#as always i'd love to hear feedback! esp crit

[my-lover]

Coffee Cups and Superheroes : Chapter 2

hello! this is so late, because i haven’t been able to access my laptop since monday, which is where all of my writing is stored. sorry about that. anyway, here’s chapter 2!

tagging everyone who asked to be! (let me know if you don’t want to be tagged anymore/would like to be tagged!) : @the-enemy-of-wonkru @ehmori @bellamytheblake @jordanjaspergreen-griffin-blake @dancing-like-satan @buckthebarnes @bellamystannie @bisexualstarrr @jordanjaspermcgreen @katersann @clarkegriffintitties @anaklusmosnojutsu @the-griffin-green-blakes @belllandclarke @el-corazon-y-la-cabeza @bellamyblvkes @mrsizzy135 @adancergirl @optimistic-contingency @amesandjake @saryiia @madigriffin-thetraitorsdaughter @bellarkes-hope

Clarke’s an ex-army medic working in a coffee shop with a whole lot of emotional baggage. Bellamy, a law student and avid Marvel fanatic, is on track to follow in his father’s footsteps and be everything he thought he was born to be. But what happens when he starts to fall for the apathetic and sarcastic barista at his favourite coffee place? What if his fate wasn’t as black and white as it seemed?

Chapter One here!

Clarke could never quite manage to keep "Peter" out of her mind. Even doing the most mundane tasks, there he was. She had never felt this way before about anyone, neither her ex boyfriend or deceased girlfriend. Her cynical self knew that it was childish to have a crush on someone after talking to them for less than two minutes, yet she still yearned to see him again.

A week after they'd met, she'd almost given up hope.

It was 12pm and CLarke was already mind-numbingly bored. She was at work, and she hadn't seen a single customer. It was pouring with rain, thunder clapping intermittently, and even their regulars ceased to show up. Clarke leaned against the counter, daydreaming. Without her noticing, a tall man in a dripping suit with a Pokémon backpack came through the door. His deep voice brought her down to earth. 

"One medium caramel frappé, please."

Shock registered on her face as Clarke processed what just happened. She opened her mouth to speak, but then shook her head, as if reminding herself of her cynicism.

"Name?" Her voice was the one she always used for customer service : bland, empty and filled with annoyingly fake cheer.

"Tony Stark." The man looked disappointed at Clarke's lack of enthusiam. The bright grin he wore as he walked in looked like it had been wiped off of his face with the dirty mop sitting neglected in the corner of the café.

"Here you go, Mr. Stark." Clarke passed him his coffee with a fake smile. In her head, she cursed herself as he left.

Clarke didn't used to be like this. As a child, she was that one kid who was always frustratingly happy. Even into her teens, she smiled at everyone and just wanted the people she cared about to be happy. She was a huge believer in fate, and that the universe had a plan for everyone, and that everything happened for a reason. And then Finn started to take his anger out on her. Often, Clarke would leave dates covered in bruises and with a head full of insults. Still, she persevered. 

Until Finn started to get worse. He dropped out of their prestigious high school in favour of sinking pint after pint in a seedy bar and waste all of his father's money on gambling. Every time he lost, that was it for Clarke. Eventually, she knew she had to leave. As soon as she graduated high school, she shipped herself off into the army to become a medic. She never told anyone the real reason. Her mother was proud of her, because that's exactly what her father did. She'd lost most of her friends from dating Finn. And Finn? He didn't notice until he realized his punching bag had left. The day she left, something inside Clarke broke. She had become an empty shell of the smiling kid she once was. And she'd only get emptier.

*Bellamy's POV*

Bellamy didn't know what it was about the cute girl who worked at his local coffee shop, but he was smitten with a capital S. Pretty blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders, a soft smile that he could tell didn't appear often, and her eyes were the brightest blue he'd ever seen. They looked like the sky on a beautiful summer's day. 

He was intrigued by her, the way she carried herself. She looked.. not broken, but not completely whole either. Bellamy wished he could help, but he didn't even know her. All he'd even said to her was some childish garbage about being Spiderman and IronMan. In his head, he wrestled with the thought that she wasn't interested. She'd seemed so apathetic the last time he was in there. Bellamy didn't give up that easily, though. If anything, he was tenacious. He /was/ a law student after all. He made a pact with himself to talk to her /properly/ the next time he was in there.

*Clarke's POV*

The next day, at the exact same time, Bellamy walked in again. This time, Clarke smiled slightly at him, earning her a full grin back.

"One medium caramel frappé, please."

"Name?"

"Bruce Banner." His eyes shone brighter than the stars at Clarke's small chuckle after he said it.

Much like the previous day, he paid and left with no further words between them. Though, she did notice that his expression looked almost scared or pained as he turned to leave.

In her head, Clarke planned to talk to him tomorrow. She told herself it was just to ask his name and his name only, because it was getting annoying not knowing his actual* name. Deep down, though, she craved something more. A real talk, his phone number...

But he never came the next day. Nor the day after. Clarke waited from the start of her shift until Eric closed up at 8pm - hours after her shift ended - but he never showed. Her mind flashed back to the day she left for the army, the overwhelming feeling of emptiness she felt, the realization that fate was garbage and that life wasn't kind. She felt the same way when her ex-girlfriend passed. Maybe it was overdramatic, but she felt that way now, too. She'd only known "Peter" for a week and didn't even know his real name, but he was almost like a beacon of hope for her, a sign of things to come, the first thing that had really made her smile for the first time in years. And now he was gone. To Clarke, this was just more proof of life's cruelty.

i know this chapter is extremely short, but i’ve already written three and four, both of which are a lot longer! that aside, i hope you liked it!