Work Text:
Hanta looked up at the sound of the over the door bell ringing to see a customer. This time was normally a bit on the slower side customer-wise, so he had just been tidying up the counter a bit. He put the rag he had been using to wipe down the counter to the side and moved to where the register was. “Are you ready to order?” He asked the customer, taking note of the black design mixed in with the electric blond of the customer’s hair. It looked really cool, and he had a thought of dying some of his hair as well but just brushed it off, deciding he couldn't pull it off. It really seemed to suit the blond dude though.
“Yep! Can I get a medium coffee with a lot of milk and sugar? Like a lot of sugar.” The customer emphasized, Hanta nodding as he wrote the order on a cup, pausing momentarily as a few other people entered and he heard the bell ring.
“Can I get your name for the order?”
“Sure! It’s Thor.” The blond responded with a wide grin
Hanta smiled at the immediacy of the response, knowing full well there’s no way this college looking japanese guy was named Thor unless his parents were either huge mythology nerds, or got on the comic book trend 20 years ago. “Sure thing!” He grinned, scribbling the name onto the cup. Hanta set it on the counter. “That’ll be 150 yen.” He said, quickly getting out the change and printing off the receipt as he went to work on the drink, switching between making drinks and taking the others who had entered. Rush hour has trained him well.
In a minute or two’s time he completed the order, handing it to the customer. “Have a nice day, Thor.” He said, somewhat cheekily as the blond gave him a thumbs up and went on his way.
Around a week later, on a bit of a busier day, “Thor” came in again, this time accompanied by what he could only describe as what a garageband looks like in movies, only they were all fairly attractive, and most of them looked like they could be emo. One dude was even wearing a hood with a mask obscuring most of his face. It had a bird design, which looked pretty dope. The blond from before walked up to the counter again, standing a bit farther back. After a second, it seemed like he decided. “Hello! Are you ready to order?” Hanta asked once the blond stepped closer.
“Yep! Can I get a medium tea with milk, 3 large black coffees, and a medium coffee with a lot of milk and a lot of sugar?” The blond said, Hanta being reminded of the previous order. Giving a quick glance to the table, he could almost tell which the tea was for, since one girl looked like she was probably one of those stereotypical bookworms you see on television, meanwhile she was surrounded by edgelords. Wild.
“Do you want a different name on each, or just one name on of the cups?” Hanta asked, curious to see if they were part of the avengers as well.
“Can you put Lemonade Mouth on every cup except the one last one? On that one put Mariah Carey.” The blonde said, a slight look of amusement on his face.
“Sure thing, skinny legend.” Hanta said with a small chuckle, writing out the names and then going to make the order, occasionally stopping to take another one before continuing in a timely manner. He finished the drinks, trying to call out Mariah Carey and Lemonade Mouth with a straight face as the blond came to collect the drinks. The blond gave him a thumbs up again, dropping cash in the tip jar as he went to sit down with his friends, who looked both embarrassed and annoyed.
A few days passed before he saw the blond again, who this time was not accompanied by emo lemonade mouth. It was close to rush hour, so there were a bit more employees in, as the shop slowly but surely filled out as it neared the dreaded rush hour.
“Hey, can I get a medium coffee with a lot of milk and sugar? Wait sorry, a large. My bad dude.” The customer said, Hanta setting down the medium cup he just reached for and taking out a large instead.
“It’s cool! Name?” He asked, wondering what the theme of today was.
“Pikachu.”
Hanta smiled as he wrote the name on the cup, quickly turning to prepare the order. He finished up right before another customer came in, handing it to “Pikachu.” He had drawn a little pokeball on the cup. Pretty dumb, and not at all round nor clearly a pokeball to probably anyone who looked at it, but the blond gave him a thumbs up and dropped a tip in again, so he hoped he figured it out.
A few more days passed, the blond coming in at a much later time of the day, looking fairly tired as he carried a school bag and made his way to the counter.
“Can I get a large coffee with sugar and milk? A really sweet one if you can.” He said, Hanta making note he had probably completely switched from medium to large. Poor guy. His health class in 8th grade said caffeine was an addictive drug. This must be what it looks like. He was a contributor too!
“Sure thing. Name?”
“Zeus.”
Hanta nodded, moving to make the drink. He handed it to the blond, hesitating slightly before speaking up. “You okay dude? You look super tired today.”
“Yea, I just got a lotta tests and I procrastinated too much on shit.” He shrugged, giving a thumbs up before plopping down at a table and reluctantly pulling out a textbook, taking sips of coffee frequently, occasionally looking like he was ready to doze off.
A few more days passed and the blond entered again, this time visually less tired. Currently he was stuck between calling the guy Pikachu or just asking for a name.
“Hi! Can I get a medium coffee with milk and a lot of sugar?” Ah, back to the old days. Also, this meant he was on the road to caffeine recovery. Great work, Pikachu!
“Sure thing! Can I get your name?” Hanta asked, curious to see if he’d actually get the name of the blond for once.
“Peter Parker.” The blond grinned.
“Thor to Spiderman? Bold choice.” Hanta laughed, writing the name anyway, mentally debating asking for his name but deciding to prepare the drink instead as he heard the over the door bell ring as another customer entered. He handed the drink to the blond, giving a thumbs up and a wave as the blond did the same back.
