*Welcome To The Mad Hatters Tea Room*

***

It was almost midday in the small town of Bitter Springs and already the streets were bustling with people. From inside the coffee shop that his mom worked at, and where he had recently begun to spend his time at the weekends, Tyler gazed out of the window. He was people watching again; something he did a lot since Lucy had suggested him being there would increase his confidence.
He watched the way people interacted mostly, watching their gestures and the way the spoke to each other and trying to guess what was on their mind. He hadn’t been there long; he’d spent the majority of the morning at the cemetery ‘speaking’ to his mom.

It had started to rain lightly outside causing his vision to become distorted through the glass window. Inside it was warm; the little wood fire in the corner crackling in the corner and radiating heat around the white washed room. Tyler’s cheeks were flushed, his eyes wide and curious, and his hair sticking up in every direction as always. Pulling his damp jumper over his head, he turned away from the window at the sound of the little bell above the door jingling, and froze.

His first thoughts were to run, leave the room and go hide away in his room, but he stopped himself. He wasn’t going to get anywhere running away from everything, was he? He watched as the customer took a seat and started looking at the menu. He stared at them for a few moments longer before footsteps behind him snapped him from his daze. Turning, he saw Lucy gesture at him to take their order. He shook his head though he knew she would make him anyway; she said it was for his own good. Sighing and picking up his courage, he draped his jumper over the counter, picked up his notepad, and walked over to the person as slowly as he possibly could.

When he arrived at the table he kept his eyes on floor; unable to bring himself to look the other in the eye. Other than that, his black trousers, black shirt and red tie suggested he was a professional that had worked here for years. He didn’t speak straight away, instead his mouth opening and closed again like an awkward fish. Mentally, he told himself he was being silly. What was this person going to do? Jump up and eat him whole? Of course not, that was just stupid.

He heard Lucy clear her throat from behind him and he turned his head to shoot her a glare which was returned straight back.
He rolled his eyes and turned back to face the person who was now looking at him. He felt his heart skip and even jumped a little and took a step back. For a few more seconds, he was quiet before he finally managed to croak out his words.
“Um… yeah, c-could I take your order? Please?”

***

:Notes:

Work Attire

Alec had gone to visit Casey for the day, the dragon was reluctant to let him leave much like he always was but he finally got out of the dragon's hold and headed into town to do alittle shopping. He had recently gotten a part time job working in aused book store, heliked the job alot and felt proud to be making his own money. The family that hebeen with since being turn had alot of money and Marcus often tried to.spoil him, he wasn't used to it and usually tried to say no.

He wore; black skinny jeans, white shirt that had a worn out looking America flag onit and a black leather jacket. He had recently cut his hair and put some product in it, his ears were gauged to, actually he went up almost three sizes from where he was at. He looked different that was for sure, but he still tended to attract unwanted attention from the same and opposite sex.

He looked up from where he was walking and looked to his left, seeing a restaurant there. It looked really nice inside to. He went in, taking a seat and started looking over the menu. He felt someone stare at him and looked up to see it was the young waiter there, he looked nervous about approaching him but gave the waiter a nice smile before looking back over the menu. He then felt a presence near him and looked up to see it was the same waiter, asking if he could take his order. Maybe this was his first day, he was nervous on his first day at work to.

"Yes, let's see I'll have a pumpkin "spice latte with a blueberry muffin please." He said.

Tyler noticed the boy's smile and quickly looked down at his feet. He wasn't sure why the boy had smiled at him as he didn't even know him. Then again, people in this town seemed to smile and be polite everywhere he went. It was something he wasn't used to. Growing up in the orphanage and between different families, he'd grown used to people only smiling to be curtsious or hiding what they really thought of him and usually those thoughts weren't nice ones.

He stared at the notebook in his hands and felt himself jump when the boy spoke. He looked up, eyes widening as he realised how siky he must look. Regaining his thoughts, he nodded his head, jotted down the order and hurried back to the counter. Placing a mug under the coffee machine, he left it to do it's thing whlst he took a blueberry muffin from the display. He put it on a small, blue plate and went back to see if the latte was made. As usual, it took its time. From where he stood, Tyler glanced over at the boy that sat by himself and tried to figure out his thoughts. Maybe he wasn't like the others, maybe the smile had been just to be polite. He didn't look like he had any bad thoughts up there but one could never be sure. That is why Tyler kept his distance. His trust had been broken before and he didn't want to risk going through the same pain ever again. It was just better not to have friends.

