Work Text:
BANG.
RING .
Aaron looks into the backroom to inspect the loud bang, and then over to the bell above the door that signals a customer coming in. He chooses the customer, Neil could lay under a metal shelf until he was finished.
FoxBean Coffee Shop was a smaller coffee shop in town, owned by a large man that look far too annoyed to be doing anything customer service related and his wife who looked like she should only be doing customer service related jobs. The inside was painted a dark orange color, with off-white and dust brown accents, the walls covered in the same dust brown colored shelves with coffee cups, bags of coffee, and random books. In one corner there were a couple of tables with chairs, some coasters and napkins tucked away in holders, to the other side there were two armchairs near a love seat by the window, a coffee table between them. Bookshelves accented that same wall, pillows and blankets gave the area a comfy look, paired with the pictures of the owner and his wife as well as their employees; it was a homey place, one that Aaron usually wouldn’t wander into on his own.
The second hazel eyes land on the customer he’d chosen over his brothers, well over what Neil was to his brother, he almost regrets his decision. Standing in front of the counter, with sunglasses on his head, long dark brown tailored jacket over his stupidly soft-looking cream sweater and cropped pants is Aaron’s worst nightmare — Kevin Day. A somewhat local celebrity, and son of David Wymack, the large man who owns FoxBean Coffee and had managed to give Kevin none of his ‘ don’t talk to me’ face. In fact, Aaron hated him so much that he’d choose Neil over Kevin any time of day.
He steals himself a minute, eyes closing, thumb and forefinger pinching the bridge of his nose. It takes all his strength to breathe in through and nose and out through his mouth to calm himself before letting his eyes open again. Sure, he may hate Kevin Day, but he needs this job if he ever wants to move out of the apartment he shares with his twin and cousin, and more often now than ever before, Neil- fucking- Josten.
“What can I get you, today?” Even when Aaron is trying to be polite there's an edge to his voice, and now more than ever he’s trying to tamp down the urge to roll his eyes at the smirk that curls its way onto Kevin’s face.
“The usual, and make sure it’s at two hundred degrees this time.”
Aaron rolls his eyes for real this time as he scribbles down Kevin’s order on the side of a medium-hot cup; three shots espresso, half-light roast coffee, a splash of skim milk, and three packets of sugar. “You’re going to get a fucking heart-attack if you keep drinking this.” He says, hopeful lit to his voice as he punches in the drink on the register.
“Ah, I knew you cared.” Kevin hums, pulling out a ten-dollar bill and sliding it across the counter, already familiar with the price.
“Quite the opposite.” Aaron grits out, grabbing the money with a bit too much effort. “I’m actually just speaking it into existence, so I won’t have to see your stupid face anymore.” He puts the ten in the drawer and pulls out the change to hand back to Kevin. As always Kevin takes the change and drops it into the tip jar.
“You wound me, Andrew.” Kevin’s lip curls up on the side, a wicked smirk of his own as he walks to the opposite end of the counter to wait for his drink.
Aaron can feel every last ounce of energy drain from his body, seeing Kevin Day annoys him, Neil Josten annoys him, his cousins’ loud voice at seven in the morning annoys him, but the one thing that annoys him the most is being referred to as Andrew. He might be a lot of things, but he is nothing like his brother. Just another notch on the list of reasons that Aaron cannot stand Kevin, and another reason why he wishes he didn’t hate Neil so much; at least then he wouldn’t have had to deal with this .
But because he needs this job he goes about setting up the espresso machine to brew the three shots into a small metal pitcher they kept for triple espressos, before dumping in the sugar and the half-light roast coffee. While the espresso brews he grabs another medium cup, and the sharpie and begins doodling a middle finger and a speech bubble next to it that says fuck you , with a smiley face right next to it. His poor drawing is finished by the time the espresso is done, he makes sure to pour it in slowly so the foam is right, then adds the splash of skim milk, and against his better judgment makes sure the beverage is exactly two hundred degrees.
Grabbing the cup he makes his way down to the opposite end of the counter where Kevin was waiting, typing away something on his phone, ignoring the stare and googly eyes from a group of girls to his left. “Order for, Riko.” Hazel eyes are glued to Kevin’s figure when he says it, despite the fact that Kevin is the only one waiting on an order.
The look Kevin gives him is murderous when he snatches the drink out of Aaron’s hand. “Thanks, Andrew.” He grits out, eyes narrowed in Aaron’s direction.
All Aaron can do is smile as Kevin retreats from the counter a “Have a wonderful day ” said to his back but, Kevin’s out the door before Aaron can even finish his sentence.
Aaron isn’t quite certain that he knows that exact moment that he began to hate Kevin Day, he reckons it was a slow thing, taking its time to settle into his bones. When he reflects on it, he can pinpoint moments where he could feel the root start to grow more, take a stronger hold on him, but he can’t figure out the exact time. He supposes, it must have just always been that way, from the moment they first met, that there was already a dislike growing there.
There had been the disgusting amount of pity he’d offered Aaron when he’d found out that his relationship with Katelyn ended, offered up like him and Aaron had been friends for years. Aaron had vividly remembered Kevin offering his ear if it was needed, how he’d just gone through a break-up too, the “ It’s good to talk about it ” that’d shattered the glass. He doesn’t regret much but the acid he threw back at Kevin that day had maybe kept him up at night on occasion. But he was hurting, and here Kevin-Fucking-Day was acting as if he cared.
“Aaron go clean the tables, I don’t pay you to stand around daydreaming,” Wymack grumbled as he passed where Aaron was standing, hip pressed into the back counter, hazel eyes zoned in on the pealing edge of a flyer on the corkboard.
With a huff of defiance, he grabs the large, square, gray bucket and the cleaning supplies and heads out from behind the counter.
The morning rush had long since bled into a quiet afternoon lunch, which wasn’t unusual for them, but it did mean that Aaron didn’t have much to do out front; he’d spent time cleaning the counters, making fresh coffee for the afternoon, and evening shifts, put out the clean mugs and plates for in-house dining. Matt, Dan, and Neil had the back taken care of between cooking for orders and stocking the shipments from the morning. Fuck all, if Aaron was going to clean the counters continuously until someone else walked in.
