Work Text:
Friday late afternoons typically involved lazing in his dorm room until he’d wake up for dinner - or rather Ruggie would drag him feet first out of bed for dinner… if he was lucky. It’s a rarity for him to be awake at this hour of the day after lessons - and an even rarer occurrence for him to be found anywhere outside.
After all, what would be better than burying himself up in his sheets, napping the day away and forgetting all of the world’s troubles?
Visiting the local coffee shop near campus is a strong contender, as it turns out… but not for the reasons one might typically think.
“So you’ve been stalking them here every other weekdays and saturdays… No offence but that’s kind of loser behavior, Leona.”
Had they not been in public, the lion prince would have had every mind to skin the cackling hyena next to him alive for his comment… but all he manages is an irritated glare and a ‘tch’ before burying his hands into his trouser pocket, eyes glancing up at the store sign hanging right above the quaint little shop - in classy bold font reading ‘Sam’s brewery”.... A bit of a dumb name for a cafe, if he were to be asked… but he hears it was simply named after the owner.
“It’s not stalkin’.” Leona retorts, tail flicking in annoyance. “What’s wrong with me frequentin’ a public coffee shop?”
“Only on days they’re working?”
“They make the best hazelnut latte.” Is all the excuse Leona can manage out, and even he thinks it’s lame.
“As if you even care about caffeine.” Calling the man out further, Ruggie lets out a loud snort. “That stuff gets you buzzed and you hate staying awake.”
“Yeah, yeah. Keep yappin’, runt. Are you comin’ with or not?”
“And spend like six bucks on a single cup of coffee? No thanks. Cafes like this are just daylight robberies and I want no part of it.”
Yeah, typical of Ruggie to say that. The hyena may be okay and used to cheap dollar store coffee brewed with tap water, but he’s a prince - his standards are at least a little higher than that.
After waving the hyena off his case, Leona had entered the coffee shop with his hands buried in his trouser pockets, an attempt at acting nonchalant even as he targets his gaze straight at the front counter and holds back a pleased smirk to find that, yes, the person he’d totally not frequent this joint to see specifically or anything… was indeed working the counter today. And they were alone besides, perhaps due to it being off-peak hours.
He admittedly doesn’t know very much about this barista - most of what he does know coming from word of mouth from both other regulars of the cafe and students of their shared local college… but the little he is privvy to was enough to leave him intrigued.
They went by the name of Ying (though even that, he hears, is an alias), and they worked odd day shifts at Sam’s Brewery in order to pay their loans for their medical degree… They’d often be seen hovering by the dessert station of their campus cafeteria at the end of major exams or pop quizzes (he guesses, their own way of ‘drowning their sorrows’) and seem to have an odd fascination with the ravens that frequently crowded around the courtyard.
Besides that, he also hears they don’t often like socializing very much… if they weren’t on campus for lessons, they were either back in their dormitory room or here- working part time at the coffee shop. Hence his visits.
There was only one other people at the front of the counter for the moment, waiting on his drink as the barista swiftly gets to work preparing it, their backs turned to the customers as they poured the hot cup of espresso into a paper coffee cup before sliding the lid on, turning to hand it to the customer waiting in front.
“Sorry for the wait, sir.”
Their voice sounds ethereal as ever, quiet as the night and yet still melodic whenever they hummed as they worked. He’d gotten the pleasure of hearing them sing once when they had no customers to serve and they busied themselves with cleaning the back counter softly so as to not be heard by most of the customers… but with his beastman hearing, he could hear their voice as they sang loud and clear… and it’d earned them the nickname of ‘magpie’ from him.
Though, it wasn’t just their voice that’d reminded him of those tenacious little birds.
As the customer in front walked off to their table, the magpie’s eyes scan across the front of the store before naturally landing on the lion prince, pupilless moonstone eyes widening just a tad, as if they recognized him, before they tilted their head to the side, not greeting him.
It’s only then he’d realize he’d been standing stupidly by the front door and hadn’t approached the cashier.
Right, yeah.
“Busy today?” He opens up as he finally steps up to the front counter, and the magpie shrugs.
Their long, dark hair’s been tied in a messy low side tail today, hastily swept over one shoulder instead of the usual braid they would wear. Perhaps they were in a rush for work this morning?
“Not really.” They respond, taking their place in front of the cash register. “Will you be having the usual, sir?”
Leona’s eyebrow raises in intrigue. They memorised his usual order? This is the first time they’d explicitly asked him instead of waiting for him to order instead.
“Yeah. You remember?” He asks, half impressed as the magpie taps on the electronic cash register screen to enter his order.
