Notes

"The espresso machine is broken. Again."

Riku brought a hand to his face, sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose. It had been a long day, and it was only ten in the morning. Customers in and out, in and out, complaining about running late, mixed up orders, wanting to try new and often-ending-up-disgusting drinks they want replaced, for free. The manager running late, as well as half the shift change employees, so he'd been there since four am when they'd opened. 

Needless to say, he was exhausted. And more than a little fed up. 

Thankfully, his younger, easy going, nothing can wipe the perpetual, aggitating grin off my face co-worker, Sora, had also been there since the early hours of the morning. And despite falling asleep on the counter or machines while waiting for coffee to finish brewing, and making a mess when he overfilled the cups a few times, he'd been his usual upbeat, cheery self. 

Which, in theory, was good for Riku. Even though he wanted to stick the overtly peppy brunnette's head in a blender a couple of times. 

"Gah, it's too early in the morning for this." A growl vibrated the back of his throat, sending chills down Sora's spine. It's not like it was his fault; there had just been too many customers in demand of the old machine. But he knew Riku was under a lot of pressure. One wrong move and his entire base of sanity could snap. 

"Just try and fix it. Please." The elder employee replied between gritted teeth. The younger nodded silently, knowing any extra sound may be... hazardous, to his well being, and went back to trying to repair the equipment.

Finally, after getting through a handful of orders, some of which had to be altered due to the current lack of espresso. (With a promise of a free drink during their next visit, much to his dismay.) A lull had taken over the little campus coffee shop, with a couple customers sipping drinks in their respected corners, and the line to the counter having no one in it for the first time since they'd opened. 

Riku breathed a sigh of relief, almost daring fate to pull that on top of him again. He inwardly prayed fate would back down for once, as he sat in the back and closed his eyes. He was running on two hours of sleep and, ironically, not enough coffee. He wondered where the heck his coworkers were, and why they'd left him and Sora to fend off the enemy alone for a good six hours. He'd already missed two classes, and was going on missing a third. Man, he hoped someone was taking notes for him. That's what college friends are for, right? 

Sora had probably missed four classes by now, but he knew it would be easier for him to get his hands on the missed material. He often wondered how he did it. This was college; not highschool. Everyone wasn't supposed to know and love you, especially not the teachers. Heck, half his professors didn't even remember who he was, and he'd had them for going on three years now. How Sora had woven his way into everyone's hearts was a mystery he would never understand. 

Then again, this was Sora. Was there ever a sense of understanding him?

Riku was just about to fall asleep when he heard a door open and close carelessly. "Heyyy, sorry I'm late." A voice called at a distance, and the young man had to bite back a hiss. 

"Seriously?" Was all he could manage without going so far as to bloody murder the blonde haired twit in the doorway. He was supposed to be here hours ago, along with three other missing parties who were still missing. Instead he was out who knows where goofing off with who knows who. 

"Hey, chill out. I said I was sorry. I had things to do."

"Chill. out. ?" Riku questioned, grinding his teeth and again praying for some anchor of sanity. The blonde could practically see the heat radiating from the silverette's anger-expressed face. "Roxas, you were supposed to be here three hours ago. As well as Axel, whom I'm sure you were with at some point in this day. And Demyx, as assistant manager, you'd think he'd be around when he was supposed to. And I don't even know where Zexion is, and he's the freaking manager. I have been here since four this morning, Sora since five. We've had a slew of non stop customers in and out all day, causing both of us to miss important classes. The machines are running low, a couple of them not even working at the moment, making our jobs that much harder, and making our customers that much more frantic. We're both running low on energy from manning this entire place by ourselves for six or seven hours now, we still have classes to get to, homework to finish, and all you can say is 'sorry'?

"Um. I'm sorry?" The spikey blonde practically questioned approval with a shrug. Riku simply glared, silently, and was more than grateful when his goofy coworker decided to show his face before he pummeled Roxas'.

"Guys, I really gotta go, I can't be late for this exam. Demyx called, he got stalled coming back from some music purchase deal thing, I dunno, but apparently traffic was really heavy in an area he couldn't get any service. He said he's been trying to call for hours, but we haven't gotten anything. I saw Axel heading this way from just down campus. Heh, kind of hard to miss with that freaky fire hair thing he's got going on. Anyway, still haven't heard from Zex yet, but he probably has the better excuse out of any of them. Do you think you can last just a few more minutes while I try not to break my neck as I run to the C.O. wing?"

I will. Roxas might not, but I will. "Yeah, go ahead. I'll stick around til flamesilocks decides to show his ugly mug." It felt weird using Axel, or Lea's second given nickname (the one pegged by Xigbar, the one he despised, which is exactly why it was the one Riku used.) but it felt oddly satisfying at the  moment to verbally attack him when he wasn't here to defend himself. 

"Kay, cool. Also, please don't kill my cousin. I'm kind of responsible for his well being, and I don't want to have to explain to both his and my parents why all that's left of their son/nephew is a mop of blonde hair amongst a puddle of blood soaked coffee beans. Kay?"

Oh. Right. They're related. I forgot.

"...That was surprisingly morbid, cuz." Roxas said with a shudder. "Go on, get out of here. I can take care of myself with old grey hair here." He smirked. 

"No you can't." Sora deadpanned. "But anyway, I'm only making myself later by standing here defending the likes of you." With a smirk, he cried, "Adios, amigos!" One second he was there, the next he was out the door and down the street in a flash. Riku had to chuckle to himself; he wished he had retained some of the energy he'd had when they were kids.

He turned to the blonde, more-irresponsible-than-should-be-at-eighteen year old. "I have to leave soon too. Do you think you and Axel can handle one little coffee shop without burning it and half of campus down?" 

"Ah, I can. Mister Pyromania-for-brains, I'm not too sure about. But I'll try to keep him away from the lighters." Roxas joked, a little more serious than he would have liked.  

"Good." Riku simply nodded. The manchild has a mental obsession with flames. It's really freakish actually.  

A door slammed. "I'M HERE DONT FIRE ME YET."

Speak of the devil.

"Good. You losers can watch the shop, I'm going to class."

"Really? You're gonna leave us alone to defend ourselves against caffeine addicted maniacs?" Axel whined. 

Roxas' eyes widened slightly as he began making frantic "soooo not a good time for wise cracks, you idiot." gestures towards his red headed friend. 
Riku only glared, contemplating whether to kill him now, or wait until he had more time to hide the body. He decided to delay the murder after about twenty seconds of brink-of-death silence.  

"Don't screw up." Was all he had left to say, grabbing his coat and heading out the door.

"What's his problem?" Axel asked, eyebrow raised. 

"You're an idiot." Roxas deadpanned. 

And they got to work.