[crow]

Two people--- a young woman and a boy--- walked along the streets. The woman walked ahead, setting a pace that the boy had to trot to keep up with, a scowl on her features. Clearly, she was cross about something.

“Hey, wait up! Wait up, Peach!” said the boy. “Geez! You know I’m not as tall as you.” He adopted a pout for a moment, then abandoned it when it became clear that the woman, Peach, wasn’t paying him any attention. “Come on, it was just an accident!”

[crow]

“Oh, I’m sure it was,” she said darkly, not the least bit mollified by anything he had said. As it was, it was all Peach could do to stop herself from dragging him back by the ear. “And I’m sure Ferdinand is going to love hearing you explain exactly what happened when we get back to the bakery.”

At this, the boy frowned, beginning to grow annoyed himself. “Look, why are you even blaming me for this? You think I made the sale and packed up myself? You know that’s not possible!”

[crow]

Not satisfied that he was getting his point across with sufficient conviction, the boy ran a few steps to overtake her, then began walking backwards so Peach was forced to look at his face as he went on. “Neo was on counter duty that day, and you know it! So why am I getting the lecture?”

“Because you’re the one I have with me right now,” said Peach. “And also because you should have come straight back, Neo or no Neo. You know that too. We all know that.”

[crow]

“Right, because I’m just going to walk out of some guy’s apartment, and he’s not going to find it weird at all that there’s some guy in his house, and that his cake is missing, for some reason.” The boy rolled his eyes. “I don’t know if that’s ever worked for you, but I don’t think it would have worked for me.”

“And trying to--- what--- climb into the lap of that same guy was going to have better results?” said Peach. The boy did at least look a little guilty at that, finally.

[crow]

Still, he didn’t quite let it go. “It could have,” he said in a small, mulish voice. “You never know. I bet you haven’t kissed anyone yet either, Peach.”

“And I don’t want to,” said Peach. She thought for a moment about all the humans out there with their wet, slobbery mouths, and shuddered. “No, definitely not. But you have a lot to answer for, Confetti. You and Neo both.” Confetti huffed and looked away, his expression unhappy, but starting to grow resigned. “And if you think for a minute we’re going to let you off the hook just because you pout a little, you’ve got another thing coming.”

[crow]

"Yeah, yeah,” said Confetti dismissively. But at least he followed, after all that. And at least Peach slowed down to a reasonable pace, so that he didn’t have to trot to keep up anymore. Now that the worst of her anger--- not to mention her mortification--- had died down, she did realize that she was being a little bit unfair about that.

Not about anything else though. Confetti should have known better, did know better, and decided to try and seduce the guy who brought him home anyway.

[crow]

And if what the guy had said had been any indication, it seemed like Confetti had actually come out to him about being a cake. What could he possibly have been thinking, doing something like that?

It just got worse the more Peach thought about it, to the point where she couldn’t bear to dwell on the topic anymore. This was definitely something for Ferdinand to deal with, and not her. What were the newly baked cakes thinking these days? She was sure she hadn’t been nearly as unmanageable when she had been their age.

[crow]

“Yeah, well, duh,” said Confetti. “Of course you’re no fun. You were baked upside-down.” Peach stopped to stare at Confetti. Apparently she had spoken that last bit out loud. He raised a brow at her as if to ask what she was looking at, then winced as she smacked him on the arm. “Ow! Hey! Watch it!” he said. “What if I bruise?”

“Then you can ask Ferdinand to fix it when you get back,” she said. “Or you can learn to stop making smart comments about your seniors.”

[crow]

“Ugh. You’re such a tyrant,” said Confetti, rubbing his arm gingerly. He probed the area with a finger and winced in a fashion that was much too over the top to be anything but an act. Now it was Peach’s turn to roll her eyes at him.

“If you guys caused a little less trouble, maybe I wouldn’t be,” she said. It wasn't like she enjoyed having to do this. “Come on. We have to take the bus.” That blasted guy just had to live outside of reasonable walking distance from their bakery too…

[crow]

None of them could drive, since there were way too many complications involved with getting a license, not the least of which was the fact that they didn’t have any identification. They weren’t citizens or anything, even though technically they’d been born here… Just not ‘born’ the way people usually were. And on the off chance they were caught without a license, then the cops would be asking all sorts of questions they couldn’t answer, and even Confetti would probably agree that a police investigation of the bakery was the last thing anyone wanted.

[crow]

“What? We have to take the bus?” said Confetti, clearly dismayed. “No thanks. Let’s just walk.”

“You can walk twelve miles if you want to,” said Peach. “I’m taking the bus.”

“Twelve---” Confetti came up short, eyes going wide, then pouted again. “Let’s just call a taxi, huh? Please? Pretty please?”

“Not even the reigning world champion of pleases is going to get me to change my mind on that one,” Peach said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a crisp five dollar bill. “This is all the money I have, and it’s definitely not enough for a taxi.”

[crow]

“How do you know if you haven’t even tried yet?” said Confetti. “I bet I could convince someone to take us. Or we could hitchhike.”

“If you’re thinking about trying to seduce someone else, you can forget about it,” said Peach. She grabbed Confetti by the arm and pulled him along. Confetti put up a little resistance at first, but Peach was the stronger of the two, and eventually he tired himself out and fell into step with her again. “Why do you hate the bus so much anyway?” she said. “You’ve never been on it.”

[crow]

“Yeah, exactly. I’ve never been on it,” said Confetti. “That means I’m nice and clean. Can you blame a guy for wanting to stay that way?” His tone was very clearly sullen, and he was pouting again, though this time to relieve his own unhappy feelings, rather than because he thought he might be able to convince Peach about something with it. “The bus is dirty. The people on there /smell.”

They had the unhappy fortune of coming up to the bus stop just as Confetti made that auspicious comment, and several people turned their heads to stare at them.

[crow]

Peach heaved a massive inward sigh before smiling awkwardly at the onlookers, until they turned away, some muttering to themselves or giving them dark looks as they did.

“Look,” she said to Confetti. “Do you mind?”

“Well, it’s still true,” said Confetti, unrepentant. Peach wondered if he’d even noticed the looks they’d gotten thanks to his words. It was Confetti’s attitude as much as anything that was making Peach so cross with him, even though it technically was Neo’s fault that this had happened in the first place.

[crow]

At least Neo felt sorry about it, and had promised not to do it again. The way he was carrying on, she suspected that Confetti would have done it again if given the chance, consequences be damned.

But that was honestly a question for when they got back to the bakery. They had to get back in one piece first, which was hardly a guaranteed thing the way things were going right now.

“Um, excuse me,” said a female voice. At first, neither of them paid it any attention. But then it piped up again, louder and more insistent this time. “Excuse me!”