Over a cuppa – DM x FM
Hey guys, hope you enjoy this AU. I would like to mention that all my one shot is not what happens to them irl apart from some facts like how Danny joined the band and stuff like that.
Danny p.o.v
"Danny, you are training the new hire today remember?" The boss says, when I walk in to start my 9 – 5 shift. I had totally forgotten that we were getting a new hire again. I had just finished training Jordon just a couple of months ago, so I was not aware that we were even hiring even more. George was the one who trained me initially, but he isn't here until later. Jorel would train newcomers, but he decided against it because of what happened last time. They are still recovering from what happened with those two both in terms of the friendships that were made and the stuff that it did to the business. "Oh yea, sorry I am not fully with it this morning," I tell the boss, who smiles and accepts my apology like I knew he would.
"Fair enough Danny, I only hired the kid the other day when you were off sick. After Matt did the same thing Aron did, I decided to try and take everyone's mind off it and get the café back to how it should be. Dylan is a really nice kid, not too much younger than you, but he is very eager to work and to show me that I can trust him," the boss explains, and I saw the sad looks in Jordon and Jorel's eyes in the staff room. It is not fair on them what happened those two nights. If this does not turn out like that, I don't see any problem with this Dylan guy. Jordon knew Matt from way before he started working here so that betrayal must have been rough for him. "Yeah, I'll give him a chance," I tell him, being honest with the boss.
"Are you sure you should throw yourself into this Danny? I know you told me your mental health is not so great right now," Jorel says, Jordon had walked off to help open up because the boss hates doing it on his own. I also didn't feel comfortable mentioning my mental health to Jordon because I have not known him for as long as I have known Jorel and George, so I currently trust him less with my sensitive personal stuff. "Yeah, I know it might be too soon, but I will never be completely better honestly. I can deal with the mental stuff as it pops up, so I am not too worried about that," I tell him, he knows a lot about the depression, anxiety and insomnia I have been suffering with and has been doing his best to help me when I need that extra bit of support.
"I know Danny, I just don't want this to all backfire on you," Jorel tells me. He is only looking out for what is best for me and I appreciate it so much. I just want to make sure that I can do day to day stuff without my mental health being an issue. "I will look after myself this time and I can always come to you if it gets too much," I tell him. He knows I am being one hundred percent honest with him. We both remember what happened the last time that I kept my mental health battles all locked away in my head. It did not work so well for me and I am still paying the price for that. I had made a serious attempt on my own life and if Jorel had not found me and called for the paramedics we both knew I would be dead by now. "Just promise me as a brother that I won't have to go through that again. It is all I ask," Jorel tells me.
That is fair enough. I owe him that much as the friend/brother I have become over the years. "I promise brother that I will not put you through that hell again, so heaven help me," I tell him. He'd probably bring me back only to kill me again if I did the same thing, I did six months ago. I had slipped a little bit, but not too much to cause alarm at this point. Then there was a knock at the door which interrupted the hug that I had initiated to make Jorel feel happier about my mental health as it currently stands. "Danny, Jorel meet Dylan the newbie," the boss says, and at the door was a shy Hispanic man who gave us a little wave. He was clearly uncomfortable with the nickname the boss had given him.
It was the nickname he has been given to everyone, so we are used to it. "Nice to meet you Dylan," Jorel and I say one after the other to not freak this poor guy out any more than he was already by this café. "Nice to meet you too. The boss hasn't told me much other than Danny is showing me the ropes," Dylan replies, typical I know the boss did the same to all of us. Since I knew Jorel and George previously there was no awkwardness, but this brings back that stand at the front of the class and tell everyone three facts about yourself vibe. It was embarrassing to say the least, I knew Dylan was probably just as awkward in this moment as we are. We cleared the awkwardness by at least telling him how old we both are.
I am currently 24 years old, Jorel is nearly 25 in about 2 months. Dylan is 22 but next month he turns 23. It is nice that we are in a similar age group and it is not like we are a bunch of adults with a young kid fresh out of high school. I teach him the basics of how the till works, and the basic drinks because the one thing I have learned from experience is that overloading them on the first day gets them nowhere. They will forget everything they have learned and that is not what I plan on doing. We want Dylan to be comfortable and ya know, not try and rob and burn this place down like Matt and Aron have done. George was in a mood when he came in, something tells me that I should go calm him down, but I have Dylan shadowing me and that is not going to go well if I show up asking him personal questions with the new guy behind me.
