Work Text:
Kaz drinks exclusively black coffee. It’s for the caffeine, after all, not the taste.
...well, maybe not exclusively.
Kaz sits in a coffee shop texting Nikolai.
His boyfriend, as of two weeks ago.
It’s all very new and strange, but it’s also comfortable in an odd way. As if they were always meant to be together, and now that it’s finally happened, he doesn’t need to be quite as rigid or stubborn.
He’s still going to be rigid and stubborn, of course, that’s just who he is. But it feels like he doesn’t need to be.
HIs phone dings.
He looks down at it.
That silly, yet consistent rush of warmth he keeps getting whenever he’s reminded of his boyfriend happens as he registers who this new text is from.
where are you?
coffee shop on 2nd E Kaz tells him. He kind of wishes he had more to tell him. But he doesn’t, and that’s a weird wish anyway.
would you want to meet up today?
Kaz gets a different thrill at the idea of getting to sit next to his boyfriend. Is this what other people’s crushes are like? If so, he doesn’t know how much he appreciates the randomness of his reactions. He didn’t used to internally react like this when he’d had a crush on Inej or even Imogen, he’s pretty sure. sure
Nikolai is quick to respond with a smiley face, then, okay cool — i can be there in like 10 mins, then maybe we could go to the park?
Kaz barely thinks about it. yes
He hasn’t ordered a coffee yet. He should do that.
He goes over to the barista, who at this point knows him. This coffee shop is close to The Silver Six, so he comes over before work often enough that, as he approaches the counter, she looks up and asks him, “Medium black coffee?” She’s already starting to punch it in.
Kaz hesitates. “No,” he stops her. “Medium mocha.”
The barista pauses. “You sure?”
Kaz forces himself to nod. “Might be giving it to someone else,” he explains.
The barista nods, letting him pay for it before going over to the machines to start the drink.
Kaz picks it up at the counter at the exact same time Nikolai walks in the door.
Nikolai’s eyes land on him.
He watches Nikolai’s entire face light the fuck up at the mere sight of him.
Fuck. Does Kaz do that too? He hopes not.
Nikolai comes over to him. “Hey,” he draws out the “y” for an excessively long time. “Ready to go?”
Kaz nods. He snags a small packet of even more sugar just in case it’s not sweet enough for his boyfriend.
Nikolai leads him out to the sidewalk. There’s a park about a block west, so Kaz lets himself follow him to it, to sit down on the first park bench they come across.
Nikolai’s just flopped down as comfortably as possible on the hard metal bench next to Kaz when he glances down at the coffee Kaz holds on his thigh. “Maybe I should’ve gotten one too,” he says with minor regret.
Kaz tries to stay casual physically so he follows suit. “We could share,” he suggests.
Nikolai studies him. Kaz wonders if he just said something out of bounds, crossed some boundary he hadn’t known about. But then, “Okay.”
Kaz hands it over to him.
Nikolai takes a small sip of it, probably to test both flavor and heat. “Oh, so you have a sweet tooth, then,” he chuckles.
“Do you not?” Kaz asks defensively.
“No, I do,” Nikolai assures him. “It’s just surprising to me that you do too.” He rotates the cup in his hand idly. “You don’t seem like the kind of guy to appreciate a mocha, that’s all.”
“Hmm,” Kaz says as Nikolai hands it back to him.
“How’s work, then? Are you not going in today?” Nikolai asks.
Kaz shrugs. “Jes was going to text me if he needed help, but...it’s the day off he forced me to get,” he says flatly.
Nikolai laughs at that, and Kaz feels bathed in sunshine. “I’m surprised he managed to convince you of a full day,” he remarks.
Kaz frowns. “Hmm,” he says again, unsure how much Nikolai is making fun of him, and how much he’s just lightly teasing him.
“Well, I’m glad you’re getting something of a break. You’re working yourself into the ground lately, you know,” Nikolai says seriously.
Kaz shrugs again, but says nothing.
“I mean, I know you probably know that, you just refuse to help yourself if it means not being strictly productive for any length of time,” Nikolai continues.
Kaz rolls his eyes. “I don’t have to be productive every minute of every day,” he begins.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were aware of that part,” Nikolai is definitely teasing now. Kaz’s stomach flip flops for no reason.
He’s watching Nikolai’s face do delightful things like faintly smile and get small, thin crow’s feet at the corners of his bright eyes, when suddenly Nikolai is asking him, “Not thirsty right now?”
