Nico stood behind the counter and threw his sharpie in the air, catching it and throwing it again. This had been the source of his entertainment for the past hour as the store had been dead quiet. Only three more minutes until he had to close, and if a single person stepped inside and delayed his going home, he was going to scream. Thirty seconds until he was allowed to lock the doors and switch the sign to closed. He had just started to pull his dark red apron off when he heard the door chime.

His back was to the counter so he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, plastering on his very fake customer smile and turning around. "What can I get for you?" He was supposed to be closing up right now so that he could go home and enjoy his solitude.

"Can I please get a medium triple shot white mocha please?"

"Name?" Nico rung it into the till and uncapped the sharpie, staring expectantly at the blond across the counter.

"I'm literally the only one in this cafe right now." The guy rolled his eyes and smiled, walking over to the pickup counter.

Nico finished as quickly as he could, knowing that as soon as the man stepped out the door, he could close up and peace the heck out. "One white mocha for I'm literally the only one in this cafe right now" He placed it on the counter and began shutting down all the machines. He called a goodnight to the blond, but he didn't actually say it very loudly, and judging by the lack of response, he didn't think he was heard. Whipping off his apron, he gave all the tables one final wipe before locking the door and turning off all the lights.

- - - - -

The blond's appearance had become a routine, Tuesday and Thursday night showing up just before closing, but it no longer irritated Nico. Instead, he would already have the mocha ready to go just as the man walked in. Every time, he'd ask for a name, and every time all he got was a ridiculous response. So far he'd been Voldemort (Nico wrote down 'He who shall not be named', not wanting to anger the dark lord), Batman, Your Mom, Cleopatra, and other various people.

Tonight, he had just finished making the drink right as the clock changed to 11:58pm, the man's usual time of arrival, but the door remained shut and the cafe empty. 11:59...12:00 Nico gave up hope of seeing him and took a sip of the drink, claiming it as his own as he went and locked both the office door and front door, sticking his phone and keys by his jacket so he wouldn't forget them. He had wiped down all the tables and chairs and display case, and was just about to shut down all the machines when he heard a knock on the door.

Now, Nico is someone that people might consider intimidating. Sure he worked in a cafe, but he had piercings, tattoos, wore all black, and wasn't exactly know for his charming smile. But he also wasn't an idiot. The cafe wasn't in the best neighbourhood, it was midnight, and he was alone. So he thought fuck it and went and opened the door anyways, hoping it wasn't a murderer or robber.

Instead, he found the blond on the other side of the door, blood rushing from a deep gash by his eye. "So, I know you're closed, but I seem to have found myself in a predicament and need to borrow a phone as mine has been otherwise commandeered."

"What the hell?" Nico snapped out of it and moved to let the other man into the building, sitting him down on a chair before rushing to get a first aid kit.

"My phone and wallet were stolen and I need to borrow a phone so I can call my roommate. Do you have one I can use?" The blond quirked an eyebrow up at Nico before grimacing in pain from the cut.

"Yeah, of course, but you aren't leaving until I get your face cleaned up. I'm no doctor, but if you don't clean this it's definitely going to get infected. What happened?" Nico opened up the first aid kit, rummaging through until he found a pair of tweezers. The gash was full of dirt and small rocks that needed to be picked out before it healed.

"I had just gotten off my shift, and was heading here. I was a stupid idiot and thought that taking a sketchy short cut would be a good idea because I was running late and I was like, hey, I'm a strong, capable male, I'll be fine. I was clearly not fine and I'm not nearly as intimidating as you, no offense. So, I got mugged, and I fought back. You should see the other guy, am I right?" He laughed feebly at his own joke.

"Yeah, I wouldn't exactly look at your sunny disposition and take it as a sign to not mess with you. Did you call the cops?" Nico put the tweezers away and pulled out the disinfectant spray. "Close your eyes, this will sting like a bitch."

"I don't have a phone you idiot, who am I gonna call?"

Nico mumbled Ghostbusters under his breath before spraying. He finished and looked helplessly at the bandages. "I have no idea which one will stay on your face."

The blond opened his eyes and pulled the kit towards him. "Just a couple of butterfly ones will be fine, I can do them if you have a mirror."

Nico stood up and walked through the heavy door that was propped open to the small employee bathroom that was tucked away at the back of the kitchen, turning on the awful fluorescent light that flickered a few times before remaining on. "Careful, don't let the-" Nico began to call out behind him but he was cut off by the slamming of the kitchen door and the resounding click of the lock that followed. "-door swing shut" he finished pointlessly. "It locks automatically because we had a break in and a bunch of stuff was stolen from the office back here a couple months ago. You need a special swipe card to open it and mine is currently sitting with my keys and my phone in my jacket hanging on the other side of this door."

"Shit. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, nothing we can do about it now. There's a mirror in the bathroom right there, I'll go see if the office is unlocked so we can use the phone." Nico headed towards the other door, but found the office secure, like he knew it would be despite a small amount of optimism that maybe he hadn't locked up properly, but unfortunately he had done his job right. He headed back to the kitchen and found a stool by the counter to sit at, and a few minutes later the blond exited the bathroom with small, white strips holding his gash together.

