Alex arrived at lunchtime, for her afternoon shift. I tried to explain the ‘Cain situation’ to her, but she awkwardly ran off when I introduced him. She wasn’t good with people, to the point where I wondered if this job was truly suited for her. It was when I was finally done with prepping tomorrow’s pastry batch, and decorating the donuts and that needed to go upstairs today, that Etienne came downstairs to tell me that we needed to swap shifts.

I didn’t doubt that this was caused by the sudden arrival of out manager, who liked to have me and Alex work together as I was apparently better at ‘not letting her break stuff’. I never figured out what that was about, as Alex and I didn’t interact all that much, beyond small talk. But what I did doubt was Etienne’s ability to do the dishes.

“Keep an eye on him, alright?” I told Cain before leaving.

The boy nodded in reply.

As I was walking upstairs, I managed to catch bits of a conversation. Etienne was asking Cain what he was doing, before offering him his phone to play on, on account of mine being a tad too shabby. That was true, but it was only part of the reason why Cain had spent the last few hours doing nothing. As far as I was aware, he did not find playing mobile games entertaining, and with me being busy with work, I hadn’t had the time to find anything else for him to do. But I had no doubt Etienne would come up with something, as he was as friendly as one could get.

“Ah, Dubois. You didn’t bump your head into a fridge this time.” Manon greeted me as I arrived upstairs.

I was shocked to see the caffe full, and my manager working at the counter.

“No, I haven’t.” I simply replied. “Would you like me to work the machine or the till?”

“The machine. I need two lattes, both regular takeaway, one with villa and the other with cream.”

“On it.” I replied, as I quickly put on my apron, before getting to work.

It wasn’t until late afternoon that this craze of customers died down. Thankfully with Manon at the till, I didn’t have to deal with any of the annoying people who were trying to get a discount based on their rank (yes, we were still getting those, despite a newly installed sign in the window that stated that only those with a military ID would get a discount).

“Right, well I guess now is the perfect time for that.” Manon suddenly spoke.

I turned to face her, wondering what she was on about. She tied her long black hair in a loose ponytail, before calling out:

“Bejonaru, come here.”

“Yes?” Alex replied with a perplexed expression from the other end of the store.

“Come, it is time I teach you how to work the coffee machine.” Manon ordered.

“Yes-” Alex shyly replied as she approached us.

“And you, go downstairs and check if your friend hasn’t broken any dishes.” Manon turned towards me with a smile.

“Right away.” I replied with a polite expression, holding back my true thoughts on this woman and how it annoyed me to no end, the way she ordered everyone around.

“Now, you press here to grind the beans-” She began explaining to Alex.

As I put my apron down, I gave the pair one last glance. Perhaps it was because Alex couldn’t see very well, despite the big round glasses she wore on most days, or that fear of hers about accidentally reading people’s mind, I didn’t know what it was, but she never wanted to operate the coffee maker. She knew how, that I was sure of, as I had caught a glimpse of her doing it one time when there was only one customer in the store. But seeing the way she nervously handled the grounded coffee, all while trying to maintain a certain distance from Manon, well, it didn’t look like she’d be working at that station anytime soon.

Leaving those two be, I went downstairs. Hallway down, I checked my back pocket for my phone on reflex, only to find it empty. I swore under my breath, before heading back upstairs. It was only when I was almost all the way back on the main floor, that I remembered I left my phone with Cain in the kitchen. With an annoyed sigh, I turned around. But, just as I was about to take a step, I heard two voices quietly pick up their conversation. They must have stopped talking when they heard me walk down.

Curiosity got the best of me, as I silently tip-toed far down enough to hear them clearly, but not far enough for them to see me.

“And what about your mother then?” Etienne quietly asked, as if not wanting his voice to be heard by anyone by Cain. “You are a good kid, so she must have done something right.” He added gently after a long pause.

“Yes, she was a good woman.” Cain replied with a tone of voice I had never heard him use before; a soft and bittersweet kind. “But she died when I was a child. There was a monster attack, and she went out to help. She was strong you know, I am stronger now, but- it was never the same after she died.”

I slowly sat down, surprised at the turn this conversation was taking. I had known Cain for days. But Etienne had known him only a handful of hours, and had already gotten him to open up. I wondered if there was anything else to it, a special skill perhaps.

“And I don’t mean it in a ‘feelings’ kind of way,” Cain continued, with his usual semi-annoyed tone, “Power shifted in the family. My cousin decided to take things into her own hands, and started running our family as if it were some kind of- she moved on too fast, trying to make us into something we weren’t.”

“Your cousin, you mean Laura?”

“No, my ac- other cousin.” Cain replied. “They’re nothing alike.”

“And who is this ‘we’, someone you were close to?” Etienne asked.

