Work Text:
As soon as Akane steps in front of the espresso machine he pulls a double shot over ice. He pulls them short like he prefers and after adding a little bit of soy milk he chugs it in one go.
There’s no customers yet so he takes his time, refilling beans, cleaning up the syrup pumps and fulfilling other miscellaneous tasks. The monotony of the motions are a nice change from his day sitting in classes and he lets himself unwind as he goes through them.
He was lucky enough to work at a coffee shop a short bus ride away from his university. As a first year he wasn’t allowed a car on campus so it worked out nicely and the manager was very accomodating to his class schedule. It’s how he finds himself working mostly closing shifts, most of his classes ending before noon so he had some time before his job to get some homework done or simply rest.
It’s a nice rhythm to his days, and the shift passes by quickly. As soon as the clock strikes 8, Mei, the shift lead, locks the doors and turns to Akane and Nene, the store closer for the day.
She holds up her phone just as the time switches to 8:01PM. “Let’s get out of here by 8:30!”
Technically the closing shift goes until 9pm, but they were free to go as soon as they were done for the evening. Mei, Nene, and Akane were kind of a dream team in the sense that most nights they made it out within half an hour and tonight would probably be no different.
Nene quickly sweeps and mops the front of the house and Mei goes to crunch the numbers, leaving Akane to clean the espresso machine. Closing the bar is objectively the easiest for the evening, but it still had its tedious tasks. The beans are emptied, the machine had been rinsed through twice, and all the mugs were placed back in their spot.
Everyone is almost done for the evening, yet as Akane steps into the back he feels a vague sense of having forgotten something. He goes through the mental checklist in his head and is interrupted by Mei announcing, “One minute!”
He gathers his stuff and makes his way back to the bar to give it a once over. There’s nothing overtly amiss so he shrugs it off as being paranoid. Nene catches up to him by the door and is quickly followed by Mei chanting, “Go go go!” as they hurry to make their way out.
The alarm takes a minute to activate yet it’s always in good fun to rush out as if they were on some secret mission. There’s some breathless laughter in the air as Nene and Akane patiently wait for Mei to lock up, chatting about their respective classes. A short while later, Mei jingles the keys to indicate being done and with that walks both of them to the bus stop.
Akane feels lucky to have such a good shift lead looking out for them and once Nene and Akane are on their way home, waving at Mei through the window of their bus, something in Akane’s mind clicks.
He forgot to restock the milk.
Such a stupid thing to overlook but, oh well. It’s not like he could do anything about that now.
That’d be a problem for whoever’s opening.
Mokke Coffee team
Teru (SL): to whoever closed the bar last night, let’s try to remember to restock the milk next time :)
With a groan, Akane quickly thumbs up the message and pockets his phone. He admits, it was a simple mistake due to rushing and vows to do better moving forward. He just wishes he weren’t so publicly called out for it.
Teru is the usual shift lead for openings and he’d never complained about Akane’s closes before so it probably was just a reminder for everyone else as well. Oh well, Akane was closing for another three nights this week, he’d make up for it then.
When he clocks in, he pulls his double ristretto over ice and considers his closing team. He’s with Mei again, but this time Lemon is the store closer. Lemon is good at his job, but he spends a good amount of time meant to be sweeping the front using the broom as a microphone instead. He is great at rapping through Lafayette’s verse in ‘Guns and Ships’ but it does make their closes last till 9. He pours soy milk over his espresso, downing it in one go.
He'll just have to close well.
Akane takes the extra time to make sure everything is restocked at the bar - including the milk. He even takes the time to make sure the bean drawers are restocked. It’s technically Lemon’s job for the evening, but the last thing Akane wants is a comment about the overall close.
When they make it out for the night it’s just hit 9PM and he rushes to make his bus, Lemon riding his bike home and Mei taking her car.
He goes to sleep satisfied with his close.
Teru (SL)
Hey, you were the bar closer last night, right? Could you make sure to FIFO the beans when you close tonight? Our customers expect freshness after all~
A message in the work group chat is one thing. A direct message? Akane has to physically hold back from sending a strongly worded message in response.
He feels his eye twitch and tries to take a few calming breaths. The regional supervisor had visited last week and Akane was sure that’s why they were nitpicking closes. He knows he shouldn’t hold it against the opening shift lead but it really does feel personal at this point.
Akane is still grumbling to himself about it during his stats class and resolves to make tonight his best close ever.
This time his closing shift lead is Natsuhiko and Akane thinks he fools around too much but as his senior in both position and age he keeps his comments to himself. This time a boy called Mistuba is the store closer and he works diligently on his own tasks as Natsuhiko blasts pop music from the back where he’s counting the registers.
