Chapter 4

Emerald Café had a deal with a nearby bakery for getting their bread. The café did serve sandwiches, but because the mostly specialized in cake and other confections, it was easier to just buy the bread from somewhere instead of making it themselves and adding to the burden of the cooks. Instead of just getting it from a store, though, Takano-san believed it should be just as high-quality as the rest of their food. That was how they got a business deal with Sapphire Bakery.

Sapphire Bakery was an interesting place, even Takano-san would admit it. Where Emerald Café was staffed almost completely by men, Sapphire's staff consisted of nothing but women. Someone who was opening would deliver the bread order every day, and Ritsu went in once or twice a month to arrange the order and pay for it, but that wasn't the only time they were seen. Staff from Sapphire Bakery tended to lurk around Emerald Café. It wasn't like they were a nuisance, since they always ordered something. But when, for instance, Ritsu and Takano-san were still going through the complications of 'will-they-won't-they' they could be seen in groups when the two shared a shift, almost like they were hoping something would happen.

One day, Kisa had sat down with some of them and actually asked why they spent so much time there. Turned out that the staff shared more interests than just a love of baking: they were all BL fans, and Emerald Café was pretty much a treasure trove for them. Kisa had asked why they never bothered him, and one had answered that Takano-san and 'Onodera-kun' dancing around each other like they were was more interesting than Kisa being a manslut, even if he was an adorable manslut.

Two women from Sapphire Bakery showed up the next evening when Kisa had about thirty minutes left in his shift. It was surprisingly slow considering it was dinnertime, and so after Mino took their order, Kisa went over to talk to them.

"Ah, this place isn't nearly as fun since Takano-san and Onodera-kun got together," one woman complained. She'd been doing that for the past two years, actually, and it slightly confused Kisa why they still lurked around the café if they weren't getting the kind of show they wanted anymore. "There are Hatori-san and Yoshino-san but Yoshino-san is so thick, I swear." Then she looked up and realized that Kisa was standing by their table, and she smiled. "Kisa-san! How are you today?"

"Same as always," Kisa said with a smile. One of the women offered to pull up a chair so he could sit with them, but he declined. "No men for me tonight though, I think."

"Oh my god," the first woman said, turning to her companion. "I think the world might be ending. Or are you terminally ill, Kisa-san?"

"Neither, just tired." Kisa sighed. "If I didn't think Takano-san would chain me to the store I'd get a job somewhere that offers more stable hours."

"You could always just ask Onodera-kun to make your schedule more consistent," the second woman pointed out.

"That poor guy goes through enough nagging about the schedule," Kisa said with a laugh. It seemed like Mino was the only person who had never, at some point in his career at Emerald Café, nagged Ritsu about rearranging his or her shifts to better accommodate their social life. Kisa had done it himself in the past, he would admit, but he had started taking pity on him. "Besides, this is really the best I can do."

"Aw, I'm sure that's not true, Kisa-san," the first woman said, patting him on the shoulder. "Besides, this place is pretty popular, so the pay can't be that bad."

Well it certainly helped that when he went out with a guy, the guy almost always paid for the room in the love hotel. It was one less expense to destroy his wallet with, that was true.

Mino approached with their coffee and cakes, so Kisa decided he should probably get back to the counter and wait to see if anyone else would come in that he'd have to serve. Just as he was turning around, though, Yukina Kou came through the door.

"Shit," he muttered. Apparently it was loud enough for the Sapphire women to hear, because they both looked up from their cakes and their eyes went wide at the same time.

"Ooh, I know him, he works at Kirishima-san's gallery," the second one said, her eyes lighting up. "I didn't know he came in here."

Kisa ducked his head and went to hide in the kitchen. Mino seemed to get the idea, because even though it was one of Kisa's assigned tables, he went and took Yukina's order himself.

Since Ichinose wasn't required to make any of her elaborate treats right then, she was simply sitting on a stool by the stove, texting away on her phone. It was probably to An-chan. An-chan was Ritsu's childhood friend and was supposed to be his fiancé, as arranged by his family. The notion hadn't lasted long after Ritsu started working for Emerald Café, though, and An-chan had been upset but accepted it after Ichinose took it upon herself to just let her sit there and cry in the kitchen one day. They'd been close ever since, to the point where everyone wondered why Chiaki got defensive of Hatori when Ichinose was around.

