12. Make A Mess

Maisie could safely say that the day was going by with barely any faults.

That was until Logan walked in three hours late with a child wriggling under his arm.

Maisie slowly gave the customer their change and with a quick smile, scattered out of there and went over to the older blonde man who was struggling with the kid. Maisie's eyes widened in horror when Logan nearly dropped the kid on his head and the child retaliated by punching Logan in the crotch.

"Little shit!" Logan squeaked out and fell down to the floor as the boy scrambled away and stuck his tongue out.

"Logan," Maisie hissed. "Don't swear in front of the kid."

Logan gave her an exasperated look. "He just punched me in the balls."

"Doesn't mean you have to swear, he's just a kid. He'll end up saying those words to his parents," Maisie reasoned.

"He already does," Logan scoffed. "Takes after his brother."

"Who's-" Maisie was cut off unexpectedly by Nick bursting through the door, his entire body covered in flour. He opened his mouth, ready to rant off about baking with Andrew being a useless lump who only eats everything but stopped short when he saw the boy.

"What the fuck is this brat doing here?" Nick nearly screeched.

"Nick!" Maisie scolded.

"I don't want him near me when I'm baking. Put him in the cupboard or something just get the retched thing away from me. Screw that, put him in a room with camera surveillance and make sure someone watches his twenty four-seven. It only takes five seconds for that little beast to ruin a life."

Maisie's mouth dropped open in shock until she looked at the little boy, ready to hug him and say that Nick didn't mean it but did a total double take when she saw him smirking. The little blonde looked up at Maisie and the smirk turned into a smile. She couldn't help but feel disturbed.

"Logan, who is he?" Maisie asked.

"My demon brother," Logan grumbled. "All three feet and four inches of him was created by Satan himself."

"I'm four and a half feet tall," the kid grumbled.

"Sure you are," Logan said. "His babysitter couldn't make it today so I was forced to bring him. If he has a piece of cake then he'll just sit in the corner on his phone for hours, won't bother anyone."

"How old is he?" Maisie asked, glancing at the kid who took a step towards Nick who stumbled back.

"Six, eight or something," Logan supplied. "Juno will be fine, promise."

"Just keep him away from me," Nick sighed and pulled at his collar.

"Just keep him away from me," the kid, Juno, mimicked.

Nick narrowed his eyes and stuck a finger out at the Logan lookalike. "Listen here you stack of shit-"

"Nick," Maisie cut him off. "Don't you have work to do? In the other room?"

Nick took a deep breath and stuck his tongue out at Juno before storming back into the bakery. "Andrew for fuck's sake stop eating my muffins!"

Maisie turned back to Juno who was already on his phone, fingers tapping away at the screen. She wasn't sure how to feel over a five year old who was more engrossed with his phone when he was stood in the middle of a bakery with an endless supply of cake.

"You want any cake?" Maisie tried to ask him. "You can take your pick at anything."

"Mother doesn't allow me to have cake during the weekdays," Juno said.

Maisie looked to Logan in surprise but he merely squatted in front of Juno and gently plucked his phone from his hands. "Where's mom?" Logan asked.

"New York," Juno said and Maisie had to admit that although the kid was a shit stirrer, he was adorable.

"Where are you?" Logan asked.

"Arizona," Juno answered.

"So will mom know if you have cake?" Logan raised an eyebrow.

Juno looked down for a moment before looking back up at Logan through big eyelashes. A grin broke out on the boys face and he shook his head. "No."

"Too damn right," Logan muttered and pocketed Juno's phone before sweeping the boy up into the air and throwing him over his shoulder.

Juno squealed out a laugh and Maisie smiled.

"What do you want, demon?" Logan asked as he fished through all the cakes in the display case, Juno still hanging off his body.

"Chocolate!" Juno yelled.

Logan grabbed a plate with a giant chocolate cake on it and Maisie rushed forward, picking up a plate and cutting a piece of cake for Juno when she saw Logan struggling under all the weight. Logan put his brother back down into the ground and ruffled his hair, handing the kid back his phone.

Five minutes later, Juno was sitting at a table playing a game on his phone with chocolate cake all over his face. Nick came out from the back and rolled his eyes when he saw Juno. He grabbed a cloth and wet it in the little sink behind the counter, and stepped around Maisie who was serving a customer. Nick went back over to Juno and squatted down beside him. Maisie watched as Juno didn't even stop playing as Nick cleaned his face up, as if this had happened before and the younger boy was used to Nick fixing things up.

