Front Room

Zayne listened, taking in every piece of information that left the woman’s lips. The melody of a different language caught his attention and intrigued him. Spanish? Yes... that seemed about right. She looked to be of Spanish descent, or so he thought. Although Zayne didn’t know much of the language he was able to deduce from context what the brief phrase meant. For a moment he wondered what else he would pick up on if Mercedes said it in Spanish. The man had a feeling he would pick up on it a lot quicker if Mercedes were teaching him rather than the multiple foreign language teachers he’d had in high school. He probably wouldn’t have skipped so many classes as it were, too...

A big ‘if’ with his particular penchant for trouble... but a reasonable one.

He nodded to show his comprehension, but did not add his own opinions to the game of cops and robbers. He had always been made the sole defender or offender so his older brothers – playing opposite role – could easily outnumber and overpower him. But he wasn’t going to say anything regarding his own experiences. It was nice really to hear about such things on a positive note, villain or not. “Probably,” he chuckled, remembering quite a few of his coffee-colored doodles.

Finding her wide-eyed gaze rather cute, Zayne felt the smile on his face continue to creep towards his ears. When stated she wasn’t doing anything at all later the man decided now was as good a time to ask her out as any. Well, in his mind he’d already asked her out and now they just needed to decide when and where. To her question Zayne shrugged, though scooted forward a little in his own seat and crossed one of his legs over the other. “We’ve already had lunch here... pretty sure you don’t want pastries for dinner,” he began with a chuckle. “Plenty to do here, too. Maybe dinner and... I dunno... a movie or something? Enigma’s always fun, too. Do you have a preference?”

Sadies tilted her head at the interested look on Zayne’s face. “Oh, I spoke in Spanish, didn’t I? Sorry… I grew up around it—my dad’s directly from Spain—and I slip into it at times… Sorry.”

She nodded at the thought of dinner and a movie. Always a classic in her mind. “Dinner and a movie sounds great. How about the new Harry Potter movie? And they have a bar at the Theatre. Drinks afterwards would sound great. What about tonight?”

It looked as though Zayne may have chuckled at the apology, though no sound had come from him. “Don’t worry about it. It...” he paused. What should he say? Dare he even remark further? “...It suits you. Maybe you could teach me a bit? Tried taking it in school but between the teacher being a prick and doing a lot of stupid shit at that age I can’t say as I remember much of my classes,” the man finished with a grin that was only a twinge sheepish.

Brown eyebrows rose in interest at the suggested movie. He had a moderate passing interest in the hit series’ movie adaptations, and the trailer had looked rather interesting. “All sounds great to me,” he answered with a smile that had started with his eyes and spread across his face from there. “So, what do you want to do for dinner plans? Shall I pick you up and we can go somewhere or...?”

Sadies smiled rather nervously. “Yeah, I could teach you. I didn’t learn much from my French teacher in High School. She was a total weirdo. All we did was watch movies because of the assholes in my class.” She gave him an appraising look. “Let me guess. You would have been one of those assholes?” she asked, grinning to show that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Mentally filtering through her schedule, she said, “Well, the Wonder Café is undergoing renovations, so that puts a damper on dinner plans…” Her body language screamed nervousness as she said, “I cook… I-I mean, you could come over and I’ll make dinner… If you don’t think that’s not… Or I could go over to your place… I’m babbling.”

She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Oh, holy crap, I’m gonna be late for work! I’ll see you Saturday then? Around 6:30?”

Zayne smiled and nodded, actually looking forward to learning something for a change. At her appraising look and comment he chuckled. “Yep...” Zayne casually raised his hands into the air, smile-turned-to-grin plastered on his face. “Guilty as charged, officer,” he replied playfully, then put his arms down.

That’s right... the Café was undergoing renovations. Why hadn’t he retained that? ’She’s cute when she’s nervous,’ Zayne mused, trying not to audibly chuckle at the apprehension he both heard and seen in her. “Either way is fine by me. You cook, I cook... Hell, we could even make it a joint effort if you want: you make something, and I’ll make something, and we can meet at either place. I don’t see anything wrong with a home dinner-date,” he replied and suggested.

