Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Are you ready to order?”

Coral snapped back to focus. She didn’t know how she failed to notice that she now held the front of the café line, awkwardly shuffling herself towards the front counter. 

“It looks like you need some caffeine!” The girl behind the register was leaning on her left hand, her vibrant red fingernails clicking against the counter. “I can see your eyebags.”

Nodding absentmindedly in response, Coral gazed at the digital menu board on the wall. Sweat gathered on her face. She probably should have been thinking about what to order while in line. In all fairness, she was exhausted from pulling an all-nighter for this morning’s test. Not usually a coffee person. But today needed to be an exception.

“Uhhmm,” Coral started, glancing back and forth between the menu and the expectant barista - Wow, she has a sharp face. Framed very nicely by the red dye in half her dark hair… could Coral look that cool with hairdye? Or would that ruin her professional appearance? Wait, isn’t she supposed to be thinking of what to order right now? Fuck.

“I’ll get the, uh,” Coral glanced at the menu, reading off the first thing she could spot as to not hold up the line, “uh, the chocolate cream cold brew, please.”

The girl nodded, tapping the register screen, her nails making satisfying click noises. “What size?”

Size???? What size??? Anxiety burned a hole into Coral’s chest. Maybe she should’ve just done a mobile pickup on the campus app, this was getting far too complicated. “Uh, what are the sizes?”

“Tall, Grande, Venti, Trenta.”

This is why Coral should’ve taken Italian in high school. “Um, is there one for ten chocolat-I mean, does the chocolate drink offer ten ounces-Do you have the drink in ten ounces?”

The girl winced. “Yeesh, you really need this coffee. Smallest size for this one is a twelve ounce!” the girl leaned in closer to Coral, now whispering, “but I really think you need the next size up, the sixteen.”

Yeah, okay. Sixteen ounce. That is fine. Coral was probably sweating through the entire suit she always wears to her business classes, and it was only 8:06 in the morning. She only realized she had zoned out through the entire rest of the order when the girl handed her the receipt.

“Thank you, uh,” Coral squinted at the girl’s nametag, scrawled with the strange combination of 3NA . “Eee-nah?”

“It’s Ena.”

“Thank you, Ena.”

“Bless you for your business!”

Wandering over to the brightly labeled ORDER PICKUP counter, Coral glanced down at her receipt. She immediately wished she hadn’t.

How did she just spend $13 on a cup of coffee??????

Extra toppings and “healthier” substitute items extended the length of Coral’s reciept. Obviously the larger size meant a higher cost, too. But Coral was flabbergasted as to how Ena convinced her to add so much into one measley cup of coffee. She should have been paying more attention while ordering as to not be scammed on exorbitantly overpriced bean liquid. Instead, she had completely zoned out.

Coral sighed. She started to absentmindedly look around at the café decor. The building was cheekily named “The Hub” due to its central location on campus, but she hadn’t really had the chance to dig much into the school’s dining options in the past month. Her studies had to take priority. The trim on the Hub walls contained eyecatching abstract patterns, but before Coral could puzzle together what they might look like, her order was called.

“Coldbrew for Coral!” Ena bellowed, despite Coral standing directly across the counter.

“Thanks,” Coral forced an awkward smile. Ena responded with a quick salute motion, and spun back to to the counter. Coral wasn’t sure why her hands were shaking so bad.

Grabbing her drink, Coral stretched over the counter for a straw. But the combination of sweaty palms and shaking hands were not in her favor. She accidentally dropped her $13 drink on the counter. It bounced. The lid launched off. And her coffee rushed over her white business shirt, dripping all the way down to her formal dress shoes.

Coral stood silently in shock.

Then slowly. Deliberately. Dropped down to her knees. Gently wrapped arms around her face. Placed her head on the floor.

And Coral groaned.

“HOLY SHIT ARE YOU OK?!” Ena swiftly lept over the counter, crouching down next to Coral crumpled on the ground. “Any injuries requiring immediate attention?” 

“Mmmphg,, I just spilled my coffee,” Coral sighed.

“Understood. FROGGY!” Ena hollered, “CAN YOU FINISH THE RESTOCK WHILE I ASSIST A CUSTOMER?”