Most of the tables just needed a quick wipe down with some cleaner, he’d gotten most of the cups and plates by now but there were a few strays from the few costumers they’d gotten. While cleaning the tables he’d taken a mental note of what supplies the tables needed, so he could fill them later. It was boring work but Aaron was surprisingly content with it until he made his way over to the lounge area of the coffee shop. There, hunched over onto the arm of the love seat is none other than Kevin Day.
There're two cups of coffee on the table in front of him, surrounded by books and notebooks, all of them opened with sticky notes and highlighted paragraphs, a laptop is open in the middle of them. Upon closer inspection Aaron can tell that Kevin is sleeping against the arm of the couch, head held up in the palm of his hand, elbow dangerously close to slipping off the arm. Carefully he grabs the two empty to-go cups of coffee, noting Neil’s scrawl on the side but also noticing its his usual coffee order; something akin to annoyance bubbles up in his chest.
Stupid idiot.
With the toe of his shoe, he nudges Kevin’s knee, trying to coax him back into the land of the living. It takes a good amount of balance to stand on one foot, with moving the other against someone that may or may not jolt at any moment and not drop the bucket holding the dirty dishes, but he manages. After five minutes of no reaction from Kevin, he gives in and nudges him harder with his foot, hard enough to leave a mark on the black sweat pants he’s wearing and also enough to jostle the same leg. This time he receives his desired reaction; Kevin startles awake, both arms coming up and out in a defensive action. That’s different , Aaron files that away in some unknown corner of his brain he doesn’t normally think about.
“Probably not a good idea to fall asleep with your wallet on full display.” Aaron leans over to grab a dish from the cushion next to Kevin. “Someone might steal it.”
Kevin makes a noise somewhere in the back of his throat that sounds dismissive as he scrubs his hands over his face, focusing on rubbing the sleep from his eyes. If Aaron’s being honest it looks like he hasn’t slept in days.
“Make me another one when you head back up there, I’ll be there to pay in a minute.” Green eyes flicker from the table to the box in Aaron’s arm that currently holds the remains of his beverages.
Aaron just stares at him, unblinking.
“What?” Kevin snaps. “That’s your job, isn’t it? It’s not like I’m asking you to bring it to me.”
It takes every last bit of Aaron’s self-control to not dump the entire box of dirty dishes and trash onto his lap, instead he does something that Neil mentions to Andrew all the time, deep breathing . “No.” He breathes out, grabbing a cup from the smaller table near the bookshelf set near the wall, picking a few pieces of trash from the large potted plant. “I’m not going to make you another of the same thing you just had. Don’t you fucking listen?”
Kevin looks at him for a moment, puzzled. His eyebrow knit together, creating lines in his forehead that somehow still make him look perfect.
“You’ll die if you keep drinking that. That’s what?” Aaron looks down at the cups in the box he’s holding, counting the number of espresso shots written on the sides. “Five already.”
“Ah, you do care.” Kevin’s expression is anything but pleasant, eyes narrowed in his direction, voice patronizing in its delivery. He seems on the verge of
something
that Aaron can’t quite put his finger on.
“It’s a lot of paperwork to fill out if you die here, and also a lot of effort to pick up the phone and dial the emergency number if you go into cardiac arrest.”
The beat of silences between them is longer than it is usually, the both of them so used to the quick-fire of comebacks for them that this seems unnatural to whatever they were. Ringing is the only thing Aaron hears in his ears, the kind of ringing one would hear after being hit on the head too hard, the kind one gets when their blood pressure is too high, the kind one gets after being near an explosion. It’s unsettling to not have Kevin return with a quip of his own, instead of watching his face tumble through a series of minute emotions he swears he’d noticed before.
“What’s your problem?” Kevin breaks the silence, sounding exasperated.
“What ever do you mean?” Though his return is bored sounding, already gathering the remaining trash around them, taking down some older flyers that were still hung on the walls.
“Why do you hate me so much?”
Aaron stops for a minute second before tossing a flyer into the bin he’d set down on a nearby chair. When he does turn to look at Kevin he’s a little throw off, because he looks tired , like he’s giving up a fight he’d been trying to hold onto for years. The look etched on his face is not something that Aaron has become familiar with concerning Kevin Day; not that he’s familiar with anything concerning him. But this, this is something different , it pulls and tugs and twists at something deep with him.
And not for the first time today, does he think about why he hates Kevin so much.
Also, not for the first time today, does he come up with absolutely no concrete answer.
With a roll of his eyes, he grabs the bin he’d been carrying earlier, pointedly avoiding Kevin’s face and turns to head back to the counter. Why had Kevin looked so exhausted by it? Why had he looked like he was annoyed? No, not annoyed, upset maybe? The look he’d given Aaron when he’d asked that question was so unlike him, so unlike the Kevin Day that he’s used to seeing. Why .
“Those dirty?” Matt’s voice interrupted his thoughts, hands already wrapping around the bin to take it from Aaron, who lets go of it easily, only giving Matt a nod in return.
Once Matt disappears into the back Aaron turns around to begin making a drink for Kevin; he was serious when he’d said he wouldn’t be him another one of his horrid coffee concoctions, but he would make him something. From the looks of what had been spread out on the tables, and the tired look in Kevin’s eyes he was studying for something, or trying to get a paper done — regardless, Aaron knew exactly what to make him.
So he set about grabbing the biggest hot cup they had and began adding a few tea bags of different blends to make the same tea he made himself when he was studying for a big exam. It helped with stress, energy, and focus something that it seemed Kevin needed a lot of help with at the moment, and pointedly ignored how protective it felt, how helpful it seemed it be, how much he really, actually, didn’t want Kevin to die of a heart attack.
While steeping the tea, he went about drawing a fox face on another cup, donning a pair of glasses that looked like the ones that Kevin wore once in a while, with a speech bubble. The fox was saying, “ Get some sleep, idiot. ”. After a few minutes, he tossed the tea bags and added in some raw sugar before slipping the cup with the drawing on the outside. Kevin was still sitting on the couch, staring down at the laptop he had open on the table.
Aaron left the cup on the pick-up counter and disappeared into the backroom, switching with Dan to do anything but have to see the look on Kevin’s face when he finally picks up the cup and Aaron’s response to Kevin’s inevitable question.
It’d been three days.
Three days since Kevin asked him the one question that’d been taking up all the free space in his brain since the words broke through his eardrums: why do you hate me?
