again with the coffee
Nov. 21st, 2010 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitereflectionA little something for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
akintay for my mininano/wrisomifu thing today. :)
A sequel of sorts to my barista!Jared ficlet from the other week:
http://whitereflection.livejournal.com/791448.html#cutid2
Day 21 11/21/10 11:28-2:45
"Jared," Sophia hissed in warning, "the natives are restless."
"Seriously," Sandy agreed from where she was hiding behind the espresso machines. "I think he's going to hurt somebody."
Jared grit his teeth. "Guys, shut up." Taking a deep breath to focus his concentration and steady his hand, he drew the coffee stirrer through the latte's foam to make another stroke. "The more you interrupt me, the longer this is gonna take, and I'm trying to be careful."
"He growled at me." Squeaking as she accidentally made eye contact with Jensen sitting out at a table in the lobby, Sophia stepped behind Jared as if using him as a human shield. "When I went to tell him his order was delayed, he was like, feral. I saw teeth!"
"Now's not the time to get artistic, Jared," said Sandy, her tone low and ominous as if prophecying death and doom. "Just get the man his coffee before someone ends up bleeding. I'm not going to mop up blood!" Peeking out, she shuddered and quickly ducked behind the espresso machines again, one hand fluttering over her heart. "He's scaring the other customers away. People are afraid to come in!"
Wiping foam from the coffee stirrer, Jared sighed, rolling his eyes. Funny how this was the Jensen his friends here at Grinder's used to think was the sweetest person ever. Jensen was so nice and quiet and shy and omigawd, wasn't he just so adorable when he smiled bashfully like that?
Of course, they'd liked it even better when Jensen was flirty and charming, like he was to Jared, and his coworkers had just about exploded with showers of sparkles and rainbows when Jared had finally asked him out (not just the girls, either--Mike and Misha, too, and even Chad, in his own way, if the glow-in-the-dark condoms that had kept being left in Jared's coat pockets were any indication).
But then when Jared and Jensen went from dating to boyfriends to living together, the staff at Grinders were given a rather unpleasant surprise. Instead of coming in later in the day fully awake and--more importantly--having already had coffee, Jensen started tagging along when Jared came in for the opening shift.
A just-woken, uncaffinated Jensen. Oh, the humanity.
Pre-coffee Jensen had even shaken Danneel, and she'd been known to chase down shoplifters and make them cry at her previous job. Not long after, Jared had found himself permanently scheduled to open, with Danneel always supervising the later shifts.
And when the new daily tasks chart had appeared on the whiteboard, there was a new category next to restroom cleaning, dish washing, and paper goods restocking: A.M. Jensen, with Jared's name filled in by each day of the week. Even on Jared's days off. And Danneel never erased Jared's name from those spaces on the whiteboard; he was pretty sure she'd used permanent marker.
"Done!" Jared announced finally, and okay, yeah, even he couldn't deny that he felt a bit weak-kneed with relief. The girls cheered in response, bouncing up and down and clutching at each other in a giddy, wobbly hug.
"Oh, my god, we're going to live!" Sophia sniffed, eyes watery.
Then Sandy crouched down behind the counter like it was a bunker, tugging the other girl down with her. "Quick, quick! Throw it over to him! Lob it like a grenade."
"Ha ha, funny," Jared said, carefully picking up the the wide mouthed, white ceramic cup by the plate it rested on and stepping out from behind the counter.
"Godspeed!" Sophia whispered from behind him.
"Don't die! I meant it when I said I'm not cleaning up blood!"
Jared only refrained from turning back to stick his tongue out at Sandy because he was trying to keep the mug and its contents steady.
Gingerly making his way to where Jensen sat slumped down over the table with his head pillowed on his arms, Jared set the latte down in front of his boyfriend. "Hey, I'm really sorry it took so long! It's on the house." Jared slid his hands as nonchalantly as he could into his apron pockets; he knew from experience Jensen could bite. Which, okay, normally Jared liked, but this would be the wrong sort of biting.
"It's always on the house," Jensen grumbled, glowering up at Jared with half-open eyes, voice still sleep-roughened even though they had both been up for an hour. "Should've just poured something in a mug and let me stick my face in it. Fucker, making me wait." Then, just about to take a drink from the cup, Jensen stilled, blinking as he stared down at his coffee.
Jared couldn't help himself. Even though he was biting his lower lip to try to stop it, a smile broke through, and he bounced on his heels. When he'd made the latte, he'd attempted etched latte art in the foam--the words happy birth day one above the other in delicate curls and strokes.
"You like it?"