Muffled yelling emerged from the kitchen.

“CAN IT, FROGGY! YOU CAN LIFT A GALLON OF MILK!” Ena returned her focus to Coral. “Let me grab you a towel.”

Coral dragged herself to a sitting position on the floor. She could feel eyes burning into her, wondering what kind of idiot would be on the floor in a pool of coffee. Her white shirt was likely stained by now, her exam was in fifteen minutes, and she could feel the flushed embarrassment across her face. She was not escaping this incident unscathed.

Ena returned, damp towels flung around her shoulder. She crouched to Coral’s left, reaching over to tug her shirt closer and reveal the full extent of the stain.

“Use this to wipe your pants and shoes,” Ena commanded, dropping a towel into Coral’s hands, red nails sparkling. “I’ll wipe off your shirt.”

As Coral scrubbed off herself and the floor around which she sat, she was acutely aware of the hand pulling her shirt, rubbing circles into the fabric while holding it as far from the skin as possible. She nearly squirmed from overthinking the situation, her face growing warmer, but was suddenly held in place from a weight pressing on her shoulder, keeping her in place. Looking up at Ena, Coral belatedly realized that the other girl did not have a right hand. The weight on her shoulder was Ena’s arm holding her put, as its length was a bit past the elbow. But no hand.

“Crisis averted!” Ena stated, hopping upright. Coral glanced at her shirt which, despite being a bit damp, was significantly less coffee-laden than before. She looked upright again, but her eyes were caught on Ena’s hand - or the lack thereof. Bringing her gaze to Ena’s grinning face, Coral realized she was caught staring.

“Oh, um, sorry,” Coral mumbled, averting her eyes. “Thank you.” She scurried upright, booking it to the nearest door out of the Hub. 

Her heart was pounding. She could see the crowd of people who had been staring, staring at the coffee mess, at Ena cleaning her shirt, at Coral’s flushed expression, at Ena-

Coral ran the entire way to her exam.

Chapter Text

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP !

Ena bolted upright, slamming her hand down on the digital alarm clock. 07:11, her regular wakeup time, though that didn’t make Ena any less exhausted. She groggily raised her head to find eyes intently watching her on the dorm bed across the room, startling her.

“JESUS CHRIST, TASKI!”

Her red-headed roommate giggled uncontrollably, kicking her feet in the air. Two small grey kittens were on her shoulders, claws clasped tightly to the curls of bright hair spilling off Taski’s shoulders.

Groaning, Ena placed her hand on her head. “You’re gonna get caught with them, you know.” She gestured to the kittens, each a three-week-old dorm rule violation.

“They can’t catch me because I’m too fast,” Taski stated maniacally, enunciating the last “s” for emphasis. She protectively put her arms across her chest and wrapped her hands around the kittens. Ena was positive that around campus, Taski kept hiding the cats in her voluminous hair. She had no proof of that though.

Ena sighed, ignoring Taski, slipping out of bed and pulling open her dresser drawer. It was filled with all-black socks, all-black boxers, all-black bras. She grabbed what she needed, ripped her formal attire from the closet, and quickly changed. Her morning was packed with classes, which meant a high possibility of right-handed handshake opportunities, so she grabbed the pale grey prosthetic arm off her dormitory desk, sliding it onto her own arm and adjusting the embedded dials until it fit properly. Plucking a battery off the charger on her desk, she plugged it into her prosthesis, slipping the battery cover back over the arm. Lights embedded in the hand pulsed purple, then faded to white. Ena’s right hand was now initialized. 

After a few test flexes of her mechanical fingers, Ena quickly finished up her morning routine - brushing her hair and teeth in the bathroom, applying makeup, and running past stacked cardboard boxes in the hallway, rushing out the door.

Her first class of the morning was on structured programming with C++. Ena was already familiar with that programming language, having taught it to herself one summer out of sheer boredom. Technology always came pretty easy to her, like second nature. It made it an easy choice to become a computer science major. Although she hoped to continue expanding her entrepreneurial endeavors, Ena told herself that she liked to be a cog in the beautiful machine of the workforce. Computers are used everywhere now. There would always be jobs related to computers. She would always find a job. Besides, anything she tried on her own seemed to fail anyway.

