Author's Note: Is this an April Fool's joke? LazyBee back with a new story? Well, after taking a long, long break from writing and somewhat straying from the Vocaloid fandom, too, and returning to see that there is a total of only 6 IaxYukari fanfics which is not enough, I've decided that I needed to remedy the situation. So, yeah. JUST TAKE IT FROM ME.

Based off of IA's Café Latte (made by void, NND code is sm16801489), though that's gonna be more apparent in chapter 2.

(Also my writing has basically gone to crap yet I still kinda feel like I wanna finish TBoY since I haven't even gotten to the good parts yet, so I'm hoping this'll ease me back into the flow of things…

And Sharing Beds is still getting a lot of views [by my standards, heh][and I have no idea why, either] so I should… probably add a new chapter there, too?

And some feedback would be nice, if my writing's changed for better or for worse… Especially since it's my first time writing these characters and shoujo-ai. I almost literally have no idea what I'm doing here.)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except the writing itself.

In a big city with busy avenues and scenic boulevards, where all the popular coffee shops and fancy teahouses compete to attract customers, it takes a miracle to find the special spots hiding in the little winding alleys.

For Ia, getting caught in a sudden May storm without an umbrella while being lost in an unknown part of the city was definitely an unlucky continuation to an already miserable day and felt far from miraculous.

"What am I supposed to do now?" she muttered to herself gloomily. She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, drenched from head to toe. Maybe I should just wait it out somewhere…

It had started out as a light drizzle, the murky clouds barely letting go of their raindrops, so Ia hoped that she'd find her way back home before it got any worse. However, the weather wasn't in such a gracious mood and the rainfall steadily became heavier until it even started forcing people off the streets. By then, an hour had already passed and she was no closer to home than before, but soaked to the bone instead as the droplets sneakily worked their way into the fibers of her clothes.

She took a good look around the street, eyes passing from sign to sign. The one that caught her attention was in the shape of a bunny's head, with Usagi no Mimi painted on it in squiggly handwriting. Oh, that place looks cute!

She scurried over to it and was relieved to see an 'Open' sign hanging in the door's window. After a moment of hesitation, she opened the door and stepped inside.

A little bell chimed above her as she entered and was soon greeted with a cheerful "Welcome!" and a bright smile from the waitress standing at the cash register, the complete opposite of the dreadful weather outside.

"Ah, hello," she replied in a soft voice and a tiny smile of her own.

Her gaze quickly scanned the interior. It was a small coffee shop with a quaint ambiance to it. The walls were painted to look like a meadow, with many little rabbits hopping around in the grass. Square tables stood along the solid wall, while circular ones were scattered in the main area, differing in size and the number of chairs varied between two to five. There were only a few guests, peacefully enjoying their hot beverages.

Ia walked over to the counter to examine the blackboard on the wall behind it, listing the shop's menu. There was a variety of coffees and teas as well, with some cakes, cookies and pastries to go along with them. She skimmed through the list, in search of something familiar.

"Do you need help with anything?" the waitress asked, approaching her after a few minutes had passed.

"Oh, no, it's fine," Ia hastily blurted out her answer. Wait, no, I need to order something, she soon realized. "Um, I mean, I'd like a hot cocoa, please. And, uh, five macarons."

The girl scribbled down her order onto a notepad. "Alright, take a seat anywhere you'd like and I'll bring it to you shortly."

Ia meekly nodded and turned around to find an empty spot for herself. She decided on a two-seat circular table by the full-size window spanning the entire wall beside the entrance, picking the seat that faced the counter. She put her bag on the back of her chair so she could take off her jacket, which she placed on the other chair's back, revealing a black top with long sleeves that bared her shoulders underneath it. Sitting down in a damp, pink pleated skirt was far from being a pleasant experience. She gathered her long, light pink hair to one side to minimize the floor space it was going to inevitably drip on.

All settled down, she directed her attention towards the waitress, who was preparing her drink on the opposite side of the counter. Aww, how cute, her sweater has bunny ears on it. I wonder if that's part of the shop's uniform…

Her light violet hair, styled into two ponytails at the side of her face, gently swayed as she went from cupboard to refrigerator to gather all the necessary ingredients. Her movements were unsure, as if she was afraid of breaking the equipment just by touching it. Perhaps she's new on the job?

Once it seemed like she was almost ready to bring out her order, Ia hurriedly took out her phone so the girl wouldn't notice that she was staring at her.

"Here you go, a hot cocoa and five macarons," the waitress announced, setting the plate and mug in front of her. "Also, I thought you could use these. It's raining pretty hard out there, huh?"

Ia looked up from her phone and casually slid it back into her bag. To her surprise, the girl had a couple of towels hanging on her arm which she was about to hand over to her.

"Ah, yes, thank you," she said, accepting them with a kind smile in hopes of conveying her gratitude. Her gaze traveled from the towels to the nameplate pinned to her apron. On it, 'Yukari' was written in squiggly handwriting, much like the shop's sign.

