Chapter Text
He was there again. The local baker, who was supplying the café since Lynx didn’t even know, but definitely before he took the business over after his mother passed away.
Tiger knew things around the café, maybe even better than Lynx did.
He'd only been running the café for a few months, and at times he still felt like the newest member of a tight-knit group, even though he had spent his childhood here. Over the past few years, he just wasn’t around much.
Kapor, the other barista, helped him a lot. His childhood friend, Dr. Pom, helped him a lot too, especially with the cats.
And then there was Tiger, the baker, who annoyed him a lot.
Every morning Tiger stepped into the café smiling, with conspicuously perfect teeth, silky black hair, the long loose strands brushing his neck and jawline, and those huge boba like eyes that somehow stayed in Lynx’s mind long after he left.
He definitely felt annoyed. And he didn’t know why. He wasn’t used to feeling like this and he wasn’t sure what it meant, only that this was beginning to be a problem.
“Today I brought the usual things,” Tiger said, setting the boxes on the counter. “I made extra butter croissants this time, learned from last week. And today’s specialty is cardamom rolls. Would you like to try one?”
Lynx suddenly got pulled out of his thoughts, “What?”
“It’s a new recipe,” Tiger said with a smile. “I’m not sure about it yet.”
Kapor appeared instantly and grabbed one from the box.
“Let me see...”
He took a huge bite. “Wow! This is good, P’Tiger! Bring extra for us next time, please.”
Lynx rolled his eyes.
Tiger offered one to him again, still smiling.
“I’m not really hungry, but thanks. Just put them with the others.”
For a second Tiger looked a little disappointed, but he nodded and set the boxes down.
“Alright. That’s everything for today. I’ll head to the other places. Have a nice day.”
He reached down to pat one of the café cats. “See you guys tomorrow.”
“See you, P'Tiger!” Kapor called after him.
“Bye Lynx,” he glanced back once before leaving.
“Bye,” Lynx muttered. He turned away quickly and started rearranging the boxes on the counter.
“You should have tried it,” Kapor said. “At least give it a chance.”
“As I said, I’m not hungry. And I don’t need a sugar shock first thing in the morning.”
“Suit yourself,” Kapor said casually.
Then he noted, “Tiger looked great today.”
“What?” Lynx asked, his voice strangely high.
“The shirt,” Kapor continued raising his brows. “I think I’d look great in a white shirt like that too. What do you think? Maybe I’ll ask him where he bought it.”
He wandered into the back room, muttering to the cats about the shirt.
Lynx also liked that shirt. Or maybe it was the navy-blue apron Tiger kept on that morning. Lynx was convinced it was on purpose. After all, why would he still be wearing it during deliveries if he wasn’t trying to look good?
Annoying...
He wondered if Kapor had been hinting at something just now or not. He didn’t like being teased, mostly because he never quite knew how to react. Sometimes he wondered if it was because he was inexperienced or if he just didn’t get these kinds of jokes. Either way, it made him feel stupid.
All the people around him seemed to know these things, and it felt like all anyone cared about was relationships. He had his own thoughts on that, which he was convinced he never wanted. He could appreciate when someone looked nice, and he had dreams sometimes, and he knew how to deal with those things on his own.
But relationships seemed awful. Too much pain, too many compromises, and for what exactly? People hurting each other. At least that’s what he had seen growing up, his family, his friends, mostly his mother.
So love might work in books and in the lakorns his mother adored, the ones they watched together every evening while he was growing up, but in real life it seemed like something painful, better avoided if possible.
And so far, it had been possible.
After closing that day he was exhausted. He opened a can of beer and stared out into the garden. He could feel how tense his whole body was after spending all day on his feet, dealing with all kinds of customers, taking care of the cats, and cleaning the whole place up. And the same routine would repeat the next day, and the next day, and...
He sipped his beer, letting the bitter taste coat his tongue, feeling a bit sorry for himself. For a moment, the smell of fresh pastries filled his mind.
He shook his head, finished his beer, took a quick check on the cats in the back room, then went upstairs and collapsed into bed.
Early in the morning his alarm clock woke him up. It might have been impractical, he could’ve just used his phone like most people did, but it was his mother’s, and she had probably inherited it as well. A family heirloom, who knows, Lynx kept it anyway.
He didn’t know much about his extended family. It had always just been the two of them. He did miss her. He felt guilty for leaving her, he felt angry about things from his childhood, and he felt lonely sometimes without her in the house.
The cats kept him company though. He was warming up to them, trying to look past his long-rooted grudge against them, and they weren’t acting up with him that much anymore. His one confidant was Granny Juu, the oldest cat, the one who had been with Lynx since he was a child, Lynx felt very protective of her.
