… It was early in the morning on the weekend, where sensible people would plan to stay at home first before going anywhere. So the amount of customers waiting for the order to be taken came, as Natsu passed by, was two. Glancing down, the cashier though didn’t seem to have taken notice of that herself. “Excuse me, may I have an iced matcha latte, grande, please?” “Whatever,” the cashier answered, her eyes obscured by her hat’s rim. Natsu’s brows furrowed. “Also,” the same customer spoke, “I’d like to have a wholegrain chocolate biscuit on the side. I need something to snack on, such a busy day.” “Whatever,” said the cashier again, finally revealing her eyes after suddenly raising her phone up. She made a grimace and took a picture with it, before returning to her original dismissive posture. Her hair was noticeably a desert color of pink and blonde. Natsu watched it incredulously, though not because of her. The customer seemingly did not appear offended at all, and just went after her purse. The cashier took the money with her diamond glittered hand with black nail polish, and went away to ready the drinks, her phone never leaving her sight. In some ways, Natsu felt a bit impressed by the work ethic. As he moved down the counter, he found the one sectioned part and lifted it to the side to make it stand vertically. “Hey, uh, don’t mind me,” he tried to tell her. The cashier had one hand on the lever to pour coffee, and the rest of her on her device. “Um, don’t mind me!” “Whatever!” the cashier answered, before spewing out “God,” to truly accentuate her displeasure. Natsu came to appreciate how much freedom he will likely have in this place. Natsu passed through and headed straight to the doors. The vibrant color mash of blue, green and yellow of the front was replaced with sterile white of the backrooms. There was less aroma of the coffee and more of the smell of the beans, mixed in with some cleaning equipment. Passing through racks filled with opened boxes and what appeared to be the fridge, Natsu found a miniature coffee table. Just a knee high, next to a pair of seating couch and chair adjacent to it. He noticed a clumped bag, with clothes studded and edgy phrases strewn all over it. He came to conclusion that it belonged to the cashier. “Over here, squirt!” Natsu jolted from his place, finding the “bull” waving to him. He went through the door inside the staff lounge room, and entered what he assumed was a manager’s place. It was tight space, with a desk, a laptop and several filing cabinets on the side, huddled economically together. While the two of them was fine enough fit in there, another one would have made the place cramped. “Your first order of business is to watch this instructional video!” commanded the “bull.” Natsu, of course, did his best to stay upright while listening. There was something about the voice that sent him into a fight or flight mode, and where choosing either one will leave him with his heart ripped out and blood drained. “Which unfortunately, for you, newbie meat, is not going to happen today. Our player has been broken, and my computer decided to be a cunty bitch and leave me out to dry like my sister did during my sweet sixteen party. But, it all doesn’t matter, you know why? Because we will do it in the good old fashioned way.” Natsu then had a manual get shoved right into his face. It was far from big, but he felt like he was given a weapon. On it, was a picture of a smiling, very attractive looking employee with two missing front teeth standing right in front of the cafe. Natsu thought that maybe this person was the founder. “Here’s how it is going to be,” the “bull” closed the laptop, and freed some space on the table. “You read this book! Especially the highlighted part. Then you get your ass into that uniform,” Natsu’s eyes were led down the table by a finger, until he noticed the aforementioned clothes, “And then! Then I will meet you at the front. You work today, then afterwards, you can take time watching the video I’ll send you on your email. Is that clear?” Natsu looked up to the “bull,” and just stood there and watched. Whether he meant it or not, but he was taking a sweet long time just doing nothing there. It just felt rude to add his own voice to the conversation. “I asked, is that clear?!” the bull raised voice with enough timbre to shake the young wolf’s core. “YYYYYYEEESS!” came out of him. The squeakiness of his voice made the already big difference in octaves wider. “Good, so you can talk,” Olivia sniffed and then spat one into the bin a foot away. “Now, while you read, remember these tips. Rule number one! Always answer to your manager, if you think you can. Am I clear?” “YYYYYYYYES! SIR!” The “bull” looked at him with intense glare. Natsu felt shivers and thought that, perhaps, being a space marine was not in fact braver than being a bullfighter. He then heard the former breathe heavily. In that long, drawn out fashion, which the cashier at front have done. Then, Olivia removed her hat, and let her chock full