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Albus was going to be infuriated to death, he was sure of it, and it was all Rose’s fault. Not only had she successfully bullied him into covering her shift this morning, she also conveniently forgot to mention that he would be working with his brother. Which wouldn’t have been a big deal except for the fact that all of James’ obnoxiously loud friends were sat at one end of the coffee bar and simply wouldn’t leave. It had been well over two hours since they had actually ordered anything, and they were sat there telling jokes and running around the place making a mess. This also seemed to be preventing James from getting any actual work done, as he leant over the counter drinking a coffee he definitely hadn’t paid for and loudly discussing the football game that had been on last night. Yes, Albus was slightly annoyed but at least it had been quiet for the past hour, and the few customers that had come through, he was more than capable of handling on his own.
Right as Albus decided to disappear to the back room for all of five seconds, he heard James’ voice calling out to him “Hey Al, there’s a customer waiting to be served!”. Albus huffed and rolled his eyes, why James couldn’t serve the customer while he was on the clock and being paid, he would never know. Albus turned the corner and headed back out to the counter, only to look up and see the most beautiful boy he had ever met standing in front of him.
The boy couldn’t have been much older than Albus, and had striking blonde hair that honestly looked closer to white. Albus’ breath caught in his throat, it had been a while since he had been this immediately attracted to anyone, let alone someone he hadn’t even spoken to yet. “Hi, welcome to Pepper Imps Coffee, what can I get for you?” Albus stuttered out while trying his best to smile and appear friendly. He ran a hand through his messy brown curls and took a breath, he could do this, he could interact with the cute boy long enough to take his coffee order and pine over him for a few weeks until he forgot about him and never saw him again. The boy smiled at Albus, dimples pushing up his cheeks, “Hi there…” he squinted to look at the name tag on Albus’ chest “…Albus! I’d love a medium caramel latte with extra caramel if it isn’t too much trouble”.
Albus was sure he was going to die now, even more so than he had been this morning, but it wasn’t from annoyance this time, it was from the cute boy in front of him who had the most soft and beautiful voice Albus had ever heard. He heard an awkward cough from behind him and turned around to see James staring at him, silently questioning whether he was alright. Albus wondered how long he had been stood there for James to notice and interrupt, and God had he been staring, now would be a good time for the earth to come and swallow him up whole.
He pulled himself together enough to reply “Sure, not a problem at all. Could I grab a name for the drink?”. James shoved himself up to the front counter, placing the boy’s drink in front of him “No need my dearest brother, I’ve already made the drink”. Albus had never despised James more than he did in that moment, how was he supposed to endlessly fantasise about this boy when he didn’t even know his name. The boy smiled at James and then his eyes fell back on Albus, “my name is Scorpius, didn’t feel right for me to know yours and you not to know mine. Have a wonderful day, both of you!” and with one last smile and a nod at Albus, he turned and was out the door before Albus could even think to respond.
James immediately turned and looked at his younger brother “Al, you could’ve been a bit more discrete, you literally stood there staring at him for a solid minute before I jumped in.” Albus sighed, it wasn’t like he would have a chance with a boy that cute, and besides he was probably straight, just because Albus was gay didn’t mean everyone else was too. Albus just shook his head, mumbled out a quiet “I’m going on break”, and wandered off to the back room, leaving James to run the store alone for the next hour.
Two weeks had passed and Albus had lost all hope of ever seeing Scorpius, the pretty coffee shop boy again. He had begged Rose to swap shifts with him again, in hopes that maybe he would catch Scorpius again, maybe he was a regular who only stopped by in the mornings, considering Albus usually only worked in the afternoons it was completely plausible. But even after working three of Rose’s morning shifts, he hadn’t seen the blonde boy once.
