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Morgan liked peanuts. He didn’t know why though, seeing as he was allergic to them. It seemed that the theme of today was being self-destructive.
But he couldn’t think of a day where that wasn’t the case.
He trudged through the gross dimly lit grocery store and stared up at the bag of peanuts. It sat on the isle directly above his head, seemingly mocking him from its place.
All he had to do was grab it, take the $5.00 bag to the cashier, pay, and leave. Not too too difficult, if he did say so himself. Though if he really wanted to --and who was he kidding he really did-- those peanuts could be easily stolen. All Morgan would have to do is sneak it past the already uninterested cashier, and then he’d have a bag of peanuts that he couldn’t eat. Or at least one that he couldn’t eat if he didn’t want to use an EpiPen.
Morgan had been an idiot, though, and didn’t have his with him. Nor did he have one where he was heading.
So, alas, no bag of peanuts for him.
“Um, excuse me?”
Morgan flinched, and took a step back, letting the college-age-looking person pass by him. They looked like a fish out of water in the store, which was amusing to watch. Part of him wanted to go over and help them, but when he looked at his phone, it was almost time for work.
He slowly walked out of the store --without buying anything may he add-- and tried not to yawn too much. It was a struggle, he did stay up way past the time recommended by the CDC last night.
But it wasn’t like it was his fault. Inking sometimes took longer than expected.
Though, if things continued like they had lately, Morgan might be getting a bit more sleep.
It was never for certain, but it was looking like a very possible possibility.
He held his hand up to shield his eyes from the rising sun. He’d entered the grocery store when it was still dark, he must have been staring at the bag of peanuts for longer than he’d originally thought.
Now, Morgan’s job wasn’t what you would call a normal job. It definitely had its perks and benefits, if a perk to you is dealing with customers who thought they knew more about his own job than he did.
It’s not like he hadn’t been doing this for a while, I mean look at him.
The first thought people had when they saw him wasn’t “Oh look, it’s a dorky little nerd” no, he had a reputation to uphold. And it certainly wasn’t that.
Truly though, there was a long day ahead of him and Morgan was not awake enough for any of it.
Morgan was back. Again.
Staring at the bag of peanuts.
The placement of the bag had begun to get to him. It was like the bag was looking down on him, judging his every move.
“Um, excuse me? Uh, sir?” Someone tapped him on the shoulder.
Morgan turned around, it was that same college student from before. This time instead of them wearing some old hoodie and a pair of sweatpants they were in a uniform for “Cleo’s Clovers” --the weird flower shop right by the front of the store.
Even though this person was the same person as the morning before, they didn’t seem as confused as they had been. Not to say that they didn’t look entirely out of their depth, but just, more centered.
Morgan also could not deny that the person standing in front of him was attractive.
“Uh, yes, hello, hi there, um hi. Did you need to get by?” Morgan asked.
And just like that, they were back to looking like a fish out of water. Like they hadn’t expected Morgan to respond. To his knowledge conversations were a two-person thing. It’s not like he was the one who talked first, come on dude.
The employee looked around conspiratorially like he was about to share a big dastardly secret.
They leaned in a bit and whispered, “To be completely honest, this is the second time I’ve ever stepped into a grocery store, ever.” They paused like they just told Morgan about their plot to kill the president. “I am still unsure about how any of this really works. Is it normal for someone to stare at a bag of peanuts two days in a row?”
“Oh,” Morgan laughed, “No, that’s definitely just a me thing…”
They nodded their head, looked Morgan up and down, and seemed to come to the conclusion that staring at a bag of peanuts was exactly something he’d do.
They both stood there, looking at each other. Morgan contemplated making a run for it, seeing as this silence was becoming painfully awkward. The employee looked like they were thinking the exact same thing as they started to look around the aisle.
“Uh, is there anything else you wanted to say?” Morgan asked, fully expecting to not get an answer. Most people wouldn’t, but he honestly didn’t know what to expect because this person didn’t seem like your average, everyday human being.
The stranger stared at him, shrugged, then gestured to their uniform.
