Inky ^beta

It’s about time you start your preparations for the afternoon tea at the Casino. The guests should only be eating gourmet, 5-star foods, after all.

The menu for this afternoon includes your boss’s favorite food… cookies.

Oh, you just know your manager loves cookies. He’s definitely a bit embarrassed to admit it, though. Come to think of it, the serious, closed off, mysterious boss of the Sky Casino loves cookies? It makes you chuckle a bit… but, you’ve been sensing that there’s more to uncover about Sigma.

But it’s no time to think of this right now! Time to wash your hands and work on some dough!

After making different kinds of cookie batter, a few other pastries and working on bread doughs, you look over at your colleague “Is the oven preheated yet?” You ask them as you take the cookie tray on your hands. They nod and open the oven’s door for you to place that beautiful batch on cookies in.

As the cookies baked, you continued to work on making patterns on the bread’s dough. A heart… a flower… some other patterns you don’t remember the name of, even though you studied them in culinary school.

After 11 minutes of leaving the cookies to bask in the 175°C (350°F) comforting heat, you take them out. The chocolate chips, having melted, made beautiful sugary pools in the space they previously occupied.

You let the cookies sit on the counter, letting them chill before carefully putting them in the serving basket… but first, you sneakily hide some for Sigma. “Some” meaning the ones you know look and taste the best… the ones with the extra chocolate, the ones you know are perfectly baked… chewy yet crunchy.

You have no time to think about how good the chocolate chip cookies look, it’s time to move onto the sugar cookies, then the checkerboard ones, the butter ones and, finally, the wafers. You let out a mental sigh, to not risk contaminating anything on the kitchen and go wash your hands once more.

‘I wish I could bake all the cookie recipes for my manager… no, of course not. I’d rather cook them for my customers, I’m sure.’

You bite your lip to push these thoughts away and start to measure the ingredients for the sugar cookies.

Sigma has been on your mind for some months now, you’ve been working on the casino for more than three years now… you’re one of the first chefs hired to work there. You couldn’t deny you got a bit nervous on your job interview… the man who you would soon call manager was so stunning in your eyes it was unbelievable.

The man’s lilac and silver hair, those sharp eyes, those lips that let out such firm and certain words. You definitely swooned a bit, but you honestly were more concerned with being unemployed rather than fancying your future manager.

After that initial meeting, Sigma just became someone that's an excellent boss. Nothing more, nothing less, you don’t know about his personality, how can you even develop a proper crush without even knowing who he really is!

But the initial months passed by, and bit by bit Sigma opened up a bit… just a bit. It was on your second year of working at the Casino, you two finally had a small conversation where you managed to get something out of him.

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You were leaning on the door of the kitchen, looking at Sigma "Are you sure I can decide tomorrow's menu?" You asked, surprised. The manager nodded "Yes, I trust that your picks will make the guests happy." He offered you a gentle smile.

You blinked but grinned at him "Yeah, if it were up to you, as a guest, what would you like to eat?"

Sigma's face immediately changed from gentle to intrigued "If I were a guest? I'd definitely like cookies…" he said the last sentence in a low tone. You hummed in acknowledgment "Cookies? I didn't judge you as the type that likes such sugary treats. What else do you like?" You asked him.

He looked at you in the eyes, a hint of surprise could be seen in them. Sigma thought about it for a moment before looking up "I like casinos, high places and talent."

"Talent?" You replied

"Talent. A man like me has no natural talents… so I appreciate those who have it." His eyes flickered downwards for a moment before looking up at you again. In this moment, you understood that maybe Sigma had a little more depth than you could ever think. Your confident boss was insecure about his skills? This intrigued you, so now you need to investigate it.

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As you ran this memory back in your mind your body was moving on autopilot, before you noticed, the dough was ready. You let out another mental sigh before arranging the dough in its desired shape and popping the tray in the oven.

As they baked, you began to make the icing. Today's theme was poker chips… the cutest thing ever, though, they're a pain in the ass to make. The decoration of card themed sugar cookies is much easier to make. You don't really like working hard, you've been a bit unmotivated lately… after all, working hard every day in a kitchen is tiring. But it's nothing a small break can't fix. At least that's what you've been telling yourself for the past two weeks. Maybe it's definitely time to ask your boss for a week off.

As your mind was trailing off your hands added black dye in the white icing 'Focus! Dang it! You're messing things up!' You chastised yourself mentally.

You promptly set the bowl of, now black, icing aside, asking your coworker to place it in the fridge. Maybe you can still use it for later another recipe. As you make another bowl of white royal icing the cookies finish baking. You set them aside to cool off a bit before starting on the tortuous task of decorating them. It's only 12pm and all the sweets need to be ready, so the table can be perfectly set at 5pm.

Luckily, today you're only in charge of the sweets and desserts.

At 3pm you finally finished the decoration of the 100 sugar cookies. Your arms felt like noodles, even your arm workout didn't tire you out like this. But at least you're grateful you managed to do this amount of decorating in such a small amount of time. After all, experience brings amazing benefits… you've been cooking more seriously ever since you were 16… you've gotten your degree at 22 and now you're 26. In the 10 years you started making sugar cookies and in the 4 years of mastering your technique at them after your degree, you've definitely came a long way.

As you make your way to the fridge to grab your lunch, you can hear familiar footsteps. You can recognize that sound easily, you quickly close the fridge and turn around to see Sigma. Sigma looks at you "Keep doing what you were doing." He says, he definitely does not look happy at all.

"Huh?" You ask "What's going on, manager? Did something happen?"

The general manager crossed his arms "I don't know. Do you have a clue what time is it, chef?" He asked in a stern voice.

"Oh, it's 3pm, but don't worry, the cookies will be finished by 4:30 max! There won't be any delays!" In a frantic voice, you blabbered.

"I'm not worried about that, I'm you sure you know it."

"Yeah… I'm sure" you muttered, definitely not too sure.

"When are you planning to eat lunch?" He asked

Your eyes widened, you know Sigma takes care of his staff extremely well. He keeps a keen eye on everything casino-related through the cameras. "Uh, I was planning to eat now, why?" You asked, much less worried now, but you definitely got way more nervous. Your manager, worried about you? No, he worries about everyone the same. Come on, you know it.

"Now? Why didn't you eat at 12?" Sigma crosses his arms, the sudden movement makes his silky hair sway slightly.

"I didn't want to stop my work flow and-"

"And what? What am I going to do if you pass out because you haven't eaten? I'm not talking about compensation, what I'm going to do without the Sky Casino's most estimated chef or my reputation. I'm talking about your health directly." He took a step closer "You know it, (Last Name). I've told you how deeply I care for this casino and everything related to it."

You nodded "Yes. I'm sorry, I'll keep that in mind." You said apologetically.

Sigma nodded and turned around to walk away, as he made his first step towards the door, you muttered "I wouldn't be surprised if he loved this casino more than himself…"

"What is it?" He whipped his head around, looking straight into your eyes. Your body immediately locked up. Analyzing his face, he doesn't seem quite necessarily angry or upset, he has the same expression he did when he was scolding you. So it was safe to say he didn't hear what you said.

"I was just talking to myself" you stammered.

"Do what you must, then. Keep in mind what I told you." He said and turned his head forward, keeping on his way out of the kitchen.

You leaned against the wall. Close one, if he did hear it you'd definitely would have gotten scolded or received a stare that would kill you if it could. You couldn't help but actually sigh this time around. Your heart was racing for all the wrong reasons. That last small, weird interaction did startle you, but you can't deny, his worry for you did leave your heart racing.