I choose you

As I already mentioned back then, I liked the idea of giving everyone their own role.

Jace is obviously the waiter, charming every customer who walks through the door. Varus dutifully handles the morning shift, making sure every caffeine-deprived soul gets exactly the coffee they need as the café's barista. Renn takes over in the evening, mixing fancy starfused cocktails. And of course there's Mylo, who not only loves pastries but now gets to bake them for all the customers, too. <3

I still couldn't come up with a name for the café, though. I kept thinking of things like Steam & Sugar, Pilot's Rest, Waypoint Café, or Galaxy Grounds, but none of them were it. They all feel kind of generic and don't really capture the Waltz vibe.

Also... don't think the little kitty paw prints under Mylo's shoes are just on his shoes. They're a -mandatory - part of the uniform. (There were disagreements, but not for long.)

Now imagine being Qiri and having an entire café staffed by your boyfriends. Coffee, pastries, cocktails, and premium company all in one place.

Vague sdra spoilers

OKAY YAY HI

Rett is a King in this AU, I think he was second in line and was passionate about protecting his kingdom by joining the military so they let him do that but then his older brother died or was exiled and he was immediately made king after the death of his parents. He had a wife when he was a prince, but she left soon upon the announcement that he would be made king for unknown reasons.

Pyke is an ex-assassin, and when he left that life behind (along with a certain other ex-assassin ouhouhouhouhou), he ran away to a few towns over. He stumbled around aimlessly, and one day, he was practicing his swordsman skills and was recruited. He trained and became a knight, which was a lot more fun and less gruesome than assassin to him, and his job was more defense. He wasn't military he guarded the castle.

Rett and pyke met when rett was sent to another kingdom for delegation, and somehow pyke made the list of guards. He was really skilled which impressed rett when pyke defended him from an assassination attempt (which is constantly a big worry for rett because his brother was very well liked) and rett was like. Woah. And pyke rose through the ranks quick and worked really closely with rett so much that he was promoted to retts personal guard. Pyke gets really obvious favoritism early on, he gets bonus perks because rett has a crush. Ko notices and it pisses her off. (Ko is also a knight). Pyke becomes a confidante and they become good friends. Pyke doesn't treat rett like he's high and mighty because pyke has met and has tried to (and successfully managed to) kill several pompous assholes and rett is nothing like that. Pyke likes rett a lot, respects him for not being snooty. One day pyke is complaining about the food and quartering, kind of spacing on the fact that rett is still the king, and the next day pyke is eating with rett and sleeping in his room. Then, the drawing occurs. Rett lowkey doesnt care that pyke is an assassin and only realizes later that he should make sure pyke isnt planning on assassinating him. He has other things to worry about in that moment. I might post more about their relationship later ehehehe I like this au.

Ko aforementioned is a knight! She's also promoted to personal guard and the only benefit she gets from pyke and retts.. relationship.. is that she gets her and pykes shared quarters to herself (and maybe a royal bard too), and she benefits from some of the things that pyke gets as to not raise suspicion. She became a knight for the same reason she became a paladin, except the old king was in power when she was knighted and she really hated him. She does like Rett a lot better.

Pixel is a royal bard, rett heard her in a tavern and hired her after hearing her dream of becoming a world-renowned bard. She sleeps in Ko's room. Mr. W was the owner of the tavern. Pixel's story of joining the crew is pretty much the same, but her dream of playing for larger audiences is granted more in this one. They find her after Pyke and Rett's secret relationship has started, and she clocks them immediately.

Ophelia is still an assassin. Rex is visiting royalty and brought the soon to be new queen with him. Pykes eyes are locked onto Ophelia, and, remaining faithful to his duty, he worries that ophelia is here to try and assassinate rett. He calms greatly when she tells him she's just trying to kill rex. (Rex does live, yes, lady luck IS always on his side even across AUs)

Ziggy is third in line for his families kingdom, so they let him do his own thing, which is alchemy(/magic)! He kinda got a little exiled for blowing up an entire wing but they were also just happy to be rid of him, and while traveling he bumps into pyke and rett and goes to live in retts castle. Rett is also into alchemy, amongst other things, and ziggy gets his own room just for his controlled experiments. The room is separate from the rest of the building. He actually discovers a lot of things that really help the kingdom, and Rett gains a strong dislike towards the rulers of the kingdom he comes from.