Happy Birthday! So here it is, the penultimate present... AN ARANA COFFEE SHOP AU!
Now you're gonna have to bear with me here, because as we both know, I haven't watched WB. However, I wanted you to have another Arana fic, that you hadn't written! So I've studied every clip of the show I could find very intensely, and I consulted with janavilkas on instagram, who has been a total star! (You nearly ruined that surprise, you donut.) I'm hoping they won't be too out of character (I have a bit of license with an AU also haha) but they might be a tad, so I'm sorry in advance! This is part one (posted under misc because I really couldn't risk you finding it) and as soon as you've seen this, I'll post it up on shadowswan, and part two will be posted at the weekend I imagine. I know you might not have time to read this now, and the final present of the day is much smaller, so feel free to save this for another time, and head back to our usual twitter DM for the final part of your scavenger hunt! Hope you've enjoyed it haha.
For the final present, just say the word sibuna at any point and I'll send it to you. See you on twitter lovely!
Little Red
On the bright side, Jana thought as she finally reached the door to the campus coffee shop, she wouldn't need to shower tonight.
The place was absolutely rammed with students and staff alike, everyone slowly sipping coffee or ordering muffins they didn't want or need simply to get out of the pouring rain they were being treated to mid-morning. The queue extended virtually to the door, so all she had to do was shuffle a few steps to her left and then she was there, only ten people separating her, a hot chocolate, and two cupcakes.
She could do this.
There was a distinctively damp aroma to the cafe, with various umbrellas scattered around the floor leaving puddles, and hair drying in amusing fashions on the lucky people who'd been sat down for a few minutes now. Her own bright red hair was probably looking a little wavier than usual at this point, because of course she'd chosen today to wear a coat with no hood.
Not that she minded the rain, not at all. There was something fun about feeling the drops hit her face and splashing through the puddles, something that made her feel closer to nature, but that wasn't exactly a normal reaction to the weather, so she tended to keep quiet. Rather than being directed to that strange society at the university that planted trees every other weekend, she'd stick to just admiring the way everything just looked so much prettier in the rain, the way the grass was so green and the pavement sparkled.
What she didn't appreciate was the cold, and Jana was starting to grow delirious with excitement at the prospect of wrapping her hands round a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
"'Scuse me," someone muttered from beside her, and she awkwardly pressed herself against one of the low walls that ran through the cafe to allow them to pass.
For such an enormous campus, the most popular coffee shop could definitely use a bigger location. It was adorable, every table and chair mismatched and probably plucked straight out of an antiques store, and the dark wooden panels that swirled round the floor to create more private booths and a clearer path to the tills were cute, but there just wasn't enough room.
Jana had learned early on in the term that this was a place to take coffee away from. If she was on campus ridiculously early, she could sometimes snag a seat before her lecture, and one time she'd stopped on campus until around midnight, her desperately-needed caffeine fix made all the better by the fact one of the precious, closely-guarded squishy armchairs by the fire had been free.
There probably wasn't even room to share a seat today. At least five people were somehow relaxing round the three armchairs, cheeks glowing pink from the open flames, while footstools had been turned into seats at various tables. Some students, obviously having drawn the short straw, were just stood up, chatting to their friends who were sat down. By the window, one particularly grumpy looking guy was sat alone at a table, reserving the seat opposite apparently just as a resting place for his laptop, but the intense glare on his face seemed to be enough to deter anyone from asking if they could steal the chair.
The queue shuffled forward again, and Jana suppressed a smile at the thought of the hot chocolate that would soon be hers. The prospect of the afternoon's two lectures and library stint was less than appealing.
"What can I get you?" the barista asked, and Jana momentarily forgot how to speak, caught up in admiring his dreamy brown eyes and the dark hair that flopped over one of them.
"A hot chocolate please," she said, blinking and finding her voice. "And two cupcakes."
"Any preferences?" he asked, ringing it through.
"Um, hot?" she frowned, fumbling in her bag for her purse.
"I meant for the cakes," he laughed. "Your hot chocolate will be hot, don't worry."
"Oh," she blushed, her cheeks matching her hair for an instant. "No, any cakes will be fine, thanks."
"Is the hot chocolate to takeout?" he asked, glancing round the cafe sceptically.
"Definitely," she smiled, knowing that in ten minutes, the lunch rush wasn't going to help matters. She was feeling pretty sorry for this poor guy, who looked weary despite his grin.
"Six pounds eighty then please," and she handed a tenner over, internally wincing. It felt like her student loan was flying out of her account as quickly as it had landed in there. She was only buying the essentials though. Hot drinks and cake definitely counted as essential. "Cream on top?"
"Sure," she nodded, glancing at her phone. Jana was meeting her friend in ten minutes and there was one heck of a hill up to the building she was saving a table in.
