Title: Not Really a Coffee Shop AU
Category: The Blacklist
Character(s): Meera Malik; Donald Ressler
Summary: "He's really bad at the flirting thing." Meera and Ressler met two years before the Reddington case. Resslik ONE SHOT.
Disclaimer: The Blacklist and all things related are property of Jon Bokenkamp and NBC.
After leaving the service, former CIA Agent Meera Malik meets Mike Oman, a welder from California who works part time at the Java Bolt in Munich. She doesn't visit often, but when she does, he flirts with her from behind the counter, offering free coffee if she talks to him.
He's really bad at the flirting thing. Meera figures this was not his typical M.O. when approaching women or anything in general. His enthusiastic pursuit feels like a cover; not necessarily coming from a disingenuous place, but it's not natural for him either. Still, he's friendly enough that she talks to him when she's not pressed for time.
The six weeks into her visitation to the Java Bolt, he's brave enough to ask her out; she says yes. He's definitely less energetic when she shows up for their first night out, but she figures he's trying to behave himself around her. Though the two start dating, neither are interested in committing to a serious relationship. When he leaves Munich for "family reasons", they contact each other through e-mail and instragram accounts. His account is mostly silly pictures, photobombs and the rare photograph of random landscapes or dogs. He doesn't have much to report on the home front, she isn't terribly forthcoming about her own family. The further they spent apart, the less they contact each other. Soon, he stops contacting her, Meera doesn't inquire why. She finally finds the time to quit her job and relocate to live with her family in London.
When they meet two years later, she's returned to the CIA and been appointed to the Red Reddington case. "Mike" is only just coming to accept the case he was once leading is now in the hands of a novice FBI Agent, Elizabeth Keen.
His name isn't Mike Oman, it's Donald Ressler. Meera, mildly irritated, but not exactly surprised, isn't sure how she never picked he was a FBI agent. He doesn't smile when he sees her, she doesn't look his way. What happened in 2011 was the past; they'd deal with it later.
FIN.