Chapter Text
Kimi Antonelli has been nothing but a bum since after his high school graduation.
If you were to ask him to list down things he has done during the first month of summer, you would get doomscrolling on TikTok, getting voice chat banned on Roblox for possibly a hundred times, laying down in the same side of his bed for hours straight, and more that are considered lazy and unhygienic but then again what would you expect from an 18-year old teenager.
As much as how horrible his routine is, he can’t lie but say that he does like his established routine. After a stressful senior year where not only was he jumbling his classes and athletics but also prepping for college and not allowing himself to be lazy for his last year, sue him for wanting to do nothing for the summer before he’s shipped off to college.
And sue him is what Uncle Lewis did. After an entire month of watching Kimi do absolutely nothing but rot in his room and only leaving his room to go to the bathroom, he had enough.
”Starting next month, you’re gonna start working in the family cafe," Lewis hollered randomly as he walked past his room, his voice easily carrying through his semi-opened door. Kimi’s attention shot up from his phone to the empty doorway, unsure if he heard it correctly. He immediately scrambled up from his specific spot on his bed and dashed out into the hallway, desperate to catch up to his uncle who was already nearing the end of the hallway.
”What! No way am I working there!” He quickly protests to his uncle, who is currently carrying piles of paper which he could assume it’s for the cafe and is deliberating not giving attention to the shocked teen behind him.
”Yes, you are,” he deadpanned, moving his way across the hallway while still not looking at Kimi.
”No, I’m not!” Kimi retorted.
Lewis sighed at Kimi’s stubbornness and slowly turned his head to look at Kimi with an exhausted face, clearly showing how much he didn’t want to further debate his decision with the teen.
”Yes, you are Kimi. You have been nothing but a lazy person this entire month. You’re basically living in that mess you call a room 24/7! You only come out of that room if you need to take a piss and eat.” He lectured as he turned and continued to walk away to the living room with Kimi trailing right behind him.
Well, he wasn’t lying. Kimi thought.
”Okay! I’m sorry for being a bum, but please. I’ll find a job somewhere!” Kimi pleaded as he followed his uncle as they moved from the living room to the kitchen island.
Lewis drops the piles of paper on the island, “What’s so bad about working in our cafe?” Lewis asked with a puzzled look.
”You and Uncle Nico are what’s wrong!!” he threw his arms in the air as he sat down on one of the barstools.
Kimi loves the family cafe, in fact, it was probably one of his favorite places to chill and bring friends over after school hours. Not only was the vibe in the cafe so goated, the food his uncle and his husband make are absolutely mouth watering, especially their signature banana bread and his absolute favorite tea. Just thinking about those two is making Kimi extremely hungry.
Speaking of his uncle and his husband, who surprisingly haven’t gotten a divorce, they are exactly the reason he doesn’t want to work there.
He genuinely doesn’t know what’s exactly going on between the two like they would get into a fight about some missing ingredient and then a few minutes later they would be doing some hardcore PDA that is equivalent to them basically having sex in the kitchen. His older brother, George, who works there, always complains about how annoyingly in love they are, which is quite ironic, cause he’s no different from them when he’s with his own boyfriend.
Lewis blinks. “Okay, we aren’t that bad,” he murmured. The sheer audacity of the statement left Kimi completely speechless.
”I’ll just find a job somewhere! Anywhere but there,” Kimi reiterated, desperately trying to say anything so that he wouldn’t work there.
“Isn’t doing nothing exactly what you want to do?” A familiar voice chimed in. Kimi turned around to see his older brother coming out of the hallway, making his way into the kitchen. George headed straight for the fridge, completely unbothered by the dramatic tension in the kitchen.
“Sì” Kimi quickly confesses.
George scoffed, “How do you expect to get hired with a resume full of nonsense?” as he grabbed his grapes.
Lewis didn’t even look up from organizing his papers. ”Only for this summer, just do it,” he ordered, still going through the piles of paper.
”But this is not it!” Kimi groans, slamming his palms onto his face out of pure frustration from his uncle not getting it.
Lewis stopped and looked up, “Alright, fine. How about volunteering? Might as well use your skills in sign language for something.” He suggests it to the teen.
Lowkey… Kimi thought for a second.