A week passed, and the blond was back with the emos again, this time actually having a guitar case on hand. They were a garage band! Nailed it. The blond came up to the counter, his friends sitting at a table in the back and quietly discussing things. “Hey, you ready to order?” Hanta asked, the blond nodding.
“Three large black coffees, one medium tea with milk, and a medium coffee with sugar and milk.” The blond said.
“Lemonade Mouth again or something else?” Hanta asked, getting a pen out.
“Paramore on the tea and black coffees and God on mine.” The blond grinned, the name somehow fitting the air around him. Hanta wrote the names on the cup, turning to prepare it and expecting the blond to just wait on the side, but he spoke up. “How often do you work here dude?” He asked.
“Mostly afternoons and nights on weekdays, but I take off days when I need to. Why do you ask?” Hanta said, currently making the coffees before going to prepare the tea.
“Just curious.” The blond shrugged, leaning on the counter. “I see you here a lot dude. Fan of coffee or just fan of work.”
“Little bit of both and a fan of trying to avoid having a bunch of student loans.” He laughed, handing the blond the coffees as the tea finished brewing. He poured it into one of the Paramore cups, pouring in a bit of milk before mixing and putting a lid on. “Mind answering one of my questions?”
“Hm? Sure.”
“You come in here with a different name each time dude? What’s your actual name?”
The blond looked taken aback. “Normally people don’t care. It’s Kaminari Denki.” The blond said, going to give the drinks to his friends and sitting down with them. Huh, God wasn’t too far off. Kaminari, Kami-sama? 4 letter difference, not too bad. Hanta blinked as he realized that was probably a bad thing to compare, even if it was an interesting coincidence. Oh well, he already had furthered people’s coffee addiction probably, so it’s not like this is the nail on the coffin. One of the coffees was. Maybe it was that dude who asked for a large cup of espresso shots. Just espresso shots. Hanta cringed at the thought of how that dude must’ve been feeling to order that.
Once the weekend passed, Hanta spotted Denki in the store again, the blond coming in towards the later side, entering the shop around an hour before closing time. The coffee shop had been fairly silent as there were only two people sitting within it currently, both of them fairly far apart, the only background noise being the barely audible music his coworker was listening to in the back and the sound of the coffee makers. This was gonna be a nice change of pace, even if it was just going to be an amusing name shot out again. “Hey, what can I get you today man?” Hanta asked as the blond approached the counter.
“Medium coffee with milk and sugar.” Denki said.
“What name do you want on it?”
“Your phone number.” Denki grinned, leaning onto the counter and winking.
Hanta almost started writing out the words before double taking. “Wait what?”
“Can I get your number bro?” Denki asked, looking a bit less confident with his request now. “If you don’t want to, it’s cool. I just wanna like ask you o-“ the blond’s eyes widened, coughing loudly. “Sorry, ask you to hang out. Throat’s uhh... a bit dry.” He said, Hanta shrugging it off.
“Got it man.” Hanta nodded, writing his phone number accompanied by a small-fairly poorly drawn-picture of pikachu with a guitar. He prepared the drink, handing it to Denki once it was done, watching the blond’s face light up with joy at the sight of the number.
“Nice! Talk to you later dude!” He grinned, dropping a fairly large tip in the jar before leaving the store, slightly red faced. Huh, wonder what that was about. Granted, it was somewhat of an awkward interaction. Hanta felt kinda bad about it since maybe he was speaking too loud and drew attention. He glanced at the other patrons of the store, somewhat relieved when he noticed they seemed absorbed in whatever they were doing.
Hanta finished up his shift around thirty minutes later, going to quickly clean up the tables before heading to get his things from the back. He grabbed his bag, waving to the other worker that was gonna close up before exiting the coffee shop. Hanta headed to the bus stop, standing by the post until it arrived a few minutes later.
Getting on the bus, Hanta took out his phone to see a few text messages from a unsaved number.
+81-48-0629
Hey, it’s Kaminari Denki aka thor aka spiderman aka god ;)
I know this is probably like kinda mean to ask but I didn’t really check your name tag much
Is Sero your first or last name?
Hanta opened the messaging app, typing out a response. He didn’t really care much that Denki didn’t know his name, since he was probably the only person who actually remembered customers anyway. Most of his coworkers either chose not to or just had a bad memory.
+81-42-0728
It’s cool dude! It’s my last name, my full is Sero Hanta. I’m cool with either though, don’t worry about which you use
Hanta clicked out of the messaging app, checking his email to see if he had any of importance before another message popped up on screen.
Kaminari Denki
Nice name
Ok this is gonna sound awkward
and like a little gay ngl
but like do u wanna go out or something
or even just hang out no homo
Hanta’s cheeks gained a bit of color from the message, hitting himself in the head mentally for not picking it up earlier in the shop. He looked out the window, noticing he was pretty close to his stop. He pressed the button as he went back to typing.
Sero Hanta
Sure thing? When and where?
Kaminari Denki
Me and my buds usually go to this arcade a couple blocks away from my college, and i find it pretty fun if you wanna hit it up maybe on like
Saturday at like 3?
Or whatever day is best for you honestly
Attached: {Screenshot of Maps App}
Sero Hanta
Saturday is good! See you there Pikachu!
Hanta got out of the bus as it came to a stop, saying a quick thank you to the driver as he started walking to his apartment complex. He hoped the pikachu wasn’t too much of an awkward thing to say as he entered the complex, heading to the elevator and going up to his apartment, already looking at the map to see what bus to take to the arcade.