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Working at Kagura’s coffee shop wasn’t the worst thing, but it definitely wasn’t his preferred choice of hire. As Jin stands there with a practiced, professional smile, waiting for the gaggle of women to finish up gushing over said man and finish taking their damn order, the blond decidedly ponders about his English homework over being irritated at Kagura’s preferred demographic. Whatever he has done to successfully bring half the population of women in must be related to an ad campaign regarding his attractive features or was cleverly set up by Hibiki entirely. Whatever the case, it leaves Jin and his co-workers suck with fanning customers most of their work time. If Kagura wasn’t actually a pretty decent guy and kindly extended a job opening to Jin even when he wasn’t really needed, combined with the fact Tsubaki made their day that much more tolerable, maybe Jin would have quite ages ago.
Well, he was needed. While his sister could work the counter, Noel literally could not touch anything else unless someone wanted to call an ambulance home. Jin is sure the only reason Hibiki hasn’t straight up fired her yet is because Kagura has a thing for her, a thing Jin isn’t sure he approves of just yet. For awhile he thought him and his assistant were an item, but maybe that wasn’t the case any-
“Excuse me!”
A bubbly, pitched voice cuts through his spontaneous rabbit hole of thoughts and in front of him stands not the collective of girls, who seemed to have stepped aside to actually look at the menu options, but a shorter, younger woman dyed in white with a medical eyepatch. That red hue of the eye seems familiar. She bounces on her feet excitedly as she points to the menu and rattles off her extensive order. There’s no way she should be drinking any kind of caffeine with that kind of energy she emits. Jin is tired just by looking at her and he considers himself a fit man.
“For Nu and Nii-san,” she finally finishes off with a grin. She turns her head so quick to look over her shoulder that the long braid would have whipped him had it not been for the saving grace of the counter between them.
Jin wasn’t expecting what was on the receiving end of that gaze. A man on the other side of the room, dressed in a black undershirt and red flannel, flashes a crooked smile and gives a thumbs up at his sister. Jin can appreciate good looks, but this is the first time he truly felt smitten by devilishly handsome features. Their eyes meet for a brief moment before Makoto comes out and makes a scene out of coffee making. The girl, Nu, looks to be entertained enough by the spectacle of his peer juggling things around and otherwise being flashy in general.
Thankfully, she doesn’t blast him with complaints when she pays like some customers do. Some prefer to keep theatrics out of coffee making.
Jin tries not eye her as she retreats to the man, who now has his laptop out and is invested in whatever it is he is working on until the smaller albino bounces up to him with their drinks, braid swinging back and forth until she plops down in the coat covered chair.
Jin wanted to observe more, he really did. Just as the man’s lips were about to meet the lid of the cup, the women from before gathered in front of him once again and all but demanded drinks and pastries. Their tone irked him, however, the interruption of his viewing irritated him even more.
When they were at last sated and shooed away, Jin goes back to his previous scheduled program and feels disappointed when he can’t find the messy spikes of the man. What does give him hope is the white woman remains in her seat, attention drawn to the cold fog of the window to which she seems to be doodling on.
The man returns but a moment later, sleeves rolled up and holy shit. He wasn’t stupidly jacked like Azreal, the muscle he has packed is a bit more than himself and he is very much okay with that.
Is this thirsting? Is he thirsting right now? Jin is a pretty orderly man, formal when he needs to be at school, so this feels like it should be out of character. Of course he is a man with desires, has played around with his sexuality and experimented, though he never settled on anyone; much less eye someone with feelings of attraction.
What destroys him even more is how the rough edge of the man’s gaze melts into something more soft as he smiles when Nu enthusiastically directs his attention to her window drawings.
Calmly, Jin turns around to face the coffee machines before crouching behind the counter and covering his warming face.
And that’s how Tsubaki finds him when she clocks in.
----
It’s cold today. Too damn cold and that’s coming from someone who is usually impervious to snowy conditions. Thankfully, the cafe is always warm and made better with the fresh brewing of hot coffee.
So why is it he feels deep rooted, ice cold resentment?
The reason is right in front of him, her flowy purple hair done up in a bun today. Ruby eyes peer into him haughtily and it takes everything in Jin to not hiss out an unkind remark.
