Your mouth felt drier than the Gourmet Desert, and a foul taste lingered on the back of your teeth. You stirred and ran your tongue along the inside of your mouth, pulling a bleary-eyed face of disgust. Your head was swimming in grogginess, and even sitting up felt like a huge task. You groaned as your hand flew up to take residence on your forehead.
"What did I do last night?" You thought, squeezing your eyes shut in pain intermittently. Even the filtered sun from behind your ivory curtains was too much for you to handle in long increments. With a struggle, you held your eyes open enough to break through the pain threshold and gauge your surroundings.
This was your bed; the sheets and quilt a rumpled mess around you. You spied your clothes kicked unceremoniously into the corner of your room, presumably at some point last night before you stumbled into bed. You glanced down to see a bright green and black lingerie set wrapped across your form, and you balked at the sight.
"Did I work again last night?"
You shook your head at the thought. No, you had quit that career a while ago. So why were you wearing something like that? You only really wore something of the like when you were on the job. Very rarely you indulged and wore it for the sake of feeling good.
You wracked your brain, trying to piece together the events of the previous night through the cloud of haze in your brain, to no avail. It was only then that you realised a hearty smell of savoury food had permeated your sense of smell, making your mouth water at the scent. The bigger question was, who was making that delicious smell?
You dragged your body out of the confines of your bed and found the easiest, comfiest outfit in the pile of clothes you had jammed into your wardrobe last night, pulling a soft sweater on and a pair of pyjama shorts on to cover up with. With a yawn, you creaked your bedroom door open and waddled out into the other room. You blinked in surprise at the form of Coco busying himself in your kitchen, cooking up whatever it was that was making your house smell good.
"Hello?" You said weakly, slumping on the counter and blinking bleary eyed up at him.
"Oh hello. You're finally awake." Coco chirped at you, sending you a smile. "Did you sleep well?"
"I... don't know if I would call it 'well'," You said, running your tongue along your teeth again.
"But my bigger question is; what are you doing here?"
Coco looked up from the skillet he was cooking in, and gave you a quizzical look.
"...you asked me to stay?" He said, shaking the skillet in his hand to stop the food from sticking.
"I did?"
"Do you... do you not remember last night?"
Coco was glancing between you and his cooking, finally deciding that he was finished with whatever it was in the pan.
"I don't remember..." You admitted weakly, starting to feel unease and guilt form in the pit of your stomach.
"Take a seat." Coco said simply, his tone a lot more serious now.
You shuffled to your small dining table and pulled yourself into one of the matching yellowwood seats. You held your head on your hands while Coco brought over the plate of food that he had been organising and some sort of drink.
"(Y/n), has something to eat first. We can talk while you're doing so."
You took a look at the plate in front of you; a myriad of colourful vegetables steamed welcomingly with you and you could see small pieces of a white meat stirred in with it. It smelled delicious, but your stomach made a large turn that made you feel like you were going to be sick. The drink, a clear liquid, had some sort of light carbonation to it and your stomach did the same thing.
"Coco, this looks lovely but I don't think this is proper breakfast food." You said weakly, giving him a sad look.
"It's two-thirty in the afternoon." Coco said simply, making you blanch.
"What? Really?" You said, eyes wide.
"Yes." Coco said with a small laugh.
You groaned and slumped your head back into one hand while picking up a fork with the other. You found the smallest vegetable you could find first and drew it into your mouth. It had a lovely savoury taste, and it made your stomach grumble with want. You picked away at your food, one by one, and felt better with every morsel you ate. Coco simply watched you taking it all before looking out the window at the sunny day outside.
"Why do I feel so much better?" You said, finishing off the last piece on your plate and laying the fork in the middle. "I don't feel disgusting anymore."
Coco drew his eyes back to you and smiled.
"They're Revitalising Veggies." He said, passing one if his trademark soft smiles your way. "They're meant to make you feel better. Make sure you drink, too."
He pointed at the glass in front of you and you complied. You were hesitant at first, but took a hearty gulp. The light bubbles tickled all the way down into the pit of your stomach which made you tingle all over. Suddenly, you felt wide awake and refreshed, like a slap and a splash of icy water had hit you across the face.
