Their fingers touched briefly as she handed him his cup of hot chocolate.
Whilst he froze, she quickly pulled away and swiped her fingers through her short hair. Her mumbled apology was unheard; all he could see were the lavender tint of her long lashes as the sun streamed through the cafe's glass doors behind him and bathed her face in light. Before he could register it, he had blurted out -
"You're pretty!"
Eyes, which had darted around the room to look anywhere but at him, suddenly widened and rose to meet his aghast expression. The shifting and slight titters arising from the queue of other people behind him barely registered; he clapped a hand over his mouth and took a few steps back.
All these weeks and this was how he did it. All of his plans instantly gone to waste.
And then -
Her eyes creased at the corners and her lips curved up. She smiled. It was sweeter, more genuine than the one she usually greeted him with every morning. His mind went blank again.
"Thank you," she said and raised one hand in a tiny wave, before turning to the next customer.
He did not quite remember opening the cafe's doors and walking back out through them again. He stood and shook his head for a moment, then pressed a hand against his cheek.
Warm.
He realized he was holding his drink in that hand, and peeled off the lid and took a sip. It was delicious, of course. He…
What did he do now?
A scribble at the base of his drink caught his attention, just beneath his little finger. He squinted at it, shifting his whole hand and bringing the cardboard cup up to eye level. It was a row of digits.
A telephone number, followed by a name.
Chrome.
Well, he thought, at least he could now stop calling her that cute barista from the cafe near his house.
Requested by purple-eyed-maidens on tumblr (26/3/15).
Follows my normal!AU where Chrome wears an eyepatch to cover her damaged and light-sensitive eye, but takes it off in public as to not raise questions. Bonus context: they'd actually bee dancing around each other and hadn't spoken properly until now.