Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Marshall wasn't particularly fond of his job at the cafe. He didn't hate it either, it just seemed very bland to him to be cooped up around coffee and scones all day, doing nothing but taking orders and waiting on tables. What he did enjoy, was the open mic night on Friday's, where he often took the stage with his red guitar and played for the night-time patrons of the shop. Le Café Rouge wasn't anything particularly special in that city block. It had blood red awnings that matched the interior theme of dark warm colors. There were five small steps leading slightly down into the cafe from the street. Inside the walls were painted in different shades of reds and whites and warm browns that matched the curtains that hung against walls in places. The wall to the left of the door was made completely of paneled glass and it looked out onto the busy streets of Toronto. The tables were all made of a dark cherry wood, as was the main counter that people placed their orders at. Over all, the cafe was like a warm place where someone might want to spend a few hours reading a book or just sitting with a cup of coffee to watch a rainstorm pass.
Today was just another busy Friday morning with the morning rush of people headed to work. Marshall's least favorite part was the fact that he and his little sister Marceline had to be at the cafe at six in the freaking morning in order to open the shop. He was just glad that he wasn't one of the pastry chef's, because they had to get there at four in the morning. Seriously, who in their right mind wants to be anywhere but a nice warm bed at six in the morning. Despite the excruciatingly painful wake-up time, the cafe was a pleasant job. It also paid the bills for their apartment and his sisters schooling, which was a plus. Marshall was also never really the type for complaining, he always figured that if you ended up somewhere it was for a reason and there was no point in complaining. Slacking off on the other hand, he was really good at that.
"Marshall, get off your lazy ass and come help me set the tables! We have twenty minutes until we have to open the freaking Cafe!" Marceline practically hissed at her older brother as she threw his apron at him followed by a few napkins.
Marshall groaned and opened his eyes to look around the cafe from his relaxed position on one of the many black leather couches. It was too early for this kind of shit and he just wanted to go back to sleeping.
"Hmm, you seem to be doing an awesome job though Marce, why would I want to interrupt?" He chuckled and laid a napkin over his eyes so that he could hopefully get some more shut eye before it was time to actually work.
Marceline promptly stormed over to where he brother was and grabbed his ear before she tugged him to his feet by the poor abused hearing appendage.
"Ow ow ow ow! Okay ow I get it! Sheesh no need for the use of violence in the Cafe sis!" He said as he stumbled along behind her. His arms were promptly stuffed with napkins and he trudged along the floor to the tables that had not been set yet with a sour expression upon his face.
It was a chilly day in September, especially at six fifteen in the morning, and Marshall Lee pulled his hoodie closer around his thin frame. He folded each napkin as well as he could before laying it on the table and in no time all of the tables were prepped and ready for people to sit at. An apron smacked him in the face again and he grabbed it and held it up.
"You know, it's not very polite to throw things at your superiors." He said in a joking tone as he tied the apron around his waist and went over to the main counter to grab a note pad and several pens. He glanced over at Marceline, who was pulling her hair back into a pony tail in an attempt to keep it out of the way.
"It's only impolite if it's a stranger and not my dork older brother." She tossed back as she finished tying up her hair and made sure that most of it was pulled back. Her hair still dangled down past her butt and Marshall shook his head.
"I am not a dork, you're just jealous that I'm so attractive." He dramatically put a hand to his chest before he chuckled and checked the time on his phone. There were only seven minutes left until they were required to open so he walked over towards the door and flipped the 'CLOSED' sign to 'OPEN' for them. Now all they had to do was wait for people to come in before they could leave for the day. Marshall Lee lived for the quiet moments, since the cafe was usually buzzing in the mornings. The Cafe itself was fairly short-staffed to save money, so they ended up working full-day shifts with just the two of them many times. He moved right back to the main counter and leaned against it with a sigh.
"Are you going to play tonight?" Marceline posed the question out of thin air as she pinned back a bit more of her hair and looked at her brother curiously.
