The Artist & I // c.h + m.c // Malum AU

part five

★ written by ellie ★

Michael POV

We can make it up again

and we don't care we just pretend

with the faces of the men

And don't ask a lot

and you won't lose a lot

- Action Cat, Gerard Way

***

When the cute guy left, my shoulders slumped down. I couldn't paint without the person sitting in front of me and now I probably will never see him again, he seemed like he was only there for a one time only thing. I started filling in the background of the coffee shop, leaving behind a massive white patch in which the guy would sit.

I didn't even get his name, I thought, putting down my paintbrush, feeling regretful.

I mean, he was cute, and I really, really hadn't been in the dating scene for a while. I scoffed, getting up - who would want to date me? Unless they liked seeing me passed out on the ground with my hand curled around a bottle. I walked up to the counter, leaning on it and cleared my throat. The barista looked up at me, putting down her cloth.

'Hey, do you want another coffee?'

'No, I was wondering if I could work here?' She nodded slightly. She moved around a bit, finding something. She let her eyes scan over a piece of paper, frowning.

'Well, we're more busy at night time, 7pm to 3am because of, like, taxi drivers and shit. You up for that?'

I shrugged, I was usually still wake around that time anyway, just surrounded by beer instead of coffee.

'That's okay, I guess it doesn't do any harm right?'

***

It does a lot of harm. A fuck load of harm.

I watched the people around me, tired and smelly. Like, wow, I thought I stunk. It was quite loud, a few guys were in the corner, chatting happily. Two people were sleeping, a woman in her thirties who had been typing away at her computer and a man with his bus hat tipped back to cover his eyes, snoring a bit too loudly. How did they mange that with all this noise? It was like a club, but people were high on fucking tea. I still liked beer though. I rubbed my forehead, trying to remember the order I was suppose to be making. Was it white coffee or black? I looked up from where my hands had been fiddling at the cashier. It was the guy from before, the one in the wheelchair. I smiled, nodding to myself. It was black coffee, he said to the barista before. I flipped a switch on the coffee machine and pressed a few buttons. It poured out quickly into the jug and I carried it over to the edge of the counter.

'Hello! I saw you before, remember?' The guy looked up, a bit startled. He got scared quite easily I had found out, he was quite vulnerable and it reminded me of a cat.

'Oh, yeah, yeah! You work here?' I nodded, pulling out a white cup to put in the black active liquid.

'Until today, wanted to be productive, you know?' He furrowed his eyebrows, lips pursed.

'I understand that. I need that too actually, need to take my mind off something...' He trailed off quietly, so quiet that it was quite hard to hear him as I started pouring the coffee in.

'What's your name?'

'Calum.' I smiled again, it fitted him nicely.

'Shit!' I swore loudly, as the coffee started pouring down me, over filling the cup. Sarah, the barista came in, already with a cloth in hand. She shoved me over to the sink, texting icy water come in contact with my scarlet burns.

'Michael! You little shit, you've already broken that tea cup before!' She shook her head, mopping up the counter and handing me a new cup. I poured the coffee in, carefully this time. When my gaze reached Calum again, he was laughing loudly, hand fisting his shirt.

'Hey! S'not funny,' I pouted, leaning down to hand him his coffee, 'I wasted money.'

'And my coffee!' He giggled and I rolled my eyes. I started dabbing at my crotch, muttering to him,

'Yeah, did you want to drink it from my lap?' He turned red, spreading slowly from his cheeks, down to his neck and splashed along his chest. It was cute. I watched him try to balance his cup in between his knees and I walked out from behind the counter, pushing him.

'Sorry. I'm not used to this wheelchair business yet.'

'Oh, really? You've not been in it long?' He shook his head, looking into the coffee. I scraped the chair open and sat beside him, resting my hands on my chin.

'Will you tell me why?'

***

a/n: HI HOW ARE YOU, YOU LOOK VERY SEXY TODAY GOOD ON YOU!!!
soOOOooOOo this is my chapter *pops confetti* mALUM TALKED BRB REMOVING MY OVARIES AMRITE LADIES???

no? ok. it's ok it's my bad writing.
also I'm in love with Gerard's song so I had to put it in here. How do you feel about it? I had to give it a few listens before I was loving it but yeah!!! I love it.

~ ellie (angelclifford)