A/N: I told myself that if i could write a wickoff fic in under 24 hours, I would post it. This is me winning with an hour to spare.
also, all wickoff fics are angsty so heres a well needed break, full of kady being soft and julia being softer. enjoy!
Julia didn't even like coffee. Not that much, anyway.
Not enough to drink it everyday, and definitely not enough to make daily trips to a vintage coffee shop down the road that never failed to swell with overly-enthusiastic hipsters and artists as soon as the sun came up.
Not to mention the fact that Julia would usually rather be caught dead than awake before the clock read double-digits.
Despite all of this, Julia found herself rolling out of bed and shuffling past empty pizza boxes and piles of clothes every morning at seven-thirty just to buy herself a small mocha latte. Cream, no sugar.
The first time she stumbled into the café, she was running on two hours of sleep, in desperate need of something to keep her awake while she scoured the internet for spells or groups of amateur magicians that could teach her anything she didn't already know.
She had been able to smell the roasted coffee beans before she even opened the door, and as soon as she pushed on the metal handle, she was met with the overbearing noise of bells jingling and a furthering of the previous scent.
Coinciding with her usual luck, Julia managed to arrive at the coffee shop during, what seemed to be, the busiest hour of the day. A line of at least ten others awaited her, and she had half the mind to walk right back out and across the street to a gas station, where she could buy herself a couple cans of energy drinks, but the warmth- a sudden contrast to the brisk November air outside- convinced her to keep her place in line.
Julia occupied herself by watching the baristas behind the counter as the line crept forward, each employee greeting their customer with a level of energy that seemed incredibly unnatural for the early hours of the morning.
However, her gaze seemed to repeatedly fall on the only sane-sounding barista she could see; a curly-haired brunette that looked to be around the same age as her.
Perhaps it was the fact that this particular barista spoke in a way that didn't seem forced or overzealous, but Julia found herself hoping the girl would be the one to serve her, just to be spared from any unnecessary perkiness.
In between hurried glances at the dark brown curls behind the counter, Julia allowed herself to take in the café's dim-lit environment, decorated with autumn colors and tea lights, that she noted to be far more relaxing than she had expected.
Her turn finally came at the register and somehow- Julia was beginning to think her luck wasn't so bad after all- the barista she had been eyeing stood in front of her. Julia had already planned out her order, but before she could open her mouth to recite it, a command being barked across the shop had cut her off.
"We need more coffee!"
The phrase made her face twist in confusion, because how did a coffee shop run out of coffee?
She didn't have long to ponder on the question before the barista she had hoped would serve her was rushing to a large coffee press, calling out an irritated "I got it."
Part of Julia wanted to be disappointed, but she shoved the feeling away, deciding it was useless- and a tad immature.
It wasn't long before a new employee was standing across from her, sporting a pair of wide eyes and an ear-to-ear grin. Julia almost wanted to slap it off of his face.
"Hi, what can I get you, today?"
Julia's eyes were still on the other barista, the one that was now pouring a bag of coffee grounds into the top of a complex-looking machine. Tearing her gaze away, Julia forced herself to look the man in the eyes, trying to recall the beverage she was just about to order.
"Uh, small mocha latte," she remembered, dipping one hand into her pocket to pull out the loose change she needed to pay. "No sugar, please."
The man tapped a few times on the screen in front of him, never dropping the smile from his face, before he spoke again.
"Three dollars and eighty-two cents."
Julia was spreading four bills on the counter and sliding them forward when the corner of her eye caught onto something suspicious.
Not only suspicious, but something familiar.
The brunette barista, who had, moments before, been filling up a glass decanter with water, was moving her hands in a way that Julia had seen before- a way that she had done before.
And had Julia not been busy paying for her drink, she would have been able to see better, but by the time her stare made it back to the girl, her hands were at her side and the water inside the container was filled with bubbles and steam. The brunette sent hurried looks over her shoulders, stopping and smirking nonchalantly when she found Julia to be watching.
With that, Julia collected her change and moved to the end of the line, cheeks red with adrenaline and undertones of embarrassment.
