Chapter Text
“A new café?” Gwen chirped in surprise, somewhere behind her.
Jinx didn’t even pay attention, at first, swinging around the table she was serving with a wink to deploy another one of her specialty “Chompers”, plated up, in front of the last of her table’s guests to be served –
“…now I usually specialize in savory treats, but this sweetie’s a fave of mine – and it’ll really blow your mind! And possibly your teeth out of your skull! I call it the Bomb Au’Blastya!”
The delicate dessert with its delightful swirl of meringue wobbled between the porcelain jaws of a raccoon-shaped dessert egg, chattering away beneath the hiss of a sparking, lit wick.
“Oh, and watch your fingers – she gets a bit bitey before she blows!”
Jinx spun away, squinted and stuffed her fingers in her ears in a comical exaggeration that made all of her customers at the table shrink back from their sputtering desserts in genuine alarm.
“And three…two…one…KABOOM!”
The wicks on Jinx’s creations all finished more or less simultaneously, fizzling out with a faint hiss and pop before…each dessert suddenly jumped on the plate, the clattering jaws releasing puffs and sparks of colorful smoke, and a delicious, burnt-caramel aroma!
“Voila!”
Jinx struck a pose amidst the coils of smoke as her guests gasped, reached their tentative fingers toward the raccoon lids and – Jinx’s second favorite part! – nervously plucked them off the steaming, smoking, desserts. In some cases, still burning, licked by multicolored flames.
“Tuck in, folks!” Jinx crowed proudly, as her guests either eagerly or reluctantly took up their spoons, “Bomb Appetit!”
The eager gasps and moans of delight as they found each of Jinx’s creations, that delicate balance of hot, caramelized shell and cold ice cream – that, too, was one of her favorite parts of the job!
Jinx bowed to their raucous applause and winked as she bounded away in a faint slosh of the tea in her serving minigun, because of course it’s more efficient to pour tea from three high-speed-high-velocity rotating spouts instead of one!
A spin of Pow-Pow’s barrels, steaming spurts of very hot caffeinated deliciousness splashing expertly into each delicate porcelain cup…
…and coffee blasted from the rattling porcelain jaws of Fishbones on her back.
“Annnnd who’s for foam?”
A couple of fingers raised. Jinx giggled....and twisted in her frilly maid dress, finishing her set with a gush of steamy milk froth onto each of the requested cups, flashing from the porcelain pistol in her hand, each marked with a raccoon smiley face.
She spun Zapper around her index finger, gave a wink, and blew the table a noisy ‘muwah’ kiss as she bounced away to their cheers at her back.
…if people sometimes got a little splattered, singed and scalded from her antics, well, that was the price you paid for such excellent and extremely theatrical service!
Jinx puffed her chest in pride as she caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye of Lulu’s desserts popping from tiny to Hugeified on the customers’ plates, amid gasps of joy and surprise from her customers.
Elegant threads of green tea snaked from the floating teapot beside the immaculate Vladimir as he filled each cup at his table, over the swooning sighs of the little gathering of ladies and gentlemen seated about it.
Gwen’s cheery voice rose above the familiar snip of her giant candy-cutting shears as she and Soraka put the final flourishes on a pile of exquisitely pretty cakes on their table.
Café Cuties was in full swing, and it was a good day, though Jinx couldn’t help but notice the crowds were a little sparse…
Well, it doesn’t matter! She thought brightly, heading back toward the kitchen to collect her next order, everywhere gets quiet days! Besides, the quieter it is, the noisier I get to be! Ha ha, perfect…
Besides, a quiet day meant she wasn’t going to be all buzzed up and too hyperactive for human contact when she got home.
Which meant she could invite Lux over to hang out! Maybe get a pizza, watch some movies, or just sit on Jinx’s fluffy bedspread and let Lux nerd-babble-out about whatever book she’d been reading lately or her latest frustrations with the college degree that was obviously (to Jinx) far below her Blondie’s amazing intellect, while she combed Jinx’s hair.
And just the thought of that made Jinx’s heart flutter and flicker.
Ever since their first meeting at Jinx’s side gig at the FroYo bar, she’d been completely unable to stop thinking about Lux.