James had clearly gotten sick of him moping around both work and the house because on a Saturday evening, he barged into Albus’ room. “Okay look, I don’t know what’s wrong but you have been miserable for the past two weeks and I have no idea why, so spill” James ranted at Albus from the doorway. Albus just blinked in his direction before beckoning him in and telling him to shut the door behind him. After explaining how he had been helplessly pining for the past two weeks over a boy he had literally laid eyes on once, James laughed at him “Al, is that all? It’s not worth it, for all you know he was just in town for a visit and you will literally never see him again.” Albus smiled sadly at that, he didn’t know why he was so desperate to see Scorpius again, he had never been this head over heels for someone he had barely spoken to before. “Thanks James, that really helps” Albus replies before kicking James out of his room and shutting the door. Maybe James had a point though, there was no reason he had to sit around sadly waiting for Scorpius to come back, he should just give up while he still can.
So that’s what he does, Albus tries his best to stop thinking about Scorpius, and when a month later the boy walks back into Pepper Imps, Albus almost misses him. He isn’t taking orders that day, he’s over brewing coffee. So when he hears Rose ask for a name for the drink and a soft voice replies “Scorpius”, he whips his head around so quickly he is sure it looks ridiculous. Standing there behind the counter with a smile on his face is the boy Albus has not been able to forget about. Scorpius walks down to the end of the counter to wait for his drink, but he chooses to stand right where Albus is making drinks.
“Hey Albus, right?” Scorpius asks politely, Albus barely able to contain his grin just nods dumbly at him while smiling. This makes the other boy chuckle and Albus continues to make the many coffee orders piling up at his station. “This might seem like a dumb question but do you work here regularly? I swear every time I come in for coffee you’re never here, I was beginning to think I imagined you the first time” Scorpius chuckled, Albus audibly laughed at that “No, I’m here pretty regularly but my schedule tends to jump all over the place depending on my university timetable.” Scorpius smiled at that and the two fell into a conversation about what they were studying at university (Albus science and Scorpius education) and how they were enjoying it (both of them were loving it). As they continued to chat while Albus made drinks, he thought about how he struggled to talk to most people, and that this was the most at ease talking to someone new he had felt in a long time. It was like they just clicked in a way he wasn’t used to and he couldn’t stop smiling through their entire conversation.
Before Albus even had realised it, he was finished making Scorpius’ drink and handed it to him. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around, enjoy the coffee’ Albus said sadly, Scorpius just turned to him, a hesitant look on his face. He opened his mouth as if to say something but then shut it again, clearly talking himself out of it, smiled and waved in Albus’ direction and walked out.
Albus went through the rest of his shift like a zombie, he couldn’t believe the cute boy had come back to him and instead of manning up and doing something about it, he’d just fallen deeper into his crush by talking to him. There was about half an hour left of Albus’ shift at this point, he was working the close alone and the store was empty so he was just cleaning up some stock in the back room when he heard the bell above the door jingle. “Hi, welcome to Pepper Im- “, he stopped himself when he turned around and saw who was standing there. Scorpius stood in the doorway; face flushed like he had just run a marathon smiling goofily in Albus’ direction.
“I’m sorry” he mumbled “but I knew if I didn’t come back today, I would lose the nerve and who knows when I’d see you again” Scorpius rambled. Albus stared at him confused “lose the nerve?” he questioned, Scorpius smiled at him in response and walked closer to the bench Albus was now cleaning. “Look, I think you are incredibly cute and I really enjoyed chatting to you earlier, so I was wondering, if maybe, and it’s totally okay if you don’t want to, but would you maybe want to go out with me sometime?” Scorpius nervously rambled out in Albus’ direction, while Albus stared at him in shock completely frozen. “Oh god, I’m sorry” Scorpius rushed out “I don’t even know if you’re interested in guys, or interested in anyone at all, or if you have a partner. Also, I’m asking you out at your place of work which is so horrible of me because you’re trapped and can’t just run away, I’m going to go now” Scorpius scrambled towards the door. Albus hurriedly replied “Scorpius!!” to get him to stop and turn back around “I would love to go out with you sometime” he finished smiling softly at Scorpius.
Scorpius clearly not expecting this response produced the biggest smile and giggled softly “oh, good. I was worried you were straight for a second there”. Albus giggled right back at him, and as the two exchanged numbers and Scorpius headed home promising to text Albus later that night, Albus realised he had never felt quite this happy or content.