At her sudden panic at the sight of the time, the villain also glanced at the clock. “Sure. Saturday – 6:30. Got it. We can work out the details later.” Zayne took out a pen from his pocket and pulled a spare, clean napkin to him. Hastily he scribbled down a pair of numbers, and handed the napkin to her. “My home and cell numbers. Call me?”

Mercedes smirked. “Of course you would be.”

She visibly relaxed. “Okay. I’ll cook, if that’s okay. Although if you want, bring some salad makings.” She pulled a napkin close to her and grabbed a pen from her own pocket. She wrote an address on the flimsy paper in her chicken scratch handwriting, and pushed it to the man sitting across from her. “Here’s my address.”

Sadies stood up hastily, grabbed her purse from the side of the chair, and said, “Great! I’ll see you then!” She accepted the napkin with the numbers. “Yeah, I’ll call you after work and we’ll set everything else up. What time do you close?”

She smiled as she reached the door. “I’ll talk to you later!” she said, stepping outside.

Mercedes grinned as she walked to her car. Pulling her phone out of her purse, she turned it back on. She found several angry messages from her brother saying something along the lines of “Call me!”

She texted him back, “Don’t get your panties in a twist. i’ll call when i get off work.” It would suffice for now.

“I can manage that,” Zayne replied, one side of his face curling up into a smile. He wasn’t sure what sort of dressing, but would reserve that question for when he was staring down half a dozen bottles trying to make a decision. He picked up the napkin, read the address, smiled some more, and placed it into the left breast pocket of his Inferno tee shirt. “I’ll be there.”

Zayne got up and followed her to the door so they could talk on her way out. “Whenever I want. But since I love the nightlife too much, probably around six-thirty. When the place starts expanding a bit more, the place’ll be open later,” he explained. He held the door open for her as she left even though she was already halfway out as it were. “Talk to you later. Have a great rest-of-the-day, Sadies!” he called as she made a beeline for her car, then closed the door.

The villain turned back around to go back to his post. That was an interesting and rather fun lunch hour. “Fun’s over... back to work,” he muttered, a light sigh exhaled through his nose.

(Different timeline)

Gail walked up to the much talked about coffee shop Inferno, and must admit she loved the name, or perhaps that was the pyro in her talking.

She knew Zayne Maddox was Rhodri's older brother, the only one of then she had a feeling she would like. From what Rhodri said of him, he was okay, as long you didn't make him mad.. She really had no intention of doing that. She was here to asked a favor, about month ago Rhodri and his sibling's lost there mother, and there father was rather injured in a attack by a certain villain.

It just so happened the day had been Rhodri's birthday, and it had hardly been a day they could celebrate... Best she had done that day was give him a hastily thrown together cake and birthday wishes, even though he had about the worst day of is life likely.

Well she planned to change it, by planning a belated birthday party for him, and hopefully one the best ones.

The favor she planed to ask Zayne was if he could bring his music talent to the party and sing. She heard he was singer in a band, so why not?

She walked into the the inferno and looked for the certain trouble making Maddox brother.

"Hello?" she hoped he wasn't busy for the moment... or perhaps she could help.

At the cashier’s station, a tray of pizzelles and a coffee sat unattended. A similar stack of the cookies (specially stamped with the Inferno logo instead of the traditional snowflake pattern) had been situated not far away from the service bell, a small sign beckoning patrons to sample one for free. The coffeeshop’s owner, however, was nowhere to be found in the front room.

But if one glanced in the direction of the kitchen, one could find a certain red-shirted, blonde-brown-haired individual just between both rooms. Zayne was amidst reviewing a rather large stack of papers. He was so deep in thought that he hadn’t even heard the chime of sorts hailing the arrival of a visitor. The villain hadn’t even heard the beep of his pizzelle press go off.

He did, however, hear the female voice in the next room.

Turning his head, Zayne gave Gail a distracted smile. “Hey,” he replied as he placed the papers down and walked out to the counter. “How can I help you?”

Gail smiled slightly as Zayne came out, she had only met him once at his mothers funeral, they had only exchanged afew words, such as "sorry for loss" and wishing "they had met over better circumstanses". She had mostly been there as moral support for Rhodri as she never met his mother, though she terribly wished she had. She had felt so bad for all of them, well maybe less so for the older brothers, she said little to them, and purposly steared Rhodri away from them, not trusting not to say something stupid.

