Diamond Stars | Haru

He had what he considered to be a good idea; well, at least one to return a favor. Or something like that. Jinki more than appreciated the 'favor' Haru had done for him, and he really wanted to repay it with more than just cookies. His plan was to try and get the collar that the fox wore all the time studded with some sort of precious gem, as a thank you to him. The problem, however, would be getting the collar off of him long enough to get the job done.

Haru skipped into his new friend's bakery. He was starting to make it a habit to stop by whenever he had the time, which was starting to be more and more. He also liked to stay over at the pheonix's house when it got too late, thinking it's better than walking home, even though he didn't mind the dark at all. He had just spent his morning at the park, running around and playing by the lake. It was starting to get a little too hot though, so he would rather be inside. And maybe Jinki would give him ice cream, or some cake for visiting.

Jinki blinked, glancing up when the bell on the front door jingled. The phoenix smiled when he saw that it was Haru, just the person he wanted to see. He turned, disappearing into the back room before he was noticed, and then came back out with a small box. "...Haru! You look cheerful..." he said, grinning.

The fox was smiling wide and nodded at Jinki's words. He didn't know if he was truely cheerful, but he did enjoy smiling. Plus, if he wasn't it would probably worry the phoenix or something, and that wasn't necessary. Though Haru's smile turned into a curious look when he noticed the box that the other had in his hands. His head tilted slightly as he blinked at the object. "What's that?"

"What, this? This is for you," he answered, setting the box on the counter and sliding it forward a bit. Jinki had spent his leftover time from his morning of filling cake orders to make an ice cream cake for the fox, mostly in chocolate and strawberries. He figured the fox would end up going out to play again, and he seemed to love ice cream, so the phoenix figured such a thing would be in order.

"For me?" Haru's head tilted farther. "Can I eat it?" he asked as he opened the box before getting an answer. He smiled again when he saw the cake. His imaginary tail wagged as he pulled it out of the box, ready to devour it right then. First though, he decided to give Jinki a kiss on the cheek, then looked back at the cake to figure out how he was going to eat it.

"Of course for you, silly fox," he answered, laughing quietly. He got a spoon and a fork, holding them out. "Not sure which utensil you prefer to eat with, so here." Jinki smiled, setting the fork and spoon atop the boxed cake. He was glad that he had chosen right in the kind of cake to make.

Haru hopped up on the counter and took the fork. Digging in, he stuffed his face like a chipmunk with strawberries and the cold cake. He squealed a little in happiness because it tasted really really good. He scooped up another fork full and held it out for Jinki to take the bite. Sure he had made the cake for him, but that didn't mean he couldn't share some of it.

Jinki watched the fox enjoy his cake, smiling to himself. He was glad that Haru enjoyed it, that much was for sure. He blinked at the forkful of cake offered to him, glancing at Haru for a moment and then taking the food off of the fork and eating it. It had turned out much better than he had thought, too. "...mmmph," he mumbled, an attempt at a 'thank you' without being rude about it.

Haru giggled at the phoenix's 'thank you' and went back to stuffing his face. The cake was really good, and just what he wanted after playing all morning in the sun. He definitely wouldn't mind of Jinki would give him treats like this all the time, but he didn't want to demand it. That sort of thing didn't seem right. "Have you been busy today?" the fox asked between mouthfuls of food. He knew Jinki was much more busy than himself, but bakeries can be slow sometimes too, right?

"Not really," he answered after swallowing the bite of cake. "Just people coming in to pick up custom orders and such. What about you? What'd you do all morning, hm~?" he asked, smiling at the fox. Jinki was actually interested in how Haru had spent his morning hours, even though he guessed it was probably all playing in the park.

Haru ate another strawberry, holding the fork in his mouth as he thought about his morning. "There were some kids at the park before they had to go to school, so I played with them for a while, and then played fetch with myself until it got too hot. After that I decided to go swimming in the lake, then came here," he smiled finishing up and digging into the cake again. He decided to leave out the part about him calling in 'sick' for work, because he figured Jinki wouldn't like that too much.

"Sounds like you had a fun morning, then," he said, moving away from the fox to take care of a customer that had walked in while he was speaking. Jinki went back to Haru when he was finished, sitting himself on the edge of his side of the counter. "...more fun than I did, actually."

Haru watched Jinki as he took care of the customer. He always like watching the man working, because Jinki smiled a lot when he helped the people who came into the bakery. "Your job doesn't look so bad though," the fox said smiling when the man came back over to him. "But, have you considered taking the day off? You could close up shop for the day, and do something else that you really want to do."

"It's not bad at all...just boring sometimes," he said, swinging his legs a little. "...I can't exactly take the day off for no reason, though...besides, what is there to do?" Jinki didn't like taking what he called 'mental health days'. It made him feel like he was letting people down in some way, or something similar to that.

"Well there's me," Haru shrugged, taking another bite of the nearly gone cake. He knew he wasn't the best thing ever, but maybe Jinki would be willing to take some time off to play with him. But the bakery and his patrons were probably more important.

"...that's true..." he murmured, getting off the counter and going to the door, flipping the sign so the 'closed' side faced outward. He pulled his apron off, going into the back room to put it away and try to find the glasses he had picked up. He'd started to notice how terrible his sight was when he wasn't a bird, so he took to wearing something to fix that problem. Jinki put the glasses on, blinking a few times to adjust his eyes, and then went back to the counter.

The fox began to giggle when Jinki came back out in those glasses. He was glad that the phoenix decided to listen to him and take the rest of the day off. But that didn't stop him from thinking the other man looked funny. Haru stole the glasses from his friends face and put them on himself. "These things are huge! And your sight is all blurry," he laughed, squinting close to Jinki's face.

Jinki laughed, grinning. "Well, it was the smallest pair I could find. My eyesight sucks as a human, so I splurged a bit and bought something for myself," he said, smiling. "But can I have them back? Please~?" he asked, still pouting a little bit. The phoenix kind of did need them, now that he was used to having them on.

"This isn't a splurge, it's a necessity," Haru laughed putting the glasses back onto Jinki. "They do look cute on you though," he smiled. Even if they looked a little funny, it only helped make Jinki look more adorable. "So what are you going to do with your now day off?"

Jinki couldn't help but blush slightly when Haru returned the glasses and complimented him. "...thanks..." he muttered, smiling a little. "...I'm not really sure. Any suggestions, my favorite fox friend?"

"You have other fox friends?" Haru's head tilted at the other's statement. Didn't Jinki say before that he didn't have any friends? "I don't know. It's your rare day off, so you should do something you really want to do, or always wanted to do," he said finally putting his fork down.

"No, silly. I don't have any other friends aside from you," he answered, chuckling softly as he bent to get something from below the counter. "...there's not a lot I really would like to do..." he said quietly, standing back up and holding a tin out to Haru. "Here. I forgot I had these for you, too. But you should save them for later."

"Nothing at all?" he asked while watching Jinki get off the counter again. Haru's eyes lit up when the tin was brought out. It looked just like the tin that the pheonix had given him cookies in before, so maybe it was again. He took it, smiling wide and looked back up to Jinki. "How about something simple? No sense in taking a day off to relax if you just do something that tires you out a whole bunch," he suggested. The phoenix worked all the time, so maybe doing nothing, or close to it, would help him relax.

"No, nothing at all..." he answered, smiling. 'Macaroons." Jinki figured it was best to clarify what was in the tin. He sighed, biting at his thumbnail. "...I don't really know...I don't get to relax very much, to be honest," he said, frowning a little.