Work Text:
It was a hot summer day in St. Louis. Mordecai, like most people, had sought out shelter in his cool office from the unbearable heat outside. He was in the middle of working through some of the Lackadaisy’s financial records when the sound of an engine pulling into the backyard followed by shouts and clanking startled him out of his thoughts. Peering out of the open window he saw Viktor and a few others unloading a truck of what seemed to be a new delivery of moonshine. Nothing out of the ordinary, really.
First, he had been a bit annoyed at the loud interruption of his work, but the feeling was quickly replaced by one of schadenfreude, as he watched some of the men struggle with the heavier boxes, hearing them ever so often loudly curse at the blazing sun while he was peacefully sitting in the comfortable cool of his office.
His wandering gaze had just locked onto an especially scrawny fellow whose knees seemed about to buckle under the weight of his crate when right in time Viktor appeared before him lifting the crate - and accidentally also the man still holding on to it - of the truck like he was picking up a couple of grapes. Mordecai suddenly found his attention strangely drawn to the bulky feline.
He couldn’t help but notice with how much ease Viktor seemed to lower the crate, once he noticed that someone was still attached to his cargo, planting the smaller man back on his feet, before hurling the wooden box back on his shoulder like it weighed hardly anything to him. To his own confusion the triggerman kept watching in fascination how the muscles on the enforcers big arms flexed as-
Mordecai’s fur began to bristle, suddenly overcome by the dreadful realization that he was staring. Why though he couldn’t really say. It wasn’t like he had never noticed that Viktor was extremely strong, one only had to look at the behemoth to discern as much. Still, he hastily tore away his gaze, trying to refocus on his work. Had the room just become warmer? Maybe the heat was getting to him? Yes, that must be it! Maybe he should close the window.
Speaking of heat, the question crossed his mind, how on earth the Slovak, with his thick coat of fur, could even handle being outside right now? Even Mordecai with his much thinner coat of fur, had already needed to change into two of his emergency replacement shirts that day, before eventually if very reluctantly having to accept his sweaty fate. Making his way to close the open window he couldn’t help but risk another glance outside.
To Mordecai’s horror he was suddenly met with the sight of Viktor in the process of taking of his sweaty shirt. The smaller cat quickly averted his eyes before slamming the window shut and diving out of sight. Sinking down in his office chair his racing mind helpfully supplied that it was probably only due to anger about almost having to witness such an immodest display of public indecency, that his cheeks suddenly felt very hot.
Yet despite his best efforts to try to refocus on the numbers in front of him, the smaller cats gaze accidentally kept wandering back down to the men unloading the truck. He told himself, that it was only because the ruckus from outside made it impossible to concentrate on his work. However, when to his surprise he found a certain giant feline nowhere to be seen, his curiosity got the better of him. Leaning back in his chair in an effort to get a better look on the area-
“What are you doing there?” Mordecai almost jumped out of his skin, losing his balance on the chair, and taking half his papers with him to the floor.
“Oh dear, I didn’t mean to startle you”, Mitzi snickered, leaning over him, an eyebrow raised in curiosity, “What on earth has gotten you so flustered, hun’?” “Ahem… I’m not-…Well…You see I was just-…ehhh…the sun?”, he said stumbling over his words, while quickly gathering his scattered documents.
“The sun?”, Mitzi repeated, a disbelieving tone in her voice. She was already stepping closer to the window apparently trying to get a look on whatever had peeked Mordecai’s interest, when the triggerman shot back up on his feet and swiftly closed the blinds exclaiming: “Right! The sun! It was blinding me, so I was just about to close the blinds when you so rudely startled me!” “Hmmm, so I’m guessing it’s also ‘the sun’ that got you all red around the nose?”, she asked teasingly a clear glint of suspicion in her eyes.
“Precisely! That is also why I’m going down to the caverns right now!”, he explained perhaps a bit too hastily to make his point convincing, as he abruptly fled his office before Mitzi could get a chance to ask him any more questions.
-And if while making his way down to the coldest part of the Lackadaisy’s cavern, Mordecai suddenly had the intrusive thought how much easier it might be if a certain someone would carry him down the many steps like a couple of grapes, then it was only because the heat was clearly making him think nonsense.