#i honestly might end up doing mini essays about why each album is the best taylor swift album

[marysong-mp3]

i know so many of these posts have been made before, but GENUINELY it is so hard for me to do a definitive album ranking! like i have the ones that i personally resonate with the most, which are different to the ones that i see as the most iconic and important to her career trajectory, which are ALSO different to the ones that i find the most artistically satisfying! there is overlap there, but where each falls for me tends to be different! her discography is so expansive and impressive that if someone asked me to, i could argue that every taylor swift album is the best taylor swift album

[realphan]

kevaaron coffee shop au

this is a 2.2k fic for @some-sort-of-firefly for the @aftgexchange , I really hope you like it!

Starbucks had never been the most exciting building. The brown walls reflected the boredom (and often frustration) in the brains of the baristas while the too-bright lights were reminiscent of the naïve customers with their double soya low-fat caramel mocha lattes. It was certainly the most boring place that Kevin Day had ever been and he was a history major who had once visited a wheel museum which he had to write a 10-sided essay on.

Kevin had once been a bright star - a face roughly 10% of the country would recognise – and was supposed to become a professional baseball player. However, his family lost all of their money in a stupid investment when he was seventeen and they essentially dropped off the face of the earth, Kevin losing all chances of fame and stardom.

Day-in and day-out, Kevin now made coffees for arrogant businessmen and giggly schoolgirls. Today was a particularly rough day, he had been finding it hard to concentrate and had already messed up the order of one particularly pretentious man in a brown suit. As if he wasn’t already in a bad enough mood, he looked up at the next customer and had to hold in the sigh threatening to burst out. An incredibly short man stood in front of him, blonde hair sticking up all over the place, with the largest scowl where a smile should have been. He practically spat out his order and Kevin almost forgot to ask his name.

“Aaron,” he growled. Kevin was in no mood to deal with this Aaron so he turned away to make the black coffee that matched both the man’s mood and fashion sense.

A thought struck Kevin as he heard Aaron tapping impatiently on the counter. Why should he care about this man who obviously thinks he is superior? Before he could change his mind and think better of it, he put the plastic lid on top of the takeaway cup and scrawled ‘Erin’ on the side. What it would prove, Kevin didn’t know, but he felt satisfied when Aaron raised the cup and turned to glare at him. “What the fuck?” he asked, but Kevin just turned to the next customer as Aaron stormed out.

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The sun glared through the windows of the coffee shop. Kevin didn’t know if there was any worse way to be spending the end of summer.

Kevin didn’t even try to conceal his groan when the asshole from the previous day walked in. Today, however, his frown had been replaced with a blank look. Couldn’t be worse than yesterday, Kevin thought.

Aaron ordered the same drink and Kevin made it perfectly again. All was well until Kevin turned to face him and Aaron was looking pointedly at his watch. Fine then, he thought, we can do this again.

The cup read ‘Aarun’ and the man’s retort today was simply, “Go to school sometime, might learn how to spell.”

Kevin almost ignored him but changed his mind, “I’m a history major at Palmetto State University.”

“That shithole,” Aaron snorted and walked out. Kevin tried not to be offended by this stranger’s opinion but it was not in Kevin’s nature to take things kindly, and he vowed to win this war.

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Even though Kevin hated working there and Aaron appeared to hate Kevin, he still showed up every day and ordered the same coffee. For the first week, Kevin kept the names to simply misspelled versions of Aaron, but he soon ran out so he threw logic out of the window entirely. One day the cup would read ‘Dave’, the next it would be ‘Sebastian’. Kevin tried his best to avoid any repeats and kept a list of names that he had used. It wasn’t until three weeks in that Kevin realised that he was putting far too much time and effort into this petty feud. That was the same time that Aaron started saying his name – he just didn’t call him Kevin.

Before that, the only words that had been exchanged between them were the order and the price (Aaron had given up giving his name, regarding it as futile) and there had been nothing personal about the encounter. Until one day, Aaron called Kevin ‘Bob’. Kevin chose to ignore it, assuming that he was addressing someone in the queue, but the next day he looked up and realised that Aaron just called him Henry. It wasn’t a genuine mistake – the large and obnoxious tag on Kevin’s apron insured that even those with the worst vision could read his name.

Both boys smirked at each other – this is getting fun, Kevin thought.

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Another two weeks later, Kevin was lying in bed when he realised how much he was actually enjoying this mini war. Ever since Aaron had started joining in, his personality had come out and Kevin thought he was genuinely funny.  Also, Kevin may have picked up on the fact that he found the man quite attractive, despite his messy hair and height (or rather lack thereof).

He knew that the small crush he was developing was ridiculous – he knew nothing about the man other than his name, they hadn’t even had one proper conversation and after all, Aaron probably hated him.

Thankfully, Kevin was going to visit his father for a week and he was completely ready for a week away from both work and school. It was honestly unfair that he was still working throughout summer while his friends were drinking cocktails in hot tubs (and making sure to send him pictures, too). It would also give him a chance to clear his mind of Aaron, although he expected that he would miss the two minutes that he sees him every morning, since that was usually the most interesting part of his day.

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Aaron entered Starbucks the next day and immediately noticed Kevin’s absence. He ordered his coffee anyway, and the barista had to prompt him twice to give his name, as Aaron was used to the routine he and Kevin had. It was bizarre to see ‘Aaron’ written on the cup and it felt completely wrong. He dumped the coffee without even sipping it.