Her first thoughts were that she was hallucinating. Two nights of little to no sleep could perfectly explain the sight she had just witnessed.
But questions were still left swimming through her mind.
Because water couldn't boil in seconds, and even if it could, that didn't justify the hand gestures the girl had been using.
But if her intuitions were correct, then that barista was a magician.
The idea alone was enough to make her feel unsteady on her feet. While she had been traveling hours to meet magicians that taught her mundane, beginner-level spells, there was one right down the road from her apartment.
The irony of the situation only strengthened when Julia felt a brick of apprehension fill her gut, because how was she supposed to talk to the girl? She certainly couldn't confront the girl when she was still unsure if what she had seen was real or not.
So, she made the decision that any sensible magician would make.
She had a feeling she was going to start drinking lot more coffee.
The more Julia started going to the café, the more the curly-haired barista took notice (or she just took notice of the fact that, from the second she waked in, Julia's eyes were constantly on her, both options seemed logical).
Within the first few days, the girl- who Julia had found to be named Kady, thanks to her name tag- made it a priority to serve Julia, and she would be lying if she said she hadn't been enjoying it.
The only thing extraordinary about Kady seemed to be her tight curls, which Julia couldn't help but stare at while the girl brewed her coffee. That and Kady seemed to know Julia's order before she even made it, as if she had been anticipating Julia's arrival, and managed to have the drink out for her in seconds. She tried not to let herself fixate on the idea, because the ability to serve a customer in a timely manner was definitely not considered magic. Neither were the butterflies she felt in her chest every time she slid down the cardboard sleeve on her cup to see her name and a smiley face written in half-cursive, half-print underneath it.
Either way, Julia felt the need to take her pining to a higher level.
Julia entered the coffee shop with a novel, that she'd since forgotten the name of, tucked under her arm. It felt oddly typical, considering almost every other customer had some sort of journal, book, or newspaper in their grasp. None of them would know that Julia had no intention of actually reading the book, but it still felt misplaced in her possession.
She ordered her drink from Kady- who had deliberately abandoned her restocking of the pastry case when she walked in, Julia noted- and paid with a wad of dollar bills in her coat pocket, ignoring the way her face started to heat when she mumbled a rushed "keep the change."
Kady nodded, a slight grin present on her dark-painted lips, and went about her usual technique, tugging a paper cup from its stack and scribbling Julia's name on it, without having to be reminded of what it was.
However, when Julia received her coffee, instead of pushing her way past a line of people out the glass doors, she loomed near the counter, scanning the tables for a quiet place to sit that still allowed her a view of the barista in question.
An empty booth seemed to meet all of the requirements, and Julia scurried over to it, setting down her coffee and book once she was sitting inside.
She, again, felt strangely misplaced inside the café, because she didn't even like coffee, but here she was, taking up space at a table to sip at the beverage that she would probably throw away half of before she left.
She turned to a random page in the book and flicked through, as if she were trying to find the place she last left off, which would have been completely normal, had it not been for the fact that Julia had never read the book in her life.
While her eyes falsely scanned the page, she watched through the corner of them at Kady, who occasionally sent curious glances towards her.
Her plan was to stay until the morning rush died down, then make her move. She would wait until Kady was looking in her direction- but not directly at her, she couldn't let it be too obvious- to perform the same spell she had seen Kady use to heat the water on the first day she had come in.
If all went smoothly, Kady would know that Julia shared the trait of being a magician, which would hopefully initiate some sort of conversation about the topic. If she was wrong about her intuitions, Kady would just think Julia was some strange girl making odd hand gestures at her cup of coffee. A bit embarrassing, but Julia could live with it. And if Julia was right and Kady was a magician, that meant the brunette either studied at Brakebills or was part of a group of magicians. Julia didn't know which one was more appealing.
So, when the café slowly fell into an evenly slow pace, Julia centered her drink on the table and prepared to perform the spell.
When Kady was standing at the counter directly across from Julia's table, wiping a damp cloth along the top, Julia knew it was the best chance she had.
