Raven loves waffles more than life itself (ofevilsfire) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-11-29 09:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, edward elric, peter pan, rachel roth (raven) |
Who: Ed Elric, Peter Pan and Raven
What: Awkward times ho!
When: 29 November
Where: Coffee shop
Warnings: A is for awkward turtle
Status: Log | Complete
When Raven didn’t know how to deal with things, she didn’t. The trip with Zatanna to New York had been a welcomed distraction. But then she was back at work. Where she refused to let what happened with Peter change anything. Which meant it was the usual snark and annoyance. As if nothing had happened.
Ugh. Emotions were confusing enough, let alone when she had to suppress them to maintain her control.
And it wasn’t like she had the best customer service. She did her job, but she didn’t appreciate some creepo telling her she should smile more because it would make her more attractive. What was with guys and their sense of entitlement? She really was trying to be nice. But the more he talked? First there was a flicker of one of the lights a sign that her control was faltering.
“How about you shut up? You’re a jerk and I’m not sorry that I’m not smiling. Now move along so I can make your drink.”
Yeah. This was going to end up as another reprimand but Raven really didn’t care.
Ed had been around just doing a bit more studying for his test, it was coming up soon-The CHSPE test to get out of hell, also known as high school. Raven was a friend, and often hanging around the coffee shop for him ended in pastries, so why not just study there? He hadn’t been paying much attention until he heard raised voices from the counter and a blonde eyebrow quirked.
For a moment he just watched, but it seemed like the guy wasn’t getting off Raven’s case, and so he finally stood with a bit of an exasperated sigh. “How about you take your coffee and go like she said nice and peaceful like?” Ed wasn’t exactly intimidating at first glance, and the customer was practically a giant in comparison, but that didn’t stop him from speaking up.
Peter may have been giving Raven some moon eyes during the course of the shift, but he was doing his best to just try and keep it normal. He had no idea what she was thinking and he was trying to ignore the fact that anything had happened. It was actually quite difficult, but staying on the other side of the work station had been going well so far, which meant that he was taking orders.
And the moment he heard Raven’s voice thick with annoyance and then came the comment. He physically winced at what she said and quickly started to grab for a free coffee coupon in his drawer. Then came the tiny blonde boy to tell the customer off as well and Peter almost slapped his forehead. He quickly moved down to the end of the bar and put on his best customer service face. “Sorry about that sir. Here is your drink and here is a free drink coupon for your next visit. Please, have a great day, and we hope things go better when you come in next.”
Once the customer had turned he turned back to Raven and just gave her a look.
Enter the new guy. Ed had seen him puttering around the coffee shop occasionally, assumed he worked there-but didn’t really know his position with Raven. What he had noticed was his face gaining a strange expression when it met with his friend. Ed was very protective of the ones he considered his people, and he had Raven on that list.
“What’s the big idea, that guy was a jerk?” Ed had also never really had this sort of part time job. He ran deliveries for the flower shop at times, but that was about it for his work experience It was a different sort of customer.
There was the faintest flicker of a smile to Ed when he showed up and told the guy to leave her alone in thanks. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle it, she could and did. But still. Then she noticed Peter’s energy, something she had suddenly become quite aware of since the whole talk-kiss thing. That was annoying. So she just crossed her arms and matched the look.
“He was a creep and he gave me a bad feeling. I’m not sorry.”
And that was all there was to it. Though her gaze flickered to Ed at the comment. That was her feeling on the matter. It wasn’t like Raven was known for taking crap from people. Especially creeps. It was only words, it could have been much worse. The fact it wasn’t despite recent changes was actually a good sign.
“I’m supposed to grin and bear it. That’s the problem.”
“I know he’s a creep, but you’re not supposed to voice your opinion to the customer. I don’t want to have to write you up or have the store send some suits down to yell at us for poor customer service,” Peter explained. He was kind of ignoring the other boy that must have been friends with Raven because there was no reason to voice his opinion except in that case. He reached up to run a hand through his hair and let out a sigh, “I know it sucks, Raven. Just ignore him and vent about it later. There’s really no other way around it.”
That was the part about being in the service industry that sucked the most. Peter tended to keep his annoyances to himself and the vent about to fellow co-workers when it got slow around here. He didn’t want to have to write Raven up, so he would try to smooth things over if he had to.
“And so we reward crap behaviour. Great.” That never did sit well with Raven. She logically understood the argument. Usually she just did her job, was quiet and got it over with. But when there were overzealous creeps? It was a lot harder to bite her tongue. Nor did she see why just letting that behaviour go was okay. “Let jerks like that keep at it and be self entitled.”
Digging her nails into her palm to keep from making the steamer go off, she just glared. She really needed another job. And she was still confused and ungrounded. “I’m going to go take an aspirin. Or something.” It got her away from the creep at least. Sending a look to Ed to say she was fine (mostly) as she knew how the protective thing went, the teen took off her apron so as to be on break and disappeared into the back.
Ed had noticed he was basically getting ignored and it caused a little heat to rise in his blood. His arms filed crossly as Raven went to go and take her aspirin, and Ed was left alone with this guy.
