Chapter Text
The steam of the fresh latte comforted the employees, the same way it comforted the customers. The scene was akin to a film put in real life. Kind people, comfortable furniture, familiar faces and that iconic jazz-esque music playing in the background with a delicate manner. The only thing that stood out was a wild red hair clumsily taking people’s orders.
But that didn’t disturb the peace of the local shop. In fact, he made the place even warmer. The clients always loved being served by him. He was the light of the cafeteria. Always smiling fondly whenever someone’s shoes entered across the door, making the bell ring.
This time there were a pair of black loafers joining the enthusiastic yet soft ambient of the cafeteria. His gray suit rested on the counter.
“Reki, kiddo!” said the man, offering a fraternal smile. Reki grabbed a black coffee that he had already prepared from earlier on.
“Good morning, Sir Hanasaki,” the employee said, already giving him the cup to go to the salaryman.
“Oh? You already have it prepared,” mumbles Sir Hanasaki, while looking at the already prepared cup of his usual.
“Of course! You always ask the same so I thought I could just do it in advance,” said Reki with a prideful tone. The man clicked his tongue with an impressed expression. Then looked again at the boy. “What would’ve you done if I just asked for… a latte?” The man dived in.
“Then… prepare it?” Reki answered like it was a question in a first grader’s exam. The grown up contemplated his existence looking at nothing. Then he sighed. “Ok, fair enough. It was a dumb question.” He laughed, “see you tomorrow, kid!” He said, grabbing his coffee and stepping back.
Reki waved his arm as the man drifted away to the street. “Have a nice day at work, sir!”
After the daily interaction, Reki decided to focus on the impenetrable stain that had the counter. He liked working there. It was the same routine everyday but it was never boring, at least for him. He liked admiring (and drawing, in his free time) the different styles everyone there had. Something about that cafeteria made him feel like home.
Perhaps it was just the iconic scent of coffee and sweets, but whatever it was, it made him feel safe.
Ding~
The bell rang again.
This time it entered a young boy with a curious way of walking. He made one step in and immediately stopped. Reki couldn’t look away from the subject trying to figure out what to do next. He looked kinda confused. His blue gaze was spinning all around the cafeteria.
“Hey!” Reki shouted at the interesting boy, “you can take your order here,” he suggested. The boy’s eyes finally landed on Reki and started walking again. He seemed to be somewhat embarrassed by just being there. His shoelaces were loose but that didn’t make him trip at all, although he advanced through the cafeteria with a clumsy manner.
His blue gaze was a few inches apart from Reki. He’s kinda pretty… Reki thought before swearing the hell out in his head. What was he thinking about?
Reki grabbed the rag that was on the counter and put it aside.
“Need help discovering your new favorite drink?” Asked Reki, ready to lend a hand to the boy.
His pale skin took a turn of color and seemed like Reki’s voice had some sort of delay. He started blinking, trying to get an answer out of his mouth. “Oh, uhm… it’s ok, thank you,” he finally said. Reki found his shy voice adorable. He hadn’t seen the boy around there before. And counting on how lost he looked, maybe he was new to that neighborhood. The blue haired boy talked again.
“Is whipped coffee on the menu?”
“Oh!” Reki got distracted with his own thoughts. The mere sound of the other’s voice startled him a little. “It indeed is! Lemme prepare it for you, swee— UH, dude!”
That was a close one, thank god he seemed to not notice Reki’s stuttering.
He took his order and finally learnt his name.
Langa .
It was such an elegant and delicate name. Just like his appearance. He thanked the redhead and walked towards his seat. As the boy sat down, Reki acknowledged that humans could achieve such levels of beauty. Langa may not be everyone’s cup of coffee, but he was Reki’s.
No, no. This was just an artistic observation.
He pulled out his pencil, opened a new page of his messy sketchbook and began scribbling.
—
Today he wore more classier clothes. He looked amazing. His bangs carefully fell down on his cheeks. All of his being was absolutely perfect .
Langa was a really pretty looking dude. That’s why some pages in Reki's sketchbook were just him . So on, the days went by. Langa would go to that cafe almost everyday at the same hour, more or less. That meant a half or a full page everyday, depending if the place was kind of full or not.
Reki loved drawing Langa. It was relaxing to concentrate on how his hair flowed down because of gravity. On how his eyelashes really captivated Reki’s eyes. On how his cheeks slightly reddened because of the heat of the coffee that Reki just prepared.
Man, Langa was full of the sweetest details. He kinda wanted to hear his voice more.
Reki wished voices could be drawn. So he could keep them safe right inside his pocket.
As he observed the blue boy sitting in his usual part of the cafeteria, Reki captured his face on the paper with a few strokes of his pencil. He was really focused on it. He wasn’t busy at the moment and the customers were all satisfied on their seats, so he could have a little moment.
He looked up again to take another mental image of Langa, but he wasn’t there. He started at the portrait again and began to perfect his work. A few more lashes, a bit more of pigment on his cheeks, and man , that iconic dot of light on both his eyes. As he grabbed the eraser, he noticed something coming towards him. But Reki didn’t bother to see what it was, he was way too focused on those eyes.
“Is that me?” a familiar voice asked.
Oh. My. God. This can’t be happening.
Langa took Reki out of guard, and because of him being startled, he suddenly raised his head and hit something with it.
