Coffee Shoppe Soundtrack.
Title: Coffee Shoppe Soundtrack
Author: me myself and i. rusted_smiles
Rating:PG
Paring: Jon/Ryan, implied Pete/Patrick
POV: third.
Disclaimer: pure fiction. pure fluff.
Warnings: mild language.
Author Notes: I've been promising silhouettes_die this for months. and, well, here it is. And the title song has nothing to do with the story.
In all the years Jon's been at the coffee shoppe, he had never seen anyone else like this kid. Even before Jon had owned the place, this kid had been coming in for coffee and a new book. He had a pattern. Every three days he would try a new style of coffee, and buy a new book. Jon was quite used to that by now, but what still bothered him, was the fact that the kid stopped talking. It had been six years and Jon thought he should be over it by now, but he wasn't. There was another kid that used to come in with "no-name-silent-boy" (Jon's genius friend Pete came up with that one). Ever since the other kid left, this "silent boy" was, well, exactly that- silent. Jon remembered that in the first year that the kid was coming here, he used to talk, smile, laugh. Jon loved the sound of this kid's laugh. But now, it was like looking at his shell, and it depressed the hell out of Jon.
"Seriously, Jon, stop staring. You're probably freaking the kid out," Pete reminded Jon for the fourth time that week.
"Shut up Pete."
"Come on, man. You need to get over him. You don't even know his name."
"No, Pete. He looks worse than he normally does. I mean, he's always been skinny, but never like this before. I'm really staring to worry."
"He's fine. And why do you care so much? He doesn't even talk anymore. He hasn't said word one besides what coffee he wants in over six years."
"I'm a good person Pete. I can't just ignore the fact that he looks like he hasn't eaten in days, or seen a shower in weeks."
"At least he doesn't smell," Pete muttered through a snort.
"Oh fuck off. Not the point. Pete, I'm really worried."
"He won't talk to you. I still can't see why you care so much."
"Because! Not only is it the right thing to do, but also I can't ignore it. I've seen him every day for the past seven years. You don't just overlook it."
"You ignore me whenever I bring up Patrick. And I've known you for twelve years."
"Yes, but I know you're not homeless, I know you eat and bathe, and you bring up Patrick twenty times a day. And you never listen to me when I give you advice on what to do about Patrick."
Pete rolled his eyes. "Minor details. You still ignore me now. And you've known me five years longer than no-name-silent-boy over there."
Jon sent him a look. His best "shut your mouth before I shove something in it" face. Which after knowing Pete for 12 years, was almost as good as Patrick's, who had lived next door to Pete for 15 years.
"Don't give me that look."
"I'll give you any look I want. Especially when you deserve it."
"Hmph. Someone's a big meanie face today."
"Don't start. Or I'll call Patrick and tell him-"
"Call me and tell me what?" Patrick cut Jon off, as he walked up to the counter.
"Oh hey Pat. Didn't hear you come in. How you doin'?
"Eh. Can I get a cup of coffee?"
"Sure man, on the house."
Before Jon could even get a cup out, Pete already had Patrick's coffee made to order- two sugars, one half-n-half, and one spoon of French vanilla creamer. "Here ya go," Pete said in barely more than a whisper.
"Thanks," Patrick replied with the smallest of smiles.
Jon looked from Patrick, who was now engrossed in his coffee, to Pete, who was staring helplessly at the floor. Jon nudged Pete- " Hey man would you go ask around if anyone wants more coffee, or get the mop out of the back, and start cleaning up the spill over by the window?"
"What spill?"
"Just go."
"Fine." Pete muttered to himself about be a slave child as he grudgingly started to walk away.
Jon turned back to Patrick. "Listen. He told you, and you've got to tell him. It's killing him. You two haven't had a real conversation in months."
"Jon I can't."
"Pat you have to. It's killing him. I've known the two of you for twelve years. He's been head over heals for you for at least nine of them."
