By the time Stephan made it to the cafe for his daily afternoon cup and ritualistic hate fest the next day, he'd all but convinced himself the writing on the bottom of the cup was merely a figment of his exhausted imagination, conjured up by his inability to convince his libido that Minh was not on the list of "People That Would Actually Want to Be With Stephan." (Actually, nobody was on that list but Minh was definitely not on that list while the rest of the world was simply casually not on that list.) And if the brunette had stared intently at his own eyes for hours in a mirror last night, it was completely unrelated. Not that he had. He hadn't!
Stephan went up to the cash register as normally as he would any other day, receiving the usual death glare that seemed to be conjured straight from the fiery pits of hell and threw his own spiteful scowl back with as much malice as he could muster with as low energy levels as he had - It must not have been much as an obtrusive yawn cut straight through his hate filled stare-off.
Minh lost his eyebrow heavy snarl for the briefest of moments, Stephan thought, but the look was set firmly back in place a moment later, so the brunette readily accepted that he'd imagined that too. After all, spending all that extra time not staring at his eyes in a mirror had really set his schedule back last night and he had an important test coming up in Anatomy that Friday, so the brunette had spent the better portion of the twilight hours studying Anatomy until dawn - And not in the way that he would like to use the phrase. With hot baristas, That same annoying part of Stephan's mind that always seemed to think Asshole = Potential Love Interest suggested helpfully, particularly loud and obnoxious today as the brunette lacked the energy to reign it in at the moment.
"What the hell do you want?" Minh huffed gruffly, glowering his usual daggers into the exhausted boy, who was barely able to refrain from groaning in response. See, Minh knew what the fuck Stephan wanted as it was the exact same thing the brunette had been ordering since day one but that never stopped the Asian from asking every, single, goddamned day. Stephan was relatively sure the barista just reaped a spiteful satisfaction from making the brunette relay the wordy order that legitimately sounded much more like the kid was reciting a poem rather than ordering a drink.
"A blowjob or a bullet to the brain, I haven't decided yet." Stephan sighed tiredly, the words stretched around a wide yawn before he snapped his mouth shut once more, his exhausted mind finally getting its ass outta bed and catching up with his unobedient mouth. He wasn't kidding when he said he didn't have enough energy to hold back the wild beast that was his dirty mind.
It almost sounded like Minh choked on his own spit, the guy making a strangled sort of sound, but he quickly covered it with a curt cough so maybe Stephan was truly lower on sleep than he'd imagined. "I'll gladly give you the latter option." The barista growled, rolling his eyes back so far Stephan was honestly surprised they didn't fall out of the dude's head as the Asian leaned against the counter, bracing himself with one arm on the sleek surface.
"Damn." Stephan snorted dryly, solely because he truly had no filter when he was sleepy, nor could he muster up the energy to regret his loose tongue's devious, obviously delirious ramblings, even when Minh spluttered angrily as his face burned a brilliant shade of scarlet - He must've really pissed the Asian off this time to achieve that shade, a totally new color outshining all the previous pink twinges of rage Stephan had painted across the barista's face before.
Stephan ignored this, pausing to rub one eye in a vain attempt to remove the haze of sleep from his clouded orbs. All the tired action succeeded in doing, however, was clarifying Stephan's view of the way the veins in Minh's arm bulged when the guy braced himself with the muscled limb, the sight doing absolutely ungodly things to the brunette's stomach, ruining it for life in fact. (You want him to ruin your guts, that oh, so helpful voice sniped.) Stephan swallowed thickly and tried to avert his eyes but some witchcraft was obviously at play for the brunette found himself unable to break his gaze away from the tense muscles. Damn.
This would've all been fine and dandy. Stephan was still breathing, if a little shallowly, and he could've lived with all this but fate was a cruel, cruel mistress and Minh chose that moment to push himself off the counter, his smooth muscles working under caramel skin in a way that could only be described as pornographic.
