Who: Peter, Rose, & York What: A misunderstanding When: March 6th, morning Where: Baxter's Bakery Rating: Low Status: Complete!
Peter normally avoided trendy little cafes like the plague. Sure, he liked coffee and sweets but he wanted a coffee that had been left out all night and had grounds in it. He wanted a coffee that was so bitter, it scared the hair right off your chest. He wanted disgusting 7-11 coffee that the cashier wouldn’t even give it to you for free, it was that nasty.
But he also had some money in his pocket and thought he may as well splurge. It had been a hard morning already, having to crawl under someone’s house to check if the insulation was holding. Dirty, dusty, spidery places were not his favourite. On top of that, he was hungover, and the sun was horrible. Sunglasses on, and grime on his face, he squinted as he tried to figure out what the hell to order. The problem really, was that he had no idea what half of these words were on the menu. If he was really honest, he didn’t even know how to pronounce half of these things.
With a sigh, he gave up and motioned to the lady behind the counter. “Look. I just want a coffee that has no sugar and that will keep me awake for an ungodly amount of time. And maybe something to eat that won’t dissolve my teeth. I have money and I’m prepared to use it. Please give me caffeine.”
It was good to be back at Baxter’s and Rose was finally use to her schedule back in California. She had been able to reach out to a few friends and felt like life was finally back on track. She had just been thinking of York when he was suddenly in front of her! But he looked...different? Rose couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something about him that seemed off.
Still, she smiled, leaning on the counter and wondering if he was playing a game. “Wow, someone’s cranky this morning,” she said, turning to make his usual. “You can’t be serious though. You don’t want your usual?” She raised an eyebrow, an empty coffee cup in her hand. Maybe he was trying something new? Cutting down on all the sweets he usually loved so much? New Years Resolution to eat healthier? Whatever the reason, she’d support him regardless.
Peter raised his eyebrows slowly in response to this very friendly person. Did he have a usual? He didn’t think he’d ever been there before, but he’d had a few rough nights this week so there was a possibility he could have stumbled in? No, that couldn’t be it. Peter was confused...but that was nothing new.
Raking a hand through his hair, he shrugged. “Right...so now I think I have to apologize, because if I’ve been here enough to have a usual order? I must’ve been right blitzed out of my mind and I don’t remember this at all. Can I just have a coffee please?” He could not stress this enough -- he needed caffeine.
Rose gave him a funny look, but quickly turned around to fill the cup with regular, black coffee. She knew that tone and didn’t want to make him any more upset than he seemed to be already. “Yeah, so...what’s with you today?” She turned to hand him the steaming cup, placing a lid on it. She had left some room for cream and sugar, sure he would want to mix something else in. “And I thought we were hanging out tonight? I didn’t know you were going to surprise me at work!” She grinned, leaning over the counter, waiting for him to give her a kiss.
This had to be the friendliest cafe in the history of cafes. Plans? What? All he wanted was a coffee. Oh well -- he’d always known he was irresistible. Now, Peter wasn’t a prude by any means, and he did attract his fair share of women but this? This was new. She was practically throwing herself at him.
With little hesitation, he leaned forward and gave her a quick one before stepping back and shaking his head with a smile. “Lady, if you’re going for employee of the month, you are on the right path.” He lifted his cup at her and grinned. “Cheers?”
York wasn’t sure he was going to have time to see Rose until later, and the weight of that was a little heavier on his shoulders than he would have liked. Truth was he was head over heel in love with the woman, and he was was trying not to be. York was the kind of guy who fell hard, fell fast, and got burned. He really, really didn’t want to get burned with Rose, which was why he was trying to take things so slow. Still, he wanted to see her. It’d been a rough day at work--he’d been blamed for a lot of things that were outside of his control, and gave him twice as much work to do today.
When he’d been released for a break, he headed straight to Baxter’s to see his ray of sunshine. And when he stepped through the front door, his first thought was who’s the pretty blonde behind the register getting kissed? And then his heart sank through the floor. He stepped forward, brow furrowed.
“Hey. What’s going on here?”
If “York’s” actions hadn’t been strange enough as it was, things got A LOT more confusing as the real York walked in. Rose blinked, looking from him to the man who had just kissed her. What?
“I should be asking the same thing!” She glanced at not!York. “So...what is going on here?” She folded her arms over her chest in a defensive pose, looking between York and fake-York.
Peter slowly sipped on his coffee, sunglasses still in place as he tried to figure out what the heck was going on. From the look on not-him’s face, there was something going on with the incredibly peppy waitress. He almost felt bad that he hadn’t tipped her.
Lowering his shades, he blinked and stretched his neck from side to side before taking another slow drink. “Okay. I think I got this now. One of us is an evil twin, and I’m going to assume that’s me, because hell, that only makes sense. So congrats to you on winning the genetic lottery and having this beautiful mug, but also sucks to be you because I wear it better. Oh and my bad on the kissing your girlfriend thing. In my defense, she asked for it.” Sunglasses went back on and he continued with his coffee.
It was actually really good coffee. He might become a regular after all. Only maybe he’d wear a nametag next time.
Well, this was one of those things York never thought he’d see. Not that he had any claim on Rose. But he hadn’t really expected to see her kissing someone else. But the someone else looked… looked like him. He wasn’t an exact copy--this other guy didn’t have the grotesque scar on his face like York did, and he was probably… a little thinner?--but it was jarring how close they appeared.
“Oh. She’s not my girlfriend.” York said it, then instantly regretted it. To cover, he turned to look at the other-him, and added quickly, “wait, evil twin? I guess that explains the…” he motioned between them.
