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magic mike (mikelane) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-08-24 17:29:00

Who: Mike Lane mikelane & Raven ofevilsfire
What: Coffee
When: 18 August 2015, during the Shattered Sight plot
Where: Coffee Shop Where Raven Works
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None.
Status: Closed/Completed Partner Thread


~*~

People had bad days. Bad days happened to everyone whether they were rich or poor, young or old, regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. Mike Lane had been the guy who had lived through a lot of bad days himself before he managed to get to the OC. He'd been having an easier time of it doing what he loved -making custom furniture which his mentor told him to market as 'furnishing art'- up until this week when it seemed absolutely everyone, absolutely everywhere he went was simultaneously having a bad day.

Coffee was going to be a necessity to get him through his deliveries. Mike could tell because he was already feeling drained and he'd only dropped off two pieces out of ten. It hadn't helped him to have his neighbors keeping him up all night while they yelled at one another about a toaster oven not being the best appliance to use for bagels or frozen pizzas. There had literally been no stopping them until the woman -normally a nice, calm older lady- had thrown the toaster oven out her window to crash into someone's SUV.

The police had shown up and Mike's attempts to sleep had been over from that point which meant he'd been up since 4:30 AM with less than an hour of real sleep.

He wasn't familiar with the coffee shop he'd wandered into. It was the closest to him. There weren't people who he knew off-hand on site. Mike knew he'd never done any business in the place. Given the mood of the general population of the OC, he figured he was as safe as he was going to be with his selection of beverage dispensary.

When it came his time to approach the register, Mike raised both hands in front of him with his palms out in the universal sign of surrender, "Plain black coffee. Nothing fancy. I'm sorry in advance for any kind of annoying thing I may or may not have done to you or near you or---I'm sorry."

Better to cover his bases in advance than deal with the repercussions.

~*~

One of these days, Raven would find a new job. One that didn’t involve customer service. Or annoying petulant man child bosses. Though to Peter’s credit, he had actually tried to cover her shifts thanks to the perpetual migraine she had from the heightened emotions, not that it had worked on this particular day. And not just heightened emotions, but negative heightened emotions. Being an empath sucked on the best of days. Throw in Orange County BS and it made it worse. God she wished she had never found that stupid network, maybe she’d still be a relatively normal teenager instead of a half demon serving coffee to people because she’d been so desperate for a job to get away from her father that she had a fake ID to be able to work.

New job. Actual ID. That was the dream. Once she got out of high school. Ugh.

The morning had been… interesting to say the least. She was used to the annoying customers, the ones who were so very specific and then got offended at the most ridiculous of things. She couldn’t tell just what it was. If it was from Orange County being Orange County.. well, her magic was picking up on this being a spell of some sorts but because she was sixteen, she often found herself left out because of that whole stupid ‘have a normal life’ thing people kept insisting she needed. She was tired of it. Tired of feeling like she couldn’t do anything thanks to her age. Not that the increased aggression was something she could help with, but the sentiment? It was still there.

So to hear someone order and then preemptively apologise? That was… well, unexpected.

“What?”

Raven was never one for the personable persona, she was straight to the point and before it had been fear of her father that kept her employed since she didn’t abide idiots, but this was something else entirely.

“This is my normal expression?”

Was that it? Was it some comment on the fact that she tended to look annoyed most of the time? Right then. Shaking her head, Raven just put in the order before telling the very random customer what his total cost would be.

~*~

"Mike," he said, pointing to the cup, "For my coffee. My name is Mike. I was apologising because it seems as if I have the amazing talent of annoying everyone near me simply by opening my mouth. I smiled today at a lady on a delivery? She spent twenty minutes telling me exactly how she could send me straight to Hell for looking at her inappropriately."

