Chapter Text
“Welcome! How can I help you today?” Allen chimed the professional statement with a disarming smile at the first customer since the shop’s doors opened for business.
The customer – a female with dark hair tied in braided pigtails and squared black framed spectacles – stared wide eyed at him for a good second, before blushing a little, stuttering out her order clumsily. “I-ice Americano, t-take away.”
“Ice Americano, take away,” the snowy haired eighteen-year-old boy cladded in white shirt, black pants and a brown apron with the coffee shop’s logo etched on it reiterated calmly. “That would be 6 Pounds, miss.”
The girl nodded and quickly paid her dues, promptly stepping to the side to retrieve her drink.
The next customer swiftly stepped up – and silver eyes widened just a fraction, before he berated himself and pulled his professional smile over his face.
Holy, he is hot. His mind still told him.
“Welcome! How can I help you today?” he asked once more.
Dark sapphire eyes seemed to take him in, narrowing before blandly throwing out his orders.
“Espresso double shots,” the man, wearing a simple black pullover and creamy scarf wound around his neck, said.
“Yes, Expresso double shots,” Allen repeated as he tapped the order machine deftly. “That would be 5 pounds, miss.”
A low, vicious growl resounded through the close distance, and he snapped up with a smile – secretly evil, devious, crooked, mischievous, teasing - but smile nonetheless. Anyone who saw it would think it was nothing short of professional standards. “5 pounds, miss.”
“I am. Not. A. Miss,” the raven haired male hissed venomously, leaning closer to him over the counter with an unrelenting glare.
Allen just gave a nonchalant shrug, even as a part of his brain chuckled in amusement. “Oh sorry. Didn’t expect a guy to have long, flowy, silky hair like yours. 5 Pounds, sir.”
There was another low noise of irritation before the long haired male clicked his tongue and handed the bill to him, accompanied with yet another deathly glare. Allen just took the crispy notes between his fingers, and returned with some change in coins, smiling all the while.
“Nice day to you.”
...
“Wow, Allen,” Lenalee, his best friend who he was running the coffee house with, cocked an eyebrow at him. “I didn’t know you would tease a customer like that.”
Allen chuckled softly to himself, carding his fingers through his white locks. “It’s not every day you find someone that attractive.”
His female friend giggled as if understanding his words.
“You think he might come to our shop again?” a soft question, which he had no answers for.
“Who knows,” Allen leaned back into the back of his wooden seat with sigh. “It’s our first day of operation. I wouldn’t know whether he frequents this area or not.”
“Yes, yes,” Lenalee drawled as she continued typing the remaining of their daily operation report. “But you hope he will, don’t you? I have never quite heard you talk about how attractive someone was before, ever.”
The snowy haired boy chuckled again, silver eyes flashing pointedly at the lady. Amethyst eyes blinked innocently back.
“Maybe,” he relented after a pause of silence. “But don’t make it sound as if I am desperate. I am not. You know I never quite believed in the idea of romance.”
Lenalee gave him a small smile. “Everyone says that, until they actually fall in love.”
Allen just grunted with a note of displeasure.
...
The next day, the very same man was the first customer who entered their small coffee shop around the turn of the main street, right upon opening at 6 a.m. in the morning.
Allen tried not to show how the raven haired male’s appearance had prominently jerked him from his sleepy state in the early hours.
“Welcome! How can I help you today?” he sing-sang a little more sharply than intended.
The male, spotting a dark chest-hugging shirt and a black jacket that day, quirked him an eyebrow, obviously noticing his excess enthusiasm. When Allen kept his perfect smile unwavering, the taller rolled his eyes before directing his gaze overhead Allen to the list of drinks written on their menu board.
“Expresso, triple shots.”
“Expresso, triple shot,” Allen reiterated calmly, before a thought struck him. “That would be 6 pounds, miss.”
Almost immediately, the raven haired was simultaneously growling incoherently and glaring menacingly. And this time, Allen failed at hiding his amusement, a mirthful chuckle escaping his lips.
“Oi, are you fucking playing with me here?” came the eerily low voice.
The snowy haired gasped a little to stop his bubbling laughter, before shaking his head profusely, the mirth still shaking his shoulders.
