Today was a cherry day.

She had woken up that morning after the most peculiar dream in which a band of dancing cherries had tried to convince her to help them take over the world and force the Earth’s population to listen to countless hours of Celestina Warbeck’s Christmas specials. She had nobly tried to resist, but the cherries were a persuasive bunch and had hypnotized her with their dancing skills. Before she knew it she had been breaking into the Wireless Wizarding Network and resetting all the radio stations to Celestina Warbeck. She woke up in a sweat that morning with the strangest desire to bake a cherry pie. So she had.

No one could mistake today for anything other than a Cherry day. First of all, she was clad entirely in red. From her bright, ruffled sundress all the way down to her shiny patent leather heels. Furthermore, her shop emanated with the delicious smells of cherry pie, cherry tart, cherry cheesecake and cherry yum yum just to name a few. She had even enchanted the yellow wallpaper of her bakery to be covered in millions of tiny cherries. One could never accuse her of being impassionate towards her art.

It had drawn in quite the crowd too. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one in the mood for some cherries. The shop had been full to the brim since she opened the doors early that morning. There was of course the early run of people looking for muffins and croissants for breakfast, but very few people entered without being immediately drawn to her delectable cherry display. She was unbelievably busy, what with attending to customers and running back to check and make sure her latest creation wasn’t burning. So much so that she almost missed the arrival of one of her more eccentric customers (and she meant that in an entirely positive way).

Apollo Sinistra came strolling in the front door, in a pair of red skinnys. It seemed that the fashion prophet was indeed prophetic for he had chosen just the right outfit to wear on his impromptu trip to the bakery. She set down the plate of pie in front of her most recent customer, a smiley eight-year-old, and beamed happily.

“Hello Apollo! How did you know I was giving discounts to people in red today?”

Apollo couldn’t help but whistle a merry tune as he drew closer and closer to his destination. Who couldn’t help but be cheery when they knew that they would soon be sinking their teeth into one of Daphne’s latest goodies. Just the thoughts of what his dearest and only platonic friend would be pulling out of the oven today made Apollo’s mouth water in a way that only Daphne’s sweets could. Or Daphne could. Really it didn’t matter what he bought so long as it was Daphne doing the selling.

And so with an added skip to his step his red satin skinny clad legs took off at a faster pace in an attempt to beat the afternoon rush and miss the morning jam, his unbuttoned vest flapping merrily in the breeze. Needless to say he took off in a rush but being Apollo he was unable to take a direct route to the shop. There was Miss. Olive de Rosa to avoid, who had been acting rather clingy since the last party he had seen her at… and consequently slept with at. As he had detoured around Olive there was an alluring red head who’s number he just had to get so that he could invite her to Jasper’s next gathering. She was wearing vintage Versace with a feather cloak, enough said.

So at last around noon Apollo was able to stroll into Daphne’s and catch his dear friend’s eye. Beaming smile met with another beaming smile with such force that the dear old man with the adorable toupee thought he was witnessing true love and not the meeting of one vibrantly happy person with another. Daphne was the only woman in Apollo’s acquaintance he had ever been able to uphold his vow to be platonic with. She was like his other younger sister, and seeing as of how square Arty had been as of late, her sunshine was much needed – or at least some of her goods.

“Hello Apollo! How did you know I was giving discounts to people in red today?”

Apollo bound to her side and gave her an enveloping hug. “Why I dreamed I was a little red sparrow eating a cheery and I decided I would have to emulate it! Only Arty sold my red feather cloak the other day so I had to make do with other items. Which ruined my days…”

He pulled back and made pathetic sad face, ruined by the merry twinkle in his eyes. “Now if you had some and cherry yum yum just freshly baked my day would be made and I’d even be tempted to help clean up and waiter today. Though I’d have to run out and deliver Arty some apple pie she’s been getting to square, something only a round pie can cure!”

“Now if you had some and cherry yum yum just freshly baked my day would be made and I’d even be tempted to help clean up and waiter today.”

“Clean up and waiter?” She exclaimed with a gasp of shock. “With an offer like that, who could refuse?”