"One hot chocolate, two cupcakes," the boy smiled, sliding her order over and finishing with a flourish of whipped cream. The way he was looking at her made her wonder if he was going to ask her something else, his mouth opening as if words were on the tip of his tongue, but then he hesitated.
"Thanks," she nodded, giving him one last look before spinning round to dash out of the cafe. She'd have to forever wonder what he was going to ask.
What happened next was a blur. One moment she was gathering her stuff together, the next she was facing the other way holding two squashed cupcakes, their icing now on someone else's shirt.
"I am so sorry," she began, heat creeping back up her neck, not helped by how warm this cafe suddenly was, and wow there were a lot of people in here. Setting her hot chocolate back on the counter, Jana's hands fluttered uselessly in the direction of the poor person she'd just slammed straight into, but he flapped her away irritatedly.
Glancing up, Jana realised she'd couldn't have chosen a worse person to walk into, meeting the eyes of the grumpy man who had reserved an entire chair for his laptop case.
"Doesn't matter," he said gruffly, a soft Welsh accent making her stomach do inappropriate things at such a stressful time.
"No, it does, your shirt is stained," she said, motioning to the mess of green and pink that clashed nicely with the tan material.
"Forget it," he said, batting her hands away as she attempted to do something, anything. What she was planning to do, she had no idea. Scrape the icing off him? Lick it off her fingers? Apparently her brain had stopped functioning.
"At least let me-"
"Please, forget it," he huffed, frowning at the person who was shuffling past him in the queue. And now she'd made him lose his spot.
"No," Jana said suddenly, her stubborn streak bursting through. "I just ruined your shirt."
"Well I ruined your cupcakes," he said, and she could swear there was a flash of amusement in his eyes, his striking blue-grey eyes, before they hardened again.
"It was my fault."
"Maybe I shouldn't have been standing so close to you."
"You were standing very close," she said, before shaking her head and glaring at him. "Stop that. It's my fault."
"Look, I have a lecture to get to," he said, patting his beloved laptop. "We can't all be first years."
Roughly a million thoughts crossed her mind in that moment. The first was to take another look at him, and she was met with the realisation that this guy was older than her, a few years older, possibly a finalist. She, a first year student, was practically yelling at a final year student in a crowded cafe. That was a thing. Good. And then she wanted to know how he knew she was a first year, wanted to inform him that she attended most of her lectures actually, wanted to insist that she be allowed to please at least pay for the dry cleaning that shirt was going to need, wanted to tell him she liked his face quite a lot.
It was probably for the best that he strolled up to the counter at that point, because if she'd opened her mouth only for the words 'I like your face a lot' to tumble out, she didn't even want to imagine the consequences.
Speechless, Jana glared at the back of the man's head, but he showed no signs of turning round, so there was nothing left to do but pick up her lukewarm chocolate and head out, feeling relieved that not many seemed to have noticed their exchange after all.
If there was a reason her legs felt like jelly for hours afterwards, it was the strenuous walk up the hill. Nothing else.
~.~.~
He didn't believe it. No one knew about this spot on campus. It was always deserted. And yet there she was, scarlet hair catching the light as she bobbed her head, animatedly talking to the lady behind the counter. Why was she even here this late? First years had better things to be doing than studying this late at night.
Just as Aran considered turning straight back around and finding someplace else, she was spinning to face him, and honestly, he thought she might have learnt her lesson on doing that after the other day.
"Think I'm going to have to start wearing my second best shirts to uni," he found himself saying before he could stop himself, and he wasn't sure why until a second later when her face split into a smile.
"Disaster averted this time," she grinned sheepishly, holding up the intact cupcake.
"Just the one?"
"Studying by myself tonight," she nodded. "The cupcake last week was for my friend. She was waiting for me in the law building. Wasn't too impressed with the lack of icing."
The strangely charming girl bit her lip, as if she was well aware that she was rambling and wanted to physically stop herself before she continued. Aran found himself wanting her to continue, deciding he had too much else to do than be pondering that any further.
"First years don't need to be on campus this late," he said, raising an eyebrow. It was nearly eleven, and he hoped she didn't have a coffee in her hands.
"How do you know I'm a first year?" she asked indignantly, taking a sip of her drink. So not coffee - unless she liked hers with whipped cream on top.
"You've got, er," he said, pointing to his lip.
"Oops," she laughed, wiping the stray cream off.
"You look too happy to be anything but a first year," he continued, as if that hadn't just happened. "Too eager."
And she did. Her eyes were bright and keen, always flicking around the room, taking everything in. He guessed she was probably clever; observant at the very least. Her clothes were nondescript, but her hair hinted at a real personality underneath a very, very pretty face.
