For runawaydomo: Two sugars and a splash of milk
Title: Two sugars and a splash of milk
For: runawaydomo
Pairings: Various, ([Click if you want to find out which ones]Mark Webber/Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button/Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo/Jean-Eric Vergne and Jules Bianchi/Sam Bird.)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 4122w
Summary: Boys, lattes, inappropriate behaviour and ABBA (Coffeeshop AU)
"Ooh, fresh meat." Deftly avoiding the smack across the back of his head that comes his way from Mark, Jenson sets another tray of pastries down, snagging one of them on his way back to the kitchen. "Delicious."
"No flirting with the freshers!" Mark doesn't bother to modulate his voice, knowing that his newest workers are going to have to adapt to the atmosphere in the cafe sooner rather than later. He watches Dan cart a box of textbooks up the stairs before coming back for more. "What are you grinning at?"
"If Jenson's not allowed to shark in here, means a better chance for the rest of us." Dan's smile only gets wider at Mark's grumbling that he's trying to run a cafe, not a dating service. "Who's the brunette?"
"Jules." Mark turns to watch his newest employee behind the counter, Romain explaining the menu in French. "English is a little off, but he knows how to use the espresso machine and with Jev, Romain and Charles around they can translate if necessary."
"Another French boy?" Dan waggles his eyebrows as Jev walks past him with an expressive eye roll. "Ça m'intéresse!"
"Your accent is atrocious."
Mark deliberately doesn't see the bump of Jev's hip against Dan's that sends him crashing against the staircase and starts another argument about Dan's childbearing hips as he escapes into his office.
Just the start of another university year.
-
When Mark had taken over the struggling coffeeshop just off campus during his final year, after working his way up to manager during his four years there, most of his friends and family had thought he was insane. Even with the shop an obvious success, most of them still thought he was.
It had taken time and a lot of work to get it where he wanted it to be, from the pleasant and sunny cafe filled with students during term time and mothers groups during quieter times, to the small mezzanine bookshop above filled with second-hand textbooks and a selection of stuff you couldn't get from the uni bookshop.
It had taken even longer for the place to start turning a profit.
A cash injection from Jenson had taken him past the foundering first year and his best friend had further helped by delaying the start of a promising pastry chef career to bake brownies and muffins for a crowd more concerned about price point than skill. Still, those brownies had gotten them more attention and the pastry repertoire and good coffee had attracted the office workers that kept their custom going all year round.
Amazingly, for such a student-oriented business, staff turnover has been minimal, something Mark's attributed to a combination of being a student himself when he was setting out the employee rules and Jenson being a soft touch when it comes to a teary eyed excuse. They've got a solid crew now, even with Nico, Lewis and Seb set to leave at the end of the year, Mark's not too worried.
-
He gets a little more worried when he steps inside the cafe the evening before Freshers Fair starts, with what feels like the entire staff running around and getting ready for the busy part of the year after the relative quiet of summer. Everything stops when he walks through the door, which Mark attributes more to the fact that he's holding pizza rather than to his actual presence.
He's glad to see that everyone finishes off their respective tasks before they dig in, happy to see it happen without him and Jenson having to step in and for a few minutes there's a content silence as everyone focuses on the food.
Until the younger members of staff start focusing on Jules instead. It happens every time a new Fresher comes in and Jules is just (un)lucky he's the only one this term. He's at least got an ally in Romain, whose attention is split between texting his girlfriend and defending the other French boy from the teasing of Dan, Jev, Charles and Nico H. At least not everyone is in tonight, because Jules' face looks red enough as it is.
"Look at them, so young, so innocent." Jenson detaches himself from the group of Nico, Lewis and Seb, taking another slice of pizza and sitting down next to Mark. "So annoying."
"You're just getting old, mate. Wouldn't have found it so annoying a few years ago."
"Probably." Mark's prepared for a long, drawn out argument whenever anyone twits Jenson on his age and it's usually good for a laugh, but he's not prepared for the shallow shrug he gets instead. "You know, I haven't flirted with the new boy once. Ok maybe once, but that was just to see if he was a blusher. Must be a sign of maturity."
"It would be the first." Dodging the pepperoni slice that gets flicked at him, Mark's attention turns back towards the others. "So what, just 2nd years and up these days?"
"4th years, at a push. More likely a PhD...maybe I'll even get a chance to go out with someone who isn't a student!" In spite of his declaration, Jenson's eyes flick over to the trio arguing over a shared engineering assignment, but Mark doesn't take it seriously. If Jenson was going to act on Sebastian's obvious crush on him, he would have done it at some point during the last three years, not now. "Could go out with one of the suits who come in for their caffeine fix in the morning, speaking of-"
"No."
"Short, dark and handsome hasn't been in for a while." Jenson's smirking at Mark over the piece of pizza, keeping his voice low so it doesn't carry over to the others. "How is Fernando?"