There is an unspoken rivalry between them. The points Izanami made during debate club were well executed but were generally wrong seeing as how Jin always believed the opposite of whatever she was on about. He certainly didn’t like her attitude or the group she involved herself with and it would occasionally bleed into factors of his life. She was no bully by any means, Izanami had a talent for making people feel inferior by one upping them or stating her own beliefs as fact when correcting others by pure nature. It was insanely frustrating beyond belief and her perpetual condescending tone made it all the worse.
“What do you want?” Jin asks flatly, probably letting his customer service tone drop a little too much.
He was expecting some kind of rant about it. Something she could see fault in, as she tends to do, and comment on it. It didn’t come. Instead, her eyes lazily trail to the menu, uninterested.
“Medium hot chocolate and the special coffee in a large. Skim milk. No sugar. Make it out to Izanami…”
She pauses. Well, most people wouldn’t consider it a pause since it was less than a second she gave herself a moment, but Jin knows how she speaks and rarely does she hesitate mid speech.
A sly grin spreads across her face. “And Nii-san.”
The pen in his grip suffers a choke like hold. No way.
They both hold their silent staring contest until the man steps through the front door and Noel shuffles out of the backroom. Izanami holds that shit-eatting grin as she gracefully twirls away. Noel is saying something to him, but he can’t really hear her as he watches Izanami and her brother converse while he slips off his snowflake covered coat. Whatever she says stirs alarm from him, expressed in the way he gawks and goes wide eyed. Just then, they meet gazes again, and this time Jin feels some warmth rising to his cheeks.
Did she say something about him? Did she ever talk about Jin and their debates? Does she paint him in a bad light?
Jin squeezes the empty plastic cup in his hands, crushing it completely, and ignores Noel’s nagging concern as he forces himself to fetch another to start the order.
“Order for Izanami and Nii-san,” he calls out smoothly despite the aggravating churning of emotions he feels raging inside his chest.
He can’t see Izanami’s face with her back towards him, but her brother sitting in front suddenly goes pink in the face and leans forward to speak to her. It wasn’t much of a conversation. With the way her hand casually flicks to flip her hair back and gestures back to the counter, whatever had been up for debate is final.
To the barista’s delight, the mystery man stands up and strolls over with long strides.
Noel, taking a moment to stop her pastry stocking, notices the way her brother straightens his already perfect posture.
“Thanks.”
Holy shit. The way that deep voice just rolls off the tongue sends Jin somewhere. It had a roughness to it and he liked that. Liked it a lot.
This Nii-san person is too preoccupied with obtaining the drinks that he fails to notice how Jin may be painfully eyeing him. With all that focus, it is a wonder how the man squeezes so hard that it spills hot coffee all over their briefly joined hands. The blond promptly hisses and retracts his hand while Nii-san curses and waves off the liquid heat.
“Shit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.” He flounders for a brief second. “Thought your cups were more durable. Guess I don’t know my own strength....?”
His usual irritation in response to dumb happenings sparks up, but ultimately takes a backseat when the handsome man fails to meet his eyes as he delivers his genuine apology and half-assed excuse. A kind idiot. For whatever reason, that thought doesn’t repel him in the slightest.
“It’s alright,” he replies calmly, wiping off the remainments of coffee onto his apron, “I’ll make you another one.”
Nii-san finally glances up, a frown evident on his lips. “Are you sure? There’s still enough for her to drink in this one.”
“It’s fine, I can do it.”
This time, Nii-san lingers around as he waits for the order and it is at this time Jin wishes he knew any of the tricks Makoto likes to show off.
Later, Jin is spending part of his break time outside in the cold as he waits for Tsubaki so that they can get lunch together. The delicate snow that falls and cushions the ground in sleek beauty does nothing to distract from the bitter winds of cold that make it seem as if icicles are being thrown at his body. Just as he tucks his bare neck into his coat, the soft chime of the door goes off behind him.
From the corner of his eye, Izanami walks down the sidewalk. Which means-
“Hey.”
Jin doesn’t mean to jump at the voice, but he really does find himself surprised when Nii-san steps beside him with a look of concern. All Jin can do is look at him questioningly before the albino retrieves his backpack and digs around.
