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tipsyraconteur · 6 years

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Good Boy, Part 3

And the fluff just keeps coming. I’ve added a rating belatedly, so sorry to anyone that was hoping smut was going to come out of this. SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED FLUFF AND DOGS, OKAY?!

Good Boy, Part 3

KakaSaku Coffee Shop AU

Rating: T

Word Count: ~1.9k

[ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ]

“Large triple vanilla latte, one quad shot, and two triple café mochas. Is that everything?” Sakura asked the group of tired-looking students in front of her. They all nodded their assent. “That’ll be $18.56.” She made change for a twenty and gave them all a bright smile. “I’ll have those ready in just a moment.”

As she moved to the hot bar to begin preparing the drinks, Sakura held back a sigh. It had been another long day, and she was more than ready for the steady stream of customers to slow down. It was almost dinnertime, though, so she hoped that once she worked through the current queue of customers, things would slow down.

The next twenty minutes passed in a blur of cheerful greetings and drink making and money exchanging hands. When she had only three people left to serve, she heard the tinkle of the bell above the door and called out her customary “Welcome to Konoha Grind!”, only to see a familiar head of disheveled silver hair poke through the door.

Sakura’s stomach did a little flip as he smiled at her, and she smiled back as she wrote an order on a cup. He was wearing his usual dog-approved backpack, but he also had a laptop case slung over his shoulder, and a leash—no, three leashes—in one hand. Sakura bit her lip against a giggle as Shiba and two other dogs followed him in. How many dogs did he have?

By the time she finished serving all of the other customers besides Kakashi, he’d settled himself at one of the larger empty tables and appeared to be completely focused on whatever he was looking at on his laptop. Busying herself once more, Sakura made a medium flat white and four small cups of whipped cream, and then approached the table, somehow managing to hold all five cups by stacking the small ones.

She grinned a little to herself as she took in the scene before her. Kakashi had his laptop in front of him, with several different sets of papers and a notebook arrayed around him. Pakkun sat resolutely in the seat beside him, his flat little face just barely peeking up over the edge of the table. Shiba and the new dogs all lay arrayed under the table at Kakashi’s feet. Sakura chuckled to herself as she noticed Kakashi squinting while a pair of folded glasses lay unused on the table beside him.

“You know, wearing those would probably be a lot more effective than leaving them on the table,” she said with humor in her voice as she set the flat white beside him.

Blinking as he drew his attention away from the screen, Kakashi looked up at her, and then to the glasses she was referring to. “Right,” he said, picking them up and unfolding them in order to put them on. “I take them off sometimes because they make my ears hurt.”

Finding herself inwardly musing about how cute some men looked in glasses, Sakura’s smile widened. “You could get them adjusted if they’re uncomfortable,” she suggested for lack of anything better to say.

A sudden weight resting on her foot distracted her, and Sakura looked down to see one of the yet-to-be-introduced dogs decisively sitting on it. He looked up at her, prodding at her hand with a wet nose and looking at her with big solemn eyes. Sakura immediately began stroking his head, smiling. The dog responded by letting out a sigh and leaning against her leg.

Kakashi had a fond grin on his face as he leaned back away from his laptop. “That’s Uhei.”

“He’s really interesting looking,” Sakura said, noting his broad face and long, slender body. “Do you know what breed he is?”

“My best guess is some mix of bull terrier and greyhound. Pakkun’s the only purebred that I have,” Kakashi replied.

Sakura began to scratch behind Uhei’s ears and the dog let out a contented groan. She laughed.

“He really likes you,” Kakashi said in a warm tone.

Sakura looked up, meeting his eyes, and they smiled at each other. “I like him too,” she replied. They looked at each other a moment longer before Sakura got embarrassed and changed the subject. Holding her hand out, she made grabby fingers. “Treats please.”

While he rummaged in the pouch clipped to his pocket, she gently moved Uhei off her foot and crouched down to look under the table. “Who’s the other new guy?” she said, eyeing the smaller brown floppy-eared dog sitting quietly by Kakashi’s feet.

“That’s Bisuke. He’s a little shy, but he’s friendly.”

“Hi Bisuke,” Sakura said softly, encouraged by the slow wagging of the dog’s tail. “You’ll let me give you a treat, won’t you?” She gave a treat to Shiba first, who happily gobbled it up. Holding out her hand, palm up, she offered a treat to Bisuke without leaning any closer. He eventually crept just far enough toward her to take the treat from her hand and then retreat to his master’s side while crunching on it. Sakura beamed.

Beside her, Uhei let out another groan that turned into a whine. Kakashi laughed. “You can’t just make him fall in love with you and then give other dogs treats.”