Kaz looks down at the mocha. He takes a small sip of it from the same opening that Nikolai did, getting a new kind of thrill from it just as he registers that he hates mochas. He hates them a lot right now.
He hides his face with the coffee cup, then puts it down to say flatly, “No.”
Nikolai laughs about it just as Kaz offers him the cup. He takes it again.
Kaz watches Nikolai drink more of the coffee as Nikolai segues the conversation expertly into his own job and a new invention of his that he’s working on that, “I need to figure out the mechanics of getting a small enough steam engine into it, but otherwise, it’s mostly done —”
Kaz is paying attention to how excitedly Nikolai is talking about his machinery project, he’s just also slightly focused on how sweet that coffee he took a sip of actually is. He feels like he needs to brush his teeth free of it now.
Just then, Nina and Matthias appear in Kaz’s periphery, then close in on them quickly.
“Hey,” Nina draws out the word in the exact same way that Nikolai did earlier, but Kaz feels no increase in mental warmth when she does it.
Kaz watches Nikolai hand Kaz the coffee back as he answers Nina with a bright, “Hey! What’s up?”
Kaz sits there as they talk, just holding the coffee limply in his gloved hand. He’s hoping they go away soon, and leave him and Nikolai alone to enjoy each other’s company by themselves. He doesn’t like his time with his boyfriend being interrupted or put on pause by anyone, let alone Nina and Matthias.
Matthias, who holds Nina tightly still, like Kaz might steal her from him. To participate in a heist? To romantically pursue her? It’s unclear.
Suddenly, Nina mentions Kaz by name. “I can see Kaz already has one, but do you want a coffee?” Then she turns to eye Kaz. “It’s slightly rude of you to not also get Nikolai a coffee, you know, Kaz,” she scolds him.
Kaz frowns deeply while Nikolai laughs it off.
“It’s okay, we’re just sharing this one,” Nikolai informs her.
Nina’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Oh. I didn’t think you liked it black,” she tells Nikolai, sounding slightly confused.
Nikolai blinks at her. “...it’s a...mocha...?” he asks like he’s not sure.
Nina glances at where Kaz has taken to glaring hard at her. She’s well on her way to blowing his entire cover, and he doesn’t appreciate. “Oh. Right. A mocha,” she says stiltedly. “That’s...that makes sense.” She forces a smile onto her lips.
Nikolai glances at Kaz.
Kaz ignores him in favor of still narrowing his eyes at Nina to get her to leave entirely.
“Okay, well, have fun with your...mocha, then,” she says slightly stiffly
That’s when Completely Oblivious Matthias, bless his heart, pipes up with, “Kaz doesn’t drink mochas, though. Ever.”
Nina elbows him way too late.
Nikolai looks over at Kaz with surprise.
Kaz glares at Matthias now too, for not being able to read any room, but especially this one. Matthias glares back at him.
Nikolai cocks his head at him. “You...don’t?” he asks, sounding bewildered now.
Nina and Matthias exchange quick, slightly amused looks before Nina gives a little laugh. “We’ll just leave you to it, then.” She pulls Matthias away from them.
Kaz glares down at the half drunk mocha he’s holding. Stupid. It was stupid to do this at all —
“...I’m confused,” Nikolai voices next to him.
Kaz scowls. “How is that my problem,” he says to the cup rudely.
“It’s...it doesn’t have to be your “problem”,” Nikolai says slowly. “I’m just...confused how it happened.”
“How what happened? Your confusion? That’s super not my problem —” Kaz begins.
“— no; how you ended up with a mocha if you only drink black coffee,” Nikolai clarifies.
Kaz grits his teeth and says nothing.
Nikolai pauses then. “...Kaz, did you know that I drink mochas?”
Kaz says nothing still, which is an answer in and of itself this time.
Nikolai abruptly starts grinning. “Kaz...did you get a coffee order you don’t even like...so that you could share it...with me?”
Kaz looks at him hard. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he says weakly, and they both know it.
Nikolai looks incredibly smug now. “Nah, I’m not being ridiculous. I think I’m just being accurate right now. Aren’t I?”
Kaz says nothing, studying his smug face better.
“Kaz, that’s such a sweet gesture, I might die,” Nikolai informs him through that smirk of his.
“Well, don’t do that,” Kaz grumbles, looking down at the cup’s lid again.
