hi cuties :} i have this posted on AO3 right now, but decided to put it here as well. there will be M rated things, so beware of that. enjoy!
The smell of hazelnut coffee, a once comforting scent, now made Law sick to his stomach.
It was nearly seven in the morning, and his exhausted feet had made their way begrudgingly into the campus' cafe for his daily dose of caffeine. His eyes never left the barista's hand as it danced in lazy circles, filling the filter with the steaming water and further intensifying the smell tickling his nostrils. He realized how intense his gaze was, though there was no reason behind it, other than the excuse of being lost in something, anything, that wasn't the dull emptiness he felt for the past three weeks. He was so engrossed in the blissful thought of skipping class, that he didn't notice the coffee spilling at the sides of the filter until he heard a loud, irritated, "Crap!"
His thoughts clicked back to the present moment, and his eyes flickered up to the barista's face. A slim, black haired boy with a distinct scar beneath his left eye stood there in shock of himself. He looked pitiful.
Law watched the rest of the ordeal unfold in front of him, interested.
"You moron, I showed you the proper way to do it at least ten times!" a blonde-haired man with a ridiculously shaped eyebrow slammed his hand against the barista's head.
"Lay off, I'm trying my best!" the barista shouted back. Law cocked his brow in amusement, surprised by the bold response to whom he could only assume was the boss. The line of customers behind him started to become antsy.
"Sorry sir, I'll be right with you, it's my first day so please bare with me!" the barista looked at Law, his hand nestled on the back of his head as he bowed several times in apology. Law snuck a peak at his watch, only to see his first lecture of the day would be starting in less than ten minutes. He clicked his tongue in mild discontent, shouldered his bag and turned to leave. He didn't have time for this.
On his way out, he could hear the boy shouting, "Please come again!"
Law let out a bemused breath of air. Idiot.
"What took you so long? You're usually here before anyone else is," Shachi, perhaps the person who has gotten closest to cracking into Law's core, exclaimed as the scruffy haired man slid into an open seat a minute before the bell rang.
"There's some new guy working at the cafe," Law murmured, slipping a pen out of his shirt pocket and letting out a tired sigh, irritated that he had to explain himself, "he was getting trained, and it was taking forever."
Shachi let out a hum, eyeing Law's desk. "No coffee?"
"Not worth an absence."
Laughing, his friend kicked his legs back and placed a small punch to Law's arm. "Even though this is a dumb gen-ed history class, eh?"
Even though it was a dumb gen-ed history class.
This was Law's fourth and last year at this university, and he couldn't be more relieved. His plan was to go as far away from this place as possible for his medical school endeavor. As much as he appreciated the few friends he had, there were stronger reasons that compelled him to never want to return to this place again. Reasons that made him itch to sleep in and miss this hellhole of a class he had every Monday and Thursday morning.
As if to mock his train of thought, the said reason walked in five minutes late to the lecture.
Law's jaw twitched, his fingers curling tightly around his pen. The spark of anger he had entertained the thought of not existing anymore began to build up in his chest once more. His eyes scanned over the muscular figure of the redheaded man standing at the door, his dark lips moving idly as he made up some comedic excuse to the professor. His hair looked like it had been tousled lazily in hopes of looking presentable. His staple look. The look that initially served as a bonus to his already ragged appearance. The look that once made Law's eyes glaze over with desire.
A quiet scoff made its way out Law's lips.
Shachi noticed.
"Hey, you good?" he whispered, concern etched in his voice.
Law's eyes closed for a moment before they focused back on the textbook in front of him. Good was the last word on his mind, making him regard Shachi with a sarcastic, "Exquisite."
His face remained stoic as the broad man made his way up the row before pausing for a brief moment to regard Law with a crooked smirk. "Hey, sexy."
Though his body language didn't show it, Law's stomach churned with a horrid mixture of sickness and left-over pull towards the man he can now scarcely regard with a simple look.
"Piss off, Kidd," Shachi warned, his voice only loud enough to be heard by the redhead. Whether it was a distraction or simply a way of coping with the simmering feeling he was now having in the pit of his throat, Law merely sat there, tacitly twirling a pen in his hand, his face never wavering. He hardly wanted to give him the pleasure of a glance.
"Heh," Kidd breathed out, starting to walk away once more, but not before leaving Law with a final remark. "Cold as ever, Trafalgar."
The rest of the class carried on with the dull buzz of pencils scratching over blank pages, worn out sighs and the muffled sound of the professor's voice. The murky darkness lingering at the tip of his mind prevented him from indulging in his usual habit of glancing at his watch every few minutes, in tense anticipation of the end of class. It felt like days before the ever familiar sound of the bell rung deep into his ears, after which he grabbed his textbook, flung his bag across his shoulder and didn't bother waiting for his friend before quietly making his way out of the classroom.
He needed his goddamn fucking coffee.
As Law made his way back to the cafe, he couldn't help holding the small hope that there was an adequate worker behind the counter this time around. Unfortunately, that was not the case. He braced himself.
"Sir, you're back!" the cheery sound of the young barista came crashing through Law's frayed nerves. He took a small breath in before coming up to the counter and voicing his order for the second time that day.
"One large coffee."
The barista's fingers flew across the touch-screen, then he looked up. "Any cream?"
"No."
"Sugar?"
"No."
"Your name, sir?"
"Law."
"For here or to go?"
"To go."
He continued to slam his fingers against the screen. His face frowned in worry before relaxing, a twinkle flaring up in his eyes, as though he just hit a big success. Law waited. "That will be $2.96 please!"
He slipped his wallet out and handed the boy the exact change.
"Thank you, I'll be right with you!" he chimed, moving over to start preparing his coffee. Law leaned gently against the counter, releasing a sigh he didn't realize he had been holding in. His hand went up to his shirt to air his chest out; the heat had been absolutely relentless that day. As the scent of the coffee began to waft in the air, his eyes went up to the barista once more, who was, surprisingly, not struggling as terribly as he had been earlier that morning. He seemed to be on his own, the blonde not at all in sight. Law's gaze shifted up to the boy's name tag. Luffy. His eyes continued moving upwards, until they settled on his face. Hopeful eyes, genuine smile. Enthusiastic body language.
He must have been Freshman.
"Okay…" the boy's soft voice cuts through Law's observation. He watched him pour the coffee into a to-go cup, top it off with a snug lid, and scribble something quickly on the side of it. It was difficult to see from Law's angle, but it didn't matter, since the boy soon handed the cup over to him.
"Thanks for giving me another chance," he grinned, his eyes squinting along with the curls of his lips. He looked flushed, as though he had been a tad nervous with Law watching his every move from start to finish.
Law held the cup in his hand, the warmth of it oddly comforting, despite the heated day. He flashed the boy a gentle nod in appreciation before turning to leave. As he stepped out of the small cafe, he put the cup up to his mouth and took a sip. The bitter liquid trickled down his throat and for a split moment, the heat and intensity of the flavour felt like it could cure every ailment he ever suffered from. It was, though, for only a brief moment before everything sunk back into his chest. The same heaviness he has lived with for as long as he can remember nestled itself uncomfortably in the center of his being.
He almost lost himself again, but the writing on the cup caught his attention.
Along the rim of it on one side, with small, scribbly letters read "You're my first successful customer!" with a lop-sided looking smiley face.
Almost exactly mirroring the subtle smile now unknowingly gracing Law's lips.