Oooh. For the AU combination what about Historical AU and Coffee Shop?

unforth-ninawaters:

You didn’t name a ship so I’m doing Stormpilot.

A hush fell over the Caffe Florian as a tall man swathed in black robes stepped within the smoky room. Even with his Carnival mask obscuring his face, there was no mistaking who he was. No one else in Venice moved with such flare, such confidence.
Il Pilota.
The greatest gondolier in the city, knowledgable about every channel, every eddy, every current, able to navigate a gondola day or night, rain or shine, through any canal or even out into the ocean.
Sweating beneath his mask, Finn wished he had a fraction of the confidence that Il Pilota demonstrated with every dramatic sweep of his cape. If Finn had to approach the man he was doomed…but he wasn’t Finn, not that night, he was just another masked Carnival celebrant, another shadow out for the night, hiding from the storms outside in the lurid wonder of Florians. He waited until the hubbub around Il Pilota’s arrival died down, waited until the next celebrity graced the Caffe, and made his approach.
“Any amount you name if you can get me out of the city tonight,” he murmured as he passed close.
Il Pilota snagged his wrist. “No payment needed. All I ask is adventure and a story that will wow the city from scullion to doge come tomorrow.”
“Deal.”

(Send me a pairing and a setting or a trope or whatever and I’ll write a more or less three sentence ficlet)