pick me up || ren

[aviva malka tagene]

.

like a waterfall in slow motion

hope this works! - ren - outfit, minus jacket ------------------------------------------------------------------

"Large- I mean venti coffee, black, anything else Miles?" Shai stood at the door of the apartment, eyes trained on his cousin as the man sat on the couch, attention mostly on the screen of his computer. "No, that's it, thanks Shai." Miles barely looked up as he spoke, too absorbed in whatever he was doing to pay Shai much mind. Luckily Shai didn't mind much and just headed out the door, hands tucked into his pockets as he headed down the apartment building steps and out into the sunshine. Still having been in New York for less than a month, he was still always a little lost, not used to the layout of the city. But Miles had given him exact directions to the starbucks and Shai was nothing if not excellent at following directions.

Still, he wandered a bit and it took him an extra five minutes to find his way from his apartment to the starbucks but when he got there, business seemed to be brisk. There was a short line, maybe four or so people in front him, none coming after him. He peered up at the board, wrinkling his nose at some of the sweeter looking drinks and shaking his head at the prices, ridiculously high by his standards but he was really here for Miles, who really deserved, if nothing else, a little bit of coffee to improve upon his shitty day and his shitty week. And Miles had told him that there would be a nice barista who knew Miles and would know exactly what Miles would want, seeing as his cousin was there nearly all the time and ordered always the exact same thing.

A woman in front of him in line kept giving him the eye and Shai grinned back at her but had to stay on task. Get coffee, bring it to Miles. No distractions or flirting or wandering off with strangers, no matter how cute they might be. But of course his no distractions, no flirting rule was completely forgotten once he actually made it to the counter and laid eyes on the cutie standing there. His grin grew impossibly wider and he had to push down the urge to lick his lips. "Eh, hello, I'm supposed to ask about a, eh, Ren?" His accent was thick as ever, making it entirely obvious that he was not exactly from around town. "Miles- my cousin - eh, wanted me to say hello for him." And then a little shrug, eyes fixed on the other man. "And I need a..." He paused, wrinkled his nose trying to remember the order. "A black coffee. The largest size?"

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template made by pan of caution 2.0

[kieren]

I cannot pretend that I felt any regret

cause each broken heart will eventually mend

A confused and forced smile found its way across Ren’s lips. The blonde haired girl’s voice was getting higher pitched the more high strung she got over the fact that Ren didn’t recognize her. She must have confused his overly nice and politeness as flirting the last time she came in. He hesitantly handed her the hot chai latte she ordered. “I’m really sorry, but I don’t recognize you.” She scoffed and tore off the lid to her chai and threw it at him. Instant pain spread on his neck and chest from the hot drink. Ren hung his head and made his way to the employee bathroom and pulled his shirt off, sighing softly as he cleaned himself up. His skin was red but no serious damage was done.

He didn’t understand why people were so mean. He blinked back tears and breathed in and out a few times, then looked at his reflection in the mirror. It was like looking at a stranger. The only recognizable features of his face were the three little dots he had gotten on the right side of his face, just below the corner of his right eye. If it weren’t for that little tattoo, he wouldn’t ever have been able to distinguish his face from anyone else’s at all. He sighed and washed his hands and put on the t-shirt he had brought with him to change into at the end of his ship, flipping the light off and making his way back to the front. He thanked the coworker that had cleaned up the coffee off the floor for him and went back to the register, trying to remain optimistic.

A tall man entered, and Ren put on his happy ‘welcome to Starbucks!’ smile. Ren didn’t look in the eyes of the man before him. He didn’t see the point in looking at people’s faces anymore. Once he looked away they were gone from his memory forever. ”Miles said you’d be coming. Venti black coffee, on the house.” The young man picked up a Venti cup and wrote ‘Miles’ on it in his too-perfect-to-be-a-guy’s-penmanship handwriting and set it on the counter next to him for one of the other baristas to make. He glanced at the man’s face and stared for a moment before clearing his throat. “Can I get you anything else, sir?” Ren wasn’t sure why but he didn’t want to stop looking at this man’s face. It was less blurry and way more distinguishable than any face Ren had ever seen before.