day 1 of asanoya: coffee smell (tags: pre-relationship au, fluff, cafe au, non-canon au
“Your usual?” The cute guy behind the counter asks. Asahi’s face becomes hot in a second, and he nods, trying to hide into his scarf to hide his blush. Nishinoya Yuu is charming, confident, and forward; pretty much the opposite of what Asahi thinks he is.
The cafe is empty this early in the morning. Asahi’s coffee time is almost the same time as they open; and since he’s a regular here, they’ve told him he can stop pretending to look around the neighbourhood to kill ten minutes before he walks in.
Today, it’s just him and Nishinoya in the cafe.
“One decaf and one iced americano,” Nishinoya says and doesn’t announce his total. Because it’s always the same, Asahi thinks, then opens his wallet from his tote bag. Nishinoya tuts, startling Asahi for a second. “It’s on the house if you answer two of my questions.”
“Oh?” Asahi looks around for any hints. “Is... Is there a special offer or something?”
“Or something,” Nishinoya grins. His brilliant, confident, toothy smile leaves Asahi’s knees a little weak. The cafe has a permanent coffee smell, and Asahi wonders if Nishinoya does too. And if he does, does he like smelling like it? He seems to be the type to have a great work-life balance; does he hate smelling coffee in the morning, because it reminds him of work?
His thoughts are interrupted by Nishinoya’s first question. “Who do you get the other coffee for? I’ve noticed your friends don’t pick up coffee with you.”
“Oh.” Asahi’s face is definitely too hot now. He glances at the board above them, wondering if he really missed a sign, then responds, quietly, “it’s for me. I drink the decaf in the morning and the americano in the evening.”
“You could come and get it in the evening,” Nishinoya leans over the counter a little bit. Asahi fiddles with his hands inside his hoodie pocket. He looks away, trying to suppress his smile and the butterflies in his stomach. “I’d love to see you around often.”
“I live a little far from the campus...” Asahi doesn’t even know why he’s offering up so much information to Nishinoya, but he likes the little surprised reaction he gets from Nishinoya a lot, so he continues. Shrugging, he adds, “I have too many assignments to work on, too.”
“Okay.” Nishinoya nods solemnly. “Next question: do you have a girlfriend?”
Asahi sputters at the question, looking at the barista with wide eyes. He says, “E-eh?”
“Do you have a girlfriend?” He asks like it’s very normal for something like this to happen. Asahi stares at Nishinoya for a minute, unsure of how to respond.
“I don’t,” he mumbles. “Why do you ask?”
“A handsome man like yourself ought to have a partner,” Nishinoya says, leaning closer to Asahi. His face is more than halfway across the counter, and his grin has become more sly. “Don’t you think so?”
“A-ah. Thank you.” Asahi bows. Since Nishinoya brought up the topic, he carefully adds, “I’m not very interested in girls.”
He omits the ‘for now’ that appears in this excuse. Worse comes to worst, I’ll stop coming here! He tries to convince himself: this guy knows very little about me, I don’t have to worry too much.
“Oh.” Nishinoya straightens himself up, but there’s no malice or disgusting in his actions that follow. In fact, his grin becomes a little wider. “Good to know. As I promised, today’s order is on the house for you!”
“Thank you.” Asahi bows deeper than usual and Nishinoya winks at him in response.
~*~
Asahi stops in his tracks when he finds Ennoshita opening the shutters of the cafe.
He must’ve changed his shift because of me, Asahi thinks and his heart aches. Then, shaking his head, he tells himself, that’s a good. I don’t have to change my regular cafe, and I dogged a homophobe.
It doesn’t help, but he walks up to the cafe anyway, trying to smile when Ennoshita greets him. He places his tote bag with most of his assignments on the counter, and adjusts his outfit. Nishinoya was practically climbing on top of this counter yesterday, his mind supplies bitterly. Don’t start getting your hopes up just because someone’s nice to you.
Before Ennoshita can come up to the counter, the door bell rings.
“Welcome to the cafe,” Asahi says, turning around to greet the customer. He freezes when he finds Nishinoya. His heartbeat picks up. “Oh. Hi.”
“Hi!” Nishinoya beams, taking long steps to reach Asahi. “I’m Nishinoya Yuu.”
“Azumane Asahi,” he says, unable to control the blush rising up his face. “I thought you picked up a different shift.”
“I did,” Nishinoya grins. “Azumane Asahi-san, can I buy you a coffee with my employee discount?”
Asahi rubs his shoulder, looking away from Nishinoya who is somehow more handsome without a counter between them. “O-okay.”
“Do you have a few minutes to chat, along with the coffee?”
“I do,” Asahi lies. He’ll be skipping one class to sit with Nishinoya, but that strongly feels like a future-Asahi problem right now. “What kind of coffee do you like?”
“Iced americano,” Nishinoya says.
