It's... Strange - Avdol x Polnareff

Friends?

A week had passed since the party and Jean was slowly coming to terms with the nagging feeling of sadness in the back of his mind. He hated that he felt like that. It felt trivial in the grand scheme of his life, yet shaking it seemed somewhat futile as just thinking about Avdol made him ache. He felt a sense of gratitude towards his shift manager as the recent changes made it so that he hadn't bumped into Avdol yet. Unintentional as it may be, he still counted himself lucky.

"Iced Caramel Macchiato for Hol.H?" Jean squinted at the name before offering the drink to the man who had strode up to the counter. "Thank yah darlin'" the mans voice sounded deep and gravelly and Jean had to try and avoid outwardly shuddering at the uncomfortable sensation his voice provided, lest he offend the customer. Giving a kind smile and a wave, he turned back to continue with orders, or rather, continuing to wallow in self-pity.

Shortly after Jotaro came to the front and told Jean he would take over with the orders in exchange for Jean to go and clean the tables. "Please? Those girls are... Annoying" the teen spoke stiffly, glancing in the direction of the same group of rowdy teenage girls that came in regularly to see him. Sighing, Jean reluctantly agreed and grabbed the dish tray. Walking around and collecting the cups and plates, he noticed that sitting at one of the small tables was the man from before. "Odd... Didn't he get takeaway?" He knew it wasn't impossible for people to do that but it struck him as weird nonetheless. He decided to go over and collect the empty takeaway cup anyway.

"Hi, would you like me to throw that away for you?" He questioned the man politely, pointing to the cup. The man simply grinned and waved at the cup in a way of saying "Go ahead". As Jean went to collect the cup he suddenly felt a sturdy pressure around his wrist and startled to find the mans hand wrapped around it. "Do you.. need something sir?" Jean asked unsure, trying to lightly pull away from the grip, only causing the other to tighten it. Up close, Jean could see the mans dimples deepen when his grin grew wider, the dark blue of his eyes glinting mischievously from behind dirty blonde lashes. "Only your attention" he replied slyly, finally deciding to let go of a now very surprised and flustered Jean.

Grabbing the cup quickly after, Jean opened his mouth as if to respond but nothing came out. Embarrassed he turned around and went into the back to start loading the dishwasher, feeling rude about suddenly leaving but also perplexed at how he was supposed to respond to the mans sudden advances.

As he loaded the last cup and turned on the dishwasher, Kakyoin tapped him on the shoulder and motioned to his watch. "It's break time. Jotaro and Mariah said they'll take care of the front since it's not too busy at the moment" Jean nodded in understanding and dried his hands on his apron, taking it off and slinging it over his shoulder. He walked silently behind the redhead, noticing the slight fumble in his step when Jotaro called out to ask if they were going on their break yet. "God, he's so obvious" Jean internally mused, smirking to himself at the thought.

Kakyoin held the door open for him when they made their way to the staff room, plopping themselves down on the chair. The older of the two picked up an orange from the fruit bowl that sat in the middle of the table. The room felt calm, and there wasn't any pressure to speak to fill the silence, Jean realising that from the short time that the teen had been working here, the two had formed a peaceful sort of familiarity and friendship. It was nice. The silence didn't last long however, because the downside of becoming familiar with each other was that Kakyoin could tell when something was wrong.

"Okay, spill it. What's wrong? You've been all mopey for the past week" the teen spoke flatly, eyeing him off suspiciously and leaning closer on the table where he sat across from the man with a mouthful of orange. Gulping the juice from the orange, Jean removed the rind from in front of his mouth and groaned, rubbing at his eyes tiredly.