He shook his head while he counted out the bills to cover his drink. Handing the money over, Mike hoped he didn't offend the barista by giving her an anecdote of how his day was going. It was likely she wasn't faring well either given her expression though she had said it was how she normally looked. A woman he'd dated had told him she was a person who suffered from Resting Bitch Face; Mike had never forgot it and it always brought a smile to his lips when he thought of her.

It had been a long time since a woman had brought a smile to his face.

Customer service work of any kind was not conducive to good relationships.

"I didn't mean to ramble at you or imply you looked annoyed. I was just getting ahead of myself just in case. Sorry again if I offended you. I imagine it isn't too easy here either."

There was a line behind him which he stepped to the side to allow the person behind him to start spouting out their order as if they were firing a gatling gun at the girl. Mike winced in sympathy. That was exactly the kind of experience he'd been having of late. The girl was handling it better than he was from the look of her. He was trying to avoid as much as possible without being very successful at the whole avoidance thing. All he really wanted was to get his coffee, drink it over a period of an hour without being yelled at, and finish his deliveries to only happy people.

Mike wasn't delusional enough to think that would happen, but he could wish for it without hurting anyone.

~*~

And apparently Raven was so stunned by the rambling that she had forgotten to ask for a name. Then again, even though she would have preferred the safety of the darkness of her room in some pathetic attempt to cure the aggression laden migraine, she couldn’t be as Peter hadn’t been able to get this shift covered and the boss above him had decided she needed to come in.

“You talk a lot, Mike. But it’s fine. It takes more than that to offend me.”

She had to be calm to control her abilities. Which… easier said than done. There had been plenty of ceramic mugs that ended up broken thanks to too many idiots. Steamers suddenly releasing all the steam in someone’s face on accident. It happened less than it had when her abilities had first started, but that didn’t mean she had complete control.

“It seems to be going around. The annoying people thing.” The first day and Regina had snapped at her. Raven could tell that it was something going on, but it didn’t exactly stop the hurt. Even if it verified her migraine wasn’t so much a migraine as a very frustrating premonition that was sticking around. And whenever she looked outside at the clouds, sometimes it was like seeing shimmers of glass in it, seen through her Soul Self and not so much her actual eyes. Not that she could tell for certain because of everything and she wasn’t necessarily trusting her vision at the moment when half the time it was blinding pain just to step down.

She just knew better than to take it for granted that she was hallucinating something. She would just keep an eye on it.

But then she had to deal with other customers. Morning bitchiness was one thing, this was something else entirely. Not that she would kill them with kindness like some would suggest. No, she had (mostly) learned to keep herself calm because she had to. And the only reason she was about to employ one of Peter’s antics was because he wasn’t there to notice. Which was messing up the spelling on their cups. And then an argumentative coworker was coming over to take control of the register. Fine then. Off to make the drinks and then call out names to pick them up.

“Mike, your black coffee is ready at the bar.”

Two more hours. She could survive two more hours.

~*~

Talking was easier for Mike than some guys. Most women talked about how they liked the strong, silent type, but that was complete horseshit in Mike's experience. They wanted a man who would listen to them talk about anything they wanted to talk about and respond when prompted. If he was totally silent? Instant World War III ensued. Mike knew more about women than he wanted to think about or admit to which was why he merely smiled at the barista when she mentioned his rambling.

Everyone had nervous habits.

Mike didn't do too many things which were noticeable. He did talk too much at times. He also had a tendency to make a joke out of everything to try to alleviate tension in a room. Conflict wasn't something he wanted to be a part of if he could help it. He firmly believed in making love not war. It took a lot to make him really angry. Brooke hadn't even managed and she'd left him for who knew what reason when he'd wanted to marry her. The ring was missing, but Mike couldn't bring himself to care.

Money was its own kind of curse.

"Thanks for the coffee. I'm taking up a space over there out of the way of the rampaging crowd. If you wind up getting a chance to escape the kill zone? I promise not to talk your ear off should you want to stop by for a rest. I'm willing to be that guy you look like you're helping when you aren't. I'm a nice guy like that."