"I don't know." He tries to keep it light, make it banter rather than just bitter, but Mark can tell from the smugness in Jenson's expression that it's not working. "You've seen more of him than me lately."
"That's because you're anti-social, don't have a life and hide away in your office." Jenson counts off each point on his fingers and sighs when he gets one of Mark's in return. "Look, he doesn't go out of his way on his way to work every morning just for a fucking cup of coffee. Think about it."
"It's a very good cup of coffee."
-
It hasn't been the best of mornings. Lee's called in sick, which means Mark has to be here, on one of the few early mornings he has off, because he's the fucking owner and he gets to have at least some perks.
A delivery arriving early and one arriving late just top the morning off and combined with the morning rush, Mark's already got a pulsating headache. Jenson's not helping either, hiding away in the kitchen and dragging Sebastian with him, insisting he needs a 'helper'.
Luckily, the rest of the staff seem to sense they're one wrong word away from getting sacked and avoid him. By the time he's had an hour behind the counter, he's calmed down enough that the smile plastered on his face for the customers is mostly genuine.
When Fernando walks through the door, it is genuine. It's true, what he told Jenson, him and Fernando are still friends, but with Fernando busy with work and Mark busy with the coffeeshop since they both graduated, he hasn't actually seen that much of him lately.
"Here or takeaway mate?"
He ignores the fact that Jenson is right about the location of the coffeeshop compared to where Fernando lives and works.
"Here, if you can sit down for a minute." It's tempting and Mark is due a break, but they're short-staffed right now and even being the owner doesn't mean you get to be a slacker. "It's not that busy, no?"
"No, it's just-" Sebastian chooses that moment to come through the kitchen doors, or more likely, from the speed at which he's moving and the glimpse of Jenson Mark caught, the moment Jenson chose to shove him through the door. "Looks like cover for my break just arrived."
It is nice, getting this chance to catch up with Fernando, find out what he's been doing. Few uni friendships get to the point where you can not hear from someone for a while, but still pick up where you left off and Mark's happy that his with Fernando is one of them.
He's got more of his own life to update Fernando on than he thought he would, but it's also depressing how much of it revolves around this place and the people who work in it. As much as he loves Jenson, the way he's starting to sound when he talks about him, it sounds like they're married.
Which is a terrifying thought on so many levels.
They've both finished their drinks when suddenly the low background music stops, replaced by 'Fernando', ABBA blaring through the speakers at a much higher volume than the previous song. Mark's glare at Sebastian only gets him a resigned look, the blonde pointing towards the kitchen until Jenson comes out, briefly, to drag him back in before he can replace the CD.
"I'm sorry." Mark rationalises not looking at Fernando by telling himself he needs all his focus and concentration on choosing how he's going to kill Jenson and hide the body. "I'm going to murder him."
"Is OK." The sheer amusement in Fernando's voice has Mark turning around and at least Fernando doesn't look upset, but still. Mark can't remember being this hideously embarrassed for a long time and he's pretty sure the last time involved a stag night, a lot of alcohol and an inflatable kangaroo. "If you murder him, it would be difficult for us to go out?"
"I-yes, probably." He can see Jenson peering through the glass porthole in the kitchen door and has no qualms about showing him the finger. "You could help me hide the body."
"Maybe dinner, instead?"
Maybe he won't kill Jenson quite yet.
-
"No."
"What do you mean no?" It's not the answer Jenson was expecting, especially not from Sebastian. "Seb, come on, one little favour-"
"I like my job and I like being alive, so no." They're the last two people left in the coffeeshop, Nico had been the last to leave, so the bookshop above is silent, Sebastian is charge of closing. "If you want to matchmake Mark, you can do it without me."
"You just don't want him to be happy." It was easy enough to arrange to stick around late, it doesn't happen often, but there are nights when he stays to get his morning prep done early. It just so happens his morning prep tonight is trying to talk Sebastian into helping him with Mark and Fernando. "If he gets laid, he'll be less grumpy. Works out for everyone."
"He'll be happier, after he kills me." Sebastian rolls the mop and bucket back into the cleaning supplies cupboard and gets his coat on, ignoring the puppy dog look on Jenson's face. At least, Jenson's almost sure he's ignoring it, because if he wasn't, well, it would be working. "I'm not doing it."
"Please?" Jenson wraps his arms around Sebastian's waist from behind, pressing his hands against his stomach until Seb's resting against him and Jenson can feel his breath hitch. "I'll make it worth your while."
He should feel bad about using Seb's longstanding crush on him in this way, but Jenson knows that the younger man knows what he'd be getting himself into. He's made no secret of the fact that his dating history is less than pristine, or that his attempts at commitment when he was younger had worked so well that he doesn't even attempt it anymore.
There are just some people who aren't meant to be in relationships and history's proven to Jenson that he's one of them.