“You see this? I don’t even know how this happened. I have been informed I look like a lost puppy.”
Morgan laughed again, “Whoever told you that wasn’t wrong.”
They huffed, crossing their arms.
“See?” Morgan said, “Now you’re more of an angrily confused puppy but--”
“I’m not confused!”
“Uhuh, and I definitely didn’t see you lost in the isles yesterday.”
“I wasn’t lost.”
The stranger had a defiant look on their face now, their eyes narrowed. The temperature of the store dropped significantly.
Morgan held up his hands in mock surrender, he did not want to get on anyone’s bad side today. It seemed quite likely that that would be the case if he continued down the route he was heading. Getting on someone’s bad side was never a smart plan. Especially if they very clearly had significant power.
“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean it like it was a bad thing.”
Slowly the stranger nodded and the temperature returned to a somewhat normal range.
Morgan had heard of people who could affect the weather, this employee must have been one of them. Though, he had no idea what someone who had that kind of power was doing in a dingy grocery store. Most people who had any kind of power used it in the spotlight. They gained a lot of media attention and fame because of what they could do.
That being the case those who had fun, showy powers took advantage of that.
Based on the widening of the stranger’s eyes, they had realized that he had noticed their blatant use of their gift.
“Bye,” They said loudly, then hurried away.
Morgan tried to catch up to them, but they moved too fast.
He was once again alone, slightly confused by what had just occurred, and staring at the peanut bag.
It had been a mistake to actually steal the bag of peanuts. But Morgan couldn’t have stopped himself even if he’d wanted to.
He had a bit of a habit of stealing things he knew he’d either never use, or never be able to use.
It was the thrill, he told himself. The thrill of being able to get away with it.
And the best part was that he was very rarely caught.
Morgan had honestly forgotten what it was like to be caught in the act of robbing a store that, until it happened, it had been like a distant memory.
That was, until the employee, the same employee who Morgan had bumped into twice already, caught him in the act.
Everything had been going smoothly, and Morgan had been just about to leave the grocery store when he bumped into someone. He had cautiously looked up, only to meet eyes with the stranger from the two days before.
One of their eyebrows raised, and Morgan realized that there was actually a slight height difference between the two of them.
The stranger looked down at Morgan, blinked, blinked again like they couldn’t comprehend that someone was really trying to sneak out a measly bag of peanuts out of the store.
“What exactly did you hope to accomplish?” They said.
“Oh, um,” Morgan ran a hand through his hair. “Well, you see…”
He had been about to practically tell his entire life story to this person when they held up a hand. They took the peanuts from Morgans’ hand, looked at it, and then looked back at Morgan.
“You know what. I don’t want to know.”
That made Morgan pause, “Okay?”
“Just,” They sighed, “Come with me.”
Thankfully, Morgan knew when to listen and when to break the rules. Going off the determined set to their eyes, he assumed it would not be a good idea to run.
Though, at that moment, that was all he’d wanted to do.
The employee made their way to the cash register of Cleo’s Clovers, walked past it, and into the little back area where employees probably took their break.
They turned around, facing him.
“Would you like to tell me why you were shoplifting a bag of peanuts from our store?”
Morgan sighed, looked around, and seeing no means of escape or rescue resigned himself to his fate.
The stranger’s eyebrow raised again, as they waited for a response.
Morgan coughed, “So, I may have a small problem with stealing things?”
They nodded, probably already having gathered that fact.
“But don’t worry!” Morgan felt the need to clarify, “I don’t steal them for good!”
“You don’t… steal them ‘for good’?”
“No! I never use anything that I take. I just,” He ran a hand down his face and took a deep breath, “Take them and then return them?”
They stared at him blankly, “Let me get this straight. You steal things from stores, things that you don’t want to use, or need, and then return them? What, for fun? And how do you return them? You don’t really just waltz back into the store after you’ve stolen the item just to put it back, do you?”
“No, no no no.” He said, why he felt the need to make a good impression on this person, he’ll never know, but nevertheless-- “I do not just waltz back into the store--”
“But you must return the items somehow.”
