Work Text:
I move my feet to reach that sun
Where our emotions blur into different shapes and forms
Daniel was one of the lucky ones: to get a job right out of culinary school.
He works at a place called Sainz. It’s a bar, a favourite of all kinds from the elderly to those looking for a night out with their buds to university students trying to let out some steam.
That’s how Daniel had found out about this place once upon a time.
He’d picked up a bartending job in his last year, and then Mark in the kitchen had decided that it was time for him to retire.
“You’re at the food school, no?” Carlos Sr. had asked him. “It is much easier to find bartenders than chefs around here.”
“I’m more of a pastry guy,” Daniel tells him. “I can make everything on your menu, but I’m not going to be as good as Mark.”
“That is okay. I of course want the best for my customers, but they are not ordering our wings for the quality.”
Daniel laughs. “Don’t ever tell that to a chef ever again man. We care about our quality.”
“And I believe that you can make excellent food.”
“You’ve never tasted my cooking,” Daniel points out.
“You go to the food school,” his boss shoots back.
And Daniel doesn’t have a counter.
On Ocean Drive, Miami Beach
We call it paradise, so the only place that we need
Wings, nachos, fries, and pre-made pizzas become Daniel’s life.
On the quiet nights, he’ll go out to the bar, and hangout with the rest of the staff, like Mark used to do.
Kevin, Nico, and Checo make for good company, drinking surplus sodas that the bar needs to get rid of.
Oh, yeah (ooh-hoo)
When the school year picks up, the kid Carlos Sr. hired to mix drinks quits because he wants to focus on his school work.
Daniel splits his time between the kitchen and the bar, manically teaching the two new hires how to do their jobs.
Skip the Monday and Tuesday, right
Yuki is still in school.
Daniel’s alma mater actually.
The food school.
Unlike Daniel, Yuki loves savoury cooking. The second Daniel is done teaching him his way around their kitchen, the Aussie pretty much becomes obsolete.
It’s fine.
Carlos Jr. needs a little more help at the bar, learning how to mix drinks. Daniel gets a lot of joy out of teaching him all of the tips, and tricks.
Every so often Yuki will open the kitchen window and ask Daniel for help, and he’ll be able to fly back to his home in the kitchen.
I wanna stay in that weekend vibe
It’s another quiet night, and Carlos Sr. is sitting next to him nursing a whiskey while the bouncers play darts.
“What am I doing here? You’re literally paying me to do nothing most nights.”
“You are unhappy working back there,” Sr. tells him. “I can see it.”
“I’m fine.”
“We should not strive for fine. We should strive to be our best. And you wasting away in the back of my kitchen making fast food forever is not sustainable for you.”
“So what? You hire Yuki, and push me out of a job?”
“We can afford to keep you on.”
Daniel raises his eyebrow.
“The bar is doing well.” He takes a sip of his drink. “We are a family here, I like to think. I can support you for as long as you need. I hired Yuki to pick up the slack you’d leave when you finally got around to leaving us.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“You will.” Sr. smiles at him. “I believe in you, however long it takes.”
“However long?”
“You’ll get bored of this long before you run me out of cash.” Sr. finishes off his drink. “Like I said, the bar is doing very well.
Oh, yeah (ooh-hoo)
The bar gets busy when finals season ends, and Daniel is pulled into the kitchen to help Yuki make more pizzas than either of them have made in their lives.
“You’d think they’d go to the pizza place,” Yuki mutters. “Is it closed tonight or something?”
Yeah, loose your body and feel alright
The kitchen door opens.
“Is there space back here?” Jr. asks. “I need a minute.”
“Stool.” Daniel points to it as he says it. “Don’t touch anything.”
“Yes chef.”
“No.”
Yuki laughs.
“Thank you,” Carlos says, picking up one of the raspberry tarts Daniel had left on the table from him and Yuki to snack on. “Merda. You should sell these.”
“You think?”
'Cause we just wanna have weekend vibes
Daniel is out mixing drinks the night before one of Carlos’ midterms when his life changes.
“Do you guys have Red Bull?”
Blond hair. Blue eyes. Not his type, but Daniel thinks that somebody should probably write a song about this man.
“Yeah, I got some. We hide in the back through. The staff really like the stuff, and we’re almost out. Give me a second, and I’ll go grab it for you?”
“That would be great, thanks.”
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Max quickly becomes a friend to Daniel, one of his best.
