Chapter Text
"Careful Lance…careful Lance…c-careful La-"
"Hunk! Telling me to be careful is not gonna make me more careful," Lance snapped.
"Oh…sorry," Hunk apologized sheepishly.
"I almost got the lettering done. I don't need you breathing down my neck."
Hunk nodded but kept holding his breath. Lance had to elbow him lightly in the stomach to regain his personal space, but even then Hunk was still carefully watching him guide the blue frosting on the cake with the piper. The baker groaned as he finished up the last word on the cake and set down his piper.
"There. It's finished and it survived. Are you happy?" He spoke harshly and crossed his arms over his chest. Hunk let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh thank god. I was worried you were gonna sneeze and mess it up like you did that one time," he told him and patted him on the back.
"Oh c'mon! That was one time!" He shouted.
"It's a valid reason to stress out. You never know what the human body will do," Hunk replied simply before taking the cake and slipping it carefully in its box.
"Whatever. I've learned my lesson to lean away from the cake when I sneeze," he moved the cake box in front of him and neatly wrapped it with their signature blue and yellow ribbon.
"And…voila! The prettiest cake in the Streets of Voltron," he stated proudly.
"Yeah? You sure Allura is gonna like it?" Hunk asked as he leaned his elbow on the counter.
"I'm positive! I baked this cake with her in mind. I used all of her favorite ingredients. Light fluffy yellow cake as the base with strawberry cream to hold the tiers together. Three of them! Incase you were wondering-"
"I literally watched you bake this, Lance."
"-, and fresh buttercream frosting on top decorated with hand-piped frosting Juneberries. Her favorite, by the way."
"You put a lot of thought in to this. Lance," Hunk acknowledged.
"Thank you, Hunk."
"So why did you write 'please date me' on top of it? It makes it look really desperate, dude," he told Lance. The baker gawked at his business partner.
"How dare you! My message is with full sincerity and is a part of the art!" He shouted.
"Uh-huh. I'm sure Princess Books will totally believe that."
"Oh shut it, Hunk. You're just jealous because I single handedly created the best date proposal known to man," he gloated.
"She's paying for that right? You do know how much it costs to make your amazing strawberry cream, right?"
"Calm down, Hunk. No she's not paying for this it's a gift-but!" He stopped Hunk before he could interrupt. "I stored the rest of the cream in the fridge and I'll bake some cupcakes to go with it," he assured him. Hunk sighed.
"Alright. When are you gonna give it to her?" He asked.
"Right now," Lance announced holding up the cake and walking out the door with it. Hunk sighed and followed him out in to the streets.
"Lance. All the stores are closed. I doubt Coran will even look at you through the window," Hunk reminded him.
"It's worth a try. Besides, once she sees I have a cake box in my hand she'll never be able to resist the delicious temptation of sweets."
"You rely way too much on the slim chance of every girl you flirt with having a sweet tooth," Hunk deadpanned.
"C'mon. Everyone loves cake."
"Y'know there are people who are allergic to gluten, right?" Hunk informed him.
"What the hell is gluten?"
"Oh my god Lance. You're a baker and you literally have no idea what you do."
"I know what I do! I bake beautiful cakes for beautiful babes," he grinned as they walked up to Princess Books and Maps store.
Of course it was closed since all of the stores on the street closed around ten. He knocked on the door since the lights were still on and he smiled at Allura from the window. Her hair was thrown up in a bun as usual when she was at work. She looked up from her book and smiled at Lance before standing up and approaching the door.
Allura was stunning as usual. Her dark skin was beautiful in the last peach rays of the sunset, and her silver hair shimmered like pearls. Lance had to take a moment just to appreciate her beauty before he spoke. Bright blue eyes and full beautiful lips that made his heart do summersaults when she smiled at him. She was perfect in his eyes.
"Good evening, Lance. Do you need something from me?" She greeted.