"Wow, that's... wow." You said, staring at the glass in your hand before downing the rest quickly.
"How do you feel?" Coco asked, leaning his head on the back of his hand and watching you through his long lashes. You blinked with de ja vu over his pose.
"Better, weirdly enough." You said, sighing with content. "What was that, and where can I get more of it?"
"It's Staminade, but I wouldn't make it a habit to always drink it," Coco chuckled. "Drinking it every day would ruin your sleep pattern."
"Oh." You said, slightly crestfallen. "Tastes pretty good though." You smiled weakly.
"That's true." Coco said, still watching you.
You let out a large yawn, not even bothering to cover your mouth like you normally would. His brow furrowed at the sight.
"Are you feeling okay?" He asked with concern.
"Huh? Yeah, fine now after that...why?"
"You've got something green on your tongue. It looks a little sickly."
"Ah? Something on my-"
You went to stick your finger in your mouth before you realised just exactly what he was on about.
"- oh right. That." You concluded lamely.
"You're acting like it's not a big deal."
You shook your head at him and waved it off with a dismissive hand.
"It's not. Really. I've had it my whole life, really. I guess it's just a little quirkiness?"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. I'm fine, don't worry!"
Despite your attempt to assuage him of any doubt, you couldn't help but dwell on your own uncertainty that had been eating away at you since you woke up.
"Hey, Coco?" You said softly, unable to look at him properly.
"(Y/n)?"
"Did we...um... d-did we-?" You trailed off, trying to collect your thoughts over the thundering of your heart. You had your hands balled into fists in your lap and kept your eyes on them.
"D-did we... do...anything last night?" You croaked, drawing your eyes up to him. Your face burned with a deep fire. You watched as his hazel irises darted away and his own cheeks began to turn crimson, making your heart plummet into your stomach. What if, by some miracle, you had managed to be intimate with the object of your desires, and you couldn't even remember it?
What if it was boring?
What if it was bad?
What if you were bad?
Coco squirmed slightly in his chair before answering.
"...no." he said quietly, looking out the window to avoid eye contact with you.
Your heart jumped, but not out of excitement.
"We didn't?" You squeaked, unsure of whether to feel relieved or upset.
"We didn't." Coco responded, a little more bluntly this time.
"Oh..." You breathed.
Coco shifted again. It looked like he was fighting with something inside of himself.
"Did I do something wrong?" You whispered, looking down at your hands, playing with your fingers.
"No, no... It's just..."
Coco fidgeted in his seat more before resting with his elbows on the table with a loud sigh.
"You...You kind of...hinted at it though." He said softly, his face still burning.
"...I did?"
"Mm hmm..."
Silence brewed between the both of you, and the tension followed suit; thick like butter. You twiddled your thumbs over and over and Coco tapped a finger on his elbow. You took a shaky breath.
"D...d-do you w-want to... at all? With me?"
You pushed the sentence out as best as you could, tripping over all of your stutters and jitters. This was hard. You saw the King blanch a little at your words, and his face became a deeper red.
"...it's complicated." He practically whispered.
The word stung your heart. You weren't expecting an answer like that. Hell, you'd even take an outright rejection at this point. But complicated?
"What does that mean?" You probed.
A beat of silence passed between you both, and Coco struggled to look you in the eye. Something was definitely troubling him now, but you needed some answers.
"It's... I mean..." Coco choked out the words before gripping his head in his hands, defeated.
"...I can't." He whispered, face down to the tabletop.
"That's not the answer for that question." You asked, an edge of irritation cutting your tone.
"Coco, do you? Or don't you?"
Coco let out a large sigh, and ever so slightly nodded his head. Just barely, but you were watching him with such intensity you saw it.
"You do?" You whispered back to him, a flutter of hope twisting up in your stomach.
"Even if I want to, (Y/n)... I can't. I truly can't." He said softly, finally raising his head up at you. He gave a deep sigh before rubbing his temples. "I did the one thing I never wanted to do."
"What do you mean?" You asked, that tiny inkling of hope beginning to dissolve.
"I let myself get too close to you, and put you in a position that would only lead to disappointment."