"But, Jon, I-"
"Pat, you're my best friend. But you've got to at least talk to him. Or I will."
Pat held a puzzled look on his face, before sighing greatly and shrugging. "Fine. If you must."
Jon looked over at him skeptically, as Patrick started to walk away. That was too easy he thought. "Hey Pat where are you going?" Jon finally noticed what direction he was headed. "Pat, wha-"
Patrick smirked as he pulled up a chair and sat down next to no-name-silent-boy. He tapped the kid on the shoulder, and started to whisper something in the kid's ear. Jon watched in horror, as no-name-silent-boy's face moved through several emotions and shades of color as Pat kept talking.
When he stopped talking, three things happened simultaneously- Pete came out with the mop, still muttering about being a slave; no-name-silent-boy stood up so fast he sent the table flying over and his coffee cup to the floor where it shattered, and no-name-silent-boy screamed- "Fuck! Shit! Holy God!" - and ran out.
Patrick looked up, again with that smirk on his face, and said to Jon, "Look at you Mr. Predict the future," referring to Jon's earlier statement about the spill at the table by the window. He carefully stepped around the mess, and quietly said to Pete "Nice timing," before leaving the shoppe himself.
At that moment, Jon looked as though he could kill.
-7 months later-
"Jon?"
"Hmm?" Jon replied as he turned around and received the shock of a lifetime. It was no-name-silent-boy. He spoke. More surprisingly, he spoke Jon's name. Which Jon never remembers telling him.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, fine, why?"
"I've been standing here waiting for my coffee for ten minutes."
"Fuck. I'm sorry," Jon muttered as he went to get the kid's coffee.
"S'ok." The kid took the coffee and paid Jon for the mocha espresso and the book without another word.
From out of nowhere, Patrick whispered in Jon's ear "So, he speaks again?"
-2 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, and nine hours later-
Jon really didn't want to disturb the kid. He looked so peaceful. Jon had opened up the fireplace in the back of the shoppe, and put some chairs back there for places to sit to warm up during the winter. No-name-silent-boy was curled up in one of the chairs fast asleep. The book he had been reading had fallen to the floor, and his hot chocolate, sat on the table next to him, as a half full cup of now cold chocolate. Jon didn't want to wake him but it was two days before Christmas, and Jon really wanted to go home. The shoppe was gonna be closed for the next few day, so Jon knew he couldn't just leave the kid here; he had to lock up. Jon thought about sleeping there himself, but his brother and sister-in-law were coming over first thing in the morning. He heard the chime above the door ring and someone called in, "Hey, is this place still open?"
Jon came out to the front, saying, "Yeah, but I'm trying to close up for the night."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll -"
"It's alright. What can I get you?"
"Just a cup of coffee.
"Did you ever live around here?" Jon asked as he gave the kid his coffee. "You look really familiar."
"Yeah. I did. About six, no, nearly seven years ago." He paused, and gained a pained look in his eye, almost as if he had seen something that had triggered a memory. "I had to leave. Had to go home to raise my seven younger siblings. My parents died in a freak car accident. I had no choice." His voice cracked as he repeated the last sentence. "I really didn't want to go. Now that the youngest is a junior in high school, I figured she was old enough to spend the holiday with a friend." He stared over Jon's shoulder. "I came back to see if I could do the same. See if I would have any luck finding any of my old friends." He gave a small smile.
Jon opened his mouth to say something, but a weak voice from behind him spoke first. "Well, I guess you had some luck. You found one old friend, but this old friend didn't really want to find you."
"Come on. Don't be like that."
No-name-silent-boy continued to glare at the new/old kid with not a look of anger, but one of anguish.
"Fine." New/old kid shook his head. "If you change your mind, I'm staying at the hotel down the street." He turned to walk out the door. "Goodbye Ryan."
