Work Text:
Jay sighed, sitting on the edge of the fountain. He half-heartedly threw a coin, muttering a, “I wish there was someone who could stop this longing for… a…” Jay trailed off, his eyes catching on one of the most attractive people he’d ever seen. Tall, muscular, dark hair half-falling into the boy’s eyes. Jay’s cheeks heated, looking away when the other boy caught his gaze.
Yeah right, someone like that would never spare him a second glance, let alone fall for him. Not like Jay had fallen for the guy, he barely knew him. He didn’t know him. Besides, all Jay wanted was a friend, for someone to fill the void in his heart, not necessarily a lover. But it was too late. Jay stood up, resolving to go talk to the gorgeous boy that had somehow stolen his heart in an instant, except he was gone. The lights of the park glittered around him, but no dark-haired boy stood among the crowd.
Jay walked out of the park, stuffing his hands in his pockets while he walked home. Maybe another time, in another world, he would ask a random stranger for their number.
“I’m home,” he called out as he entered his apartment. The cat meowed at him, but it looked like its owner - his roommate - wasn’t around. He pulled out his phone, realising he had a text from Lloyd.
“Went to Kai’s, be back soon,” Jay read aloud. He put his phone back into his pocket, wandering into his room. Little Lord Garmadon followed him, rubbing into his legs. Jay had always thought it was weird that Lloyd had named his cat after himself, but Jay couldn’t really judge.
He stripped off his jeans, replacing them with sweats and a comfy shirt before grabbing his controller. Nothing like making children rage quit because he was better at the game. He loaded up his current favorite game, equipping only the most toxic items and add ons.
“Time to make some killers disconnect,” he said to himself. Except by the end of the first round, Jay wanted to disconnect. After getting brutally murdered, Jay was tempted to send his opponent a rude message. What kind of gamertag was “earthninja” anyway? It was stupid and this “earthninja” obviously had it out for him. There were three other survivors! He shouldn’t be the only one to get a knife up his ass. Maybe he did deserve a little, but still…
A message came in through his xbox. “gg. ur really good lol”. Jay threw down his controller. How was he supposed to be an asshole now?
Thx, Jay typed out, hitting send and loading into another game. After another couple of games,
Jay logged off. He didn’t really want to, but he had work in the morning. And right before he logged off, he got a friend request from earthninja.
…
Jay slapped his alarm angrily. 4am really wasn’t a time that anyone should be awake, but here he was, awake and hating it. Maybe he should find a new job, one that didn’t have him waking up at ungodly hours. He groggily got ready for work, throwing a jacket over his work apron.
He walked out the door, locking it behind him and beginning his walk to work. He pulled his jacket tighter around him to fend off the morning chill. He unlocked the back door and set about his opening duties, unlocking the front doors at promptly 5am.
It was 5:30 when he walked in, the boy Jay had seen in the park, looking sweaty and worn out. Jay almost knocked over the drink he was working on, handing it off to the customer and walking back to the register.
“Hi, welcome in,” Jay said on reflex. “Is this your first time here?” Jay knew very well it was, he’d never forget a face like that.
“Yeah, I come past here every day when I’m jogging, so I figured I should stop in,” the boy said. Damn, that sleeveless shirt was sinful.
“Can I do you? I mean, what can I do for you? That is, what would you like?” Jay knew he was bright red. The boy laughed, and Jay thought maybe it was worth it. “Sorry, I’m not much of a morning person.”
“And you work at a coffee shop?”
“Hey, it’s good money, and I like it,” Jay defended himself.
“Kidding, kidding.” The boy put his hands up in mock defeat. “What do you recommend?”
“Depends on what you like.” Jay shrugged. “Personally, I like sweeter coffee, but that’s just me.”
“Get me whatever it is you would order then.”
“All right, but just a warning, it has a lot of sugar.”
“Can’t be sweeter than you.” The boy winked, then blushed. Cute…
Jay felt his ears burn. “The name for that?”
“Cole.”
Jay wrote Cole on the cup, then on a whim, scribbled his name and number onto the cup. He turned around to start the drink, pumping a little less caramel and chocolate into Cole’s drink than he usually would in his own. He set the drink onto the counter in front of him, sliding it to Cole.
“Um, I know we just met and this is totally crazy, but here’s my number, so call me, maybe?”