"God you're a messy shit," Nick said quietly, mindful of the few customers in the bakery around him.

Juno glanced at him and smiled before sticking his tongue out. Nick pretended to grab his nose before leaning back and getting up from the ground. He walked over to Maisie, slinging the cloth over his shoulder.

"For someone who acts like they hate him, you don't treat Juno that bad," Maisie commented.

Nick smiled. "Sadly the little bitch is like a brother to me so I have to keep him around. Let's just say that Logan's family are a bit all over the place. Logan's the only grounded thing Juno's got so he's around us a lot. Guess the kid just grew on me."

Maisie nodded. "He seems sweet to me."

"Just wait," Nick grumbled. "He'll flip eventually."

The kitchen doors swung open and Andrew walked out. Maisie was still getting her head around the fact that Andrew was dating her enemy but after a lot of internal pep talks, she just told herself that at least he wasn't dating Bud.

Because if he did then Maisie would murder him.

When Andrew saw Juno his face broke out into a grin. "Short stack!"

Juno looked over and clambered off his chair before running over. "Andy!"

Andrew caught the boy with a laugh and hauled him up. "What are you doing here, rugrat?"

"Delilah couldn't babysit him today," Nick said, "so Logan had to bring him."

Andrew frowned and looked down at kid clinging to his body. "Where's his parents?"

Nick shrugged.

"Juno said his mom was in New York, right?" Maisie looked at Juno for reassurance and the boy nodded at her with a toothy smile.

"Where's your dad?" Andrew asked him.

Juno put his head on Andy's shoulder. "Germany, I think."

Andy rolled his eyes and sighed against the kids head. "Your parents are dicks."

"Andrew," Maisie said in shock. "What is up with you guys swearing around the kid?"

"He's fine," Nick said. "His parents are more colourful anyway."

That didn't reassure Maisie in any way.

Ben, who had disappeared for about an hour, came wandering into a bakery and settled down into a chair. Maisie just looked at him with a frown.

"Where did you go?" she asked.

"To take a piss," Ben grumbled.

"Outside? For an hour?" Maisie scoffed.

"Stop interrogating me, woman. That's my job," Ben murmured before dropping his head down on the table.

"Fabulous," Maisie muttered and turned back to the rest of them. "We can take a break now, we had a lot of customers this morning but now it's pretty dead."

Nick nodded and said he'd go tell the others to stop working for a bit. Andrew walked Juno over to his table and sat with the boy on his knee as he played on his phone. Logan, Keith and Charity walked out of the kitchen and Logan immediately went for the cake display.

Maisie walked over as Keith and Charity went to Juno. Logan filtered through the cakes until he found the lemon cake. Maisie hid a grin.

"You're not high again, are you?" she asked.

"Surprisingly Mais, every time I go to eat cake doesn't mean that I'm high."

Maisie let the grin out. "Cut me a slice too."

The two of them stood behind the counter and ate the cake as the others coddled over Juno. The kid seemed to be loving the attention but Maisie noticed that Logan always kept an eye on him every now and then.

"So how come your mom's in New York?" Maisie asked.

"Work," Logan asked and took in a large forkful of cake. "Same for my dad."

"And Delilah is the..."

"Nanny," Logan finished as he put his now empty plate to the side.

"Nanny?" Maisie frowned. "I thought she was just a babysitter."

Logan shook his head. "Lilah's been with Juno since he was born. Started out as a high school dropout, now she's practically his mother."

Maisie looked over at Juno and nodded slowly. If Delilah was the only one there for Juno, then who was there for Logan when he grew up?

"Hey Juno," Logan called out. "You still need me to get you to your friends birthday party tomorrow?"

Junk shook his head sadly. "No. They cancelled."

Logan frowned. "How come? That's short notice."

"West said that his mom got angry at the cake man so he doesn't have a birthday cake anymore. His parents cancelled the party yesterday."

Logan thought for a moment. "You know how much they were paying the cake guy?"

Maisie rolled her eyes. "How would he know the price of-"

"Three hundred dollars," Juno answered.

"Holy shit," Maisie breathed.

"So if another bakery said that they could make your friend West the best cake to ever grace the earth, then the party would be back on and the bakery would get paid?" Logan asked hypothetically.

Juno blinked at him. "Uh...yeah."

Logan clapped his hands together. "Perfect," he turned to Maisie. "We've got a cake to make."

Thank you Sarcasm_Is_A_Virtue for the brilliant banner! I love the checklist!

Thank you so much to _TinkerXBell_ for the great banner!

- Ellie x