Aaron has agonizingly gone over every single interaction he’d ever had with Kevin either directly or indirectly, to try and find at least one moment that stood out more than the others; but, he’d come up short every single time. Logically, that makes no sense. There had to be at least one moment over the course of them knowing each other than made Aaron hate him so much. Then again, hadn’t they hated each other? Wasn’t this a mutual thing? Aaron hated Kevin and Kevin hated him.
“How many times are you gonna wipe down that counter?” Allison questions, her hip pressed into the front counter, arms crossed over her chest. She’s raising an eyebrow in his direction, that much Aaron just knows without having to actually look at her.
“Don’t interrupt him.” Neil cuts in before Aaron has a chance to respond to her. “He’s been like this for three days, yesterday he burned breakfasts because he was zoning out, I thought he was going to set the kitchen on fire.”
Allison snorts. Aaron contemplates murder.
“Nicky says he’s in his feelings .” Neil, air quotes in his feelings , shrugging at Allison because he has no idea what that actually means.
Aaron is definitely going to commit a murder, Andrew be damned.
“Katelyn call you or something?” If it’s one thing Aaron can count on it’s Allison’s way of never holding back when questioning anyone for information. It is also one of the things Aaron hates the most. “She want you back?”
“Fuck you.”
Dropping the rag on the counter, Aaron leaves the front of the coffee shop to disappear into the back, deciding to make himself useful doing inventory or dishwashing, anything to get away from Allison and her to blunt questions. It was bad enough that his behavior was enough for even Neil to notice, and he was the most oblivious person Aaron knew.
The backroom didn’t need as much attention as he thought it, so he picked up one of the many boxes of extra cups and used his box cutter to rip it open, then set to work unloading them onto the shelves to fill up some space. Mindless tasks are what he needs right now, something that he can do on autopilot where he doesn’t actually have to use his brain — if he’s not using it then he won’t have to think about Kevin and why he apparently is the only one of them that has hatred in his heart. If he’d had his headphones on him that’d be the only thing to make this better because he wouldn’t have to listen to Allison and Neil at the front counter.
“You got his text, right?” Allison's’ voice carries. She’s got a loud voice, the kind the commands people to look at her when she talks, the kind that lets everyone know: I’m right here . “Who am I kidding, you barely use your phone.”
Neil makes a shocked sound, that’s followed by the sound of someone bumping into something. “I’m getting better.”
Aaron makes a point to tune them out as he fills the last space on the shelf, and slides the box back into its previous place. With a sigh he reaches out and grabs the broom, staring the sweep up the dust and fallen food from the morning rush. As hard as he tries to focus on the soft sound of the air system, he can see hear Neil and Allison talking in the front; he really wished a group of customers would walk in and occupy them right now.
“No, it’s Saturday, at seven he said. I guess Riko’s throwing it or something to celebrate his internship next spring. How ridiculous, throwing a party to celebrate an internship.” Allison scoffs, tapping her nails on the counter.
“Free booze, though. I’m sure Andrew will be there for Kevin.”
The words party and Kevin hit Aaron like a freight train, pausing the broom in its tracks and nearly knocking all the air out of his lungs. Memories from a year ago start flooding back, one by one, but one of them comes at it, wrapped in flashing red lights and an alarm bell that jogs his memory.
Aaron hums around the bottle of his fourth beer of the night, hoping for something stronger but knowing if he did he’d regret it come morning — curse Friday morning labs. Especially today. The sounds of the party surround him, coaxing him into the living room where most of the party-goers currently are. He makes himself smaller, and tucks himself against the wall, watching with cold eyes as the couples dance together, and make out against every surface.
That used to be him. Happy, dancing with someone, making out against random surfaces in someone else’s house. Granted now that the relationship is over he feels a lot better mentally, like something that had been holding him back finally let him go. But he still hates seeing it when for so long that used to be him.
“Here.” A voice drags his attention to his left. “You’re not even drinking the good beer.” Kevin Day says, holding out a cup of something that looks fruity and filled with vodka; something that’s more his style.
Against his better judgment, he takes the cup in Kevin’s outstretched hand and immediately drains nearly half of it. It burns on the way down, but he can feel the effects of it over the measly beers he’d been drinking. Screw his morning lab, the cadaver could suffer his hungover hands. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” He offers with a smile, taking a sip from his own cup. “Might wanna slow down though, pretty sure I’m too tipsy already to make a proper drink.” They both laugh at that, and Aaron leaves the beer on the bookshelf he’d been leaning on. “Wanna go outside? Less of,” Kevin takes a pause and gestures at the room. “This.”
“Yeah, alright.” Aaron follows Kevin outside to a portion of the patio that was mostly empty, they both take a seat on the outdoor love seat. Kevin taking up space and Aaron making himself smaller. “God, you’re so tall .” He huffs, watching the space Kevin’s legs take up from where his feet are, all the way up to how his left thigh takes up room on Aaron’s cushion. The tips of his ears turn red when he realizes he’d been staring and takes another long drink.
Kevin laughs at that, the sound light and airy despite his size and the amount of alcohol he’d no doubt had by this point of the night. It sounds a little like curling up with a good book and hot tea on a cold day. He turns his body toward Aaron, one arm resting over the back of the couch, somehow taking up more space than before. Aaron finds he doesn’t exactly mind it.
“I get that a lot.”
Aaron laughs, spilling some of the fruit drink on his pants.
Almost all at once the beers and the vodka drink hits him, along with a little of something else. A little of that something he’d felt when his relationship with Katelyn ended. It felt a bit like wings unfurling from his back, finally stretching free after such a long time.
“You’re beautiful.”
The entire party stops around them, well it doesn’t, but it may as well have because there is no one else around him right now other than Kevin. His voice came out so softly it was almost as if he didn’t mean for it to come out in the first place. The way he’s looking at him, like those green eyes are drinking him in instead of the drink he has in his hands. Something breaks in his center that sends a warmth flooding through his veins, something he hadn’t felt in a while.
“What?”
That must have broken the spell because the look on Kevin’s face dissolves, like the simple question suddenly shattered whatever illusion they’d been wrapped up in.
“Nothing. Nothing.” Kevin suddenly sits up — Aaron hadn’t even realized that he was in his space — and turns away again. “Not you. I’ve had a lot to drink tonight.” A laugh, he holds the cup in his hands up a little. “We’re not, ya’know. I wasn’t talking about you.” Kevin pauses, gripping the cup in his hand tight enough that the plastic gives a bit. “Andrew. I, I gotta go.”
