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Naruto liked to think that it was fate that brought him into that stupid little hipster café on the main street. It was more likely a coincidence, but the moment that he stepped through the door and laid eyes on the dark-haired barista behind the counter, it was like his world stopped. The man was beautiful. He had impossibly dark, almond-shaped eyes, and pale, porcelain skin that Naruto just knew felt as smooth as the statue of David. Black bangs framed his angular face, the back sticking up in an odd style (reminiscent of a duck’s ass, he thought with a snicker) that Naruto thought fit him perfectly. He was about Naruto’s height, give or take a few inches, and he wore a pair of tight black skinny jeans and an even tighter grey turtleneck that gave Naruto a very clear look at his physique. He clearly hit the gym. He looked both out of place and perfectly at home in this coffee shop (one of those weird cafés with abstract art all over the walls and a little stage that had a sign that said slam poetry and karaoke schedule written over it), even more so when standing by the woman that took his order. She had bright, bubblegum pink hair and green eyes, and she popped her gum while Naruto gave her his order.
He had no idea what any of the fancy names on the menu meant, but he decided to take a chance on the Americano with Pistachio Crème. The woman (Naruto squinted at her name tag), Sakura, stared at him for a moment, before punching his order in. He felt kind of like he had made the wrong choice. The gorgeous man, with barely a look at Naruto, turned to his station to start fixing his drink. Naruto paid for it (he failed to see how any coffee was good enough to justify that price) and stood near the end of the counter, trying not to gawk at the man. When he turned to grab a cup, Naruto peered at his name tag. Sasuke. He bit the inside of his cheek, shoving his hands into his pockets. He was really regretting not giving a shit about his appearance today. He had only had one class today (Mondays were his lazy days – he had classes up to his balls the rest of the week), and it was a gym class, so he had thrown on a pair of bright orange athletic shorts and a black muscle shirt, with an orange hoodie. He stuck out like a sore thumb in the suave café, but, he tried to rationalize, the café was called The Carrot, and he was wearing orange, and a carrot was orange, so maybe he didn’t stick out as much as he thought he did?
He looked around – the café wasn’t full, but there were a few people hanging around at the tables strewn about. All of them looked like hipsters. None of them were dressed even slightly like him. His best friend, Shikamaru, would fit in rather well here. And he would punch Naruto for mentioning it. He snickered to himself at the thought and turned away.
Sasuke the café-God had finished his coffee and was in the process of swirling whipped cream along the top. The muscles in his arm rippled, and Naruto’s knees shook. How could someone make something like making coffee hot? His phone vibrated in his pocket, but he ignored it because Sasuke was now snapping the lid on and turning to him.
“Americano with Pistachio crème?”
His voice.
Holy fuck.
Naruto had not been expecting that baritone. He felt the blood rushing down south and, because athletic sorts were not known to hide any sort of… biological appreciation, he hastily shot forwards and took the cup as Sasuke set it onto the counter.
“Thanks!” He said with a wide grin.
Sasuke just blinked at him.
Naruto’s grin faltered.
Sasuke snorted and turned away.
Asshole.
Naruto huffed under his breath and turned away from the counter, his eyes catching on a little table that had napkins, mug sleeves, and stirring sticks. He approached it and, glancing over his shoulder back to Sasuke, he grabbed one of the sleeves. His eyes met piercing onyx, and he faltered, proceeding to nearly push his coffee over. His hand hit the mug and he swore, whipping back around and grabbing it before it fell over, but not before some of the liquid sloshed over and burned his hand. Swearing again, he wrung his hand off to the side and dropped the sleeve onto the counter, grabbing one of the napkins. He wiped his hand off, threw the napkin over and, ears and cheeks burning, slid the sleeve over his coffee.
He slurped some of the coffee that had caught on the top of the lid, wrinkling his nose as he did so. It tasted kind of burnt, but he decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. He hadn’t taken a proper sip.
Tail between his legs, so to say, Naruto slunk towards the door to leave. He held the door open as he neared it, letting in a woman that was coming up at the same time. She thanked him, and Naruto shot her a grin. Before he walked out, he glanced over his shoulder in time to see Sasuke, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. Looking at him.
Naruto’s mouth went dry and he hastily turned to leave.
And promptly ran into the door.
~~~
The Carrot was prissy and stupid and overpriced.
And Naruto went there for coffee almost every single day after that.
After about two months, he had actually gotten to know Sakura pretty well. She was a bit of a snob at times (she was very vocal about her distaste for his clothing choices), but she was nice enough. He had gotten to know a few other employees there, too – Sai was odd, but he was kind of funny, though Naruto could do without all of the tiny dick jokes the man aimed at him when he came in. Ino was even more snobbish than Sakura, but he found out pretty quickly that her dad was a politician, and her attitude suddenly made a lot more sense. So, he didn’t take it personally when she sneered at him every time he came in.
Well.
He tried not to.
Hinata was a doll. Really, she was. She was easily the nicest person there, and after a few days, she had started chatting him up when he came in. She was shy and quiet at first, but as he got to know her more, she started opening up enough for Naruto to realize that she was a fucking spitfire. And a useless lesbian. Seriously. Naruto was oblivious, but he would have had to be blind not to see the way she stared at Ino when they worked together. She had a bad habit of knocking things over whenever Ino came close to her, and Naruto (who also had a bad habit of knocking things over when a certain café-God was working) didn’t feel so bad.
Speaking of the café-God…
Naruto had gotten to know him pretty well, too, though not because the guy gave him even an inch.
Hinata had taken pity on his swooning and most of their conversation revolved around him.