Every morning Tiger came with the day’s supplies, always with some specialty for the day, and Lynx had to admit all his pastries smelled amazing and looked good too. He was usually just a coffee-in-the-morning kind of guy, on good days maybe some eggs, but he had started wondering... what if he was a fresh croissant kind of guy after all?
Definitely not.
“What was that?” Tiger asked.
“Hmm?”
“You shook your head,” Tiger said.
“Oh. I was just looking at those croissants. Is that uh... butter?”
Tiger chuckled. “Yes, the usual ones, Lynx. Would you like something different? I was thinking maybe I should bring the jam ones, or what’s always trending lately pistachio.”
“Yeah. Let’s do those things,” Lynx said quickly.
Tiger was wearing his grey apron today and a white shirt. Lynx knew all of them by now. He kind of hated how he could probably name Tiger’s entire apron collection, but what could he do.
“Hey, can I actually grab a coffee?” Tiger asked. “You’re always the first place I go to in the morning, and I was in a hurry today so I couldn’t have one. Business is kind of crazy nowadays, just trying to catch up with everything.”
Lynx nodded slightly. Somehow that sounded familiar.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Lynx said. “How would you like it?”
“Just a cappuccino, with lots of sugar please.”
“The baker takes his coffee with sugar, noted,” Lynx said.
Tiger shook his head. “Gotta live up to the stereotypes.”
Lynx couldn’t hold back a smile, and Tiger caught that.
He quickly looked away and started working on the coffee. “What do you think about a cat café owner who doesn’t like cats?”
“I think... he takes care of them nevertheless. Listen, I don’t think the cats could complain about anything. You’re always the first place to open. It was the same with your mother too,” he added warmly.
Lynx wasn’t used to people noticing his hard work, he was just doing what he could, mostly for his mothers memory.
“Whatever,” he said, smiling.
He poured the coffee into a paper cup and quickly stuck a small cat sticker on it, holding it out to Tiger.
Tiger took it gratefully, then looked up at Lynx teasingly. “Don’t these stickers usually come with a message?”
“How greedy,” Lynx said, taking the cup back and writing something on it, feeling Tiger’s eyes on him the whole time.
“Here.” He handed it back to him. “It’s on the house,” he quickly added as the baker reached for his pocket.
Tiger glanced down at the sticker, 'Watch that blood sugar'. He laughed genuinely, and Lynx had a feeling he needed that laugh that day. It made his chest tingle a little.
“Thanks, Lynx,” Tiger said looking back at him for a long moment, his eyes sparkling. “See you tomorrow.”
Lynx said a quick "sure" and then ran to the supply room and hid there, catching his breath, the warm tingle spreading through his whole body now, unstoppable. He grabbed his chest, breathing heavily.
“LYNX! I ARRIVED! WHERE ARE YOU?” he heard Kapor calling from the front.
As the weeks passed, Tiger started having his morning coffee at the café. In return for the free coffee, he always insisted on bringing something for Lynx and Kapor as well. Kapor happily munched on his share every time, while Lynx was still warming up to the idea of a filling breakfast.
He and Tiger usually talked for a few stolen moments before the morning rush began for both of them. Lynx also started the habit of leaving a message next to the sticker on Tiger’s cup every day. Usually just casual ones, yet Tiger still seemed to look forward to them every single morning, smiling brightly like a little kid, when he read them. Lynx often wondered why.
One day Tiger came up with the idea that the café and the bakery should collaborate on a special pastry, a cat-shaped one. It would promote the bakery to the café guests and the café to the bakery customers. It made sense to Lynx, good for business, so he agreed.
Tiger invited him over to his place to work on some ideas and come up with the best flavor for the café. The setup was similar to the café, the bakery downstairs, and his workshop and apartment above it, where he did most of the baking.
So this was how Lynx found himself standing in front of the mirror now, pulling on his favorite cardigan and a pair of jeans, trying his best to tame his curls that were sticking out in every direction. For a moment he thought about putting on perfume, then got huffy at the thought and left it.
Lynx felt nervous walking there. This whole thing felt a little too intimate for some reason. He was about to enter the man’s home, even if it was just professional, but he usually avoided these kinds of situations at all costs. Unfortunately, Tiger lived close by, so he didn’t have much time to overthink it.
The tall man greeted him with a smile, blue apron with white stripes today, it seemed.
Tiger must have noticed Lynx checking it out, because he smoothed the apron down and cleared his throat. “I set one out for you too. It’s over there,” he said, pointing to a white one with blue stripes.
“Really? Matching aprons?” Lynx asked.
Tiger stepped closer, so Lynx could feel his heat behind him, and started to put the apron on him, tying it around his waist. His fingers accidentally brushed the sensitive part of Lynx’s back, making him shiver a little.“You complain too much,” Tiger said gently.