“Yes! Yeah, uh,” He looked down at the bag of peanuts in their hand, “Let me just show you.”
Grabbing the bag from the stranger, Morgan sighed. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. Assuming that the tiny intake of breath from the employee was because of what had just happened, the bag had disappeared.
He opened his eyes and, oh wow, the bag was gone.
Yipee.
“See? I don’t go back to the store, I return it like that. Would you like to go check to see if it worked?”
The stranger (could they still be called that? Morgan had now met them three times. He’d have to look up later if there were any rules or criteria someone must meet to become “a not stranger”) looked at him incredulously.
They pushed up off of the wall they had been leaning against, and it must have been a trick of the light but their eyes seemed to flash gold for a second. They walked back, presumably, to the isle the bag of peanuts had been.
Once they had left his line of vision, Morgan let out a sigh.
It was annoying that he’d had to show his special talent to another person but if it got him out of this situation he couldn’t really find it in himself to care.
He made to make a run for it but ultimately ended up losing his balance, as it seemed that his feet were glued to the ground.
“Shit,” Morgan muttered.
He wasn’t getting out of this situation that easily.
Two minutes passed and they re-entered the break room.
“You glued my feet to the ground? Dude, come one, why’d you do that?”
“You… weren’t lying.” They whispered, ignoring him completely. “There has to be a catch though. With a power like that, you’d be unstoppable.”
“Oh, no. No, no no no. I’m in no way unstoppable. I have to touch the object first and then once I do --If I don’t touch anything else-- I can return it to where it was 30 minutes before I touched it.” He rambled, “So with the bag of peanuts I took it and you caught me five minutes later. Then you brought me here and I touched it and then it went back to where it was thirty minutes ago.”
“And you’ve never been caught…?”
“Not because of my gift, no. Normally I steal the object of my affections and it takes no time at all. I return it once I’m out and in the clear. And then once it magically turns up again people don’t even check the cameras because they figure that a silly employee must have misplaced it.”
“So I’m the ‘silly employee’ you plan to use as a scapegoat?”
“Well, when you put it like that you make me seem like the bad guy…” Morgan smiled. “But, yeah, you hit the nail on the head.”
They hummed, smirked, and then turned and left. It seemed like dramatic exits where they just got up and left, were their forte.
Morgan couldn’t help but laugh, “Wait, hold up! I’m still stuck to the floor!” He took a deep breath and prepared himself to tear his legs off of whatever was sticking them to the ground.
Promptly tripping and falling onto the floor.
He heard a chuckle and saw the employee standing over him, holding the bag of peanuts.
“Might as well take them, it’s not like anyone ever comes into this store anyway.”
“Huh?” Morgan stuttered out.
“Come on, dumbass, don’t sit on the floor all day.” They laughed. “Take it.”
Morgan gaped at them, “I’m allergic.”
The incredulous look they shoot him is so outrageous that Morgan has to laugh.
“You’re, allergic?”
“Yup. Can’t eat them without having to go to the hospital.”
“Then why did you steal them?”
“I’m self-destructive.”
“Dude, you would not believe the day I’m having today,” Morgan stormed into the grocery store and turned to the flower shop cash register.
The Stranger (Morgan had taken to calling them that, seeing as he had yet to learn their name) blinked.
And yeah, Morgan could have probably come up with a better thing to say to them than that. But you couldn’t blame him, he’d had a plan, but all of his thoughts went down the drain when he entered the store.
“And what kind of day would that be?”
Morgan paused, he hadn’t been expecting a response.
“I’m so glad you asked, my friend,” He said quickly and smirked, leaning against the cash register. “Because you will not believe the amount of crap I’ve had to put up with. And it isn’t even noon yet.”
Somehow after that, all embarrassment or awkwardness disappeared.
“First, I had a consultation appointment, and because my days always have a good start the client arrives late. Which throws off my entire schedule! And then while we’re talking about what he’d like to get done he starts talking about a design for a three-hour tat. I hadn’t planned for it at all, since I’d been thinking the guy might want to go small for his first tattoo . But no, it had to be big and bold, and I had to be booked for the next week.”