"OK." Seb's quiet enough that he misses it the first time, but he hears him loud and clear when the younger man pushes him away, a smirk on his face. "You owe me dinner."
"I don't know Seb, I'm busy and-"
"Tonight."
Jenson can practically hear the alarm bells ringing, but shrugs them off as him and Seb finish up the closing duties together in silence. He likes Seb and doesn't want to ruin the easy camaraderie they have at work, but, at the end of the day, this wasn't his idea. Worst case scenario, if it ends horrifically, Sebastian's graduating at the end of the year and they only have several months of awkwardly avoiding each other.
Except, it doesn't end horrifically, because Jenson genuinely likes Sebastian and if he's honest with himself, this is exactly why he was so careful to avoid dealing with his crush on him. Mark and Seb had rubbed each other the wrong way since the beginning, but each one had tolerated the other for Jenson's sake, even if Jenson had to play the partner card once or twice during Seb's first year at the coffeeshop to keep him employed.
There is one moment that he keeps replaying in his head, late that night, trying to get at least a few hours of sleep before he has to get in to start the baking. It hadn't been a bad kiss, he knows he can kiss and while Jenson had intended it to be brief, there was just something about Seb in that moment that had him going back for more, making it deeper, dirtier.
And Seb had pushed him away.
Gently and with the kind of smile that Jenson knows bodes well for whoever's on the receiving end of it, but he still broke the kiss and caught his bus home, with a wave to Jenson through the window.
He's careful not to refer to any of it the next morning and while he's going to make sure to keep out of Mark's way as much as possible, Jenson can't help being smug about how well his plan's worked. Which is his excuse for pulling Seb back into the kitchen, pressing him up against one of the counters and kissing the living daylights out of him.
Apparently, not giving Seb the space to run was the way to go about this and Jenson loses himself in this, in the little whimpers he forces out of Seb's mouth when he bites down on his lip, the short, staccato moment of his hips against his own. In the end it's Jenson who pulls away, the beeping of the oven timer too urgent to ignore.
By the time he turns back to Seb, he's pulled himself back together again and aside from his mussed hair and the dull flush across his cheeks, you wouldn't be able to tell anything had happened or affected him. It's so aggravating that Jenson moves to put it right again, but Seb slips away, uniform apron coming off as he presses a kiss against Jenson's cheek.
"I've got a late lecture tonight." There's a gleam in Sebastian's eyes that Jenson knows he should be wary of, but what's the harm, really, of a short fling? The way Seb doesn't seem to have a problem brushing him off now, there won't be an issue when he graduates and they can still be friends. "There's a few good films on at the moment though, half price tickets on Wednesday."
"I love a cheap date."
"They'll have to be, I need the money. I managed to get onto the PhD course for next year." If Sebastian sees him freeze, he doesn't say anything and Jenson's more than happy to pretend that the casually dropped bombshell doesn't sent him spinning in a way he thought wasn't possible. Not about some blonde German git who makes terrible jokes that make him laugh anyway and who makes adorable noises when they kiss that Jenson should remember to tease him about the next time they do. "Stipend's tiny, but Mark's already said I can pick up some extra shifts with both Lewis and Nico leaving."
"Right."
Looks like he's back to dating once more. At least Mark can't take the piss, after all, he did say 4th years and PhD students.
-
"Whoa."
"What?" Jev nearly trips over Dan when he stops dead, digging an elbow into his side when he doesn't move. He backs up instead, nearly getting half a dozen nearly empty cups of coffee down the back of his shirt. "Dan, for fucks sake!"
"Yeah, we can't go into the kitchen right now."
In spite of what he says, Dan takes the chance to look through the window in the kitchen door, just to make sure he wasn't imagining it, but no, that was definitely not a hallucination.
"Why not?" Jev's still precariously balancing a tray full of crockery, so Dan moves to set several pieces on the counter, still blocking the way to the door. "Dan, move."
"Jenson and Seb are busy." He laughs when Jev tries to push past him again, taking the tray off him completely and pushing him towards the door. "I mean, they're getting busy."
"Oh." Jev does the exact same thing Dan just did, lingering at the door before pulling away with a laugh. "Not very hygienic, in the kitchen?"
"Well, they haven't done anything that unhygienic...yet." He lets Jev drag him away and they put the dirty trays under the counter for now, Dan keeping a lookout to see if Mark's noticed anything weird. He watches Jev wipe the counter down, slipping his arm around his shoulder and nuzzling at his neck with an overly dramatic sigh. "Now I've lost my chance with the two of them, looks like Jules is my only option."
"You never had a chance with either of them." Jev shrugs Dan's hand off him and gives him the kind of withering look that has normal men wincing, but Dan keeps smiling, he knows Jev well enough by now to know that the lack of reaction will just annoy him more. "Besides, you should leave Jules alone. He doesn't know you well enough to know you're not serious."
