Chapter Text
To say that Scar was facing a bad series of events would be an understatement. For the past thirty minutes, every coffee shop, every student lounge or library he ran into either didn't have any power outlets, or didn't let him stay for as long as it took to finish his miserable midterm while his laptop charged. See, he had planned things out for once! Between his first lecture of the day and the scheduled time of his midterm, he was sure that his laptop's battery would make it through with a couple minutes to spare.
Alas, sitting at an empty bench, once he began his online midterm, his beloved laptop of way too many years decided it should start showing it's age.
Right now.
Somewhere around the fifth question, the screen had dimmed, trying to make do with whatever amount of energy it had left.
A measly 20% by the looks of it.
The problem lay within the fact that this specific class had especially confusing questions. Initially, the elective had sounded interesting. Fun, even. But the longer that the semester had gone on, the less theoretically interesting the elective had become and the more it started to resemble a math class. And another glance at the total number of questions in the midterm had him wincing. With the way it took him far too long to finish one question, he knew that there was no way his laptop was making it past question 10.
Which is how he ended up here, running through the streets of the city like a madman, laptop held under one arm and the other tightly gripping the charging cable, plug end scraping along the pavement as he ran.
Soon enough, a new cafe came into sight, one he hadn't tried his luck with yet and one glance through the window showed, despite the very crowded shop, an empty power socket right by an empty table. This was it! He now only had to hope that the cafe would take pity on him and let him sit there while finishing his midterm.
Pushing the door open, Scar was greeted by the sound of a bell and a sign so in his face it should've been criminal, proclaiming that to use the shop facilities, you had to make an order first. Though he'd been faced with this same sentiment all morning, he still couldn't help but sigh at the extra lengths he would now have to go through. All for an elective he regrets taking. Resigned, he got in line.
Thankfully, while the person before him in line was ordering, he had time to check the menu board and realised that the prices weren't too bad. A simple cup of coffee would both wake him up out of this nightmare and ensure his stay for the remainder of his midterm.
Soon enough, the man was paying and in those few moments of waiting, he took to admiring the very soft looking fabric that made up the other customer's red sweater.
A bit too hot out to be wearing something like that, he thought to himself, but it didn't take long for his laboured breath to remind him that he had been running through the streets like a madman for the past forty minutes.
Soon enough, his turn came up, and he quickly rattled off the order while checking that his laptop was still alive in his arms while the barista punched the order in.
"Would you like that for here or to go?" Her voice shook him out of his momentary daze.
"Oh! For here would be just wonderful," He wasn't sure if trying to be extra friendly would help him, but he was willing to try anything now in order to not fail this elective and have it on his conscience forever. He tried for some small talk. "Very busy this time of day aren't cha?"
"Yeah, you're lucky you've got someone saving you a seat, you know." She sighed as the price of the coffee finally showed up on the register. "Otherwise I'm not sure you'd be able to find anywhere to sit."
Scar paused, halfway through pulling his wallet out and trying to balance the laptop with one arm.
Wait, no.
A quick glance behind his shoulder showed what he was already knew had happened. The man in the red sweater who was in front of him in line had gotten to the only empty table before him, and was sitting there now eating what looked to be a sandwich.
"Oh.. Haha! Right! Super lucky, very lucky even!"
The barista gave him a weird look at his phrasing but Scar wasn't paying any attention to her anymore, because another look at his laptop and he knew he'd never be able to make it to another shop in time. He'd have to make this work somehow.
In between thoughts of plans and prayers to whatever god was up there, he miraculously was able to notice that the barista was talking to him again and he managed to end that social interaction as smoothly as possible while crafting up a master plan in his head to get this man to help him.
Of course, he could always simply just ask to share the table but if the guy was especially stubborn, Scar was not below a bit of begging at his current state.
Paying for the coffee and grabbing the cup once it was done, he marched over to the table with confidence. A man on a mission if you will.
He was aiming for a cool, aloof entrance, one that would paint him as a friendly person that anyone would be inclined to want to help. However, the closer he got the more he became aware of the slight ache in his arms from holding his laptop and running with it for so long, and now with one hand carrying a ceramic cup of coffee, he knew he needed to get to the table quick and set his things down before he completely lost his balance.
Well, the balance he was so desperately keeping only lasted thirty more seconds before his foot hit an uneven bit of flooring and he tipped forwards. Thankfully, he was now close enough to the table that he was able to slam the cup down and use it as an anchor. Unfortunately as luck would have it, his very sudden, very jarring entrance was of course noticed by the man in front of him, who's arm was lifted halfway to his mouth and poised to take a bite of the sandwich in his grasp.
As both men stared face to face, Scar couldn't help but now look at this table-stealing man's face.
And it was a nice face in his humble opinion. Loose blond bangs fell over slightly round eyes, and oh those eyes. They were so dark that from a distance, Scar was sure he'd mistake them for pure black but up-close, and he was very close to this man, he was able to pick out lighter flecks of possibly amber? Honey? Nestled within the inky darkness.
Scar didn't usually find himself so tongue tied when faced with a pretty face, but at the moment he felt unable to move his tongue, much less remember what was even here for in the first place. He kept staring and possibly would have stayed hunched over the table for longer if it wasn't for the man slowly lowering his sandwich and leaning his head back.
"You okay there buddy?" The man asked, chair scraping against the floor as he tried to put space between the two of them.