Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if that's you.

Author's Note: I'm blatantly stealing from Magi Silverwolf's unfinished series that has a piercer Harry Potter & a tattoo artist Luna Lovegood, but I'm putting my own spin on it to make a coffee shop AU type thing for my soulmate challenge.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Two Cakes! (Y); No Punny Business (Y); Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux; Click Bait It; In a Flash; Letter of the Day (Y); Flags & Ribbons (Y); Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Quiet Time; Neurodivergent; Ethnic & Present; Feeling So Logical [Presentable]; Themes & Things A [Love] (Y); Themes & Things B [Escape] (Y); Themes & Things C [Bandages] (Y); Coffee Life; Times to Come; Time Gaps; Ways to the Heart; Shipmas; Seeds; Gryffindor MC; Slytherin MC (x2); Lion's Moon & Shadow Bribery (Y); Sett to Destroy; Death's Inevitable Master
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 01
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Romance Awareness Day 04 (Feeling What Soulmate Feels) (New Beginnings); Insane Prompt Challenge [21] (Thunderstruck); 365 [16] (Decade); Galleon Club (White)
Representation(s): Blaise Zabini/Harry Potter; Feelings Echo Soulmate AU
Bonus Challenges: Abandoned Ship; Most Human Bean; Second Verse (Lovely Coconuts; Car in a Tutu; Unwanted Advice; Zucchini Bread; Nontraditional; Found Family; Persistence Still; Not a Lamp; Ladylike); Chorus (Wind Beneath; Creature Feature; Unicorn; Larger than Life; Eternal Boredom; A Long Dog; Tomorrow's Shade; Delicious Lie; Peddling Pots; Machismo; Bee Haven; Wabi Sabi; Odd Feathers)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: SN (Rail; Ameliorate); FR (Evolution); HoSE (Schooner; Obscure)
Word Count: 973

(^^)
Minter is Coming
(^^)

Blaise closed his eyes as he leaned back in the chair of his office. Over the years, he had learned to that this particular kind of pain was nothing to worry about, not like the sharp and searing pain of his younger years. This slowly building ache, despite Blaise not understanding what was causing it to his soulmate, was cleansing in comparison. He breathed with it for a few moments, letting it wash over him along with the sense of calm that accompanied it. Then he straightened back up and refocused on doing the paperwork that keeping his café running involved. He only had less than an hour before he needed to get the shop open for the early birds.

He did wonder who his soulmate was, but as years passed without any real clue, Blaise had accepted that he may never know. Most people didn't meet their soulmates, after all, and they all managed to leave full lives that made them content, even happy. Why should he expect to be any different? Besides, it wasn't like his soulmate was likely even aware that he existed. Given the amount of pain that they went through growing up, it was unrealistic to expect them to have noticed the far more normal level of injuries that Blaise had suffered during the same period. After all, what was a papercut or scraped knee compared to broken limbs and that ever-present gnawing feeling that could only have been hunger?

By the time Blaise had moved out to the public portion of the café to help Tracey finish the opening procedures, the active portion of the pain echoing from his soulmate had settled into the dull ache that would last for a few more hours before dissipating completely. Each time Blaise lifted a tray of pastries, the muscles in his arm would pull at the spot that the pain had been focused this time until he finally had to pass off that task to Tracey, who gave him a knowing look but didn't ask any questions.

Tracey knew him too well not to know what was happening.

Out of habit, he began putting together the order for Freak's Bohemia, the tattoo parlor and piercing studio the next block over. Another Hogwarts graduate, Luna Lovegood, ran it with a partner that she never named. Even though the shop kept odd hours (even for New York, where everyone kept odd hours), Lovegood would be at the café every day within five minutes of them opening to pick up the exact same order: one large black coffee, one extra large mocha cappuccino with extra whip cream and caramel drizzle, and a dozen Widow Claws (a café special similar to bear claws but made with devil's food batter and filled with blueberry frosting). The blonde would then pick a pastry at random to add to the order.

Except that today, Lovegood wasn't the first customer to enter the café. Instead, it was a much healthier looking version of Harry Potter. His dark tan skin no longer had the gray undertone it had had back at Hogwarts. He had also filled out so that he no longer looked like his skin was stretched tightly over his bones, though he apparently hadn't grown any taller in the years since the Final Battle. He had grown his black hair out so that it was now in a thick braid that hung over his shoulder. His emerald eyes were just as arresting as they had always been, and the new glasses framed them nicely.

"Uh, Luna said you normally had our order ready?" Potter asked as he approached the counter. He rubbed the back of his neck. A simple white bandage was wrapped around his bicep, in the same spot that ached in sympathy on Blaise's arm. "I suppose I ought to tell you that I'm here to pick the order for Freak's Bohemia?"

"Yeah, I've almost got it together," Blaise said, a bit thunderstruck. So, this was what happened to the Man-Who-Conquered in the decade since the war? And by the Norns, the man looked good. Distracted as he was, he overfilled the black coffee, splashing the hot beverage on his hand. Blaise cursed lightly as he set the coffee aside and headed towards the utility sink near the coffee pots for this exact reason. He turned back just in time to watch Potter's gaze move from his own hand to Blaise's face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Potter denied immediately, too fast for it to be anything but automatic. "It's just—when you burned yourself just now… you know what? Never mind. It's not important." His green eyes darted around the pastry selections. "I think Luna would like a Minter Soldier today."

Dutifully, Blaise added the star-shaped pastry to the box of Widow Claws. The smell of peppermint lingered in the air even after the box had been closed. He could feel Potter's eyes on him as he placed the two drinks into a carrier and moved it over to the counter near the pastry box. That gaze didn't get any lighter as the pair of wizards concluded their business.

"Thank you for coming," Blaise concluded as he passed over the change. "Enjoy your sugar rush."

"I will," Potter said absently. "I hope to see you again soon."

"I would like that," Blaise agreed. The feeling that they were talking about more than coffee and pastries was heavy between them. Blaise smiled in an attempt to lighten the tension. Looking far too nervous for a former Gryffindor, Potter returned the smile. "I would really like that."

"Then it's a date."

Blaise didn't even pretend to understand the shoulder bump that Tracey gave him after Potter had left.

He knew better than to think just because he was friends with them that women would suddenly make sense.