Jensen looked sort of stunned, though that could still be the unawake and uncaffinated thing. But when he looked back up at Jared, his expression was one of amazement, maybe even awe. "Oh, wow. Jared, that's...wow." Then his eyes went big and wobbly, and geez, people said Jared did the puppy-dog eyes. "But how'm I suppose to drink it? I'll ruin it!"
"Oh. Um, I'll go get you another--" Jared yelped as Jensen's hand whipped out rattlesnake-quick and snagged his wrist.
"I'll drink it!" Looking a bit crazed at the thought of having to wait again, he grabbed the mug with his other hand and took a long, deliberate--but careful--sip. One was followed immediately by another, and Jensen moaned in caffeine-induced pleasure.
From across the room, Jared could hear Sophia and Sandy giggle. Obviously they'd recovered from the traumatic experience and were back to thinking Jensen was cute and squishy.
"Aw, Jen," Jared grinned at his lover, taking the other seat at the table since Jensen still had a deathgrip on his wrist. "I really could have made you another if you wanted to keep that one lookin' nice."
"Didn't want more waiting. Wanted coffee now."
"Or I could've gotten my phone and taken a picture."
"Still too much waiting." Jensen's adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and Jared let himself daydream about leaning across the table and licking it.
Eventually Jensen paused between drinks, looking over at Jared with (blessedly clear-eyed) fondness. He finally released his grasp on Jared's wrist, trailing a gentle touch over his skin before clasping Jared's hand instead.
"Thanks. That was really cool."
Jared grinned back at his boyfriend, feeling warm and content as if he'd been the one drinking the latte. "Too bad I didn't think of a photo you could look at later."
"It's okay. I'll always remember it." His smile was soft, and there was just the tiniest bit of foam at the corner of his lips. And how could Jared resist that?
Half-standing, he leaned across the table and kissed Jensen, first just lightly to tease away that bit of foam with the tip of his tongue, then licking deep, tasting espresso and vanilla and Jensen.
"If you ever do something like that again, though," Jensen eventually murmured against Jared's lips, "give the birthday boy coffee for while he waits."
Jared laughed, but silently agreed--even if he did make a big show out of rolling his eyes when Danneel later added a rule to that effect to the staff handbook.
(1250)
***
And appropriate lolcat is appropriate ^^
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/11/20/funny-pictures-coffee-and-a-grumpy/
:D Jensen-kitty!
akintay for my mininano/wrisomifu thing today. :)A sequel of sorts to my barista!Jared ficlet from the other week:
http://whitereflection.livejournal.com/791448.html#cutid2
Day 21 11/21/10 11:28-2:45
"Jared," Sophia hissed in warning, "the natives are restless."
"Seriously," Sandy agreed from where she was hiding behind the espresso machines. "I think he's going to hurt somebody."
Jared grit his teeth. "Guys, shut up." Taking a deep breath to focus his concentration and steady his hand, he drew the coffee stirrer through the latte's foam to make another stroke. "The more you interrupt me, the longer this is gonna take, and I'm trying to be careful."
"He growled at me." Squeaking as she accidentally made eye contact with Jensen sitting out at a table in the lobby, Sophia stepped behind Jared as if using him as a human shield. "When I went to tell him his order was delayed, he was like, feral. I saw teeth!"
"Now's not the time to get artistic, Jared," said Sandy, her tone low and ominous as if prophecying death and doom. "Just get the man his coffee before someone ends up bleeding. I'm not going to mop up blood!" Peeking out, she shuddered and quickly ducked behind the espresso machines again, one hand fluttering over her heart. "He's scaring the other customers away. People are afraid to come in!"
Wiping foam from the coffee stirrer, Jared sighed, rolling his eyes. Funny how this was the Jensen his friends here at Grinder's used to think was the sweetest person ever. Jensen was so nice and quiet and shy and omigawd, wasn't he just so adorable when he smiled bashfully like that?
Of course, they'd liked it even better when Jensen was flirty and charming, like he was to Jared, and his coworkers had just about exploded with showers of sparkles and rainbows when Jared had finally asked him out (not just the girls, either--Mike and Misha, too, and even Chad, in his own way, if the glow-in-the-dark condoms that had kept being left in Jared's coat pockets were any indication).
But then when Jared and Jensen went from dating to boyfriends to living together, the staff at Grinders were given a rather unpleasant surprise. Instead of coming in later in the day fully awake and--more importantly--having already had coffee, Jensen started tagging along when Jared came in for the opening shift.
A just-woken, uncaffinated Jensen. Oh, the humanity.
