Chapter Text
The table is not turned in Asahi’s favor.
It’s a Thursday night—the busiest night of the week. On top of that, it’s the spring choir concert. Not just for high school students, but for all students in the district. The high school, middle school, and elementary school all combine their choirs for an epic, one night concert. Four out of five of Daichi’s siblings are in choir and his family makes a big deal out of this every year. He thought about asking off, but Suga gave him one pout and a small and leave me with Kiyoko…she hates closing and tries to do everything and gets in the way…
Daichi warned Ukai long ago that this would be one of their worst shifts and they needed to schedule extra people, and Ukai listened but two call-ins put them back at the manpower for a normal day.
Asahi doesn't know the time, but he knows the concert is over based on the over-kill of orders. One peek at the bottom right of his screen and he can see the 18 pending order count, even with it zoomed all the way out. The fryers seem like they never stop. Every sound—the beeps, the sizzles, the splashes—all blend together. Asahi can barely pick up on Ennoshita’s never ending product call outs.
Normally, Asahi is able to help call out product early. For example, if he knows they’re making four McChicken per tray and he gets an order for five, he can warn Narita that they need a tray down before Ennoshita knows. But not tonight. Tonight, Asahi can’t recall if he made two of the McChicken off the next order with his two on the current order, or if those were the two off the last order.
“Just make six,” Ennoshita tells him.
Asahi shakes his head, “But we have to make them two at a time! Can you see how many are in the buffer?”
Ennoshita leans back to show Asahi the buffer. Boxes and wraps are all packed together. Ennoshita barely has enough room to slide more sandwiches into the landing zone, creating a traffic jam. “It’ll be okay. We’re still keeping up! Forget the rules, Ukai isn’t here. Just make six. I’m sure Daichi will find a place for them.”
So Asahi turns to drop ten more buns, once again breaking the rules by buffering four buns, but he knows he will eventually use them. Beside him, Ennoshita puts mayo on three McChicken, but the gun runs out. He curses and throws in on the other side of the line, on Tanaka’s side. “Ryu!” Ennoshita calls, but before he can ask, Tanaka responds.
“I already prepped you an extra one, Chika!”
Asahi is on a new order. He’s pretty sure it’s the 90 dollar order that Hinata was freaking out about. He can imagine what this family is like: two six piece chicken nugget happy meals and a cheeseburger plain happy meal. Three kids, all picky eaters. A Big Mac, a Quarter Pounder, a Fish Filet, a McCrispy Deluxe, and a 40 piece nugget. Father, mother, grandpa, grandma. Probably all large meals, probably desserts.
He gives Ennoshita all the nuggets and drops the buns, starting on the next order and using all four of the buns he buffered.
“Behind you!” Kinoshita yells, carrying a box of fries and filling up the hopper for Narita.
Asahi would question why Kinoshita isn’t cashing at the moment, but then he remembers the buffer and assumes Suga has already parked every car he’s able to and how these orders on counter are so big that he isn’t getting the drive thru orders because Asahi can’t see them so there are no orders to cash because the line isn’t moving.
It’s Asahi’s fault. He isn’t keeping up.
He stops the order he’s working on and pushes the slips aside to make later. He serves it off without making it. The next order is a delivery order: four cheeseburgers and 20 nuggets. He slides the nuggets down, memorizes the cheeseburgers and serves them off without making it. The next order is a curbside, all sandwiches are special so he has the slips for them, and serves it off without making it. Finally, a drive thru order. A simple one: one fish. He remembers the fish off the first order and steams two buns instead. While they’re steaming, Asahi looks at the next order: counter order, two cheeseburgers. So six total. And he serves it off without making it. Makes two fish. Next order: drive thru, big order. The timer counting up in the corner is red at 250 seconds. Much longer than he allotted 45 seconds for order.
“Fuck!” Asahi curses as he burns himself on the fish steamer handle.
What’s next! What’s next! McChicken? No! The cheeseburgers! Five! No! Six? Wait! The Deluxe—was it McCrispy or Quarter? Asahi looks at the boxes on his table and he has both the Crispy and the Quarter box on the table, so he has to look at his slips, but the slips waterfall to the ground and have bunched up—the sticky sides stuck together. Asahi tries to pull them apart but they stick to his gloves instead. He rips them off, separating them all and putting them on the line, but with so many orders coming in at once, the slips are printing out of order—an order Asahi is failing to recall. He wants to ask Ennoshita for help, but Ennoshita is still scooping the nuggets that have no purpose without the rest of their order.
Asahi feels it: the pressure. The reason why he was made the Initiator and no one else. He’s the ace in the kitchen—this is where he should shine. But he can’t remember how many cheeseburgers he needs, or how long the delivery driver has been waiting, or how he got the burn on his hand. He freezes. He doesn’t know what to make next. Ennoshita finishes with the nuggets and doesn’t think twice about grabbing a random slip and making it. Robotically, seeing a bun get used makes Asahi struggle to slip on new gloves, tearing at the bottom, and drop more buns, but he knows Ennoshita is making the wrong sandwiches. He tenses, balling up a bun in his hand and throwing it away. He grabs slips that he thinks he needs but he keeps second guessing himself. He recalls the order but messes up and serves an order off that he has no clue what on it.
