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Leorio buries his face into his hands. “I should have never told you two this.” He groans, trying his damndest to write his name on the homework in front of him.
Killua’s face twists into a smug grin. “Tell us what, old man?” He mocks, feigning innocence.
Leorio groans again busies himself with trying to remember his last name. Does it start with a P? He wants it to actually be the last name of the really cute blonde barista at the counter. It took the very last of Leorio’s bisexual braincells to remember how many syllables were in the words “Almond macchiato, regular.”
“You think the barista is cute!” Gon giggles, unhelpfully. “You should ask them out.”
“Yeah,” Killua adds, even more unhelpfully. “Old people like you need a love life.”
Leorio is close to pulling someone’s hair out, whether it’s his or Killua’s. He settles for banging his head on the table and leaving it there.
“They’re too beautiful! They smiled at me. I was so shocked forgot my name. I gave them my mom’s.” He cries, letting his thoughts spill out with not much care. To be fair, the blonde the counter is ethereal. Leorio isn’t sure he’s even allowed to exist in the same space as them.
“Linda?” Gon cocks his head and pokes Leorio’s dejected and probably bruised forehead. In response, Leorio sinks lower into the table and whines something like “fuck.”
“That bad, huh?” Gon snickers.
Killua chuckles darkly with a smug smile. “You called yourself Fon Greecss when I met you.”
Gon glares and jabs Killua in the ribs with his fork. “You fell off your skateboard!” He protests.
“I’m wounded, dearest Fon.”
Even with is smashed into the table, Leorio pulls a face at their bickering. He’s about to tell them to shut up when someone arrives with their drink order.
“I don’t think any of you are Linda?” A soft, but steady voice cuts in. Leorio whips his head up and flushes furiously.
It's the barista Leorio was close to crying over, in all their angel-like beauty and wearing a warm smile. Leorio is sure he’s dead there and now, because if this isn’t heaven, he doesn’t know what is. His weakened brainpower pulls his ability to speak back to Earth with an extraordinary display of strength.
“That... That’s me!” He hastily sputters. “It’s actually Paladiknight- Leorio! Leorio Paladiknight. Yeah. Le-o-ri-o. that’s me.” He says, trying to pick his beauty-shocked jaw up off the floor.
“He remembered his name!” Gon praises.
The pretty blonde barista smiles wider. “Mr. Leorio? almond-“
“Just Leorio is fine!” He frantically interrupts.
The other person quirks a pretty blonde eyebrow up in a perfect arch that should be illegal hot damn dear lord Leorio contain yourself.
“Oh? You remember it?” They tease.
Leorio’s face heats up furiously again. Gon and Killua are barely keeping their pint-sized mouths shut. He’s pretty sure tears are coming out of their eyes from the effort not to laugh.
The blonde sets down a coffee cup in front of Leorio. Even their hands are pretty, Leorio thinks. Probably even prettier...
Please shut up. The voice in his head demands. It hurts to think like this. It’s physically hurting his face to be this red. It’s absolutely doing nothing to his poor heart for this person to be so-
The blonde leans down close to Leorio’s ear without him noticing because he was deep in thought. If his heart was skipping beats earlier, it’s completely sprinting at this point.
Congratulations, Leorio! You’ve won the Olympics!
“My number is on the other side of the cup.” They whisper sweetly, their breath warm and rolling down his neck. Leorio visibly shivers as the blonde’s posture returns to normal.
“Don’t forget it!” They say with a wink, returning back to their duties behind the counter.
Leorio ignores Gon and Killua’s peels of laughter in favor of frantically picking up the cup and hunting for the pretty person’s number.
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
kurapika
my shift tomorrow ends at 3. coffee date? <3
Leorio almost cries with joy. He glances over to where the pretty person- no, where Kurapika is busy making another drink. They notice and send him yet another fucking wink. Leorio wants to combust.
Killua interrupts the moment by fake gagging very loudly. “Gross! old people are so weird.”
Gon pokes him again. “Don’t be mean to him when he’s finally got a date!” He scolds. Killua recoils with a pout and turns his attention back to Leorio.
“Fine, fine.” He grumbles. “Just don’t forget, ‘kay? Don’t embarrass us.”
Once again, Leorio ignores them and spares one more glance to Kurapika at the counter. They’re is now fully immersed in another customer, leaving Leorio to admire the the blonde in secret.
Tomorrow at 3, he thinks, watching the curve of Kurapika’s smile and the way it lights up their eyes.
No, I won’t forget it.