🍰♥️🍺𖥔༻𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐩 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐳𝐞༺𖥔🍺♥️🍰

[Velvet-Tied-Cherub]

-Chapter 1-​

It was finally happening.

The Grand Opening.

A little nook of a building, red bricked and old as dirt, stood proud with a small but brand spanking new sign that read with filigree and etchings of desserts at either side.

🏵🏵𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓛𝑜𝒸𝓀 𝒩𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓑𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓇𝓎🏵🏵 ​

The renaissance woman; owner, cook, and single employee of the new establishment, stood before it all alone in celebration.

Her hair of wine ringlets trailed down her back to the bottom of her spine, and her big round glasses perched atop her pixie nose so those eyes of shimmering sea-glass could beam at the start of her personal dream coming true. Nessie McDonell was floating on air, she was already imagining filling the place up with treats and seeing off happy customers.
She didn't really have a 'opening day' outfit, didn't seem the time for anything too extravagant, but she did plan to dress up a bit, so she choose a off the shoulder sweetheart shirt that was a shimmering cyan with a red heart button at the center where her generous breastline met her top, and green-blue leggings with little red hearts dotted all along the legs, finished off with a white ruffle apron that was in the shape of a heart in front of her chest before going into the normal skirt of said apron.
The waist tie of the cooking garment fastened to show the slopes of her form.
Chest of ample size, more than ample really, with a more modest incline of her waist but not exactly 'thin', and then hilling back out to opulent hips. Soft curves in a Venus vase shape of a woman

While the proprietor with lavish curves settled happily into her moment of success, the cinnamon spots over vanilla shoulders jolted when

KTCHH!!

The sound of breaking glass had her maroon head turn sharply, and her attention was drawn to her business neighbor.

"Damn it Mason! Stop throwing shit!"

Nessie stepped towards the door to her bakery, her hand on the knob, half hiding behind the open door, but, she couldn't help but pause and watch, just to get a better idea of what was happening.
A scrawny man with scraggly ash blonde hair was being dragged by the collar out of '𝙿𝚒𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝙿𝚒𝚗𝚝', the bar exactly to the right of the sweet treat establishment, a larger man with extremely curly and long black hair rolled his eyes as he tossed the Mason fellow out onto the sidewalk, "Walk it off asshole."

Mason stumbled to a stand, his words slurred, "But I left my, hic, my keys inside!"

"Yea, -I know-, That's why I said -walk it off-."

Mason grumbled and stumbled towards his motorcycle, his eyes unfocused as he took hold of the handles and kicked the stand. His thumb tried to rev the vehicle despite it being off, his stupor making his brain's acceptance of the situation a bit slow, stubbornly thought it might obey him from sheer force of will, before he eventually hung his head and started to manually walk the two-wheeler down the street.

Nessie gently gasped to herself, closing the door before Mason could walk by and see her snooping, timid at the thought alone.

She put her back to the entrance, the inside of her confectionery bare bones, only a few hearts and lock ness monster adjacent decorations along the walls while she calmed herself from the light surprise of action interrupting her quiet celebration.

Ok, so, perhaps the location had some...things to be desired, but, good word of mouth could fix that!...Surely...

With a deep breath of determination she lifted her head, the freckles all over her cheeks, nose, and forehead bright like golden brown dots on one of her freshly baked goodies, and she strode forward past the glass display counter shaped like the lock ness monster with heart eyes, and entered the kitchen.

For the next 2 hours, all she did was bake.

Bake and bake and bake, continuously she checked to see if anyone had come in, but, not a soul.

She was prepared for this of course, first day's could often be slow, it was alright...however, by the end of the day, long after all her inventory was set and ready...not a -single- soul had come in.

Her sunshiny disposition had deflated like a balloon with a hole in it that got bigger and bigger over the hours till it was nothing but a line of ribber on the ground.

In the back of her mind, words of doubt whispered, in the voices of loved ones, and ex loved ones, whom disapproved of her pursuits. She sat by one of the little heart shaped serving tables, her chin in her hands, elbows on the table, and her knee bouncing anxiously while she stared at the muffins she had worked so hard to make look like little roses, knowing that many of them would need to be thrown out (Or, well, donated, she refused to just put them, or any of her inventory, in the trash) and she could feel her heart start to wallow.