Jon froze. He didn't know what to say. This kid was obviously the reason Ryan had stopped speaking, and had now just hurt him even further by showing up so randomly. Half of Jon wanted to go punch the other kid in the face, while the other half wanted to go pull Ryan into the tightest hug ever. He was so caught up in his own thoughts he nearly missed Ryan's tiny mutter of "At least he said goodbye this time" before running out into the snow. Jon immediately ran after he but he had seemingly disappeared. The only thing Jon did from there was go back and lock the door. He could clean in the morning.
~~~
A depressed Jon is a sight that no one wants to see. Especially his sister-in-law. She hated seeing Jon upset. So when Jon refused to do anything she had no choice but to call in reinforcements.
"Come on, answer," Jon's sister-in-law begged Pete through the phone.
A sleepy "Hello" finally came through.
"Oh good. You're up."
"Barely. What's the matter?"
"Get over here and talk some sense into this boy. I can't take it anymore. He won't even make brownies. He won't even eat those damn spring rolls he loves. Please help."
"Fine. Tell him to meet me at the coffee shop. In an hour."
Just over an hour later Pete was forcing Jon to open the shoppe for the first time in days. For the next few hours Pete forced him to listen to Christmas music, clean and unload the new book shipments that had come in.
"Remind me again why you forced me to do this?"
"Because you have to open up tomorrow. For business. You always reopen three days after Christmas. You have to. You have to know how many people are coming for the New Years party. And don't tell me your gonna cancel that. I won't let you."
Jon gave him a look, which Pete reciprocated. "Don't start that. I'm sure he's fine. Give it up Jon. He's fine. So he has a name. So you met the guy who broke his heart. So it happened the day before Christmas Eve. You've been depressing your brother and sister-in-law for the past three days. Get over it."
"You didn't see his face Pete. I wouldn't be," Jon trailed off as he stared at the door.
"You wouldn't be what?" he asked as he turned around.
Ryan was standing in the doorway of the shoppe. "Are you open?" Jon nodded slowly. "Can I get a cup of coffee?" Again Jon nodded.
"You can come in," Pete said. "And you'll have to wait a few minutes for coffee. We've got to put a fresh pot on."
"That's fine. I've got time. I actually have no place to go."
Pete noticed the bit of uneasiness between the two of them and quietly slipped into the kitchen, and kept his ear pressed to the door to hear every word.
Neither one of them said a word for some time. They stared awkwardly in opposite directions; avoid each other’s gaze as pointedly as possible. The tension increased tenfold as the kept dodging each other. Jon knew that they had to talk about that night, but he didn't want to make things even more awkward.
A weak whisper finally broke out of Jon, which surprised both of them. "How was your Christmas?"
Ryan responded with a small smile and, "If you mean did I go see him again, no I didn't. And if you wanted to know, you just had to ask. I would have told you."
"I-" A small beeping interrupted him. "Coffee's ready. You want it to stay or to go?" Jon still couldn't believe that he had come back, and hoped he would stay.
Ryan smirked before answering. "You know what. I'll take it to go." Jon's face fell.
"I thought you said you had time."
"That was just to get you to make the coffee." Ryan leaned over the counter, grabbed Jon's shirt, and pulled him so that he could whisper in his ear. "I like to keep a little bit of mystery about myself."
He picked up his coffee and winked as he walked out the door into the snow, leaving behind a dumbfounded and very puzzled Jon and Pete.
Pete walked back out of the kitchen, and stared at Jon. The two of them stood there in complete and utter shock, disbelief, and amazement.
A voice broke out of the silence. "Seven years. Seven years, and neither one of you bothered to even ask him his name. And neither of you could see it. Oh well..."
Patrick had walked in as Ryan left. And something in his words struck Jon. Patrick wasn't the only one who could get involved.
"Patrick, wait!" Jon called after him. Patrick turned back around. "We're not the only ones who couldn't see something." Patrick's eyes widened. "It took you until someone declared their love for you to your face that you realized you felt the same way. And even then, you kicked that person out of your house, and out of your life for nearly a year. So, yes, maybe I couldn't see it. Maybe I was shy. But so were you."