I realized that it wasn’t a skill his was using, but rather a specific tone of voice. I nodded to myself, thinking about how sweet of him it was to care, because I had no doubt that he actually did, with the gentle way he’d asked that question.

“My older brother.” Cain replied. “I haven’t seen him in a long time. But he was, I hope still is, the most caring person in the world. I miss him sometimes. Anyway, it’s your turn now! You’ve asked more than one question and it’s not how this game is supposed to work.” Cain suddenly exclaimed.

Ah, this conversation made more sense now.

“Fine, fine, ask away.” Etienne replied, having also gone back to his usual happy voice, although he did still make an effort to not talk too loudly.

“Do you have any siblings?”

“Yes, a sister. She’s two years younger than me, still in university. She’s very bright you know. And has a lot of useful skills. And a class that’s widely accepted as one of the best ones out there; she’s a druid.”

“Sounds like you’re trying to set her up for marriage.” Cain replied.

I smiled. It did sound like that, every single time Etienne brought up his sister.

“What’s your class?” Cain carried on with the game.

“Hey, that’s not fair, you can’t ask two questions in a row!” Etienne protested.

I leaned forward in anticipation. That was a question even I did not know the answer to. At one point I had printed out a chart, with all the known classes, and tried to rule them out one by one based on their compatibility with electricity. But at one point I gave up, because there was a possibility Etienne had a unique class (although if he did, I could not begin to imagine what he was doing in a place such as this), or that his sub-class was electricity-centered. Plus, at one point I did come to the conclusion that his private life was his own, and that he would tell me that information when he’d feel ready.

“You asked more than one question last time!” Cain protested. “You cheater.”

“What are you doing?” A voice asked from behind me.

“Ah!” I jumped up, startled. “You keep startling me like that, how do you even walk so softly?” I asked, as I turned around to face Alexandra.

“I was worried something had happened to you. You were just sitting here, as if you’d passed out.”

“Eavesdropping I see?” Etienne peaked around to staircase.

“Ah, my plan was discovered.” I got up, raising my arms in surrender. “So I presume your shift is over then?” I turned towards Alex.

“Yes, Madame Labranche said I could go home early, or else I’d hurt her and myself with the milk skimmer.” Alex replied.

Etienne and I both stepped aside, leaving her enough space to go downstairs and get her things from the shelf that served as the employees room.

“Hi.” She awkwardly said to Cain, before running back up with her coat and bag.

I watched her disappear up the stairs, before turning to Etienne and saying:

“I think she does it on purpose sometimes, you know?”

“What?”

“The coffee maker thing.”

He shook his head.

“Does it change anything if she does?” He asked, not letting hs true opinions slip through his tone.

“No, not in this case.” I shrugged.

Unlike taking orders from annoying customers, even if they were the minority, and most people were either very straight to the point or polite, I actually enjoyed making coffee. The repetitive gestures always made me forget my surroundings, and helped me focus on my thoughts. But there was another job I often had to do as well.

“Did you do the dishes, or did you do nothing but chit-chat?” I asked with a teasing tone.

“Your highness can go and check herself, if she does not believe me capable.” Etienne smirked as he nodded in the direction of the dishwasher.

As I entered the kitchen, I saw Cain who hadn’t moved from his assigned spot. When he saw me, he gestured for me to come closer.

“Can you give this back to him?” He whispered as he handed me Etienne’s phone. “Why are you friends with someone like him? He not only tried to feed me unreasonable amounts of disgusting cake, but also almost forced me to play stupid children’s game on this.” He gestured with the phone.

I couldn’t help but smile, as this was the most adorable, child-like, display of annoyance Cain had had so far.

“Are you complaining about the cake to her?” Etienne asked, as he joined us.

“It was the most obscene thing I have ever laid eyes upon.” Cain confirmed.

“Here.” I handed Etienne his phone back.

“It really wasn’t that bad. I had no issue eating it.” Etienne shrugged.

“Yeah, but you have no issue eating our strawberry-birthday special either.” I joked.

Then I looked at Etienne at realized that was exactly what he had offered to Cain.

“Oh my g- by the five lords, that’s entirely on you.”

“You know, at first I thought you two didn’t look all that alike, but I can definitely see the family resemblance now.” Etienne replied. “Neither of you have any appreciation for haute-cuisine.”

“Nothing that comes out of that freezer is ‘haute-cuisine’.” I argued.

“The cinnamon buns were actually quite nice.” Cain interjected.

“They came out of the reject pile, not the freezer, that’s why.” I said as I patted his shoulder. “But I’m glad you two bonded at least, while I was gone.”

He looked up at me with a questioning expression, and I realized that he probably didn’t know I was eavesdropping for a good portion of his conversation with Etienne.

“Nevermind.” I added. “Let me finish a few things, and then we can go home.”