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Frank never deliberately messed up the orders.
It just sort of… happened, like some witch or summoner didn’t like their drink one day and cursed him to mess up as much as humanly possible from there on. Like that one time he accidentally gave a vampire sparkles in their “Faery Frappucino”, completely forgetting about the silver in the small bits of glitter; or that other time he gave a dryad a vampire-friendly cafe au lait, except the milk was blood; or the particularly bad time when he replicated the Sparkle Incident (as his coworkers Bob and Ray nicknamed it), except with both a werewolf and vampire. Frank had to nervously apologize to both of them after Ray gave them an EpiPen injection - the taller man didn’t trust Frank enough to not stab an important artery or organ and kill the poor customers.
The last incident was the breaking point for Frank’s manager, leading him to demote the dejected man.
And of course, the demotion was from the separate shop to the Target extension.
Now, instead of serving tired students and equally tired adults on their ways to their respective jobs, Frank was smiling at frustrated mothers and their screaming children, boredly listening in to the conversations the bakers next door would have.
The other employees, both of Target and Starbucks kind, weren’t that bad. There was Lindsey, Frank’s co-barista and inhumanly cheerful artist (Frank was convinced she had be at least
part
faery), Joe, the paradoxical asexual incubus that ran the electronic booth, Dallon, the nervous and flighty dryad cashier that had affectionately named the #4 Self-Checkout Barbara, and then Mikey, the quiet and hard-to-read human that switched between restocking and cashiering, and came in every single morning for a grande cafe mocha, hold the whipped cream.
Sometimes when Mikey came in, another employee would emerge from the baker’s section, hands stained with food coloring and animatedly talking with Mikey and ordering coffee for himself (venti iced coffee, two shots of chocolate, please). They seemed close, the baker kissing Mikey on the cheek every time they finished their coffee, enthusiastically hugging him whenever he came over.
“They make a good couple,” Frank absently commented to Lindsey as Mikey and the baker (Gerald?) chatted at one of the small tables in the area. Lindsey, taking a drink from her water bottle, choked on it, prompting Mikey and Jerry to look over in concern and Frank to soundly pound her on the back.
“I’m fine,” she croaked, wiping away tears as Frank stepped back and Mikey and Jeremiah continued with their conversation. After a moment, she rounded on him, speaking in a whisper.
“Has Mikey never talked to you about Gerard?” Lindsey asked incredulously, and Frank squinted at her.
“Mikey doesn’t really talk to me outside of ‘Hi’, and, ‘Can I have a grande cafe mocha, no whip?’. Is he
supposed
to talk to me about him?”
“Gerard is Mikey’s brother,” Lindsey answered instead.
Frank felt his very being separate from his mortal form, flying up into the void and escaping from the sheer embarrassment that flooded his body.
Lindsey brushed past him to serve another customer, leaving him dumbfounded and gradually turning redder and redder. He stayed there a moment, turning the words over and over in his head.
Gerard is Mikey’s brother
. God, he was stupid.
“Never talk about this again,” Frank muttered as soon as he could feel his hands and feet again, furiously rubbing at his face to stop it from being abnormally warm. Lindsey smirked from where she was filling up a cup, leaving Frank to serve the customer at the register and aggressively avoid looking at the table where Mikey and Gerard sat.
-
On the first Saturday of September, two weeks after starting working at the Starbucks, Frank met Pete.
Pete was loud, excitable, and immediately ordered two coffees, one with two shots and whole milk, the other with almond milk and zero-calorie sweetener.
“After this I’m going to the Hurley Apothecary to get some stuff for a summoning I’m doing on the full moon on Monday, and hopefully Andy will appreciate the coffee… he told me he was vegan yesterday when I went in there for a vial of powdered blood,” Pete chattered to Frank as he and Lindsey worked on the two drinks. Frank was getting a headache; he really didn’t feel like listening to the woes of a summoner, especially one with an enormous crush on an apothecary owner. Last night had been long and he hadn’t gotten much sleep.
Frank tiredly smiled at Pete as he grabbed the coffees and chirped a goodbye, losing the Customer Smile as Mikey walked into the shop.