Sure enough, ‘1 grande hazelnut latte’ appears on screen, and he fishes out his card from his wallet with a smirk.
“Huh. Color me impressed.”
“It’s nothing, really.” The magpie shrugs as they take his card to scan. “Would be even weirder if i didn’t have my most regular customer’s order memorized.”
“The most huh?” the corners of his lips quirk upwards in amusement, fishing out his card and tapping it on the electronic scanner..
“You come in every day, don’t you?” Ying tilts their head to the side. “Or at least on days I’m working.”
Shit. Have they caught him?
Leona doesn’t react at first - watching curiously as the magpie taps on the screen a few more times before handing him the receipt and turning their back to him to begin preparing his drink.
They don’t speak - though it’s typical for them to go quiet. They’re not the sort of person who seems to appreciate small talk, and fortunately, neither does he.
So it came to quite a surprise to the lion when the barista would be the first to speak as they set up the espresso machine, the smell of ground coffee beans wafting into the air.
“You seem to…like this place.”
“Yeah? And why’d you think that is?” Leona smirks as he asks, testing the waters.
The magpie pauses for a moment as they tap their fingers impatiently on the counter top, as if it would make the espresso machine go faster.
“Maybe… because it’s convenient? It’s close by our school.”
‘Our school’ they say, Leona notes with a fascinated and amused flick of his fluffy ears. They know he goes to the same college as they do.
“Maybe you like the drinks here. Or…” they pause for a moment, their eyes peeking up to look at him with an almost unnoticeable glint of knowing in their eyes that has his tail swaying. “Maybe you’re here to pick someone up by constantly flirting in their face.”
Leona cannot help the smirk on his face. The magpie is far more perceptive than he’d first thought… and he knows that they know that the only person he ever talks to when he comes by to visit is them. They wouldn’t be calling his regular visits out earlier otherwise.
“What if i was?” He asks, setting his elbow on the counter and leaning down to get himself closer to the short statured barista.
“Well…” there’s a moment of hesitation in their voice, though it’s accompanied with a light exhale as though it were a half laugh, their lips quirked up in a small smirk of their own. “I wouldn’t be able to stop you from doing whatever you wanted, i guess.”
A sign of approval. Leona’s tail flicks in excitement once again.
It’s all very cliche, he thinks, this is the exact type of scenario he’d probably have rolled his eyes at years ago. The typical ‘Boy meets Girl in a quaint little coffee shop’ story. Or was it ‘boy meets boy’? Or something in between? Leona doesn’t know and doesn’t particularly care.
It would seem, from what he guesses to be the nonbinary flag badge (he will admit, he isn’t all too familiar with the flags from the lgbt movement) they wear on the front of their apron, that they didn't either.
What he does know is that this barista with a gloomy attitude and resting grouch face was cute and easy on the eyes. There’s a subtle elegance to the way they move, and though they’re not the sort to stand out in a crowd like local college going celebrity Vil Schoenheit, they’re still pretty… a hidden gem, so to speak. He never liked the super flashy types anyway.
And if their physical appearance wasn’t enough to convince someone that the shortie was a perfect package - their penchant for deadpan sass and complete disregard towards his social and financial status certainly would.
He’ll be damned if he lets an opportunity like this go.
But even so- he’s got his own pride… he’s a prince of a distant nation and he didn’t come all the way here just to act like an emotional little puppy dog in love.
“And what exactly, pray tell, do you think i’m after?” Leona asks as he watches Ying finally squeeze hazelnut syrup into the freshly brewed espresso before pouring it into a coffee cup. The question has left them slightly confused, evident by the quirk of their eyebrow.
“Um. I don’t know? Small talk maybe?”
“Come on, you know i don’t do small talk… and for the record, you don’t either.”
“Quit talking as if you know anything about me.” The magpie snaps, glossy bright eyes narrowing into dangerous slits as they glare at him, pouring milk foam on top of his hazelnut latte before snapping the coffee lid on, handing the man the cup with an irritated glower.
“I actually do know quite a lot about you, magpie.” The lion prince starts, and Ying’s eyebrow twitches. “You like sweets. Especially milk tea. Which is curious given that you’re working at a coffee shop instead of a boba store. You’re also always hangin’ out with those Ace and Deuce guys.”
The magpie squints their eyes at him, daring him to continue, and he obliges with a grin.
“You’ve also got a pet cat or somethin’ in your dorm room? Pretty bold of ya given the ‘no pets’ rule we’ve got.” Though, Leona admits, it’s not like the headmaster particularly cares or even enforces said rules.
