Chapter Text
It was four hours into Noel’s shift and it had been absolutely dead the whole day. There was only so many times he could wipe down the same counter and stir the boba before he was dying along with the business.
That was how it was at Gong cha at this mall. He was either withering away in boredom, or he was drowning in the sheer amount of people coming at once, usually right before closing time. There was no middle ground, only boredom or stress.
Noel made himself a passion fruit black tea with no sugar to try and keep himself awake for the final two hours he had left. It was still a touch too sweet for him, but he worked at a bubble tea shop, so there wasn’t much escaping that.
As soon as he stabbed his straw through the lid and took a drink, that was of course when a customer walked up to the counter. Noel tried to swallow the drink he took quickly so he could say something, but ended up swallowing wrong and instantly starting to cough.
“Woah, you okay?” The man who had walked up asked.
Noel, already embarrassed, then noticed the man was not only extremely hot, but he was wearing a uniform of some sort, so he probably worked in this mall as well. He coughed a few more times to clear his throat and hoped his red face was explained by the near death experience he just had.
“Yes, yeah, sorry, wow.” Noel logged into the POS system in front of him and set his drink below the counter. “What can I get for you?”
“Uh,” The man looked up at the menu behind him, squinting a bit. He ran a hand through his dark hair and tilted his head to the side. “Something caffeinated. And cold.”
“Okay, well that’s going to be like most of the menu.” Noel laughed a little. The man had an accent. Something european. He was also tall. Okay, Noel had to focus. “Have you had bubble tea before?”
“No, but I have had tea?” The man scrunched his eyebrows together and Noel really shouldn’t be thinking about how attractive this man was when trying to take his order.
“Okay, how about I make you a classic? Brown sugar milk tea with pearls.” Noel suggested. He had yet to meet someone who disliked that.
The man shrugged. “Sounds dope.”
Noel couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. This man couldn’t be that handsome and also say things like ‘dope’. “Alright, regular amount of sugar and ice okay?”
The man considered this. “Extra sugar.”
Noel grimaced. “Are you sure? The stuff here is pretty sweet.”
He nodded decidedly. “Extra.”
“Okay,” Noel sighed, resigned. He put in the order, the man paid, and Noel turned around to make the drink. There was another reason Noel liked to suggest that drink and that was because it was one of the easiest to make. It was done in less than a minute.
“Wow, you are fast,” The man looked impressed as he took his drink. “And talented. Why is something I will just drink so pretty?”
Noel watched the man admire the designs the brown sugar syrup made on the sides of the cup. “I literally just drizzled it, it doesn’t take talent.”
The man only shrugged and then looked at the lid of the drink confused. He went to peel it off.
“Wait!” Noel stopped him, and the man froze, startled. “Sorry, here.”
Noel handed him a straw. “First, shake the drink well, then take the pointed end and stab it through the lid.”
“Stab it?” The man confirmed and grinned when Noel nodded. “I like the sound of that.”
Noel couldn’t help but smile back as the man shook the cup aggressively and then set it on the counter to stab the straw through the lid with the same amount of aggression. Surprisingly it didn’t explode everywhere with the unnecessary amount of force the tall man used and he took a drink once the straw was in.
The man’s eyes lit up when he tasted it, and against his better judgment, Noel felt a bit proud that he had made that drink. The man spoke around the boba in his mouth. “Are there supposed to be balls in there?”
Noel couldn’t help but snort at that. “Yes. That’s the pearls. The bubbles that make it bubble tea.”
The man nodded, considering. Then his eyes got a mischievous glint in them. “Never thought balls could taste so good.”
Noel covered his mouth as a startled laugh burst out of him. He quickly looked around, hoping no other customers were close enough to hear that. “You can’t say that.”
The man raised an eyebrow in question, but he was grinning. “What? Can’t compliment drink you made me?”
Noel’s hand had yet to move from covering his mouth, still shocked and delighted. “Alright, so you like it?”
The man nodded as he took another drink. “Could be sweeter.”
