Cheesecake
Kouichi, over the past three months, has learned to tolerate the smell of coffee. It was almost comforting now, the smell of ground coffee beans and small cakes. He still liked the teas better, but to each their own. The heat in the little cafe is also a welcome refuge from the cold, seeing as his coat had seen better days. That was his own fault, he liked keeping clothes and the like until they were practically falling off. His mother disliked it, and while he couldn't blame her, it was a bad habit by now.
So here he is, at work, grinding coffee beans and cutting off another slice of cheesecake. If there is anything this cafe is good at, it is the sweets. Not that Kouichi was much of a genius on anything related to cafes besides smiling and taking orders, his sweet tooth infinitely preferred the sugar. And so did the customers. Most of them tended to order tea.
"Kimura-kun, your break is coming soon." His replacement comes up behind him, in uniform and ready to pretend to be cheerful. She has less enthusiasm than he does but she knows how to milk it and bat her eyes much better than him. He'd be jealous if she got any more tips for it. "You'd better hurry, I head some talk about eating the last of the strawberry."
Kouichi felt his eye twitch, mostly in jest. Everyone who worked here knew he was a sucker for strawberry cheesecake, and he wasn't fond of sharing either. Who would be? He could rarely buy the stuff, and asking Kouji and his family was simply out of the question.
"Thank you, Azuma-san," he said, loosening his tie a little.
The girl waves him off. "It's for Haru's sake."
For Haru, she says. Kouichi isn't sure whether to be touched by his coworker's candid admission of her relationship to him or uncomfortable with it. Regardless, the amount of loyalty she has is definitely a little unnerving. Not that he has the time for it anyway, whatever it may be. He barely has time to sit and have tea and eat.
Any little bit helps.
Still, he does wonder what it would be like to be that interested in someone. He hasn't had to think about obsession since finding Kouji and the others, and realizing the dangerous unhealthy nature of such a relationship. So he's wary now, and for good reason, right?
A/N: Finally! Silly fic. Late gift fic for Flame of Swords! Going to be a bit slow seeing as it was going to be longer chapters and just gave up on that idea. Ah well. More crossover fluffy things. Also, small Akuma no Riddle reference because I do that.
Challenges: Pairing Diversity Boot Camp prompt 39: chocolate (Kouichi/Juri) , AU Diversity Prompt 27: tray (barista!AU), Halloween Trick or Treat Bag prompt: write a barista!AU, and Diversity Writing I60. Write a barista AU.