A/N: hello everyone; you'll be glad to know (I hope for all the good reasons) that I'm currently working on the last chapter of in progress. Once I'm done with it I'll be uploading the rest of the chapters on that very day so yay :)
Disclaimer: I don't own SnK
The next day, Mikasa showed up at the café after classes, with Eren doggedly tagging along behind her. He hadn't been too happy when Mikasa had announced that she had gotten the job, but recognized that she was determined to go ahead with it. In spite of Annie's vouching of the café, though, he'd insisted on coming along with Mikasa to find out more about the job, something which Mikasa gladly acquiesced to. She hated it when she and Eren fought about anything, and making up always felt good.
Eren's facial expression, upon seeing the shop front, was eerily similar to Annie's disdain the previous evening. "Are you sure you want to work here?"
"Yes," Mikasa said firmly, already opening the door and stepping inside.
"Hi!" Reiner came out from behind the counter to greet her. "Bert said you'd be dropping by today; do you mind waiting for a few minutes for him to get here? It'll be easier if we looked at everyone's schedule at the same time,"
"Sure," Mikasa agreed. "Reiner, this is Eren, my adopted brother,"
"Hi," Reiner smiled. Eren cheerfully returned the gesture, and promptly started to quiz Reiner on the café, the job, and what the customers were like.
Mikasa sighed and sat down in a booth, pulling Eren down to sit with her as he continued to assault Reiner with questions. After ten minutes or so, the door swung open and admitted Bert, who was struggling with a pile of books.
"Sorry," he gasped, dumping them all over the counter. "I tried to come as fast as I could—the professor held us back—something about us not taking things seriously enough—didn't even have the time to pack, I ran all the way here,"
"Don't worry about it," Reiner said, clapping his friend on the back. "Bert, this is Mikasa's adopted brother Eren. I'll go get Marco—it's your turn to field his questions for a while," then he promptly disappeared behind the swinging doors to the kitchen.
"Eren," Mikasa turned to him. "I think I can handle it from here. Don't you have to go back and get ready for your date?"
"Oh!" He fumbled, hurriedly grasping his bag. "Right. Call me if anything happens, Mikasa!" He called behind him as he ran out of the café, quickly disappearing round the corner.
"So, what do you major in?" Bert asked, sliding into the seat opposite Mikasa just as Reiner emerged with whom she could only surmise was Marco.
"Literature,"
"Arts, huh?" Reiner let out a low whistle as he slid into place next to Bert, leaving Marco to take the recently vacated spot next to Mikasa. "We're all Physics and Engineering people here, ourselves. Mikasa, this is Marco, Marco, Mikasa. She's the new server," he added.
"On behalf of management," Marco said, "Let me welcome you with a small gift." He produced a basket of fries out of nowhere and placed it in the middle of the table. "Eat up," he said. "It's on me,"
The next hour was spent finalising a new schedule for the café. Since Mikasa finished her classes the earliest on Mondays and Thursdays, she would go to the café first to unlock it and get everything ready. Marco and Bert would have to rush over right after classes to open up the café, since they were the kitchen boys. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Reiner would get everything ready, while Mikasa could take her time to get to the café after classes. The café was closed on weekends, which meant that they didn't have to come in at all.
"There isn't really a fixed schedule for the opening hours of the café," Reiner said. "If there are no customers, and all of us are beat, we'd end up closing up early. Sometimes we end up staying here the whole night if we have to. "
"One of the reasons why there are so few customers," Bert grinned. "You can never predict when the café is open, unless you know one of us personally,"
"Honestly, I'm surprised this place is still in business," Marco snorted.
"If you want a day off, just tell us at least three days in advance so we can work something out—as long as there's at least one server and one kitchen boy here at all times we're good to go. But you'll have to work at least two thirds of the month to be able to get your full pay," Bert warned, ignoring Marco's dig at the café.
"Come on, Mikasa, I'll show you around the place a bit." Reiner stood up, pulling her along with him as Bert and Marco took a slow retreat back into the kitchens.
"This is the counter—we'll make the drinks here; it's not the kitchen's work to do that. They just prepare the food. I'll show you how to work everything later. Cakes are displayed here—they're only sold on Mondays—and this is the cash register. Plates and cups are in these cupboards—"
Reiner was interrupted by the opening of the door, whereupon Rivaille stepped in and took a seat in the booth Mikasa had taken just yesterday.
"Oh," she said.
"Yeah, you've been taking up his booth for the past couple of weeks," Reiner said, a grin slowly spreading on his face. "We thought you knew, so we didn't say anything. Anyway, it's your first day here, so just take it easy and follow me around,"
He walked up to Rivaille, Mikasa tracing his steps behind him. "Hello, may I take your orders please?"
"One green tea, and a shortbread." Rivaille said, his words just as cutting and as precise as his appearance, eyes barely glancing at Mikasa behind Reiner.
"I'll be right back with your order," Reiner said, gesturing at Mikasa to follow him back to the counter.
"Take out a plate and a cup from the cupboards," he instructed, pulling open two drawers and taking out a box of tea bags and shortbread cookies. He put a teabag in the cup and filled it with hot water, showing her how to operate the machine, and started to arrange the cookies on the plate. "We leave the teabags in the cups here, so that if customers want to fill up their cup again it's on the house. Don't tell them that refills are free here, though—wait for them to ask. There is no specific arrangement of cookies on the plate, as long as you make sure there are eight of them on it," he explained.
He started off to Rivaille's table again, laying the plate and cup down on the table amongst the books and papers which had already filled it, then left without another word. "Some customers like to talk to you, and some don't," he explained. "Generally, the rule is to not talk to them unless they start talking to you first,"
"Okay," Mikasa said, her eyes scanning over the different appliances at the counter.
Reiner took in her poker face, unable to tell if she was daunted by the different machines and the prospect of working here. "Why don't you go into the kitchen for some lunch first? I'll cover the café for a while. Just go in there and tell them what you want to eat—as long as it's on the menu—and they'll make it for you. When you're done, come back out and I'll teach you how to use the rest of the stuff,"
"Okay," she said again, disappearing into the kitchen through the blue swinging doors.
Inside, the kitchen comprised of a blue tiled floor, with painted blue walls over shiny industrial steel tables and pots and pans adorning the walls. Marco and Bert were seated at a table in the middle of the room, poring over books and scale drawings, taking down fastidious notes from their textbooks.
"Hey. Lunch?" Bert asked, when he caught sight of Mikasa in the doorway.
She nodded, taking a seat at the table when Marco gestured to it. She ate quietly and quickly when a plate was put down in front of her, answering their questions but not volunteering any of her own. As soon as she was finished, the plate was whisked away for them to wash in the sink, and she was ushered back out to the main room of the café to learn the different appliances and to get used to them.