Aaron watches as he leaves, noting that the warmth he’d felt moments before begin to evaporate into thin air, and the wings he’d felt uncurl early dissolve into a puddle at his feet.
“Earth to, Aaron?” Allison’s voice feels like a punch in the gut, the memory slowly fading away. “Are you okay? You dropped the broom, and we’ve been trying to talk to you for like ten minutes?”
Neil’s got the broom in his hands, looking between Allison and Aaron, like he’s trying to figure out whether this warrants a phone call to Andrew or Nicky. “Do you need to go home? We can cover for you?”
“I’m fine.” He snapped, snatching the broom out of Neil’s hands, the Neil-like-response doesn’t get lost on him, and clearly it didn’t fall on deaf ears either. Both Allison and Neil are looking at him wairly, like he might swing the broom at them if they press any further.
He might.
“Well Kevin and Riko are having a party on Saturday, you should come with us. It might be a good way to get you out of your feelings. ” Allison air quotes the last bit, which sends her and Neil into a laughing fit on their way out of the back room.
Once they’re both out of the room he says, “Over my dead body will I ever go to one of Kevin Day’s parties again.”
It’s a Wednesday before Aaron sees Kevin at FoxBeans’ again.
He and Matt are working the early afternoon shift alone until Dan and Allison came in around five, then Aaron was free for the rest of the night. As soon as he sees who walks in the door he immediately wishes that it was five and that he was able to go home. Ever since he remembered the exact moment that he began hating Kevin Day, that’s all he could think about, and right now is no different.
“I wasn’t talking about you. Andrew.”
There’s nowhere for Aaron to go, Matt’s on his break which means he’s the only person around to take Kevin’s order. This is unlike him, Minyard’s don’t ever back down from a fight, they don’t cower in the corner; he needs to get his shit together. So, he steals himself a couple of minutes, eyes closed, hands balled into fists at his side, and takes one slow deep breath in and lets it out at the same pace.
Aaron doesn’t say anything, just stares at Kevin a to-go cup in one hand and the sharpie in the other, waiting for the order. If he doesn’t have to open his mouth he isn’t going to, mostly because he isn’t sure that he won’t just blurt out everything he’d been thinking about since Sunday. Honestly, what he wants to do is punch Kevin in this stupid perfect face.
“Uh, can I get whatever tea you made me last week?” Kevin asks, scratching at the back of his head, looking a little uncomfortable and Aaron hopes to God that it’s him that causing it. “It helped a lot, whatever it was.”
With more force than needed, he punches in the price on the register and points to the screen on the other side of the register that shows the customer their price and then walks away to begin preparing the tea. He hates that the tea helped. Hates that Kevin ordered it instead of his usual espresso filled drink; at least if he’d ordered that Aaron could have filled it all the way with espresso and maybe not have to see Kevin ever again.
“You’re beautiful.”
Out of the corner of his eye he watches as Kevin hesitates to leave the money on the counter. If he weren’t so mad he might ask why he looks so nervous, an emotion that he’d never seen come across his face.
Once the teabags and sugar are in the cup, and he pours the hot water over them and gives them time to steep as he heads back to the register. Aaron goes about putting the money away, retrieving the cash change from the drawer, and handing it back over to Kevin. Expect Kevin just shakes his head and mumbles, tip before heading down to the pick-up counter. He at least manages not to roll his eyes as he drops the change into the tip jar, before heading to take the tea bags out.
Grabbing the cup he heads down to the pick-up counter and places the cup down in the middle, turning around to clean up the counter he was just at, but he can’t make it far. No, of course, he couldn’t.
“What, no little drawing with a rude comment on it today?” Kevin asked, spinning the cup around slowly, before picking it up from off the counter.
Aaron doesn’t say anything for a long time, fixed in place, hands clenching on themselves so hard that his knuckles turn white. There’s a pit in his stomach that pulls this way and that, tugging him down, down, down . When did those stupid little drawings even matter ? Why was it something that caught Kevin’s eye and knocked something off-kilter that it made him ask?
“If it’s about the other day, look.” Kevin’s voice starts again, quieter than the last time. Unsure of where exactly he’s headed.
“Shut the fuck up.” Aaron cuts in before he has to listen to Kevin say anything else.
The two of them hadn’t hated each other since they’d met, Aaron had known Kevin for a while before he got this job; it was Kevin who suggested he and Andrew apply for it in the first place. They’d hung out plenty of times in the past, going to parties and the club the twins' cousin used to work at. Aaron had liked Kevin before that fateful party two years ago, maybe a little more than like him if the realization that that moment was the one that turned the tides of whatever their relationship was to whatever it is now. Regret wasn’t often something he found himself feeling, but right about now he certainly regretted a lot of the decisions that he’d made since meeting Kevin Day.
What makes the entire situation worse is that Kevin doesn’t even have a clue about it, that even he couldn’t go back through his memories and figure out the why . Kevin was a lot of things, Aaron would be the first to admit it, but he didn’t peg him as an asshole like everyone else. Had Kevin really not thought anything of the entire situation in the first place? That what he’d said had been wrong? Hurtful even? Then just left Aaron alone, not drunk enough to deal with what had just happened, not even drunk enough to forget that it happened.
“You want to know why I hate you so much?” Aaron asked, his nails digging crescent moon shapes into the palms of his hands, trying desperately to not let his voice raise. “Is that what you want, Kevin?” The other man barely shakes his head, Aaron takes note of the way it almost seems like Kevin regrets asking in the first place. Something like bile begins to build in his throat, burning every time he tries to open his mouth to say something. It hurt to remember the memory and it hurt to have to tell someone else how much it hurt.
“A year ago, at one of your stupid parties.” He begins, clenching his hands tighter to prevent himself from either punching Kevin or throwing something at him, he isn’t sure which would feel better right now. “A year ago at a party, you called me beautiful.” Aaron chances a look at Kevin, and regrets that he does — the look on his face starts off confused and quickly morphs into sudden realization, to a look that makes Aaron think he’s going to throw up all over the counter. At least he remembers it now. “Or at least I thought you did.” He gives a sick laugh, vaguely registering the break room door opening and closing, signaling that Matt is off his break. Normally showing emotion in front of the others is a no for him, but he can’t even find it in him to care right now. “No, no you didn’t call me beautiful did you. You said as much, could have left it at the ‘ oh not you ’ but no, no you had to go say my brother’s name.”