“EJK—” The cafeteria went silent just to pay attention to what was happening at the counter. Reki’s head hurt but there were stains from blood on the floor and it was definitely not his.
Oh no. Langa’s nose was bleeding. The blue boy looked absolutely lost and about to pass out just because of the sight of blood.
“OHMYGOD I’M SO SORRY—” Reki claimed.
“Hmm… ugh… s’okay…” He vaguely mumbled while vainly cleaning his nose. The blood was still coming out and falling on the wooden floor.
“No it is not!!” Reki was incredibly frightened for the boy. Nothing bad like this ever happened, and now it had to happen to Langa. God, what if he loses a client? What’d Reki do without his daily dose of inspiration?
Reki, totally agitated, ran towards Langa, grabbing a napkin on the way. He used it to clean Langa’s upper lip and then, he redirected the blue boy to look at the floor (even though there was blood, and that made Langa feel even worse). ‘It’s way worse if you look up’ , whispered Reki. He could hear how Langa was amongst the idea of facing right to the puddle, but he didn’t fight it.
“Lemme— uh, lemme take you to the employees room and help you with your injury! And invite you to another coffee, it’s on the house!”
“REKI WHAT DID YOU DO” a strong voice shouted, it was his boss.
“I JUST HIT A CLIENT”
“WHAT??????”
—
After some bloody tissues were already inside the bin, Reki and Langa were peacefully recovering some air from their agitated encounter. They were sitting on different chairs, at the same table. There was an awkward silence, the only thing could be heard was the sound of the people talking outside. The room was softly illuminated by the sun streaming in from the mid-closed window, also accompanied with curtains.
They sat there without saying a thing. Both of them were silently thinking about what they would say next. Reki was anxiously playing with his automatic pencil, while Langa was still cleaning his no longer blood dripping nose.
“So, uhm,” the redhead finally decided to speak, “yeah, it’s you.”
Reki kept on fidgeting with his pencil while staring at the floor. The other boy took a good look at him. Reki didn’t perceive him as annoyed, instead, he looked curious. He stopped taking care of his nose and let out a sighed sentence. He talked almost like whispering.
“That’s amazing,” he said. A tender grin was drawn on his face. “I’d love to see more of it, if you’re okay with it.”
Reki immediately felt like he was being pinched by the sudden words of admiration. He was way too flustered to admit that he loved every single physical aspect of Langa. It was also too soon, he didn’t even know the young man’s surname. His eyes started spinning through the whole room. Reki wasn’t bold enough to look him in the eye. He tried to slow his heartbeat the best that he could, but noticing a blue gaze staring at him wasn’t helpful.
“Are you okay?” He said with a hint of obliviousness. Langa tilted his head with a worried expression. Oh, no no no .
“No! Nah, I’m fine—” Reki mumbled, “it’s just that I’m not used to that . Thank you, though.”
Silence again. Reki still felt incredibly guilty for the hit and now, he felt responsible for that awkward situation. He felt like the floor was about to crash and fall before his eyes.
“Anyway—!” Reki stood up abruptly, “let’s go to the cashier so I can give you your free coffee!”
Almost immediately after saying that, Reki began to sprint outside the room. Langa couldn’t do anything but follow him.
Reki was already starting to prepare something free for Langa, but he quickly stopped him by grabbing his arm.
The redhead was embarrassed to the point he didn’t make any sense with his actions. He looked at the blue boy confused, waiting to get an explanation of the sudden act.
Langa took some air, “you don’t need to do that—”
“But I want to!” Reki replied, “really, it’s no effort— just a little detail.”
“Well… I’m not really in the mood of another coffee right now,” Langa wandered, “may I get that free coffee another day?”
“Oh! Of course!” The barista agreed. He left the cup of coffee right on the counter. He played with it with his finger and suddenly remembered that a customer was still in front of him. To end the awkward silence, and those shy gazes , Reki asked him: “what would you want though, just curious.”
Reki tilted his whole body towards the counter (towards Langa) and rested his face on his hand. He was full ears for the response, looking at him with complete endearment.
“Uhm… Not a coffee, that’s for sure,” he mumbled. Reki gave him a ‘ then what? ’ look therefore the young man continued, “… definitely something that’s not on the menu .”
Something clicked and instantly fell down the abysm within Reki’s mind. That felt confusing. He could feel tingles around his legs and fingers. The blue boy looked at his wristwatch and encountered Reki’s fiery eyes again.
“I should be going by now. See you around, Reki! ”
“Ah, see ya!”
As the back of Langa eventually faded between the sunlight of the street, Reki got left out with a sour taste in his tongue.
Maybe it was the coffee steam and jazz-esque music that drove him insane. Or maybe, it was that little stuttering in each of his sentences. Maybe it was one of his blue strands slowly untucking from his ear. Maybe it was his blue pupils trembling and looking all around the place.
Ah, he’s kind of shy. Reki thought. That warmed his chest.
He got mesmerized by all of those thoughts, he wanted so bad to just start drawing him again. Though duty called him. He grabbed the mop and started to clean the red bloody floor before his boss had time to get the idea to cut Reki’s paycheck. Nevertheless, he still daydreamt about that boy. He recalled how softly he said his name—
Wait, did Langa just say my name?