Noel cringed. “You’re joking, right?”
“Nope.” The man shrugged. “But is still good. Thank you.”
“Yeah, of course.” Noel smiled.
“I’m Mischa by the way.”
“Oh, Noel.” Noel introduced himself.
“Nice to meet you, Noel.” Mischa smiled at him. “I work at the bungee place down that way.”
Noel’s eyes followed where Mischa pointed, even though he knew exactly where he meant. “Oh, cool. I’ve never gone on those things.”
“Not worth price,” Mischa rolled his eyes. “Would be better to do real bungee jumping.”
“Yeah, well I’m not a thrill seeker either way.”
“Really?” Mischa raised an eyebrow at him. He stepped closer so he could lean on the counter towards Noel, as if about to tell him a secret. “I could get you in for free.”
Noel tried to ignore how the combination of the raised eyebrow, leaning in, and lowered voice made his face heat up immediately. “You mean you could break the rules and make your manager pissed at you?”
Mischa scoffed. “I usually work alone anyways, no one would know.”
Noel bit his lip, unsure how to respond because he really did not like heights, but it also sounded like this guy was asking him to hang out with him alone sometime and he really did not want to reject that. “I’ll consider it.”
Mischa leaned back and grinned at him, a small gap between his front teeth surprisingly endearing. “Sweet. See you around, Noel. Thanks again!”
And then he was gone and Noel had no time to process the entire interaction before a group of ten teenagers arrived at the counter and Noel silently wished for death.
– –
“Okay, so hypothetically,” Noel started as soon as he passed through GameStop’s entrance, Ricky looking up in surprise.
‘Always a good start,’ Ricky signed to him with a smile from behind the counter.
Noel rolled his eyes, coming up to the counter and placing his hands on it. “Hypothetically, if a really hot guy comes to your place of work, compliments what you make him, makes a lewd joke to make you laugh, then offers to get you in free to his place of work sometime, is that flirting?”
Ricky leaned back in his wheelchair, looking thoughtful. He finally reached for his AAC device, clearly deciding what he wanted to say would sound better out loud. “I’d say it’s a pretty good indicator you are about to get a good dicking down.”
“Ricky!” Noel hissed, looking around the clearly empty store just in case.
Ricky only shrugged, looking unapologetic. He switched back to signing for convenience. ‘I take it this isn’t hypothetical.’
“No, obviously not,” Noel groaned and covered his red face. “This just, literally never happens to me. I’m scared I’m misinterpreting it.”
Noel jumped as an obnoxious siren noise came from Ricky’s direction. Noel looked up to find Ricky looking at him like he was stupid, finger poised over a button on the AAC device. Once he had Noel’s attention, he signed, ‘I can’t communicate with you when you look away, dumbass.’
Noel grimaced. “Sorry.”
‘Anyways, I say go for it. Take him up on the offer and just see where it takes you. Can’t go wrong with that.’
Noel sighed. “You’re right. He already invited me, it can’t hurt to accept…”
Ricky nodded in agreement, then immediately changed the subject. ‘Did you just get off work?’
“Yeah, why?”
‘Will you bring me one of those new drinks you have next time you work? It looks good.’
Noel smiled. “Yeah, for sure. Being so slow we keep having to throw away the jellies we make for them anyways, so it’ll be good to use some.”
‘Oh, yay, thanks for the leftovers.’ Ricky signed sarcastically, rolling his eyes with a smile.
“Anytime,” Noel laughed. “Have fun with the rest of your shift of talking to video game nerds.”
‘I would, except they don’t actually care about talking as much as they do complaining about the stuff we don’t have.’
“I think that’s the same anywhere you work.”
They gave each other sympathetic, knowing looks, before bidding each other goodbye.
Noel arrived back at his house ready to finally shower and change out of his stupid uniform. He did so, and exited the bathroom toweling his hair dry and looking at tomorrow’s schedule on his phone. It was Saturday, so for once he wasn’t actually working alone, since it was likely to be busier. He saw the name on the schedule and instantly groaned.
