Work Text:
(based on kisu-no-hi's lovely artwork!)
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Fenris, despite popular belief, didn’t actually enjoy cafes. They were often times too crowded and too loud for his tastes. The amount of pretentious people that flocked to them also soured his feelings for such places, and therefore he tended to avoid them as much as possible.
However, one could put off a craving for a chai latte for so long.
Why he’d chosen to stay in the cafe after he’d gotten his drink - well, mostly because he felt eyes on him. Eyes that burned and made him feel warm for reasons not related to his beverage of choice. They’d been weighing on Fenris since he’d came into the cafe, and after sitting at his table as others milled about, he’d narrowed down their location.
There was group standing off on the other side of the cafe - a motley crew that talked over one another and laughed too loud. By the exasperated looks the staff send one another, Fenris could tell they were regulars.
They were rather unremarkable as a whole, but one of them in particular caught Fenris’s eye and held his attention. A large man, unnecessarily buff with what looked like a tribal dragon tattoo spiraling up one arm. There was an odd scar across his nose and he had a rather fluffy-looking beard.
But it was how he’d occasionally look over at Fenris - under his lashes and somehow shy despite the intensity - that made his lips curl up into a bemused smile, hidden behind the rim of his latte.
When the mystery man realized he’d been caught staring, he jumped in his seat and quickly looked away, a flush reddening his ears. Fenris felt a small bit of empathetic embarrassment as the man’s group started pestering him about his strange reaction.
It apparently became too much for the man as he stood up quickly and moved away from their table, a dark scowl tugging at his lips at their continued heckling. Fenris watched him throw away his own empty drink, but he caught sight of the elf watching him on his way to the cafe’s single entrance.
The man stilled, hand on the doorknob and visibly weighing his options. ‘Oh, this should be good.’ Fenris thought as the man clearly came to a decision and headed over to the elf’s table.
The man slid into the chair across from Fenris easily, a large, sort-of-dopey grin on his face. He raised a brow at the newcomer, silently questioning and vaguely expectant. With all the bravado in the world, the man opened his mouth and spoke.
“Hey name. What’s your sexy?”
The bearded man’s eye widened and his cheeks flushed almost at the same rate both of Fenris’s brows rose closer to his hairline.
There was a small moment of silence between them in honor of the horribly botched pickup line.
“I’ll, uh, see myself out then.”
The man stood quickly, almost knocking over his chair and hurrying out the door. Fenris watched him whip out his phone on the way out, muttering a flustered ‘Siri, where’s the nearest cliff I can jump off?’ to it as the door closed behind him.
Fenris chuckled to himself, taking a sip from his cup with half-lidded eyes.
There was a strange warm sensation spreading in his chest at the bearded man’s sad attempt at flirtation that left him feeling somewhat bubbly. Then he noticed that at the cafe was unusually quiet and that he was receiving stares en masse from the table at the other side of the cafe. The feeling was not unlike being sized up by a pack of wolves.
The elf finished his latte and decided to make a hasty retreat as well.
As he was leaving the cafe, Fenris saw the buff man sitting on a Jersey barrier a little ways down the street and looking awfully dejected. He sighed at the twinge in his heart, shoving a hand in his pocket and heading over to the stranger.
“That was horrible.”
Well, he’d intended to offer some sort of succor, but as usual his mouth had not cooperated. The bearded man whipped his head up, a strange white stick poking out between his lips.
“Wha-”
“It’s Fenris, by the way.”
The man blinked, raising a hand to take out the white stick - ‘Oh, it was a lollipop.’ - and pinned Fenris with a quizzical look.
“Fenris?”
The elf nodded, a slight thrill coursing through him at seeing the dopey grin return to the man’s face.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Garrett, but most of my friends call me by my family name - Hawke.”
Fenris raised a brow.
“Hawk? Like the bird?”
Garrett chuckled, motioning vaguely with the hand that held the lollipop pinched between two fingers.
“Close, but with an ‘e’ at the end.”
“Hawke.”
“Bingo.”
He pointed a finger gun at the elf with his free hand and Fenris rolled his eyes. Then a thought occurred to him and he looked back at the human.
“Would you like to try again?”
“Try what?”
“Your pickup line. I’ll even let you use a different one.”
A pause.
"In fact, please do."
The man raised a brow at him, popping the lollipop back into his mouth. Fenris waited, attempting to seem aloof when he was truly anxious to see if Garrett would take him up on his offer of continued flirtation.
He didn’t have to wait long. With a sudden grin that made his amber eyes twinkle, Garret took out the lollipop.
“Are you a dragon? Because you’ve set my heart on fire.”