"Because that's what we need right now, complex carbs." Hänschen wouldn't usually care that much but swimsuit season was coming up and much as he might be a gangster, he also planned on spending time by the pool and his slim figure was a big part of his appeal. Also, no, he didn't really care that much, he ate normally and his figure was just fine but Melchior ranting about the evil of the diet industry or whatever might make this boring task a bit more exciting.
"I feel like maybe if everyone stopped loudly discussing their drug business out in the open, we would not be dealing with such an errant." He sighed, hands in his pockets as they made their way down the street, closer to the bakery they were aiming for. "How will we even know it's the right guy?"
"I got a tip that he might work here so stop bitching. I ran the CCTV camera and I saw a very blurry picture of him. From what I can tell, he's tall and his hair is dorky as hell. Hang on." Melchior pulled out his phone and there, on his phone, was a picture he had taken of the monitor. It was fuzzy as hell and the picture was blurry but one could make out details. Height, the way his hair parted and a little blue bike with a basket in his hands.
"He is on screen for all of two seconds before he reached where our boys were discussing business. They said he looked at them for few and when they called out to him, he ran away." He frowned and then held up his hand, slowing his friend. "Maybe we should check for the blue bike." It had to be here if he was here, right? "Also there's nothing wrong with carbs or your body. Don't be a sheep."
"Melchior Gabor, did you just imply that I have the perfect body? Now there is something worth investigating." It seemed a lot more interesting than chasing after the dorky blur, anyway. Hänschen glanced at what could very loosely be called a picture on Melchior's screen, shaking his head. "Yeah, unless we find that bike, we are not gonna find him. So I guess we go in there, buy a snack and ask if they've seen a gay little bike around."
It was definitely a gay little bike. Not an insult, just an observation.
"I don't think it's perfect. It's imperfect and we should all embrace imperfection. Perfection is unsettling." Melchior insisted, looking at Hänschen with a bored sigh. "What's an ugly idiot with way too blond hair to one person is perfection to another. Impossible to account for taste."
As they approached the bakery, he checked around the streets but he didn't see the gay little bike anywhere. "Maybe it's parked around back, if it belongs to a worker. Or maybe it'll just come by." He opened the door for Hänschen and held it for him. He was a gentleman, even to pests. "You can ask about the gay little bike, I'll be ordering myself a Krapfen."
"Good to know you plan on being useful," Hänschen said with a fake smile, of which he smiled many throughout the day. He headed for the counter without looking back at Melchior, waiting for the person behind it to take notice of him.
"Good morning," he said, in a friendly enough manner, "Is there something you can recommend for breakfast? For a healthy start in the day." The baker was kind of cute, he noted. Just as a professional observation. Undeniably cute.
Ernst was not really customer service, he just baked. He was in the back, he made the bread and the kipfers and he put them out, he didn't serve customers. For obvious reasons. By the time he had finished putting the bread rolls in, he looked up and someone was talking to him. He stared at Hänschen for a moment and then his colleague stepped in.
"Oh, I'll handle you, Ernst is a bit busy!" The lady informed Hänschen, just to save Ernst from the awkward moment.
"I'll have a krapfen and he probably wants something boring like a sunflower bread roll." Melchior interjected as he watched Ernst slink off into the back, curiously. "Hey, erm, I accidentally knocked over a bike that I think might belong to someone here. It's a blue bike with a basket."
"Oh no, I'll have to tell Ernst. Thank you for letting us know." The woman said as she started to bag up for Melchior.
"Why is it always the cute ones?" Hänschen lamented to Melchior, keeping his voice down. At the same time, he looked down at his phone, pretending to be getting a call. "I have to take this... I'll be right back, Melchi." He'd be round back, ready to run into the clearly guilty adorable boy who was going to be checking on his gay little bike. "Apologies," he said to the woman, then he headed outside, faking a phone call. He stepped around the bakery until he could turn the corner, where he did indeed spot the bike.
He assumed it would not be long before the boy would come out. Ernst.
