baker and apparently overhearing. "Vanilla cupcake with a lemon curd center, and the lightest, fluffiest lemon frosting ever." She beams and keeps going.

"They're Alona's idea," Beanie Baker confides in Jensen.

"Ok," Jensen says, "one of those, a peanutbutter-chocolate, a red velvet, and... is that French toast?" He points. Beanie Baker squats behind the counter to see what Jensen's pointing at.

"It is," he says, standing back up. "Those are Chad's recipe" - he gestures to the blond guy, who is boxing up a white-frosted cake decorated with blueberries and chocolate swirls - "but if you want my opinion, they could use a little more cinnamon. Oh! I know!" He whips a piece of waxed paper out of a box on top of the counter and wraps it around something that looks suspiciously like a muffin-shaped cinnamon-sugar doughnut. "Doughnut cupcake." Beanie Baker hands it over the counter. Jensen takes it and looks at it dubiously. "On the house."

What do you do when someone hands you a free baked good and you're hungry? You eat it.

"Wow," Jensen says, mouth full. He chews, swallows, wipes cinnamon sugar off his lips. It's dense and crumby like the best cake doughnut he's ever had, cinnamony, not too sweet, with just the right amount of sugar on top. He stuffs the rest of it in his mouth, aware that there's still a crowd in the bakery, that said crowd might also want to buy something, and not caring. "Two of those instead of the French toast." He'll eat one and give the second to Chris.

Beanie Baker boxes up the cupcakes, wraps the box with red-and-white twine, tells Jensen "That's fifteen," takes his money, and tells him to come back soon.

"Oh, I will," Jensen says. "I own Comanche Moon Tattoos, just down the street."

Beanie Baker grins and pushes up his t-shirt sleeve, showing Jensen a tattoo of a pink-frosted cupcake surrounded by a banner inscribed with something in Latin than Jensen can't read. "I got a Texas star too, on my other arm."

Jensen turns his head, pulls his hair back, and pulls the rim of his ear forward so Beanie Baker can see the no doubt identical little star tattooed behind his ear. Beanie Baker laughs.

"Come back when we're not so busy," he says. "I can't promise any more free cupcakes, though."

"That's ok," Jensen tells him. "If you want any more ink, come see me. I owe you at least a cupcake's worth." And he takes his box of cupcakes and leaves, because there are still people waiting to be served and he can't believe he was just trying to flirt with a strange baker.

"Ooh," Aldis says, when Jensen gets back to the shop and takes the bakery box around. "What did you bring me?"

"Cupcakes from down the street. Lemon chiffon, peanutbutter-chocolate, red velvet, and doughnut. The doughnut ones are for me and Chris, don't eat them."

Aldis takes the peanutbutter-chocolate and stuffs it in his mouth. "Mmph," he says.

"Don't talk with your mouth full. Is Danny here?"

Aldis points towards the back where the stations are, half-height walls marking off each tattoo artist's space. Jensen takes the box down to her station, where she's doing a cover-up for a middle-aged biker-looking guy. The biker-looking guy says she should have the lemon chiffon, and Jensen says he'll put it in the tiny fridge in the office in back. He peers over her shoulder at the guy's chest, where a badly-done male face is disappearing under a bunch of pink peonies and dark green leaves.

"My ex," the biker explains. "Fuck him."

"Peonies are for healing," Danny says, without looking up.

"Nice work," Jensen tells her, and goes back to the front, where he can chat with Aldis, work on a design for a client who's coming in tomorrow, and be available in case any walk-ins show up.

He goes into the bakery the next morning on his way to work, hoping for less of a crowd. The blonde girl - Alona - is there, but Beanie Baker is not. Jensen is surprised at how disappointed he is. It's not as if they had a very long conversation, or as if the baker wasn't trying to get his business. But there was the free doughnut cupcake, and Jensen did kind of flirt with him, if that could've been called "flirting", and they did share their lone star tattoos....

"Good morning!" Alona chirps. "How can we help you today?"

