A rainy day. It was a rainy and an incredibly boring day for the one and only Nico Yazawa. Why? It was time for work. Rainy days meant more people. More people meant more tips, but also more work. Working at a café wasn't exactly the job that Nico preferred, but it was better than nothing, right? They did offer a fairly decent wage for her and Nico had no other choice but to accept the position, there were no other jobs better than this.

Living independently did mean that she would have to get a job for living expenses and the rent for her small apartment. At least she didn't have to pay for college tuitions, she was grateful for her talent in fashion design that had earned her a precious scholarship. Her family wasn't exactly rich and they certainly wouldn't have been able to pay for her selected course at that luxurious university.

She sighed away as she entered the small changing room of her workplace. Locating her locker that was at the left corner, she took out her uniform and equipped the small name pin onto her shirt. Her eye caught the mirror in the locker and she pensively looked into it. During her deep thoughts, the voice of a man –it was the supervisor– boomed behind her. She responds back in a sweet voice. The supervisor leaves, expecting Nico to come out from the room within a few minutes. Still looking at the mirror, she made a pose and whispered, "Nico nico ni!" not at all enthusiastic for the day ahead of her.

Rubbing her hands off her slightly big apron, she tightened her pigtails and got ready for work. To be honest, Nico didn't mind working behind the counter; it was certainly better than the other jobs she was offered before. She would much rather work at a coffee shop than do odd jobs around the neighbourhood.

With dim lights and a slightly dark interior, the shop had a somewhat calm atmosphere. The shop also smelled of coffee. When she had first worked here, Nico thought it was a pleasant smell, but now after working for a grueling three months, she was absolutely turned off by the nasty odour of coffee everywhere.

It was exactly 4:00 PM on the dot and that was when Nico began her shift. The shop was filled with customers, old and new. Not too long after the beginning of her shift, a long queue seemed to form. How could only three people serve that many people? Things like these made Nico question what the boss was thinking when he had decided to only have so few people behind the counter. It was going to be a long day.

She spotted Honoka, one of her coworkers and college friends. Although they were friends, Nico sometimes wanted to avoid the brunette. She was like a child. In short, Honoka often annoyed Nico.

The first time they had met, Honoka was a first year and she was lost in the college campus. Nico was sitting on a bench eating lunch and she had felt sorry for Honoka. She had been walking around in circles for a while. Feeling pity for the girl, she had directed her to where she wanted to go and that was when Nico befriended Honoka.

"Nico-chan!" a brunette waved to Nico.

Upon hearing her overly enthusiastic voice, she knew that today was a day where she did not want to talk to Honoka.

"Hey."

Thankfully, Honoka spared her with small talk and didn't go into topics that she would have rambled on and on about.

The chiming of the door was almost constant; every time a new customer would come in, it would chime and this annoyed Nico to no end. She merely tolerated it and continued to serve the people in front of her with a smile.

When the wave of customers slowly left one by one, Nico gave a sigh of relief and sat on a stool. The shop became quiet once again, with only just a few customers sitting in booths. She wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and slumped onto the stool, giving herself a well-deserved break. It wouldn't be busy until later, anyway.

Nico zoned out and stared out a window until she heard the sound of a chime coming from her left. Sliding off the stool, she stood in behind the counter and gave off her best smile to the new customer. It was a red haired girl who seemed to be busy staring at the list of drinks on the side of the wall. Upon looking at the new customer, she thought to herself that maybe this girl was older than her, she seemed to exude an air of maturity around her. Nico was probably safe to assume that said girl was currently attending university. After all, this shop is near the college campus.

It wasn't until a few minutes later until the new red haired customer approached Nico behind the counter to order her drink.

"Just a double, tall mocha, please," the customer said flatly.

Nico pressed a few buttons on the touch-screen machine, beeps and boops corresponded to her commands. She looked back to the customer, smiling yet again, "That'll be 290 yen, thank you!"

"For here or on the go, miss?"

"On the go."

"Name?" Nico asked in a sweet voice.

"Maki."

The girl called Maki opened up her purse and fumbled around for the amount needed. Once she found the right amount, she handed it over to Nico, who was still wearing her fake smile. Maki seemed to be uninterested and looked to her side, which annoyed Nico so much.

"Please take a seat until your drink is ready!" she told the new customer. Once the red head walked over to a booth, she ceased her fake smile and frowned instead. Nico was annoyed; that girl was so rude. Not even a nod or a 'thank you'? Whatever. She was glad that she would probably never see her again, hopefully she won't be a regular costumer. She didn't seem to be the type of person to be coming back to cafés like this.

She impatiently tapped her foot as the coffee brewed. Maki… That's a nice name, she thought to herself. Maki wasn't exactly a nice person, though. Once the coffee was finished brewing, she quickly goes to work and made the mocha for Maki. She peeked over to her to see what she was doing; she was on her phone. She noticed how the red head twirled the ends of her hair whilst waiting.

After the mocha was done, she acquired a pen and sloppily wrote Maki's name onto it. "Mocha for Maki-san?" she spoke out, the sweet tone in her voice gone as soon as she said the red haired girl's name.

