the bells that hang by onigiri miya’s front door ring loudly as you enter the building, the sound of your voice accompanied with a chipper smile on your face as the early morning begins.
osamu barely looks up from the counter at your arrival, not needing to see you to know that it is you, and even if he is too busy fiddling with the register, he still smiles knowing that you’re here.
not that it would be anything special if you were, you were here practically everyday at this point, it might as well be part of osamu’s morning routine to welcome you in.
not that he minds — he’d never — but not that he’d tell you that, anyway.
“good morning.” he says to you, the smile on his face obvious now as you can hear it in his voice, but he still doesn’t look up from the register, too immersed in the work to tear himself away.
“seat yourself, will ya? bit busy here at the moment.”
you shrug off your coat from your shoulders as you hear him, nodding to yourself as you pick the table you like the most, and you call out, teasing, “alright but if you ask me to serve myself too, i’ll be expecting a paycheck from you.”
you slightly hear him chuckle a bit at that, too busy to respond, but you understand anyway considering the incoming morning rush.
knowing osamu, your closest friend for years, he must be knee deep in question marks as he tries to commandeer both the cashier and the kitchen by himself, too stubborn to hire anyone else, and way too confident to ask for any bit of help.
you’ll save the scoldings you have in mind for him later.
now, you’re preoccupied.
you pull the chair on your table out for your guest this morning, a small gesture of your hand to get him to seat across from you as you make yourself comfortable, and once all that’s settled, you hand him one of the menus to choose from.
the menu isn’t complicated at all — mainly the reason you took him here — and you’re sort-of proud of yourself for bringing him here in the first place.
after all, what better first date than the restaurant you already go to every single day?
your date gives you a smile, “so, you come here often?”
from the counter afar, there’s a sound of the register suddenly closing in on itself that can be heard loudly, a loud “clang!” echoing throughout the entire building.
osamu blinks, his attention suddenly torn away from the register in front of him, confusion settling in his face as his eyebrows furrow together, his languid smile dropping slowly and he looks up — finally.
from where he stands, the first person he sees is you, you’re laughing and smiling and you’re all dressed so nicely today that it almost makes him smile — but then he sees you’re talking to someone else, someone you brought here, someone across from you, and that doesn’t make him smile at all.
“yeah, it’s my favorite restaurant.” he hears you reply, the smile in your voice evident.
and as much as osamu just loves to hear how much you like his establishment, he’d rather you say it to him and not to anyone else.
there’s a bitter taste in his mouth. he feels like he just got the wind punched out of him as he continues to stare.
did you seriously bring a guy to his restaurant for a date?
“what can i get ya this mornin’?” there’s an obvious frown sitting on osamu’s face as he stands near your table, a pad of paper in his palm as his other hand holds a pen lazily.
it took him a lot of energy to force himself away from the counter and actually walk over to you and your … date, but he figured the more he ignored you, the more likely you were gonna come after him for not … well … doing his job.
“jeez. reign it in with the joy, please.” you tease, your morning spirits undeterred by his newfound persona of he-who-hates-all-things.
osamu sighs, dramatically, and he straightens up slightly to look at you more professionally now, “i’ve got the new flavors in this morning, they’re new and experimental so you get the chance— alright, what the hell is that?”
you look down to where his pointing, an exasperated look on his face as he gestures at the very bright object you brought with you today that was just distracting enough to bring him out of his spiel, and you smile even wider— proud.
“my shoes!” you nod with excitement, grabbing them from the paperbag on the floor as you take them out to show him.
“those are shoes?” his eyebrows furrow together tightly.
“well, i broke them, that’s why they look so clanky and the steel stuff ended up hanging outside the sole part, so i was planning on fixing it today during my break time at work.”
osamu looks at you, deadpanned, “they look like they could kill somebody.”
and you scoff, “so dramatic today.”
you sneak a peek over at the other side of the table to check on your date, and your smile remains when you see him still pre-occupied with the menu, browsing his options as he gives you a small smile while he listens to the conversation.
back to osamu now, he still looks frustrated at — well, you’re not really sure at what — and there’s a deep expression that settles on his face as he looks at you like you’ve just stolen his pen.
a second passes.
“hand them over.” he suddenly tells you, a big sigh coming from him as his shoulders fall with defeat.
you turn to him, “what?”
“hand over the shoes.”
“samu, i know they look bad, but that doesn’t mean you can take them from me!”
osamu breathes in very loudly as he stares at you, his frown impossibly getting deeper the more he stays here it seems, and with another swallow of possibly his last straw, he puts the pad down.
“give me the shoes so i can fix them, you idiot.” he tells you, his tone as quiet as he can make it, and he swears, if you had not been one of his closest friends, you’d been out of your seat five minutes ago.
you cross your arms over your chest, “you know how to fix shoes?”
and he scoffs, “i don’t, but i figure my chances are better than yours.”
your expression finally breaks into a small smile, defeated, yes, but you did get out of fixing your shoes yourself, which is a win in its own case, and a scenario only possible with osamu by your side.
“you win.” you throw your hands in the air, and show him a wide grin as you hand over the shoes, “thank you very much.”
osamu takes the shoes from you and puts it at the empty table behind him, begrudged, but amused, not like he wouldn’t do anything for you anyways.
your date leans over to you slowly — an action that makes osamu want to roll his eyes all the way to the back of his head.
he gives you a smile, “you get good service here.”
and you reply back, “i know the owner.”
osamu ignores the wink you give him, and he gives you an unamused look as you grin. he shakes his head to himself and grabs the pad of paper once again before clearing his throat.