"I'm really sorry about, you know," the man gestured vaguely to the room around them "this entire situation?"

"Well how about you make it up to me by finally telling me your name?" Nico smiled, and gently nudged the other stool towards the blond, inviting him to sit down as well. "We are going to be stuck here for the foreseeable future, Hazel doesn't come until five in the morning to do the baking, and seeing how it's only he glanced up at the large clock on the wall midnight-thirty, we have a bit of time yet."

"Midnight-thirty?"

"Yes. I'll start. Hi, I'm Nico." He held out his hand, waiting.

"I'm Will." He met Nico's hand in a firm handshake, smiling widely.

- - - - -

It was now quarter to five, and both Will and Nico were struggling to keep their yawning to a minimum. They had passed the hours with ridiculous small talk and random deep topics. When they were on the topic of families, Nico found himself spilling all about how his mom and sister died, and how he had found Hazel, something he wasn't prone to sharing with strangers. Though, he supposed he could hardly call Will a stranger seeing as how despite just finding out his name a few hours ago, they had been joking around and talking a few nights a week whenever Will came to buy coffee.

"I'm sorry that happened to you, no one should have to go through that." Slowly throughout the night, the two had gravitated closer and closer, so he easily reached out to put a comforting hand on Nico's arm.

"What about you? Any siblings?" Nico leaned into the touch.

"I don't know, my dad has never been around, so for all I know I have half siblings somewhere. I've lived with my aunt since I got kicked out of the house when I was fourteen. I got into med school on a scholarship." Will felt Nico shift closer so that he was leaning on him, resting his head on Will's shoulder. Will let his hand brush Nico's, hoping he wasn't out of line or misreading what he felt between them when he interlocked their fingers, brushing his thumb along the back of Nico's hand. Nico simply moved closer.

"That's shitty. The mom thing, not the scholarship thing." Nico rushed to clarify. His eyelids felt heavy and he gave up the fight to keep them open, opting to rest against Will where he could steal warmth. It was like Will was made of sunshine, warm and bright. Will's head rested on top of his, and he could feel the vibrations of the replied hum more than he heard it. Will squeezed his hand gently and Nico moved to look up at him, drowning in the blue of his eyes.

Not sure who started moving first, suddenly Nico found himself millimeters apart. He didn't even think before he crashed their lips together, the hand that wasn't trapped in Will's moving and finding a place in the blond hair to pull Will even closer to him. After a few minutes he grew frustrated with the space the stools left between them and stood, lifting Will up onto the kitchen table (which probably wasn't at all food safe, but he couldn't find it in himself to care) and moving to stand between his legs, pulling their chests flush together and resuming the kiss.

Which didn't last much longer than that. The door swung open and the two jumped apart, startled by Hazel's abrupt entrance. "Well, this isn't quite what I was expecting..." She placed her stuff down in the corner before pulling her curls up into a tight bun, giving the two men a moment to compose themselves. Nico straightened the young man's hair and helped him down, smiling sheepishly. "Can't say I'm entirely surprised. I did wonder why you suddenly stopped hating the night shift."

"We got locked in here and didn't have phones or my key. Anyways, we're gonna go, love you bye!" Nico dragged Will out of the kitchen and felt very glad that he still had another hour before his boss, Reyna would arrive. Plenty of time to escape. "I can drive you to your place, and we can stop by the police station to file a report first if you'd like." Nico pulled on his jacket and checked his phone.

"That'd be awesome, thanks." Will wasn't sure if it was okay to hold Nico's hand again now that they weren't in the privacy of a locked kitchen.

Nico didn't think twice before grabbing Will's hand to pull him towards his car, and again when he held Will's hand in the car. It felt nice, warm. The drive was short, and the report didn't take too long either. Sooner than he would have liked, he was parked in front of the small house that Will shared with five other guys.

"So umm, is it bad if I say that I'm not totally upset that you were mugged if this is how it turned out?" Nico smiled shyly, glancing at Will.

"I would give you my number, but I don't have a phone" Will joked.

"It's okay, I'll see you tomorrow night?" Nico asked hopefully. Despite how early it was in the day, it was technically Wednesday already.

"Absolutely." Will leaned over and gave Nico one last kiss before going back inside. He would never tell Nico this, but that first night he was just picking up a drink for one of his roommates. He didn't even like coffee or mochas or any of that stuff, but he decided he liked the person who made them quite a lot.

- - - - -

(A/N: So surprise! I'm not dead! Even though it has been a hot second since I last updated... Thank you all for being so patient with me! I am finishing up my last few days of high school, and soon my life will be significantly less busy so I'm hoping to be able to post more again and have more time to interact with you guys. I've missed you! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my first ever coffee shop au, which 90% of it was written in my Social Justice class instead of getting my stuff ready for our mock UN conference which is our final exam. I was super sly about it as you can tell from the title of my doc...

Also, I realized after publishing this that when I copied and pasted onto here, it got rid of all my quotation marks and apostrophes?? So I've gone back and redid those so hopefully they'll stay this time and I'm sorry if I missed any!)