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tenminutesaday2022-01-12 02:15 pm
shivver) wrote in tenminutesaday2022-01-12 02:15 pm
Entry tags:
Fill: Challenge #2
The trope is Coffee Shop AU - well, sort of. This one went long because tropes are just general patterns and they're hard to convey without setup and exposition - and this one had to convey why it's only sort of a Coffee Shop AU. So, it kind of became a story in itself.
Behind a cut because slightly long.
Ace hadn’t realised how much she’d come to love the morning coffee as she walked from the station to the company until the Pret a Manger closed its doors to make way for a new block of posh London financial offices. There wasn’t another cafe on her normal route and she’d thought she could do without, but a subsequent hazy day at work convinced her otherwise. As she entered the tiny no-name cafe she’d just found a block off her path, she hoped they could handle a triple-shot mocha.
Joining the queue, she studied the menu as she waited, drumming impatient fingers on her thigh. She’d never taken to idleness, not in her younger days and certainly not now, when she had a grey hair for every adventurous day she’d lived.
“Next!”
Ace blinked in surprise at the barista who’d barked the word. Young and trim, with her long hair tied back with a leather cord, she seemed outwardly unremarkable and a bit thick, but Ace knew that was a ruse; her long years travelling taught her to spot the extraordinary. The woman held herself like a hunter ready to strike, and her eyes darted up and down Ace’s form, as if assessing her as prey. Ace could tell she wasn’t thick. Her cleverness simply took a different form.
“You are different,” the woman stated before Ace could open her mouth, her husky voice laced with steel. She spoke with a precise, controlled accent. “You are not like the others.” Her eyes twitched, taking in the rest of the customers in the shop and radiating disdain for what she saw.
“I could say the same about you, mate. Never seen a barista like you before.” Ace glanced at the name scrawled on the tag on her shirt. “Leela.”
Leela looked down at the tag, frowning. She seemed confused as to how Ace had known her name. She shook her head. “I have seen some like you, but not on this world.”
Now that was a clue! “You’re not supposed to be here, are you?”
“Oi!” exclaimed the bloke in the queue behind Ace. “Save your flirting for after work! Some of us want our coffee! Order up!” With a hand on her shoulder, he pushed Ace toward the counter.
Ace caught his wrist, pulled him off-balance, and was about to aim a light kick at the back of his knees to collapse him when she saw a blur of brown out of the corner of her eye and stepped back to get out of the way. Leaping over the counter, Leela tackled the man and held him down with a knife to his throat.
“You will wait in the queue and not speak until it is your turn. Do you understand?” she growled, and the man nodded, his terrified eyes wide. She hopped up and returned to her position behind the counter, heedless of the shocked stares from everyone else in the shop - everyone except Ace.
“You are correct,” Leela replied. “I was told to come here, to mix these strange hot draughts and watch for…” She stumbled over the word. “For ah-no-ma-lees. You are such.”
“Yeah,” Ace agreed, “I’m pretty anomalous. The Professor called me that once or twice. But I don’t think I’m what you’re looking for. Tell you what, though, I’ll stick around here and help you find it. For a triple-shot mocha.”
“A triple shot mo-cha." She nodded. "On the double,” Leela pronounced with no indication she understood what the phrase actually meant.
Ace grinned. One more grey hair!
------
Notes: This is the modern-day, older, post-Doctor Ace that works in some company in London that was in that one trailer a couple of years ago. I don't remember much about that trailer.
Behind a cut because slightly long.
Ace hadn’t realised how much she’d come to love the morning coffee as she walked from the station to the company until the Pret a Manger closed its doors to make way for a new block of posh London financial offices. There wasn’t another cafe on her normal route and she’d thought she could do without, but a subsequent hazy day at work convinced her otherwise. As she entered the tiny no-name cafe she’d just found a block off her path, she hoped they could handle a triple-shot mocha.
Joining the queue, she studied the menu as she waited, drumming impatient fingers on her thigh. She’d never taken to idleness, not in her younger days and certainly not now, when she had a grey hair for every adventurous day she’d lived.
“Next!”
Ace blinked in surprise at the barista who’d barked the word. Young and trim, with her long hair tied back with a leather cord, she seemed outwardly unremarkable and a bit thick, but Ace knew that was a ruse; her long years travelling taught her to spot the extraordinary. The woman held herself like a hunter ready to strike, and her eyes darted up and down Ace’s form, as if assessing her as prey. Ace could tell she wasn’t thick. Her cleverness simply took a different form.
“You are different,” the woman stated before Ace could open her mouth, her husky voice laced with steel. She spoke with a precise, controlled accent. “You are not like the others.” Her eyes twitched, taking in the rest of the customers in the shop and radiating disdain for what she saw.
“I could say the same about you, mate. Never seen a barista like you before.” Ace glanced at the name scrawled on the tag on her shirt. “Leela.”
Leela looked down at the tag, frowning. She seemed confused as to how Ace had known her name. She shook her head. “I have seen some like you, but not on this world.”
Now that was a clue! “You’re not supposed to be here, are you?”
“Oi!” exclaimed the bloke in the queue behind Ace. “Save your flirting for after work! Some of us want our coffee! Order up!” With a hand on her shoulder, he pushed Ace toward the counter.
Ace caught his wrist, pulled him off-balance, and was about to aim a light kick at the back of his knees to collapse him when she saw a blur of brown out of the corner of her eye and stepped back to get out of the way. Leaping over the counter, Leela tackled the man and held him down with a knife to his throat.
“You will wait in the queue and not speak until it is your turn. Do you understand?” she growled, and the man nodded, his terrified eyes wide. She hopped up and returned to her position behind the counter, heedless of the shocked stares from everyone else in the shop - everyone except Ace.
“You are correct,” Leela replied. “I was told to come here, to mix these strange hot draughts and watch for…” She stumbled over the word. “For ah-no-ma-lees. You are such.”
“Yeah,” Ace agreed, “I’m pretty anomalous. The Professor called me that once or twice. But I don’t think I’m what you’re looking for. Tell you what, though, I’ll stick around here and help you find it. For a triple-shot mocha.”
“A triple shot mo-cha." She nodded. "On the double,” Leela pronounced with no indication she understood what the phrase actually meant.
Ace grinned. One more grey hair!
------
Notes: This is the modern-day, older, post-Doctor Ace that works in some company in London that was in that one trailer a couple of years ago. I don't remember much about that trailer.
no subject
Ace and Leela! Fun & IC. They would be a great team.