A/N: This is highkey butt sorry guys :(
The first time Kento Nanami walked into your bakery, it was because of a child.
Specifically, because said child had stared at the display case through the window like his soul was leaving his body.
“Nanamin” Yuji said dramatically, palms pressed against the glass, “pleaseee.”
Nanami adjusted the grocery bags digging into his palms.
“It’s seven in the evening.”
“You already had dessert.”
Nanami sighed heavily through his nose. Fostering Yuji Itadori had taught him many things in the past six months. Children were loud. Children ate alarming amounts of food. And apparently children could look so hopeful over pastries that even Nanami found it difficult to refuse.
“You can get one thing,” he said finally.
Yuji gasped like he’d just been granted a dying wish.
“You’re the best dad ever.”
“You bought me new sneakers yesterday.”
“Because yours had holes in them.”
Before Nanami could respond, Yuji was already dragging the bakery door open. Warmth hit them immediately. Soft lights glowed against the windows while the smell of fresh bread and espresso wrapped through the small shop.
Then Nanami heard shouting.
“This coffee tastes burnt.”
A man stood at the counter glaring at you while you held the cup carefully in both hands.
“I’m really sorry, sir.” You said patiently. “I can remake it lighter for you if you’d prefer?”
“I asked for dark coffee.”
“Yes, sir, but dark roast naturally has a stronger bitterness—”
“So you admit it tastes bad?”
Yuji frowned instantly beside Nanami.
“That guy sucks,” he whispered loudly.
Nanami silently agreed. You still tried to stay polite despite the customer’s increasingly irritated tone. Nanami noticed the way your smile strained slightly around the edges. The exhaustion beneath your patience. And still, you kept trying.
“I can also refund you if that would help,” you offered gently.
“I actually own the bakery so—”
“Then maybe you should learn how to make coffee properly.”
Something cold settled behind Nanami’s expression.
“She already offered you several reasonable solutions.”
The man turned sharply. Nanami stood near the entrance, grocery bags still in one hand while Yuji peeked out from behind him curiously.
“You asked for dark coffee” Nanami continued flatly. “You received dark coffee. Berating her because you dislike your own order is irrational.”
The man scoffed. “Mind your business.”
“You made it everyone’s business once you started yelling.”
Yuji nodded enthusiastically beside him.
The man looked around at the uncomfortable stares from other customers before muttering angrily under his breath and storming out. The bell above the door rattled violently behind him. Silence lingered. Then the bakery slowly relaxed again. You exhaled softly.
Nanami shrugged once. “He was being unreasonable.”
Yuji immediately stepped forward.
“You stayed nice to that mean guy even after he yelled at you. That was so cool”
You blinked. Then smiled warmly at him.
“Well thank you, sweetheart.”
Nanami noticed your expression soften instantly around children. Something about that lodged itself annoyingly in his chest. Yuji wandered immediately toward the display case.
“You may pick one,” Nanami reminded him.
“One?” Yuji looked personally betrayed. “Nanamin look at this place.”
“Actually my teacher told me that i’m passionate.” Yuji corrected seriously.
You leaned slightly over the counter toward him conspiratorially.
Yuji beamed at you instantly. Nanami already sensed this was going to become a problem.
“What can I get for you two?” You asked.
“That strawberry one. And that chocolate thing. Wait no—”
“One thing,” Nanami repeated.
Yuji groaned. You tried unsuccessfully to hide your smile.
“What about for you?” You asked Nanami.
You stared at him for a moment.
“That explains everything.”
Yuji burst into laughter.
Nanami looked mildly offended. You moved around behind the counter preparing the coffee while Yuji pressed both hands against the display glass dramatically. Nanami found himself watching you instead. You hummed quietly while working. Not loudly—just soft little absentminded hums under your breath as you moved between trays and machines. It was strangely calming. There was a streak of flour on your cheek. You clearly hadn’t noticed. You glanced up suddenly and caught him staring.
“There’s flour on your face.”
Your hand immediately went to the wrong side.
You narrowed your eyes suspiciously. “Are you messing with me?”
Yuji leaned over the counter.
“No, it’s actually there.”
You laughed at yourself while trying again unsuccessfully. Nanami stepped forward before really thinking about it. His fingers brushed lightly against your cheek as he wiped the flour away carefully with his thumb. The movement was brief. Gentle. Your breath caught slightly. So did his.
Yuji looked between both of you immediately with the sharp instincts only children possessed.
You blinked once before smiling softly.
Nanami cleared his throat. Yuji grinned like he’d just discovered a big secret. A few minutes later you handed over the order.
