disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Nope.

warning(s): Spontaneous flirtation? Probably. Shounen-ai, Guys. And a One-Shot, unless I get bored some time in the future.

based on: the Image for the Cover Photo.

STRANGE CUSTOMER

Was it bad that he'd stayed up all night watching sappy soap operas with overly hot guys stupidly stumbling over attempts to get with that one "perfect" woman who generally looked like they had work done on their breasts or face?

Sora sighed as he rode his bicycle down the street from his apartment, using the back of one hand to wipe at his still-runny nose a little. So he was a little emotional, and catching one episode of a novella generally got him hooked until the end; it wasn't a crime!

His best friend Kairi had called him some time around 9pm the previous night and complained about having broken up with her boyfriend. At some point during their conversation, she pointed out how it'd been a while since Sora himself was "out on the market," so to speak, which got him to thinking about why he stopped dating in the first place.

His last girlfriend made a huge scene during their break-up because she thought he only dated her because she looked like a man. While she did have her moments, Sora had never really thought about her looks that way until she really pointed everything out to him, though loudly and in public.

It was at that moment that he realized that he could, in fact, be gay. While he's never actually dated a man, Sora was still on the fence about giving it a try. Watching the soaps last night, though, got him to feel really lonely and in need of somebody to cuddle up with.

"Sora, hey!"

The brunet looked up from where he was parked, seeing his red-haired friend waving from a glass door that was held open.

"Are you coming in or not?"

It took him a moment to realize that he'd already made it to his destination: a popular local cafe that he worked at with Kairi and his other friends. Clearing his throat in embarrassment, he pulled the bicycle chain from the basket in front of the handlebars and made sure to lock the bike to the small decorative fence near the entrance.

Sora hurried into the building, shutting the door behind him just in time to have a dark red apron with his name on it thrown onto his face, "Pfffwah! What the Hell!?" He uncrumpled it up and glared at Kairi, who was giggling from behind the counter along with their other friend Selphie.

"So! You're on lobby duty while I'm on drive-through, right?" The blue-eyed girl smiled innocently as she got right to the point.

"Yeah, yeah; I got it..." Sora grumbled as he pulled his apron on over his blue sleeveless V-neck top and faded jeans."

"How about the blackboard? Feel like drawing it out, y'sad sap?"

Again, the brunet threw a blue-eyed glare that was evenly caught by the smug look in Kairi's practically identical pools of blue, "Don't spread that around, and no, I don't feel like drawing right now."

Selphie giggled, "Good! Because I want to! Any specific flavor I should put down on it?" She appeared to have been shading some drawing in, because Sora could hear the white marker squeaking against the black whiteboard consistently.

"No... Nothing inparticular; I'll just make whatever today." He replied, slinking passed the two of them behind the counter to pull out the milks and syrups to where he could reach them when the orders started rolling in.

"Well, your whatever better be good!"

Sora was already quite past Kairi's jabs at him for last night, to the point that he was blatantly ignoring her. In his emotional stupor during his soap opera marathon, he would call her around every hour on the hour to sob about something that'd happened in the show and how much he wanted a relationship like that or something. He blushed lightly in embarrassment; he really did want what Enrique and Maria had in that show had, though...

"No, hey! Lemme write it!"

His ear twitched at the hushed bark that'd come from his best friend; he turned a bit to eye the two girls on the other end of the counter. Just what were they up to with that board? Before he could ask, Selphie jumped, "CUSTOMER!" She quickly propped up the board on the edge of the counter to face the door, and away from Sora, before running off to the back room with Kairi.

Sora felt his eyebrow raise in curiosity; he really, really hoped that the girls didn't put anything embarrassing on that thing... especially since it was the first thing customers would see when they walked in.

A woman in a hoodie entered the shop, her bangs whipped off to a side despite the mess of orange hair seemingly stuffed under her hood. "Good morning!" Sora greeted, pulling on his workday smile.

The woman looked up with the intention to greet him back, but her sleep-deprived eyes caught sight of the board first. Her frown turned into a wide smile before she walked around to the front of the counter, ordering a simple latte.

The barista was still curious about the board, but if it was enough to make a customer smile first thing in the morning, then maybe it wasn't so bad, after all. He'd have to wait until his break or something to take a good look at what was on it.

As the morning went on, more people began to pour in and, of course, the first thing they saw was the board. There were a handful of laughs and grins, along with the occasional frown or rolling of eyes. Sora never did realize how observant of people's reactions to the board he was being. Whatever was on it, he did notice, influenced their disposition when speaking to him.

Most of the women were rather cheery and friendly, even going so far as to say "good luck!" before taking their leave. A handful of the men, however, just seemed a little on the uncomfortable side.

Finally, around 11:00am, the line had vanished. Sora immediately made a dash for the board, already throwing his hands out to grab at the blackboard, but the sound of the bell above the entrance door ringing stopped him in his tracks. Deep blue eyes looked over to the customer, his hands instantly jumping from the board's edges to behind his back as a wide smile came to his face, "G-good morning!"

A man in a yellow polo shirt had just walked in and stood at the threshold, a silver eyebrow raised at the barista, "'Morning..."

The brunet slowly backed away from the board, which he STILL had yet to look at, and returned to his place at the register, "How may I help... you...?" His focus was still on the silver-haired customer, the only other person in the lobby, but the other's attention seemed to be on, what else, the blackboard.

