Chapter Text
If Alex had to describe the barista at his favorite coffee shop, it would be… boring.
He was this tall, lanky thing with floppy dark hair and a flat voice that scraped along Alex’s nerves every time he came in. But he was quick and always had his order out in under five minutes, so Alex dealt with him. Plus he was always kind to Scott whenever the auburn haired boy joined the blond, sneaking him a few cookies or a muffin whenever they were together.
So far, today had been like any other, Alex had just gotten out of work from his job at the local garage, and swung by X-presso Joe’s for a little before-dinner pick-me-up.
The bell chimed softly as Alex enters the small café. The barista was behind the counter as usual, wiping down one of the many espresso machines, as he gets ready to close up.
He’s greeted with a soft hello as the brunette tosses the rag he was using to the side. "What can I get you today?"
“Hey, can I please get one medium cappuccino, a large strawberry mango smoothie, a large caramel macchiato and…” Alex glanced at the menu. “A small hot chocolate.”
He figured he’d be nice—something for Armando and Angel, who’d been watching Scott all day, and something for Scott himself.
“That’ll be $18.25, please.”
Pulling out his wallet Alex gives the brunette a twenty, telling him to keep the change. The barista busies himself with making the drinks while Alex looks over the display case of goodies.
There's no one else around, the café already half packed up for the night.
A small beep rings from his pocket, it’s a text from Armando, apparently Charles had already started dinner and it would be done soon so he needed to hurry up before he sent Erik After him.
“Alex.” the Barista calls, placing the drink tray down on the counter, a small white goodie bag sitting next to it. “It’s almost closing time, they would have gone to waste.” The brunette answers before Alex can even question it, he picks up the rag he was previously cleaning with and turns, heading to the back of the store.
With a shrug, the blond picks up his items and heads for home.
…
Scott was already waiting outside when he pulled up, Armando and Angel hovering nearby. White bandages covered Scott’s eyes, keeping them firmly shut.
That was one thing Alex absolutely loathed about Scott’s mutation, while Alex could generate hot plasma rings from his whole body. Scott’s power fired straight from his eyes—and once open, there was no stopping it.
Parking the car, the elder brother climbed the mansion's front stairs up to Scott, cups and goodies in hand. He passed the baggie to Scott, who immediately dug into the bag as quickly as he could, pulling out a large sugar cookie. Scott brought it up to his nose, giving it a big sniff and then shoved half the cookie into his mouth before Alex had a chance to even stop him.
“Scottie c’mon you know you aren’t supposed to be eating too much junk before dinner, the other kids are gonna get jealous.”
His brother stopped shoveling the cookie into his mouth to raise his head, Alex knew that if he was able to Scott's eyes would be big and watery, the best/worst kind of puppy eyes.
Alex let out a soft sigh, before giving the younger the go ahead to finish, passing the drink tray to Armando.
“So how was work?” Armando questioned, removing the Americano and then passing the tray to Angel.
“Good, Exhausting but good.”
“No freak outs today then?” Angel asked, sipping from her smoothie, not even bothering to take it out of the tray.
“Nope.” He responded letting the P pop. “But some old woman did try sneaking her number into my wallet when I was fixing her Cadillac, check it out. Alex reached for his wallet that normally sat in his back pocket, but it wasn’t there.
“Shit, I must have left it on the counter at X-presso Joe’s.” the blond grumbled, grabbing his phone to check the time. It was quarter to seven, he should have just enough time to head back and grab his wallet before the café closed. “Scott, why don’t you head back inside and get ready for dinner while I head back to the café for my wallet, I shouldn't be too long okay?”
“Okay.” Scott responded happily around what remained of the sugar cookie as the two adults ushered him inside.
…
Heading back to the coffee shop didn’t take long but apparently it took long enough that the café was already dark and the doors were locked. He gave the doors a quick shake, but they wouldn’t budge and there was nothing he could do about it, he’d just have to get his wallet tomorrow.
Just as he turned to leave he heard the sound of a door opening from around the other side of the building, the barista guy must still be there!
Alex moved around the side of the café to see if he could spot the brunette, and there he was, standing in front of the green dumpster, a black trash bag in hand.
