Coffee!(Wren)

[Shane Yama-Turner]

Shane let a sigh escape his lips as he pushed off of the pale yellow wall he had been leaning on. His sister was a no show. Again. He had hoped that they could talk about how things had been going with her lately over a coffee. Shane was deeply concerned about the way his sister had been treating her classes. She was slacking off and her grades were clear evidence of this. If she needed tutoring, all she had to do was ask, Shane reasoned.

Oh well. He had paid for the coffee already, so he might as well drink it while it was hot. Not where he was currently standing, though.

Shane dodged through the crowd cautiously, careful not to drop the uncapped coffee cups. He was still deep in thought about his sister and her grades, and thus failed to notice the guy coming towards him until it was too late to do anything about it.

"Oof!"

Shane's face hit the floor with much force as the steaming hot coffees he had been carrying flew into the air and landed on the guy he had carelessly bumped into.

"I am so sorry! Are you alright, man?"

[Wren O'Hara]

It was a little unusual to find Wren in the mall, but not because he didn’t like it. In fact, he rather enjoyed it; he liked being in a crowded place where he could people-watch unhindered, and he enjoyed catching snippets of conversations as people walked by. It was really just that he didn’t often have a reason to go; he tended to meet his friends at other places, usually outdoors; he very rarely needed new clothing; and if he needed a junk food fix, there were closer and cheaper places to take care of it.

Today was a special day, though – or, rather, it was a precursor to a special day. His sister’s birthday was next week, and he’d painstakingly calculated that, if he bought and sent a package by tomorrow, it would arrive just in time. He wasn’t great at picking out gifts, but for his sister, Bath & Body Works was usually a safe bet. It was hard to go wrong in a store like that, he reasoned, and the employees were incredibly helpful.

He was jolted from this thought by a very abrupt, very hot collision with someone and something, and he found himself on the floor of the food court before he could blink twice.

“Ahhhhhoow,” he said, somewhat nonsensically; the left half of his chest and most of his arm felt like they’d suddenly caught fire. He dabbed quickly at the offending liquid with the dry part of his shirt. Everything smelled like coffee; the water content in the beverages had turned his arm splotchily transparent.

He took a deep breath and released it in a soft hiss. The worst was over, probably, but he could still see red welts rising on his skin where it was beginning to dry.

“That’s okay,” he breathed, shaking his head. “I’m fine. Are you okay? Sorry, I totally wasn’t watching where I was going,” he said, putting his unaffected hand gingerly on his forearm. He took a moment to study the other boy who was sitting with him in a puddle of spilled coffee. Similar to Wren in age, he reasoned. Probably a Hammel student – most people around his age in Pilot Ridge were Hammel students.

“Did you get any on you? We should probably go wash up,” he murmured, prodding his soggy white t-shirt stickily; the majority of the left half was now dripping and the color of strong tea.

[Shane Yama-Turner]

"No, it was my fault, I wasn't paying attention."

Shane winced at the very visible red welts that had emerged as a result of his clumsiness. He hadn't even noticed the heat from the coffee he had spilled on himself until now. "Hothothot!" He hopped up onto his feet and promptly removed his now soggy black jacket, revealing the Captain America shirt he had been wearing underneath it. Seeing as he was currently standing up and the guy he had just crashed into wasn't, he decided to extend a helping hand towards him. "Y'know, that's probably a good idea."

Shane took a closer look at the other boy now that he wasn't sitting in a puddle of hot coffee. He looked like he was about Shane's age, and more than likely a meta considering that parts of him had essentially disappeared. He shook his head slightly.

"The bathroom's over there." He pointed at the nearby bathrooms, burning underneath the stares of the passerby, thoughts of his delinquent sister forgotten for the moment.

[Wren O'Hara]

Wren accepted the other boy’s proffered hand with his strong grip and used it to haul himself off of the floor.

“Thanks,” he said, mildly. He looked around at the scene they’d created; one of the cups lay pitifully empty amidst the sea of spilled coffee, and several people were still staring at them with varying degrees of amusement and concern. He turned his back on them, unconcerned, and felt in his pocket to make sure his phone was still there. It was.

Wren followed the other boy’s gesture with his gaze and nodded his acknowledgement. He started walking, taking large steps over the smaller puddles to avoid getting coffee on the bottom of his shoes. Not that it mattered, really; he probably had a little bit of coffee everywhere. As they retreated to the restroom, one of the quick-moving employees had already begun setting up a yellow wet floor sign and dragging out the mop.

Once they entered the relative privacy of the bathroom, Wren tugged at the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head in one swift, oft-practiced motion. He draped his now-stained shirt over the sink, examining the red part of his chest in the mirror. It had definitely hurt, but the coffee hadn’t been hot enough to give him second degree burns. It must have been sitting for a little while before it had spilled.

“Hey, do you go to Hammel?” he asked finally, turning on the cold water at the sink and dabbing at his sticky skin with some care. His skin turned slightly transparent, but quickly became opaque again. “You look a little familiar.”

He paused to gently scrub his forearm under the running water. This time, his entire arm disappeared completely.

“I’m Wren, by the way,” he added.