Just as despondency started to grow, the thorns were crushed by the weight of her determination (and a bit of denial) before Nessie shot up and found a cute wicker basket and filled it with those muffins, some cupcakes, a couple bear-claws, and a single apple pie, and, she made her way over to the bar as night fell.

She planned to be here a long time, she didn't want to cold shoulder her neighbors just because they were a tad...different when it came to desired clientele, that was no reason for her to be closed off, and who knew, perhaps they could help each other out, send customers to each other, make a community of the line of shops, who knows!

And so, she was new, she should be the one to reach out with an olive branch, and she walked though the doors of the 𝙿𝚒𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝙿𝚒𝚗𝚝 bar.

 

[Velvet-Tied-Cherub]

Nessie walked through the front door, and...she wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting, but, a cheering crowd in a circle looking down into what appeared to be the ground at the center of the room was not it.

Was there a Tv in the exact center of the room?...Flat on the floor?...No, stupid, why would-

"May I help you miss?"

Nessie's chin jerked upwards and she turned towards the bar at the left wall to see an older man with salt and pepper hair, sun-touched skin, and a big bearded smile staring at her, clearing a shot glass with a rag. Big and burly in a nice blue button up shirt and gray pants.

Ah! That's gotta be the owner.

Nessie straightened her shoulders and walked towards him with one of her signature 'welcome, be comforted' smiles, "Hi! Yes, sorry, I'm Nessie, the new neighbor on the block."

"Oooh, you set up that bakery right?"

"Yes, that's right! I just thought I would come over to introduce myself and offer you some samples from my shop, proprietor to proprietor way of saying hello I guess." She held up the basket with both hands, her biceps unintentionally pressed into either side of her well developed chest to make that line between her bust a bit longer over her collar while she beamed with her pastry gifts wafting their sweet smell up towards his nose.

"Oh well that's very nice of you," He leaned forward to take a sniff, the cloth of his shift tense around his chiseled boulder-ish shoulders, "You want me to call the boss lady over here for you?"

Her speckled cheeks dusted pink as she could feel embarrassment crawl up her back, "Uh..'boss lady'? Are you not...the owner-?"

He let out a little bellow of a laugh before shaking his head with a smirk while he set down the glass, "Oh no no, I'm just a bartender, the name's Kai, the boss lady, Nikki, is here though, you'll just need to wait a bit. She's finishing up in the pit right now."

"The...pit?" Her brows wrinkled while she tried to piece together what that could mean while also swallowing in her embarrassment to miss-calculating the establishment owner. Her skin prickled as she had made herself look silly in .2 seconds and how could she just keep losing when it came to this day???

Kai nodded again, and lifted his right hand, pointing at the surrounded crowd she had spotted earlier, "She might almost be done now actually if you wanna take a look?"

Nessie paused, let the basket of goodies fall down in front of her thighs with her hands rung the handle, before she cleared her throat, "Oh, sure, yea." Well, she felt too flustered from her first faux pas to make another by asking what he meant, so, un-glueing her feet from the ground, she weaved through the crowd to find what this whole 'pit' situation was about (made more sense than a TV) and so, after shyly slipping between a few rowdy men, she peeked her ruby tressed head just enough to realize there was a very short gate that bordered off a deep -literal- pit in the floor of the establishment.
About 11 feet down was a simple cement made hole and there were two people down there, and, the first thing Nessie saw, no, heard, was the sound of knuckles that CLACKED against a jaw.
Bone on bone.
Nessie's golden-brown freckles jumped as her shoulders lurched upwards, instinctively she tried to shield her neck from the instinctual audible register of the thud swing of fist finding its perfect mark.
Her large verdant eyes bulged nearly as wide as the spectacles on her nose while she processed what she was witnessing.
A man with blonde hair in a ponytail fell to the side, the torque of his chin being punched nearly sent him into a twirl like a drunk ballerina.

