for wip game: Chef4Chef Clegan but also the fucking patater one bc it the words are funny
Chef4Chef Clegan! This one is mine and sail's little brain child, an AU where Gale is a pastry chef for a small independent bakery and John is a line cook in a very nice upscale restaurant and they're fucking bonkers about each other. John's got a lot of trauma to deal with and is actively being sexually harrassed at work as well by someone he has a history with and who also has a lot of power over him professionally, so in between the like, fun and lighthearted banter and everything there's also some pretty fucked up stuff to really dig into with John and his abuser, which he's only bothering to address because it starts affecting his relationship with Gale.
“You know, we’re about to be down a pastry chef-“
“I don’t do restaurants, and I’m happy where I’m at,” Gale cuts him off. It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to poach him and he’s got his usual laundry list of arguments ready to go but Ev surprises him again with an easy acquiescence.
“Hey, I get that, hundred percent. You think you guys might want a steady client, though? Nothing too finicky, just some stuff to fill our casual dessert trays a few times a week, take some pressure off Dougie?”
Gale shrugs, a little too distracted to deflect with a lie or a platitude (Bucky’s turned to face them, not even bothering to hide that he’s eavesdropping, and he’s still fucking whisking at top speed and Gale knows perfectly well exactly how else that kind of stamina can be useful) and instead tells him, “Maybe, but I don’t handle clients. Gonna have to talk to Alex or Macon, I just make the stuff.”
“Fair enough man, I’ll do that,” Ev shrugs and shakes his hand again with a clap to the shoulder Gale has just enough time to brace himself for that he doesn’t flinch, though Ev is gentler about it than he expects. “Thanks again anyway, maybe I’ll see you around.”
Gale nods and makes it all of two steps before Bucky plants himself right in his way, leaned back against a clean work bench and still fucking whisking and grinning at him like he’s got some new joke to tell.
“Oh, yeah! I’m not callin’ you Gale, what kinda name is that anyway? So-“
“So you’re gonna stick me with your own name?”
Bucky just keeps grinning, unrepentant, “Not exactly my name, no. So Buck-“
“-I’ve got a bet with Brady over here I need you to settle before you go vanishing on me.”
Gale looks over Bucky’s shoulder at a jerk of his head and finds himself the subject of a nasty sharp-faced glare, though it turns almost instantly to longsuffering exasperation when they lock eyes so maybe the glare wasn’t meant for him at all.
“It’s not a fucking wager if you just say ‘I bet’. You’d have to set the pot, I’d have to agree — and I fucking didn’t, I told you to shut the hell up and get back to your damn-“
“Okay fine!” Bucky huffs, impatient, and sticks his tongue out at Brady over his shoulder before he turns back to Gale. “Then I’ve got a bet with myself and I still need you to settle it for me.”
Gale should probably tell him to get lost. Gale wants to ask him if he’s got a gambling problem or something. Gale says, “Alright,” against every instinct and bit of good judgement he can lay claim to.
“You reckon kissing you tastes sweeter than anything you brought in those boxes?”
Bucky winks at him, entirely too pleased with himself, the perfect poster child for the cat that got the canary. Gale feels himself flush and he knows he should just get the hell out of dodge while his dignity’s still mostly intact, but.
There’s a pen in his back pocket and Bucky’s forearm right in front of him curled around the bowl he’s whisking in, so instead of doing anything remotely sensible Gale uncaps the pen with his teeth and leans forward to scribble his number between a lineart pinup waitress and what looks like a strangely detailed sprig of basil leaves, blue ballpoint stark against pale skin, and when he looks up both Bucky and Brady are staring at him like he’s nuts, mouths hanging open.
Brady recovers first, rolls his eyes and gets back to making what looks and smells like an alarmingly large batch of pesto. “Good fucking god there’s two of him,” he mutters with a shake of his head. “I don’t get paid enough for this.”
Bucky rallies by the time Gale caps his pen and tucks it back in his pocket, and as Gale crosses the kitchen Bucky’s at his heels again, the first scrap clearly only serving to make him want more.
“So can I call you tonight? After work?”
Bucky stops him from opening the back door with a hand planted firmly against the jamb. “It’ll be late.”
“You keep baker’s hours?”
Gale meets Bucky’s searching stare as levelly as he can, one eyebrow raised and a crooked smile threatening at one corner of his mouth. He didn’t give it permission to do that but he gets the feeling he’d better get used to it, and quick.
“Call me when you get off tonight, Bucky,” Gale says with just enough emphasis that he knows the double entendre was clear. “Unless you’re not a man who puts his money where his mouth is?”
“Don’t have much money but I’ll put my mouth anywhere you want it, gorgeous. Don’t worry about that.”
“Who said I was worried?”
As for 'Fucking....PATATER?!' lol that one's a Check Please! ship! Kent Parson and Alexei 'Tater' Mashkov, nothing but respect for MY og Russian/non-Russian hockey player ship 😂 (no shade to heated rivalry, I love Hollanov, but also. Ilya Rozanov who? My boy Tater reigns supreme lol). I mostly named the doc that because I can't fucking believe I had an idea for a check please fic in fucking 2026, it's been somewhere around 6 years since I was even involved in the fandom or read the comic! But I have to say, watching Heated Rivalry didn't make me at all inclined to write or read fic for it, it just really made me miss my check please days since I was in the fandom while Ngozi was still actively making the comic and publishing it in real time, along with all the extras and running Bitty's Twitter account like it was actually his - good times! From what I remember, Patater wasn't really one of the more popular ships, I think it might've been a little niche, but I think there's a lot of potential in it for a rivalry type of ship since in the comic Tater doesn't like Parson, calls him a little rat and throws him around one-handed after a fight on the ice and stuff, etc etc etc. so a lot of the fics I vaguely remember naturally put them together as secretly dating or at least secretly fucking, that kind of thing. I haven't totally decided yet if I'm actually going to write the fic for real or what direction it's going to go in if I do write it, I just know that I wanted to maybe put Kent through the wringer a little bit and have Tater be someone he learns to find comfort in and rely on 🤷🏽♀️ nothing groundbreaking, but I think I'm a much better writer now than I was when I was in the check please fandom so it might be fun to revisit my old haunts for old time's sake. We'll see!