“Pete on his usual mission to woo Andy?” Mikey asked with a slight smile as Frank got to work on his usual order.
“He’s using the coffee approach this time, got it all vegan and healthy just for Andy,” Lindsey answered, taking out a pen and starting to draw on herself as Mikey placed his change into the tip jar.
“This is normal?” Frank frowned as he handed the coffee over to Mikey, who hummed appreciatively and took a sip.
“Pretty much every day, Pete goes over to this one apothecary to talk to his one true love and try to flirt with him, which usually consists of Pete buying things he doesn’t need and awkwardly talking to him about the summons he’s done and what he’s going to do,” Lindsey explained, staring at one spot on her arm that didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the drawing.
“It’s a wonder Andy doesn’t know that Pete is hellbent on getting a date from him, considering that he tries everything from getting him coffee to tripping in front of him and dragging Andy down so he falls on him,” Mikey added, and Frank rolled his eyes.
“Oblivious people annoy me,” Frank grumbled, barely looking up when another person stepped up to the counter, an elf with about a million scarves wrapped around his neck, all in flowery, obnoxious, clashing patterns that seemed to belong in Frank’s grandmother’s wardrobe.
“Hello, Ryan,” Lindsey greeted him, and Frank went to work, forgetting about Pete’s predicament and barely waving back when Mikey waved goodbye.
-
“Hi Mikey,” Frank said as soon as he saw the familiar set of Converse walk onto the wooded floors of the Starbucks extension. He got to work, setting the cup down as Lindsey rang him up.
He absentmindedly added an extra shot of cheer into Mikey’s coffee - spells and charms were always pre-packaged and shipped to their location, mostly because neither Lindsey nor Frank were well-versed in emotion magic or magic in general - yawning slightly as he did so.
He had seen that Mikey was smiling even less than he did usually, face stony while he put things on shelves and while he helped confused customers find the peanut butter. Frank liked Mikey’s smile, it was slight and gentle, and precious because of how little it showed up. He deserved to smile more, so Frank grabbed the little-used cheer bottle and poured some in.
“Am I so predictable?” Mikey deadpanned as Frank walked over with the coffee; Frank paused in his tracks a few feet from the counter, his tired mind catching up with his actions.
Mikey hadn’t placed his order. Frank had just assumed that he had wanted a cafe mocha, since he had always gotten it… but people were known to change their orders… what if Mikey hadn’t wanted a cafe mocha? Frank started to sweat, opening his mouth to apologize.
“It’s good. I don’t think I’ll ever want anything else, anyway,” Mikey interjected before Frank could say anything, and leaned over the counter to grab the coffee from Frank. He fumbled for it, first grabbing Frank’s hand rather than the coffee. Frank ignored the jolt up his arm, instead holding out the cup so Mikey could easily hold it.
“Desperate for your caffeine fix, huh?” Lindsey laughed as Mikey slid off the counter, triumphantly holding the cup in his hands.
“Absolutely. Frank seems to make coffee better than the last barista you worked with, Bert or whoever,” Mikey answered, taking a long sip and sighing dreamily when he finished. Frank, still exhausted from lack of sleep and struggling to keep up with the conversation, blushed slightly when the statement sunk in.
“Is this cheer?” Mikey continued, closing one eye and squinting into the cup. Lindsey looked from Frank to Mikey and back again, a slow smile coming on her face. Frank didn’t like that smile.
“Uh, yeah… free of charge?” Frank said awkwardly, shooting a glare at Lindsey and turning to wash the cups he had used to make the coffee.
“Thanks,” Mikey replied from behind him, and Frank glanced back at him just in time to catch the gentle smile on the thin man’s face.
Whipping his head back around, Frank hid his face and ears as best he could, painfully aware of the redness creeping back up to his cheekbones and eartips. Shit, and he had
just
gotten rid of the other one.
Why the hell was he acting like this today? He resolved to get more sleep - it was surely the cause.
He turned back around just as Mikey walked away. It was both relieving and anxiety-inducing; Mikey wasn’t around to do… whatever the hell he was doing to make Frank blush so much (his mama raised him better than to blush at boys grabbing his hand, goddamn it), but Lindsey had free reign to question Frank with that terrifying grin and glint in her eye.