His opponent, well, the first thing Nessie noticed about her was her smile...her smile that she wore so confidently even though there was the steady trickle of blood that fell over the side of her face from the cut on her eyebrow...
She wore a white tank top and jeans tucked into combat boots, palms and fists wrapped in cloth like a professional boxer.
She had pitch black hair, shaved on one side and hanging down to just passed her shoulder on the other. Deep brown monolid eyes, pale skin though more in a peachy way as opposed to snowy, a black tattoo of thorn vines wrapped about her left arm and finishing with, instead of a bloom of petals like a rose, there was a stylized black skull that represented the 'blossom at her shoulder', and on the opposite side, a winding black snake up her right sinewy packed arm with it's head placed at her other shoulder with an apple in its mouth. There was also signs of permanent ink peeking along the sides of her throat, implying a nape-tattoo and possible a back design as well, but her top hid the rest of the art for the moment.

The ping-pong game of violence that ensued after, the man that tried to get a hit in, and the woman bobbed and weaved before throwing in several jabs again, was only something Nessie could witness for about 5 more seconds before she went rigid and turned around so swiftly it seemed more like she had spun on a literal top as opposed to her legs stiff pivot.
Nessie rushed over to the bar, and placed the basket atop the mahogany, her bespectacled gaze casted down while she swallowed, "Uuuuuuh, so she seems -quite- busy, perhaps I should come back later?" She pushed her straw-woven container towards Kai, and she could feel the urgency to leave this unruly atmosphere well up with more and more tension in her ribs, "Or! Why don't I just give -you- these and then you can give them to -her- and-"

"Hey, no need to do that, looks like the reining champ has got another win under her belt and is ready to run the bar again," Before Nessie could stop him, it felt like her hair was standing up as though a dog with raised hackles when Kai pointed over the bar and down at Nessie while looking just behind her, "Hey Nikki! The sea-monster lady came over with some goodies!"

Nessie drew breath through her nose till she thought her lungs were inflated near the point of bursting before she turned around, her knuckles going white (more white) from the death grip on the basket.

Nikki approached with a towel now wrapped around her shoulders, having just jumped out from the pit, her left hand wiping off sweat and blood as her right was tucked casually into her pocket, "Oh?" Those earthy irises locked onto the lady of cherry hair, vanilla skin, and cinnamon dots, expression not unfriendly, but less overtly cordial than Kai was while she continued to close the distance, "And why might she do that?"

Regardless of the third person speak, Nessie knew she was being spoken to, like those tawny peepers saw directly into her brain, her thoughts, and so as to put a barrier between this potential mind reading, the flustered woman lifted her confectionary present up to the point her face was obscured behind it, "Uh, just to say hello! I thought, uh, you know, bread is good for absorbing alcohol so, what better gift for a bar than some of my specialities?" She closed her eyes, and her nose scrunched up. What? Did she expect the owner of the bar to be drunk when she got there??..gods why couldn't this lady have been there for the first try instead?

"Hmm," Rough fingers brushed Nessie's before her face was again revealed by Nikki who took the basket out of the curvy baker's hands, and glanced down at them with an arched brow, "I don't drink, so that reasoning isn't much use to me personally, but," She sniffed, some of her obsidian hair falling over one eye, dancing about her cheek while she took in the aroma before she looked back up to Nessie, "These smell pretty fuckin good," She smirked, her eyeline went up and down her body while she took Nessie in fully, her gaze a laser studying an image to commit it to memory for depicting later, "I don't have a picnic basket but I'm sure I got a paper bag around here somewhere I can put some liquor bottles in." She held the basket with her right hand and then her left plucked out a muffin, clearly she debated taking a bite.

Nessie lifted her hands, waving them with gentle decline, "Oh, no no, that's not necessary, thank you though."

"Just one drink then?" Nikki nodded and took a bite from the muffin before placing the pannier on the bar so she could then tap her knuckles on the wood with a cock of her head towards Kai, words muffled by pastry, "Apple Pie Chiller."

Kai gave a thumbs up and went to mixing while Nikki turned back with a raised brow, her mouth hovered over the top of the muffin for another bite, her chestnut eyes peered over towards Nessie from just above the sprinkles of sugar, as though her hunger was accidentally (?) directed at the pastry chef herself, "Unless you don't drink?"