The man was staring intently at it for a couple of seconds before looking up at Sora, back down at the board, and then back again. At this point, there was a rather sinister smirk on this guy's face.

As he took slow, leisurely steps toward the opposite side of the counter from the barista, Sora took this moment to look the man over. His silver hair was very long and appeared to naturally spike out behind him, despite also looking soft to touch. His skin was pale compared to the brunet's sun tan, and he was about a head taller than he was, so he had to look back up at him when he was standing right in front of him.

The man bent down over the counter to rest his elbows on it, leaning his face in close to the other's. Sora's cheeks lit up bright red, but he only flinched back a little at the breach of his personal bubble, barely able to stutter out, "C-can I help you?"

Unreal green-blue eyes stared right into Sora's bright sea blue ones for a moment longer before the guy smirked again and shut his eyes, "Yeah... I'll have a medium Hazelnut Macchiato, and don't be stingy with the espresso; I got a long day ahead of me."

"Uh-huh... Okay, well, that'll be-"

The man was already holding out a plastic credit card. Sora was slightly surprised; from where had he pulled that out?! He hesitantly reached out to take it, sliding it through the credit card scanner before handing it back. He then reached over to the cups beside him to grab a mid-sized one, pulling a Sharpie from the pocket on his apron, "Name?"

The customer looked left and right, probably scanning the very empty lobby. The barista rolled his eyes, "Lunch hour's about to start; more people might start pouring in before I'm done with your drink, alright?"

"Are you sure you're not just trying to get my name out of me? You could've checked my card, too, y'know."

Sora's cheeks burned bright red again, "J-just give me your name! Or else I'm gonna put down the first thing that comes to my mind!"

The silver-haired man just laughed, "As interested as I am in finding out what you'd come up with, my name's Riku." Green-blue eyes never left Sora as his name was scribbled onto the cup, "Do you want my number, too?"

"Don't need it." Sora decided to just go about making the drink as quickly as possible so this guy could be on his merry way; where did he get off on getting all up in his face like that?

Riku shrugged and leaned against the counter for a while longer, quietly, before he noticed a thinning-out stickynote pad near the register with a pen. He easily swiped them and started jotting something down.

"What're you doing over there?" Sora asked, looking at the customer out the corner of his eye for a moment; it was too quiet and he was getting somewhat uncomfortable with it.

"Fapping." Came an immediate response.

The barista choked on his own spit and fumbled the pitcher of piping hot milk, "Owowow!" He dropped it back on the counter, thankfully not spilling anything. He aired his hands out a bit in an attempt to cool them down some, "Are you always this..."

"Charming?"

"...straight-forward and crude?"

Riku rolled his eyes, still grinning, "Aw, you make it sound like a bad thing!" He folded his arms over the counter again, "If you got to know me better, you might find me... endearing!"

"HA!" Sora barked in the middle of decorating the foamy surface of the completed drink with syrup, "Now that is charming." His voice was dripping with sarcasm as he made his way back to the register and popped the lid onto the hot drink, handing it to the silver-haired weirdo in front of him. At that moment, he noticed the stickynotes and the pen between them.

Riku shrugged, pressing a stickynote onto the hand that held his drink before taking the cup, "Well, can't say I feel like giving up yet." He took a swig of his drink and smiled, "Sweet... Just like the guy who made it."

The brunet pulled his hand back to look at the stickynote, only to see Riku's name on it with a 10-digit phone number on it. When he looked back up, the customer was too close again and, before he could move backwards, he was caught by the top of his apron and abruptly pulled closer.

He froze; his lips were on those of this... this complete stranger! His body began to tremble a bit, but he could already faintly taste the sweetness of the drink despite having not opened his mouth. It took all of his willpower to keep from licking at the rough lips pressed to his own. His heart gave a rather uncomfortable lurch in his chest, enough to push himself away from the silveret.

Riku chuckled, smiling genuinely this time, "I'll catch you later... Sora." He turned to walk back out the door, but stopped at the board and pointed at it, "You should erase that, now that I'm around." He waved shortly before exiting.

Sora pressed his right hand to his chest, gripping the fabric of his apron tightly as he watched after that strange, strange customer. He absentmindedly walked up to the blackboard and spun it around for him to see, only to read:

TODAY YOUR BARISTA IS:

1. Hella fucking Gay.

2. Desperately Single.

FOR YOUR DRINK TODAY I RECOMMEND:

You give me your number.

His hand instantly knocked the board backward, flat onto the counter. His body was shaking again, but this time out of a different emotion overwhelming him. A growl began to form in his chest until it grew louder and stronger, making its way to his throat and eventually out of his mouth, "KAIRI, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

He grabbed the board and stormed loudly into the backroom, the swinging doors having a hard time losing momentum from how hard he'd burst through them.

"AHH! SORA, I'M WITH A CUSTOMER!"

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT SHIT; I KNOW YOU WROTE THAT ON THE BOARD FOR EVERYBODY TO SEE!"

After several shouts and screams were exchanged, Selphie was able to intervene and break up the fight, sending Sora back out to the front where there was already a couple of people waiting in line and wondering what was going on in the back.

Sora cleared his throat once he was back out in the lobby, smiling as though nothing was wrong. He took orders as usual, but, once he got down to waiting for the machine to pour out the coffee brew, he would notice the sticky note that was now stuck on the inside of the top of his apron, where he could see. His cheeks would redden slightly, but he'd go right back about his business, though his mind stayed on that strange meeting with that even stranger customer.

End.