Chapter Text
Gakushuu Asano sighed as the smell of coffee wafted through the air and invaded his nose with relaxing scents. He really did love working here, in A class cafe. It gave him the opportunity to meet new people and experiment with new drinks. Although, it wasn't always fun when a particularly picky or rude customer comes along to disrupt the peace. But he always got through it with a smile and slightly more narrowed eyes. Today he was working at the counter as the cashier, taking people's orders and putting their money in the box while simultaneously counting out the right amount of change to give to them.
He had just finished with a customer who wanted whipped cream with sprinkles on her iced latte. How weird. He quickly deposited the change back into the drawer and got ready for when the next customer would walk in through their double doors. Suddenly, a crash was sounded behind him, perking up everyone In the cafe's interest. You know, when a student is being told off by their teacher and the whole class just silently stares? It's the exact same in the cafe. He rolled his eyes before turning around, only to witness Mitsuha on the floor, her apron stained with coffee and broken teacups surrounding her.
Gakushuu willed himself to not be too angry. She was a newcomer, had only started working here last week and was more than a little bit clumsy. Why she decided to work somewhere where clumsiness was not welcomed was beyond him. Instead, he just smiled his award-winning yet entirely fake smile and helped her up while someone worked on picking up the broken teacups. She looked close to tears. He quickly sent her off to Ren, who was more than happy to deal with a "damsel in distress" as he put it. And just in time to, as a new customer had finally walked into their establishment.
Gakushuu looked around to make sure everyone was continuing their work before looking forward, surprised to see the customer already in front of him. They move fast. Now that the customer was literally a foot away, Gakushuu actually had the chance to look at the them. Properly.
Red hair that he couldn't help but associate with strawberries and intense, golden eyes that held an unknown fire beneath them. A tiny smirk played on his lips as he looked around before landing his eyes back onto cashier. Gakushuu is proud to say that in all of the years he has worked here, nobody has ever managed to seem attractive to him. And that's saying something, as the usual people who came in here were people his age and very fit. So for this redheaded phenomenon to walk in here and actually light a fire inside Gakushuu was nothing but a mystery. And he was willing to indulge in it.
Before he would be classed as weird for staring for so long, he cleared his thought and averted his eyes. "So, what would it be?" He asked casually, maybe a bit too casually.
The redhead's smile grew before answering with a slight hum. Gakushuu raised an eyebrow, was he here to order or not?
"Can I get... a strawberry and cream frapuccino?" He asked after contemplating his choice for a while.
'Thats a first, it's not everyday somebody asks for a strawberry and cream frapaccino' Is what Gakushuu would have thought if he wasn't so enchanted with his voice. It was soft, yet had a husky undertone to it and a little lilt, indications that he was carefree with his words. Gakushuu hadn't noticed it before, but there was a wave of confidence around the male, one could even say a hint of foreboding, that would probably make it hard to approach him. But not too Gakushuu, it just appealed to him more.
"Sure, anything else?" Gakushuu asked, briefly ignoring his fluttering heart.
"Maybe your number?"
Gakushuu looked up, his eyebrow arched. Did he really hear correctly? "No".
He didn't bother to wait for his reaction as he turned to Seo so he could tell him to start making the redhead's drink. He took a cup and pen and looked up at the male expectantly.
"Karma Akabane" The male, or well, Karma, had said. Gakushuu raised an eyebrow - he had been doing that a lot during this encounter- at the weird sounding name but didn't comment on it, instead opting to just write the name on the cup and proceeded to hand it to the waiting Seo.
"Wait!" Karma had all but shouted, halting both Gakushuu and Seo in their tracks. "I want you to make it" He said, pointing at Gakushuu.
Gakushuu shared a look with Seo before giving an exasperated sigh and switching stations with Seo. What a drama queen. He didn't have to shout, and so loud too. The quicker he gets this drink made, the quicker he never had to see the beautiful male again. He got to work on the frapuccino, beginning with adding the ice into the cup and going round to the back to get more milk. Seo awkwardly motioned for the next customer in the line that had formed behind Karma after telling him where to sit so he can wait for his drink.
Gakushuu came back out before putting the right amount of milk into the blender. Next, he put one teaspoon of vanilla extract and three teaspoons of powdered sugar. Then, he went to the fridge where he had put frozen strawberries to defrost. He took out 10, washed them, then proceeded to put them into his concoction. He put the lid back on the blender and pressed on. He then waited until it looked smooth and had a nice pink colour before turning the blender off and putting the contents inside a plastic cup. Then, he put whipped cream at the top while adding a single strawberry that was cut in half at the very top. He got a straw from the side before walking up to the front drink in hand.
"Akabane?" He called, looking around and focusing once he located the redhead.
Karma got up from his seat and walked towards Gakushuu. He took one look at the Strawberry concoction presented before him before taking the straw out of it's paper shield and taking a sip. Gakushuu watched on in apprehension, which was very unlike him. Usually, he wouldn't care if the person liked their drink or not, but right now, he was dying to know if Karma liked it.
"This is...better than I thought! Looks like I made the right choice when asking you to make it" Karma said, a smile on his lips.
Gakushuu breathed an inward sigh of relief before nodding and turning once the redhead was preparing to leave. "Oh, wait!" Karma said, making Gakushuu turn back around once again.
"I never did catch your name"
Gakushuu looked at him before replying, "Asano, Gakushuu Asano".
"Well, Gakushuu Asano, did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"
It was so sudden that Gakushuu had to take a few seconds to gather his thoughts.
This was not happening to him. No way was the male in front of him using a pick up line. And an extremely cliche and unoriginal one at that! Though, Gakushuu couldn't help but indulge in him. Might as well reject him now before he got any ideas.
"No, but I did scrape my knee crawling up from hell" Gakushuu replied with a roll of his eyes and a challenging smirk on his face.
"Really?" Karma asked without missing a beat, "That explains why you're so hot, then". He winked.
If the world was coming to an end, Gakushuu wouldn't have noticed. This smooth motherfucker. Gakushuu could have laughed.
"You're going have to try harder than that, Mr. Karma Akabane" Gakushuu replied without thinking, before mentally slapping himself. He was definitely going to take that as a challenge.
Karma actually looked shocked for a minute before recovering with a snarky smirk of his own. Gakushuu groaned inwardly, he knew what that smirk was as he would use it all of the time when he was presented with a challenge. In better words, it meant...
Game On!