Chapter Text
“Hello sir, what can I get for you?” A cheery voice asks and Nicholas looks up from where he’d been scrolling through Twitter on his phone.
As he meets the other man’s eyes, a shivering, crawling sensation of familiarity shoots up his spine. He can tell by the way the other man freezes, blue eyes wide and his customer service smile frozen into almost a grimace, that he had felt it too.
“The Hell-?” Nicholas says, startled, the hairs on his arms standing on end.
The barista unfreezes, customer service smile plastered firmly back in face but spine now ramrod straight.
“What was that, sir?”
“What the Hell was that?!” He says, louder, thoroughly freaked out and nerves already frazzled by the day he’s had.
The man cocks his head as if in question, eyes flicking around. “W-what do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb!” He snarls, leaning forward and slamming his hands down on the counter. “You’re gonna tell me what the Hell that was, or I’ll punt you into next--”
He tries to lift a hand to point a finger angrily at the barista, only to find it stuck to the counter in a repeat of earlier. His eyes widened. “Shit, shit, shit, shit!” He says under his breath, or tries to, but he thinks it comes out louder than he means it to as he yanks at his hands, both firmly adhered to the counter.
“Hey hey, It’s okay, it’s okay,” The other man says soothingly, leaning towards him, and Nicholas realizes that he’s started nearly hyperventilating. “Just- just relax.”
“How the Hell am I supposed to--”
The barista puts a hand over each of his, and warmth trickles into his left hand, spreading through his body to his right. His hands unstick with small twin pops, the man holding onto his arms for another second so he doesn’t fall on his ass from the last jerk of his arms. Nicholas stares at the man in bafflement and the man lets go of his arms after one last gentle squeeze. His arm tingles at the loss of warmth, and for the first time all day, they don’t ache.
“See, just take deep breaths, in, and out, in, and out--” He says soothingly, exaggerating his breathing, and Nicholas follows him unconsciously, his heart rate slowing down despite himself. He flexes his hands, eyes flicking to them before landing back on the man as he speaks under his breath. “Meet me back here at 5, that’s when I get off my shift. We can talk then.” The barista holds his gaze, and Nicholas finds himself nodding slowly.
“Hey! I heard yelling, is everything alright?” Another man with a slight paunch belly comes out of the back from the direction of the drive-thru window.
“Everything’s fine!” The barista says cheerfully, turning to the other man and holding up his hands, and Nicholas notices that he’s wearing full sleeves and a glove on both hands despite the heat. “Just a little panic attack, no biggy! Right sir?” He turns back to Nicholas.
“Uh. Y-yeah, sorry to be a bother.” He grits out, and he nearly glares at the barista before realizing that, yeah, he kinda did have a panic attack didn’t he?
The other man smiles, relieved. “Well, feel better sir.”
He turns to go back to the drive thru window, before the barista says, “Uh, wait! Can we give him a free drink on the house, to soothe his nerves?”
Nicholas blinks.
“Knock yourself out, kid. But if you keep doing this, I’ll start taking it out of your paycheck.” The man who he guesses is the younger barista’s boss says, disappearing into the back.
“Haha, thanks!”
The blonde barista smiles at him cheerfully, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. “Alright, what’ll it be?”
“Uh, medium. Black. Hot.” God he’s so glad this isn’t a Starbucks, he couldn’t remember those weird ass sizes right now to save his life.
The man wrinkles his nose like he’s judging his choice, but only says, “Great! I’ll have that right out! What’s the name?”
“Nicholas.” He says, head still spinning.
The man only nods, smiles at him, and goes off to make the drink. Nicholas looks around to find no other customers in sight, thank God.
Nicholas takes his drink and finds an alley to smoke in to soothe his nicotine craving.
He has a couple of hours to kill.