"Your hand in marriage," he sighed dreamily.
"Huh?"
"I-I mean nothing! I'm actually here to give you something, Princess," he recovered quickly. She lifted a brow and frown at the nickname Lance had given her. It wasn't her favorite, but he didn't seem to care.
"Uh…okay. What is it?" She asked shifting back to a smile. Lance cleared his throat and held up the box to her.
"Inside this box is a cake that you'll never forget," he winked. She giggled and accepted the box from him.
"Oh Lance. You shouldn't have. I love cake!" She said and tugged o the ribbon.
"Who doesn't love cake?"
"Gluten," Hunk coughed.
"Although I hope there isn't any strawberries in here. I'm deathly allergic," Allura said as she reached to open the box. Lance quickly took the cake back before she could even peek at its contents and laughed nervously.
"Oops! Um I changed my mind this isn't the best cake ever made excuse me as I got bake you another one right now in my shop away from here goodbye," he rambled before darting off with Allura's cake. She sighed and put her hands on her hips.
"You're not actually allergic to strawberries, are you?" Hunk asked.
"Nope."
"You knew what was inside?"
"Yup."
"Good call."
Lance had been continuously groaning ever since he had escaped to the comfort of his confectionary bakery. He took a breath every now and then, but continued groaning as Hunk started eating the deathly strawberry cake. Hunk delicately cut himself a slice of the three tiered cake and licked his lips and anticipation. He could care less about Lance's love life since there was cake on his plate. The manager excitedly danced across the kitchen to grab a fork and giggled as his picked up his piece of cake.
"What a win for me. God I love your cakes," he spoke before taking a bite and moaning loudly at the taste.
"Perfect as always! Smooth buttercream. Perfect amount of fluffiness in the cake and oh god this strawberry cream," he groaned and took another bite.
"I'd appreciate it if you could have your foodgasm when I'm not wallowing in self pity," Lance said as he stared at the ceiling from his kitchen floor.
"Lighten up, dude. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be," hunk muffled with a mouthful of cake.
"Of course it's meant to be! She's perfect for me!" He whined and pouted.
"You guys don't really have anything in common tho. I mean when was the last time you read something that wasn't a cookbook or fan fiction online?" Hunk asked.
"I read a deadpool comic last night," Lance offered.
"I seriously doubt Allura would be in to that kinda lewd humor."
"Why? Because she's a woman?" Lance challenged.
"No because she literally said she hates crude humor," he said and cut himself a second slice of cake.
"Oh…when did she say that?" Lance inquired.
"Yesterday."
"When?"
"I think you were too busy planning your cake after she said she loves yellow cake," he replied.
"Dammit. I can only think about one thing at a time," he grumbled.
The door bell chimed as someone entered the bakery, and Lance lifted himself up enough to look over the counter. Pidge came in with a weird looking gadget on their head and a device in their hand. They didn't even look up to acknowledge the two others before they pressed a couple buttons and a strange sound went off from the headset.
"Ugh. Why don't you guys get some wifi in here? You'd probably get a lot more customers," they grumbled and shut off their device before walking over and hopping up on the counter.
"We've been thinking about it. I actually looked in to a few online and if we pull in enough profit this month we might," Hunk replied. Pidge nodded and then read the words on the cake. They chuckled a little and looked at Lance who continued to mope on the floor.
"I'm flattered you wanna date me, Lance, but I have my mind set on one thing and one think only," Pidge said as they started to cut them self a piece.
"Ugh. That wasn't for you, Pidge."
"What's the only thing on your mind, Pidge?" Hunk asked with a knowing smile.
"Cake, of course," they grinned and grabbed a sample fork off of the heated display case.
"Of course, my aroace little friend," Hunk replied and clinked forks with them.
"You're lucky you don't have feelings for people, Pidge. It's awful," Lance mumbled.
"Lance. Have a piece of cake. Whatever happened couldn't have been that bad," Pidge offered.