"Can't... can't we at least try?" You said quietly.
Coco dropped his hands, defeated and gave you a steely gaze. His next words would haunt you from then on.
"I will kill you."
You gulped, trying to force back the tears that threatened to break your threshold. You wanted to speak, to fight for your defence, but his words chilled you to your very core.
"(Y/n), please don't cry." Coco tried to back-peddle and reached out instinctively to touch you. You withdrew from his touch, scraping your chair back from the table too.
"I need some time alone." You said, not looking him in the eye. If you did, you were afraid that it would set the tears flowing again.
"(Y/n), we can talk about this-" Coco started, but you cut him off.
"Talk about what exactly? You keep telling me you can't, so isn't that all there is?"
Coco faltered, but his minute hesitation had your mind settled on a decision. Perhaps you would regret this decision later, but in this moment, you were steadfast in your emotion.
"What could we even be?" You asked, frustration biting at your tone. "Really? Truly? Can you tell me?"
Coco tried to swallow a lump forming in his throat. What was happening to him? He hadn't ever felt this feeling before, and his normally aloof disposition had long since left him.
"Isn't…-" He swallowed, withdrawing his hands back on to the tabletop before him.
"Isn't this enough?" He said quietly.
You blinked at him with wide eyes, trying to process just exactly what 'this' was.
"What even are we?" You responded back just as quietly.
"We're…friends, aren't we?"
There was that word again. That horrid, unkind word that struck long past your heart and deep into your very soul. That word, which once gave you such elation at the thought, but no longer held the same pull over you before. You knew, despite all logic and sensibility, that you wanted more. You wanted what the world couldn't feasibly give you, but despite all of its signs and universal preventions, you chose to ignore those warnings. Somewhere inside you held this belief that you could defy the odds and turn the situation around.
Except now, the gravitas of reality was catching up with you, and you couldn't face that truth.
"What in the world made you think that you were so special?"
"Yeah… friends…" You trailed off, fighting desperately to keep the tears at bay that threatened to roll over your lids. Your voice cracked on the last syllable and your bottom lip began to tremble. You stared a hole into the table, wanting to crawl down into the depths below the earth and lie there for a hundred years.
"(Y/n), please look at me." Coco said, trying desperately in his head not to finish this on tenterhooks.
You shook your head lightly; wisps of your hair floating back and forth around the frame of your face before gently hanging with gravity.
"I think you should go." You breathed; pushing out the hardest sentence you've had to admit for a very long time.
As much as Coco wanted to fight back, he didn't need his future-sight to see that staying would be a terrible decision. All he did was simply nod his head, gathered up the lone setting of dishes and placed them neatly by the sink. In normal circumstances, he wouldn't have dared to leave dirty dishes in someone else's home, but he knew he was overstaying his welcome as it was. Coco looked to your direction, but you were still occupied with tracing your eyes over the pattern in the wood. You hadn't moved an inch. Words teetered on the edge of his tongue, begging to be spoken, but he swallowed them down once more. As his shoes made a soft padding over your wooden floors, he strode over to where his cape lay over the lounge, picked it up silently and made his way to your door. With a sad expression, he made one last attempt at make eye contact with you, but he was left with the image of the soft afternoon light simply haloing off of your (h/c) locks.
One week ticked over into two, which rolled into three.
You hadn't even attempted to make contact with the Soothsayer of any means, and you still weren't going to. It hurt too much to think about him, but even as his smile beamed up at you from behind the glass on your phone, you couldn't find it in you to change the goddamned picture.
Not that anyone would ever see it, really. You had busied yourself with extra shifts at work and proceeded to deep clean your house; painstakingly scrubbing and detail cleaning in some vain effort to wash away the mistakes of your decisions. Your home wasn't large by any means, but you had somehow managed to stretch this chore over nearly twenty-one days' worth of work. The spare toothbrush you were using to scrub the skirting boards, one that you had felt was improperly packaged as 'soft' and was too hard on your gums, looked much worse for wear. Its bristles splayed in all directions and you could swear it was protesting with each moment of scrubbing, although it was more than likely the plastic frame making squeaky contact with sections of panelling. Still, you found yourself resonating with this small tool more and more every day; feeling just about as well as it looked.