Cole smiled. “Yeah, I just might.” He turned to leave and Jay thought he was going to die of embarrassment. He couldn’t believe he just did that. His heart was going to pound out of his chest. He just gave a random, gorgeous stranger his number.
Jay spent the rest of his work day distracted, peeking at his phone every once in a while to see if he had a text from the guy. He went home and logged onto his xbox, trying not to be disappointed by the lack of a call. He really shouldn’t’ve been expecting anything, he was just a plain barista, nothing special.
He loaded up his game and soon got a message from earthninja.
hey, its u again. im the killer in ur match. Jay scoffed, not giving him a response. No way would he die to this guy again. Except this “earthninja” didn’t seem to want him to kill him. Jay did everything he could to try and get himself killed, but “earthninja” wouldn’t pay attention to him. He invited him to a party, wanting to yell at him for not trying.
“Um, hi?” earthninja said.
“Why won’t you kill me?”
“I don’t know, don’t feel like it. I probably wouldn’t be able to anyways.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be playing killer if you don’t feel like killing people,” Jay teased.
“Is that your way of asking me to play survivor with you, bluebell?”
Jay laughed. “If you want to, but you’ll have to kill everyone else for me. It’s time for me to be killer.”
“Guess I don’t have a choice.” Jay watched earthninja run off in the opposite direction of were his teammates were.
“You’re going the wrong way,” Jay said. “Follow me. Also, bluebell? Can you read, my gamertag is bluelightning."
"Whatever, bluebell's cuter."
Jay huffed, but still laughed maniacally as he watched his teammates die.
“You’re ruthless,” earthninja said as he watched Jay escape.
“Maybe so,” Jay sent earthninja an invite to his game. “Now, let’s fuck shit up.”
In the middle of a game, his teammate hit him with a curveball. “Hey, bluebell, can I ask you for advice on something?”
“Uh, are you sure you want my advice?”
“Why wouldn’t I? You seem like a pretty cool dude.”
“I don’t know, because I’m bad at giving advice?” Jay ran around the map, doing his best to avoid the killer.
“Humor me.”
“All right, fine. But don’t get your hopes up.”
“Okay, so, this really cute guy gave me his number today,” earthninja said.
“That sounds like the opposite of a problem,” Jay pointed out.
“Well? What do I do?”
“Call him?” Jay slyly checked his phone, hoping Cole had at least texted him or something.
“Now?”
“Yes, right now. No time like the present.”
“Okay, I guess I’m calling him.”
Jay felt his phone buzz in his hand, confused. Was Cole really calling him now? What was he gonna do? “Give me a sec, ninja, my phone’s ringing.”
He took off his headset, not bothering to mute his mic. He figured it was probably a spam call anyways. Why would Cole ever call him, right?
“Hello?” Jay answered.
“Wait, bluebell? Jay?”
Jay dropped his phone, and put on his headset. “Cole?” He asked, heart pounding.
“No fucking way,” Cole said, his voice echoing between Jay’s headset and his phone.
“So, I’m the cute guy who gave you his number?”
“Uh, I guess so? Not gonna lie, I almost shit myself when I heard you answer from my headset and my phone,” Cole laughed awkwardly.
“To be fair, I didn’t think you’d actually call me.” Jay set his controller down. "So, um, what now?"
"Do you work tomorrow?" Cole asked awkwardly.
"Yeah…"
“When?”
“5…” Jay winced, knowing that his sleeping habits weren’t necessarily good.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow. Make me something good for tomorrow morning."
"Hey! I made you something good today!" Jay protested.
"Eh, too sweet."
"It's not my fault you didn't tell me what you like, dirt clod."
"Okay, you got me there. But you should probably log off soon," Cole reprimanded.
"What, why?"
"It's midnight and you work at 5 in the morning."
"But I don't wanna go to bed," Jay whined.
"This is why you're always tired in the mornings. I'm logging off, and I better not see you online until tomorrow."
"No, Cole. One more round?"
"No. You need to rest. I'll see you tomorrow anyways."
"Ugh, fine," Jay sighed. "I had fun tonight though."
"Me too," Cole said. "See you in the morning?"
"Yeah." Jay smiled, turning off his console.
Jay couldn’t keep the smile off of his face as he pulled his covers up to his chin and plugged his phone in. He scrolled through his recent call list, adding Cole to his contacts. He put a little orange heart at the end of his name on a whim. He squealed, suddenly more excited for work than he had been in months.
