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Hiori tilted his head. “So… Yer sure ya don’t wanna try it?”
“No,” Rin frowned. “I mean- yes. No? You get what I mean. I’m not trying it.”
“Very sure?”
Sitting between the two of them on their kitchen counter was a shiny, new coffee maker. Hiori had been going on about getting one for months in his own quiet, Hiori-like way. He had a habit of sighing like an overworked maid whenever he had to make his morning coffees by himself, so even though he never actually complained about it, it was easy enough to tell that he was fed up.
Rin didn’t really get it. He stared at the sleek, black machine with a raised eyebrow and folded arms. “I drink tea,” he said, “and coffee tastes awful.”
Coffee, among many other things, had to be one of the worst human inventions ever created. There was nothing to like about how bitter and watery it was, not to mention that no matter what other flavours it was paired with, the ‘coffee’ taste always overpowered everything else. With tea, there was variety. Options. It was easy to prepare, no bean-grinding business necessary (since even Hiori didn't stoop to drinking the instant stuff).
And so, Rin would always be a tea drinker through and through.
This morning, however, Hiori looked him up and down with a curious expression. “Have ya ever actually tasted coffee before?” he asked.
Rin went silent. He looked away. Okay sure, he could go on a rant about coffee and how awful it was for ages, but he hadn’t tried it before. Not properly. He might’ve had a sip when he was a kid but nothing beyond that.
“I knew it,” a small smile curled onto Hiori’s lips. It was a soft expression, not brimming with smugness but rather understanding. “Come on, how d’ya even know ya don’t like it if ya don’t know what it tastes like?”
“You don’t have to try something to know you won’t like it,” Rin mumbled.
“How about ya try mine? I’m makin’ some now.”
Rin grimaced. “I might as well drink the beans straight out of the bag.”
Hiori shrugged. “The stronger the better. Espressos all the way.”
“Gross.”
That made Hiori laugh. It was sweet when he did that — laughing off Rin’s meaningless jabs instead of taking them personally. His eyes always crinkled in the corners and he brought his hand up to conceal how big his smile was growing. Nothing could hide the light blush spreading across his cheeks though. He patted the top of the coffee maker as if it were a small pet. “Okay,” he smiled, “I’m not gonna force ya to drink any.” He then paused. “Not even a latte?”
“No.”
“Okay then.” Hiori then opened the instruction manual to figure out how to use it. “Want me to make ya some tea with breakfast?”
Rin was already heading over to the cupboard where he kept his teabags. “As long as you remember to add an extra spoonful of sugar even if you think it’s way too much.” He didn’t exactly have a sweet tooth but his boyfriend was so allergic to the concept of sugar that it was a necessary precaution to make.
Hiori nodded with a chuckle. “And milk too, right?”
Rin pulled out the brand he wanted and placed down on the counter. “Extra milk.”
It was a rather early start for both of them. The clock struck seven as they milled about the kitchen, getting breakfast together and letting comfortable silence blossom between them. Neither of them were that great at cooking but Rin was the only one allowed near the stove, since for Hiori’s entire childhood his mother had refused to let him so much as think about cooking for himself. Still, Hiori knew what he did and didn’t like to eat, which was usually pretty easy for both of them to deal with. They both had a preference for the savoury and the salty, and were still trying to figure out who had a higher spice tolerance (Hiori swore it was him but Rin was never one to admit defeat).
However, where Hiori liked to turn his tastebuds towards the bitter and the sour, Rin had a preference for the sweet. Nothing too sugary and he certainly didn’t want to indulge in it on the regular, but a morning cup of tea and the occasional ice cream was an acceptable break from the monotony of the same flavours over and over again.
As he went about turning on the rice cooker and preparing some miso soup for the two of them, he glanced over at his boyfriend fiddling with their new kitchen contraption. Hiori seemed to have figured out enough, because the coffee maker was now pouring a dark, heavy liquid into a small, porcelain cup. He was no barista by a long shot but it was definitely far less work than what he’d had to do before.
And no matter how much Rin thought the labour of making a hot beverage was more appealing than letting a machine do all the work, the excited glimmer in Hiori’s eyes was trade-off enough.
The kettle boiled with a satisfying squeal, and before long everything was ready. The two of them sat down to eat at a dining table across their open-plan apartment. Next to Rin’s food was his usual teapot and cup… meanwhile there were five different cups of coffee scattered around Hiori’s bowl.
“Overkill,” Rin rolled his eyes.
“Well the machine makes five different varieties,” Hiori replied, going for a small, black cup that looked like his usual espresso. “I might as well do some taste-tests.”
“You’ll be bouncing off the walls worse than Bachira after a Starbucks.”
Hiori snorted. “Well then that’s a new side of me even I’ve never seen before. I wonder what it’s like.” He downed his espresso in one.
Rin flinched, his throat constricting at the mere thought of tasting something so strong. “You’re a different breed.”