Aran cleared his throat.
"As opposed to dead behind the eyes like final years?" she laughed, before realising what she'd said with a look of pure horror. "I absolutely did not mean that you look like that."
To the surprise of both of them, Aran barked out a laugh, quickly stifled down to something less jovial.
"Most of us do look pretty dead," he admitted. "Enjoy first year while you can."
"Noted," the girl nodded, and then an awkward silence fell, neither of them really wanting to leave but not having anything else to say.
"I should probably get going," Aran said.
"My name's Jana," she stated at the exact same time, cheeks immediately turning the same colour as her hair.
"Aran," he replied, thrilled that he now had a name for the girl he hadn't stopped thinking of for the last few days.
"Yeah me too," she stated in unison.
"I'm usually a lot better at conversation," Jana giggled, and Aran made a mental note to make her do that again.
"Yeah, I'm a little out of practice," he shrugged, scratching the back of his head.
It was true; he didn't really do small talk, with anyone. He would occasionally greet his housemates when they happened to be around, but as they were all doing sciences, they spent hardly any time at home. He rarely saw his tutors, and tended to silently observe seminars from the back row rather than actively participate in them. The rest of the time Aran tended to just hole himself up in the library, earphones firmly plugged in, blocking out the rest of the world.
Studying he could do; talking, not so much.
"I was actually just heading home," Jana said, checking her watch. "I have a nine o'clock lecture tomorrow."
"Don't let me keep you then," he murmured, thinking of how he could maybe adjust the times he'd been planning to study to instead be on campus at the same time as her, maybe bump into her in another cafe-
Aran shook his head. She was a kid with distinctive hair that he'd happened to see several times in the space of a few days. He'd lose any interest in her in five minutes. He had a degree to complete, and there were a few years between them for goodness' sake - he needed to get a hold of himself before he started feeling something stupid.
"See you around?" she grinned, and he found himself nodding at that smile before he could help himself.
"Sure," he said, knowing it was already way, way too late
~.~.~
"Someone's sitting-"
"No they're not," Jana smirked as she picked up Aran's laptop case and set it on the windowsill next to them, daring him to argue with her with a quirk of her eyebrow.
It had been two weeks since she'd decorated his shirt with cupcake icing, and they'd had coffee together no less than six times, four of those after just happening to bump into each other, two of them planned in the loosest sense of the word. If one of them happened to mention they'd be in a certain cafe at a certain time, and the other knew they were going to be in a similar place at the same time, well, that was just a happy coincidence.
They'd started out by trading the usual information. Jana had turned up her nose at the fact he was reading English, claiming her Classics was far more interesting. In turn, he'd snorted at the halls she was staying in, having stayed in the rival hall when he was a first year. They'd discussed tutors, flatmates, societies, anything and everything related to university, and then they'd hesitantly stepped over the line they'd been treading carefully.
He was really close with his sister, her and her father were notorious for their 'disagreements'. They were both from small villages, both had an affinity for long treks through the forest, and he planned to teach abroad once he'd graduated, while she was hoping to stay on and do a masters.
Now Jana was placing two cupcakes on the table and trying not to think too much about how excited she'd been to see him sat at the usual table. He was older than her, was going to graduate in a few months, and had a face that was entirely too nice to look at to not be attracting dozens of others girls. Falling for him wasn't an option.
She had an awful feeling she'd already chosen it though.
"Won't your friend be waiting for hers?" Aran asked, closing the book he'd been reading and bobbing his head towards the cakes. "Or have you been lying all this time, and you really are a two-cupcake kind of girl?"
His mouth twitched into a smile, and she narrowed her eyes at him playfully.
"The second one isn't for me," she said, biting her lip thoughtfully as she looked between them, then picking up the cake with purple icing, nudging the blue towards Aran. "It's for you."
"Thanks, but no thanks," he laughed, pushing it back. "Not a huge fan of cakes."
"You haven't tried these," she said, mouth full of cupcake.
"I'm just not really a sweets kind of person," he said, eyeing the cake warily. "Prefer meals."
"But dessert is always the best part!" Jana said, unable to comprehend what he was saying.
"Then you haven't eaten at nice enough restaurants," Aran stated, but obligingly picked up the cupcake and took a tentative bite.
Jana chuckled at the sight, not having anticipated how amusing it would be to watch a surly man eat a cupcake with silver stars stuck to the icing.
"What?" he frowned, and she just shook her head, not wanting to make him grumpy.
The thing she'd learned most about Aran over the last few weeks was that he was a complete teddy bear, with the ability to transform into an old man in five seconds flat. When he started talking about something he enjoyed, when he laughed and joked with her, when he took a sip of the coffee he had an apparent addiction to, his entire face softened, eyes friendly, and Jana's heart was usually subject to a bit of a stutter before resuming its normal beating at twice the pace.
