[For Dean]

[dichotomos]

I'll be the first to admit: I bitched about the island a lot. Fundamentally, it just was not where I wanted to be, and even after nearly a year surrounded by its sunshine paradise bullshit, I was still resentful about that. I'm a glass half empty guy by nature and nurture, what can I say? You spend 21 years in my shoes and tell me if you do any

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[weary_head]

Dean's at the bakery a lot.

Not quite as much as the clinic, where he's starting to feel like he lives, or at the Catscratch, but it's often, his coming often as ruinous as a hurricane to the bakery shelves, which are never left nearly as plentifully stocked as they were when he arrived.

It's not the first time he's seen the guy there. It's not even the first time he's seen him tear into a strudel like it insulted his mother, but still, there's a passion there that Dean has to stop and admire.

"Strawberry today, huh?" he asks, tapping his cheek to mirror the giant glob on his companion's. "Can't say I blame you."

[dichotomos]

I finished taking another bite from the pastry and then absently swiped the back of my free hand across my cheek. I could immediately tell that I'd probably smeared more of it around than removed it, but at that moment I wasn't much concerned about etiquette.

Or any moment, actually.

"I'd kill for a chili dog with extra onions, but at least somebody's got the sweet shit covered."

[weary_head]

"Wow," says Dean, stepping past him into the bakery, eager for a slice of that strawberry pie before it's gone. "Man after my own heart," he says when he returns with two slices on one plate. "'Cept I think I miss burgers more."

[dichotomos]

I guess I must have become more of a people person in the year before, because I instinctively scooted my chair over to make room for the guy with the pie. Granted, if my people skills had been give a numerical value, they were probably still in the negative spectrum, but it was an improvement. Of course, being sated by delicious pastries made me less likely to be a surly bastard in general.

"With cheese and extra bacon," I said as I nodded my agreement. "And real bacon, from a real pig. None of this island shit."