Work Text:
Thomas needed a job. He was settled into his apartment just fine,but he still hadn’t thought about what he would do to earn some money. While thinking about that he drove through the city with his bike. When he decided to stop at a nice looking sandwich shop, he noticed that there was a big sign in the window. It said “Help wanted – normal people need NOT apply!!”
He grinned to himself about that and parked his bike. He didn’t exactly knew what to say he just grabbed the menu and drew something to catch an eye. The woman that he supposed was the owner stared at him with a confused expression.
Thomas put down the menu and looked at her in the eye.
“I’m not normal!“ he stated much more confident than he felt.
The woman grinned at that. “Yeah, clearly.“ She stated with a wave towards his drawing.
He sighed and tried a crooked smile “I really need a job..“
“It’s yours.“ the woman said directly but before Thomas could say anything in reply he was interrupted by an Asian looking guy with muscular arms, which he crossed over his chest. “Wait a minute, Brenda. You said hiring was a democratic process at this shop.”
Brenda shrugged. “Fine, all those in favor of hiring- wait, what was your name?”
“Uh,it’s Thomas!”
“Great,all those in favor of hiring Thomas put your hands up.“
To his surprise everyone agreed to let him work there, even the asian guy.
“Well, as you already know, I’m Brenda and I own this shop. The grumpy flirt there is Minho-“ she pointed at the asian kid, Minho, and then at a girl he hadn’t even noticed before. “And that’s Teresa. Normally we also have another employee, Newt, but he seems to be late today.“ she continued and gave him an apron.
Almost half an hour later the doors of the sandwich shop were violently pushed open by a tall boy with long blond hair. “Yo, no need to worry, I’m here!“ he said and rushed past Brenda to the stove.
Then he suddenly turned around to face Thomas and looked at him strangely.
“And who would you be?“
“Uh..I’m Thomas?“ He answered, unsure what Newt would want from him.
“Thomas. What’re you doing here, Tommy?“
Thomas scratched the back of his head and looked up at the blonde.
“Well..I work here.“
At that Newt raised his eyebrows and turned to Minho and then to Brenda.
“Hey, why wasn’t I notified about that? I wasn’t notified! Is there no bloody order around here?”
Brenda just laughed. “Hey Newt, guess what, we hired someone!“
The blonde huffed shortly and grumbled “Thank you! I swear, we need a bulletin board or staff email or something. Whatever, nice to meet ya, Tommy!“
He grinned shortly before turning around again and starting to work.
The rest of the day went by without problems and Thomas already liked the whole crew a lot.
Teresa was usually quiet, but when she said something it was clever and funny.
Brenda was kinda like a mom but she was really cool too and joked around with them.
Newt was snarky and usually complained about stuff he noticed outside of the job or customers that were rude.
Minho was a big tease. He loved trying to make Thomas blush while talking about his newest one night stands, because as Newt told him, Minho wasn’t up for dates or longer relationships. The bisexual Asian guy loved to have his fun, he flirted with everyone that interested him.
Newt was a bit pissed about that but Thomas didn’t judge. It was Minho’s decision after all and he figured if he was as attractive as him he would probably do the same.
The next day Newt was supposed to do some shopping, because a lot of the ingredients for the sandwiches and salads needed to be restocked.
Teresa looked up from the computer where she managed the online orders and turned to Newt. “Are you okay with going shopping in that outfit?“ She asked it in a calm voice, not meaning to hurt him. It wasn’t a secret between the workers and the regular customers that Newt considered himself as genderfluid and liked to dress that way and today he wore a pink shirt and a blue and black checked skirt.
“Pfft, they’ll try to say something to me about it. I don’t care.“ Newt mumbled and got out of his apron.
Teresa smiled warmly at him and nodded. “Okay. Oh and could you also get some Tampons? I think they’re almost empty.“
Newt nodded at that and walked to the door, but Minho held him back. “Hey hero, if you need help in the shop, call me, okay? I have a sister so I can totally help.“ he smirked and let the blonde go.
Shortly after he left the store and only Teresa, Minho and Thomas were working, Minho’s phone ringed. He picked it up directly.
“Hello?“
“Dude, code blue, hostile territory, I’m aborting the mission!“
“Huh? What are you talking about? Newt,is that you?“
“YES! Who else would I be? Oh sorry- I forgot that you probably give your phone number to every breathing thing.“ Came the annoyed reply.
“Anyway, there are too many enemy tampons, I’m bailing. I don’t know that much about it yet.“
“Okay wait, calm down first and stay focused. What exactly is the problem?“
“Is there a difference between bag or box?“
“I’m not sure but just take a box one, I guess.“ Minho said, starting to regret not having Teresa take the call. He took a deep breath and continued talking with Newt, much to the amusement of Thomas and Teresa who both stopped working to listen to the conversation.
