Merry, as a law, well, prelaw and eventually law, student was extremely busy all of the time. It didn't help that his parents hadn't expected his existence so they hadn't made a savings account for him and didn't think to make one when he showed up. With his meagre job in high school, he had been able to afford his first year of university before he had to seek out a job in order to afford his post-secondary schooling.
So, as a refined, intelligent, punctual law (prelaw) student, he found that the only job he could receive was one in the campus coffee shop that his cousin worked in already. It wasn't that Merry disliked his job. It was a cozy little joint, and one of its walls had been replaced with an entirely filled bookshelf instead, which greatly pleased Merry. The people there were pleasant too, and it gave him a feeling that the café had been running for a long enough time to get a reputation around campus.
Merry checked to see if the road was clear before he made to cross to the café. As much course work he had, he needed this shift anyways, because he had run out of food money yesterday, and only had a can of diced tomatoes left. Hopefully Mr. Gandalf would understand and pay him ahead of time.
When Merry entered, he saw that Frodo, Sam and Gimli were currently waiting on large amount of customers inside the café. Merry looked around and couldn't find a wall plug without a laptop charger plugged in, and a table without a student working on something and having a nice coffee.
As Merry entered the change room, Pippin exited it, grumbling something about how he had too much course work to have to wait on this amount of customers. Merry sighed; his cousin had picked up the unhealthy habit of mumbling under his breath from Boromir, and it looked like it wasn't going to end anytime soon. Not that he really minded Boromir, though the older man had a foul temper (at best), he was still enjoyable to be around when he was happy, and was a great help when it came to study tips and tricks.
Merry changed quickly, no longer fumbling with his bowtie as he used to, and then got out to see that at least five hands were in the air. He sighed, tying his apron around his waist and ensuring that there was no hole in the money pouch in it before he went over to the nearest customer.
"Hello, how can I help you?" Merry recited, pulling out a pen and a notepad, seeing as there were five people huddled at the table. The group of students looked at him, all of them with tired, stressed out faces that Merry was sure he would have if he had to resort to going to a café to finish his course work. Not that he was allowed to vocally judge them; that'd probably get him fired.
"I'll have two jasmine teas. No cream, no sugar," the first girl said. He tried to keep the concern off of his face when he realized that this girl was ordering both of these teas for herself, since everybody else made their own orders for caffeinated beverages. When Merry left, they all spontaneously burst out into laughter. At a joke, he hoped, not at anything that they found humorous about him.
It took a little while for Merry to complete the order, due to the fact that there was six drinks, twelve sides of baked goods (some of it vegan, some of it Gimli's "not pansy, real food"*). After he handed out the beverages, and the food, and tallied up the money to make sure it was the right amount, he gave them a smile, before he turned to leave.
He was stopped, however, by the tea girl. She didn't really acknowledge him, but instead just said, "Is the tall, grey eyed guy coming in to work today?"
"I'm sorry by which tall, grey-eyed guy are you referring to?" Merry retorted, thinking of either Boromir or Aragorn. Both were tall, and grey eyed, both coming from the city of Gondor where that was the stereotype. The only way Merry could tell the difference between the two men from a distance was that Boromir's shoulders were broader than Aragorn's were.
"The broad shouldered one," she specified.
"I'm not sure," Merry told her, but he mentally kept it in his mind that this girl was obviously pining for Boromir. He almost started chuckling as he walked away, knowing that it was really a lost cause. Boromir had no interest in girls. Boromir was more interested in politics; something that they all teased him about all of the time.
Merry was still smiling when he got back to the counter, though as he got there, he saw that Frodo was not. Pippin was bustling around, making drinks, his sleeves rolled up to show an obvious nicotine patch on the inside of his right wrist. Merry frowned at his cousin; not that he could control the chestnut haired man on his life choices, Merry was still very much against for his cousin to wear them at work.
Instead of scolding Pippin, Merry turned his attention to Frodo, "What's wrong, Frodo?"
"Some girl asked me for my name... and then asked me if I was related to Bilbo," Frodo groaned softly, as he played around with the golden ring on his finger.
"Don't tell me... she asked if you could-" Merry couldn't even finish his sentence when Frodo cut him off.
"Yup," Frodo said, "She asked for an autograph."
"Ohhhh," Merry's winced at his friend. Frodo nodded solemnly, sighing heavily, before he began to go over to the help the next group of people who put up their hand. Merry shook his head at Frodo, feeling incredibly lucky that Bilbo was only distantly related to him, and not his direct Uncle/guardian as he was to Frodo.
Deciding that having Sam, Frodo, Gimli and Pippin were all decent enough waiters for the crowd that had gathered in the store, Merry went to go tackle the growing amount of dishes looming over the small sink in the back. How Gandalf had accumulated the large amount of mugs was a mystery to Merry, but living to be seventy-four probably had something to do with it.
