Naruto AU One Shots!

The Incompetent (But Incredibly Cute) Barista (GaaLee) (Coffee shop AU)

The Incompetent (But Incredibly Cute) Barista 

Where Lee is a clueless barista that can't spell for shit, and Gaara is a very (sexually and mentally) frustrated customer. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Wholesome content <3

AU: Coffee shop AU

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For the second day in a row, Gaara found that trying to sleep was absolutely pointless. At 5:00 in the morning, he was still staring determinedly at his ceiling, trying to count sheep until he fell into a dreamless slumber. However, once he reached 5468 sheep, he realized that wasn't going to work. The frustrating problem with his insomnia was not that he wasn't tired. Gaara was always tired. He simply could not sleep no matter how much he tried.

Dejectedly, he finally gave up and decided to get ready for work. His shift at the plant nursery wouldn't start for a couple hours, but maybe he could finally eat breakfast,or go on a walk, or work out, or whatever it is healthy people do in the mornings. He chuckled at his own thoughts. Yeah, he definitely was not going to work out, but going for a walk or eating something didn't sound so bad, so long as he wasn't staring at his boring ceiling anymore.

He decided on doing both, and left his apartment, walking along the sidewalk with the air of a tired old man. One word popped into his mind and refused to leave it. Coffee. Gaara had never been much of a caffeine drinker, mostly tea if anything, but with his sleep deprivation, he determined that he needed something stronger. Much stronger.

Luckily, there was a local Starbucks only a few blocks away from Gaara's apartment complex. But for Gaara, a few blocks was a long way for his completely nonathletic body, with or without the lack of sleep. Shoving his weakness aside, he trudged his way to the coffee shop, again giving off the air of an elderly man trapped inside the body of a 24 year old.

Finally, he arrived at his destination. He could hardly walk, and he chose to ignore how embarrassing that was. Hm. Maybe working out wasn't such an absurd option after all. Gaara practically tripped his way to the barista's stand. In resignation, he closed his teal eyes tiredly and said the lines that his socially-awkward-ass had been rehearsing in his head for the past several minutes.

"Please give me the strongest possible thing you have."

The barista cheerfully answered his plea. "Okay sir! I will whip up my favorite drink! It will have you prancing with the springtime of youth again in no time!" His voice was so upbeat that it practically gave Gaara a heart attack upon first hearing it. He opened his eyes to peak at who could possibly be this cheerful so early in the morning. His eyes were met with pure black irises and the thickest eyebrows he had ever seen, which greatly contrasted against his basically nonexistent ones. His face was far too kind looking to be natural, although Gaara couldn't find any falsity in his smile. Gaara couldn't deny that the barista's face was appealing, and his body was no laughing matter either. The redhead gulped deeply as he made an awkward amount of eye contact with the man.

"Um sir, I need some form of payment?"

Gaara jumped a little bit when the barista broke the silence. So much for his perfectly planned out social interaction. "Oh, right." He said, handing the barista a five dollar bill. "You can just keep the change, uh," He looked down at the barista's name tag, trying to ignore the fact that it was placed on the toned pectorals that his uniform failed to hide. "Uh, Rock Lee." He finished lamely.

Rock Lee smiled even more brightly than before, and Gaara felt like his pale face was practically getting a sunburn from those bright white teeth. "Thank you very much sir! I appreciate your generosity. What is your name?"

Gaara's eyes widened at the barista's abruptness. "Uh, my name?"

"For the order sir."

Gaara mentally slapped himself for acting a fool in front of the cute (did he just say cute?) barista again. "Oh, uh, right. It's Gaara."

"Well then Mr. Gaara, if you will just take a seat I will get your order ready."

Gaara nodded and went to go take a seat in a convenient location to where he could watch the barista make his drink, but inconspicuous enough to where no one would notice him staring. Or at least, that's what he hoped. Gaara had never been one for social interactions, as previously displayed.

The interaction with Rock Lee seemed to spike up his adrenaline slightly, but now that he was seated and his hormone levels were back to normal (relatively) he suddenly remembered how tired he felt, and was eagerly awaiting whatever caffeine-filled-disaster Rock Lee like to call "his favorite."

After several minutes the barista appeared to be finished and placed his drink on the bar. Once he was done he yelled out Gaara's name to call the redhead over. Gaara (almost) smiled. He really liked the way his name sounded coming out of the loud, bushy-browed man's mouth. Then Gaara got to thinking about other things he would like to hear coming out of those lips...... and then he quickly realized what he was thinking and reprimanded himself for his inappropriateness.

Gaara trudged to retrieve his drink. Admittedly, it was a disturbing greenish, brown color, (probably containing kale and a metric ton of protein) but he trusted Lee's judgement well enough. Lee went back to help another customer while Gaara tried the sketchy looking caffeine cocktail. He almost threw up in his mouth. It was the most disgusting thing he had ever tasted. Now, as a plant nurser, Gaara liked leaves very much. However, he decided right then and there that they did not belong in liquid form. Not to mention, the protein was even more suffocating than the caffeine. Gaara couldn't complain though, he did feel more energized after drinking the monstrosity.

Gaara looked at his cup as he threw it away, and realized with absolute repugnance that the letters on the cup did not form his name, but instead spelled the word. "Gora." Gora? Gora?  Why was it that coffee shop baristas always got it wrong? Gaara could understand the error, but for some reason felt all the more offended that it was the cute barista that made such a mistake. He smiled lightly to himself as he continued the trek back to his apartment.

"Well." He thought. "I guess I'll have to go again tomorrow so I can correct him."