"Dan, wanna go talk to the big guy? I can handle the orders with Dylan for a little while," Jordon says, it has been three hours since Dylan walked in at this point and I can safely say we are getting along pretty well now. "Sure, I'll go see if I can talk to the big guy," I tell them, wiping my hands on the hand towel before making my way to the staff room where I know George is going to be for a while. I knocked first in our special sorta secret knock and he said come in almost straight away which is weird. I sat next to George, trying to approach this from the sensitive angle George appreciates. He hugs me tightly and I hug him back, I felt like the anger I saw this morning was melting away with the hug a little bit.
"What happened George?" I ask, I have brother like friendship with all 3 of the guys now and I will use that to help them out. "Just Aron broke into my house last night. I have fuck all left now and the landlord was already trying to kick me out and now he is trying to get me kicked out by the end of the night," George tells me, and I felt so sorry for him. Aron does not have the right to do any of this shit. "Come stay with me dude, I have a room at my apartment for you and the house is gonna be pretty secure from that scumbag and we can get you some new stuff," I tell him. I had been saving up to downsize my apartment, but now I am glad I don't have to move. Aron really does not know where I am living. I never told him, and he left before I moved.
"I am glad you offered because I feel that I would be homeless tonight. I know your house is safe and I think out of all the people that I could move in with I trust you the most. Maybe it wold even give Jorel peace of mind with your mental health if someone stays with you in the apartment," George says, and I nod. That does work out well, I can't wait for George to move in with me now. "Yeah, Jorel has already made me promise that he won't find me in a bloody mess on the floor again," I tell him. George also knows about my suicide attempt and has been trying his best to support me because I have always been here for him. "Yeah, ain't nobody going to forget about that in a hurry honestly. I worry about you too, but I know you can handle yourself," George tells me.
"Yep I am a big boy I can deal with this. I do appreciate the care though. It is nice to know that people honestly have my back in the same way that I have about them. I think living together is going to be good for us," I tell him. George smiles and me and I hug him again. He is drawing up a plan for us tonight and I quickly explained the whole new guy thing to him, so he will not be confused when he sees that there is a new guy on the till. "Yeah sorry I didn't focus too much when I walked in, I should go to Dylan and get to know him before he gets scared off by my nickname big guy," George says, and I chuckle before gently shoving him. He shoves me back and we chuckle before going back to the craziness which is work.
"All sorted with George now?" Jorel asks me, the bug guy was busy introducing himself to Dylan now. I nod and smile at my older friend. I promised George that unless he gave me permission that I was not going to say anything. Well, I can tell Jorel that George is going to be moving in with me now and that would make him very happy. "Yeah, he's moving in with me tonight. He kinds of needs to find somewhere new anyway and I have the space for him," I explain, and I know Jorel will leave it at that. He is happy about it, I could tell that his expression changed to joy when I mentioned the words moving in. "Yay, I am glad he is going to be your roommate. I knew you said that you wanted to advertise the room, but I was worried that you would get the wrong person you know. I just didn't want things to be worse," Jorel says, no one was listening to us, so it was fine to talk about something a little more personal.
"I know, I would have carefully considered who I was going to pick if it was going to be someone completely new. I would not want to make the mistake of picking a roommate who would not be a nice person all the time. I know that they could act all nice to get me to let them move in and then turn nasty soon after," I tell him. I had done so much research into what I should do when I consider looking online and through posters when choosing a potential roommate. The last thing I wanted was to make the worst decision which would make me miserable and then want to move to a new apartment. It took me so long to find this apartment where I was happy, and the rent is affordable. Not every place in California especially Los Angeles is affordable to most who don't earn a lot of money.
That is why so many have jobs on the side. I would have worked here only in the mornings or afternoons, but I need the money, so I work all day. "I know you would have Danny. I just prefer that it is someone who knows you better to live with you. The face that it is George makes me so happy inside because I know he will do his best to look after you," he tells me. Then Dylan walks up to us and we decided to leave the conversation for now. "So, how is the first day going?" I ask the younger man. Dylan looks at me with a big smile. "Really good, everyone here has been so nice to me," he tells me. I am glad he is enjoying his day so far. It would have been horrible for him to have been hired and then immediately hate their job.
"Good, if you need anything just let one of us know. I will be slowly adding more and more new techniques to your skill list as you get settled. Don't want to overboard you with information on your first day. Tomorrow you'll probably learn more drinks before learning more about the till. That seems to be how it goes here," I tell him. Dylan smiles at me again, he seems to be very happy being around us weird people. I am willing to call us weird, because nothing about our friendship would be considered normal to outsiders like Dylan. He is only an outsider because none of us know him that well yet, that will change when we get to know him as he works here obviously. We are not going to ignore him the entire time that he is here.