Daniel doesn’t learn much about Max, despite the fact that they spend every evening chatting at the bar unless Yuki calls him to the back because he’s getting swamped, lonely, or otherwise needs to take a break.
He knows that Max is originally from the Netherlands, but that’s not where he moved here from.
He knows that Max does not want to talk about it.
Keep us dancin' all through the night
“Daniel bakes,” Carlos says, after Max tells them about his dream of opening up a coffeeshop. “Went to school for it. You guys could combine your businesses.”
“We’re just chatting,” Daniel protests.
“He bakes very well.”
“Don’t big me up!”
But it’s too late for him, Daniel can tell. Carlos has mischief in his eyes, and Max’s have lit up. Yuki is sliding open the kitchen window and holding out the butternut squash turnovers he’d made before work for Max to sample.
“He also makes donuts.”
“Guys!”
Wanna stay in that weekend vibe
Max devours his sample in three bites.
“That’s amazing.”
He grabs another.
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Down the street from Sainz there is an empty storefront. A long-gone-out-of-business shop still owned by an aging couple who Daniel had helped move out of their apartment above to store and into their daughter’s house months ago.
It’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but what new venture isn’t?
Loose your body and feel alright
Everybody from Sainz comes to the grand opening of The Lion’s Den.
They make a little party of it, inviting all of the shop owners on the block for a taste of what has come to their backyard.
Everybody comes back on day two for another round.
'Cause we just wanna have weekend vibes
It takes a month of The Lion’s Den not going under for Sr. to finally fire Daniel.
On the day he gets fired, the bouncers put his employee of the month picture on their dart board.
He cackles about it.
Let's ramp it up, accelerate
Max and Daniel’s first hire is—by complete coincidence—Yuki’s roommate Liam.
Liam is a good kid. He works well with Daniel, even though it’s clear he’s never baked before a day in his life.
He takes orders well, though.
“Yes chef!”
'Cause workin' nine-to-five, it won't make us celebrate
Their second hire is—in a slightly smaller coincidence—Jr’s friend Lando. Which is super helpful because Lando is a finance major, and neither he nor Max have any idea how to use Excel.
There’s a loud thump on Lando’s first day of work after the door bell rings.
Daniel and Max glance at each other in concern, but then Lando starts talking.
He makes a good, totally normal, well adjusted, first impression.
Definitely.
It does not take Daniel ten minutes to finally pull himself together enough to go save him.
A beatin' drum under the sun
Let's catch a wave and take a trip to higher grounds
Daniel loves summer.
Sunny days.
Wind in his hair.
Not a cloud in sight.
Good bread, and some good coffee.
Oh, yeah (ooh-hoo)
Skip the Monday and Tuesday, right
I wanna stay in that weekend vibe
Headphones in, listening to his music, Daniel dances down the pier, lost in his own little world.
Oh, yeah (ooh-hoo)
Yeah, loose your body and feel alright
'Cause we just wanna have weekend vibes
He’s up at three to make pastries with Liam.
Liam has grown so much as a baker.
It warms his little heart when he walks into the shop, and Liam is going prep all on his own.
Sometimes Yuki even breaks in to help before being paid in free coffee.
He lets Liam plug in the aux on most days to play whatever music he’d like.
They have similar tastes, so it just works.
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Keep us dancin' all through the night
Wanna stay in that weekend vibe
Lando is doing a DJ set at Sainz.
Daniel stands behind him in the booth, Red Bull in hand and dancing wildly.
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Loose your body and feel alright
'Cause we just wanna have weekend vibes
On nights when Sainz gets extremely busy, Daniel will walk himself to the kitchen to help Yuki take off a load, or he’ll slip behind the bar to mix drinks side by side with Carlos.
Like Sr. said: they were family, and even if Daniel had moved on: Sainz was still home.
When I feel low, you get me high
So high, so high
Max is Daniel’s best friend in the world, even if he still doesn’t know anything about Max’s life before moving to town.
They dance on table tops.
They throw each other off the pier and into the sea.
They regularly run Sainz out of Red Bull.
When darkness come, you make it shine
So bright, so bright
There’s a darkness in Max, Daniel has realised.
Something big that Max is running away from.
But they’re friends, so he doesn’t make it weird.
He doesn’t prod.
When I feel low, you get me high
So high, so high
When Leclerc finally goes on tour, one of the stops is the local stadium.