of lusciously large amount of black hair fall all the way down to her massive shoulders. “Yes…Ma’am!” Olivia declared with emphasis. “Yes mam,” repeated Natsu, quietly. His eyes were drawn to the luscious locks. He thought for a moment he was watching a shampoo commercial. “Now, for your rule number two, newbie: never, EVER, steal any of the products! We may be a big business, and tolerate all people from all walks of life, but we DO NOT tolerate THIEVES!” “YES SIR” “MA’AM!” “YES MAA’AAAM!!!” Natsu thought he ripped his vocal cords there. “Good! Finally, rule number three!” Natsu felt a heavy hand fall on his shoulder. He looked behind the wall of long, black hair and into fiery red eyes. “If you ever, EVER, feel threatened, harassed or in some way uncomfortable, you may always come to me. I am your friend, your support, and will do everything to help you out. Is that clear?” “…” “I SAID, IS THAT CLEAR!!?” “YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEES MAAAAA’AAAAM!” Natsu finally yelled out, released from the binding spell of those eyes. He punctuated it all with a salute. “GOOD! You’ll do great here,” she said and patted the boy on the shoulder. Despite her leaving the room, Natsu just had a hard time realising the pose. Perhaps the binding still held him strong. Which was a shame, especially after drinking so much of that bottle earlier. He really needed to pee. … Natsu checked himself in the washroom mirror. The spare uniform they had for him was just a tad bit too big. Perhaps they guessed wrong when they eyed his size. Still, now that he wore the green and black shirt, pants and apron combo, Natsu felt something he never knew of before. And it was the feeling of importance. Right in front of him, his future was finally laid bare. And after the last touch, a pin with his name written with a marker, he finally, truly became ready. He was about to set off into the future, and perhaps for the first time, make something out of himself. Natsu actually felt nervous. Well, a different type of nervous then yesterday. That nervousness came from having his life threatened and meeting new people. This one came from excitement. So, he gave one last look, straightened his back, puffed his chest, and gave himself that one winning smile. As his father told him, a winning smile was what lead people to victory. And that will what exactly his will do. And that was where exactly he was going to go! To victory! He came out of the bathroom and marched his way down the hall. There stood Olivia, her tucked away and her arms resembling that of a mighty warrior. Natsu came up with a confident gait and stared straight into her eyes. She looked down on him quizzically. “Are you ready to go?” she asked him. “Yes, sir!” Natsu said automatically, his smile never leaving his face. He then noticed the former roll her eyes. “MA’AM, I meant ma’am!” “Yes,” she said, shaking her head. And suddenly, he felt like going to the bathroom again. He kept smile a winning one though, so all hope wasn’t lost. “We’ll start at the cash register. Sapphire will look over you and teach the basics. So pay attention. And by the way, have you done work before?” “I…uh…” Natsu felt like breaking in sweat. His smile was turning strained by the second. Olivia moved her head in a way that felt like she was trying figure out if she heard something crack. “Hey! Newbie!” She snapped once in front of his face, making him blink. “Don’t loose out on me. I don’t need some dissertation over your past achievements or whatever the hell you getting worked up over. Rio told me you haven’t worked much, so just tell me about, like part-time or volunteering at school.” “Oh! Okay,” Natsu nodded, relaxing his smile. And then, thinking on it, asked, “Um, like what?” Olivia shrugged her shoulders. “You can say volunteering. Like at a church or community centre. Or school club activity. Or…” Natsu was quietly nodding through it all, smile still there. Olivia stopped since his eyes glazed over into nothingness. “Did you help at home?” “Does…cutting vegetables count?” “Maybe. Did you do it?” “….Sometimes.” “…Okay,” the bull sighed. She then pulled out from a rack a stack of papers and wrote something down. Natsu for a second thought that his life just got graded. It was probably a C plus. Or maybe minus. As she kept scribbling, Natsu turned away his eyes and sighed, already feeling the pressure again. From there, he found two men sitting by the coffee table in the lunge room. These two had probably come over sometime between him reading the manual and changing clothes. Both were finishing eating and were staring in his direction. “Guess, we’ll just go slow burn for today,” Olivia said finally, putting the paper away. She checked Natsu’s gaze, and said, “You found your coworkers, huh?” She waved to the two of them. Both return gave their own greetings in kind. Not long after, both of them began packing it in, readying back to work. “That shifty looking man is Freddo,” she said, pointing to the shifty looking man, making his way