Then again, even Ichinose didn't seem to understand the implications of the relationship that she had fostered with An-chan over the years.

When Kisa pushed through the swinging door, she looked up and snapped her phone shut. She had a habit of giving her full attention to Kisa when he went into the kitchen, mostly because he did it so rarely that she knew something was up when he did.

"Another Evil Ex?" she asked with a slight smirk.

Kisa glanced through the small, circular window on the kitchen door to see Mino wasn't even trying to chase him away. Yukina was an actual customer at the café and was not, apparently, asking for Kisa. Kisa finally sighed and turned away, leaning against the doorframe. "No, it's just me being a coward, I think. I'm not used to seeing a guy I tried to sleep with so much."

"Tried to?" Ichinose asked, arching an eyebrow. "In all the years I've known you, I never knew Kisa Shouta as someone to give up on a guy he wanted."

"It's complicated," Kisa said. He stepped out of the doorway just in time for Mino to go in and hand off the order. The two looked at each other for a second, almost like they were exchanging some kind of silent message. Mino was asking Kisa if he should kick him out like usual, and Kisa was telling him that it was fine. Seeing this, Mino just smiled, gave Chiaki (who had been lurking in the corner of the kitchen, trying to make himself invisible) the order and went back on his way.

Since Chiaki was taking care of the order, Ichinose got down from her stool and went to look through the window. Her eyes scanned the café once before she said, "Which one is he?"

"The only one out there," Kisa muttered. He watched Ichinose scan the restaurant again then look confused, so he added, "Tall, light brown hair, incredibly sparkly aura."

"Oh! Him?" Ichinose's eyes finally landed on Yukina, sitting there at his table and waiting for the Emerald Tea he had ordered. When Kisa nodded, Ichinose considered him carefully. "He looks like a guy out of a shojo manga. Are you sure he's capable of one-night stands?"

"Well I did say 'tried,'" Kisa muttered, looking only slightly put-off.

"Order-up," Chiaki called. It had been fast enough, since all he had to do was get a cup of hot water and the tea leaves. Kisa and Chiaki glanced around for Mino, but the man was nowhere to be found. "Kisa-san? Could you take this out?"

Ichinose was snickering as Kisa just snatched the cup from Chiaki and brought it out, not even bothering to bring a tray. He was too pissed-off, for one, and for two, it was only one cup. He could carry that much on his own.

"Kisa-san!" Yukina said with a smile once he saw that Kisa was the one bringing his tea out instead of Mino. "I thought maybe you weren't working right now, since I didn't see you."

"Just out back in the kitchen," Kisa said with a smile. "This is technically my table, though, and I felt bad making Mino-san do my work." Lies, lies, lies, but Yukina didn't need to know that. "Enjoy!"

"Kisa-san."

Kisa found himself stopping when Yukina called his name. Yukina had the cup of tea in both hands, but his eyes were on Kisa, a rather serious look on his face that made Kisa want to squirm.

"If you're getting out of work soon, would you like to take a walk with me?"

Kisa paused at that. This was exactly the kind of situation he had been afraid would happen. He briefly considered just ignoring him and possibly sending Mino back out, but something prevented him. He folded his arms and said, "I guess so. I have less than an hour left, so if you don't mind waiting…" When he actually looked at Yukina, the guy had lit up like Kisa had just told him he'd won the lottery.

Ichinose looked amused when Kisa went back to the counter. She was sticking her head out the kitchen door and had, it seemed, seen everything.

"What?" Kisa asked, looking at her warily. Ichinose, for her part, just shook her head and went back into the kitchen.

xxx

Yukina really did want to go for a walk, it turned out. Given that it was the middle of July, it was hot out, and they had ended up stopping at an ice cream stand. They spent most of the time exchanging small talk, just little things about the weather (it was hot), how work was (nothing unusual) and other things that Kisa tended to avoid because he just found them asinine.

The ice cream stand they stopped at was near a park, and they decided to stop there and eat.