So, what if they were… officially at the ‘friends’ stage of things? So what? Lux made her laugh and smile like nobody else. Lux was like a warm spring breeze rolling into any room. Lux accepted Jinx with all her foibles, just as she was, and Jinx accepted Lux, and just … being around Lux felt like gravity…
Like she didn’t have to rush ahead. Like she could savor every moment like it was the world’s tastiest pastry platter. Like she didn’t have to be nervous that she was going to screw it up.
She could just let whatever was happening between her and Lux happen and it would because Jinx could feel it happening, Lux could feel it happening, they both wanted it to happen, it was inevitable, nothing could get in the way now…
“…it’s cute, don’t get me wrong, all very showy,” lifted to her ears from one of the tables she passed. A regular, a girl in a pastel frock with her hair tied up in big pigtails, was sighing into her cup, “But I’ve been here so many times now…it’s always so high energy, maybe I want a more relaxed atmosphere sometimes?”
“Come onnn!” her friend moaned, “Seriously? It’s pastry magic at this place! There’s no parallel! The Teapot Troubadour even shows up sometimes! It’s not even the same thing…”
“Well, it has cute maids and magic,” said the third friend, “But the new place has cute maids, magic, and kitties…”
Jinx frowned.
New place…?
She shook her head, thinking of what Gwen had said earlier, before the last part sank in.
…Kitties?!
COFFEE HOUSE “MEOW!” read the sign above the bright, modern little building across the street from Café Cuties’ frilly opulence.
“…it’s, like, half the size of our place,” Jinx muttered, peering up over the tidy hedge and into the large glass windows with a pair of comically oversized binoculars, “They can’t be poaching all our customers! Where would they even put them?”
“I’m telling you,” Poppy muttered, grunting as Lulu shifted her weight on Poppy’s head where she was perched to peek up over the hedge, “Ugh, jeez, Lu, lay off the marzipan…anyway I’m telling you, I snuck a look at the books on a hunch, numbers are way down since they opened…if we don’t figure out what this place has got that we don’t, we’re in trouble.”
“Oh, it’s cute!” Gwen exclaimed, stealing Jinx’s binoculars, “I don’t see any harm in a little competition to keep us on our toes. Besides…as I’ve been saying! Our only true rivals are Dumpling Darlings, and they’re waaaay over in Navori City in Ionia, they don’t even have a branch here…”
“She’s been watching the television show,” sighed Poppy, “Keeps gushing about this one girl who floats around on a stage, singing to the customers as she serves them dumplings.”
“Seraphine!” said Gwen, “She’s my favorite. So pretty and so nice!”
Poppy gave another grunt, looked sidelong at Gwen, and huffed under her breath.
“Who’s jealous?” Jinx whispered and Poppy glared at her.
Gwen hadn’t noticed, she was humming one of Seraphine’s songs; then she gasped, “Oh gosh, the kitties! I see them!”
“Where?” Jinx grumbled, pawing for her binoculars, “I didn’t see any kitties yet – just some huge, ripped dude behind the counter. He had cat ears, though, I think, does that count?”
“Huh,” said Gwen, “I guess that’s the proprietor. Wow, he’s sure scary looking! Sivir wouldn’t need to work so hard to get annoying customers off our backs if we had someone who looked like that at our place…”
She squinted.
“Awww kitties,” she squealed, “There’s the cutest little tabby – oh! A tortoiseshell! Oh, there are some very pretty girls working here too! The one in the pink looks a bit familiar but she’s facing away from me…”
“Do they have a waterslide?” Lulu mused, “Oh maybe like, magic flying fish that the kitties chase? Or cakes that taste like rock music? Ooh! Or polka!”
“A vampire torture dungeon,” Jinx added, “In the basement!”
Everyone turned to look at her, and Jinx shrugged.
“Briar suggested it?” she said, “Switch up the theme a bit!”
“That’s nice,” said Gwen, sweetly, giving Briar, still on shift across the street at Café Cuties with her pon-de-ring pillory slung around her shoulders, waving in new customers, a rare eyebrow, “We should have a little word with our mascot girl about appropriate suggestions, hm?”
“I liked the idea,” Jinx shifted, “Gimme my binoculars back, Gwenny!”
She snatched them and peeked through.
“Heeey, wait a second…” she frowned, her eyes tracking all the cats lazing around inside the cozy, chic, understated interior of the café, before settling on a cat that was floating, on a flying book, no less…
“That’s the manager’s cat!”