Jensen looks over the cases, and this morning there are cinnamon rolls and brioche and croissants, in addition to the many cupcakes and tarts and cookies and cream puffs. "Three cinnamon rolls," he says. "Please." Aldis doesn't work on Sundays, but Danny and Chris will be there.

Oh shit. Misha's coming in today. Jensen hopes he doesn't mind sharing Aldis' station, but that's what happens when you decide at the last minute that you want to take your tattoo gun on the road and work as a visiting artist for a year. Sometimes you have to share work space with someone else.

"Four," Jensen corrects himself now. Alona puts another cinnamon roll in the box. "Is your coffee any good?"

"I think so. It's Stumptown. If you like it, it was Jared's idea."

Jared must be the baker in the beanie. The owner. The one with the cupcake tattoo.

"Is he in today?" Jensen finds himself asking.

"He's in back. Baking." She grins, as if to say What else would he be doing? "Do you want me to get him?"

"No, that's - "

"Jared!" she yells through the doorway behind the counter. "There's a customer wants to say hi!"

Shit.

"Your buns are twenty," she tells Jensen, plastering the most deliberately innocent expression he's ever seen onto her face.

Your buns are worth more than twenty, he can hear Danny teasing him in his head.

He pays for the cinnamon rolls - and they're rolls, he tells himself, no matter what Alona called them - and is about to repeat that he doesn't need to talk to Jared when the man in question comes out from the back, wiping his hands on his apron. There's a dark-red smear across the front of it. Jensen hopes it's frosting or cake batter or jam, and not blood.

"Hey," Jared says, smiling. "Comanche Moon Tattoos."

"You remember me?" Jensen asks, surprised.

"Not many guys come in here and show me their lone star tattoos. Besides, you owe me a cupcake's worth of ink."

Alona giggles.

"What did you get?" Jared asks.

"Cinnamon rolls," Jensen says. "They look good, and I don't usually eat cupcakes for breakfast."

"Did you try one yet?"

"I was going to take them back to the shop."

Jared unties the box - it's still sitting on the counter - and pushes it towards Jensen. He grabs a bunch of napkins and offers those too. Jensen can't say no to that face, or the cinnamon rolls, so he takes a napkin, retrieves a roll from the box, and bites into it.

Holy shit, it's good - warm and yeasty and sweet and cinnamony and soft and very vaguely sticky. He closes his eyes in sweet pastry bliss.

"Good, huh?" he hears Jared ask.

He just nods.

"Good morning!" Alona says brightly, and Jensen opens his eyes to see a guy who's probably in his early thirties and a little girl in a Wonder Woman t-shirt, both of them looking at the baked goods. Jensen swallows his mouthful of cinnamon roll.

Alona takes care of the new customers and Jared watches Jensen finish his breakfast. Normally Jensen doesn't like being the center of someone's undivided attention like this, but he's so absorbed in his pastry that he doesn't care.

"I got doughnuts to get back to," Jared says, "but I had to know how you liked that." He gestures to the still-open box. "I guess you did." He smiles, obviously pleased.

"I did," Jensen says.

"I'll be here every morning for the foreseeable future. Tomorrow we should have sticky buns and scones. Chad made me get wet-naps for the sticky buns. They're really sticky." He leans over the counter and practically whispers that last sentence, as if he's sharing a secret. It's oddly charming. "I'll see you later." He waves as he walks back to what must be the kitchen.

Jensen takes the box of cinnamon rolls to the tattoo shop and offers them around. Whatever he might think about Jared the baker is pushed aside as clients start coming in and people start calling and Misha settles into his borrowed station.

Jensen finds an excuse to drop by the bakery every day for the next week, even days he's not scheduled at Comanche Moon and has no other reason to be in the neighborhood. Most of the time Jared is there and they can have a short little conversation, usually about tattoos and food. They eventually introduce themselves by name. Jensen isn't sure he's learned a whole lot about Jared, aside from professionally, and he's not sure Jared has learned a whole lot about him, aside from professionally, but he is sure that he enjoys seeing him for those ten or so minutes each day. He wonders if Jared feels the same.