Daniel tries to stay up to get himself a pair of tickets. He’s not sure who he’s going to bring—or he’s going to pick between his co-workers—but in the end it doesn’t matter, because he loses waitlist roulette.
Come morning, Liam and Lando inform him about their own failures.
In the midst of their early morning moping—Leclerc blasting over the speakers—Max comes down to make everybody their morning coffee, a double shot of espresso, an americano, and a caramel latte.
“Good morning.”
“Bad morning,” Liam mutters.
“You wouldn’t get it. You don’t like Leclerc as much as we do,” Lando tells him. “But that’s okay.”
Daniel shrugs dejectedly when Max slides him his drink.
Then, Max places his phone face up on the table with Ticketmaster open. “Would these help?”
I just want, I just want
I just want that weekend vibe
Max got them front row tickets.
The three stumble into the venu in disbelief right up until the opener starts to play.
“How the fuck did he get these?” Lando demands. “The cafe makes money, but not front row tickets money! These things sold out in twenty minutes, how the fuck did he do this?”
“Don’t ask questions mate. Max is a wizard, and I am thankful everyday that he does not use his powers for evil,” Liam tells them.
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Predictably, the next day’s playlist is nothing but Leclerc.
“Was the concert good?”
“Yeah!” Daniel practically screams.
He notices the small, proud smile on Max’s face. He thinks it’s because Max is patting himself on the back for doing a good job in picking gifts for his friends.
Keep us dancin' all through the night
“Max just called Leclerc ‘Charles!’” a shell shocked Ollie Bearman tells him and Kimi.
Kimi gives Daniel whiplash with how quickly he sits up from where he’d literally just dropped on the couch in the backroom. “Leclerc is here?”
“Did you not see him?”
“NO?”
Wanna stay in that weekend vibe
“Oh no you don’t.” Daniel grabs Kimi by the arm. “Sit down, you’re on break,” he reminds the kid. He turns to Ollie. “You are too, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Oh my god.” He drops heavily next to Kimi. “I made such a fool of myself.”
Daniel pats his head placatingly. “I’m going out to help Maxie. Calm down both of you. Leclerc is just a dude trying to get coffee right now, yeah?” he tosses over his shoulder.
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Daniel tosses Leclerc and his producer / best friend Pierre Gasly an award winning customer service smile as he arrives at his post behind the cash register.
Loose your body and feel alright
Daniel turns to Max, expecting him to be some polite company while this celebrity drinks a coffee in their cafe.
Instead, Max is staring at Leclerc—whom he’d called Charles (his first name, that he’d asked fans not to use every time somebody doxxed him)—and Leclerc is staring right back at him.
It looks like Max has seen a ghost.
“And here I thought you were the most normal about Leclerc,” he tries to joke, waving his fingers in front of Max’s eyes.
“Shut up Daniel.”
'Cause we just wanna have weekend vibes
“Oh my god the font is the same!” Daniel shouts, pointing back and forth between Max the thirty-three on Max’s forearm, and Charles’ sixteen. “You have matching tattoos with Leclerc?”
Ooh-ooh-ooh
They’re exes.
Max and ‘Charles’ are exes.
All of the songs about love, all of the songs about heartbreaks, all of the Leclerc songs Daniel, Lando, and Liam have been blasting over the intercom have not only been written, and sung, and produced by Max’s ex-boyfriend, they’ve been about Max.
Keep us dancin' all through the night
Daniel watches eagle eyes as Leclerc approaches Max at the bar.
He keeps one ear on Ollie and Kimi tripping over themselves to get every last detail about their afternoon out to Lando, Liam, Logan, and Oscar, and everything else on Max.
Max is a grown man, obviously, but Daniel is a little bit worried.
What is it they say about texting you ex?
And ex who dragged you without saying your name across every billboard top one hundred list imaginable?
Carlos catches him looking, but Daniel just gestures to their favourite Dutchman and the superstar, and the Spainiard lets it drop.
Wanna stay in that weekend vibe
Life goes on, despite the shake up, and Max is the happiest Daniel has seen him ever.
He’s cautiously optimistic about everything, but Daniel has never seen him smile so often.
He’s lighter, and that makes Daniel happy: to know that his friends—family—are doing well.
Ooh-ooh-ooh
The Lion’s Den fills with the scent of croissants, tarts, cookies, donuts, and loaves of bread.
Loose your body and feel alright
'Cause we just wanna have weekend vibes