Work Text:
“Look.” Akito Shinonome said. “A popular pancake shop just around here!”
Toya Aoyagi leaned over to his phone as they walked. “Ah, so that’s why you were quick to go out today, Aki?”
As they made their way through town, flyers around the walls showed the same image on Akito’s cellphone— a stack of thick, fluffy pancakes drenched with a generous amount of syrup and thin slices of butter. Akito was hyped to go and try it. “Uh-huh. I wonder, since there’s so many good reviews on it, is it really that amazing?” He thought.
Toya smiled at him, tilting his head, “Well, we’ll find out. Here, it seems to be right up ahead.”
The ginger’s green eyes widened when he saw the line flowing out of those wooden-framed double doors—
Eh?’
Wooden-framed double doors…
Wait…
“Weekend Garage!?—“ They both sputtered out.
Toya’s eyes followed the line outside. “Is this the popular cafe?” He looked astounded. They glanced at each other, stunned. “Since when is Weekend Garage popular with girls?”
“No way.” Akito muttered as he trudged through the line, breaking it and pushing the doors open with Toya hot on his heels. “Did they really–?”
Both of them stopped in their tracks.
“Welcome in–!” An exhausted Kohane Azusawa managed out, scrambling across the room with hands full of drinks.
“Please wait a moment!” A familiar girl dashed through the busy atmosphere with stacks of pancakes just like the ones in the picture. It was An Shiraishi!
Akito looked at them wildly. “An, Kohane!”
An served the plates and glanced at them with shock. Kohane stopped in her tracks, almost too abruptly and spilling the drinks. “Akito! Aoyagi-kun!” She blurted out. “A–are you guys here to have some pancakes? I think you’ll have to wait a moment… we apologize…”
Toya glanced at them. “No, it’s okay. How did this…” His eyes scanned the busy cafe. “How did this happen?”
An cracked her knuckles sheepishly. “Well, you see…” She ventured, “My dad tripped and hurt his leg the other day, so I ended up covering for him and made a pancake he had taught me before…” She cleaned up a table while she talked.
Kohane added, “But we posted a picture of it to social media and it ended up getting a lot of attention! So now…”
“Excuse me!” A few customers from across the room called out.
“We’ll be right there!” An managed out clumsily. The girls quickly walked away from the two boys.
Toya looked dumbfounded and glanced at Akito. “Should we help them?” He offered the decision.
Akito sighed. “Well, I guess it can’t be helped.”
Both of them ran up to An and asked, “Are there still some uniforms in the back?”
“Eh?” She asked incredulously, looking at them. “Ah, well yeah there are some…”
“Right.” Toya nodded.
“Then let’s get to it!’
“We can take care of it.” Akito promised. “You guys can take things over in the kitchen, me and Toya can do the rest.”
“Seriously?” An gushed with relief, “Thank you, Toya and Akito! Me and Kohane will for sure pay you guys back some-time soon.”
She scurried off, and Akito and Toya took in a deep breath together. “You ready?” Toya asked.
“I won’t let this shop’s reputation die!” Akito confirmed confidently.
And so they went, serving customers, racing around the room with plates of delicious pancakes and refreshing drinks as Akito brushed past him with extreme vigor. It all went so quickly Toya felt worn out as he served his tenth plate of buttered pancakes to the twenty-fifth girl waving to him.
The people were relentless. Akito lost count of how many lattes he had given out. Toya hurried to the counter and poured ice, coffee, and caramel into a glass.
“Sorry for the wait!”
“One serving, correct?”
“Please enjoy…”
The ginger proceeded to brush past Toya when–
“Akito. Are you all right?” He asked with concern.
The other nodded back, shoulders weary. “Yeah. It's just… so popular, right?”
Toya chuckled, taking a few dirty plates from his hands, “I wonder how An’s father is going to react…”
“Excuse me!” A lady called out from the front.