First of all, the guy was an asshole. A complete, rigid asshole. The most that Naruto had ever gotten out of him that wasn’t a call of an order was a, “Hn.” Hinata said that that was pretty much all she had ever gotten from him, too. Sakura was hopelessly infatuated with the man, which Naruto had gathered pretty quickly, but Sasuke barely batted an eye at her unless he had to. It was kind of pathetic, really – a week into his own pitiful obsession, he had watched Sakura leaning on the counter beside Sasuke, batting her eyelashes and flirting with him hard enough that Naruto felt uncomfortable being in earshot.
Sasuke had ignored her until he needed to get into the cooler underneath her. He had fixed her with a look cold enough that Naruto shivered from where he was standing and told her to move. Sakura had flinched but had moved out of the way, with all the grace of a cat that had been kicked. He felt a little bad for her, but when he tried to give her a sympathetic smile, she had scowled at him fiercely enough that he had nearly shit himself.
She was scary when she was pissed.
He knew that Sasuke’s disregard for Sakura’s advances might not mean that all hope was lost for him, because maybe he was gay (which means that Naruto had a chance), but when he had mentioned this to Hinata (totally nonchalant), Hinata had winced and told him the harrowing story of how Sai had come to the same conclusion and tried to come onto him, and Sasuke had punched him.
Naruto’s chances were looking really, really slim.
But then
But then.
By some grace of the fucking Gods, he had made Sasuke laugh.
He had made Sasuke laugh, and Sakura and Hinata had both looked over in shock.
Sure, he had made Sasuke laugh by spilling his coffee everywhere, but he had still made Sasuke laugh. It was like music to Naruto’s ears, and if he hadn’t burnt his hand, he might have been struck immobile in the wake of it. As it was, he had sworn colorfully and started stammering apologies for the mess, surging to the napkins and grabbing a handful to try and clean up the mess while trying to ignore the throbbing of the side of his hand.
Sasuke had laughed, and taken the mop from Sakura, while Hinata rushed over to see if he was alright.
“Idiot,” Sasuke murmured as he came out from behind the counter with the mop and bucket (it was the first time he had seen Sasuke out from behind the machines – this was a dream come true), dark eyes glimmering with amusement.
Naruto, tongue tripping over apologies, had hastily wiped away the coffee that had spilled onto the counter, his face and ears burning as he balled up the soggy napkins and headed to the garbage to pitch them.
Sasuke chuckled again, and Naruto could have fucking died as he said, “Stop apologizing. It was only a matter of time before you knocked over more than just the napkin box. We’ll get another coffee made in a second.”
Naruto just gaped at him – it was the most he had ever heard the man speak, even to his coworkers, and from the look on Sakura and Hinata’s face, they were just as shocked.
“I’ll get the drink started,” Hinata said after a moment, but Sasuke stopped her.
“I’ll do it. I’m almost done.” He didn’t look at her while he spoke, eyes down on the mess he was mopping up.
Hinata shot Naruto an amused look, eyebrows lifting as she stepped away from the counter. Naruto bit the inside of his cheek and pulled his wallet out, heading to the register to pay for another coffee (he doubted that a place like this would make a free one because he was an idiot and spilled his coffee), but Sasuke scoffed.
“Put your wallet away, idiot.”
"Uh..? Are you sure?" Naruto gaped at him, watching as Sasuke straightened and took the ‘wet floor’ sign that Sakura handed him from over the counter.
Sasuke quirked a brow, and Naruto let out a sheepish laugh as he tucked his wallet back into his pocket. He stepped to the side as Sasuke passed him. He had to catch himself at the last minute to keep from leaning in and sniffing Sasuke when he caught a whiff of his cologne. It was something musky, vaguely sweet. It reminded him of his roommate Gaara’s incense.
He stood awkwardly to the side as Sasuke set about making him another coffee, and as Sasuke frothed the milk, he glanced up. Their eyes met, Sasuke smirked, and Naruto’s self-control slipped.
He had been debating asking Sasuke out since the first day that fate had pushed him in here, and after a week, he had written his phone number and name on a piece of paper. He slid it into his wallet, fully intending on sliding it to Sasuke all cool-like when Sasuke handed him his coffee, but he had wimped out every single time. For two months. Now, though, in a reckless surge of boldness, he pulled his wallet out and grabbed the piece of paper. He pocketed his wallet again and waited, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. Sasuke had his back to Naruto, bent over his coffee, but after a few seconds, he turned and slid the cup across the counter.
Naruto was fully aware that Sakura and Hinata were watching the interaction, and that was almost enough for his courage to fizzle out. Almost.
“Try not to knock this one over, yeah?” Sasuke said, leaning against the counter, smirking in a way that had Naruto’s heart stuttering in his chest.
He let out a nervous laugh and reached out for his coffee… then paused.
“Er,” He started, retracting his arm in favor of thrusting the other one forwards, placing the folded piece of paper on the counter, “I’ll try.”
Not wanting to wait for the rejection that he was fearing (really, he was a complete idiot – didn’t he hear people bitch about being hit on while working all the time? And Sasuke had never shown any sort of interest in Naruto - he had been there enough that he would have noticed!), he grabbed his coffee and high-tailed it to the door. He could have sworn he heard Hinata giggling as he left.
Only when he had fled the café did he look down at his coffee and realize that Sasuke had already put a sleeve on it. Normally they left something like that up to the customer. He frowned a little, though, as his eyes caught on something on the side of the sleeve. He stopped walking, lifting the cup level to his face and turning the sleeve. His heart nearly stopped. There was a phone number neatly written on the side of the sleeve, followed by a short message.
If I give you my number, will you stop making a mess of my workplace? Sasuke.
Naruto burst into laughter.