Patrick glared at Jon. "Don't glare at me. I told you I would."
"Hold on a minute!" A very confused Pete was looking between the two of hem trying to figure out what exactly was going on. "Are you telling the truth Jon?" he asked finally putting some of the pieces together.
Patrick rushed over and clamped his hand over Jon's mouth. "You'll find out at the New Years party." And with that, he left.
* 3 days later *
New Year's Eve was always a long day for Jon. Open the coffee shoppe at 5:30 am, as always, except that it didn't close at 9:30 or 10:00 pm, when it normally would. It was open all night, and host to a huge New Year's party. So instead of everything calming down, by 9:30 everything was just starting to heat up.
Except for Jon. The ever-gracious host was circulating the room, socializing and taking drink orders, and carrying trays of drinks and snacks around the room. Pete was supposed to be helping him, but Jon didn't see the little bastard anywhere. He was probably off looking to see if Patrick was there yet. Which Jon hadn't had the opportunity to notice.
Time seemed to pass quickly and before everyone knew it, it was quarter to midnight. For Jon, things had started to calm down. A lot of people had left to go to other parties and very few new people cam in. His friends Joe, Marie, Bill, Gabe, Nate, Andy, Cassedee, Sam, Sarah, Cassie, Renee, and Tom were still there. And he finally had found Pete, who had located Patrick, and both of them had very annoyed expressions on their faces. He was glad that that kid hadn't shown up again, but his was also disappointed that he hadn't seen Ryan all night either.
Jon walked around to the other side of the shoppe to see if there was anyone else around who wanted to come see the ball drop on the big projection screen they had set up outside. Yeah it's Chicago, and yeah it's cold, but to watch the countdown and have the midnight kiss, it wasn't too bad to be outside.
It was back by the fireplace that he finally found him. Ryan was sitting in one of the chairs, facing the fire, a warm glow surrounding his face. Jon paused before he said anything. He looked down at his watch. Five minutes to midnight.
"Hey, Ryan?" Jon said gently, and Ryan turned to face him. "Do you wanna come watch the ball drop?" He lifted the arm with watch, and pointing to it said, "Five minutes to midnight."
Ryan nodded and walked out with Jon. They stood together in a comfortable silence, as the countdown started. At twenty second Ryan turned to face Jon better, and at fifteen seconds he grabbed Jon's hand. At ten seconds he started calling out with everyone else; at five seconds he squeezed Jon's fingers.
"THREE! TWO! ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!" Everyone started cheering and the couples broke off for the New Year's kiss.
Jon and Ryan turned to each other. Jon started to say "Happy New Year" or something like that, but Ryan cut him of by grabbing the sides of Jon's face and pulling him in for a kiss. Soft, but passionate. No tongue, just the gentle pressure of lips on lips, moving in time with one another. Jon was surprised at the slight chap of Ryan's lips, and at how well their noses fit together instantly.
They pulled apart long enough for Ryan to blurt out " God, we really have been blind haven't we?" To which the crowd of Jon's onlooking friends yelled various forms of "Yeah!" and "No shit!"
They both laughed, kissed again, and laced their fingers together.
And as they walked inside, Jon caught a very content looking Pete attached to a very pleased looking Patrick. The two of them walked over to Jon and Ryan, hand in hand, and Jon smiled. He whispered to Patrick, "Thanks for finally interfering."
Patrick held a very smug smile as he got pulled away to a less crowded section of the shoppe by a very impatient looking Pete.
*4 days later*
In two separate apartments, about a mile away from each other, the same phrase got yelled simultaneously-
"Hey hon, have you seen my boxers?"
And the same reply was given, in Jon and Patrick's most suggestive voices to their respective boyfriends-
"Do you really think you're gonna need them anytime soon?"