"What if I am being serious?" He's not, but winding up Jev is one of Dan's favourite activities, even if it's not the ‘pigtail pulling' Mark always accuses him off when he pushes the Frenchman too far. "I need to work on my French and he's cute."
He gets to work properly, clearing all the tables after the morning rush, leaving Jev to stew behind the till. It doesn't take long, only a few customers worth, before Jev's cornering him when he's got another full tray to take to the kitchen whenever Jenson and Seb are done.
"If you need help with your French, I'm free Tuesday." It sounds casual, but Dan can feel Jev's gaze trained on him, but he doesn't turn around, knowing the grin stretched across his face is likely to get him into trouble again. "Romain will probably be staying at Marion's."
"What if I want more from a cute French boy than language tutoring?"
Dan expects some kind of retaliation, but the tea towel snapped at the back of his neck is a new move, and he didn't really need every customer in the cafe turning around at his surprised yelp. Never mind the fact that Jev looks unbelievably smug.
"For that, you have to work a lot harder."
-
The teasing is something Romain warned him about and Jules can handle that, a few weeks into the job and he's more settled, in his job and in the student life in general, enough that he can now give as good as he gets.
The flirting though, is something else altogether and he still hasn't figured out how not to react, how to laugh it off like most of the others do. He'd like to cultivate the kind of expressive LOOK Lee has whenever Sebastian tries anything, but she's both a manager and doesn't start blushing the moment someone says something dirty (usually Sebastian, the others seem to have a higher level of self-preservation).
It's not a gay thing either, they'd all done it before that LGBTQ club night where Dan had spotted him and dragged him around, introducing him as 'another hot French dude.' It happens with the girls too, Alice and Vicky both dealing with it in different ways, but neither of their reactions give the others fodder like his seem to.
"It's because you're the only new one." Sam whispers, mainly because they're in the library and Sam is working, even if he is gossiping while helping Jules find a book. "They'll get it out of their systems once you've been there a while."
"You think so?"
They're not on the same course, but he'd met Sam in one of those huge lectures that several courses share, and where no one really knows each other yet. They'd then gone on to get really, really drunk together during Freshers week and as far as Jules is concerned, if someone's still talking to you after you've thrown up on their new trainers, that makes them a friend.
"Yeah, of course." Sam hesitates before handing him the last book on his list, examining it closely, probably to check he hasn't missed something off it. "You could actually go for it, I guess. Flirt back and see what happens, some of them are fit, go out and see what happens then?"
"I don't..."
It's not that he hasn't thought about it, but in spite of all the flirting and attention seeking, Jules isn't sure what would happen if he actually played along. Romain is straight of course, Jules' had dinner at his place with his girlfriend and he's obviously head over heels for Marion.
Mark is his boss, too old and isn't even one of the ones who flirt with him. Plus he's clearly got something going with one of the cafe regulars, even if Jules isn't confident enough to tease the boss, Jenson has no such scruples.
Now, Jenson does occasionally flirt with him, but then he flirts with everyone and every time he does, Sebastian watches him like a hawk, so unlike the adoring look on his face when Jenson's attention is on him. Sebastian flirts too, but he never looks at anyone else the same way he does at Jenson.
And if Sebastian would kill him if he seriously responded to Jenson's flirting, he's pretty sure Dan would come close to the same, if he did the same with Jean-Eric. Jules isn't sure what Jean-Eric would do, if he went on a date with Dan, but he's sure it wouldn't be pleasant for him.
"I just don't see the point. I don't think I'd want to go out with any of them anyway and it would just make things awkward at work." He can feel his face getting hot when Sam raises an eyebrow at him, but he can laugh it off, punching him in the shoulder. "Fine, more awkward."
-
The next day, the morning rush is almost over when Sam turns up, ordering tea to go, which is weird, because Jules knows he can't have anything but bottled water in the library. He gets his drink and now that it's calmer, he knows Mark or Jenson wouldn't mind if he had a chat with a friend, but Sam is strangely quiet, fiddling with the used tea bag before binning it.
"I was just wondering..." Sam's gaze is flitting around the cafe, pausing on those of Jules' co-workers who are there before it settles on him again. "If you'd like to go out on Saturday?"
"Saturday?" There's not really anything on that Saturday night that either they or their friends would really be into, the union taken over for some speciality music night that they'd already mocked viciously. It sinks in then and Jules wishes he couldn't tell when he was blushing, because Sam is probably just trying to help. Still, if this was just Sam helping him out at work, he probably wouldn't look this nervous. "Like a date?"
"Yeah, like a date." Sam's clutching his takeaway cup like he just wants to leg it out of there, but there's a smile on his face that makes Jules' stomach do a little flip and he can't help hoping this isn't just Sam trying to make life easier for him. "Cinema, then grab some food after?"
"Sure, I'll give you a call later."
The door barely closes behind Sam before the catcalls start, but Jules can laugh at these, especially now he has Saturday night to look forward to.
