Summary: Terra works part-time as a barista in one of the university's coffee bars. Little did he expect to meet a particular blue haired customer who wouldn't leave his mind...

This is an entry for Terra week 2018 on tumblr, prompt "Modern AU" and a companion piece to 0littlelight0's gorgeous art on tumblr. Please check it out!

Please enjoy!

"Enjoy your coffee."

At the start of his third semester, Terra had been lucky enough to get a job as a barista at his own university. Studying for his degree in sports, most of his lectures didn't start until 10 am or even 12 pm, but he had always been an early riser, waking up at the break of dawn to go jogging or to meditate before he started his day. Taking over the early shift at the campus coffee shop fit perfectly into his schedule, earned him surprisingly good money and looked good on his curriculum even though it wasn't connected to his field of study. All in all, it was a win-win situation and he'd be lying if he said it wasn't entertaining to see zombies turn into sentient human beings in the morning.

The girl he had just served grabbed her cup and flashed him a short smile in thanks before leaving, making way for the next customer in line. She stepped forward and all Terra could see was blue: Blue hair, blue sweater, blue messenger bag. Stunned for a moment, he shook it off and forced a smile back on his face.

"Hello, what can I get you, miss?"

"Hi, excuse me," the blue haired woman answered slightly distracted as she rummaged around in her bag, clearly in search of something, likely her purse. He saw her eyebrows draw together as she let go of her bag only to wiggle around and bury her hands in her pants pockets (a pair of blue jeans, Terra noted), her eyes now at least studying the large menu board that hung over counter.

"I'd like a – a-ha!" she exclaimed happily and pulled a small pouch out of her back pocket (at this point, Terra was surprised that it was orange and not blue), counting a few coins in it. "Can I have a cup of chamo-" She froze as her eyes finally fell on him.

Terra shuffled a little uncomfortably.

"Are you feeling alright?"

That seemed to pull the girl out of her stupor and she let her eyes roam around the room, awkwardly fumbling around with her pouch.

Was she avoiding him? He couldn't recall ever meeting this girl before.

"Y-yes, I'm fine," she answered, much more timidly than before, as her eyes came to rest on the special menu card next to the cash register.

"Cappuccino!" She blurted out, and at that a slight blush started to dust her cheek as she winced. "I mean, can I have a –" she looked at the card again, "Caramel Cappuccino, please?"

"Coming right up," Terra answered her with a nod as he accepted her coins and started working on her order, but not without giving her a discreet look over.

She was cute, he had to admit. Her hair color was very unusual and she was tall for a girl (still roughly half a head shorter than him, though), with a slender built as far as the sweater allowed him to judge.

He was intrigued. Maybe if he turned a little to the left and leaned over, he could throw another short glance –

"Shoot!" Terra grumbled loudly as hot steam from the milk frother blew against his hand. He quickly turned off the steam and jumped to the sink to run cold water over his hand.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, fine," he grumbled, annoyed at himself, "I got distracted for a second there." He quickly dried off his hands, wincing a little at his now sensitive skin and returned to the coffee with a frown. Served him right for gawking his customers, he figured. Finishing up the order and drizzling the ordered Caramel over the drink, he turned back to her, handing her the cup.

At that moment, she took his breath away.

He hadn't realized how well her hair complemented her eyes – her eyes that shone like the ocean back in his home town. They immediately sought out the patch of sensitive skin on his arm (when had she grasped his hand like that?) and she gingerly turned his lower arm left and right to see better in the dim lit room.

"It doesn't look too bad, but you should still be careful. I'm sorry you got burned because of my order."

He wanted to tell her that it was nothing – and it truly was, it's not like it was his first burn and it wasn't even serious – but the words got stuck in his throat.

"Thank you," he replied instead, slightly breathless before he swallowed deeply, "I'll take care."

He was met with the most dazzling smile he had ever seen in his life. He didn't register her thanks and her "Have a nice day" or even the next customer clearing their throat impatiently.

At that moment, he fell hopelessly and irreversibly in love with the blue haired girl.

Thankfully, she dutifully returned to him – his coffee – every single morning. In the first few days, she kept asking him about his burn, but soon, the two of them fell into companionable silence, communicating more with their eyes and smiles instead of words. And Terra loved observing her every day. The closer winter and its cold temperatures drew, the bigger her sweaters became until he had to nearly send a search party into her clothes to find the girl underneath them, bundled up for warmth. Rarely, she dressed in a more fancy, more adult way – once it was during their university's big job fare, he noted, so he assumed she had important meetings those days. Those were the days where she would wear subtle but classy earrings and a light dusting of make up, making her eyes – her gorgeous eyes, he swooned – shine even more. Other days, she opted for the complete opposite, being super comfortable while still being dressed nicely; in contrast to other students, he never saw her turn up in sweatpants or anything comparable.

He didn't want to admit it to himself, but seeing her in the morning quickly became his favorite part of the day.

