Chapter Text
He slid the white cardboard to-go cup into the paper sleeve, stamped with the cafe’s logo on it, then poured the steaming hot liquid into the cup and covered it with the plastic top. It was 6:15 a.m. and he knew the guy would be in any minute. He was like clockwork. The bells on the door handle across the room jingled and Naruto looked up to find a dark haired broody-looking man standing before him. His hair was disheveled and he was wearing all black, loose clothing. His shirt was unbuttoned at the top, showing his collar bones.
“Here you go,” Naruto said, a little bit too loudly, and handed the black coffee to the man.
He nodded and handed over a bill, left the change for a tip, and headed to the same chair he always sat in. Every day. Naruto watched as he pulled out a book, which he couldn’t distinguish from this distance, from his unassuming black bag which he had discarded into the floor between his feet. The man sipped his coffee, even though it was steaming hot, then set it down on the coffee table next to him and opened the book.
Naruto shook his head. He couldn’t figure the guy out. He wasn’t even sure he’d heard the man speak except for maybe the first time he’d ordered, which was about a month ago. Since he showed up, he’d been doing the same routine everyday without fail. Naruto even checked with the other baristas after he’d been scheduled on a different shift or had an off day. He really did come in every single day at the same time, hung out for an hour, then left without so much as a nod. And today, Naruto was going to change that.
There weren’t any other customers in the cafe yet. There rarely were at this hour. It would be another forty-five minutes before things really picked up, and Sakura was on shift with him this morning. She’d be able to handle any random customers by herself. Naruto peeked into the back room where she was taking morning inventory and waved.
“Hey, Sakura, I’m gonna clean up in the sitting area a little bit, maybe turn the store radio on. Two questions, do you have a particular playlist in mind and can you watch the register for a bit?”
“Sure, and let’s listen to the lo-fi playlist Shikamaru made the other day.”
“Thanks! Sounds good.”
Naruto walked back out of the storage room and pulled out his phone. He connected it to the bluetooth speaker system they had set up, and tapped through to his shared playlists. He found it, “lofi beats for chill queens,” and pressed play. Then he grabbed a rag and some disinfectant spray so he could look like he was doing something. He had to have a reason to be out in the sitting area. He pushed through the swinging door in the counter and strode into the main room. He busied himself cleaning things for a few minutes, maybe five, before easing his way closer to the dark-haired man. The guy was oblivious, completely engrossed in his book, and was completely caught off guard when he heard a loud “Excuse me!”
“I’m sorry?” The dark-haired man said softly, looking up from his book abruptly.
“I asked you if I could clean the table next to you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Sure,” he said and picked up his coffee. He looked at Naruto for a minute and then away, staring off at the wall or the ceiling or something. Weird. That was weird. This guy was awkward, but that made sense considering he didn’t speak to anyone generally. But Naruto was convinced he could make conversation.
“Thanks!! So, what are you reading?” Naruto asked as he wiped down the coffee table.
“Oh, uh, Freire.” The man gestured with the book, turning it over so Naruto could see the cover. The book was red and had bold black and white text that read:
LEARNING TO QUESTION
A PEDAGOGY OF LIBERATION
“Interesting,” Naruto said with an eyebrow raised. He had no idea who Freire was, or why anyone would read something so dense and also what the fuck was pedagogy? And how could it have anything to do with liberation? And what was this guy reading about liberation for? He had so many questions. So he asked them.
“Why are you reading that book?” He stood up straight after having thoroughly cleaned the table. “Oh you can put your coffee back down by the way.”
The man placed the coffee cup back on the table and looked up from the book at Naruto. “It’s for a class.” The man responded, then blinked and looked away again. He started to open the book back up but Naruto was relentless.
“What class?”
The man’s eyes darted back to Naruto. “Philosophy.”
“Oh.” He blinked. This man wasn’t going to give him much, was he? For a moment he considered walking away, but decided against it. He had more questions.
“What is “pedagogy of liberation”?” He asked.
The man’s brow furrowed. It was as if he was trying to decide whether or not to respond, or even how to respond. Naruto wasn’t sure which, when he finally spoke.
“Pedagogy means to teach, and liberation is just that. The book is about teaching for liberation.” He looked at Naruto with a blank face, as if he was supposed to understand what the man was talking about. He did not.
“Sure,” Naruto said, raising his eyebrows and chuckling awkwardly.
“Well, uh, I hope you enjoy your book. I noticed you read a lot here.”
“It’s usually very quiet here,” the man said, plainly. He thumbed the pages in the book idly, but still kept his place with another finger.
“Yeah, it is pretty quiet,” Naruto offered. “But uh, well, I just wanted to say hi because you’re a regular, y’know. My name is Naruto.”
“I know,” the man said.
“Wh-” Naruto began.
The man pointed and said, “Nametag.”
“Oh,” he laughed nervously. “Right. Nametag.”
There was a very awkward pause and Naruto ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.
“Anyway, what’s your name? I don’t think I ever got it.”
The man sat quietly for a moment and blinked a few times. It felt like forever but he finally answered. “Sasuke.”
“Well, nice to finally know your name, Sasuke.”
Sasuke nodded a very curt nod and then went back to his book abruptly, ending the conversation.
Naruto frowned, shook his head, and then made his way back to the counter. Sakura was at the register, leaning forward eagerly waiting for Naruto to come back. Once Naruto was through the swinging door again, Sakura grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him into the back room.
“What did he say?!”
“Nothing, really. Getting him to talk was like pulling teeth!”
“He didn’t say anything?!”
“I mean, I got him to tell me his name. And he sort of talked about the book he was reading.”
“What is it? What’s his name?”
“Sasuke.”
“Sasuke,” Sakura said and sighed. “He’s fucking gorgeous, you know that?”
Naruto laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. “Sure,” he said softly, and glanced over his shoulder back at the man. He did kind of have a nice face. Angular features. And the brooding looked good on him somehow. He was pretty suave in his monochrome black outfit, and maybe the heady book made him more attractive. Naruto wasn’t usually shy about admitting people were attractive or talking with Sakura about customers like that. Generally they bantered back and forth about everyone who came in, but something was different about this guy. He wasn’t comfortable doing it about him for some reason. He shrugged it off and got back to work. Enough time had passed that things started to pick up and now there were customers waiting at the counter.
“Gotta get back out there, there’s people!” Naruto said and darted to the register. Sakura followed and they got to it.