Nanami frowned immediately. “That’s unnecessary.”
“I’m rewarding good behavior.”
“You’re rewarding public confrontation.”
You leaned against the counter slightly.
“I’m rewarding someone for defending me.”
Then you crouched slightly to Yuji’s level.
“And for bringing in your adorable kid.”
“I’m not adorable,” Yuji informed you seriously.
Yuji immediately looked pleased. Nanami already knew he was losing this battle.
They came back three days later. Then again the next week. Then suddenly it became routine. At first Nanami told himself it was because Yuji liked the pastries. Which was true. Dangerously true. Every afternoon after school, Yuji practically dragged Nanami through the bakery doors.
“The usual?” You asked brightly one afternoon.
Yuji pointed immediately. “The custard one!”
You sighed dramatically. “One day I’m getting you sugar.”
“One day you’ll stop trying.”
Yuji leaned toward you while Nanami paid.
“He actually likes sweet stuff.”
Nanami looked down immediately. “Yuji.”
“What? You ate my pancakes.”
“You left them unattended.”
You laughed so hard you nearly dropped the pastry bag. Nanami felt something warm settle while hearing it.
Eventually, you started setting aside extra sweets “by accident.”
“This got slightly overbaked.”
“It’s perfectly fine,” Nanami said.
“Guess Yuji will have to eat it then.”
“Oh no,” Yuji said sarcastically while accepting the pastry immediately.
“I made too many cream buns.”
“You absolutely did not,” Nanami replied.
You ignored him completely while sliding the box toward Yuji. Nanami noticed the way you always packed an extra one specifically for him too. You never said anything about it. But you always did.
Slowly and terrifyingly, the bakery stopped feeling like just a bakery. It became routine. Warmth. Even something to look forward to. Yuji doing homework at the corner table while you baked. Nanami sitting nearby with loosened sleeves after work while you hummed quietly in the kitchen. Sometimes Yuji would fall asleep against Nanami’s arm after too many sweets. Sometimes Nanami caught himself staring at you longer than he should. Watching flour dust your face and clothes while you worked. Watching the way you smiled at Yuji like he was easy to look after. Watching the way you smiled at him softer.
One evening after closing, Yuji slept curled up across two chairs near the window, hoodie half slipping off his shoulder. Rain tapped gently outside. You stood behind the counter kneading dough while humming again. Nanami watched silently.
“You’re staring,” you murmured without looking up.
“You have flour all over your hair.”
You sighed dramatically. “Maybe i did it on purpose”
A faint smile pulled briefly at Nanami’s mouth.
You walked closer, stopping across from him. For a moment neither of you spoke. The bakery lights glowed warm around you while rain softened against the windows. Then quietly, you asked—
“Why do you keep coming back here, Nanami?”
The honest answer terrified him a little. Because somewhere along the way, this place had started feeling more like home than his little apartment did. Because Yuji laughed more here. Because you looked at both of them like you genuinely wanted them around. Because after years of exhaustion and numb routine, Nanami had somehow stumbled into warmth again. His eyes drifted toward sleeping Yuji briefly. Then back to you.
“You’re good to him,” he said softly.
Your expression gentled immediately.
“He’s easy to care about.”
“Yes” Nanami replied quietly. “He is.”
Yuji became part of your bakery routine embarrassingly fast. By the third week, you already had his favorite pastry waiting whenever the bell above the door chimed.
Yuji groaned dramatically every single time. Nanami found himself watching the exchange from behind him more often than he should. Watching the way you leaned against the counter while talking to Yuji like he was important. Like he wasn’t a burden. Like caring for him was second nature to you. It did something strange to Nanami’s chest every time. Especially because fostering Yuji hadn’t been easy. Nothing about it had been easy.
At first, Nanami had told himself it was temporary. A few weeks at most. Just until paperwork got sorted out. Just until someone else stepped in. But then Yuji started leaving his shoes by the front door. Started falling asleep on the couch waiting for Nanami to get home from work. Started looking up every evening the second he heard keys in the lock. And somewhere between grocery lists and school forms and making sure there was enough food in the apartment, Nanami stopped feeling like he was just “helping.”
It scared him a little. Because attachment meant loss eventually. Nanami knew that better than most. Yet every afternoon despite himself, he found his feet carrying him toward your bakery. Toward warmth. Toward soft music and the smell of fresh bread and your quiet humming from behind the counter. Toward you.