Nikolai laughs. “I’ll try not to,” he says cheerfully, holding out his hand.
Kaz stares at his hand. “...what?” He doesn’t know what his boyfriend is trying to get him to do. Shake his hand? Why, though?
Nikolai bounces his hand a little. “The coffee you hate. Can I have it back?”
Kaz reluctantly hands it over.
Nikolai finishes it for him quickly. Then, “There. Now let’s go back there and get you a coffee you’ll actually enjoy.”
Kaz grumbles to himself some more, but stands with Nikolai.
When they get back to the counter at the coffee shop, that same barista looks at him expectantly. “What can I get started for you?”
Kaz sighs deeply. “Medium black,” he mutters.
She smiles as he pays for it, then heads off to do it while Nikolai tips to the side to throw away the empty mocha cup.
When Kaz gets his coffee, he takes a long sip of it immediately, purely to wash away the taste of the mocha.
Nikolai watches him as they simultaneously sit down at the same table Kaz had originally been at.
“What?” Kaz demands as he rotates the coffee cup in his gloved fingers.
Nikolai smiles pleasantly. “You’re just really cute,” he says simply.
“Don’t call me that,” Kaz frowns.
“Okay,” Nikolai agrees, then: “Can I call you sweet?”
Kaz scowls. ”Definitely not,” he says sharply before drinking more straight coffee.
“All right,” Nikolai agrees again. “What about —?”
— don’t call me anything that’s not a synonym of intimidating,” Kaz orders, pointing a finger at him, trying not to snarl.
Nikolai laughs again, flooding Kaz’s body with a variety of pins and needles he doesn’t know what to do with. “But you’re not being intimidating right now; you’re being cute and sweet.”
Kaz frowns as deeply as he has been; his expression does not change. “Don’t call me anything like it, no matter how subjectively “cute” you think I’m being,” he says tightly, using air quotes on the offending word to properly convey his displeasure with its existence anywhere near him.
Nikolai shrugs. “Okay. Can I call you “my lovely Kaz”?” he asks; apropos of nothing, Kaz might add.
Kaz pauses. “How about you call me Kaz, and I call you Nikolai, and we leave it at that,” he snips tartly.
Nikolai grins. “We could do that...and in the meantime, you figure out easier ways to share things with me than suffering through a coffee you don’t like,” he says pointedly.
Kaz scowls, drinking his black coffee even more pointedly.
When he puts his coffee cup down, he finds Nikolai staring at him dreamily with a little smile playing at his soft lips.
Kaz frowns minutely now, but he allows it. It’s not the worst way Nikolai could be looking at him right now, after all.
“Wanna share a cinnamon roll? They’ve got some,” Nikolai prompts him.
Kaz glances at the cinnamon rolls in question. They’re huge. So he sighs. “Fine, if you think you having even more sugar is even remotely a good idea.”
Nikolai laughs clearly at that, stranding slowly. “The sugar from half a mocha and a cinnamon roll doesn’t make me that wired, Kaz.”
“Two-thirds of a mocha, thank you very much, and that’s a big cinnamon roll —” Kaz begins.
“— yes, which is part of why you’re going to help me eat it,” Nikolai says leadingly.
Kaz sighs, waving him off.
Nikolai goes and buys one of the cinnamon rolls, before bringing it back with...one fork.
Kaz looks at him exasperatedly.
Nikolai stabs the cinnamon roll, either not paying attention to Kaz’s expression or ignoring it. He rips a piece off with the plastic fork, holding it out for Kaz expectantly.
Kaz snatches the fork from Nikolai. “Give me that —”
Nikolai grins at him, the bastard.
Kaz eats the piece of cinnamon roll off the fork before handing the utensil back to Nikolai. Then he gets up and grabs another fork from the cup of them for that damn cinnamon roll — solely because he’s trying to help limit how much sugar Nikolai has today by actually eating half of this dessert, no other reason. He sits back down, digging his own fork into the roll, violently twisting a piece off.
They eat the cinnamon roll together. Kaz drinks his black coffee occasionally. The sun streams in through the window nicely, catching Nikolai’s blond hair beautifully. Like he’s a rainbow in the mist of a spring shower —
— it’s not fair that Kaz fell for this man.
How dare Kaz’s brain betray him like this, forcing him to think such sappy thoughts.
He can’t stop, though. Not when his boyfriend sits so attractively across from him, prompting flowery prose to swim through his mind like it belongs there.
And maybe it does.