Work Text:
Ryo loved coffee.
If there was one thing she needed every day, at least once, it was coffee.
Any kind of coffee, any flavor. It didn't matter to her, but it was also entirely non-negotiable that it was of the iced variety.
When she was a teenager she would easily find the energy to get out of the house in the morning, eager to do the things she wanted to do.
She'd go to record shops, cheap clothing stores, trendy little cafés where she'd eat a nice dessert, it didn't matter where. She'd had the energy to spend her time how she wished and still play in Kessoku Band.
Devote almost all of her free time to it, even.
She wondered where that energy had gone and why there was now a crippling caffeine addiction in its place.
Honestly, it was fine. Because she would have traded all that energy for even a single cup of iced caramel coffee nowadays anyway.
Her girlfriend, however…
Ryo sipped at her drink, savoring the cold and slightly sweet flavor as if it were the first cup that day.
It was her third.
Hitori had had the idea of stopping by their favorite café on the way back to their shared apartment, and she just couldn't stop herself even after being reprimanded for her order.
“Th-that's not good for you,” Hitori had said. “More than two might make you sick…”
Ryo noted the worried tone with a slight smile, but dismissed it with a wave of her hand. Hitori had caught the slight blush, though, she was sure of it.
Hitori now sat across from her, stirring slightly anxiously at her cappuccino. For some reason, she always let it sit a bit too long before she drank it.
She once said it was because she felt bad for ruining the art drawn on top. It was always Kessoku Band's logo, the barista was a known fan.
But once the art was ruined anyway, she stirred. It was what she did, perhaps it made her feel a little more comfortable in her surroundings.
“I still don't understand,” Ryo said, slipping the straw between her lips and taking another sip. “Every time we come here you get a hot drink. I get that you like them, but even when I recommend the cold ones you just ignore me and get another cappuccino or something.”
Hitori looked up from her drink, her stirring ceasing entirely as she gave a questioning look.
“I-is there so-something wrong with me getting a hot drink?” She asked, her body language suddenly becoming more unsure.
Ryo backpedaled immediately.
“Sorry. I didn't mean to make you think you were wrong for it, it's just…”
A beat of silence passed between them, Ryo sipped her drink as Hitori began to stir again.
“All I mean to ask is why you don't try any of my recommendations,” she finally managed.
Hitori leaned forward, placing her arms on the table and taking a dainty drink from her mug.
“I-I don't know,” Hitori began awkwardly, her eyes full of uncertainty as she shifted them to the side. “Wh-why does it matter?”
Ryo opened her mouth to respond, but closed it as she realized she didn't really have an argument. It really didn't matter, and she was fully aware of that.
It was a dumb thing to take so seriously, so it would be silly if she made a big deal out of it.
But she was, maybe, just a little bit silly.
“It does,” she decided. “Because cold drinks are actually superior to hot drinks. This is a universal truth, Bocchi. Everyone knows that.”
Hitori, for her part, stared at Ryo with a blankness that rivaled the bassist's usual expression.
“I-I have… a confession to make,” Hitori said.
Ryo eyed her cautiously, mentally preparing herself for the worst. But nothing could have ever prepared her for the next words to come out of her girlfriend's mouth.
“I think cold coffee tastes bad.”
Ryo flinched like she had just witnessed a horrible car accident. Of course, she hadn't, clearly, but the pain she felt in her heart was more real than she could ever put into words.
“Bocchi,” she said. “No.” It was all she could say. It came out quiet, shocked.
Honestly she couldn't believe it.
“I-I'm sorry, bu-bu-but I tried a drink of your caramel iced coffee a couple of weeks ago when I surprised you on our anniversary…”
Ryo remembered that day, for obvious reasons. It was a good day, no band practice, no show, no work… Just a day with Hitori, and she was woken up by…
Coffee. Iced caramel coffee. Her favorite drink, brought by her favorite girl. All she could think about at the time was how hard it must have been for Hitori to do, to overcome the troubles she still had with ordering in public just for her.
It was perfect, and now that memory was tinged by a sour anecdote she didn't want to think about.
This was truly awful. It couldn't be real. It honestly, truly, couldn't be real. She refused to believe it.
“It took so long to get you into drinking coffee in the first place,” Ryo lamented.
It had taken her literal years.
When she and Hitori had started dating she had taken her on so many café dates. She made her try so many different types of coffee…
Just little sips at first. Then Hitori had started buying her own alongside her, only loaded down with sugar and cream until it was no longer recognizable as coffee.
But that was fine, it was a start. A victory, Ryo felt.
Little by little the sugar was reduced, until it was something respectable. Something even she could enjoy.
But along the way, Ryo had fallen into iced coffee. It became a habit, she'd always get it iced.
Hitori, however, stuck with the same old things. Even now, she was still ordering the same cappuccino whenever she and Ryo would come to their favorite café.
The same one in which Ryo had asked her to be her girlfriend.
The same one in which Ryo had asked her to move in with her.
The same one in which, now, her heart was ripped in two.
Was she being dramatic?
No. It was Hitori who was wrong.
And she was angry, honestly! This wasn't right, it was an injustice to iced coffee! Who does this girl think she is? How could she say something so utterly despicable?
Ryo was honestly so livid, it was unreal. But…
“You have to try other flavors, I promise you'll like it,” Ryo began to plead. I know caramel is my favorite, but you might like the mocha. Maybe you'll enjoy the French vanilla. Please, Hitori, I'm begging you, you can't give up on iced coffee, iced coffee wouldn't give up on you…”
Hitori bit her lip and held back a small laugh, she had to wonder if Ryo knew how funny she could be sometimes.
“I-I don't know,” she joked. “Maybe I'd try it if they had an iced cappuccino.”
Ryo leaned forward, placing her hands on the table as her eyes grew ever so slightly wider.
“They have that, that's a thing you can get!”
Hitori looked at the table menu in front of her, all of the specialty drinks listed on one fold out page.
There was no such drink.
“O-okay, so they don't serve that here, but it's a thing.”
Hitori seemed to think about it a little bit, taking a few drinks as she tossed it around in her head. Eventually she just shook her head and sat her mug down with finality.
“I only want it if it's from here...”
With those words, Ryo died inside.
She shut down as her heart went nearly still, just a soft beat every few seconds to remind her that she still lived despite the pain.
Despite the emptiness.
It was all bleak, endless gray as far as the eye could see. There was no color, no drive or spark or smile.
There was only this. One solitary truth.
Hitori would never see the light.
The only thing she could do was try to understand, and even if she couldn't…
Accept it.
“I… I see,” Ryo replied, clearing her throat as she crawled back to the comfort of her iced coffee. It was the most pleasant feeling, after everything she had gone through.
A reminder that even through all the pain, there was comfort to be found in the world. There was genuine good.
Maybe… the fact that Hitori didn't like iced coffee was fine after all.
“Maybe… the fact that we both like opposite temperatures for our drinks is a good thing.”
Hitori nodded, agreeing with a smile.
“Mmh, i-it's kinda cute, isn't it? Kita-san made a comment about it a while back…”
Ah.
Ryo understood, suddenly.
It was all Ikuyo's fault. Hitori didn't want to stop the status quo because she loved the fact that they were cutely opposite.
She never would have figured that out if she hadn't heard it from Kita first…
Ryo had made up her mind then and there.
She would never forgive Ikuyo Kita for as long as she-
“A-a-and besides, when you make them for me at home… y-you can't draw a heart on an iced coffee…”
Ikuyo was fine, actually.
Ryo was not.