Morgan rambled on and on about the guy and Stranger listened politely. Sometimes they would ask a question or make a comment, but for the most part, they just listened to what Morgan had to say.
He’d rambled on about the guy for around thirty minutes when Stranger finally interrupted them completely.
“He sounds like a buffoon. Why won’t you just refuse to serve him? You have plenty of reason to, and you wouldn’t be out of line for it.”
“I… I can't.” Morgan mumbled.
“Why not?”
He had no good reason to give them.
“I’m going to assume that you can’t explain to me why you won’t just tell him no.”
Morgan shook his head.
“Well, okay then.” They shrugged, “Are you looking to buy any flowers?”
Flowers… right.
Even while he stood in the flower shop, it hadn’t registered that he should probably look for something to buy.
“Um, yeah, yup, flowers,” He stumbled into one of the counters in his haste to not look like a complete idiot. “Do you have any recommendations?”
“That depends… why do you want them?”
“My, um, my cat! Yeah, she loves the… smell?”
“Oh really?” Stranger smirks. “Follow me.”
They led Morgan down one aisle after the next, finally coming to a stop near a section of herbs.
“You love your cat very much, yes? And you’d like to show her this with a bouquet?” They continued to talk as they pulled out different plants from the shelf, unable to hold in their smile. “I think that a base of fern, with some geraniums maybe? Oh! And some red columbine, and some marigolds.”
“Uh, that sounds perfect.” Morgan winced, thinking about how he most definitely didn’t have enough money in his wallet to pay for this. It wasn’t like he’d come to the store to actually buy flowers, though, so you couldn’t blame him.
It seemed that they were unable to hold back their laughter any longer once they made it to the cash register.
“Don’t you want to know what it means in the flower language?”
“Sure, why not.”
“Well, the entire bouquet is one of affection and gratitude. The germanium and the marigold together mean something along the lines of ‘you’re adorable’, the ferns show the wish to spend time with the other, and finally, the columbine represents care and warmth and trust.”
“Wow, you must really know what you’re doing.”
They nodded sagely, “I’m pretty much an expert.”
This had become somewhat of a routine for them. Morgan would walk into the store, rant about his day, and Stranger would listen. It was weird to him that he still hadn’t learned their name yet, but he didn’t want to rush the process.
“So then what happened? Did they ever come back to pay you?”
“Nope. The dude left to go ‘get money’ and then never came back. It was so late, though, and we were almost closing so it wasn’t like I could do anything about it.”
Morgan had been telling them about his customer the night before who had bailed on them the minute they were supposed to pay. It hadn’t been a fun ordeal, and he could have probably used the cash, but what was done was done. And it wasn’t like Morgan would be able to find the person now. They were probably long gone.
“What about you, dude? Anything crazy happen to you yesterday?” Morgan asked.
“Not really, it was calm. Calmer than what happened with you, at least.”
“Cool,” Morgan paused and considered how best to word his next question. “Hey, dude, sorry. Are you cool with me using gendered words when referring to you? I know we haven’t really talked about any of that yet, but I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything, so--”
They stared at him. Long enough that he’d begun to think that he’d made a mistake in asking.
“The idea of ‘Gender’ is beneath me. You can use whatever terms you want, I don’t mind.”
“Okay,” Morgan nodded.
They seemed to try to fight it, but a small smile appeared on their face. Then they turned around, picked up a random flower pot, and hurried to the back of the store.
Unable to think of anything better to do, Morgan followed them.
“Hey, so, I know I’m in no place to make bargains right now. But do you think you could,” Morgan coughed. “Loosen the, um, hand around my neck? It’s not very comfortable, and I’d really appreciate it.”
Morgan had strolled down the street, whistling to himself. It had been around the time that he’d normally go see Stranger, and boy did he have shit to tell them.
Of course, he’d never made it to Cleo’s.
Because he had been ambushed. If it could even really be called that.
One minute Morgan had been thinking up different ways he could have asked Stranger their real name, and the next he’d been pulled into an alleyway.
The person that held him said nothing.
