Chapter Text
It wasn’t exactly what he had wanted to become, but it was far better than where he came from. Or so Kylo Ren told himself as he stood behind the counter of a small cafe called ‘cafe noir’ that was located at the edge of the city center. Throughout the day they served beverages, mostly different coffee types, with baked goods. In the evening and night however, it switched to alcohol and snacks. During those times they got to play live music, which was exactly the reason why he worked here. All employees here were aspiring artist with a fair share of talent and had to take a stage name that ended with ‘Ren’.
Snoke, a grumpy old man with a nose for talent and business, sought them out when they were in need of money and an opportunity to be scouted. This job gave them both. Kylo seemed to be particularly liked by him that he even had went as far as offering a small apartment to him at a discount. It really wasn’t much more than sixteen efficiently filled square meter, but honestly, everything was better than being back home with his parents. Where his mom would just be asking him all the time why he didn’t want to work in Uncle Luke’s biological and vegan restaurant ‘Jedi’.
So Snoke’s offer had been a blessing, even if it included that he had to work more hours than normally acceptable. Sadly enough this also meant he was faced with more moronic customers and there was only so much of stupidity he could handle. This was such a moment, as a girl with long black, definitely dyed hair and too much mascara asked him a question.
“Do you guys use biological and slavery free produced coffee beans here?” Kylo’s hand twitched and he glared in anger down at the customer, whose mascara was probably totally animal tested and produced by children in China. And he was fairly tempted to yell that to her face or connect a fist to that head, only he hadn’t figured out yet which of the two it was going to be.
Luckily his coworker, Syra Ren had noticed his behavior and with a hand on his arm and a subtle yet strong push in the back she moved Kylo to the side.
“Let me answer that for you, miss.” She spoke confident yet still polite enough. Kylo let himself be moved by her and watched her handle the customer, internally still in a fight with himself and his emotions.
Syra Ren was maybe two good heads shorter than him, but she still was equally intimidating and strong as well, which also showed in her singing abilities. Yet the friendliness she could master equally well was the most impressive thing according to Kylo, who himself only was rough, dark and forceful.
Once Syra was finished with the customer Kylo surged into himself a bit, as with the disappearance of the source of idiocy also most of his energy died out. He muttered a ‘thanks’ to her and earned a nod and something like a smile in return.
“She was being unnecessary difficult. Just saying no will be good enough.” She sighed, giving him a strong pat on the back, urging him silently to take back his place behind the counter. He retook his place and tried to surge away the remaining frustration, by bending disposable spoons, while waiting for the next customer to come in.
At the sound of the door opening he looked up to be met with a familiar face. A tall woman with short platinum blond hair, Kylo knew as Phasma, walked in while obviously being in a serious discussion with the man that followed her inside. What stood out was that they were both dressed in suits and neatly polished shoes, all with the right accessories without coming off as pompous, just immaculate and minimalistic. It was the first time Kylo had seen Phasma wearing such formal clothes, even though she was a regular here.
He supposed there was a good reason why she was wearing such dark, stiff and formal clothing. The only logical one he could come up with was that she recently had a funeral. When the two reached the counter, Kylo decided to be sympathetic for a change.
“I’m sorry for your loss.” He said as genuinely as possible, looking over them to get a clue of the mood they were in. Phasma just stared at Kylo in response, blinking as if she was still processing what had been said. Which felt kind of rude to Kylo, as being sympathetic and sincere was something he wasn’t capable of and he just did the most impossible thing. The man accompanying Phasma, who he now noticed was really a natural ginger, if the color of his eyebrows and roots were anything to go by, raised an eyebrow and pretty quickly found his words.
“Excuse me.” He spat out as if Kylo had just said the vilest thing he’d ever heard.
Kylo himself was also getting confused and frustrated as this was definitely not how he had imagined it to go, but there was no backing down now.
“Well, you are wearing suits and- ” He started, only to be interrupted by the ginger companion of Phasma.
“Just because we are decently clothed for formal occasions, you are assuming someone died? How naïve are you?” He commented bluntly, not even raising his voice, as the tone was with enough spite on its own, getting on each and every nerve of Kylo. Without even thinking Kylo slammed a fist onto the counter, making a customer in the corner of the café visibly jump up, even though the man in front of him didn’t even do as much as flinch.
“Shut up, I’m trying to be nice. No need to be a fucking asshole about it. Phasma never wears suits or looks so soul sucking serious.” Kylo yelled back, not even bothering or thinking about the others around. Angrily he glared at the man, who equally displeased glared back, not wanting to give in to the other.