Nice guys always finished last was the motto of Mike Lane's life. He had volunteered to do the worst jobs, given money away he didn't have to people who wouldn't use it for anything good, and squandered chances to better himself in favor of letting someone else have the shot. The earliest memories he had were of letting himself take a backseat to the problems of everyone else. Most would expect him to be bitter over it all. Mike thought it enriched his life since he could appreciate what he managed to accomplish all the more for it.

~*~

It wasn’t like Raven was used to talking a lot. She was very closed off and those who ended up her friends usually ended up being her friends without her even realising it happening. Before it had been because her father was dangerous and she didn’t want to answer questions. Then the dreams had started and she’d been worried about destiny and prophecy. Attachment was dangerous. It meant that if she grew close to someone and something happened, she could lose control of her abilities. And yet, she did have a few whom she considered friends and it never ceased to confuse her.

However, Mike did manage to get the slightest hint of a smile out Raven at the comment that he would act as someone she was ‘helping’ in order to escape the insanity and madness that was behind the counter and being in charge of drinks when people were angrier than usual and taking it out on everyone.

“You’re welcome and I’ll see if that becomes necessary.”

It probably would. She was getting a migraine from the rising tensions of both coworkers and customers. Even those she was close to who were usually quiet had spiked emotions. She was thankful her aunt wasn’t affected by whatever was going on. But that didn’t change the fact that it seemed almost everyone she had an emotional link to was affected, which just pushed down on her even more on top of the overall aggressive atmosphere. Some to extreme lengths that she didn’t know how to fix.

Or someone could yell at her for talking to someone even as she had already been turning back to the line of drinks she still had to make. She couldn’t wait until this ended.

~*~

California was a lot different from Florida in terms of the way people approached each other. Mike was used to the way women would flirt with him if he was alone in a coffee shop or bar. In the OC, people rarely approached anyone without some kind of queue first which struck him as strange. It wasn't as if a guy his age would need to give permission to a hot girl to try to pick him up. Most guys in his age bracket were flattered if they got asked out at all since they weren't as young as they had been---even if they were like Mike and kept themselves up.

Fitness had been important to him for a lot of reasons. He'd done construction which had required him to be able to handle a day of hard manual labor and then he'd went immediately from construction sites to shower, put on something eye-catching yet cool, and prepared to be the pied piper to show people where that night's party was at until whatever hour of the morning he had to do it in. His body had to stand up to the pressure of working too many jobs on too little sleep so Mike spent a lot of time trying to make his body as good as he could.

No one had asked him out in so long by this stage? It wasn't even a thing for him to sit alone at a table for two at a coffee shop, checking his phone and not looking up at anyone around him.

Mike had a few more orders coming in. Some of them were worded pretty strange; one had an undercurrent of annoyance Mike could literally hear in his head while reading it which led to him trying to assess how much it would net him before trashing the email as more trouble than it was worth. It felt good to be able to do that now. Picking his own jobs was a luxury he hadn't expected to earn. This was only a few years out for him. Most starter businesses took at least five to ten years to get off the ground---if they ever got off the ground at all.

He was proud of himself and his smile showed it as he took another drink from his coffee.

Hearing a noise, he looked up to see if the barista had chosen to take him up on his offer to escape her work at the counter for a while.

~*~

Raven managed to get through her line of drinks before her patience was completely tested. No, that was a lie. This job was a test on her patience every second of every shift. But given she had started the job as a way to escape her father, she had put up with it. And now she had been there for longer than she liked but had to deal with it because… she didn’t know why she stuck with it when she could be focusing on school or testing out of her last two years of high school as she didn’t need to worry about the things she used to since living with her aunt.

Though perhaps that was part of it. She didn’t believe it could last. She was too used to anything good eventually vanishing. She wanted to be prepared for the inevitable. Which meant, she was here.