The bakery has been open for two weeks when he finds out. He's with a client, a guy getting his boyfriend's name tattooed on his neck, and the client keeps squirming and the boyfriend keeps squeezing his hand and trying to distract him.

"Relax," Jensen says, for what feels like the twentieth time.

"I'm trying," the client says. He tries to elbow his boyfriend. "Let go."

The boyfriend loosens his grip and looks a little sheepish.

"Jensen!" someone yells outside his station. It sounds like Chris.

"What!" he yells back, his eyes still on the client's neck.

"Cupcakes are here!"

What cupcakes? Oh. Jared must have brought them.

"I'm with a client!" Jensen yells, then says "You're almost done," to the guy in his chair.

"Hello," Jared says, almost at Jensen's shoulder. Jensen is so absorbed in his work that he can recognize Jared's voice without reacting. If he had the brain power to spare, he might be impressed with himself. "I hope that's your name," Jared says to the boyfriend, looking at the script emerging from under Jensen's tattoo gun.

"I'm Alice, actually," the boyfriend says brightly.

"Shut up," the client mutters.

"I'm almost done," Jensen repeats, this time for Jared. "Can you wait for me up front?"

"I can't watch?" Jared asks.

"I don't care," the client says. He twitches.

"Deep breaths," Jensen says, finishing the last little star around the letters and wiping off the ink smeared on the guy's neck. He turns off the tattoo gun and sits back to get a better look at his work, then reaches for a hand mirror and offers it to the client so he can see his new tattoo.

"Looks official," the boyfriend says, taking the mirror, leaning in, and kissing the client on the cheek.

"You start any more fights, I'm gonna get it covered up," the client says, but Jensen can hear the pleasure in his voice. He starts to stand.

"Don't move," Jensen tells him. He spreads some ointment on the tattoo, covers it up, and says "Ok, now you're done. Give me a second," he tells the boyfriend, who's next. "I gotta clean up."

"Do you have a bathroom?" the client asks. "I need to pee."

"End of the hallway." Jensen points. The client pushes himself out of the chair and he and his boyfriend leave Jensen's station and head down to the bathroom. Jensen stands and cracks his back, then starts cleaning up from the one client and getting ready for the next one.

"That was interesting," Jared comments. "I brought you cupcakes."

"Chris said." Now Jensen can take enough of a break to look at him. Jared is still wearing the beanie and a Lone Star Bakery t-shirt. He's probably just taking a quick break from work. "You want some ink?" Jensen gestures around himself, at his equipment and bottles of tattoo ink and the box of black latex gloves and his reference books and art and knickknacks.

"Maybe not today. Um." Jared rubs the side of his neck. "Do you want to go out for coffee sometime?"

"Yes. Yes I do." Jensen can feel himself grinning, surprised at how excited he is. "I'm really glad you asked."

"Yeah?" Jared's whole face brightens. "Me too."

Misha appears in the doorway to Jensen's station. "We're eating your cupcakes," he says. "Chris' client might have had one too."

"Did you like them?" Jared asks.

"Well, there's only one left. I'm going to put it in the fridge for Danny if you don't want it," Misha tells Jensen.

The two boys pick now to come back from the bathroom.

"Everyone out," Jensen says, waving at Misha and Jared. "My station is way too small for an audience."

"Can I come by after I close up?" Jared asks.

"I might be busy, but sure."

"I'll bring you a cupcake of your very own. I'll see you then." He smiles almost shyly, turns to Misha, asks "You really liked them?" and walks towards the front of the shop.

"Sit," Jensen tells the boyfriend, pointing to his chair. "Upper arm, right? Shirt off."

And he goes back to work.

When Jared returns at almost eight, Jensen is putting the finishing touches on a TARDIS on a girl's thigh.

"Are you done yet?" she asks shakily.

"Almost," Jensen tells her, just as Jared appears at the entrance to his station. "You're doing really well."

"It looks a little wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey," Jared comments over Jensen's shoulder. The girl giggles. "Are you getting a weeping angel next?"