One particularly exhausting evening, Nanami arrived nearly an hour later than usual. His shoulders ached. His tie felt suffocating. And he’d spent the last twelve hours dealing with people he was becoming convinced lacked functional brains. The bell chimed softly when he entered. Yuji looked up from his homework immediately.
You glanced over from behind the register too. Your expression softened instantly.
“I mean more than usual.”
Yuji nodded seriously. “You’ve got the scary eye bags today.”
“I’m surrounded by bullies.”
You laughed quietly under your breath.
God. That sound was becoming dangerous for him. It had him imagining a future-which isn’t something he does often. He loosened his tie slightly before sitting beside Yuji at the corner table. Without asking, you appeared a minute later with a coffee and a plate holding a small slice of strawberry shortcake. Nanami frowned immediately.
“You looked like you got beat up by your paperwork.”
You slid the plate closer anyway. Nanami stared at the cake.
“…I don’t really eat sweets.”
Yuji looked at him like he’d admitted to a crime.
“You’re both judging me now?”
“Yes” you and Yuji answered simultaneously.
You blinked. Then both of you burst into laughter. Nanami felt warmth bloom unexpectedly in his chest at the sound. The scene felt so domestic it almost unnerved him. Yuji doing homework. You dusting flour from your hands nearby. Coffee growing cold beside him while rain tapped softly against the windows outside. It felt peaceful. Dangerously peaceful. The kind of peace that made a person forget to keep their guard up. Nanami took one bite of the cake mostly to stop Yuji from staring at him like a disappointed puppy. Then paused. You looked entirely too pleased with yourself.
“That means yes” you told Yuji knowingly.
Yuji grinned triumphantly.
You slid another pastry onto the plate anyway. Nanami realized with growing horror that the two of you had started teaming up against him regularly.
Another afternoon, Nanami arrived to find Yuji behind the counter wearing one of your spare aprons. Flour coated nearly every visible surface. Including Yuji himself.
Nanami stopped in the doorway.
You stood nearby laughing while trying to move your hair off your cheek with the back of your wrist.
“It was my idea” you admitted. “In my defense, he was very persuasive.”
Yuji held up a lopsided piece of dough proudly.
“No, it looks more like a tortoise.”
You laughed so hard you had to lean against the counter. Nanami’s gaze drifted toward you automatically. There was jelly all over your apron. A bit near your jaw this time too. You started humming absentmindedly again while reshaping dough on the counter. Soft. Mindless. Comfortable. Nanami didn’t realize he’d been staring until Yuji suddenly grinned.
“You’re doing the thing again.”
Nanami looked down immediately. “What thing?”
You blinked between them curiously. Yuji pointed directly at Nanami.
“He looks at you like you’re the sun.”
Nanami felt his soul briefly leave his body.
You looked equally caught off guard. Then slowly—very slowly a smile spread across your face. Nanami immediately reached for the bridge of his nose.
“This is why children shouldn’t speak.”
Yuji looked deeply offended.
“You’re just embarrassed because I’m right.”
“You brought her flowers last week.”
“They were leftover from a client meeting.”
You were trying very hard not to laugh now.
“I was wondering about that” you admitted softly.
Nanami looked at you. Your expression had gentled completely.
Something shifted quietly in the air. Yuji looked between both of you before dramatically gasping.
“We are not,” Nanami answered immediately.
Too quickly. Your eyebrows lifted.
Nanami looked at you across the counter.
Jelly on your face. Warm light catching in your eyes. That familiar soft humming under your breath while you smiled at him like he was someone worth waiting for. Then his gaze drifted briefly toward Yuji happily ruining dough beside you. Toward the life he somehow kept finding himself pulled back into every day. Something tender twisted in his chest. Because the truth was horrifyingly simple. He was already attached. To both of you. Completely. And Kento Nanami had never done anything halfway. Yuji narrowed his eyes knowingly.
“You’re making the face again.”
“The one where you look like you wanna say something nice”
“You literally just got here,” you laughed.
Yuji pointed dramatically.
“See? He’s running away!”
Nanami picked up a dish towel and threw it directly at him. Yuji dodged it while laughing loudly. And for the first time in years, Nanami realized something terrifying. When he pictured home now—He no longer pictured an apartment. He pictured this bakery instead.
When he finally told you how he felt It wasn’t dramatic. That was probably the strangest part. No huge confession in the rain. No dramatic realization.
No moment where one of you suddenly blurted out I’m in love with you. It happened so slowly and so naturally that by the time either of you realized what this was becoming, it already felt inevitable.
