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Jyn’s favourite customer, by far, was the blind man who came in at eleven-am every day, except Tuesdays, and ordered the same thing. He always sat in the loveseat by the window, staring out as if he had no visual impairment. He was chatty and funny and charmed everyone to do his bidding -- which was only prepare his order and bring it over to him -- but best of all, much to Jyn’s amusement, he was incredibly flirtatious. Namely with her employer.
The owner of the café was a large, surly man called Baze who was the biggest sap Jyn had ever met. He intimidated most people who he met for the first time, and as such he’d made the executive decision to stay in the kitchen where he could bake treats for the customers instead of scaring them away with his resting killer face. Jyn had joked about it being good that Baze’s admirer was blind, or he’d surely have walked right back out of the café on the first day and she’d never have the opportunity to see the great stoic Baze blush.
At 10:58, Jyn bounced eagerly on her heels watching for the door. She’d already had Bodhi shoo the disgruntled businessman out of the loveseat by the window and had a jasmine tea ready to be brewed. At 11:02 the door opened and Jyn heard the tell-tale tapping of a cane on the wooden floor.
“Chirrut! You’re late!”
Chirrut grinned, making his way over to the counter. “Apologies, my dear, I think my watch has gotten slow. I hope I didn’t worry my sweetheart.”
“Oh he’s been going out of his mind with worry, you have no idea! He was close to calling the police.”
Chirrut gasped dramatically, pressing a hand to his chest. “Oh dear, I should really go put his mind at ease.”
At that moment, Baze walked out of the back, huffing at the matching smirks on Jyn and Chirrut’s faces. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Worry not, my love, I’m safe and sound, only a few minutes late.”
Baze ignored Jyn’s shit-eating grin and busied himself with refilling the display with freshly-baked pastries. “I’ve got strawberry shortcake and mocha religieuse, or if you’re patient I have a chocolate cake cooling, ready to be iced.”
“Is there any way I could persuade you assemble the cake in my mouth? Save me the trouble of waiting for you to decorate it?”
“Absolutely not. Go and sit down, I’ll bring it out when it’s ready.”
“I’ll await it’s arrival with eager anticipation. Make sure it’s very pretty.”
Baze rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to smile at the man. “What for? It’s not like you can see it.”
“Because I’ll enjoy it more if I know you’ve put your love into it. And don’t think I won’t ask your lovely employee to tell me if it’s a work of art or not. It’ll hurt my feelings if you just dump it on a plate.”
“All my bakes are works of art.”
Chirrut smiled, finally turning to the direction of his table. “Of course they are. Don’t be too long, darling, or I’ll come back there for it myself.”
Jyn giggled as she watched Chirrut make his way over to his table, sneaking a look at the hint of red in Baze’s cheeks. Baze immediately noticed her glances and scowled, snapping his fingers and pointing at the coffee machine.
“Stop giggling and make his drink.” With one last quick look at Chirrut sitting himself down on the dark grey loveseat, Baze marched back into the kitchen. Jyn quickly added the water to the tea-leaves and set the timer to three minutes before taking them over to Chirrut, carefully placing them where they wouldn’t be knocked over.
“I think you’re really close to winning him over,” she said, leaning her hip against the table. Chirrut smiled up at her, twisting his hands and around the handle of his cane.
“He’s very lovely. He thinks that just because I’m blind I don’t know that I make him blush.”
“You know, you’re probably the only one who thinks Baze is lovely . He tends to scare most people.”
“Most people are idiots and rely on a person’s looks to decide if they will make a good mate. But I’ll leave them to it, less competition for me.”
Jyn laughed at Chirrut’s sly grin and went back over to the counter to help Bodhi serve other customers. It wasn’t too long before Baze reemerged with Chirrut’s cake; he tried to hurry past Jyn but she managed to throw her top half over the counter so she could see the plate.
“Aww, Baze! That’s so sweet!”
Chirrut’s head snapped up at the commotion, smiling at Baze as he placed the plate down in front of him, putting a fork into his hand. “What’s sweet?”
“Nothing, eat your cake.”
“He wrote schatze on the side of plate!” Jyn supplied, resting her chin on his fists. Baze fixed a glare on Jyn, folding his arms over his chest.
“No I did not… I wrote shǎzi.”
Chirrut laughed, reaching out to squeeze Baze’s hand. “Thank you.”
Jyn frowned, standing herself back up. “What does that mean? I thought you’d written schatze… it means sweetheart in German.”
