Chapter Text
What. Just happened.
Is this... normal? For Lan Wangji?
Does he just... regularly consume large amounts of espresso in the most aggressive fashion possible?
Does he usually parse out his words as if each one personally cost him as much as a new car?
Wei Wuxian looks at the now-empty tumbler that until a few seconds ago held his only hope of salvation. He moans piteously. There were at least five shots of espresso in that thing, and now they’re all gone.
“LAN WANGJI!”
Wei Wuxian blinks twice and looks up, only now realizing that Jin Guangshan is standing right there. He must have been watching that whole thing.
Jin Guangshan looks back and forth between him and the retreating Lan Wangji, then obviously chooses Lan Wangji as the moving— and therefore more pressing— target. “Lan Wangji, how dare you! You know that behind the bar is off-limits, unless you’re a bartender— and you know that espresso is restricted!”
It is?
Wait...
It is?!
Ironically— or maybe just pitifully— Wei Wuxian is still desperately in need of caffeine. He edges forward and peers around the edge of the wall just as Jin Guanshan wails, “Why would you do this!”
Lan Wangji is standing, straight-backed and as aloof as always, silhouetted in the lights from the kitchen against the comparative dimness of the dining room. He gives Jin Guangshan an indifferent sort of look. He doesn’t seem to care much that Jin Guangshan is technically both of their boss.
“Early morning,” he says shortly.
He turns to leave again.
Jin Guangshan goes red in the face. “You can’t— you shouldn’t— how dare you—!”
There’s a lot of ranting after that, but the gist of it is that Lan Wangji knows the rules perfectly well, and the fact that he’s choosing to disobey them is incredibly damning, and if it weren’t for the fact that Lan Wangji is one of their longest-tenured employees— ah, thinks Wei Wuxian, there it is— then Jin Guangshan would have fired him on the spot. “Anybody else would have lost their job, Lan Wangji, you should feel grateful I’m not getting rid of you!”
Lan Wangji lifts the glass of olives, waving it idly. “Excuse me,” he says, “tapenade.”
Apparently, that is sufficient answer, somehow. Jin Guangshan gives up on him and whirls around to take on Wei Wuxian, instead.
“WEI WUXIAN!”
...Yes, it’s definitely his turn.
“Hiii! Before you ask, Wen Qing asked me to cover for her; she has to work her other job unexpectedly.”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure you’ll be fine— you were a barista over at the Lotus Pier Café as a teen, weren’t you?” Wei Wuxian blinks. He hadn’t realized Jin Guangshan remembered that about him; it was how he had convinced old Baoshan at the restaurant Hidden to let him serve, but he hadn’t realized that Jin Guangshan had ever found out. Maybe he had talked to her? “I don’t care about that; it is what it is, and at least she got her shift covered. But, Wei Wuxian, you didn’t go through our bartender training here, so you don’t know: espresso is forbidden to employees.”
Wei Wuxian blinks again, his brain slowly waking up despite the too-early hour. There has been an alarm going off somewhere in his mind since the first time Jin Guangshan said this; it’s getting louder, now.
Wei Wuxian attempts to smile ingratiatingly. “...It is?”
Jin Guangshan claps him familiarly on the shoulder. “Of course! If employees want caffeine, then they can pay for the espresso— full price— or they can drink the drip coffee for free.” He points beyond Wei Wuxian to where the percolators are gurgling cheerfully.
“Right,” Wei Wuxian agrees. “Ahh, and if I were to brew some espresso for myself?”
“Then you’d be fired,” Jin Guangshan says instantly. “We don’t tolerate pilferage, here— and a bartender must be trustworthy, because so many of our most expensive products are behind the bar!”
“Right right right. Of course!”
Wei Wuxian straightens up and tries to look trustworthy. It must work, because Jin Guangshan softens. “You didn’t know, so we’ll give you a pass this time. Just, if anybody asks in the future— even Lan Wangji, even though he never asks for anything! — just ring them in and take payment, first.”
Wei Wuxian nods enthusiastically. “Got it!”
Jin Guangshan nods, too, and turns to go, chuckling as he does. “That Lan Wangji... I don’t think he was being entirely truthful with me, you know? He opens this place up every day. All his mornings are early mornings, but he’s never asked for espresso before!”
Wei Wuxian freezes. “Ah?”
“Not any of my business, of course, but just between the two of us... I don’t think he had so much an early morning as a late night, if you catch my drift!” He chortles again. “And about damn time, if you ask me!”
“Ah,” Wei Wuxian says. Somehow that idea doesn’t make him feel any better.
Not that it matters; Jin Guangshan is obviously wrong about why Lan Wangji drank the espresso. Clearly, Lan Wangji heard Jin Guangshan coming, and drank the espresso to protect Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian has no idea how he’s going to repay this, but some form of gratitude is definitely in order.
Lan Wangji is just loading the pastries onto the bakery cart when Jin Guangshan wanders back to Prep. He is looking around himself and taking in the changes when he spotts Lan Wangji. He looks at the pastry cart— now full of baked goods— and blinks. “Are you already done?!”
“He’d better be,” Lan Jingyi mutters darkly under his breath. Lan Jingyi is assigned to Prep today, and so has been working with his cousin Wangji all morning.
“Did you help with this?” Jin Guangshan asks him, waving a hand around at the new appearance of the kitchen.
“No,” Lan Jingyi says pointedly. Which...
Ah.
Oh dear...
The kitchen has been completely reorganized. The rolls— fresh rolls for dinner, served gratis to the patrons who chose to dine in— have been moved to the other side of the oven, where the bakery cart used to rest; the bakery cart is now located forty feet away to the other side of Prep, where it will have a shorter distance to travel to stock the case up front; and the array of dry goods which previously was stocked where the bakery cart is now have all been moved to where the rolls used to be— and they’ve been rearranged to take up less room.
In addition, everything is extra clean and sparkling, even the speed racks. The speed racks are foamed aluminum; they should be physically incapable of sparkling. The shelves were clear of all previous debris; the supplies were neatly organized into rows...
It looks amazing.
Jin Guangshan crosses his arms and taps his foot a few times. “Lan Wangji...”
He looks closer at the seasonings on the shelf above Lan Wangji’s workstation. They have been organized by color.
“Lan Wangji, you are familiar with the Xianxia Café policy, that espresso shots are for the guests only unless paid for by the employee...?”
Lan Wangji nods, stoically stacking pastries onto the bakery cart.
“Well, I think, in your case... We’d better say that they’re still forbidden, even then.”