“Here.”
Nii-san presents a deep red scarf. It looks soft.
“I can’t take this from you.”
The stranger rolls his eyes. “Yes, you can. It’s a backup I have in case Nu forgets hers. She’s not here and you need it right now.”
Another gust of wind assaults them both just then.
“I can just take it back the next time I see you.”
Alright, the phrasing of that just… It makes this barista college student feel warmer even in this god-forsaken climate. Not just his chest, this warmth blooms out and covers down to his toes.
“Alright,” Jin breathes, slipping the wooly scarf from his grasp and around his shoulder, “Thank you… Nii-san.”
The way Nii-san’s eyes shoot comically wide makes Jin’s lips tug up in amusement and threaten to become a full blown grin. Just then, Tsubaki pulls up right in front and Jin makes his escape, leaving Nii-san to recollect himself.
Tsubaki spares a glance her friend’s way as she sets off. She is quick to note the new accessory that dons his neck, his chin perfectly nestled in and just barely hiding the fond smile Jin holds as he idly stares out the window.
“You are in a good mood.”
Jin nods. “I am.”
----
Jin is now acting as a customer as he splays out his study materials and gracefully pencils in quick notes for an upcoming test that takes the form of a partnered project. This isn’t his preferred choice of location for a study session, even on the cafe’s slowest days Jin would consider the grinding of coffee and light chatter too much of a distraction. However, Izanami all but jumped to the opportunity of being his partner and demanded that they meet at the cafe to go over things.
So, he sits around with his mocha taking notes as he awaits her arrival, red scarf thrown around his shoulders.
He tried to give it back, he really did. Anytime Jin brought it up, Nii-san would refuse. On top of that, he made a correction to his liberal use of ‘Nii-san’ and tried to correct him to ‘Ragna.’ Jin would only concede to calling him by his formal name if he’d take the scarf back. Ragna did not and so Nii-san will remain.
It is a force of habit that he checks who is walking in when the door’s chime goes off, and what would he know, Ragna strides in. Perking up, Jin watches as Ragna approaches the counter and makes the order that Jin himself knows by heart now. Does he ever feel disappointed when Jin isn’t at the counter?
When Ragna turns, hot chocolate in hand, they both freeze upon making eye contact. Trying to act normal, the blond offers a friendly wave and is pleased to receive an awkward one in return. To not make things weird, Jin attempts to go back to his studies as Ragna takes his usual seat at the window at the next table over.
It’s hard to do. Maybe if he can get a small glance in, he’ll be satisfied enough to get back to it… Daringly, he makes the attempt, finds Ragna staring into his laptop screen, and promptly snapped his attention back to the paper.
Kind of. Not really.
He feels as if someone is watching him. That alone is enough to distract him.
When he returns back to Ragna, he is still on his laptop, perhaps staring a little too hard, and the feeling is gone. So, back to the studying he goes.
The feeling returns.
This on and off feeling, back and forth motion continues until they catch each other staring. They remain quiet for a small moment before breaking out into awkward chuckle fits.
“Hey.”
Jin resists the urge to play with his hair like some school girl. “Hi.”
Another beat of silence.
“What are you working on?” Jin asks, seizing the opportunity to get a real conversation with the man going. None of the usual small talk they are both accustomed to when Jin is on the job and can’t afford to speak in length.
Ragna hesitates in answering, embarrassed. “Some online classes. Nothing major.”
Not really what he was expecting. An educated idiot, how delightfully surprising and curious.
“That is pretty major. Good job,” he replies honestly, because really, all forms of schooling is major and significant.
Some color rises to Ragna’s cheeks and he waves off the compliment. “Nah. I’m just hoping this raises some of my intelligence points so Izanami can stop making fun of me.”
At this, the blond’s brow quirked up. “Your what?”
“Have you ever heard of Dungeons and Dragons?”
Ragna explains in great detail how Izanami and her gang have weekly sessions of the popular game, to which they dubbed the campaign Blazblue. From that, Izanami frequently makes comments about Ragna’s high wisdom, low intelligence stats as a human person. It’s pretty funny to say the least because, yeah, that sounds about right.