This held on for a moment, until both of their focus was broken by a loud laugh from Phasma. Both ended the match to look over to the platinum blond lady, hoping to find a reason for her poorly timed laughing. She was leaning onto the counter and wiping a tear out of the corner of her eye, while her laugh slowly came to a halt.
If Phasma wasn’t a regular and mostly wasn’t a sort of good acquaintance of him (he didn’t have friends), he would have hit her already.
“Thanks Kylo, that’s considerate of you, though nobody died, yet at least.” She started and gave a smile to him. “This is what I wear for work. Normally I only come here on my free days or free afternoons.”
A soft ‘ah’ left Kylo’s throat, not being able to verbalize the rest of his frustration. He wanted to yell in her face about it honestly, tell her that she could have told him and that laughing was absolutely an asshole move. Not to mention that he still wished to hit that arrogant face of the redhead that seemingly just accepted Phasma her apology, aside from a very over dramatic roll of his eyes that was just infuriating. The guy was an asshole and he couldn’t understand why Phasma would bother bringing such a person to a place like this.
Suddenly a ‘snap’ was heard and it took a second to realize that he just had broken the plastic spoon he had been holding in his hand. However his hold didn’t waver and the spoon just cracked and ben t further.
Syra gave Kylo a soft push as she passed him, to hint him that he had other things to do than intensely glaring at the two customers in front of him.
“So, what do you want to drink? Or did you just come here to make a fool out of me?” He growled, though neither of the two in front of him looked impressed.
“I doubt you need us for that.” The ginger retorted ice cold and that was the limit of what Kylo could handle. With one of his large hands he grabbed the tie and yanked the man forward, half over the counter. If he was surprised by the move, he didn’t seem to show it, making Kylo literally growl in anger.
“How about you shut that arrogant mouth, or I’ll make you.” He hissed out, accidentally spitting lightly in the other’s face as he spoke. The ginger flinched pure out reflex at that, but it was very much satisfying to see in Kylo’s opinion. A smug smirk came on his face and apparently that was Phasma’s cue to jump in the middle of it.
“Okay, okay, Hux, stop being an asshole, I know you are under a lot of stress and in dire need of coffee, but pissing off Kylo is a stupid idea, even for you.” She commented and sighed dramatically. Hux made a sour expression and averted his gaze from Kylo, his pride obviously hurt at the comment. It was more than pleasing to see the other man’s ego deflate and with a slight push, Kylo let go of the other.
While the ginger, apparently called Hux, fixed his tie, an awkward silence hung between the three as they were the only ones left in the café. Syra Ren apparently had enough of the mess and had walked off to the back to smoke and the customer had slipped out of the room without being noticed.
“So what’s it going to be?” Kylo grumbled as he crossed his arms. He was certain he was going to plant his fist in the face of that arrogant asshole sometime today, just not right now.
A smile formed on Phasma’s face and she eagerly eyed the counter with baked goods.
“A large coffee for both of us and one of those red velvet cupcakes, please.”
The rest of the upcoming minutes went relatively normal for a change, Phasma paid for both of them and they took a seat at a small table near the window. Kylo made two cups of coffee in silence, still seething and not prone on letting Hux’s behavior be forgotten. No one made such comments about Kylo without obvious consequences. There was a reason everyone in his high school and college had learned not to mess with him. And even now people knew better than that, he was taller and broader than most and never really the most kind - looking around. Only Phasma and the other Rens were so used to his presentence that they weren’t intimidated. Aside from this arrogant jerk that was.
Angrily Kylo stomped over to the two with the coffee and the cupcake. With more aggression than necessary he placed the items on the table, almost spilling the coffee but Kylo couldn’t bring himself to care. Especially because the two were in a serious discussion again.
“-And as if my work load wasn’t enough, I now have to find a replacement for FN-2187. He was producing such a steady going prototype, I can’t believe he quit just like that.” Phasma said, shaking her head.
“Can’t that nines guy take it over? I heard his prototype fluked at the last moment, massive bug in the design and he would have to start all over.”
“What, Nines? That guy is hardly standing due to stress. He will drop dead if he continues like that.” “Tsk, weak.” Muttered Hux in response and took the cup of coffee that was standing in front of him. Phasma gave a quick thanks to Kylo, before also taking a good sip of the steaming coffee in front of her.
The fact that Hux hardly even acknowledged Kylo’s presence at the table was making him grit his teeth and he bit his tongue as he stomped to the back to go for a smoke. He hardly ever did such a thing, but at this moment it was that or beating up a certain ginger.