“Whatever I did, man, I’m sorry for it. But you see, I was actually meeting a friend, and you holding me here is kinda messing up that whole plan.”
Again, no one answered.
“Really, you should just drop it. Whatever has you so angry at me for some reason. I’m sure it’s not, too bad. We can work out a deal if you’d like?”
“No,” The gruff voice of the person holding him said. “We’ve noticed that you’ve gotten real close with a target of ours. They’ve never been seen talking to a lowly criminal before. You two must be close.”
Morgan laughed.
Then promptly got punched in the gut.
“Sorry, sorry. Not laughing at you. I’ve got no clue who you’re talking about, though. Haven’t exactly been hanging out with anyone you’d be interested in--”
“Put. Him. Down.”
It had been a foggy day, so even though it had almost been noon, Morgan had had trouble seeing super far.
That having been the case, the fog and gloom hadn’t stopped him from turning his head and looking straight into piercing golden eyes.
The person who had just spoken repeated themselves.
“Put him down. Now.”
A strange sort of silence fell upon them.
Both strangers stared intensely at each other.
“Hey, so, I really appreciate the help random stranger,” Morgan said, breaking the silence. “But this big guy and I were just having a chat. You don’t need to get involved, everything’s fine.”
“Oh, but you see, I feel I do need to get involved. Seeing as I’m the ‘target’ being talked about.” The golden eyes narrowed.
“I hate to break it to you, though, but dude I’ve never seen you in my life. Big guy here,” Morgan tapped his hand against the chest of the person holding him. “Must have gotten the wrong person. So if you could kindly remove your hand from my neck, I have somewhere to be.”
The hand wasn’t removed.
Morgan honestly hadn’t expected that to work, but he bit back a sigh anyway.
Slowly, ever so slowly, during this conversation, he’d been careful to touch only the guy holding him, and nothing else.
Seeing as this person wasn’t going to be releasing him any time soon, Morgan reached out and touched the hand holding him, just to make sure.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and hoped that he’d be able to do it.
The only time he’d ever tried to transport something so big, was when he was just old enough to start figuring out how to control his gift. He had never attempted anything quite so large since then.
Having learned from his mistakes the first time.
Nevertheless, after a second, he dropped to the ground.
Morgan groaned, tried to stand up, ultimately failed, and flopped back down onto the ground. At least something good had come out of this entire situation.
It seemed that as an adult, he could transport heavier and bigger things than when he was a kid.
“Are… you alright?”
Morgan flinched, the person, the ‘target’ of the big guy, was kneeling next to him.
“Uh, oh, yeah. I’m fine.” Morgan said. “We might want to get out of here though. I’m only able to transport things to where they were thirty minutes before. And seeing how I ended up in this situation I’d make an educated guess and say that that guy will be on our heels if we don’t leave now.”
They hummed, nodded their head, and started to walk away.
“Could you help me up?” Morgan asked, making the other pause. “I used a lot of energy to get that guy away, and I can’t really… stand?”
He scratched the back of his head, awkwardly, as the person helped him up with surprising ease.
Their pace was slowed due to Morgan, but after five minutes they made it to the grocery store.
Morgan sighed in relief and turned to the person who’d helped him.
“This is where I was heading. Thanks for the help, man, but I’m actually meeting someone. It’s kinda funny that I don’t even know their name, I mean we’ve been talking for a week now. And I’m not the best at social cues, but I feel like we have reached and passed the point where names should have been mentioned.” Morgan paused in his rambling. “And I have no clue why I’m telling you this. Sorry. I-I’ll see you around, I guess?”
He trudged slowly to the sliding doors of the store.
Someone cleared their throat behind him.
“I don’t think the person you have plans with is in there.”
And wait. Morgan had known that voice. It was the same one that had asked questions about his day. The same one that had given him a bouquet of flowers for his cat.
He swung around on his heels and gaped at the person before him.
“Wait, you? You’re the ‘target’?”
To their credit, Stranger looked embarrassed. Awkward even.
“I didn’t really want you to find out like this but--” They ran a hand through their hair. “My name is Alex and I’m actually a… supervillain. Surprise?”