Coffee He(art)
Title: Coffee He(art)
Chapter: One-shot
Author: kiroyo
Genre: Crack, Humour, Fluff
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I own no one.
Rating: PG15
Pairing: Kai x Reita, Aoi x Ruki
Synopsis: Coffee boy Kai, Barista Ruki, Baker Chef Aoi & Manager Uruha.
Comments: Comments make me happy, like little bits of candy :3
"Ruki!" Kai squeaked, whipping around to catch his best friend by his shoulders, startling the shorter man completely. "What the fuck Kai!?" the man responded, nearly dropping the cup of latte in his hands. "What now?” Ruki crossed his arms as he carefully laid down his piece of art next to the cash register. He arched an eyebrow as Kai continued to hyperventilate, and then turned his head to the door where the ring of a bell resonated just moments before.
Oh.
A tall blonde man was making his way to the counter, muttering hushed ‘excuse me-s’ and apologies as he weaved through the clusters of tables and chairs.
Kai's face had turned beet red and was now facing his back to the counter. "Seriously Kai, you've gotta do something. Take the initiative! Or he'll never notice you." Ruki sighed and continued, "Besides, how long has this been going on for huh? 3 months? That's pathetic! Look at me and Aoi, I only took 3 minutes." The mentioned person peeked out of the kitchen, "Ru-love, you called for me?" "Oh, nah it's nothing love, go back to what you were doing." Ruki replied and waved him off, blowing him a kiss.
Now it was Kai's turn to sigh. "You both are SO cheesy. And I'm not you Ru, I can't just walk up to him and ask him to go out with me!" he wailed, raising the bottom half of his apron to cover his face. "Did someone say 'cheese'? I'm in the middle of making a cheese cake right now!" Aoi grinned, popping his head out of the kitchen once more, his sudden movement causing his tall chef hat to fall the ground. Ruki giggled as he moved over to pick up the fallen object. Aoi chuckled as well when he had to bend his knees slightly and his boyfriend had to tiptoe, when Ruki placed the hat neatly on his head. "You're so silly Aoi" Ruki laughed, hitting him lightly on his arm, "Get back to work before Uruha whips both our asses." Aoi pouted and wound his arms around Ruki, "Noooo, I won't ever allow anyone to whip my ass except you!" he whined, as he brought their faces closed together and rubbed their noses affectionately.
Kai let out another long sigh once more. Forget about getting so up close and chummy with his much adored subject, he didn’t even know his name! He slapped himself across the forehead and groaned aloud. Why oh why was he so pathetic?
A loud ting rang, shocking him out of his nearly daily mental lectures. Kai spun around and bowed, apologizing to the customer for his lack of attention. When he had straightened his back though, his eyes widened to the size of saucers, okay, probably the size of expresso saucers, as he took in the sight of the blonde man in his thoughts just a split second ago standing behind the counter. His heart caught in his throat and all the vocabulary built up during his short span on Earth vanished. Shit! No, this is not happening again! God I look stupid right now. However, the blonde customer merely grinned and ordered a cappuccino, before thanking Kai and leaving for the table next to one of the large windows in the café.
Kai gulped and hastily nodded, his hair bouncing out of place and into his eye. Letting out a sharp yelp, he stumbled backwards and knocked into Ruki who was now gathering the necessary ingredients for the order they had just received. “Geez Kai, re-lax. Stop scaring me like that! It affects work efficiency you know?” Ruki lightly scolded his friend, mimicking their shop manager at the last line. “I’m sorry Ru. It’s just that, wait-I don’t know why I’m always like this around him! I’m such a loser.” Kai whined, stuffing his hands into the apron’s pocket and chewed on his lower lip. Stirring the black liquid after adding hot water, Ruki turned his attention to Kai again, “No you’re not. You are fine just the way you are and you need more confidence that’s all. You know that I would totally help you if I could right?” He grinned, patting Kai on his shoulder as he reached for a white saucer. Kai nodded, watching his friend prepare the cup of cappuccino. As Ruki started taking metallic can of milk to finish off the final step of the drink, an idea struck Kai.
