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Danny Fenton was not made for being an intern. That was the first thing he realized as he scurried down the hall to get to the coffee shop on the first floor of Wayne Enterprises. He was interning for the aerospace department to get some credits for college and at first, he thought it was a dream come true. Until he realized that all he would be doing is getting coffee for all of the employees in the department.
He didn’t think that this was what his professor meant when he told him that he would be gaining important experience from this internship. Maybe if he decided to become a waiter after graduation but that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to work in the aerospace department.
He made his way into the shop, Coffee Slingers and looked down at his long list of coffees he was ordered to get. There were like seven or eight on the post it note. He had no clue how he was going to manage to carry all of these back up to the thirty eighth floor but he would figure it out. Maybe he could store a few inside of him? That wouldn’t be suspicious would it?
He stepped in the line and let out a forlorn sigh. At least they gave him a credit card to pay for all of these? That was a perk at least.
Danny tapped his foot as he waited for his turn before he made it in front of the barista who gave him the usual look of pity. This barista had seen Danny come in here at least three times a day and knew that Danny was about to make both of them hate their lives.
“Hey Jenny,” Danny said with a sigh, his shoulders drooping. Jenny gave him a tired smile.
“Lay it on me DJ,” they said, using the nickname that most of the baristas had started calling him after his fifth visit here.
“I need a hot vanilla blond late–tall. White mocha cappuccino, two iced coffees with three pumps of sugar and whole milk. One with five pumps of sugar and oat milk,” Danny said, listing off the orders one by one, crinkling his nose at each drink.
“And for you?”
Danny grinned. “You already know.”
“Death wish with four extra shots of espresso and just a splash of milk and a pump of sugar, I don’t know how your heart hasn’t given out from all that caffeine,” Jenny said with a shake of their head. Danny just shrugged his shoulders.
“Gotta survive college somehow,” he said before swiping his boss’ card and moved to wait at the pick up station for the drinks. He pulled out his phone and swiped through his social media, responding to a few texts from Sam and Tuck before he heard a familiar voice.
“Hey Jenny,” a familiar voice said. “Can I get the usual?”
Jenny smiled at the guy. “You got it boss man,” they said before ringing it up. Danny watched the interaction with rapid attention. He didn’t know the man’s name but every single day without fail, Danny would see the same dark haired, blue eyed man come in and order the exact same drink as Danny. He had never spoken to this man, of course not.
He was way out of Danny’s league with his fancy suit and tie and professional haircut. He had to be one of the fancy schmancy business guys who worked in WE. And there was no way someone like that would ever be interested in a lousy intern like Danny. He still hadn’t even gotten to show the company his potential considering all he did was get coffee for the staff.
But man, was that guy pretty. He had the sharpest jawline Danny had ever seen on a person, it made him wonder what it would be like to drag his lips across it, kissing the man softly. Fuck, and it didn’t help that he just looked so goddamn good in that suit. It had to be illegal for someone to look that fucking good all the goddamn time. It just wasn’t fair that some people like coffee guy just won the lottery in the gene pool. Danny would be jealous but he honestly really didn’t mind the view.
And this would be the part where Sam would start nagging at him for objectifying a human being. But Danny couldn’t help it! He was a ghost, and ghosts just tended to be attracted to pretty things. And Coffee Guy sure was pretty.
“DJ!” Jenny called, holding out three drink carriers for the intern. Danny let out a groan as he remembered his task at hand. “Good luck,” they said, giving Danny a smirk.
“Shut it, you have no idea how much of a pain it is to do this three times a day,” Danny grumbled before he put one drink carrier handle in his mouth and took one in each hand.
“You know,” Jenny said, giving the intern a sly smile. “I saw those eyes you were making for Boss Man over there. You’ve got it bad, huh?”
Danny just scowled at the barista. They just knew to ask him that when he had his mouth full. Jenny was such a pain. He raised a coffee laden hand and flipped them off before he turned around and proceeded to bump into someone, spilling the coffee held up by his mouth all over himself. The scalding heat forced him to let out a yelp, both drink carriers falling out of his hands as they flew up to tug at his coffee covered shirt. “Ope! Sorry,” Danny exclaimed, looking at the mess in front of him and the coffee all over himself.
“Oh no! I am so sorry,” Coffee Guy said, looking alarmed. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to knock all of those over. Here, let me help,” he rushed before grabbing as many napkins as he could and started to dab at Danny’s shirt.
Danny gave the guy a forced smile, trying not to die again. Embarrassment coursed through his veins as he tried to clean up the coffee. “It’s fine, really. I should have been paying attention to where I was looking. You don’t have to help me, it’s fine,” he rushed out.
“No, no it’s definitely my fault,” Coffee Guy said awkwardly, still dabbing at Danny’s shirt. “I was standing way too close. It’s just, I was gonna talk to you but then you turned around and it alarmed me and anyway, I’m sorry. I’ll buy you new coffee.”
“Yeah, no it’s fine,” Danny said just as awkwardly. “I can get them it’s okay.”
“I insist, really. Just let me pay for them,” Coffee Guy said and looked at Jenny. “Could you re-ring all of that up for me and remake them? I’m a clutz.”
“Really, it’s okay,” Danny argued, trying to stop Coffee Guy from dabbing his shirt, damn he was insistent, as a barista came out to start mopping up the mess. Danny was horrified. Of course this would happen in front of Coffee Guy of all people. He just wanted to die all over again at this point. He just needed to fly back to the Ghost Zone and never let anyone see him ever again. That was the solution! He could just hide forever and never let anyone know that he had completely and totally embarrassed himself in front of the hottest guy he had ever seen. He froze and looked at Coffee Guy. Wait, did Coffee Guy say he wanted to talk? To Danny?