Pre-coffee Jensen had even shaken Danneel, and she'd been known to chase down shoplifters and make them cry at her previous job. Not long after, Jared had found himself permanently scheduled to open, with Danneel always supervising the later shifts.
And when the new daily tasks chart had appeared on the whiteboard, there was a new category next to restroom cleaning, dish washing, and paper goods restocking: A.M. Jensen, with Jared's name filled in by each day of the week. Even on Jared's days off. And Danneel never erased Jared's name from those spaces on the whiteboard; he was pretty sure she'd used permanent marker.
"Done!" Jared announced finally, and okay, yeah, even he couldn't deny that he felt a bit weak-kneed with relief. The girls cheered in response, bouncing up and down and clutching at each other in a giddy, wobbly hug.
"Oh, my god, we're going to live!" Sophia sniffed, eyes watery.
Then Sandy crouched down behind the counter like it was a bunker, tugging the other girl down with her. "Quick, quick! Throw it over to him! Lob it like a grenade."
"Ha ha, funny," Jared said, carefully picking up the the wide mouthed, white ceramic cup by the plate it rested on and stepping out from behind the counter.
"Godspeed!" Sophia whispered from behind him.
"Don't die! I meant it when I said I'm not cleaning up blood!"
Jared only refrained from turning back to stick his tongue out at Sandy because he was trying to keep the mug and its contents steady.
Gingerly making his way to where Jensen sat slumped down over the table with his head pillowed on his arms, Jared set the latte down in front of his boyfriend. "Hey, I'm really sorry it took so long! It's on the house." Jared slid his hands as nonchalantly as he could into his apron pockets; he knew from experience Jensen could bite. Which, okay, normally Jared liked, but this would be the wrong sort of biting.
"It's always on the house," Jensen grumbled, glowering up at Jared with half-open eyes, voice still sleep-roughened even though they had both been up for an hour. "Should've just poured something in a mug and let me stick my face in it. Fucker, making me wait." Then, just about to take a drink from the cup, Jensen stilled, blinking as he stared down at his coffee.
Jared couldn't help himself. Even though he was biting his lower lip to try to stop it, a smile broke through, and he bounced on his heels. When he'd made the latte, he'd attempted etched latte art in the foam--the words happy birth day one above the other in delicate curls and strokes.
"You like it?"
Jensen looked sort of stunned, though that could still be the unawake and uncaffinated thing. But when he looked back up at Jared, his expression was one of amazement, maybe even awe. "Oh, wow. Jared, that's...wow." Then his eyes went big and wobbly, and geez, people said Jared did the puppy-dog eyes. "But how'm I suppose to drink it? I'll ruin it!"
"Oh. Um, I'll go get you another--" Jared yelped as Jensen's hand whipped out rattlesnake-quick and snagged his wrist.
"I'll drink it!" Looking a bit crazed at the thought of having to wait again, he grabbed the mug with his other hand and took a long, deliberate--but careful--sip. One was followed immediately by another, and Jensen moaned in caffeine-induced pleasure.
From across the room, Jared could hear Sophia and Sandy giggle. Obviously they'd recovered from the traumatic experience and were back to thinking Jensen was cute and squishy.
"Aw, Jen," Jared grinned at his lover, taking the other seat at the table since Jensen still had a deathgrip on his wrist. "I really could have made you another if you wanted to keep that one lookin' nice."
"Didn't want more waiting. Wanted coffee now."
"Or I could've gotten my phone and taken a picture."
"Still too much waiting." Jensen's adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and Jared let himself daydream about leaning across the table and licking it.
Eventually Jensen paused between drinks, looking over at Jared with (blessedly clear-eyed) fondness. He finally released his grasp on Jared's wrist, trailing a gentle touch over his skin before clasping Jared's hand instead.
"Thanks. That was really cool."
Jared grinned back at his boyfriend, feeling warm and content as if he'd been the one drinking the latte. "Too bad I didn't think of a photo you could look at later."
"It's okay. I'll always remember it." His smile was soft, and there was just the tiniest bit of foam at the corner of his lips. And how could Jared resist that?
Half-standing, he leaned across the table and kissed Jensen, first just lightly to tease away that bit of foam with the tip of his tongue, then licking deep, tasting espresso and vanilla and Jensen.
"If you ever do something like that again, though," Jensen eventually murmured against Jared's lips, "give the birthday boy coffee for while he waits."
Jared laughed, but silently agreed--even if he did make a big show out of rolling his eyes when Danneel later added a rule to that effect to the staff handbook.
(1250)
***
And appropriate lolcat is appropriate ^^
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/11/20/funny-pictures-coffee-and-a-grumpy/
:D Jensen-kitty!