She spun around with a whirl of skirt and led her jolly friend up to the front counter. They were probably the two most sickeningly happy people in London. Life was all sunshine and rainbows, cupcakes and bright plastic ponies with the two of them. So the more pessimistic members of society tended to have to shield their eyes when the two of them were together lest they be blinded by all the joy.

Daphne and Apollo had been friends since their early days in Hogwarts. It would have been impossible for the two little social butterflies to not have become friends. Though it surprised most people who knew them that they had never dated. But frankly, it had never really occurred to them. Daphne was not the typical sycophantic tagalong that Apollo usually dated, and Apollo wasn’t a clean-cut fellow from the Bee-enthusiast club. They were just kindred spirits.

Apollo took a seat on one of the stools, and Daphne set down a piece of Cherry Yum Yum, in front of him. Apollo always had a very peculiar manner of eating the dessert. He would scoop off all of the cherries, lay them to the side and eat the rest of the Yum Yum. Then he would eat all the cherries at the end. It was an interesting process that she had seen repeated many times. Apollo was one of her more frequent customers.

She left him to his treat, to box up an apple pie for Artemis. It was an exceedingly American choice, but nevertheless one of Arty’s favorites. She took Apollo’s description of ‘square’ to here mean in a bad mood. It wasn’t something that Daphne experienced very often first hand, but then if she had as horrible a dating history as poor Arty even Daphne might have been a bit cranky sometimes. She set the pie, still slightly warm into one of her bright yellow and orange striped boxes. Then she got one of her delivery owls to take it down to the Sinistra’s Shop, where she was sure that Arty would be momentarily enjoying it. Next she pulled a spare apron off of the hook in the kitchen and brought it back out to Apollo. He was currently working on polishing off the cherries; she grabbed a spare fork and stole one out from under him, grinning impishly when he shot her an indignant glare.

“Clean up and waiter?” She exclaimed with a gasp of shock. “With an offer like that, who could refuse?”

Apollo gave a shrug as a response, already involved in the delicate process of removing cherries from his cherry yum yum. There was not other way to eat the delectable dessert – sort of like there was no other way to ease one’s feet into a new set of boots. One didn’t simple plunge head first into the endeavor, great skill and practice was needed to derive every wonderful sensation out of the experience. A direct result of cherry yum yum consumption was an outrageously happy Apollo – one that would probably cause Carmen to loose her precious restraint and murder the lovable guy, which would cause the unnaturally chipper Daphne to cry and set an irate Artemis on a vendetta.

So it was probably for the best that his super strengthened sunny exterior would in stead be turned onto every lonely and depressed looking customer he could find. After giving Daphne a quick tap on the face with his fork (leaving a perfect white dot of cheesy fluff on her noise) as his form of punishment for eating one of his preciously saved cherries Apollo donned the yellow homey apron she had set next to him.

"Time to bring some sunshine and glitter to the world of baked goods!"

Millions of smiles later Apollo swung down onto one of the now plentiful seats as Daphne ushered out the last beaming customer. The day had been eventful to say the least. The combined forces of a Sinistra and a Honeycutt had been to much for the gloom of London. No one had left the shop without feeling as though they had somehow stumbled upon another world populated by glittering angelic brunettes wielding cherry deserts and love. Some had even begun contemplating the mystery of the couple - some wondering if they were newly weds or engaged others wondering what sort of wonder drug they were on, all vowing to come back to the bakery for another go at the sweetness and solve the mystery.

"I've never felt so pleasantly exhausted in my life!" Apollo exclaimed, counteracting his words as he begun to twirl on the stool. A boyish giggle echoed off the walls. "Come on Daphne you know you want too!" He called between spins.

Daphne closed the Bakery that evening feeling rather tired but cheerful. (Not that the latter emotion was a particularly rare one. Indeed, she was so constantly cheerful that it hardly registered as a distinct emotion. It was simply Daphneness.) Business had remained steady throughout the day keeping both she and Apollo up to their elbows in work. In fact she wasn't sure exactly how she would have managed had he not come in and offered to help that afternoon. In between serving customers and cleaning dishes, she had to bake more cherry confections as they had all sold out half-way through the afternoon.

