A nice change

*literally yells at children about coffee*

After being forced back into the real world by Autumn and Shadow, Alva was rushed into the car and stuck between the two of them while they talked about they wanted to get. Naturally Alva was incredibly tired from staying up all night and not getting any coffee or breakfast but Emerson seemed to be doing just fine up in the passenger and was happily talking to Sebastian, who was driving. Luckily Autumn and Shadow knew Emerson had a habit of staying up well past holy hours talking and tried to keep their conversation quiet for Alva's sake.

Once the group arrived at the mall Sebastian and Autumn helped Emerson set up his pop up shop and Shadow guided Alva to the Starbucks to meet up with Viola and get some caffeine in Alva's system.

"I hope you didn't mind Autumn this morning," Shadow said as they walked. "We don't have any other friends and neither of our names are really nickname-able."

"Huh?" Alva asked still half-asleep.

"About calling you Alv."

"Oh, it's fine." I've never had a nickname before.

"Okay, but you can always tell us if anything you say makes you feel uncomfortable."

"Thanks," Was all Alva could manage to say in response to their human decency.

After they had ordered a cinnamon tea for Alva and a latte for Emerson and sat down to wait for their drinks when Viola walked up with a smile and an alarmingly skinny adult with black hair.

"Hey guys, this is my Uncle Gerard, Gerard this is Alva and Shadow." Alva and Shadow of course had already been told that Viola's dads wanted Gerard to tag along as supervision. The two fourteen year olds said hi to Gerard and he greeted them back while he and Viola joined the line to order.

"Do you know what you want V?" He asked her.

"Yeah, iced coffee!"

Gerard let out a dramatic gasp "How dare you ruin a perfectly good cup of coffee by making it cold!"

While Viola prepared to defend her drink order and Alva looked around anxiously, hoping no one heard his theatrical outburst, Shadow quickly covered their face to keep from chuckling.

"What, you think the sanctity of coffee is a joke?" He asked them, appearing to be appalled.

"Yep." They popped the 'p'

"Well what did you order then?" He questioned in his best Karen impression.

"Nothing for me."

"Nothing?"

"Yeah, I don't drink coffee, I don't need my height stunted more then it already is," The short teenager said.

Gerard face shifted from trying not to laugh to trying not to frown for a split second before informing them: "The stunt your growth thing is just an urban legend made by short people to make themselves feel better about being short." He knew it was a little harsh but it left his mouth before he remembered he was technically speaking to a child.

"Yeah I know, but at least not drinking it makes me feel like I have control over an aspect I don't like about myself, and so even if it does nothing it makes me feel better, so therefore, I shan't drink any coffee and am a neutral party in this ice vs. no ice debate." They finished their rant slightly dramatically to show they weren't hurt by what he said.

Gerard seemed impressed by their speech "Eloquently said, especially for a kid."

"Thank you, I learned my reasoning skills from my uncle."

"Oh, yeah, is he a philosopher or something?" He joked.

"Yes actually, I swear he used to tell me Plato's Cave Allegory as a bedtime story when I was five."

"Plato's Cave is the first thing to come to mind and your name is Shadow?" Pointed out Gerard.

"Well I guess that was probably a factor when I chose my name." They admitted.

"You chose your name?"

"Yeah, I'm non-binary, which means-"

"-I am too! What are your pronouns?"

"They/them, you?" Shadow asked excitedly.

"He/they, but I'm really cool with anything people call me."

"That's cool, how old are you?"

"Thirty six, why?"

"Really! I've never met someone who isn't Gen Z or a millennial who even knows there are other genders! In fact I some kids my age don't even know, so I was really surprised when Alv-" Shadow cut themself off after realizing the two of them had completely forgotten about Viola and Alva. Gerard laughed at their amused faces "You're a cool kid Shadow," he said with a smile "Ya got a lot a spunk." Shadow grinned back. He's pretty cool too they thought.

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A/N: honestly I loved writing this so much but sorry if it didn't make any sense, I was having too much fun. (I'ma try and upload more often btw)