"Dark roast, Arabian, quadruple shot espresso, double squirt caramel, coffee ice, four cubes, with a touch of mocha, but no more than three pumps, skim milk, a dash of vanilla, topped with double whipped cream and granola garnish to finish it off." Stephan rambled off to distract himself from the absolutely lewd display of arm muscles before his unfiltered mouth could do something stupid like actually compliment Minh on them - That would be absolutely awful because mortal enemies tended to refrain from saying things like "Dude, you've got some fucking sexy arms right there. Do you work out? Would you like to work me out?" Which was totally what the freed mechanics of Stephan's horny, teenage mind would like to say right now. Curse exhaustion and its effect on the teen's already weak ass ability to keep his thoughts in check.
Minh gagged and turned to begin making the drink as Stephan produced the money needed, already having the amount memorized by now; just as Minh obviously already had the order memorized as the Asian didn't even bother writing a single thing down. Fucking asshole, making Stephan work his tired lips so unnecessarily and not even in the way the brunette would like... Jesus Christ, dear libido, could you perhaps calm the fuck down for, like, two seconds?
The answer was apparently no, it could not. For as Stephan patiently waited for the blessed caffeine to be gifted to his desperate body, his eyes fixed themselves to something with a whole different type of stimulating effect. Now, usually Stephan would be happy to find something with the ability to wake him up even a little bit, especially on a day like today when the kid was dangerously close to just curling up on the sleek counter of the coffee shop and falling asleep there, perhaps threatening to bite anyone who dared try and move him, but this was unfortunately not the case at the moment for one, very simple reason: The thing that had perked Stephan up was the discovery that Minh had one hell of an ass.
As the barista moved about behind the counter, his hips swayed with the practiced movements in a way that forced Stephan's eyes to linger on the curve of the guy's jeans. The brunette's trailing gaze refused to break away from this new discovery, Stephan playing his expected roll of horny teenage boy to a T as he found himself absolutely enraptured by the roundness and perfect circularity of the Asian's butt, absolutely positive he'd never seen a better ass in all his life.
Which is why it made total sense for Stephan to scoff, "Congratulations on Ass of the Year," when Minh finally handed him his drink, because apparently tired = no self control in the brunette's book.
"What?" Minh spluttered haughtily, face reddening and dark eyes widening to the size of small planets at the brunette's words, though Stephan couldn't imagine the guy was half as horrified as he himself felt at the moment.
"You know, 'cause you're such an asshole." Stephan covered up hastily, rolling his eyes elaborately as if trying to convince everyone around him that this meaning had been obvious all along and Minh was undeniably an idiot for thinking otherwise.
"I really oughta spit in your drink." Minh huffed out humorlessly as he thrust the beverage in question forward with a look of such utter annoyance Stephan was truly uncertain the guy hadn't already done just that.
"Please don't. You've probably got Aids, or Hep, or some hitherto unheard of Stick-Up-The-Ass-Disease." Stephan snorted dryly as he snatched his drink from the Asian's grip and stalked away before any more could be said, needing to get as far away from the counter as possible before Sir FuckFace could notice the hot blush that the brunette could feel creeping up the back of his neck at the mere mention of sticks up asses in Minh's presence. The kid practically collapsed into his usual seat a moment later as he made his retreat, stubbornly looking anywhere but behind him as he jammed his phone charger into the godsend that was his outlet and buried his face into his drink before anything else could go wrong.
The familiar flavor of perfect, wonderful, absolutely heavenly coffee hit Stephan's tongue, nearly sending a pleasurable chill down the kid's back as he relished the comforting warmth and intoxicating taste. However, the brunette recoiled sharply a moment later, nearly gagging on the amazing beverage as his sensitive taste buds picked up something amiss and he choked on the stuff. At first, Stephan thought Minh had finally gotten tired of his daily obnoxiousness and really had spit in his drink, if not opted to just go all in and straight up poison the bothersome brunette but after a moment's analysis the kid vetoed the paranoid thought.
