Miguel left shortly after finishing his coffee. He wanted to stay a little longer but Lyla kept pinging his comm and in the end, the two of you parted ways.
With 10 AM swiftly approaching, you decided to prepare everything for the day. First, you hid the 'evidence' of your little test back in its rightful place. You couldn't just leave a bunch of bags on the counter.
After that, you went around and made sure that you're stocked up on everything you need. Coffee beans were no issue, and neither was milk (all five variants of it). You noticed, however, that you are running low on vanilla syrup and biscuits. You made a mental note to get some at the store later.
The cafeteria slowly, yet surely started filling up with spider people. Not all of them stopped by your coffee joint (curse you, Spider-Burgers), but a line was formed non the less.
You always had the biggest traffic during the morning hours. A big majority of the spider people crowding your joint still looked half asleep, and you tried your best to serve them as quickly as possible. Sadly, because of that, you couldn't allow yourself much small talk.
After what felt like days (2 hours), the crowd finally dispersed.
You sigh with relief and take a seat on a small stool you have put away in the corner. You take out your phone, but as you're about to unlock it, someone calls your name.
"Hello, special delivery!" You quickly snap your head in the direction of the voice and just as you hoped, Peter™ is standing there in all his glory. He looks just as tired as ever. His pink jumper fell off his right shoulder, and in his arms-
"Mayday! My favorite customer!" You go over and take the child out of her father's arms, giving her a big hug. "Oh how I missed you, you're such a cutie patootie." You squeal, kissing her on the nose. The baby giggles and you couldn't be more in love. "...oh, and hi Peter."
"Yeah, hello to you too." He laughs. "No hard feelings, I know the effect Mayday has on people." He leans on the counter and takes out his phone. "Wanna see the new pics we took of her? We went to New York's State Fair yesterday." You nod vigorously and go to look at his screen. While you do that, Mayday escapes your grasp and moves to your shoulder, clutching your hair not to fall.
"Ok so, here she is eating ice cream - she just loooves chocolate mint. "He swipes. "Ooh, this one is great - her first ride on a merry-go-round!" The three of you spend some time looking at the pictures. You love seeing Mayday in all forms, but you must admit that watching a slide show of family photos makes you feel a little bit lonely. You'd like to go to the fair with someone.
God, can your brain stop? You shake your head and Mayday falls right back into your arms.
"Aight, go back to your daddy, I need to make you two some drinks." You look back at Peter. "The usual?"
"Yep! Ain't feeling adventurous today." He puts his child back in the baby holder. "Actually, you know what? Could you make it a little stronger than normal? I'm having a meeting with Miguel later and I have a feeling I'm gonna need some extra energy for that." He chuckles.
"That thing with Earth-8311?" You ask as you fill-up the water reservoir with fresh, cold water.
"Yea, the-" Peter stops, looking at you suspiciously. "...How do you know that? That information is classified." He asks in a serious tone.
"Miguel told me." You answer, not even looking up from your work. You start grinding the coffee beans, but look up after the man continued to be silent. Now he's looking at you with disbelief. "...What?"
"He told you." Peter repeats as if he's having trouble grasping the concept of basic human interactions.
"Yes? What, was he not supposed to? It's not like I'm gonna tell anybody." You stutter, as you start to get nervous. You don't want to get in any trouble.
"Wow, calm down, it's all good." Peter grabs you gently by the shoulders. "It's just, I was a little wary, sorry." Following her dad's footsteps Mayday also puts her little hands on your cheeks. It works like a charm and you calm down. "When did he tell you? This is fresh intel, came in around 7 AM."
"He came by this morning, actually." You leave their grasp and continue your work, finally filling up the group handle with coffee grounds. "We had a nice chat and I even made him try out a new type of coffee." You smile to yourself at the memory.
"Are you sure we're talking about the same guy?" Chimes in Peter." Tall, brooding 24/7, the one with anger issues." You roll your eyes at his description.
"You're exaggerating. He was honestly quite polite. I think he just has a lot of pent-up frustration from being the leader of this whole operation." You put the group handle in and start the machine. "I thought he was scary at first too."
"At first- I know him much longer than you, no offense by the way, and I still think he's pretty scary." Peter huffs, setting his hands on his hips. "It's interesting to hear that he can still be civil. I was beginning to think his face is actually stuck in a scowl." The two of you share a laugh.
"Yea right, he actually has quite a nice smile." You sigh dreamily, obvious to the smug expression spreading across Peter's face.
"Mhmm, he sure does." He simply says, and after a second, looks down at his daughter. "What do you think Mayday? Does Uncle Miguel have a nice smile?" The baby blows a raspberry at him. "My thoughts exactly."
You give the two of them some space as you go ahead and froth some fresh milk. After a moment, you pour half of it into a paper cup. This one's for Mayday. The machine dings and you pour the remaining milk into a second cup - the one containing the freshly brewed espresso.
"Here you go." You give them their respective cups. "Watch out baby, it's still a little hot." You add, blowing off some steam from Mayday's cup.
"Thank you! Mayday, can you say thank you?" Tries Peter, but the girl just gnaws at her fist. "Welp, can't say I didn't try. See you soon, and oh, tell Miguel said hi." He finishes with a wink. You raise your eyebrow at him, but the just turns around. The two of them leave the cafeteria.
You don't have the time to overthink his words as two new customers come up to your stall. Back to the work it is.
