Of Hearts and Shields

Grant & Ed

Words: 2018

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Tony Stark

Reader Insert Main Character

Summary: Reader has been working at a coffee shop for nearly a year and grows increasingly curious about two of her regulars "Grant" & "Ed" who always come to the cafe together. That is until one day "Grant" arrives alone.

You hadn't been working at the coffee shop very long. You leaned against the counter and did a rough calculation in your head. It had been about nine months. Though your tenure had not been as lengthy as most of your co-workers, you'd gotten good at your job quickly. You'd had to. People took their morning routines, and their coffee, very seriously. After about a month you'd gotten to know who the regulars were and their orders. You seemed to be generally liked among the customers and for the most part you liked them too. Eventually, your fake smile and cheery greetings came to be genuine acts of delight.

But there were two customers in particular that you always looked forward to seeing. One of them was a blonde with striking blue eyes. He always flashed you a warm smile when placing his order. The other seemed, at least to you, as his complete opposite. He had brown hair and brown eyes. Where the blonde generally looked put together at all times the other man had this air of always being slightly disheveled. His pockets seemed to be stuffed with old receipts, scraps of paper or loose dollar bills. Sometimes his tie was slightly askew or one of his suitjacket buttons would have gotten missed.

You'd come to know them as "Grant" (the blonde) and "Ed" (the brunette) though you'd always assumed those weren't their real names. While they were always polite to you and your co-workers they preferred to keep to themselves. Generally, "Grant" would place the order, while "Ed" fumbled around his seemingly endless number of pockets looking for enough money to pay the tab. Their order was always the same too. A black coffee, a plain bagel with cream cheese, an iced Americano with whipped cream and three sugars and a blueberry muffin. After the coffees were poured and the pastries bagged the men would carry their order to a small table near the back of the shop.

They didn't come in every day. Which to you was the most bizarre thing about them. They might frequent the place two or three times a day for an entire week and then two months might go by where you didn't see them at all. Still, they always came back eventually. You couldn't help but want to know more about them. Were they a couple? If so, how long had they been together? How did they make their conflicting personalities work together? Why did they disappear during seemingly random periods of time? You knew it would never be polite to ask, so you didn't. That is until the day that "Grant" came into the coffee shop on his own.