it's empty in the valley of your heart {Open}

[tuck]

Every weekend, Tuck went to the bakery, bought up the second-day bread, and went around giving it to less fortunate people. He didn't do it to impress anybody, it was just the sort of charitable thing that went along with being a traveling monk/aspiring priest/friar thing. Besides which, it was a good way to get out of some years in purgatory, and Tuck could certainly use a little credit on that account. He was reminded of that particularly as he poured clear liquor into the cup of coffee he'd bought at the café next door. Tucking the flask away into his pocket, he pushed open the bakery door and approached the counter.

"Morning, William," said the baker (coming in every weekend had left Tuck fairly well acquainted with the staff). "Out a bit early this morning, eh?" Tuck nodded.

"Couldn't sleep, thought I might as well get an early start on the day," he explained, picking up most of the loaves of bread on the yesterday shelf. "Good business this morning?"

"Yep. Holidays coming up, things start to pick up a bit." He rang up the items Tuck had placed on the counter, and put them all in a large paper sack, arranging them carefully so they wouldn't be too terribly crushed. Tuck thanked him and headed back out of the bakery, one hand holding his coffee, the other arm wrapped around the bag of bread. Someone else was coming in as he exited, and in spite of how full his own hands were, he tried to hold the door open for them, propping it with one foot and trying to hold the latch with the other hand. The coffee wobbled once, and he recovered it, but the second time the door tried to slip out of his hand, he lost both the door and the coffee.

The door he caught with his knee. The coffee, unfortunately, fell, hitting the floor hard enough to knock off the lid, and splattered a considerable distance, including all over the shoes of the person who'd just come in. Tuck was horrified.

"I am so sorry," he said, grasping at the napkins that were in the top of the bag of bread. "Here, I didn't mean to...I'm all thumbs this morning, I think."

[Deleted]

Plum was finding that cold medicine was really quite delightful. It helped with all of the horrible side effects of having flu-like symptoms. Though it was doing really odd things to her at the same time. The night before last she had woken up and was craving caviar. She had never in her life craved caviar, nor did she really like it that much. And this morning she had woken up and was craving bread. Warm, fresh bread straight from the oven. And she couldn’t go back to sleep until she had gotten this warm delicious bread.

It was especially odd that she had thrown on a dress, in a deep purple, and threw on a pair of silver heels and was out the door as chirper as could be on the way to the bakery. She never wore silver with purple. As a fairy her skin always had a kind of sparkle (though not in any way like Edward Cullen) which silver seemed to manage to diminish. She hadn’t even thought she owned anything silver. And this dress didn’t seem at all familiar. She really needed to stop taking medicine that was only supposed to be for humans. Apparently it did strange things to fairies.

The really odd thing was that Plum didn’t even care. She just wanted fresh bread, straight out of the oven if she could. Butter or jam wasn’t necessary. She just wanted the bread. So there she was, at a very early hour of the morning, heading into the bakery. And how kind of the young man to hold the door open for her when clearly his hands were full. What a nice young man.

But just then his coffee dropped and spilled everywhere, even onto her lovely silver shoes. And the strangest thing of all was that Plum giggled like a naïve little school girl. Plum never giggled. Especially not like that. She really needed to stop taking this cold medicine.

“No, no,” she said, looking down at her shoes and then back up at the young man. She recognized him. His name was William and they had met before. “Really, William, it’s alright. I can get my shoes dry-cleaned or something. It’s not a big deal.” She smiled at him, a genuine smile. “Let me buy you another coffee,” she offered. She knew how desperately some people needed their coffee in the morning. And really, it was just the sort of thing she felt like doing today.

[tuck]

Tuck did not know who Edward Cullen was, so even if Plum had sparkled exactly like said creature, he probably wouldn't have known what to think of it anyway. He would likely have assumed it was some kind of witchcraft, and thus been wary of it, but beyond that, he did try not to judge people, especially those who had been kind to him in the past (and he had subsequently repaid by dropping things on their feet).

"I shall pay for your shoes to be dry-cleaned," he said, decisively. He wasn't about to let her foot the bill (no pun intended - Tuck didn't do puns) for something that had entirely been his fault. "And no, no, I'll get another cup, only..." Only how was he going to hold onto all this bread and get the new cup and add all the things to it that he needed added, and...

No, he'd better just not have another cup, he could live without it for one morning.

"That's quite all right," he assured her. "I wasn't so much in the mood for coffee, anyway. It's a habit, you might say. How have you been..." Name. Name....Peach? No, that wasn't it. It was a fruit, he knew it was a fruit. Pear wasn't a name. Pinap-no, not that either...Apple...no, no one in their right mind would name their child apple. "Plum?" he finished, glad that was a question he was asking, because if the name wasn't right, it would at least look like he wasn't sure about it, and if it was right, it would just look like he was asking a question.

[Deleted]

The more Plum thought about, the more ridiculous this seemed to get. How would one dry clean shoes anyway? Was that even allowed. And really, what was she thinking? She didn’t even like these shoes so she might as well just toss them. They were probably and she didn’t care. With her magic she could have any kind of shoes she wanted to replace them. Really, who dry cleaned shoes? Well, it would probably be fun to try.

“No, don’t be silly,” she mocked scolded William. Really, that was very silly of him. It didn’t matter. She didn’t care. Didn’t he know she was a fairy? Oh, probably not. “I’m a fairy. I can get news shoes whenever I want with my magic,” she told him with a giggle. She was feeling rather giggly. This was fun! She really should get out much more often. There were such interesting conversations to be had!

Humans had such funny habits! Drinking coffee every single morning just seemed like such a silly thing to do now that she thought about it. Caffeine did some wonderful things for the human body though. That was why they were so dependent on silly things like coffee every morning. Oh well, humans would never learn.

She beamed at him though when he asked her how she was. How kind of him to ask. “Oh, well things have been quite topsy turvy, but all’s well that ends well, hmm? Things are getting along just swimmingly now though. And you. What about you?” she asked, because even all hopped up on cold medicine she knew it wasn’t polite to talk only of one’s self. “How have you been? How are things? Where are you taking all that bread?”