Brushing that thought aside, Ena decided to try at least feigning attention in class instead of facing the verge of a dueling internal monologue. She had a sketchbook out, drawing amateur nonsense in an effort to try staying engaged. Professor Ulysses provided an interesting speech pattern in lectures, but he always seemed very monotone, which made it really easy to lose focus in such a simple class. Ena’s thoughts drifted to the girl from last Friday. She was cute.

Plenty of fine looking people were always coming through the coffee shop during Ena’s shifts, and she would find herself internally noting what she found attractive - though she would never tell a soul about that. But her mind seemed particularly caught on the poor woman who ended up drenched in coffee, mentally berating herself for not remembering the girl’s names. Names and faces weren’t always Ena’s strong suit. It started with a “K” sound, she remembered that much. Or was it a “C” name? She just couldn’t seem to place it.

Corra? 

Carmel?

Ena caught herself making the “K” sound in the back of her throat, and quickly regained her attention back to the professor’s ramblings on algorithm development. Eventually, Ena survived to the end of the boring lecture.

She spent the next ten minutes or so greeting classmates as they lingered after class, shaking hands with Professor Ulysses and confirming she was remaining on top of the coursework. Although she hated sitting through every minute of the mind-numbing lecture, it couldn’t hurt to make connections! You never know what acquaintances may assist your career down the road.

Before long, Ena had to make her way across campus for her next class. It had been about a month and a half since the start of the semester, which meant her professors and peers in all her new classes had finally been adjusted to the concept of her prosthetic arm. The first day of each class always started the same, sideways glances and whispers and uncertainty of what to do around someone born without a right arm. But that all had now mostly subsided as the novelty wore off. She would press onward, as always. At this point, people were more enthusiastic to get “the robotic handshake” than anything else.

CORAL!

It was Coral. The girl’s name was Coral.

Ena quickly typed down the randomly recalled name in her phone before she could forget it again, her earlier frustration fading. The rest of her classes for the day flew by, and Ena ensured to exude confidence in every interaction. 

As her last class wrapped up, Ena checked the time. It was 16:15, about time for her P.M. barista shift. She strutted back to her dorm to change, finding herself grateful as always that her dorm was located on campus, and decently close to The Hub. Quickly showering once back at the dorm, Ena noted absent-mindedly that she needed more shampoo. She got dressed and tidied up for the next stage of the day, noticing that Taski was out doing god-knows-what since her and the two kittens were not present in the dorm.

Muffled discussion could be heard in the room across the hall in the dorm, but Ena didn’t hear Taski, and she didn’t have time to chit chat with her other dormmates either. Her prosthetic arm was back on the dresser, batteries in the charger. Ena was ready to return to the sweet embrace of working under capitalism.

Within minutes, Ena was walking through the employee entrance at the back of The Hub, heading directly to the staff break room. Froggy was already waiting, also a few minutes early to the start of his managerial shift. He was tapping his foot impatiently.

“Dratula’s late again,” Froggy noted, gesturing to the schedule listed on the wall.

“I still can’t believe you call him that,” Ena smirked.

Froggy pointed an accusatory finger. “You call me Froggy.”

“And I’m happy to oblige to,” Ena responded, giving a slight bow. 

Another coworker traipsed into the staff lounge, Kane. The baby-faced Russian kid, newest and youngest on café staff. Ena had the suspicion he didn’t even have a food handler’s card yet, though she was impressed at his feat of finding a campus job as a 17-year-old-fresman.

“Did you know you can stay after-hours in the library if you hide in the gameroom?” Kane blurted out, more of an announcement than a question.

Froggy shook his head. “I don’t understand why they stopped keeping the library open 24 hours. It’s like they’re trying to discourage hardworking students from studying.” 

“Mayvbe they don’t vant you studying at FOUR AM!” A booming voice with an exaggerated Eastern European accent erupted, and a large man walked through the door. “I am Dratula.”

“Shut up!” Froggy placed his head in his hands. “Uuughhh… it’s time to start the shift. Ena, you’re on counter. Kane, you’ll start on bathroom cleanup. And Dratula-”

Dratula was currently drawing a penguin over the schedule as Ena raised an eyebrow.