“Come, I already started some ideas I want to show you.”
Lynx swallowed, he couldn’t think of a good comeback so he followed Tiger into the kitchen.
His apartment was small compared to the café, but it was bright, with huge windows that filled the place with natural light. Plants were everywhere, and none of them were dying. How unusual, Lynx thought.
There were cookbooks and recipe books stacked in every corner, and Lynx had a feeling the kitchen was Tiger’s favorite part of the place. It was huge compared to the rest of the apartment, he had more than one oven, along with all kinds of kitchen tools Lynx didn’t even know the use for. It looked like a place where even someone like Lynx might want to cook something. At home he almost never did, takeout was more convenient.
Tiger already prepared all kinds of ingredients and several different fillings for the cat-shaped cookies. The base dough was shaped like a large cat head, with whiskers and a winking eye, and there were different colored creams filled into piping bags.
“Blueberry and vanilla, custard, salted caramel, strawberry cream, cinnamon butter, chocolate mint...”
“I might have gotten carried away a bit,” Tiger admitted, scratching the back of his head.
“You definitely did,” Lynx chuckled. “It looks great though, I have to admit, I can’t wait to try these.”
Tiger looked genuinely proud. “Well then, let’s start.”
Tiger offered the blueberry one with a spoon to Lynx, who just looked at him questioningly.
Tiger kept the spoon there patiently, but Lynx took it from his hand and tasted it himself, his ears turning slightly red.
“Hmm. Good. But we already have that blueberry muffin you bring on Wednesdays, don’t we?”
“Right. This has vanilla too though, but... yeah. We should go with something more unique for the collaboration.”
They tasted them one by one and eventually both narrowed it down to a favorite.
Lynx chose the salted caramel one, Tiger went with the mint chocolate.
“You know cats are attracted to all kinds of mint,” Tiger said.
“Yeah, they are,” Lynx replied. “And it's also toxic to them.”
Tiger blinked. “Is it? I didn’t know that, or are you just messing with me so we choose the caramel one?”
Lynx smirked. “You’ll never know.”
Truthfully, he liked them all. He wanted to sound critical, to show off a little, but everything tasted so good that he couldn’t help being impressed with Tiger.
“How long have you been doing this?” he asked.
“The bakery? Only a couple of years. But I’ve been cooking and baking since I was a kid.”
“Was it like a family thing? Like the café for me?”
“Not really. My father has a very different kind of business.” Tiger scoffed lightly. “He lends money to people.”
Lynx’s eyes widened. “And he’s okay with you being here?”
“I think he imagined a different kind of son,” Tiger answered. “He wanted me to take over the family business. But I can’t help it. This makes me happy, so I left.”
Lynx understood that feeling.
“I mean... your business is pretty cool now,” he said. “Your place is doing well, I should know, I’m sure he understands that now.”
“Oh, you don’t know my father,” Tiger said with a sad smile. “He had this whole picture for me. Tiger should continue the family tradition, be a debt collector, be tough, marry the girl he found for me.”
Lynx looked up and almost dropped the spoon he was holding.
“I had different plans though.”
“Sounds complicated,” Lynx said quietly. “And um, why didn’t you want to marry her?”
“Well, for one, I didn’t even know her. And I already had someone at the time.”
Lynx felt his throat tighten.
“Yeah?” Lynx said weakly. “That’s... cool.”
Tiger just smiled.
“It didn’t work out at all. I think at that time I dated those people mostly to annoy my dad, you know?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Lynx muttered, fussing with the filling.
There was a surprised look on Tiger's face, then he just nodded.
“What about you? Your mother was okay with you being away?”
“I honestly don’t know. Even if she wasn’t, she never told me. Lynx smiled slightly. “It’s also complicated.”
“Has she... ever talked about me?”
“Constantly,” Tiger answered.
The café owner looked up, meeting Tiger’s huge warm eyes.
“So... do you want to try filling one?”
“I think I’m hopeless, but sure.”
Tiger handed him the piping bag anyway
Lynx struggled with the filling. It was either too much and spilled out, or too little according to Tiger.
Finally the other man stepped next to him.
“May I?”
Lynx nodded without looking at him.
Tiger placed his hand over Lynx’s and guided the piping bag. Together they pressed the filling into the cookie, Tiger’s fingers feeling too warm against his own.
“It’s perfect,” he said, still keeping his hand over the smaller man’s. When Lynx lowered his hand, he looked away, suddenly very aware of Tiger standing so close.
Tiger also seemed to realize what he was doing, so he stepped back and quickly offered that they should finish the rest.
They decided to go with the mint chocolate one in the end. Lynx even suggested pairing it with a mint coffee combination. He didn’t tell Tiger, but he had always liked spicy, minty flavors. His mother used to make him mint tea when he was sick as a kid.