Hearing the machine hiss, indicating the latte was about to finish, he took a saucer and carefully placed the full mug on top of it. Turning on his heels, he smiled at Lucy, and started back to the table. When he got there, he forced a small smile across his face, justbto be nice, and reached out to put the order down on the table. Unfortunately, the latte was too full and, as he placed it on the table top, his hand shook with nerves and it spilt over. The boy let out a yelp and quickky moved his hand away causing the mug to become unbalanced and fall on its side, its contents spilling across the tabke and some onto the others lap.

Tylers cheeks turned a deep red to match the small burn on his hand and immediately he felt his heart race.
"Oh god... I am so sorry... here..." He grabbed a napkin from the middle of the table and tried to catch the rest of the hot drink before it ran off the table. "I'll get you another one... on the house... and I have some spare trousers if you need to borrow them..."
Taking a moment to glance back at the boy, he realsied his trousers would probably be far to small for him. He looked back at Lucy who hadn't seemed to notice. "Please don't tell her!" He whispered, turning to look at the boy in desperation. He knew Lucy would be angry and tell him off for his clumsiness and he really didn't want that. He hated being shouted at or talked down too. Tears started to form in his eyes as he carried on mopping up the mess with his burning hand, barely noticing it slowly healing nor the fact he was unintentionally stealing the boys energy to do so. It was something that onky seemed to haooen when he panicked, and right now he felt he was going to burst into tears.

He looked through his phone after he took his order, seeing a text from Casey and rolled back. He looked back to the boy who had taken his order, but things turned for the worst. He instinctively was worried more about the boy being hurt, setting the red burn mark on his hand. The latte actually didn't hurt when it was spilled on his lap. "No it's fine are you ok?" He asked.

He wasn't going to tell his manager."I won't tell..." he promised.

He then suddenly felt tired, he looked groggy and had to lay his head on tge table."I don't feel good...." he mumbled.

Tyler looked down at his hand once the boy had mantioned it. By now, there was barely anything there. In confusion, he turned back to ask what he meant and felt the blood drsin from his face.
"Oh no... not again!" He whimpered silently but in pure horror. He looked back at Lucy who had her back turned to them and was humming to the music being played in the background. Tyler, didn't know wheather to run or break down on the floor right there and then. Trying to clear his mind, he closed his eyes and silently wished himself to calm down. If he ran, Lucy would see what had haplened and he'd be sent away for good.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he whispered under his breath.
"Please stop.... please stop... clam down... for god sake calm down, please!"
He carried on doing this for a good minute before he dared to open his eyes again. He looked to his hand first which seemed to be fukky healed now and then to the boy. He looked peaky still but alive, which was good enough for Tyler. He took a seat on the other side of the table and, checking no one was watching, he shook the boy gently.
"Are you okay?" He asked timidly, pulling his hand away quickly and placing it palm down on the table. His mind was a little clearer but he knew he coukdn't stay near the other for long; he could never be near anything kiving for too long.
"I'm sorry... I didn't mean too... I panicked and , well, it seemed to happen when I panic..."

He stayed perfectly still, not daring to move should he do something else he'd regret. His eyes were full of concern as his mind started to wonder what he was going to do next. He shouldn't even be here, he should have been locked up somewhere in a padded cell away from everything he could hurt. It wasn't intentional, he just didn't know how to control it. It seemed to get worse when he panicked, which was a lot. Maybe he should just dissappear, it would probably be safer for everyone, then again, he hadn't met half the people in Bitter Springs yet and, from what he had heard, there were some people here who did go out to intentionally hurt people.

He knew that the boy was a superhuman, he could pretty much sense and smell it. Was this sine power he possessed? The ability to take energy away. He was actually worried that he might die from this and tried now to panic and didn't even have the energy to panic. He heard the boy sir next to him, asking him if he was ok.

"I think I'll be fine.....can you take people's energy or something?" He asked.