His colleague came to the back to inform him, making sure to talk clearly so he could read her lips. He nodded his head, worried that his poor little bike had been scuffed. He pulled the bread out of the over and left it aside to cool before tossing the oven mitts down and heading to the back door.
He walked outside and went over to check on his bike but it seemed fine, basically where he had left it. As he approached, he looked up from the bike and spotted the same blond boy from before. Was he the one who knocked over his bike?
Hänschen ended his fake phone call, looking at Ernst with a smile that he knew seemed friendly and harmless enough. "Hey." He pocketed his phone, trying to debate how to handle this. In the end he simply stepped a bit closer, now that he had Ernst's attention. "Fancy running into you."
What was the best way to find out just how much this boy knew? "Do you come here often?" Maybe playful flirting was the way.
Ernst frowned and looked at Hänschen and then his work place, nodding a little dumbly. "Uh-huh." Well, of course he came here a lot, he worked in the bakery. He didn't really have a choice. He was hoping to eventually get another job but he liked it for now. It was good to bake and super scary to handle customers.
He looked over his bike, trying not to seem too stand-offish but he was always so bad at communicating with hearies. He always liked to avoid drawing attention to it. He did smile though, nodding his head and then looking back at the bike. No scratches, at least.
All right. Clearly he was being a bit too subtle. Really, he felt being in a back alley with the obviously gay boy by the obviously gay bike should have been enough to clue anyone in, yet here he was. With subtlety out the window, he moved a little closer, suddenly standing close enough that he could touch him quite easily, if he only stretched out his hand. "You are cute."
At least he wasn't lying. "I wanted to tell you that. Cutie."
"You do?" Ernst asked, his eyes wide as he looked at Hänschen, slightly alarmed. His eyes widened and he almost raised his hands to sign at him but he fought the urge. He looked at the handsome blond boy, hitting on him in the back alleyway of his bakery and the gulped. What was going on? He was having a weird week. First those guys in the parking garage chased him for no reason and now this?
"Thank you." That was a bad response, wasn't it? Was he supposed to tell him now that he was deaf? He probably should or people just assumed he was weird or rude. But his mind was working so fast, none of those good suggestions translated to words.
Well. That was a confusing reaction. Was Ernst not gay? No. That was impossible. So there had to be another reason. Was he perhaps not attracted to him? Hänschen frowned, glancing into the nearest window to check his reflection. All right, no. That was also impossible. Still blond, still handsome, still any gay guy's dream, at least a little. He would not allow his confidence to be shaken.
So, with that endless confidence, he pushed a bit more. "You are meant to tell me that I'm handsome," he prompted, smiling to take any potential sting out of the words.
Did he just say what it looked like he said? Ernst frowned again, trying to keep up. The man was handsome. Blue eyes, blond hair, nice features and a playful, devilish smile that made him almost swoon. But he was a hearie. What was he supposed to do? Flirt back? Tell him that he was deaf. If he told him that, he might be mean and ruin the fantasy. And if he flirted back, he'd have to explain eventually.
He wanted to kiss this man. Kiss him, tear off his clothes and-- oh no.
"I have work." Ernst said readily and then swiftly backed off, moving away towards the bakery to try and fight this deadly temptation. Dating a hearie was ALWAYS a disaster.
"Ooookay," Hänschen muttered, frowning. He ended up with his hands in his pockets again, questioning life, the world and his place in it as he headed back toward the front. He got into the bakery and sat down next to Melchior, shaking his head. Maybe he should get himself a sweet treat after all. "Best theory I have is that he's ace. Or maybe he's seeing someone."
Really difficult to do the honeypot method if he refused the honey. "Maybe he prefers your unkempt charm."
"Maybe you're not his type. Or you weren't sexy enough." Melchior suggested helpfully as he sipped his matcha latte and watched the boy refill the bread again. He looked over and saw Hänschen, immediately going red and rushing to the back. Well. That was something.
