[summary] Remus/Lilly - Coffee Shop!AU - Remus steps up to the counter, smiling at the perky red-head who greets him enthusiastically. "Hi! Welcome to Cuppa Doe," she says, her bright smile revealing rows of perfectly white teeth, "I'm Lily! What can I get for you today?"

A/N — Written for Hogwarts Assignment 7, Mythology, Task 5

A massive thank you to Bex for looking this over for me :)

"Honestly, it's ridiculous, opening a coffee shop right next door," Remus' boss, Mr. Johnson, grouses. "We sell coffee, and a nice traditional meal, too. Proper British, we are," he says, spit flying from his mouth. "Don't see why everyone wants to go to their fancy coffee shop."

Remus peels his arm from the sticky counter, wincing as he does so. He's wiped it down at least three times in the last hour, and still it never comes away clean, a thick layer of grime practically welded to its surface.

"I can't imagine, sir," Remus says, grabbing the bottle of cleaner and spraying the counter down once again.

"That's what I like about you, Ryan," Mr. Johnson says, slinging a meaty arm around Remus' neck and knocking the bottle from his hand. The plastic bottle bounces off the linoleum floor, the spray nozzle popping off and spilling cleaning fluid over the dingey fake tile.

Mr. Johnson ignores it. "You're loyal, that's what you are. Fit right in." He gestures around the near-empty cafe. "This is the kind of place where we remember our customers' names. Much better than some generic coffee shop."

"It's wonderful here, sir," Remus says dully, staring at the spill he knows he's going to have to clean. At least it's something to do. The bloke sitting in the corner, nursing a single cup of tea whilst he reads his paper, isn't going to order anything else. He never does.

"Loyalty!" Mr. Johnson shouts, slapping Remus too hard on the back. The customer looks up, his dark eyes narrowing in annoyance at the interruption. Remus mouths an apology, but he's already back to reading his paper.

"You're in charge, Ryan!" Mr. Johnson says jovially. "I'm going on my break."

"It's Remus," Remus mutters to Mr. Johnson's retreating back. He's long since given up trying to get the man to remember his name, but it would be nice.

At least once their single customer leaves, Remus will have the place to himself for a bit. Mr. Johnson's breaks are notoriously long, and he always manages to disappear entirely despite it being such a small cafe. Remus suspects he sneaks home.

"Can I get you anything else?" he calls to the lone customer. The man doesn't even bother to verbally reply, simply shaking his head no.

Remus sighs, settling in for what is bound to be another tedious shift.

.oOo.

In the tiny back room — it's little more than a closet, really — he slips off his uniform shirt, leaving him in just the t-shirt he wears underneath to keep the polyester from irritating his skin, stuffs it into his shoulder bag, and heads out the back fire exit with a "see you later!" called over his shoulder.

His shift doesn't end for another half hour, but it was so quiet even Mr. Johnson couldn't justify keeping Remus in longer. A part of him is relieved at the early escape, but he still can't help calculating how many hours he's lost this week, and how that's going to affect his already meager paycheck.

He hadn't been paying attention on his way into work, but after listening to Mr. Johnson complaining practically non-stop all day about the new coffee shop, Remus keeps an eye out. He needn't have bothered. It's literally right next door.

But even so, the stylishly rustic sign proudly proclaiming the place Cuppa Doe draws his attention. He isn't sure how he missed it before.

Peering through the window, the place looks packed. Mr. Johnson's little cafe has never had this much business in one night.

Unable to help himself, Remus pushes open the door. The little bell tinkles over the dull murmur of the customers talking amongst themselves, the clinking of silverware on porcelain, the ringing of the till. And there are little deer motifs everywhere; paintings of deers drinking coffee together on the walls, silhouettes of deers on the cups and plates, even deers in dresses and top hats on the doors to the bathrooms.

The whole place is decked out in browns and whites and beiges, and it is both quirky and comforting.

Remus steps up to the counter, smiling at the perky red-head who greets him enthusiastically. "Hi! Welcome to Cuppa Doe," she says, her bright smile revealing rows of perfectly white teeth, "I'm Lily! What can I get for you today?" Remus has absolutely no idea how anyone can be this upbeat after working the day in customer service, but she seems considerably more genuine than Remus' own customer service personality.

