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Oh god. He was way too cute. Like way too beautiful for Asahi to talk to him without panicking.
Sure, he looked like he hadn’t slept in the past week and his hair was sticking out everywhere, but that face was one of the prettiest Asahi had ever seen nonetheless, and he knew many very attractive people. He was friends with Sugawara Koushi after all.
Having probably spotted the way Asahi gawked at the handsome stranger that walked through the door of the small café they worked at, Daichi pushed Asahi towards the register. Daichi smirked at him and shot him a thumbs-up.
Yeah, okay. Asahi could do this. He could totally take the pretty boy’s order and maybe shoot him a nice smile. He totally could.
Doing so without making a fool of himself was another story.
Asahi took a deep breath and managed to say, “What can I get you today?” without a single voice crack or messing up a word. This was off to a great start.
“The strongest shit you have, please. Something that’ll keep me awake for at least the next five hours,” the stranger responded with a scrunch of his face, as if he were regretting asking for anything other than sleep.
Asahi’s brain froze. This was way too cute for his heart. The way he pursed his lips, how his nose went up, his eyes reduced to small lines. His two-colored hair framing his face, a small piece falling on his forehead.
Way too much for Asahi to handle.
Daichi, who was passing behind him, lightly kicked his ankle and went back to work, still in ear-shot. Asahi cleared his throat.
“Yeah… yeah, we can do that.”
“You’re a lifesaver, man,” he sighed.
Asahi’s whole face heated up. He felt the blush creeping high on his cheeks. He shot the stranger with a shy smile and entered the order in the register. He made sure to add his employee discount, even if his hands were shaking from how not used he was to use it for anyone other than himself. Even if he was terrified of his boss finding out he used it for someone else, he clicked on the button and gave himself a mental thumbs-up. He’d done it. This was fine. This was going great.
He told the stranger the reduced price and explained to him he could go and grab a seat and his order would be served to him in a few minutes.
After he’d finished preparing the coffee, which might give the cute guy a heart attack from the level of caffeine, Asahi set out to deliver it. As Asahi was about to cross the counter, Daichi dropped a muffin in his hands and patted him on the back.
When Asahi delivered the pretty stranger’s order, the latter turned his head for barely a second before diving back into his work. He still thanked Asahi profusely while biting into the soft pastry. He turned towards Asahi a second time to shoot him a bright and grateful smile.
For the rest of the day, customers came and went, but the handsome stranger stayed. He kept his eyes focused on his work, which allowed Asahi to stare at him from afar without him noticing. A few times during the day, Asahi’d wander over to the table and ask if he was doing okay, if he was getting hungry or needed anything else. He always received a smile along with the answers.
Hours later, the pretty stranger was still at the table, though he wasn’t doing much work anymore. His head had dropped next to his laptop a few minutes ago and was now resting on his crossed arms. There was a little bit of drool coming out of his mouth, but other than that he was still just as attractive as before. As he was working, Asahi still made sure no one approached his stranger, touched his things or tried to steal anything.
Late in the afternoon came the moment to close the café. Daichi and Asahi did every task they humanly could without disturbing the sleeping stranger. Even if it took more time, Asahi insisted on using a broom when he’d usually use the vacuum cleaner.
He cleaned the table to the best of his abilities, passing around the notebooks and pens laying around. He took the liberty to close the laptop, making sure not to close the tabs and save every document that was open.
Then, when the whole place was clean and ready for closing, instead of waking up the sleeping beauty, Asahi did another thing he’d never expected himself to do. He said to Daichi, quite confidently, that he’d stay as long as the stranger was asleep.
Daichi only shrugged and threw him the keys to lock when he was done. Asahi thanked him, to which Daichi responded with a side grin and a “good luck.”
Okay. Now what? He had the stranger right there. He’d probably be creeped out when he woke up, alone in the middle of a closed coffee shop, long after closing time.
Asahi tried not to think about it too much, instead preparing himself for the evening. He took out his contact lenses and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He then changed into more comfortable clothing and untied his hair that had been trapped in a bun for the majority of the day and put on shoes that didn’t make him want to rip his feet out.
Once he was done doing everything he could before going back out to the stranger, he brought his bag with him and sat down quietly on the opposite side of the table.
It took another forty-five minutes before the stranger stirred in his sleep. A long forty-five minutes of Asahi trying to do his work, then getting distracted by the pretty curve of the stranger’s jaw, then back to his work after realizing how creepy it was to stare like that, to getting distracted again when as much as a finger moved. Asahi even tried putting music on, but he only found himself not working more often.
He stirred again, a few minutes later.
“Am I dead?” the stranger said, rubbing his eyes with his closed fists, having finally woken up.
“I hope not,” Asahi replied before he could think of anything better to say. He added a smile to make it less awkward, or at least he hoped it would.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind if you were my guardian angel though, more than handsome enough for that job,” he added with a toothy smile. His eyes were still half-closed from sleep and he had a mark of the shape of his arm on his cheek. He was beautiful.
Asahi, who was expecting anything other than being compared to an angel, especially by someone as pretty as that, could only manage a “uuh” sound while he tried not to die from the overwhelming blush that had taken over his face.
“Is that a ‘uuh’ ‘cause you’re not used to people complimenting you or ‘cause you’d rather get those compliments from a girl?”
“I… the first one, I think. You’re really pretty, too.”
Asahi wanted to punch himself. Why did he have to make it as awkward as possible? Why couldn't he just say he’d just met one of the most beautiful human beings he’d even seen. And Asahi knew very well it wasn’t a “i think” when it came to who he liked.
The stranger only chuckled and thanked him.
“I didn’t quite catch your name,” the two-haired boy said when Asahi didn’t add anything else.
“Azumane Asahi,” he said before quickly adding, “and you are?”
“Nishinoya Yuu, pleased to make your acquaintance.”
And then they started talking. Like real talking, and even if it made his face burn up, it was pleasant and made Asahi’s heart flutter. They went on for a few minutes before Nishinoya realized it was way past closing time. He excused himself for the inconvenience, to which Asahi responded he was glad Nishinoya wasn’t angry about him letting him sleep although he came to the coffee shop to work.
“Are you kidding? Spending the day working was shit, but your muffin this morning? Delicious. All the ‘can I get you anything’ throughout the day? Let me see your pretty face that gave me a boost to continue working. Then you let me sleep past closing time and I get to wake up to this ?” he said while gesturing at Asahi.
“So,” Asahi said, using all the courage he had left in him, “I’m thinking I wouldn’t be coming off too strong if I asked you for your number?”
Nishinoya laughed.
“No, not at all. I’d actually quite like that.”