This is Au number 4 with Norman and Sammy
Sammy had been abandoned by his parents when he was fifteen, and he'd been living on the streets ever since.
He was twenty now, and life was rough. Nobody would hire him so he had no money, and people would often wrinkle their nose in disgust or run away when they saw him.
It hurt. It hurt to know he was all by himself in this world, and absolutely nobody cared. It was the first day of winter, and Sammy was freezing. He didn't think he'd make it this year.
Sammy shuddered, curling up in an alley beside a dumpster, clear from the view of others. He started crying.
You would too if your life was in ruins, and you knew there was a good chance you'd freeze to death and nobody would care.
There were footsteps but he didn't hear them. Someone from the building he had his back against was throwing trash into the dumpster.
They heard Sammy crying and cautiously peered around the corner. "H-hey, you alright?" He asked. Sammy yelped, trying to back up more against the wall.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." The man said. Sammy stared up and marvelled at how tall he was. "Do you Uh...are you insane or? I'm sorry that was rude-" the man rambled.
"I'm not insane, why does everyone think that?" Sammy asked. "I dunno." The man shrugged, looking a bit embarrassed.
He had a name tag. Norman. "Your name is Norman?" Sammy asked. Norman jumped. "Wha-how'd you know that?" He demanded.
"Your name tag." Sammy pointed. "Oh. I always forget that I have to wear that." Norman chuckled nervously.
"Why are you talking to me? Nobody ever talks to me." Sammy said in wonder. "Well...you were crying, are you okay?" Norman asked.
Sammy tilted his head at the question. "Why would you care? To you I'm just another crazy homeless person." Sammy sighed.
He shivered against the cold wind. Norman felt bad for him. "That's not true. To most people sure, but I think the worlds been pretty harsh on you. You look freezing, you could come into my cafe if you'd like?" Norman offered.
Sammy looked up at him in surprise. "Are you joking?" He asked. "Not at all, I just really wish I could help you." Norman said.
By the sweet look in Norman's amber eyes, Sammy suddenly felt a spark of safety. "Nobody ever wants to help, why do you want to help me?" Sammy asked in wonder.
"I mean...I can't really assume anything because I have no idea why you're out on the streets, but life is unfair." Norman said.
He held out a hand to help Sammy up. Sammy hesitated, then took it. He was hoisted to his feet. "You're so tall." Sammy whispered.
Norman laughed. "And I'm not a drug addict by the way, I was kicked out of home when I was fifteen and nobody would hire me, and still nobody will." Sammy explained.
He shivered again, a tattered long sleeved shirt and ripped pants all he had on. Norman saw he didn't even have shoes.
"I'm sorry that happened to you." Norman said, not knowing what else to say. He glanced at the snowy sidewalk.
He wouldn't want to walk in that without shoes, so he quickly picked Sammy up bridal style and carried him.
Sammy yelped in surprise. "What are you doing?!" He demanded. "I'm carrying you so you don't hurt your feet more than you already have." Norman said. Sammy blushed a bit.
Being picked up? That was new. His parents refused to touch him. Sammy wondered if they still lived in the same house.
It was late, around 7:00pm, so nobody was in the cafe except for the two other workers. Norman opened the door and put Sammy down on the warm wooden floor.
One of the workers was a guy, the other a girl. They both had name tags that Sammy read. Susie, and Grant.
"Norman! Who's that?" Susie asked. "Well...he was Uh..." Norman let out a nervous laugh. "He's a homeless guy isn't he?" Grant asked.
"I-Yeah..." Norman said. "You know most of them have gone insane and might kill you." Susie said. "That's why I'm among the few of those people that don't do drugs and destroy my brain miss Susie." Sammy growled.
Susie glanced at her name tag. "Fair enough."
She shrugged. "Yeah Susie, don't get all judgmental, you don't know him. Norman can seduce all the homeless people he wants, I couldn't care less." Grant said.
Norman's face flushed a bright red. "I-I'm not seducing anyone! I'm just trying to help him..." Norman whimpered.
Susie burst out laughing. "We know." Grant said. "We're just teasing." Susie added. "You guys really seem to care for each other." Sammy said.
Everyone looked at him. "Yeah, don't you have any friends?" Susie asked. Norman shook his head frantically at her.
"I...I've never had anyone that cared about me in my life." Sammy said awkwardly. "Oh...I'm sorry." Susie apologized.
"Sammy, how would you like a job here?" Norman offered, cutting the tension in the room. Sammy looked up at him, eyes wide.
"Really?!" He asked. Norman found his reaction adorable. "Yeah it's just cafe work, it's not that hard." He said.