“I had fun today,” Tiger said as he walked him to the door.
“Yeah, me too. Everything for the business,” Lynx answered.
Tiger shook his head with a wry smile.
As he stepped out the door, holding a huge box of the cookies Tiger had packed for him, the baker called after him.
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
Lynx turned.
“Have you ever... had someone? Romantically, I mean.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Lynx muttered a bit defensively.
“Nothing. I was just curious.”
Lynx avoided his gaze, tightening his fingers around the box. “No,” he said after a moment. “I haven’t.”
Tiger nodded. “Okay.”
“Why?” Lynx asked.
Tiger met his eyes. “For myself.”
Lynx had a minor crisis walking home that night, and it didn’t leave him even when he was lying awake in his bed.
The next morning he was still under his blanket half-asleep when he heard the bell above the café door ring and the buttery smell floated up the stairs.
“Lynx, you up? It was open, I hope you don’t mind!”
By the time he went downstairs, Tiger was on the ground playing with Jiro. His shirt had ridden up in the back where the apron was tied, revealing a strip of his waist.
Lynx got flustered and almost tripped over him.
“You alright?” Tiger asked casually as he stood up.
“Sure, sure... so how did they turn out?”
“Good, I remade them fresh this morning.” He placed the cat-shaped cookies in a different box on the counter.
They looked a little funny. Mint chocolate cat cookies? An unusual pairing, but Lynx liked it. People loved weird things anyway.
“Definitely going to sell,” he said, starting to work on Tiger’s usual coffee and the message on the cup.
“I also brought some other things. I used up the leftover fillings from yesterday. These are blueberry-vanilla croissants, salted caramel cones, and listen... I know I say this a lot, but these custard-filled crescents turned out really good.”
He nudged the box closer. “For once, you have to try one.”
Lynx’s stomach growled, so he accepted the pastry without much protest. It looked good, coated lightly with sugar. He bit into it and immediately started nodding. “Yeah... okay. I get it.”
Tiger seemed delighted by that. He easily took the same crescent Lynx had bitten into and put it in his mouth, biting into it slowly.
Lynx found himself mesmerized by the movement. Heat rushed through his whole body as the cream filling spilled out of the pastry, coating two of Tiger’s fingers.
Tiger slowly licked the cream from them. “I made a mess, sorry. I should work on the portions more. I don’t know if it’s-”
He kept talking, but Lynx didn’t hear a word.
His mind kept replaying the scene he had just seen, Tiger’s long eyelashes, his full lips, his fingers disappearing between them, the cream filling.
“Lynx?”
“Huh?”
“I said I’ll head out now. Keep me updated about how it's going with the cat cookies, okay?”
“Yeah... will do.”
“And I’ll work on that filling!” Tiger added smiling shyly.
Lynx turned away with a tight jaw.
This can’t be happening.
All day Lynx was very moody, barely able to concentrate on the orders. He even snapped at Kapor a few times, which made him feel bad immediately afterward. He was unbelievably frustrated, and he refused to admit to himself why.
By the time he finally closed the café, it felt like the longest, hardest day he’d had in weeks.
He fed the cats, who all looked at him questioningly, then stormed upstairs and slammed his door.
He threw himself onto the bed and blasted some music on shuffle.
When the song started, the scene from that morning slowly crept back into his mind.
Drowning in the Blue Nile
He sent me “Downtown Lights”
Lynx let out a weak groan. His face burned and he pressed both hands over it, as if that could push the thoughts back where they belonged.
This cage was once just fine
Am I allowed to cry?
Tiger’s eyes. Tiger’s voice. His words last night, For myself. His lips against his fingers.
I keep recalling things we never did...
Messy top lip kiss...
“Oh, shut up,” Lynx muttered to the speakers, but he didn’t turn the music off. “This is insane,” he whispered.
He dragged his palms slowly down his neck. He could hear his own uneven breathing and felt the heat pooling low in his stomach.
This was absurd. Him, back in his childhood room, blushing over a baker like some hopeless, horny teenager.
Without ever touching his skin...
How can I be guilty as sin?
A broken sound slipped from his throat as his hands moved lower, cupping himself through his jeans. For a moment he tried to fight it, but the tension inside him had already grown unbearable, so he freed himself and began to move his hand slowly.
The music continued in his ears.
My bedsheets are ablaze...
I’ve screamed his name...
Lynx squeezed his eyes shut, desperate to finish and be done with it. His hand moved faster as the pressure built, until he came hard, his hot release coating his fingers. Even then his mind betrayed him, the image of Tiger’s hand from that morning flashing through his thoughts.
Coming down from his high, he lay there, his chest rising and falling unevenly and his cheeks burning with both shame and relief.
“Fuck.”