Day One at the Lesbeans Cafe
Rating and Warnings: General Audiences, F/F, Gen, No Warnings Apply
Relationships and Characters: Dr. Arada/Overse (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Arada (Murderbot Diaries), Overse (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Mensah (Murderbot Diaries), Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Pin-Lee (Murderbot Diaries)
Tags: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Fluff, Neurodiverse Headcanons, If You Squint - Freeform, Misses Clause Challenge
Published: 2022/12/11
Word Count: 1484
Arada and Overse have some weird dreams, share several extremely soft moments together, and also open a coffee shop.
For BWizard
Hope you enjoy! I wanted to pay homage to all the incredible work you’ve put into the mirrorverse and high school AUs. Hope I did it justice, and I’m extremely happy to get to contribute to the Arada/Overse tag <3
(I don't know if they would actually call it the Lesbeans Cafe but the pun made me laugh so hard I couldn't not use it)
Originally published on Ao3 for Yuletide 2022
Arada startled awake with a gasp, heart beating much too fast. It took her several moments before she could remember to take calming breaths. She was in her own room, in her own bed, with her wife—alive—in bed next to her. It was ok.
Overse stirred next to her and rolled over sleepily, burying her face in Arada’s shoulder. “… you ok babe?”
Arada took several deep breaths and looked at the clock by the bed before replying. Ugh, still 30 minutes until their alarm was supposed to go off. “Yeah … yeah I’m ok. Just had a bad dream. You were dead and Ayda and Pin-Lee and Rin were evil, and I was the leader of some revolutionary movement but we were constantly on the run. I had to fake my own death but it didn’t even help, everyone was in danger still. It just felt so scary and hopeless.” It had felt so real, the pain and terror and bone-deep exhaustion. It was hard to shake.
Overse was more awake now and peering up at Arada worriedly. “Oh love, that does sound scary.”
“Yeah, I … I know it’s not real. It’s probably just my subconscious worrying about the opening and inventing enemies where there aren’t any. And there’s been so much to do to get ready that it feels a little like a war. Just a never ending stream of bad guys to fight …”
Overse hugged her close. “It’ll go great, I promise. We’ve fought all the bad guys, for now! All that’s left is to open the doors and turn the lights on.”
“And sell coffee.”
“Well, yes, and that. But that’s easy! We can sell coffee. In fact—” She groaned her way out of the bed— “I’m going to sell you some right now. Here goes: Coffee exists and will be ready for you in five minutes.”
“You’re the best, babe.”
Overse threw on a robe, blew Arada a kiss, and waltzed out the bedroom door. Entirely too perky this early in the morning, but she’d always been like that. Arada was the complete opposite. She always needed to hit snooze multiple times and then roll around in her Morning Agonies and then go through her Very Particular Routine (get up, open the blinds, make the bed, stretch, shower, get dressed, feed the cat) before breakfast.
–
By the time Arada had gotten up and finished her routine, there was not only coffee but also french toast and cut fruit on the table. Overse grinned, clearly pleased with herself. “Might as well make the most of the extra time, I thought!”
Arada smiled and kissed Overse’s cheek. “This almost makes the bad dream worth it.”
As they sat down to eat, Overse looked thoughtful. “Wish I could give you my dream instead. We were all back in high school and working on a show together. Except Rin and Art were actual robots …? I think. Rin definitely had laser guns in its arms.”
Arada laughed. “That seems like a terrible idea in a high school. Though of all of us I’d trust Rin with them the most.”
“Ha! Yeah, with anyone else it would be a constant stream of, ‘no Ratthi, we are not using the guns to artistically shred the costumes,’ ‘no Indah, you cannot shoot the sound board when it misbehaves,’ ‘NO Three, we are not using the guns to create a more realistic fight scene! This is theater, it’s supposed to be pretend!!’”
Arada snorted into her breakfast. “Poor Ayda. She put up with so much from all of us.”
“She had her chaos moments too, when she wasn’t stuck wrangling everyone else. Remember the Marshmallow Incident?” They both giggled. Of course the Marshmallow Incident was not to be spoken of. But thinking of fun times in theater helped calm Arada down, a bit. Displacing the fear and exhaustion of her dream with the memories of her friends, alive, not evil, there for her no matter what.
