Chapter Text
Black hair turns red as red eyes turn black.
And then he knows all hope is lost.
"Oh my fucking god." Mizi shouts a little too loudly as half the café turns to look at their group. Sua sighs and shakes her head as Ivan snorts into his coffee.
"Mizi, honey, you just cussed out half the café." Sua says while smiling wearily at a couple of elderly ladies sitting across from them who are giving them a look. "What's wrong?" She asks as Mizi turns to her with the biggest smile, her golden eyes shining.
"Uh oh." Ivan grins, taking another sip of coffee, hoping this time it doesn't go halfway up his nose.
Mizi rolls her eyes at his comment, flipping him off before turning back to Sua, holding up her phone. "Guess who's singing at The Tavern in two months' time." She practically sings, letting Sua take her phone to read the email.
"No way." She replies in disbelief, her eyes moving from side to side as she reads the email replying to Mizi's applicant to hold a gig there. Sua returns the smile, pink irises reflecting the shine.
The Tavern was a pub that regularly held gigs, but considering they didn't live in a densely populated city, The Tavern could hold up to 3500 people, which is insane. It also was notoriously difficult to arrange a gig there, considering the size. It was mainly a place for moderately big artists or bands, since it was too big for newly growing singers and wouldn't fill out enough.
Mizi and Sua started making music together about two years ago, but didn't really get popular until their song My Clematis got over twelve million listens. From there, they continued to grow in popularity and support. Now, they have over six million monthly listeners on Spotify, and are fiercely well known around where they live.
"Yes way," Mizi says, practically jumping out of her seat, "We've been trying to get a gig there for fucking ages." Once again, the three get glanced at by the elderly women and Ivan elbows the pink haired girl.
"Stop scaring off my customers." He hisses, a smirk firmly plastered onto his lips. "But congratulations. I assume I'll be the guest of honour." He smiles sweetly at them both, earning two simultaneous eye rolls.
"Stop trying to get out of paying for the tickets, Ivan." Sua crosses her arms, unimpressed. Mizi giggles.
Ivan deflates onto the table, his arms flopping down dramatically and almost sending his coffee flying. "But tickets are so expensive, and I wanna support you guys." He whines, his snaggletooth catching on his lip as he pouts.
Mizi giggles again, patting his head playfully, "Of course you're our guest of honour." She exclaims, smiling wide.
"Mizi-" Sua starts.
"What?"
"...Nothing." Sua can't resist her girlfriends face. "Fine, Ivan you can be our guest of honour." She groans, rolling her eyes for the third time in the last five minutes. Ivan just smirks smugly. "But, you have to pay for half of the ticket."
Ivan's face drops, and he bangs his head on the table. "Fine." He grumbles. he lifts up his head to take another sip of his coffee, which is now lukewarm.
Mizi chuckles before looking back at her phone. She frowns at something before clicking on a message that she received , reading through the text. That's when her eyebrows fly up, and she straightens up in her seat again.
"What now-" Sua is cut off as Mizi nearly shouts again.
"Till!"
Ivan frowns. "Her name's Sua..."
Mizi gives him a funny look, her pink hair near slapping him in the face. "Very funny, smartass." She deadpans before turning back to Sua, leaving Ivan to huff to himself. "Remember Till?" She asks her, her eyes glowing intensely.
"Yeah, though we haven't spoken in ages, why?" She asks, an eyebrow raised in question.
Mizi looks like she's about to fucking take off. "He just messaged me after a whole fucking year saying that he's moving to the area." She says. Ivan sighs behind her at her usual loud swearing.
"Mizi, I swear to god, I will ban you from this café." He groans, hiding his face from everyone. Mizi, on the other hand, does not give one.
"Oh hush." She fires back, making Ivan throw his hand up in defence. He groans, standing up from his seat beside the pink haired girl and downing the last of his coffee, grimacing at the bitter liquid that should not be guzzled like it's juice.
"Aaaand that's my queue to go back to work." He sighs, stretching out his back. He yelps as Mizi grabs his wrist, holding on with her inhuman strength. "Jesus, Mitz." He puffs as she tugs his arm.
"Not so fast," She says, looking at him with a wide grin. "Oh em gee, your are going to love Till. He's just your type as well." She grins, and Ivan raises an eyebrow. Sua sighs from behind her.
"Honey, you seriously cannot be setting up a date when you've seen one message from him about thirty seconds ago." She mutters, resting her head on her hand, her elbow propped up onto the table. "They haven't even met."
