Chapter Text
“Does anyone even do this anymore?” he thinks to himself, walking up to the counter to get his usual. Hunter looks around, seeing people scrolling on their phones, waiting around to pick up whatever they ordered on the app for the coffee shop he was in.
He normally does this too, but today, something felt different. He actually felt like talking to people more, which was hard for him when he grew up around people who barely treated him like a person. “Hey, what can I get started for you?” was a weirdly specific thought, but something that he hadn’t been asked in who knows how long. “Hello?” Yeah, he only got that whenever someone wanted something from him.
“Hey! What can I get you?”
The girl in front of him smiles awkwardly after having to repeat her question. Oops, turns out those thoughts weren’t just in his head.
“Oh! Sorry.” Hunter briefly remembers the order he picked out, and stammered, “Can I get a grande caffè mocha with sweet cream cold foam?”
“Sure! And you’re good, people do that all the time.”
He giggles. “Thanks, I don’t know what was up a minute ago.”
“I love your bird tattoo, by the way,” she says, noticing Hunter’s tattoo on his arm.
“Thanks! I actually got this after my bird, Flapjack, passed away a few years ago.” His voice softens. “It’s a nice memory of him.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that. I love that you did that for him, though.”
“Thanks,” he said.
“Back to what you were here for, what’s a good name for the order?”
“Hunter.”
The barista smiles. “Okay Hunter, That’ll be $7.46. And thanks for the conversation, it’s normally a bit boring here.”
He pays for his coffee and goes to wait for it. The blond boy noticed the name tag on the girl’s shirt, Willow. That’s a pretty name, he thought. If he was being honest with himself, he thought she looked pretty too. The way her dark hair looked, how her glasses rested on her face…
“Order for Hunter?”
That very much interrupted his thought process, but at least he could grab his coffee and leave, and he didn’t have to think about how pretty that girl was while he was in the same room as her.
Willow stayed until the end of her shift, but Hunter and his bird lingered in her mind all throughout it. She didn’t know exactly what it was about him; how awkward he was when they talked (which made him seem even cuter to her), how he looked, the fact that he seemed so caring with that tattoo, or something else that she wasn’t thinking about. She figured that she should text her best friend about this, since she seems like the most knowledgeable person. Luz is dating Amity and writes Azura fanfiction. How much more romantic knowledge can you have than that?
📶| Thu Nov 14 | 5:38 PM | 🔋46%
Luz🦉 | @friendofowlsandtitans
Hey luz need your help
with what
So basically there’s this guy I met at work today
And I think I might kinda definitely like him
wait this is HISTORIC willow actually likes someone
ok tell me more
So his name is hunter, kind of an awkward person (was zoned out when I was trying to take his order and acted kinda flustered or wtv when he looked at me) but he’s cute and I wanna ask him out but I don’t know how
lol you work at a coffee shop, just write your number on his cup or something
Do you actually think it’s that easy??
amity is the first person i’ve dated and she made the first move so idk😭😭
and the only other romantic experience (if you even wanna call it that??) i have is that i’ve written a few hecazura fics
That’s EXACTLY why I texted you but okay, I’ll go with that
ok lmk how it goes!! literally tell me EVERYTHING
like i said this is literally historic and i’m not letting you give up your chance
Omg you are reallyyy committed to putting me and him together
ofc i am, y’all are endgame
like just from what you told me i 100% ship whatever this is
anyways ttyl
Thanks ttyl!!
Seen just now
📷[Message… ]🎙️🖼️🙂➕
So, the next day comes by. Willow is working again, and Hunter is, of course, there again to order his usual. This time though, there’s something different about both of them. Now that they’ve seen each other, they both seemed more nervous. Willow notices the boy she was (and still is) obsessed with.
“Hey, what can I get for you? Hunter, right?”
“Yeah,” he says, trying to sound casual. “Can I get a grande green tea lemonade with strawberry purée?”
Willow chuckles. “Wow, I guessed you would be the type of person to always get the same thing here. Guess I’m wrong again!”
Hunter smiles. “You okay?”
As she’s unknowingly blushing, she replies, “Yeah, why?”
“No reason. Just thought you looked a little different.”
“Well, that’ll be $5.67,” she says.
The boy pays for his drink and walks away, and now Willow’s thinking about what she wants to do. Should I really do this? What if he doesn’t even like me? But, she remembers how much Luz wanted this to happen, and how Willow was her first friend here. So, she does it. Before she starts making his drink, she writes “Text me :)” along with her phone number on the cup. This is one of the scariest things she’s ever done, but she knows it’ll all be worth it as soon as she gets that message. At least, she hopes. She decides that she would rather hide in the back room than see his reaction, whatever it may be.
Hunter’s zoning out, yet again. A sudden “Order for Hunter!” interrupts that. When he walks up to the counter, Willow is weirdly nowhere to be found, but he notices a phone number written on his cup in the most beautiful handwriting he had ever seen.