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When Robin finally enters the campus coffeeshop, her mood is only slightly improved by the aroma of hot coffee wafting up to greet her.
She orders a coffee – "Black, like my mood right now," she mutters at the grinning barista – and drops her bag down on one of the plush chairs, unceremoniously dumping herself into the opposite seat. She's had a long week of tests and finals and assignment submissions, including that essay she'd completely forgotten about and had to rush in a night, and the paper she'd studied so hard for only to blank out when confronted with the actual questions - god damn everything, she just wants the week to be fucking over.
When she hears her name being called, she pulls herself out of the chair and walks over to the counter, only to be faced with a cappuccino instead of the black coffee she ordered.
Robin raises her eyebrows. The cappuccino has a crudely drawn smiley face picked out in the foam. Almost like it's mocking her, taunting her that I'm not the drink you're looking for, and - yeah, if she's starting to imagine that a drink is talking to her, then she really needs that fucking coffee. "This isn't what I ordered."
The grinning barista from before – Gaius, his name tag reads – shrugs, tilts his head to the side. There's a headband tied around his forehead; Robin idly wonders if it's meant to keep his auburn hair out of his eyes. But it's loose enough that his action causes it to slip slightly, and he nonchalantly raises a hand to adjust it. There's a similar black band wound tightly around his forearm. "I figured you could use the pick-me-up."
Robin sighs, pinches the bridge of her nose. He's cute, in a devilish-smirk-and-ginger kind of way, but she's in no mood to argue with hipster barista kids and their stupid fashion bands, which leads her to snap at him, "Look, I just want my fucking coffee."
"Well, aren't you Little Miss Bubbly," he quips in return, producing another steaming cup from behind the counter where she couldn't see it. "Have the cappuccino on me, Bubbles. You seem like you could use the extra caffeine."
"Thank you." Robin chooses not to comment on the nickname; she just really wants this conversation to end so that she can drink the damn coffee and go home. Was that really so much to ask? But as she reaches out for the two cups –
"Wait," declares Gaius, and snatches the black coffee back.
Robin can only look on in mute horror as he tears open five packets of sugar at once and dumps them all in her drink.
"Think maybe you need something sweet in your life, Bubbles," Gaius says, handing her coffee back to her with a wink.
She could (and really should) complain about the sugar, but damn it. She's tired as hell, she just wants her fucking drink, and hey, she got a free cappuccino out of it. So she carries both cups back to her seat and swallows her horribly defiled black coffee along with any sharp words she'd like to use on the barista, trying not to cough when a half-dissolved lump of sugar hits the back of her throat. Strategists knew which battles to pick, and she hadn’t spent all those hours on fucking Final Fantasy Tactics learning how to blindly rush into fights.
As she finishes off the last of her drinks she makes for the bin, but then -
What the hell?
A cursory glance at the counter tells her that Gaius, for some reason, is watching her very intensely. When he catches her gaze he wiggles his eyebrows and gestures at the cup in her right hand, the one that previously contained the black coffee. Robin looks down at it. It's got a little bird doodled there in place of her name, obviously his way of being a smartass, and below that –
Fucking hell. He had the audacity to give her his number.
Well, she supposes, some victories can be earned.
Robin smiles sweetly at Gaius as she dumps the cup without bothering to take down the number, sticking her tongue out at him and enjoying the look of feigned heartbreak she gets in return. She returns to her seat and slings her bag over her shoulder, pausing to retrieve a scrap of paper from her bag. Yanking the cap off her pen, she scribbles on it, then she presses the paper into Gaius' hand before exiting the coffeeshop, feeling a lot more satisfied than she thought a cup of black coffee with five sugars would leave her.
Gaius leans back on the counter as he watches Robin go, her twintails flying out behind her as she hurries down the street beyond the windows of the coffeeshop. She's a cute one, he thinks to himself. He isn't sure what exactly possessed him to push her around like that, but damn if he regrets it; that's the most fun he's had in ages.
It's only when she's long disappeared out of sight that he finally lifts his hand to take a look at the words on the paper in his palm.
Better luck next time, hot stuff.
He lets out a soft chuckle at this. Being a barista in a coffeeshop had never been the most interesting job, but he's pretty sure that he's got something to look forward to in the future. For now, though, he shoves the paper into his pocket and goes to greet the next customer.