strangetrip | [EP] aliens control the coffee supply

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[EP] aliens control the coffee supply

Xavin, for the most part, hadn't actually bothered keeping regular hours at her little coffee nook. She spent some time there most days, how long depending on how many people wanted coffee or how interested she was in whatever books she'd selected for the day.

Today was probably going to be a longer day, if only because she'd had to restock a little from the kitchens. She'd found a little cart to haul things and was currently engaged in putting her supplies away. Milks and whipped cream into the little refrigerator, beans stashed in their cupboard, disposable cups stacked and non-disposable cups cleaned and put away. (Some people liked those, particularly if they didn't intend to leave the library. But it meant that her kitchen time included doing dishes, which was often more fun than drudgery. Especially when she accidentally overdid the soap.)

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Sliding it over his own way, Tony indulged in a long inhale of the sweet roast. Everything else seemed to fade into the background as the scent filled his chest.

"Thank you, oh my goodness." He couldn't have cared less about the clumsy end product or the fact that this person somehow knew his name (he was getting used to that fact anyway). "You wouldn't think so, but it's been a few years." Having said that, he was sure a few seconds with it and he'd put two and two together.

“You are welcome.” He was politer than she might have thought he’d be. And clearly desperate for coffee. Not many people were willing to drink six shots of straight espresso. Xavin considered, not quite biting her lip, then said abruptly, “I am a Skrull. So you know, in case at matters to whether you drink that.”

Tony shot his kind barista a clearly puzzled look over his cup. "You could be six ducks in a trench coat and you would be every bit my Caffeine Goddess right now."

The shockingly bitter drink made his eyes pop and his chest burn in the best way possible. "Whew! Nice. And. Strong."

Xavin blinked. That was not the reaction she'd been expecting. The reaction she'd been expecting had involved sudden Iron Man armor and a repulsor blast to the face that she'd have to block with a force field. Although it was probably nice to be 'Caffeine Goddess'.

He wasn't young, especially - it was not possible that he was from her world and hadn't heard of Skrulls. But Peter did not know either, and he was Spider-Man, so....

Hmm. Xavin shifted briefly into her Skrull form, hardly ever used while she lived among mostly humans. "Does this help you recall?"

The burning in his chest shot straight back up his throat and out his nose, and Tony Stark went straight down for the count.

"Recall--agh! Shit...!" He grabbed a handful of napkins and pressed them against every orifice of his face, half-way kneeling on the floor. One would think that working with Bruce Banner on a routine basis would have prepared one for these sorts of things.

“I will take that as ‘no’.” Xavin shifted back to human female, almost not consciously, then grabbed her wet towel (for wiping down) and crossed to the other side to offer it. It was better than napkins, being softer and more absorbent.

"Sorry, sorry, God." Taking up the offerings, Tony blew his nose into it hard. Where was the laundry in this place, again? Questions for later.

"I have a...a good friend who does the--" He gestured up and down at Xavin's figure, "The shapeshifting thing. I'm used to it, promise."

"There is no need to apologize to me." In fact, Xavin felt bad for startling him so severely. The fear was still there, of course; this was Tony Stark and she'd spent a fair amount of her time with the Runaways being afraid of what would happen if Tony Stark noticed them.

But this was clearly not that Tony Stark, as the Inn's California was not the one where she'd lived with Karolina and the others. "In my world, my appearance would have resulted in violence to me, not violence to your own self. I did not think. Therefore, I apologize to you."

"Contrary to popular conception, I, uh, do not enjoy violence. To myself or others." Tony pulled himself back up on the counter, patting beneath his nose and around his mouth. More than the shock of the moment, he was possessed with a need to save face in front of this individual (who was a pretty young woman at least most of the time.)

"I get a similar vibe from you," He began, lifting his cup of straight expresso, "So can we agree on that much?"

"Yes. I only want peace." Xavin moved back behind the counter and started making a new set of espresso shots. "I am Xavin. A Skrull, as I said. We are a race of shapeshifters from what you would call the Andromeda galaxy." The Skrulls, of course, didn't call it that.

'An alien, then. ...Cool.' Tony blinked as he regarded her, idly playing with the rim of his cup. 'Would it be, like, offensive if I called her that? I don't know anymore.'

