More Than Meets The Eye

Chapter 1

The chimes of the door opening were lost in the bustling crowd inside. If it weren't for the fact that the café immediately got a little quieter, Childe wouldn't even have noticed that Scaramouche had finally decided to join him. For some reason, their customers really didn't like Scaramouche. To be fair, neither did Childe, but the shorter had managed to grow on him in a way that Childe decided was how siblings usually felt towards each other. Would he twist Scaramouche's neck without a second thought? Gladly. Would he punch someone in the face if they made fun of Scaramouche? Also yes.

Sometimes, Scaramouche felt more like his brother than his actual brothers did. He hadn't seen his siblings in months, but he saw Scaramouche every day. Not right now, though. Right now, Scaramouche felt like anything but a brother to him. He put on a kind smile as he quickly handed an iced latte to a customer who didn't even bother saying thank you, the smile disappearing as soon as he turned around, glaring angrily at Scaramouche as he oh-so-slowly put on his apron and went to take over the coffee machine. Childe joined him under the disguise of cleaning the steamer.

"Seriously?" Childe hissed under his breath, his hands working as if they had a mind of their own. "Half an hour late on a Friday?"

Scaramouche gave him a grin that made Childe really consider the option of throttling him then and there. "Relax, Pumpkin-head. You managed just fine on your own, didn't you? Maybe I'll come later next time."

"Don't you dare," Childe growled in response, putting the equipment away a little too aggressively. "Also, Pumpkin-head? Seriously?"

"What, you prefer Gingerbread Man?"

"Maybe I should tell Signora who keeps taking the last powdered donuts," Childe smiled in response. Signora was scary. She was also very possessive of the powdered donuts. Even Scaramouche didn't want to be on her bad side. He still was a little shit to her, though.

Scaramouche made a show of tying his apron a little too tight before glaring back at Childe. "Don't. You. Dare."

Childe grinned in a way that could make anyone who wasn't a short angry gremlin swoon before him. "Then don't be late next time, m'kay?"

He thought he heard Scaramouche mumble something along the lines of 'piece of shit' under his breath, but he decided that it couldn't be right. Even Scaramouche wasn't dumb enough to go against him when he had Signora as a card to play. 

The chiming from the bells on the door tore him away again, and Childe decided to ignore Scaramouche for the time being. He put on the iconic smile that he always wore during customer service and turned to see who walked in, pushing away the disappointment when he saw that it wasn't him. He really needed to stop getting his hopes up. The client stayed a few steps away from the counter, staring up at the menu, before eventually stepping forward. Childe gave them a friendly nod.

"Welcome to Mora Xpress, are you ready to order?" Even to himself, he sounded a little like a robot. Still better than letting Scaramouche handle customer service, though. Scaramouche would probably yell at their customers for taking too long to order. 

"Americano with two sugars." They slid several mora across the counter, and after counting it quickly, Childe nodded once again. Rude much? Maybe he should've just let Scaramouche handle this one.

"Of course! Could I get a name for that order?" He punched the order into the cash register and gave them their change.

"Just give me the damn order."

It took all of Childe's self control not to simply punch the client, but he managed to ignore the urge. "It'll be right out."

When he turned back to the working area, where he expected Scaramouche to be lounging around, he found that it was empty instead. A quick look around the café was enough to tell him that Scaramouche had already taken on the liberty of doing refills for those customers that had decided to stay inside today. Usually, Signora would be the one working directly with their customers - she was far more charming than both he and Scaramouche and could usually get them to buy more overpriced drinks than necessary, but she had something come up today.