The best part of finding a little hole in the wall sort of place was that they remembered his order.
And, once he returned with regularity, they even learned to have it ready for him before he showed up. Some things were worth the cost.

"One extra large Puerto Rican Relief Blend, cinnamon and a splash of cream."

Or maybe, just maybe, he was a sucker for rigid structure and a quiet cafe to study in.

"Bless you." It was the perfect amount of warmth in his winter-chilled hands. Washing them all the time had left them cold, but he didn't have time to get sick. Like, ever. "I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy." He passed over a bill and upon receiving his change, immediately dumped it into the tipping jar as was his custom. He had to keep the cafe people happy if he wanted to keep getting the royal treatment.

"Ask management to crank the heat a bit, will ya?" He hefted his rucksack and found his out of the way cubby in order to escape the minor disagreement that was going on at the register. Something about a safe place applying to everyone. He did not care. It was not his problem. Today, his problem was biochemical pathways.

He unpacked his bag and settled his coffee and his highlighters and his ruled pad of paper. Studying was like a second, caffeine-powered home.

((Tag @saint, Javier Martín Moreno))

Javier liked bookstores. They were quiet and cozy, no one bugged you if you looked at the merchandise too long, and there were plenty of things to turn your attention to when you did not want to awkwardly stand around in the company of strangers.
Javier also liked cafes. They were quiet, they had nice drinks, and you did not have to yell over loud music or deal with drunk people if you wanted to have a conversation. And if you did not want to have one, that was fine too.
For all the reasons listed above, Javier really liked this particular place. It was small, cozy, rarely crowded, and had a good selection of drinks. It was pretty much as far as the tailor was willing to go in terms of "hanging out" in public alone. Plus, hot sweet beverages were great for soothing his nerves.

Right now, Javi was sitting at a table in a corner of the shop, nursing a large mug of jasmine tea, and enjoying the fact that he was practically invisible. He was taking his time, drinking the tea one sip at a time while he read his book - he did not want to drink it too quickly and then sit there wondering if the barista was giving him the evil eye, wishing he would buzz off and give the table up to people who were actually drinking. There was nothing worse than sitting in a place like this with an empty cup. Javier shuddered at the thought.

The cup still had plenty of tea in it, and the book was good. There was some kind of an argument going on at the counter, something about who was allowed in and who wasn't.

"He's clearly a fire hazard, man!" growled a young guy with slicked-back blonde hair, staring at a man who seemed to have small blue-green flames licking at the tips of his beard and long hair. Javier glanced up, then registered all the second-hand awkwardness, and tried to shuffle his chair back to be out of sight behind a bookshelf. He did not need to take on other people's conflicts. Not today.

Buses were one of the worst things about living in a city.  Sure they could be convenient from time to time but they were also just gross.  You never knew how that white stain on the seat next to you got there.  He would much rather be driving himself around in his Mustang but he drove over a large pot hole the other day. He wouldn't be able to get to far until he replaced the popped tire.  To make himself feel a bit better he kept telling himself that this was better than driving through crappy traffic. It wasn't working to much.  Thankfully this was his stop and the bookstore was just a block away.

A bookstore wasn't Ren's usual scene but his father's birthday was coming up and he wanted to get him something different. Alwyn was very proud of being Welsh so Ren was hoping he could find a book on Wales history, old folklore, or something interesting. Walking into the store Ren was hit with the pleasant smell of coffee.  The smell made he realized he was in desperate need of caffeine.  He would probably grab something on his way out.  First he needed to find that gift, assuming there was anything Wales related in here.

Walking up and down the aisles Ren couldn't help but notice the workers behind the counter were starting to argue and they weren't being subtle about it.  Apparently they had issues with an obvious mutant that was minding his own business.  To be fair fire was coming off his hair, but he hadn't done any damage so far.  Why make a fuss about it?

"—Because our boss is allergic to fire?"

"She hasn't been here for, like, 2 years!"

"Okay, then, flammable. Books are very, very flammable. No books, no product, no sale—"

AJ's powers of concentration were legendary. He could zone out the neighbors every single time they proved they were going through a rough patch. He could pretend no dogs lived on his floor. He could even manage to study when Amber was being cute and trying to tempt him away to make a pillow fort and eat cheerios. He could not, however, ignore the man with fire for hair.

Once AJ caught sight of it his biochemical pathways brain swapped over to speculation: how was it sustained? What was it using as a fuel source? And why weren't the people at the desk even trying to keep their voices down?

There was a moment when the fireman met AJ's eyes. He had one fist clenched and one armload of books.

"Hey." He inclined his head a bit by way of a mundane greeting as the man passed his corner. The EMT was tempted to turn and follow FireHair with his eyes, but figured the guy got enough of that. And he really did have to study.

"You talk to him!"

"No, you!"

AJ hunched his shoulders and did his best to ignore, easier to do once he popped the top off of his highlighter and started reengaging in the material at hand.

Javier tried to scoot his chair as far back behind the bookshelf as he could, without making a noise, or ending up sitting awkwardly far away from his table. He really did not want to be in the line of fire... metaphorically speaking. On a moral level, he really hated that a mutant was being harassed in the shop for his mutation, by other patrons who were, simply put, too loud for their own good, and clearly wrong. The guy with the flaming hair and beard looked like he had his powers under control. Lucky him, thought Javier for a moment, then sighed, and buried his nose in his tea. One could not run into every conflict. And he was certainly not the person to do it. It seemed all done now anyway. The mutant, clearly agitated, was walking away from the counter where the blonde idiot was still yelling about the safety of the public, and then something about registering dangerous mutants.