For: runawaydomo
Pairings: Various, ([Click if you want to find out which ones]Mark Webber/Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button/Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo/Jean-Eric Vergne and Jules Bianchi/Sam Bird.)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 4122w
Summary: Boys, lattes, inappropriate behaviour and ABBA (Coffeeshop AU)
"Ooh, fresh meat." Deftly avoiding the smack across the back of his head that comes his way from Mark, Jenson sets another tray of pastries down, snagging one of them on his way back to the kitchen. "Delicious."
"No flirting with the freshers!" Mark doesn't bother to modulate his voice, knowing that his newest workers are going to have to adapt to the atmosphere in the cafe sooner rather than later. He watches Dan cart a box of textbooks up the stairs before coming back for more. "What are you grinning at?"
"If Jenson's not allowed to shark in here, means a better chance for the rest of us." Dan's smile only gets wider at Mark's grumbling that he's trying to run a cafe, not a dating service. "Who's the brunette?"
"Jules." Mark turns to watch his newest employee behind the counter, Romain explaining the menu in French. "English is a little off, but he knows how to use the espresso machine and with Jev, Romain and Charles around they can translate if necessary."
"Another French boy?" Dan waggles his eyebrows as Jev walks past him with an expressive eye roll. "Ça m'intéresse!"
"Your accent is atrocious."
Mark deliberately doesn't see the bump of Jev's hip against Dan's that sends him crashing against the staircase and starts another argument about Dan's childbearing hips as he escapes into his office.
Just the start of another university year.
-
When Mark had taken over the struggling coffeeshop just off campus during his final year, after working his way up to manager during his four years there, most of his friends and family had thought he was insane. Even with the shop an obvious success, most of them still thought he was.
It had taken time and a lot of work to get it where he wanted it to be, from the pleasant and sunny cafe filled with students during term time and mothers groups during quieter times, to the small mezzanine bookshop above filled with second-hand textbooks and a selection of stuff you couldn't get from the uni bookshop.
It had taken even longer for the place to start turning a profit.
A cash injection from Jenson had taken him past the foundering first year and his best friend had further helped by delaying the start of a promising pastry chef career to bake brownies and muffins for a crowd more concerned about price point than skill. Still, those brownies had gotten them more attention and the pastry repertoire and good coffee had attracted the office workers that kept their custom going all year round.
Amazingly, for such a student-oriented business, staff turnover has been minimal, something Mark's attributed to a combination of being a student himself when he was setting out the employee rules and Jenson being a soft touch when it comes to a teary eyed excuse. They've got a solid crew now, even with Nico, Lewis and Seb set to leave at the end of the year, Mark's not too worried.
-
He gets a little more worried when he steps inside the cafe the evening before Freshers Fair starts, with what feels like the entire staff running around and getting ready for the busy part of the year after the relative quiet of summer. Everything stops when he walks through the door, which Mark attributes more to the fact that he's holding pizza rather than to his actual presence.
He's glad to see that everyone finishes off their respective tasks before they dig in, happy to see it happen without him and Jenson having to step in and for a few minutes there's a content silence as everyone focuses on the food.
Until the younger members of staff start focusing on Jules instead. It happens every time a new Fresher comes in and Jules is just (un)lucky he's the only one this term. He's at least got an ally in Romain, whose attention is split between texting his girlfriend and defending the other French boy from the teasing of Dan, Jev, Charles and Nico H. At least not everyone is in tonight, because Jules' face looks red enough as it is.
"Look at them, so young, so innocent." Jenson detaches himself from the group of Nico, Lewis and Seb, taking another slice of pizza and sitting down next to Mark. "So annoying."
"You're just getting old, mate. Wouldn't have found it so annoying a few years ago."
"Probably." Mark's prepared for a long, drawn out argument whenever anyone twits Jenson on his age and it's usually good for a laugh, but he's not prepared for the shallow shrug he gets instead. "You know, I haven't flirted with the new boy once. Ok maybe once, but that was just to see if he was a blusher. Must be a sign of maturity."
"It would be the first." Dodging the pepperoni slice that gets flicked at him, Mark's attention turns back towards the others. "So what, just 2nd years and up these days?"
"4th years, at a push. More likely a PhD...maybe I'll even get a chance to go out with someone who isn't a student!" In spite of his declaration, Jenson's eyes flick over to the trio arguing over a shared engineering assignment, but Mark doesn't take it seriously. If Jenson was going to act on Sebastian's obvious crush on him, he would have done it at some point during the last three years, not now. "Could go out with one of the suits who come in for their caffeine fix in the morning, speaking of-"
"No."
"Short, dark and handsome hasn't been in for a while." Jenson's smirking at Mark over the piece of pizza, keeping his voice low so it doesn't carry over to the others. "How is Fernando?"
