Homestuck Oneshot Compilation

Dirkkat - Starbucks AU

A/N: Also written a couple of months ago.
The koolaid-red-haired Karkles is a reference to Mechanics are the Most Romantic, which is a Dirkkat fanfic by KarkatVantabulous.
(Speaking of which, if you're reading this: if you're not comfortable with me using your headcanon, just tell me and I can remove it).
Anyway, so here it is!
Humanstuck Starbucks Au~
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Your name is Dirk Strider, and you hate your job.

You're just saying, working at Starbucks doesn't exactly pay well, and frankly, serving coffee 24/7 gets really old really quickly.

You think the only thing that keeps you from going insane is the short boy with the messy hair.

Speaking of which, his hair was probably the most entertaining part of his unusual appearance--it changed every week, going from raven black to ginger, then from marshmallow white to Koolaid red, with variations of the colors in-between.

You liked them all, but so far the Koolaid red was your favorite--it really made the candy-red of his eyes stand out.

The second most entertaining thing had to be his outfits--mostly snarky t-shirts or sweaters, always a couple sizes too large, though occasionally he'd wear punk clothes or street fashion.

You'd be lying if you said they didn't look good on him, but something told you he was just a fashion-conscious friend's guinea pig.

You remember the day you first saw him in oddly clear detail: the snowstorm outside had scared off a lot of the other customers, so you'd noticed him as soon as he walked in. At the time, he had black hair, and despite the fact that he was wearing about three turtlenecks, he was shivering.

He'd asked what kinds of warm drinks you had. At the time, you'd assumed his voice was hoarse from the weather, but you later learned it was from his own volume.

You'd raised an eyebrow. "This is Starbucks. Most of our drinks are hot."

"Yeah, well, f*** you. I was asking if you had any recommendations,
@$$wipe."

You were used to people being rude to you, but something about him made it amuse you instead. Maybe it was his height.

"Depends on what you like."

"I like my coffee tongue-scaldingly hot, tooth-rottingly sweet, and with a name under five words long."

"Hot chocolate with a sh**ton of marshmallows?" you'd suggested.

"That's over five words," he snorted playfully.

"Fortunately for you, it's under $5, though."

"That's a f***ing wonder: a reasonably priced drink from Starbucks." He'd handed over a five dollar bill, adding, "Keep the change."

You'd nodded, and as you went to prepare his order, you snarked, "It's the ninth wonder of the world."

You'd worked there long enough that you had his hot chocolate ready in seconds, and you wound up not even asking his name.

You slid the cup over to him, and he asked, "What's the eighth wonder?"

"I dunno. You won't find out 'till you see more of my magic, will you?"

"What magic? Starbucks set the price, not you." He'd said saltily.

You'd leaned against the counter, asking, "If you haven't seen the magic, then you really should, shouldn't you?"

The boy had rolled his eyes and mumbled a "we'll see about that" before walking away to sit down.

You kept looking at him from the corner of your eye--observing how he had huddled up by the window and was using the cup to warm up his hands, and every once in a while, pressing his cheek to the outside of the cup, too.