Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Crash!

“Whoopsies! Now, to get another one…”

Noire’s fist clenched, as the lavender haired girl behind the counter dropped the second empty cup in as many minutes, and it was really testing her patience. It wasn’t even her order that kept getting sidetracked by breaking pottery, but the longer the clumsy idiot delayed the simple latte , the longer it would be until Noire could order her own morning dose of caffeine, and she really wasn’t in the mood for waiting. 

Gradually starting to regret following Vert’s recommendation and checking out the small independent coffee shop, the ravenette debated whether she should leave and look for another place for her fix, when finally she heard the faint click of ceramic on the counter and the ditzy lavendette put down a cup of, admittedly, very good looking and smelling Latte Macchiato. 

“Thanks, Nep-Nep! You alright back there? Didn’t cut yourself or anything?” 

The girl with the flowing peach hair and the knit sweater accepted her cup, and Noire had to forcibly stop herself from screaming, because now she was chatting, and this was going to take even longer!

Thankfully, the idiot just waved off the concerned words with a carefree grin.

“Nah, dontcha worry your pretty head, Compa. Now I better take that lady’s order, don’t want her exploding all over our counter.” 

The other girl nodded and walked over to one of the tables, still occasionally throwing concerned glances towards the counter. But Noire didn’t really pay any more attention to the other customer, as she was getting ready to vent all of her frustration on the stupid girl behind the counter- 

“As pretty as those red eyes are, they look much better in your face than they would flying around the room. Heh. Anyway, welcome to the Planeptune Café! What can I get you?”  

And promptly descended into a blushing mess as the barista’s words registered in her mind. Even coupled with such a morbid joke, the unexpected compliment completely crashed the raven-haired girl’s train of thought, and all she could get out was a garbled mess:

“I-ah- what? P-p-pretty eyes? Wha-, you- coffee.”

The purplette, whose name was apparently Neptune, according to her nametag, tilted her head in confusion, and then burst out into giggles. 

“Coffee? Well, we’ve got lotsa that here.” She leaned over the counter with an amused smirk on her face. “You’ll have to be a little more specific than that, girl.” 

With a tremendous effort, Noire managed to get herself under control, though the burning in her cheeks didn’t go away in the slightest, not with how close the shorter girl was suddenly. But her pride did not permit Noire to back away, and so she stood, face mere inches apart from the smirking barista, and made her order. 

“A caramel macchiato, with little syrup. A-and don’t you drop it!” Noire added, with all the determination she could muster, and looked the other girl straight in the eyes, which were an intriguingly dark shade of purple.

Don’t just compliment my eyes when your own are so beautiful… wait. Did I really just think that?

Noire felt her blush deepen even more, the burning heat now reaching all the way up to the tips of her ears, as she almost lost herself in Neptune’s deep purple orbs.

They stood there for a moment, until Neptune suddenly yawned, and that broke the eye contact and thus the tension that had held them both ensnared. As the barista quickly turned away, Noire noticed two things about her face that she had previously missed: she had heavy bags under her eyes, inexpertly hidden beneath her makeup, and her cheeks were flushed a rosy pink. 

“Err… yeah. It’ll take a bit, why don’t you sit down and I’ll bring it to you?” 

She hesitated for a moment, face still turned away, and then asked, almost hopefully: “What’s your name?” 

“N… Um… Noire. I’m Noire.” 

What is wrong with me? Why am I getting so flustered over this? She’s just asking for my name to write on the order. They always do! 

Neptune acknowledged with a nod and seemed to gather what little professionalism she possessed again. 

“Alrighty then, Noire. Take a seat, I’ll get this to ya when it’s done.” She started to busy herself with the cups and ingredients, and Noire walked over to a table in the back of the little shop. 

Once arrived, she set up her laptop and tried to make some headway with her study project, but since her eyes still kept falling shut on their own, that was a difficult proposition at best. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the soft sounds of footsteps and clattering of a porcelain cup on it’s saucer heralded the arrival of Neptune, bearing the business student’s much needed caffeine. This sweet symphony of hope was brought to a sudden, brutal end with a thunk sound of foot hitting wood, and the surprised shout of a girl.

Brought out of her appreciation of the heavenly scent of caramel and caffeine (and totally not slacking off), Noire looked up just in time to notice the heavy mug coming straight at her face, and then there was pain. 

Hit right between the eyes by the flying cup, Noire’s head was thrown back, met with the wall behind her, and decided that now was a good time to stop worrying about trivial things like maintaining upright posture, or paying attention to her surroundings.

Instead, her brain reasoned, now was an excellent time to escape the intense burning sensation all over the right side of her body by introducing the numbness that was spreading through her head from the two points of impact to her sleep deprivation. 

Also, the chairs in the Cafe were really soft.

Chapter Text

When Noire came to, the first thing that registered in her mind was that the softness was gone. 

Well, not gone, per se, but much diminished. Before she could get farther in her ruminations on the nature of the surface she rested on, the rest of her body started to make a status report. Her head was pounding again, the impact points at the front and back of her skull throbbed to the rhythm of her heartbeat. 

Away from her head, war had broken out on her right shoulder and chest between a horrible, pulsing burning sensation and swirling fronts of pleasant coldness. And on top of everything the drowsiness that had haunted her ever since the construction site across the road had chased her from her bed still clouded her thoughts. 

