Chapter Text
What would you even call a day like this? The rain tapping roughly on the window, fog rolling down near the roads, and the skies gray and gloomy; well for Tohru, it was absolutely perfect conditions to start her stream. Now, this doesn’t appear so to anyone else, but it was perfect for the teenage girl for two main reasons:
One: Her parents would be stuck at work for longer than expected, thus she would be unbothered for several hours.
And Two: that would mean her followers would be stuck inside with nothing but the same old boring stories being covered by influencers looking for clout. Thus they would try searching for a fun, spunky personality to distract them from the real world by playing an underground indie game.
Tohru was about 30 minutes into her stream when a car scrambled into her driveway, but she was too distracted to notice the mysterious figure stomping into her house.
“-Anyways so that’s why I’m not allowed on airplanes anymore!” She had wrapped up her story when her door flung open.
“TOHRU!”
“KYAAAAAA!!??”
Tohru flung into action, throwing the sudden intruder to the ground with a fairly swift punch. She was just about to (attempt to) curbstomp the guy when she recognized that pathetic, weak voice and face.
“...Moe, is that you?”
"Didn't realize you were so strong, Tohru, haha” Moe, her older cousin, nursing his injury, spoke weakly.
“I really am not, I think you’re just weak?”
“Oh.”
Tohru picked up her kitty headphones, and spoke to her live chat.
“Don’t worry chat, it’s not a home invader, just my cousin, I’m gonna take a quick break! Brb!!”
She switched the screen to a loading screen full of rainbows and stars with a chibi version of her in the center. (Which she commissioned from a REAL ARTIST)
She met Moe in the living room, who was sitting uncomfortably on the couch. Now that she really got a good look at him, he looked ruffled like he had just ran a marathon. He was red in the face and sweating profusely.
“Okay, so what’s going on, you look more uh- sweaty than usual.”
“It’s just-well- y’know it's stupid maybe I should just go.” His glasses fogged up as he tried to leave.
She tugged at his arm, “I did not just pause my stream for you to cause a commotion and interrupt. So you better tell me what is wrong right now or I will ensure everyone boycotts your shop.”
Moe was caught off-guard by his usually soft-spoken cousin’s remark. Defeated he gives a sigh.
“I think I’m in love”
“YOU’RE WHAT NOW?!” Tohru jumped up and down before stopping suddenly.
“Wait- this isn’t like last time you told me you were in love, right?”
Moe looked surprised, “Huh! What do you mean?”
“Last time you told me you had feelings for another human being, I had to save you from a night club full of weird people while you were being tossed around in your ridiculous costume.”
“I’ll have you know that a lot of people are attracted to the Dynamoe!”
Tohru held her face of disgust, but proceeded with her spiel.
“Okay, so how did we get here this time?”
“Alright, let me explain.” Tohru grabbed her snacks as her cousin began delving into what seemed like a long winded back story.
- - -
It started a few months ago, Moe had been manning his shop, helping young fans get into some fantastic stories, as well as introducing newer stories to veterans of the genre.
It was hours of geeking out when finally he had to close up. He was about ready to knock out for the day while catching up on his new comic releases. He was especially excited since the newest issue had the focus on the main antagonist, and he did always find himself rooting for the bad guys more often than not. He was heading up to his apartment when suddenly his stomach growled.
Moe had forgotten he skipped lunch due to a customer sending him on a fetch quest of sorts to find a very rare issue in his shop. As much as he would have liked to eat some ramen, he had eaten nothing but packaged ramen for several weeks now. He considered what else he could eat, but he also knew he hadn’t gone grocery shopping yet. Suddenly he remembered that Papa Louie’s shop was still open, although pizza wasn’t his favorite, he needed some sort of sustenance. He reluctantly put on his coat and walked across the street to put in an order.
To be completely honest he wasn’t really looking where he was going (he was on his phone), and suddenly he found himself crashing into something or someone full force. His whole life flashed before his eyes as he felt his body falling backwards (he really should’ve gotten out of the house more looking at it), but that’s when he felt it, an arm around his waist, firmly keeping him from falling.
“Woah! Are you okay man?”
Moe readjusted his glasses to a very curious view, a pigtailed girl spotting a purple shirt. Her eyes sparkled with ambition, and she had such a strong feeling to her aura. He found himself staring until he suddenly came back to reality.
- - -
“Is this what I think it is?!” Tohru squealed out.
Moe already knew what she was going to say and allowed her to fangirl.
“A MEETCUTE?! Oh my god oh my god!!”
“Will you settle down? I’m not even done telling the story.” Moe rolled his eyes.
“Sorry! Sorry! Please please continue!!” Tohru threw more popcorn into her mouth.
“Okay as I was saying-” Moe coughed out.
- - -
“Oh! Uhm- I’m Okay- I think?” Moe chuckled awkwardly.
He was trying to play it cool, I mean it was only a really pretty girl with her surprisingly strong grip around his waist staring directly at him with her dark brown eyes. To be truthful, he was not at all being cool, but eventually the girl released her grip and steadied him up. He wasn’t exactly trying to keep his balance since he was so distracted at the view in front of him.
