First loves never last.

"Haa…" 'I knew that from the very beginning.'

There was no point in fighting it anymore. Yokozawa sat at his regular dive bar, swaying slightly. He didn't know how many glasses it had been by now, but the master behind the bar eventually cut him off.

Yokozawa left the dive with his wallet much lighter than he had intended, but such miniscule details didn't matter one bit at the moment. The whole evening had been a nauseating blur, but that was better than thinking about what went wrong, or what could've been.

He slogged on, for either hours and minutes, and exhausted what little energy he had left. He thought to have sat down on a bench, but after blinking, found his back against the cold brick wall of an alleyway.

Anywhere was fine.

Yokozawa's already half-lidded eyes began to close for a much needed rest. It was certainly due to intoxication, but he thought to himself that nothing mattered anymore and whatever happened tonight, so be it. Oddly enough, he found the chatter of passerbyers quelling, and almost lulled himself to sleep, far from prepared to deal with tomorrow's hangover.

"..."

"—!"

Before he was able to give himself even one second's rest, he jumped at the sensation of something heavy dropped right next to him. He crawled backwards and away, a delayed reaction and hardly effective.

"Who…" His eyes tried to focus on the large black blob sizing him up.

"Oh, someone was here?"

Yokozawa's gaze shifted upwards. Someone was standing over him, but he couldn't make out the face. Feeling as if the stranger was sizing him up, Yokozawa stood, but too quickly.

"Hey, careful now…!"

He felt the stranger's hands grip him at the sides of his shoulder, steadying his shaky feet. He slapped the hands away, but the man didn't loosen his grip. "What are you doing here?!" he demanded, any hostility outweighed by a drunken slur.

"I should be the one asking you that," argued the man, who dropped his grip on Yokozawa. "There aren't even any bars on this strip...how far did you wander?"

Yokozawa blinked a few times, heightening his focus.

The man before him was taller, but looked to be around the same age. His hair was shaggy and light brown, having a powerful sheen even in the dark of the night. His pursed lips cued that he was annoyed, but more than that, a little concerned.

Yokozawa must have looked like a mess. Thinking that to himself, he tried smoothing out his hair and fixing his collar, of course to no avail with his fumbling fingers.

He looked around himself, realizing he was in an alleyway and was about to take his leave, until his strength gave out and he had to steady himself against the wall.

"Tch…!" he sucked air through his teeth at the sudden impact. It didn't hurt all that much, but it did rattle his head and give him quite the dizzy spell.

"..."

"I'm...I'm fine," he argued to the silent man; even if he wasn't facing him anymore, he could feel his judgemental gaze.

"Really now?"

"Yes, really. I'll be fine after I sober up," he claimed as he tried to steady himself, intending to do so by taking a walk.

"How about a drink to help you with that?"

"Ha?!"

"No, not booze…" the man said with a chuckle. "You stumbled to my cafe. It's obviously closed at this hour, but come in and sit down for a bit, hm? Clear your head a bit. I'll make you a cup of coffee or something. You're getting nowhere like that."

"..." Yokozawa didn't want some stranger's sympathy, but a cup of coffee sounded really good right now.

"Let's go." He felt an arm loop around his shoulder as the man guided him inside.

Yokozawa scowled, but he had no room for pride right now and let the man lead him wherever. His thinking was probably still impaired from the booze. 'No stranger is this chummy without having ulterior motives,' he thought to himself.

There was always tomorrow to regret his actions, but at least for tonight, that didn't matter. Anywhere was fine.

Prologue: End

(A/N): This was an idea I've had an outline written for for forever. I only have the beginnings planned out, so I'm going to need to ad-lib it eventually.

As I haven't written anything in literally years, I found myself missing fanfiction. So here this story is, a Trifecta Coffee Shop AU because I'm full of cliches because I've missed these two.

I plan to write this story in small bursts, so while I'm not sure how often I can update, I can at least guarantee that I'll get to the end of it, eventually.

To anyone who was reading any of my old stories, whether they're still up or not, thank you for continuing to read my stories. I appreciate all of you being patient with me, and yes, I have been reading every new review that's been posted since the last chapter :) It really means so much to me that I've gotten so many kind words and support to go on. I'm sorry for never answering too many of you back, but I hope most of you are still Sekaiichi fans and are able to read what I have planned next.

I'm sorry I couldn't finish the other story. Life gets in the way, and by the time everything settled down for me, it was a combination of not having time and losing interest (not in Trifecta, because that'll never happen haha; just in that specific fanfiction). I do have a draft of half of the last chapter written out from years ago. No promises, but I might return to it eventually.

Title is subjected to change!