An Annoying Day at Work
After the villains finally left his apartment, he tried to sleep. He failed, of course. Nightmares were plaguing his mind and the idea of having the top 3 villains indebted to him didn’t help. Now more than ever, he wished that he just left Siren in the alleyway so he didn’t have to deal with Thanatos and Ares.
As he got up and changed into a cleaner pair of black sweats and a red and white baseball tee, he muttered every swear word you can think of under his breath. On top of everything that happened last night, and the nightmares, he was going to be late to work. Fuck.
Tommy quickly ate a bowl of cereal, brushed his teeth, and combed his hands through his hair to make sure it wasn’t sticking up in a million different directions. He sprinted down the stairs leading to his apartment and bolted towards the café he worked at. By the luck of the gods above, he made it just in time to start his shift.
“You were almost late, Tommy. Did you sleep past your alarm again?” Bad asked as he walked through the door to the café.
“Hello to you too.” Tommy muttered. “Yeah. I had a hard time sleeping last night, king. I didn’t want to get up but duty called.”
“Good morning, Tommy. And you could have called in today. I easily would have been able to ask Foolish if he could come in. I’m sure he would’ve said yes. If worse came to worst, I would have managed just fine by myself,” Bad replied, concern laced in his voice along with a disapproving shake of his head.
“Nah, it wasn’t that bad. It just took me a little longer to drag myself out of bed. Besides, I couldn’t let Foolish steal all of the ladies that will walk in here today,” Tommy said lightly. Bad still seemed worried but dropped the subject with a request that he clocks out if he needs to. Tommy agrees, not wanting to argue with him more, but he knows that he wouldn’t. He needed the money and something to do all day. This job was a nice way to distract him from everything.
“Oh, by the way, Tommy, I have a special delivery to the hero tower I have to make today. It should only take a few hours but I have to leave around noon. I figured you would be fine by yourself, but if you run into trouble, you can always call me.”
“That’s okay, Bad. I’ve been working here for a few months, I know my way around, big man.”
Bad chuckled before walking to the backroom, starting to prepare the kitchen for the day. Since he had to leave in a few hours, Bad wanted to get as much done as he could so Tommy didn’t have to be running around constantly.
--
A couple of hours passed and Bad just left to head to the hero tower. As far as Tommy knew, Bad was delivering to a hero named Adamas specifically. He suspected that something more was going on between them because Bad always blushed when speaking about the hero, but Tommy couldn’t confirm anything.
So far, only a few customers were currently in the café. It was pleasant, the warm smell of coffee and muffins filled his sense of smell. He was happy, he decided. That was, until a tall man with long, pink hair entered, an even taller fucker with a mop of curly brown hair trailing behind him.
“When the fuck did Bad start hiring infants ? This has to be violating some sort of labour laws,” the taller one remarked, an exasperated expression painted across his face.
Tommy, highly offended that he was called an infant, lashed back at the stranger from behind the register. “Fuck you, you lanky mother fucker. I am 18 and a very big man, thank you very much. And at least I’m not an old man like you, bitch. ”
There was a huff of amusement from the stranger beside the man with brown hair. “I’m not old, you gremlin! I’m 23, barely an adult,” he sputtered out. “And there is no way you’re 18, you barely look 15, asshole. And fuck you, Techno, for laughing at me. You’re my brother, you’re supposed to support me. I’ll tell dad,” the taller one whined, turning to look at his companion. The pink haired man just responded with a curt ‘stop bullying the worker, then, Wilbur,’ which got the other to make a face of betrayal.
Tommy couldn’t help but snort at their interaction. He wasn’t jealous, but he longed for a relationship like that. For a family he never had. It burned a hole into his heart, a sour taste entering his mouth. He kept his expression schooled, though, and turned to cut their bickering off. He found it funny, but other customers were looking annoyed.
“I am not 15, bitch. I am 18 and it is extremely rude to say otherwise,” Tommy quipped back. “And you have to either order or leave, customers are starting to look at us weird and I am not in the mood to deal with complaints today.”
The shorter one stepped in quickly, eager for his brother’s whining to end. “One blueberry muffin, one chocolate muffin, one lemon scone, 3 of the salad sandwiches, a large tea, and a large coffee with sugar, cream, and 4 shots of espresso,” Techno, Tommy thinks that’s his name, ordered, his gruff voice making its way to Tommy’s ears, his face slightly twisted in disgust towards the last item.
Tommy, being the nice person he is, also made a face of disgust. Seriously, who in their right mind orders 4 shots of espresso? Tommy, guessing it is not for Techno based off of his reaction, decided that of course someone like Techno’s brother would get that. Weirdo.
