Au Joker Coffee Shop (Für mich)

[leiyahime.livejournal.com]

Team: Schwarz
Challenge: AU: Joker Coffee Shop (AU Tabelle 2016)
Fandom: Voltron
Charaktere: Keith, Shiro
Wörter: ca. 1100
Anm: Ich hab nie gedacht, dass ich je ne Coffee Shop Au schreiben würde.. Aber da hat mich gestern Gedanke zu angesprungen.

Keith hated his job. He really did but what choice did he have? He was an orphan and needed money. His dad had left him his hover bike and after many struggles he had found a passion in repairing the old thing and make it better than before: Especially more environment friendly since it was from one of the first generations and the engines were far from clean. But to afford the necessary parts he needed money, and the only place willing to hire him after all the trouble he had caused during his first High School year was one of the local coffee shops. And Keith hated people. Especially people who thought he owed them respect without ever respecting him. There were better customers and worse. One of his favourite customers, though, was a young man who worked at the local Air force Garrison as a pilot. He was always friendly always had a gentle smile on his face whenever he came in once or twice a week, sometimes with his boyfriend. Keith had even opened up to him about his troubles with the hover bike and since that day the man always left a generous tip for his project and his boyfriend - a mechanic - sometimes got advice for him. Keith always was happy whenever Shiro how the man was called, came around. Perhaps he was having a tiny crush on him and sometimes added a little more syrup to his Vanilla Latte than he was supposed to since he learned Shiro loved that. Of course he knew he would never have a chance with him - he had a boyfriend after all and Adam was a good person as well, and of course he wasn’t supposed to flirt with the customers. He hated the job but he kept it professional.

But all of a sudden Adam stopped coming along and when Keith asked Shiro about him after a few weeks he said they had broken up. And he himself would soon leave as well: He said something about a few test maneuvers at Hawaii with other pilots. He would be back in a month he said while leaving an especially generous tip to make up for the money Keith wouldn't get the next weeks. And after that... Shiro vanished. A month passed then two and three but the man didn't return. And Adam didn't show up anymore as well so he couldn't even ask. This coffee shop was too small most other soldiers at the Garrison preferred the local franchise of a big chain a few streets away and the ones who came here were not on the friendly side so Keith didn't ask them. Perhaps Shiro had found a new purpose? He had never asked him how he felt about the breakup. Perhaps he decided to stay at Hawaii... Summer, sun and sea were way more comfortable than the Arizona desert. He had to deal with how it was and went on with life. He finished school with better results than all his teachers and the people at the orphanage had anticipated and even qualified for a few scholarships so that he could move on to the local college to study engineering. He moved into a dorm and met new people who accepted him from the beginning. They were a little weird as well after all. Hunk, a fellow hobby mechanic, even helped him with his hover bike, so that one day it was done and ready to be used in traffic. It still looked old but on the inside it was modern and could outfly even some of the most recent bikes.

He continued working at the coffee shop to earn a bit of pocket money but until now he had completely given up the hope of seeing Shiro again. It was nothing more than the first cute crush of a teenager after all. One of his new friends, Lance, also started working here and somehow they didn't scare off the customers with their near constant bickering.
Then one day, the shop was quiet, Keith was in the back, taking care of the dirty dishes, he heard a well-known voice from the past, although it sounded more tired than he remembered. He left everything as it was and returned to the main room. And there he was: Shiro. But he had changed. The first thing he noted was his now partly white hair and the tired look in his eyes but he still smiled at Lance as he ordered a Vanilla Latte. Keith already started to make it, with the usual extra of vanilla syrup.

"Hey, you have your own work!" Lance protested but Keith just ignored him. "You don't even like customers."

"You're right, I don't", Keith replied curtly as he finished the drink and handed it over to Shiro. "Here you are"... He looked at the man and noticed a third thing that had changed: His right arm was now made of metal and Keith almost dropped the coffee.

"What happened to you?" he asked shocked.

"Things didn't go as planned." Shiro shrugged and didn't want to talk about it. "Is that your bike out there?"

"Yeah. Thank you for your help back then." Without Shiro's support he still wouldn't be done now.

"No problem. To be honest... One of the reasons I came back here was to see, how you were doing." Shiro smiled at him. It was warm but now all of his movements were a bit heavier.

"I'm fine. I’m studying now and want to go on with repairing and restoring old cars and bikes." He pushed the cup over to Shiro.

"If that's the case... I need some help with adapting my car to my current needs. You don't happen to have some time to help me? I'll pay you of course."

Keith gulped. "Er..."

"I don't need it soon. So you can take your time."

"Why? I mean..."

"You're a capable young man and I prefer to give my money to small businesses like this one, or a young man who did great work with an old hover bike instead of the big corporates."

Keith tentatively smiled."If you trust me this much..."

"I know how passionate you were about your bike and to see it finished now makes me trust you even more" Shiro smiled at him and damn, the butterflies Keith thought to have died a long time ago came alive again.

"I'll do what I can.", he promised.