"Hey, wait!" Rantaro says, pouting. "She promised to go get coffee with me after school today!"
Akane tilts her and looks at you with large eyes. Until now, you really haven't been embarrassed by Rantaro's clingy behaviour, but for some reason, you find yourself sheepishly looking away. Akane giggles softly behind the palm of her hand, and you catch yourself thinking just how cute that was.
"Ah," you say, mostly muttering. "But I did promise Rantaro that I'd get coffee with him."
"That's alright," she says, waving you off. "I wouldn't want to be clingy. Raincheck?"
You smile at her and nod enthusiastically before being unceremoniously dragged away by Rantaro. He's especially motivated to get you out of here, you wonder why he's so enthusiastic about coffee all of a sudden. You realise he hasn't had any sugar in a while, and he's probably running low. How he maintains his pretty figure while never exercising and only eating sugar is a mystery and a miracle. A miracle, or just a lot of luck.
He doesn't seem to be willing to let go of your hand any time soon, practically sprinting through the school gates and down the sidewalk. You jog as he pulls you, unwilling to keep up with him because it's the end of the day and you're kind of tired.
Rantaro practically throws open the shop doors before drilling inside and flopping down on one of the couches. You sit down in the seat across him, resting your head on the table. It had been a long day, and you are most definitely mentally exhausted.
The two of you sit there in your booth seat, tired and quiet. Rantaro relents first.
"God," he sighs. "Well, that was an unexpected turn of events."
"A nice one," you add, smiling softly. "She's really sweet."
Rantaro scrunches up his nose. "She was kinda mean, though."
"Nah," you say, raising a finger to poke his nose. "You're just jealous because you got rejected."
"I am not jealous of you," Rantaro says, pouting. "I'm jealous of her, it's not fair."
"No way," you say, giggling. "You're such a baby. It doesn't change the fact that we're friends."
"That's not what I'm worried about," Rantaro mumbles into his hands.
"Oh, really," you say, sleepily rubbing your eyes. "I'm going to take a quick nap, then."
"Eh!" Rantaro exclaims.
You shush him, moving closer, close enough to rest your head on his shoulder. He stiffens, but you don't really mind, instead opting to make yourself comfortable by curling yourself into a ball.
"I'm sleepy," you mumble into his arm. "People are tiring."
Rantaro isn't really sure what to say to that and is quite thankful when you promptly pass out afterwards. He gently wraps his arm around you, tentatively resting it on your shoulder, before shrugging off his jacket and placing it on you. He tucks the extra material under your chin and smiles to himself at the adorable image. He's almost tempted to take a picture of you.
Who is he kidding? He's already taken five. And sent them to his printer's queue. And figured out the frames he wants to put them in. He thinks a wash of holographic heart-shaped glitter might make them cooler, too.
Rantaro uses both his hands to slap his cheeks rather hard, creating an audible clap to ward away impure thoughts. His cheeks are red, but it's worth it! He's cleansed his thoughts.
He runs his hands through your hair, enjoying the way it brushes past his hand, savouring every light touch. He lets himself get lost in thoughts of you for a few minutes, before deciding to order coffee for the two of you, thinking it'd be a neat surprise.
He lets go of you, gently lowering you so that your head rests on the table. He adjusts his jacket, making sure it's nicely covering you as a good blanket should.
Rantaro walks to the coffee shop line and bumps into Akane. He finds it rather irritating that he has to bump into her, of all people, outside school. Akane doesn't seem pleased to see him, either, which is fair. He is the one spending time with you, of course, she'd be jealous. He smirks at her, and it's a knowing smirk, and she scoffs and turns away. She turns away to look at you, and her ears go red. She nervously fiddles with a curl of her hair, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. Rantaro sticks his tongue out at her, Akane rolls her eyes back in response.
"Why are you here?" Rantaro asks. "My angel told you that we were going to get coffee together. Are you stalking her?"
"My goddess is free to pursue her own life, she does not need to constantly grace me with her presence and I am in no way resentful of that," Akane says, shaking her head. "But I always come here for a coffee after school. I'm...friends with one of the baristas here. Funny to see you here, though. You've never been here before, so why show up now, out of the blue?"
"My angel and I often go to get coffee together," Rantaro answered, the corner of his mouth turning up in a slight smirk. "But the place we usually frequent stopped serving her favourite drink, so I wanted to see if I could get it here!"
"You're a caring friend," Akane said, smiling at Rantaro. "Thank you for taking care of my goddess. I'm glad she's in the company of a friend who's concerned about her."
"That goes without saying," Rantaro said, nodding. "Anyway, you said you were friends with one of the baristas?"
"Yes," Akane said. "The one on his shift right now."
"His shift," Rantaro replies, narrowing his eyes. "You're not cheating on my angel, are you?"
Akane makes a face of pure revulsion, before quickly coming back to normal.
"Infidelity should be punishable by death," she said, scoffing. "Besides, I'm a lesbian."
Akane looked ahead, waving at the guy on his shift. "Heya, Kaito!"
Rantaro looks ahead to see the guy from the auditions there. He frowns, unwilling to lend a positive attitude to anyone who wants to take away something that's precious to him.
The guy waves back at his friend good-naturedly, albeit slightly nervous. He spots Rantaro and smiles at him as well. Rantaro grins back instinctively, curse his pretty boy instincts.
They get to the front of the line pretty quickly, and Kaito smiles and politely asks what they'd like.
"Black coffee, as per usual," Akane says, nodding sweetly.
"Akane," Kaito says, raising his eyebrows. "I know I said you can't just come here to tip me, but that does not mean you buy what is essentially instant coffee! I can put whipped cream in your drink! Or caramel! Or both! Or both and chocolate!"
Akane pauses for a moment as if considering his offer. "Black coffee is good, thanks!"
"Akane!" Kaito says, sighing. However, he can't really refuse a customer's order, so he gets to work.
Akane passes him a few bills, which he passes back to her. She frowns.
"I've told you before," Kaito says. "You don't need to help me out, I'm willing to work."
"This is a tip," Akane says, forcefully. "It is part of the job to accept them, right?"
Kaito sighs and relents, but doesn't seem particularly enthused about it. Akane, on the other hand, is beaming like a kid who caught a particularly promising snowflake.
Akane steps to the side and Rantaro waves at Kaito. Kaito smiles back sweetly, Rantaro kinda regrets being mad at him.
"Hello! What would you like to order!" Kaito asks, beaming.
"Ah, one milk tea and a latte with caramel," Rantaro says, sliding his credit card over. "If you could give me one of your sweetest pastries, that'd be nice too, thanks!"
Kaito nods, swiping Rantaro's card and processing the transaction. "Coming right up!"
Rantaro waits by the side of the counter, where Akane also stands. He's a little miffed that she showed up and hopes that you don't wake up and notice her, and certainly hopes that you don't ask her to sit with you.
"Out of curiosity," Akane begins. "Which drink is yours?"
Rantaro pauses for a moment, startled. He chews his bottom lip gently, slightly embarrassed.
"The caramel latte's mine," he admits. "And so is the pastry. She doesn't like sweets much."
"Funny," Akane says. "I wouldn't have expected that, yet it seems perfectly like her."
"Yeah," Rantaro says, smiling. "It does!"