It was difficult; trying to forget about someone that you had grown so attached to. Try as you might, you kept finding your thoughts wandering to every small detail about them, and your heart ached severely with every waking moment over it all. His smile, his eyes, the locks of hair that never seemed to fit under the ridge of his turban; everything. With every fleeting thought, you scrubbed those bristles between the grout between the bathroom tiles more aggressively, until the pressure finally got to the poor instrument. It finally gave out and the stem snapped in your palm with a harsh flick. You cursed from the sting of the kickback, and you finally slumped over in defeat. Trying to forget Coco was going to be impossible. He was a far too large part of your life now, but you had to come to terms with the fact that there wouldn't be a way for you both to end up together. You sat there, defeated, on the cold bathroom tiles and let some wayward tears roll down your cheeks. At this point, you told yourself that you needed to move on from that idea; even if it did kill you inside.
In the other room, a gentle tinkling sound floated out toward you. With a heavy sigh, you picked yourself up off the floor and traipsed to your phone to turn your alarm off.
Time to go to work.
"Thank you!" You called out to the large group of customers that were retreating out of the door, accommodated with the ringing of the bell above. They waved goodbye as they left and you breathed a hard sigh of relief at the fact they were finally gone. The sheer number of them made them a busy wait service regardless, but they were also loud. So loud, you barely had time to think between the furore that they were making and the rest of the customers that were in the store. They ever so graciously left behind a mess for you to clean up; at least that would give you something to do and take your mind off of him.
Soapy bucket in hand, you grit your teeth and started scrubbing the table; sticky residue of soda somehow embalming itself into the white laminate while small splotches of cream melted their way into their sticky residue. Without a deep scrub, this would smell to high heaven, and you couldn't quite fathom just how adults made such a mess when eating. You would even admit to being a little personally insulted; surely your food was tasty enough to be eaten, and not turned into the latest art project. Regardless; this wasn't going to clean itself, and you scrubbed back and forth with repetition.
"Well, isn't this such common work." A sly voice cooed in your direction.
You stopped scrubbing and looked over your shoulder; directly into the rainbow tresses of one of the other Heavenly Kings.
'Oh, hey Sunny." You said flatly, and promptly returned to your duties. Sunny, on the other hand, took your lackadaisical response with a huff.
"That's all my presence gets?" He chided, crossing his arms over his chest. "Honestly, I'm not sure why I even bothered to venture out then."
"I suppose you were expecting more of a grandiose sort of greeting, but I'm just working. Can I get you something though?"
"Well, that was the point of me coming to this... quaint little spot in the first place." Sunny admitted, glancing his cerulean eyes around the small joint. "But I must say, everything in here is working together quite harmoniously. Even that get up you're in."
You raised an eyebrow at him and said nothing, opting to keep working on your current task.
"Is this seat going to be available soon?" Sunny probed, eyeing off the current table that you were currently scrubbing.
"Well, I hope so-" You faltered, stopping to finally look at him properly. He had on a bright pink ensemble contrasted with navy torso, forearm and shin panels. Looking at his gear screamed "fighter" but its strength wasn't lost in the flamboyant colour palette. It worked oddly well on him with his pastel hair "-although, I could be here for a while. The table in the corner is free though, and it's quite pleasant."
You pointed to the aforementioned seating, but Sunny simply shook his head.
"No, I'm afraid I would decline. This set of tables has a fantastic window view, and the sun is in a simply perfect angle. I truly feel like this one would be the most harmonious spot in the entire place."
You blinked at him and shrugged your shoulders.
"I'll get it cleaned up as fast as I can, if you're happy to wait." You glanced at the nearby clock on the wall. It was late in the afternoon, and most of the large groups would have already came and went for their afternoon snacks.
"I'll keep the tables pushed together. Most groups have already been in today, if that's alright?"
"That's fine. I'll wait aside."
You nodded and went back to cleaning, although your washcloth was beginning quite soiled. You dumped it back into the bucket of water and rinsed it, watching the suds turn a myriad of browns and greys.