“You're the boss then hm? “ A rude tone to his voice as his gaze leveled on him with a pair of golden calculating eyes. Ed was there at the shop frequently, often kept to himself until Raven was free for breaks or off or whatever though, he usually didn't get in the way until today. He was on guard though, even something about Peter made him grouchy, he just couldn't place what.
Ugh. There was absolutely no possible way that he could win this argument. He completely agreed with her, but he also wanted to keep his job and needed to play devil’s advocate on it. Honestly, if she was to press him then he would allow her to punch out, berate the customer, and then return to her shift. But her glare did nothing to him and he just gave a shrug of his shoulder as she informed them that she was getting an aspirin and stalked off. His shoulders slumped just slightly as he watched her and then he heard the rude voice from around the espresso machine.
His eyebrow quirked as he looked over and saw the blonde boy with an annoyed expression on his face. “One of them, yeah. Why?” Was he seriously going to have to deal with two grouchy people right now? He wasn’t surprised that Raven had a grouchy friend, but he was so not in the mood for this.
“Do all the managers watch their employees so close?” Yeah, he’d noticed some guy staring at Raven. Why he noticed, well...he wasn’t ready to question that bit just yet. So what if Raven didn’t smile at some jackass? That just meant he wasn’t worth while. Ed had seen her smile when someone deserved it, wasn’t that enough?
Ed really hoped Raven was off soon. He wasn’t enjoying the company of this other guy and he didn’t have the grace to hide it much either.
Oh god. Did this boy like Raven as well? That was really the only reason he could see behind him getting all grumpy over absolutely nothing. Peter had no reason to explain himself to this kid and gave a shrug as an answer. “Part of the job, kid,” he answered breezily. If by watching you meant keep your ears open for when your snarky co-worker starts getting lip to the customers, then obviously. That is definitely part of the job. But, if by watching you meant constantly sneaking glances over to watch her do things while you think you’re being covert, then not really part of the job, but Peter was going to do it anyway.
Thankfully a customer stepped up to the register to order and Peter was able to walk away from the kid before glancing over to the back room to see if Raven was going to emerge.
Raven had no idea what was going on in the front. She took her aspirin and then repeated a chant to at least calm down some so she could deal with the rest of her shift and leave. The main goal was to just be in the back long enough for the creepo to leave so she didn’t need to deal with his smug face and condescending attitude on her lack of smiling. Most people didn’t comment on it. Ugh.
But she also knew she only had a set time to be on break so eventually went back to the front where… was there tension? Why was there tension? Specifically between Ed and Peter… or mostly Ed? Gaze flickering between the two, Raven shrugged before going back to her station. At least her shift was over in a half hour. If she could just last that long without snapping at anyone, she’d been good.
And soon enough, there it was. Motioning to Ed that she was about to clock out so he should decide which pastry he wanted, Raven turned and headed to the back to put away her apron and clock out.
The rest of her shift had a bit of awkward tension floating in the air and Peter was doing his best to ignore most of it. He still didn’t quite understand the point of her friend being here and giving him lip, but at least he wouldn’t have to deal with him soon. When she made a move to leave he reached out to lightly wrap a hand around her wrist to get her to stop. He stepped forward to close the gap between them and leaned down to speak to her. “I know you hate the rules around here, but I’m only going to say this once, and then this conversation never happened. But if you want to punch out next time, give them a piece of your mind, and punch back in I won’t say a word. But this only works if I’m here.”
He let go of her wrist and stepped away from her. His eyes ran over her face once more before he turned his back on her and went back to the register.
Or Peter could stop her from going to clock out. She was about to ask what he wanted now when he spoke and it gave her pause. Well. Okay. That was unexpected. And a workable compromise. And it wasn’t like she was the type to repeat conversations that happened, so he really didn’t need to worry about it ever being repeated. Instead the teen just gave a slight nod, quiet. And vaguely confused because that’s what he was. Confusing.
That brief moment over and done with, she went and clocked out, hung up her apron and then returned to the front to go stand with Ed.
“So, decide what you want?” Hopefully this day could get back to some semblance of normal. The weird awkwardness was getting to her.
“I wanna get out of here, it’s getting a little crowded” He responded as he went to go get his stuff, not even picking some kind of pastry this time. The company was causing him to lose his appetite. He didn’t bother with Peter again, he really hoped he wouldn’t have to. He wasn’t sure where his intense dislike for this guy came from, but there it was. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and frowned as he went back to Raven.
“Ready?” He didn’t even spare Peter a glance, he wasn’t sure how to react to this just now-or why the hell everything in him suddenly wanted to punch the near stranger.
That… was unusual. There was always pastry getting. Things had been weird but she didn’t think they were so weird that Ed would forego a pastry. She really couldn’t even think of a reason for why that would be, unless…
Azar help her. Had she somehow found herself in a love triangle between her best friend and assistant manager?
“Yeah.” Because getting out of there was the best solution for everyone. So leaving the coffee shop it was even though Raven’s mind was going into overdrive of confusion.