Rupert's coffee house was closed.

Maya sighed and rested her forehead against the glass door for a few seconds. Behind her back the sun was coming up, and New York was slowly filled with the buzz of another workday starting.

For the young X-man, the workday had just ended.

Maya sighed and walked away from the closed shop, looking for another one down the street that might be open and serving breakfast and coffee. The Mansion with its warm breakfast smells was incredibly far away, and Maya did not have the energy to mirrorhop back home, not without taking a break first.

Walking down the street she aught the scent of fresh coffee. Perfect. She walked up to the door of the shop and caught a glimpse of herself in the glass.
She was quite the sorry sight.

If you spend most of the night battling thugs, you will look like crap in the morning. That's all there is to it. Maya had her archery gear still on her back, wrapped up for the time being, and the X-jacket over her shoulder, turned inside out. The rest of the uniform was dirty and wrinkled, but not torn, thanks to superior materials for X-gear... Maya's short dark hair was messy, and a few strands stuck to her forehead where a small cut had just stopped bleeding. The back of her knuckles was also bruised.

All she wanted was a coffee. And maybe brownies.

Paige had been working at this god-forsaken coffee shop for two months, and she still didn't have the grasp of the uniform concept. Each day of the week had its own specific shirt color. And she still got confused. Well, everyone thought so, anyway. Why else would she be wearing Friday's bright purple collared shirt on Wednesday, when everyone was supposed to wear the white shirt? Surely no one would be crazy enough to do that on purpose.

Nonetheless, all the others scampering around at 7:30 in the morning were wearing white, while the one blonde behind the counter was wearing bright purple.

"I'm docking five bucks from your paycheck every time you break code," the owner had told her.
Paige said nothing in response, but nodded and thinking Worth it.

Now, she was having trouble with someone in line. "This is exactly what you asked for. Medium cup, no sugar, no cream."
"No. I asked for decaf"
"Decaf? That's like kissing your sister, ain't it?" she muttered before fixing the order and sending the person on their way.

She rubbed her temples. This was going to be a long day...

"Okay, next. Welcome to Vinnie's Coffee House, how can I help you this morning?" She asked the next person in line. In his office, outside the line of vision, the manager gave a smile to himself. Finally, she did it properly, without asking "Okay what do you want?" Maybe she'd learn after all...

>>"Decaf? That's like kissing your sister, ain't it?"

Maya snickered behind the hipster who had the nerve to order decaf at damn 7 in the morning. Only in New York...
The girl in the purple shirt was obviously annoyed. Maya stepped up to the counter, trying her best to wipe the blood from her forehead, but not exactly succeeding since it was already dry.

>>"Okay, next. Welcome to Vinnie's Coffee House, how can I help you this morning?"

Shoot me.

"So if decaf is kissing your sister, who do I gotta kiss to get pure black coffee and a donut?..."

Paige blinked at the next customer, her green eyes narrowing a bit. But instead of answering with 'My ass,' like she wanted to, she cracked a smile. "I'd say eat the donut first. Straight black here, you can kiss your sense of taste goodbye," she said quietly so as not to let her manager hear.

"So that's one "Rocket Fuel"--no kidding that's what we call the plain roast with nothing in it, and one donut. What kind?" She jerked her thumb to the menu, one with the coffees, the other with the freshly made pastries. Anything under the sun, they had. 24/7. Yet Paige hated it here? The lovechild of Starbucks and Krispy Kreme, and Paige hated it.

>>"I'd say eat the donut first. Straight black here, you can kiss your sense of taste goodbye. So that's one "Rocket Fuel"--no kidding that's what we call the plain roast with nothing in it, and one donut. What kind?"

"Um..." Maya glanced at the menu and was momentarily stunned by all the choices, doubled in difficulty by lack of sleep. "... chocolate?..."

When in doubt, go with chocolate.

Rocket Fuel sounded like just the thing to get her back to the Mansion.

"Also, um... do you happen to have a first aid kit?"

She had a small one on her belt, but once again it got lost in the brawl somewhere. She needed to talk to Sam about finding a better way of keeping it around. Or maybe deposit some of them around the city?...

Paige nodded, fixing a medium cup of coffee, then grabbing a fresh donut, drizzling the chocolate on it herself. "That'll be 3.71." She dug under the counter for the first aid kit, pulling out a few alcohol pads and some band-aids. Handing them to the girl, she shrugged.

"Sorry, this is all we have," she replied. Just then, someone came from behind the counter to talk to Paige, wearing a white shirt like everyone else. "Paige, the boss wants you to do advertising for awhile."

Great...not that...anything but that..."Fine. As soon as I finish with this customer..."

"Good. Outfit's in the closet."

Great. Just ****ing great...

>>"That'll be 3.71... Sorry, this is all we have,"

"That's fine, thanks."

It was all she needed. DocProf had stopped healing her scratches and bruises a long time ago, and unless bones were broken he would just wave the X-men away with 'it builds character' and 'I have actual patients to attend to', which was a lie, because the X-men were most of his actual patients.

>>"Paige, the boss wants you to do advertising for awhile."