There was one person he could not stand at his job and it was Avery. She was a fucking menace with no brain, no skills, and the teamwork of an egocentric three year old. He didn’t know how she was still working there, it seemed impossible to him. Tomorrow was going to fucking suck.
In preparation, he repainted his nails black and watched Blue Angel to calm himself down. He went to sleep that night with dreams of Lola Lola meeting a tall, dark-haired man with a nice accent.
– –
Noel’s day already had a rough start as he slept through his alarm and arrived to work ten minutes late. It only got worse when Avery also arrived ten minutes late, even though she was scheduled to come in only fifteen minutes before they opened, which left him doing all of the cooking back in the kitchen and getting the front set up for the day.
To top it all off, Avery’s very first words to him when she walked in were, “Just to let you know, my back hurts really bad today, so I don’t know if I can really do many cleaning tasks today.”
Noel just clenched his jaw and told himself it was only six more hours. He could get through this.
Oddly enough, it was very busy. Yes, it was a weekend, but even weekends at this dying mall were pretty slow. So, he would usually be grateful to not be by himself, but working with Avery was pretty much the equivalent of working alone and babysitting. She kept making drinks wrong and almost giving them out to people before Noel stopped her, she left all her dishes in her sink until specifically reminded of them, and every time they had a moment of downtime, instead of wiping down spills or sweeping under the waffle making station, she stood there, and drank her drink.
Noel was seething by the time Mischa showed up again.
Noel didn’t notice him at first, because he was trying to deal with this guy arguing with him about getting extra pearls in his drink.
“I just want another scoop, you can’t just put it in there for me?” The guy said, voice raised.
“As I said before, sir, it’s only an extra sixty cents, I can ring you up for it over here.” Noel was trying to breathe deeply, because he was so close to freaking out.
“I’m not paying for extra boba at a boba tea shop!”
“Then, I’m sorry, but I can’t-” Noel tried.
“Are you fucking stupid!? How hard is it to-”
“Hey, watch your fucking tone.” Noel heard Mischa’s voice suddenly then, and he looked up to see him stepping up so he was right in the guy’s face. “He just works here, leave him alone.”
“Excuse me? Mind your business, I’m trying to talk to this sad excuse for a barista-” The guy snarled, before abruptly stopping as Mischa took another step forward, towering over the guy.
Noel had to give it to him, when Mischa wasn’t smiling like he had at Noel, he was pretty intimidating. Tall, muscular, and with a glare so sharp it could cut your head off, Noel would not want to mess with him.
Mischa didn’t have to say anything else. The guy huffed indignantly, trying to save whatever dignity he had left, and walked away as fast as he could, leaving his drink behind.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Noel spoke up as soon as it was clear.
Mischa furrowed his eyebrows. “Dude was fucking asshole. They don’t think people working these jobs are actually people.”
Noel sighed. “They don’t. Thank you, it’s been a rough day.”
“Busy?” Mischa asked, looking at him with concern.
It shouldn’t have made Noel’s chest as warm as it did to see this man he barely knew concerned over him. “Yeah, and my coworker is no fucking help.”
Mischa looked around for said coworker.
Noel scoffed. “She’s taking her third break of the day. She works five hours today in total and her shift ends in thirty minutes.”
“Bitch,” Mischa said simply.
Noel let out a surprised laugh. Mischa kept pleasantly surprising him every time he opened his mouth. “Truly.”
“When do you get off work?”
Noel looked at the POS screen to see the time. “Actually about thirty minutes as well.”
“Well, I just finished my shift, so we can not do bungee jumping today, but could take you somewhere else if you don't have plans?” Mischa stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans a bit awkwardly, and Noel would be lying if he said he didn’t find his nerves endearing.
“I’m free after this,” Noel couldn’t stop a stupid smile from coming to his face. Was this real?
Mischa grinned back. “Awesome, I will be back in half hour then.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then.” Noel’s hands clenched the edge of the counter to ground himself, because he was sure if he smiled any wider he might break something in his face.