Work Text:
Your average Monday morning at the office, or, as average as it could be considered. Given the oddities going on with that elevator there. With his feet propped up on the desk, Manuel leaned back in his swivel chair, a royal blue, ceramic cup of still steaming coffee with cream sitting upon the wooden surface while the soft clicking of a ball-point pen echoed throughout his personal office. As he did every Monday morning, Manuel was planning out a schedule for the week, his top priority as the building’s management and safety head.
Writing down dates for repairs, potential off-site maintenance calls, and other things that needed to be done that were out of his control. He may have had the skills to deal with them,, but Manuel was only one man, after all! The small, hand-held calendar notepad upon his desk soon covered in the soft marks of deep black ink, Manuel humming to himself as he continued to write down plans, schedule various, important dates, and just other things he needed himself to remember. Such as meetings, especially that one he had with Normal Guy later.
However, his soft humming was interrupted by the ringing of his offices’ desk phone, with a sigh, Manuel dropped the pen to the desk and picked up the phone. “Manuel, maintenance and safety head speakin’.”
“Manuel.” The man spoke on the other line, a deep, raspy voice that gave the impression he was a heavy smoker. It was one of the higher ups, making Manuel clear his throat, and improve his tone to a much formal one.
“Oh, Heya!” Manuel responded with a much more cheerful, happy chirp to his tone, as if he wasn’t exhausted. Most workers for the nameless company were, anyways. “What can I do for ya?” He hummed out.
“Would you mind heading down to floor five?”
Manuel’s heart dropped. He had already been down to that floor about three times this very morning, just to check the pressure on the pipes, and make sure none of the metal was decaying and rotting too badly from the radiation, and had to be replaced. He had checked for every safety violation he could’ve down there, what else could there have been that he just so happened to have missed?
“...What for?” Manuel chuckled out nervously, he still had several things to worry about, and check for the morning, and he had to check in with the other on-site maintenance workers to make sure the dates he was given were correct. “Nothin’s happened, right?”
“No, no..” The raspy-voiced man on the other line said with a chuckle. “Just.. Some concerns over the pressure level in one of the pipes.”
Manuel gave a soft, choked down sigh as he heard this from the higher ups, there was no way he was getting out of this, even if he was almost sure that nothing was out of order with any of the pipes. He had made sure to double-check them that very morning, after all. He leaned over, brushing dark brown curls out of the view of his eyes with his free hand so he could see his written-down schedule, and despite the lines of ink looking slightly un-neat, from how quickly he was writing, he could read everything with precision. He clicked his tongue a few times before responding with a hesitant-
“Course I can..”
Even if he were less-than excited to visit that floor for the fourth time that morning, it wasn’t his fault the Nameless Company was built upon an old spent nuclear fuel collection site. And now, it was their responsibility to care for it.
No matter the lives it cost.
With hesitance, Manuel set the phone down to hang up. He stood up and stretched his back out before grabbing his mask from where it hung on a wall within his office, before slinging the black, leather bag which held his tools over his shoulder. He gave a defeated sigh as he turned to his office door, a deep sense of dread pooling in his nerves as he was preparing himself to head to the elevator.
___________________________
Ding!
The elevator arrived upon floor five, the sickening smell of rust, the corrosion of metal and built-up nuclear waste rotting and collecting in a pool within the center of the room that had caused it hit Manuel’s nose before the doors even opened. Reminding him to slip on his mask before he pressed the button to open the doors.
The moment he was ready, and had calmed his nerves enough, he opened the elevator door and made his way onto the radioactive floor. The smell only soured more, flooding the room with something so rustic Manuel could feel the back of his throat already bleeding, tasting of tin. His eyes watered, caused by the nuclear substance flowing into the deep pit within the room. With each breath he took, Manuel could feel his throat begin to burn more and more as each breath took in more radiation-filled air to his lungs, causing his chest to burn with the rotting heat. It almost felt like his heart was burning to a crisp inside of his ribcage. That was the first signal that he’s been down here one too many times in the past few hours, and whatever needed to be fixed, needed to be fixed quickly.
Without another moment of hesitation, Manuel moved to a cat-walk like, metal bridge to his right, crossing right over the pool of nuclear fuel. Manuel had complained about the safety violation of such a weak structure across something so dangerous. From the radiation levels being off even a geiger counter, to the high temperature of the spent fuel , one wrong step and someone would be as good as dead. Upper management did hardly anything about it, besides adding in a metal ladder connected to the side, and even that was weak and corroding. The thin bridge trembled slightly under the weight of the maintenance man as he put a foot down upon its surface, giving a slight grimace. “That ain’t good..” He whispered to himself, but pushed forward regardless of his own concerns for safety. It was the concerns of the company that mattered most, not his own. He made it across the bridge with barely shaking knees, and into the control room as he went to check the pressure valves on the pipes.
Sure enough, one was a bit higher than the others, a bit too tight, and the pressure was beginning to build. Manuel scoffed as he knelt down to one knee, opened his bag, pulled out a wrench and spun it with a soft flick of his wrist, before carefully loosening the pressure valve. He checked the measure of it once more, and gave a soft smile under his mask once he saw it even-out with the other ones. He pulled himself to his feet, and made sure all of his tools were back in order, safely put away in his bag as he closed up, and turned to leave. Before he was even out of the control room, though, he let out a shallow cough, a tinfoil taste lacing his tongue telling him it was fresh blood, he had to get out of there, and soon.