“So… what was that?” Lindsey went straight for the throat, stepping forward and crossing her arms in a way that he was sure she thought was casual. Frank backed up a step, hitting his tailbone on one of the blenders.
“What was what? I made Mikey coffee, end of story. Happens every day,” Frank answered, and he knew his voice was just too high-pitched, the answer just too rushed to convince Lindsey.
“Uh huh. And just
casually
adding cheer into his drink, without charge, when you barely do that for asking customers?” Lindsey pushed further, and Frank turned his face, desperately looking for a way out.
He had never been happier to see Pete enter the shop.
Pete seemed even more bouncy and cheerful today than he had previous days - Frank wondered if something had happened between him and Andy.
“He gave me his number!” Pete practically shrieked as he reached the counter, startling Frank and causing a few of the other customers to look over disapprovingly. Lindsey lit up, scooting over to where Pete was grinning maniacally. Frank followed her lead, grateful for the distraction from his own life.
“Dude! How’d it happen?” Frank questioned, and Pete violently launched into the tale of his getting Andy’s number.
“So I was in his shop and my arms were full of these phoenix feathers right, like I actually need them for a summoning I’m trying to do, it’s for this fire daemon that’s like super rare and if you master the summoning then it’ll do whatever you want it to do for like the next two hundred years, and you get immortality too, but really I just want to see if I can do it I don’t care about the wishes or anything I just wanna see this thing. Anyway I had these phoenix feathers, and half of them were still on fire so I was trying to be careful but one blew up in my face and Andy
saved
me and put out my eyebrows and everything, and then as he was putting them in the fireproof bag and I was giving him the money to pay for the feathers, they were pretty expensive but it’ll be worth it to summon that daemon and plus he
saved
me, and he said that he really appreciated the coffee! And I asked him if he wanted me to do it more often and he said ‘don’t go out of your way, your company is enough, but if you really want to, sure’ and then he gave me his number so he can give me his coffee orders if he wants to change it up any, can I get my usual with three shots instead of two?” Pete said in seemingly one breath, gasping loudly when he was done.
Frank’s head spun with the amount of words thrown at him, but still grinned at Pete, patted his back, and got to work on the coffee. Lindsey chattered with Pete more, congratulating him and occasionally throwing looks back at Frank that said, “our conversation isn’t over”.
Frank shook his head slightly, adding a bit of luck into Pete’s drink.
It was worth it, seeing Mikey’s smile.
-
“How many times has he come here this week?”
Mikey’s voice startled Frank from his quick, two-second nap (which definitely did not happen, not at all), making him jerk his head up and hit his forearm against the counter. He hissed in pain as a sharp shock of pain jabbed up his arm, his head spinning from lack of sleep. Last night had drained him more than it normally did.
“Who…?” Frank distractedly asked, rubbing his arm and frowning at it. Mikey looked at him in concern, but continued.
“Pete. He just passed me, and he was smiling like he just killed someone,” Mikey asked, and Frank snorted.
“Too many times to count. I think he’s Pavlovian conditioning Andy into liking him through coffee,” Frank replied, pushing himself away from the counter to start on Mikey’s coffee (lately he had been adding a shot of cheer into the drink regularly, and every time Mikey smiled his heart stuttered a little bit more).
“No, I think Andy is just charmed by Pete’s undying determination,” Mikey argued, leaning his head on his hand as he reached to grab his wallet from his back pocket.
“Well, that’s definitely one of his most apparent qualities,” Frank snorted, pouring the cheer into the cafe mocha.
Mikey hummed distractedly in response. When Frank turned around, he saw a flash of white in Mikey’s hand before it disappeared, and Frank shook his head. Probably nothing.
“Where’s Lindsey today?” Mikey asked as Frank set the coffee down. Frank shrugged.
“She said family business, didn’t elaborate,” he explained as he took the stack of ones from Mikey, opening the register.
“It’s quiet without her. It’s nice,” Mikey smirked, and Frank lifted his head to glare at him.