"Oh god no," the girl says. "I could never look at my own leg." She winces as Jensen finishes the shading, wipes away the ink, and contemplates his work. "Is that it?"

"I think that's it," he tells her. He spritzes the tattoo, wipes it off, and pushes his chair back so she can stand. "There's a mirror at the end of the hall. Let's go look."

The three of them troop out of his station and down to the mirror, where the girl turns sideways and back to get a good look at her new tattoo.

"Fantastic," she says, beaming at her reflection. "You're a genius."

Jensen shrugs. He's just a tattoo artist with a lot of experience. Genius has nothing to do with it.

Jared watches him clean up after the client leaves. Danny comes out from the office where she's been hiding. Jared and Jensen eventually settle in the chairs up front, so Jensen can watch the door.

"So," Jared says, "coffee date."

"Is it a date?" Jensen asks, teasing a little because Jared seems just the tiniest bit nervous, and Jensen can't help himself.

"Yeah." Jared grins. "It's a date. What about Tuesday? Oh shit, I forgot to bring you a cupcake."

"That's ok. You know I'll be in tomorrow anyway."

"It's so gratifying that you come by every morning. You must really like our pastries."

"Something like that. Tuesday's one of my days off. Do you want me to come by when you close?"

"Come at four. Chad can close up if I'm not back in time."

"Let me add it to my calendar," Jensen says, miming pulling a phone out of his back pocket and entering an appointment as he recites "Coffee, Jared, Tuesday, four." Jared chuckles.

"I should go." Jared stands up. "I gotta get up at the ass-crack of dawn tomorrow. Dough never sleeps."

Jensen stands as well to see him out. "Tuesday at four," he says. "I'll be there."

"Good." And with a little wave, Jared leaves.

"He's really cute," Danny informs Jensen later, after her client has left and the two of them are locking up. "And I'm not just saying that because he brings us free cupcakes."

"He is cute, isn't he," Jensen muses.

"And so convenient." She pats him on the shoulder. "You did good, Jen."

"I haven't done anything yet."

"I have faith." She smiles serenely.

On Tuesday Jensen shows up at the Lone Star Bakery promptly at four. Behind the counter, Chad takes one look at him and yells "Your date's here!" through the doorway into the kitchen, and two minutes later Jared appears, wearing a new beanie and a t-shirt advertising some band Jensen's never heard of. He must have changed just for their coffee date.

"Hey," he says. "Good timing." He hands Jensen a little paper bag. "Experimental cupcake."

Jensen opens the bag, peeks inside, and sees a swirl of pink frosting. "What is it?"

"It's a surprise."

"Have fun!" Chad calls as they leave. "Don't hurry back!"

There's a cafe on the next block with excellent coffee (according to Jensen) and ok baked goods (according to Jared), but most importantly, it's not crowded. They sit by the window.

"This is nice," Jared says, sipping his iced decaf. "It's been so busy. We're trying to get a contract to supply scones and cookies for this coffeehouse that's about to open, but they want to offer vegan pastries and because we're not a strictly vegan bakery, they're worried about the risk of cross-contamination. I don't think they should be concerned, but if they're not comfortable, we don't get the contract." He takes the bread off the top of his sandwich and eats a tomato slice. "Alona's boyfriend is vegan, so she knows how to talk to them. Cross your fingers."

Jensen does so, holding up his hand so Jared can see. Jared smiles.

"One of the nice things about owning a tattoo shop," Jensen says. "You only ever have to answer to yourself."

"I keep meaning to ask - are you inked all over? I mean, your arms, obviously, but what about the rest of you?"

"I've got some on my legs, my chest. I've got a Ganesha on my back. Misha did it. That's how I know him."

"What's a Ganesha?"

"Elephant-headed Hindu deity. He's the remover of obstacles and patron of the arts. I got him four years ago when Chris and I started thinking about opening our own shop, and there was so much standing in our way. Things started falling into place a month after my last session - we found a space, we got a small-business loan, Danny agreed to come work for us. So Ganesha helped me." Jensen takes a bite of his brownie. It's good, but not quite as good as the Lone Star brownies.

