Chapter Text
James huffs, his hands slightly damp from the towel now wrinkled between his fingers. He turns on his heel and leans against the counter, the corner pressing into his lower back uncomfortably.
He spares a glance towards Remus, who’s working the book counter on the other side of the store. Remus, of course, has his nose buried in his book as he waits for the next customers to trickle in.
Right on cue, the bell above the door chimes, signaling the arrival of new customers. James turns back to his register, preparing to take an order. He wipes his brow with the back of his hand, setting the towel down before looking up.
Holy shit.
James sucked in a quick breath, taking in the man across the counter. He had gorgeous black curls, coming down just over his ears. Stormy grey eyes glanced up at him.
And lord, his cheekbones could have drawn blood.
A chuckle snapped James out of his staring. He hadn’t even noticed the other man standing there.
“Aw, look, Reg. You’ve gone and flustered the barista.” Reg must be the pretty one, then. The two men looked almost identical, yet entirely different. The one who’d just spoken had long, dark hair and steel grey eyes. They were obviously related, but they carried themselves differently.
“Stop it, Sirius,” Reg said, cutting his eyes at his brother. He looked back at James, “Ignore him. I’ll have a vanilla latte with lots of sugar, please.”
James fumbled for a moment, trying to remember how exactly he does his job. For some reason, it’s a lot harder at the moment.
He looks back up to Sirius, “And what would you like, sir?”
“Black coffee.”
“Boring, no?” James smirked. Reg seemed unamused, causing James to sheepishly return to writing down the orders, “Er, would that be all?”
“Yes,” Reg replied blankly before Sirius could ask for the cookie his hand was already reaching towards. His hand dropped back to his side.
James quickly made the two coffees, his hands moving quicker than his head, causing a few stumbles. Eventually, he set the two cups down and slid them towards the two boys.
“That’ll be sixteen twenty-eight,” His voice fell flat as he tapped the screen in front of him, pulling up the payment menu.
Sirius swiped his card and grabbed both cups before handing Reg his latte.
“Have a nice day,” James stuttered out.
Reg finally let out a chuckle before tossing up a hand in a goodbye, “You too.”
As the two boys left, the shorter of them holding the door, James finally spared a glance towards Remus, whose face was red from holding in laughter. As the door closed, Remus finally threw his head back, laughing harder than James had seen him in a while.
“You,” Remus said in between breaths, “Are absolutely pitiful.”
James covered his face with his hands, sighing heavily before looking back at Remus, “Oh, definitely.”
…..
“You’d think that a guy like him would be able to keep his composure a bit better, no?” Sirius was still chuckling as they walked down the street to the picnic tables in the center of town.
“Stop that, Sirius. Maybe it wasn’t even me that got to him.” Regulus was still unamused, but he stole a smile as he sipped on his latte.
“Right, because the shop workers are always checking out the customers and fumbling with the receipts, yeah?”
“Maybe.”
“Sure, Reg, if that’s what you want to believe.”
They came to a stop as they reached the picnic tables. Regulus took a seat first, careful not to let the wood snag his pants as he sat. Sirius followed suit across from him, still smiling slightly. His lips parted as if he was about to say something before he sipped his coffee.
Regulus noticed, “What were you going to say?”
“All I’m saying is you seemed interested as well.”
Regulus rolled his eyes for real this time, “Right. I don’t do that.”
“Do what, like people? Be a human? I find that hard to believe.”
“Well, start believing it.” Regulus’ face was now slack; he was fed up with this conversation.
“Yeah, okay. My bad,” Sirius was bad, but he knew when to stop.
Regulus nodded slightly before taking another sip, “That man can make a damn good latte though, I’ll give him that.”
Sirius would take it.