Bdubs was not having a good day. There had been a downpour the night before, and while most people would consider the now clear skies as goodluck, Bdubs did not consider the puddles in every other step as such. At least with rain he could have an excuse to put on boots or carry a rainbow umbrella, but with this weather, he just had to suffer dancing out of the way of puddles and worms.

His shoes were already soaked through, even as he did his best to avoid the deepest puddles on his way to work. English class was canceled too, which would be an upside!- if he didn't need Pearl and Impulse's help on the newest "fun project!" that he didn't even know how to start. So he couldn't even look forward to skipping that mess because he actually wanted help for once.

The essay he did earlier was turned in, but he really doubted it was a good grade, and he was already hoping to just pass the semester.

"Only one assignment in and I want to quit, great job double-O!" He thought sarcastically, almost a bit mad at himself for feeling like giving up so quickly.

The reminder would have been enough to out him in a sour mood, but right as he was about to scold himself for being stupid and lazy again, he felt a rush on coldness on his foot, and didn't even have to think as he frowed in frustration, lifting his foot out of an extra deep puddle.

Even worse, all the sediment had collected on the bottom, so when he stepped into it and it all flew up, it also covered the lower half of his shoe in mud.

He looked down and grumbled, trying to keep his composure as he slinked to work, ignoring the idea of just quitting and heading back to his lonely apartment instead of heading to work.

"No, we still need money for the bill. I can't quit now. Not on Cleo and Scar."

He sighed, letting his anger go with his breath, and continued the path to work.

This was fine! He was Bdubs! The cool, calm, collected charmer, who could rile up playful arguments like no other, and had a wide grin to draw customers in! He was not short, and he was not mad about a little wet weather ruining his week.

"Yeah, it's just the weather that has me well- under the weather." He chuckled as his own joke, and forced a pep in his step as he scoured the ground for more puddles to avoid them. Absolutely no other disappointments were on his mind as he sped up to work, and it definitely wasn't about a certain guy he had been avoiding talking to for a week.

"Just gotta last a bit longer, and everything will sort itself out! Yeah! A little rest and relaxation will fix everything." He mumbled to himself, sounding a little more confident than he felt.

He looked up at the clouds, taking in the sun and smiling. It was a nice day out- he decided- and it would be a good day too.

Bdubs went in from the back door, one, because technically he was always supposed to, and two, because he sort of looked like a mess already, and didn't want any customers to see him. Obviously mostly because of the former. Of course.

"Hey angel face!" A cheery smile welcomed him, wrapping him a quick light hug.

"Hi sweet face!" Bdubs said back, grinning as Keralis pulled away, looking him up and down.

"Your shoes are all squishy! What happened?" He prompted, and Bdubs almost felt relieved that he got vent about it now.

"Well you know how it was pouring yesterday night? Well the stupid sun hasn't been doing it's job, drying up the water!- and-"

Keralis chuckled, letting Bdubs continue to ramble as he threw his hands in the air, getting all of his frustration out.

Bdubs hand hit something on a display shelf though, and a quick wobbling noise before silence was enough to put them on edge, right as the cup was on the edge too. Bdubs shot his arm down to try to catch it, but it was too late, and almost in slow motion, the cup fell and shattered on the ground.

"Ahh! Shoot!" Bdubs swore a little under his breath a slightly worse word that "shoot" as he ducked down to assess the damage.

The mug was shattered, the white clay spread out from the breaking point. Bdubs sighed, a little more frustrated than he should be over a simple mug. Keralis clearly saw his face fall so quickly and jumped down as well, putting a hand on Bdubs shoulder quickly to ease the situation.

"Hey it's ok. I'll grab the broom and you get the trash can closer to it. None hit you, right?" Keralis asked.

Bdubs took an extra second to respond, but Keralis was patient, and after a deep breath Bdubs stood up and nodded, a little forcefull.

"Yeah ok." Bdubs said.

It was quick work with the two of them, silence so they could focus on thoroughly cleaning the glass. Bdubs emptied the trash as the least he could do for breaking it in the first place, and Keralis put the dustpan away.

Keralis looked at Bdubs face, reading him like a book. He had a smile again, but it was a fragile and wavering one. Just too many little things piling up that seemed to be picking at Bdubs patience like a wearing down eraser.

"You look tired Bubbles, I can handle the customers today, ok?" Keralis offered kindly, looking into Bdubs eyes carefully.

"Thanks Ker, I owe you one."

"Psh, none of that. I just want to see you take a break sweetface. Promise me you take care of yourself after today?"