“order?”
“i’ll have two of my usual orders, and then one of each of the new flavors to go.” you tell him, proud at not having to look at the menu anymore to know what you like.
you do come here every morning after all.
osamu gives you a short nod, listing down your request, and begrudgingly, he turns to the other person at the table, “and you?”
“i’m just not sure.” your date tells him, humming to himself as he picks up the menu again. “give me a second.”
the gray haired man gives you a look; almost 10 minutes with that menu and he still hasn’t decided?
you give him an apologetic look, “oh, then, i guess hold off on mine too.”
osamu shakes his head, sighing, “i might run out of the new ones.”
and your date looks up from the menu to give you a wanton smile, “go ahead, order, i’ll be fine.”
you shake your head, polite, “no, it’s okay, i’ll wait for you. take your time.”
osamu clears his throat. adamant. “i’m almost out and i can’t make more.”
you shoot him a look. “then set some aside for me.”
and he squints his eyes. “it’s first come, first serve.”
there’s a stark frown on your face now too. your eyebrows tightly knit as you shoot the man in front of you a hard glare.
you have no idea why he’s making this morning so hard on you for no reason at all, but you’re about to say something to his remark if it weren’t for the sudden ringing on the phone that interrupted the conversation.
“i’m sorry, i might have to go.” your date intervenes suddenly, the ringing of his phone going off as he stands up and grabs his things from the table.
you look at him expectantly, “you do?”
“yes, something came up,” he tells you, apologetic and giving you a sad smile. he leans down anyway to come squeeze your hand quickly, and he says, “i’ll call you?”
you give him a small nod, “sure.”
not that you can do anything else about it, you say your goodbyes, and suddenly, not even twenty minutes in to your first date with him, he’s off and leaving.
the bells on the door ring loudly as the door closes with a slam.
your head falls on the table once he’s gone.
“well.” you grumble. “that was a bust.”
osamu puts a hand on his hip as he watches you, “ya seriously cannot be hung up like this on the world’s slowest reader.”
you lift your head up slightly to roll your eyes at him, watching him with squinted eyes as he walks away and disappears into the kitchen.
obviously, you weren’t hung up on this stupid date. you didn’t want to go on this stupid date anyway!
dating sucks. and it sucks even more when it’s forced on you last minute by a work friend who you’re definitely not talking to outside of the work place anymore.
you grumble again at the thought.
great, and you were having such a good morning too.
you let your head fall back on the table.
a minute passes in your sulking mess before you hear the sound of a plate being pushed across the table breaks you from your world of wallowing.
“here.”
osamu looks at you from the side, his gaze much softer now as he keeps his hand on his hip, and he watches as your confused look when you see him falls on the playe in front of you.
your usual order, and the new ones to go.
you look up at him, “but i thought you didn’t ring my order in?”
and osamu, defeated, rolls his eyes slightly, but you don’t miss the way his lips curl upwards even just a tiny bit.
you come in here every single day, every single morning, and order the same exact thing. rain or shine, he can also expect to greet you in as you come in those doors and greet him with that big smile you never fail to give him.
he can’t help it, it’s part of his routine now too.
atsumu keeps pestering him on hiring somebody to man the front desk so he can lessen his work load, but that would mean what? give up the chance to see you come in everyday? give up the way you say his name when you say good morning? give up your smile and your laugh and the way you tease and mock and tarry?
you’re the best part of his mornings working here, even when you’re with somebody else, you’re still the person he looks most forward to seeing every single day.
he rolls his eyes but you see him smile anyway.
“i already set these aside before you came in anyway.”
I’m dragging my sorry headcanon-ing butt out here again to say that:
Von Kaiser gets very stuck in his head. He focuses solely on problems, which is the one problem in-and-of-itself that he doesn’t analyze to the point of incomprehension. This is not good for any human to do.
Because of this, he very rarely shows any exuberant gratitude or happiness, and because of that... Glass Joe, his partner-in-crime, the Bottom-Two Buddies, the Zwei Amis, doubts that Von Kaiser is ever particularly interested in their friendship.
The reason why those doubts are brushed-aside more often than not is because of a few reasons:
Von Kaiser will only ever go out of his way to speak to Joe if the two are in a place with multiple other people.
He doesn’t, often, get irritated by anything Joe does (and he also doesn’t need to, as they’ve managed to become close enough to know each other’s boundaries)
Joe can’t be sure, but he believes he’s seen Von Kaiser slowly take himself out of his mind for a bit just to observe what’s around him. Whether that is a happy child getting an autograph from Don Flamenco a few feet away, or a little bit of moss growing through a crack in the sidewalk.
Joe wouldn’t want to brag, but he’s certain that last point is because of him. What Joe doesn’t know is that, over the years, Kaiser’s been practicing that method of grounding more and more, and it has definitely managed to improve his mood, even if it still doesn’t show.
Things have happened in the past that would make Kaiser wary and concerned for Joe’s safety, and while that would usually cause a lot of upsetting, in-depth analyzation of the situation, he’s learned now to tell himself ‘Joe wouldn’t want you to worry this way’ and that’s motivation enough to break-away from it.
It took a long time for him to get to that point, though. And he really only utilizes that skill so easily when it comes to problems relating to Joe himself. With anything else, it takes much more time and mental-exertion to keep his brooding to a minimum, and he may not even attempt it at all.
its so embarrassing that 2 of my posts that r the exact same thing essentially r getting notes at the same time ...yes I don't shut up ever yes I have the same 5 thoughts circling my brain like buzzards