"Maybe he is on edge cause he's a nark and he knows gangsters are after him. It'd make me twitchy too." Melchior speculated idly, wondering what they could do to make Hänschen more his type.
"He is gay. He is our age. I must be his type." It just didn't happen otherwise. He was confident, handsome, in shape, 'too blond', as Melchior always put it. Any gay guy their age had to know that type. Had to have some fantasies. Yet here they were. He reached for Melchior's drink and took a sip, just because. "What do you want me to do, buy him flowers?"
"Persistence is key. Maybe you can sing for him?" Melchior suggested as he took his drink back with an annoyed frown, sipping his matcha latte. "Maybe it's not even him. That gay little bike could be anywhere in this city, maybe more than one person has it. And that person is gayer and ready to bone you." Otherwise, they were going to have to stake this bakery out like weirdos.
"I mean... we could just ask him. Straight up." They could be pretty intimidating when not ordering matcha lattes and sweet treats.
"What do you want to ask him straight up? I hope you want to ask him about my sweet ass and not about whether he's heard incriminating information, thusly giving him the information that incriminating information could have been heard." Because one of those seemed much more risky than the other. "What about..."
He considered it. "Operation high school. Or middle school, honestly. Whatever. You talk to him and ask him if he likes me. Maybe that's an in. Makes me seem less intimidating and more like a dork."
"Seriously? Okay. Fine. I'll go make you look like a loser but I'm taking my drink with me." Melchior got up, matcha latte in hand and waited for the right moment. There was a lull in customers and Ernst came through, holding a tray that he set on the cooling racks behind. Before he could leave, Melchior waved his hand to get his attention. "Hi! I need to talk to you."
Ernst looked around and then looked back but his colleague was busy. Not wanting to get into any sort of trouble or get the bakery a bad review, he smiled at Melchior. "Yes?"
"My friend over there." Melchior gestured and then turned his head. "He likes you."
Ernst frowned. The guy turned his head so he couldn't catch the end. When he looked back with that smile, Ernst frowned and then looked over at Hänschen. Yeah, no, this was going to far. He held up his hands apologetically. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what-- I don't understand. I'm deaf."
"You're... oh. Oh." Fuck. Melchior looked at Ernst and then nodded. "One moment."
Walking back over, he sat down with Hänschen again and then laughed. "He's fucking deaf, Hänschen."
"...that makes sense. Because I can tell when I get to someone." He refrained from talking about getting a dick hard, although the implication was very much there. He thought about how to handle this now, after having thoroughly made a fool of himself. Finally he took a deep breath and he walked over. Walked over, made sure to have eye contact with Ernst, and then he signed. "What's your favourite?"
Maybe he could make this work now. Simply to regain his pride. Although he supposed now the point was moot otherwise, clearly Ernst had not overheard those idiots. More importantly, though, Hans Rilow was still what every gay guy wanted.
When Hänschen came over, a feel of dread started to build but it swiftly dropped into nothingness as he began to sign. It took a few moments for his brain to even catch up that Hänschen was speaking his language. His heart ached in his chest and he swiftly signed back. "I like everything! I especially like Hörnchen and the apple cake is really good. I also like the banana muffin. I like sweet stuff. Obviously. But the sandwiches are nice too. I like the carrot bread roll!"
It was like night and day. Now he could communicate, he did without hesitation. He smiled at Hänschen and then looked very apologetic. "I'm sorry, I wasn't sure if you could understand me and I don't like to risk bothering people. You are very handsome."
For just a moment, Hänschen turned to face Melchior, triumphantly. "Very handsome," he signed and mouthed, pointing to himself. Then he was facing Ernst again, not overly helped by his suggestions, given they were pretty much everything. "Can I have the carrot cake?"
If nothing else, it was fairly straight-forward to sign. "Do you have a break? I want to know you." That was mostly what it boiled down to. He wanted to make sure he was deaf and could really not have heard anything and he wanted to make a conquest.
