Prompt: "Always arrives in the cafeteria 30 minutes before I do and takes the last sandwich I like AU" The one highlight of Ban's day was getting a turkey-melt from his local Starbucks. Until somebody else started beating him to it.
Ban was ready to bite somebody's head off. His hand was twitching, along with that one muscle in his cheek that he couldn't control.
"How long has it been gone?" He growled, making the nice girl behind the counter shrink away.
"A-almost thirty minutes, sir." He sighed and dragged his hands down his face before turning around and walking away, grumbling to himself. That was the same answer he had been given the day before. And the day before that. And the day before that.
And every single day for the past two weeks leading up to that.
Ban was starting to go crazy without the wonderful taste of savory turkey - he didn't know why the damn Starbucks didn't just make more, but that was semantics. What mattered is that every day he meant to show up a bit earlier to get the damn sandwich, but something always held him back.
But tomorrow would be the day. Tomorrow he would get his damn turkey melt.
SDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDS
He was so close.
"You just missed her, sir."
So. Damn. Close.
"Wait, her?" He snapped, looking up at the cowering employee.
"Yes, it-it's always a young woman," she stammered.
"The same woman?" The girl nodded like a bobblehead. He groaned and dragged his hands down his face.
Tomorrow.
SDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDSSDS
It finally happened.
His eyes zoned in on the turkey melt as soon as he stepped into the room and he could feel himself salivating as soon as he took a step forward, but his smile vanished as it quickly vanished behind a tiny figure that swept over to the register, paying before he even had a chance to realize what was happening.
'No!' He almost objected out loud, but he kept his composure and made long, quick strides to the tiny figure at the cup lids.
"So you're the one!" She jumped and her drink nearly went flying, spinning around while clutching her chest.
"Don't scare me like that!" A tiny, high-pitched voice rebuked him, making him falter; but then she did the same as soon as their eyes met.
"I -" he didn't really know what to say once she was looking at him, having not really planned the moment. "The - the turkey melt! You're always stealing the last turkey melt!" He finally regained his composure and pointed at the sandwich on the counter. The tiny woman looked between him and the sandwich before she gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth.
"You're real!" She exclaimed in surprise, making his anger vanish again.
"What?"
"I'm so sorry!" She said, flushing bright red. "I-I'm friends with a lot of the people who work here - when they told me there was another regular who usually bought turkey melt, I thought they were lying to guilt me into trying something different!"
"Are you serious?"
"She is!" Called out the cashier, her declaration bridging the four-foot gap between the cutlery-counter and the register.
"I'm so sorry," she said again, turning around and messing with the sandwich before turning out and holding one half of it towards him.
"I - what?"
"It's really tasty, that's why I always get it," she told him, her cheeks pink, "so I can't blame you for wanting it, too. We can share this one, and I'll start bringing my lunch - but I've already paid for it, so I'm not giving you the whole thing!" She stuck her nose in the air as soon as he had taken the sandwich-half and went to walk away, but he faltered and spun around.
"Hey!" She turned and looked back at him, and he froze up for a moment. "Why don't, uh…" He rubbed the back of his head, looking between the sandwich and the cute girl. "Why don't I buy it tomorrow and we can… split it again?"
"You don't look like the type to like sharing," she said, her eyes sparkling with mischief when she smiled at him.
"I'm not," he said, "but you're cute~" There were giggles from the girls behind the counter as her face lit up bright red, and before she could respond he was already ahead of her, holding the door open.
"I - that actually sounds nice," she said, her cheeks still pink.
"So I'll see you this time tomorrow?" She blushed and nodded shyly. "Great, it's a date~" She squeaked and looked up at him, making him chuckle. He watched her leave with a small smile on his face until she jumped a bit and spun around.
"Oh!" She exclaimed as she spun around, "My name's Elaine!"
"Elaine…" he muttered before smiling at her again. "My name's Ban~"
"Then I'll see you tomorrow, Ban," Elaine said with a shy smile.
"See you tomorrow, Elaine~"
A/N: In the manga, every statement that Ban makes that isn't an exclamation or a question is punctuated with a "~" and that is just so fun to me.