Not that he's partial, or anything.

"You've had Comanche Moon for four years?" Jared asks.

"Just about. I'd been tattooing for ten years and I wanted to be my own boss."

"I know how that is."

There's a brief silence, but it's a very comfortable silence, and neither of them seems to mind.

"Are you going to tell me what kind of cupcake you got me?" Jensen asks eventually. "Or do I have to eat it to find out?"

"Chocolate strawberry," Jared tells him. "Chocolate cupcake with a strawberry jam center and strawberries and cream frosting. You're not allergic to strawberries, are you?"

"No. It sounds really sweet."

"That's what Chad thinks too. You'll have to give me your opinion."

"Don't worry." Jensen stirs his coffee and eats some more brownie. He wants to try the cupcake in front of Jared, but it's rude to eat it in the cafe.

"Tell me something else about you," Jared says eventually.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Something not about tattooing."

"I don't like the sight of blood."

"Really?"

"Really. Chris cut himself with a kitchen knife once and I swear I almost passed out."

Jared hides a laugh in his coffee.

"Don't laugh," Jensen says. "He gave me so much shit once he was all bandaged up. But you never get that with a tattoo. You're never going to hit an artery and have someone gush blood all over you."

"I used to nick myself all the time," Jared says. "When I was in culinary school and even after I'd been working in kitchens for a while. I'd just... take a little piece out of my finger when I was chopping. Or my hand would get in the way. The first kitchen I worked in, we had these bright purple bandages, and the sous chef used to tease me about how they had to budget for extra boxes just for me. Fortunately I heal well." He holds out his hands, palms down. "See?"

Jensen takes one of Jared's hands and turns it over to look at the palm, without even realizing what he's doing until Jared says "Aww, Jensen, are we at the hand-holding stage already?" Jensen can feel a blush creeping up his neck, but he doesn't let go of Jared's hand.

"Do you cook, too?" Jensen asks. "Or just bake?"

"No, I cook. My roast chicken is really good." He peels the cheese off his sandwich with his free hand and eats it. "It's just got rosemary and salt and pepper, and I serve it with garlic mashed potatoes and whatever vegetable looks good. Someday you'll have to come over and I'll make it for you."

Jensen's heart jumps at the idea. He still hasn't let go of Jared's hand, but Jared doesn't seem to mind. "I'd like that. Is it ok if I don't cook for you in return?"

"Why not?"

"Because you're a professional and I'd be embarrassed."

"Don't be." Jared curls his fingers around Jensen's. "It's not the quality of your cooking that matters. It's the fact that you tried at all. Food is one of the best ways to show someone you care about them, even if you fuck it up. Listen - the first girl I was really serious about was a terrible cook. She never made anything that didn't burn or wasn't raw. She loved me, so she kept trying to cook for me, and I loved her, so I kept trying to eat it." He shrugs. "If I'm going to make you dinner, I'd want you to return the favor. If it fails we can always order in." He grins brightly.

"Are you already planning the next date?" Jensen asks, surprised. He thinks things are going well, and he definitely wants to go out with Jared again, but he's not used to planning Date #2 while still in the middle of Date #1. Plus Jared just mentioned the girl he was serious about, and Jensen wants to know more about her, the way he'd want to know about any exes of anyone he was interested in. "What happened to the terrible cook?"

"She... we broke up." Jared doesn't look away, but Jensen can hear in his voice how hard it is to talk about. "We were together for six years. It really messed me up. I don't really want to talk about it here, if that's ok."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I brought her up. I'll tell you someday."

"So when do you want to make me dinner?" Jensen asks, trying to lighten the mood. He likes the thought of "someday".

"When do you have a night free?"

"When do you?"

"Probably not for another week. We'll figure it out."