“Why would Baze write anything in German?” Bodhi asked, his back turned to everyone as he wiped down the coffee machine.
“That would indeed have been sweet. But no, shǎzi means fool in Chinese,” Chirrut explained, carefully breaking off a corner of the cake with his fork. Baze watched him, uncaring if he was staring, which he probably was, waiting for Chirrut’s reaction to the cake. “Delicious, as always, Baze. Mm, I fall in love with you more with each bite.”
Baze ignored the giggles coming from Jyn and nodded, despite his knowledge that Chirrut couldn’t see. “Well, I need to get back to work… Enjoy.”
“I’ll enjoy the sight of you leaving, that’s for sure.”
Jyn could barely restrain the cackle that burst from her mouth, grinning as she watched a red-faced Baze hurry back to the kitchen. When she looked back over to Chirrut, she noticed how pleased he was with himself, his sightless eyes fixed on where Baze had disappeared to as he continued eating his cake. “It’s so romantic, don’t you think?” Jyn asked, turning to Bodhi. Bodhi shrugged, continuing with his cleaning.
“Honestly it’s a little weird. Blind Chinese man comes in every day to flirt with grumpy Chinese baker?”
“Maybe they’re soulmates.”
“I refuse to believe that Jyn Erso believes in soulmates.”
Jyn pouted, slumping against the counter. “I’m not the same ball of angst I was in school, y’know. I actually like things now.”
“Oh yeah? I’ll believe that when I see it. Anyway, stop slumping or Baze will demonstrate ancient Chinese torture methods on you.”
“Don’t you think it’s suspicious that the only day Chirrut doesn’t show up is Baze’s day off?” Jyn asked, staring over at Chirrut’s usual seat.
“Not really. Chirrut only comes for Baze, and if he isn’t here, why bother?”
Cassian smirked, nudging Jyn out of the way of the fridge. “I think that maybe Jyn believes they’re on secret dates.”
“Exactly! See, Cassian gets me!”
Bodhi rolled his eyes, not wanting any part of his coworkers’ gossiping. “Just leave them to it. They’re not going to start dating just because you want them to.”
“But what if they already are! Think about it, Bodhi, Baze used to take Fridays off, and then suddenly switched to Tuesdays. And without a word, Chirrut knows that Baze’s day off has switched?”
“Well, without an English word,” Cassian adds. “They speak to each other in Chinese sometimes. They could be saying anything.”
“Probably shit-talking about you two idiots,” Bodhi mutters.
“Or, they’re talking about the sweet dates they’ve been on.”
Jyn grinned, draping herself over Cassian’s shoulders. “What kind of dates do you think they go on? Romantic strolls through the park? Candlelit dinners?”
“I imagine them going to the cinema and Chirrut coming up with his own theories on what’s happening and talking over the film to tell Baze.”
Jyn laughed, pushing herself off Cassian, moving to lean against the worktop. “I can see that happening. Baze pretends it’s the most annoying thing ever but he secretly loves it.”
“Do either of you two work or is it just me?” Bodhi asked, trying his hardest to make two lattes, a chai tea and caramel hot chocolate by himself. Kay chose that moment to stick his head out of the kitchen.
“I work!”
“Alright, me and Kay. Whilst you two stand around giggling about hypothetical dates our boss goes on. Could one of you please restock the sugar? The mums took all the brown sugar.”
“They believe that brown sugar is somehow healthier than white sugar but it’s not. It’s true that brown sugar contains certain minerals that white sugar doesn’t but it’s so scarce there’s no real benefit to using brown over white sugar.”
Cassian chuckled, opening the storage cupboard that contained the sugar and napkins. “Thanks for the science lesson, Kay.”
“Last week they were harping on about other mothers in their baby group that used jarred food instead of making their own organic home grown food and how they were unfit parents who poisoned their children.”
“We’ve got it, Kay, you hate the mummies.”
“And the week before that they were complaining about this man on facebook who complained about a crying child in a restaurant-”
“Bodhi did you have to bring up the mothers? Kay, get back in the kitchen and stop listening to their conversations if you hate them so much.”
Kay nodded, slipping back into the kitchen, but his muttering was still audible to his friends. Bodhi eventually managed to get everyone working, mentally wishing Baze wouldn’t leave him in charge any more.
Jyn hurried to the kitchen when she heard Baze shout and start swearing in Chinese. Bodhi was stood behind Baze, hand over his mouth as he apologised repeatedly; Baze was holding his shirt away from his skin, a large wet patch covering the front.
