It was a dark day outside - the thunderstorm didn’t look anywhere close to abating - made darker by the fact that Atlantis had apparently magically glued sunglasses to Cappie’s face. He’d woken up with them on that morning and, no matter what he’d tried since, he couldn’t get them off. Still, he knew they’d probably go away of their own accord sooner or later. That tended to be what happened with Atlantis magic.
He wondered whether the same would go for the telepathy which he seemed to be stuck with now. He’d seen What Women Want and he knew that Mel Gibson had only got rid of his telepathy by getting a pretty hefty electric shock right at the penultimate moment in the movie. However, Cappie found that getting struck by lighting was the kind of experience which made a guy rather wary of electricity and he was keen to avoid getting shocked again anytime soon. Still, he couldn’t avoid going out in the storm completely. For one thing, he’d had work and, quite aside from that, he would have gone stir crazy if he was stuck in his apartment all day, or for however long this storm was going to last.
Once he was done with work for the day, he made a mad dash from Dive, where he’d been scrubbing the underside of tables for Abe, through the storm to take shelter in Coffee Me Better on his way back to his tower. He shook himself off once he got through the doorway, pushing down the hood of his hoodie and going to take off his sunglasses until he remembered why he was wearing them in the first place. There were a few people around and he could immediately hear the buzz of their thoughts clamouring for attention inside his head. He shut his eyes momentarily and remembered what Charles had taught him about mentally building a wall around his mind. It didn’t work very well - he figured it would come with practice - but it helped for the time being.
Crossing to the bar, he placed an order for a white chocolate mocha before casually leaning against the surface where the sugar sachets were displayed to wait for his drink. He lifted a hand to absentmindedly rub at his temple - he had a headache coming on.
After finishing her own shift at Snoozle for the day, Emilia decided to stop off for some coffee. It had been a long, busy day and she could use the caffeine boost. Besides, she happened to love the little coffee shop. It was on her way back to the apartments, anyway, and lucky she could use her magic to keep the worst of the storm off of her.
Stepping up to the counter to order, she didn’t notice Cappie at first. She pulled out her phone long enough to smile at a text from Rocco before slipping it back into her pocket just in time to place her drink order. It wasn’t until she turned to head for the end where she would need to pick up her drink that she saw her ex-boyfriend. The usual mixed emotions came at the sight of him. There was a part of her that missed him enough that she always liked having a reason to see him, but another part of her hurt when that happened. It brought back the memories of their breakup and how much that had hurt. Most of the time, Emilia could convince herself that she’d dealt with it and was ready to move on with her life, but it was harder to really believe that when she came face to face with him like this.
Doing her best to keep those conflicted emotions off of her face, she put on a bright smile to greet him. “Hey!” Noticing the sunglasses, she couldn’t help a small laugh. “You know, I don’t think you really need those things in here,” she teased him. Or tried to, anyway. Her tone probably wasn’t as light and easy as it might have been with someone who hadn’t just broken up with her a few months ago.
Hearing thoughts wasn’t exactly like hearing actual sounds. They were inside, somehow. It was like getting a song stuck in your head - you could hear the tune and the words just fine but it wasn’t like listening to the music. Most of the time it was in the background and you could prioritise your own thoughts but, every now and then, an image or a phrase leapt out at you and forced you to pay attention. That was what happened to Cappie as he waited for his coffee. One minute he was happily reading the menu board, wondering what the hell a Triple, Half Sweet, Non-Fat, Caramel Macchiato was, the next he was picking up on the invasive thoughts of someone nearby. What caught his attention most, though, was that the thinker in question was projecting one word very loudly: his name. He looked up to see Emilia walking towards him.
Inwardly, he groaned. Oh God. This was going to be awkward. Things were weird enough between them at the best of times but, if there was one person in Atlantis whose thoughts Cappie didn’t want to hear, it was his ex girlfriend. Still, what could he do? He couldn’t just walk away. For one thing, he didn’t have his coffee yet. If he left now, she’d know that it was to avoid talking to her and, even after everything, he didn’t want to knowingly hurt her. He just hoped the advice Charles had given him was going to be enough to help him block out thoughts from someone that was in such close proximity. Somehow he doubted it. Charles had told him that controlling his telepathy would take concentration, practice and discipline and, unfortunately, Cappie wasn’t known for being disciplined. Feeling trapped, he hoisted a smile onto his face.