"I've never felt so pleasantly exhausted in my life!" Apollo declared sitting down on one of the stools.

She nodded in agreement. There was something quite pleasant of completing a hard day's work satisfactorily. Furthermore, the sort of work that Daphne did brought smiles to people's faces. And there was nothing more rewarding than watching someone's face light up as they took a bite of pie and melted. If they experienced only five minutes of sheer bliss while eating her baked goods she felt she had done a good job.

She sat down on the stool next to Apollo with a contented sigh, and polished the counter in front of her with a dish cloth she was still holding. But then Apollo started spinning around in circles and giggling like a school boy.

"Come on Daphne you know you want too!"

It was absurd. It was silly. It looked terribly fun. So she did it too.

She spun around on her own stool, her long red skirt fanning out like a matador's cape. Her own high-pitched giggles bounced around the room with Apollo's as they behaved in a thoroughly child-like manner and enjoyed every second of it. Eventually, the stool slowly spun to a stop, and she swayed dizzily on her stool as the butter-yellow walls contiued to swirl around her.

"I haven't done that in ages!" She exclaimed watching the room finish its tilt and spin.

"Okay...maybe it was only last week." She added with a guilty grin.

The joys of twirling would never grow old - it was sort of like the way glitter never lost its sparkle. Sadly such moments only lasted so long before the stool came to a halt and Apollo was facing an utterly ecstatic Daphne. To bad she wasn't his Daphne to his Apollo - but such a thing would never be for Daphne would never be able to bake him things as a tree and he wasn't madly in love with her.... but it such a fun thought. Daphne actually would have been great fun to date if their names weren't already connected mythologically. Ovid's tale and Apollo's hatred of the idea of following in the god Apollo's footsteps would keep these two from ever getting together even if lust was thrown into the mix.

"I haven't done that in ages. Okay ...maybe it was only last week."

Apollo readjusted his black fedora (accented with little red pin strips to tie in with his pants of course) and gave her a curious look, trying his best to contemplate how she was able to hold out so long when the stools were with her every single day. That took way to much will power. "If those were in my shop I would be twirling at least once a day." He exclaimed before making a sudden lunge for the last of the cherry filled doughnuts.

Stuffing one into his mouth quite like a chipmunk the thing was gone in less than a millisecond. "Now my dear Daphne how have things been going? Its been at least a week since I saw you last and its been very distressing. Are things still going well with Bee Enthusiast 23?" He asked before making another lunge, this time for his wand which he used to summon a large class of milk for himself and a cup of tea with extra honey for Daphne.

"If so I need to meet him." He finished, handing Daphne her cup and giving her a quizzical stare.

Daphne took her tea and one of the few remaining cherry filled donuts.

"Now my dear Daphne how have things been going? Its been at least a week since I saw you last and its been very distressing. Are things still going well with Bee Enthusiast 23? If so I need to meet him."

"Oh nothing terribly new and exciting has happened." She said thinking over her last week. Unlike Apollo who was constantly out attending parties or visiting bars when he wasn't working in his shop or writing a fashion article for the prophet, Daphne didn't live such an exciting lifestyle. She would sometimes go out and do fun things with her friends. But she enjoyed her free time most when she was taking care of her bees. Of course there were also fun shopping trips! The best ones usually happened with Apollo actually- he always tried to get her to buy the oddest things! But in the end she always came out with her usual cutesy 1950'sesque dresses.

"Oh you mean Richard? He's quite friendly! We had lunch at a little cafe one day. He's a muggle accountant, so I can't really invite him to the bakery. But he really liked the danishes I made!" She said cheerfully. And honestly, in her world a love of danishes could really be a topic of pivotal importance.

"I'm not sure whether or not you'd get on with him though Apollo. He wears a suit." It was an acknowledged fact that whereas danish-love was important for friendships with Daphne, good fashion was important for friendships with Apollo.