"Yeah, yeah I'll sleep even earlier than normal if I get the chance. Plus it's the weekend, I can sleep in till noon!"

"I know you will, Bubbles." Keralis chuckled, and patted his shoulder, both kindly and condescendingly. Bdubs wasn't sure how he so clearly expressed both with one move, but didn't hesitate to take mock offense to it.

"hEY WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"

----

The day was exhausting for Etho, even after only three classes. Little sleep, enough food to keep him alive he guessed, and probably more caffeine than blood buzzing through him. Despite having too many cups of coffee before the sun was even up, Etho was still tired.

Walking out of classes alone was pretty normal now, since Doc had a small schedule change and had to run straight to his next class after the coding one. Etho swore he didn't even remember the name of the class, any of them actually- they just had stupid nicknames that were easier to remember.

Still, he slumped out of the classroom, missing the casual walks with his friend to their apartment, or the coffee shop, or wherever they wanted to spend their afternoons, Beef tagging along to make sure they actually had some needed rest and relaxation. He missed that. No matter how quiet he was about it.

Being alone was slightly annoying, slightly lonely, and completely mangable.

Etho barely remembered his assignment, but figured he could sorta through them at home. He was not even sure what was keeping him awake.

"Maybe it's the sun. Can't sleep when it's this sunny I guess." He thought sarcastically, hunching down to avoid the beating rays on his pale skin. Temportarly, he wished the sun had a dimmer switch on it, because the darn thing had no reason in it's right mind to be this bright.

"Wasn't it just pouring yesterday!"

He was walking, silently, and without his headphones because they were stuffed in his bag and he didn't feel like pulling them out, so he decided he could at least put a little effort into thinking of how to manage the rest of his day for optimal efficiency.

"Get coffee, get home, get to the coding project." A simple list that summed up what his day should look like, efficient and unproblematic. Maybe, only if he finished all of his work thoroughly and had time to spare, he would add sleep to that list.

Ok well that was done. Now what to distract his mind while he walked?

Apparently spacing out sufficed, because that's just what he did, numbly walking towards his source of coffee.

He didn't even register the ding of the bell as it rang, hearing it more as a washed out background noise than anything.

Bdubs was making the drinks while the other barista- who's name Etho couldn't seem to recall in his sleep deprived mind, sue him-, was taking orders. Instead of the white mocha, he decided more caffeine would be more helpful, and so a quick black coffee with an extra shot or twenty would be better.

After ordering(and adding some whip cream when the option was offered) and paying, he went to the waiting line to lean on a wall more comfortably in the shade. Taking note of the number of people also waiting. It looked like he wasn't getting his coffee all that soon.

Etho pulled his phone from his inside vest pocket and unlocked it quickly, swiping to the message. He didn't get them often, so he assumed it was probably just Doc with an update on something.

Ding ding ding! Correct-a-mumbo!

Doc: Ren is over to finish some work he needs help on. Tango's coming over soon. We might be loud as a warning

Etho: at the cafe place rn, i'll stay here then

Doc: cool. Don't stay too late, even night owls like you have to sleep sometimres.

Etho: you're one to talk doc.

Doc: Hey Ren's been keeping me in check, i haven't pulled an all nighter this year yet, look at you.

Etho: rather not. And wait until finals week.

Doc: fair, but try to get

Etho: ?

Doc: ren knocked my hand, hit send early

(Doc sent a photo)

(Ok with butchered camera quality + buttered wattpad quality this is gonna be blurry but I swear I tried to get a nice photo. It looks better on paper. Also that's supposed to be a finger gun but uh- looks a little like something else....)

Doc: yo whas up etho my dude?

Etho: uh ren?

Doc: yeah! How are ya doin? Doc said you wrere tired and stuff

Etho: I'm alright. you?

Doc: fantabulous with doc here~

Doc: fytdjytdjhtsit4s gfrsktrvm

Doc: ok etho i gotta go, this idiot wants to work on the project pretty badly now. And tango'll be ere any min. Don't overwork yourself, see ya later.

Etho: bye

Etho huffed a slight smile under his mask, his expression successfully hidden behind it. He was happy for Doc, hanging out with a good friend on a Friday-eve night. And hey, staying here wasn't so bad. It was warm, smelled good, relatively quiet, and he could probably work until it was dark before they kicked him out.

He glanced over to the counter, where the barista's were swamped with orders, and he could confirm that it was going to be a wait until his drink was finished. Maybe it was the sight of one of them hitting the coffee machine that gave him the idea, but he shrugged, and went to take a seat somewhere near at least one wall.