"I don't know." He tries to keep it light, make it banter rather than just bitter, but Mark can tell from the smugness in Jenson's expression that it's not working. "You've seen more of him than me lately."
"That's because you're anti-social, don't have a life and hide away in your office." Jenson counts off each point on his fingers and sighs when he gets one of Mark's in return. "Look, he doesn't go out of his way on his way to work every morning just for a fucking cup of coffee. Think about it."
"It's a very good cup of coffee."
-
It hasn't been the best of mornings. Lee's called in sick, which means Mark has to be here, on one of the few early mornings he has off, because he's the fucking owner and he gets to have at least some perks.
A delivery arriving early and one arriving late just top the morning off and combined with the morning rush, Mark's already got a pulsating headache. Jenson's not helping either, hiding away in the kitchen and dragging Sebastian with him, insisting he needs a 'helper'.
Luckily, the rest of the staff seem to sense they're one wrong word away from getting sacked and avoid him. By the time he's had an hour behind the counter, he's calmed down enough that the smile plastered on his face for the customers is mostly genuine.
When Fernando walks through the door, it is genuine. It's true, what he told Jenson, him and Fernando are still friends, but with Fernando busy with work and Mark busy with the coffeeshop since they both graduated, he hasn't actually seen that much of him lately.
"Here or takeaway mate?"
He ignores the fact that Jenson is right about the location of the coffeeshop compared to where Fernando lives and works.
"Here, if you can sit down for a minute." It's tempting and Mark is due a break, but they're short-staffed right now and even being the owner doesn't mean you get to be a slacker. "It's not that busy, no?"
"No, it's just-" Sebastian chooses that moment to come through the kitchen doors, or more likely, from the speed at which he's moving and the glimpse of Jenson Mark caught, the moment Jenson chose to shove him through the door. "Looks like cover for my break just arrived."
It is nice, getting this chance to catch up with Fernando, find out what he's been doing. Few uni friendships get to the point where you can not hear from someone for a while, but still pick up where you left off and Mark's happy that his with Fernando is one of them.
He's got more of his own life to update Fernando on than he thought he would, but it's also depressing how much of it revolves around this place and the people who work in it. As much as he loves Jenson, the way he's starting to sound when he talks about him, it sounds like they're married.
Which is a terrifying thought on so many levels.
They've both finished their drinks when suddenly the low background music stops, replaced by 'Fernando', ABBA blaring through the speakers at a much higher volume than the previous song. Mark's glare at Sebastian only gets him a resigned look, the blonde pointing towards the kitchen until Jenson comes out, briefly, to drag him back in before he can replace the CD.
"I'm sorry." Mark rationalises not looking at Fernando by telling himself he needs all his focus and concentration on choosing how he's going to kill Jenson and hide the body. "I'm going to murder him."
"Is OK." The sheer amusement in Fernando's voice has Mark turning around and at least Fernando doesn't look upset, but still. Mark can't remember being this hideously embarrassed for a long time and he's pretty sure the last time involved a stag night, a lot of alcohol and an inflatable kangaroo. "If you murder him, it would be difficult for us to go out?"
"I-yes, probably." He can see Jenson peering through the glass porthole in the kitchen door and has no qualms about showing him the finger. "You could help me hide the body."
"Maybe dinner, instead?"
Maybe he won't kill Jenson quite yet.
-
"No."
"What do you mean no?" It's not the answer Jenson was expecting, especially not from Sebastian. "Seb, come on, one little favour-"
"I like my job and I like being alive, so no." They're the last two people left in the coffeeshop, Nico had been the last to leave, so the bookshop above is silent, Sebastian is charge of closing. "If you want to matchmake Mark, you can do it without me."
"You just don't want him to be happy." It was easy enough to arrange to stick around late, it doesn't happen often, but there are nights when he stays to get his morning prep done early. It just so happens his morning prep tonight is trying to talk Sebastian into helping him with Mark and Fernando. "If he gets laid, he'll be less grumpy. Works out for everyone."
"He'll be happier, after he kills me." Sebastian rolls the mop and bucket back into the cleaning supplies cupboard and gets his coat on, ignoring the puppy dog look on Jenson's face. At least, Jenson's almost sure he's ignoring it, because if he wasn't, well, it would be working. "I'm not doing it."
"Please?" Jenson wraps his arms around Sebastian's waist from behind, pressing his hands against his stomach until Seb's resting against him and Jenson can feel his breath hitch. "I'll make it worth your while."
He should feel bad about using Seb's longstanding crush on him in this way, but Jenson knows that the younger man knows what he'd be getting himself into. He's made no secret of the fact that his dating history is less than pristine, or that his attempts at commitment when he was younger had worked so well that he doesn't even attempt it anymore.
There are just some people who aren't meant to be in relationships and history's proven to Jenson that he's one of them.
"OK." Seb's quiet enough that he misses it the first time, but he hears him loud and clear when the younger man pushes him away, a smirk on his face. "You owe me dinner."
