Work Text:
The near-surface was usually pretty loud, but this wasn’t terrible.
“Where’s your blummin regulars? Slow day or something?”
Beef straightened up from where he was had been crouched behind the counter.
His butcher shop in the near-surface was…well, calling it a ‘butcher’ shop might be a bit of a stretch. It was more like he sold deli-related foodstuffs, some of which he produced himself, some of which came from the labs developed production program, some of which he traded for from the near-surface.
Beef was a strapping man. Large and broad-shouldered, with a thick black beard and fuzzy black hair, emerging from which was a set of small roundly pointed cow horns. His skin was pale, occasionally dappled with black patterning in swoops and curves, typical of his subspecies.He wore a green plaid shirt overtop which was an apron smeared with stains both faded and new from his work. His butcher shop was a narrow galley style place with the counter along the wall to the left of the door. Moss enchanted to help with ventilation, as was the norm in most public places in the near-surface, and the floors were a neatly swept linoleum. The walls were decorated with photos, and also a framed article from a friend of his who was an independent researcher bemoaning food production capability in the under-city, but also refusing to work with the labs on it.
Stubborn guy.
Beef felt a smile tug at his lips as he opened his cooled countertop display, redstone clicking beneath the floors to power it. “You tell me…here, let me get your order packed.” He replied to Joel in his usual mild tone. The man folded his arms over his chest and tilted his head. His green butterfly wings fluttered idly behind him.
“It’ll probably pick up with the post-work rush, right?”
“Here’s hoping, man. But I make enough off orders to get by without the foot traffic. Hey, how is business down at the bakery?”
“Boomin…I mean, that’s just because Lizzie knows what she’s doing, though.”
“Isn’t that sweet?” Beef mused as he packed several things into a box for Joel to take back to the bakery. While they specialized in sweets over there, they also ran lunch specials that involved sandwiches and the like, so they needed meats and other deli products.
The cow hybrid grinned mirthfully at Joel’s huff, the other man's shoulders slouching. “Sweet as in we run a bakery, very funny.”
“Nah, I was talking about the other thing.” Beef replied conversationally, grinning, and Joel immediately turned several shades red.
“Shut up! You shut up! Gimme the blummin order!”
“Aw, but she learned to be such a good baker to court you, didn’t she?”
“SHUT IT!”
Beef’s laugh was a deep, delighted rumble. The tip of his cowtail, with its black wiry hair, snapped back and forth a few times, emerging from his tailbone and beneath his shirt.
“Geez, it’s almost you two haven’t been married for a decade.”
“Last time I order from you!”
“Who else are you gonna order from?”
“You know what? Screw selective availability!”
Beef laughed again as he closed the lid of the metal storage container that contained Joels’ order and then hefted it onto the countertop between them.
“Take that up with the bedrock, buddy.”
“Tried that.”
“Yeah…me too.”
They smiled at each other ruefully, and then Joel rolled his eyes fondly, antenna bobbing. Then he moved forward and got ahold of the metal container, pulling it against his chest.
“Put it on our tab? Me or Lizzie’ll come by to pay it off by the end of the month.”
“As per usual, you got it.”
“See ya, Beef, have a good one!”
“You too!”
Joel left, and Beef stood a moment at the counter leaning against it, letting out a slow breath.
His shop was doing pretty well. He’d been running it for several years now and had ended up making friends with some of the other shop owners of the near surface, including Joel and Lizzie. His cow tail continued to flick lazily side to side as he turned around to return to the back, planning to do some prep for sale, considering he usually had a decent rush of people coming through after work and school let out.
As he turned, his phone buzzed in his pocket. The ringtone was a familiar one, and Beef felt his lips quirk toward a bemused smile as he took it out and looked it over. His cow ears flopped and occasionally flicked from either side of his head beneath the mop of unruly black hair, and he lifted one slightly to raise the device to it.
“Good morning.”
“BEEF! You will not believe what I have found!”
“Oh dear, won’t I?”
“Don’t be sarcastic!”
“You’re catching on, my friend.”
“Shush! I hear none of it! Now listen to this! I was doing some excavations in the Depths…”
“You mean you were dumpster diving in the old labs trash heaps?”
“I mean I guess I…hey! No! Do not belittle my research!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, buddy…alright, you’re on speaker, go off.”
“I feel patronized.”
“Good.”
“Good!? What do you mean good!?”
Beef laughed, the noise rumbled in his tone as he slipped his phone into the chest pocket of his apron, so the voice still wailing at him over his teasing was easy to hear. He hit the tap to wash his hands, a smile still tugging on his face.
Beef had lived his whole life in the under-city. He was old enough to dimly remember the Anarchy, but he’d still been a kid back then. His parents had shielded him from it well enough, and he’d grown up in the near-surface. It wasn’t as though he escaped the pressure…especially considering the crazy conspiracy theories still spouting from his buddy on the other end of the line, whose points Beef knew had some merit, even if that was terrifying in and of itself. They were walking a knife's edge. But Beef had been walking it for as long as he could remember, so he felt like he was settled enough.
Yeah.
It’s not so bad.