It was late evening and Eva was still at work in the coffee shop (that had also now become an office), turning a garden plan round and round to try and figure out whether it looked better upside-down, when the bell above the door went jingle-jangle-jingle and the door itself went SLAM against the glass. "Hey!" Eva exclaimed, twisting round in her seat. "Break my glass and you'll pay for – oh."
It was that tall, scary-looking blue lady that had been brought back from space with Tony last year. Neapolitan, or something. Nodule. Nard. She stood awkwardly in the doorway, tense as though ready to fight or flight, silhouetted against the New York night.
"They sent me to do the coffee run," Nard said, as though she wasn't sure what it meant. Her voice echoed strangely as she spoke, as though it were coming from a metal box. Then she held out a fist and unfurled it to reveal a crumpled piece of paper with the familiar drinks orders on it.
Eva stood up, walked over, and took the paper. "Right," she said, mentally allocating a drink to each figure in her head. "Didn't you want anything?"
"No."
"Right." She crossed over to the counter and vaulted it. She was running out of takeaway cups, by the looks of it. "I keep telling 'em to bring reusable cups down," she said, lining them up, "but they never remember. Like – I know we've got twice as many resources per person as we used to, but that's still no excuse."
The coffee machine buzzed loudly, spurting steam out of the top like a squat silvery dragon. Nebula (that was it!) flinched.
"Don't worry," said Eva, "it's not malevolent. And if it is then I'll just switch it off." Rhodey, Steve, Natasha (with twice the espresso she used to have); she could make that order in her sleep if she needed to.
Nebula shut the door, much more delicately than she opened it, and peered at the plants that now festooned the walls and every surface. She took the leaf of a Swiss Cheese Plant between her metallic fingers and rubbed it, a small frown tugging at her face. "It's a long way to come for hot liquids," the alien said.
"Not just any hot liquids," Eva replied. "My hot liquids… wow, that sounded wrong. What're you doing on Earth? I thought you flew back off with the raccoon and the lady in the biker leathers."
"That's none of your business," Nebula barked.
Eva raised her eyebrows. "Alright, then."
Nebula let go of the plant. "I'm… sorry."
"'S alright. I'm in no position to judge other people's frostiness. Cash or card?"
Nebula handed her a hundred-dollar bill. Eva pocketed it, deciding not to mention anything about change. Best not to make it any more confusing. "Here you go. Don't spill it, mind."
"I've never spilled anything except the blood of my enemies."
"Good for you," said Eva. "Bye, now!"
A/N hello, gang. What weird times these are, huh? I hope you're all okay, safe, healthy, not going bonkers in quarantine etc. Since they're such weird and funky times, I'm gonna try and claw my way back to regular-ish updates (I know, I say that a lot) to give everyone something to do. My life is also very weird, full of ups and downs (and a very exciting up that I'll explain next update), so let's all just schmuck along together like a civilian bystander in the MCU, huh?
EDIT: thanks to the review gang that picked up "million dollar bill" lol that's definitely supposed to be a hundred, clearly I was having a money daydream hahaha