Hopefully he would let Alex in long enough to grab his wallet. The blond took a step forward, when he noticed another man approach the barista from the other side of the alley, he was dressed entirely in black and looked like he could break the nerdy looking boy like he was a toothpick.
"You have got to be kidding me." he mutters to himself just as the stranger reaches for the brunette, who in turn quickly whips around just out of reach. That’s when Alex notices the stranger was not alone, he has two friends with him, one is holding a knife and the other, what looks to be a syringe. They start to move closer, when the barista suddenly swings the trash bag he was still carrying at the first guy, Alex didn’t know what was in it, but it must've been heavy because he goes hurdling backwards.
Faster than he could really perceive, the man with the knife lunges at the barista next, forcing him backwards into the alley wall as the first thug he had hit with the trash bag was already back up, shoving past the knife guy and grabbing hold of the poor barista, shoving him even harder into the alley wall, hard enough that Alex could heard his skull bounce against the brick wall from where he stood.
He’d almost forgotten about thug number three, until he moved towards the brunette, syringe at the ready.
'Okay.' Alex thought to himself, it was definitely time to intervene. The blond took another step into the alley when he noticed the barista hunching in on himself, shoulders shaking and legs flailing. The two thugs were starting to have a hard time holding the geeky boy as he began to thrash about now, knocking the thug with the knife away and directly into the dumpster. Hard.
What the hell was going on now?
And that’s when Alex saw it, the barista was blue, honest to god blue, and furry too, his eyes a bright almost luminescent gold that glowed brightly in the dim alley.
He wouldn’t have guessed the other was a mutant, though the same could be said about him.
The first thug continues to try and hold the now blue man against the wall alone, but even as dazed as he looks, the barista continues to struggle as the guy with the syringe comes at him again.
Alex books it fully into the alley, tackling the first thug away from the blue barista and to the ground. Thug number one looks furious as he throws Alex away from him and tries to clamber up, but Alex is faster, making it to his feet first, socking the thug directly in the nose.
The gushing of his blood makes the other man look like a raging bull, but that’s not stopping Alex, he’s taken on guys bigger than this before and he’s always come out on top.
Leveraging his weight, Alex gets ready for the attack, the thug moves, already angry and physically hurt, It doesn't take much, just a quick step to the side and the idiot runs face first into the brick wall of the alley, knocking himself out cold.
The third thug is still going at the blue boy, the two are rolling around on the ground as the thug waves the syringe like a knife and tries to plunge it into his neck. Even with this new form the barista is having a hard time, his movement sluggish and weak, which is not a good sign.
The good thing about the other guy being distracted is that he doesn’t notice Alex walk up the two and deliver a swift kick to the guys head, knocking him out and off of the other.
Shit.
The Barista looks even worse up close, his pupils are large and out of focus, there's blood coming from somewhere near his hairline and he looks like he’s going to pass out any second.
But it does look like, Hank, Alex reads off his apron, is starting to revert back to his normal lanky self, a splattering of bruises already forming along the side of his face and arms.
God this looks even worse
“Hank, hey Hank?” Alex calls softly, but all the brunette does is lolle his head to the side to look at him. “You gotta stay awake okay? I’m going to call an ambulance and they’re gonna get you the help you need.”
“Noooo.” the brunette groans, trying to sit up, only for his arms to give out, making him crash to the ground if Alex hadn’t held onto him. “No hospital…… Don wan them.. Ta kno……”
Alex understands a little, being a mutant isn’t necessarily a bad thing, not like it used to be, but it could still certainly complicate things.
Hank’s eyes flutter for a moment before falling shut. “No, no, no, no. Hank wake up please, c’mon Hank….”
Alex touches his face as gently as he can, but there is no response from the brunette. Alex can see the soft rise and fall of his chest which means he's breathing, so that’s good. Shuffling the other male into his arms Alex stands maneuvering Hank into a sort of bridal carry, he heads to his car. He’s gotta make it to the mansion as fast as possible, dialing Charles on the way to warn him and everyone else about what had happened and who he was bringing home.