"Yeah, I guess I will be asked to make more complicated drinks first before I need to learn about the other features of the till," Dylan replies, and I smile at him. Some of the people we serve here are very particular about how their order is made and I think Dylan is going to learn that the hard way. I know Sheila has not been for a few days, but she could walk in at any time and oh boy do we dread that moment. Sheila has been our regular for as long as I have known, I met her on my first day and it scarred me for life. She hated the fact that I was new, and she hated how I had made her drink the first time and I had to get George to make it in order for her to be happy with her order and it frustrated George so much.
"I hope for your sake Sheila does not show up. That woman is a nightmare," Jordon tells Dylan, whispering should the name bring forth the devil herself. I looked to Jordon and nodded. I felt the exact same way which is why I made a very silent prayer. "She is?" Dylan asks, and I nod. "Yeah, she was here on my first day and oh my god did it make me want to quit initially. She hated the fact that I was new and also did not like the way I made her drink. I am surprised she keeps coming here honestly," I whisper, I wanted to give Dylan an honest run down on my first experience with Sheila to prepare him. I did not want to scare him off, but he seemed to be fine with that little chunk of information.
"One of the meanings for the name is blind, maybe she is blind to see how patient we are with her and how much we wish her to go away," Jordon says, and I could not help the laugh that I did after that. I did not do any research into her name, but I know somehow Jordon is telling the truth. If I was that bothered about the crazy old lady, I would have researched this myself by typing her name into a search engine. "Just out of curiosity, what is the other meaning for her?" I ask, and he shows me his phone screen which showed than heavenly was the other meaning for her name. I looked at him in disbelief. There was no way that her name could mean both blind and heavenly but here we are. "Need to meet more Sheila named ladies to see if they are all the same," Jordon mutters and then walks off to clean a table.
We talk to Dylan some more and then just as we feared Sheila walks in, her whole presence made shivers run down my spine. I don't know why I did it, but I shoved Dylan into the hallway that connects the main part of the café to the staff room and he fell on his ass out of sight. Jorel winked at me and sent a thumbs up as he dealt with the crazy lady and I go explain myself to Dylan. Dylan looked relieved to see me and I helped him onto his feet. "I take it that lady is Sheila then?" he asks, we walked to the staff room because I only just realised, I had a bleeding wound on my hand. "Yeah, dunno why my brain thought shoving you would be the best idea sorry," I tell him. He smiles at me and then grabs the first aid kit for me while I go and sit on one of the chairs.
"No worries, you were protecting me and if she didn't see me then there was less reason for questions to be asked. Besides your hand needs attention so I might as well put my first aid skills to good use," he replies, at least no hard feelings are there after that outburst of behaviour. I held out my bloody hand as he gently cleaned it. Man, it stung, and also started bleeding again but I was braving through it. "Didn't even notice I had done it until after I pushed you and I felt the pain there," I tell him, I could have done it when I was cutting up something and my hand slipped. He was being very careful when he was cleaning and treating my hand injury and covered it up with a big band-aid. It didn't need any stitching or bandages thank god.
The rest of the day went smoothly, Sheila did her usual complain and leave after she was not content with the quality of her drink. Jorel was worried about my hand but I told him what I knew happened and later that night I helped George move into my apartment. I warned him about the noise level of the neighbours, but he didn't seem to mind so much. I was so happy to have someone else in the apartment with me. I had a movie night with George, because I decided to ask him what he wanted to do for the first night in the new place. "Hey, maybe you and Dylan will really get along. He seems to like you a lot," George comments and I roll my eyes. Since I told him I was bi-sexual he has not stopped pointing out men and women who could be potential partners for me. It does get annoying at times.
1 year later Danny p.o.v
"Danny, are you gonna come out of bed or not?" George asks, I had a bad day with depression yesterday and it seems to have leaked its way into today. "I dunno, I haven't decided yet," I tell him. I felt the weight of the bed dip as George sat on the edge as close as he could get to my curled-up form under the covers. "I know what could help," he tells me, he was rubbing my back to comfort me a little and it did help. I look at him, slightly curious to what he was going to say next. The café is being repaired after a flood, so we are not actually needed in work until the repairs are done, but that was not what triggered my depression episode. "What would?" I ask him, feeling completely deflated by now.