“Wait!” Kai shouted, causing half of the customers in the café to turn to them. “WHAT!?” Ruki hollered in return, nearly fumbling the tiny jug in his hand out of his grasp and onto the floor. Before Kai could respond, impending loud footsteps approached them, and their store manager came into view. Thick black specs framed his face, but it did not hide the vivid frown in his brows.
“What’s with this noise!? You’re disturbing the customers! Stop fooling around and get back to work!” Uruha snarled through his gritted teeth as he closed his eyes and pinched his nose bridge.
“We’re sorry boss.” The two embarrassed employees muttered, bowing their heads down as their manager left.
“Fuck you Kai!” Ruki shoved at him, kneeling down to pick up the spoon. “My pay check had better not be cut cause of you!” “I’m sorry Ruki! It’s just that, I suddenly thought of how you can help me!” Kai apologized for the third time that day, tugging his shorter friend at the sleeve, “Pretty please?” Feeling his resolve dissolve at how similar the taller man resembled a kicked puppy, Ruki’s momentary anger disappeared. “Fine, so what did you come up with?”
Kai squealed and hugged his friend as he jumped up and down. “Yay Ruki you’re the best!” Ruki squirmed and tried to push him off, “I know I know, now let go of me. We both look stupid!” At that, Kai dropped his arms and straightened his apron. He cleared his voice and said, “I want you to write a message for me on his cappuccino!”
Ruki blinked. “Uh, a message?” Kai nodded happily, “Yeah! You’re always designing those artsy stuff on coffee, so why not? Just a short message will do! Please please?” Ruki tilted his head to the side, stroking his chin as he pondered. “Hey that’s not a bad idea! But it’s gotta be something short. Limited space here.” He replied and pointed to the circular light brown foamy area on the white cup. However, Kai’s face fell.
“What’s wrong?” Kai twiddled his thumbs and mumbled, “Eh… I’ve not thought of what to say heh,” scratching the back of his head.
“God you’re hopeless! And I was just about to call you a genius at that. Alright, I’ll decide for you. There’s another customer at the counter, go!” Ruki groaned and kicked his rear. Kai laughed and returned to his spot, rubbing his supposed “injured” area and stuck his tongue out at Ruki.
A short message eh? Hmm let’s see. Ruki leaned against the counter and thought, what could he possibly write in such a small space? At that, Aoi’s upper half of his body poked out of the kitchen. He joined his thumbs and indexes together to form a heart, before smiling at Ruki and returned to the kitchen as quickly as he came out.
Ruki grinned. That’s it! “Thanks Aoi!” And he grabbed the milk and started to design.
As soon as the elderly lady went off with her sandwich, Ruki rushed over and pulled Kai to stand in front of his masterpiece. “There!” he proudly announced, waving his arm in a grandiose fashion to present the mug of cappuccino.
Kai stared.
“What!” he screeched, his voice breaking off at the end. “This?” Ruki nodded, “Yeah, isn’t this short and sweet and direct enough? Am I good at this or what!” Kai stared down at the cloudy white heart in the middle of the foamy white. “But Ru…” “Kai. You asked for my help and this me helping you. You didn’t possibly expect me to write a mushy poem there did you? That is just realistically not possible. Look, it’s gonna be okay!” Ruki assured him, after which he leaned over and reached for a bottle of chocolate sauce and a couple of biscotti. “Now, all you have to do is write something short on these!”