Froggy groaned. “You’re with me. Unfortunately.”

Suppressing a sigh, Ena plastered a smile onto her face as she walked out from the break room to the floor. It was going to be a long shift with those two arguing the entire time.

Tapping the shoulder of the current cashier, Ena stepped in to take over for the rest of the afternoon. She quickly reacquainted herself with the touchscreen display made available to her, despite seeing it dozens upon dozens of times at this point.

The next person in line stepped up to place their order.

Ena looked up.

Coral stared back.

Chapter Text

She knows this feeling all too well.

Coral’s stomach may as well be mush. Ena was here at the coffee shop register again: the girl she was thinking about all weekend.

It made sense; Ena works here. Not a surprise whatsoever. It’s not like Coral didn’t try stopping by the Hub café today to see if Ena was here again, and she did need the caffeine... She just didn’t realize she would be this lucky.

Ena must’ve just started her shift, her hair appeared like it was recently showered - damp dyed red streaks of hair plastered to the sides of her sharp face. Her bright red fingernails tapped the side of her chin, lost in thought as she set up something on the register. Suddenly, Ena looked up at Coral, eyes meeting.

Pale, grey eyes like a thunderstorm cloud.

Tallying that thought to contemplate on later, Coral swallowed, opening her mouth to speak-

“Back again so soon?” Ena inquired before anything could be said, tilting her head as if preparing for a business proposal.

Coral instinctively tugged on the arm of her coat, glancing at the fake granite on the café counter. “I… was thinking of getting the matcha latte this time?” She made a motion with her hands as if she were compressing an imaginary cup. “Smallest size you have.”

“Are you sure you want just the plain matcha latte?” Ena raised her eyebrows. “We currently have the specialty honey matcha latte, and could substi-”

Coral raised her hand, stopping Ena’s spiel. “Just the small matcha latte,” she emphasized. “Please.”

“That is most categorically doable!” Ena punched the order in the register, Coral watching the blur of her singular hand tapping each button with quick precision. She was relieved to see that the tea was charged just a regular overpriced coffee shop rate, and not conned into another one of Ena’s specialty overpriced rates. 

Taking a deep breath, Coral decided to ask something on her mind from the last interaction as Ena handed her the receipt. “Are you okay with people asking you about your arm? I don’t want to be weird or, uh, rude or anything. I just don’t know the proper-” Coral spun her wrist as she tried to think of the right word “-procedure, I guess.”

Ena’s face was plastered with a winning smile. “You’re o-kay! I can answer any questions. People being weird doesn’t bother me, anyway.” Her face quickly turned to panic. “Not that you’re weird, or that you’re bothering me, or anything!”

Seeming to regain her composure, Ena added: “You’re fine. We’ll call out your order soon. Bless you for your business!”

Coral bobbed her head in an awkward nod, and walked to wait for her drink as Ena helped the next customer. She supposed that was an answer.

Ena was a very animated person, Coral observed. As she waited for her tea, she watched Ena take orders and occasionally bark out instructions to others in the kitchen behind her. Turns out the Hub cafe also served dinner options, which made it pretty busy this time of day. This made Ena glued to the register, which made it easier for Coral to watch the girl out of the corner of her eye. 

Enchanted by Ena’s movements, Coral nearly missed her name being called out by a short, bouncy kid at the drink counter. With a sigh, she stopped focusing on the mesmerizing woman and grabbed her drink, taking one last glance behind her as she stepped out the door.

Ena was smiling. She was, in a word, beautiful. Handsome, even. Coral knew she was smitten.

She made a beeline to the library. Luckily they didn’t mind drinks at the worn wooden study desks, so Coral settled down with her tea and a textbook. She tried dismissing the thoughts of Ena’s smile, bright white teeth against smooth tan skin. Stormcloud eyes. Coral was not focused on her book whatsoever. Despite the matcha tea’s best efforts, caffeine was not enough to hold her alert and awake. A long week and a weekend without rest took its toll, and Coral’s daydreaming turned into, well, actual dreaming. She slumped over the study desk, fast asleep.

A startled Coral woke to a boy shaking her shoulder.