"Not yet, maybe in about half an hour." Ernst explained sheepishly as he grabbed a carrot cake and put it into a little box before bagging it up. While his hands were busy, he couldn't talk much but he was pretty good at multitasking these days. He set the cake onto the counter and smiled. "That would be 3.20 euros, please."
He put the card machine on the counter and waited for Hänschen to pay, handing him the receipt. He wanted to get to know him? Why? He was so confused. Though a very handsome man seemed to want to talk to him so his brain was telling him to go for it. "Sorry I'm not free any sooner. But it's nice to meet you anyway."
"Very nice," Hänschen agreed. Then he reached for the receipt and made sure their fingers brushed as he took it from him. He turned around and ended up sitting next to Melchior, with a sweet treat he didn't really want but with the sweet satisfaction that he was still who he thought he was.
"All right. I doubt he knows a thing but I can test his hearing a bit just in case." That sounded dutiful instead of horny, so he went with that. "And I am very handsome."
"You just want to flirt more but yeah, I'm not worried. Hopefully this means there's nothing to tell and no one who needs offing." Ernst was a lucky boy to be deaf or they would have had to handle this very differently. And he wasn't really fond of killing people, it was always more of a mess than anything. Clean up, disposal, covering it up.
"Okay, so, I don't have a date with the gay little bike boy so I'm not going to hang around to seduce him but keep me posted, yeah?" Melchior already had his phone open, texting Moritz.
"What, are you hooking up with your deaf friend? I guess you did it before it was cool." Hans could admit to it, given that he wasn't exactly complaining right now. "You can let Moritz know that he ended up being useful." For potentially the first time ever, if he was the judge, but he didn't add that. Melchior was always so defensive over Moritz. "I'll handle communication with the higher ups, I know they won't trust it coming from you."
"There's nothing wrong with my Moritz, he just gets anxious. He's got his own way of living. There's no one way and you know it. All ways are acceptable except billions, fascists and people who eat meat." Melchior remarked in a sweeping statement ever so casually, smiling at Hans as he got to his feet, not prepared to watch him flirt with a pretty deaf boy while he had work today. "They trust me just fine. I'll communicate and you can fill in the blanks with whatever proof you get."
"Give me a second, let me record you. If I can play him one of your tired tirades and he doesn't roll his eyes once, he must be completely deaf." Seemed like it would be convincing proof. Hänschen leaned back, his phone in his hand to pass his time with some reading while he waited for the object of his affections to be on break.
He glanced over to spot Ernst every now and then, but mostly he focused on his book, eventually getting so absorbed in it that he did not look up again.
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"I feel like maybe if everyone stopped loudly discussing their drug business out in the open, we would not be dealing with such an errant." He sighed, hands in his pockets as they made their way down the street, closer to the bakery they were aiming for. "How will we even know it's the right guy?"
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"He is on screen for all of two seconds before he reached where our boys were discussing business. They said he looked at them for few and when they called out to him, he ran away." He frowned and then held up his hand, slowing his friend. "Maybe we should check for the blue bike." It had to be here if he was here, right? "Also there's nothing wrong with carbs or your body. Don't be a sheep."
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It was definitely a gay little bike. Not an insult, just an observation.
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As they approached the bakery, he checked around the streets but he didn't see the gay little bike anywhere. "Maybe it's parked around back, if it belongs to a worker. Or maybe it'll just come by." He opened the door for Hänschen and held it for him. He was a gentleman, even to pests. "You can ask about the gay little bike, I'll be ordering myself a Krapfen."
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"Good morning," he said, in a friendly enough manner, "Is there something you can recommend for breakfast? For a healthy start in the day." The baker was kind of cute, he noted. Just as a professional observation. Undeniably cute.
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"Oh, I'll handle you, Ernst is a bit busy!" The lady informed Hänschen, just to save Ernst from the awkward moment.
"I'll have a krapfen and he probably wants something boring like a sunflower bread roll." Melchior interjected as he watched Ernst slink off into the back, curiously. "Hey, erm, I accidentally knocked over a bike that I think might belong to someone here. It's a blue bike with a basket."
