Work Text:
It was 9:30 pm, half an hour before the restaurant known as Kubota Café was meant to close. Kubota Café was a locally owned, smaller business, somewhat known for its tasty home-baked pastries and its signature “insert inside joke here” Coffee. They didn’t get many customers, with most of them being locals who’ve gone to them for years, but they seem to make a pretty stable living. But for right now, it was almost empty.
The café was dimly lit, considering that they only had a singular lamp that hung on a wire, dangling from the ceiling. The light would flicker occasionally, which drove both the café’s workers and customers crazy. However, in the mornings, the sunlight would trickle in through the foggy window panes, illuminating the room and giving it a beautiful amber hue.
The wooden walls were a very boring brown. It was okay at first, nothing too eye-catching, but you could imagine that after (blank) years of looking at it would become painful. To attempt to fix this, the employees have seemed to try their best to decorate it with colorful anime-esque posters and photos of what seem to be their family members; they even went so far as to add a “Live Laugh Love” sign, which they now regret heavily. But at the very least, it was now something they could laugh at.
There weren’t many seats, but the ones that they had looked like they had seen better days. They seemed to be well-lived-in and had been there the longest out of all the other furniture items; it's even been rumored that they've outlasted most of the employees who used to work there.
The floors were made of cheap ceramic tile, which was pretty uncomfortable to walk on if you were barefoot, but it wasn’t that bad if you didn’t pay too much attention to it. The tiles also made an unbearable squeaking sound if you wore the employee-required uniform’s shoes.
Near the door of the café was the counter, just like the rest of the building; it wasn’t anything to write home about, but it seemed to serve its purpose. It was one of those counters that was cut in half to hold a display case full of croissants, brownies, cookies, and other assorted pastries. There were small swivel seats that squeaked when you moved on them layed out in front of the counter; one of the seats even looked like a cat had scratched it.
On the counter lay a blackboard that had the daily specials written on it. It was lovingly decorated with tons of doodles on it; it seemed that the drawings had more effort put into them than most of the decor at the café. Next to the blackboard was a busted-up-looking cash register, which was covered in rust and dents. Colorful stickers covered the rust as a poor attempt to make it look nicer. It made horrifyingly loud noises if you even dared to look at it wrong, but it worked 80% of the time. There was also a singular potted plant that had two small plushies neatly resting on the pot’s base. A small paper sign is placed in front of them with a note that says “NOT FOR SALE!! :D”, passively-aggressively written on it.
The sounds coming from the café weren’t pleasant, but they were as expected for a smaller location. You could occasionally hear the sounds of pots and pans clattering about in the kitchen, but usually it was just the coffee machines buzzing, and the baristas yelling out order names. The café was rarely ever silent, but when it was, it was pretty eerie, so eerie that the baristas would usually have to make awkward small talk just to make the deafening silence go away.
But the smells, on the other hand, were delightful. Chocolate and caramel sweetly filled the air as the calming aroma of fresh coffee faintly lingered around it.
Child and Milly, two of the employees working there, were taking the closing shift for the day, something they did begrudgingly every night. They're pretty much the only workers there. Their manager, Kyklone, was known for being pretty picky with his new hires, so they were severely understaffed. This didn’t stop Milly and Child from complaining about it, though.
He always told them the same old story about how he “needed to know the employees suuuper well before he’d let them work here”, but truthfully, even Child and Milly don’t know much about Kyklone. Though they’ve known him for years, he has this surprising talent to be able to sense whenever someone is trying to talk to him about things other than work, in which he always comes up with some wacky excuse on how he has to do something like “walk his pet fish”. Obviously, the two baristas never believed a word he said, nor were they hurt; they were more amused at his bizarre remarks than anything.
Milly was storing some of the cooking utensils as she admired her motivational Chikawa poster on the wall. The poster was hanging on for dear life, as it was put up there years ago with a singular piece of crappy dollar-store tape. She sighed, as she always told herself that she would fix this someday, but their procrastination and laziness always seemed to get the best of her. Funnily enough, the words “Perseverance is key!” were written on the poster in big, glittery, rainbow text. She chuckled to herself at the irony of it all as she continued her duties.
Meanwhile, Child was wiping down the dirty, cheaply made counters, daydreaming of the day she could finally quit this stupid job and pursue her dreams. The unpleasant smell of cleaning supplies filled her nostrils as she gagged, trying her hardest to finish up the job as soon as possible so she could dispose of them. She couldn’t help but stare at the lone clock on the wall in front of her, its two hands counting down the seconds until she could go home.
Milly and Child defeatedly glanced at each other as they finished up their work, nodding in solemn agreement as they briefly passed each other. In agreement with what, you may ask? Neither of them knew, but they didn’t really care at this point.
On another note, Cofi had forgotten their one-and-a-half-year anniversary with their partner, Dakota. As expected, Dakota was furious once she realized Cofi had forgotten; she spent almost an hour yelling at them. Cofi was never good at confrontation, especially when they’re the one being confronted. So, as soon as they eventually got a chance to speak, they accepted defeat and hurriedly said they would take her “somewhere nice”, which somehow calmed Dakota's incandescent wrath, even if temporarily.
The couple had never been rich. In fact, they were very close to being broke. So when Dakota heard Cofi say that they would take her out, she didn't really expect much at all.
And she would be right to think that, for Cofi took her to none other than Kubota Café. We've already established that this Café was… less than perfect, to say the least. It was somewhat affordable given their price range. But at that point, Cofi was taking what they could get. They were already stressed out about how much their partner was upset with them.
So, Cofi and Dakota waltzed into the cafe, unaware of the fact that the place was about to close. A bell rang as Cofi opened the door, alerting the baristas of their untimely arrival. Cofi courteously held the door open as they anxiously smiled at Dakota, who still had an upset expression on her face. Milly looked over as she suppressed a scowl at the customers. “So close to closing? Really? Clearly, these idiots have no manners.” Milly thought to herself as she disapprovingly glanced over to Child. Child returned the same look.
Nonetheless, Child greets them, as per her job requirements. She sighs and then clears her throat before making her way over to them.
“Welcome to Kubota Café. Sit wherever you want, and order when you’re ready.” Child mumbles, trying her absolute best not to yawn.
(dialogue?)
Dakota shot a brief glare in their direction from the corner of her eye, doing little to keep it subtle. The workers hadn’t done anything wrong at all, but her reaction was probably from her lingering foul mood from earlier.
[Maybe more depth]
Milly tightens her apron and grumbles as she starts to take out the utensils they worked so hard to put away earlier. She glares furiously at the two as they begin to take their seats. The couple seems not to notice as they talk amongst themselves.