The magpie’s eyes look about ready to pop out of their eye sockets at this point, as they think back to their rebellious little grey companion back at home. Grim had been a rescue, and though Ying’s heard of a couple of other students keeping pets in their dorm rooms before, they’d never officially told anyone because of the dorm rules.
“What… how’d you know that? Did your henchman Ruggie tell you or something…?”
That might be believable, Leona snorts internally, Ruggie does have a penchant for digging up people’s dirty secrets and yapping about it nonstop.
“Saw you pickin’ up cat food from the entrance of your dorm block once. Bettin’ you thought nobody saw you if you went outta your way to try and be all sneaky and have it delivered.”
“W-what are you… a stalker? Creep.”
“Mm… and yet you seem to care enough about this creep to memorize my order? And you know me well enough to know who my friends are apparently? Even though none of them ever visit this place with me.” Leona’s eyes narrow, ears flicking in amusement as he watches Ying’s expression twist into a harder scowl. He knows he’s caught them in their own hypocrisy.
“I- You- You’re holding up the line.” The magpie huffs, eyes very nearly twitching as they hold back their rapidly bubbling urge to splash the hazelnut latte he’d ordered in his face for his insolence.
“There is no line.” Provoking back with a snark, Leona tilts his head to the side to the empty space beside him.
“There would be if someone walked in now.”
“Touché. So I’ve got a suggestion to fix that-”
“Not interested. Get your royal ass out of here already.” They turn their head dramatically away, glossy eyes darting to the wall in a completely unconvincing facade of disinterest.
“Just listen to me you shitty brat.” The prince hadn’t quite intended for his slight annoyance to sound so apparent in his tone of voice, but gathering from the momentarily crooked smirk flashing on their face, it’d seem their uncooperativeness had elicited the exact response they’d been hoping for.
Whatever. It’s no big deal. Today, he’s only here for one thing and one thing alone anyway.
“How about you give me your phone number, and I’ll take ‘my royal ass’ back to my table and leave you alone for the day, hm?”
The magpie’s typically so pale - their complexion fair and eyes bright yet also reflective and shrouded with mystery. He hears from both mutual friends and schoolmates alike that Ying’s thoughts and emotions were always hard to get a read on- they’re an enigma not even the high and mighty Malleus Draconia compared to.
Bullshit, he thinks. That blush on their face says it all… and he’d hazard a guess from their wide, glimmering eyes and agape mouth opening and closing silently that he knows exactly what they’re thinking.
“W-what- What the… Is that the best tactic you could come up with?” They ask, proving his suspicions entirely correct and sending his tail flicking in amusement. They’re taken aback by his brazen forwardness.
“Not the point, is it? All that matters is whether or not it works.”
“Well. Your offer’s very tempting but i regret to inform you that I’m not interested.” The magpie huffs, but he can tell from their resistant crossed arms that they’re lying.
“I’m not dumb, herbivore. If you really weren’t interested you wouldn’t even be respondin’ to me right now. And don’t you lie and say you were just ‘bein’ nice’. You may be that way towards other people but your attitude towards me has been anythin’ but.”
“You’re arrogant, full of yourself and you’re…insufferable!” They hiss back in defiance. “Why the hell would I ever want to date someone like you?”
“Because you like that. You like arrogant assholes like me. Admit it. You may act like an all good and upstandin’ honor student…but really, you’re into guys who pushes your buttons. And I like brats who aren’t afraid of biting back.”
Yet another thing Leona has noticed about the magpie (an exceptionally adorable habit of theirs, if he were more honest to himself to admit), is that they tended to play with their hair when they were nervous or flustered…. And judging by the way Ying had raised their hand up to twirl a strand of their long, dark hair around the digit of their index finger now, face flushed a dark red and eyes unfocused and darting around the coffee shop as if looking for something, anything other than him to focus their attention on… Leona has come to realize yet another fact about the magpie - they secretly like being teased.
And he likes to tease. Which would naturally make them a perfect pair, no?
“Well…?”
“.....Give me your cup.” Ying barks, and Leona quirks an eyebrow up.
“Ah?”
“Just give it here, you stupid cat!” The magpie hisses, grabbing his coffee cup back from his grasp. They fish their marker out from their pocket, quickly scribbling something on the sleeve of the cup before handing it back to Leona, their bright red face turned away from him.
“There! Hope you enjoy your drink, sir.” there’s a sarcastic, bitter bite to their tone of voice, an anger at their own defeat even as they bite their lower lip in a fluster.
And as Leona looks down his coffee cup to let out a loud laugh upon finding a string of numbers hastily written on the sleeve alongside a “stupid cat >=(“ comment at the bottom, he takes a triumphant sip of the sweetest latte he’s had to date yet.