He has to, but he can’t can’t can’t ca—
“Asahi!” Noya yells, suddenly right next to him. “What are you doing man? Daichi has been asking for this order on your table for five minutes now! Suga thought you were down product and waiting to make the rest of it like you normally would, but Ennoshita said you had everything in cabinet!” Noya places a hand on his shoulder and reaches around him to grab medium gloves. “Whatever is going on doesn’t matter—I have your back! I always have your back.”
Asahi is stunned, subconsciously enamoured by Noya’s calming effect. He moves over to the bun rack, now with only one reggie bun sleeve despite stacking 3 of them before the rush. “The boxes,” is all he can say as he starts dropping the buns.
“I know, I know. Big Mac, a Quarter Pounder, a McCrispy Deluxe,” Noya reminds him. “You drop the buns. I’ll work on them while you figure out what else you need.”
Asahi could kiss him right now—he would if he was given the chance, right on the crown of his head. Noya is the guardian he needs at this moment. He’s always been. Noya got hired one year after Asahi did. In the beginning, Asahi was shy and only cashed in the back window since he scared little kids on counter and mixed up his words while order taking. When he turned 16, he immediately learned fries and grill, eventually working his way up to initiating. Noya was the exact opposite—Noya was first trained as a presenter and was easily the best in the franchise. He never learned how to order take. He flexed so easily into Cafe and bagging orders that Daichi and Ukai agreed to make sure he could run a drive thru on his own.
But when Asahi initiated for the first time and failed miserably, all Noya could do was stand there and watch. Noya didn’t care about the customers that weren’t getting their food. He cared about Asahi and his anxiety attack while he was being overwhelmed. At the time, Daichi was his Assembler and trainer, but even Daichi couldn’t help clear the screen because he was too worried about dropping products for Suga. Asahi put in his two week notice but Noya convinced him to stay—that he would make sure that a night like that would never happen again. After that miserable shift, Noya came in the next day and told Ukai that he would never present again until he learned how to assemble so he could help Asahi. When Ukai didn’t immediately agree, Noya no called-no showed for his next shift, and the next, and the next, and even got suspended for a week. But after the suspension, Ukai set him up with Daichi to learn.
Noya is never scheduled to be on line, so he’s slower than everyone else, but he was just what Asahi needed. While Noya makes sandwiches, Asahi drops buns and puts slips and boxes on the line in the order they need. They work side by side as one until Daichi calls Noya back up front to hand out the orders they finally made.
“Noya!” Asahi yells as Noya takes off his gloves and washes the sweat down the drain. “Thank you! I appreciate you!”
“Of course, Asahi!” Noya flashes him a smile. “You can count on me! Whenever something isn’t going your way, I’ll be right behind you to back you up!” Noya grips Asahi’s shoulders and jumps up. Asahi swears he could feel his lips brush against the top of his head. “Next time call for me!”
If Asahi wasn’t occupied with the now five pending orders on his screen, he would confess to Noya. Instead, he just tightly smiles and watches as he bounces back to presenting.
Asahi and Tanaka trade off on closing and tonight it was Tanaka’s turn. Asahi was supposed to be done at nine, but he felt wrong to just leave after Noya saved his ass. He clocks out but keeps his visor on and hair in a bun. He finds Noya in the maintenance closet. “Hey, so uh. What else do you have to do? Like! I mean obviously a lot since you couldn't get any preclose done! I didn’t want to come off as offensive! I was just wondering…is there anything I can help you with?”
“Really! You’ll stay and help?” Noya’s shine is all worth it. “The Ultimate Closing Guide is on the clipboard! I have everything highlighted that I’ve done so far. Pick literally anything off of it and it’ll be a huge help! You’re the best, Asahi!”
Asahi wasn’t expecting it, but Noya drops the mop and jumps into his arms, capturing him in a hug. He barely caught him, reaction time only trained by monitor beeps. It doesn't last long, not even long enough for Asahi to reply. Noya quickly gets down, like he didn’t mean to jump in the first place and picks up the mop and swiftly changes the subject. “Don't you have any pretty girls at home to get back to?”
Asahi blushes. “Me?! What?! No I don’t—no girls!”
Noya side eyes him. “Boys then?”
A pause. “No, but. There’s one right here that I want to stay for.”
Noya turns red from cheeks to ears and pushes Asahi away. “That’s—! The Ultimate Closing Guide, please!”
Asahi musters up enough confidence to flirtatiously chuckle and walk away. As he surveys the list, Suga (who stays every night with Daichi despite only closing two nights a week) comes up behind him and whispers, “Make sure you offer Noya a ride to your place tonight.”