Work Text:
“I said I want the present wrapped in the snowflake paper.”
Jax nearly rips the paper as he turns back to the stand-in customer with a strained smile. “I told you, we’re out of the snowflake wrapping paper. You said you were fine with the ornament one.”
“No, I said I wanted the snowflake paper!”
He represses a groan and says, “We. Are. Out.”
“Well don’t you have any more in the back?”
“We don’t have a back!” He cries. He sweeps his arm to the mall surrounding the kiosk where the gift-wrapping service is held.
“Then under the counter or whatever.”
Jax's eye and ear twitches as he uses everything in his power to not snap at the customer, metaphorical or literal. It can’t be that hard to snap a mannequin’s head off. As he’s determining if it’s even worth attempting, Pomni appears around the bend and quickly rushes over to the kiosk.
“Hi, sorry,” she ducked under the divider, being short enough to do so, and joined Jax’s side, peering over the counter. “I just checked and we are definitely out of snowflake paper. Is any other kind ok?”
“Oh, really?” The mannequin’s tone sounded a lot less antagonist. “Well, I guess the ornament one is fine.”
Jax sputters and gestures aggressively between Pomni and the mannequin. He said the exact same thing to them not even five minutes ago! Pomni quickly takes over and finishes wrapping the present. Once the mannequin leaves, she slumps against the counter with a groan.
“I had it,” Jax grunts, propping his head against his hand.
“Yeah, sorry.”
“Did you actually look for the wrapping paper?”
Pomni snorts. “No, of course not, we don’t have any.” She swats some of the paper dust off the counter. “I planned to do a quick lap around that plant just to say I did… but then I ended up helping Gangle with her task.”
“You at least got to avoid most of it.” Jax rolls his eyes.
The two stand there in silence, watching the NPCs go about their simulated ‘holiday shopping’. There wasn’t much to do except wait for the day to end or for another customer to show up.
“You know what would make this fun?” Pomni suddenly speaks up. Jax turns his head to glance at her – only to have a bright red ribbon shoved onto his face.
He sputters as he tries to swipe it off his face, but it sticks fast.
A mischievous grin is spread across Pomni’s face. one stretches across Jax’s face to match. He grabbed a bow from below the counter and moved to stick it to her. He managed to succeed by sticking it on her head.
They didn’t get high marks on their employee evaluation due to goofing off in the end. But they didn’t care.