Coffee shop AU + bodyguard AU…… Tatsuki/Orihime/Uryuu
– loveasunnyday
Uryuu survives being a doctor for two years.
Barely, but he survives.
(He escapes by a thread, worn thin and exhausted, with shaking hands and darting gaze.)
(He’s expecting an emergency around each corner, expecting the first words out of everyone’s mouth to be ‘We need you in room–’, expecting to be woken at all hours…)
He stays in his tiny, sterile apartment for a week before the emptiness begins to echo and he becomes restless; he’s not used to standing still, not used to being useless, and now that he has no job he… doesn’t know what to do with himself.
So he begins to wander. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for but… that’s alright, he tells himself.
He doesn’t have to have all the answers anymore.
(Maybe one day he’ll even believe that.)
There’s a coffee shop a few blocks down from his apartment, a tiny little place with a kind, cheerful woman behind the counter and a warm atmosphere the exact opposite of his cold-empty-desolate apartment. It becomes a bit of a refuge to him, and the cheerful woman learns his order and his habits – she has his coffee ready for him almost as soon as he wanders in, and every time it’s just subtly different. Nothing terrible but… she’s adding things to it, he’s fairly certain: extracts and spices and syrups, just enough to flavor but not enough to overwhelm.
(He makes sure to indicate which he appreciates and which he doesn’t.)
(The variety is… oddly nice.)
His usual spot is a lone, plush chair in a corner overlooking the counter. From here, no one can sneak up on him or otherwise catch him by surprise. From here, he’s in no one’s way and the cheerful woman behind the counter doesn’t seem to mind that he stays there for hours on end.
And if it means he can give people looks when they start to edge into rudeness towards the lone barista, all the better.
(He doesn’t know her name but she’s warm-kind-gentle and deserves better than the trouble people sometimes give her.)
Two months in, a woman with black hair sweeps through the coffee shop like a whirlwind and yanks the barista over the counter and into a deep kiss. Uryuu narrows and his and rises from his seat, but… the barista looks like she’s enjoying the contact. Like she expected it, actually.
The second woman pulls back and gives him an assessing stare, a small smile curling the edges of her lips as she takes in his stance. “So you’re the regular Hime’s been telling me about.”
Uryuu blinks and sends the barista a startled look; he’d never expected her to talk about him with anyone!
“Guess I should thank you,” the black haired woman says as she hops the counter and wraps an arm around the barista’s waist. “Hime’s said it’s been a lot easier to keep the store by herself with you lurking over there.”
“You’re… welcome…?” Uryuu says, unable to keep the question out of his voice. He has no idea why the woman is thanking him; he wasn’t doing anything with the expectation of being thanked or even noticed!
The two women share a look.
“Close up a bit early,” the black-haired woman says to her partner, then flashes a grin at Uryuu. “And you can come upstairs with us and we can all introduce ourselves properly while I make dinner for the three of us. How’s that sound?”
Uryuu licks his lips and glances down at his almost-empty cup, trying to work out the woman’s purpose. Except… she doesn’t seem to want anything from him except to… get to know him?
(No one wants to get to know him…)
“Hey, you alright?” she asks softly as the barista moves around the counter to lock the door. “No pressure, you don’t have to join us. Hime’s said you look lonely, though, so I thought… but I guess that was a bit out of the blue, huh? Sorry about that.”
“It’s… it’s alright,” Uryuu forces out around a strange lump in his throat. “I… think I’d like that.”
(He hasn’t shared a meal with anyone in… decades.)
(The thought that these two strangers would want to do that with him…)
“Awesome! Name’s Arisawa Tatsuki, it’s good to meet you!”
Uryuu hesitates. Swallows. Forces out an, “Ishida Uryuu,” before he can second guess himself. He doesn’t know what he expects, but part of him dreads the inevitable recognition–
And there are shades of it in Arisawa’s expression, but no pity, no anger, nothing negative about learning he’s the medical prodigy who crashed and burned and retreated into complete obscurity.
(Something in him relaxes at the sight.)
(Maybe… maybe it will be alright.)