Chapter Text
His fourth day of work was somehow even more unusual than the reunion with Pearl.
Only a couple days had passed since Grian witnessed Xornoths attack on the shopping district. Since then, he hadn’t seen Etho, nor had Joel given him any updates on the other man’s condition, which led him to assume his recovery was going well.
However, what Grian did not expect -because he was pretty certain that it was physically impossible- was for Etho to be standing behind the counter of the pub, casually serving the customer, 4 mere days after almost dying.
Perplexed, the avian walked up to him.
“You’re Etho right?” Grian asked once the customer walked away from the counter.
The white haired man froze. “Huh? How do you-” Etho questioned, narrowing his eyes.
“Relax Effo, he's the guy who helped me drag you home,” Joel interrupted.
He nodded. “I'm Grian, the new employee, it's nice to properly meet you,” he said, as he stepped behind the counter. Joel eyed the barstool Grian was dragging with him, but didn’t comment on it.
“Hm,” Etho responded, “I’m Etho.” The man paused. Then, his eyes crinkled and he joked, “the newer employee.”
Grian shot Joel a confused look, who quickly explained, “Uh yeah, I decided to hire him since his old job kinda burnt down.”
The avian raised an eyebrow. “Since when are you so quick to hire someone new?”
“Oh shut up,” Joel huffed, “You’ve only been working here for a couple of days, how would you know? Besides, not like I owe you an explanation or anything, but he practically begged me to hire him-“
“Hey! I didn’t beg! You offered-”
“-and Gem has been asking me to hire more people for weeks, so I graciously decided to give poor Effo a chance, since I had already done the same for you,” he said, his eyes scanning Grian suspiciously.
“Does that mean we’ll get shorter shifts?” the avian teased.
Joel rolled his eyes. “I see Gem has already infected you with her agenda.”
“Agenda? What are you talking about?” Grian asked mischievously. Of course he’d join Gem in complaining about too long work hours, despite only working here for four days. He’d take any excuse to be lazy and avoid workig!
Joel ignored his question, instead he turned to Etho, “Hey foxboy, go find Pearl and help her with serving the customers. Me ‘n Grian are gonna take over the bar for now.”
Etho nodded and disappeared into the back.
“So, how was your day off yesterday?”
Grian scrunched up his face. “Ugh, don’t remind me of that. I spent the whole day sorting through boxes.”
“Well, luckily for you we don't get much traffic on Wednesdays. You should get some rest before the weekends though, those are always hell.”
“Yeah I know, my first two workdays were on a weekend, ” Grian harshly reminded the other man, who only chuckled in response.
They stood behind the bar in silence for a bit, as Joel cleaned the counter. However, his attention seemed to be somewhere else. As he worked, his eyes would regularly wander across the room, until his gaze landed on Etho. Often, he’d seemingly forget the task at hand, his hand freezing in motion, as he stared at the ‘newer employee’.
Well, at least Joel seemed to be making sure that Etho did his job right. Or, well, that’s what Grian assumed to be the reason for Joel’s staring.
Eventually, there was no more counter left to wipe and Joel instead began scrolling through his phone. Grian sighed. Sure, it was great to be working in such a lenient environment -in any other establishment he’d probably get kicked out for sitting on a barstool behind the counter- but he’d really been hoping he’d get to talk to someone during his shift, especially since there wasn’t much else to do.
It wasn’t like the pub was empty. No, the room itself had a decent amount of customers, even if it was nowhere near how many they had on the weekends, but they all either already had drinks, or were deciding to order them from the waiters, Etho and Pearl. It seemed like during the day most people, especially the ones who ordered food, decided to wait at their tables instead of walking up to the counter to order.
It made Grian’s shifts easier, but also very, very boring.
Luckily for him, Jimmy hurriedly stepped out the backdoor, just as the boredom became unbearable.
“Hi, sorry I’m late! Didn’t realize I had a shift today-”
“Hey Tim!” Grian greeted him.
“You won’t anymore, from now on,” Joel said, not looking up from his phone.
“Uh- Wait what?” Jimmy squeaked.
“We got a new employee-” he nodded towards Etho “-so I’m rescheduling our shifts.”
“Oh thank goodness, I thought you were threatening to fire me or somethin’.”
“If ya don’t get to blumming work soon I might.”
Jimmy rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, just gimme a second to talk to Grian.”
“What’s up?” he asked the golden avian.
“I might have already mentioned it, I’m not sure, but since you moved in recently, I thought I’d offer to go shopping with you?”
“Oh yeah, that’d be great actually.” He still had to figure out where to get the Grumbot parts that Mumbo needed.
“Great! Does 2pm tomorrow work for you?”
Grian pulled out his phone and checked his schedule. On Thursdays his shifts started at 8pm, so he should have enough time. “Yeah sure.”
“Great! Let’s meet up in the shopping district at 2pm then.” With that, Jimmy turned around and began walking towards Pearl.
“Alright, see you later Timmy!” Grian shouted.
“Oh for the last time don’t call me that-”
Grian grinned.
Still holding his phone in his hand from when he’d checked his schedule, Grian opened up his messenger app to text Mumbo.
—- Waffle man —
[Waffle man]: Hey, what parts to do you need for your “project” again, and where do I get them from?
—----------------------------—
Grian continued to stare at his phone for a few more seconds, but sadly Mumbo didn’t reply. The other man was probably busy working on some new contraption. Disappointed, Grain pocketed his phone, fully prepared to once again face the boring silence of the pub.
To his surprise, Joel interrupted the quiet. “So, how are you liking Essempi so far?”
“It’s alright, haven’t had time to see much of the city yet though.”
Joel hummed, is eyes wandering through the pub. “You should really visit the upper districts then. Besides the shopping district, they’re probably the prettiest.”
Grian looked up at him. “Isn’t that where the Hero HQ and the Emperors are?”
“Well yeah, obviously those bloody bastards had to make the best part of the city their territory… But even if it’s full of them and the rich fuckers that live there, it’s still worth visiting.”
Grian frowned. Joel seemed… Oddly calm as he spoke, his staring off into nothing, as if he had gotten lost in his own thoughts.
“You’ve mentioned them before, when we visited the shopping district. Did you used to be allied with them?” Grian carefully asked
“Don’t act like Jimmy didn’t already tell you about Scott.”
Aw shoot. He must have informed Joel about his conversation with Grian. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry-”
Suddenly, Grian’s phone buzzed.
—- Waffle man —
[Mustache man]: Oh, right!!! Here’s a list , you should be able to get all of them from Tango’s Redstone store in the shopping district. I’ll send you the shop with the more “specific” parts later, the “shipment” hasn’t arrived yet!
[Waffle man]: Thanks, I’ll send them to you as soon as I can.
—----------------------------—
When Grian looked up, Joel had gone back to scrolling through his phone.