Chapter Text
The door opened with a cheery little chime of a bell, and immediately the smell of baked goods and fresh bread hit Tango as he stepped inside. Inhaling the pleasant smell, he glanced around.
The bakery was small, though not in the way you'd feel cramped, as if a shop had been shoved between the almost too-narrow space between two existing buildings. No, it was a quaint kind of small. Enough for a nice handful of tables, spaced evenly apart so you wouldn't feel awkwardly close to someone sat at the table behind you.
There was already someone in the bakery at this early hour, a freckled lady with long, warm brown hair and a deep blue jacket, the hood pulled over her head with earbud cords dissappearing underneath. She seemed to be your average college student, though it was hard to tell her age since she was sat facing away from hm, a thermos beside her laptop supposedly filled with coffee or tea, and a few baked goods sat on the other side. She didn't seem to notice his arrival. Black and white moth wings sat delicately across her back, aswell as a pair of antenna poking from under her hood.
Moving on quickly from her, Tango studied the rest of the bakery as he walked up to the counter. The bakery sat at corner, with two walls of glass filling it with warm morning light. He could understand why someone would want to study here so early, college Tango would've studied much more if this place had existed.
The bakery itself was warmly colored; the walls were a happy shade of sunflower yellow, the floor and window frames a warm spruce wood, and the front counter was painted a welcoming shade of red, with smaller accents of green. Sun bathed seemed like the right word for it all. Warm and not too bright, cozy like a cabin. Not ultra modern, like some businesses have turned towards.
If Tango didn't know this place may be a base for criminal activity, he'd like it much more. It reminded him of his home server.
Interrupting him from his thoughts, a tall, feathered man burst out from a door behind the counter. Presumably the actual bakery part of the quaint business.
"Sorry! I had to get muffins out of the oven!" The man squawked in a British accent, "I'm a bit of a one man show today, sorry for the wait! Uh- what can I do for you?"
Tango blinked. The man shone like gold in the morning sun. He seemed to fit in with the atmosphere near perfectly, hair like golden wheat and fluttering golden wings catching the light in just the right way to give the illusion of precious metal. His skin was slightly tan, cheeks flushed likely by the heat of the ovens in the back.
Tango was once again snapped from his thoughts when suddenly the man, who'd been walking towards the register to take Tango's order, suddenly was not in his sight anymore.
Rather, he was on the ground, wings slightly spread as if they had been meant to save him from his own fate. The man had tripped, and was now face down on the floor.
"oh nether! Are you alright?" Tango gasped, leaning over the counter to see if the man was alright. It was only now he saw the leather jacket, with three color heart patches on the back with the words "BAD BOYS" in the space between his wings.
So this is one of the supposed criminals.
"Yes, yep! I'm fine, see?" The golden Bad Boy said as he stood up again, grabbing onto the counter to help himself up. Tango leaned back again. "No bumps no scrapes! Didn't even hit the counter on the way down!" He said, as if it was an accomplishment, readjusting the sunglasses sat infront of his eyes.
Tango looked down at his name tag, pinned crookedly on the collar of his leather jacket, which read JIMMY in a neat hand writing written in red marker.
"Does that happen... often?"
Jimmy chuckled nervously, "ah- well, maybe a little?"
Behind him, Tango heard a small giggle from the lady at the table.
If Jimmy noticed, he didn't show it.
"Well- um, anything I can get you?" The avian hybrid asked again.
"Oh! Yes, I've been planning on trying this place out," Tango half-lied, he'd been interested upon hearing about it, until he got this assignment from his agency, "but I'm not sure what to get, so- do you have any recommendations?"
Jimmy's mouth pressed into a firm line, eyebrows pinching down almost as if he wasn't sure about something, before smiling brightly again.
"Well- depends on what you like! Here at Bad Boy Bakery, we have any flavour of any baked good your heart can conjure! Special requests and allergy friendly goods included"
Tango made a Tango Noise of contemplation. Well, that certainly explained the small bakery's small, but passionate, group of fans. Many hybrids had dietary restrictions, and finding establishments that could cater is one in a million. Tango himself couldn't eat anything with a water based sauce, as a blaze hybrid.