"I don't know Seb, I'm busy and-"
"Tonight."
Jenson can practically hear the alarm bells ringing, but shrugs them off as him and Seb finish up the closing duties together in silence. He likes Seb and doesn't want to ruin the easy camaraderie they have at work, but, at the end of the day, this wasn't his idea. Worst case scenario, if it ends horrifically, Sebastian's graduating at the end of the year and they only have several months of awkwardly avoiding each other.
Except, it doesn't end horrifically, because Jenson genuinely likes Sebastian and if he's honest with himself, this is exactly why he was so careful to avoid dealing with his crush on him. Mark and Seb had rubbed each other the wrong way since the beginning, but each one had tolerated the other for Jenson's sake, even if Jenson had to play the partner card once or twice during Seb's first year at the coffeeshop to keep him employed.
There is one moment that he keeps replaying in his head, late that night, trying to get at least a few hours of sleep before he has to get in to start the baking. It hadn't been a bad kiss, he knows he can kiss and while Jenson had intended it to be brief, there was just something about Seb in that moment that had him going back for more, making it deeper, dirtier.
And Seb had pushed him away.
Gently and with the kind of smile that Jenson knows bodes well for whoever's on the receiving end of it, but he still broke the kiss and caught his bus home, with a wave to Jenson through the window.
He's careful not to refer to any of it the next morning and while he's going to make sure to keep out of Mark's way as much as possible, Jenson can't help being smug about how well his plan's worked. Which is his excuse for pulling Seb back into the kitchen, pressing him up against one of the counters and kissing the living daylights out of him.
Apparently, not giving Seb the space to run was the way to go about this and Jenson loses himself in this, in the little whimpers he forces out of Seb's mouth when he bites down on his lip, the short, staccato moment of his hips against his own. In the end it's Jenson who pulls away, the beeping of the oven timer too urgent to ignore.
By the time he turns back to Seb, he's pulled himself back together again and aside from his mussed hair and the dull flush across his cheeks, you wouldn't be able to tell anything had happened or affected him. It's so aggravating that Jenson moves to put it right again, but Seb slips away, uniform apron coming off as he presses a kiss against Jenson's cheek.
"I've got a late lecture tonight." There's a gleam in Sebastian's eyes that Jenson knows he should be wary of, but what's the harm, really, of a short fling? The way Seb doesn't seem to have a problem brushing him off now, there won't be an issue when he graduates and they can still be friends. "There's a few good films on at the moment though, half price tickets on Wednesday."
"I love a cheap date."
"They'll have to be, I need the money. I managed to get onto the PhD course for next year." If Sebastian sees him freeze, he doesn't say anything and Jenson's more than happy to pretend that the casually dropped bombshell doesn't sent him spinning in a way he thought wasn't possible. Not about some blonde German git who makes terrible jokes that make him laugh anyway and who makes adorable noises when they kiss that Jenson should remember to tease him about the next time they do. "Stipend's tiny, but Mark's already said I can pick up some extra shifts with both Lewis and Nico leaving."
"Right."
Looks like he's back to dating once more. At least Mark can't take the piss, after all, he did say 4th years and PhD students.
-
"Whoa."
"What?" Jev nearly trips over Dan when he stops dead, digging an elbow into his side when he doesn't move. He backs up instead, nearly getting half a dozen nearly empty cups of coffee down the back of his shirt. "Dan, for fucks sake!"
"Yeah, we can't go into the kitchen right now."
In spite of what he says, Dan takes the chance to look through the window in the kitchen door, just to make sure he wasn't imagining it, but no, that was definitely not a hallucination.
"Why not?" Jev's still precariously balancing a tray full of crockery, so Dan moves to set several pieces on the counter, still blocking the way to the door. "Dan, move."
"Jenson and Seb are busy." He laughs when Jev tries to push past him again, taking the tray off him completely and pushing him towards the door. "I mean, they're getting busy."
"Oh." Jev does the exact same thing Dan just did, lingering at the door before pulling away with a laugh. "Not very hygienic, in the kitchen?"
"Well, they haven't done anything that unhygienic...yet." He lets Jev drag him away and they put the dirty trays under the counter for now, Dan keeping a lookout to see if Mark's noticed anything weird. He watches Jev wipe the counter down, slipping his arm around his shoulder and nuzzling at his neck with an overly dramatic sigh. "Now I've lost my chance with the two of them, looks like Jules is my only option."
"You never had a chance with either of them." Jev shrugs Dan's hand off him and gives him the kind of withering look that has normal men wincing, but Dan keeps smiling, he knows Jev well enough by now to know that the lack of reaction will just annoy him more. "Besides, you should leave Jules alone. He doesn't know you well enough to know you're not serious."
