Chapter Text
phos didn't expect to see antarcticite the next day at the end of their shift once again.
after they had given phos their new pair of gloves they exchanged polite, if not a little awkward, goodbyes to another and went their separate ways. phos thought that would be the end of it, a nice little end to the rather unremarkable story of how they gave up their three dollar gloves to a stranger. antarcticite wasn't one of the familiar college faces they saw either; the first semester was about to wrap up with the end of december just around the corner. but maybe they weren't even a college student, phos truly knew nothing about the near-complete stranger.
but why was phos even thinking this much about it? that's exactly what they were asking themself as they restocked some of the gum near the checkout counter. there was nothing about their encounter with them that would have them thinking so much about it; it was just an act of kindness which was repaid. that was it.
perhaps it was the fact that they even offered up the gloves in the first or the fact that antarcticite had gone through the trouble of getting them a new pair.
"whatever..” phos huffed out to themself, they only had 15 minutes left of their shift anyway. walking back to their place behind the counter, phos kneeled down to grab the store's multi purpose spray. cairngorm had recently scolded them for the messiness of the counter left by phos, and while phos would label the counter as messy it certainly wasn't.. clean. so, being the ever-gracious co-worker they were, they planned to clean it up before cairn got there.
(of course cairngorm typically gets there around 5-10 minutes early, leaving phos with about 5 minutes to clean, but phos has never been that good of a planner.)
just as they reached for the rag shoved in the back of the cabinet, the store doors chimed. phos huffed, letting out a quiet ‘tsk’ as their cleaning plans had been interrupted. they grabbed the cleaner anyway and just as they were about to get up they heard a voice call out:
“phosphophyllite?” with a smidge of hesitancy.
startled, phos whipped their head up to verify who voiced that belonged to, only to be met with the roof of the counter shelf colliding with their head.
“ack!” phos choked out as they fell back, sitting on the tiled floor and rubbing the top of their head. “ow, ow, ow…” they hissed, more mad at the pain than they were actually hurt by it. footsteps neared the counter as the one who walked over leaned over to see what had happened.
“..are you alright? did you hit your head?” they asked. phos, who had momentarily forgotten the reason they hit their head in the first place (more focused on soothing their oh-so fatal head-bump), glared up at the other person. their glare soon softened as their eyes met icy-colored ones.
“uhh… antarcticite!” they slurred a bit as they had to rack through the brain to recall the other's name. “haha, whaaat? no, no.. i just..” they grabbed onto the cleaner they grabbed earlier, “dropped my cleaner! just so busy cleaning, you know..” phos couldn't understand why they were lying about such a minute thing like hitting their head; perhaps they thought it was less embarrassing than admitting that their voice warranted such a response from them.
regardless, antarcticite paid no mind to the obvious lie and simply nodded. phos quickly scrambled to their feet once they remembered that the other was watching them practically cradle their head on the ground for a few minutes, brushing off imaginary dust from their shorts. they seemingly forgot to fix the hair they shook everywhere while soothing their ache in their head though, leaving strands poking in every direction. antarc, finding it a lot more endearing then they care to admit, held back a smile and refrained from mentioning it, lest their restrained smile slip into their words.
“so… you need something from over here?” phos questioned, noticing the other didn't seem to want to buy something from the aisles. antarc seemed to startle a little at the question, their eyes darting to the left before going back to phos’.
“right, uh, are you guys hiring by chance…?” they answered with a question of their own. their tongue swiped over their chapped lips, but phos was too busy comprehending what was asked to notice.
“wait,” phos started, “you're looking for a job?? here???”