“It’s not my fault,” Sakura countered in a singsong voice as she patted Uhei on the head and gave him his treat. “I can’t help it. I’m irresistible to good boys.”

Kakashi paused in the action of giving Pakkun his treat, the corner of his mouth quirking as he quietly murmured, “Indeed.”

Sakura felt a little thrill go through her. She felt like she kept losing her footing; one minute they’d be talking about dogs, and the next they were flirting. At least, she was 99% certain it was flirting—she wasn’t very practiced at it. Unsure what to do next, she found herself changing the subject again. “What kind of work are you doing, anyway?”

“I’m a freelance writer,” he answered. “I do a lot of work for online publications. Right now, though, I’m just catching up on email,” he continued with a bored sigh, eyes flicking to the laptop. “It’s not very interesting, but it has to be done. I thought I’d do it here and give you some company,” he finished, his gaze returning to her.

Sakura stood, patting Uhei again. “You won’t hear me complain. It always gets slow this time of night, and kind of lonely.” Pausing for a moment, a little awkwardly, she finally said, “I should get back to work, and let you get back to your emails.”

“Just let me know when you need us to get out of your hair. Oh, and here’s what I owe for my drink. You can keep the change.” Pulling out his billfold, he handed her a few bills, his eyes creasing in another smile. Thanking him, Sakura gave Uhei one last pat before returning to the counter.

For the next hour and a half, Sakura kept herself busy. The occasional customer would float in and she’d take care of them with her usual brisk efficiency and friendly smile. When there were no customers, she’d work on her closing duties, beginning with shutting down and cleaning the half of the hot bar that she could get away with closing before the end of the night. Kakashi mostly stayed focused on his laptop, pausing at one point to feed each pup their puppuccino, but one time she’d caught him smiling at her while she was humming to herself. She’d blushed, knowing she was pretty tone deaf, and stuck her tongue out at him before returning to wiping the counters.

Having finished all of the pre-cleaning that she could behind the counter, she soon moved out to the main part of the shop. Uhei perked up when he saw her, picking his loose leash up in his mouth and moving to follow her. Kakashi looked up long enough to ask if the dog was being a bother, but Sakura waved him off, happily letting the dog follow her around as she refilled napkin containers and wiped down tables.

When there were only a few minutes left until the shop was closed, she approached Kakashi’s table again and lightly drummed her fingers on the table to get his attention. When he blinked up at her, looking a little worn out, she smiled and jingled the keys she held in her hand. “I have to lock the doors soon. You should probably give yourself a break, anyway.”

He gave a quiet laugh. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He closed his laptop decisively and began to gather his things and put them in his laptop bag. “Thanks for letting me camp out tonight.”

“Usually there are one or two people who come to hang out, but if you hadn’t been here tonight I’d have been completely alone for most of it.” She chewed on her lip for a moment before adding, “I really do appreciate you bringing these guys in and cheering me up. It’s nice of you.”

Raising his brows, he affected a nonchalant manner. “You say that like I’m showing up with a steadily increasing number of dogs just to see you smile.” His lips curved into a lazy smirk. “That would be insane.”

Sakura ducked her head a little, feeling her face heat up. “You’re an idiot,” she said, trying for a scowl and smiling instead.

He laughed in a slightly cocky way, as if to imply that she liked that he was an idiot, and set about lifting Pakkun into his bag. Soon he stood and slung both bags over his shoulders. Sakura busied herself by gathering the ends of all of the leashes, handing them to Kakashi when he’d adjusted his bags into a comfortable position. After giving the table a once-over to make sure he didn’t leave anything behind, he moved toward the door, and Sakura followed.

“I’ll be here again tomorrow night if you need somewhere to work,” she commented lightly as she opened the door for him and his mob of dogs.

“I wouldn’t miss it.” Pausing, Kakashi gave her a long look.

“What?” she said with a laugh, feeling self-conscious.

“Hold still.” Reaching out his free hand, he ran his fingers lightly through the candy-colored strands of hair that framed her face. A small smile curled his lips.

“Do I have something in my hair?” Sakura asked, imagining streaks of whipped cream and coffee grounds.

“…Nope.” Letting her hair slide from his fingers, he grinned at her, his scarred eyelid dropped in a quick wink. “Have a good night Sakura.”

Cheeks burning, mouth slightly ajar, Sakura watched him turn and walk toward the parking lot. She blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Stop making me blush!”

She heard him laugh, and over his shoulder he called, “Not a chance. See you tomorrow.”

A little stunned, she stepped back and swung the door shut, locking it before letting her forehead rest against the cool wood. Her laugh, when it came, was breathy and echoed warmly in the empty shop.

#kakasaku #my stories #coffee shop AU #good boy #STILL NEEDS MOAR DOGS #tipsyraconteur

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