Chapter Text
I stood quietly in the elevator by myself. In my left hand I held my empty coffee cup. I looked on my right hand at my smartwatch to see the time flip over to 11:31am. I was early for the meeting and had time to waste. I headed up to the break room to grab some much needed coffee.
Ding.
The doors opened. Stepping out of the elevator I could see at the end of the hall the meeting room already had a few people waiting inside the open door. Not enough people to start the meeting with, so I wasn’t worried about being late. Taking a sharp right I entered the breakroom and was blasted with heat. At first I thought the worst had happened, like someone left their fork in the microwave and caused a small fire. Stepping more in the room I got a better look at the source. A tall hulking man was standing over one of the coffee makers. He had fire spewing out of him.
“Is… Is that pro hero Endeavor at the coffee maker????” I thought to myself as I stared at his back. The man was wearing a navy blue suit and black oxford shoes. His mystery man was hunching over the coffee maker and messing around with it. Endeavor was the first pro hero that I could think of in my head who normally has flames coming out of him, but as a fellow fire based hero I know he wasn’t the only one. I didn’t want to assume it was and be wrong, so I got a little closer. He shifted his body to face me and then a step away from me when he realized someone was coming up behind him. I was able to get a better look at his face. With his red hair, flame beard, and piercing eyes I got the confirmation I needed.
“Excuse me. Sorry!” I quietly brusted out as I stood next to him at the counter. I could feel my body quickly getting used to the heat and starting to feel normal again. I turned my head to quickly look at his face and back to face forwarding. He looked a little puzzled by my actions, or maybe by me being next to him? Either way I put my cup downed on the counter and then reached out my hand for a coffee maker. The moment I put my hand on the handle I realized the pot was empty. I then looked over to see the coffee maker next to the one I reached for; Endeavor had a glass pot in hand and was looking at me. The one in his hand was also empty and so was the cup next to him.
“Ooooh!” I softly gasped. “I didn’t realize we were already out of coffee!” I quickly bent down to the cupboard in front of me and opened it.
“.....Uh yeah.” I heard softly come from Endeavor as he took another step from me when I opened the cupboard. It was quiet and I almost missed it. I quickly filled both coffee makers with coffee grounds and water. I stood there watching them go to work. Endeavor stood there next to me.
I looked over to him and said, “Sorry for being out of coffee. Normally we have a rule that whoever takes the last bit of coffee has to refill the pot. The last person probably forgot…” I wasn’t the best at small talk but I felt too awkward to just stand in silence. He looked back at me. I nervously adjusted my sunglasses on my face as I quickly looked away from him. I suddenly felt hot again, but this time it was being shy and nervous. It started to hit me that the number two hero was right next to me, and I was a nobody casually talking to him. I can feel my layback and casual nature backfiring on me at this moment. This is the time to be formal and I feel like I already screwed up. I could still feel his stare on me as we stood there.
The long pause was broken by his voice. “Have I met you before?” I looked back at him, his hand was on his chin as he looked at me. He looked like he was trying to think of where he knows me from.
“Oh me?” I said shockingly.
“Yes you.” He took his hand away from his face as he waited for my answer.
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” I could feel my brain buffer as I nervously went into my brain trying to remember a time we were in the same room together before this. “Yes! Well… No… Well maybe uh deepens on how you see it.”
“What?”
“I have responded to fires and such that you were present for. We’ve been near each other on jobs, but never formally introduced.” I quickly snapped my finger and then pointed at him as I spoked. Trying to gentured I remembered.
“Ah I see…” He turned to face the coffee makers producing coffee. “I didn’t realize…”
“Uh, yeah it’s fine! Don’t worry about it. You see a million faces a day. You can’t always remember them all. Especially faces you’ve never talked to.”
Beep beep.
I brought my arm up to look at my watch. It was a reminder for the meeting in 15 minutes. I tapped my watch screen and pushed the notification away. I could feel Endeavor bending over me a bit and looking at my watch.
“What’s that?” He pointed at my watch.
“Oh? It’s just a smartwatch. It’s handy when I can’t hold my phone or lose my phone.” I said as I pulled out my phone from my back pocket. I looked at my phone and saw a text from my daughter. I quickly tapped the keypadded to unlock my phone. My background was a photo of my daughter and I smiling. It was her first day of school, so she was wearing her uniform. I opened the text app and started to read the text. It was just a reminder from her that she would be at a friend's house for the weekend.
“Who is that as your background?” I looked up at him to see he was still bending towards me looking at my phone. I didn’t realize he was still looking at my phone and watching me. “I’m sorry if that was a rude question. I just noticed she was wearing the same uniform my son's school has. I was just got curious.”
“Oh that’s my daughter! She’s a first year at UN. Does your son also go there?” I put my phone back into my pocket. Then reaching for the pot in front me since it was finished pouring. “Also I didn’t know you had kids or a wife or anything… You always seemed like a lone wolf type of guy.” That came out ruder than I wanted it to be….
“Uh yeah… I do have kids. Well anyways I wasn’t sure what the relationship was since I didn’t see much of a family resemblance.” He snapped at me. It was a stab for what I said a moment ago and I deserved it. “She must look like her father then.”
“Oh, you’re right she doesn’t look like me at all. It’s because she’s adopted. Also no father here. I’m single as a pringle.” I stabbed back at him. I normally don’t like telling people my child isn’t my own blood, but I feel like I have entered a passive aggressive fight and I want to win.
“No father? Could you not find anyone to have a child with you? You look so young tho...” I couldn’t tell if he was trying to make me upset or just thinking out loud at this point. Either way he was being nosy.
“Tried! No man could do it for me. Also at that moment of my life I was in my raging lesbian phase, so I don’t think I was ever going to find one. Plus I couldn’t have my own kids due to my body’s abnormal body temp. Either way I was fucked…. Oh sorry excuse my language.”I said quickly and a little too loud. I then picked up my coffee cup and looked at him. His face was bright pink from hearing all of this shoved in his face. I don’t know which part got him flustered, but either way I think I won this conversation.
“Anyways! See you at the meeting!”I said to him. I turned to face the door and took a sip of my coffee. My face twisted the moment it hit my tongue. I was too busy talking to remember to put sugar and creamer into my drink. I kept walking anyway. I’ll just fix my coffee after the meeting or something. I don’t know, I just want out of this room.
“I um, I’m sorry for being rude.” Endeavor spoke behind me. I turned my body a tiny bit to see him while he spoke to me. He already had a cup of coffee in his hand and was following me now. “I understand why you’re being defensive. I’m also a single parent and I can be…. A little too much when it comes to my kids. If someone said such a thing to me I would be upset too. I should have thought before I spoke. I hope this conversation doesn’t ruin things.”
“Uh its…. It’s fine I guess. You’ll just have to repay me later for your rudeness.” I looked back at my watch; It was only 11:47am. Still 13 minutes before the meeting started. I then tucked my hand into my jacket pocket.
“Sure?” His voice sounded puzzled by what I said.
“For example…” I looked at him as I pulled out my wallet from my jacket. He looked at me confused and still a little bit pink in the face. I opened my wallet and then with a quick snap of my wrist a 2 foot long row of photos poured out of it. “For the next 13 minutes you could listen to me talk about how cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute my baby is!!!!”
Endeavors face squished and eyes closed as a short hardy laugh bursted out of him after watching the photos coming out of my wallet. His face started to go pink once more.
Nailed it.