Kai was stumped. No, he was beyond nervous. He met his friend’s eyes and pouted. No he couldn’t do this! Instead of consoling and encouraging him like he always did, Ruki shoved the things into Kai’s hands and ordered him to do it. Sucking his lower lip in, Kai closed his hands around the bottle of chocolate sauce. Was Ruki sane? The area on the biscotti is so small! It was even smaller than one on the cappuccino. Could he even write anything on it? When Kai contemplated on asking Ruki to do it for him once more, he placed down the bottle and looked up. However he immediately regretted his decision as Ruki was staring him down with those eyes of his. Kai gulped and picked up the container once more, squeezing out a fine squiggly line ‘Hi’.
“That’s it?” Ruki asked, spinning the saucer over to look at it properly. Neatly arranged on the white dish was the cup of cappucino with 2 biscotti, one of which with a greeting on it. Ah well, at least Kai wrote something. “Alright, off you go then! Good luck!” Ruki grinned, patting his best friend on the back and then placing the item on his hands.
Kai inhaled a deep breath and nodded. As he walked over to where the blonde man was, he found himself using more willpower to keep his trembling hands steady than to think about the aftermath. Upon reaching the table, he carefully set down the drink. Just as he was about to voice the complimentary, “Sorry to have kept you waiting! Please enjoy your meal!”, the man lowered his newspapers and beamed at him, thanking him before he could say anything. Which was also just as well as Kai’s voice ran out of his throat and onto the moon again. Smiling sheepishly in return, Kai zoomed back to his friend behind the coffee grinder. “I did it!”
“You sure as hell did alright. Now we just gotta wait. I’m sure it will be fine!” Ruki said, wiping the back of his hands on his apron. Now this, Kai wasn’t looking forward to it at all. In between serving customers, Kai would revert his attention back to that table to check for any telltale signs of acceptance or… Rejection. He didn’t like to think about the latter though, as it made him feel as though his stomach fell out of where it’s supposed to be. After a moment of forever, the blonde man folded his newspaper, stood up, and left the café.
Kai’s heart fell. He didn’t even look over to him once, and left without a word? Kai sighed. He should have seen this coming and prepared himself for it, or wait, if he could really expect this, he wouldn’t have tried at all! Despite the sudden rush of fatigue and depression, Kai still made his way out of the counter to that table to clear up.
As he picked up the cup and stray rubbish off the table and onto the tray, something caught his eye. Underneath the little jug of milk was some scribbling on a white serviette. Lifting it off, Kai carefully brought the paper up before his face.
Hello Kai
87262-76365
-Reita
P.S See you tomorrow too.
If hearts could explode out of happiness while still enclosed in ribcages, Kai’s one just did. “RUKI!!!” he yelled, raising both arms into the air with his right fist closed around the note as he ran back to his friend. Ruki turned, falling backwards onto the ground the moment he did so as Kai jumped onto him, clearly forgetting that their difference in height and stature would never allow Ruki to catch him in time. “LOOK!” he continued shouting and waved the crumpled white note before Ruki’s eyes. “Stop moving! I can’t see! And get off I can’t breath!” Ruki panted, grabbing the serviette out of Kai’s hand, his blurry vision coming into focus as he read the black letters. When he was done, and Kai was off his chest and standing properly on the floor, Ruki screamed as well. Running clumsily up to Kai, he clasped their hands together and hopped around in circles, laughing like crazy school girls, ignoring their surroundings of weird gazes from customers around the shop. Their happy bubble was popped though, when Uruha appeared wearing that signature scowl.
As quickly as it happened, Kai and Ruki stopped bouncing.
Glancing at the note forgotten on the floor in their moment of glory, Uruha perked an eyebrow. “Finally huh? Congrats man.” He simply said and reached over to mess up Kai’s hair, before smiling and turned on his heel to return to his office.
Ruki and Kai slowly turned to each other in disbelief. Their moody manager congratulated them and smiled? Picking up the serviette, Kai waved it in front of Ruki’s face again, triggering off another spree of crazy giggling and mad dancing.
A/N: In exchange for killing of Reita 3x in total, I bring you one where he isn't abused at all LOL. Another addition to the cafe series yay!