Spring had finally arrived and the end of the semester was coming near quickly. Having already passed all but of one his exams and being good on time with his assignments, he hadn't minded taking over today's afternoon shift for his sick colleague, even though it was unnaturally busy due to the university holding its open house day today. As such, tons of soon-to-be-students flooded the campus, chattering excitedly among themselves and – of course – trying to figure out where to buy the best food and coffee.

When lunch time was over and most of the caffeine deprived students were satisfied, business came to enough of a slow, allowing Terra to sit down behind the counter and pull out his sport medicine notes, learning for the last exam he had to take at the end of next week. Engrossed as he might have been in his notes, there was no way goosebumps wouldn't spread all over his arms as a familiar voice drifted to his ear.

"And this is the best coffee shop on campus!"

Terra immediately felt heat rise up his cheeks and scrambled to his feet, dropping his notes unceremoniously to the floor just in time for the blue haired girl to step up to the counter, eyes widening slightly as a huge smile started to spread over her lips.

"You're here!" She exclaimed more than asked and her smile was contagious.

"My colleague is sick so I took over his shift," he replied before he noticed the blond boy trailing behind her, roughly a head shorter than her, with a huge grin plastered on his face. The tell-tale red fabric bag most of the student representatives were giving out to the visiting pupils was slung over his shoulder.

"Hey," the girl addressed Terra warmly and he was about to melt into a puddle of goo at the sight of her dazzling eyes.

"Hey," he breathed in response, but caught himself at the boy's snicker and cleared his throat.

"What can I get you?"

"A hot chocolate and a Caramel Cappuccino, please."

She slid a bill over to him and he quickly gave her back her change before he stepped to the machine, starting the hot chocolate first as the girl and her companion stepped away from the counter.

"So, do you want to take a break here or do you want to continue the tour? They also sell sandwiches if you're hungry again."

"I saw all the lectures that interested me the most so I'm open to anything. But the question is – do you want to take a break here?"

"What do you mean?"

"C'mon, Aqua –"

Aqua. Her name was Aqua. It fit her perfectly.

"– do you think I'm blind? Tell me, since when exactly do you drink coffee?"

"Since I started university? It keeps me awake in a morning."

Terra heard a snort.

"Yeah, right. Says the girl who effortlessly got up at 5 am when she was still in school. The girl who called me up at 4 am this morning even though I could've easily slept until 6 am! You live on campus and the pharmacy building is five minutes away from your dorm. You do not need coffee to wake up." A short pause. "Also, you hate the taste of coffee."

"It's an acquired taste," Terra heard Aqua's voice answer indignantly, "I got used to it and now I like it."

"Back home, you spent endless days lecturing me about how bad the regular consumption of caffeine is. But I get it –"

The boy's voice lowered and subconsciously, Terra leaned further into the espresso machine, closer to his customers to pick up on their conversation.

"– I mean, you totally have the hots for the barista."

Terra felt as if his heart stopped beating. Was it possible, that she was actually interested in him?!

"I-I do not!"

"Yes, you do!" Terra heard the boy snicker, but he had the decency to continue whispering, "Look at you, you turned as red as a tomato! And it would make sense why you started drinking coffee suddenly even though they also sell tea here: When you're embarrassed, you blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind! You probably saw him, saw the cappuccino and boom, that's what you ordered!"

Well... she did look at the special menu that day, didn't she? And she did blurt her order out... right? Terra bit his lip, daring to hope that it might be true.

"Ugh! Ven!" Her voice sounded muffled now and as inconspicuously as possible, Terra rose to his tiptoes to throw a glance over the machine. Aqua had thrown her hands over her face and the fierce blush that spread onto her neck kicked Terra's heart back into thumping furiously. "I am not having this kind of conversation with my baby brother!"

"Hey! I'm sixteen already! And you know I'm righ–"

"Not. Having. This. Conversation," she all but squeaked out in response, but Terra barely registered it. He felt his heartbeat inside of his ears and felt his throat constrict as he reached for his book bag, fishing out one of his Edding pens.

It was all or nothing now.

With a shaky hand, he scribbled his telephone number on Aqua's cup and finished up the order as fast as he could before his courage left him again. Just as his stomach constricted painfully, he reached out for the tiny bell on the counter and ringed it. Aqua and Ven who now stood a meter away turned back to him, with Aqua still looking slightly flushed and Ven sporting a shit-eating grin.

"One hot chocolate and one Caramel Cappuccino."

Terra didn't think his heart could beat even faster, but it did when Aqua stepped forward to reach for the cups. Their hands touched and as Aqua looked up at him shyly, Terra swallowed the big lump in his throat and leaned forward ever so slightly.

"I'm Terra," he whispered, letting go of the cups and he caught a glimpse of another blush spreading over Aqua's cheekbones before she turned around with a breathless "thank you" and hurried over to Ven. They left his field of vision quickly and with a relieved sigh, Terra let himself fall back to the chair behind the counter, trembling slightly. He felt his head spinning and his heart continued strumming so powerfully inside of his chest he nearly missed the soft vibration in his back pocket.

Terra flew out of his seat and nearly dropped his phone when he opened his text messages.

My name is Aqua. Nice to meet you, Terra :)