Chapter Text
You'd just gone to the janitor's office in order to ask a question. Honest.
It was weird, though. You knew that there was a janitor, you knew he existed because you'd heard people mention him before… but you'd somehow never run into him in the halls. You walked the floors a lot at night, and surely he didn't do a lot of the cleaning during the day… but no matter how many days passed that you didn't see him, the floors and rooms remained spotless. Not even a smidge of dust would be there in the morning.
Until you came along, with a milkshake, and accidentally spilled it onto his nice clean floors. You weren't coming to ask him to clean it up, no, your guilt was far greater than that. You were going to ask if you could borrow some of his tools in order to fix the mess you had created. You couldn't in good faith ask him to clean it, not when he did such a good job keeping them clean most days.
His office was pretty close to where you'd spilled it, and you knew that because you passed it ever so often. It's door was always closed, but you'd had no reason to ever try to open it.
It was closed when you came upon it today, but you weren't about to barge your way in, no. You had manners.
You knock on the door to his office, and he offers an instruction to come in. So, you do.
You open the door, and allow it to gently close behind you as you walk through the threshold.
He's sitting on his chair, his feet propped up onto the surprisingly expensive looking desk, with a small magazine in his hand that he has lowered in favor of watching you walk into his office. "What can I do you for?" He asks, incredibly friendly. That was nice.
But… when you see ... them , you're left with wide eyes and a vague look of shock and awe on your face. You're glad you had shut the door, because the loud gasp you made would've been loud enough to concern some of the professors next door.
The man offers a small nervous chuckle, and he moves his legs back to the floor in order to pay more attention to you. "Are you alright?" He asks, confusion crossing his features.
"Am I losing my fucking mind or do you have wings coming out of your back." You say finally, surprisingly enough- fearfully. It was… confusing. You weren't one to run your mouth like that, not at school, but… you just couldn't help it.
The janitor had not only one pair, but three. They were near identical, all a shimmering shade of gold. They were folded up on each other but that didn't mean you couldn't see them. They were huge . They moved with him too, you noticed. As he repositioned himself to a sitting position, they move to follow along his back. The feathers shift as he does, and they glimmer as they do.
Something comes across the man's face. You can't really read it, it's just… neutral, it seems.
It's quiet for a minute, and you wonder what he's thinking. There is so much going through your brain, but looking at each other you're left with your brain just going at a million miles a minute.
"What color are they?" He asks, deadpan and looking as white as a sheet. He asks another one before you're able to even answer the first one. "How many are there?"
You blink, and focus back onto the wings. "Golden?" You answer, flabbergasted at this whole ordeal. "6?" You said, the word said questionly like you weren't entirely sure of the situation that was happening right now. And in all honesty, it wasn't making sense to you.
The man runs a hand over his face, and he lets out a very loud sigh. "Okay..." He says, nodding as if he understands something that you don't. He looks back up at you, and shrugs gently. "Well, kid. We're between a rock and a hard place." He says, as if he's admitting something.
"Why do you have wings ?" You really can't think of anything else, and you ignore his statement. Oddly enough, you aren't particularly… afraid of him, you're just confused. "What-"
He shakes his head, and waves away your next question. "We can play twenty questions later, alright?" He says, and he points towards the door behind you. "In about 5 minutes I'm about to have to show 2 imbeciles around the campus." He continues, and that causes you to pause.
In 5 minutes? How could he possibly know what the fuck was going to happen in 5 minutes?
Who was this?
"I'll see you in a little bit, alright?" He leans forward, and places two fingers on your forehead.
Before you can even say anything, you're no longer standing in the janitorial office.