This story has also been posted onto ao3.
Keith walked back to the counter after having unlocked the front door to Altean Coffee. It was 8 AM and he really wasn't in the mood to work but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
"Shiro! We're opening!"
"I'm coming, just a second!" Shiro walked out of the back room with his apron in his left hand.
Keith took the apron without a word and tied it around his older brother's waist. As soon as he was done, there was a jingle from the front door. Keith turned towards the customer and put a plastic smile on his face. "Good morning!
What can I get you today?" he asked.
"Um...can I get a large chocolate frappuccino with extra whipped cream and -" The tall customer stopped talking the second he looked at Keith.
"...And?" Keith prompted.
The customer shook off whatever had come over him and continued, "And some chocolate drizzle please." He smiled as Keith finished punching his order into the register.
"That will be $4.50," he said. Keith waited while the customer tried to dig his wallet out of his backpack. Shouldn't he have known that he would have to pay? The customer finally found his wallet and paid for his drink. "Your drink will be ready in just a moment."
"Aren't you going to ask me my name?" the customer asked with a grin.
Keith gave the customer a long look before he said, "You're the only one here." The grin instantly fell from the customer's face. Keith sighed. "Fine, what's your name?"
The grin returned. "Lance."
Lance showed up to the coffee shop every morning for the next two weeks. Keith quickly learned that Lance always
ordered the same drink every time. The fourth time Lance showed up, Keith had already made his drink and punched it into the register. All Lance had to do was pay, then he would leave.
Keith had begun to notice that Shiro was starting to look at him weird in the morning. "Why do you keep giving me that look, Shiro?"
"I can't believe you haven't noticed yet."
"Noticed what?"
"You like Lance, don't you Keith?"
Keith felt his face go red. "Shut up."
Shiro ruffled Keith's hair with his left hand before going into the back room to do inventory.
At the beginning of Lance's third week of coming to the coffee shop, he started having small conversations with Keith. Keith learned that Lance was a student at the University of Hawaii, and that he surfed competitively during the summer.
One day, Lance showed up to the coffee shop in a wetsuit.
"What's that about?" Keith asked.
"Oh, I'm training for an upcoming competition with my buddy Hunk."
"Oh. That's cool."
Lance cleared his throat. "Yeah."
Lance had been coming into the shop for a whole month now. Since he was training, he hadn't been able to stop and chat as much. Keith had started feeling like something was missing. Shiro was still giving him weird looks.
"Hey boys! How's it going today?" The owner of Altean Coffee had just come in.
"Hey Allura, we've been doing fine," Shiro responded.
"Allura? I've been meaning to ask you something," Keith said.
"Sure, go ahead."
"I've been wondering if we could add something to the menu."