"So there is life on other planets. Where I come from, that was a pretty hefty debate for awhile. It got settled." To say the least. "If all the life out there looked as good as you do, we might start funding space travel again."

"Oh, you do not want the Skrulls on your planet. In my universe we have tried to invade many times. We have nearly succeeded somewhat fewer times, and at least once used Earth as a battlefield to fight our rivals." All but three of the new espresso shots went into another cup in front of Tony, then the remaining three started going into a caramel macchiato for herself. "In fact, I thought you were from my world until you fell over when I showed myself. Had you been the Tony Stark I know of, we would not now be getting along so well."

"Heard that one." Tony's eyebrows popped up over his fresh cup of shots, giving a little shrug. "Well, I'm here, and you're here. What are we gonna do about it?"

He raised his cup to offer a toast.

Xavin 'clinked' her cup against his without hesitation. "You and I have never met before. I propose we do not hold other universes against each other."

"Novel concept, right?" Tony winked, a rush of tension escaping his shoulders and back. Enjoying his 'coffee' would at least be a preserved luxury.

"Gonna start coming around here often?"

"I usually spend at least a little time here most days, if only because I will make myself a coffee and read for a while." And if people wanted coffee while she was doing that, it worked out well for everyone. "Some days you will see a male human here. That is also me. Do not be alarmed."

"Uh-huh." If the alien bit didn't bother Tony, neither should the gender-swapping. That's what he told himself. He merely shrugged again.

"Girl. Boy. Skrull. Gotcha." It wasn't normal but the way Xander was so...straightforward made him really believe it was as commonplace as their attitude bespoke. It was hard not to feel reassured, in a very strange sense. "I don't order expresso shots every time, by the way. Today's special."

Xavin nodded. “I rarely make drip. The cafe tends to have that available and I enjoy making the machine do my bidding. But I will remember.” Perhaps set up a samovar for those who would be satisfied with drop during her absences?

Merely nodding along, Xander's words couldn't help but make Tony think. Be the job ever so humble, they legitimately seemed to take pride in it. Meanwhile, he was dragging his bag of bones from place to place in what seemed to add up to a big circle every single time.

"Question." He licked his lips of the bitter liquid. "You got this job...how?"

“I decided I wanted to do it.” It really had been as simple as that. Illyana has been building a library, Xavin liked coffee, coffee and books went together. “Many of us find taking on some task or responsibility helpful. I had little difficulty adjusting to the Inn, as I arrived here from a far worse imprisonment, but even I have found that having some purpose an improvement over none.”

'That imprisonment have anything to do with me?' Tony didn't dare ask, even if he had a feeling. He nibbled on the rim of the cup a little.

"Good to know. I've been going a little stir crazy." An understatement. He had just nearly blown the wall off his room in a fit of sheer existential panic. "Anything in demand as far as work goes?"

Xavin's imprisonment had not in fact had anything to do with Tony Stark. It had been pure Runaways, pure Karolina-and-Xavin, as far as it could be.

"I have not heard of anything paticularly. But I would also advise not waiting for demand. Simply say 'I am doing this thing' and people will start coming to you for that thing, or ask to help, or something." In Xavin's view, that was how most of the jobs at the Inn came about.

Tony raised an eyebrow. He very much doubted it was simply as easy as announcing you were working and waiting for the consumers to arrive. Supply-and-demand. He was a businessman, after all. Well, was.

"Anything?"

Xavin shrugged. "If there is something you like, do that. Illyana made this library, I made my coffee place here. Kitty tends bar and teaches." Thus far Xavin herself had managed to avoid being pressed into classes despite not being much older than Peter and Liz. "The clerics and Dr. Butters have an infirmary. Emma and Carlos cook. I believe some take on minor repairs and such. You are an engineer, are you not? The Inn is not as modern as some of us. An engineer and inventor might find ways to help with that."

"That'd actually work?" That was an appealing concept. Tony assumed that any attempted modifications to the hotel were either forcibly reverted by whatever malevolent force was keeping them there or punished by public stoning or something equally dumb.

[EP] aliens control the coffee supply

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