–
Overse was full of nervous energy on the train ride, knees bouncing nonstop—for all her confidence this morning, she was just as anxious about the opening as Arada. They just expressed that anxiety in very different ways. Overse vibrated; Arada apparently just got nightmares. Arada reached her hand out and grabbed Overse’s; she stopped shaking her leg for a minute and took several breaths, smiling softly at Arada. “I’m ok, love. Or I will be ok, once we get there and can actually start doing things instead of anticipating them.”
They got off the train and walked the short distance to the shop. It really was a perfect location: just off a main road, within sight of the subway station, and only one competitor (a major chain, not an independent shop, so they didn’t feel too bad about competing). There was a decent amount of indoor seating, a patio, and lots of shops nearby. A miracle that they’d managed to buy the place at all, but Overse had been checking the real estate company’s site just about every couple hours since they’d had this wild idea together a few months earlier, and had caught the listing right as it was posted. After that it was simple: just getting the business plan together in a frenetic week, getting the bank loan, building out the space, passing the health inspection, hiring employees, and publicizing the opening. Easy, a nice easy six months. Definitely not the most stress they’d experienced since grad school, not at all.
Arada unlocked the door, took a deep breath, and walked inside. Doesn’t matter how nervous you are, when it’s your cue, you have to walk onto the stage.
–
It felt like Arada blinked and then the morning was over: one minute they were brewing coffee, straightening tables, putting the signs out, getting the pastries delivered (from Ratthi’s bakery, naturally), and unlocking the door, and the next minute they were cleaning up after the lunch rush and were almost out of pastries. The tables were still full, customers lingering over their drinks or staring at their laptops. The line had been out the door all morning but was moving steadily. Mensah, Pin-Lee, and Rin, behaving completely unlike their evil dream counterparts, had stopped in mid-morning with flowers and congratulations (or in Rin’s case a muttered “… it looks nice”). Their baristas (a trio of late-teenage friends Rin referred to as the “fuzzy employees”) were doing a great job: though they all looked small and unassuming, they were fast and efficient, and Tapan hadn’t budged when an angry customer had tried intimidating her into a free drink (Rin had stepped in when the man had started yelling, and escorted him out). Things had gone almost suspiciously well—she was just waiting for a fridge to break. Or the toilet. Or the power to go out. Something disastrous. But nothing had happened so far.
Arada finished making a customer’s drink, judged the line appropriately short, and took the chance for a moment’s downtime and ducked into the office to take a breath. Overse was already there, queueing up social media posts and filing invoices. Arada made herself inconvenient, inserting herself into Overse’s lap with an exaggerated sigh.
“Hey, you. Going ok out there?”
“Yeah, things are great. The kids are very competent, nothing’s blown up, nothing has gone wrong even though I keep expecting it to.”
“Just a thought, but we could entertain the notion that maybe … nothing will go wrong? And that even if it does, we’ll be able to handle it because we have been thinking about it for years and have prepared for it?”
Arada hummed. “No … that can’t be true. Surely we’ve been faking it this whole time and this was a terrible idea and it’s all going to come crashing down on us.”
“Nah. I’m the expert here and I say things are great and will continue to be great, so there. You keep handling the front of house and I’ll keep handling the computer stuff, and soon we can start hosting events and pop-ups, and we’ll convince the baristas in the corporate shop across the street to unionize, and we’ll make this little corner of the world a little bit better.” Overse punctuated this with a tight hug.
Arada laughed even as all the air was squeezed out of her, and hugged Overse back, ignoring the tears in her eyes. “Yeah. Guess you’re right. I defer to you as the expert here.”
Rami poked ter head in the doorway. “Hey Arada, can I get a hand? Line’s getting long again.”
“Coming!” They disentangled themselves, Arada gave her wife a quick kiss and then headed back to the front. Overse was right, as usual. Her nightmares weren’t reality. They were a solid team together, with good friends and good employees and a good plan to make this shop happen.
It was nice to be proven wrong, sometimes.