"I'm staying here for a while anyway."

It was surprisingly comfortable for a wooden chair, and as a quick side thought, leaning his head on the table and falling asleep here didn't seem like a horrible idea.

"No, I have to get this project done." He thought definitively, shaking his head as he pulled his laptop out of his backpack and set it carefully on the counter.

Coding time!

----

Well Mister No-emotions decided to bluntly grin at his phone now did he? Whatever, not like Bdubs cared at all.

Bdubs caught himself staring at the white haired stranger who was leaning against the wall while he waited. A shadowed face didn't hide the way his eyes crinkled, especially when the glow of the screen illuminated them so clearly. His hair was fallen partially over one eye so carefully it looked majestic, and even his posture screamed a cool guy attitude that-

Wait, Bdubs was supposed to be working! Not thinking about some stupid beanpole guy that had thrown his number away after basically ignoring him for a week, right after acting like they had known each other for years. How dare he anyway; giving Bdubs his full attention at first, and then basically pretending he didn't exist afterwards.

"Did I scare him off with my clinginess?" Bdubs furrowed his eyebrows, and was suddenly especially thankful Keralis offered to do all customer orders today. He shook his head and blinked his eyes a few times before getting back to the next drink on the list.

"Peach tea with diced strawberries. Easy enough." He thought, because at least he couldn't screw that up.

----

Etho, enthralled in his work, almost felt like this was all a dream. A really boring and fuzzy dream, that people would call him uncreative and bland for, if they saw it. "This is all your mind can come up with?" They would say. And he would shrug, find a way to dip away from the conversation, and move on.

But it wasn't a dream, it was real life, and he was starting to feel the frustration rise in his chest and the dizzy exhaustion take away half of his coherent thoughts as he typed away code he knew by heart. His cold, blank, tired heart.

He had his headphones on now, but even the beat of his music was bland and repetitive. It only really served as a background noise to tune out the- well, actual background noise.

And so, he worked. Starts and ends of lines, numbers and words that would look like gibberish to any sensible person (aka, anyone that was smart enough to avoid the coding class) whizzed past his vision, which was getting blurrier by the minute.

"I have to get this done." He kept saying in his mind. "Because the teacher decided it would be soooo funny to change the due date halfway through this thing."

He was completely lost in his work, and so, when a certain order came up and he didn't hear it, it wasn't surprising.

A silent downfall was never a glorious one.

----

Keralis walked over, holding the steaming black coffee in his left hand, while the other was waving to Etho, trying to get his attention. Keralis would've said his name, but in truth, he was blanking on it since they had never really talked, and he didn't feel like trying to lift the cup awkwardly to read the name Bdubs wrote.

Etho still didn't notice, completely lost in space while he stared at his screen with an emotionless expression. Keralis felt a little weird, since he was normally good at reading people's facial expressions, but with his mask and hair hiding most of his face it wasn't clear. His eyes at least showed focus, concentration, and maybe a little frustration and sleep deprivation too, but Etho was hiding it well, and that was all Keralis could tell.

His headphones kept him deaf from Keralis's footsteps and quick hello as he walked behind him. Trying to put the cup down next to him.

There was no lid on, because Keralis assumed Etho would want to sip the whip cream first, and it was scalding anyway, so it didn't really need to be kept warm.

If only Grian hadn't skimmed over the cleaning this morning, if only Etho was paying attention or left his headphones in his bag, if only the lid had been put on, or Keralis came in from another angle, or.....

Keralis tapped Etho on the shoulder, shocking him out of his space-out violently, at the exact time he slipped a little on a wet spot on the ground. It wasn't much, not enough to truly fall, but it turns out, lids were not made just to keep things warm.

Slow motion could describe it. A way to pick through at every little detail that went wrong, to see the growing horror on their faces shift and watch the mistake unfold slowly in a twisted pain.

But it wasn't slow. It was a fast messy blur that was too fast to react to, too fast to avoid, or redirect the coffee heading for the most vulnerable thing on the table.

Etho shot up, ripping his headphones off as they fell uncomfortably onto his neck (luckily not snapped in half in the process), too in shock to do anything but stare for half a second, before the hissing of the keyboard brought him back to the present.

"Nononononono.... nonono.... no." He whispered under his breath as his chair fell backward and crashed on the floor, making Keralis jump back, eyes even wider, filling with more guilt than anything.

The screen blinked and streaks of magenta and neon green glitched in front of the while Etho held down the power button, begging for it to shut off faster.

The screen went dark.