"Dylan, you can tell him these sorts of things you know Danny. He is not going to judge you for it," George replies, and I actually consider it. That was the one thing about myself I have not told him. I have not told him about any of my mental health struggles. I honestly feel like our relationship is too good to be true. "He'll leave me though George," I tell him, wanting to just lay here all day more than I wanted before and to just cry in self-pity. I felt George start massaging my back in soothing circles. "He's not gonna leave you. Trust me, I know he won't. He has been asking about you and wanting to make sure you are okay. Yea, I get that your relationship is only about four months old, but I think he's a good guy for you," he says, and it was probably the talk I needed.
I let George make decisions for me when he knows I am about to make a mistake. In all honesty I am probably making our relationship worse by not telling him what is going on. "Okay, I want to see Dylan anyway," I tell him, and he smiles. I heard him call Dylan and saying to my boyfriend that I wanted him to come over and we could talk about stuff. I have to come clean to Dylan today, and pray to George that he was right, and that Dylan will accept me for who I am and the mess that comes with me. Dylan said he would be over in five minutes and I don't have to worry about being fully dressed or anything. I made the effort to brush my hair and spray deodorant under my armpits. George tells me he is making us some coffee and breakfast and I had to eat it.
I wasn't going to put up a fight, he is literally like an older brother to me. He is making me take care of myself to make sure that I don't do something that I am going to regret later on. Dylan hugged me tightly when he was allowed in and I just enjoyed the comfort I got from it. "Hey Danny, you okay?" he asks, and it was like he just waved away all that depression I was feeling five minutes ago. George smiled and passed us the coffees before mentioning getting dressed to go do some food shopping. "Better now you are here," I tell him, then I went on to explain the things that I had been hiding from him for all of this time. He listened intently to every word I said and did not interrupt me once which was unexpected.
"I am glad I made you feel better already Danny. I want to continue making you feel that way, after all it is what a good boyfriend does right?" he asks me, and I nod. I would never have considered to call him a bad boyfriend though because he has been amazing this entire time without knowing about all my mental health issues. "Yeah, I was just worried about telling you because I know we haven't known each other that long and it can be too much sometimes," I tell him, I had finished my coffee a while ago and Dylan just finished his. He hugs me, and we shout bye to George who was leaving to go food shopping. "We can take as long as is needed Danny. We are still young, so we have plenty of time to get through this together," he tells me.
I feel happy being with Dylan, he just seems to make everything better and takes all the pain away so easily. If George didn't call Dylan and basically force him over then I would probably still be in bed, hating myself and everything that I had done wrong in that last 24 hours. "I like the sound of that," I tell him. He takes me to the living room and makes me sit down on the couch. He hugs me again and I just settle in the embrace. I was comfortable being with him, moments like this make me feel like I have known him for years. "Let's have a movie day, George can join in later if he wants. I have a feeling that this will cheer you up some more," Dylan says, and I smile at him. A movie day sounds like the best idea anyone has had. George would probably love a movie day; the man stresses almost as much as I do.
"Want me to text George to ask him to get some snacks while he is out?" I ask him, my phone had been in the pocket of my tracksuit pants since I got up. I knew Jorel would want to be checking on me to make sure I am okay after yesterday. "Sure, I would love some snacks and he can choose his own," Dylan replies, and I quickly type out a message. Then I got messaged by Jorel and I spent the next five minutes reassuring him that I am okay while Dylan tries to find us a film to watch from the DVD collection I have. Jorel was finally convinced that I was okay and didn't need to send anyone else to check on me. I told him that I have George and Dylan looking after me today and I feel less depressed then I did yesterday. He worries about me so much, it is nice to have that after what happened when I was a teenager.
I was 17 and homeless and he was the one to find me and make sure that I had somewhere warm to sleep and food to eat while I searched for a job and a home. Eventually I was able to work at the café, starting off with part time hours to accommodate my school hours and then full time when I graduated. "I like movie days with you Danny, you have such a wide range of stuff," he tells me when he had finally decided which movie, we are going to be watching first. "Maybe I should do this every time I need it then," I tell him, he has put the movie on now and we are snuggling on the couch again. I just love the whole idea of being with Dylan doing something relaxing where the only thing I have to worry about is how much of a good film I might miss when I go to the bathroom.
"Yeah, lets do these more often. I like spending any time with you Danny," Dylan tells me, and I kiss him on the cheek. I seriously do not deserve this man one bit. He is too good to me, he has never been judgemental and has always been there for me when I need it. I am the same with him, but I don't know if he has the same emotional baggage that follows me around everywhere, I go. He kisses my cheek back and I instantly go red. He also always does that me to me, he can easily make me blush by doing barely anything. "Never change who you are Danny. Promise me that," Dylan says, I was laying down now with my head on his lap. "I promise that I won't change who I am," I tell him, and I look up to see him smile.