The girl let out an awkward cough and spoke up again, “Sorry about bumping into you, I didn’t see you behind my boxes.”
Moe looked over, he had just realized that there were indeed boxes sprung all over the place. Suddenly he felt dread over realizing he had been the cause of the mess.
He sputtered out, “ I am so so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you drop your stuff, please allow me to help you carry it!”
Moe started to lean down when the girl put her arm out to stop him.
“No need, I got it.” and with one incredibly quick movement the boxes went from down on the ground, to stacked up neatly in her arms.
Moe was astonished, just the way the girl moved with ease and how those boxes looked like feathers held within her grasp. She moved past him, while he just stared awkwardly.
She seemed to have noticed him looking, and instead of calling him a creep, she called out to him instead.
“You know, I do need a hand getting these up to the building, if you could-”
He sprung into action, “Yes! I can help you carry them!!”
“Actually, I was thinking you could get the door for me?” She grinned sheepishly.
“Oh, right of course.” He fumbled behind her.
Moe didn’t exactly know where to go from here, he wasn’t really one for conversion, anytime he tried sparking up conversation, he ended up tripping over his words and delving into topics the other party wasn’t fond of. That resulted in him adapting a technique called: waiting for the other party to ask him questions instead! To cut time short, let’s just say that technique didn't work here, as the woman just walked ahead, focused to the max. Moe knew he would have to speak up so he tried to break the ice.
“So, those are quite the number of boxes you have there.”
She looked ahead, “Yeah, I guess they are.”
Silence again, he pushed his people skills further.
“Sooo-,” (he really had to stop saying so) “-is there any reason you’re taking all these boxes up so late in the evening?”
This seemed to finally pull the stranger from her daze, as she began speaking more.
“Actually, I just moved here from Sakura Bay.”
“Wow! That’s far!” He spouted awkwardly. (He was lowkey blowing this introduction)
“I guess? Anyways, I’m here to help my uncle out with his restaurant, turns out he’s low on staff, so I agreed to come work for him.”
He decided to try being funny, “Seems like your uncle is unprepared then, huh?”
She looked blankly at him, not a look of anger nor amusement, and very flatly said, “Eh, Uncle Louie knows what he’s doing, he just does it in his own way.”
Moe’s eyes bulged, “DO YOU MEAN PAPA LOUIE? THE PAPA LOUIE IS YOUR UNCLE?!”
She was caught off guard by the sudden outburst, “Sounds like someone's a fan, yeah he’s my uncle, plus I just wanted to help my little brother out a bit. He’s been working by himself for a long time, it's the least I can do.”
The conversion kept casual until they finally made it in front of her door. She handed the boxes over to Moe, who struggled for the few seconds they were in his arms as the brunette unlocked the door. She took her boxes back, and looked back at Moe.
“Well, this has been a… nice talk, but I should get to unpacking a bit. It was nice meeting you, uh?”
“Moe! Yes, hi, My name is Moe!” He fiddled with the cuffs of his sleeves.
She smiled, “Nice to meet you, Moe. Maybe we’ll run into each other again.” Right before she closed the door, he shouted a bit too loudly,
“Ah! I never caught your name!”
She looked surprised, but smiled brightly, “I guess I didn’t introduce myself, I’m Joy.”
And then the door closed, and the bright smile was gone from his sight.
- - -
“WAIT?!” Tohru interrupted, “ YOU LIKE THE DELIVERY GIRL?!”
“Shush! Not so loud, your neighbors will hear you!” Moe looked down, flushed once again.
“So you like this girl because she talked to you? That’s kinda sad.”
“I didn’t finish telling you my tale!”
Tohru sighed and got comfortable again, hopefully her live chat was still hanging around with the music she left on.
- - -
Moe found himself going to the pizza shop more often, not for the food, but because he was curious about this new fresh face in Tastyville. He went into the pizza shop during his break, which was surprisingly empty, except for two employees. He knew Roy, as he would come into his shop frequently, but what caught his attention was the cashier, chewing on gum and doodling on her little notepad in front of her. He gulped and went forward to place an order,
The cashier looked up, and settled into a customer service position, ready to take his order, “Oh hey! It’s you, Moe right?” She smiled brightly.
She remembered my name!! Moe thought excitedly, “Yup! That’s me! Moe! That is- my name.”
YOU’RE BLOWING THIS! His mind screamed at him.
“Well, what can I get for you then?”
He just went with a plain pepperoni, since he had come in with no actual plan.
She clipped the ticket onto the order station and Roy, who was also there, began to work on the incredibly basic order.
Moe stood there awkwardly, as he waited for his pizza to be ready, he was really intending on making conversion with Joy, but it felt like none of the conversations he practiced in his head were coming out (All those hours spent in front of the mirror were for nothing)
Joy seemed to somehow know he wanted to make conversation, so she perked up.
“Roy tells me you own the Comic store across the street?”