That was the point when the fire started.

He only wanted one book. This was suppose to be a quick in and out trip with a nice coffee bonus at the end. Instead he got to listen to a bumbling idiot hide behind public safety as an excuse to publicly shame a fellow mutant and preach his judgemental nonsense.  Ren was tempted to throw a book at the bigot but knew that no matter how satisfying that would be, it would also cause more problems then fix them.  Instead he tried to just focus on the book spines in front of him.  He knew he shouldn't but he couldn't help it.  Ren took a quick glance at the fire guy and realized that he was probably having similar thoughts that he himself was but instead of a book to the face it looked like the pyro wanted to turn the men behind the counter into little chard bits.  The gentle, blue-green flames were growing and turning into angry swirls of orange and red. 

"Screw you guys! If you had just kept your stupid shit to yourself I would've been gone by now.  Nope! That would to be simple.  I was having a nice day. I was just going to grab this new book, that I've been looking forward to for about a year by the way, and go home and read." The book caught on fire as the angry mutant started waving it around, using the motions to emphasis his rant. "Instead I get to listen to you cut me down." He threw the book farther into the shop and picked up another.  As soon as his hand touched the spine the book burst into flames and he threw that one too.  The pyro no longer cared what happened. If they were going to fear him, to hate him, with out knowing him then he would give them what they expected. He didn't bother trying to control his flames any longer.  He let them run rampant, and it had a devastating effect on the bookstore.  Between throwing burning books and the man's own fire the bookstore was quickly engulfed in fire.

Ren stood there frozen and couldn't believe what he was witnessing.  He understood the man's anger but burning the places down with people, namely himself, trapped inside was taking it to far.  He had to move, he had to do something.  Ren looked around and saw a fire extinguisher but the fire had spread to far for the canister to be of any use. He also noticed there were a couple people by him and they were starting to panic and look for away out.  What to do, what to do, what to do? A plan started to form in his mind, it was probably a bad idea but he didn't have time to think of anything better.   Ren made himself dense enough to pick up the bookcase in front of him and then threw it through the store front window.  He then turned to the man next to him and apologized.  "Sorry man, but it's this or dying in a fire."

Before the panicked stranger could object Ren picked him up him and threw him through the window.  The startled man might have a broken bone or maybe a concussion but it was better then dying from smoke inhalation.  Ren started to cough from the smoke then used his shirt to cover his mouth and nose.  The smoke was getting thick enough that it was getting hard to see.  He knew should probably run for the window, but he had to make sure everyone got out. He looked around trying to figure out what else he could do.

Something moved in his periphery. AJ hunkered down to make a copy of the paragraph he'd highlighted. Writing it down in his own all-caps scrawl helped somehow. Like muscle memory for the brain. He felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck and was glad that the staff had hit the heat, but with his coffee, now he seemed to be overheating.

AJ set his pencil down to unzip his jacket and something else streaked past his line of sight.

A book. A book on fire.

He looked around, weirdly calm in the chaos of a bookstore on fire. Chaos was his life. Why should he expect to evade it on his day off?

AJ grabbed his phone and dialed 9-1-1 as he peeled out of his jacket. The biggest risk here was smoke inhalation so he doused his sleeve with coffee and held it to his nose. Ah shoot. His notes. He was scrambling to save his notes when dispatch answered.

"Hi. There's a fire at the Full Circle Bookstore and there's..." He stood and did a quick scan. "Maybe... 6 of us including staff still inside." AJ ducked as something rather structural made a long whale song groan. "Yes. I'm inside." His books safely packed, AJ went to group up with the obnoxious girls at the front desk who had been blabbing about the fire mutant.

"Get low. Cover your mouth if you can." He repeated the dispatcher's advice to those around him, but something smacked him in the back of the head and made him drop his phone. A book, still smoking, hit the floor next to his foot while his phone slid away under the front desk and out of reach. Well. That sucked. At least the book that'd been thrown at him hadn't actually been on fire...

One minute, it was shouting and conflict, and the next, it was chaos. It only took one flaming book for the whole store to start going up in fire, and people reacted in the worst ways possible. Javier felt adrenaline rush through him as he realized this was real, this was bad, and he could not sidle his way out of it unnoticed.

Some people ran, some broke a window, and smoke was already filling up the space. Javier jumped up, leaving drink and book behind, and looked around for an exit.

>>"Hi. There's a fire at the Full Circle Bookstore and there's... Maybe... 6 of us including staff still inside."

Someone was calling 911. Good. Javier turned, and then heard a crash that made him jump. One of the many bookshelves toppled and fell, starting up a domino effect; heavy cases bumped into each other, too close to fall, and the last one slammed against a pillar that was holding up the ceiling next to the bar. The pillar shuddered and groaned, and paint drizzled into the flames from above.

"Oh, sh*t."

It was only a moment's notice. Javier had no time to consider how on earth he ended up in one of these situations again, which was probably for the better, because if he did, his strength would have failed him. But this time, he knew he could do it. For a bit, anyway. He rushed up to the pillar, holding it up with steady pressure as he leaned heavily against him. It had to be a comical sight, his slight frame against the building structure.

"Go!" he snapped at the people huddling by the bar "Get outside!"