There was a cauldron mixture of emotions beneath those spherical glasses, memories and considerations and hesitations combined chaotically all at once, all too much to say, especially to strangers, so, she simply stumbled, "Oh well, no, I mean, I -haven't- drank, I think would be the more accurate–? I don't -not- drink, but I haven't drank so far?"

Nikki smirked and raised the brow by the shaved side of her head even higher, "Do you want the shot or not?"

"I'll take it." Her head ducked, briefly hiding timidness behind her ringlets of ruby.

The obsidian haired fighter nodded and took another bite before reaching over for Kai to hand off the cup and then she held it out to Nessie. The sonsy woman took it, her visage naturally roamed up the arm that offered the spirits, seeing the intricate scales of the snake emblem permanently etched onto that muscle packed limb, her cheek speckles simmered as blush found a home there. Her arms certainly looked very...powerful..
Nessie swallowed and forced her eyes closed in order to down the little cup of toasty-brown liquid, hoping the burn would help...distract her own eyes
However, with a pause while she waited for the sting to her vocal cords, she actually tasted the saccharine flavor and blinked with pleasant surprise, staring into the empty shot glass, "Oh...it tastes good."

"Did you doubt it would? Think I own a place that sells nasty drinks do ya?"

Nessie was sure the steam was visibly coming out of her ears by that point, "Oh! No no, I just meant, heh, it's just, the couple times I've had alcohol, it's always been so bitter and, I just, I didn't–"

"Hey," That callused hand fell over her dappled shoulder, the smooth skin felt the friction of rough fingers and worn boxing-cloth wraps, which created sparks along Nessie's skin, "I'm teasing. It's alright," Nikki's arm slipped behind the back of Nessie's neck, brushed beneath her hair, until that hand was able to give a few pats between her shoulder blades which made Nessie's spine prickle, the goosebumps having followed that hand as obediently as baby ducks after their mother, "Relax, this is a bar, a place you are supposed to -lose- some of that daily tension, let go of that stress," Her head tilted, giving an up and down glance, again, "You look like the type that could use some good...tension relief."

Nessie heard her heart beat between her ears, and she had the urge to down another 'Apple Pie Chiller.'

"I...ahem, yea, I'm certainly not...-unfamiliar- with being tense, ya got me there," She stepped to the side, Nikki's finger tips trailed along her back, allowing the scarlet haired woman to create space, but only in a way that her hand grazed her back until she was far enough away, "I don't want to interrupt your work day, er, night though–"

"You aren't," Nikki interjected just after she swallowed the last bite to the previously snatched muffin, "I always take a little bit to cool down after a match, so, why not stay awhile Ms-?" She let her sentence fall off a cliff hanger, so she could introduce herself.

"Nessie.." She bit her bottom lip, her fingers opened and closed beside her roomy hips, before she mumbled, "Umm, alright, sure."

Nikki sat down on a stool and reached a hand over to pat the seat directly beside her, welcomingly.

The lake-monster themed business owner's feet shifted, but with a gulp she plopped her bum down beside the brawny bar-owner who watched her every move with vested interest, one might assume she was prepping for another brawl were it not the more fond smirk still at the corner of her lips.

 

[Velvet-Tied-Cherub]

Nikki's knuckles once more tapped against the mahogany and Kai produced another shot in front of the fidgety patissier. Nessie stared at the liquor for a moment, that medley of complicated feelings again bubbling behind her pupils, but, as she glanced over to see Nikki finishing one of the bear-claws she had packed, her tongue swiped over her own lips and she tilted her head back to drain another little container of the sugary booze.

Once her chin was properly aligned again, having reflexively closed her eyes again to brace for the flavor despite already knowing she liked it, the brawler's voice interjected with a cavalier hum, "That drink's inspired by you ya know."

"Huh?"

"Well, based off your shop I guess," Nikki took hold of the basket handle and whispered to the bartender, "Get this away from me will ya? Feel like I'm about to unhinge my jaw and down the whole thing." before she turned back to the long haired visitor, "Yea, you've been setting up for a few weeks now and I realized I didn't have a lot of pastry inspired drinks so I figured I'd add some to the menu. Glad you were able to try one, wasn't sure if you were the bar-going type."