Once outside, Kylo took the pack out of his back pocket, took one cigarette out and lit it. He closed his eyes and took a deep drag, feeling the smoke fill his lungs and opened his eyes again to watch it swirl in the wind as he breathed out. Both the nicotine and watching the smoke move in the air was calming him slowly.
Once the cigarette was finished he had sufficiently calmed down to get back to work. Surely he could survive another few minutes of the asshole ginger, though he silently hoped the man had left. This wasn’t his first time dealing with arrogant, ignorant or just plainly annoying customers and he wouldn’t want to get on Snoke ’ s bad side just because he was causing trouble. He needed this job and if that meant putting up with a prick like that, he would.
Determined he walked back into the café. To his disappointment Phasma and Hux were still there as they apparently had bought both a second cup of coffee. As Syra was manning the counter and helping a customer, he sought distraction in cleaning some of the tables.
To his surprise the two were actually silently sipping their probably still too hot coffee and weren’t in one of their serious and fierce discussions that still sounded like people died. This made him almost able to forget how annoying Hux was, with his too stiff posture and clipped speech. He was brooding silently with a scowl on his face and cleaning some tables, putting empty cups and such on the tray.
He hadn’t paid attention to the sound of a phone vibrating or Hux saying something to Phasma. He had just picked up the metal tray and turned around to bring it to the back. As always, Kylo only ever walked with full force, his arching frustration having to come out in a way.
Before he even could see where he was going, he collided with the ginger. The metal tray ending with full force in Hux his face, shoulder hitting Kylo’s chest, who stopped at the sudden resistance. Hux stumbled a few steps back, phone still vibrating in his hand and blinking confused a few times before the face turned in one of annoyance. Blood started to drip out of his nose and a groan left the man’s lips before as he carefully touched his nose.
“God damn, watch where you are going.” The glare the redhead gave was less impressive while being hunched over slightly and with his nose bleeding.
Kylo couldn’t help but stare confused at the man before him, his brain not yet caught up to what happened or how it had happened. How had he managed to miss that the man had been practically behind him? He practically always could tell exactly where anyone was within a close range of him. Hear them walk, feel them move, he just always knew. Except this time.
When he had finally wrapped his head around it, Phasma had lead Hux back to his chair and Hux was pushing a napkin from the table to his face. In a hurry Kylo picked up a stack of napkins and put them on the table near Hux, as the one to his face was already quite drenched with blood.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t do that on purpose.” He muttered, hating to admit he made a mistake, but honestly, there was no way around it. Accidentally hurting the man was in no way satisfying and definitely on the list of mistakes that could get him fired. Yes, that was exactly the reason why he was apologizing, to not get his ass fired.
“How nice to know you didn’t intend to hit me in the face with a metal tray.” The sarcastic remark came as he took a napkin from the stack that had been given to him to replace the soaked one against his face.
“No need to be a jerk about it, I already said sorry. I promise you’ll get a coupon to make up for this accident. I hope it’s nothing too serious.” Kylo rambled on, not sure what to do with the man calmly waiting for the bleeding to stop.
“It doesn’t look broken, so I’m sure he’ll live. Not to mention it’s far from the first time Hux got his face hit.” Phasma spoke, equally calm about the situation and sending some messages on her phone, probably to their company.
“What do you mean?” Kylo had said it before he could even think about it, but neither looked really bothered by the question. And it wasn’t as if Hux could look more irritated than he already was.
“Well, you surely aren’t the first one that wanted to punch that pretty face of him. Though the first to actually manage to catch him off guard.” If the amused grin of Phasma was anything to go by, she probably had been at quite some of the encounters she referred to.
It didn’t take long for the bleeding to stop and only a red and slightly swollen nose was left as proof of the accident. The redness was a stark contrast to the pale skin and impossible to hide. It would get even worse later on when the bruise would change to a darker color. As much as the ginger was an arrogant prick, he was not the type to angrily yell at them that he would press charges over this incident. Instead he reluctantly accepted the coupon, like he was doubting if he would be coming back and took the takeaway cup of coffee to replace the one he had bought earlier and was now lukewarm and still mostly full. With that the two had left, Phasma giving a smile and a wave, calling over her shoulder that she would be back next week.
When they were out of sight, Kylo went back to business and cleared the pile of bloody napkins of the table, ignoring the intense stare he could feel on his back. However she wasn’t having it and just spoke, as the place was currently free of customers.
“You’re an idiot, you know that right?”