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Summary
He runs a café like it’s the only place that makes sense.
Home is where he feels smallestEridan Ampora opens the coffee shop before dawn and closes it long after dark, clinging to routine, precision, and control as a way to prove his worth. The café is his refuge. It is something he built with his own hands, where effort means something and people listen when he speaks.
At home, his father waits. Wealthy, distant, and unimpressed, Diande measures success in power and prestige, and Eridan never quite measures up. No matter how hard he works, the approval he craves never comes.
Then there is Sollux. A quiet regular who sits in the corner every morning, notices too much, and asks questions Eridan is not ready to answer. Where others judge, Sollux observes. Where Eridan deflects, Sollux waits.
As exhaustion sets in and the pressure from home grows heavier, Eridan is forced to confront what he is running from, and what he might be building instead. Between early mornings, late nights, and a café that feels more like home than his own house, Eridan begins to realize that being seen, truly seen, might matter more than earning anyone’s approval.