Nessie's hand's fiddled with the glass, a quirked smirk on her face, "Aw, well, that's sweet."

"That a pun?" Nessie looked over to see Nikki cocked an eyebrow at her.

Nessie's smile brightened, the blush of tipsiness beamed stronger, "Heh, not intentionally, but, now it is?"

Nikki simply chuckled before she removed the cloth from her boulder-ish shoulders and finished wiping off her face. Nessie turned a bit in her seat, the crowd having dispersed and grown to a calm lull so she could more easily spot that railing that separated the pit from the rest of the floor.
Her expression pensive, the question marks visibly danced around her cherry head.

"You can ask about it if you want."

Nessie's head swiftly swiveled back to see Nikki had turned a bit in her seat, fully facing her with an elbow on the bar, observing more openly, despite having passed off the dessert basket to Kai, her other hand still wiped off bits of blood, both hers and the other guy's. She still looked a little bit hungry while she stared at the freckle-faced woman, somehow.
Nessie bowed her head a bit at being caught staring quizzically, but with a little bit of courage from the firewater she didn't stutter and instead she tilted her head, "..I was just wondering about...isn't it a bit dangerous to...have that? I mean, drunk people and fighting is a bit of an issue already, wouldn't encouraging it be...you know–" Nessie's fingers laced and tugged against one another, her lips pursuing into a little circle before she landed on, "Not...the best?" Her nose creased at the bridge while she realized she was questioning the entire premise of the bar and how rude that must have seemed, her mouth already opened again with an apology on the tip of her tongue.

"Actually, no one is allowed in the pit unless they are 100% sober," Nessies's lips closed and like an interested puppy, her head tilted. Nikki continued to explain, that smirk remained, if anything, it deepened, "The point of the pit is to get all that anger -out- before alcohol is involved. Fighting, or watching a live fight, in my experience at least, keeps things pretty mellow afterwards because people have gotten all that shit out of their system, also, it's the reason for the bar name; 'Pit for a Pint', Go into the pit, and get a free pint of whatever drink you want, though, only one pint per person per night of course."

Nessie's fingers on either side of the shot glass twirled the cup in a circle upon the bar, "...Do they always have to fight you? Specifically?"

The dark haired bruiser grinned from ear to ear, having finished cleaning up her face, and placed the rag down on the serving table which Kai wordlessly reached for to discard, "Well, the ones with something to prove seem to."

Her chin tilted up a bit while Nessie felt an affectionate curl at the edge of her own lips at such confidence, her heart pumped a bit louder and she hoped Nikki couldn't hear it.

 

[Velvet-Tied-Cherub]

"But no. No-one -has- to fight me specifically, er, wait, actually, ok, I mean, everyone who goes in for -the first time- does need to go against me, so I can asses if it's ok for them to be down there in the first place, and sign off on them going again, if ever, but after one round, if everything looks ok, they can go in there with other people, hell, the frat boys two towns over come here like, once every couple months just to get in fights with their buddies to settle petty arguments. They always end it in group hugs too, it's honestly kinda wholesome."

Nessie tilted her head with an affectionate simper, this detail quite endearing, extra endearing through the veil of tipsiness actually, "Aw, that's remarkably cute, I mean, after all the violence."

Nikki shrugged before she leaned forward a bit.
The dark haired woman tipped in as though it had gotten too loud in the bar to be properly heard, regardless of the noise in the area having stayed at the exact same decimal, "Hey, sometimes violence is necessary, I mean, best way to experience that intensity is to have some calm to follow. We got built in aftercare here, and to -me- aftercare is very -very- important." Her hazelnut eyes searched the seaglass of the baker's, when she uttered the word 'aftercare' she was searching for something, recognition for the 'other' times such a word could be used.

The ruby haired woman was too slow to hide her reaction, for, as was intended for the test, the word 'aftercare' seemed to turn on a lightbulb of recognition, which only seemed all the more obvious when she could see Nikki notice, as though she heard the exact less-than-chaste thought as well as a temporary mind reader.

