Fic: Of Muffins and Three Day Hangovers

Jul 11, 2011 20:28

Title: Of Muffins and Three Day Hangovers
Summary: Set after Hiromasa's and Makoto's wedding during the Airmail epilogue. Ando and Makoto after her wedding.
A/N: Title contributed by elvisvf101 , beta extraordinaire. As always, much obliged.



***

Makoto had just opened the café when the little brass bell over the door chimed and announced the day's first customer. Looking up with a smile, she was met with the sight of one Ando Tanaka. Her smile slipped a little and she sighed. Dressed in a crumpled green shirt and khaki shorts that were a few inches too short (thus telling Makoto that they actually belonged to Umino), Ando fiddled with a pair of sunglasses and looked very much out of place. Despite the long and hot summer, his skin was pale except for the dark rings under his eyes. Too much drinking, not enough fresh air. Last time she had checked, Makoto found that Rei didn't look any better.

“Morning, Makoto.”
“You're up early,” she said and filled some milk into a metal jug and moved over to the espresso machine. Wrenching the jug under the milk wand, she turned up the steam. The other early morning customers would arrive soon (and unlike Ando, they were the paying kind, she thought grimly) and Makoto liked to be prepared for the day's first rush. Nothing more annoying than not having enough milk foam for three tall cappucinos in a row while a queue of hurried businessmen waited for their drinks to go with as much patience as four year-olds.

“Umino was up late last night and I didn't want to wake him.” Ando slid on one of the barstools and put his newspaper on the counter in front of him.
“That's... that's considerate.”
Ando grinned and the shadows under his eyes suddenly seemed less pronounced. “Try to hide your surprise a little better, I'm not a complete tosser.”
The ghost of a blush spread over Makoto's cheeks and she quickly busied herself with the milk foam again. Chastised by Ando Tanaka. What a way to start the day. “I know that.”

“So your husband and Minako... still not talking?” “No,” Makoto shook her head, ponytail bobbing. At that moment, the little bell sounded again, and the first of many businessmen made his way to the counter and Makoto left to take care of them.

Ostensibly reading his paper, Ando thought about the fight between Minako and Hiromasa. The whole thing was brought on by their extended journey to New York, and was slowly reaching epic proportions. Whenever Ando mentioned Hiro to Minako, Minako got tight-lipped and bitchy. Whenever Ando mentioned Mina to Hiro, Hiro made a few caustic remarks, and only stopped when Takeshi gave him one of those looks. All in all, Ando found life hard enough. The added guilt over the fight was just one more thing he didn’t need, especially since everyone seemed to blame Mina rather than him. Including, but not limited to the woman behind the counter.

***

Fifteen minutes came and went in which Makoto handed out cappucino after cappucino and sold three bagels, four muffins, and one piece of chocolate cake. Ando had disappeared behind his newspaper, and when the last customer left, emerged again, an unusual and solemn look on his face.

“Do you think it would help if I talked to him?”
Giving him a levelled look, Makoto resisted the urge to point that the whole mess was Ando's fault in the first place and instead put a menu in front of him. “What do you want for breakfast?” Ando arched a brow and pushed the menu back towards Makoto.
“Minako told me that you shouted at her after we got back. I couldn't help but notice that you never shouted at me. Why's that?”

Busying herself behind the counter (the medium-sized papercups needed to be re-stacked and she was almost out of pink napkins), Makoto wished that another customer would come in. Deep and meaningful conversations were not exactly among the things she wanted to do after getting up at five to bake the cakes for the day. Especially not with Ando because it wasn't in Makoto's nature to be mean to someone who was clearly having a very hard time. But if she and Ando talked about the whole New York fiasco, it would lead to her shouting and to him being even more miserable. Watching him sit behind the counter, much more contrite than she had ever seen him, Makoto decided that there was no good in having this conversation now. Instead, she shoved a plate with a muffin on it in front of the man and said nothing.