"I'll be right back. Just need to get fresh water." You told Sunny, giving him a polite smile and wandering off to change the water. What surprised you the most was that when you returned, Sunny had made himself quite comfortable at the setting, and was looking over the small menu in his hands. He had his chin propped up on the back of his right hand, and a familiar memory flashed behind your vision; someone else did that very same pose. A sting of annoyance flickered in you since you had expected him to wait for the table to be clean-
-except it was. Sparkling clean.
"When did-"
"Oh, I thought I'd help out, so I cleaned it up." Sunny chimed in before you could finish your sentence. "I simply didn't want to wait anymore."
"Oh…" Was all you could say, looking at what once used to be a health code violation waiting to happen. You snapped yourself out of your reverie.
"I mean, thank you Sunny, but you really didn't have to get your hands dirty."
"Tsch! There was no way I'd let my hands get filthy from that mess. It was far too icky!" Sunny made a pompous gesture and turned his nose up.
"Then how-"
"Surely you haven't forgotten about my little secret?" Sunny interrupted you again, and ran a hand through his hair.
'I'm sorry. I did." You apologised, giving an exasperated sigh. "Although, I would have thought that you wouldn't want to get anything in your hair instead of your hands? At least I wouldn't."
"While that's true for most people, I hardly felt it at all. Besides, I'm very interested in getting a nice cup of tea at this point. Can we continue?"
'Oh, of course." You said, putting the bucket of fresh water down and pulling a notepad from a pocket on your apron and pen. Sunny picked out a sweet chai and a savoury pastry to try, before pointing your attention to the table in the corner.
"I used some napkins. I hope you don't mind." He said with a wave of his hand.
By 'some' he meant 'many', and a small pile of wayward napkins sat sadly on the corner that Sunny seemed to despise so intently. At least they were together so you could grab them easily.
'Thanks Sunny, I'll be back soon with your order." You said, and started collecting up your utensils. The Heavenly King gave you a pleasant smile and nodded, before gazing out of the window in his own thoughts.
Soon, a floral pink teacup sat steaming on its matching saucer while you fussed about plating up his food when the bell above the door tinkled again, this time heavy footsteps followed suit before a loud voice cut through your concentration.
'Hey! Sunny!"
"Oh, I knew that had to be you." Sunny's voice said with exasperation.
"Ah? What kind of greeting is that?" The second voice said, almost childlike before you listened to those same heavy footfalls walk across the floor and scrape a chair back.
"Um, excuse me?" Sunny's voice chided to the second guest. "I didn't say you could sit with me, Toriko!"
Ah. That's why you recognised that voice.
"Come on Sunny, lighten up." Toriko said, before you heard a dense thud that made you finally look over. The orange-clad visitor had just dropped a giant leg of ham onto the table that Sunny had cleaned for himself.
"Just how exactly am I meant to lighten up when you're disturbing all of my harmony!" Sunny bickered, his usually cool demeanour vanishing into a sibling spat. "Absolutely no respect for anyone's personal space."
"Oh, hey (Y/n)!" Toriko called and waved at you, ignoring the rant his pastel-haired brother was now lecturing him on.
"Hi Toriko." You waved back, before collecting the tray with Sunny's order and bringing it over to the table.
"I didn't know you worked here." Toriko said, as you delegated out Sunny's food and drink around the hunk of meat now resting on the laminate. "I thought you worked with books?"
The tiniest amount of blush flared up on your cheeks. You didn't expect him to remember your little lie from your first meeting with him.
"I did…" You stammered lightly before forcing a smile in their direction. "I guess I just wanted a little change. Besides, what better thing to be involved in than food in the Gourmet Age, right?"
"Certainly no better time than now." Sunny agreed, flashing you a warm smile while looking at you through his sharp cerulean eyes. "Thank you for the food, it smells delicious."
"Oh, that's okay Sunny. I appreciate you coming to visit."
"If only this oaf hadn't dampened my experience." Sunny griped into his teacup while giving Toriko a cold glare.
"Dude, I just wanted to come and grab something to eat, and this was the first place I came into." Toriko retorted.
"What the heck is this for then?" Sunny complained, setting his teacup down roughly and gesturing to the leg ham.
