A/N: Hello hello, coffee shop/collage au fic yes. Because we all need more barista!Nico in our lives. This is my first fic in this fandom and in general so please be patient with me. It's unbeta'd but I usually check through for spelling/grammer errors in case any present themselves. Anyway, I promise it gets better once the story takes off so hope you enjoy~

Normally… you wouldn't find a guy like Nico di Angelo doing such an everyday job like serving customers at a coffee shop. He was the type of person who tended to like black, grim concepts, gothic metal, and dark fiction… and was someone completely intrigued by death. It wasn't really his fault though. His parents dealt with such things daily. His mother was a surgeon and his father was a mortician, even his elder sister was getting well versed in such things. She was on her second or third year of veterinary school, sure it wasn't the human kind but death was all the same for humans and animals. Despite his interest in such things, he was actually not pursuing that line of work himself. He was a freshman in collage and majoring in classic art and literature, more curious on seeing if he could make it in something more of an artistic taste. He wasn't the only one in his family trying something different either. His adopted younger sister, Hazel, was pursuing a career in archeological pursuits. She too was a freshman in the same collage despite being a year younger than Nico himself, she graduated a year early.

Enough on that, however, and back to the coffee shop. Being a college student, Nico was fairly poor but the job paid enough to keep him going with groceries and had flexible hours considering everyone who worked there were college student themselves aside from perhaps the manager. Reyna never mentioned her age and the other baristas never asked her age either. Aside from Nico himself… there were about six or seven others working in the shop that he knew of. Annabeth took morning shifts alongside Rachel and Piper since their classes were either in the afternoon or evening. Jason, Leo, Thalia, and Frank generally shifted in who was on a shift when depending on the day of the week. Nico himself generally had morning or afternoon though on weekends he also worked evenings whenever someone had different plans and couldn't work. He didn't really mind it most of the time since he could do most of his homework during his breaks or before he went to bed… and he needed the money anyway. While his family made good money, his father was all about making your own way in things. So he received a limited amount of money per month for emergencies and was left to fend for himself with day to day necessities.

One morning, Nico was working with Annabeth, Thalia, and Jason as the other girls were studying for major essays coming up and the four of them didn't have any morning classes of their own that day so it was a quiet shift with the occasional sibling jabs between Jason and Thalia while Nico and Annabeth simply cleaned up the counters or floors for something to do. Mornings were rarely slow but today seemed to be an exception. None of them minded though, considering the late night Nico himself served and the fact he was pretty sure Jason had a long night of studying too it was more of a godsend for them all than anything.

Having been lost in thought a while after finishing the floors and waiting at the register while the others got ready for classes and switching over for afternoon shifts, (Nico was working 8am to 3pm today so he still had a few hours till he left himself), the raven didn't even notice there was a customer till a hand waved in front of his face and a cheerful question on if he was 'sleeping with his eyes open or stuck deep in thought' brought him back to the present where he hurriedly muttered an apology and focused at the cash register to regain his thoughts and kill the mild embarrassment. "Welcome to Olympus, what can I get you?" He asked before finally looking up and momentarily freezing. Good gods, the guy who had come in was attractive, not just the regular kind either… the sculpted athletic kind that was lean and tan and all around the worst kind of attractive Nico had ever faced. It was his type, which was fairly dangerous as it often leads the dark haired male down a road of definite depression and heartbreak. He'd been there before… it wasn't pleasant.

It was no secret to most that he wasn't really one who generally stuck to the norm of modern day life either, especially when his sexuality came into play. At least it wasn't to his friends here. But he wasn't one for open rejection before he could say anything or even know what he was feeling… So before the green eyed male could notice Nico was staring at him with his mouth hanging open and a mild flush forming on his cheeks, the raven turned around and busied himself with the coffee machine and restacking cups while the other decided his order. After several moments, Nico heard the other chuckle and cast a glance over his shoulder to see what was so funny.

"You know… I don't even know what I want to order. Do you have anything you could recommend?" Asked the other with a gentle smile that did absolutely nothing but worsen the shorter's attraction towards him. Nico coughed lightly like he might have had something stuck in his throat and turned when he was sure his expression was once again the usual neutral one he wore when facing customers.

"Uh… yeah… um…" He cast his glance to the specials menu before pointing out one he found he liked in particular whenever he was a customer himself. "The Black Eye is pretty good if you don't mind a bitter taste… otherwise you might want to try something with caramel or a latte. Or something along those lines." He stated with a mild shrug. A moment or two later found him tapping out the beat of one of his favored songs to keep relaxed seeing as Mr. way-more-attractive-than-should-be-legally-possible was taking a while to decide. When he thought the taller male was never going to decide on his order, the elder suddenly smiled and tapped on the counter once.

"I'll take the first thing you suggested. I'm not really a fan of bitter tastes but I need something to keep me focused on my class so maybe the shock will help keep me alert." If the other raven wasn't doing enough to Nico's state of mind he just had to go and wink at him as he said that. Seriously, how was this guy even a real person? People don't wink at him like that… it was like some absolute rule of existence. No one took an interest in the odd, dark, and creepy gothic kid. Absolutely no one. It was just something that doesn't happen. Then again… he could have imagined the wink… in fact… yeah. Let's go with that. He imagined the wink. Mentally shaking himself, Nico nodded again and turned one more to fix the damn coffee while scolding himself repeatedly over feeling attracted to guys that were more than way out of his league.

Only when it was several hours later and Nico was lying in his bed while trying to fall asleep that the small raven realized he might have been doomed the moment he met that older raven's eyes… considering that rather than sleeping like he should, he found himself thinking more and more of the other male and his cheerful smile. Not only that but he was also thinking about the fact he completely missed the other's name and kind of sort of really wanted to know what it was. Yeah… he was pretty much doomed. He never thought this long about someone… except maybe once before. But that was a memory he rather not visit and bring to light several awkward moments and thoughts he never really wanted to have about his best friend again. Not that it was bad or anything… just really really really awkward. He didn't like being awkward in things involving people he was good friends with.

He sighed faintly and decided he may as well ask tomorrow, he was pretty damned sure Jason might have saw him when he was talking to the guy since he remembered a flash of short blond hair in a far corner that lead into the kitchen. So with the thought of asking his friend in the morning, Nico drifted off into an uncomfortable uncertainty plagued sleep.

Considering I'm in the middle of writing a fic for the PJO Big Bang on Tumblr... I can't tell you, my wonderful readers, if updates will be Weekly or Bi-Weekly but I promise to get out chapters as soon as possible. Reviews are loved and appreciated but completely optional! While I like to know what people think, I'm not going to demand them XD Review or Comment as you see fit! See you next Chapter~