Chapter Text
--- Monday, June 3rd, 6:05am ---
Working consecutive opening to evening shifts at the small bakery was starting to show its toll on you. Dark curls spilling out of your bun and deep circles under your glasses to match paired accordingly with the same two work outfits you owned, which you hope went unnoticed by the regulars.
If we don’t get another employee hired soon, I might have to walk out myself.
Despite your exhaustion, you consider yourself a top-notch employee, and put a warm smile on your face like the mask it most certainly was as you hear voices approaching the door to the bakery.
“-Why do we have to be here so early, Nanami? What, does it close before the sun rises? I should still be in bed at least, this is ridiculous-”
“Will you compose yourself?”
As the door opens, you realize you only recognize the second voice, stern as it was. Always an early regular, you had never known the handsome blonde’s name until now. His pale suit was sharp, and his undercut flattered his pretty features. You couldn’t help but harbor a small crush, but he was always too polite to intimate any interest in return.
Most mornings you would feel a slight pang of disappointment at remembering this, but today you’re too tired to care about it, and are lucky to have the composure to smile and say:
“OH hell-O there!”
The loud exclamation came from the suit’s unfamiliar friend, a tall lean man with a shock of white hair. He wore a dark strip of cloth around his eyes like a blindfold that startled you to see, but you forced your customer service mask quickly back into position.
“Good morning, welcome in. How are you both doing?” You looked at Nanami, relishing in the familiar face despite it showing clear irritation.
Before he can answer you, he’s cut off by his energetic companion, who rushes over to the long display case and starts excitedly pointing at various items.
“OOH Nanami come look! Pumpkin and banana bread with walnuts and…zucchini bread? Nanami that’s a vegetable what are they doing baking a bread with-”
“Enough.” Nanami’s stern, low voice cuts through the babbling, but doesn’t seem to deter the blindfolded man from listing more items.
Nanami turns to you and manages to appear apologetic and polite through his frustration.
“I’m doing fine, thank you. Can I have the banana nut bread with a large coffee to go?”
You smile at him once more as you place his order, feeling a slight blush as he continues to look into your eyes. His eyes were a grayish-blue that met yours with a quiet confidence and something harder to discern.
Unlike his white’haired companion, whose eyes were concealed and confidence seemed to carry a megaphone no matter the time of day.
“To-go? You mean we’re not staying here and at least enjoying ourselves since we’re up at the asscrack of dawn? We should at least keep this poor lady company!”
His exaggerated hand gestures in your direction startled both you and Nanami, whose face wore a look of anger and embarrassment but remained silent. You felt a small shock at the realization that this man could see his surroundings and read the menu items just fine through the black cloth, as he hadn’t pulled it down or removed it.
“Gojo, what do you want to order?” Nanami had rebounded quickly - he seemed to be quite familiar with how to handle his friend’s neuroticisms.
The white-haired one, named Gojo, talked incoherently to everyone and no one at the same time before making up his mind. He strolled over to Nanami and, throwing his arm over the blonde man’s shoulder, flashed you the brightest, toothiest grin.
“I’ll just have what he’s having!”
Nanami let out a quiet sigh, pulling out his wallet in a way that implied this was a routine event among the two of them. He pays by card, as usual, and proceeds to walk towards the storefront windows, clearly wanting some social distance by this point. Gojo, either not taking the hint on accident or intentionally, follows Nanami closely, returning to a nonsensical one-sided chatter the blonde was pointedly tuning out.
You begin making their drinks, and find another blush rising in your cheeks. Despite the blindfold, the way the man beamed at you had produced a bloom of warmth through your core, leaving you confused and slightly embarrassed. You found him annoying, but apparently also charming and attractive, and you found Nanami endearing for putting up with his friend, worsening the developing crush you have on the handsome blonde.
You turned to place the two plastic cups on the counter, and were startled by the blindfolded man, reaching out to take them from you directly. He was grinning again, and the combination of his sweet expression and warm hands overlapping yours sent heat flooding through you.
“Thank you, sweetheart! Aren’t you pretty?” He broke contact and returned to Nanami before you could even register a response, now certain your face was turning a bright shade of red and fighting the urge to run into the storeroom.
“Gojo-” Nanami’s chiding from near the entrance was both slightly horrifying and appreciated, and you were relieved to turn around to get their bread from the back shelves.
“You come here practically every day and never told me it was because there’s the prettiest girl that’s always working here - I would’ve come way sooner-” Gojo’s teasing comments were almost enough to get the stoic blonde to blush back at you.
