One all-nighter later, Chihiro is ready to face the world again. Or rather, she's ready to collapse into her bed and sleep through the day, but she's depressingly used to the feeling. At least she got her freaking code to work.

She stumbles through her routines as best she can, and by the time she gets to work she's ingested enough caffeine to feel like a human being again.

Not that that stops her from leaning her head on the counter as soon as she gets a free moment. Even if she can't go to sleep yet, she wants pity, darn it!

She forgets for a moment that her friends are jerks. Rather than ask her how she is, Mondo just claps her on the back. "Up late changing the world again?"

She nods, or at least tries to without lifting her head. "I wasn't going to get any sleep anyway, so I wanted to get some work done."

Mondo smirks. She can't see it, but she can just tell. "Busy thinking about your girlfriend?" he asks, and what is he, five?

"Shut up," she says, because she never claimed to be any better. It's not like she doesn't know her crush is ridiculous anyway.

Mondo sighs and is quiet for a moment. She looks up, curious, but he's staring into the distance and avoiding eye contact. Wow, she thinks, they might be about to have a semi-serious conversation.

"Okay," he says. "We can both agree that crushes suck. And it looks like this girl is actually a decent person, which doesn't help. But let's face it, you wouldn't have asked her out even if she was single."

Chihiro wishes she could argue, but she's known that was true for a while now. She can't even be annoyed with him for saying it.

"So instead of worrying about a girl you've barely even spoken to, you should find someone else to obsess over. For instance, look at that guy."

He points to one of the only customers in the shop, some guy with bright red hair and too many piercings. Chihiro frowns. "They look like a douchebag."

"Oh, totally," Mondo says. "But since you won't have to interact with them, that's not an issue. And besides, they're hot."

She rolls her eyes. Mondo's taste has always been questionable, as you could tell by looking at his hair. "Oh, well then," she says.

"You see? Problem solved." Mondo actually looks pleased with himself for suggesting a solution, and she smiles despite herself. He may be unhelpful, but at least he's trying. "Anyway, I'm going to go on break. Have fun staring at strangers or whatever."

Well, it looks like they've hit their limit on feelings for the day. She lets him go without complaint. After all, he has given her something else to think about. She's not sure it's as easy as he makes it sound, but it's worth a shot.

She looks around the cafe, but no one really catches her interest. In addition to piercings guy, there's also a blond smirking at their laptop and someone with a camera taking the ultimate artsy coffee photo. She thinks she's seen both of them talking to Makoto at some point; it certainly wouldn't surprise her.

She's considering sneaking out her 3DS and trying to beat her sister's latest high score when the door chimes. The most muscular person Chihiro's ever seen walks in, and okay, apparently she has a type and it is people who could snap her in half. Good to know, she thinks distantly, trying not to stare.

Where Aoi had been lean, compressed power, this person exudes strength. At the same time, they seem completely aware of their surroundings, gracefully navigating to the counter. "Good afternoon," they say. "I don't suppose you carry protein coffee?"

Chihiro shakes her head. "I'm sorry," she manages.

"Very well," the stranger says. "In that case, I'll just have water, please."

Chihiro nods. She doesn't understand people who come to a coffee shop and just get water, but somehow she can't imagine this person getting a fancy coffee concoction. Maybe she should try to convince Mr Kirigiri to carry protein...

Damn, she's doing it again. She doesn't even know this person's name, she shouldn't be trying to get them to come back. Stop being creepy, she tells herself.

This effort lasts as long as it takes to bring the stranger their water. They smile at her, and wow, they're beautiful in a way she didn't expect. "Thank you," they say.

Chihiro squeaks something about it being her pleasure and retreats to the counter to scream. Internally, of course; there's a strict no screaming policy after one of her coworkers tried to institute a death metal hour. But she's screaming in spirit, as she's sure to inform Mondo when he gets back.

"Aren't we all," he says.

She's already mentally composing her text to Makoto. She knows that she's going to give in and do it eventually, she might as well get it over with.

The minute her shift is over, she grabs her phone. [so the most strongest person ever came to the shop today] she sends. Hopefully he'll take her enthusiasm as admiration, which is is, and nothing more.

A few minutes later, she gets back, [Did they have long white hair?] Makoto's weird social magnetism has once again pulled through, it seems.

[yea] she says.

[Oh that's Sakura! :)] he says. She's always slightly impressed by the way he uses smileys without a hint of irony. [She's actually Aoi's girlfriend, the one I was telling you about earlier]

Chihiro almost walks into a lamppost. Okay, she thinks, maybe she should stop texting until she's actually home and can hit her head against a wall in peace.

Not that this stops her from dwelling on this revelation. Seriously, what are the odds? It's not like it's a particularly small campus. There have got to be a lot of strong athletic girls who like coffee. Any of them could have walked through the door and let her develop a crush on them. It would have been easy to fantasize a little, knowing it would never go anywhere.

But no, this is Chihiro, so of course it couldn't be that easy. Of course she's into two girls who are not only not single, they're dating each other. Of course the one time the girls she's interested in aren't straight, this happens. She'd be amused if it wasn't so frustrating.

But now that she is home, her exhaustion reasserts itself. As much as she'd like to keep dwelling, her body makes it clear that she won't be able to. She drags herself to her bed and falls asleep almost immediately.

She dreams of smiles and water and gentle strength.