Jared makes it back to the bakery in time to close up, and for the next two days Jensen has to listen to all of his fellow tattoo artists tease him about his cute baking boyfriend. He still goes into the bakery every morning, and now that he and Jared have spent time together outside their respective places of employment, it feels more like he's visiting a friend at work and less like he's trying to get to know the cute, sociable guy who owns the bakery down the street.

It's another two weeks before their schedules align enough for Jared to invite Jensen over for baked chicken, but during those two weeks they meet for coffee four times and after-work drinks twice. A few times a week, a box of complimentary baked goods arrives at the tattoo shop, where everyone is suddenly very invested in the success of Jensen's love life.

Jensen does not go home the night of Jared's excellent chicken dinner, but neither of them were expecting him to. When he finally gets up the nerve to invite Jared to his house, he overcooks the steak out of nervousness and they end up ordering Chinese. They go to bed early, but more for convenience and comfort than anything else, because it takes a long time before they actually get around to sleeping.

Jensen is ridiculously, deliriously happy, and from all accounts, Jared is too. Jensen learns about the girl who broke Jared's heart and the boy who came after her, and Jared learns about Jensen's exes, and they talk and they kiss and they cook for each other and have sex when they have time, and Jared jokes that he wants Jensen's name tattooed on him somewhere and Jensen says he should wait.

"I've done so many cover-ups for people who used to be in love," he says. "I don't want to talk you out of it, but just imagine if you'd gotten Sandy's name tattooed on you."

"And here I thought you were a romantic," Jared says, feigning disappointment. He strokes Jensen's hip and murmurs "Write your name on me with your tongue and I'll return the favor" against his lips, and there's really only one answer Jensen has for that.

He doesn't even mind that Jared sometimes comes by Comanche Moon after the bakery closes, just to be able to hang out with Jensen for an hour or so. Jensen is comfortable enough with him that if he's got a client and Jared wants to watch, if it's ok with the client it's ok with him. People like Jared, and Jared likes people. It's all good.

October

For Halloween, the dedicated tattoo artists of Comanche Moon decorate the place with little rubber bats and strings of plastic pumpkin lights. Danny brings in a plastic pumpkin full of bite-sized candy bars and tiny packs of Skittles. When Jared comes by to deliver free baked goods to his boyfriend's coworkers, it's with a bag of ghost-shaped cookies decorated with hard white icing and little black frosting eyes.

Misha shows up for work in vintage pinstripe pants, a white Oxford, and suspenders, claiming to be George Burchett, who tattooed society ladies and English royalty in the early twentieth century. Danny goes all out as a can-can girl in a red corset, red and black tiered skirt, black tights, victorian style lace-up boots, and feathers in her hair. Chris tries to convince Jensen that they should dress up as superheroes, but Jensen's sole concession is a Batman t-shirt.

Aldis has the day off, but he appears in the shop a little before four claiming he was just in the neighborhood and oh by the way, his sister overdid it on the pumpkin bread, do they want a loaf or three?

Jensen's immediate response, which he is smart enough to keep to himself, is I bet my boyfriend's pumpkin bread is better.

Although Jared's pumpkin spice doughnuts are better than his pumpkin bread, as Jensen proved about a week ago by eating five of them for lunch.

"Jared's bringing something to the party, right?" Chris asks, pulling Jensen out of his reverie. Aldis has found a knife and cut up one of the pumpkin breads, which he is now passing around the shop, much to the delight of the couple of people there to see Misha for a consultation.

"Aldis said it was ok, so yeah," Jensen answers. "I don't know what, though. He won't tell me."

"Pumpkin loaf?" Aldis asks, interrupting their conversation to offer a paper plate of slices. "This one has chocolate chips."

Jensen and Chris each take a piece. It's moist and pumpkiny and Jensen wonders if he should put a piece aside so Jared can comparison-taste.

Chris has seconds and is busy chewing when his next client shows up. Chris has to wave the guy back to his station, so as not to spray crumbs everywhere.

"It's good," Jensen tells Aldis.

"Not as good as Jared's, huh," Aldis says.

"Different."

"I'll take that as a compliment. I'll see you at the party."