Her golden eyes gleam with mischief, "Not yet they haven't." She smirks, her grip on Ivan's wrist unrelenting. Sua shakes her head, pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. Mizi just continues. "Anyway, we had a friend called Till about a year ago-"
"I gathered." The black haired man interrupted with a smirk, quickly turning into a wince as Mizi tightens her grip. "Um, ow?" He tries to pull his wrist away, but to no avail.
"Do not interrupt me when I am speaking." She says like she has some sort of authority. "As I was saying before I got rudely interrupted," Ivan rolls his eyes, "He randomly cut contact with us just after we released My Clematis about a year ago, but he's just got in touch again. He's definitely your type, and besides, it's been ages since you've been laid."
Ivan breathes out a little bit too aggressively. "UM?" He huffs, slightly miffed that she decided to mention that in her characteristically loud voice. his cheeks redden slightly, and his black eyes sheepishly glance around at the numerous people still staring. "Thank you for that."
Sua giggles behind her and he shoots her a deadly glare. She just shrugs and adds, "It's true."
Unimpressed, he straightens up, finally managing to tug his wrist free. "And thank you for that." He deadpans. "Seriously though, Mitz, the guy sounds like a jerk, cutting you off right after you released your most popular song. He sounds really arrogant." He deducts. He doesn't understand, however, the look that's shared between the two women. "What?" He asks, skeptical.
"Uhh, that's... not the reason he cut contact." Mizi says slowly, side-eyeing Sua.
She shakes her head, before her pink eyes meet black. "He cut contact after confessing his love to Mizi." She explains. Ivan frowns.
"Weren't you two already together?" Surely they've been together for more than a year.
"Yep." She pops the p.
"And he didn't know you were a lesbian?"
"Nope." Mizi replies this time. "It was kinda sad. He looked really upset." She murmurs. "I told him not to worry about it, that it could have been anyone's mistake, but he left and then blocked me. I don't think he was being mean, I think he was just embarrassed."
Ivan snorts. "I'd be embarrassed too. You act gayer than I do." He comments, earning a well landed smack from her. "Hey, it's true." He smirks, using her own words against her.
He shakes his head, taking a deep breath. "Anyway, d'you have a photo of this guy? I don't like to judge a book by it's cover, but I know what you're like." He swiftly dodges another hit. "Hey, stop that."
Mizi shakes her head, sucking on her teeth as she scrolls through her photo album. She clicks on a photo before showing it to Ivan, and his black eyes widen. "Damn." He says squinting at the photo.
He hates admitting when Mizi is right, but fuck is she right. He's got silvery hair, which almost looks blue in that lighting, teal eyes like the sea, and his ears are covered in piercings. In the photo, he's wearing a silver choker-it almost looks uncomfortable. He's got sharp features, even sharper eyes. He's beautiful. "Damn." He repeats without realising it.
"Right?" Mizi says, taking away her phone, and he almost fights her to have it back. He looks pretty. "If I wasn't a hardcore lesbian I would have had a hard time saying no." She adds, Sua snapping her head round to glare at her girlfriend.
"I'm right here."
"I said if." She smiles sweetly at Sua, pecking her on the cheek. "Love you." She murmurs, and Sua huffs.
"Yeah, you better."
Ivan takes that moment to disappear, grabbing his empty coffee cup and walking back into the staffroom, only a few minutes late for his next shift. He quickly changes into his apron, running a hand through his pitch black hair before washing his hands and putting his coffee cup in his bag.
He walks back behind the counter and starts to pick up the orders that were made by his colleague. His mind goes into autopilot when he's working, often finding something else to think about than cleaning cups and making coffee.
His mind wanders back to silver hair and aquamarine eyes, and all those piercings. It's frustrating how well Mizi knows what he looks for, despite her having a burning hatred for anyone who approaches her with a penis.
He doesn't register being called too until excuse me rings loud and clear in his ears. He snaps his neck up, seeing a customer with her purse out already, waiting for his response. He clears his throat, placing down the jug of steamed milk in his hands and walking towards where she's standing.
"I'm so sorry about that, what can I get you?" He apologises with a weary smile. He winces as she looks him up and down, a sly smirk painting her lips.
"I'll have a vanilla iced latte, and your number, please." She winks at him, and he almost dies. Slick. He chuckles a little, shaking his head.
"Your vanilla iced latte will be ready soon." He replies, tapping the amount into the card reader. "As for my number, sorry, but I'm not interested. You confidence is admirable, though."
The woman only crosses her arms. Oh boy. "You have a girlfriend or something?" She asks, tapping her foot impatiently. Ivan sighs and turns around to start making her latte.