"Well, enjoy your drink. If you need anything else, I'll be at the counter. You can pay there when you're ready to leave. You can stay as long as you'd like, though!" Yukari explained, a light blush dusting her cheeks due to her almost-rude remark. She scrambled back to her spot at the register before Ia had a chance to say anything.

She took one of the towels and placed it on her seat and covered the top of her head with the other one. That's much better. It was very thoughtful of her, she seems like a really nice person, she thought to herself.

Wisps of steam rose from the mug of hot cocoa. Ia blew on it lightly a few times, spinning the dab of whipped cream in the middle. She raised it to her lips and took a slow slip.

I've ascended to the heavens, she mused as the sweet, rich taste caressed her tongue and the warmth started spreading through her body. She enjoyed each mouthful of the drink at a leisurely pace to make it last longer.

When the mug was half empty already, she willed herself to take a break in order to taste the macarons. As she took the first bite, she cradled her cheek with her hand, the sugary delight overwhelming her taste buds. This is made from the very essence of the heavens! She had to ration the order of cocoa and macaron so that both would run out at about the same time.

This hot cocoa is perfect. These macarons are perfect. This place is perfect! I can't believe how lucky I was to come right here, out of all the places I could've gone.

Of course, Ia couldn't just sit around and fill herself with exquisite desserts. (Intently observing the adorable waitress was out of the question, too; even though her liveliness had a natural way of attracting people's gazes.) She didn't have that kind of free time and getting lost was already a huge setback for the day.

First of all, she used the towel on her head to dry herself off a bit more properly. She glanced out the window to check on the weather, but to her dismay, the rain showed no signs of letting up anytime soon.

Ia took her bag into her lap (the inside of which was protected with waterproof lining, keeping her belongings dry and sparing her from further misery) and pulled out a book on astronomy that she had recently bought. It's been a while since I could read something for fun, with all the studying I have to do for university. A contented sigh left her lips. It still had that fresh book scent emanating from it as she turned the pages.

A few hours passed and eventually it got too awkward for her to still be sitting there with just that one order. When she asked for a raspberry tea and more macarons, she could easily tell how delighted Yukari was to finally have something of importance to do, since no more guests had arrived after Ia came. From the corner of her eyes, she could see while reading that the girl had already washed all the cups, plates and utensils and had cleaned off the tables at least twice. As tedious as the chores must've been, she still completed her task with unrelenting enthusiasm. The notion had crossed her mind a couple of times to strike up a conversation with her, but she was completely lost as to how to go about it.

"Wow, is that a book about space?" Yukari wondered as she set Ia's order down on the table.

She nodded her head in reply, caught off guard by the sudden question. "Um, would you like to take a look? I mean, if you're not busy right now and have the time…" The words spilled out before she could really think her offer through.

"Yeah, that'd be cool!" she accepted immediately, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "Rainy days are always so slow here. I always forget to bring something to read with me. I've been trying to convince the manager to set up a bookshelf that the guests could borrow from while they're here, but as you can see, that hasn't happened yet. Not gonna give up on it, though!"

In the middle of her tirade, Yukari pulled over a chair from the adjacent table, flipping it around so she could rest her arms on the back.

"Oh, that'd be nice," Ia agreed, in an effort to keep the conversation flowing. "Then, you've been working here for a while? If you can make suggestions like that to the manager, I mean."

"Well, yes and no," she began her reply, tilting her head from side to side. "Actually, the manager is my grandma, so I've always helped out with some stuff, though never with serving customers. Like when the whole place went under a little renovation a while ago, I gave a hand with the sign and painting the walls. But I've only started officially working as a part timer a few weeks ago, now that I'm finally in high school."

Ia was a bit shocked at that revelation, making her feel a bit awkward. Well, she does look young, but hearing it like this… I guess it's a good thing I really did keep the staring, I mean observing, to a minimum.

"What about you? I'm pretty sure I haven't seen you around before, so what brings you here?" Yukari was quick to fill the pause between them.

"Ah, well, I'm a little bit lost? I've never been to this part of the city before and I couldn't find my way home… Then it started raining harder and harder, so I ended up coming in here…" she explained with a hint of nervousness in her voice. "Oh, but I'm really glad I did!"

"Good, happy to hear that. Not about the getting lost part, of course. But I think we have a map in the office somewhere, since so many tourists kept dropping in, asking for directions. I can bring it out for you," she suggested. "So that means you just moved here or you just never needed to come 'round these parts?"

"Yeah, I moved since I got accepted to a university here. It's only been a few weeks for me, too, so I'm not at all familiar about where things are," Ia admitted sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders.

"Wow, you're a university student already, that's awesome. But that simply won't do! I grew up here and there are so many amazing places nearby like you have no idea," she started out eagerly, then suddenly faltered as her implications caught up to her speeding train of thought. "I could, well, show you around to some of them, some time. If you'd like, I guess. I bet you're busy with classes and stuff. And gosh, I'm getting so ahead of myself; I haven't even really introduced myself, have I? I'm Yukari, but I guess you can see that on my nametag anyway."

"Thank you, Yukari. I'm Ia. And that'd be really nice, actually."