Suppressing the intense pounding in her chest, Julia lifted both of her shaky hands and brought them together, one on top of the other. She slid her right hand across the left, rotating and pulling it across until just her fingers were left touching. Her palms came together and she snaked her left hand over her right, until she was in the same position as she started, only this time with the opposite hand on top. Her fingers fanned out, allowing the left ones to curl in between the spaces of the right's. Finally, she pulled both hands back, forcing her wrist forward in the direction of the cup.
But before she could check if the spell had worked and correctly heated her drink, a loud pop distracted her, followed by the unmistakable sensation of boiling coffee on her hands and arms, along with the entire booth she sat it.
It took all of a second to register what had happened, but when she did, she hurriedly took to wiping herself off with a stack of napkins. But cleaning up the mess didn't take away from the fact that everyone in the shop was suddenly staring at her, whispering to one another or just gaping at the mess she had made.
When the initial adrenaline died down, Julia could clearly feel the pain searing through her hand, forcing an audible hiss from her mouth as she desperately wiped away the burning coffee.
Had her face not been so incredibly red and hot, forcing her to stare at her feet, she would have noticed Kady leaving the work station and arriving at the table with a few rags, but by the time the barista was at the booth, Julia startled at the unexpected company.
She hoped the girl hadn't seen her perform the spell, just out of sheer embarrassment.
"I don't know what happened." Julia spoke before she had consciously decided to, avoiding Kady's gaze as the curly-haired girl took to wiping down the table.
"Must've been a defective lid." Her tone sounded playful- mocking, almost- and the smirk on her face only made it worse. She didn't know if the remark meant Kady hadn't seen the spell or if she had, and just wasn't speaking on it. Either way, she stayed quiet, continuing to scrub coffee from her jacket.
"I haven't ever seen you here, aside from this week. You new in town?" Kady continued, and Julia was just glad the heat in her cheeks was finally cooling off (and that most of the customers had returned about their normal coffee-drinking experiences). She forced herself to look up and meet Kady's eyes, just to be polite, but the jade green that stared back at her only made her feel more intimidated.
"Nope, just wanted to try coming here." She managed to say, unable to tear away from the sight of Kady's hair falling perfectly against her sharp jawline and defined cheekbones. Julia would be lying if she said she hadn't noticed the girl's beauty previously, because the second Julia had seen Kady, she knew the brunette was definitely good-looking. Still, she found herself pushing the idea far from her thoughts, deeming it inappropriate to think that way about someone she'd said only a few words to over the last week.
"I'm guessing you like it?"
"It's okay," Julia meant it truthfully, but it was obvious Kady had taken it as a joke and laughed quietly at the response. The barista stretched across the table to wipe an area just out of her reach, and Julia attempted to lean farther back in her seat just to reestablish some distance. Though she had to admit, having the brunette so close to her did fill her body with a strange sensation that she didn't exactly dislike.
"Well, we're all glad you started coming. We love our regular customers." Kady finished cleaning up the last of the drink from the table and straightened, brushing the new wrinkles from forming in her apron. The use of the word 'we' felt unsuitable for the conversation, as if Kady were just using it to keep the conversation from being personal. Julia saw through the facade, though. She offered a nod and a small smile, watching as Kady tossed the rag from hand to hand.
"I'll get you another drink." She tapped the table in a way that said 'stay here,' but Julia held her hand up before the girl could walk away.
"No, no it's fine. I should get going anyways." Julia muttered, returning her book to its original place under her arm. She wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of the shop and forget that anything embarrassing had even happened that day. Kady almost looked confused- a mix of confusion and her previous playfulness- but nodded shortly. "Thank you, though."
Julia heard Kady call out a quick goodbye, wishing her to have a good day, before she left, mentally cursing herself for causing such a scene.
Julia stayed away for the next few days, just to allow some of the initial humiliation to die down. A part of her wanted to give up on going completely, just to avoid facing her problems, but the looming potential that Kady could know something about magic that Julia didn't, convinced her to go back.
She trudged into the café with her head hanging low, wondering if anyone recognized her from the incident a few days ago. If they did, Julia didn't notice it.