"Here wait, I know I'm a lot taller than you, but I think I have some non-ripped clothes you could wear for now, but they'll be a...little big. I just live upstairs I can go and get them" Norman said.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" Sammy asked. "You already asked me that." Norman laughed. He went outside to go to a different door that had a staircase that led to his house above the cafe. Grant curiously glanced over at Sammy.
"Hope you have a good sense of humour, because when someone works here, teasing is fun to do." Grant said.
For someone who seemed to like teasing, Sammy hadn't seen Grant smile once. "Do you have emotions?" Sammy asked.
Susie chuckled. "Nope, I'm dead inside." Grant said. "Not when that one customer comes around you're not." Susie grinned.
Grant blushed a bit. "I dunno what you're talking about." He lied. Norman came back with an orange sweater, orange socks, and the smallest pair of black pants he could find.
He handed them to Sammy. "There's a bathroom right over there you can change in." Norman pointed. "Thank you, so much." Sammy said gratefully.
Norman smiled at him. As he was getting changed, the others just chatted about random things. Norman got a blow up mattress for Sammy to sleep on, and the next day he started his first day of work at the cafe.
It took him a while to understand how everything worked. But he eventually got the hang of it, with the help of the three others.
At around halfway through the day, a customer entered and Susie started poking Grant and grinning like a child.
"There's your cruuuuush!" She sang. Grant just blushed. Susie pushed him towards the cashier register.
"Hallo Grant!" The man greeted. "H-hi Shawn, what's it going to be today?" Grant asked a little shakily.
Shawn raised an eyebrow at him. "The usual, are you alright? You look all flustered." Shawn asked. "Y-yeah I'm fine, how uh...how are you doing?" Grant questioned.
Susie stood behind him silently dying of laughter as Sammy made Shawn his coffee. "I'm great, is Susie alright?" Shawn asked with a confused smile.
Susie laughed harder, slowly sliding to the floor. "Hey, are you new here?" Shawn asked, just noticing Sammy.
"Yeah." He said. "Shawn's one of our main customers, he comes here everyday and we'll talk sometimes, so in other words he's a good friend." Norman explained.
Sammy had an idea. "Hey, didn't Susie say yesterday that Grant had needed to tell Shawn something?" Sammy asked.
Grant frantically shook his head. Susie nodded. "What?" Shawn asked, looking over at Grant who instantly stopped shaking his head.
"I-it's stupid, just-never mind." Grant said awkwardly. Sammy handed Shawn his coffee. "He's just shy about it, but he wanted to talk to you." Sammy said.
Norman zoned out as he was talking, just staring at Sammy. Why was it now that he realized how adorable he was?
"Norman?"
Maybe he'd ask Sammy out? No! That might be too weird. Maybe?
"Norman..."
He could. He should. Norman debated with himself.
"NORMAN!!!"
Sammy waved his hands in front of his face. Norman snapped back to reality. "Oh sorry, I just zoned out. Hey, where's Grant?" He asked.
"Shawn dragged Grant over to a table to talk, but are you okay?" Sammy said. "Uh oh! Looks like Grants not the only one suffering from a crush!" Susie giggled.
Norman blushed. "T-that's not- I-I-NO!" Norman spluttered. Sammy could see right through his lie. He smiled.
"That's cute." He laughed, turning to a new customer to take their order. "Susie what the hell!" Norman growled.
"He doesn't know who it is." Susie said, waving a hand. "If he doesn't then he must be stupid." Norman said.
Susie scooted over to Sammy. "I can take over the register, I think Norman isn't okay." Susie said. "Sure." Sammy said, getting the hint.
He walked over to Norman, acting like he in fact didn't know. "Who is it then?" He asked with a smirk.
"Wait...you don't know?" Norman asked. "Well nobody can be 100% sure without you saying who it is." Sammy pointed out.
"I-true." Norman said. The whole situation was just plain out awkward. Sammy had never had anyone like him before.
"So just to clarify...it's isn't Susie or Grant?" Sammy asked. Norman nodded. "And it's someone who works here?" Sammy asked.
Another blushing nod. So that was final. Sammy didn't know what to say. "I've never had anyone like me before." He said quietly.
"Wait really?" Norman asked in surprise. Sammy shook his head. "How?! You're adorable and kind and you're so small!" Norman said.
"Hey! What does me being small have to do with anything?" Sammy demanded. "It magnifies how cute you are." Norman said.
Sammy felt his own face flush. Another new feeling. He rather liked Norman, a lot. "Well I think your height magnifies how handsome you are." Sammy said.
Susie walked over and pushed Sammy into Norman. "Oh my god just kiss." She said. When Sammy was pushed his face hit Norman's chest.
Norman crouched down a bit. Without a second thought, he kissed Sammy, who happily kissed back.
Oh and Shawn and Grant? They left a while ago together to go uh...do stuff.