The halfa felt his brain reboot for just a second before he gave Coffee Guy a small smile. “What did you want to talk to me about?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh uh, yeah,” Coffee Guy said, a blush rising to his cheeks. “I wanted to ask you for your name,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck as he finally quit dabbing Danny’s shirt, realizing it was a lost cause.
“Oh? Uh, Danny. It’s Danny,” the halfa responded, his brain still trying to come back to functioning like a normal person. Or at least, normal adjacent.
“Danny,” Coffee Guy said, a small smile on his face as he said it.
“You know,” Danny started with an awkward laugh. “This is the part where you introduce yourself to me, too.”
“You don’t know my name?” Coffee Guy asked, tilting his head.
“Am I supposed to?” Danny asked, furrowing his brow. Was Coffee Guy someone that he was supposed to know from somewhere? How was he supposed to know who he was? He had only ever seen him in this coffee shop.
“That’s presumptuous of me. My name’s Tim,” he answered, shaking his head a little as if to clear his thoughts.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Danny said before he looked down at his shirt and pants and let out a groan. “I’m gonna have to drop these coffees off and go change,” he said with a sigh.
“I was wondering, who’re you getting all this coffee for?” Tim questioned, stepping over to pay for the new round of coffees. Danny just scowled.
“My office,” he mumbled. “I started interning here like a month ago to get my practicum credits for my masters degree but they just think I’m a glorified coffee boy instead of letting me do what I’m actually supposed to be doing.”
“Oh? What department are you in?”
“Aerospace engineering,” Danny answered, still frowning down at his shirt and missing the look of annoyance on Tim’s face. “One of these days I’m gonna work for either NASA or Wayne Enterprises and work on spacecrafts.”
“That’s really cool,” Tim said and Danny looked back up at him and gave him a happy smile.
“Yeah, I think it is too! When I was a kid, I really wanted to actually go to space as an astronaut but I had an accident that ruined that for me. So now I want to at least work on the ships that do go into space,” he explained just as Jenny called for him to grab the new batch of coffees.
“Here, let me help,” Tim said, taking two of the three drink holders. “It’s the least I can do for ruining your clothes and spilling all of that coffee on you.”
“It’s fine, thankfully it was just the ice coffees that spilled on me. It would have majorly sucked if it was the hot lattes,” Danny said, taking the last drink carrier. “But sure, I’d like the company.”
Tim gave him a dazzling smile and the two walked out together, the both of them forgetting about their own coffee orders still sitting beside each other on the counter.
“So, there was a reason I was wanting to get your name,” Tim said as they stepped onto the elevator.
“Oh? What for?” Danny asked dumbly.
“I was wanting to see if maybe you’d like to get lunch sometime? I’ve been noticing you at the coffee shop for some time now and I think you’re really attractive and I’d like to get to know you and you’re just really pretty and-”
“I get it,” Danny laughed, trying and failing to push the blush on his cheeks down. “I would love to get lunch with you. Once we deliver these drinks, how about I give you my number?”
Tim smiled and tugged at the collar of his suit. “I- yeah, I’d like that,” he said awkwardly, his cheeks and ears just the slightest bit of red. Just then the doors to the elevator slid open and the two stepped out to make their way towards Danny’s office.
“I brought coffee,” Danny said tiredly as he set the carrier down.
The secretary, JoAnn looked up and immediately paled when she saw Tim. “Oh! I didn’t realize you were visiting today,” she said and stood up, fluttering her hands before she gave Danny an annoyed look. “What did you do to yourself?”
“That was my fault, I spilled coffee on him,” Tim answered instead.
“Oh well, that’s fine. Danny you can get back to that project you were working on,” JoAnn said causing the intern to frown.
“Project? I don’t have any projects,” he said, confusion lacing his voice. JoAnn let out a nervous titter.
“Oh, of course you do. It’s waiting for you on your desk, now let me go grab Howard from his office to talk to you, Sir.”
With that, JoAnn scampered away.
“I have a desk?” Danny asked, frowning. “Why haven’t I heard about it? Why are they being so weird?” He asked and looked at Tim. “Are you like a customer or something?”
Tim blushed and opened his mouth only to be drowned out by the head of the Aerospace department.
“Mr. Drake-Wayne! What a surprise!” Howard exclaimed, walking into the front office. Danny turned and stared at Tim.
“Drake-Wayne? Like CEO Drake-Wayne?” He whispered, face going deathly pale. Not only did he embarrass himself in front of a hot guy. He embarrassed himself in front of the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, ancients he wanted to die again.
“Is that okay?” Tim asked him, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.
“No, no! Not at all! Definitely not a problem, just didn’t think that’s what you did. I just feel really dumb and a little embarrassed but it’s okay, really. Anyway, apparently I have a desk somewhere up here so I’m just gonna… go look for it.”
“Can I still get your number?” Tim asked, giving Danny that cute, shy smile.
“Oh! Right, right. My number, because you want to go on a date. With me, right,” Danny stammered before he scribbled his number down on a scrap piece of paper JoAnn had on her desk and presented it to Tim, ignoring the glare from Howard. He apparently did not enjoy getting ignored like this. Served him right, though, for not telling Danny he had a desk. “I’ll see you whenever you’re ready to get lunch!” he squeaked out blushing furiously before he ran off to look for his desk.
Once he was out of what humans would this is earshot he heard Tim turn to Howard. “So, why is your masters student doing coffee runs instead of the set work we have for him? We have this entire program for masters students for a reason,” he scolded.
Danny smiled to himself as he quickened his pace. Not only did spilling coffee all over himself score him a date, it also got his shitty boss in trouble too. Hopefully no more mass coffee runs in his future.