"Nope." He says over his shoulder. He can feel her eyes burning into his back as he works.
She scoffs, and he can almost see her rolling his eyes from where he's standing. How attractive. He just ignores her and continues to make the drink, turning back to see a now very irritated woman. "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested." He explains calmly handing her her drink.
She snatches her drink from him, scowling. A small smile makes his lips twitch up, and he leans against the counter. "Babes, that isn't attractive." He murmurs softly, not even hiding his amusement.
Her eyes snap up, horrified. "What did you say to me?" She fumes, and Ivan raises his eyebrows.
He shrugs, "I'm just sayin', if you're trying to get someone's number, maybe change your attitude." He gets that he's not one to look especially gay, especially in work, but seriously, some people can't take no for an answer, regardless of sexuality.
She expects her to storm out in a huff, which she does. What he doesn't predict is for ice cold coffee to be thrown in his face. Then she storms out.
Ivan just watches her, dumbstruck, coffee dripping from his hair and staining his apron. He catches Mizi's and Sua's gaze, and he snorts, shaking his head. "I didn't even get to the part where I said I was gay." He chuckles, grabbing a tea towel and wiping his face. He cleans up the countertop, before getting someone to cover him while he changes.
He changes out of his apron, chucking that in a plastic top as well as his work top before fishing out a spare from the 'spare uniform' box. HE cares less than he should, despite the fact he just got coffee thrown at his face. At least it wasn't hot.
He does groan, however, as he examines his now not-so-white white top covered in iced coffee. Brilliant. He'll have a hard time getting out those stains.
He shakes his head, scrunching it up and shoving it in the plastic bag to take home and wash. That's a problem for future Ivan.
He had the option to finish his shift early, but he didn't, instead staying behind to close up. Like usual.
The café's main lights have gone out, the only light now coming from the hanging bulbs above the counter top. The black haired man cleans the counter top for the fifth time, distracted.
The guy Mizi had shown him had been attractive, yes, but he seems a bit... blind? Like seriously, how could he not know that Mizi was a lesbian, let alone in a relationship.
Till...
Till.
Ivan shakes the thoughts out of his head, turning around to make sure all the coffee machines are shut off and clean, the ice-trays are filled, cups are stacked, oven is off.
Man, for the amount he gets paid, he does a hell of a lot more than he should.
He finally leaves about an hour and a half after his shift ended, locking up the café with the spare key he was given, before walking away, his backpack on his shoulder. He inhales deeply, enjoying the crisp night air. It's that point in the year when the leaves on the trees start to turn the beautiful colours of autumn, the daytime warm but the nights cool.
He doesn't live far away, but he secretly enjoys the chill that makes the hairs on his bare arms stand up, that makes a light shiver travel down the length of his spine.
He's always felt pretty safe walking through the streets at night. He's tall, fairly built, not that he goes to the gym excessively, but pretty damn intimidating if you don't know him. He's fairly harmless though. Mizi is much more terrifying.
Ivan walks the fifteen minutes to his apartment block, buzzing himself in and walking up the stairs. One thing about the place he lives in is that apartments like these aren't massively expensive, though it's most definitely not fancy. Turns out working in a café doesn't pay nearly as much as he'd like. Not that he can complain, he does love his job, despite sometimes having coffee thrown at him.
Truthfully, when he first thought of what he wanted to do as a job, a model seemed appealing, but he just didn't know how to get started, instead just settling for a small job that allows him to live comfortably. More or less.
He walks up the stairs, unlocking his door and walking in. Kicking off his shoes, he makes his way to the kitchen and dumps his backpack on the table before taking the plastic bag of his stained uniform in. Taking it out, he lays the shirt and apron on the table, grabbing his phone put of his pocket to search 'how to get out coffee stains'.
He clicks on a link that says to 'Soak for five to 15 minutes in warm water, rub liquid laundry detergent or liquid dish soap into the stain, and check after 30 minutes of soaking in cold water'. He raises his eyebrows, skeptical about the effectiveness.
He grabs a bucket from his bathroom, filling it with warm water before shoving the clothes into the bucket. Putting a timer on his phone, he sighs, walking to his kitchen to grab a pot of instant noodles from the cupboard. He can cook, but it's gone 9:30 and he's tired, and really can't be bothered to cook anything.
The sound of boiling water fills his apartment as Ivan scrolls through the notifications on his phone, his eyes landing on the messages Mizi sent on their group chat with Sua.
Mizi: IVAN
IVAN
IVANNNNNNNNNN
He chuckles, typing back a reply.
Ivan: What's up, Mitz?