Marshall raised an eyebrow and thought about it before nodding to her. "Yeah, I don't see why not. Why don't you ever play with me anymore? That makes it more fun." He said as he stuck out his tongue at his kid sister. It had become a habit of his to stick his tongue out whenever he was teasing someone or making a really lame joke about something. it gave him away but his sister thought it was hilarious and even tried to grab his tongue sometimes.
"Because, I'm not as good as you at it and I'm just not as good in front of crowds I guess." She said with a nonchalant shrugs as she re-checked the cash register for about the third time. Marshall simply rolled his eyes at his sister.
"It's because you don't practice anymore, you're just as good as I am though. Or maybe you were planning to talk to that girl you're always chatting up online." He watched with satisfaction as Marceline's cheeks heated up and grew slightly rose tinted from the mention of her online friend. Marshall knew that his sister had been talking to some girl online almost constantly for over a month. She would always have her phone out or be on her laptop talking to the same girl over Skype messaging. It was pretty cute how obviously Marcie was crushing on this girl.
"I-I was not! Just shut up you glob of laziness. Besides we have customers!" she said, thankfully taking the distraction to get drink orders from the man and woman who walked in. Marshall simply let that topic drop for the moment as he also began his duty of serving people their drinks and desserts throughout the day.
By the end of the day Marshall felt like his arms were going to fall off and his head was buzzing with orders for caramel cappuccinos, with a double shot of espresso and only a bit of cream that had to be low fat. He never understood the human obsession with getting the perfect drink down to the very last detail of how much fat was in the milk or cream that they added. Then again he didn't even really drink coffee so maybe he was just never meant to understand that part. He contemplated the many different kinds of drinks he knew how to make as they started to set up for the open mic night. They moved a few tables and chair around so that they more easily faced the small stage that was present in the corner of the cafe. The afternoon rush of people had ended and the Cafe was completely empty except for the two of them. Eventually he knew that the night-time coffee drinkers would come around to listen to him play and maybe even a few of them would get up and play with him or by themselves. The stage was easy enough to share in this situation.
Marshall Lee hoped that one day he could get paid to write his own songs and get them recorded as a musician. Playing his guitar was his favorite thing to do in his job at Le Café Rouge, so why not pursue a career in what he completely loved? It made sense to him in every way, some people didn't think it was a logical choice though. He wasn't really complaining since he did have a pretty nice gig here that got him some nice tips at the end of the night.
As patrons filled the small cafe, Marshall sat down on the chair on stage and picked up his guitar, smoothly sliding it out of its case and into his familiar grip. He strummed at the tightly wound metal strings and checked to make sure that they were in tune before he cleared his throat and started to play a softer song that would fit the mood of the cafe itself. His fingers glided across the strings and the upper frets on the guitar easily and he closed his eyes and let the music flow. Eventually he let his voice join the flow of music in the form of lyrics that mostly just came to his head in the moment. It was a gift to be able to play and come up with music so effortlessly. There was of course the fact that he had practiced and learned about guitars for a large portion of his life, which made it easier to improvise such wonderful songs.
Those that were actively listening were completely spell-bound by the males voice and guitar playing. Marshall came to a close of the first song and opened his eyes to look out at the crowd. There was soft applause and he smirked slightly before his eyes rested on a male at the back of the cafe that seemed to be clapping just a bit slower than the rest of them. Marshall took into account the male's pink hair and vibrant colors of clothes and immediately he was curious as he paused his strumming to look over the male more closely. The pink-haired man made eye contact and smiled happily but still remained slightly shocked at the back of the room. Marshall was taken aback that he was being stared at so intensely but he wrote it off as the other guy simply experiencing his playing for the first time as he went back to playing. He swore that he felt eyes on himself several times, and it felt like pinky was staring directly at him. Of course it was normal to be stared at on stage, except that this stare felt different than the rest; but he managed to shake off the nerves he had started feeling as he pursed his lips together to hide his amused smirk.