"Yes... Zayne right? I am Gail, I work with Rhodri at the wonder Cafe, uh we met at your mothers funeral. I was wondering... I heard from Rhodri you sing in band? You see I am planning a surprise party for him in a couple weeks, since his real birthday, well... " she lowered her head slightly... not sure how to go about it.. she could only imagine that had been a horrible day for all of them...

"Would you mind preforming at the party? It would mean alot to him I am sure, I am willing to return the favor for your time as well, you name it.." she paused.

"Within reason of course.." she said quirking her eye brow.

Zayne nodded when asked about his name. Her face as well as her voice was familiar, but the villain could not for the life of him remember where he had seen this woman before. Recognition turned his eyes from blue to green, though at the word ‘funeral’ the coloring morphed back to blue as he shifted uncomfortably. She had also been with Rhodri when the funeral was arranged, Zayne remembered. Both events were still so surreal for him. A part of Zayne still hoped and prayed the death of his mother was all some sick, demented nightmare that he would wake up from.

“Erm, yeah, I sing in a band. At least when I’m not doing this,” he replied, glancing around the coffeehouse. A sudden idea struck him to have the band come in for some live music someday. But he would have to ask them before broadcasting even the possibility of such a thing.

Once again he lowered his eyes at the mention of Rhodri’s birthday... the day when they’d been given the news. Despite the argument he’d had with Rhodri, Zayne couldn’t believe how unfair life had been to his little brother that day. “Yeah... I feel for him. Crappy day for us all, really, but on his birthday?” he replied, shaking his head. “I’d be out there looking for the person that did it if it were me.”

Eyes now gray of iris snapped back up to survey the woman in front of him, blond eyebrows keeping puckered for a few moments before evening out again. Although, they still knitted downward a little. Zayne’s mind had brought up the most recent argument he had just had with his brother. He couldn’t think for the life of him why it would mean a lot to Rhodri. But then again, Zayne reminded himself, Rhodri still by some twisted goody-two-shoes reasoning still felt bound to appreciate and respect his brothers – albeit the two eldest from a bit of a distance.

At Gail’s stipulation of ‘within reason’ Zayne smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Sure, I’ll do it,” he said with a barely-hidden laugh beneath the words. “Any particular song you have in mind?”

“As for the favor, what do you think about...” Zayne had begun to ask, but was cut off by the shrill scream of the establishment’s fire alarm. Turning back toward the kitchen, the villain had done so just in time to see a large flame playing hide-and-seek from beyond the doorway.

“Sh!t!” Zayne swore and headed toward the fire, ignoring entirely the fire extinguisher that was there more for show than anything else. Zayne fought fire with fire, finding it easier to call upon his powers than mess around with a gadget. However, he had to keep appearances as well as comply with certain rules and regulations even if he personally disagreed with all of them.

Gail rubbed the back of her neck, feeling awkward for bring the funeral up, he likely didn't want to be reminded of it..

She sighed and looked around the coffee shop, it was the coolest looking coffee shop she had ever been in.. how could it not with a name like Inferno?

"This is a awesome place by the way, love the name" she commented trying to lighten the air.

However she nodded solemnly, "He has been coping well considering how it all happened As for finding out who did it.. I am not sure he has revenge on his mind" she said with a shrug. Plus she didn't think Rhodri was the type to go looking for revenge no matter what the person did.. she likely wouldn't be so forgiving.. if anyone hurt her uncle.. or well anyone else she cared about like that she wasn't sure what she would do.

She smiled this time when he agreed to do it and took out a paper with the song's lyrics and music sheet. "This one, Moment I heard it I thought it suited him, but if you have any idea's of your own your free to put them in to." she said knowing artists no matter their specialty, liked freedom to decide to make their own choice.

((Gail's song choice, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEMiLu72LJg ))

Then the fire alarm sounded and she jumped, slightly startled, unintentionally making the fire burst out a bit bigger "Hell fire.." she muttered, her own made up curse word. When Zayne's attention was turned to the fire she motioned her hand to help him calm the flames.
"Inferno indeed eh?" she said hoping to lighten the atmosphere with her admittedly lame joke.