“What happened?”
“I spilt tea on him.”
“Threw it on me, more like,” Baze huffed. “Get me my bag, please.”
Jyn nodded, doing as she was asked. Her eyes bugged when Baze yanked his wet shirt over his head and she saw just how toned her boss was. He was unnecessarily muscular for a baker and café owner. She wordlessly passed him his bag and scurried out of the kitchen; bypassing the customers patiently waiting at the counter, she sat down in the chair opposite Chirrut, leaning heavily on the table.
“I have news.”
Chirrut smiled, carefully reaching for his tea. “Do share.”
“Baze is ripped. Like… Dwayne Johnson ripped.”
“I’m not familiar with Dwayne Johnson.”
“He’s all muscle! His muscles have muscles! He could pick me up as easily as you’re picking up that cup.”
“Ooh. I like the sound of that.”
“And he has a tattoo!”
Chirrut smirked. “He sounds like a bad boy.”
“It was a Chinese character though, so I don’t know what it said. It was on his chest, over his heart, I think. It could say mum, or maybe an ex-girlfriend.”
“And how have you come by this information?”
Jyn chuckled, casting a glance back at the counter; Bodhi had come back from the kitchen and seemed unimpressed at the fact Jyn had left the customers waiting. “Bodhi spilt a hot drink on him, and he just whipped his shirt off right there in the kitchen.”
“I’ve never really mourned the loss of my eyesight, I took it in my stride, but Jyn, dear, you’re making it hard to not damn the universe for robbing me of this image.”
“Anyway, I need to get back. I can feel Bodhi glaring at me from here.”
“So can I. Go on, don’t get yourself in trouble.”
Jyn made her way back to the counter, leaving Chirrut to digest the news. Not long later, Baze emerged from the kitchen and went over to Chirrut to deliver another dessert.
“How was the genoise?”
“Beautiful. Baze, my love, if I spill something on you will you take off your shirt again?”
“What?”
“Only, as you know I don’t have the gift of sight, so to take in the image of your torso I’ll need to run my hands all over it… Is that okay?”
Baze grit his teeth as he turned to glare at Jyn who, rightfully, ducked behind the counter. “I’ve brought you a strawberry danish. If you’ll excuse me, I need to have a meeting with my staff.”
Chirrut continued smiling serenely, pulling the pastry closer to him whilst Baze stomped over to Jyn. Jyn jumped up from behind the counter, lids in her hand to make it look like she hadn’t been hiding.
“You’ve fucked up, now,” Bodhi muttered, taking the lids from her.
“Um… office?”
“Office,” Baze confirmed, allowing Jyn to lead the way. He said nothing as they went in and Jyn sat down and maintained silence until Jyn looked visibly uncomfortable. “Who gave you permission to gossip to customers about me?”
“Well… Chirrut asked.”
“Chirrut is a menace.”
“Chirrut is the only person who’s never run at the sight of you… no offense to him.”
“And so you spend your shifts talking about me taking my shirt off?”
Jyn shrugged, looking anywhere but at Baze. “If you don’t like him, why don’t you just tell him? He’s obviously enamoured with you.”
“Just stay out of it, Jyn. I don’t want to sack you, but if you spend your shifts not working I’ll have to… Understand?”
“Okay… But you really should consider taking him out on a date. I bet you’d have fun.”
“Go away. Do some work.”
Letting out a sigh, Jyn returned to the front of the store, ignoring the borderline smug look on Bodhi’s face.
“Well?”
“Shut up.”
Work wasn’t as fun without Chirrut to gossip with and Jyn hated being stuck behind the counter. Luckily, Baze hadn’t been treating her any different, other than the occasional check that she was working and not trying to send secret messages to the blind man. Chirrut had apologised for being a part of Jyn getting into trouble, but Jyn suspected it was mainly because she was no longer allowed to feed him information about Baze.
“You know, if you weren’t blind I could just pass you notes,” Jyn said, preparing his tea. Chirrut smiled, making his way to his table.
“If I weren’t blind I wouldn’t need your intel.”
“Fair enough.”
It was a Thursday when Chirrut was noticeably late; so much so that even Baze had asked where he was. Jyn kept her eyes trained on the door and his seat empty, waiting for him to arrive. Cassian had been unhelpfully suggesting things that could have happened to Chirrut until Baze ordered him to stop. It didn’t escape Jyn’s notice how worried Baze was, how he was popping his head into the front of store more often than he usually did, looking more and more nervous when he saw that Chirrut hadn’t arrived. It was the only thing that gave Jyn a little cheer, knowing that Baze clearly cared for the man.