"Well, it is at your house."

"Which I should be at, so I can see all the trick-or-treaters. Later, man."

He leaves the remains of the pumpkin bread, which vanish ten minutes later.

Jared comes by after closing up the bakery, as promised, carrying a bakery box and wearing a pinstripe suit and red Chuck Taylors. He isn't wearing his beanie, for which Jensen is grateful. Now that he's had several months to appreciate Jared's hair, he knows what the world is missing when Jared has to cover it.

"Ten!" Jared explains indignantly, when both Jensen and Danny ask who he's supposed to be. "The Tenth Doctor? You should know," he tells Jensen. "I made you watch the show."

"Nerd," Jensen says fondly. "I'm Batman in disguise."

"I can tell."

"What's in the box?" Danny asks. "Please don't say pumpkin bread."

"Halloween surprise."

Two girls walk in not five minutes later, explaining they want little matching bats on their wrists, they don't have appointments, they know it's late, can someone do them anyway? And because Jensen is free, he takes both of them. They're finished a little after nine, at which point everyone else has left, so he closes up and cleans up and chats with Jared who sits in the chair in his station.

"I know what I want," Jared says.

"What do you mean?" Jensen asks, wiping off the shelf where he keeps his bottles of ink.

"What tattoo."

"Yeah?"

"My dogs, on my chest."

"Your dogs," Jensen repeats. He turns to look at Jared, who looks completely serious. He knows Jared has two dogs, Harley and Sadie, who live with his sister because he can't keep them in his apartment. He keeps saying he'll get a bigger place that allows dogs, so they can come live with him, but so far he doesn't have the money.

"I'll get you some pictures," Jared says. He puts his hand flat over his heart. "Right here."

Jensen tosses the paper towels in the trash and very carefully straddles Jared on the chair. "Right here, huh?" he asks, putting his hand over Jared's.

"Right there."

"You want to make an appointment now?"

"We can talk about it."

"We can." Jensen leans down and kisses him instead.

They have places to be, and Jensen knows from experience that Aldis throws a good party, and he also knows he'll have many, many other opportunities to kiss his boyfriend, but it's hard to think about anything else when he has Jared pinned under his hips and Jared's mouth on his.

Jared cups his hands under Jensen's ass and Jensen grinds against him. He can feel himself growing hard and more and more he wants nothing so much as to strip naked and ride Jared until they're both exhausted. There are some very good reasons why he can't, but oh god, does he want to.

"We have to go," Jared says eventually. He's a little breathless. "You said Aldis planned a fun party."

"I know." Jensen sighs. "I'll give you the last appointment of the day when you come for your tattoo. We can stay as late as we want." He sits up. "Did I ever tell you that when Danny was just out of her apprenticeship, her boss at the time caught her fucking her girlfriend in her chair at the shop? He read her the riot act for 'unhygienic practices'." He uses finger quotes. Jared laughs. "She couldn't stay there after that. The guy was a great mentor, she said, especially to girls who were just starting out, but his shop was so sterile you had to go outside to sneeze."

"He wasn't wrong. Fucking is kinda messy."

"I'll clean up after us."

"Oh good."

They kiss for another few minutes.

"Party," Jared says.

"Right, right. We'll have time for this later." Jensen carefully climbs off Jared, adjusts himself, and offers Jared a hand up. "I really love you. I'm pretty sure you know that, but it has to be said."

"I love you too, even if you don't know who Ten is."

Jensen turns off the lights as they leave and makes sure the door is locked behind them and that Jared has the box of mystery baked goods, and they head out to Aldis' party. Afterwards, Jensen knows, they'll go back to his house, because he's closest, and they'll peel each other's clothes off and finish what they couldn't finish in the tattoo shop. Tomorrow morning Jared will go to work, and then Jensen will go to work, and they'll continue with the rest of their lives.

He sees a great future for them. He'll ink, and Jared will bake, and they'll spend a lot of time together, and they'll be happy. Right now, walking down the sidewalk with Jared's hand in his, it's the most perfect thing he can think of.