Tommy quickly punches in the order, asks for a name, which one of them replies with ‘Wilbur,’ and heads to grab everything.
After he has stacked the order into bags and made the drinks, he quickly scrawls the name of the order on the coffee cup and calls out, “Order for Wilbitch.”
Techno is snickering behind Wilbur as they walk up to the counter. “That is not my name, child.” He says in a whiny tone. “And I’m not a lanky mother fucker either, gremlin,” He chides out once he finally reads the cup.
Tommy, ready for them to leave and never see Wilbur again, smiles fakely, ignoring him and going back to the register to help the customer that walked in. Tommy hears something like ‘that child is so annoying, Techno, I can’t believe you’d take his side over mine,’ behind him, Techno’s response cut off from Tommy’s listening ears when they opened the doors and left.
Shortly after, Bad returns to the café. He greets Tommy, his voice bubbly and warm, before walking into the backroom. Tommy yells at him from the front of the café, informing him of some items that needed to be refilled.
Besides the interaction earlier, the day goes by smoothly. He starts to get tired after a couple more hours of his shift, so he makes himself coffee, the bitter taste making his face twist in a grimace. He’s never understood how someone could ever like this stuff. Unfortunately for Tommy, nightmares wake him every time he closes his eyes, so his sleep is so fucked up he needs that coffee to make through the last hour of his shift.
Luckily for Tommy, when the clock finally hits 5 o’clock and the next worker comes walking up to the register, he is quick to put his apron away and leave, yelling goodbye to Bad before speedily walking down the sidewalk to his apartment.
This time, though, when he passes the same alleyway he did last night when patrolling, there is no injured Siren. Thinking about Siren brought up the memory of a favour being owed to him. He still doesn’t know what to do, what to tell Thanatos. He hates the fact that the favour was offered in the first place. Why couldn’t Thanatos just have left with a simple thank you? Why didn’t he accept the fact that Tommy was fine without it?
Because life isn’t fair, Tommy thought. Because you were stupid enough to mess with villains.
--
Tommy was already dressed up in his vigilante costume, all except his mask, ready to leave to go on patrol, when he heard talk about a villain fight with the heroes through the news on his television. He almost always had his TV on when he was home. He hated the silence of being alone, it felt too stuffy, like he couldn’t breathe. He walked over to where the sound of the anchorman was, watching the fight through the TV. He could see a few stores in the background, realising that the fight was taking place in his district, just a few blocks down from his apartment.
By the looks of it, the heroes were winning. It was just Ares and Siren out tonight, but Ketaphoes, Pyro, and Hypnos, the top 3 heroes in all of L’Manburg, were against the two villains.
Ares is the only one who can level Ketaphos’ fighting skills, so they are currently occupied with each other, leaving Siren to deal with both Pyro and Hypnos. Siren was doing pretty well, considering that he was fighting two of the three top heroes by himself and had just come back from an injury. How Siren was already back, Tommy didn’t know. Even if he was healed completely, he should still be pretty weak. Maybe Siren is just stupid enough to be back out after everything.
All of a sudden, Hypnos started attacking Ares, catching both Siren and Ares off guard. Ares was hit, and pretty badly, by Ketaphos. From what was visible through the grainy camera, Ares was slashed across his front by Ketaphos’ axe.
Siren quickly grabbed Ares and left, presumably hiding from the heroes. Tommy could see Hypnos and Pyro try to run after them, but Ketaphos fell to his knees, Pyro and Hypnos quickly rushing to their hurt teammates' side. He must have been hit while striking Ares, Tommy figured.
With that, the news camera cut off, his TV going black before switching to a random nature channel. Tommy sat up and grabbed the remote, turning it off. He let out a big sigh before leaning back into the couch again. He was really hoping to be able to patrol tonight, but he couldn’t risk getting caught. There would most definitely be heroes patrolling the area, looking for Siren and Ares.
Tommy got up and started to head to his bedroom, ready to change out of his vigilante gear. Tommy was exhausted. Maybe the fight was a blessing in disguise, secretly giving him an excuse to take a break for one night. Before he could make it out of the living room, though, he could hear someone knocking on his door.
Tommy froze, hoping that whoever was there would leave. To his dismay, the knocking turned into banging. Tommy carefully walked to his door, grabbing his knife and sliding it up his hoodie sleeve on the way there, forgetting that he still had his vigilante gear on.
He gripped his door knob tightly before he swung it open, revealing Siren holding a gun that was pointed straight at his chest. Tommy looked up, now seeing Ares dangling and half unconscious at Siren’s side, looking far worse than Siren did when he was stabbed only 24 hours ago.