“Oh, not playing,” Allen managed to rasp out as he finally found control over himself again. His fingers went promptly to tap the orders into their system as silver eyes looked up into blazing cobalt blue ones. “Just trying to compliment your looks.”
The taller male just scoffed incredulously, dark sapphire eyes dilated in a note of anger.
“How is addressing me a girl a freaking compliment, moyashi?”
“Mo – what?” Allen asked, eyebrows knitting together at the foreign word.
“Che. Of course, cannot expect an idiot like you to understand other languages, can I?” The male sneered, rolling his eyes just as Allen found a money note thrusted under his nose.
The snowy haired frowned in annoyance before he took the bill and returned the change. In the distance, he could hear Lenalee getting started with the drink preparation.
“Well, excuse me for being a native in my own country,” Allen retorted.
Surprisingly, the long haired male smirked silently at him in answer. Silver eyes blinked in a moment of daze, before the pretty boy side stepped towards Lenalee’s side with a flutter of those incredibly smooth ebony tresses.
No, his heart did not just flutter.
...
Things continued like that for a while.
The raven haired male with pretty hair and pretty face would always come in in the early hours of their coffee house, ordering a variation in the number of shots of Expresso. The snowy haired boy dully wondered when the other would ever try a different drink.
Their exchanges over the counter were always short – with jabs of Miss and Pretty from Allen’s part and Moyashi and Old Man from the other’s part – but lively.
Allen could not remember the last time he had felt so enthusiastic about waking up at 5 a.m. in the morning. He even found himself combing his ivory locks more times than usual to put himself just that tiny bit more presentable.
Until one day, approximately three months later, the male stopped appearing.
‘He might be late today.’ Allen thought the first hour in.
‘Maybe he is busy today.’ Allen thought when the day drew to a close.
Lenalee tried to tease him about it, but he had responded lukewarmly, not in the mood to joke.
It was not until a day dripped into two, then three, then a week, that Allen realized the other was not coming back. The man was a foreigner, obviously. Perhaps the raven haired had returned home.
A knot appeared in his chest upon realization, making it suddenly hard for him to breathe.
Of course, the other did not have any obligation to actually inform him about it.
They did not even know each other’s names.
...
“Good luck with your school,” Lenalee told him warmly.
Allen nodded a thanks, platinum eyes gentling as he stepped forward to give his best friend a loose hug.
“I will still help out on my off days and during the weekends. We are running this together, after all.”
The olive haired girl just chuckled softly, patting him lightly on his back. “Don’t worry. We hired Lavi, didn’t we? He seemed like a cheerful and helpful guy.”
The snowy haired nodded deftly as he pulled back. “He is, but I have to remind you to be careful. Even if you are a black belt in taekwondo, you are still a girl.”
Lenalee raised him an eyebrow with a look of amusement in her violet eyes. “You are starting to sound really like Komui.”
Allen rolled his eyes even as a twitch of amused smile lifted his lips. “Sorry, I don’t think I can ever be as dramatic as him.”
His friend just chuckled in agreement before giving him a light push. “Go then. You will be late.”
“Now you are starting to sound like a mom,” he teased, watching amethyst eyes flare a bit before his friend started frowning in complain.
“Don’t make me sound old, Allen. We are the same age.”
Allen just smiled a little, before waving a goodbye as he made for his first, afternoon class in university, directly from their little shop.
...
His first class was in a building in the middle of the school’s campus.
As he pushed open the wooden doors, a buzz of noise streamed seamlessly into his eardrums, making him cringe a little. Quickly, before anyone started throwing looks at him for his stark white hair – which he knows would happen, sooner or later – he slipped into the nearest seat to the door, keeping his eyes to the ground to avoid attention.
It was not until he laid his backpack down on the ground, accidentally bumping into an elbow of the one already seated beside him that he looked up and mumbled an apology.
His breath hitched, however, when a familiar pair of dark sapphire eyes stared right back at him.
“Che. Trust the moyashi to just have to be in the same class as me.” The raven haired male who had once frequented their coffee shop scoffed, a little gruff.
Silver eyes blinked twice more to confirm he was not hallucinating, before Allen finally found his voice.
“My name is not moyashi,” he said, slowly, watching the other raise an eyebrow at him.
“It’s Allen. Allen Walker.
.