The world, of course, wasn’t content to give Noire the time to assess her condition in peace. Almost as soon as she started, a vaguely familiar voice invaded her ears, faint in reality but far too loud for her aching head. 

“... be okay. Please be okay, we can't afford a lawsuit, please be okay!” 

“Calm down, Nep-Nep! She’ll be okay, you got the shirt off in time, there’ll be no big burns I’m sure.”

The soothing voice was also vaguely familiar, and as her brain finished booting up what little consciousness Noire was capable of at the moment, she recognized it as that of the other customer. There was another bit of information in there that seemed somehow important, but right now she just wanted the noise to stop. 

“Stop… talking. You're loud…” 

Was all the scathing rebuke the dizzy girl could manage at the moment. 

“Oops, sorry… but yay, you're awake again!” the voice, which Noire’s brain had finally managed to recognize as belonging to the barista, Neptune, dropped to a more amenable volume, but lost none of it’s panicked speed and tone. 

“I’m super sorry about all that, you're getting a replacement coffee for free of course, and I’ll wash your shirt and everything, so please don’t be mad?” 

The urgent pleading was accompanied by the sound of shuffling movement and clothes rustling,  Noire suddenly realized that she still couldn't see anything. 

Open up your eyes, you moron! She scolded herself.

But following through on that provided her with another point of shock. It took her a moment to figure out why her field of view seemed to be awfully shallow. She closed and opened her eyes separately a few times to make sure, before coming to an awful realization. 

“What’s with my eye?!” 

The question came out in more of a panicked squeak than the imperious tone she usually took, but her tired, scared brain hadn't had time to parse the sudden realization by her social filters before expressing her concern. Her right eye was completely dark, devoid of vision even when she opened it. She wanted to reach up and check on instinct,  but her tired and burned body wouldn't react quite the way she wanted and barely twitched her fingers.  

When the answer came, it was from the sweater girl, with a note of guilt in her voice. 

“Ahhh, I may have overdone it a bit with the bandages…. Sorry about that. Nep Nep was super worried about your eyes and I didn't want to take any chances…” 

Vision out of Noire’s left eye slowly resolved, and she found herself staring at the bottom end of some shelves, filled with boxes and bags of coffee, as well as the kneeling forms of the two girls who were evidently taking care of her. The peach-haired girl had an opened, notably empty first-aid kit in her hands and was nervously fiddling with the lid, while Neptune…. 

Was she crying?!  

Noire’s gaze had first been drawn to the small girl’s beautiful eyes again, and she immediately noticed that the haphazard makeup had been smeared, exposing the dark shadows of exhaustion and what looked like tear tracks on her cheeks. It really did look like she had been crying, and through the pain and confusion one thought rose to the surface of the student's mind: Being upset really did not fit this girl. Her face should be showing a beautiful smile at all times. 

She barely managed to keep the treacherous thought to herself, as the purple-haired barista broke into another panicked rant. 

“Your eyes are so pretty, and I know you can get burns from fresh coffee because I got some before, so I didn't want that to happen, but there was coffee all over you, and your skin was going red and you were out cold, so I panicked a little. But Compa helped me bring you back here and we got the soaked shirt off and you shouldn't be getting any lasting burns, so I hope you don’t sue us, and I’m really glad you're awake now… “ 

As the sweet idiot prattled on, one fact came into sharp, shocking focus… 

Her shirt… was gone!

“Aaahhhh!!!” 

The startled scream escaped Noire's mouth unbidden as the reality of being shirtless in front of two very cute girls crashed it's way straight into her brain and took up residence there, demanding attention. 

Adrenaline spiking, Noire's body finally decided to respond to her commands as she sat up and crossed her arms in front of her chest to try and preserve what little modesty she had left after this disaster. 

“You-you-youuu … you stripped me!!” 

The sweater girl ( Compa , her mind fished from the previous conversation) looked a bit guilty, but her voice was firm when she responded:

“I'm sorry about that, but they were soaked with hot coffee, so we had to get them off so you wouldn't get any worse burns. Second-degree burns are very serious, you know? Nep Nep was very worried so I was extra thorough.” 

“I'm sooo sorry, I didn't want you to get burns, you've got a rockin bod’ and it'd have been a  shame to ruin it, but I didn't want to embarass you, I'm really super sorry and I swear I'll make it up to you somehow so please don't be mad?” 

Neptune's panicked rambling trailed off into a hopeful question, and the sheer adorableness of her puppy-like expression almost melted through Noire's anxiety right there. 

“I'm not, I'm not angry anymore, jeez…” 

Noire laid herself back down again, trying to grasp the totality of the situation with her overloaded brain. There were so many thoughts and emotions swirling through her that it was very difficult to focus on anything except the voice and face of her accidental assailant. While she was still trying to order her thoughts, another familiar voice filled the awkward silence. 

"Don't cry anymore, your eyes look nicer in purple than red." 

There was a soft gasp from Compa and Neptune's expression slipped through shock straight into a happy smile. 

Only then did Noire realize that the voice had been her own. Neptune nodded happily, and her next words almost sent Noire back into unconsciousness:

“Deal, if you let me take you on a date to make it up to you!”

Oh goddesses, I don’t think I’ll stop blushing anytime soon...