This evokes more curiosity and honest enjoyment and Jin can’t help but spiral further down into this conversation of Izanami being a closeted nerd. Even as it starts to steer into other topics, Jin is fully invested in what they have going and is delighted to see Ragna feels the same.
Neither of them get much work done and Jin fails to realize Izanami never showed up.
----
The next time Izanami comes to the cafe, Nu in tow this time, she rattles off her order as if Jin hasn’t already heard it 20 times over.
“I have enough intelligence points to remember what you want me to make every week.”
Jin has the absolute honor in witnessing The Izanami go speechless.
----
“So… How long have you and Ragna been seeing each other?” Noel asks randomly one day as they are closing for the night.
Jin’s neck just about snaps with how fast he is to look to his sister, nearly slipping in the puddled mess he made with the mop. “How do you know about him?”
Noel looks up from the sink and tilts her head. “Nu said he went to our school-”
“He went to school? An actual school?” Pause. “Our college?!”
Makoto takes this moment to step out from the backroom, dusting off her hands. “What’s all this commotion about?”
“Jin didn’t know Ragna went to our school,” Noel laughs lightly, adding to Jin’s growing embarrassment.
To his dismay, Makoto joins in and Jin feels the urge to snap the mop in two.
“He was, what, a year or two ahead of us when we were freshmen? He dropped out when we entered sophomore year and Noel her freshman's.”
Now Jin is frowning for a new reason. “Why?”
Makoto shrugs, offering little help, but thankfully his sister has more to add.
“I never really met him, but as Nu’s RA, she has vented to me during her first month away from her brother. She said she feels anxious when he isn’t around since their mom’s passing,” she supplies somberly, “You wouldn’t be able to tell with how energetic and successful in her classes she is.”
Glossing over the fact that Noel has been exposed to the hidden sibling and said sibling also attending their college, he zeros in on the reason for his dropping out. It isn’t hard to figure out why he might have done that; it was for his sisters that are still in attendance, of course. If what Makoto said was true, that means Ragna would have graduated last year had he continued.
Surely, they would have met at one point?
Would freshman Jin miss a face like Ragna’s?
---
Jin wants to bring this up and does exactly that next time Ragna chimes into the shop, Nu all but being dragged in as she clings to him.
“Taking my break,” he mutters as soon as he is finished with the current customer, a lady who really did not want to stop talking about the science behind the perfect way to brew coffee.
Makoto offers him a salute and takes over the register as he rounds the counter and heads for Ragna, who is sitting alone while Nu plays fetch.
“Nii-san.”
The reaction is immediate, Ragna quickly looking to Jin as the blond took the seat next to him.
“You are going to have to cut that out before people start getting the wrong idea!”
“When were you going to tell me you went to my college?” Jin doesn’t pout. Not at all. He doesn’t pout.
Ragna, stunned into silence, bashfully rubs the back of his neck as he sinks lower into his chair.
“You should’ve known,” he mumbles out, “Don’t really blame you for not remembering, though.”
Without thinking, Jin snaps back. “I think I would remember a nice face.”
Again, stunned silence, from both of this time and suffer the same blush that creeps up their faces.
“W-what the fuck do you mean by that? Saying my face wasn’t nice back then?!” Ragna shouts, not mindful of their current location.
Jin, very aware of where they are, hisses lowly, “I’m calling you out on your bullshit, there’s no way I wouldn’t remember!”
Ragna groans and rubs a hand over his face. “I was your fucking RA.”
“Nii-san said nice things about you when he came home,” Nu chimes in, having silently appeared in her seat across the table, drinks successfully obtained. She takes a long sip from her beverage as if she didn’t just drop the biggest bomb on anyone. “Also said a pretty boy would rather starve himself of food and social interaction than risk a B grade so he really wanted to invite you out!”
The older man looked ready to melt on the spot. “Nu, oh my god, please… I-I didn’t exactly say that!”
“Pardon? You want to repeat that for me?”
Nu, innocently tilting her head, smirks devilishly. “Why do you think Nii-san couldn’t order coffee from you until Onee-chan came in?”
No way a 15 minute break was going to be enough time to explain all this.