She didn't allow herself to look up until she was standing at the counter, but when she did, her eyes found a familiar smirk on a certain curly-haired girl that she had been avoiding. Julia couldn't contain the smile that came to her own face in return.
"The usual?" Kady asked, already typing into the register with her first finger.
"Yeah, the usual." Julia answered and dug into her pocket for money to pay.
"We've missed you these past couple days." Julia could immediately feel heat turning her face the slightest shade of pink, which she hid by looking towards her feet. Again, Julia wanted to comment on the strange use of the word 'we'. Considering Julia only ever talked to Kady, it didn't seem necessary to include any of the other workers in her statement.
"Oh, yeah, I got busy." It felt bad lying to Kady, for some reason, and she felt a bit of guilt bubble inside her. Thankfully, the barista didn't push the issue, simply continuing to push various buttons on the screen below her. Julia filled the silence that ensued by pulling out a wad of crumpled dollars, only to have Kady stop her.
"On me." The offer caught Julia off-guard, so much that she didn't have time to process it before the butterflies started swarming in her stomach.
Somehow, she was able to choke out a 'thank you' through the breath caught in her throat.
As usual, she waited to the side of the line as Kady pulled a cup from the stack and wrote on it, biting her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling. The writing lasted longer than usual, only adding to Julia's anticipation to see what it said.
In a daze over the possibilities of what she was about to read, Julia rushed to her table with the cup in one hand and a different, not coffee-stained book in the other.
Without hesitation, Julia gripped her fingers around the cup and all but ripped the cardboard away, frantically scanning the words in front of her.
Next time, curl all of your fingers so your cup doesn't explode.
The words preceded a winking face and the sight of the writing made Julia's heart pound against her ribs with such force that she felt dizzy. She sneaked an excited glance towards the brunette, who was tending to a coffee machine, still sporting the signature smirk on her lips.
And Julia couldn't believe what the note meant. She had been right. The spell she had seen Kady performing wasn't just a figment of her imagination. Kady had seen Julia trying to mimic the spell. And while Julia wasn't exactly thrilled that the barista had witnessed the embarrassment, her fingers felt numb at the fact that she had found a magician. An actual magician. One she didn't even have to go searching for. The idea alone was enough to bring an irrepressible smile to her own face, probably much like the one she had seen on Kady.
The swell of customers slowly filtered out of the glass double-doors, leaving a few stragglers behind, who were hesitant to leave their last drops of coffee behind.
Julia took the newly found emptiness to grab Kady's attention. So, when the brown curls appeared above the counter directly across from her, Julia cleared her throat- loud enough to draw the blue-green eyes towards her, without distracting anyone else.
When she was sure she had the girl's attention, she brought her hands together, palm over palm as she had days before, flicking her eyes between the cup of coffee and the barista watching her, as if to gain confirmation that she was performing it correctly. Kady must have understood the intention of the stares, nodding each time one was sent her way.
Julia continued with the motions until her hands were together, again, fingers spread apart. She let her left fingers fall between the right, then curled the right fingers against her palm, too, just as the note on her cup had advised.
With one last glance at Kady, which was met with a grin and another nod, Julia pushed her wrist forward, holding it for a moment before dropping her hands and squinting one eye, preparing for a repeat of the last time she had attempted the spell.
Thankfully, the cup remained in place, along with the contents inside of it, and when Julia brought a hand to the drink to test if the spell had effectively heated it up, she immediately tugged it away, hissing at how hot it had become.
Even with the considerable distance between them, Julia could still hear the barely audible laugh that came from behind the counter- a sound that sent a completely new feeling through her body, as if every nerve inside of her was responding to the noise. Julia, unbeknownst to the fact that her mouth had fallen open in surprise, found herself mimicking the laugh, unable to coin the name of the emotions she was feeling.
She watched as Kady grabbed a rag from off of a hook on the wall and made her way out of the work station, ambling towards the table Julia was seated at.
"I was right." The barista mentioned as soon as she was standing next to Julia.