He places his phone down to pour the freshly boiled water into the cup of noodles, letting it sit for two minutes. There's new messages when he looks back at his phone.
Mizi: IVAN
ARE YOU FREE TOMORROW NIGHT?????
Ivan: What if I wasn't?
Mizi: Well you are now
We're going to Tens
Tens is a gay bar they all went to every once in a while, usually because Mizi drags him out despite his protests. Her usual excuse is to 'get him laid', which doesn't usually work. He's not really the type to just sleep around.
Ivan: ...
...Fine
Is this part of your master plan to set up me and Till?
Mizi: Yep!
Sua is also on board with the plan
Sua: I am not encouraging this behaviour.
Mizi: I can convince you
Sua: You are not bribing me with sex.
Mizi: ...
Ivan: ...
Ivan rolls his eyes, a small smirk settling on his lips as he stirs his noodles. He adds the sauce packet before closing the lid again, letting it sit for a few more minutes.
Mizi and Sua argue over text, which is ironic because knowing them they are probably sitting right beside each other. He swipes off of the messages, instead scrolling through videos mindlessly until his noodles were done.
He munched slowly on his food, waiting for his fifteen-minute timer to go off for the next step of getting the coffee stains out of his shirt.
The next step is to rub laundry detergent or washing up liquid into the stain. Washing up liquid is what he has available, so he uses that, grabbing the bottle from next to the sink and squirting some onto the fabric. He rubs it in using a spare tea towel, grimacing when the stain only looks worse. He'll have to buy a new shirt and apron.
He groans, running a hand down his face. He's too tired for this.
Putting his empty cup in the bin, he bundles his soiled uniform up and shoves it in the bin. Exhausted, he gets ready for bed, showering and changing into some sweatpants to sleep in.
He lays in bed on his phone, and makes a spontaneous decision to research Till. He opens his search bar and types in 'Till singer'. He's not as popular as Mizi and Sua, but not far behind. There's more photos of him, and each one looks just as good as the photo Mizi showed him. He scrolls through the pictures, met with silvery hair and emerald eyes.
There's not loads of information on him, just the typical birthday, June 21st, height, 178cm, age, 21. There's not much more.
He continues digging, but finds barely anything. A closed book, huh?
He decides to text Mizi to see if she has any more information.
Ivan: Hey Mitz, I was wondering if you could tell me anything about Till. Don't wanna go in blind, y'know.
Mizi types back almost instantly, which is very much like her.
Mizi: Of course babes
What do you wanna know?
Ivan smiles at his screen, his fang catching on his lip.
Ivan: Anything really. I tried to look for myself online, but couldn't really find anything.
Mizi: Ah yeah, he's not very public with his personal information.
To be fair, he's quite closed off, and he doesn't really share a lot, but I do know that he has an exceptional talent for flower art.
Ivan raises his eyebrows, surprised. He sure doesn't look like the type of person to like flowers, but to be fair, who doesn't?
Ivan: Flowers? That's a bit gay.
Mizi: LOL
Anyway
I invited him to the bar tomorrow and after some convincing he said yes so you can judge him for yourself.
Ivan: Thanks babes.
Ivan chuckles and switches off his phone, turning on his bedside lamp to read. He picks up the current book he's reading, Much Ado About Nothing. He's always enjoyed Shakespeare, something about old English and the way it can be interpretated just draws him in.
He reads until late, and then tries to settle down, only to lie awake in the darkness.
He's always struggled with insomnia, more so at the moment. He refuses to go to the doctor about it, despite how much Sua bugs him about it. He uses the same excuse every time, how he can deal with it. Besides, who needs more than four hours sleep at night?
He finally drifts off at 3:47AM, waking up again at just past 7. He doesn't have a shift today, so he'll probably just hang out at the studio with Mizi and Sua while they work on their next songs and prep for their gig at The Tavern.
He lays in bed for an hour, checking through his couple of messages- he only ever gets them from Mizi and Sua- before getting up and changing.
He looks through his wardrobe, just putting on a simple white shirt and black sweatpants, before thinking about what to wear tonight. He's not one for dressing up for a club, but most of the time Mizi picks out his outfit and even does some light makeup. Not a lot, just a little eyeliner to make him look that little bit more emo. He does look good though.
He decides to get breakfast out, picking something up on the way. He munches on his meal deal roll as he walks to the studio, pushing through the doors when he arrives. The girls aren't there yet, but he comes to the studio so often that the other workers just leave him be.
He get comfortable on a couch just outside the recording room, silently finishing the roll, his mind wandering.
Wandering to tonight.