Oranges and Plums
Summary: Junko doesn't like coffee, so when the one store she goes to has new management, she's angry.
Until the new cashier offers her something new.
for @the-100-days-of-junkan's Junkan Week event!
Rating: T.
AO3
“What do you mean you’re out of crunchballs? Man.” Junko purses her lips to one side, near scowling. She taps her long red fingernails on the counter, and her head tilts to one side. “They’re the only thing worth shit in here. Even your coffee is nasty.”
This, strictly speaking, is not true.
All coffee is nasty, in Junko’s opinion. It’s far too bitter for her, and by the time she’s doctored it the way she wants for it to taste something resembling good (and still not really good in her opinion), everyone makes fun of her for it. Especially her sister, who says she’s not a real man if she doesn’t drink her coffee black. Like she wants to be a man! Ugh.
But this is the one coffee shop in all of Tokyo that smells somewhat acceptable.
It’s not just the strong, pungent scent of coffee. It’s half of a bakery, too, and the smell of fresh-baked bread is far and away better than the coffee. Especially the cinnamon bread, which mixes its sweet scent with the layered yeast of the rest of the bread and makes the coffee’s bitterness fit, somehow. Particularly, it keeps Junko from feeling like she wants to be sick.
Which is why, whenever Mukuro returns from her many, many missions overseas, they always meet here.
Mukie’s never here very long. She’s usually only around for a layover between flights; sometimes those can be nearly a day, sometimes they’re only a few hours, always there’s enough time for the sisters to spend at least a little time together.
But the point is that Junko never comes here without her sister, and there’s often months between her visits. Sometimes longer. This time, the coffee shop shut down and reopened under new management between their visits. Which is why their menu is just slightly different. Including—
“U-u-um.” The cashier nervously looks one way and then the other. “We don’t. Um. We don’t have…we don’t have c-c-crunchballs.”
“Right. That’s what I said. You’re out of them.”
“N-n-no, I mean.” The cashier swallows, and her quiet voice gets even quieter. “We don’t…we don’t make them…any…anymore.” She’s so quiet by the end that someone else probably couldn’t even hear her voice.
But Junko hears it loud and clear. Her eyes widen. “What do you mean you don’t make them anymore? How despair-inducing.” She groans and rolls her eyes. “Fuck. Mukie’s gonna have to find us another shop. This one’s a wreck.” Then she shoves a hand through her hair and glances at the cashier. It’s the first time she’s really looked at her, in the same way that most people don’t really look at their cashiers.
She’s…kind of cute, with her hair pulled back like that and the little flush around her cheeks. What’s her name? Mikan? What, like oranges? The little tiny ones? And her hair and eyes are all purple, like plums. Hm.
“Say, Mikan-chan,” Junko murmurs, “you got something else? Something you think is really, really good?”
“U-u-um!” Mikan shrinks in on herself, the soft blush on her cheeks growing darker. “We, um! We have—” She licks her lips, and then a soft smile curls about her lips. “H-h-hold…hold on just a…just a minute.”
Then Mikan disappears in the back.
Junko sighs and glances behind her. There’s not any line, not that she cares about that, and Mukie’s still not here, so she’s not wasting any of her time waiting. Still. Her lips press together, and her brows raise as Mikan returns from the back with a platter of something between gloved hands. Whatever it is, it smells amazing. “What’s that?”
“Orange butter biscuits, right….” Mikan swallows. “Right out of the…out of the oven.” She cuts Junko a slice, sets it on a paper plate, and holds it out to her. “H-h-here. I hope…I hope you like it. It’s still hot, so don’t…don’t—!”
Junko cuts her off as she shoves the whole thing in her mouth. It burns her tongue, but dang if it doesn’t taste great. “I’ll take ten,” she says around the biscuit still in her mouth, trying to breathe carefully so her tongue doesn’t hurt more. She swallows it down. “Or the whole tray. I can get the whole tray, right?”
“Y-y-yes!” Mikan stutters out. “It’ll just…it’ll take a few minutes, um….” She pauses, then smiles gently. “You should…you should try it with the plum…the plum tea. It’s really…really good.”
“You have tea now?” Junko’s eyes widen. She licks the crumbs from her lips. “Yes. That, too. Two cups. I’ll make my sister try them together before she drinks that weakass bean tea.”
“C-c-coffee.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s what I said!” Junko waves a hand dismissively. When Mikan giggles, she smiles.
Okay, so maybe this place isn’t so bad anymore. It’s still a coffee shop, but it’s got enough other stuff that maybe…
Maybe she’ll come by once or twice on her own. Mikan is kind of cute. Maybe—
Hm.
Junko grins.
