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"thank you for buying at nikki's bakery!" Tommy gave his best customer service smile and voice though it was so strained he sounded somehow dead inside and bearing the rage of the sun burning through him. ' and today was a good day too,' the overweight caucasian woman with a bob cut fit the stereotype of a karen perfectly, both in looks and personality and if her friend wasn't joking earlier then that may just be her name.
'Dam lady she keeps coming every single week to bully us into a discount on the bread, this is the third time this week she threatened to never come back! follow through bitch.'oh how he would LOVE to say that to her face. unfortunately niki is way to nice ( she hired him even though he was not at all fit for the job willing to both teach and pay him.) granted he also actually wants to keep his job.
Though the 6'3 blond barely 18 year old was in fact not a bright ball of burning gas he is in fact a sentient stuck at the till human getting orders as niki takes over the baking for the next week. People always assume that Tommy is a people person and he is, or rather was. now though? he despises his spot that he is stuck instead of using gentle get strong hand to knead dough perfectly like the biggest of men if says so himself which he does. but right now he is using clumsy with paper hands to count bills in his hand as he count the amount to check how much change to hand back or how much more to ask for all while keeping small talk he is getting paid not nearly enough to deal with. he did not think he would be talking about the politics and morality of coconut oil by some random balding guy with a shirt riding up on his stomach and obviously a size too small and pants that clearly need to be help p with a belt and be a size larger.
'Ranboo may be even worse at social interaction than me, but at least the old people find it endearing when he does it!' His tip jar is proof of that. 1 hour and Ranboo's would already be nearly full and Tommy has been at it for much longer and probably only has 5 dollars. ‘Pity dollars’
though as he sees the pink haired lady smaller than him and yet older he knows he could never voice this, he doesn't care but he knows when to stay quiet he is totally not at all glad for the women's company.
"I hope the till isn't too much trouble tommy?" she briefly pauses to say it turning just to be able to see tommy's face in her peripherals
"Nothing is too big for me, I am the biggest man alive!" he yells, though quieter than he would usually do. He's not attached but he is not an asshole the crowd of today is clearly starting to stress her out. though the past few minutes have been calming down and if pattern holds up the bread rush is about to end.
"sure, tommy" niki rushed off before tommy could look at her face to see if she believed him or not though the fact she walked away probably answered that already. he turned his gaze to the doors and the bell chimes and alerts him of someone entering as he makes a mental note to start on some more sour dough later.
"welcome to nikki's bakery what can i get you today?" he says the line he paid to ready write down the mans order as he tries not to stare at the man's height and wrinkle his nose at the man's smell he smells of coffee though not nikki's coffee a hint of vanilla and caramel basically drowned in the smell of smoke. tommy didn't have to work the tille on a regular basis to know that this is in fact not a regular customer or one they have had before.
' did this fucker just get out of a burning country while smoking an entire pack of cigarettes or some shit?'
for once so far he is managing to keep all of these thoughts in his head for once, he didn't want niki to have deal with even more complaints during the morning rush. from the sounds of i she had run into the back for breather and he didn't want to have her break ruined by another angry customer.
"large black coffee, no cream, no sugar."
the man said as he slid across the counter .
tommy took the cash he heard something that made him respond without thinking
"didn't know niki hired young what are you, 15? must be with the dirt on your face."
" I'm 18 you prick! and they are coffee grounds-" tommy shouted quietly if that is something you can do whipping his head to the man, and also how the heck does supposed dirt on his face determine his age!? ignoring the fact that the man guessed his actual age no one knew except the smiling masked man hiding toxic green eyes. Well... no one else alive anyways
"....shit...." aaaand now Tommy is going to have to listen to nikis advice on how to be polite again while feeling bad that she had to deal with another complaint because his mouth would not stay shut and in a smile.
that ended up not being what happened, the man burst into laughter. Had Tommy not been so against getting attached and not laughed himself in so long he may have found it almost pleasant to have laughter be a break from all the yelling that had happened that day. but he had his reasons to not feel and he isn't letting a rando in a coffee shop ruin that so quickly turned and grabbed the coffee cup needed and filled it to the brim as some sort of a ' please do not fucking file a complaint i do not need to deal with any more'
slapping the lid on so that man wouldn't spill as he never specified if it was an indoor outdoor or to go order, and tommy just did not want to ask.