Catching him on an off day though, or when he wasn't happy, it was like he was a different person. His face hardened, the grey in those eyes steeled, and a shiver ran down Jana's spine. And it was so unhealthy, because the moment he became like that, her defensively stubborn side started peeking out, the one that had gotten her into a lot of trouble over the years.
They were probably not a healthy pair, and though they'd avoided it so far - two weeks was hardly a long time after all, even if it had been the best fortnight of the semester so far - Jana had a feeling that if they were to argue, it would be catastrophic.
Therefore, the only sensible thing to do was for them to stay friends, maybe put some distance between them given that they'd grown close at an alarmingly fast rate, never risk becoming more. Only Aran had just stretched his arm out and the hand that was round his coffee cup was currently resting against hers, leaving her skin on fire, and distance seemed like far too painful a prospect right now.
"You know, it's pretty mean to always reserve an entire chair just for your laptop case," Jana informed him nonchalantly, motioning to the offending item with her head, afraid to move her hand lest he realise the contact and draw his hand back. "Someone might want to sit here."
"That's the idea," he said, and his pinky had definitely just brushed down the back of her hand, and her stomach was definitely doing somersaults.
"What?" she asked, distracted by his answer for a moment, eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.
"I'm not a huge fan of people," he muttered, and the way he said the last word made it sound as if he considered himself above everyone else, of a species far superior to the rest of humankind wandering the campus.
She rolled her eyes, understanding.
"That's-"
"Excuse me, miss?"
Jana and Aran turned to the intruder at the same time, Jana's face splitting into a smile at the sight of the adorable barista she'd been served by a few weeks ago, just moments before the shirt-icing-incident.
"Hey," she said brightly, and in the corner of her eye, she'd swear Aran stiffened.
"You left your purse at the counter," the boy explained, holding it out for her.
"Oh, thank you!" she said, shooting him a genuinely relieved smile as she took it from him, not even having realised it was missing. "Thank you so much."
She leaned under the table to retrieve her backpack, something that required nothing short of contortion in order to not move the precious hand Aran was still touching, and slipped the purse inside, then straightened out to find the guy still stood there.
"Anything else?" she asked expectantly.
"I was wondering if..." he began, but trailed off after what happened next.
If they had been clinging to any sort of line, it had just been crossed, and Jana wasn't sure if she was terrified or gleeful. In a motion that in no way could be construed as an accident, Aran twisted his hand to place it entirely round Jana's, grasping hers as she continued to hold her cup, and he must have felt the way she was shaking beneath him.
"...if everything was okay?" the barista finished off, and Aran cleared his throat in a way that almost hinted at triumph.
"Yeah we're good," Jana nodded, her voice only three octaves too high, nothing too noticeable.
"Great, let me know if you need anything," he nodded, bravely trying to cover his crestfallen expression.
Jana just smiled at him as he walked away, unable to do much else. If she let the rational part of her brain think for a second, she'd know that he'd probably been about to ask for her number, and as he was pretty attractive, roughly her age, and clearly incredibly friendly and very much into her, it was something she should pursue. The problem was, there was an older guy still holding her hand and it was difficult to focus on much else.
"So what's wrong with not liking people?" Aran asked leaning back and, breaking a spell she hadn't even realised she'd been under.
Jana blinked for a moment, amazed at the fact he was just going to let all of that slide as if it had never happened, as if it hadn't been life-changing. Okay, it hadn't been life-changing, but it had been pretty eventful.
"Um, it's just a little closed-minded," she said, stumbling on her words as her brain struggled to process what exactly was going on. "Not all people are bad."
"Yes they are," Aran said, sipping his coffee, and yep, apparently they were about to ignore what had just happened.
Well two could play at that game.
"Do you have any exceptions to that rule?" Jana asked with a smile playing on her face, taking an innocent sip of her hot chocolate and looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes.
"Not usually," he said gruffly, trying to hide the fact he'd just choked on his coffee a little bit.
"But sometimes," she pressed, and he rolled his eyes.
"Maybe," he replied, and she grinned victoriously.
"Okay, I'm late for my lecture," Jana said regretfully as she looked at the clock in the cafe, draining the last of her drink and standing up.
"It's ten past already, you'll be more than late," Aran told her with a raised eyebrow. "Lose track of time?"
"Nope, I was waiting for something."
"And it was worth being late for?"
"Absolutely," she beamed, slinging her bag over her shoulder and making her way to the door.
"What were you waiting for?" he called after her, curiosity getting the better of him and she grinned as he frowned at himself, evidently annoyed.
"A maybe!" she laughed, dashing out of the door and heading for her lecture theatre.
to be continued...