Chapter Text
Moca’s drowsiness was ushered out by a shock of shiny brown hair behind the counter. That was the first thing she noticed. The barista’s perfectly smooth curls tied in a bright yellow ribbon that fell to the sides of her thin, delicate face, set by the lightest and friendliest blue eyes Moca had ever seen. She looked far too luminous for the dimly lit, B-list new wave university cafe.
Her bag was thrown to the wayside as Moca clambered for her phone in her jacket pocket. She was in the back of the line, she had time to do some investigating.
‘tomoe!!!!!!’
Oh god, what if Tomoe wasn’t awake. She couldn’t wait. She might die. She felt a buzz in her clenched hand.
‘What could you possibly need’
‘cute girl alert. its s e r i o u s’
‘Oh god, how serious?’
Moca hesitated. The goddess behind the bar was busy serving a group of three, so taking a picture might be too obvious. She resolved to document her when both of them slowed down a tad.
‘very. take word for it. will prove when sitting.’
‘Ugh, 10-4.’ Moca could sense Tomoe’s eyeroll. She knew. ‘Okay okay though, what’s she look like’
‘p e r f e c t’
‘That does literally nothing to help.’
‘i knooooow geez okay light light brown hair, she’s like kinda tall? and bluuue eyes like BLUE’
Tomoe didn’t respond for another order. Then the buzz.
‘Wait. Yellow hair ribbon? Kinda grossly cheery?’
‘yeah shes exactly my type?’
‘Lol. Anyway I think that may be Saya Yamabuki. She’s in my intro chem lecture and I hear her talking about the cafe a lot.’
For some reason, Moca’s heart stopped beating a little. Not enough to stop her from texting back immediately, ‘jkhjgvjhjah you know each other???’
‘Yeah, she sits in front of me and I steal notes from her sometimes.
She’s like.
Perfect.’
Yeah, her heart stopped. She was dying, probably. Two orders away from the woman of her dreams, and she was about to fall dead on the floor of a dingy coffeeshop. Instead, though, she just texted back,
‘if you already have dibs i understand…’
God, she couldn’t even stand to look at her phone when Tomoe buzzed back almost immediately. After a few seconds of tortuous curiosity though, she opened the message.
It was a single selfie of a disgruntled Tomoe lying next to a fast asleep Himari. Selfie Tomoe stared at Moca with intense disappointment and fatigue. A message followed shortly after:
‘How many times do I have to remind you I Literally HAVE A GIRLFRIEND.”
Right. Tomoe and Himari are dating. It’s kind of weird having two of her childhood friends become so romantically involved, but then again, it’s kind of weird it hadn’t happened before. Moca and Tsugumi had a running bet for how long it would take them to confess, but they kept having to up the stakes and the benchmark as Tomoe and Himari spent another year just missing their chance or just being too dense.
She was still staring down at the conversation when an angelic voice broke her from her musings.
“Ma’am? Are you okay? Do you need a minute to figure out what you want?”
Saya’s voice was lilting and full of life, even though she was clearly exhausted from the morning rush. It sent Moca’s heart back into a stuttering disaster, before she locked her phone and regained her staple cool exterior.
“No, sorry, I do know.”
“Excellent!” She was this cheery even dealing with difficult customers? Who even was this woman? “So what’ll it be?”
Medium latte, extra espresso shot, one pump vanilla. Moca had an image to maintain, and she couldn’t bear to admit her affinity for fake, syrupy, sugary drinks when the dark roasts and heavy caffeine fit her aesthetic so much better. She decided on that drink when she first ordered from this chain of cafes; it was a good compromise between the caffeine she needed and the sugar she deserved.
And the bread. She always had the bread. Moca would buy the whole shop, and the whole shop’s supplier if she could. The coffee might be burnt, the syrups may be fake, but pastries were positively heavenly. In the morning, she typically settles for two egg and cheese croissants, simply to satisfy her cravings and leave her room to come back for more later in the day.
Saya took down her order with the same enthusiasm as she had when Moca first walked in, and when she ran off after Moca paid, Moca couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the absurdity of her own heart.
Was she seriously going to flirt with the cute barista girl? Did she seriously just call dibs on one of her best friend’s classmates? It was like a bad sitcom, she thought. A really cheesy, stupid sitcom, starring Sleepy Disaster Moca Aoba and Literal Angel Saya Yamabuki. She leaned backwards over the pickup counter when she took out her phone and typed another message to Tomoe:
‘yo is she even gay’
Radio silence until she picked up her coffee and croissants. She felt the buzz when she chose a couch in full view of her muse.
‘I don’t really know actually’
Damn, this could end quickly.
‘is there any like? like any vibe you get cuz i reeaally dont wanna come onto a straight girl’
More silence. Thinking silence, hopefully. And then a response.
‘She doesn’t sit right.’
‘how not right’
‘Uhhh she usually like has her leg up on the seat for her to lay her arm across, and she usually just straight up sits on the desk when she first walks in’
‘dude’
‘Yeah ik it’s not much but still, I think you should go for it’
Moca smiled over her coffee and looked up at Saya. It could be possible, even possible enough just to reach out.
Saya met her glance and smiled wide as a customer was yelling at her about an expired gift card. As she left to go to the back and get the manager, she smirked and rolled her eyes at Moca, who laughed and shrugged in response.
It wasn’t much, but still, she thought she should go for it.