"Oh no, I'll have to tell Ernst. Thank you for letting us know." The woman said as she started to bag up for Melchior.
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He assumed it would not be long before the boy would come out. Ernst.
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He walked outside and went over to check on his bike but it seemed fine, basically where he had left it. As he approached, he looked up from the bike and spotted the same blond boy from before. Was he the one who knocked over his bike?
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What was the best way to find out just how much this boy knew? "Do you come here often?" Maybe playful flirting was the way.
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He looked over his bike, trying not to seem too stand-offish but he was always so bad at communicating with hearies. He always liked to avoid drawing attention to it. He did smile though, nodding his head and then looking back at the bike. No scratches, at least.
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At least he wasn't lying. "I wanted to tell you that. Cutie."
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"Thank you." That was a bad response, wasn't it? Was he supposed to tell him now that he was deaf? He probably should or people just assumed he was weird or rude. But his mind was working so fast, none of those good suggestions translated to words.
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So, with that endless confidence, he pushed a bit more. "You are meant to tell me that I'm handsome," he prompted, smiling to take any potential sting out of the words.
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He wanted to kiss this man. Kiss him, tear off his clothes and-- oh no.
"I have work." Ernst said readily and then swiftly backed off, moving away towards the bakery to try and fight this deadly temptation. Dating a hearie was ALWAYS a disaster.
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Really difficult to do the honeypot method if he refused the honey. "Maybe he prefers your unkempt charm."
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"Maybe he is on edge cause he's a nark and he knows gangsters are after him. It'd make me twitchy too." Melchior speculated idly, wondering what they could do to make Hänschen more his type.
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"I mean... we could just ask him. Straight up." They could be pretty intimidating when not ordering matcha lattes and sweet treats.
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He considered it. "Operation high school. Or middle school, honestly. Whatever. You talk to him and ask him if he likes me. Maybe that's an in. Makes me seem less intimidating and more like a dork."
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Ernst looked around and then looked back but his colleague was busy. Not wanting to get into any sort of trouble or get the bakery a bad review, he smiled at Melchior. "Yes?"
"My friend over there." Melchior gestured and then turned his head. "He likes you."
Ernst frowned. The guy turned his head so he couldn't catch the end. When he looked back with that smile, Ernst frowned and then looked over at Hänschen. Yeah, no, this was going to far. He held up his hands apologetically. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what-- I don't understand. I'm deaf."
"You're... oh. Oh." Fuck. Melchior looked at Ernst and then nodded. "One moment."
Walking back over, he sat down with Hänschen again and then laughed. "He's fucking deaf, Hänschen."
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Maybe he could make this work now. Simply to regain his pride. Although he supposed now the point was moot otherwise, clearly Ernst had not overheard those idiots. More importantly, though, Hans Rilow was still what every gay guy wanted.
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It was like night and day. Now he could communicate, he did without hesitation. He smiled at Hänschen and then looked very apologetic. "I'm sorry, I wasn't sure if you could understand me and I don't like to risk bothering people. You are very handsome."
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If nothing else, it was fairly straight-forward to sign. "Do you have a break? I want to know you." That was mostly what it boiled down to. He wanted to make sure he was deaf and could really not have heard anything and he wanted to make a conquest.
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He put the card machine on the counter and waited for Hänschen to pay, handing him the receipt. He wanted to get to know him? Why? He was so confused. Though a very handsome man seemed to want to talk to him so his brain was telling him to go for it. "Sorry I'm not free any sooner. But it's nice to meet you anyway."
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"All right. I doubt he knows a thing but I can test his hearing a bit just in case." That sounded dutiful instead of horny, so he went with that. "And I am very handsome."
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"Okay, so, I don't have a date with the gay little bike boy so I'm not going to hang around to seduce him but keep me posted, yeah?" Melchior already had his phone open, texting Moritz.
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He glanced over to spot Ernst every now and then, but mostly he focused on his book, eventually getting so absorbed in it that he did not look up again.