"He tried to ask Allura out with a cake, but then she told him she's deathly allergic to strawberries and he totally had to take the cake away from her before she could read it," Hunk told them. Pidge blinked.
"Wow. I guess it was pretty bad."
"And she looked so excited too…why did I have to pick strawberries!" Lance cried on the floor still.
"Uh…wait I thought Allura wasn't…" Pidge trailed off as they noticed Hunk gesturing his finger across his throat and shaking his head. Somehow they both knew to avoid Allura's sudden allergy to strawberries. "…a big fan of cake," Pidge said instead.
"She is! She told me she loves cake! I feel so bad. I should've used raspberries!"
"My suggestion still stands, Lance. You did a good job on this cake," Pidge urged.
Lance sighed and peeled himself off the floor to cut a slice of cake for himself with a frown. He plopped it on a plate and shuffled across the kitchen to retrieve a fork. His frown remained on his face as he took his first bite. Pidge and Hunk both frowned at him and sighed.
"Wow. That is the most depressing way I've ever seen someone eat cake before," Hunk said.
"I'd say it's more pathetic than depressing," Pidge murmured.
"Oh shut up, guys. Let me pout," he grumbled and continued to eat his cake.
The three of them continued to eat their cake in silence. Pidge shrugged at Lance's retort and focused completely on their delicacy. Hunk was serving himself a third slice of cake already and practically inhaling it. Despite the silence there was a sense in comfort from eating something so delicious with friends. Lance hated to admit that Pidge was right, but they were mostly right anyways. He was already starting to feel better and he wasn't even halfway through his cake. His eyes were trained on the strawberry cream and he smiled a little.
"I did do a fantastic job on this cake," he spoke and took another bite.
"It's like biting in to my own personal piece of heaven," Hunk moaned and licked the frosting off of his fingers.
"You're good at what you do, Lance," Pidge agreed.
"Heh. I remember cooking with my mom when I was younger. I was an absolute disaster at everything except for the sweet stuff. My favorite to make were conchas," Lance reminisced and smiled at his cake.
"Those are our best sellers too. You should make more Mexican pastries. People seem to love them," Hunk encouraged.
"Maybe. I'll have to call up my mom and ask her for some more…" he trailed off as his gaze focused across the street.
The store across the street used to be a guitar shack. Anything music related was sold there including CD's instruments and even sheet music. It was a really cool shop and the manager was really chill and easy to talk to. Unfortunately he moved away when his wife got promoted and her new job dragged him halfway across the country. The "for lease" sign on the window had been there for quite a while. At least until Lance noticed it was down and the lights were on inside.
"Hey. Did someone finally rent out that empty space?" Lance asked. Pidge and Hunk followed his gaze and saw the suddenly active shop.
"Uh…looks like it," Hunk replied.
"Ah, yes. I remember. Some guy made a deal with the manager and he's been working in there for a month or so. I never got a chance to talk to him, but I always noticed him working in there late at night," Pidge reported.
"What kinda stuff is he working on?" Lance asked skeptically as he kept his eyes on the figure moving around inside the building.
"I dunno. It looked like he was moving in a refrigerator and counters one time. It kinda looks like he's building some stuff from scratch even," Pidge replied.
"Refrigerators…oh no. Do you think he's opening a bakery?" Lance asked with annoyance in his voice.
"Or he could be opening a restaurant," Hunk pointed out.
"Who knows until he opens it," Pidge said before going back to their cake.
Hunk got a fourth slice of cake and the two of them ate while Lance glared out the window. He watched the figure carefully as it moved around and tried to figure out what he was doing. A permanent scowl was plastered on his face as he watched and held his fork in front of his mouth unmoving. He couldn't quite understand it, but he got a bad feeling from the figure. His stomach felt funny as he could barely make out pale skin, sharp eyes, and a goddamn mullet.
"Whoever it is…he's gonna lose."