When the assistant manager at the new corner Italian trattoria cafe discovers that both of the new summer hires are high-energy, loud, fiery, opinionated gingers with personalities strong enough to knock a pizza clean out of the oven, he groans and braces himself for the World’s Most Intense Rivalry. He’s thrown for a loop when the girls become completely inseparable...and the bane of his existence in an entirely different way than he was expecting.
A gift for @ohlooksheswriting! Basically this was a wacky idea that stemmed entirely from Celyn’s autocorrect changing Merida and Anna’s ship name to “Marinara”...and then it somehow led to us making a half-ironic “Merida and Anna both work at a cute Italian cafe and fall in love” AU XD And I simply couldn’t resist making a moodboard (and making myself very hungry for Italian in the process D:).
Some headcanons, just because I can:
They’re both 17ish in this AU
Anna’s favorite gelato flavors are the super-rich and super-extra chocolate-based ones--she especially likes tiramisu, zuppa inglese, stracciatella, and chocolate chip cookie!
She also likes combining chocolate gelato with nut-based flavors, and intends to go through every last chocolate-and-nut combination before the summer’s over
So far she’s done chocolate-and-hazelnut, chocolate-and-pistachio, chocolate-and-walnut, chocolate-and-almond, and chocolate-and-chestnut!
Merida prefers the more sorbet-like “fruity” flavors to go with her personality ehuehuehuehue. She particularly likes lemon, amarena cherry, raspberry, apricot, and frutti di bosco!
She’s also a very big fan of autumn-esque apple-based flavors like apple pie and caramel apple, and is generally bummed that they aren’t circulated through the cafe very often during the summer months
The cafe carries a couple of those weird chocolate-with-hot-peppers-mixed-in flavors, but barely anyone ever orders them. Anna once attempts to eat an entire bowlful with the sole intent of impressing Merida.
It...does not go well. Anna’s mouth is forever scarred, and the variety of pained faces she made while downing the appalling dairy dessert were the absolute height of indignity.
Although Merida ends up being more amused than impressed, she’s genuinely touched that Anna put in such an effort to try and show off to her!
One time a customer tried to be rude to Anna in the gelato line. Merida promptly took the plastic sample spoon she’d been about to give him, bent it back, and flicked him with a face full of run raisin gelato.
Merida nearly got fired for it, but all the other employees (Anna included) threatened to go on strike if she did, because...all things considered, Merida’s probably the most entertaining part of their shifts
Especially for Anna but she’s not ready to have that conversation yet
Speaking of free entertainment, Anna and Merida fully believe that since they work at an Italian cafe, they should develop Italian accents
They both watch a shitton of YouTube video tutorials and Italian TV and develop the most obnoxious and annoyingly stereotypical accents possible
They’re also both LOUD
Oh GOD are they loud
So if you walk into the cafe and hear someone shout “THAT’S A SPICY MEATABALLA!” in the most irritating way possible
Chances are either Anna or Mer are in that day
They truly are the bane of their managers’ existence
Anna WILL make the absolute most of her free and discount lunch vouchers and she WILL try every panini and sandwich the place has to offer if it’s the last thing she ever does
When she and Merida have overlapping lunch breaks, they sometimes will share an extra-long marinara (heh. heh heh heh. heh heh heh heh.) meatball sub
This tradition began because they wanted to share something (tooootally not gay at all) and they were like “well shit, we gotta get the sauce that goes with our hair!”
