Chapter Text
"And you’re absolutely certain that this is a good idea?”
Grian sighed, adjusting the phone in his hand as he placed another book on the floor next to him. “Yeah, of course I am.”
“I just… Well- Okay, listen, I-I know it’s too late to back out now, I mean you’re already there and you paid for the apartment and everything, b-but I’m really not sure about this whole thing-“
Grian pointedly decided to ignore Mumbo’s rambling and instead focused on the cardboard boxes sitting on the floor in front of him. The one he was currently sorting through was especially chaotic, with items from all kinds of rooms just thrown into it carelessly. Grian was starting to really despise his past self for being so unorganized.
After saying a quick “Yep” to whatever Mumbo was saying, Grian pulled out one of the books from inside the box, wincing when he spotted the vase below it. The object made of glass was stuffed into the box in a way that really should have broken it during the drive here, but it seemed like Grian had gotten exceptionally lucky. Or maybe he’d put some kind of protection spell on the vase, he couldn’t remember anymore….
“-Grian, are you even listening to me?”
“Yeah yeah, of course”
Upon further inspection the box did seem to mostly contain magic items, half of which were books, so at least it was kind of organized? Grian still had no idea where he should put all this junk. He probably should have built the furniture first, but sadly he had no idea where any of his tools were, which is why he was sorting through these boxes in the first place.
“-about their intentions. Actually, how did they even manage to contact you? I thought you cut ties with everyone from Evo?” Now that caught Grian’s attention.
He hesitated for a moment before carefully answering: “Oh uh, Apparently Jimmy’s boss has some kind of tracking power? I’m not quite sure actually, he was being pretty vague about it,” he hummed quietly as he placed the box next to the other ones he'd already looked through and moved onto the next one.
“Wait. Wait hold on, why the heck would they go through the effort of tracking you with a power? Who even has a power like that? I mean seriously, aren’t you a bit worried about them being able to track you that easily?” Mumbo stuttered, his voice getting more and more frantic as he went on.
“Nah, Jimmy’s a nice guy; I doubt he’s planning anything bad,” Grian deflected. Although that statement was true and Grian did trust Jimmy, the thought of being found so easily did send shivers down his spine.
“But what if-” his best friend started, but Grian quickly interrupted him.
“Listen Mumbo, I know you’re worried about this, but trust me I’ll be fine. I know Jimmy and he’d never put me in any danger. While I don’t know much about the others, I also don’t think I’ve ever done anything that could warrant them trying to trap me. I mean, I’ve never even meet any of them besides Jimmy-”
“That’s what concerns me! You have no idea who these people are and yet you’re moving to a completely different country just because of an offer they made you!” Mumbo shrieked, not listening to Grian reassuring him.
“Yeah, a job offer. That’s kind of how those work. I think it’s normal not to know most of your future co-workers,” the blonde man sighed, again, because Mumbo was acting like Grian was going on some sort of dangerous mission and not just moving to a different city because of a job.
“But your job isn’t normal! And neither are your co-workers! I can’t believe you’re so calm about working with a bunch of villains-”
“Mumbo, not on the phone!” Grian squawked, shooting up from where he was hunched over one of the many cardboard boxes.
His friend stayed silent for a bit, before answering in a slightly muffled voice, like he had moved his phone away from his face.“R-right, sorry G. Uhm. G-goodness you scared me with that shriek of yours... A-anyways, I’m just saying, I can’t help but be a tad bit worried considering your coworkers… side hustles.”
Grian decided the boxes could wait and stood up from where he was sitting on the ground. He slowly began pacing back and forth, careful to avoiding stumbling over the mess on the ground. Now that Mumbo had so obviously stated that they were criminals, Grian couldn’t help but worry about who might be listening in on their conversation. He knew he was being paranoid. There was no reason why anyone would be suspicious of him; after all, he hadn’t been involved in anything remotely criminal in years, so to everyone else he should just be some random civilian.
Still, the anxiety only grew, because although there was no reason for anyone else to be watching him right now, after years of inactivity, there also was no reason why Jimmy had contacted Grian of all people for this job.
“Grian? Are you alright?” Mumbo interrupted the silence.
Grian froze, remembering that he was still on the phone with his best friend. “Oh, uh, yeah. Just thinking…” Mumbo huffed instead of responding, clearly not believing him, but luckily he didn’t press on. Well, he probably already knew what was going on, he wasn’t a stranger to Grian’s paranoia after all.
The blonde took a deep breath before continuing to speak “Well anyways, their ‘side hustles’ are kind of the reason they contacted me in particular. They just need someone who’s willing to work in their bar and keep their mouth shut about anything fishy going on. From what they’ve told me I probably won’t even be involved in anything, they just need some civilian workers to keep up the façade you know.” Grian felt like he was reassuring himself more than Mumbo, but oh well. The other man was already anxious enough; Mumbo didn’t need to know how worried Grian really was about this whole ordeal. It would be fine. Grian was sure of it.
“I told them I might only be there temporarily, so if anything goes wrong I can always just bail. I’ll go there, figure out how this Joel character even managed to contact me and hopefully get a quiet job in some shady bar out of it,” Grian continued.