All the blood rushes right out of Kevin’s body, his pallor three times lighter now that Aaron’s finally answered his question, the hand holding his to-go cup shaking so much he has to put the cup back on the counter. The look on his face in unreadable, however, which makes Aaron even angrier.
“Hey, everything okay out here?” Matt asks, rushing through the doorway from the back room, glancing quickly between Aaron and Kevin.
“Oh everything is just fucking great, isn't it Kevin?” Aaron asks, taking a step forward only to be stopped by Matt, both his hands on Aaron’s shoulders.
“I think you need to go take your break, Aaron.”
The last thing he wants to do is give up, the last thing he wants to do is walk away before Kevin can give him some kind of explanation, but as Matt gives a squeeze to his shoulders he notices in the time he’d been yelling at Kevin that two customers had come in and Wymack had come out of his office. Embarrassment bubbles up and settles heavily in his chest, his cheeks and ears turning pink realizing that everyone had heard his little explosion. Still, his feet feel cemented in place, he can’t bring himself to move them no matter how much he actually wants tot now.
Matt gives him a little shove in the direction of the backroom, and Aaron finally is able to move his legs letting them lead him through the back room and into the small closet-like break room the employees use. He doesn’t hear anything else from the front, making sure the slam the door closed behind him.
For the first time in his life, he wishes he were more like Andrew, able to bottle the feelings up, to not let it show to the world just how much something bothers him. Aaron never wants to give other people the satisfaction of knowing that they hurt him, especially people like Kevin.
He presses his back against the wall, slowly sliding down until he’s seated against the wall one leg stretching out to kick over the chair in his way, watching as it falls and scowling that that small destruction brings him no satisfaction. Aaron’s head lulls back against the wall, a small thud echoes the room, but he can’t seem to care whether it gives him a headache or not. There’s already a miserable feeling in his bone, might as well feel it in his skull as well. Eyelids close over hazel eyes, blocking out the room, hoping that if he tries hard enough he can will himself away from here, off into another dimension where he didn’t just yell at his bosses’ son in the middle of his workplace, off somewhere where maybe someone like Kevin didn’t rip through whatever fragile change he had been going through like he was made of rice paper.
A drop of water slides down his cheek, he makes a mental note to let Wymack know there’s a leak in the break room.
A whole night of being babied by Nicky and avoided by Andrew and Neil did nothing to soothe the ache in his chest and the anger in his bones from the previous day — he’s more bothered by the fact that he let himself react to anything with that form of emotion in public never mind in general. At least he’s working with his family today, they know well enough to not badger him about why the scowl on his face is deeper than usual, or why he’d spent more of the morning stabbing holes in empty boxes with a pencil. Regardless of that, he still wishes he’d be able to disappear into another universe.
FoxBean’s was busy for a quarter past three, but Aaron welcomed the distractions; the more time he spent making coffees and cleaning counters the less time he was able to think about the disaster that was the day before. Nicky was working register while both he and Andrew made drinks, the both of them switching with the grill if anyone ordered a meal He liked working with his family, for as much as they drove him crazy most of the time, the three of them were able to move around each other with limited conversation and get everything done in record time.
Everything was going great until it wasn’t.
Andrew stopped moving, one hand clutched around the drink cup in his hand, gazed fixed on the counter where Nicky was, and for a moment Aaron thought something was happening to his cousin. His own gaze flits over to the person at the front of the line and immediately regrets getting out of bed this morning. Nicky is nervous laughing now, looking over at Andrew and Aaron; however, his cousin isn’t the only one that’s nervous, the look on Kevin’s face gives away that he is too. Aaron can’t blame him, if Andrew was staring at him like that he’d be nervous too.
“It’s not worth it,” Aaron says to Andrew, grabbing one of the other to-go cups, and sets about making their frozen mocha beverage. He doesn’t bother looking back to see whether Andrew has gone back to work, he knows he has. Nicky on the other hand seems to hesitate, standing there awkwardly looking between Kevin and Aaron.
“Uh, Aaron?” There’s a slight pause before Nicky finishes with his name, clearing his throat afterward. “He wants some tea concoction you made him, but I don’t know what to.” Nicky’s voice trails off, probably hoping neither of the twins would stab him for speaking.
“Give me a minute.” Though he fully intends on taking his time drizzling the chocolate sauce on the inside of the cup and filling it to the top with the frozen drink. By the time he tops it off with a lid and whipped cream the look on Kevin’s face would make him laugh if he weren’t to utterly set on shielding every feeling he’d ever felt since the moment he was born.
After sliding the cup onto the pickup counter, he heads over to Nicky’s side to punch a few buttons into the register. “It’s just a tea, but it’s got like four tea bags into it, so just add the extras in like you would any other time.” Once he finishes, he grabs the large-sized cup and turns to go make the beverage, ignoring the sound of Kevin calling his name.
It wasn’t like Aaron could avoid Kevin forever, his father was the owner of FoxBeans after all, Kevin had more of a right to be there than he did. Not to mention their friend groups intertwined, which meant that unless he removed himself then he’d forever see Kevin at one point or another. As much as, sometimes, he wishes that he was able to do just that he wouldn’t actually be able to.
And really, it isn’t like he can blame Kevin for it, he sure as hell didn’t want to feel this way toward Kevin, never mind about the situation he can’t blame Kevin for liking Andrew over him ( even if he can’t figure out a reason why ).
He just hates feeling like this, and in typical Aaron fashion he’ll blame someone else, so he doesn’t have to hate himself.
The drink takes no time to make, unfortunately, for him. Reluctantly Aaron adds the top to the cup and heads toward the pick-up counter to drop the drink off, hoping that his resolve is strong enough to ignore whatever Kevin attempts to say. “Drink order for Kevin.”
Kevin slips in between two girls, who give the two of them a bit of an annoyed look; without realizing it Aaron ignored the two cups before Kevin’s when he grabbed the drink. The usual brightness in Kevin’s green eyes are no longer there, they usually appear so green like an emerald but today, today they’re dull. It looks like he hadn’t slept, and if Aaron cared he’d tell him so.
