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“Hey, Wise, that biker gang is here asking for you,” Crystal said as she poked her head back into the expo line.
Wise looked up from where he was printing a check out on the computer, taking a second to try and figure out who she was talking about before it clicked; it wasn’t like there were many biker gangs that populated New Eridu—he actually didn’t think there were any in the city, so every time the ones from the Outer Ring came, it’d cause some chaos in the restaurant. The other waiters would giggle and gossip, talking about how handsome the members were, especially that man with the red scarf.
Wise would neither confirm nor deny that the man was easy on the eyes. He certainly was a bright point in his night though with how nice he and his rowdy friends were compared to other parties he’d get.
He wasn’t sure why they’d always request him every time they came in, but he wouldn’t complain.
“That Sons of something one?” He asked as pulled the receipt off the printer, finally turning to face Crystal.
“That’s the one! Lee already sat them in the back for you.”
“‘Kay, thank you, Crystal,” he said as he went to grab some napkins ahead of time for them, the other server hurrying off to go attend to her tables.
He found himself lost in his thoughts as he dropped the check off for his other table and set out to go greet the gang.
After the fall of the Old Capital, he and Belle had settled in New Eridu, finding odd jobs here and there to keep themselves afloat. They had considered working as Proxies to try and figure out what had happened to their teacher, but decided against it; they didn’t want to get onto the bad side of the administration and PubSec when they were sure there were already eyes on them due to them carrying the Arna last name.
Belle and him had decided on opening a video store on the first floor of where they lived, which was nice, but the customers could often be infrequent which wasn’t exactly great for their finances.
Therefore, he had managed to get hired on as a server at Vista Vike, a restaurant that lauded itself as serving a dish that was Void Hunter Vike’s favorite (there were so many restaurants and stores that branded themselves after the Void Hunters and proclaimed they sold things that were used or eaten by them, it was kind of astonishing). It had led to many, many jokes from his sister about how cute he looked in his apron, and she had managed to find a job as some type of secretary at a human resource agency that dealt with Hollows. She swore the manager, Nicole, was really nice despite being a mess but he’d believe it when Belle would get a raise.
Which led to the here and now, as he stopped in front of the table.
“Wise!” The taller blonde of the group, Caesar, waved at him. It broke through whatever debate was going on between the rest of them, all of them chiming in with their own acknowledgements.
“Hey, city-slicker,” he heard Lucy say as Burnice cheered his name. Piper, the fourth blonde in the group (was that a requirement or just a coincidence that majority of the members were blond?) simply nodded at him.
“Hey, Wise,” Lighter, the final member said, throwing his hand up in a half-hearted wave.
He was sure the guy didn’t mean anything, but the cadence of his voice was so nice—especially when he said his name—that it sent a pleasant thrill up his spine.
“Hey guys, good evening. What drinks can I get you started with?” Wise asked, trying to focus.
He watched Lucy smack a hand over Burnice’s mouth and he cracked a smile already knowing she was probably going to ask if they finally carried any Nitro Fuel.
“I’ll have a black coffee,” Piper said with a yawn, and Lucy told him she wanted a coffee too but with creamer, please. After the first time they had ordered coffee in the evening, he just assumed it was to keep them awake on their trip back to the Outer Ring. Who was he to judge? It was definitely a routine by now.
“I’ll have a cold brew, I guess,” Burnice pouted.
“Can Caesar and I just have the soda water?” Lighter asked. Wise jotted their drinks along with their orders. Lighter handed him their stack of menus that they really didn’t need, considering they usually got the same thing every time but they were courteous enough to go along with it.
Wise’s fingers grazed over Lighter’s hand as he took the menus, and he realized they were bare. It was a bit of a shock to see that the guy’s gloves were off considering this was the sixth or seventh time they’d been here and he’d never foregone his gloves before.
His hands were nice—they were larger than his and lined with a few silver scars. They were really warm too, compared to his that were always erring on the side of cold. He blamed that on just having poor circulation.
“Okay, your guys’ food should be out soon,” Wise said hurriedly as he found himself once again lost in thought, waxing poetic of all things about a customer’s hands . He huffed and shook his head as he headed off to put their orders in the system.
‘Thank god they’re my last table. I’m losing it,’ he thought to himself as he glanced at the clock. He never minded that they always seemed to come in right as he was finishing up with his last table and side tasks. It was a little extra money for his and Belle’s weekend outings and again, they were always nice, so it was worth it overall.
“What the hell,” he muttered to himself as he counted through the Dennies they had left. While they were usually generous in tipping 20% every time they came in, now for some reason they had tipped 100% which was way too much for his mid service–he sucked at being a conversationalist with his customers and would concentrate more on just getting their drinks and food out.
He’d have to say something next time they came in, but it was fortunate considering he’d been eyeing the new fighting game that’d come out for Belle. He shook his head with an affectionate smile as he put the money away into his coin pouch. He’d admit they were becoming his favorite customers.
Once he fully finished cleaning the table up, he set out to clock out.
With that done and over with, he untied his apron and cracked his neck. Time for the walk and subway ride home, yay.
“Goodnight guys,” he called out to the cooks and other servers who had come in for their night shifts, receiving a few replies back.
As he made his way out of the restaurant, he heard familiar voices arguing on the street. He looked over to see it was the biker gang.
He stopped, considering going over before he decided ‘fuck it’ and went over to them.
“You guys are still here?” He called out to them.
“Hiii!” Burnice waved, her attention shifting over to him from whatever she’d been saying to Lighter.
“Hey, Burnice,” he replied, deciding to wave back.
