TWO
Nico woke up to the smell of coffee and something burning. Glancing over at the clock, he bit back a groan. It was way too early for this shit. He waited a moment before pulling back his duvet and facing the world and whatever mess Will had made in the kitchen. On his way to the door he scooped up a hoodie off the carpeted floor and slipped it on before leaving his room.
The stench was worse when he opened his door. He could see literal clouds of dark smoke hovering around the kitchen. "Will?" He was tired, hadn't had his coffee yet, and admittedly a tad grumpy this morning, what with the smell and all. "What in the world are you doing?" Nico entered the kitchen only to see small flames in the pan on the stove, Will in a polka dotted apron, and what looked like pieces of charcoal popping up in the toaster. It was that moment when the smoke alarm went off.
Will gave a sheepish smile. "Making you breakfast?" He stood on a stool to turn off the smoke alarm, and Nico went straight for the stove. Covering the pan with a lid to cut off the oxygen, he used a towel to move it to the sink, turning on the tap. Once the immediate danger was dealt with, and the alarm turned off so he could think properly, he surveyed the room. The source of the fire were pancakes left alone on the stove, he assumed the charcoal in the toaster was at one point in the past, bread. The island was covered in flour, and as Will got down from the stool, he knocked a carton of eggs on the floor, causing most of them to break. Great. At least the coffee looked like it survived. Nico would need a lot of it to get through this morning alive.
Together the two boys started to put the kitchen back to normal. It wasn't a quick clean up, and somehow Will had gotten pancake batter on the roof, so that took some coordination to deal with, but they got it done. When you could finally see the surfaces again, Nico got up and poured himself a cup of coffee while Will boiled the kettle for some tea. He was genuinely surprised when he tasted his coffee. "I may not be able to cook" Will said, "But I make good coffee."
"You never drink coffee though, so how can it be this damn good?" Nico questioned as he sat down with his drink beside the blond.
"I work in a café. I kind of have to be able to make good coffee if I want to keep my job." Will laughed. Nico smiled back at him. Now that the mess was cleaned up, and the air was starting to smell a bit nicer courtesy of all the open windows and fans, he was beginning to see the humour in this morning.
"Can I ask why you decided to make breakfast this morning? I'm always up in time to whip something together for you to eat on your way to class. It's not a big deal."
"Well, I feel bad that you do all the cooking, and you've been really tired the past few days, so I thought that I'd try and do something nice for you. Sorry it just ended up in more work for you."
Nico's small smile left his face. "I don't need help. I cook, you clean. We have a system for a reason." He finished off his coffee with a gulp and retreated to his room. Nico hadn't meant to come off as rude, but he didn't need anyone to look after him. He was an adult for goodness sakes. Will was his roommate, not his parent. He had no right to call him out on his lack of sleep. Plugging in his headphones and starting his music, he pulled out his sketchbook to continue working.
His drawing made her come to life as best as he could. She was still fairly clear in his memory, but sometimes Nico still had to look at the few pictures he had of her. It made him sad, but time always blurred details. That's why he drew her. To keep her memory alive as long as possible. He heard the front door shut and he knew Will had left for classes. Ignoring the empty house, he buried himself in his art for the next two hours.
- - - - -
Nico quickened his pace to the café on campus. The air was chilly around him, giving his cheeks a bit of colour that contrasted his pale skin. Leaves crunched under his feet, and he was glad when he reached the shop, and into the warm building.
The shop wasn't much, located on the end of the university that his classes were not. This made the walk to get his coffee long, but after his last encounter in the closer shop, he decided to change his location. After a yelling match and a dumped coffee, he wasn't welcome in the close one for a while. It wasn't his fault the cashier was a complete-
"Nico!" He heard his roommate's loud voice call out from across the café. Of course this was the café Will worked at. That's how good my luck is today. "What can I get for you today?" Will stood behind the counter with the ancient till in a red apron, which Nico had to admit, looked good on him.
"Double espresso, please." Nico took this moment to observe his surroundings. There were books along one wall, and on stands in front were coffee mugs and all the normal coffee shop paraphernalia for sale. The walls were a nice cream colour that looked nice with the hardwood flooring.
He handed Will some change and went to the end of the counter to wait for his drink. It didn't take long, as Nico believed in simplicity when it came to his coffee. Cream and sugar ruined the taste.
He grabbed his coffee from Will and headed straight out the door, not wanting to stay and chat. He had to get to his next class. The break in between classes today felt so much shorter with the extended walk to get his coffee. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much of an issue and he could go back to his regular shop after things cooled down.
