Velvet Café [Childe x reader]

+ 1 : Welcome to the velvet café +

Bells chimed the moment (y/n) entered a peaceful café. There was few customers, and two male waiters.

One had orange, somewhat messy hair. While the other one had a darker brown, almost black hair where the ends faded to an orange.

"Welcome to the velvet café!" They greeted in unison. (Y/n) held her resume, slightly trembling. Spending most of her time playing videogames led her to amazingly terrible communication skills.

"I would like to apply for a job." She says awkwardly. Both males look at each other then smile.

"I'll take you to our manager then." The boy with orange hair said, and led her to a room for employees only.

Once they entered the room, it was seemingly empty. (Y/n) was glancing around, wondering where the manager is.

"Boss! This girl here says she wants to work here."

'huh? Who is he talking to?' the girl had an inner panic, thinking maybe their manager is actually a ghost. If that was so, she was ready to run and never set foot in this store, ever again.

"Oh. Ok. We're low on staff anyway. Xiangling is always out, so I'll need someone to take her place. Can you cook?" The voice was asking (y/n). And the panicking in her worstened.

"She's down there." The male with her whispered in her ear, and (y/n) looked down to see a small little girl with light purple hair and pink eyes.

"That's the manager?!" (Y/n) gasped.

"Yes, QiQi is manager. So can you cook?"

"I guess I'm pretty decent at it. You aren't going to look at my resume?"

"If you can cook, then I will hire."

"So... I'm hired then?"

"Yes."

"Look at that, I get a pretty new co worker! The name is Tartaglia, but you can call me Childe." He winked.

"Nice to meet you, Childe. I'm (y/n)."

"QiQi will leave it to Childe to explain your job and introduce you to the rest. Your shifts are 8 am to 4 pm, your breaks being Wednesday and Sunday. I will have your uniform done by next week, until then you can get used to the ropes here."

"Yes- boss? Should I call you that or?"

"Anything works."

"Come on now, miss cutie. I'll go introduce you to the rest!" Childe said excitedly, and the two left QiQi in the employee only room. First, the two went to the other guy (y/n) noticed previously.

"This is Zhongli. He's quite knowledgeable but for some reason he's an airhead. And Zhongli, this is (y/n). She'll be... Xiangling's co-chef I guess. And substitute when she's absent."

"Ah, is that so. Pleasure to be working with you, (y/n)"

"Pleasure to be working with you too." (Y/n) felt awfully squeamish, being forced to interact with multiple people. But good for her, she'll have to do this almost everyday now.

Childe took (y/n) to the counter where people ordered. "This is our cashier, Barbara. And behind her making drinks is Kaeya."

"Aww a new co-worker! And she's so cute!" Barbara squeeled. (y/n) simply smiled in return. It wasn't often she was called cute, or pretty or whatever, so she didn't really know how to react.

"If she's taking Xiangling's spot, shouldn't we have Xiangling here to teach her what she's going to do? And well, how to cook the food." Zhongli approached the group.

"Hmm. That's right. But I think (y/n) will do just fine!" Childe responded.

"Oh yeah, that's totally reassuring." (Y/n) said sarcastically. "Better hope the customers like spring rolls as cold as winter."

"Looks like our cute (y/n) has a sense of humor." Childe started wheezing.

"I'm being serious!"

"Cutiee!" Barbara was still fawning over their new friend.

"Table two." Kaeya places a chocolate frappe on the counter. "Oh, and nice to meet you...-"

"It's (y/n)."

Kaeya smiled sweetly at the girl, and Childe's gleeful look plastered on his face turned into a frown. At the same time, Zhongli took the frappe and went over to table 2 to give their order.

"Something wrong, Childe?" Kaeya asks.

"Oh nothing, nothing. It's just someone here is going to try to steal the cutie. Sorry bud, but I call dibs." Childe smirks.

"No one is calling dibs on me!"

"Too noisy too noisy, will disturb customers." QiQi comes out of the employee room. "Come (y/n), I'll teach you some of the recipes." She motions, (y/n) to come over.

The two of them head to the kitchen, leaving the four to go back to their duties. Once at the kitchen, QiQi puts down her book filled with recipes for the food in the café's menu. It wasn't much, most was pasta.

"Just follow this. I can't cook so I can't demonstrate how you make it."

"Oh." (Y/n) sighs. She scans through the pages and felt somewhat relieved that they didn't seem too difficult to make. (Y/n) had enough experience for pasta after she was kicked out by her parents. Fast food would get expensive if she were to have it often, so she had to learn to cook whether she wanted to or not.

"Can (y/n) handle all this?" QiQi asks.

"Yep!"

"Ok. Now come back with me to staff room. Baizhu is here, he will explain your salary and everything else."

(Y/n) nodded her head. The fact that QiQi was so tiny, cute, and now her manager was somewhat distracting. But not in a bad way. It made the girl want to stop what she is doing and just pinch her manager's cheeks.

In a way, she felt this was the nicest day she's had since she got kicked out of home almost a month ago. Even during job hunting, she got rejected most of the time due to having almost nothing to put on the table.

+ Welcome to the velvet café +