Winter shook her head in disbelief as she surveyed table five.

The spoilt six-year-old boy was making a mess of his (second!) ice cream, while both his parents tried frantically to clean it up. Winter sighed; she already knew who would be doing most of the cleaning.

There was the moment she'd anticipated — the father was signalling that they wanted to leave.

I don't blame him, she thought to herself as she walked up to their table, they're making fools of themselves.

Even as they payed Winter for their meal, people all around were casting annoyed looks at the boy, who was yelling for a third ice cream. The man pushed a meagre tip into her hands and they rushed out of the café, leaving Winter with a table covered in ice cream. She sighed again — being a waitress was an exhausting job.

But she needed it, desperately. You see, Winter was on a mission. Not to save up money to 'save the whales' or 'rescue the rhinos', no, Winter was much more serious. (Not that the whales and rhinos didn't need to be saved, but there were plenty of other people on that.) She had a secret, one that she tried very hard to keep from the public, however hard it was.

Winter had a superpower.

Ever since she'd left the orphanage at the age of eighteen, she'd been determined to raise enough money to start a new superhero organization. She was sure she wasn't the only super (not-yet-hero) out there. 

She had tried AWSOMR, but... let's just say she sensed something wasn't right. They were lying to her — she could tell.

And so she was saving for her own organization, fully aware that it could take years. But if one wants to start something as big as the Avengers Initiative, one will need someone as rich as Anthony Stark to support it.

While pondering her motives Winter had cleaned up the table. She began putting down clean cutlery and rearranging the three chairs.

She moved over to table 7 to take their order, putting it through to the kitchen.

When she returned she found the little boy back at table 5, picking something up off one of the chairs.

"What are you doing here?" Winter demanded, a little more harshly than intended.

She startled him, and he dropped something onto the table.

"I...I forgot something," he stuttered, picking up a spoon.

Winter shook her head, coming closer and taking the spoon from him. Only then did she notice the small magnet attatched to it. After ripping it off with some effort she handed it back to the boy.

"Here you go, now scram!" She muttered, and the boy dashed away.

Winter put the spoon back on its place, and then strolled back to the counter of the small café.

"One Winter Special!" someone in the kitchen announced, and Winter scurried to the bar. The Winter Special was something she had come up with, and so she prepared it. It was ice cream with chocolate sauce and snowflake sprinkles, and somehow there were always people who bought it, even in the current rainy weather of autumn.

Just as she finished her phone started ringing, and while another waitress brought the Winter Special to table 3, Winter checked the screen.

She sighed upon recognizing the orphanage's logo, and picked up the call.

"What is it this time?" She asked.

"It's just me, Cove," her brother reassured her, "I just wanted to tell you that we're going on a camping trip with the orphanage for a week."

Winter raised her eyebrows. Usually when the orphanage called it was to say that some people *cough cough* had escaped again. Or at least tried to.

"When do you leave?"

"Well," Cove hesitated, "today, actually. We didn't think it was necessary to tell you, but we need ten dollars to pay for the trip."

Winter sighed.

"Tell Miss Katherine that I'll drop off the money after my shift. Oh, and please don't try to escape again."

"Bye sis!" Cove finished off without promising anything.

Winter shoved her phone back into her pocket and looked around. Table seven's order was ready, so she dropped it off with a polite smile.

Then another lone customer entered the café, and she seated him at table 5. He looked grim and a little unkempt, but still had a rogueishly handsome look around him somehow.

He ordered a coffee, and after putting his order through to the bar she checked on table 7. She noted that the man at table 5 was still wearing his thick black gloves, even though it was warm enough inside to take them off. He was playing around with the spoon, deep in thought.

Table 7 was fine, so she picked up the coffee and delivered it to him.

"Thank you Miss... Winter," he smiled a little, reading her name off the name tag pinned to her uniform.

"Just doing my job," she replied, returning the smile. She figured that he could barely be a year older than her, even though his grim expression led one to think otherwise. She glanced down at his hands.

"Nice magic trick," she commented as he balanced the spoon on the index finger of his right hand. 

"There's not much to it," he explained, "the spoon seems to be magnetically attatching itself to something inside my glove."

He demonstrated by holding his hand upside down, and the spoon still stuck to it relentlessly.

"Why don't you just take your gloves off?" Winter suggested.

"Can't," he answered simply, pulling the spoon off his right hand with little effort and holding it in his left. Winter bit her lip. Why not? Was it some sort of contagious sickness, or handicap? Maybe his whole arm was infected; there was no way to tell with the long sleeves. For a moment she was spooked, but then she shook it off. He wouldn't have come to the café with something contagious.

"Oh, sorry for being nosy."

He let go of the spoon, an it instantly flew back to his right hand, where it stuck again.

"That's okay, I'm used to it," he replied, "My name is Rudy, by the way."

"I'm Winter," Winter answered.

"I know," Rudy grinned, and Winter mentally kicked herself.

"Can I get you anything else?" she asked, gesturing to the cup of steaming coffee.

"Surprise me."

Winter smiled, and walked back to the bar. She took a clean bowl out of the cupboard and scooped some ice cream into it. She sprinkled the snowflakes over it expertly, and then grabbed the chocolate sauce. She poured it neatly onto the ice cream, and surveyed her handiwork. The chocolate sauce formed the letter "R".

Winter grinned, and dropped off the bowl at table 5.

"Here you go," she smiled, setting it down.

"That was fast," Rudy noted.

"Fast is what I do," Winter replied, and Rudy took a bite.

"Cold," he commented, "but delicious. What will this be costing me?"

"Nothing," Winter reassured him, "it's on the house for this once."

Rudy nodded his thanks, and Winter hung around the table a moment longer. Then she was needed at table 7.

"If you need anything else..." she began, and Rudy looked up with a grin.

"I'll let you know."

-

Rudy watched, amused, as the young girl returned to one of the other tables. He'd left his companions so he could be alone for a moment, to think things through. So far he hadn't gotten much thinking done, though. First that silly spoon, sticking to you-know-what, and then the waitress... He sighed. In another world, where he wasn't... himself... maybe she would've liked him. But now... He didn't stand a chance.

He glanced at the blackboard menu behind the bar, and found that the Winter Special cost twenty dollars. Good to know. 

Winter returned to pick up the empty coffee cup, and he glanced again at her name tag.

Winter Imhoff, it said. A cute name. She seemed like a determined person. Like himself.

Except, he thought to himself, I might just be determined to do the wrong thing.

-

Winter finished off with table seven, and saw Rudy stand up to leave. He payed at the bar, and then walked back past his table, where he had to pull the spoon off his right hand again. He put it on the table and moved the bowl around, and then left. In the dooropening he turned around and winked.

Winter moved over to table 5, and started cleaning. There wasn't much to to, but as she lifted the bowl she noticed something underneath.

Frowning, she picked it up and unfolded it. It was twenty dollars.

Exactly the price of the Winter Special... Had he known that she'd payed for it with her own money?

Automatically she looked at the entrance of the café, but Rudy was gone.

I guess there are some perks to being a waitress too... she thought to herself as she brought away the bowl.