“Stop that, you know this place is on my route-”
The men began talking over each other, and gave you enough time to set their sliced bread on the counter, avoiding eye contact altogether. You turn and resist the urge to sprint as you go into the storage room and pretend to rustle around for ingredients, praying that at least once of them can take the hint.
Thankfully, Nanami does. “Alright, let’s just get going. You’re already driving everyone nuts today and we aren’t even there yet.”
The chattering fades away with the jingle of the front door, and you breathe a mortified sigh of relief. You quickly compose yourself and return to your shift, your thoughts lingering.
You’ve lived through your fair share of public flirting attempts and failed pick-up lines, even some of the successful ones made you cringe to recall - but his charming attempt had a strangely intense effect on you. You’d been able to dampen your little crush on the suit, Nanami, for months now, and this blindfolded man evokes a reaction from you in less than five minutes and without you seeing his entire face?
You find yourself daydreaming the rest of your shift about what his eyes could look like - the different color possibilities, the length of his eyelashes, the expressions they could show when he smiled, teased or flirted…
--- Monday, June 3rd, 5:45pm ---
The rest of your shift passes by quickly due to your dazing, and the sun falling into the horizon as you begin to clean the shop up. By now, you’re feeling the exhaustion drag and spread aches through your bones as you sweep the floor and restock items for your only coworker's late shift.
Several rude customers in a row left you on edge and needing some form of stress release. You decide to stop in at the bar close by your apartment and have one drink before you finish the walk home, knowing it will help you sleep easier.
The bar is mostly quiet on a Tuesday night, apart from the lone game of pool in the corner. You sit at the end of the bar near the entrance and order your usual, a Sex on the Beach double.
The bartender slides you the glass, briefly checking on you before walking into the back, flipping her long blonde ponytail as she turns. As she leaves, you hear footsteps behind you as more patrons shuffle into the bar from the parking lot. The increasing activity is draining more of your depleted energy, so you decide to finish your drink quickly.
“Hey there, bakery lady.”
You’re stunned to hear a familiar voice slide into the chair next to you, and almost cringe when you turn and see the man that was with Nanami this morning, still wearing his black blindfold and that smile, the one that cut through you like lava hours before.
You smile politely but say nothing - you can’t decide if you’d rather he leave you alone or stay and see where this takes you two. At your lack of response, he leans slightly closer and brings his hands up to his face.
He pulls the cloth covering his eyes up on one side, exposing an eye of neon blue, the likes of which you’d never seen before. Piercing you with his gaze, he has the audacity to wink at you and grin even wider.
“You don’t remember me? I’m your #1 customer from this morning, I was there with Mr. Ruins Parties.” He immediately covers the eye once more and starts swiveling in the bar seat.
You try to recover smoothly. “I remember you, Gojo. What brings you here?”
He seemed to almost be flattered when you said his name, but continued on effortlessly. “ I was just in the area. Hoping to run into a pretty bakery girl.” He turned away as though observing the rest of the bar, leaving you to blush once more in privacy.
The bartender saves you from a quick response by approaching him.
“What can I get for you, handsome?” Her flirting makes you acutely aware of how alluring she must appear compared to your stained work clothes and unruly curly hair.
“Just water for now, thanks.” His response was not impolite but a little cold, and it made you recall his behavior from earlier when he followed Nanami around - was he the kind of person that had a hard time reading the room, or were his choices intentional?
You couldn’t get a read on him yet, but lost the chance to make up your mind as he pulled you back into reality with a smaller smile.
“What are you drinking?”
You pause a moment and lift your glass to take a sip. “Sex on the Beach, it’s my usual choice.”
“I’ve never had that - I imagine the sand gets in some weird places. Can I try it?”
You couldn’t help but exhale and grin a little as you handed him the glass.
“There she is, finally I make her giggle.” He sips the colorful drink through the straw, the good kind of surprise showing on his sharp features as he hands it back to you.
“That’s good, maybe I need to try some Sex on the Beach sometime!”
You lightly laugh once more as you take another drink, the glass less than half full. You almost wonder if he’s less obnoxious to you now because of the alcohol in your system or if you were beginning to find him endearing either way.
He stands, startling you once more as you swallow, leaning close by one side of your neck.
“Shared the straw, so now it’s like we’ve kissed.”
You blanch completely, so shocked by the sudden flirtatious comment you turn and find he’s walked away, the untouched water he ordered the only real evidence he was there at all.
Knowing you’ve blushed far too many times today, you decide to just go home, too exhausted to do much more than crash on your couch and try not to reminisce about more than one man with pale hair.
You had no way of knowing this was the beginning of a mess you were bound to walk into, help create, and barely make out in one piece.