L x Reader oneshots 1 // series 3 • Death Note

The regular

People who work in cafes and restaurants remember regular customers, even if they act like they don't, they do. Especially if it's a smaller location, like a small family business or a smaller locations of a bigger chain. On the corner of the intersection that leads into the city, there's a bubble tea shop. Very small, one of the smaller locations from a larger chain of shops. Specialising in Taiwanese methods and flavours, rather than Japanese. You were IN Japan after all, you could get Japanese bubble tea anywhere. Not as many places to get Taiwanese tea. But you quite liked this shops menu and methods, so when you needed a part time job to save some extra cash, you took the job there. You worked the same hours every other day, 4 days a week. So after a while, you started to recognise regulars.

The high school girl who came by on her bike at around 3:30 each afternoon, ordered a large Taro milk tea with coconut jelly and got a stamp on her loyalty card. The salaryman who came in before closing, on his way to the train station who got lychee green tea with peach popping pearls and less sugar. The couple who would get two small drinks, one was the red bean smoothie and one was the brown sugar milk tea with regular pearls. And probably the most unusual one, the young-ish mixed guy with untied shoelaces who would get a matcha smoothie either EXTRA sugar and strawberry popping pearls. Emphasis on the extra sugar, when he first started coming, he'd asked for double the usual amount. Matcha was meant to be had with standard sugar, to preserve the earthy taste matcha had. But this guy apparently liked his matcha very sweet.

He stood out to you, not just because of his extra sugar, but because he always wore the same thing. Blue jeans, white shirt. And it wasn't like it was a uniform situation, the high school girl wore her uniform every day, but she'd had varying colours of socks or an extra jacket when it was cold. This guy, was always the exact same. He also stood out because foreigners weren't common here, and while he was definitely at least half Japanese, he had a but of an accent, and some more European features amongst the Japanese ones. The name he put on his loyalty card was Ryuzaki, and you couldn't help but wonder if he was given the name at birth, or if he picked it when he seemingly moved to Japan from England and had an English name. His accent gave away where he grew up, you could tell even when he spoke Japanese from the way he pronounced certain words.

This guy showed up every day, although at varying times. You were never quite sure when he'd show up, but you knew he would. And today, he'd shown up right as you were serving your high school regular. Walking in and waiting behind her, a slight distance away as if he wasn't used to being close to other humans.

"The usual?" You asked, watching the girl get her wallet from her blazer pocket.

"Of course, if I ever order something else, assume I've been replaced with a doppelgänger" she laughed, handing over her loyalty card.

Snickering as you stamped it, you noted she had one stamp left and next time she was in, she'd get a free drink.

"We can never change the menu, or you'd have nowhere to get Taro tea from"

"You guys are the only ones who do it right! I'd die if you got rid of it!" She laughed.

You'd saved a few of the popular orders as well as the regulars orders into the system a while ago, so all you had to do was tap 'taro girl' and her order would automatically fill out, she always paid in cash too, which was good for you because it meant you always had change in the register.

"Won't be too long" you smiled, handing her the receipt.

"Thank you!" She replied with a smile, before stepping to the side to wait over by the pick up counter.

Regular number two, the probably autistic guy. You didn't mean that as any insult, it was just the way he spoke flatly and had a very specific order, common with autism. Liking food a very particular way because of sensory issues. And the same clothes all the time thing... that was also an eyebrow raiser.

"Hey, usual?" You asked.

"I'm a regular now am I?" He asked, with that oddly calming voice of his.

"Yep, I even remember the extra sugar"

"Hm- observant"

He handed over his loyalty card, and when you saw it was on the last stamp, you knew he'd definitely been here yesterday too when you weren't on shift.

"Lucky you, free drink today" you smiled, grabbing a fresh card out of the drawers for him and tapping in his order.

He took the new card, by the corners like he usually picked up his receipts and straws. Germophobe maybe? Although he seemed to do it with everything, even his own debit card.

"Shouldn't be long" you added, handing him the receipt.

There was no one else in line, so you got to work helping your co workers make the drinks. Some for delivery and some in store. You figured you'd do your regulars first, not keep them waiting... and maybe make yourself a drink while you were at it.

Across the store while you weren't paying much attention, matcha guy watched you work, able to tell which drink you were making by the colour of the liquid in the cup. Purple, so it was Taro girls drink first. Fair enough, she was in line before him. He too had noticed she was a regular, it was hard to miss the girl there every day after school with the exactly 17 phone charms on her phone and funky socks, todays socks with shrimp on them. It made him think for a moment, if he wasn't even an employer here and he was remembering regulars, maybe people were remembering him? Maybe he shouldn't be a regular here, or anywhere. He was meant to be completely anonymous, and sure while he wasn't putting L Lawliet on his loyalty cards, he could still be clocked by potential Kira's if he was here every day...

But no where else made matcha the way he liked it...

Was matcha really worth the risk of being caught out as L? Was he being too paranoid? Perhaps he was overthinking, what was the likelihood anyone coming to this little bubble tea shop was Kira? The Taro girl definitely wasn't, she didn't match the profile at all. None of the others who came here seemed suspicious either, it was mostly young people who liked the cool trendy new drink that was bubble tea, or workers on their way too and from work passing by because this was the closest place to get a drink.

Maybe the risk wasn't that big, maybe matcha was worth the risk. Again, no one else made it the way he liked it.

Snapping out of his daze at the sound of his alias, you had his drink ready at the pick up counter. He walked up, took said drink and straw from you and gave a quick thank you with a slight smile. He couldn't not be a little exited for his favourite drink. When he stepped outside, he stopped to stab the straw into the seal, and as he did, noticed something unusual about his cup. His alias was written on it as usual, but there was something else underneath it.

The cute sugary matcha regular.

Huh, cute?

For a moment he just stared at it, cheeks feeling warm and processing. He'd... never been called cute before.

He looked up, through the windows of the shop over at you taking someone else's order. The same person who'd been serving him long enough to recognise him and know how to make his tea, thought he was cute.

Oh yeah, matcha was worth the risk of being a regular. There was no way he was leaving this shop for another one...