"Uhh …" he says, his eyes only now flicking up to the menu covering the wall behind her.

"Don't worry, take your time!" she says cheerfully. Remus flushes — he has become exactly the sort of customer he hates; he cannot recall the amount of times he's complained about people not having their order ready when they come up to the counter — but at least there is no one waiting behind him.

"I'll just … I'll just have a black coffee, please," he says. And then, spying the little deer shaped gingerbread men, he adds, "And a gingerbread, please." He should have enough in his bank account to cover it; he only got paid last week.

"Coming right up!" Lily says, punching in the numbers and gesturing for Remus to use the pin machine. His card works on the first try. "Why don't you take a seat while you wait?"

"Thank you," Remus says, heading to the nearest table and pulling out a chair. The back cushion has deer antlers stitched into the soft, beige material, and the wooden table is engraved with the outlines of a pack of deer, overlapping and creating intricate patterns.

His table is also conveniently placed near to the coffee machine.

"Do you own the place?" Remus asks Lily.

"Oh, yes!" she says, her enthusiasm palpable. "I've been saving for years, and we only opened today. A lot of these people are my friends, or friends of friends, but I'm hoping to get the word out about the place soon."

"It's nice," Remus says, wincing at the blandness of his own comment. "I work next door." He doesn't know why he tells her this, but the words slip from his mouth before he can stop them.

"Oh, the art gallery? I love that place! It's —"

"No," Remus hastens to interrupt. "The cafe."

Lily freezes for a moment, mouth hanging open. "Oh, well, it's … certainly authentic," she says, clearly a desperate grab at something nice to say.

"All the food's microwaved and the coffee's watered down."

"I've never been there," Lily says with a guilty smile.

"I would not recommend it," he says. "But it pays the bills."

They fall into an awkward silence at that, and Remus is hating himself for bringing up his job when Lily brings over his coffee and gingerbread.

"Marlene makes all the cakes and biscuits," she says with a conspiratorial grin, "and the coffee's as strong as it gets."

He takes a small bite of a gingerbread antler, and it's all he can do to stop himself from moaning in satisfaction, it's that good. He smiles at Lily, telling her as much as he waits for his coffee to cool down to a drinkable temperature.

He'll definitely have to come back to Cuppa Doe soon.

.oOo.

The second time he visits the coffee shop next door, nearly a full week later, it's considerably quieter but no less cosy.

Lily smiles brightly when she sees him, her entire face lighting up, and Remus' returning smile is instinctual.

"Could I get a coffee," he says, his eyes scanning the rows of freshly baked goods, settling on a chocolate cupcake with caramel antlers sprouting from the top. "And a cupcake, please," he adds, nodding towards his chosen treat.

He slides over a handful of coins, wincing as he does so, but Lily's smile brightens impossibly as she says, "Looks like someone made good tips today."

Remus can't quite tell if she's joking or not, but he had made good tips for their cafe. Normally, he'd be lucky if only one person left him a pound coin on the table, and the other day an older lady had handed him five pence with a very serious, "You earned it." Remus still doesn't know what to make of that.

Taking his usual spot, although he has only sat there once before, Remus angles his chair towards Lily.

"How's business been going for you?" he asks. What is it with him and the bland comments? She's going to think he's this boring guy who works at the awful cafe next door, who has a very large sweet tooth.

"It's been a bit slow," she says with a sigh. "But the weekend was wonderful!" Not once has Remus had a wonderful weekend at the cafe. "How's it been at the cafe?"

Remus shrugs. "Well, I made seven pound twenty in tips," he says. "Can't really complain." He actually spent several hours last night on the phone to his mum doing just that, but that's not really something he wants to tell Lily.

"That's oddly specific," she says, laughing. She has the kind of laugh that invites everyone in the room to join in the mirth, regardless of how funny the joke actually was.

Remus debates telling her about his five p. tip, but decides against it. "They said keep the change, so I did." Which, in all fairness, is how Remus gets most of his tips, so they're not technically tips.

Lily laughs again. "Well, it all adds up," she says with one of her conspiratorial grins, sliding Remus' order towards him. "Do you like working there?"

Is there a way to politely respond with a flat no? "I like talking to the customers," Remus says hesitantly. Which is a bit of a lie, most of the customers are actually quite rude, but there's the rare gem that pops in on occasion.