“Be nice,” he scolded, “You know you love her.”
“Hmm, she’s the backbone of this united Starbucks and Target nation,” Mikey admitted, and Frank grinned slightly before returning to counting out the ones.
The same flash of white appeared as Frank unfolded the money, floating down to the counter as a piece of paper. Frowning, Frank set down the bills to pick it up, to throw it away -
There was writing on it.
1 tmrw, indulgence coffee? mikey
Frank was
so
glad that Lindsey wasn’t there to make fun of him blushing and burying his face into his hands.
-
Frank was bouncing on his toes the next day, ignoring the exhaustion weighing him down. He had told himself to go to bed earlier last night, but he had gotten caught up and fell asleep at 2. Oh well.
Lindsey kept shooting him suspicious glances, especially when he went through the first few orders without mishap.
“Are you feeling okay? Like, did some witch put a jitterbug curse on you?” she finally asked after Frank had begun to hum while mixing up a Faery Frappuccino for a small, overexcited vampire in a cat hoodie and rainbow shorts. Vampires seemed to have the smallest sense of style, Frank noticed.
“Mikey asked me to Indulgence at 1,” Frank burst out, finally letting himself grin like he had wanted to all morning. The suspicion melted from Lindsey’s face, replacing itself with excitement and incredulity.
“Indulgence Coffee? Like, the infamous cafe that every couple goes to?” Lindsey asked, “Because if so, make sure to ask December for a True Love’s Au Lait, I hear that what all the teenage girls are getting for luck with their crushes.”
“Shut up,” Frank grumbled, glaring at her when she let out a loud laugh at his blush.
-
Time always seemed to pass strangely in Target; some days it felt as if he had only been there for an hour or so, but he had stayed the entire day; other days it felt as if an entire decade had passed within the confines of a single hour. Frank theorized it was because Targets were the best spot for alternate dimensions to start leaking into the present dimension. Everyone else said it was just normal, every place was like that.
He'd leave them to deal with Aisle 13, then. There were two of them, exact copies.
Directly at 12:30, Frank quickly threw his green apron on the rack in the employees lounge and practically sprinted to his car outside.
Hopefully he wouldn't mess up like he usually did.
-
“So how’d it go?”
Lindsey sidled up to Frank, looping an arm around his shoulders. He didn't try to mask his grin this time, turning to Lindsey. She mirrored his Cheshire smile.
Before he could answer, however, Pete came barreling into the Starbucks.
“Oh no,” Lindsey muttered, seconds before Pete practically impaled himself with the counter, excitement clear as day on his face.
“
ANDY KISSED ME
!”
Frank was positive that every person who had ever died could hear Pete’s scream from beyond the grave. The other customers startled at the volume, some even covering their ears. Lindsey squealed with excitement, and Frank smiled wider.
“He also asked if we could go to dinner on Friday and to that one fancy restaurant with the dresscode and everything and he was so sweet - I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO WEAR,” Pete interrupted himself with the terrifying new revelation, and Frank left Lindsey to deal with the fashion emergency. She often reprimanded Frank for wearing multiple layers, in summer; so what, he had cold blood. Give him some slack.
Behind Pete, a familiar head of spikey hair and square-framed glasses smiled at Frank. His stomach swooped.
Frank glanced over at Lindsey. She was animatedly talking about suit jackets and ties with Pete, who looked as if he was drowning. Perfect.
“I heard that Andy kissed Pete?” Mikey commented as Frank quickly ran around the counter, looking for any waiting customers. The parallel dimension seemed to spare him for that moment, though, as Mikey was the only one in front of the counter.
“Yep.” Frank grinned even wider than previous, looking up at Mikey. “He's having a crisis over his outfit for the date.”
“Glad I didn't do that.”
“Yeah, but you looked like the Ikea monkey,” Frank laughed, and Mikey frowned slightly.
“Hey, I wasn't that bad,” Mikey grumbled, and the look on his face was irresistible.
“You're right. You were much worse,” Frank smirked, and before Mikey could retort, he stood up on his tiptoes and kissed him.
Best relocation he's ever been through.