There was no new flavor in his cup, just something out of place. A bitter punch to his sweet ecstasy that was not so unfamiliar but was rather merely stronger than usual. Something upsetting the balance, as if a little extra of a particular ingredient had been added... Stephan tentatively took another sip of the steaming hot beverage, carefully putting the tiny entrance of the foam lid against his lips and pouring back just the tiniest drop until the drink hit his tongue and the burst of flavor came again. The brunette swirled the tiny swig around his mouth for a moment and he had his answer: Espresso. Minh had added extra caffeine. Minh had seen how tired the boy was and had actually...
Stephan couldn't bring himself to actually think the word cared but it flitted around his mind, unspoken and unacknowledged but there all the same. A creeping suspicion the thinker was unwilling to look at but couldn't altogether ignore either.
Either way, Stephan may have tipped back his head and downed the beverage a little quicker than usual, eager to see if the phantom writing magically scrawled itself on the bottom of his cup today - If anyone saw him, he could easily blame it on the fact that he was drained and energyless and needed to get as much caffeine in his body as possible as quickly as possible. After all, that was what he was telling himself, even as he swallowed back the last drop and cast a quick, suspicious glance about to make sure no one was watching before immediately turning the thing over with eager eyes, already more energetic than he'd felt in a century.
Another thought prevailed in the kid's mind as his hazel orbs scanned the white expanse of stained foam and Stephan wasn't sure what gave him more pause: The fact that the underside of his cup read "get more sleep" or the fact that no grounds presented themselves in his mouth, despite the fact that he'd swallowed everything to the last, minuscule drop.
If anyone asked Stephan later what happened after that, he would be sure to answer that Minh had undoubtedly poisoned him after all because he most certainly did not fall asleep.
Though, that explanation truly didn't make much sense to even Stephan's desperate ears when faced with the fact that it was actually Minh that shook the exhausted teen awake some time later. The feeling of a wide hand lightly grasping his shoulder and his body being shaken just slightly having little effect as the boy originally just gave a small whine of protest and pushed haphazardly at the general direction of the intrusive limb, desperate to be reclaimed by the intoxicating haze of sleep that tempted him back into its black depths.
A soft, "Stephan, wake up," hissed with the hushed quietness of someone trying not to startle a person, though it sounded more like the intruder thought they were dealing with a feral animal than a slumbering teenager, was what finally roused the brunette, the kid letting out another soft groan as the harsh sunlight stabbed his sleep filled eyes and his head throbbed accordingly, the beginnings of a headache already fast approaching.
The sound of someone shuffling away from him met Stephan's ears, followed by a heavy whoosh, as if some amount of thick fabric had been tossed nearby and it was the oddity of that noise that finally convinced the brunette to open his eyes. The boy always having been curious to a fault and relatively certain it was going to get him into shit someday. Today, however, it just revealed that there had always been velvet curtains ready to fall down over his window. Classy.
Stephan probably would've fallen to the ground profess the immense amount of gratitude he felt at the offer of dim light in the presence of an oncoming migraine if his eyes hadn't fallen on the King of Dickishness himself. As it was, the brunette merely grumbled out, "You poisoned me," in an accusatory voice still gravelly with sleep and sticky with the haze of confusion still clinging to the edges of his mind.
For a moment Stephan swore he saw the corner of the Asian's lip tick up in the beginnings of an amused smile but the familiar, disapproving scowl was soon set firmly in place once more."No, I woke you up before you could start wailing about how you slept through your afternoon classes, fucking ingrate." Minh retorted irritably and Stephan feared that the guy would be over his momentary benevolence and was going to pull the magic gold cord to bring the teen's headache back with vengeance but the barista did no such thing, letting the rope fall from his hands as he began stalking back behind the counter without another word.
Stephan only stood there looking dumb and befuddled for a minute before his hazy, sleep heavy brain retraced its steps. "I didn't think you even knew my name, considering..." The brunette huffed exasperatedly, shaking his cup at Minh in explanation, making sure to keep the side with "Douchebag" written across it facing out so the message was clear.
Minh merely let out a humorless laugh before turning away, though Stephan knew for a fact he caught the sight of a wide smirk playing across the barista's lips this time and the brunette would be lying if he said he didn't find himself smiling back.
On a totally unrelated note, Stephan made sure to actually get to bed some time before daybreak that evening.
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