to them. “Hey now, I am not shifty at all!” said the shifty-looking man. He was much thinner than Natsu, but also taller. He looked like a weasel trying to pretend to be a Daschund. “He’s in charge of stacking for today and rearranging the back. Say hi to him, keep a distance of two people between you, and make sure to end anything he says with ‘Sure thing’.” Natsu nodded, then with a smile said, “Um, hello?” “Why hello there!” Freddo answered with a pleasantly non-shifty at all voice. He followed it up by extending his surprisingly long hand to shake his in a completely non-shifty way. “It’s so nice to have some newcomers in here! It is especially great for me, since I am always happy to get some help. You see, here, I always work on my lonesome, for some reason, and I can’t figure out why!” “Yeah, yeah, sure thing,” Olivia said interrupting him, while jerking young wolf’s hand out. Despite thinking she’d crush him, Natsu found her hands to be oddly soft. She then pointed to the short, round cat. “That’s Tham. He’s in charge of cleaning and checking machinery for today.” “Oh!” Natsu moved his raised hand again to shake Tham’s one. The shake they did was short, but to the point. “Nice to meet you, I am Natsu.” Tham did not say anything back, just nodded. He then turned to Olivia and began gesticulating, in a way that Natsu had never seen anyone do. His brows furrowed, he stood there trying to see what he was doing. Olivia did not seem to be bother, and instead just quietly observed him. He then did some while gestures of his own. He did so, untilfinally catching the attention of the two. “What are you doing?” Olivia asked lowly. Natsu stopped immediately. “…Dancing?” “Why?” “Because he..?” Natsu tried to point at Tham, but the latter was even more confused by him. It was then that the young wolf realized exactly what was going on. Or more like, he didn’t know what happened, per say. It was just the whole scene made it clear to him that he screwed it up royally. In the end, Natsu dropped his smile and looked down. It was then that he imagined about a power to dance the time backwards. “Great, you closed that mouth. Finally, that smile was creeping the shit out of me,” Olivia said. She led him to the dining area. Heading straight to the counter, the very same young girl stood, her eyes still on that phone screen. As they got closer, Natsu figured out that she was probably around the same age as him. “How confident are you about speaking with people?” Olivia boomed at him with her question, taking him by surprise. Natsu, naturally, replied with, “Well…um, I-eh, you know, kinda, sorta, good…ish…I’m sure, um, sure am!” The bull stared at him for a solid second. “Sapphire, you are in charge of teaching him. Now, get off that phone and back to work!” she said, and then left post. “Ugh, whatever!” The young lady answered rather flippantly. Natsu felt like she would be the one to stand there and not care when the teacher yells at her to pay attention. Suddenly, she came across as more approachable. With Olivia now gone, and the two of them standing behind the counter, the whole place felt quiet. That was, aside from tapping of the phone that Star was doing. They stood there for about four minutes, with the latter not doing anything aside from texting, scrolling and taking selfies. Natsu, meanwhile, just let his eyes wander around. On a glance, the products he saw seemed scrumptious, healthy, and bland. A lot of milk, dairy free, gluten free, nuts, no nuts, chocolate, no sugar added and just about everything under the sun. There were a few drinks at the bottom, but Natsu couldn’t see them anymore. He also noted the register monitor, with every button on it which he figured were products themselves. Most of them seemed to be combination of letters like “SM” or “MD”, but what they stood for, he had no clue. He tried to figure them out by looking over the menu from the screens above them, a part and parcel of every café. That said, the menus kept scrolling, not allowing him to pinpoint what all of the drinks were. He looked over to the girl. She was still busying herself with her phone, expertly too. She might have broken a world record, though she could probably care less about that. After taking that silence for far too long, the long-eared boy decided to ask a question. “What does that one mean?” Natsu pointed to the screen. He hoped to use this to not only get to know her, but to learn too. Sadly, she didn’t choose to answer. Or perhaps, she didn’t care to do so. Didn’t help how meekly his voice came across. He considered trying to replicate the voice of Olivia. That said, they kept on standing there. They waited about five more minutes, until a customer came. Natsu’s first customer, to say. “Excuse me!” said the shark-headed business man, looking straight into his eyes, “I would like the usual, stat. I’m very busy, so I nothing else.” Natsu nodded slowly. He looked over to Sapphire, who was still in the world of her phone. He waited a minute, until he looked back at the