It started with little things. Nanami staying later after closing. At first he’d only linger long enough for Yuji to finish homework at the corner table. Then somehow he started helping stack chairs. Wiping counters. Carrying flour bags into the back room before you could ask.
“You don’t work here” you told him one night.
“You were lifting improperly.”
But he kept doing it anyway.
And you kept pretending not to notice how tired he looked after twelve-hour shifts. So instead, you started leaving food beside him while he helped clean. Nothing fancy. Just—
“That wasn’t a question.”
Nanami learned quickly that you were strangely scary when concerned.
Then came habits. Dangerous little habits. You texting him when Yuji forgot his lunch at school because somehow you were now his emergency contact too. Nanami walking you to your station after late supply runs because “it’s unsafe this late.” You falling asleep briefly against his shoulder one night after closing while waiting for the last train. Neither of you mentioning it afterward. Except after that Nanami started standing slightly closer to you naturally. Like his body had quietly decided something before his mind caught up.
The actual moment things changed happened on an ordinary Tuesday. Which felt fitting. The bakery had closed early because of heavy snow. Yuji was at a sleepover for the first time in weeks after begging Nanami relentlessly to let him go. So for the first time in months It was just the two of you.
The bakery was quiet. Soft jazz played from the old speaker near the kitchen while snow drifted outside the windows in slow white sheets. You stood near the counter boxing leftover pastries while humming the song softly under your breath. Nanami sat at his usual table loosening his tie slightly after work. He was watching you again. He did that often now. The weird thing was he’d stopped trying not to.
“You’re staring,” you murmured without looking up.
“You have flour on your cheek.”
“At this point I think it lives there.”
Nanami stood before really thinking about it. You looked up as he walked over. There was flour near your jaw again. And without hesitation now, without awkwardness—he brushed it away gently with his thumb. But this time neither of you moved afterward. Your eyes stayed on his. Warm bakery lights. Snow outside. Your breath caught slightly. And Nanami realized something terrifying--these past few months had been the first taste of normalcy he’d ever allowed himself to have. This felt natural. Not overwhelming. Not frightening. Just… right.
You smiled first. Soft and sleepy and fond.
“You know,” you said quietly, “you touch me like you already know you’re allowed to.”
Nanami went still. You were right. Somewhere along the way, you’d become part of him so naturally that he’d stopped questioning whether he could reach for you. Stopped questioning whether you’d pull away. His hand was still resting lightly against your cheek.
“You never seem upset when I do,” he admitted quietly.
Your expression softened immediately.
“I’m never upset when it’s you.”
God. You said things so gently sometimes it completely ruined him. The bakery suddenly felt very small. Very warm. Very dangerous. Nanami exhaled softly through his nose.
“You should be more careful saying things like that.”
“Because I’m trying very hard to behave appropriately.”
You blinked once. Then laughed softly under your breath.
The use of his first name nearly killed him on the spot. You noticed immediately too because your smile faltered into something softer. More vulnerable. And then very carefully, you stepped closer. Not enough to touch fully. Just enough that Nanami could feel your warmth.
“You know,” you murmured, “most people would’ve figured out we liked each other months ago.”
“I was choosing to ignore it.”
Nanami looked at you quietly for a long moment. Then finally answered honestly.
“Because the last time I cared about people this much, I lost them.”
The words settled heavily between you. You looked at him with that same gentle expression that always made him feel painfully seen. Then you reached up carefully and straightened his loosened tie. A tiny habit you’d developed recently.
“You know what I think?” you asked softly.
“I think you’ve spent so long preparing yourself for loss that you forgot some things are worth keeping anyway.”
Nanami felt his stomach churn. Because you said it so simply. Like loving someone wasn’t terrifying. Like staying wasn’t terrifying. Your fingers lingered briefly against his tie. Neither of you moved.
Then quietly—very quietly. Nanami leaned down and kissed you. Slow. Careful. Like he was still giving you time to change your mind. You kissed him back immediately. Warm hands sliding lightly against his sleeves while he held you gently like something precious. And suddenly Nanami understood why people wrote poetry. Because nothing in his life had ever felt this soft before. When you finally pulled apart, both of you stayed close enough that your foreheads nearly touched. You smiled first again.
“You know,” you whispered “that was way less stiff and robotic than I expected.”
Nanami closed his eyes briefly.
You laughed softly against him.
And then, because apparently the universe enjoyed humiliating him, the bakery door burst open.
“Guys, I forgot my—” Yuji froze mid-sentence.
You immediately stepped back, startled. Nanami looked exhausted instantly. Yuji stared between both of you slowly.
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