“You look like shit.” Well shit .
The little laugh that Kevin lets out hits Aaron like a punch straight to the gut. That really annoys him, so he puts the cup down, afraid he’ll crush it with how tight he’d been holding onto it. Green eyes flicker down to the cup, no doubt looking for the little doodles that Aaron usually leaves for him; as soon as the line of his mouth falls from the end of the laugh Aaron regrets not at least drawing a little middle finger.
“Thanks. You don’t.”
Aaron bites down on the inside of his cheek to avoid making a scene. It makes something bubble up, warm, and soothing under his skin.
“Yeah well, ya’know.” Aaron shrugs, waving a hand around in front of him as if to gesture something, though he isn’t sure what exactly he’s gesturing.
“Oh, Aaron .” Andrew’s voice is much louder than he’d expected, he makes Kevin’s grip on the small box in front of him tighten, as well as the grip on his coffee. “Do you maybe want to get the fuck back to work.” It sounds like a question but Aaron knows it’s not. But as soon as Aaron goes to give his response Andrew is gone.
Giving one last look at Kevin, Aaron turns around to leave.
“Wait. I.”
God, Kevin sounds close to begging.
“This is for you.” Aaron turns around, an eyebrow raised. Kevin slides the small cardboard box toward him on the counter. He spares a quick, gentle glance at Aaron before he turns to leave.
It’s a light beige color, the word Wildflour written in script in a dark purple with two white and lavender flowers at the end, all wrapped in a thin white ribbon. He can’t see inside, but his heart clenches nonetheless as he already knows what's inside. Aaron holds the box gently between his hands, as he carries it toward one of the back tables where their food orders usually sit. Ignoring the ever-growing line of cups on the front counter, he pulls one end of the bow to untie the ribbon. Inside the box is two pieces of lemon blueberry crumble tart, the only thing that he’d tried from Wildflour a vegan bakery that he and Kevin had gone to a couple of months after he’d broken up with Katelyn.
Aaron had eaten these, even though he complained about Kevin bringing him to a bakery that used healthy ingredients and promising him that he’d hate everything in there. Somehow, somehow Kevin had figured out, through the pouting and walk around way he’d complimented them that Aaron had liked them. He’d remembered almost two years later than Aaron even liked these in the first place.
“Goddammit, Day.”
Aaron turned the lock on the doors to FoxBeans and then gives a little tug on the handles to make sure the doors were locked; it’s the closing shift on Saturday, the one he’d volunteered to work alone so the rest of his friends could go to Kevin’s party. It was a lot to close on his own, but at least he’d have peace and quiet, and after the incident two days prior that’s all he wanted. There were too many thoughts and too many feelings to sift through when wandering eyes and stray questions kept coming his way.
Most of the tasks he needed to accomplish before closing was done, he’d cleaned the grills and counters in the kitchen area a few hours before now when he was certain no one would be coming in for meals, most of the dishes were clean and put away as well. There were just the machines that were finishing up now, and the counters and register to count before he could head home for a couple more hours of peace. Sure it took him much longer than it’d take with someone else, but it was better than listening to one of his friends complain about not being at the party.
Picking up a cleaning rag Aaron begins wiping down the counters, lining up the extra blender containers, and spoons for the different types of powder they had for the frozen drinks and smoothies, he took stock of which tea’s needed more bags added to their containers, and which freeze-dried fruits needed to be restocked. The back counter didn’t need much more cleaning, it was mostly tidying things up and restocking for the morning rush. Once the back counter was finished he moved onto the front, spraying a bit of cleaner on the top and going about wiping away at the area near the register.
The jiggling of the lock catches his attention, when he looks up from where he was cleaning he sees the doors open and in walk Kevin Day. Why is Kevin here when he’s supposed to be throwing a party with Riko right now?
“We’re closed.” Aaron stops cleaning.
“Doesn’t look like it.” Aaron could strangle him with this cleaning cloth.
“That’s what locked doors mean.”
“Not locked for me.” Kevin dangles Wymack’s set of master keys in the space between them. All Aaron can manage in response is an eye roll and a huff of air.
This was supposed to be a time filled with peace and quiet, so he could think about what to do about this exact situation, not when he’s supposed to deal with this exact information. “Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be throwing a party right now?” He asks, picking up the previously discarded cleaning rag. There was still cleaning to be done, and fuck Kevin if he thought he’d be stopping that.
“I wanted to talk to you.” Kevin tugs the cleaning rag out of his hands, Aaron lets him. “Alone.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Aaron.”
There’s a sternness to Kevin’s voice, one that both makes something stir in his stomach and also one that makes him swallow whatever quip he was going to fire back at him. Aaron doesn’t think he’d ever heard Kevin sound so serious before, that added to how stern he sounded really doesn’t leave much room for him to argue. The only other thing he’d ever heard Kevin sound serious about was History.
Aaron doesn’t say anything though, just stands there with his arms crossed over his chest. Both to show his disinterest in this conversation and also in an attempt to protect himself from whatever Kevin is going to throw at him. He really doesn’t want to hear about how Kevin is attracted to his brother, or how he has feelings for him; not only could be not deal with that at the moment but also the more time he spends with Neil he realizes he doesn’t hate him as much as he used to and that it’d be a shame if Kevin tried to ruin anything.
Not that Kevin isn’t already trying to ruin everything, Aaron was having a perfectly good night before he showed up.
The silence stretches out between them like a too warm blanket in the summer, uncomfortable. It’s unnatural for them, always used to trading quips back and forth with each other that now it makes Aaron shift from foot to foot. It appears to be just as uncomfortable for Kevin whose knuckles are turning white from how hard he keeps clenching and unclenching them in front of him.
“I remember that night.” It’s Kevin that breaks the silence, though he’s not looking up at Aaron, his gaze is fixed on a random spot on the counter separating them. “Really well, actually. Too much of it if I’m being honest. I remember finally walking up to you inside, after trying to hype myself up to do it all day. I remember walking outside, I remember sitting together on the couch, I remember the look on your face as you laughed. God, I, I remember it all.” Finally, Kevin looks at him, and Aaron wishes that he’d have kept his gaze on the countertop.
“You looked so good that night, not that you don’t always look good but. I don’t know if it was the fact that you were actually laughing , or if it was the way that the alcohol made you look so much softer.”