But as with most things, it didn’t last. Raven barely heard the comment, and it wasn’t something that would usually upset her. But between a migraine, inability to block out the strong emotions of others and worrying about friends who were affected… it happened. Shattering ceramic mugs in someone’s hand so that they ended up with hot coffee on them. That was her cue to take a break. Which led to the steamer suddenly steaming when her coworker tried to stop her.

Getting herself out from her current prison of behind the counter and quickly went outside, passing by Mike’s table without even bothering to be quiet about it. Oh thank god for fresh air. The teen just stared up at the dark clouds that were hanging over Orange County, trying to focus on the glass shards, which meant more opening up of her Soul Self to see if she could figure anything out. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to, maybe it was a migraine induced hallucination. But the fact that she could see it through her Soul Self and not normally spoke to it being some kind of magic. The question of course, was what kind.

~*~

No one else seemed to be too concerned with the girl fleeing through the front door. Mike was worried with how had basically ran out of the shop. She was standing outside, staring at the sky. It was as if she were looking for answers. He wished he could think of the questions which could be answered in a sky as dark as the one over Orange County. It wasn't their usual weather. No one was in their usual mood for that matter. He wanted to do as much as he could to help her. Mike might not know what she was going through, but he could offer to listen.

Leaving his coffee behind, Mike went outside carefully letting the door close behind him. He didn't get too close to her. There was something which told him he should keep his distance where she was concerned. It was an instinct thing. Women were easier than men for him to understand. Even young women were better than men as far as Mike was concerned. He could talk to a woman for hours whereas most men made him want to start drinking. Heavily. For a long, long time or possibly until he passed out.

"Hey," he asked, "Are you doing okay? Can I help?"

He felt helpless asking. They didn't know one another. She was obviously having it rough. The last thing he wanted to do was make it worse on her by being some strange guy who wouldn't leave her alone when she needed a break from the world. There were times when all a person needed was some space which Mike got. He understood that way more than he should because for him, the best place to get lost was in a crowd. No one was watching when they were too concerned with getting lost themselves. Could be the barista was looking to get lost in the clouds. Mike thought it looked like the kind of sky she might be attracted to based on first impressions alone.

"Or do you want to be left alone to breathe? I get that, too. I do. I just---didn't want you to think no one cared enough to offer a hand or an ear to listen or whatever you need if you need someone."

He was sincere in the asking. Mike wouldn't be upset regardless of what she said. To him, it was enough to have been able to offer.

~*~

Even with the slowly growing circle of people Raven was surrounded by, with Zatanna as a parental figure who actually cared, it still confused the sixteen year old when someone asked how she was. Especially since she barely knew the guy. She had given him his coffee and he had amused her in the rambling and trying to keep from getting attacked because of the latest Orange County nonsense. So when Mike showed up and asked, all she could do was look at him in confusion. Because what had just happened.

“I’m used to it. But thanks. I just need to breathe, though. Clear my head.”

That was the easiest way of putting it. Most people didn’t seem to get the idea of dream related issues and how her powers had just spiked from everything piling up on her. So breathing was good. As well as trying to make sense of whatever it was that was making people so aggressive. God she hated her empathy and the migraine that came with it.

And so she went back to staring up at the clouds, which were being very uncooperative in the answer getting.

~*~

Mike nodded. He didn't need anything else from her. She was looking for answers to questions he had no right knowing she was asking in the first place. They were two strangers in a world filled up with them. It was just like the OC to throw wacky weather into his week when everyone was pissed off around him.

"Good luck. I'll leave you to it. Got some more people I need to make disagreeable deliveries to today."

He waved. He hoped it got better for her. Mike had a feeling things in the OC weren't going to be too good to any of them for a while. They were all in for it from the looks of the sky. Figured. Mike had yet to experience a completely placid period of time in the place the whole time he'd been there.

It would work itself out.

Always had.

Always would.

Somethings were a certainty in life and the OC taking care of itself was one of those things for Mike.