“ну ты даёшь!” he exclaimed in exasperation. “I swear your phone alarm went off ten minutes ago! You didn’t wake up! I had to find the source of the alarm, I tapped your shoulder, but you still were asleep! You must be pretty exhausted!”

The chatty kid looked like he was 15, with ruffled blonde hair and large kanji on his oversized purple shirt. Coral realized her phone alarm was still sounding off, and she quickly tapped the stop button.

Suddenly, she remembered what the alarm was for. 

“Ahhghhh…” Coral groaned. “I was gonna go to a seminar.”

“AT EIGHT AT NIGHT??!”

“Yeah,” Coral ran a hand through her hair. “It’s a leadership seminar put on by the business professors. They have it late for the people in classes all day or at work, I guess.”

The boy looked at her with a concerned expression. “You’re… going to more lectures you don’t have to… for fun?”

“It’s more for the networking opportunities,” Coral explained. “And getting to know my future professors better.” She started to gather her things. It would be better to be late than never.

“Well, have fun going to your super late class then! I will be spending my free time having fun playing Wii in the library game room! And definitely not staying past closing!”

“Thanks, uh…”

“Kane.”

“Thanks, Kane.”

Coral darted back across campus to the business building, slinking into the back row of the presentation room. An aged white man was presenting - pretty standard fare for business classes at this private university - and his long white beard bobbed as he pointed to projected slides explaining the necessity of wisdom in leadership, summoning diagrams and charts to prove his point. Whipping out her notebook, Coral started taking notes of things she found interesting. Historical leaders. Historical teachings of wisdom. Philosophers and kings.

Time blurred together. Soon it was the top of the hour, and as the man finished giving information on where to locate handouts and resources in the business building, he clicked forward to a side with one word: “Questions?”

Before the man could even take a breath between sentences, a hand with red nail polish shot up in the front row.

“Ah yes,” the professor motioned his hand towards the student. “Ena, go ahead.”

“Thank you, professor.” Ena straightened in her chair, projecting her voice. “You already mentioned a bit of a connection between ethical dilemmas and wisdom. Would it be too much of a stretch to say that wise leadership is intrinsically tied to ethics?”

The professor nodded in approval. “That is a very good question, Ena. I’m afraid it is one that is too deep to cover in a simple conversation, which is why I worked with my colleagues to write a book…”

Coral quickly lost focus on what the professor was saying. Her heart was racing. What was Ena doing here ? 

As the seminar wrapped up and students trickled out of the building, Coral worked up the courage to talk to the beautiful woman.

“You work at the coffee shop!” Coral was stating the obvious, but words were failing her.

“Coral, right?” Ena gave her a quick salute, matching Coral’s pace as they both walked towards the exit. “Pleasure to see you again.”

“You too.” Coral’s face was warm. “Are you a business major?”

“HA I wish!” Shaking her head, Ena held the door open for Coral to step outside. “Computer Science. But I try to take advantage of any free networking and seminars when I can, and this one worked out after work. You look like a fellow entrepreneur in the making, is that true?”

“Business major, yeah.” Coral stopped under one of the lampposts, pointing to the distance. “My dorm is this way, Hourglass Hall. If you’re going a different direction.”

“Not a bother at all, I can walk you to your dorm!” Ena immediately started walking in the direction Coral pointed. 

Swearing that it must be fate that Ena was walking her back to her room, Coral followed. “What’s your year?”

“Funny question, isn’t it? Unitwise, Junior, but due to the nature of my studies it’s a bit more…” Ena paused. “I’m in pointless sophomore courses. Not ideal.”

Coral nodded, then realized Ena likely didn’t have eyes in the back of her head. She hurried forward to match Ena’s pace. “I’m a sophomore. Transferred in this semester.”

“Oho, where from?”

“It’s a bit of a complicated story.” Coral paused her walking. They had reached Hourglass Hall, and her heart was pounding. She also knew she really, really needed to sleep.  “This is my dorm.” 

Ena stepped forward, opening the door to the lobby. “Pleasure communicating further, Coral.” Her eyes sparkled in the entryway light. “Have a good night.”

It took Coral all her willpower to keep herself from dancing in place from Ena’s kind chivalrousness. She stepped into the hall lobby, looking back at Ena.

“You have a good night too, Ena.”