To be fair, if he were desperate enough to stay away from them, he would have considered doing some boring volunteer work. Plus, if he were to be honest, he hasn’t thought about sign language ever since he took the oral exam that he surprisingly got a perfect on. During his junior year, his school forced its batch to take up language classes as extra credit. And between picking either Nihongo and sign language, aka the two remaining classes with slots, he picked sign language only because his ex-girlfriend and 2 of his failed situationships weren’t there.
Kimi had fun during those 2 years of learning about the language, and he thought it was helpful and important as you know people have hearing disabilities but he wants to keep this as a small niche skill rather and would not use it except for special events.
“It doesn’t suit my personality,” Kimi murmured. He slowly dragged his palms down his face, only to be met by his uncle’s deadpan expression and George’s winced ‘yikes’ face. George’s eyes were already darting toward the hallway, looking for a quick escape from whatever stupid foolery Kimi was about to pull next.
“And what’s exactly your personality?” Lewis prompted, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
And the truth is after an entire month of doing absolutely nothing but have a screen up in his face. Kimi has forgotten what it’s like to do something other than schoolwork. He sometimes misses what he used to be when he was younger. He used to kart like the rest of his family, and he was extremely good, usually being called a prodigy, but he had to quit since as he races, he just doesn’t feel the spark of racing. Everything about racing just started to feel like a chore to him.
Other than karting, he used to have other hobbies as well. Like cooking, tennis, and others he has forgotten. After all, once you start high school, you lose a bit of yourself. But looking at his uncle’s face, he’s guessing that his personality is that of a lazy asshole.
”That, from now on. I’ll have to…..figure that slowly,” Kimi faltered, his eyes shifting nervously, yet still giving a performative smile.
“Yeah. No. You start tomorrow. George, help your brother.”
Well at least he tried.
And here he is, leaning behind the counter doing nothing, with George trying to ignore the possibility of his uncle and Nico groping each other up in the ass at the back. It was surprisingly a nice day, which is rare since he started working in the cafe, as it had been raining. The sun’s rays going through the cafe’s window give the place a new summer environment.
Kimi would normally step out and hang out with his friends to go by the lake and swim, but sadly, he has work and is in fact quite trapped in this cafe. Ever since he started working, Uncle Nico thought of Kimi working for the cafe as an absolute win, as he knows sign language. Immediately making a poster saying “Deaf Community Friendly” and sticking it outside, hoping it would get them more customers.
It hasn’t worked; the cafe is extremely empty right now. But for the past 5 minutes, he could see 2 guys outside looking at their outdoor menu.
“Do you think they’ll get in and eat,” George asked, leaning on his palm.
“Dunno, maybe,” Kimi responded.
”I mean, they have been looking at the menu for a while,” George points out. Kimi nods, moving his gaze from the two guys outside to his hands, playing with his long fingernails.
”They’re signing,” George comments.
Kimi moves his sight to see, in fact, the guys talking in sign language. He thinks of this chance to look at what they are talking about, his gaze moving to their hands and their fingers. He could tell ever so slightly they are talking about what food they will order, but he can’t help but slowly flicker his gaze to look at the appearance of 2 guys.
His eyes went straight to the shorter one. It’s not like he’s short, but the guy beside him was extremely tall. As much as Kimi thinks the shorter one was quite attractive, he can’t help but judge the guy’s haircut. He doesn’t know the thought process of what he was thinking when he decided on his haircut, but he thinks that the haircut made his forehead look like a fivehead. But that’s beside the point. As much as he wants to continue judging the shorter one, he can’t help but flicker his gaze to the taller figure.
Well, tickle my feet and call me Pete, that guy is literally Louis Partridge. Kimi thought the moment he first saw him.
Kimi genuinely believes he has the most beautiful smile he has ever seen in his entire life. The way he smiled at the guy beside him as they signed about what they’re planning on getting completely made his brain melt a little and thank the gods for taking their time constructing his beautiful mouth to fit his beautiful face, if he looked like that he would probably smile all the time too. He was just so effortlessly pretty, with those striking eyes and a soft, natural flush on his cheeks that looked so insane.
Dio cane! He is absolutely gorgeous. Kimi thinks.
He also dressed very well. Kimi could tell his entire outfit was basically Uniqlo because he owned those specific clothing pieces himself-
“Earth to Kimi, hello?” Kimi removes himself from his thoughts as George’s hand waves in front of his face.
