The walk to the Cloudsweet Cafe was as cold as ever, yet Lawrence enjoyed it to the fullest. Knowing where he was going, he couldn’t help but doing so.

There were two main reasons why he thought the Clowdsweet would be his next breakfast spot for a next time, and it would be a great choice.

The first was the sweets. Tarts, candies, and chocolate bonbons. Something so good as to almost kill for it. And the second was the bonbon. AKA, Emma.

Love blossoms in the strangest of places. Lawrence wasn’t about to go all anime MC and debate a full six to seven chapters about his feelings, nor whether to go for her or not. He was a grown man who knew what he wanted, and right now he wanted Emma. Not as a ‘fun buddy’, though he… wouldn’t particularly oppose the idea. She was really sweet, smart, and knew how to keep one entertained. From the couple hours he spent at the café, he could say as much. He was the ideal girlfriend he had wished for since he stopped enjoying dating every hot chick he could find.

A little too fast to call it ‘smithen’, but he liked her well enough to spend some time and effort into tickling her fancy.

And so, it was time to put his natural charisma into good use.

As he mused on such thoughts, the entrance to the café came into sight. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind as much as possible and use the max amount of brain cells into a) Enjoying the food here, and b) Sweet-talking Emma without being too obvious about it.

“Item b takes higher priority, anyways.”

The sound of the doorbell soothed him, something he couldn’t quite appreciate the first time he came inside. Of course, part of that was due to the fact that he was too busy eating with his eyes every single desert he could find. But who sweats the small details anyways, right?

“Welcome, Mr. Customer!”

Her voice is just as angelical as I remember it.

“Whoah, it hurts that you forgot my name already” he said with a sarcastic smile at the girl rushing ahead to greet the new customer.

“Ah, Mr. Lawrence! Sorry, I had my mind somewhere else so I really wasn’t paying attention…!”

Don’t apologize while holding your plate behind you. I have a family history of heart conditions, ya know? I might not be able to handle so much cuteness.

“Don’t sweat it, I was joking… Anyways, I was wondering if I could have another snack here today. Or another couple, if you don’t mind it?” He walked to the counter and observed the menu printed in a lilac-and-white poster, matching Emma’s waitress uniform and the rest of the locale’s thematic. As always, everything looked delicious. Too much so.

As in, I wanna buy everything and then do seconds even I go bankrupt or die of extreme sugar rush, too much.

Nah, even I wouldn’t eat all this stuff…

Right?

…

I’ll have to remember myself to bring a limited amount of money in my wallet.

“Ah, yes! You’re heading for work right now, right?” Emma ducked and got behind the bar, taking the blog of orders with a hand while she rearranged the cookie jars in the counter with the other.

“No, actually, I came here to clear my head for a bit. I’m on vacations anyways. And I work home. I’m a part-time programmer, mainly focused on games and websites.”

“Website programming…? What’s your specialty? Front-end or back-end?”

Ohoh…?! Is that a woman of culture that I see? Interesting… Very, very interesting…

“As a matter of fact, I specialize on back-end programming. Are you familiarized with the terms, though? I didn’t know maintaining a café took that kind of knowledge…” Lawrence took one of the jars and observed it not with feign interest (It was a chocolate cookie jar)

“Well, Elaine and I were thinking of creating a page for the café… So we took some web programming lessons… But, well, in theory it was all good, but when it came to do the thing, we just couldn’t make it. I’m such a klutz, eheheh…”

Oi oi oi, stop it with that! Do you want to give me a heartattack?!

“Oh, well, if you want, I can make a page for you, you know?” Having found his chance to brag about something, he left the cookie jar back where he had taken it and ‘casually’ made the coment.

“Really?!” Without looking, Emma rearranged the jar again, while yelping and desperately leaning forward.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

O-Oi… I can see your cleavage, you know? What’s with that waitress uniform, anyways?

“Sure. It won’t be free, but I can make a discount for you.” Because saying ‘for you, I’d make the next Carlos’s Duty for free’ counted as ‘too obvious’.

“Thanks! You really are a lifesaver! How could I thank you?!”

“It’s not like I’m doing it for free you know. You’re paying me for it, so there’s no need to thank me?” Not that he didn’t want to be thanked. He touched another of the jars and talked again. “Though, well, I’d appreciate a special recommendation from Amai Master Emma-san. What do you recommend for me?”

“Ah, sure! Well, today we’re offering a special chocolate icecream with nuts that actually goes pretty good with black coffee!” She once again fixed the jar’s position, seemingly unconsciously so.

Uh, I’m starting to suspect that Emma has a bit of OCD? The Clowdseet’s strangely clean, too. As in, way too clean… Ah well, that only makes her cuter.

“Then I’ll have some of that, thank you very much! How much is it?”

“Oh, don’t mind that! This one goes on the house!” She waved off like it was no small problem, with the other hand still holding on to that plate on her waist. Lawrence fought the urge to hug her and put on a troubled look.