Akane had pulled up his printed checklist of closing tasks - something he hadn’t looked at since his first few months working there - just to make sure he didn’t miss a single thing.
He checks everything once. Twice. Three times, before he’s satisfied with how the store looks. Somehow he’s still the first to finish up so he waits by the door for the others and gleams at his beautifully closed bar.
Ha, take that opening-shift-lead-Teru.
When he goes to sleep that night, Akane turns off his notifications banking on not receiving a message in the morning.
There’s no message in the morning.
Akane makes sure he didn’t accidentally mute the chat but nope. No complaints about his closing.
He should feel satisfied but there’s a small feeling in the back of his brain. He looks back at the lack of notifications from Teru (SL).
He leaves for class vaguely disappointed and can’t quite place why.
When he arrives for his closing shift, he waves to Fuji currently at the bar and heads to the back to put down his things. He walks past Shijima - Mei’s slightly scarier twin, who also happens to be a shift lead - at the desk in a small corner of the backroom and stops in front of the lockers.
The lockers aren’t assigned, but it’s an unspoken rule that everyone has one. Akane’s is the third one down on the left and it is notably not empty.
There’s a paper bag and he gingerly takes it out, turning it around in his hands to inspect it. On the other side is a sticky note Akane rips off to read.
Nice close, you forgot this tho :-)
There’s only one person who puts those stupid noses on their smiley faces. Akane opens the bag and face palms. He remembers now that last night he’d put away a few of the pastries that were going to be thrown out that night. They weren’t technically supposed to take them home, but Natsuhiko had insisted, saying they’d just be going to waste otherwise. Unable to argue, Akane had packed some up and promptly forgot about it throughout the close.
With a few minutes till he needs to clock in, Akane sets his things in his locker, including the pastry bag, and pulls out his phone.
Akane
Thanks
Teru (SL)
:-)
With no shift scheduled for the day and an email about a cancelled class, Akane has the whole day off. He works better in the mornings so he gets most of his school work done before noon and gets up from his desk to stretch before heading to the kitchen to figure out lunch. As he’s rummaging through the fridge his phone pings with a text.
Teru (SL)
this lady today asked what was vegan from our pastries
Akane stares at his phone screen. They’d never texted outside of passive aggressive closing remarks before, yet Akane still finds himself typing out a reply.
Akane
Not an unusual conversation at a coffee shop.
It’s barely a minute later when another text comes in.
Teru (SL)
except when i pointed out the vegan ones
she said
okay anything except those
wHat
Akane snorts. He’s had a fair share of customers like that which is why he prefers working at the bar with minimal human interaction.
Akane
Slightly more unusual.
They talk as Akane eats lunch and its nice. He learns that Teru solely does morning shifts since he takes night classes, has been working at Mokke Cafe for almost 2 years and he’s weirdly good at latte art (not that Akane tells him so).
The chat leaves him in good spirits even after the conversation tapered off and he went about his day. Something about talking with Teru came naturally and it’s almost embarrassing when he hears a notification sound and rushes to check his phone.
It’s just the work group chat, sending an updated schedule of the week. Akane’s hours are pretty much steady so it’s no surprise he’s closing Monday through Thursday. His eyes betray him and they wander to the row reading ‘Teru’.
He seems to be opening Tuesday through Friday with two shorter shifts on the weekend. It’s a hell of a schedule and Akane’s mildly impressed. It’s all he can do to not shoot off another message towards the shift lead.
He has laundry to do.
Teru (SL)
there was a dog in the store !!
but i had to be a responsible SL and tell them he couldn’t be inside :-(
Akane
Did you go outside and pet the dog?
Teru (SL)
i went outside to pet the dog :-)
Akane
Why do all the business men get caramel javivas?
Teru (SL)
why are you judging them :-/
Teru
customer asked for an iced hot chocolate so i stared at them like this ◉‿◉
Akane
Did they get mad it wasn’t hot?
Teru
THEY GOT MAD IT WASN’T HOT
Akane
What’s a mocha without espresso?
Teru
arent u barista certified? is this a trick question??
Akane
What’s a mocha without espresso?
Teru
r u just gonna repeat that till i answer
Akane
What’s a mocha without espresso?
Teru
sigh, ur stubborn
hot chocolate…?
Akane
THANK YOU!
follow up is it illegal to throw beans at customers
Teru
sounds like they deserve it
i wont tell ;-)
They still mostly talk about their bizarre customer interactions, but there's sprinkles of other information. Mostly random tidbits, like Teru’s younger brothers or Akane complaining about an upcoming test. Their conversations flow smoothly and it’s nice.
