Title: The Icing on the Cake
Fandom: Skyfall
Rating: G
Length: 846
Content notes: Q/Tanner, but only a little bit
Author notes: I couldn't come up with a way to insert cake into one of my fandoms, so I wrote a little bakery AU scene instead.
Summary: Tanner's newest hire at Patisserie M is a good call in so many ways.


Tanner got off his train at London Bridge and stepped out into the early morning dawn. He took a brief moment outside the station to take in the river, the morning light slanting the roofs of the warehouses and buildings along the river and reflecting in the ripples of the water on the other side.

London was a harsh mistress sometimes, but it was moments like this that reminded him why he loved it, why he'd moved here in the first place.

He shook himself out of the reverie and started wandering towards Borough Market, where the market sellers were starting to set up their stalls, goods piled high on wooden tables ready to be bought by tourists and City boys on their lunch break.

He walked through the rows of stalls, past artisan bread, vegan burgers and oranges being cut in half for freshly pressed orange juice.

He smiled when he passed the freshly painted signs outside Patisserie M, even more because he knew the reason they’d been able to redo them.

Six months ago, the cake shop had been trying to survive much like any in London, but then they had hired Quentin.

Q, as he liked to be called, had first made waves a while ago when he’d been the first person to win the Great British Bake-Off while still at college. He could have had his pick of top establishments in the UK or Europe, or even gone and opened his own. But he’d chosen to apply for a position at a shop in Borough whose position was best described as that of a duck: calm on the surface while paddling frantically underneath.

What had happened in the following weeks could only be described as transformation. Tanner had watched Q’s creations fly off the shelf like proverbial hot cakes. Chili chocolate muffins, apricot and rosemary buns, lemon and mint cake pops… you named it, Q made it and it was gone within the hour. Whatever he did, he seemed to have a magic hand for what flavour combinations would go well with customers. At his interview, Tanner had asked him why he hadn’t gone into business by himself and Q had smiled and winked and said that he wasn’t interested in running his own business because he wasn’t a manager, he was an artisan, thank you very much.

“Morning, boss,” Q said from the back of the shop when Tanner came in through the door. He changed into his apron and hat and watched Q busily mixing dough for whatever magic baked goods were the order of the day.
“Try this lavender frosting, would you?” Q held out a finger covered with a pale purple sugary paste. Tanner locked eyes with him, then licked the paste off the finger. He closed his eyes.

“Perfect,” he said, and Q blinked. “It’s a statement,” he clarified. “What’s the cake?”

“Lemon,” Q beamed. He gave Tanner a quick kiss on the lips, then turned back around to his bowls.
Tanner turned to his own station and started setting up. Q had taped the recipe to the wall so Tanner knew the first test batch had already come out fine and he could just start on mixing ingredients together. They worked in sync, getting cakes and muffins ready to go on the shelves.

Q was putting cakes on display in the shop, dressing them nicely, while Tanner continued working in the back. He wiped the sweat off his brow and looked at the wall clock. “Nearly time to open,” he said, and Q nodded.

They heard a jangle of keys and a characteristic set of footsteps that told them that Bond had come in to start his shift. He’d be ready to take over – by which he meant, selling the fruits of their hard labour, while Tanner and Q continued working in the kitchen and making more.
“Morning, Bond,” they both said in unison.

“Morning,” Bond said nodding at them both. He was carrying a tray with three paper cups of coffee. “Want to take care of these on your break while I fire up the register?”

Tanner wasn’t entirely sure how they’d stayed in business before they’d hired Q given that Bond was doing the selling. Not that he was especially bad at it, but there was something rather old-fashioned about Bond. He expected that people should continue to buy at Patisserie M for the sole reason that the shop had been in this exact location since 1850. You’d have thought he would not approve of Q, but for some reason the opposite was the case. Tanner didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out what went on inside Bond’s head – he’d given that one up years ago – but it was nice to see that even a fossil like him wasn’t completely immune to change.

They took the coffee cups and sat in the back room while Bond did what needed to be done to get the shop ready for customers. Q had kept two of the lemon and lavender muffins, which, as expected, were delicious.

"Amazing," Tanner said, and meant the cake but also the baker, and Q just smiled knowingly and kissed the corner of his mouth.

Yes, Tanner thought, hiring Q had brought benefits in a whole range of departments.