"Can I ask you something?" Kisa asked once they sat down together on a bench. He'd been absentmindedly licking at his ice cream, only noting in passing that Yukina had his eyes on him the entire time. Kisa would admit himself that he had some rather… interesting habits when it came to eating ice cream, or ice pops, or even occasionally hot dogs. Yukina realized that Kisa was talking to him, though, and so he nodded. "Why are you so nice?"

"What do you mean, Kisa-san?" Yukina asked, proceeding to eat his own ice cream and pointedly not watching Kisa's tongue.

"I mean, I haven't known you for long but I always see you acting like you're everyone's best friend. You're probably the self-sacrificing type, too."

"I suppose," Yukina said, clasping his ice cream cone with both hands and just holding it there in his lap, staring down at the chocolate soft-serve. "But is that really such a bad thing?"

"Eh, take it from me," Kisa said, putting aside his cone since he'd licked the ice cream from the top and it wasn't in danger of falling. "Sometimes if you really want something you have to take it instead of just waiting for it to present itself to you, or worrying if it would be inconvenient for someone else." He noticed Yukina was gazing at him again, so he shifted nervously and said, "So was there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

Before Kisa could realize what was happening, Yukina leaned down and kissed him. It was a short kiss, but when Yukina went to pull away, Kisa pulled him back down.

What was left of Kisa's ice cream pretty much went ignored.

xxx

They ended up going to Yukina's apartment, though Kisa didn't pay attention to it once they were in the door. They made it past the genkan, but they were kissing the entire way. At one point, Yukina made an idle comment about not having condoms, and Kisa broke the kiss long enough to reach into his bag, which was still over his shoulder, and produce a condom and lube.

"Are you always this prepared?" Yukina asked as he put them beside the bed.

"Yep."

Kisa expected to just fall onto the bed, but Yukina prevented him from doing so. He had his arms firmly around Kisa's waist and then he actually lifted Kisa up and set him on the bed himself. Kisa was somewhat surprised, but his mind was soon elsewhere as Yukina pushed his shirt up.

"Kisa-san," Yukina breathed as he stared at Kisa's flat belly. "You have an amazing body." Kisa blushed and looked away as Yukina leaned down and licked a long line from his collarbone down to his navel, where he swirled his tongue around before leaning back.

Kisa sat up and brought Yukina into a kiss. He had no idea what compelled him to do so, but he almost literally melted into Yukina's arms as his tongue invaded his mouth. He wrapped his legs around Yukina's waist and shamelessly rubbed their clothed erections against each other, drawing a moan out of Yukina and a desperate, "Can we do more, Kisa-san?"

"I didn't get those out for the fun of it," Kisa said, glancing at the condom and lube he dropped on the nightstand.

They quickly stripped and Kisa put some lube on his fingers so he could prepare himself rather than making Yukina do it. By the time he was ready, Yukina had slipped the condom on and looked almost impatient to just get on with it.

Kisa smirked and rolled over so he was on his knees, his head laid on the pillow and his arms wrapped around his head. When Yukina didn't immediately go for it, he turned his head and said, "Well?"

"Are you sure it won't hurt you, Kisa-san?" Yukina sounded concerned as he said that, and he missed Kisa putting his face back in the pillow and rolling his eyes. He seemed to get it, though, because he placed his hands on Kisa's hips and carefully entered him.

Yukina, apparently, did not last long once they got down to business. Kisa had to tell him to thrust harder because the younger man had started slowing down after about a minute, moaning softly. Yukina nodded, though, and he reached and took Kisa's cock so he could start pumping it and help him along the way. When they did finally orgasm, Kisa slightly after Yukina, Yukina just sighed and pulled out, then pulled Kisa into his arms.

Kisa's entire body was relaxed, and he was a little drowsy. However, he could still feel the results of his orgasm, if just barely. It had not been the best session of spontaneous, two-minute sex he'd ever had, but sitting there on Yukina's lap, leaning against his warm body, was nice. Not that Kisa would ever use that as an excuse for going back to him when he swore he wouldn't.

Yukina had suggested that they shower together, but Kisa had declined. It didn't seem the man had the energy to argue the point, so he just took out some new clothes and went by himself. Once Kisa could hear the water running, he quickly put on his own clothes, grabbed his bag, and hightailed it for the genkan. As he put on his shoes and opened the door, he swore to himself that this was the last time.