“Yeah, tell that to Atlantis,” he replied dryly, raising his eyebrows above the rims of the aviators.
“What did you order?” he asked, nodding towards the coffee machine, reaching for a safe topic of conversation. “I’m guessing you’ve graduated from the Cappiechino.”
Leave it to Atlantis to inflict the random weirdness. It could be fun, at least, when you didn’t know what it was going to come up with next. Sometimes, she liked the unpredictability of this place.
Her smile slipped a little when he asked about her drink choice, making a joke. The start of their relationship seemed so long ago now, but she could remember it as clearly as if it was still new. It was a bittersweet feeling now, standing here at the end rather than the beginning. She wasn’t sure how to answer him.
“I got a white mocha,” she settled on, avoiding the joke completely. “What about you?”
Cappie could tell that his joke had fallen rather flat, even before he got the projected image of a rooftop in March, as clear as though he was there. He had to make an effort not to let the little flicker of guilt he felt show on his face. He gulped. This was going to be harder than he thought.
“Same,” he smiled, trying to keep his tone light hearted and off-hand. “But then we already knew we both had good taste,” he added, already wishing he had another trick up his sleeve other than making stupid jokes. It was his normal defence mechanism but, when he was talking to someone like Emilia, who knew him so well that she could see right through him, it didn’t have very much effect other than letting her know that he was struggling for what to say.
“There are a lot of people from your world here now,” he commented, searching for another topic of conversation which wouldn’t lead to him getting a telepathic run through of their failed relationship. “I met your friend Delilah,” he added, raising his eyebrows. “She’s not shy about her opinions, is she?”
Emilia flashed back to her conversation with Delilah about everything that had happened in Atlantis while she’d been gone. She knew her friend was full of opinions on the breakup and while it didn’t surprise her in the least that she’d shared any of them with Cappie, the thought of her actually doing it made her groan.
“Oh, no, what did she say?” she asked. She knew she and Delilah disagreed on the subject of whether Cappie still had feelings for Em and whether things were truly over between them and she could only imagine what kinds of comments might have actually been made. Knowing Delilah meant well didn’t make the thought any less embarrassing.
“I don’t know,” Cappie replied, shaking his head. “Something about life being full of robots.” He shrugged. He remembered the conversation with Delilah very well. At least, very well considering that he’d already had a bit to drink by the time they’d run into each other. Still, the part about Bee was crystal clear in his mind.
Despite his best efforts to ignore Emilia’s thoughts, he couldn’t help but pick up on the words, ’still had feelings’ and ’not truly over’ as they tapped merrily on his mental wall. His mouth went suddenly dry and he had to force himself to gulp. He didn’t want to listen in to her thoughts but he couldn’t deny that he really wanted to know the other words in that sentence. He wished this telepathy thing had a pause and rewind button.
“Full of robots?” Em couldn’t help laughing at that. That wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. She didn’t know what she thought he’d say Delilah had said to him, but she was pretty sure she didn’t think robots would have been a part of it.
Then again, maybe he wanted to talk about what Delilah had really said as much as she wanted to talk about her own conversation with her friend. Whatever it was she’d said to him, she thought she probably was better off not knowing.
“Cappie?” called out the barista, peering down at the name scrawled on the side of the paper cup he was holding.
Cappie gave Em a small, almost apologetic smile before turning and taking his drink. He was absolutely glad of the opportunity to walk away from this conversation, even though it was mentally just getting juicy. He was far too tempted to listen in to Em’s thoughts and he really didn’t want to give in and stoop that low.
“I guess I’ll see you around then?” he said once he had the cup in his hands, steam swirling in spirals from the little hole in the lid, carrying up a delicious aroma of coffee and sweet, white chocolate.
Emilia couldn’t decide if she was relieved or disappointed that their conversation was coming to an end. Like always, she both wanted to talk to him and wanted to get away from the reminders of what they’d had and how much she missed him. With no clue that he could actually read her thoughts at the moment, she nodded and smiled up at him, doing her best not to show those conflicting emotions. “Of course,” she agreed, “I’m sure you will.”