“Yes!” Akito rushed off. Toya’s eyes trailed to the clock mounted on the wall, then back to the doors of Weekend Garage– it was seemingly starting to slow down as the cafe was soon to close for the day. He sighed, his body feeling weak.
Although, he couldn’t give up,
Because he wouldn’t let this shop’s reputation die!
“Hey, weren’t those waiters kinda hot?”
“Right!? Especially the one with piercings…”
“I’ll definitely be coming back…”
The sign flipped to ‘CLOSED’ on the front double doors as people dispersed back out of the cafe. Akito took it upon himself to crash into one of the chairs, stretching wearily. “It’s finally almost over.” He mumbled as Toya sat in the chair across from him.
“You guys really did blow up.” Toya agreed to Kohane, sitting to his left. “It’s never been this busy before…”
Kohane laughed weakly. “I’m sorry if this caused you two any trouble.” She apologized.
“It’s nothing…”
An walked out from the back with a bright grin across her face and hands full of fresh pancakes, heading for the table where all of them sat, “Hey you guys!” She cheered. ‘Thank you all so much for your hard work!’
Akito’s eyes widened at the sight of the sweet dish– with fluffy pancakes with a yummy syrup poured all over it, he couldn’t resist taking a fork and stuffing some into his mouth with a forming smile on his face. “I understand how you guys got popular.” He laughed.
Toya smiled at his joy. “You finally got your pancakes you were supposed to get, Aki.”
“Also… If I could ask you both for one more favor, would you do it?” An asked.
Toya glanced at her as she sat down and took a sip of ice cold water. “Sure, that’s okay.”
An put her hands together, “Until my dad gets better, would you guys help out at the cafe for the time being?”
The ginger set down his fork and exchanged an agreed look with his boyfriend.
“Ah, well it is for Ken-san’s sake…”
The next day, Akito and Toya approached Weekend Garage when–
“Eh!?”
The line was even larger than before–!?
“Oh, look, it's the waiters!”
“You’re right! The cutest!”
They both pushed through the line and opened the doors to once again see An Shiraishi and Kohane Azusawa holding plates of food in their hands. “You guys are here!” An breathed. “We need all the help we can get!”
Akito’s eyes were wide. “Why is it so much busier than before!?”
Kohane quickly took out her phone and scrolled to the comments of their viral post, showing it to the two boys–
Those guy waiters there were so cool! So were the pancakes too…
He was so cute, wasn’t he?
Coming back just for those two!
Toya felt his face heating up. “Ah, well maybe this was a bad idea…” He said with embarrassment.
“No, it’s okay.” An shook her head. “I like how this cafe is flourishing!”
Akito frowned. “Then let’s do this while we’re still energized, right Toya?”
“Right.” Toya nodded.
This time, many girls and other people greeted them with compliments and charming remarks as they served the usual pancakes and coffee. They worked closer together, often checking on each other as they scurried throughout the cafe, their hands full. “It’s so busy…” Toya whispered to him as Akito swiped his hair out of his face tiredly.
“I’m a little worn out…” Akito murmured.
Toya glanced at him. “Please, take a seat Akito. I’ll handle it.”
“Are you sure–?”
“Of course I am.” Toya smiled, picking up a few glasses from an empty table and walking off to the customers, “Yes, one dark coffee is right?...”
Akito watched as Toya sped up the pace with orders. He often saw the girls peeking out of the kitchen and delivering pancakes onto the counters where Toya picked them up and served them. Even when Toya was being very persistent, Akito had good eyes– he saw Toya’s facade breaking and him slowly getting more tired.
“Understood.” Toya murmured, scribbling down the order.
“Please enjoy…”
“Thank you!” He called as a few girls were walking out of the door.”
“Of course!” One of them chirped. “Please be here tomorrow, I would like to see you…”
Toya sighed as he went back to Akito for a moment, “I still have more orders. Get up when you’re ready, Akito.”
