Chapter Text
“Marko, Marky, Markell, Markayla," the man said, tapping on the drive-thru window with every name he could think of. He knew the kids’ name was Mark, but it was fun messing with him. Also, he messed up his order, so it was only right.
He watched the kid slowly turn toward him and point toward his name tag. There was a brief pause. "Markavious—"
The boy opens the drive-thru window. “Reid, you were just here, and we’re about to close.”
“Yeah, I was, and y’all got my order wrong.” He explained with a quirked brow. “I never put mayo or pickles on my deluxe burger.”
Mark blinked as he looked down at the sandwich. “Oh my bad, we can get you another one made if you give me that one.”
“What are you going to do with this one?” Reid asked.
“Well, we’ll have to throw it away because you opened it.”
“Oh nah, throw it away? That’s such a waste. Let me keep this one and give it to someone else.” He reasoned, as Mark narrowed his eyes with growing suspicion.
“Give it to someone else?”
“Yes.” Reid answered with a furrowed brow. “What do you think I’m going to eat? I'm allergic to pickles, man; really, we should talk about how you were about to take my life with this burger.”
Mark sputtered. “What I wasn’t going to—you were—okay, whatever, take the other burger; I’ll make sure we get you another one. Just wait right here.”
Reid grinned at him as he closed the window and walked out of his view. He leaned against the wall as he waited. He didn’t own a car, so this was a little awkward, but whatever. He worked across the street at the convenient store. He sometimes just bought snacks from the store during his break, but Doritos at ten o’clock at night was just not the move. Plus, he worked the night shift, and some of the people that would come in were low-key freaks and not the fun kind.
Finally, Mark came back with a bag in his hand and also a soft drink. “Here, sorry about the mix-up."
“It’s all good," Reid said. He was mostly messing with the kid. Well, not about the pickles; he was actually allergic to them. So he probably would have died. Reid's co-worker wasn’t allergic, so he’d probably just give it to him.
He nodded and turned on his way back to the store. As he began to walk across the street, he saw something ascending down from the sky. Which really wasn’t all that out of the ordinary; superheroes hang around here all the time…unless it wasn’t a hero. They had the occasional bad guy. Not that many though; the Guardians of the Globe kept this part of town pretty clear, and Omni-man. That guy too.
So Reid tried to be super chill about the man in the white onesie, with a metal arm and one eye dropping down on the street a little ways down. Man, he had to go that way to get back to work…maybe this is the day he quits? No, be so for real; Reid couldn’t even afford a car. Quitting was out of the question. Well, toward the questionable man he goes.
The moment he started towards him, the man turned and stared at him straight on. It was super quiet. Was this street always this quiet? Impulsively he spoke out, “Do you want a deluxe burger?” His voice cracked under the pressure.
“Do I want a what, worm?” The man said, drawing closer, and wow, was this man huge. It could also be that Reid was just kind of short and this man was flying, but no, this man was big
Wait, worm?
“Ah, haha okay. Do you want a burger?” The man stared him down. “Like food, they got my order wrong, and pickles could end me, and I was going to give it to my co-worker. But you’re here, so I uh, was going to offer it to you.” He held out the bag.
The man glanced down and then back up to Reid’s face. “You would give me something that would end you? You’re quite brave.”
"Well, I’m allergic to pickles; I assume you’re not though, unless you are, so if so, my bad.”
They both said nothing for a moment too long, and Reid watched the man; he seemed like he was calculating something behind his eyes. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll humor you for a moment before we end this.”
“Oh, um okay, here.” He said, handing it to him. The man opened the wrapper and took the most violent bite of a burger Reid had ever seen in his life. They stood in silence for a while, and he finished it and was just standing there menacingly.
“That was satisfactory.” The giant said, sounding a bit astonished. “This would have ended you?”
“Well yeah, but like only because of the pickles.” Reid said awkwardly, and the man gave him a judgy look before glancing down at the other bag in his hand. “Um, this one doesn’t have any pickles on it. If you want, you could come to the store I work at if you’re hungry.”
For a second Reid was worried that the man wouldn’t actually go with him. He nodded. “Urathian food isn't as bad as I’ve heard. This earns you, hm, maybe ten more minutes.”
Reid furrowed his brow but said nothing. Urathian? Was that like another way to say "earthling"? Wait, ten minutes of what?