Corner Store Coffee Shop (sometimes villains stop by)-made by an orphan_account

chapter 24

Niki by all means was not a bad person. She wasn't mean either. She also wasn't super strong; Niki couldn't even stay on land for longer than like a minute without water breathing potions she got provided for her by the government or she made or bought which was extremely expensive to do. Tommy had known Niki for a while, and Tommy knew that Niki was a good person. You would think that with all these factors, Niki wasn't a scary person. You would be wrong, she easily gets upset when there's a good reason, and Tommy had heard stories where Niki fired people after they said something stupid in front of her once.

She could be scary, yes, however, Tommy didn't know what her limits were. She was obviously a good person, but Tommy couldn't be too sure about how accepted villains coming to the shop would be. He'll admit that maybe he is a little too forgiving of villains when he hadn't heard of them doing anything too bad . Like, the Dream Team murdered, sure, but they murdered bad people at least. And Bad and Skeppy weren't even bad, they just Robin Hooded around. The SBI even went out of their way to not murder people!

Before all of the villains started showing up, it was all good when Niki said she would be dropping by during his shift to check up on him every month- she missed last month for whatever reason -but the times have changed. And it was very nerve wracking for Niki to drop by with no warning when villains could walk in at any time.

That day Tommy realized that he should have probably got something for villains to be able to signal to villains that civilians are in the shop. The signal, unfortunately, wouldn't be able to stop civilians from coming in when villains were already there. That was a problem for another day though.

He was broken out of his thoughts by a webbed hand waving in front of his face. "Tommy? You good?"

Tommy shook his head to get his thoughts straightened out, "Yeah, I was just thinking."

Niki was leaning onto the counter next to the cashier across from Tommy. "Hey Tommy," Tommy was already looking at her, so he nodded his head in acknowledgement, "I'm sorry I can't come by a lot, only have so many potions, I don't have the time to make them and I don't think I should have to pay to interact with people in normal life."

He knew what she meant. It was pretty obvious that they weren't struggling to make the potions. There were only so many merlings and the ingredients weren't expensive nor scarce. "Yeah. Still waiting for my avian card." Niki frowned at that, she was pretty informed about Tommy's situation save for the villains that would come by. They stayed silent until Niki straightened her posture, remembering something.

"Oh!" Niki remembered something, Tommy could almost see a lightbulb go off above her head, "Right, I remember what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Am I in trouble?" Tommy hadn't really been bothered by Niki before, she would usually just let him do his thing and trusted that he would be fine. There was nothing that he could have possibly done wrong from, not anything that Niki would know about at least. Unless some guy at the other coffee shop said something about something, he didn't know what that something was unless someone noticed villains. Though he doubted that seeing as besides the Angel, who didn't come by often, most of their silhouettes and figures were pretty normal. Especially in the case of ones like Quackity and Purpled.

Niki shook her head, "No, no, of course not, I was just wondering who's been coming by? There's nothing wrong, there's just been this weird influx in customers recently. The day shift isn't doing half as well."

He debated lying to her. He decided he wouldn't, he trusted Niki enough to just tell her. It would be easier, assuming that she would be accepting, if he didn't have to hide such a big secret from her that could easily raise suspicion. It would also mean he could never be caught by Niki, and he wouldn't have to make Niki feel betrayed. "Before I explain, " Tommy started, "Please don't get upset." He didn't think that she would be upset.

Her face scrunched up in a confused expression, "Of course, why would I be upset that you're making money?"

Tommy laughed nervously, "You see... there are these villains that have been coming to the shop." Niki opened her mouth to say something, even more confused. Tommy interrupted her before she could say anything, "Look they're not doing anything wrong here. They just want to drink coffee like all of us, and the shop is sti--"

Niki put a hand on one of his shoulders, "Tommy, calm down," he quieted down, he didn't anticipate for it to be that nerve wracking, he could hear his heartbeat loud in his ears and he was almost convinced that Niki could hear it, too, "As long as you don't see them committing any crimes, they're paying you, not hurting you or the shop, I can't be mad." Tommy felt a weight get lifted from his shoulders. "You're safe, right?" He nodded. "That's all that matters to me." Niki cleared her throat, "I think I should head off now, I'm already starting to feel a little lightheaded." It was stupid to Tommy that the potions lasted for such a short time.