He turned up the next two days and was disappointed both times so he decided to stay away for the week and see if Kevin would return the next week. Aaron hadn’t realised that he actually enjoyed seeing Kevin, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and refused to ponder it.

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Kevin returned from his visit fully refreshed. He loved seeing his father as they got along so well and it had been nice to essentially sit around for a week and do nothing. He had finally had a chance to enjoy the summer sun and had spent most of the break lying on the beach and swimming in the ocean. The thought of work hadn’t crossed his mind once and he was grateful when he got back and realised that he hadn’t thought about Aaron once. Perhaps he had been wrong and he didn’t actually have a crush on the blonde.

All self-satisfaction was thrown out of the window when the aforementioned man walked through the door. Aaron had his usual grumpy expression until he looked up and saw that Kevin was serving again. For a brief moment, a wide smile flashed across his face, replaced with a smaller one only when he realised Kevin was looking right at him. Fuck, Kevin thought, how can I find him so attractive when I know nothing about him?

By the time Aaron reached the counter, both of the boys had managed to conceal all feeling and expression. Their interaction was no different from normal until Aaron went to speak the wrong name as usual. Aaron didn’t know anything had gone wrong until Kevin looked at him with wide eyes. He thought back and had to stop himself from cringing when he realised that what had come out of his mouth was, “Babe.”

Kevin had forgotten how to move. Aaron had called him babe but then immediately looked like he regretted it… Kevin couldn’t deal with this right now. He turned away to make Aaron’s coffee, feeling his heart beat fast in his chest.

When he could no longer stop stalling and turned around, he saw a bright red flush over Aaron’s face which gave him a surge of confidence. He seemed more embarrassed than regretful so instead of writing an incorrect name on his cup, Kevin wrote his own mobile number.

Before Aaron could read his cup, Kevin turned quickly to the next customer. He was mortified, why had he just given his phone number to a customer? There was no way he could listen to customers while his own mind was being even louder, so he shut all of his thoughts away and vowed not to think of Aaron, at least until he got home.

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By the time he did get home, he had three messages on his phone.

[15:05] hi, it’s aaron [15:05] i can’t believe you gave me your number, i’m hoping it wasn’t a mistake, it would be great to talk to you more [15:17] you’re probably still in work, i’m so stupid

Kevin wanted to tell him that he wasn’t stupid but he thought that that probably wouldn’t have been the best way to start a conversation with a boy he had a crush on.

[17:36] sorry I didn’t get your messages, I was working, and I’d like to talk to you more too

It took ten minutes for Aaron to message back and those ten minutes were filled with Kevin picking his phone up and throwing it down, trying to distract himself with a book but not being able to concentrate and burning himself on the tea he was trying to make when his phone finally buzzed.

[17:46] no problem, i’m in med school so i understand being busy haha

For some reason, Kevin found the ‘haha’ incredibly cute. They started talking about university and what they were studying and somehow moved onto topics including (but not limited to) what animals they most related to (they mutually agreed on a sloth although Kevin put forth a convincing argument for a fox), their Hogwarts houses (both Ravenclaws) and Beyonce’s most recent album.

Kevin had been thoroughly enjoying texting Aaron and had completely forgotten the awkwardness from the start. He hadn’t realised how long they had been talking until at 11pm Aaron said that he would have to go to sleep as he had a 5am shift the next day. Somehow, they had talked for five hours, with only a short break in the middle for both of them to put their ready meal dinners in the microwave (Kevin was a student who worked in a coffee shop, it wasn’t like he could afford anything healthier).

In bed that night, Kevin smiled to himself, thinking back over the conversation that had felt so natural to him, and feeling grateful for the grumpy blonde shortie that had entered his life.  

Three weeks later, the boys had a new routine. Aaron would get coffee when he was finished with work or school, rather than in his break, and then would wait for Kevin’s shift to finish. They would then go for a walk, or head back to one of their apartments (usually Kevin’s since Aaron had roommates who loved to tease him). They were making the most of the summer, although Aaron was eager to stay out of the sun considering how pale he was.

Kevin couldn’t believe his luck. His shitty Starbucks job had gotten him a boyfriend who loved to hold Kevin’s hand while they kissed on his cheap Ikea couch. While Kevin hadn’t hated his life before, it had been dull, and the introduction of Aaron brought a new enthusiasm into his life and he found himself appreciating the little things.

He knew it wouldn’t always be this easy, but they were still in the sickening honeymoon phase where they would text the other saying they missed them, and they could cuddle for hours without getting bored.

All of this was why, when Aaron walked through the door at Kevin’s work earlier than usual and with a dark look on his face, Kevin was worried. He made him his coffee before he had even reached the till as there were no other customers queueing and he wanted to cheer his boyfriend up.

He approached the till and handed over the coffee while Aaron stood there with a raised eyebrow and a five dollar note in his hand, “Aren’t you going to take my order?”

Kevin ignored the question and smiled at his boyfriend until Aaron looked at the heart Kevin had drawn on the cup and took a sip of the coffee, “What the actual fuck? This is so fucking bitter.”

The confused barista stood looking at his boyfriend in bewilderment. He was trying to figure out what he had done wrong when the door opened and a second Aaron walked in. In passing, Aaron had once mentioned that he had a twin brother and from the look on the faces of both of the Aarons, Kevin could figure out his mistake.

“You’re not Aaron, are you?”