Fruit Bread Is Better Than Scurvy

Frank Iero loved baking. Well, would you expect any less from a baker? He loved making bread every morning, it was his favourite smell in the world, he loved all the different types of bread he could make. But his favourite thing about being a baker was the look on the face of a new customer when they tried his famous fruit bread, the look of surprise and amazement when they take a bite and experience the sweetness and the savoury all at once for the first time.

Frank smiled as he took out his keys and opened the door to the back of the store, stepping in and making his way to the oven with new wood to burn. The fire steadily increased to the right heat for the bread which made the room heat up as well, keeping Frank safe from the icy wind off the sea outside his door. He got started with the dough for that day’s bread, beginning with the white bread before moving onto wholegrain, sourdough, sweet buns and finally the dough for the fruit bread. He always left that last so that the fruit didn’t dry out while he made everything else.

Frank had just put the first batch of sweet buns in the oven when the back door burst open. A young man with black hair falling to his shoulders tumbled in before slamming the door behind him and locking it. He leant against the door breathing heavily while Frank just stared at him with wide eyes. The man looked up at Frank, hazel eyes sparkling in the fire from the ovens as he drew a pistol from his belt. Frank’s eyes grew impossibly wide at the gun and his hands began to shake. The man smirked at Frank.

“In a few seconds, some men are going to come through this door looking for me. When they do, you will tell them that you haven’t seen anyone come past this morning. I hope that you’re smart enough to not need me to tell you what happens if you don’t do as I say”, the stranger said calmly, waving his pistol as he spoke.

Frank swallowed and nodded his head. He wasn’t going to risk his life over some stranger. The man nodded and darted off behind some large sacks of flour leaving Frank staring after him.

“Well”, the stranger said making a shooing motion. “Go about your business.”

So Frank pulled the sweet buns out of the oven and left them on the bench to cool before he put them in the baskets. He had almost completely forgotten that he wasn’t the only one in the room when he began to work on the first batch of fruit bread. Well, he had until someone started knocking on the door aggressively. Frank made his way over to the door and swung it open to reveal four men in uniforms. Frank gulped when he realised they were uniforms of the Queen’s Navy.

“Sir”, the man at the front began. “We are searching for two pirates who have escaped custody.” Frank noticed the men behind their leader were shaking, probably at the fact that they let two criminals escape. “We would be most grateful if you allowed us into your establishment to search for these men.”

Frank blinked at him. If he let them in, the man (who he now knew was a pirate) would surely kill him. If he refused, he would most likely be arrested. He weighed the two options in his mind.

“As much as I would love to let you in, I really can’t right now”, Frank said.
enter
“And why is that?” One of the guards asked.

“Because I am currently making foods that are dependent on humidity, heat, shape and extremely time sensitive”, he said in hopes that he may discourage the guards.

“Well then, you may go about you business while we search the premises”, another guard suggested.

“You will do no such thing!” Frank said indignantly. “You fools frolicking around my shop will disturb the natural air currents running through here. That will in turn affect the humidity around my work station, drying out my ingredients and letting other ingredients soften. You will ruin any chance that I may still have of completing my work since you INSIST on taking up my time when I could have easily told you that I have seen no men running through here since yesterday.”

The soldiers stared at him, some looking sheepish at the angry expression on Frank’s face. He hoped it looked quite menacing, it was his best ‘I-swear-to-god-I-will-murder-you-if-you-don’t-leave-right-now-face’.

“R-right. W-we’ll leave you al-lone then. Have a good day Sir”, the first one said before they all scurried off down the street.

Frank heaved a big sigh before shutting the door and leaning his forehead against it and closing his eyes. He stayed like that for several minutes before he lifted his head and rubbed his eyes. He turned around, intending to go back to his baking but was stopped by a smirking pirate leaning on the bench closest to him, gun still hanging from his fingers at his side.

“That was some sweet talking you did there”, drawled the pirate.

Frank gulped under the pirate’s gaze. He glanced back at the fruit he left on the table and physically deflated when he saw that the fruit was now dry and the dough had dried out as well. He moved towards it and swept it into a small bag before throwing it towards the rubbish.

“Yeah well I wasn’t lying about drying my ingredients out, and the other stuff I just read in a book somewhere”, he said to the pirate in a sad tone.

Frank set about making more dough for the fruit bread, making sure to keep the fruit away from the heat of the ovens this time. It wasn’t until he was kneading the dough that he realised the pirate was still staring at him.

“Are you going to keep staring at me, kill me, or leave now?” Frank asked him.

“Hmmm”, the pirate smirked. “I was thinking of killing you, but you’re way too pretty to kill.” He slithered over to Frank before continuing, “And I can’t leave yet, those fools will still be looking for me until they find the other guy.”

“Other guy?” Frank asked as he put the fruit bread in the oven.

“A member of my crew was helping me recover a map from another crew. The crew we infiltrated was captured by the Navy so we had to escape before we all faced the gallows”, he explained.

“Wait, member of ‘my’ crew? Are you important or something?”

The pirate scoffed at Frank’s lack of knowledge. He started ranting on and on about how he was “a fierce pirate who sailed the seven seas looking for treasure” or something like that, Frank wasn’t really interested. By the time the fruit bread was done and the pirate was still talking, Frank had officially stopped listening. He had put all of the bread into baskets and moved them to the front of the bakery when the pirate finally took a breath.

“So yeah, that’s great and all”, Frank said. “But all I really wanted to know was your name.”

The pirate blushed as he introduced himself as Captain Gerard Way.

“But call me Gerard, it’s not like you’re a pirate so there’s no need for formality.”

“Well my name’s Frank Iero but I guess it’s ok for you to call me Frank”, Frank said and shook hands with the pirate.

Captain Gerard Way was one of the most feared pirates known but he talked non stop about anything and everything, so Frank found it pretty hard to be scared of him. That was until he went to leave.

“I will see you again Frank, and if you tell anyone about this then I will kill you and your whole family”, Gerard said with a sweet smile before slipping out the door and into the early morning.

“Well, it’s safe to say that pirate will be the death of me”, Frank sighed.

He didn’t know how right he was…..

Notes

I have decided there aren't enough mcr pirate stories..... so I wrote one :)