Nessie cleared her throat, and broke eye contact, as though that would somehow evaporate the thought bubble that they both clearly had, but, while Nessie metaphorically shooed it away with her hand, it was solidifying within Nikki's.

The midnight haired woman allowed Nessie a moment to just stare at the linoleum as though it held secrets that needed deciphering with her focused verdant eye, before she smirked and held a hand open for Kai to place a water bottle, "What? Something wrong with the bar table?" She reached her free hand over so that her fingers could pick at the timber of the shelf, as though she were searching right alongside the baker, but as she knew her arm was in view again, without a drop of shame, she did her best to hold her limb in a way against the ledge of the wood so that it would tense her arm, making the veins in her forearm strain and the bulge of her bicep to flex, another little test, which Nessie 'passed' or perhaps failed? when the fiery vines around her caramel freckles seemed to only burn brighter on her cheeks.

"N-No."

"Well I certainly hope it wasn't something I said."

"Not that either, heh, w-why do you even thing anything's wrong?" Nessie's head of garnet curtain turned to peer away from those muscles that transfixed her like a cartoon spiral.

"I mean, you stopped looking at me all of the sudden...Can't even look at my hand," Nessie could hear shuffling, could feel that powerful frame in motion, but she didn't expect, when she turned her head again, to see Nikki had stood up and was now hovering over her, inches away, the warmth of her tattooed figure heated up her ivory skin, those brilliant bronzite eyes peering into the pastry chef's soul, or at least, that's what it felt like, "I don't still have blood on me or anything? Right?" She tilted her chin up, as though she expected Nessie to look for her, though, the intentions were closer to a clever 'victim' tempting a vampire with her sculpt throat right beside chiseled shoulders.

Nessie swallowed, and as she stared, she realized, her eyes started to lower, to arms, to chest, to waist, with images of...~activities~ swirling like clouds around her head.
She managed to force her gaze to glance back up again, to somewhere more appropriate, her face, yes, her...face.

Nikki glanced down at the sonsy miss, eye lids lowered, sultry and focused, a little playful smirk at the corner of her lips at having watched Nessie's view go on a little stroll along her body...She wondered if Nikki might have the same sort of expression if she was hovering over her in bed...

"N-Nope!" Nessie turned in her stool, the opposite side than where the partially head-shaven woman stood, and hopped up out of her seat, "W-Whooa." her arms spread out beside her shoulders to keep her balance as she comprehended the alcohol had hit her low-on-food form, but she used the momentum to lift one foot and then step forward, so once she realized she had successfully -not- fallen on her ass she continued, "No blood, you're good, uh, IIIIII should really get going though, I wasn't trying to distract you from work or anything, just wanted to say a quick hello was all, so, umm, I should probably, get going, it's uh, getting late and you probably need to get to, umm–"

"Hey Nessie."

She paused, and though a part of her knew better, the red haired, and currently red faced, woman turned enough to look back at the brawling bar owner, and she had sat back down, one elbow propped on the bar while she leaned back and watched Nessie. She seemed completely unbothered by the nervous response, "Come back any time," She grinned, the right side of her lips quirked upwards impishly, "Please~" That one word felt like Nikki had placed her index finger on Nessie's spine and draaaaagged it all the way from the nape of her neck to the small of her back.

Nessie nodded with the speed that made her chin appear a blur while she sped up. She hadn't watched where she was walking and she bumped lightly into someone. She tripped over her own tongue, her head hung forward to hide her freckled face behind her hair, "S-Sorry excuse me."

The two people who walked in at the same moment she walked out, didn't seem to much mind.

It was Mason, the man thrown out before she came in, and the man who had thrown him out.

She could hear them as she left, both her hands cupped her cheeks as she was still buzzed, both from alcohol and her own heart-rate.

"Hey Nikkiiiiiii, I'm pretty sure I'm sober now, and I'm sorry, can I have my keys back?"

"If you drink a glass of water and take a breathalyzer, yea."

"Yes ma'am."

"-Don't- call me 'ma'am' that's weird."

"Heh ha, ok, uh, Boss?"

"Eh, that works."