"I'll eat pretty much anything, but I like spicy things"
Jimmy gasped, "oh, that's perfect actually! Um- would you actually mind being a taste tester of a sample I made?"
For a moment, Tango wondered why Jimmy couldn't do it himself, before his eyes flickered to the golden wings on the man's back. Avians cant taste spicy things.
He made another Tango noise, before smiling, "I don't see why not"
With a glee filled smile, Jimmy rushed back through the door to the back room, this time without tripping, giving Tango a moment to think.
This all seemed... very genuinely wholesome. It was charming, and a creative business model. Even if there is some suspected crime, Tango couldn't imagine it was anything big, if real at all.
Then again, this was only one of the three "Bad Boys" and Tango needed to get all of the facts first, since he didn't know whether or not the other two were suspicious. That, and this Jimmy guy could just be a good actor, no matter how pretty the blonde was.
Somehow, Tango didn't think so.
Said pretty blonde came back into the room holding a small plate, with what looked like a piece of... bread?
It was a small bun sized loaf, easily able to fit in Tango's palm. The soft crust was a maroon color, with a brighter red flakes across the top. Tango could recognize those flakes from anywhere, though it never occurred to him to use spicy crimson vines in a bread before.
"Go ahead and eat it! Consider it a free sample" Jimmy said, seeming excited as he handed Tango the small plate.
Tango considered it for a moment. Was he about to be poisoned? He dismissed that thought. There was no reason he would be.
So he took a bite.
And it was... amazing. His eyes widened.
Tango had grown up eating traditional nether foods- despite living mostly in the overworld of his home server and only visiting family in the nether on occasion. That included tough, almost flavorless netherwart bread. For some reason, he had assumed this would be similar.
It was very spicy, more so than the raw vines themselves, but the texture was smooth and buttery and was easy to chew and swallow. Tango doesn't think he'd ever be able to choke down another piece of his grandma's wart loaf ever again after this.
Jimmy fidgeted in place, looking nervous and worrying his lip, wings twitching in anxiety, and Tango remembered he was probably supposed to give feedback.
"This is so good! Its actually amazing, oh my nether!"
Jimmy stopped fidgeting, a blinding smile splitting across his face.
"Oh, good! I was hoping- I mean- I couldn't- I can put this on the menu-"
Tango quickly ate the rest of the small bun, watching the avian stammer. Tango, suddenly, felt that he wouldn't mind the future of this mission. It was a good break from his typical ones, all quick thinking and fights.
He loves his job as a underground hero, really, but sometimes a mission like this felt almost like a vacation. Tango especially didn't mind the fact that at least one of the three Bad Boys didn't actually seem very bad at all.
"Do you have more, or maybe a loaf? I might not live without more of this in my life, I'm serious" Tango said, putting the small plate down.
"Oh!" Jimmy's eyes widened, "well- I have almost a dozen more from the test batch- before Joel told me none of us could even taste taste it accurately- but I can get started on putting a loaf in the menu?"
That would give Tango an excuse to come back. He smiled back at the avian, all sharp teeth.
"Great! I'll take the dozen, and I can come back Saturday for the loaf"
Jimmy nodded, scrambling back through the doors.
Again, Tango heard the girl behind him giggle.
Ten dollars and a generous tip later, totally because he needed a good reputation for this mission and not because he wanted to see Jimmy smile again, Tango was walking back out of the door as the bell rang behind him, a brown paper sack with eleven spicy buns in one arm.
Tango tried not to think about how Jimmy asked for his name, purely to write a note to himself- an actual, paper note, not a reminder on his communicator- to make a spicy bread loaf for him. He tried not to think too hard about how nice his own name was, coming from Jimmy's mouth.
Thoughts of homoromantic tendency aside, Tango got into his car and fished his own communicator out of his hoodie pocket to give his boss a status update. He'd write a full report later.
If he left out details concerning how absolutely not suspicious Jimmy seemed only to hopefully stay on this mission a little longer without his boss figuring it was a waste of time, that was for him to know, and his boss to never find out.