Heh, I decided to work on this one-shot for my own amusement. I have no idea how this idea formed... but I decided to type it and get it out of my way. So, er... here it goes!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Megaman Classic/Megamix/Gigamix series or the character Mio from the Fatal Frame series. I do, however, own poor Kris who will be narrating for the time being.
Cafe Blues
I had a feeling that I was going to be working over time this shift when I saw that some of my co-workers had gathered into a group and were giggling to each other about something during my break. They were shooting looks at the door that led to the dining area of the cafe and whispering to each other in a conspiring manner.
"What's up with them?" I asked my friend and neighbour Mio Amakura, jerking my chin towards the other girls. "Did some ultra hawt guy walk in or something?" I emphasized the words 'ultra hawt guy' in the most sarcastic tone I could muster.
It was usually the number one distraction around here. Since most of the employed at my workplace happened to be female -particularly teenage girls who were going through a 'boys-are- cute' phase- that was the most logical answer. Or maybe some famous gorgeous supermodel (though that had only happened twice) had walked in and was now demanding everyone's attention.
Unlike my other co-workers who I tended to avoid or snap back at due to their catty attitude towards me and their strong boy obsession, Mio Amakura was one of my close friends and a girl I could relate to. In more than a number of ways.
And before you start assuming anything, we're just friends. Friends. So don't even go there.
Mio placed a finger over her lips and made a waving gesture towards the girls that conveyed the message that she wanted me to be quiet so that she could listen in on to their conversation.
We only caught snippets of their conversations but those snippets were enough to tells us what had got them so excited.
"-did you see him?"
"Of course! He's cute, isn't he?"
"Cute? He's not 'cute'. He's HOT!"
"Even hotter than Amakura's uncle!"
At the mention of her uncle being thought of as 'hot', Mio gagged. I couldn't blame her. I tended to do the same thing whenever Alfred's fangirls were around talking about how cute he was and how they wanted to get into his pants. But Alfred being Alfred, he never caught on to the fact that he was a chick magnet even when a lot of girls came up to him and said hi, fluttering their eye lashes and being blatantly flirty as they did so.
"So who's going to be the one to approach him?"
"I don't know... he's hot," Insert giggle here, "but he doesn't look very approachable, does he?"
"And what's with the shades?"
"Who cares? He's hot!"
I felt my stomach plummet a little. Their description matched someone I knew, although vaguely. There was only one person I knew he would wear shades indoors but I highly doubted it was him; he was a loner and while he did wander the streets in broad day light through throngs of people, he would not walk into a cafe. Not unless he needed to go into one for a really good reason.
Such as dealing with underground connections.
Or something like that. I have no idea what he's up to these days.
And since I highly doubted our boss was some sort of shady dealer of any sorts, it couldn't have been the guy I was thinking of.
"KNIGHT!"
Everyone in the room jumped with me (I proudly admit) being the exception at a man's voice yelling out my surname and walking into the employees only area with an annoyed look on his face.
"Yes Arimoto-san?" I said politely. Kousuke Arimoto was the name of my employer so that meant I had to be polite to him, even during one of his ill tempered moods. Which wasn't as bad as everyone said it was but then again I was comparing him to Wily, the guy who tried to conquer the world with his robots every several years.
Compared to that idiotic geezer everyone else seemed tame.
"Go take the new customer's order!" He shot a glare at the gaggle of girls who were across the room from where Mio and I were eavesdropping into their conversation.
Judging by Arimoto's glare at the girls and their catty glares towards me, it must have been a really good looking guy who had walked into the shop earlier and distracted them. In situations like these, I was the one he ordered to go and take care of things because unfortunately the boss had learned early on that I didn't get boy struck or star struck and treated them the same way as I would treat any other customer.
Not nicely, but not in a mean way either. And definitely in not that sugary sweet fake attitude that the waitresses in the cafe put on whenever they were asking for someone's order.
With a long suffering sigh, I took my pad all the waitresses and servers in the cafe used to write down peoples orders and headed outside of the employees only area. My already short break had been cut even shorter to go take the new customer's order because my co-workers (Mio excluded) couldn't do their jobs right whenever it came to eye candy.
When I was in the customer area part of the cafe I realized that I forgot to get the description of this "famous" customer. But just before I could turn around and ask Arimoto who the person was, my eyes traveled towards the least occupied area of the store and landed on someone who was sitting by themselves in the corner, as far away from everyone else as possible.
My jaw dropped so fast that I thought it had unhinged for a moment.
Sitting in the aforementioned corner, the gossip of not only the female employees but the customers as well was Blues.
Blues as in my uncle, Thomas Light's, first creation. Blues as in DLN-000. Blues as in the one who used the pseudonyms Proto Man and Break Man whenever he was going incognito/hiding the fact that he was my uncle's creation and thus related to Rock, Roll, and the rest of the Light Numbers. Blues as in my family.
It had to Blues.
The customer was wearing Blues' black trench coat and signature long yellow scarf, though it was tucked in at the moment. He also looked like Blues with his black ruffled hair and also signature shades.
Despite my mind screaming that there was no way in hell that the person in the corner could be Blues (because he was willingly in close proximity with other people, especially humans) he looked over to where I was and stared.