It was coming up to one-pm when Chirrut finally walked in, the same smile on his face as if he wasn’t aware he was almost two hours late.
“Chirrut! Where’ve you been?!”
“Jyn! I’ve been running errands, am I late?”
“Late?! It’s twelve-fiftytwo!”
Chirrut pulled a face, shrugging it off. “Quite late then… I hope I didn’t worry-”
“Where the hell have you been?!”
Jyn spun around at the sound of Baze’s loud demand, shocked to see him march out of the kitchen and straight up to Chirrut, grabbing onto his shoulders.
“Baze. Did I worry you? I’m sorry.”
“Where’ve you been?”
“I was listening to the radio this morning.”
Baze rolled his eyes, slumping as Chirrut ignored his question, chattering away about his own thing.
“And there was a piece about the couple in Changsha who went ahead and married without the court’s approval, do you recall?”
“Yes?”
“Well it got me thinking about how fortunate we are to live in this progressive country, and you know what I’m like when I get a thought in my head, and the next thing I know, come eleven-o’clock I’m headed in the opposite direction with my lovely assistant-”
“Is there a point to this story?”
“There’s a point to all of my stories, but I’ll skip forward to the main part… My darling Baze, it’s been thirty years since we first met and you poetically offered me your heart-”
Baze grumbled under his breath, hyper-aware of the looks on his employees’ faces.
“-And honestly, I think it’s about time we look into those tax benefits I’ve heard about.”
Baze barked out a laugh, letting go of Chirrut’s shoulders to gently cup his face. “You’re an idiot.”
Chirrut tried to pout but his lips refused to do anything other than smile. “I didn’t spend almost two hours in a jewelers with the most infuriating old man for you to laugh at me.”
“Is this your idea of a proposal?”
“Are you saying yes?”
“After all that time you spent making fun of me for the way I asked you out all those years ago, and this is how you ask me to marry you?”
“I get nervous when there’s people watching.”
“No you don’t.”
Chirrut grinned, rummaging in his coat pocket for the jewellery box. “Am I going to get an answer?”
Baze pulled Chirrut in for a gentle kiss before taking the box from him, snapping the lid open to look at the ring inside. “I’d be honored to receive tax benefits with you.” He pulled Chirrut in for another kiss and the café erupted with cheers, Jyn and Cassian being the loudest. Baze ignored the noise around them and the fact that Jyn was definitely taking pictures despite the fact her phone should be in her locker to instead focus on his new fiancé, letting him clumsily slip the ring onto his finger.
“I got one for myself, too,” Chirrut said, pulling a second box from his other pocket, pushing it into Baze’s hands. “I don’t want to sound presumptuous but I knew you’d say yes and I like to match.”
Baze chuckled, pulling the identical ring from its cushion and slid it onto Chirrut’s finger. The couple shared a moment of silence, enjoying the feeling of being close and engaged . However it only lasted as long as Jyn could contain herself, which was about three minutes.
“So you’ve been together this entire time?!”
Chirrut pulled away to face Jyn, his smile widening. “I’m afraid so. But I did so love speaking with you about Baze. Especially when you described what he looks like.”
“So… you already knew he’s built like a brick house?”
“Very much so.”
“And you know what his tattoo is?”
“It’s my name… I have a matching one, too, of his name. It was the next best thing to being married in the nineties.”
Cassian came closer, leaning bodily against Jyn’s side. “But why was Baze so… against it all?”
“Because I’m here to work!” Baze replied, scowling at the group.
“Baze is actually rather shy, especially about public displays of affection. And even after thirty years he still blushes when I compliment him.” Chirrut coiled his arm around Baze’s leaning into him, nuzzling his face against his bicep.
“Mostly he just enjoyed teasing you,” Baze said to Jyn. “He loved telling me about how excited you were about the concept of us.”
“I was! I still am! I’m totally coming this wedding.”
“You can’t. You’re working that day.”
Cassian laughed at Jyn’s spluttering protests and nudged her out of the way. “If you want, Baze, I can call Kay down to cover so you can go and enjoy your fiancé?”
Chirrut grinned, pulling on Baze’s arm. “Yes, let’s. Take me home and enjoy me.”