Chapter Text
"Okay, I'll take. A medium 13 with alfredo sauce in place of the tomato sauce, pepperoni and sausage on half, mushrooms on the other half, but don't cut them too thin, and a large coke with no ice, and on the side... a small 12 from the kids meal, light on the sauce, extre pepperoni, two sprites..." as the customer rambled on, Jeff stopped trying to pay full attention, instead focusing on anything but the gargantuan amount of work that was in front of him.
An order for one, huh? More like a village. Or perhaps an overfed king. 1.50 wouldn't cut it here.
He focused on the sound of beeping arcade machines, the smell of pizza, anything but the task at hand. And eventually he was snapped out of his trance by a rude "Hello? I'm talking to you!" From the ornery customer.
"Yes sir, so that's a medium with half pepperoni 'n sausage, half mushroom, a coke, and uhh..." He trailed off, he hadn't been listening. He was quickly reminded "A small 12 from the kids menu." They snapped. "That's a pepperoni pizza." He said tiredly, writing it down. This lady was lucky he didn't have any other customers today. He stared distantly as he mentally calculated the price. "$5.75" He finally responded, "Seriously!?" The man interjected, "Yeah." Jeff responded, staring blankly into the man's eyes. "Fine." He slammed 6 dollars on the counter and stormed off. *"Keep the change, I guess."* Jeff thought, tucking the money into the register and hobbling back into the kitchen.
As he entered, he was careful to avoid the elaborately placed death trap his nephew had constructed. Lots of fun toy cars to step and slip on and a pile of LEGOs to land face-first into after the fact, how thoughtful. As he happened past the tot, who sat involved in some complex game between his raggedy dolls, he ruffled his curly hair with a broad hand. "Hey bud." He greeted. "Mmf." Ketchup grunted in response, not looking up.
He slipped past his carefully constructed ring of trinkets to get to the food preparation area and snagged a piece of dough off of the large conglomerate he had prepared this morning. He dusted the counter with flour and kneaded haphazardly, working it into a wonky circle before flattening it heavily in the middle, leaving a heavy rim of thick dough on the edge.
While he worked, he just barely took notice of the sound of toys going silent. It was only when he felt little eyes upon him that he looked up. Kets was standing at his leg staring up at the counter with interest. "Hey kid. You sure do like watching people, huh." Jeff said, a soft, tired grumble in his voice. Kets nodded, and fingerspelled out "P-I-Z-Z-A"
Jeff smiled lightly "You can also say pizza like this." He held two fingers out and traced a z with them. "There's other ways, but I like that one." He explained, Ketchup nodded. He returned to work, silently working at the dough. Adding white sauce, the cheese, etc. Eventually he felt a tug on the hem of his pants and looked down, his gaze vague as he only half focused. Kets just stared in silence up at him, prompting him to actually speak. "What's up?"
Ketchup made a grabbing motion, the sign for "want".
"What do you want?" Jeff knelt down, his expression unchanging and his tone flat. The consistency felt comforting to Kets, oddly. "I help?" Ketchup said softly. Jeff paused, considering, "You wanna help Bubs up here?" He asked, and Ketchup nodded with great enthusiasm, a strand of curly hair falling into his face from the force. Jeff reached down, smoothed the hair back, and lifted the tot up onto his hip with two flour-covered hands, leaving two white handprints on the waist of the kid's creamsicle colored shirt. He shifted him to a one armed hold so he rested on his side and resumed tossing cheese over the unfinished pizza. "I help." Ketchup did grabby hands. "No, this is a hard order, you're too little for that."
Ketchup threw his hands down and whimpered, sticking his lip out, trying to look his best like he was about to cry. Jeff sighed, considering what to do. "There's a smaller part of the order. If you pull up the step-stool I'll let you do it, Kets." He relented weakly. Ketchup wiggled and squirmed until he was dropped, landing on his feet and running for the wood step ladder, drawing it up against the counter and eagerly holding his hands out for dough.
Jeff, instead, reached over for a bottle and squirted a blob of hand sanitizer in Ketchup's hands and grabbed his hands, manually coaxing him to rub it into his palms. Eventually, Ketchup got the idea and rubbed his hands together until they were no longer wet. Jeff gave an approving nod and tore a tiny ball of dough off the lump on the counter and put it in Ketchup's little mits. "Just make it into a little flat circle, okay?" He explained simply, getting back to work on the large, detailed pizza.
