Makishima hated the loudness of commercial coffee businesses. He hated how the lines would trail out the doors and how every table was filled and how much noise there was. He preferred the simplicity of a no name shop that had the serenity he imagined when thinking of coffee. A perfect place to relax and a decent place to work.
So why, he thought, did Starbucks seem like a a silent oasis compared to this?
He heard him even before he walked through the door.
"Do you have my drink ready, Maki-chan?"
In fact, Makishima had memorized Toudou's order. He thought a flashy and noisy guy like him would have an equally flashy and noisy order that took twenty seconds just to say out loud, but Toudou never ordered anything too out of the ordinary. If it was a chilly morning, he'd have espresso with cream, and if it was a summer afternoon, he'd have iced coffee with cream.
Toudou walked over to the counter, shouldering a large bouquet of flowers. "For you," he announced.
Makishima rolled his eyes and set an iced coffee on the counter. Toudou laughed.
"Just kidding!" He shifted the bouquet onto the counter. "Whoever's getting this one must be one lucky girl."
"Are a couple of flowers too heavy for you?" Makishima sneered.
Toudou grinned. "How sweet of you to care about me, Maki-chan, but my arms are just fine. Though I really could get rid of a few." His fingers weaved through the bouquet, and he pulled out a single yellow daffodil. "For you, Maki-chan."
Makishima snorted. "Should you really be ruining bouquets like that?" Nevertheless, he took the flower.
Toudou laughed. "Anything for you, Maki-chan, and besides," he twirled a lock of his hair, "I'm sure the lovely lady won't mind."
He grabbed his coffee and left. Through the window, Makishima saw him fix the bouquet to the basket on his bicycle.
He looked at the daffodil in his fingers. While studying fashion with his brother in his free time, Makishima had picked up a basic understanding of floral symbolism. Daffodil, he mused, was that how it was? Unrequited love? Or was it regard? Whichever one it was, Toudou did enjoy his company, he supposed. Him bursting in for coffee every day was a sure sign of that.
He shoved all thoughts of Toudou out of his head.
Toudou wasn't one to leave his things everywhere. He prided himself on knowing exactly where everything was, a skill fit for flower arranging. A shame he spent most of his days running deliveries, he thought. No matter how wildly Arakita rode (on the highway, no less!), he could only do so much on his own.
Which was why Toudou felt a disorienting sense of strangeness when he noticed Arakita's bike outside the shop and saw Arakita inside lazing at the counter on his phone.
"Don't leave your shit everywhere like you own the place!" Arakita waved towards his coffee cup from that morning on the counter. An even weirder feeling. Toudou Jinpachi, leaving trash around the shop like a no manner delinquent! Who was he, Arakita?
He hadn't noticed there were two cups, one sleeved within another. He lifted it by the lid, and the cup on the outside slid and fell to the floor. How sweet, Toudou thought, for Maki-chan to worry so much about the coffee scalding his flawless skin. Written on the side of the inside cup were a few numbers, and when Toudou examined it, he almost dropped it. It couldn't be…
"Maki-chan's number!" he screamed, and like a surprised dog, Arakita immediately shouted at him to shut up.
Toudou flipped open his phone and entered Maki-chan's number.
To: Maki-chan
Subject: MAKI-CHAN!
Body: MAAAAAKI-CHAAAAAN! o(≧▽≦)o HOW SNEAKY WRITING YOUR NUMBER LIKE THAT!
His thoughts circled around nothing but texting Maki-chan, but he remembered their exchange that afternoon, and how he had presented Maki-chan with a daffodil of all things. He knew Maki-chan did like him, but after countless mornings and afternoons ending with him ignoring Toudou's advances, he'd lost a little bit of hope.
No matter, though. It's not like Maki-chan knew anything about the language of flowers anyway.
A few weeks had passed since he started texting Maki-chan. He texted like he talked. That is, his texts were curt and sarcastic, and he texted Toudou only when he needed to. But Toudou understood. Maki-chan texted him late into the nights and never ignored him. On good mornings, he even caught glimpses of Maki-chan smiling warmly.
It was an unusually cold late August afternoon. Toudou had filled out an order slip before Arakita had arrived so he wouldn't get any weird questions. He stood in front of the fridge, eyes darting between the flowers. He knew what he wanted to say, but such an arrangement would look so garish. He recalled the few times he saw Maki-chan outside of work, out of his work clothes and in his regular attire, and decided garish would work.
Arakita stopped him as he made his way to his bike. "Hey! We have more arrangements to do. I'll handle that."
"No! I mean no, I'm going on my coffee break on the way," Toudou replied.
"You're still going to that shitty coffee place?" Arakita asked.
Toudou wanted to tell him that no, the coffee wasn't shitty. It was the best coffee in the world, and he should really stop lying to his face because Toudou had seen him there countless times talking to a red haired barista while he was there talking to Maki-chan. But he didn't have time to trifle with Arakita today.
Even though it was sunny, the day felt chilly, and Makishima had closed the doors. Toudou came in at the same time he did every day.
Makishima stared at the bouquet, with colors artfully picked and gorgeous. "Who's the lucky girl?" he asked.
Toudou's eyes widened. "I knew you'd like these colors, but I still can't believe it." He shook his head and laughed. "These are for you, Maki-chan."
"For me?" Makishima mumbled. These couldn't be for him.
"As a sign for our friendship. We've known each other for so long, Maki-chan, and I-"
"Toudou," Makishima said. "I know you know what these mean. I'm actually pretty well versed in what flowers mean." He left out the part that he had learned so much more solely because Toudou was a florist, and he wanted to get closer to him.
Toudou, for once, was speechless, and he merely laughed awkwardly. His face turned a few shades of red deeper, but so did Makishima's.
He looked at Toudou's bouquet. Red tulips—a declaration of love. Purple roses—love at first sight. Yellow tulips—your smile is sunshine.
For such a flashy and noisy guy, he sure did say the important things wordlessly.
He handed Toudou the coffee he had prepared for him.
"What's this?" Toudou asked. "No iced coffee today?"
"It's gotten cold lately," Makishima replied, feeling his face get as hot as the coffee. "I know you get two espressos in the winter."
Toudou gave him the biggest grin he'd ever seen. When their fingers brushed against the cup, they let them linger there, and when Toudou put down the cup, their hands found each other once again.
The next morning, Toudou saw Makishima sitting at a table with two cups of coffee and his flowers resting in a vase. His coffee was an espresso with cream, just like it always was.