“Promise me you won’t get involved and you’ll leave the moment anything goes wrong?” Mumbo asked.
Grian grinned: “Well, I dunno Mumbo… Getting involved in some shenanigans sounds quite fun, I’ve been so bored recently-”
“I’m being serious!” Mumbo exclaimed, but the laugh Grian could hear from the him suggested otherwise.
“Okay okay, I promise I’ll be careful. I can’t guarantee I won’t get involved at all, but I’m not currently planning on actively participating, okay?”
Once again Mumbo stayed silent for a moment, before hesitantly answering: “Yeah, y-yeah, okay.”
Grian smiled. “I’ll be fine, I promise-”
“You said the same thing last time, that's precisely why I'm so concerned,” Mumbo interrupted, his tone slightly bitter.
Grian froze. He had a feeling he knew what event the moustached man was referencing.
“It’s not like that,” Grian tried, his voice cracking slightly. “Mumbo- Listen it’s fine. I-I’m just getting a new job, I’m not doing anything dangerous, there’s absolutely no way they are involved so it’s fine.”
Mumbo sighed. “I know it’s not like last time Grian, of course it isn’t, but you have to understand why I don’t trust you when you say everything’s fine. You said the same thing back then, even though it certainly wasn’t fine… I-I guess I’m just worried you’re lying about something again? And- and keeping things from me?”
Grian was about to answer, when he almost stumbled over one of the boxes on the ground. He winced when he heard something inside it fall over and carefully kneeled down so he could open it.
“Grian? Everything alright?” Mumbo asked in a worried tone.
“Yeah yeah- Just fell over one of those stupid boxes.” He grabbed the box cutter from beside him and carefully began to open it, trying his best not to drop the phone. “I- I’m sorry for worrying you Mumbo, I promise I really did tell you everything I know. Listen, if you’re really that worried, I can call you right after my first day at work tomorrow and I’ll tell you about everything that happened, yeah? Once I’m more settled in, you can come visit me here and meet my co-workers yourself.”
“Yeah I- I’d really appreciate that Grian.” The avian smiled at the relief in Mumbo’s voice.
“Anyways, how’s your newest project going?” Grian asked, trying to steer the conversation to a less serious topic now that he had reassured Mumbo a bit. He really hoped the promise of getting to know the bar Grian would supposedly be working in would be enough to ease Mumbos anxiety. Then again, Mumbo was almost always a bit anxious, especially when it came to anything illegal.
“Project? OH! Do you mean Grumbot? It’s going great actually; I finally fixed that silly issue in his coding! Turns out, all that happened was I spelled one of the variables wrong and the program didn’t know what to do… Can you believe that? I really wish it wasn’t so easy to make such small mistakes when you’re programming something-“
Grian chuckled at the excitement in Mumbo’s voice. He always loved listening to his friends ramble about things they were passionate about, even if he didn’t understand a single thing about computers. “What about the bigger version for the uh, ‘cave’?” Grian asked once Mumbo finished ranting about Grumbots coding, his tone a bit more serious than before.
“I haven’t quite managed to find the materials for it yet… But don’t worry, I’ll be visiting a nearby junkyard soon and I’ll hopefully be able to find all the bigger parts necessary for the construction. I’m more worried about the more uh… ‘Magical’ aspects of the project... It’s quite hard to get your hands on those- Actually! I’ve been meaning to ask you this, could you by any chance get me some of the parts I need for Grumbot? An old friend of mine recently opened up a shop in your city and I think he might just have the parts I need for the version I’m making for you.”
“Yeah of course, just send me their address and a list of whatever you need.” Grian answered as he opened up another box. Still no tools. Where the heck did he put those?
“Perfect! Well then, I think it’s time for me to go back to work, but it was nice talking to you! Call me if you need anything?” he questioned. Grian nodded, before realizing Mumbo couldn’t see him and blushing slightly from embaressment.
“Uh yeah of course! Same goes for you. Don’t blow anything up,” Grian joked.
“Oh trust me Grian, now that you’re finally far, far away from my workspace, my projects are finally safe from getting blown up by a pesky bird, who should really know better than pressing random buttons,” Mumbo teased back.
“Hey! That was one time,” Grian squawked, ignoring the fact that this had in fact happened more often than just once.
Mumbo chuckled quietly, making the feathers on Grian’s neck bristle, before saying: “Bye G! Don’t forget to call me after your first shift, got it?”
“Yeah don’t worry I won’t, bye!” He heard a small beep as Mumbo hung up. Grian’s gaze wandered over the absolute mess in his room. He frowned, promptly deciding to ignore it, and instead opened up his messaging app. Grian scrolled through his contacts until he found Jimmy’s Contact.
Toy: Hey G, you still up for the city tour?
Noisy reporter: Yeah of course, what time are we meeting up at?
Toy: My shift’s done at 4, so I’ll pick you up at your place afterwards at around 4:20?
Noisy reporter: Alright, see you later then!
Grian stared at the clock that read 3pm. Looks like his attempt to procrastinate was unsuccessful... He stood up and walked over to another box and opened it, deciding to continue trying to find his tools while he waited for Jimmy to arrive.