Maki went up to the counter to take it. They locked eyes for a second, fierce with tension brimming, until Maki broke it off and walked toward the door to leave. She looked down on the phone in her hand and continued walking, unaware of the door opening. Once the chime was heard, Maki looked up to meet a flood of people coming in.

In the blink of an eye, she crashed into someone that was in a rush to line up for a coffee. She fell onto the floor; coffee began to seep into her cream coloured sweater and her phone slid away from her. She hissed in pain from the hot coffee and squeezed her eyes shut. No one offered her any help as they lined up to get coffee. Nico witnessed all of this and sighed. She hoped someone, even the clumsy Honoka came to her aid, but it seems that everyone else was too busy with the new customers. She had to help her, right?

What a pain… she thought to herself. She could feel a headache coming. It had already been a long day but she had to do her job and help out.

Rushing over with napkins, she gave half of them to Maki.

"Here," she put them on Maki's hands. "For your sweater."

"Thanks," Maki began to wipe the remaining liquid in her coffee stained sweater while Nico hurriedly mopped the wet floor.

Nico picked her phone up and offered Maki herself a hand up as well. Nico gazed at Maki who was busy looking at her slightly wet phone, seeing if there was any damage done to it. Now that she got a closer look at Maki, she noticed how pretty she was. Nico, lost in her beautiful amethyst eyes only snapped back to reality when Maki coughs. "Uh…"

Nico jumped up and blushed slightly, embarrassed for being caught staring.

"M-My hand…" Maki coughed again, averting her eyes from Nico.

Nico immediately let go. "Sorry."

The two were quiet until Nico spoke up.

"…You should take off your sweater you know," Nico said as she eyed Maki's figure up and down. "You look like an idiot with that coffee stain on your sweater."

Maki rolled her eyes. "Right, thanks for the advice," she patted the dust off her skirt. "I don't think I'll be coming back again," she said to Nico.

"Try not to trip," she teased Maki as a smirk appeared on her face.

Light pink specks dusted her cheeks and she began walking away, phone clutched in her hand.

As Maki exited the shop, Nico secretly hoped that Maki was joking about the last thing she said. There was something about her that made Nico want to know more about her.

It was 10:30 PM when Nico's shift was finally over. It had been a busy day today, the same as ever. It was a Saturday, after all. She went to the changing rooms and put her uniform back. Holding her bag in her arm, she began to go home.

Unfortunately, Saturdays meant that Honoka's shift ended the same time as her. Even in a slightly better mood, Nico still did not feel like interacting with Honoka today. She tried to walk faster in order to avoid Honoka, but was stopped by the brunette's arm.

"Nico-chan, wait!"

Nico's eyebrow twitched as she had been caught by Honoka. "What is it? Make it quick," she replied back, irritation growing in her voice.

"I was wondering if you wanted to uh," Honoka brought out a small flyer from the depths of her handbag, "Go to this place! Me and Kotori-chan are going and I think you should come with us! You haven't been in a good mood lately and I think that coming would make you feel better!" the brunette almost shouted at her whilst pointing excitedly to the flyer.

Nico rubbed her temple with her left hand while she put her right on her hip. She sighed before speaking. She didn't really like it when Honoka acted like a child, but it can't be helped, right?

"...Alright," she finally said. "When are we going?"

Honoka's eyes lit up in joy and she hugged Nico. "Yay! Nico-chan!"

Nico tried to resist the hug and pushed on Honoka's shoulders. Honoka realised wha was happening and backed away.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I got carried away, eheh.." she rubbed the back of her head, giving an apologetic smile. "We're going on Tuesday night, around seven PM! You'll be free, right?"

"I'll see if I can make it," Nico said. In truth, Nico didn't have plans at all. Other than classes and work, she never hung out with friends or anything.

Waving to Honoka, she finally got to exit the café and approached a nearby bus stop.

After a small journey on the bus, Nico found herself at her apartment complex. It was dark and there was no one at all on the streets, save for a couple of neighbours taking out the garbage.

Feeling a cold wind come in contact with her face, she shivered and tried her best to dash to her apartment where it wouldn't be as cold. She clumsily took her key out of her pocket, hands numb from the cold.

She opened the door and was welcomed with a silence.

"I'm home," she said quietly. It was lonely. Her siblings and parents were so far away from her and she would sometimes pretend that there was someone at home waiting for her. It was sad, really.

Slipping her shoes off at the entrance, she locked the door. She walked to her bedroom and plopped down in the bed. She sighed, in deep thought about what had happened today at work. As she begins to close her eyes and drift to sleep, she was exhausted.

When she had fallen asleep, she found herself dreaming about a red haired girl, only to be forgotten as soon as she had woken up.

A/N: Tada! The very first generic coffee shop AU for the Love Live section! I was looking around for AU's in the Love Live section and there were hardly any, so I thought I could contribute even though my writing skills aren't that good. I was just so excited to upload this!

Please bear with me if I don't update fast enough, I have a busy week ahead of me and I have another fanfic to update. Until the next update, bye for now!

Edit: [Aug 10] Why... Why did I used to write in present tense.