Tiles glistened as the sun finally managed to break through after days of torrential rain and harsh winds that had battered the city of Tomoeda. Drops of rain fell from the trees as the, now gentle, breeze brushed against the leaves.
The sun cast an orange glow across the street, causing the dreary day to suddenly seem more bearable. People walked around in coats and scarves, hands shoved in their pockets. It hadn't been an easy start to Autumn, everything had hit all at once. Temperatures had plummeted suddenly and the weather turned from humid sunny days to grim and blustery with a biting wind. Umbrellas were folded away, albeit warily, by pedestrians. Shops littered the walkways, some jewellers, restaurants, clothing stores with the occasional coffee shop.
Down a small alley off to the side was one such shop tucked away out of sight. A yellow and pink Honeysuckle, intertwined with a lilac Wisteria, clung to the walls hiding any hint of brick that may have been seen. Just above the Stable style door swung an oval shaped sign, slightly weather worn, that read 'Rabbit in the Moon'. A small picture, much in need of some repainting, sat beneath it of a Rabbit pounding Mochi with the moon in the background.
With a creak the Awning windows opened, a dark haired young man leant out and looked upwards towards the sky, squinting a little at the light. Water dropped from one of the many flowers enveloping the exterior causing him to flinch and pull backwards from the window. Grumbling he wiped the water from his nose and readjusted the black apron he was wearing, making sure his name tag was still sat straight. A hand-written name was scrawled upon the chalk board style tag 'Touya', the same drawing of a rabbit and a moon in the corner that had been on the outer sign.
Sighing heavily, he walked from the window over to the counter. Bar the apron he wore a simple black long-sleeved shirt and blue washed out looking jeans, smart black shoes on his feet. The interior of the shop primarily all wood apart from the red brick walls. Dark laminate flooring caused his footsteps to echo around the room and up to the tall ceiling that had the same colour wooden beams going from one side of the room to the other. Ivy was draped over them, falling to dangle just above head height, fairy lights gleamed from the beams as well, their gentle glow soon to be joined by candles that were mounted to the walls and encased in glass tubes. Shelves were attached to the walls too, adorned with multitudes of books and various plants. It wasn't a large shop by any standards, however there were enough tables and chairs to seat 15-20 patrons at a time. None of the chairs or tables were the same size, shape or brand as each other giving the whole place a rather jumbled but charming appearance.
The sound of machinery whirring into action began as the young man proceeded to turn on the espresso machine and work on making the first few drinks to ensure everything was running smoothly. It didn't take long for the shop to fill with the scent of coffee. Dark and smoky, yet tinged with a slight floral aroma that wafted from the machine. After ensuring it all worked with no issues Touya began to fill the display cabinet with various sweets and cakes, making sure they were labelled correctly. Victoria Sponge, Meringues, Mochi balls, Chocolate cakes and various other goodies filled the casing. Eventually he turned to giving the counter a quick wipe down.
A small tinkle could be heard from towards the door, glancing up quickly he saw a tall, slim, eloquent looking man enter. One hand holding open the door and the other filled with paper bags and an umbrella dangling from his arm. Long platinum blond hair was loosely tied at his neck with a blue ribbon. His fringe hanging just over his grey-blue eyes. Shutting the door behind him he walked over to the counter and placed the bags down and removed his long pale blue coat and placed it over the back of a nearby chair. Underneath he wore a white polo-neck and a pair of smart grey trousers. Black leather shoes adorned his feet.
"Good morning Kinomoto" He said with a monotone voice, whilst beginning to unpack the various items from the bags, some of them looking akin to vials. "I hope there has been no issues opening this morning"
"None Sir" Touya replied watching him unpack "Is there anything I can help with?"
"Ah yes, here are todays specials" the older of the two handed him a piece of paper with names and ingredients "If you wouldn't mind could you please put them on the board in the back and bring it out for the customers to see?"
"Of course, would you like me to take your coat out back at the same time Mr. Reed?"
"If you wouldn't mind, also if you must refer to me by name please do so with Yue, at least whilst there are no customers"
Touya shrugged, walked over, picked up the long coat he popped it over his shoulder before going out back to write out the specials menu for the day. Rabbit in the Moon wasn't an ordinary coffee shop, it sold unique drinks, most of which changed daily, though some of the more popular beverages stayed the same. They made coffees for stress relief, ones that helped increase focus and concentration, some that helped ease anxiety and others that claimed to assist in helping your body clear a cold or flu faster, even ease the symptoms of allergies such as hay-fever and the like. Not that Touya thought any of them actually worked and fixed any of the issues they claimed to, he was pretty sure they worked similar to a placebo effect where if you believed hard enough your brain would trick you into feeling better.
After hanging Yue's coat up on the rack near the back entrance Touya wandered over to the rectangle shaped board and began to scribble down the menu for the day. He rolled his eyes at a few of them before finishing it off and heading back out to the main part of the shop and propping it up on an easel that sat on the counter top.
"Should be a quieter day today, so long as the rain stays away" Touya said as he stretched, causing his back to click.
"One would hope, it's been good financially but too much of a strain supply wise" Yue agreed as he restocked the shelves of various herbs and topped up the jars of different types of coffee bean.
"Will Clow be working today?" the brunette enquired as he walked around making sure the tables were clean whilst at the same time lighting the wall candles.