He looked up, trying to respond as cleanly as possible, “Oh yeah! I have all sorts of comics there! Like graphic novels, manga, action stuff, superhero stuff, and uh other things too.” He would’ve gone into more detail but he stopped himself at the risk of making Joy think he was a huge loser.
Instead of the usual snickering at his hobbies, or looks of disgust, he was met with genuine interest.
“Woah really? I’ve been meaning to pick up some vigilante stories recently, you must have plenty then?”
His eyes basically shined with excitement, “BOY DO I?!”
He clutched at his mouth, “Sorry! Didn’t mean to shout, I just don’t get asked that alot!”
She chuckled, making Moe feel fluttery at the thought of actually making a girl laugh without mockery.
“My shifts’s over in a few minutes, maybe you could show me around the place?”
“YES! I mean- yes! I would love to show my collection.”
A disgruntled Roy came out of the kitchen, most likely due to the announcement that Joy was leaving him to man the store. He handed the pizza over to Moe, and he gave no complaints. Roy gave Joy a bewildered look before turning back into the Kitchen.
The rest of the evening was spent with Moe excitedly pointing out all the possible super hero stories to a genuinely invested Joy. He was just so excited to be able to talk for hours on end without the other person looking like they wanted him to shut up. It also made him happy to be able to talk freely with someone who wasn’t just a customer.
The night sky filled the crevices of the outside, and Roy appeared to collect his very distracted sister.
“Joy, we gotta go. There’s a lot of junk on the floors and you know how Uncle Louie gets.”
“Right, I’m coming! Guess I should be going then huh? Thanks for letting me come by."
Moe smiled and waved to Joy as she stepped outside. Was this what it was like to have a friend?
No, he was getting ahead of himself, they've only known each other for a day.
What followed was the start of a routine. Moe would come by the Pizza Shop to make small talk with Joy and sometimes she would come visit him at his store. He found himself waiting for her arrival and greeting her excitedly as she stepped inside.
The most recent of these events was earlier in the day, he was atop of a very high ladder rearranging the new arrivals of the week when the bell rang. He peeked over and saw Joy walk in, smiling once she saw him.
She was making her way over to him when he had lost his balance (probably because he forgot what he was doing and was looking directly at Joy.)
He was hit with the sensation of deja vu as he waited to plummet to the floor. The wind flew past his face and all he could do was shut his eyes waiting for the impact of the cold hard ground. But the collision never came. He was instead met with the soft, reassuring grip of a warm wall. He peeked an eye open to be met with Joy who caught him bridal style, with one leg up behind her. He looked in amazement as she had caught the books on her foot, very gracefully balancing them, all with such ease you only find from yoga instructors or monks.
She looked down at him concerned, “Moe! Are you alright?!”
He was once again pulled from his gaze, “Yeah! Thanks for catching me! I didn’t realize you were so strong.” He felt his face grow only a bit warm.
She took the complement gracefully and she put Moe down gently on the ground and handed him the books.
“You gotta be more careful, I wouldn’t know what I would do if you were seriously hurt.”
“You wouldn’t?”
“Of course not, I love hearing your rambles, Silly. It’s the highlight of my day.”
Moe stood there, for who knows how long, why had he suddenly gone quiet? She waved as she left and all Moe could do was stare. Why had he suddenly felt colder? Why had he missed the feeling of Joy's reassuring embrace? Why all of the sudden had the world felt brighter when he saw her smile, without subtext of mockery. Why did he want to feel her arms around him again, reassuring him that life was worth living. Why did he just want to be by her side as an equal?
Then it hit him, and that feeling of a trainwreck went off within his body. His face burned up as hot as the fires of hell, and his heart began to escape his body. He was in full panic mode now, so all he could do was kick all his customers out, close up early, and drive in the pouring rain over to Tohru’s house.
- - -
Moe looked up at tohru who was deeply enamored with his tale of pity.
“You have to ask her out, Moe! She definitely sounds like she’s into you!” She jumped up quickly.
He shook his head precariously, “There’s no way someone as encapsulating as Joy could ever like someone like me! She’s so… incredible, and I’m just me.”
Tohru was having none of it, she slammed her hands down on the table, and looked up at him.
“Then I’ll just have to help you! Love Master Tohru is in the building!”
“Tohru, you’ve never been in a relationship, how could you help me?”
She leaped up and pulled out her collection of romance manga.
“Lucky for you I’ve played hundreds of dating sims and read every romance story ever, I’m pretty much cupid, I know how to push a romance!”
Moe looked slightly unconvinced, but who else was he supposed to ask? He let out a sigh and he went to wait for Tohru in his car.
Tohru ran upstairs to return to her live chat, which was still mostly there.
“So sorry Chat, but I have to end the stream early today! My cousin is infatuated with a service worker, so I gotta help him with the side quest. Love y'all! Bye!!”
Her monitor went dark, she texted her parents to let them know she was going over to Moe’s, and finally she ran over to his strangely parked car.
Operation: get her loser cousin a love life, was officially a-go!