vocal rest & selective speaking
synopsis: yuta recounts his first meeting with toge! being on vocal rest at that time, he had to find a way to communicate with the cute barista!
cw: okkoinu, yuta x toge, you can read it as platonic though!!!, fluff, cafe au by @freyzrc, implied maki x nobara, slightly proofread but not really
word count: 1152
a/n: YOU THOUGHT HAHAHA!!!!! 😈 nO YOU GET 2 FICS!!! actually, this is once again for frey specifically but you're free to enjoy! i hope you enjoy your stay if you do!
“Okaka, shake, konbu,” Toge called out from where he stood by the café entrance.
Yuta looked up to see him turning the open sign to display “closed”. “Ah! Of course, Inumaki-kun! I can handle the back today!”
“Takana!” Came Toge’s reply.
Yuta gave him a quick thumbs up before making his way to the kitchen part of the café, smiling like an idiot as he did. He hadn’t always been able to communicate with Inumaki-kun this easily, there had been a ton of trial and error and only time was really able to help him understand him better.
He chuckled to himself as he reminisced all the fumbling they had when he first started working at the café. There had been a time when he misunderstood Inumaki-kun so much he had to suffer the wrath of his other co-worker, Maki-san, for screwing up so badly.
He remembered the first time he ever met Inumaki-kun, way back when, before he applied for this position.
It had been the beginning of the rainy season when he was discharged from the hospital after a particularly bad bout of coughing. He had been fine when he was cleared to be discharged, although they couldn’t do much about his voice until it came back.
Yuta had been wandering the streets that day when he quite literally stumbled in front of a quaint little café. The girl that was out front cleaning gave him a quizzical look before returning into it. For some reason he felt like he owed it to the café to go in for a drink, so he did.
“Konbu!” Chimed a voice from the counter.
Yuta must’ve heard wrong, or maybe the staff were talking amongst themselves when they came in because kelp was such a strange way of greeting guests, not that he minded, though.
It wasn’t until he was face to face with a masked but still extremely cute barista did he realise his current major problem.
He still hasn’t gotten his voice back yet.
Yuta outwardly panicked, the majorly cute white haired barista was staring at him so expectantly he couldn’t possibly leave now! What was his excuse! What excuse could he make without his voice?!
“Sujiko?”
Yuta’s attention snapped back to the boy, suddenly more flustered, his hands came up to randomly point and gesture.
The barista’s eyes seemed to light up at that, he nodded enthusiastically at Yuta. “Shake, Shake.”
Yuta, more confused than ever but also somehow reassured continued his little charade with the barista. “Hot drink?” he tried to mime.
Tried to. Because for some reason he’d been miming getting into an onsen and then opening and closing his mouth periodically like a fish.
He felt ridiculous. But it was too late, he had already done it. He’d just get whatever the barista interpreted and leave town. Maybe dig a hole somewhere in Chiba and just die there.
The barista nodded then poked the screen that was in front of him with so much gusto it almost made Yuta feel less embarrassed about the stupid predicament he put himself into.
“Tuna mayo?” the barista asked.
Now that Yuta really thought about it, why was this barista speaking to him in onigiri ingredients? It’s hard to tell what he was thinking, considering he couldn’t see what faces the barista was making behind his mask.
Maybe this was all a fever dream, and Yuta was still at the hospital high on the drugs the doctors gave him. Maybe that’s why he’d been so compelled to continue this interaction.
“Mentaiko,” the barista tried again, gesturing to the little board in front of the register. “Tuna tuna.”
“This week’s special” it wrote. A little to the left was “teas” and then a list of tea names. As Yuta processed this, his mind suddenly clicked that the barista actually understood him. He was so glad he almost wanted to cry tears of joy. He didn’t make a complete fool out of himself either.
Yuta scratched his head, debating with himself what tea would be the best option for his condition. Maybe he had subconsciously reached for his throat because the barista in front of him suddenly perked up. “Shake! Takana, tuna tuna.”
Yuta watched as the barista reached over to point at one of the options they had. His eyes crinkled a little while he gave Yuta two thumbs up. Yuta felt a sense of relieve wash through him, he didn’t quite understand the mysterious barista in front of him but he understood that he could trust him completely.
“Okaka, okaka,” said the barista waving back at him when Yuta bowed in thanks. He then gently excused himself to make Yuta’s order.
Yuta waited by the counter, completely mesmerised by the way the barista moved. Maybe it was the way he had handled the situation, or the adorable little hair clips the barista had in his pinned up hair but Yuta’s heart had been fluttering non stop since.
“Konbu!” the barista chirped when he walked towards Yuta with his drink.
Yuta bowed again, before taking the warm drink from him. He glanced down a little to read the nametag on the barista, “Inumaki” it said, he repeated the name in his head over and over. Yuta almost visibly flinched when he saw Inumaki-san staring at him intently, although he guessed from little crinkles in his eyes that he was smiling at him.
Before Yuta could grab his drink though, Inumaki-san gestured at him to wait. Yuta watched as he reached under the counter to grab a pen and a notebook. Inumaki-san began to scribble something down on the pages before turning it to Yuta.
“Vocal rest?” it read.
Ah, Yuta really felt like crying. This is definitely his new favourite café. He hadn’t been able to even whisper a single thing to this barista yet he could still completely understand him. Yuta nodded and held up three fingers.
Inumaki-san, as expected, was able to understand, he reached for the drink on the counter and began writing on it. Yuta bowed slightly again when he handed the drink to him.
“Shake,” exclaimed Inumaki-san while Yuta turned to leave the café.
When he was safely out of sight, he turned the cup in his hand, eager to read what Inumaki-san wrote.
“Get well quickly and come back soon! :)”
That was when Yuta decided that he’d come back no matter what so that he could do the same for his onigiri ingredient-speaking barista, it was the least he could do after all.
“What are you smiling to yourself about, that’s so creepy,” Maki-san’s voice huffed from behind him. She was carrying the shop’s mop and mop bucket with her.
“Oh,” Yuta laughed awkwardly. “Nothing much.”
“Then hurry up and finish taking out the trash,” she scolded even though there weren’t any real animosity behind her tone. “I wanna grab supper for Nobara.”
“Right!!! Sorry!”