Chapter Text
After weeks in Earth, Krel started getting the hang of being a teen. But like all teens, they have many things that they don't know.
When Krel was in the Runaway Coven fixing another speaker, Lexi comes over to give him a complimentary donut and coffee. Krel never smelled coffee before, and takes a break to take a closer look.
"Lexi..." Krel calls out to her, "what is this?" He gestures the cup in his hands.
Lexi walks back, and smirked. "It's coffee, kid." She replied, "you take a sip, and you feel rejuvenated. And they all have different flavors on making coffee. What you're holding right now is called a cappuccino." As she was done, she walks away to tend other customers.
Krel looks back at the cup, seeing a white leaf in the pool of brown. He swirls the cup for a bit, and takes a sip. At first, it was too hot, and remembers Douxie teaching him to blow on hot food or drinks to make it cool. He blows into the cup gently, and takes another sip. It takes a while for him to adjust to the sudden earthy taste, but it eventually grew into him, and before you know it, he finished it all. "Amazing. Earthy, but rejuvenating indeed."
Douxie comes in the cafe fresh out of his shift, he sees Krel by himself, and walked towards him. "Hey Krel, how's the repairs?" He asked, sitting down on the other end of the table. "Hopefully it wasn't too complex for you to fix. If it is, you don't have to force yourself too hard."
"Ah, Douxie. I didn't see you, and the repairs are doing great." Krel replied smiling, "though I was a bit tired, but after a drank coffee, I feel rejuvenated."
"Ah, you got a dose of caffeine." Douxie said, leaning against his chair.
Krel got curious about what Douxie said, "caffeine? Elaborate for me." He asks, moving a bit closer to him.
Douxie clears his throat, "Well, caffeine is very quickly absorbed and distributed throughout your body, including to your brain. It's here that caffeine elicits its most classic effect — helping keep you alert and awake." He grabs his phone, and types.
Krel thinks for a moment, "but that does not explain why caffeine makes human's awake."
"Caffeine works by blocking sleep-promoting receptors in your brain called adenosine receptors. It can do this because, structurally, caffeine looks very similar to adenosine, the molecule that usually binds to these receptors." Douxie replies, reading on his phone where he found a website of it.
(Real website by the way. Source: Caffeine & Sleep: How Long Does Caffeine Keep You Awake?)
Krel looks over at Douxie's phone, and asks, "you can read on your phone? How come I can not do that on my phone?"
"Ah, I guess you haven't seen the internet." Douxie replied, "here, let me help you get started."
Krel takes out his own phone, and hands it to Douxie. He lets the wizard tinker on it a bit, all while he fixes the broken speaker. After a while, the speaker has been repaired, and Douxie hands Krel back his phone.
"Did a few modifications on your phone, a few new apps like online and offline games, socials, and new phone wallpapers." Douxie listed the new features out. "Oh, and I set up an online wallet for you, so when you get a part-time job, you can put your paycheck there. I also set up some accounts for you, like a google account, insta, x, tiktok..."
He kept going and going, and it was just too much information to process all of it at once. Too much, to the point Krel started to get dizzy. "Too much... information..." he said weakly, putting his head on the table.
Douxie just chuckles, and ruffled Krel's head, "that's fine, there's a lot of things that a phone has in store. But let's just say that a phone is like... what you have in your planet, but portable and not too advanced." Douxie said, handing him the phone back to Krel. "And hey, you fixed the speaker too. Great job."
When Douxie praises Krel for a good job, he feels something inside his core, something fluttering and tingling. "Thank you, Douxie..." he replied, standing up. "So, shall we head home?"
Douxie nodded, carrying the speaker out of the cafe. Krel waves Lexi farewell, and leaves. As they reached to the motorcycle, Krel's phone buzzed, turns out, lots of his classmates have now followed his socials. It astonished him, and proceeds to tap the follow back button. "So many people must like to follow me, huh?" Krel said, still following back.
Douxie chuckles, and heads home with him for tonight.