"What did you just do?" Etho asked, blankly, his breath starting to pick up as his hands shook, realization crashing onto him.

"I'm so sorry! I'll pay for a new one, make it up to you, new coffee, anything! I am so so so sorry!!" Keralis started to rant, spewing out apologies left and right while trying to calm the situation.

"Do you know how valuable that was?" Etho asked, not really as a question, but more-so to lash out.

"I-I can pay for-"

"NO! Do you understand! Years of data and- and everything! My life was on that thing!"

"Maybe it can be fixed?" Keralis shrunk down, stealing a glance at the tipped over cup on the ground, dribbling out the last bit of the black coffee as it rolled over.

"Do you see this! This can't be fixed! It's ruined! You-" His voice caught in his throat. "-you destroyed my computer."

A faint trail of smoke billowed up to the ceiling, and low and behold, the sprinklers were right above them. It wouldn't have been enough to activate them if it were anywhere else in the room, but luck wasn't on their side.

"I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry." Keralis whispered, frozen in place.

""Sorry" DOESN'T CUT IT!" Etho, blinded by rage, didn't even notice the smoke as he yelled.

"Hey! What the hell is going on here?" A new voice came from the back room, immediately looking around. Keralis was hunched over and shaking, and Etho was yelling at him.

Bdubs tilted his head forwards and held a glare on his face, marching over quickly. He barely even looked at the computer, the cause of the issue, and instead put himself between Etho and Keralis.

"All of everything was on there!" Etho cried out. "Assignments, data, pictures! It's all gone because of you!" He growled out, but tears were threatening to spill down his face. His hair was messy, headphones unevenly sitting on his neck, and eyebags hung heavy under his eyes. He looked tired.

"Do not yell at Keralis! Whatever it was, it was a mistake!" Bdubs defended him, getting just as mad in the process. No one messed with his best friend and got away with it.

"That doesn't mean anything when it's ruined!" Etho yelled, a little desperately, not noticing the sprinklers starting to go off above them.

"You can get a back-up!" Bdubs started to raise his voice more. It felt a bit like a release of emotions, both mad at each other over a small thing. This was just the flame that set off the fuel.

Etho furrowed his eyebrows, dread falling onto him. "I don't have one."

"Well that's not his fault!"

It was raining indoors now, soaking all three of them. Keralis was behind Bdubs still, watching the argument unfold. They were both talking over each other, adding things that didn't even relate to the problem. He didn't dare say anything, afraid of being yelled at again.

He only heard parts of it really, since the other customers running out when the water works started had been distracting and loud, and most of the arguments were blurring together.

Something about a coffee cup, and a coding class, and the rain and wind and weather. More about how they were ignoring each other and acting cold. Then the yelling about the computer made Keralis wince and he stepped back a little.

He honestly wasn't sure either of them heard the other in half the things they were saying, until Bdubs made a pretty clear argument. 

"You don't get to yell at Keralis because of a mistake!" Bdubs yelled, and for a few seconds, the room was finally silent.

Besides them, the cafe was empty and now, also really wet. Keralis was standing off to the side a little, mostly watching this unfold now. He was mad, but also still really guilty about the computer. His eyes glanced at Etho who looked between him and Bdubs and then the computer on the table. The sprinklers had stopped, but the damage was done. Water was on the floors and furniture, and had soaked all of them, only adding to the depressing scene.

Etho gulped, breathing erratically, and looked at his beloved and broken laptop. The coffee was dried on some of the edges, coating in a sticky brown that only reminded him of the damage. Tears stained his mask, and he could still taste salt when he saw a furious B-double-O glaring at him. Before he could process anything more, he grabbed his computer and ran.

Ran straight for the door in sight. Ran away from problems and emotions and guilt and grief mixed together. Ran from Bdubs and Keralis still standing there, silent. It was deafening.

His shoes squeaking on the floor was the only sound to break the void silence, and then the bell rang. And the door shut behind him.

---------

(3626 words! Not as much as I promised but I swear the outline made it look like it was going to be longer at first)

Oh boy, I have no idea how to write arguments clearly. It just feels choppy and forced, fake emotion and badly paced. Well, it gets the story across. They finally made it to enemies in this rivals to lovers story! And it only took me 139 pages! Hope you guys liked it, have a good day or night!

(Did I butter up the exhaustion and setting too much? Yeah, probably. Especially for the lack-luster argument. I'm not great at pacing, or arguments, (especially such simple ones with no real points on either side) so this is what you guys get, sorry! Anyway, time to start the fun stuff now!)