- - -
The rest of the day went by smoothly. By the end of it, you are pretty beat up, and at 8 PM sharp, open up a portal to your home dimension. You jump though, landing just where you wanted to be - your bed.
"Finally, some alone time." You sigh, stretching your body across the mattress.
You reach into your pocket, fishing up your phone. You go to your calendar, checking the schedule for the remainder of the week. Your smartphone is the only source of light in the dark room, so you lower its brightness not to go blind.
It appears that you'll spend the next two days at home - you promised Mrs. Chen that you'll take two full shifts in a row. You kind of regret that decision but, what can you do? You don't get paid for your side gig at the HQ, you need at least some money to get by.
You put down your phone and head to the bathroom. After washing your teeth and a quick shower, you enter your room again, this time in your favorite t-shirt and shorts. You plop down on your bed and release a long sigh.
You set your alarm for 6 AM and get under the covers. You have a long day tomorrow.
- - -
You're almost done with your second shift when it happens.
It was a slow evening and you were just skimming through a comic book, when suddenly-
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
A loud noise pierces through the convenience store and it takes you embarrassingly long to realize that the source of it is no other but your watch.
"Sorry! Forgot to turn off my alarm!" You shout to the poor shop attendees and turn to your watch, eager to make it stop.
It never acted like this before- is there an emergency? Is this a self-destruct protocol? Maybe its-
INCOMING CALL
ACCEPT / DECLINE
The words hover above your watch as a hologram. Oh. Who would be calling you on your day off?
You take a quick look around - the shop's mostly empty, with just two elderly ladies arguing over different types of cheese in the back. You take a deep breath and press 'ACCEPT'.
Immediately, a life-sized version of Miguel (mind you, a little orange) appears in front of you.
"Miguel, hi-"
"Where are you." He cuts you off, jaw set tight. You raise your eyebrow. What happened to hello? How are you?
"Em, I'm at work." You state, sheepishly. Did you do something to make him mad? You literally weren't at the HQ for the past 48 hours.
"No, you're not." He counters, placing his arms on his hips. "I waited for an hour and you didn't show up." Miguel sounds... hurt? Did he miss you or something?
"I'm at my other work." You tell him, looking past his shoulder to make sure the ladies are still just as uninterested in you as they were before. "I do part-time at a convenience store in my universe."
Miguel just stares. "Convenience store. This is what you do when you're not fighting crime."
"There's been this new hero - Venom, they call themselves - that keeps these streets in check, so." You shrug. "I kinda do this whenever I can." It feels kind of embarrassing to admit. "That is of course when I'm not at the HQ. I have bills to pay, you know."
The man stares a little more, but then just averts his gaze with a small smile. "Yeah, makes sense." He runs a hand through his hair with a sigh. "Haven't seen you for the past two days, and neither had anyone else in the Spider Society. My mind just jumped to the worst possible conclusion." He admits.
Aww, so he was checking up on you. Your first thought was that he was simply annoyed for not having a morning coffee or something, but you will admit, you prefer this reason much more.
"I have to put my schedule on a panel somewhere, to avoid situations like that." Kind of weird you haven't done this before. You cringe at the thought of all the spider people that you disappointed by not providing them with a morning shot of caffeine they all needed.
"You do that." He looks back at you, and then at your surrounding. "So, this San Francisco?" Your eyes widen.
"How do you..."
"Most locations remain the same throughout many universes," Miguel tells you, looking closely at the comic book on the counter. "Say, Eddie Brock comes here often?"
"I-, yes? What, is he someone I should be concerned about?" You like Eddie. More often than not the man looks like a wet cat, but he always stays over a few minutes to ask you about your day.
"Nah, don't worry. He's just a nice friend to have in these parts." He looks back at you. "And how are you enjoying Watchmen? I must admit, it's one of my favorites." You look down at the bloodied smiley face adorning your comic book cover.
"I just started, but I really like it so far." You admit. "This one feels more... real, you know what I mean?"
"Yea." The man nods, and as he says that you can see the flash of his fangs from under his lips. You really wanna ask him how that came to be. "Anyway, sorry for taking up so much of your time, I'll get out of your hair."
"No, you don't have to!" You scurry to say, making you both freeze. "I mean, "It's- I like talking to you. I wanted to say it before you disconnect. In case I didn't. Feels important to mention." You scramble with your words.
Miguel stares at you for a few seconds and lets out a small laugh. Now all of his canines are visible. It should be scary but it also looks, weirdly cute? Like a cat when they open their mouth.
"I like talking to you too." He admits, so quietly that you wonder whether he's saying that to you or himself.
"...I'll see you tomorrow?" You ask, not wanting to let him go, but at the same time not wanting to keep him away too long.
"Yeah, I'll come around 9"." His hand twitches at his side, as if he wants to reach out and shake your hand. "I've been thinking about expanding my menu. I wanna try out latte."
"You'll get it." You smile. "I'll even make you a heart." He raises his brow. "With the milk, it's this thing called latte art- you'll see tomorrow."
"Right."
"Mhm."
The two of you fall into a comfortable silence.
"Well, see you tomorrow." He gives you one final nod and disappears right after you reciprocate.
You wait a few seconds before screaming into your hands. God, this guy does things to you.
"Excuse me?" You look up, and see the two elderly ladies from before in front of the cash register. "Could you tell my friend over here that mozzarella is a much superior cheese compared to some puny parmezan?" Her 'friend' gasps, and with a sigh, you put on your best customer service face.
Time to get back to work.