"Good, you are to precious to change. I always have and always will love you for the man I met a year ago in the café. The one who shoved me on my first day to protect me from the craziest bitch I will ever meet in my life," Dylan says, and I laugh. I always look back fondly on that day, it was like then our fates collided, and we knew what we wanted our end goal to be. It was like we were meant to be together and that's what has happened. I love being around Dylan, he is amazing, and I can't sing his praises enough. One day he will know how much he means to me. When George walks back in, Dylan had fallen asleep and I was comfortable relaxing in his arms. "I think I might have woken him up when I called him this morning," George says, and I help him put the groceries away even though he told me not to.
"Jesus you never listen to what you are told sometimes do ya Danny?" he asks, with a chuckle because he appreciated the help. It took him half the time it would have done if I was not on hand to help him out. I even helped him prepare the snacks and the drinks for the movie day. The one thing we were missing was blankets, it was not necessary to have them, but I like snuggling under a blanket and watching a film with the closet people in my life. The ones that I will trust until the day I die. "Nope, but there was nothing wrong with me helping out a little bit," I tell him, and he suddenly hugs me very tightly. I pause for a moment but hug him back and smile. I bet he had a long thing about something while he was out doing the shopping.
"Sorry about that Danny. I just had one of those moments when I was out about you and how easily you could be gone if you didn't have the right people around. Jorel didn't help either honestly, the poor dude needs to worry less about you now that Dylan is here to look after you," George tells me, I love Jorel like the brother he is, but I can see where George is coming from. He wants me to have independence, but at the same time he wants to make sure that I keep my mental health under control. "It's fine, I knew after the depressive episode was coming to an end that it was the first time that I had a major one for a while, so it was going to worry people more than normal," I tell him. Then we go with our snacks and drinks back to the living room where Dylan was still sleeping. I go back to my position and George smiles.
"If there was ever a competition where they wanted male power couples you two would win it in a heartbeat," George says, and I shake my head. I never knew this guy was so keen on my relationship with Dylan to start. He was told by both Dylan and I on separate occasions that we had crushes on the other and he was going to make us do something to make it happen whether we wanted it to or not. He's not a bad third wheel either, it is more like he is a bodyguard in the background, and we are safer whenever he is around. There are still a lot of homophobes around, but we have been blessed to have not seen any so far. Then again, our relationship is very private and hardly anyone knows about it outside of our friendship circle and immediate family.
Dylan slept through the second film and woke up just as George had chosen the third. I felt his arms squeeze my waist a bit while he woke up and took time to get used to where he was now. "Good nap babe?" I ask him, and he nods. I pass him his drink and he almost downed half of it in one go. "Yeah, didn't think I needed one, but my body told me otherwise I guess," he tells me, and then kisses my cheek. He saw George and I looked at George and then kissed Dylan on the cheek again. "Don't mind me being here dude. I don't mind the kissing or the snuggling," George says, and I laugh. At least we can snog in front of George and he won't mind. We can make it very funny if we wanted to, but we won't.
We will be respectful for George's sake. I know he wants to have dates with this girl called Asia that he has been speaking to recently. I was excited for that, George deserves the happiness that Dylan and I have and that Jorel and Vanessa have as well. Tonight, we wanted to cook, and George had bought some pizza making stuff which was better than my plan of cooking nothing and getting takeout. I had fun working with Dylan to make our pizzas and I watched George do his with such care. I was a little sloppy about mine, but I am tired. Depression episodes always make me more tired than usual and I was happy to snuggle up to Dylan tonight since he was allowed to stay over if he wanted to do so.
Later that evening I was getting more and more tired and George told me that I was going to bed now and rest. Dylan carried me the short distance to my room and we got changed. George will be okay to watch movies on his own for a little bit longer. He won't disturb us because when I am out for the count, I am out for the count not a lot can wake me up during those times. "I love you Danny," Dylan tells me, and I smile at my boyfriend. "I love you too Dylan," I tell him. Then I kiss him on the lips, not for the first time. It was magical none the less, and he kissed me back without hesitation. I am so glad that he came to me today. I have to get something to thank George for that because it was the best decision with my mental health and interests at heart. I can fall asleep happy for a change.
At that is the end of another one shot, hope you enjoyed and I will see you in the next one. Don't forget comments are fuel and requests (bar smut and drug abuse) are welcome any time!
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