Dreamwatcher | KOTLC

Chapter Twenty Seven: Paris + Coffee

Warning: use of a beverage that is kinda good for you but kinda not. It's also kinda unrealistic. 

Fitz was astounded, amazed, dazed, and any word to describe "OH MYLANTA, THIS IS SO COOL! I KNOW I HAVE ALREADY BEEN HERE BUT STILL WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"

Almost everyone nearby stared as Fitz flushed a deep red. 

So, yeah. 

Fitz loved Paris and must've forgotten all about it. He took in his surroundings, completely forgetting why he was there in the first place . . . 

Behind him he found . . . 

"Is that the Eiffel Tower?" Fitz asked a passerby, gripping their sleeve. 

"What was that?" The man asked while ripping Fitz's hand off his arm.  

"Is. That. The. Eiffel. Tower?" Fitz shouted into the man's ear. 

"Ugh! What's your deal!" Before he walked off, Fitz noticed how close his hair looked to Keefe's hair. But he also noted how happy that would make Keefe, knowing that Fitz could notice his hair from anywhere. 

"Where should I go first?" He asked the man, anxious to do something but worried the man won't understand him. 

"Can you just leave me alone?" The man shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a green bill. He pressed it into Fitz's open palm before jogging off in the direction that he had come from. 

"What even is this?" Fitz called out but was returned with a muffled, "Do you even go to school?"

The man was long gone, and Fitz lost all hope about the green piece of paper. But he closely examined it.

"Is this human money?" He whispered. "That's fortunate. I don't have any. Fitz decided he should just keep his mouth shut, not wanting any more attention than he had from that 一 quite rude 一 man. 

A bright sign caught Fitz's eye, and he was drawn to it. "What's that?" He asked himself. "Coffee? Sounds good." The sign shone in bright neon letters, saying Coffee4U. 

Fitz walked as close as he could to the shop, before stopping in front of a large section of the ground that happened to be black, with short yellow stripes lined up along the ground.

What's this? Oh well. 

Fitz carried on, walking on through. Once he made it past, it started. 

The Whispers.

The Secrets.

The Stares.

"Now I know how Sophie feels," Fitz muttered as he walked into the Coffee4U. 

It was horrifying.

There were people hollering, "Long live the king!" and people dancing, and some people bursting Fitz's eardrums by singing over and over again a song about a shark family. 

"Is coffee so bad?" Fitz stood there, mouth agape. How could humans live in such a world with coffee?

But . . .

"Maybe I'll try some. Just a little bit."

Just a little bit. Besides, what's life without a little risk? (Quote by Leila from The Magic Misfits)

Fitz sauntered up to the counter, avoiding the dancers and definitely avoiding the singers. Remembering once again that humans couldn't understand the Enlightened Language, he had a plan. 

"Can . . . I . . . get a . . . coffee?" Fitz said extremely slowly while using hand gestures to describe what he was saying. 

The man at the counter had a baseball cap, covering most of his face, but he heard Fitz nonetheless. 

"Quoi?" The man asked. 

What the heck?

Fitz stared at the man, hoping it was some sort of joke. After a couple more moments, the man burst out laughing. 

"Just joking with you, kid! I'm not deaf, though; you don't need to use hand gestures to show me what you're saying."

Fitz thought the man said that he didn't need hand gestures, but Fitz took that reply the wrong way. "You can understand me?" He asked. 

The man — Fitz looked at his tag and noted that his name was Alex 一 winced, then answered normally, "What do you mean? Of . . . of course, I can understand you; we're both human, right?" He laughed awkwardly. "So, what can I get for you?" 

"Can I have coffee?" Fitz asked, using a minimal amount of hand gestures, to confirm that his theory wasn't true. 

"Sure, what size?" Alex pressed a couple of buttons on his cash register before motioning towards a chart with different sizes: Très Petite, Petite, Moyenne, Grand, Très Grand, with subtitles underneath: Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large. 

"I'll have . . . a small, please," Fitz confirmed. He didn't actually need time to think, but he didn't want to seem too eager for something he wasn't even sure he was allowed to drink. 

"On it." Alex was a pro. He swiped an extra small cup from a stack while turning on a boiler. During that time, he also asked what flavour he wanted. Fitz asked for marshmallow since it sounded the closest to Mallowmelt, and because he had no idea what toffee and caramel were.

Not long after, the coffee was finished, and Fitz was given a piece of cardboard to layer around his cup since it was very hot. Fitz could even see steam rising from the lid. It kinda scared him . . .

Fitz raised the cup to his lips, ready to swallow the steaming drink. His lips touched the liquid, and he immediately slammed the cup on the counter. 

"Ack! Hot! Hot! Hot!"

"Why yes, I am hot," a mysterious voice spoke from behind him. It was someone different, but someone who definitely reminded Fitz of the rude man from before. 

"Who are y一" Fitz cut himself off, staring at the stranger's eyes. "Who are you?" Fitz breathed, confused, and a little happy, and a mixture of too many other emotions. "Those eyes . . ."

They were ice blue.