They also both get very fond associations with marinara sauce because it reminds them of each other’s hair aksajdhpwbfg
But Merida especially will never ever ever admit that because that is SO corny
Appropriately and perhaps unsurprisingly, Anna looooves snacking on fried mozzarella sticks...with marinara sauce
Those bitches are 1000% NOT on the menu (you think that shit is Authentic Italian Cuisine^TM??? I’m betting it came from like...a diner in the American midwest or smth) but they’re pretty easy to make because you essentially just deep fry a cheese stick real quick
Anna takes to making batches during her shifts’ downtime, and of course she shares with Mer
In short they are both Lost In The Sauce
The Sauce, of course, being a metaphor for gay love
Anna is also on a mission to eat as many Fancy Little Personalized Pizzas as she possibly can
She actually prefers a classic cheese pizza (maybe pepperoni if she’s feeling especially zesty) over pizzas with a shitton of toppings BUT
You dun best believe that those cheese pizzas are the most Extra cheese pizzas you have ever seen in your entire life
Like she gets every cheese known to man on them and then some new, undiscovered cheeses not yet known to man
“Anna where did you get that cheese have you been poking around in the Forbidden Cheese Cabinet again”
Then she joyously sprinkles on basil leaves and sage and oregano and any other herb she can get her hands on with the same zest as that one guy from the salting meat meme
Merida makes fun of her for being a pizza snob and Anna always replies with “why I ought to give you a pizza my mind”
Merida ALWAYS hopes Anna will cease usage of this horrible pun
And she’s always wrong
The cafe has a couple balconies on the upper level with some flowerpots, but they’re mostly just decorative. You can’t like. Get a table up there or anything
Doesn’t stop Anna from going up there on her breaks and just hanging out with the potted plants. As one does.
Probably one of the managers is technically in charge of watering/fertilizing the flowers, but the managers have enough on their plates already (no pun intended) and aren’t very good about potted plant upkeep
So naturally Anna takes it upon herself to learn how to care for the flowers and vines and such growing on the balcony, and brings up little cups of water to pour on them XD
She looooves going up to the balconies on her breaks to relax, and she probably has full conversations with the potted plants
I’m betting she gives them all names too
Merida, meanwhile, uses her breaks to come up with hare-brained schemes to steal alcohol because by god she is not about to be kept out of the Italian wine cellar for something as unbelievably stupid as this “being under legal drinking age” nonsense
She also feels she should get started on her calling as a Wine Aunt, and what better place to begin than where they’ve got The Good Shit???
Catch her doing stealth missions into the wine cellar and creeping out with bottles hidden under her flannels
Anna meanwhile can’t stand wine on its own and is much more of a sangria and cocktail kinda gal
(She’s probably tried some at family functions)
When Merida catches wind of this, she starts sneaking ingredients from the cafe’s mini-bar and making Anna little mixed drinks when no one’s looking and bringing them to Anna on her break
She tries to make her a wide variety, too--sangrias, bellinis, palomas, negronis, spritzes, limoncellos, rossinis, proseccos, milano-torinos, puccinis, basically anything she can get away with!
When their breaks overlap, they love to get (a little) drunk together and just gossip about anything and everything
And also show each other funny animal videos, the best on the internet in fact
Both of them, but especially Merida, are usually doing their job at least a little buzzed
On both their last days of work, they start squirting each other with those little sauce squeeze bottles because fuck it, they have nothing left to lose, but THEN
The rest of their coworkers join in and suddenly there’s a huge sauce fight
It probably takes weeks to get all the marinara out of their hair (and oh, the irony of it) but it’s totally worth it
Even after they stop working at the cafe, they make an effort to go out for pizza every Friday at an Italian cafe they have not yet been banned at
Because they were definitely banned at the cafe they worked at
And are on their way to getting banned in every Italian cafe in town with their antics
They make it a personal challenge to get banned at every Italian cafe in town in fact
However one of the absolute dingiest in the farthest and most sketchy part of town absolutely refuses to ban them
Because the staff there have Seen It All customer-wise and simply refuse to let a pair of loud ginger lesbians get the better of them
It’s probably a waitress at this place who makes Mer and Anna finally realize they’re into each other
She’s like “how long have you two been dating?” and they’re like “WE’RE NOT DATING AKDJAVWFOUY” and she’s like “...yeah right”
Every time they come in the same waitress is like “hey are you dating yet” and they pretend to be annoyed but like
If they actually were annoyed they could always stop eating there
But they don’t
And then one day the waitress asks if they’re dating yet
AND THEY SAY YES <3 <3 <3
Pic credits available upon request! I hope you like it Celyn <3
