#joelnie

[iceman-maverick]

gonna write a self-indulgent burnie panic attack at rtx fic because bruh me too tbh

[jackinthatpattillo-blog]

That Tiny Little Shop

badpunsandburnieburns asked:

how do you feel about joelnie/ burnoel (idk which one it is iT KEEPS CHANGING BURNIE/JOEL) omg and would you every write a lil one shot for them?

A/N: I'll be honest I don't really know how this evolved from one shot to coffee shop au to...Well..Whatever the fuck it is now.

"You mean the little shop that you're sitting in with the coffee that you buy from it every single morning?" Burnie rebutted, smiling to himself. Joel was one of the regulars at his coffee shop, though he wasn't sure why the man kept coming. It was clear he liked the coffee from across the street more. Let alone that all he ever did was talk about how they should invest in this company, or invest in this stock for gold, or even about how the shop needed a make-over. It was dumb, but Burnie had gotten used to the man coming by every morning. A day didn't seem right if he didn't start it with Joel.

Lately the man had started to come in the late evening just before the closed too. He would just order a water. For a straight week, each day around 7:30pm the eccentric man would come in, order a water, and just sit alone quietly staring out the window at the sky. The next week when the pattern continued, Burnie joined him. They didn't speak to each other, just drank water and silently took comfort in the other's company. Or, at least, Burnie took comfort in Joel's. Maybe Joel didn't want his company.

Maybe that was why Joel stopped showing up one day.

Burnie still waited. He started to even open the shop earlier just in case he was missing the man. But a week passed and he still hadn't seen him. Desperate for even a glance of the man who had once been his regular, he started staying open later too. Keeping himself awake with the thought that if he just waited one more hour, maybe he'd see Joel. On the second week he begun to wait across the street, hoping that maybe Mr. Heyman- because even in his head he didn't feel he had the right to call him Joel anymore when he'd scared the man off- would show up there. He didn't. A month passed before he gave up and stopped waiting.

He did his best to pretend that his heart didn't fall every time the bell over the door went off and it wasn't Joel.

Business wasn't doing well. The place across the street had gotten more popular and even the regulars were beginning to slim down. Soon Burnie had to accept that he would have to close down. He'd had a good five years and now it was time to move on. Even if he didn't want to, his finances weren't going to give him a choice soon. Three months after Joel's sudden disappearance, the only place Burnie had to call his own was shut down permanently.

It would be years before he'd see Joel again.

Three years later they'd find themselves at a bar. They'd find themselves continuously just missing the other looking at them, wondering if that really was who they thought they were seeing. They'd slowly gravitate towards each other until they wind up at the bar together, sharing a tab and stories of jobs gone wrong. Of dreams destroyed. Of their new hopes, new jobs, and new plans for the future. They'd exchange numbers and have lunch once before Joel would invite Burnie to get coffee with him the next morning. It'd become a ritual for them, meeting in the morning for coffee. Neither of them would miss a day for three straight months before Burnie would finally gather the courage to ask Joel to their first date. Three straight months of coffee dates before Joel would accidentally ask the same thing at the same time and they'd laugh at each other before agreeing to go somewhere. They'd go to a nice place where they'd eat dinner and then fight over who would pay the bill. Then they'd go back to Burnie's and Joel would be Joe The Cat. He'd hate the cat at first but put up with him for the owner. They'd officially start dating the next morning.

It'd be two years after that until Joel would have to pet sit while Burnie went out of town. It'd be the day Burnie left that Joe The Cat would have a small black box hanging off his collar that Joel wouldn't see. It'd be the day Burnie came back, picked up his cat and looked so dejected that Joel would finally notice the damn thing and open it. A day after that he would hunt down the man at work to give him an empty black box and the word "Yes". Two more months after that and they'd be living together happily.

But that was all in the future. For now all Burnie could do was touch the wall of a coffee shop he used to own as he passed it on his way to work in the morning, and try his best to ignore how he'd still check the place across the street for the chance to see someone he almost longed to forget.