"A snack." Toriko said with a grin.
"Then why come here?! You've got food!"
"I wanted something sweet too."
You watched the grown men bicker back and forth between them before their loud outbursts were getting on your nerves.
"Stop!" You cried out forcing them both to pause like a record-scratch. " I'll get you something Toriko, but can you both please just keep it down a bit? You're scare off any potential customers."
The two of them nodded and apologised, and you made your way back behind the counter to gather something else. Finally, the two Kings were exchanging pleasant talk between themselves before a gruff voice you instantly recognised blared into your eardrums out of nowhere.
"You two better not be talkin' shit about me anymore!"
Oh great. Exactly what you needed right now.
"Zebra?!" Both of the Kings said in unison before the front door slammed open roughly, causing the bell to rattle a dull sound instead of its gentle tinkle. A third, muscular form stood in the doorway glowering down at the other two before Zebra stomped over to the table.
"Get out of my seat. I'm hungry." Zebra ordered, but both just blinked at him. Sunny went back to sipping his tea while Toriko just grinned at him.
"Zebra! How've you been? We were just talking about you!" he said, waving casually at him.
"I heard!" Zebra growled, putting a hand on Sunny's shoulder and gripped it forcefully. "I also said to get out of my seat. You wanna fight?!"
"Buzz off, you brute." Sunny said dismissively before swatting Zebra's hand off of him. "I was here first."
"I don't care. This is where I want to be." Zebra growled again before picking up the thick leg of ham off the table and taking a large bite out of it.
"Hey, that's mine!" Toriko yelled and stood up, attempting to pull it away from the taller one. Zebra put his hand over Toriko's face and held him at bay, gloating while continuing to chow down on the hunk of meat. You had barely even blinked before watching it be swallowed down by the fuchsia-haired hunter. With an evil grin, he dropped the bone back onto the table and belched while Toriko pouted at him and resigned himself back to his seat.
"Fine. I'll just wait for whatever (Y/n) brings out to me." Said the blue-haired one.
At this point, you had gathered up the largest serving tray you could find and were stacking the rest of the desserts in the show window onto it. Zebra's arrival generally meant that you were about to be cleaned out of stock, so rather than wasting time and bringing them out individually, bringing it all over in one trip made the most sense.
"Excuse me, but she's my server. I was the one that came here first." Sunny retorted.
"So? She's bringing my food over, so she's mine too." Toriko responded, starting to get annoyed.
"She's mine, so you both need to get lost so I can eat."
"Eh? Since when has she ever been yours?" Toriko asked Zebra, aggression rising up again.
You had had enough. Today was long, exhausting and listening to this schoolyard fight was beyond irritating. You had tried to keep your composure, but something inside if you snapped. You were done. Stressed. Over it all. The three of them were arguing amongst themselves and getting louder and louder. With tray in hands, you marched over to the table and dropped it with a heavy clang. All eyes locked onto you while you fumed.
"Listen," You said, in a low voice. "You're in my cafe, and you need to either sit down and eat, or you can leave. All of you."
You knew your face was red, but you didn't care. Your frame, so easily dwarfed by these muscular beings, stood defensively in front of them while your hands balled into fists. Every delicate ruffle of your cafe maid uniform seemed to be ever more prominent right now, but you had reached your breaking point.
'Let's get one thing absolutely certain, while I'm at it." You said, rage and frustration bubbling up through your entire being.
"I don't belong to any one of you. Not one. Understood?" You locked to each individual pair of eyes in front of you.
"Not you, Sunny. Not you Toriko. Not you Zebra-"
You took a deep breath but you could feel the hot sting of tears trying to break through.
"-and especially not Coco. Got it?"
Silence brewed between the four of you for an uncomfortable length of time. It was only broken by Zebra grabbing one of the vacant seats by the table and scraping it back, before dropping himself heavily into it. Without a word, he grabbed a pastry in hand and shoved it into his mouth and chewed, before following suit with a second one. Toriko also copied this action and Sunny busied himself with his own order. You nodded before turning your back on their table and leaving them to watch your retreating back, thankful that the storeroom wasn't too far away; a single tear had finally rolled over onto your cheek with others soon to follow.