Caffeine Rush (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 1: The Offer

I walked into my workplace grumpy at six in the morning, I loved my job, but I hated the hours. Coffee was like oxygen, a must have at all times, I could never be caught without one now that I lived in a universe where it existed. My home universe didn't have coffee and it totally sucked, I had no idea what I had been missing out on all my life. But, in all honesty, I liked sleep just a tiny little bit more. Especially with how little sleep I actually got.

Promptly when I opened the little coffee shack I worked at, Tony Stark's orange lambo rolled up. He was just like me, sleep-deprived and coffee driven, except he was more of a morning person than I was and he knew it. But he was a multiple time a day guy, what those in the business call a coffee addict—which I also was—so I saw him several times unless he was on mission or something and he always forgave me for my morning grumpiness. As soon as he swaggered in, I greeted him with a tired wave, too sleepy for a proper morning greeting.

"Good morning, Jes, how are we today?" Tony asked as he sauntered to the counter, usual cocky smirk in place.

I groaned, "tired and grumpy."

"I'll take my morning usual, and I'm buying you one while I'm at it, just add it to my tab." I snorted as I rung it up and saved it under the name Stark, which would be billed to him at the end of each week per his request. I reached over and grabbed the drink I had already made for him, an iced caramel macchiato with whip cream and cinnamon on top. He took a sip and groaned, "god, this is amazing. You make the best coffee. I'll be back later."

"Bye, Tony! See you at 10, 2, and 6!" At the door, he sent a two finger salute back to me. He was more-or-less on time every day, needing a coffee run at least every four hours. The Shack was probably the best kept secret in New York—that was to say that nobody knew about it. Tony had stumbled on it by accident and stuck around because he claimed that I was the best barista to ever live, might have been a bit of an over exaggeration but I was quite fast. Time crept by like a snail, I had maybe twenty customers in the first four hours and I was bored out of my mind.

I shouldn't use my abilities because they could give away my alter-identity as a superhero from another universe, but it made everything go so much faster. It also made me a lot hungrier, what with my enhanced metabolism. I ducked out for a couple seconds here and there to patrol different sections of the city by neighborhood. I could patrol every block and alleyway in the city in under an hour while still appearing to be working at the Shack.

When Tony showed up a minute after 10 o'clock, I had just ran back and walked calmly out of the backroom to see his orange lambo pull up to the curb. When he stepped out, he had this perpetually sad look on his face, and his eyes were bloodshot. There was no one else in the coffeehouse, so I went to greet him at the door, and good thing I did, he could barely walk straight. I knew that he didn't drink and drive so there had to be something else going on.

"Tony, god, what did you do to yourself?" I led him inside and sat him in a booth, sitting across from him while no one else was here.

"Pepper and I broke up." He grumbled. I felt my heart lift, I had never really liked Pepper since the one time she called me underqualified for the lowest of secretary positions, granted, she thought I was a high school dropout when I was actually a certified genius, but I couldn't prove that without blowing my cover. She irritated me too much after that that I refused to serve her as was company policy for dealing with 'Karens'. Call me petty, but that was just my personality. The Pepper of my universe was quite a lot nicer, I could always go to their cabin when I needed a break from school or crime fighting and just relax. This Pepper was probably nice but didn't have the relationship with me that we did in my world, and because of that, she came off as a Karen even if she wasn't.

Even though I was happy, I controlled my impulses and put a hand on his shoulder, comforting him, "I'm so sorry Tony, what do you need from me?"

Looking up, he gave me a puppy dog look, "you got any Irish coffee back there?"

"No alcohol, sorry."

Tony sighed, "chocolate shake then, lots of ice cream."

"You got it." I was back in a snap with a chocolate espresso shake—what Starbucks had copyrighted as a Frappuccino—and two bowls of ice cream.

Tony glanced up and raised an eyebrow, "did you even leave?"

"Well I can't exactly pull drinks and ice cream from thin air, now can I?" I deflected as I gave him the one ice cream bowl and the shake and started eating the second one.

"You know, sometimes it feels like you can, you're just so damn fast." Tony mumbled around his spoon. I chuckled at the irony. "You know, I could pay you so much more than this place can. You are the best barista ever and I would totally hire you to be my personal coffee maker."

I laughed quietly, "what? I'd be the Avengers' barista?"

"No, I'm not sharing you with anybody. I want that coffee to myself!"

That made me all out laugh, "come on Tony, that's not nice, and you have a set coffee schedule, it really would be a waste of my talents."

"Fine, you could be the team barista, but I have priority."

"You always have priority in my heart." I joked. In my universe, he had been the cool uncle that I fought crime with, and here it wasn't much different, except it lacked the parental vibe. Coffee buddies!

"Sweet, you start tomorrow. I'll have an espresso machine and anything else you need installed tonight. Just give me a list."

"Wait, you're serious!?" I had been totally fooling around, I did not for the life of me believe that he was being serious and with his usual carefree, nothing-can-touch-me-but-still-charmingly-sarcastic vibe, you really can't blame me for my reaction.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be? This place sucks, it is literally only you and your skills that is keeping it afloat, that I keep coming back for. And what are they paying you here? Seven an hour, if that? I will more than quadruple that so long as you are at my beck and call, night and day, no days off." His eyes told me he was sincere in his offer, being more playful about the hours, but still sincere. If I said yes, he would really hire me as the personal barista of the Avengers. Just what had I gotten myself into.

I chuckled, but stared into my ice cream bowl as I contemplated what he said. If I was any other person and didn't have the genes and the accompanying history that I did, I would jump at the offer. But I had to take my unusual circumstances into consideration, namely my high metabolism that was borderline unmanageable in this universe without my specially made super high-calorie protein bars. "Alright, but I have conditions. You have to provide food and snacks for me, as much as I want, no limits. And . . . no questions, I know I do or say things that come off as strange sometimes, so just accept it, don't question it."

"Done. I think you might have forgotten who you were speaking with, so just let me remind you . . . we're the Avengers. We've fought aliens, gods, robots, and each other, nothing really surprises us anymore." Oh, he would definitely regret saying that when he found out about me being from another universe, "and as for food? Just tell FRIDAY to add whatever you want to the Avengers' shopping list, I cover any and all expenses for the Avengers. You know what, close up early, I'm taking you back with me."

"Sweet." I paused for just a moment, a thought suddenly occurring to me. "I'll grab the ice cream. You wait in the car." As soon as he left, I ran around completing all closing list items at super speed, made a sign that showed we were closed, and grabbed the ice cream. I hung the sign on the door before swinging into the passenger seat of Tony's Lamborghini. "Let's roll."

And just like that, I was appointed as the Avengers' Barista.