Pairing: Dick/Zatanna
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,100+
The 'verse: Zatanna is a barista at a coffeeshop and Dick works across the street
Prompt: their first date
For: sweetcoffee-and-Saturdays
... ...
He's not a big fan of coffee. Bruce likes it, which… well, whatever. He just does. Dick doesn't entirely get the appeal.
But he still spends $2.50 each day just to buy a cup.
There's this coffee place across the street from the computer repair shop he works at after classes, and he's pretty much a regular. He's always over there for his breaks and sometimes with his friends when they stay up to study or something. He doesn't think he could ever get tired eating the pastries and breakfast foods they serve.
He doesn't think he could ever get tired of seeing the cute waitress that works there, either.
She probably works similar hours to his because most of the time he can look across the street and see her taking orders or serving coffee. He imagines that she's a student at Gotham University, too, but he's never seen her on campus before. It's not that surprising since the place is huge, but it's almost two months into the semester and he just figured he'd have to run into her eventually, right? He's not the partying type, but he's been to a few and he's never seen her around. Maybe she's just not the party type, either.
"Hi, Dick," a voice greets him as soon as he's stepping through the door.
"Hey, Raquel." He hops onto the barstool at the counter that's become his seat. "How'd your blind date go?"
"It was actually kind of amazing," she admits, sounding pleasantly surprised. He raises his eyebrows a little. "I know, right? You know how skeptical I was about it at first, but it's kind of unreal how much of a gentleman he was. And we're meeting again tonight."
"So you two hit it off?"
"As if I'd known him my whole life," Raquel replies. Then she smiles. "I'm sorry, let me go get…" She cranes her head to look into the kitchen. "Is Zatanna in there?"
"I'm hurt, Raquel," he teases. "First you go on a date with this mystery guy instead of me and now you don't want to even serve me?"
She laughs. "We all know who you want to be served by. And here she comes," Raquel adds with a wink, tucking her pencil behind her ear as Zatanna is stepping out of the kitchen, a coffee pot in hand and a tray with a plate of pancakes in her other. "Look, Zee. Your favorite customer is here."
"You didn't harass him, did you?" Zatanna teases. He meets her eyes and smiles. "We wouldn't want him running off to Starbucks. It'd be bad for business."
"Sure. That's why he shouldn't stop coming here." Raquel meets his eyes and winks again. He chuckles and shakes his head. "Try not to have too much fun on your break, Zee."
"No promises."
Raquel just laughs, disappearing into the kitchen.
He arches an eyebrow as Zatanna is setting the coffee pot and pancakes down. "You're on your break?"
"Yeah. My hours are a little different now because I work a bit later." She sets two mugs in front of him, pouring coffee into both and then splashing in a little creamer and sugar. "And please tell me that you have a big appetite right now, because Clark made me some cinnamon apple pancakes and there're way too many for me to finish by myself."
"I thought you'd never ask."
She laughs, grabbing two forks before walking around the counter.
"So, you do actually go to Gotham U, right?" he asks as she's sliding onto the barstool beside his. She gives him a look. "Well, I never see you, so."
"I'm either in class or here. Or I'm sleeping in my dorm," she adds with a shrug, handing him a fork. "I just want to make sure I settled into my part-time job and started making money before I work on my social life on campus."
"Fair enough." He cuts a square of the pancake off, stabbing it with his fork. "So, I have a question."
"Sounds serious," she teases. She scoops some whipped cream from the top and licks it off of her fork. "Ask away."
"Why do you always put sugar and creamer in my coffee?" She blinks, obviously not expecting the question. "I mean, I like that you do and all, but you didn't always. And I never see you do that with the other customers. You usually just give them the creamer and sugar separately."
"Most people like to do it themselves," she says with a shrug. "And some people are too stubborn to admit that they don't like black coffee."
He grins. "You noticed."
"You would swallow your coffee down like it was medicine. It wasn't hard to tell. Well," she corrects herself, smiling at the pancakes and stealing a glance at him, "not for me. I thought maybe you just didn't like it or… I don't know. But I thought I'd put some in there and see how you'd react."
"You make it sound like you were experimenting on me."
"I was." He laughs. "So, I have a question, too," she goes on, and he raises his eyebrows, feeding himself some pancakes. "Why didn't you just add it yourself?"
He smiles as if he was expecting this. "I never really liked coffee before. I wouldn't even know where to begin trying to add more stuff to it."
"If you don't like coffee then why did you even come here in the first place?"
"I didn't like coffee before," he corrects. "It's grown on me now, but I only drink it here. I tried adding creamer and stuff when I order it from other places, but I guess you just put the perfect amount for me, so I don't ever get it right." He shrugs his shoulders a little. "And would it ruin my chances if I told you that I only started coming in here to run into you?"
She looks up in surprise, meeting his gaze. She's practically beaming at him, a tinge of color at her cheeks.
"It wouldn't hurt your chances at all, actually."
He grins. "That's a relief." She bites her lower lip a little, shifting her eyes back onto the pancakes. "So I guess this is like our first official date."
"And the other fifty-two times you came here on your breaks didn't count because…?"
"You counted."
She blushes a little more. "I count my work days. And you've been here every single day I've worked."
"Right," he chuckles. "And no, those don't count because you were technically still working, even if you slacked off just to talk to me." She scoffs, pretending to be offended, and he laughs. "But it doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy all fifty-two of them."
"That's a relief," she says. "But if we're speaking technically, this first date doesn't fully count, either. I'm still at my workplace."
"If I asked you if you wanted to go out to brunch with me on Sunday, then would that second 'first date' fully count?"
"Yeah, I think it would," she laughs, eyes sparkling. He grins.
"Then it's a date."