“Hey, Wise,” Caesar said. “We’re just hanging out for a little before our long drive back. Are you done for tonight?” She asked, intrigue in her eyes.
“I am. I’m about to head home.”
“You’re a sight for sore eyes,” Piper joined in, teasing. “Where’d you park? We can walk you over to your car.”
“Oh my sister had the car for today since she had to drive out to Port Elpis for her agency. I just took the subway,” he shrugged.
He heard a grunt, looking over to see Lighter rubbing his arm and Lucy looking at her nails like nothing had happened.
“I could walk you to the station then?” Lighter asked, voice gentle.
“Oh, uh, sure.” For some reason he could feel his cheeks heating up. What was he? Some blushing damsel? (“Are you serious?” He could hear Belle groan at his word choice.)
“Lead the way then,” Lighter said as he stood fully from where he’d been sitting on his bike. Wise nodded, saying goodnight to the ladies before turning around to head to the subway station.
The silence was a tad awkward, the only sounds punctuating it being the occasional car that passed by and the sound of the sidewalk under his tennis shoes and Lighter’s boots.
“So,” he started as Lighter also let out an, “I.” They both laughed at the overlap.
“Sorry, go ahead,” Lighter said.
“So you guys kind of overtipped today. I really appreciate it, but I don’t think I deserve a 100% tip.” He wrangled his bag to the front, moving to pull his wallet out. Lighter’s hand atop his stopped him and he stopped in his tracks to look at the man, his eyes wide.
Lighter let out a noise of acknowledgement and stopped as well, keeping his hand in place. “It was more Lucy’s idea to do so since you always put up with us, but I do think you deserve it. Keep it, or else Lucy’ll throw a fit.”
“I… Okay,” Wise murmured. He took the moment to take the other man in, the glow of the street light illuminating the curves and angles of his face. He’d finally admit it: his coworkers were right in the fact he was very handsome.
“Sorry,” Lighter rushed out, coughing into his fist as he pulled his hand away. It broke Wise out of his trance and he blushed.
“It’s okay! It was nice!” Wise rushed out as well, trying to assuage any awkwardness. Oh he wanted to just sink into the ground. It was nice ? What the hell was he saying?
He turned on his heel and started walking again. He just needed to make it onto the train and home. Sleep it off and just forget about it.
Lighter let out a small hum behind him as he also resumed walking.
It was silent for a few beats before Wise remembered that Lighter had also been trying to say something.
“You had tried to say something earlier, too. What was it?”
“Oh. I had… wanted to ask if you were…,” Lighter began before he paused. Wise heard him mutter something along the lines of “Lucy’s gonna kill me if I don’t” before he continued on. “I wanted to ask if you were single.”
Wise made some type of noise he couldn’t be asked to describe as he stopped once again. He whipped around to face Lighter, face marred with surprise.
“Are you asking me out?”
“I… am.”
“Why?” Wise asked bluntly. Lighter stared at him for a moment. “Why?” he echoed back.
“Yeah. Why? I mean, we barely even talk when I’m serving you guys… Not that it’s an issue with you guys! I just don’t really talk to my customers in general. So I don’t get why you’d wanna… go on a date with me?”
“Well, that’s true. The few times you do make conversation with us though, your remarks are always witty and funny. Even when you don’t always talk to us, you’re always attentive and patient despite how chaotic we can be,” Lighter answered, cracking a small smile.
That was true–he didn’t know how many times he’d check on them to see Piper or Burnice fiddling with some object they had pulled out from somewhere, grease somehow all over their hands. He’d usually run and get them more napkins, making a gentle remark to remind them they were at a restaurant and maybe fiddling with something that was sparking wasn’t a good idea.
Or when Lucy would be going through papers that look like they had finances on them and arguing with Caesar over it, the latter lax as the former’s temper would start to rise. He would swoop in and try to defuse the situation, pulling their attention elsewhere. It was always a relief when the mood would lighten and they would start joking.
“Even with your other customers, you’re always on top of it. You’re also sweet with kids. It’s kinda cute.”
Wise smiled sheepishly. He did have a soft spot for kids. It may stem from being an older brother, but even besides that he’d always interact with the younger kids at Helios Academy, becoming a mentor and pseudo brother to them.
“You’re also pretty,” Lighter said. Wise could see the other’s cheeks redden and he felt his own match.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever called me pretty,” Wise laughed.
“Well you are. But these are just a few reasons why I’m asking you out. I gotta admit that the girls have been forcing me to come back to this place saying I have to ask you out since they were getting sick of me crushin’ on you. Lucy even threatened to sic her Bangboos on me if I didn’t ask you tonight.”
Wise laughed even louder, a feeling of affection blossoming in his chest. It was for certain that they were his favorite customers now.
“Well… yeah, I am single. And I guess I wouldn’t mind going on a date with you,” he teased. “We can exchange numbers and then set up a time?”
“That works for me,” Lighter said, smiling. Wow, okay, he was even more handsome when he smiled.
They both pulled out their phones to exchange numbers and Wise felt his heart flutter as he saved Lighter’s contact.
His phone let out a ding, breaking a bit of the haze that had settled over them.
“Ah, it’s my sister asking where I am,” Wise grimaced. He looked at the time and his grimace deepened at how late it was.
“I better get you the rest of the way to the station so you can get home then.”
“Thank you, Lighter,” Wise said as they finally made it to their destination. “I’ll text you when I get home, but don’t text and drive, okay?”
Lighter put his hands up in surrender. “I’d never. I’ll see you later, Wise.”
Wise smiled at Lighter again before he headed down into the station.
Who knew he’d get so lucky working as a server?