"I was, too." She replied, looking over her shoulder a few times to ensure no one was listening in.
"You don't go to Brakebills." Kady wiped the table down, despite the knowledge that there was nothing to clean on it. Her observation sounded more like a question than anything else, and for a moment, Julia was stunned, because even the mention of the school she didn't get accepted into made her blood boil.
"Nope," she wanted to delve into the story of why she didn't get accepted, just to let off some of the steam building up inside her, but she refrained.
"Who's teaching you?"
"The internet, books, any magicians I can find." She listed, chuckling at how desperate she had become just to learn some magic.
"So that's why you still come here." The curly-haired girl chuckled, sending a playful look to the shorter girl. The joke managed to pull another grin form Julia and she wondered how one girl had made her smile more in a week than anyone had in a long time.
"More or less. The coffee here is also pretty good." She mirrored the lighthearted tone, reaching to grab her coffee, but stopping when she remembered how close to boiling it had been moments before.
A low hum came from Kady as she continued sweeping the rag over the booth, obviously using the cleaning as an excuse to not go back to her work station.
"I could show you some other spells sometime."
Again, Julia found herself to be caught off-guard at the offer, because no one had ever willingly offered to teach her magic. For free, nonetheless.
"You'd do that?" Involuntarily, Julia's upper lip curled in skepticism, even pondering on whether or not Kady was poking fun at her. As if the girl was about to tell her how stupid it was to think she could learn magic for free.
"Is that surprising?"
"Well, most of the magicians I've met want me to pay them." She explained, noticeably taking a dip in volume as she said 'magicians'. Hopefully, if anyone heard, they would just think Julia was setting up some act for a child's birthday party.
The same humming sound Kady had created previously made a second appearance, sending waves of tingles up her back and arms.
"In that case," the girl's voice trailed at the end, obviously teasing, and Julia couldn't stop the laugh that fell through her lips. It felt genuine. And she hadn't genuinely laughed in ages.
The laugh set off a metaphorical lightbulb in her mind, because Kady had made her smile- and now, laugh- in a way that she didn't think she was capable of feeling anymore. Not since before Quentin had left her behind to go to Brakebills. And part of her wanted to keep a person like that in her life. Someone that could make her feel authentic joy.
And if that person could also teach her spells- another common source of her happiness- then it was a win-win.
So, clinging to that emotion and mustering up every ounce of courage she could find (which had all somehow disappeared the second Julia saw the vibrant green eyes beside her), she took a risk.
"I'll take you to dinner."
Kady's face temporarily neutralized, before it erupted in that same smirk that Julia had come to appreciate. The same one that Kady always seemed to try and hide.
God, did she wish the girl would stop trying so hard.
"You do owe me for the coffee I bought you." That was definitely not the only thing Julia owed her for, but she didn't bring up any of the other debts.
"Seven tomorrow?" She requested, beginning to map out her schedule for the next day, but abandoning the idea when she remembered that she never had any plans. Kady pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and reached across the table (even though she had just done it a few days ago, the closeness still sucked the breath from Julia's lungs, leaving her flushed and winded), tugging a napkin from its holder.
"Its a date." She beamed, reaching into her curly locks to reveal a pen behind her ear. Julia watched in pure awe as Kady jotted down a series of ten numbers. Because she had just asked the barista out. And that barista also happened to agree to the date.
"I have to get back to work. See you tomorrow?" Julia was unsure if 'tomorrow' was referring to their date or when she would stop by in the morning for coffee, but she nodded anyway.
Because even though she no longer needed to go to the coffee shop- she had already confirmed her suspicions, and then some- the thought of not ever coming back felt disappointing.
She gathered her things and slid out from the booth, raising her slightly cooler coffee to her lips.
She knew there wasn't any sugar in it- mostly because she had intentionally asked for none- but somehow, she wondered if the drink suddenly tasted sweeter on her tongue.
Something told her she wouldn't stop coming to the café anytime soon.
A/N: tell me how you liked it! and if you want to come yell at me on twitter, it's callieincali , just like here. thanks for reading!