This all feels like too much, the look in Kevin’s eyes the way he’s speaking like Aaron hasn’t ever heard him speak before. It feels an awful lot like a confession and not a letdown, which is throwing Aaron for a loop — this is not what he was expecting to happen.
“I didn’t mean what I said like you thought I did, I was talking about you. I did think you’re beautiful, well still do think that. But then you didn’t really say anything back and I started to panic, when I said Andrew’s name I didn’t mean that I was talking about him, I meant that as in Andrew was going to kill me for what I’d just done. You know how he gets about his family and, I’m not really family like you are.”
Aaron can’t think of anything else to say other than, “What?”
Kevin goes to open his mouth but Aaron holds up a hand to stop him.
This entire time Aaron could have been with Kevin, could have held his hand and kissed his stupidly attractive face, and instead, he’d spent all that time hating him because he was drunk processing what had happened and Kevin freaked out and left?
Aaron could throttle him.
Aaron could throttle himself.
“You’re telling me that I could have spent the last year kissing you instead of hating your very existence?” Aaron asks both of his hands pressed flat against the counter in between them. “And the only reason we didn’t was because you freaked out that a drunk person took to long to say something?”
Kevin open and closes his mouth, trying to say something in rebuttal but the words die before they even make it to his mouth; it gives Aaron immense pleasure to see it happening in real-time, their relationship aside, Kevin is rarely left speechless. It doesn’t last much longer, though, it seems that the words Aaron spoke had finally started to sink into Kevin’s big, beautiful brain because his cheeks tint a shade of pink that he’d never seen on him, and his eyes widen ever so slightly.
How is Kevin going for his master’s degree if he’s this much of an idiot? Aaron asks himself, standing up straighter.
Before Aaron is able to form another sentence, a rebuttal of his own to Kevin’s apparent silence the words are ripped from his throat; Kevin reaches across the counter to slide one of his hands around the side of his face. There’s not even a second to breathe, to think about anything other than the fact that Kevin is going to kiss him — and that Kevin, does. Their lips press together, finding their own rhythm of movement, one of Aaron’s hands curled into the front of Kevin’s shirt with the counter pressing uncomfortably into both of their hips. A swarm of butterflies builds up in Aaron’s stomach, breaking through the net keeping them there to fly to every last inch of his body; but it’s not nerves, it’s soothing.
It doesn’t last very long, Kevin’s pulling away before Aaron’s brain can even fully process it which leaves him moving back toward him, looking for more. When he realizes they’ve parted his eyebrow furrow together, making an unhappy growl in his throat.
“That was cute.”
There is no room for coherent thought for Aaron at the moment, he finally found out after a year that he could have had this the entire time, and he does not plan to let a single moment of this slip by him again. Security cameras be damned, the fact that he just cleaned his counter be damned; using his upper body strength he hoists himself up and onto the counter to close the distance between them, the pressure of the wood against his knees is nothing once he gets both his hands on either side of Kevin’s face. “Shut up.” Then Aaron’s settling onto the back of his calves and it’s his turn to press their lips together in a searing kiss, much needier than the last.
Now that Aaron’s within touching distance Kevin can’t keep his hands off of Aaron, at first settling on his hips, but soon enough wandering wherever they can reach: up his sides, his back, the side of his face, his thighs, in his hair. The two of them kiss like they have nothing to lose and everything to gain, they kiss like they’ve been apart for too long, they kiss like this is their only salvation. With every press of their lips, with every wandering hand, Aaron can feel himself begin to thaw, begin to relax into something he should have had a year ago.
It’s Aaron’s turn to wander, both his hands tugging Kevin closer to him as his lips make a trail from the corner of Kevin’s mouth, all along his jaw right to the spot below his ear where he decides to leave a mark for the morning. “Aaron.” Sounds like a prayer to him right now, Kevin’s fingers slip under the hem of his work shirt, blunt nails trying to make marks in his skin as Aaron moves his way down Kevin’s neck, biting and sucking his way down to the collar of his shirt. The breathy little sighs, only spur Aaron on more, the quiet moans he bites back only make Aaron go harder .
“Aaron, not here .” Kevin’s hands move from their spot on his hips to either side of his face, gently pulling him away from where he had been working on adding another mark to the side of his neck. “The cameras.”
There were two security cameras at the front of FoxBeans, one pointed at the register, and the other one giving a long view of the to catch the faces of customers — right now they were right in the middle of both.
Aaron’s pointer finger drags down the side of Kevin’s neck, watching the color change with the pressure of his finger over the mark’s he’d just left behind, a disappointed feeling in the center of his chest that he’d had to stop. He misses the look on Kevin’s face as he fishes around in his pocket, nearly missing the action altogether, too mesmerized that he was the one that left those marks. A jingling of a key ring brings his gaze to Kevin’s face.
“Office?”
Kevin Day was a very different person than Aaron Minyard once thought; he nods, and Kevin wraps a singular arm around his waist to haul him off the counter, with all intent on putting him down, but Aaron had other ideas. The second he was off the counter, both legs wrapped around Kevin’s waist, one arm holding onto his shoulders, the other tugging down the collar of his shift to better access his collar bones. It drags a laugh out of Kevin that quickly melts into a needy noise as Aaron bites down on him again.
Everything is moving in a blur around them, the only thing in Aaron’s head is a mantra of kevin, kevin, kevin, kevin, kevin invading every nook and cranny available and making space where there wasn’t any before. In all the spots where Aaron thought he hated Kevin, he saw a vine of off-white flowers and dazzling emeralds in their place. Until now, he hadn’t realized how much he’d wanted this, how long he had yearned for Kevin, and suddenly everything that happened between him and Katelyn had made perfect sense; she’d known the whole time something that he hadn’t wanted to admit to himself.
The next thing Aaron knows his back is pressed against the door of Wymack’s office, the lights illuminating the only room without a camera in it. Both legs unwrap themselves from Kevin’s waist to plant themselves firmly on the ground and use Kevin’s distraction with the light switch to flip them. Before Kevin can even say anything other than the little oof as his back hits the wall Aaron is already on his knees in front of him; when Kevin realizes the groan that comes out of him makes the tips of Aaron’s ears burn.
“Oh my God, Aaron. Here? Are you.”