Rose seemed to slip from one emotion to another. As fake!York had taken off his glasses, she had felt her heart sink as she realized her mistake. How could she have been so stupid? There was no scar there and in her mind, she couldn’t even rationalize that the sunglasses and grim as an excuse. She was about to slap him when she caught at what York at said. Not his girlfriend? Well, they had never actually defined it, but she had thought they were fairly serious. Guess not.
“So...you guys don’t know each other?” She pointed between the two of them, crossing her arms and trying not to sound hurt or bitter by what York had said.
“No? Should we?” Peter had to stop and think about this one. Obviously, he wasn’t really at his best when he was born, probably red-faced and screaming, so remembering a twin wasn’t really something he had in his brain. Yondu would have probably thrown it at him anyways, about his good brother, or how he was stuck with the wrong Peter.
This was probably just one of your regular doppleganger moments. Yeah. That made sense.
“I mean. We do now ? Oh!” He extended his free hand out. “Peter Quill. From Missouri. Gotta say, sometimes I laid in my twin bed at night and wondered where my brother was …….” The joke got crickets. “No? No one’s a Mitch Hedburg fan? Man. Tough place."
Well, this was one of those strange things. Those strange things that Orange County seemed to be full of. York reached out to shake the other man’s hand, still really confused as to what was going on. But hey, he had enough manners to shake a hand when it was presented to him. Part-way through he realized that he was shaking the hand of the guy who was just kissing his girl. Or, well, his not girlfriend… person.
Damnit.
“James Duggan, but my friends call me York.” He released the other man’s hand. “So… you and Rose, eh?” As much as he tried, he couldn’t hide the pain in his voice.
“No! There is no ‘him and Rose.’” Rose jumped in before Peter could say anything. Not that he would say any differently, but Rose still felt a bit hurt by York’s casual acquaintance with her and wanted to assure him it had been a mistake. But there was only so much she could say with Peter here.
She turned her attention on him, her eyes squinting juuust a little as she glared at him.
“Why didn’t you say anything when I leaned over for the kiss?? I obviously thought you were someone else!” Even as she said it, it sounded like a pathetic excuse. But if there was one thing Rose was good at, it was being stubborn.
“It’s not like we ask for kisses as a tip.”
One of these days, he’d have to learn how to be serious. Today was not that day.
Peter couldn’t help the smirk that crossed his face at Rose’s anger. “Lady -- Rose.” She had a name, he should probably use it. “I am in no position to be turning down kisses from a beautiful lady. All of this?” He motioned his finger between the three of them. “Has seriously made my day. I no longer feel alone on this dark, dreary world.”
He also wasn’t stupid enough to see the blatant hostility on Rose’s face, and the bewilderment on that York guys’ face. This needed a bit more coffee to process. One loud slurp later, he nodded. “Anyways. Let’s chalk this up to one of those weird serendipity things, and you guys use me as your weird fairy godfather.” He raised his eyebrows and grinned. “I mean, let’s be real -- I’m going to disappear from your lives now, exist on the edge because you can’t unknow I exist, but hey -- can we have like a safe word? That way, if you ask me ‘ What’s the word?’ and I say ‘jambalaya’, you know it’s me and not York, because no offence York, but you don’t seem like the kind of guy who would say the word jambalaya lightly.”
A safe word was probably the best idea ever. Oh, how York wished that all of Orange County had one of those. And There is no ‘him and Rose,’ was quite the relief--it was probably obvious in the way his shoulders sagged. Tension drained from them. He should have known this was some fucked up Orange County thing and not… well. Not Rose kissing some other guy. Because Rose kissed York exclusively, right? At least, York was kissing Rose exclusively.
He should probably tell her all that.
“No, definitely not,” York held up his hand as if in the Scout’s honor kind of way… though he had the fingers all wrong for the Scout Hand Sign. “I’d never take the word jambalaya in vain.”
York relaxing helped Rose loosen up as well, but she kept her arms folded looking between the two. “Nice word choice mate,” she said, giving Peter a look like she had kissed a mad man. Still, it wasn’t every day you met your twin, so she had to give him some benefit of a doubt. “I’ll make sure to remember it just in case.” Really, it felt like a lame excuse, but Rose wasn’t going to argue it anymore.
“I guess...nice to meet you?” She shifted behind the counter, wondering if she’d just be able to duck into the kitchen and sneak out the back door. Today was definitely turning into the kind of day where she just wanted to go home and bury herself in bed. The embarrassment was starting to settle and stretch the longer the three of them stood off like this.
Peter lifted his cup in agreement. “And let’s hope to never all be in the same place again at the same time, or else that’ll just be a doozy.” Although...it would be interesting to see if Yondu could tell the two of them apart ...nah. Peter didn’t need to piss off the literal hand that fed, clothed and housed him.
Or did he…
“We’ll be in touch and oh --,” Peter tossed a few bills on the counter. “Have a coffee on me, pal. You look like you could use it.” And with that, he was gone, chuckling to himself and pleased to know that even in a twin-off, he was still way more handsome.
This was one of those absolutely insane things that threw York for a loop. There were a lot of them in Orange County, if he was completely honest, but this one really took the cake. He nodded to the other man and watched him go, still trying to process what the heck just happened. Such a roller coaster of emotions in such a short amount of time.
And it wasn’t until he turned to look at Rose over the counter that he realized she’d probably had it far worse. He felt instant shame and guilt over being so selfish. He should have worried more about her than his own feelings.
“Uh…” He said, softly. “I guess I’ll take that coffee to go. When’s your next break?” Because they had a lot of things to talk about.