“It would feel bad…”

“Think of it as a thanks gift for your discount. You can sit in table 2 while you wait. Oh, and sorry, but no smoking allowed!”

“Smo… king?” Lawrence looked down and fidgeted on his pockets. Smoking? But he had never before smoked a cigarrate… Then, where was the warning coming from?

“Uhm, I haven’t smoked a cigarrate in my life though?”

“Really…?” Emma tilted her head aside, giving Lawrence another sudden impulse to hug her, which he calmed down perfectly well. “Well, you look like the type that would smoke a cigarrate with a calm expression while looking at the stars… Or something like that? Ahaha, sorry! I just kinda make some weird mental images of people when I meet them…”

Looking at the stars while smoking with a calm expression… huh. Well, for some reason, I can see myself fit in that image perfectly too… Though I’ve never smoked a cigarrate.

“Well then, I’ll go seat and wait. I’m looking forward to that icecream!”

* ••••

“Aaahhh… Well, today was a good day, progress-wise.”

The icecream sure was great, and Emma prepared the coffee just how he liked it: strong, bitter, and with little sugar.

I was never a fan of those diluted coffees they make nowadays.

And now that his mind was clear, it was time to go back to thinking about the original matter in hand.

Namely, Mika.

To be honest, Lawrence had made up his mind about this matter for some time now. If it was possible, he would have her staying on his house and using the guest’s room. Like this, it would not only make it easier for him to hold her rains (she didn’t look like the smart type, truth being told), but it would also mean offering an alternative way of paying her for her services.

And then came that other matter. He was already certain he wanted to play the part of a villain. But, what kind of villain exactly? It wasn’t as if he enjoyed being the bad guy… all the time. But he really didn’t like hurting innocent people, performing bank heists, or that sort of villainous stuff. Nah, he was more about the greater, cooler plans. Controlling the city from the shadows, bringing down the LHU, world domination, that kind of things.

“Though, world domination, huh…”

The one true goal of every prided villain. World domination. True, the thought of holding the whole globe in the palm of your hand, being able to change it at will… It was an enticing prospect.

World domination wasn’t bad as an ultimate goal.

Then again, that was reaaally far away in the future. To achieve something as big as world domination, the full control of the globe, he needed to first complete other, more humble goals. Al Capone didn’t become what he was from day to night, did he?

The problem was the following, then:

“What does it take to achieve something like ‘world domination’”

Working on that basis, he would have to write down a list of objectives and such…

…

……

………

“Who am I fooling? That’s not me. I’m more like the ‘headbut the problems and think of consequences later’. I’m not made for things like making list and planning out stuff…”

How would something like world domination even become possible for someone like him, then?

“What a villain, huh… Criminal Mastermind my ass…”

Though, Criminal Mastermind, huh…? Wait, I feel like I’m missing something… Criminal Mastermind… Criminal Mastermind…

Lawrence suddenly smacked himself on the face.

“Of course! That’s it! My power works with luck, right? Then, I should eventually become something if I keep headbutting into trouble…! Okay, wait, that’s still not nice. Not nice at all! Why am I even thinking of getting into trouble, anyway?”

Lawrence sighed and kicked a pebble in the street. Curious that a pebble was even there at that time, since a maintenance team had worked on that street just yesterday, but he didn’t mind the fact.

The pebble was sent flying

“So I’m stuck, huh… Well, I guess I’ll just sit around and keep doing what I usually do until something comes up.”

Not the best solution ever but it would have to do for now.

Lawrence sighed.

The pebble landed right in front of a fancy-looking man wearing slick moccasins, who stepped on it, slipped, and fell. The suitcase he was holding clacked open and its whole content was thrown outside. As the man cursed, a howling wind, also weird since the street was encased between pretty tall buildings, sent the papers flying just as the pebble had done before. One of the papers hit Lawrence’s face, and he got a feeling of deja-vu.

“Hasn’t this happened before?” He took the paper out of his face, and observed it.

“Hmm… ‘Quickbrick & Co: If you’re dealing with cement, we’re your best choice!’ Why does someone even have this in their suitcase? An advertiser…? Meh” he left the paper, which flew away with the stubborn draft of wind. It also blew one of the signs in the contiguous building flail dangerously, making a few screws come loose.

Lawrence, who had coincidentally looked there at the time (thinking he had heard a bird yelp something like “Fuck you! Fuck you!”), noticed this, and saw there was someone about to walk below the sign.

“Watch out!” He yelled, but hoping your voice reaches someone across the street in Plaza, Worne YK, is like hoping Truck-kun pays you a visit, and does his job right.

Knowing this, Lawrence rushed forward, and before the person had anything to say, he pounced on her. The next second, with a deafening crash, the sign fell to the ground with the grace of a blind hippopotamus dancing ballet.

Lawrence and the young woman stared at each other for a moment.

Then he noticed somewhere along the road they had changed positions, and now he was the one at the bottom.

“You know, I usually enjoy more being at the top.”

… He so wanted to smack himself in the face for saying that now.