Akane’s closing once again. He’s with Mei and Nene for tonight again, however the shift lead is currently on the phone placing the next order of beans and Nene is currently taking her ten.
It’s not too bad, it being mostly empty this time of night. The bell above the door jingles and as the customer walks in Akane calls out, “Welcome in!”
Akane heads to the register and waits for the blonde man as he looks at the menu. He looks at the barista with a grin and Akane tries to give his best customer service smile back.
“Large white chocolate mocha. Extra whip cream please.”
Akane dutifully punches in the order and asks if he wants any beans (required by management and annoying to ask every customer). The answer is no and just as he’s about to ask for a name, the blonde man says, “I want to check-in with my phone number please.”
Must be a regular, Akane thinks, though he swears this man has never come a single time he’s closed.
He puts the number in as it’s recited to him and the account that appears in their system is under the name Kou Minamoto. Akane sets that as the customer’s name and as he leaves the man to pay he heads over to get started on the drink.
The blonde man - Kou? - stares at him as he makes the drink and the brightness of his blue eyes makes it slightly uncomfortable but its not the worst customer interaction Akane has had.
He slides the finished drink over the counter and before he can call out the name (more out of habit than necessity - the man had been watching the entire process), the blonde reaches over for it.
“Don’t forget to clean under the machine.”
Akane nods, wiping off the steam wand and stepping back. “Yeah, I’ve also got to-”
Pause. He stares at the man in front of him.
No.
“Teru?” he asks.
Blonde man beams. “In the flesh!”
There’s rules against extorting violence on a customer but not a shift lead, so Akane grabs a lid and tosses it at Teru’s face. “You asshole! Who the hell is Kou?”
“My brother!” Ah. Akane had heard about a younger brother but no names had been shared. “We use the same account to gather points!”
“You’re the worst,” Akane mutters, ducking under the counter to set the steamer with the dirty dishes.
“Is that any way to talk to your favorite customer?”
“You’re not even a real customer. Much less my favorite.”
Teru leans against the counter and watches him work. “Guess I’ll have to come more often then.”
Akane raises an eyebrow, not looking up. “To mess with me?”
“To see you,” Teru says, too easily. “My class was cancelled today. Thought I’d catch you where I knew you’d be”
Akane freezes just slightly in the middle of wiping a surface. He keeps his tone even. “That sounds…really creepy”
Teru laughs, and the sound is warm in the quiet café. Nene returns from her break and gives them both a suspicious look, but says nothing as she starts restocking the beans.
They continue the small talk as Akane gets through his closing tasks. It’s better to get as much as possible out of the way before the shop closes to get out of there as soon as possible. Teru lingers near the counter, watching Akane work. As it’s nearing 8PM to officially close, Teru makes no move to leave.
Akane takes the grate out of the espresso machine. “Alright, out. We’ve got to lock up.”
Teru hesitates. “Actually...”
Akane turns, curious.
“I was thinking…” Teru starts. He scratches the back of his neck, suddenly a bit awkward. “Maybe you’d want to get dinner?”
Akane blinks.
Teru rushes to fill the silence. “You don’t have to say yes, obviously, but I figured since we might not see each other with our shifts it might be a good time to—”
“Yes,” Akane says.
Teru stops mid-ramble. “Wait, really?”
Akane shrugs, hiding a smile. “Sure. But only if you’re paying.”
Teru smirks. “Only if you clock out by 8:30.”
“Don’t stand in front of the shop like a weirdo,” Akane mutters as he turns back toward the sink.
Teru finally starts to walk out, calling over his shoulder, “Fine, I’ll go lean against something cool and mysterious like a lamppost. Very romantic.”
Akane doesn’t reply - just makes a dismissive shooing motion without turning around.
He finishes the last few steps in near record time. Nene and Mei stare at him as he carries cups, lids, straws, and sleeves to restock in one trip..
“Are you... racing the clock?” Nene asks.
Akane shrugs, not looking up. “It’s called being efficient.”
Mei comes out from the back and does a quick once over of Akane’s station.
“If you’ve got plans, you’re free to go. You seem to be all done here.” she says, a knowing smile on her face.
Akane can feel the heat rising to his ears but nods once and goes to grab his bag. He checks his phone.
8:17PM
The bell above the door jingles as he steps through it. Outside, Teru’s waiting.
True to his word, leaning against a lamppost. Like an idiot.
Akane lets himself smile at the image and it’s worth it for the beam he gets in return.
They make their way out and when Teru offers his hand Akane gently intertwines their fingers.
He wakes up the next morning to a singular text message.
Teru
u forgot to FIFO the beans :-)