For a while there was a moment of silence, Yue froze briefly unsure how to respond to this. It was a difficult question as to be honest he hadn't the foggiest as to whether this person would be in or not as they weren't exactly a person per-say. The past six months or so since Touya had started to work for him he'd noticed some peculiar occurrences surrounding this rather ordinary looking young man. Occasionally he would spot Touya, seemingly, talking to himself in the back or behind the counter. After a while he began to grow concerned as to whether there was something mentally wrong with his employee so he asked after who it was he'd over heard him talking to. Rather nonchalantly Touya replied that he was talking to someone called Clow Reed, before frowning and enquiring whether it was a relative or something that occasionally lent a hand in the shop. At this point Yue realised that it wasn't just thin air that the barista was talking to but the ghost of his father who had opened the store roughly 50 years ago. Yue had told him that it must just be a coincidence and that he wasn't aware of anyone called that.
Sighing Yue shook his head "I'm unsure, he turns up whenever he wishes. Schedules aren't something he goes by unfortunately"
'How is it that someone who can see, interact and talk to ghosts can be so sceptical to the world of magic….' The long haired man thought as he finished stocking the shelves before wandering over to the door to flip the sign 'he works here, he sees the effects of the potions he assists in creating and not once does he believe that any of this is actually real'. After flipping the sign to open he rubbed his temples, trying to force away the oncoming migraine that attempted to weasel it's way into his head each time he thought about this scenario.
Hours passed and there a steady flow of customers that made their way through the doors of the café throughout the day. Not too busy as to force Yue to go and get more stock or that they ran out of cake before the last peak time but enough to keep them on their toes. It began to ease off towards closing time, Touya leant against the wall behind the counter and ran a hand through his hair staring up the fairy lights and ivy, finding a brief moment of time to let his mind wander. Hearing the familiar chime of the bell he glanced over to the door to see a petit individual walk in, large round glasses framing gentle brown eyes. Grey hair cut into a rather effeminate bob that looked a bit windswept from being outside, reaching up the stranger loosened a cream coloured scarf that sat around their neck so that it hung loosely over the tan coloured jacket they wore. Pale jeans that clung to their rather long legs and comfortable looking trainer like shoes finished off the outfit. The young man made his way over to the counter.
This was someone new, Touya thought, it wasn't anyone who had visited before and most of their customers were regulars, those loyal to the café. Pushing himself away from the wall he stood up straight and offered the stranger a smile.
"How can I help you today Sir?"
"O-Oh hello" the other smiled back in return, although a little nervously "No need to call me Sir, my name's Yukito"
The smile caught him off guard and made Touya's heart skip a beat. "R-Right okay umm, sure. Yukito? Well what can I get for you?" He prayed that his face didn't feel as red as it felt hot.
"Oh I'm here to see Yue if that's possible? Are you feeling quite alright? You look rather flushed?" The newcomer, now known Yukito, leant over the counter to try and get a feel of Touya's forehead only to cause the other to flinch back in a mixture of horror and embarrassment.
As he flinched backwards he felt the bottom of his back come in contact with the shelving unit behind him with quite a bit of force, enough to cause the entire thing to shake and a few of the containers to fall to the ground and break. A series of loud crashes, followed by a string of strong curse words reached Yue's ears in the back. Frowning he put down the book he was reading.
"Never allowed to have a break in peace" He grumbled unhappily as he made his way out into the store to see the brunette frantically trying to tidy up whilst almost fighting to keep Yukito away from the mess, repeating over and over again that it wasn't his fault and that he didn't need any help tidying up.
For a while Yue just stared at the scene before him, trying to figure out what was going on and what had lead up to this moment. Shaking his head he gave up and walked forward towards the pair.
"I'd rather you didn't cause so much commotion in my store during work hours, why did you not message me to inform me that you had arrived?" Yue asked as he tiptoed around the mess "We'll be closing early today Touya, you may take your leave. After cleaning of course."
Mimicking Yue, Touya continued to clean however now grateful that the stranger was distracted by his boss.
"My phone ran out of battery, I'm really sorry. I haven't had the chance to charge it, well I'd mean to charge it on the plane but I fell asleep" Yukito admitted as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "I'm here now though" he glanced down to Touya "Are you sure you don't need a hand? You might have a fever, I'd feel guilty about leaving you to clean and then you get sick from over exerting yourself…"
"I'm fine!" Touya snapped and scowled upwards "It's not your fault, I just got spooked is all. It's my job and I'm not ill, don't worry."
"R-Right, sorry" Yukito bit his lip and watched for a little while before Yue put a hand on his shoulder.
"Leave him to it, he's fine just has a short temper" the blond frowned at Touya, not quite understanding where the temper was stemming from "Close up after you, I have some things I need to discuss with him. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah right okay fine" Touya grumbled as he carefully picked up the larger fragments of glass and put them in a black plastic bin "See you tomorrow"
Steering the young grey-haired man towards the door, Yue took one last glance over at Touya to see the other mumbling to himself and indeed looking very flushed. Mentally he took note to check up on Touya later that evening to ensure he would be fit to work the following day, after all being ill and handling food wouldn't make for a good combination.
Hey guys! First time I've written anything for a good long time!
AND IT'S NOT HETALIA!
Recently cosplayed Touya(Toya) with my good friend as Yukito and it bought out my love for the pair again.
I'm happy for any constructive criticism, I know I suck in regards to keeping my tenses in the same place D; I try but struggle so hard.
Captain over and out.
xxxx