Lily lifts her chin, staring down her nose at him. "You're lying to me," she says. "What's the weirdest thing a customer's ever done?"

He has to think a moment. There was that Irish man who had yelled at Remus about his sausages to the point where Remus was nearly in tears. That had been his second day at the cafe, but it wasn't exactly weird.

He had a lot of stories about customers being creepy, but that wasn't really what she'd asked for, either. And there were several incidents with customers in the cafe's toilets, but he didn't want to ruin his cupcake.

"Oooh, he's thinking, it's gotta be good!" Lily crows, dropping into the seat opposite him.

Now that he's already built up expectations far too much, Remus really has to say something quickly before he makes matters worse for himself. "There was an old man, once," he says. "Called me a good lad and handed me a banana."

Lily laughs with her whole being, tears beading in the corners of her eyes. Remus hadn't thought it was quite that funny, but even so he finds himself chortling along.

When she's finally managed to control her giggles, Lily says, "That really puts my story to shame." She shakes her head with mock sadness. "I was gonna tell you all about this woman at the last place I worked, who insisted she get a refund because her ice-cream was frozen, but you have absolutely ruined it." She grins widely. "People are just so strange out in the wild, aren't they?"

Remus cannot help but agree.

.oOo.

On what is only Remus' third visit to Cuppa Doe, Lily offers him a job. They'd exchanged numbers the last time he was here, and had been texting each other constantly — Remus had gotten in trouble at work for it quite a few times already — but still, Remus had not been expecting a job offer.

"I know it's not very proper," Lily hurries to say, "and I should probably look at your resume —" Remus really hopes she does not look at his resume, because it is woefully lacking, having only ever had two jobs since graduating university — "but I thought we hit it off really well, and I really need the help."

Lily had mentioned she'd been at work every single day since Cuppa Joe had opened, and Remus hated his job, but he really didn't want to make things weird between them.

"It's the money, isn't it?" Lily groans, tipping her head back and glaring at the ceiling. "I know I can only offer minimum wage, but could I bribe you with cupcakes?"

"They are very good cupcakes," Remus muses. He's not seriously thinking about this, is he? It would be insane! Taking a job offer from a veritable stranger, working at her coffee shop … except isn't that how all jobs happen? Yes, normally there'd be a resume involved, and yes maybe Lily is being a little too trusting with her cupcakes, but he really hates his current job.

There's just one small matter.

"I'm gonna be honest, Lily," Remus says, hating himself a little as he watches her face fall. "I was planning on asking you on a date."

Lily stares at him, mouth open and eyes wide. She runs her tongue along her bottom lip. Blinks. Once, twice. "And then I coworkered you," Lily says. "Gods, it's worse than the friendzone." She runs her fingers through her red curls, looking increasingly distressed. "Hey let's go out! Better yet, let's be coworkers!" She groans. "I'm such an idi— are you laughing at me?"

"No!" He is. A little. Not mocking her, but she is absolutely ridiculous and he is so into it.

"You are totally laughing at me," she says, shaking her head in mock seriousness. "For shame, Remus."

"I'm not laughing at you," he says, "just … just the situation."

"Aww," she brings her hands to her chest, simpering at him, "you were laughing at us."

"I'd say I'm in fairly good spirits for someone who's just been rejected," he says, barely stopping himself from sticking his tongue out at her. That would be too childish, even for him.

"Sir," she gasps, "I believe it was you who rejected me!"

"Well," he says, because honestly why the hell not, "if the cupcakes are still on offer, I would not be opposed to working for you."

"And," Lily says with a mischievous smirk, "I suppose I would not be opposed to going on a date with you."

.oOo.

Remus gives his two weeks notice the next day, and nearly three weeks later he is about to start his first shift at Cuppa Doe.

"This is Marlene," Lily says, dragging a woman who Remus assumes must be Marlene from the kitchen.

Her wild, dark locks are making a valiant attempt to escape her hairnet, and she is absolutely covered in flour. "There was a spillage," she says, noticing Remus' look.

"Marlene, this is Remus," Lily says. "The one I was telling you about."

Marlene purses her lips, frowning at Remus. "I'm going back to the kitchen," she says, throwing up her hands in irritation. "Seems like things are about to get really weird around here."