"thanks for the coffee gremlin child."
"not a fucking kid!" getting another laugh from the weirdo smoke man as he turned before he could hand the man his change.
"STILL NOT A FUCK-"
and he's gone.
huh. HEY WAIT HES NOT A GREMLIN EITHER
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Soon the odd man came back again, and pretty soon he was counted as a reguler getting three large black coffees; apparently they were not just for him but also the rest of his family.
One time on an especially weak filter; meaning that it was basically not there at all. He asked why the fuck would and entire family let alone a singular person who genuinely likes black coffee plaine? Wilburs apparently.
Earlier on he had learned his name was Wilbur, Tommy begrudgingly saying his own. The man didn’t know since Tommy always refused to wear his name tag and niki never really enforced it.
Though eventually Ranboo came back from his break. Apparently he had to fight a lawsuit because his platonic boyfriend blew up someone's car while they were supposed to plan their wedding???? Ranboo may not be wrongun be he and his husband-to-be were very weird. hes not saying this because of michael either the pet pig was nice, but old and large for a teacup pig.
Nonetheless Tommy was glad to be back with the bread and niki who was content to work in silence. Not comfortable but not tense either.
Though oddly enough as he was kneading dough for some fresh bread he heard someone ask where he was and if they could have him take their order instead, sourdough too.
Tommy was currently blue screening,
‘Did I hear that right? People have been asking for Ranboo for the past week, and with his return most have been elated-’
“ OH FUCK IT’S WILBUR” if tommy hadn’t trained himself to control his emotions somewhat ok then he would be shouting so fucking loud. Unfortunately or fortunately he just has a very loud angry whisper.
… that is pretty much a shout if he thinks about it, just raspy.
either way niki somehow didn't hear him or purposefully ignored him in favor of getting him social interaction other than her and ranboo.
so forcing a grin he abandons the dough leaving it to rest. he doesn't know why wilbur likes it when he tries to genuinely smile or his prefered grin if he felt good that day but he pretends he doesn't care.
and so he goes to the register and tries to look like he would if he was happy outside of work.
" there you are! gremlin child!" wilbur seemed off... happy but off... it's probably not anything tommy isn't good at social interaction after....
he remember the chains on his wrists. the voice saying it was for his own good he doesn't know a face to the name only eyes a mask and some hairs, and the color green dead eyes of a mother and father and the dead eyes of another. they were innocent but tommy knew what those eyes meant. not the green of nature and life no for him it really just meant death.
wilbur, and nikki's bakery had the color of brown the bakery had brown walls more a tan beige the tables and golden brown sweet treats and the brown of the majority of the drinks he makes and sometimes serves if ranboo isn't their the brown of the bags he used to hold the stuff he wanted to keep when he ran and what he needed.
brown was in a way safe, just for the reasons above not the brown of wilburs hair favorite coat or anything other than those nope.
he wonder how his thoughts wandered so far the walk to the counter from the back where all the treats are made is not even seconds long. tile turned to wood and their he stood in front of one of his new constants, one of the things he deemed safe something brown and something safe...
suddenly a hand in a hair a man with a hand on his head ruffling his hair said he missed him with the same order every single time already coming off his tongue and suddenly brown wasn't so safe anymore.
hopefully his resignation wont hurt her and ranboo too much he warned him that one day hay have to run. but none of them really wanted him too. he may not let himself get attached but they didn't have that rule and he knows when to acknowledge when he has something nice, and that place was basically the nicest he had had so far.
niki knew it too words were not needed when he looked at her eyes when he had given the letter. he tell himself and her it was because dream may find him niki had lost close employees before she will recover. ranboo will forget him if he wants
he knows ranboo won't the scribbles on pages to be stained with his tears and ink on the pages as he walk away. he'll ignore the thoughts in his head wondering if brown was ever safe. he knew to not get attached the man with toxic green eyes taught him that well using his mother
so old torn brown bag practically falling apart and the shirt on his back he left much easier than others would.