“Yuumi?” Lulu gaped, “What’s she doing over there?”
“Looks like she’s working there too now, and then there’s…”
Jinx swung the binoculars to see who she was talking to.
Oh.
There was the maid in the pink that Gwen had mentioned. Her outfit was fairly simple compared to the stunning fashions at Café Cuties, but something about the way she wore it radiated a kind of straightforward, wholesome sweetness and easy charisma…
No wonder the customers were dazzled by her. Whoever she was, she was really lighting up the room…
No…no it can’t be…
Blonde hair bounced as she turned to take another order, and Jinx’s eyes locked on her face.
“…Lux!?”
The sign on “Coffee House MEOW!” turned to CLOSED and the shutters fell.
Lux sighed happily and stretched, wincing only slightly as she found a pop in her neck.
“Well!” she said to the little white cat curled up on the counter next to her as she added up the till, “Only two customers got scratched, one allergic reaction and one coffee splash today. I’d say second day of the job is going pretty well.”
Nyaoo~ said the kitty.
Lux leaned her cheek onto her palm and hummed.
“Oh, no complaining, you,” she winked at the cat, “You get free food and so many pets, and there’s even places you can scoot to if the people get too bothersome.”
The cat swished her tail and Lux giggled.
“And you get to make a big mess for me to clean up,” Lux scrunched her nose, flicking another white hair from her pink dress with a playful scowl at the little animal, “Honestly, if you guys had any idea how much I pulled out of the vacuum cleaner yesterday! I could practically build a new cat out of it.”
“Talking to the non-talking cats is the first sign of madness, you know,” Yuumi huffed, floating in on Book in a trail of faint arcane sparkles, “But very well done today, Lux. You performed very adequately!”
Lux flushed and bowed her head, “T-thank you, Miss Yuumi…”
“That’s as close to a compliment as you’ll get from her. She is a cat, after all,” said Sett, with a chuckle, as he finished polishing the last of the teacups to his satisfaction, “Yuumi, show New Girl how to close the till properly and do final lockup.”
He stretched himself, his impressively muscular frame flexing with the motion, as it tended to with nearly everything Sett did. Lux had no idea how any person, human or otherwise, could possibly be that buff, but she was in total awe of her boss.
“…Mom’s making her specialty stew tonight,” Sett mused, “Can’t be late for that! Good work today, Lux.”
“Thanks, Boss!” she said, “Hope you enjoy dinner with your mom!”
“Always do. She’s the best,” he said with a sentimental little gleam in his eye that completely deflated any intimidation factor that Lux might have left; Sett slung his backpack over his shoulder and gave her a languid two-finger salute from his brow as he strolled out of the cafe.
Yes, it was a good job, and Lux could think of one person she was so, so excited to share her news of employment with…
“Now, just sweep the main floor, lock up the till, windows and doors and I’ll wrangle these lazy fluffballs to their beds for the night,” said Yuumi, “You’ll be on shift with Zoe and Rengar tomorrow. Payday is at the end of the week, by the way.”
“Yess!” Lux fist-pumped, “Take that, Lux’s rent and college fees!”
Yuumi gave a mrowrl that might have been her equivalent of a laugh and floated over to finish her paperwork.
“The customers were, I admit, impressed with your magical talents. Might you help me calm these kitties down for the night?” the cat asked her, “Say, a little sleepy mood lighting, if you would?”
“Coming right up,” Lux smiled broadly as she lifted her fingertips, a rainbow gleam welling at her index finger before every light still on in the café shifted to a warmer, softer temperature and brightness.
Yuumi purred approval and swished her tail in happiness as she returned to floating around, herding the other cats out of the main café space and toward their cozy beds.
“I wonder what Jinx will think when she finds out I’ve got this job,” Lux sighed to herself, “I can’t wait to see the look on her face…”
“The numbers don’t lie,” Poppy sighed, “They’re somehow kicking our butt.”
“It’s probably the kitties,” said Lulu.
“Or that adorable waitress,” said Gwen, “Wait! Jinx, isn’t she the girl you met at the FroYo place? The one who came to the café with you and Briar a few weeks back on your afternoon shift…?”
“So, what if she is? What are we gonna do?” said Poppy.
Jinx lowered the binoculars, her brows scrunching in the middle and her teeth clenched.
“I’ll tell you what we do,” said Jinx, “We go to war.”