”Yeah, what’s up?” Kimi responded, turning and looking at his brother.
“Can you ask them if they’re going to order and eat? I mean they have been staring at our menu for a while,” George ordered Kimi, nudging his head towards the two guys outside who were still signing to each other.
Yes! A way for me to talk to him!
Kimi pushes off the counter and walks to the glass doors. As he half-way opens the door, he accidentally locks eyes with the taller male.
He pauses. Holy shit his eyes are gorgeous too, an angel sent from heaven!
Before he could continue to describe the guy’s face in further detail, he quickly reminded himself that he sadly has a job to do.
”Are you guys interested with anything in the menu?” Kimi signs to the two guys in front, earning a small flicker of shock between the two guys.
Kimi awkwardly, slowly points his finger at the small poster Nico has done while giving a small smile. The two guys followed Kimi’s finger to see the poster itself and nodded.
“Yes, sorry. Are you guys open? We didn’t think to go in since there weren’t any people inside.” The smaller one of the two guys signed to Kimi as the other guy nodded.
Kimi slowly thinks of a way to respond back, after all it’s been a while since he used sign language. ”We are open, it’s just a slow day today. Do you wanna go in and order?” Kimi signs, his fingers slowly remembering how to communicate.
”Yes please,” the taller one signed before the other signed his response back, giving Kimi a small yet blinding smile. It made Kimi’s heart flutter a bit, but he remains professional and opens the door to bring them inside. As he steps into the cafe, the two guys trail him from behind. As Kimi turns to the register, he sees George giving him a discreet nod of approval for securing a customer.
“So what are you guys getting?” Kimi signed.
”I’ll be getting a cappuccino and he’ll get a hot chocolate.” The taller one signed.
”That would be 7,” Kimi signs back.
The taller man nods and retrieves his wallet, extracting the precise sum and giving it straight to Kimi. Their fingers gently brush against each other. The tall guy didn’t notice that there was a small plate right in front of the register that says “place cash here”.
It’s not like Kimi minds, but just that single brush of their fingers makes Kimi’s heart flutter a tad bit. Realizing that his brain is losing focus for a split second. Kimi quickly accepts the cash and proceeds to give George their order receipt so he could get to work.
”You guys could wait there for your drinks,” Kimi signs as he points to the pick up counter at the side of the counter.
“You didn’t need our names?” The smaller guy’s eyebrows raised as he questioned Kimi.
Fuck. He had actually forgotten to do an important task of his fucking job. Asking for their names. Kimi can practically feel the awkward, questionable stare the smaller guy was giving him.
While the taller guy does absolutely nothing but watch the awkward interaction between the two, a look of mild amusement in his eyes.
Do something!! Kimi thinks.
Kimi gives a small, awkward smile as he tries to think of ways to save face. He could say that he is a newbie in this job, which is the right answer to say.
”I mean there’s nobody around? I think they would know whose order is whose.” The taller one signed to the guy beside him, totally brushing off Kimi’s rookie mistake out of pure kindness. The smaller guy nods and moves his way to the pick up counter once seeing that their drinks are almost made.
An angel from heaven! Kimi internally screams.
Kimi could practically feel the awkward air between him and the smaller guy thick in the cafe. He didn’t notice the taller guy was waving a hand in front of his face with a small smile. When Kimi does notice, he removes himself from his zoning-out session and looks properly at the guy.
The guy’s soft smile shifting into a pitiful, gently teasing one. “You know, you don’t need to be so tense. We don’t bite,” the guy signed smoothly at him.
Kimi just stood there like a statue, quite fazed by the tall guy’s words to him. Before Kimi could even give a small response, the guy trails back to join the other one at the pickup area to grab their drinks, since George had just finished sliding them across the counter. As the smaller one of the two opened the door to leave, the taller one just stood there by the exit for a brief second, locking eyes with Kimi who is currently standing completely still like a statue of embarrassment and awkwardness.
“Thanks for the drinks,” the taller one signed, giving Kimi one last small smile before he turned and the door clicked shut behind them. Kimi watched them walk farther away from the cafe, clearly moving on with the day, but for some reason, Kimi’s entire day stopped right along with that interaction.
“Yikes mate. It must be fun looking like a mess,” George remarks.