Chapter Text
Klance AU Month
February 1st, 2019
Day One: Coffee Shop AU
*New Year's Resolutions*
If Lance was good at one thing, it was annoying people. Especially cute people. Especially cute guys that worked at five in the morning at empty coffee shops.
It had all started New Year’s Day when Lance begrudgingly got up to go to the gym. It was four-thirty giving him enough time to go to the gym, shower, and get to class on time. Instead of the gym and New Year's resolutions, Lance had ended up at the coffee shop.
Lance went to this coffee shop all the time, admittedly a lot later in the day, so Lance was not expecting a cute guy to be working there. The baristas normally knew his orders and Lance normally knew their names. So he was surprised to see somebody he didn’t know working there. But the guy had nice arms, a cute bed-head that was in desperate need of a trim, and the most beautiful eyes Lance had ever seen, even though they didn’t look fully awake.
That first morning the guy, Keith his name tag said, didn’t so much as look at Lance as he took his order, shoved the cup in his hand and went back to minding the counter.
From there it became a game to Lance. He was determined to get the guy to look up at him.
Could he get Keith to smile? Didn’t seem likely. Could he get Keith to recognize him? Those first few weeks it didn’t seem to register that Lance was the same guy coming in at five in the morning to get a coffee, cream and a hint of cinnamon. Could he get Keith to talk? Only a few gruff sentences.
And that’s when Lance decided to get annoying. He would come up with the most complicated drinks day after day just waiting for Keith to look up at him. He could see Keith getting more and more frustrated as he continued to jabber at him, but he did nothing besides give a little pout.
But Lance was the youngest of five siblings. He knew how to annoy people to get what he wanted. And he knew Keith’s patience would eventually break. He could see it in the frustrated glares. He could see it in the way he clenched his jaw. Lance would get him to break.
One day Keith must have been especially moody because he clicked his tongue as Lance walked in.
Lance flashed his brights smile and continued to make up a drink that almost certainly did not exist. Halfway through the order, Keith put his pen down, entirely giving up.
“Okay what is your problem,” Keith asked. “What do you want?”
“I’d settle for your number,” Lance said with a wink.
Keith let out a huff that blew his bangs up, but he didn’t say anything. And to Lance, that meant he hadn’t said no. In fact, he didn’t look all that mad.
Over the next weeks Keith finally began talking to Lance. In the empty coffee shop, they would talk about themselves, small smiles crossing their faces.
Lance learned that Keith was an only child, that he loved dogs, that the only reason he worked this early was because it meant nobody was there at all or it was so busy Keith didn’t have to make small talk.
He learned Keith was a science major but that he also liked art. And he learned that someday Keith had his eyes set on making animated films about science for children. Lance also learned that Keith scrunched his nose when he laughed, which may or may not have been the cutest thing in the entire world.
But he still hadn’t gotten Keith’s number.
On day in late February, Lance's alarm didn’t go off. Or maybe it did and Lance had turned it off or something. But the point was that it was now seven o’clock and if Lance didn’t hurry, he might miss Keith before he went off to class. Because Lance knew that like himself, Keith sometimes had class at eight, and it would just be his luck that he would miss Keith today.
Lance rushed past the bathroom, not bothering to fix his hair or wash his face, pulling on a hoodie and his coat. He looked in the mirror on his way to the door and groaned. He had pimples and eye bags and his hair was a mess, but he continued to the door and stomped into his snow boots.
Lance felt his backpack thump across his back as he sprinted to the shop, several times close to skidding on the iced sidewalk. But eventually he made it.
It was a lot busier than it was at five. Lance bounced on his toes as he joined the line, trying to see if Keith was still there.
When he finally could make out the counter he could see in Keith place was a very pretty girl, who looked nice enough but was not Keith. His heart sunk. He waited to get his drink and move on. It wasn’t until this moment that Lance realized how much better his mornings were because of Keith.
When It was finally Lance’s turn, he kept his head down, in part overwhelmed not knowing what to get, in part trying not to cry and become that over dramatic baby his friends always teased him of being.
“What can I get for ya,” the girl at the counter asked.
“I got this one ‘Lura,” a rough voice said.
And there he was, strong arms, ragged bed-head, and dark eyes that melted Lances soul, “Keith!”
“Hey,” Keith said.
“I thought I missed you.”
“I was working the machine in the back. We normally have a few people here during the rush hour.” Keith looked at the grumpy people behind Lance, “Er. Go sit down. I’ll meet you in a sec.”
Lance sat down in a booth and tried to keep himself from smiling. Eventually Keith came over with two coffee cups and handed one to Lance, “When you weren't here this morning, I thought something had happened. That you weren't coming anymore,” Keith said stiffly.
“Naw. Just missed my alarm.”
Keith made a ‘pffftt’ sound and gently reached across to touch the back of Lance’s head, “I see that.”
Lance felt a blush creep across the back of his neck up to his ears, “I wasn’t...I like talking to you. I wouldn’t not come here on purpose...to like, upset you, just so you know.” Lance looked down trying to collect himself, it wasn’t like himself to get flustered.
Pink spread across Keith’s face, but he continued to laugh softly into his hand, “Well, I gotta go back,” Keith said pointing at the counter.
Lance nodded, sneaking a look at Keith as he walked back to the counter.
Every so often Keith would catch his gaze across the shop. There would be this soft moment where Lance could barely contain himself, feeling hot and cold, heavy and light, and just tingly all over. But then Keith would look away and Lance would have to wait for their eyes to meet again.
Lance took a sip of his drink and realized it was plain coffee with cream and cinnamon.
Lance looked at his phone and realized that he needed to leave if he wanted to get to class on time. He waved at Keith who smiled back and the made his way out of the warm embrace of the shop.
Lance was halfway to class when something caught his eye. He turned the coffee cup in his hand, nestled between a doodle of a hippo, a shark and a lion was a scrawl of numbers with an arrow saying “my number.”
Lance smiled and immediately typed the number into his phone.