things and more things

[whitereflection]

Really hard seeing Bebop-cat be so sick and weak. This is just tearing us all up. This sucks so much.

Cold is annoying. Even more so is how godawfully bad it's making the husband snore. One would think it'd be impossible for him to have that be worse than it already is normally, but I guess it can be cranked up to 11. Doesn't help my insomnia issues. Makes me jerk awake constantly when I'm just about to nod off even normally--having to stay up (or even get up again) until I'm absolutely dead-exhausted to be able to fall asleep with how loud he gets.

People working the grocery store were just so freaking dumb and slow today. Great idea during the rush time to have only one non-express lane open, with one of the notoriously slow checkers and one of the slowest baggers manning it. Rar.


Non-whiny thing--shoooooow toniiiiight. God, how to last through these last few hours. So very, very impatient.



(Another break from the superhero AU. Needed something lighter. Yeah, I know, yet another senseless J2 barista fic. As if fandom needs another of those. The static thing honestly was happening to me today at the grocery store. Was about ready to *hit things* because of it.)


Day 5, 11/5/10 2:10-4:32 (blargh, so many interruptions)

"Son of a--!"

"Language!" Danneel shouted from the office in the back where she was doing the weekly paperwork.

Jared scowled, pouting as he sucked at his injured fingers. Fall was finally hitting hard, temperatures dropping to nearly frosty levels at night, which had sucked all remnants of summer humidity from the air. Which was having predictable consequences; all day long, all day, each time Jared had touched something, especially something metallic, he'd gotten shocked by static electricity.

At first it'd just startled him and been sort of funny, but by now, it was seriously starting to annoy him. The amount of metal behind the counter of the coffee shop he worked at meant it happened honest-to-coffee-beans every time he touched something. The fingers of his left hand were aching and stinging while yet being sort of numb all at the same time, for fuck's sake!

The door chimed, and Jared leaned from behind the espresso machines to greet the customer coming in, "G'morning, welcome to Grinder's-- Oh, Jensen, hey!" Hell yes! Static electricity could go suck it--it was an awesometastic day, after all. "Doing a pumpkin latte today, or 'sit time to switch to the eggnog one yet?" Jared found himself grinning like a dork, but hell if he could help himself.

Jensen smiled back at him, and oh sweet gummy bears, yes, there were the crinkles at the corners of his eyes that made Jared's stomach flip like a girl gymnast at the Olympics. Geez, but Jared had a thing for those crinkles. And for Jensen's eyes (which had caused Jared's favorite color to switch from red to green). And for his freckles. Holy handgrenades, those freckles! Jared never used to have a freckle kink; after Jensen had become a regular at the shop the last couple of months, you bet your ass he now did.

Jared blinked at Jensen's questioning look, then barely caught himself before he smacked himself on the forehead for getting so distracted. "Sorry, I didn't hear what you said?" He quickly schooled his expression into one of attentiveness instead of crushing-hard swooning, resolutely ignoring Sandy's snickering from the other end of the counter where she was re-stocking the pastry case.

"Carmel mocha, this time, actually," Jensen repeated, "large." And man, now his smile looked almost bashful, flirty (!) even, and was there a faint hint of blush tinting his face?

Focus! Jared snapped into action before he could decend into hearts-and-sparkles again. "Alrighty, coming right up!" he all but chirped as he started to make the drink. "That one's my favorite."

"Yeah, I remember."

And Jared nearly dropped the bottle of carmel syrup as his brain locked up, suddenly unable to do anything other than be full of words such as "Afsdfdkjifdksfdsljsdfsdfk". Jensen remembered what Jared's favorite type of coffee was!

He was abruptly very, very aware of Sandy's gaze, as if she was trying to will him with the power of her mind to quit being a chicken and do what she and Dannel (and Mike and Chad and Mischa) had been haranguing him to do for weeks now: just freaking ask Jensen out already. Jared had talked himself out of it every time his coworkers had nagged him, though. Because what were the odds that Jensen was gay or bi or whatever? What if he freaked him out or offended him or made him hate Jared or Grinder's or coffee itself?

But he he remembered Jared's favorite type of coffee. Would just any customer do that? Would just any customer who was maybe kind of a friend do that?

"Problems?" Jensen asked, leaning against the counter on his elbows to peer around the side of the espresso machine, and Jared did not nearly yelp from being caught distracted again.

"Nope! Sorry!" He answered, injecting as much "I am awesome at customer service, and am not not not getting distracted by drooling over you and mentally flailing about asking you out" into his voice as he could muster. "Just uh, was waiting for the steamer to come to temperature!"

He quickly finished the carmel mocha with an extra-heaping swirl of whipped cream, and handed the drink to Jensen. "That'll be four thirty-- Ow!"

Both men jumped at the static that snapped between their hands as Jared gave Jensen the coffee, the drink nearly slopping over the edge of the cup as they jerked apart.

"Wow!" Jensen juggled the coffee into his other hand, shaking the one that had been zapped when his and Jared's fingers had brushed. "Guess there's a little bit of electricity between us, huh?" And then he winked.

Winked. Jensen had winked! And that was the cheesiest pickup line ever! On the other side of the shop, Sandy seemed to be choking on air or laughing or something, but Jared didn't pay her any attention at all, because fuck infatuation or crush, Jared was falling completely, stupidly, in love, right then and there.

"Could we dinner, I mean, would you like my number, because I'd really like yours. So we could have dinner. Or go out. Or something." Jared's brain and mouth were suddenly making words happen, and oh god they were stupid, dumb words, but Jensen was smiling, like beaming-smiling, and wasn't life like freaking double-rainbow amazing?

"Yeah. Yes to all of that."

From the back office, he heard Danneel shout, "Halle-fucking-lujah. About damned time."

He yelled "Language!" back, but he was too busy grinning like a dork and exchanging numbers with Jensen to really put any scolding into it. Then they not only made arrangements for dinner, but also to hang out and do something beforehand after Jared got off work at three, and Jared wondered if Sandy was throwing glitter at him like she'd once threatened, because he swore that he was sparkling.

"Great, that sounds awesome," Jensen said, "I guess I'll come back again at three."

Whoa, that was a new smile, one that was full of promise and perhaps even a slight bit predatory, and Jared maybe had to lean against the espresso machine just a bit.

Static snapped and Jared swore, muttering even more invectives as Danneel once again shouted, "Language!" from the back. Jared cradled his hand against his chest with a wince--okay, so it was just static, but it was always that hand, and jesus, this had been seriously going on constantly, all day long.

Laughing softly and shaking his head, Jensen stepped back to the counter, reaching out, gesturing until Jared placed his complaining hand in Jensen's. "You're having a heck of a day, aren't you?" he said. Then, bringing Jared's hand to his lips, he brushed a careful, soothing kiss against Jared's stinging fingertips.

Jared was distantly aware of Sandy making some sort of squeaking noise, quickly followed by the sound of a cell phone camera going off (on second thought, make that two; obviously this trumped paperwork for Danneel), but he didn't care in the slightest. Because that falling in love thing? No freaking doubt about it. Love, complete with a house in the suburbs and two maybe three dogs and commitment ceremonies in the park and growing old together and happily forever after the end.

"Yeah," Jared breathed. "But damn if it isn't getting a hell of a lot better."

And this time, no one complained at him about language.


(1222)

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