“..You’ve got to be kiddin’ me.” He muttered
His heart thumped a little faster with anxiousness upon greeting the metal bridge again, he stepped onto it, and once again, it trembled under his weight. Even though just the thought of walking across it made him anxious, Manuel pushed forward, not wanting to faint down here.. Again.
He took too hard of a step, sending the metal support below him shaking with the vibrations of his movement all a little too much. Manuel stumbled as he tried to grab onto the safety railing for support, but having been corroded for so long from nuclear fumes, it shook under the sudden addition of his weight on it, and snapped. The maintenance man slipped right off the edge of the platform, just barely managing to grab onto the side of the ladder and pull himself onto it. He stood only a few feet above the rotting pool of nuclear fuel, taking a deep breath as he tried to calm his nerves for a moment. His leather gloves tightened on the warm metal, he bit his lip as he tried not to look down.
“..Alright.”
He gave with a breathy sigh, moving slowly, cautiously, to climb back up onto the platform. He would’ve moved faster, had his bag not been weighing him down so slightly.
The ladder creaked. Manuel paused.
He tried to begin moving again after a few moments, it only creaked again under his weight, sounding more squeaky, and louder than the last. Manuel hadn’t realized it yet, but him reacting so fast to grab onto the safety ladder had knocked a screw out of place. He wasn’t in any position to attempt to tighten it, either.
All it took was a slight shift of his weight to cause the ladder to rattle, it slipped out under him, and sent Manuel falling backwards off of it. The maintenance man took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He realized this could very well be the end of his existence, right here, right now. Or, at least in this line of his existence, the company could resurrect him if they chose to, but it was costly. They had done it before, after all.
But he didn’t fall.
He felt another’s hand firmly wrapped around his wrist, and their grip wasn’t slipping, it was strong, able to keep him suspended in the air, hesitantly, Manuel looked up. His eyes widened as he was met with the slight smile of the other, black hair and gray eyes.
“Give me your other hand, Manuel.” The man spoke, his voice gave a sense of firmness despite the happy tone, and Manuel didn’t disobey.
The taller man was able to pull him up with ease, without stumbling or tripping himself. He chuckled as he could still tell the maintenance man was weak in the knees from the sudden fall. “Careful now, you don’t want to slip again.” He said with a soft grin.
The two sat with one another in silence for a moment, Manuel’s softer, but still rather heavy breaths being the only sound in the room, he was tempted to take his mask off to get more air into his lungs, but he knew doing so would only make himself feel more sick from the radiation.. And Normal Guy would scold him for it, of course. Manuel could feel the heat on his face, even if the darkness of the room hid it well, he could still tell his face was a deep red at the moment, he gave a nervous chuckle that broke the silence, before turning to speak to the taller man. “Haha.. Thank you.” He nervously choked out “You’ve got good timing.”
“Well, something just felt off to me.” He responded, his eyes switching from a void black, to a nearly empty, pure white. Normal Guy was good at hiding his concern, always with that smile on his face.. But Manuel was able to see right through it, having known him for so long. “I had a feeling they had sent you down here again.” Normal Guy shot Manuel a look as he spoke to him again, beginning to guide him off of the shaking, metal bridge by the hold on his wrists. Careful and cautious steps showing he didn’t want it to collapse under the weight of both of them.
“Now, you’re sure you’ve gotten every problem down here fixed, right?” Normal Guy asked once they were back to the other side, normally, he would’ve put his hands behind his back, but he kept his hands clasped around Manuel’s wrists, slowly moving them down to hold the maintenance man’s hands within his own. “I don’t want to see you down here again today.”
His tone held concern, but it was spoke sternly, showing he meant what he said.
“Yup!” Manuel responded with a chuckle. “I checked over everythin’. Nothin’s out of order.” He continued to speak, his hands relaxing around the soft grip of the businessman, beginning to close his own hands around them.
“Good.” Normal Guy chirped, his smile widening in almost relief that Manuel wouldn’t be collapsing from the overexposure of radiation for the third time that year. Suddenly, Normal Guy moved his hands to grab onto Manuel’s shoulders, and pulled him closer, he pulled the maintenance man’s mask up slightly, a soft sound of confusion was all Manuel was able to get out before their lips met. The businessman had always been strangely cold, his body never seeming to regulate temperature right, but his kisses were always warm. Manuel welcomed the kiss, adding more passion to it while his hands slid down to Normal Guy’s waist to hold.
The kiss lasted a few moments, but it felt like hours to Manuel, absolutely relishing in the affection it was giving him. Normal Guy pulled away after another minute, and fixed Manuel’s mask. The businessman chuckling and giving him a giddy smile, Manuel was almost sure he could see a faint blush on his face, too, but it was likely an effect of the dim lighting the room had.
“Now, let’s get you back to your office.” The taller man said as he turned to walk back to the elevator, motioning for the maintenance man to follow suit. “I’m sure there’s plenty more you had to do before you were interrupted.”
Still flustered from the sudden kiss, Manuel walked to the elevator with a little more speed, and a bit more of a bounce in his step. A wide, joyful smile on his face that read his mind was still absolutely laced with the affection the businessman had just given him gained a stifled, quiet chuckle out of him, Manuel couldn’t stop himself from chuckling right back.
“Oh, Yes sir..” He laughed.