Merry smiled as he washed off the 'Visit Newly Embellished Erebor!' mug, enjoying the Scottish runes over the handle. He was partly certain that he mugs were partly the reason why so many people came to the Fellowship Café. Often, regulars would request mugs to drink out of, and if they came often enough, the mugs were usually set on standby until they arrived. Just as the 'Jobs of the Rangers of the North' mug was always left out for Arwen, who found the cup amusing.
A pile of dishes later, he heard Pippin groan to himself as he went back to work the espresso machine. Pippin, who had picked up the rather nasty habit of mumbling under his breath from Boromir, was muttering a full out rant to himself, not seeming to care if he sounded like he needed mental help. Merry, who loved Boromir to death (in a completely heterosexual way), put it on his mental list to scold Boromir about infecting his cousin.
"She's back. I can't believe she's back," Pippin was grumbling, "I cannot believe it. We're gonna run out of coffee if she keeps on coming. I'll have to remind Gandalf to buy some more."
"Who's back?" Merry asked, setting down a cup, which Pippin angrily grasped and dried off with a towel before he began to make the coffee.
"The caffeine girl!" Pippin said, "The one we were betting on dying of caffeine overdose, the one I asked you about," Pip added. Merry raised his eyebrows at his cousin in a sceptical manner.
"Invite me to your wedding," Merry said sarcastically, "And we probably would be held responsible if she died, so don't go killing her."
"I'm not going to get married to her!" Pippin told him angrily, messing up the cinnamon smile, and sighing to himself. "Have fun with the dishes," Pippin said haughtily, before he grabbed a gluten free butter tart and put it on the side of the plate, before he blew his cousin a kiss, and whirled out back into the eating section of the café.
Merry rolled his eyes, but snorted as he drained the sink, and towelled down his hands. It was getting close to his break, and he was hoping that he would be able to find Gandalf to talk about the fact that he needed his pay check ahead of time. Merry was worried, seeing as it would be the fourth time he had asked since his employment.
Merry began to put away the dishes, setting the mugs up on the emptying shelf. As a shorter man, Merry generally did not do this, leaving the task to Aragorn or Boromir, or Legolas whenever the blonde decided to venture out of the kitchen. But since most of the waiting staff currently at work was shorter than 180 centimetres, and Gimli, who was currently busy waiting on a table of six, was the tallest of the bunch currently working.
Merry had filled the full shelf, when Gandalf appeared out of the 'STAFF ONLY' door. The old man, who had a wispy, white beard, and twinkling blue eyes, smiled at the young employee before he gestured for Merry to come over. Merry stared at his boss wide-eyed, praying that he was not about to receive a pink slip. He wondered what the café-goers would think if he fell to his knees and grovelled at Gandalf's feet, begging to keep his job.
"It is not a very important manner, Meriadoc-" (no matter how he tried, Merry could not get Gandalf to call him by his nickname), "You do not need to look at me with such fear-filled eyes."
Merry gave his boss a small nod, "What is it, then?"
Gandalf pulled out a white envelope, addressed in curly handwriting as 'Meriadoc Brandybuck.' "I was thinking that you would need this."
Merry accepted the envelope, and opened it to see that it had is pay check (in cash, as Gandalf always paid them with). Merry counted the bills, and then frowned at his boss, "There is more than I had earned." Most would not have mentioned it, but Merry was a law (prelaw) student, and wanted to be an honest man in life.
"Oh. I just thought that perhaps if I added a bit more, it would last you until your next scheduled pay check," Gandalf simply replied, a smile stretched out on his face.
"Thank you, sir, I really do appreciate it," Merry told him, a sense of relief working its way into his chest. He gave Gandalf a large smile, before he put the bills back into the envelope, and stuck it in his pocket.
"Thank you, Meriadoc, for being my employee," Gandalf said back, "I do believe you have ten more minutes on your break? Don't you suppose you could help me decide on which kinds of fireworks I should use for the Halloween showing?"
"Oh, of course," Merry grinned at Gandalf, and then allowed his ten minutes of his break to be filled with the thought that he, perhaps, had one of the greatest employers in the world.
*No offense to vegans; I just figured that Gimli, who is a human in this story and a major carnivore (as I imagined dwarves to be) would think that Legolas's life choice of veganism would make give him a reason to tease him. I don't hate vegans, and neither does Gimli, it's just something he likes to tease Legolas about because they are bros.
Thanks to KFinance, somebunny, XxJigoku-no-HanaxX, Nirette, and mngirl for reviewing! Thanks to XxJigoku-no-HanaxX, Poppinbottlea, ichipup, and Nirette for favouriting/subscribing to this story! Thanks for reading, and please review for feedback!
This update's question: Who do YOU think the caffeine girl is?
Thanks to my friend Rachel for being completely awesome and helping me with this story. Couldn't do it without you~