Chapter Text
Sylus speed-walks down the street, taking in the chaos of morning in the city as he makes his way to his daily destination. A local coffee shop. It was the one that always had the exact brand he liked, so he made it apart of his routine to head there every day for his morning coffee.
The door makes a gleeful chime as he walks in and marched up to the counter.
“Hi, welcome to the Sunshine Café, what can I get you?” The Barista beams politely.
Sylus pauses. The barista behind the counter wasn’t anyone he’s seen before in the time he’s gone here. He was tall with soft, pale skin, and wavy purple hair. His eyes were a dark blue that faded into a bright pink, reminiscent of a dark ocean reflecting morning sunlight off its surface.
Sylus quickly regained his composure and answered the man’s question “just my usual…a black coffee with 1 sugar”
The man nods and writes it down. “anything else?”
Sylus shakes his head in response, discreetly admiring the young barista’s appearance “no, that would be everything, thank you.” Sylus takes a glance down at his name tag, the name “Rafayel” scribbled across it in elegant handwriting “Rafayel, is it?” Sylus asks, causing the man’s eyes to snap up to Sylus.
“Um…yes?” Rafayel answers with an unintentionally sassy tone of voice.
Sylus smirks, letting out a soft chuckle “it’s spelled kind of odd.”
Rafayel’s eyebrows furrow slightly, he’s unsure of whether he’s offended or just confused. “Okay?”
“Don’t be offended, it was only an observation”
Sylus extends his hand over the counter, offering to shake the young man’s hand, his voice confident, but it has a twinge of sweetness to it. “I’m Sylus, by the way.”
Rafayel raises an eyebrow, looking down at his hand then up at him before shaking his hand gently, a hint of suspicion in his soft voice “Nice to meet you.”
Sylus nods once before sitting down at a nearby table, waiting for his drink.
“I have an order for Sylus.” Rafayel calls out, placing Sylus’s mug on the counter. Sylus walks up and takes it, giving Rafayel a polite smile that ends up looking more like a threatening smirk, that makes Rafayel inch away from him a bit with an uncomfortable expression.
“Thank you” Sylus nods, walking back to his table and sitting down with his legs crossed. As he’s drinking his coffee he occasionally sneaks glances at Rafayel.
After a few minutes he finishes his beverage and returns the mug to the counter before walking out of the shop
Such a pleasant man…I can’t help but want to get to know him better Sylus thinks to himself as he walks back to his bike.
Meanwhile…
“What was that about?” Rafayel asks,
Looking over at the other barista at the counter, who briefly looks up then back down at what she was doing
“Yeah, he’s a regular here…he may seem a bit creepy at first, but he’s a pretty chill guy…”
“Yeah, but why’d he look at me like that?” Rafayel asks, shivering slightly at the image of that dangerous look Sylus had given him “he looked like he was plotting murder…”
The other barista snorts with laughter “he wasn’t…that’s just his face. I think he meant to be nice but he did it wrong. One time, a girl that used to work here reported him to the manager for ‘smirking at her and acting weird’ and it turned out he was just trying to be polite, but accidentally came off too menacing”
Rafayel hums thoughtfully then goes back to preparing the counter for the next customer.
“I reckon you get to know him…besides, you’ll be seeing a lot of him”