"Okay," said Eva, "now pay attention, because this part's complicated." She waited for Vision to nod before continuing. "You put a spare cup here, and then you pull this lever here, and then you turn that dial over there until it goes like this, and then you get the first cup and you hold it here and pull that – pull it."
Vision pulled it.
"And then you get an Americano," she finished. "See? Wasn't that boring and monotonous? Now imagine doing it five hundred times a day."
"Now I am beginning to comprehend your hatred of coffee," Vision said as she wound down the machine and poured the cup of java down the drain. It was late, the coffee shop was closed and cleaned, and Eva's best friend had, although she couldn't imagine why, expressed an interest in her day job.
"Madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result," she told him. "What I'm expecting is some gratitude for my work, and do I ever get it? Nope."
"I'm grateful for you."
"You don't count," she replied. "You're a special case."
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it." She hopped up onto the counter, swinging her legs to and fro. "I think I've got my initial design worked out for Central Park."
"Oh?"
"I want to make it, like, a peace garden type thing," she explained, gesturing vaguely in an attempt to build the idea out of air with her hands. "With rocks and a little pool and stuff, with lilies and not too bright colors and lots of greenery. I might see if I can find an artist who'll do a statue as a, um, memorial, sorta, to all the people who died in the Battle of New York. I think, after the Accords and all that, people need a little peace."
Vision smiled. "You have a very kind soul, Eva Kresk."
"Shush," she said, "anyone would think of that. Actually making the damn thing's gonna be the hard part."
"You are also an excellent gardener."
"Thank you. Now show me how to make Americano."
Vision picked up two cups and, in a flurry of maroon and the occasional shimmer of green as his hand passed through the metal machine, made the coffee in a probably record-breaking time. Then he remembered she was there, hesitated, and then slowly and deliberately knocked the mug over, spilling it everywhere.
"Whoops," he said, slowly. "I did not mean to do that. I think you should stick to being a barista."
Eva folded her arms. "Are you trying not to make me feel rubbish?"
"No," said Vision, guiltily.
"You're an idiot," she sighed, chucking a dishcloth at his head. He caught it with ease. "Clean your mess up."
"Yes, Eva."
"And don't let Mr G see you do that, or he'll be replacing me with you faster than you can say chai latte."
"No, Eva."
A/N instead of the usual dumb author's note, I wanted to both update you a little on my life and explain why Eva, Vision, and this fic all mean so much for me (because they kinda do). So feel free to not read this, because it gets a bit sad/deep and oversharing-y. Anyway:
So I've always been a bit of a mess. It's my USP. But recently I've been even more of a mess than normal, and after going to see a psychiatrist it turns out I was emotionally abused for quite a few years throughout school, which has left me with PTSD that crops up in the forms of the classic anxiety and depression, but also a paranoia that I am completely rubbish at everything I do and also that everyone hates me and are just pretending not to for some sort of extended practical joke. I also got into a bad habit of not ever telling anyone this until about two months ago, so it's all been bottled up and repressed until it came bursting out in a big dam of EMOTION AND TEARS AND MORE EMOTION. Don't worry about me, though; I'm about to enter into a life of antidepressants and therapy, and have no doubt that I'll probably fine. My mental health isn't, directly, the point I'm trying to make.
So imagine 2015 me going to see AoU for the first time, convinced that I'm worthless and inadequate and having never told anyone about it, and in the film there's this perfect being that gets made, a god-level dude with a cape and a laser forehead, and his defining characteristic isn't that he's powerful, or purple, or the laser forehead, but that he's kind. He has an unassailable faith in humanity. You know the lines. "There is grace in their failings. I think you miss that... A thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. I think you miss that. It is a privilege to be among them." And, I kid you not, hearing that was the first time I felt like I wasn't a waste of space.
Additionally, I get the idea for coffee run: the usual coffee shop scenario, but with a revolving cast of characters, so everyone gets to see their favourite. Eva was made just to fill the space of a barista who doesn't like coffee or superheroes having to deal with both on a regular basis, because that's always funny. I needed someone bitter enough to carry a comedy dialogue. She wasn't meant to be anything important, but then, weirdly, a lot of people start reading the fic. Like, way more than I expected. And they actually like Eva, so I give her a little more space to be herself, and in her I put the part of me that resonated most strongly with the character of Vision; the conviction of worthlessness. And yet people still liked her. And the more I wrote, the more it felt like catharsis and therapy and all that.
I think the reason Eva's popular is that the vast majority of the people who read this are teenage girls and young women, like her, like me, who struggle with a lot of stuff and don't really talk about it, who need a 6'3 maroon android man to come along and point out what they're too blinded to see. That they matter.
With every view, with every follow and favourite and comment that was left, my faith in humanity, and by extension myself, got a little bit more affirmed. So if you're reading this, thank you. I still don't think my writing's any good and I still don't understand what made Coffee Run explode, but it did, and thank you so much. I love you, whether you want me to or not.
TL;DR: this fic saved my life a bit which is pretty awesome, all things considered. This A/N is longer than the chapter itself. I'll shut up now. X