customer, whose face was even more quizzical than his. Natsu leaned over to her, “Um, what does he need?” She wouldn’t answer. “Excuse me! But I need to go now,” the shark-man said. “Can we hurry it up?” “I’m sorry! Um…” Natsu thought for a moment. He probably should’ve asked first, but there was a sense that he was expected to know. Giving up, he poked Sapphire to get her attention. “What!?” she said in the most exasperated manner possible. Natsu pointed to the business man. She rolled her eyes, took an empty cup, pour some sink water into it, and handed to him. “Oh, thank you,” the man said in relief. “Whatever,” she answered and handed it over to him. He took a large swig and gave out a content sigh. “That’s the good stuff!” he mentioned. He then threw some coins, telling them to keep the change. Natsu’s expression was that of surprise. This was the most straightforward way to do business. And they got money for it, too. Keeping it mind, he felt more confident again. As he collected the coins, he tried to see if he could open the register. He had bought enough times for his family to know that this was how it should go. He tried asking Sapphire again, but the latter kept shushing him. In the end, he put right beside the register. They waited for few more minutes until the next customer would arrive. Natsu thought about different things. One of them was how for the first time he was working with a girl. That, someone beside his Mom, sister, grandma, aunt Veridia, and that old lady by the street. Natsu crinkled since nose after remembering that vomit-inducing smell. This, however, was much different, and perhaps, could lead to something much better down the road. Maybe…even one of those intimate connections. For the moment, his ears were turning red under the fur. Finally, the second customer arrived. This one was a much taller man, wearing sports gear. He looked like a Doberman mix. “Hey, uh, can I get a strawberry protein shake mix?” he said in between breaths. He was sweating and heaving all over, making Natsu wonder if he just came from a workout. Getting to work, he said, “Um, sure thing, I…” She disappeared. Natsu checked around, several times to see where she was. And yet, she was nowhere to be found. Somehow, under his nose, this girl wouldn’t move anywhere, gone. A trail of cold sweat made apparent on his back. “Hey, did you hear what I said?” “Um…” Natsu’s eyes looked over the screen. The buttons had an SM, as well as StM and StrM. How in the world is that even a thing? He tried to looked down and see if there was a menu map. Then he looked up at the TV screens that were situated above them. None of the options showed what he needed. “Uh, give me a sec-“ “I want, my strawberry mix, NOW!!!” he yelled. Natsu gulped, and then stammered, “A-I’m s-sorry sir but-“ “WHY ARE YOU TAKING IT SO LONG!? GIVE IT NOW, STAT!!!” Natsu, shrinking by the second, felt like running to the bathroom. Not because of his bad stomach, but just to close himself off, hide for the rest of the day and be allowed to cry. Why did she leave? Why did he decide to work here? Why couldn’t he get into university? Why did he think strawberry and raspberry are literally the same fruit? How was he even going to make a mix!? Who decided that tomato isn’t a vegetable!!? “HEY, ARE YOU GETTING ME ONE OR NOT!?” the man yelled some more, trying to move the boy. “C’MON STOP STALLING!” Natsu had to say something. He had to get out of the situation, otherwise, he might break down there. This was going to be the end of him. But this was his first day, too. What could he do now? What will happen now? Will he just fall now!? “ANSWER ME, GODDAMMIT!” His fist banged on the counter. Natsu tried to look for an answer, and he found one. He blurted out, “Whatever.” “WHAT!?” Natsu, frozen stiff, repeated, “Whatever.” In his mind, he was slowly writing his obituary. The man fumed. “Listen here! I woke up to learn my girlfriend left, my car crashed so I’ll have to pay extra for repairs, despite the fact that my boss decided to CUT MY SALARY, and you, saying to me….WHATEVER!?” Natsu did not say anything. He just watched. He watched as the man ventilated in front of him, turning into a big red balloon. He watched as the man’s growl slowly turned into whining moans. He glanced as the man directed his screams into the counter, before grabbing his own face. He stared, while the man bawled his eyes out, slumping down in size. He waited, as the guy kept on mumbling, about the week he had. About everything he had to go through, from his job, to his relationship, to his family, and how the only two safe spaces he felt were the gym and this café. In the end, Natsu felt sorry enough to speak. “Do you want water?” he asked. “Yeah, water would be nice.” As Natsu left to fill up a cup, the latter added, “Sorry for being a bitch.” Natsu did not say anything, just shrugged. After giving him a cup and getting few more apologies, the two exchanged hugs, and separated on good terms. Also, this was the day that Natsu learned about tips. ….