He entered the lecture hall just as the prof followed behind him. Technically, he wasn't late, and he had his coffee. He could work with this. He chose a spot against the wall with nobody sitting beside him. Pulling out his textbook and notebook, his prof set up his laptop and started the lecture on human anatomy.
This class wasn't terrible, and he enjoyed his teacher. Also helped that it was short compared to his three hour-long lectures on Mondays. Those were hell. His hand felt ready to fall off by the end, as there was a lot of new material covered. Nico wasn't great at writing, and often struggled to keep up, but he preferred long hand notes compared to typing as it helped stick in his brain better. He needed all the help he could get when it came to tests in this class, as it was practically all memorization.
- - - - -
"I'm home!" Will called out to Nico as he stepped through the front door. Nico was sat at the island in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and several textbooks, notebooks, and papers strewn across the entirety of the surface. Nico responded with a mumbled 'hey' before returning to the textbooks. "How come I haven't seen you in the café before?" Will continued to talk to Nico, despite his obvious desire to be left alone with his work.
"I got kicked out of the other one." Nico responded nonchalantly and flipped the page in his notebook, about to start the next page of his assignment before Will interrupted him.
"How do you get kicked out of a café? What on Earth did you do?" Will asked, bewildered.
Giving up, Nico closed the book and shoved it aside. "It's quite easy if you try hard enough."
"I'm not even sure if I want to hear this story or not. Does it involve anything that will send me to jail if you tell me? I'm too pretty for jail." Will looked sceptical as he turned the kettle on to boil water. "You know what, I don't even care, I need to know. Spill child."
"Don't call me child."
"Fine. Tell me the story pretty please with a cherry on top?" Will turned and gave Nico the most pathetic, sad looking puppy dog face. He caved.
"It really wasn't my fault, and you won't go to jail. There's not much to tell. The cashier was rude to someone, I told them off, and I may or may not have poured my hot coffee on their head."
"How is you pouring coffee on someone not your fault?" Will asked as he stirred honey into his coffee. Nico wasn't sure how he enjoyed drinking tea, it was way too sweet for his liking. Though, he hadn't really given it a fair try, but he didn't really care to either.
"It's not my fault because the girl was asking for it." Nico saw Will's look and rolled his eyes. "If someone is being completely horrible to someone, I'm not just going to stand there and let it happen."
"I'm not saying you should just stand there and let it happen, I'm just saying that there are more effective ways to solve these situations without reverting to pouring hot coffee on them. Are they okay?" Will sat down and shoved some of Nico's crap out of the way to make room for his mug, deliberately ignoring Nico's face at the disturbance of his stuff. "Do you always go around pouring coffee on people? Is that why you bought coffee today? Maybe I'm going to have to ban you from The Moose as well."
"Okay, okay." Nico knew when to admit defeat, and Will was not dropping the subject. "I will not pour coffee on any unsuspecting strangers anymore. But they did totally deserve it. Also, if you could find a way to move The Moose closer to my classes, that would be awesome. I don't like walking to the opposite side of campus for a coffee. Too much work." Nico mentioned before turning back to his books. Will simply laughed in response and continued sipping his tea quietly while Nico went back to studying.
Except, Will wasn't necessarily great at the whole sitting there quietly aspect of things. "Did you like the joke?"
Nico looked up from his work again and held back a frustrated sigh. "What joke?" May as well humour Will. He wasn't sure how much studying he would get done before his next class anyways. He still had to cook dinner as well. After this morning, there was no way he was letting Will anywhere near the stove.
"The one I wrote on your cup. You looked grumpy so I thought a joke might cheer you up."
Nico was surprised at this. "Sorry, I didn't see it. I'm not in the habit of reading my coffee before drinking it."
Will's face fell a little at this, but his grin came back quickly. "That's fine, but make sure you check next time. Do you want to hear the joke now?"
Not really. "Sure." Nico replied, beginning to pack up his books and clear papers.
"What do you call a dictionary on drugs?" Nico was about to respond, but Will was too excited to share the punch line he didn't get the chance. "Addictionary." Nico smiled, but it was more because Will was laughing, and looked like he didn't have a care in the world. He looked nice that way.
(AN: Guys, NaNo day one was a success :) I wrote 2,005 words tonight. I like to attend the virtual write-ins on YouTube, which definately helps me get my words out. Enjoy these two nerds and have a fantastic day :)