"What if I am being serious?" He's not, but winding up Jev is one of Dan's favourite activities, even if it's not the ‘pigtail pulling' Mark always accuses him off when he pushes the Frenchman too far. "I need to work on my French and he's cute."
He gets to work properly, clearing all the tables after the morning rush, leaving Jev to stew behind the till. It doesn't take long, only a few customers worth, before Jev's cornering him when he's got another full tray to take to the kitchen whenever Jenson and Seb are done.
"If you need help with your French, I'm free Tuesday." It sounds casual, but Dan can feel Jev's gaze trained on him, but he doesn't turn around, knowing the grin stretched across his face is likely to get him into trouble again. "Romain will probably be staying at Marion's."
"What if I want more from a cute French boy than language tutoring?"
Dan expects some kind of retaliation, but the tea towel snapped at the back of his neck is a new move, and he didn't really need every customer in the cafe turning around at his surprised yelp. Never mind the fact that Jev looks unbelievably smug.
"For that, you have to work a lot harder."
-
The teasing is something Romain warned him about and Jules can handle that, a few weeks into the job and he's more settled, in his job and in the student life in general, enough that he can now give as good as he gets.
The flirting though, is something else altogether and he still hasn't figured out how not to react, how to laugh it off like most of the others do. He'd like to cultivate the kind of expressive LOOK Lee has whenever Sebastian tries anything, but she's both a manager and doesn't start blushing the moment someone says something dirty (usually Sebastian, the others seem to have a higher level of self-preservation).
It's not a gay thing either, they'd all done it before that LGBTQ club night where Dan had spotted him and dragged him around, introducing him as 'another hot French dude.' It happens with the girls too, Alice and Vicky both dealing with it in different ways, but neither of their reactions give the others fodder like his seem to.
"It's because you're the only new one." Sam whispers, mainly because they're in the library and Sam is working, even if he is gossiping while helping Jules find a book. "They'll get it out of their systems once you've been there a while."
"You think so?"
They're not on the same course, but he'd met Sam in one of those huge lectures that several courses share, and where no one really knows each other yet. They'd then gone on to get really, really drunk together during Freshers week and as far as Jules is concerned, if someone's still talking to you after you've thrown up on their new trainers, that makes them a friend.
"Yeah, of course." Sam hesitates before handing him the last book on his list, examining it closely, probably to check he hasn't missed something off it. "You could actually go for it, I guess. Flirt back and see what happens, some of them are fit, go out and see what happens then?"
"I don't..."
It's not that he hasn't thought about it, but in spite of all the flirting and attention seeking, Jules isn't sure what would happen if he actually played along. Romain is straight of course, Jules' had dinner at his place with his girlfriend and he's obviously head over heels for Marion.
Mark is his boss, too old and isn't even one of the ones who flirt with him. Plus he's clearly got something going with one of the cafe regulars, even if Jules isn't confident enough to tease the boss, Jenson has no such scruples.
Now, Jenson does occasionally flirt with him, but then he flirts with everyone and every time he does, Sebastian watches him like a hawk, so unlike the adoring look on his face when Jenson's attention is on him. Sebastian flirts too, but he never looks at anyone else the same way he does at Jenson.
And if Sebastian would kill him if he seriously responded to Jenson's flirting, he's pretty sure Dan would come close to the same, if he did the same with Jean-Eric. Jules isn't sure what Jean-Eric would do, if he went on a date with Dan, but he's sure it wouldn't be pleasant for him.
"I just don't see the point. I don't think I'd want to go out with any of them anyway and it would just make things awkward at work." He can feel his face getting hot when Sam raises an eyebrow at him, but he can laugh it off, punching him in the shoulder. "Fine, more awkward."
-
The next day, the morning rush is almost over when Sam turns up, ordering tea to go, which is weird, because Jules knows he can't have anything but bottled water in the library. He gets his drink and now that it's calmer, he knows Mark or Jenson wouldn't mind if he had a chat with a friend, but Sam is strangely quiet, fiddling with the used tea bag before binning it.
"I was just wondering..." Sam's gaze is flitting around the cafe, pausing on those of Jules' co-workers who are there before it settles on him again. "If you'd like to go out on Saturday?"
"Saturday?" There's not really anything on that Saturday night that either they or their friends would really be into, the union taken over for some speciality music night that they'd already mocked viciously. It sinks in then and Jules wishes he couldn't tell when he was blushing, because Sam is probably just trying to help. Still, if this was just Sam helping him out at work, he probably wouldn't look this nervous. "Like a date?"
"Yeah, like a date." Sam's clutching his takeaway cup like he just wants to leg it out of there, but there's a smile on his face that makes Jules' stomach do a little flip and he can't help hoping this isn't just Sam trying to make life easier for him. "Cinema, then grab some food after?"
"Sure, I'll give you a call later."
The door barely closes behind Sam before the catcalls start, but Jules can laugh at these, especially now he has Saturday night to look forward to.