I stared back, feeling my cheeks burn and aware of the fact that they were turning red. This was the hot guy my co-workers were talking about? Oh god, I hope his hearing receptors were at normal range and that he was not listening into the gossipers conversation.
And after a few seconds of staring he smirked.
Feeling a vein throbbing in my head, I stormed over to where Blues was and stopped in front of him. He quirked an eyebrow at the pissed off expression on my face but didn't say anything otherwise.
"Hi!" I said in the most chirpiest tone I could muster, making it sound as if I was happy that Blues was in the cafe I worked at and was right in front of me. "I'll be the one taking your order today! What can I get you?"
And for good emphasis I gave him a huge a smile.
But in an undertone I asked, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Water." He said, making his order.
Then he paused and said in a quiet voice just loud enough for me hear, "Nice uniform."
For some reason, my cheeks burned at that. I reached down in an attempt to pull down the short skirt of my waitress uniform down to try and cover my legs.
Blues had seen me in the cafe uniform, which just so happened to be a black maid outfit. I highly doubted he was going to tell the other Robot Masters about me and my work, but I had a feeling that he was not going to let me live this down.
Out loud I said, "Alright! One water it is! Is there anything else you want to order?" Followed by, "You haven't answered my question! What are you doing here?"
"What would you recommend?" And he said underneath his breath (not that he needed to breathe), "Is there something wrong with me checking up on you at your workplace?"
He wasn't even bothering to hide his smirk now.
Oh how I wanted to throw my note pad at his face. But I resisted the urge; no matter how annoying he was at the moment he was still a customer and I would get fired if I were to 'assault' him in any way.
I racked my brain for what I could recommend to Blues when the idea hit me. I can't believe I hadn't thought of it at first since it had been staring me right in the face.
It was something I loved.
It was something we both loved.
"...Strawberry shortcake. You should try it. It's the cafe's signature dessert, not to mention the best."
It was true that no other cafe could beat the strawberry shortcake from this place, hence why I put up with the other annoying people and the stupid uniform. So I could get half-price on the stuff whenever I came here on my days off.
This was the place that my uncle had bought my first strawberry shortcake.
Strawberry Shortcake was my favorite dessert.
Mine and Katherine's.
And it was Blues as well.
When Blues had still been living with uncle, Jazz, me and... Katherine, that had been Blues favorite thing to eat. As a robot he hadn't needed to eat but whenever there had been strawberry shortcake in the house, it was guaranteed to disappear once Blues caught on that his favorite dessert was within the vicinity/eating range.
Jazz and I teased him relentlessly about it whenever he had been stuffing his face with the stuff. In fact, one time he had actually devoured two whole strawberry shortcakes in one sitting because his love for them was that great.
I remember kicking Blues in the shin for that one.
Blues wasn't smirking any more. His expression had slipped into a neutral one and even from behind his shades I could tell he was glaring at me.
Okay yes, I found Blues suddenly barging into my workplace out of the blue (heh. Get it?) annoying, but I didn't want him to leave either, something he was about to do if I didn't find a reason for him to stay. It had been a while since I last saw him and if given the chance (like now), I wanted to be with him for more than a few minutes.
I cleared my throat. "I'm not exaggerating when I say that the strawberry shortcake is the best. My uncle bought strawberry shortcake from here when I was a little girl. I remember me and my sister loved to eat it and I also remember knowing someone who loved it so much that ate two cakes all on his own when no one was looking." I couldn't help smiling at the memory. Giving a real smile, something I was slowly doing again but hadn't quite gotten into the habit of yet. "In fact, you look a whole lot like him."
And it was a memory I treasured because Blues was still happy. Not constantly in pain, not world weary, not distrusting but happy.
Blues remained quiet. He looked thoughtful, nostalgic, as if he was thinking of a fond memory he had in the past.
"So... do you want it?" I ventured, hoping that he would not just up and leave. If he did, I would kick his ass when I next saw him again.
"...yes." His voice was soft and filled with emotion (as much emotion as Blues displays these days) when he answered.
I blinked, not quite believing my ears but (ugh, I can't believe I'm saying this) happy with his answer.
"...alright. I won't be long with your orders then."
I snapped the writing pad shut and hurried to the kitchen to get Blues' order.
As I made my way to the counter to slap down the order, I remembered something from when I was still a naive kid. A memory of Blues, Jazz, uncle, Katherine and me sitting at a table and eating strawberry shortcake as we talked like a family.
It may have been sad and cynical of me to say so but I knew that those days would never come again.
Whoo! Okay, I'm done! Hope you like this one. Just so you know, the main character's name from this short and sweet one-shot is Kristina "Kris" Knight. She's also my MC for my crossover Fatal Frame/ Mega Man fic 'Of Photographs and Darkness'. So if you liked this, please please go and read it! You'll find it in the crossover area or just click on my username and search through the plethora of stories I have up!
And yes, Kris is related to Dr. Light though she's his great niece through her dad's side. We don't really know anything about his family life or whether he had siblings so I thought I could play around a bit. Nothing wrong with it, I don't think.