“From you, that’s a high compliment,” Hiori reached for his second cup, this one larger and topped with white foam. “Cappuccino next.”
Rin watched in mild abject horror as his boyfriend proceeded to drink a cappuccino, americano and mocha one after the other, not even making a start on his food. Each sip was a reminder that they were not going to be kissing each other for at least half the day, not unless Rin wanted to feel his mouth shrivel up and die from bitterness. Instead of letting the dismay of his boyfriend being a coffee drinker get to him though, he instead picked up his tea and let himself savour the fact that he, at least, was normal.
After the mocha, a small foam moustache had stuck itself to Hiori’s upper lip. He looked a bit ridiculous, but it was also endearing in a way Rin would never admit to anyone. In fact everything about the way Hiori was analysing each drink was oddly endearing. Rin glanced at him over the rim of his teacup as Hiori wiped his face on the back of his hand. It was a good thing this teacup was big enough to hide most of his face. No matter how long the two of them had been together, it was still humiliating to be caught staring.
“I’m gonna ask ya one last time,” Hiori’s voice then broke the silence. “I know what yer answer’s gonna be but whatever.”
The only coffee cup left was a large, shallow one — a latte.
Rin sighed, placing his teacup down. He rested his chin on his hand, propping his elbow up on the table. “You aren’t going to stop asking about this until I try it, are you?”
“Ah, if ya don’t wanna then I’ll just drink it myself,” Hiori shook his head.
On the one hand, they could let this be. But something was flickering inside of Rin. Something that drew his eyes to the latte on the other side of the table. Every time his eyes fell on that damned coffee cup, it was as if he were losing a battle. Backing away from a challenge. It was just a hot drink, for fuck’s sake! Who was he to chicken out of taking a sip? It wasn’t as if Hiori was challenging him to drink it all.
“I’ll try it,” the words fell from his lips before he could fully comprehend that he’d said them.
It seemed as though the change of heart surprised Hiori because he just stared back at Rin for a few seconds. Then, his eyes lit up and he slid the cup across the table. “Really?”
“Just one sip, got it?”
“That’s more than enough.”
“And I’m adding sugar.”
“Go for it.”
One spoonful didn’t feel like it would counterbalance the strength, so Rin added another half teaspoon for good measure. He could feel Hiori’s eyes on him as he raised the cup to his lips. It was normally quiet in their apartment since neither of them were loud people, but for some reason right now it seemed even quieter than usual. It wasn’t exactly ‘unsettling’, but it was poignant.
He took a sip. He let the flavours settle. He swallowed.
It… wasn’t that bad.
Not nearly as bad as he’d been expecting. Definitely still a little too bitter, but not unbearable. He placed the cup down, eyes closed in contemplative concentration. There was definitely a lot of milk in this kind of coffee. Well, it was called a latte. It added a cushion to the bitterness, easing the shock.
“Well?” Hiori hummed. “How is it?”
Rin opened his eyes. Hiori was leaning over the table, that small smile of his filled with simmering anticipation. Rin would never say out loud that it was an expression he loved but it nevertheless relaxed his shoulders and made the corners of his mouth dare to turn upwards ever so slightly.
And that was reaction enough for Hiori to lean back in his chair with a triumphant glimmer in his eyes. “Told ya,” he almost whispered.
Rin just rolled his eyes again, reaching for the sugar. “I probably won’t finish it,” he said as he dropped another teaspoon in. “You’ll have to do that.”
Hiori immediately shook his head, scrunching up his face. The strand of hair he kept slightly longer than the others swished back and forth. “No way! Ya added so much sugar I’d choke.”
“It’s two and a half teaspoons.”
“Yer tryin’ to kill me.” Hiori then stood up and circumvented the table. He stopped next to Rin’s chair, his hands clasped behind his back. “So instead, I guess I could make another one for myself. You’ll just hafta finish this one.”
This was what Rin liked about Hiori. His boyfriend might be quiet, polite and friendly to everyone who crossed his path, but he was in no way a pushover. When that look of determination sparked in his features, it was sign enough that he knew what he wanted and was willing to do anything, within reason, to get it. And he knew that Rin knew this, because the two of them didn’t even have to say anything more.
He leaned down and planted a kiss on Rin’s temple. “Seems I’ve converted ya to coffee after all,” he smiled.
“I’m still a tea drinker,” Rin replied, pouring another cup of tea for himself as he spoke. “It’s only lattes that maybe aren’t so bad.”
“I’ll take that,” Hiori was already wandering back to the kitchen. “Want me to show ya how to make one?”
“I can figure it out myself.”
“Okay. But if ya have to admit defeat at the hands of a hunk of metal, yer gonna feel pretty stupid comin’ to ask me for help later.”
Damn it, Hiori was right. Too right. It was almost unbearable how right he was. And so, Rin downed the rest of the latte with surprising ease and pushed back his chair. “Fine. Show me. But you’re on washing up duty for all these empty cups.”