A/N: I saw this AU and I wrote it. Special thanks to my friends Nia and J for the idea and support respectively.
The month was February and the time was half past ten at night. Rain battered mercilessly onto the city of Los Angeles as a young woman ran, her clothes soaked and her brown hair dripping. Despite the fact that she was drenched, she held a laptop to her chest and kept running until she reached a coffee shop. She pushed the glass doors open and gasped for air, her hands sliding down to her knees as she let the rainwater drip onto the "WELCOME" carpet at the entrance of the coffee shop. The laptop was placed down on a table by the door.
The coffee shop wasn't too big, but it had all four walls. The counter was in the middle of the shop and booths and tables were by the walls. Only a few booths and tables were occupied.
"Skye!" the barista exclaimed as she saw the young woman. The barista had a beautiful British accent and light brown hair in waterfall braids. She was in her mid-twenties, a blue/black themed uniform and was just adding the finishing touches of latte art to a cup of espresso. She snapped her fingers and a young man with curly blondish-brown hair took the cup of espresso carefully, hoisting it over to a table several feet away. The nametag on the barista's uniform read "Jemma" and the waiter's read "Leo".
"Poor thing! You're soaked all over!" Jemma said worriedly, "Leo, fetch her a towel!" The young man darted behind the counter and grabbed a towel, handing it to the young woman who was addressed Skye. "Cats and dogs, eh?" he asked Skye. He had a Scottish accent and a very cute smile.
Skye took the towel and started to dry her hair. "Cats and dogs? More like tigers and wolves," Skye replied. "You don't mind if I sit down with a soaked butt, right?"
"Go ahead," a handsome waiter walked up to Skye, placing a mug of coffee down on the table next to the laptop, "the coffee's my treat."
"Thanks," Skye said, eyeing his nametag, "Grant." She placed the towel over her shoulders and put her hair on the towel.
"I've never seen you here before, Grant, you new here?" Skye said as she turned her laptop on and started to tap on the keys.
He nodded. He had brown hair and dark eyes, and Skye found her staring at Grant until a voice interrupted her. "Skye! Thank God you're here!"
The young woman looked up to see a middle-aged man with glasses and a stressed expression walking towards her. He was in a light blue buttoned-up shirt, a pair of denim jeans and leather shoes. A fedora topped his brown-haired head.
"Our wi-fi's down. Again. I don't suppose-"
"Got it, Mr. Coulson," Skye said as her fingers flew across the keyboard of her laptop. "One functional wifi, coming your way."
An hour passed, and Leo went to the glass doors to flip the hanging sign from "OPEN" over to "CLOSED" as the last customer left. Skye was at the finishing touches and when her pinkie hit "enter", the wifi was working again.
"Got a place to sleep, Skye?" The brunette was surprised by the man who slipped into the seat opposite to hers.
Skye just shook her head. Grant bit his lip before opening his mouth to speak. "I don't know, you could stay at the back. We do have a little lounge there. The couch is not bad."
"Thanks," Skye smiled. "How long have you been working here?"
"Two days," Grant scratched his hair shyly. The two watched as Leo and Jemma left the shop.
"Great colleagues, huh?"
"You come here often?"
"Sorta. Your boss makes me fix the wifi from time to time," said Skye, "it crashes a lot. Besides, I don't have anywhere else to go during weekdays. I don't exactly have a job."
Skye closed her laptop and stood up. "I'm gonna hit the hay. Nice to meet you, Grant." She offered a hand.
He took it awkwardly after a few uncertain glances. "Nice to meet you too, Skye."
"Thanks for the coffee, by the way," uttered Skye as she headed to the back of the coffee shop.
Grant slid out of the booth as watched her walk away from him. "Skye!" he yelled after her. She spun around quickly and their eyes met. Grant blushed as red as a ripe apple.
"Do you… I don't know, have a boyfriend…?"
The brunette smirked and bit her lip. "No," she said, " I don't have a boyfriend." She went the way the came and placed a chaste kiss on Grant's lips. Whatever came afterwards involved somebody being thrown on the couch in the lounge, the horrible yet sexy sound of someone ripping clothing and a bunch of other muffle sounds that made the manager of the coffee shop roll her eyes when she locked the glass doors of the shop.
"Kids these days…" She muttered to herself as she placed the keys into her bag. The new employee's gonna be so deep in trouble when she tells the boss tomorrow.
*[approximately one and a half months later]*
"Did I not say staff meeting this morning? Where is everybody?" Coulson grumbled as he tapped his fingers on the wooden table of the counter.
"Well, sir," the only employee who showed up, aka the manager Melinda May, spoke, "Skye and Grant are doing it in the bathroom, Leo and Jemma are possibly locked in the closet so they don't walk in on the lovebirds and Antoine is getting us some of his grandfather's special Blue Mountain coffee beans."
"What?!" Coulson furrowed his eyebrows as he darted off to the bathroom of the coffee shop while Melinda went to grab the keys to the closet. When he approached the bathroom, he almost drew back right away. Heavy pants and moans could be heard from behind the door and it took Coulson a moment to muster the courage to knock on the door.
"Shit!" Skye swore.
"It was your idea," Coulson heard Grant say.
"Are you blaming me?" yelled Skye back at her boyfriend.
"Skye! Grant! Seriously!" Coulson finally screamed. The door flew open to reveal Skye half in her uniform and Grant stark naked.
"Oh God," Coulson spun away rapidly. "Please get dressed."
Coulson's back was facing the two and he was completely outraged; you could literally see the fire burning in his eyes. Skye gulped and Grant quickly threw on his shirt, buttoning it up as quickly as he could.
On the other hand, the waiter and the barista were freed from the confines of the closet. Melinda helped Jemma out of the tight space followed by Leo. The poor couple was out of breath and their arms and fists hurt from banging on the closet door.
"Oh, thanks so much, Cavalry," Jemma hugged her superior, relief pouring out from the tone of her voice.
"Don't ever call me that," said Melinda through gritted teeth despite the fact that she returned the hug.
"We'll have Grant to thank later, Jemma," Leo said.
Melinda raised an eyebrow.
"We shared our first kiss in that closet," explained Jemma. "I think we're officially together now." She grabbed Leo's hand.
"Haven't you always been?" Melinda managed to sneer before leading the two back out to the counter, where cries of pure fury could be heard. Coulson's finger was pointed right at Grant's forehead.
"If this happens one more time, I'm firing either one of you, is that clear?"
The couple nodded swiftly.
There was a knock on the glass door and the team in the shop all turned to see. Antoine Triplett was just outside the door with two huge bags of coffee beans. Coulson rushed to the door and helped him get one of the bags into the shop.
"Thanks for the coffee beans, Antoine. Your grandfather was one of the best coffee makers back in the day."
"No big deal, Mr. Coulson, just doing what I can," the young man smiled.
The staff meeting went on. They chatted about how they could promote the coffee shop in the local community, how they can improve efficiency and penalties for locking Leo and Jemma up in a closet because Coulson wasn't exactly satisfied with having two couples in his coffee shop. The meeting was over in an hour and everyone went home except for one person, of course.
"Not leaving, Mel?" Coulson said as he sipped his glass of water; he couldn't afford a Blue Mountain coffee this late at night.
"You know me," Melinda said, "I stay the night a lot."
Coulson huffed out a laugh and handed Melinda a glass of water. "Cheers," he joked, lifting his glass to meet hers. They drank in silence as Melinda reached for Coulson's free right hand with her left.
"Don't tell the kids," Coulson muttered as he laced his fingers with hers.
"They're not our kids, Phil."
"Yeah, they are."