Aaron looks up at Kevin through his lashes, his fingers already curling into the waistband of Kevin’s jeans, teasing his nails along the skin there. “Are you telling me no?”
The silence this time is anything but uncomfortable, it pulls out the remaining tension in the both of them as Kevin looks down at Aaron on his knees. One of Kevin’s hands reach out to card through Aaron’s hair, the other skims gentle fingers along his jaw. Perfectly straight teeth worry at his bottom lip still red from their earlier endeavors. “God no.”
Mischief fills Aaron’s eyes, tongue peeking out to run over his lips as careful fingers pop the button and zipper of Kevin’s jeans, tugging them down to his knees. Aaron nuzzles his face into Kevin’s crotch, nails dragging hard enough to leave marks down the front of his thighs. Hazel eyes flicker up to Kevin’s face, keeping them trained on him as he mouths along the line of Kevin’s half-hard member, only speaking once he’s reached the tip. “I didn’t think you would.”
The afternoon rush is just starting to filter in as Aaron unties his orange apron and tosses it onto a stack of boxes in the back room, a smirk on his face as he watches his cousin try and juggle carrying three drinks and a sandwich plate to the pick-up counter. Coming in for the opening shift did have its perks when it meant he didn’t have to deal with the lunch rush, especially on days when the local college was having midterms; it was worth the lack of sleep to just watch everyone run around trying to fill orders in a timely manner. Making his way around his cousin and Neil, he grabs the two to-go cups he’d made before clocking-out and a plate with a muffin and a scone and heads out from behind the counter.
Nicky sends a “ Fuck you .” to his back, as another three people come in through the door.
A small chuckle is his only response as he heads to the small area of FoxBeans that held the bookshelf and love seat in front of the bay window, and finds exactly what he was looking for; Kevin on love seat, laptop and notebooks open on the coffee table in the center of the space, his backpack by his feet and an empty coffee cup off to the side. On the cushion next to Kevin is Aaron's copy of Dorian Grey, the spine worn and pages yellowed from age, waiting for him.
“Don't study too hard, it looks like your heads going to explode.”
Kevin looks up at him as he approaches, a soft smile on his face when he sees him, leaving his laptop abandoned for the moment. “I’ll try not to.”
Aaron uses his foot to push aside some of the notebooks to make room for their drinks and snacks, much to Kevin’s dismay who reaches for a couple before they fall off the table. Once enough space is cleared he sets down the cups and the plate before, grabbing his book and settling into the spot next to Kevin; worming his way under Kevin’s arm, back pressed to his side. The only thing Aaron likes about being short is the ability to comfortably sit against Kevin on this couch while he studies for his stupid master’s program.
“Thank you.” Kevin mumbles against his forehead, pressing a kiss to the top of his head before taking a bite of the muffin on the plate.
After last Saturday night, they’d fallen into an easy rhythm with each other, afternoon lunch dates at FoxBean on Aaron’s lunch breaks, Kevin picking Aaron up after night shifts to take him to dinner, or times like now when they’d settle in together silently but comfortable as they work on their own tasks. It wasn’t what Aaron thought things were going to be like, but it was what he didn’t know he needed. They’d make fun of their friends as they worked, they’d talk about Kevin’s classes or Aaron’s express interest in starting medical school in the fall.
It was comfort.
It was familiar.
Pulling out the bookmark Aaron begins reading his page, as Kevin rips off pieces of the scone to feed to him while he reads, ignoring the rush of people to their right. Kevin reads over the bits of his paper that he’d been working on.
“Please tell me that’s coffee you brought me.” Kevin eyes the cup with the drawing of a globe and a pair of glasses and a mustache.
“Absolutely not. You’ll end up with a fucking heart attack if you drink all that.” Aaron doesn’t stop reading to glance up at Kevin, he already knows what look is on his face, he’d see it once or twice in the past.
“Hm, I thought you wanted me to have a heart attack?” Kevin chuckled, stretching out both of his legs under the table to prevent them from falling asleep. “At least that's what you keep telling me, isn’t it?.”
“Well yeah, but we need to be together long enough that people don’t find it suspicious when you die from cardiac arrest and I get all your worldly possessions and your money.”
They both laugh at that one, getting a few stares from some of the patrons waiting in line; which only serves to get them to laugh harder, louder.
After that, they settle in again to their comfortable silence, with Aaron reading at Kevin’s side and Kevin looking over his notes occasionally marking something on his laptop screen for later review. Aaron feels a comfort he doesn’t think he’d ever felt before, the kind of comfort that’s like being wrapped in a warm blanket during a thunderstorm when you’re a kid, protected from everything around them.
Now that he’d had some time to reflect Aaron can see all the times when Kevin looked at him a beat longer than everyone else when Kevin would choose to sit near him despite Aaron showing his express disinterest when Kevin would still ask him about his day or what he was working on like he cared because he did . It surprised him at first, that someone like Kevin would still be here a year later with the same type of feelings even though Aaron spent the better part of it insulting him and everything he did. It had been a constant realization of who Kevin was behind all the words and nicknames people gave him over the years, all the ones Aaron had assumed were true after that moment at the party. Truth is he was different, so different from what he’d called him, what other people called him.
Aaron stopped actively reading his book, instead choosing to stare at the pages as his mind wanders to Kevin, to what they could be together if they both tried if they both wanted this to last. Of all the things that Aaron would get to do to and for Kevin in a forever apology for how he’d acted the past year — miscommunication aside.
“Aaron.”
“Hm?”
Kevin tilts Aaron’s head back by his chin, fingers gentle where they dance against his throat. When Aaron’s eyes meet Kevin’s there’s a softness there that stops the muscle in his chest momentarily, like an angel sent from above. It still boggles Aaron’s mind how someone can look like they were carved from Sin like Kevin but look at him as if his eyes were a gift from a God. The look alone brings heat to his cheeks, dusting them in a color pink so light it’s almost not there; it’s going to take Aaron a long time to get used to being the subject of Kevin’s gaze.
“You’re beautiful.”
This time he’s not hindered by alcohol.
This time Aaron lets the book fall from his hands and bounce onto the floor, one arm reaching behind him to rest against the side of Kevin’s face and gently coaxes his head down to press their lips together. The angle is awkward, and a little uncomfortable but it doesn’t matter, because this time Aaron isn’t going to sit quietly and Kevin isn’t going to getaway.