…
Jay woke up before his alarm, not upset about it for once. He got out of bed and stretched, groaning. He hopped in a shower before getting breakfast. He worried over his outfit for longer than really necessary, especially considering he had a dress code at work. He decided on his work shirt - which he was required to wear - and the tightest pair of jeans he owned. He looked himself over in the mirror, admiring the way his butt looked in his jeans. He attempted to tame his curls, but gave up, knowing it was futile.
He walked to work with a skip in his step.
“What’s got you all excited?” his coworker, Kai, asked.
Jay sighed. He had forgotten that he wasn’t opening by himself today. “Nothing much…”
“I know you’re lying, Jay. You’re never this peppy in the mornings.”
“Okay, fine! I’ll tell you if you promise not to laugh at me.” Jay pouted.
Kai laughed. “I promise.”
“I met a boy,” Jay started. “And he’s stopping in today to say hi to me. And I swear to god, Kai, if you fuck this up for me-” Jay was cut off by Kai’s laughter. “You promised you wouldn’t laugh at me!”
“I’m not laughing at you.” Kai smiled. “Is he cute?”
“Gorgeous.” Jay leaned against the counter, watching the door intently.
“Like, how gorgeous, though? Scale of one to ten.”
“At least a nine, and so my type, I could die.” Jay looked out the window and spotted Cole. “Oh my god! He’s here! He’s here! What do I do? Actually, don’t answer that, your advice is always garbage.” Jay pushed Kai to the back of the store. “Go away! I don’t want you to watch me embarrass myself.”
“I’m going, I’m going.” Kai put his hands above his head in surrender and walked to the small break room in the back of the shop.
Cole opened the door and Jay took a deep breath. He could do this. He played games with Cole for hours last night, he could talk to him in person for a couple of minutes.
“Hi.” Cole walked up to the counter with a smile.
“Uh, hi,” Jay waved shyly, feeling his cheeks heat up. “What can I get you?”
“Are you on the menu?”
Jay buried his face in his hands, ears turning bright red. Cole blushed, too, not believing what just came out of his own mouth. “I mean, um…”
“Just kiss already! This is boring!”
“KAI! Why are you here?” Jay turned to his coworker.
“Um, I work here?”
“I’m gonna go die now, oh my god.” Jay couldn’t look at Cole, or Kai for that matter. “I hate you, Kai.”
“You were right, though. Definitely attractive.” Kai sipped his coffee, nodding his head towards Cole.
Jay groaned, sinking into a crouch behind the counter. His only comfort was the fact that, when he caught a glimpse of Cole’s face, the dark haired boy was also blushing. Jay glanced upwards to see Kai looking Cole up and down apprehensively.
“Anyways, I’m Kai, Jay’s coworker and best friend. And, as his friend, I’m obligated to let you know that if you hurt him I will kill you.” Kai took one of the last few sips of his coffee, his straw making an obnoxious slurping sound.
Cole nodded, tensing up. “I won’t, um, hurt him. I swear. Or at least I’ll try not to.”
“Good.” Kai walked off, throwing his next words over his shoulder at them. “Have fun, use protection!”
Jay slowly stood up, facing Cole again. “I’m about… well, all of that.”
“It’s fine.”
“Um, did you still want something to drink? On the house?”
“Sure, but I’m paying for it.” Cole protested.
“No, you’re not.” Jay turned around to start making Cole’s drink, keeping in mind that Cole didn’t like things that were too sweet. He threw together something that he hoped would be good, kind of experimenting with what he was making. He presented Cole with his drink, watching for the other boy’s reaction.
“It’s good,” Cole said with a nod. He made a show out of putting way too much money into the tip jar.
“You can’t do that! Take that out of there right now!” Jay stared at the ten dollar bill in the jar.
“No.” Cole sipped his drink again. “I would like to take you out, though.” Jay blushed. “What time are you off?”
“I’m off at noon.”
“Let me take you to dinner tonight?”
Jay smiled. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“I’ll text you the details.”
Cole turned to leave, but Jay grabbed his wrist across the counter, pulling him back. He planted a kiss on his cheek before he had time to regret it. “See you later,” Jay said through red cheeks, letting go of Cole’s wrist.
“See you,” Cole blushed and smiled. “I can’t wait.”