“I’m fine.” Akito got up. “Come on, it’s your turn to take a break.”
“Ah… all right. I’ll go check up on Shiraishi and Azusawa…”
Due to Akito’s two-sided personality, he naturally got along with customers as he smiled back at them and handed them their fresh pancakes made by his fellow friends in the kitchen.
“Could I have a refill on water?” One asked, batting her eyelashes.
“I’ll get that for you.”
“Could I order one more thing?”
“Sure…”
Akito was walking in the other direction, going to get a new slip of papers for orders when–
“Excuse me?”
He turned to see a lady walking up to him, shades covering her eyes. “Could you remake my drink? Like now?”
Akito smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry, did I mess up your coffee? Here, I’ll put it down but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get it to you right away.” He proceeded to take the glass from her when she retracted her hand, basically jerking away from him like he was laced with poison.
“You should know that customers should not wait this long for a simple plate of pancakes and a cup of coffee, correct?”
“Well yes, but–”
The lady cut him off and continued with her ranting. Akito grimaced as he was aware of the fact that they were gathering people’s attention like some sort of immature school fight.
“We are quite busy, and I’m sorry for that–”
“Don’t you realize that I have somewhere to be right now?” She snapped.
I’m way too tired for this. Akito thought to himself.
“This is unreal–!”
“Ma’am, please stop,” A cold but familiar hand laced around his, “Or else we may have to escort you out of the cafe. How long have you been waiting for?”
Akito glanced at his boyfriend.
The lady scoffed. “Fifteen minutes. You know it shouldn’t take this long.”
Seriously? They both looked at each other with a blank
“...Well in truth it’s not that long.” Toya replied politely, and he has never felt so irritated before.
She promptly crossed her arms. “But that doesn’t take away the fact you guys messed up my coffee! Who gets a coffee wrong!?”
“What was your order?”
“A cappuccino. You people didn’t put the exact amount of milk foam on it and it’s not the right temperature. And who are you, anyway? His boyfriend, or something?”
Toya and Akito fell silent.
…
“You can either wait for your drink to be remade, or you could go to another cafe.” Toya smiled, offering the decision to her almost coldly as Akito looked at him with slightly wide eyes.
“I have somewhere to be right now!” She shrieked.
Toya stared at her. “So then why did you come to a cafe instead of going there?”
She fell silent.
…
“It was nice serving you.” Toya politely pushed her gently to the door. “Please, take care…”
“This is impossible–!”
The doors shut behind her. Akito looked at him, trying to keep in his laugh. “Are you okay?” Toya asked, his hand latching onto his again. “I don’t know why she was so hostile over a drink.”
“People these days, eh?” Akito chuckled, and he heard a few other giggles scattered across the cafe.
“Let’s finish up, Toya.”
“Of course, Akito.”
“...Somebody recorded it!?”
All of VIVID BAD SQUAD were hunched over Kohane’s phone, watching the little snippet of Toya and Akito handling a poor customer as a laugh escaped the person who was recording secretly. Akito sighed and laid back into his chair.
An laughed quietly. “You guys seem like the stars of the show! I’m eager to see my dad’s reaction to the place…”
Kohane smiled at them and went to the comments.
“Oh, let me read them.” Akito said, leaning forward again. Toya did the same.
“Wow, I can’t believe it!”
“Those two are so cool!”
“Are they single?”
“We helped, but at the same time we might have made this cafe a little too popular for it to handle…” Akito muttered, a frown on his face.
Toya looked at him. “It was nice eating pancakes and working with you, though.”
The ginger shook his head with a sudden smile replacing his frown. “I could say the same.”
An all gave them glasses of water,
“Cheers to these few successful days of Weekend Garage!”
“Yeah!”
Akito looked over to see his boyfriend with a gleaming smile on his face.
Toya. He mouthed.
Yes? He silently replied back.
I love you.
…
I love you too.