Ando however was undeterred. “It's not as if you're not upset with me, I can tell. Like your husband, you're not exactly good at hiding your emotions.”
“I am not upset; this whole thing is between you, Takeshi and Minako. And now eat your muffin.”
A couple walked in, and when they ordered two medium lattes, Makoto made them two big ones instead, simply because that meant she could get away from the persistent journalist at the counter for a little while longer. After the customers had taken their seats, and Makoto had brought them their beverages, she hurried into the kitchen. When she returned, a fresh plate of cookies in her hands, Ando's muffin was still untouched on his plate, and she could feel his eyes boring into her. She arranged the cookies next to the cashier, turning the plate until she was content that the baked goods were shown at their best angle. Chocolate chip cookies with macademia nuts were the morning crowd’s favourite.
Finally, when she couldn’t avoid him any longer, she turned to Ando, bracing both hands on the counter. The muffin still sat untouched on his plate, and it completely unnerved her. “Eat you muffin, Ando,” she said with emphasis while she tried her very best to glare him into submission.

Tilting his head, he picked the muffin up and held it right in front of her nose. “This is a passive-aggressive muffin.”
Makoto could smell the butter and the blueberries (they had been such a bargain, so she had bought heaps of them and stuck them in her freezer). It was a perfect muffin: perfect shape, and as Hiro had told her after eating half of the test batch, perfect in taste. Trust Ando to ruin it for her. Trust Ando to ruin the muffin, the morning, Mina’s relationship, Rei’s everything, what was next, their whole future, Crystal Tokyo?  - Makoto stopped, appalled at herself.

“Oh Jesus - Ando, eat the damn muffin, read your paper and stop annoying me,” she barked at him and quickly put a mug of coffee in front of him. Ando immediately reached for it, cupping it with both hands. “I'm sorry, you know. About missing your reception and all. I did come to ceremony though. And I’m sorry about the other stuff too. I didn’t mean for things to get this bad.”

Startled, Mako missed the sound of the bell, and the approaching customer. It was Ando who pointed him out to her, and Makoto hurried off to serve him, all the while filing through memories of the service, of the few moments, seconds, really, when her eyes had not been on Hiro and his smile and the rings on their fingers. No, she couldn't remember seeing Ando there, but she did remember Minako excusing him beforehand.

“You really did come to the wedding?”
Mouth finally full with what she assumed was half of the muffin, taken in one bite, Ando nodded.
“I... that's nice. Must have been hard for you.” Ando shrugged, tried to look aloof, and failed. It made Makoto want to give him a hug, but then again, Ando smelled of yesterday's, today's and tomorrow's hangover, so she was just about able to fight back the urge to hug him and handed him a second muffin instead. “Knock yourself out,” she said, tiny smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, and then the morning business really picked up. By the time she had another moment to spare, Ando was gone.

He had left his newspaper, an army of crumbs and a very small blue parcel behind. Sitting on the empty plate next to an equally empty mug and a few coins, it made Makoto feel ashamed and curious at the same time. Hesitantly, she reached for the parcel and unwrapped it.

The blue paper fell away to reveal a delicate silver rattle, most certainly an antique. A yellow post-it had been stuck on it, clashing horribly with the intricate patterns that some patient person had carved into the metal. The handwriting was hard to decipher, but Makoto was used to her husband's scrawling. After a second of squinting, she managed to read the words Ando had scribbled on paper with black fountain pen.

Belated wedding gift for future use. Am always available for baby name consultation. Love, Ando.

She turned the rattle in her hand, and almost unconsciously, reached for the phone she kept behind the counter. She quickly turned the dials, the number of her husband’s shop long since memorised. Hiro answered on the second ring.

“Obuchi furniture, what can I do for you?”
“Hi, it’s me. We need to invite Ando to dinner tomorrow, and then you and I, we will shout at him for the New York thing, and then we will make him eat three helpings of vegetables. And then we can all go for a walk together.”
Hiro was silent for a moment, and then said: “Okay, love, whatever you want.”

And what Makoto wanted very much was to shout at Ando Tanaka and then give him a bone-crushing hug, the smell of yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s hangover be damned.

The End

verse: airmail, fandom: sailor moon, character: makoto, character: jadeite

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