“Look around chest height, my sister said that the regular ones are usually there…“
“Chest height, roger that. Uh..slender regular? How can something be both slender and regular? Isn’t that mutually exclusive?“
“Dude..concentrate, please.“
“Unless, of course, they’re implying in the mysterious underworld of Femboxes that slender is in fact regular. Bloody hell..“ Newt continued rambling on.
“Seriously Dude..are you done?“
“Yeah,sorry, I’m focusing. What about the Super Pluses? They sound like better than the normal ones?“
“No. Don’t, they’re huge and I don’t think this is one of the areas where bigger is better.“
“Yeah, but shouldn’t you buy all the protection you can get? I mean, it says here that it can handle any amount of- Oh my god! Who the hell writes these texts? They sound disgusting!“
“Newt, listen. If a woman needs an emergency dipstick in the ladies room of a frickin’ sandwich stop she’s probably just going to want one to hold her over till she gets home and can use her own stuff. Just buy the slender regulars and be done with it, okay?“
“Yeah, fine.“
Minho grinned to himself and shook his head as he hung up and put his phone away. Then he turned around to Thomas and Teresa who were both giggling at the conversation.
“Don’t you two have work to do instead of lazying around??“
The next time something out of order happened was when Minho came to work with a big bruise on his cheek.
“Woah, Minho, what the hell happened?“ Thomas asked with a worried expression on his face.
The other boy half smiled at him and shrugged it off. “No big deal..I was just skating and fell, don’t worry about it Greenie.“
But worrying was exactly what everyone of them was doing after Minho got to work.
They also noticed that he wasn’t his usual flirty self.
When Minhos shift ended and a big guy came to pick him up, Brenda looked up from the paperwork she was doing and watched the two boys go outside.
As soon as Minho and the other guy were outside of the shop Minho stopped and turned around.
“I didn’t want to make a scene in there, but after last night I’m definitely not going out with you again!“
The guy grinned dumbly “What? Just because you were clumsy?“
“Clumsy? You shoved me against the wall and I got a fucking bruise because of that! And just because you wanted to have a threeway before asking me.“
“Yeah, well you aren’t exactly the most innocent and you also said that you were into threeways.“
“Dude, I said I could see myself in a polyamorous relationship. That’s something different then what you tried to do. So leave me alone,okay?“
Just as the guy reached out to grab Minho and could try dragging him into his car, Newt, Thomas and Brenda came outside too.
Newt and Thomas were immediately at Minhos side and Brenda, who is really good in different fighting styles, stood in front of them with her arms crossed.
“He said he wants you to leave him alone. So if you don’t want me to break your nose, you leave.“ she said coldly and the guy suprisingly gave up, even though he was still mumbling something angrily he drove away.
“Hey, are you okay Min?“ Newt asked without his usual sarcastic tone.
Minho grinned in response. “Yeah..thanks for saving me though. Are you gonna tell me your full name instead of that nickname, now that I’m such a damsel in distress??“
Newt huffed and explained to Thomas that Newt of course wasn’t his name, but he didn’t want anyone to call him by his birth name so he never told anyone.
Brenda smiled at them. “Well..usually I have something against hurting humans but ya know.. He seemed more like a pig to me, I would have totally hit him.“
Soon after that incident Newt and Minho finally got together. Minho had stopped flirting with every living thing and Newt asked if he would want to go on a date together. Minho had smirked and said teasingly, that he’d love to, but only if he gets to know his full name.
“What? Seriously? Bloody hell..fine! My name’s Isaac okay? But I swear to god, don’t you dare start call me that!“
Thomas felt happy for them, but at the same time he felt kinda sad about it. He had been having a small crush on Minho since the first day and he began liking Newt after the first few weeks too.
When Minho let slip that he would be okay with a polyamorous relationship, Thomas had hoped that he meant him and Newt- but he was way too shy to ask them now that they were together, because seriously, how stupid would that seem?
Thomas tried really hard to just ignore the grumbling feeling of jealousy in his stomach whenever Minho kissed Newt between serving customers till he snapped one evening.
“Jesus Christ, do you need to always make out during work? Is that really necessary?“
Brenda started at him with raised eyebrows while Newt just crossed his arms with a look that basically screamed ‘What the hell’s your problem?!’ and Minho had the nerve to just smirk and cock his head to the side.
“Why, Tommy? Perhaps you’re jealous?”
Thomas couldn’t avoid the blood rushing to his cheeks, partly because of anger but mostly because of embarrassment. So much for not saying anything about it.
“Well.. Yeah, maybe I am jealous of you two, so what?“
Now Minho and Newt looked at each other shortly and then both smiled warmly at the brunette.
“We knew that you liked us, Tommy. We just wanted you to make the first step, but you never did so we started wondering if maybe it was one sided after all.“
Brenda murmured a “Fucking finally,“ as Thomas was totally dumbfounded that he could’ve been together with them both much longer instead of pouting.
After that they were in a happy relationship and Brenda had to remind them several times not to start making out at the working place just because they all worked there.