Maya was on her way to the bathroom with the food and the first aid kit when she caught that sentence. It sounded humiliating.

>>."Fine. As soon as I finish with this customer..."

Maya nodded to the girl in thanks and disappeared for a while to clean up and look presentable. No one wants to sit in a coffee shop looking like a hunter that just got mauled.

Paige took the money and rang it up as her replacement took the counter. Sighing, she went to the closet and grabbed the costume. She made her way to the restroom, slipping into the monstrosity that she, thanks to the cruel hand of fate, was just the right size for. Soon, a giant, grinning coffee cup emerged from the restroom. The cup itself was brown, with Seven bands around it. Blue, Green, White, Orange, Red, Black, and Purple, the scheme their shirts were modeled after. Grumbling, she made her way to the street corner, swearing to God the things she'd do if anyone gave her trouble while she was in this thing.

Maya emerged from the restrooms relatively clean, with the cut on her forehead and arms bandaged up. Now she did not look like an X-man fresh from a fight, more like an X-man about twenty to thirty minutes after a fight. Great improvement.
Munching on the donut and sipping coffee (Rocket Fuel indeed) she looked around and saw that a new person had taken over the counter. On the other hand, there was a giant and obviously very embarrassed coffee cup standing outside on the sidewalk.
Taking another bite out of the donut she walked outside. Through the door. There was no need to draw too much attention.

"I hope ya get paid for this in gold" she chuckled, standing next to the coffee cup, watching to traffic go by.

"Not even close," Paige grumbled. "I basically work for peanuts," she added as she half-heartedly waved to the passers-by on the sidewalk. Of course, it being New York, she didn't get much of a response. Her green eyes glared out of the eye-holes in the coffee cup's pupils.

Suddenly, she got an evil idea, and turned to look at the girl. "Ya know...I bet I could get a reaction out of even these people," she whispered. What she was thinking was stupid. It was a horrible idea. But maybe...just maybe...

Slowly, the coffee cup started to go limp, the arms just idly hanging there as the legs shrank and the cup itself just hung there. Seconds later, the costume flopped to the ground, eliciting a few startled swears from the person who was right in front of her at the time.

"Hahaha...that made this all worthwhile..." Paige's voice rang out, though seemingly farther away. Inside the costume was a glass coffee mug, designed much like the costume itself, should Maya decide to take a peek and see what was going on.

>>"Not even close. I basically work for peanuts,"

"That sucks" Maya commiserated, looking at the people passing by. They did not seem affected by the devious marketing move to make them crave caffeine.

>>"Ya know...I bet I could get a reaction out of even these people,"

"Depends what ya re going f..."

Maya almost choked on her donut as the giant cup started to collapse in on itself. A few people stared, confused. Some clapped out of anxiety.

>>"Hahaha...that made this all worthwhile..."

Maya leaned down to peek inside the costume, expecting to see a miniature version of the girl. What she found instead was a talking coffee cup.

"Ya're a mutant."

"Guilty as charged, she replied with a somewhat sadistic laugh. "At first, I though there wasn't much point in being able to shift into things like sporks and candles, but...there is a slight joy in it..." If she could have, she would have smiled.

In a similar process, the coffee cup stood up, coming back to life. Upon this, a handful of the gawkers and onlookers rushed inside for coffee. "Sadly, I won't be able to do that again for a few hours. Name's Paige. Hope you enjoyed your breakfast and a show."

Okay, maybe advertising wasn't so bad after all. In fact, spooking a crowd of New Yorkers and swamping her cover was well worth it. Her mood had brightened considerably, anyway.

>>"Guilty as charged. At first, I though there wasn't much point in being able to shift into things like sporks and candles, but...there is a slight joy in it... Sadly, I won't be able to do that again for a few hours. Name's Paige. Hope you enjoyed your breakfast and a show."

Once again, mutations did not fail to amaze the young X-man. She wondered if she would ever run into a person whose mutation would leave her thinking 'hey, I have totally seen this before'...

"Name's Maya" she offered a hand and shook the oversize mitten of the coffee cup "How about we try this again."

Walking back to the glass windows of the shop she slipped into her own reflection. The image of her melted into the mirror image of the coffee cup which suddenly came to life, and, detaching itself from Paige's movements, started walking around in the windows, waving at people as they passed by.

Paige gave a nod, which was unseen thanks to the bulk of the ridiculous costume. As was Paige's jaw dropping as the girl entered Paige's reflection, taking over. Okay...that was neat.

"Okay...that'simpressive," she mused with a low whistle. So as it turns out, standing on a street-corner in a stupid costume was much more interesting when there were mutants involved. And hey, it was attracting alot more business.

"All right, I'm done before they decide to hire me" Maya grinned as she stepped out of the reflection. It was definitely fun to goof off after protecting the city all night from bad guys.

"So, Paige. What makes a talented young lady like yourself work for peanuts?"

Yeah, it was part of Maya's job to ask. Mutants often did not even know about the possibilities that were available at Xavier's. At the same time, she truly was curious to hear the answer.