Ketchup curled his lip in concentration, clumsily pressing his palms against the dough, mimicking the motion he saw Jeff do with the large one. Eventually, it was worked into an awkward, dimpled oval with jagged undefined crust. Ketchup tapped Jeff's shoulder to show him he's done. Jeff looked over, and in a flat tone, he spoke, "Wow, nice job." He congratulated, rubbing Ketchup's back. "Do you wanna add the sauce or should I." Jeff asked with a vague, blank stare, Kets pointed to himself. Jeff slid the jar of tomato sauce over and stuck a spoon into it.
Ketchup grabbed the spoon, sauce dripping off of it onto his hands and arms, he sloppily rubbed the spoon onto the dough, leaving uneven, thin streaks of tomato. Jeff, though mostly occupied with his own work, did take notice, and couldn't help the light smile that pulled at his scowling lips. "Nice work, Kets." He remarked, earning a beaming, toothy grin from the boy's chubby little face, before it once more twisted in focus as he prepared his masterpiece.
Jeff finished the toppings on his pizza and pulled it onto a pan before shoving it into the oven, that which smelled of burnt crumbs and cheese. Ketchup grabbed the jar of tomato sauce and got down off of his stepstool. "Bubba, all done--" his little hands, too small to wrap around the jar, slipped from the jostling of getting off the stool, and shattered on the ground in an impact of broken glass and red splatter.
Ketchup felt his body tense up, he bit his lip, he clenched his tiny fists close to his body as he tried to assess the disaster. Jeff, hearing the sound, looked up and stared blankly down at the mess, trying to process it, before he realized he was looking at broken glass. He then reacted, snatching Ketchup up by the waist quickly, haphazardly handling the child, just enough to get him away from the sharp glittering shards. Ketchup screamed and covered his face quickly.
Jeff fumbled with him, trying to hold him in a normal manner before settling on holding him outstretched with two hands. Ketchup was scrunched into a tense ball, holding his mits over his face, squeezing his eyes shut tight, trembles running through him. "Did ya drop it?" Jeff questioned, "I'm sorry..." Kets whimpered. Jeff sat him on the counter, and hands on hips, looked at the mess through his one good eye. "Damn." He whispered. Ketchup curled his fingers into his tight coils of hair and tugged nervously "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry..."
Jeff finally looked up, "Huh? Nah, it's fine. I don't want you around glass. You stay up there, okay?" He said, oblivious to the panic coursing through the child. He moved over to the closet and got a broom and scooped the glass up into a dustpan. Ketchup whimpered, chewing his knuckles, tugging his hair. He rationalized that this would make Jeff stop being nice, he feared the end of his affection and company. Tears gathered in his eyes.
Just as he was about to dump the glass into the trashcan, he looked up and saw the tears. It dawned on him.
Jeff didn't know quite how to respond, but dumped the glass and turned toward Kets. "... You scared?" He asked gruffly. Ketchup looked up, teeth against his knuckles, and didn't answer. The look in his tear-glossed eyes was enough. "I'm not upset. It's just a jar, little man." Jeff tried to explain. He wasn't met with a response, and decided to go over. He lifted Kets up onto his hip and pat his back. He didn't say anything, but Ketchup buried his head into Jeff's side and sobbed.
He sighed and pulled up a metal chair from the corner. He sat down, moving Ketchup so he was curled in his lap. They sat in dead silence, the only sound shared between them were soft breaths, hiccups and sobs from Kets, and the occasional sigh from Jeff.
He didn't know how to handle this, he'd never seen a kid act like this. He knew something happened to Ketchup, no child with that name had dedicated parents, and the mere fact that the child was in Jeff's custody implied something terrible happened. But what to do?
Hesitantly, he moved his hand to the small of Ketchup's back and rested it there. "I love ya, bud, you aren't in trouble, alright?" He tried to comfort, but came off sounding more like he was explaining. "Love me..?" Ketchup asked, looking up tearfully. Jeff nodded in response and lifted his hand from Ketchup's back and brung it to his face to wipe his tears with a thumb.
Ketchup settled in, finally beginning to calm down. Jeff struggled to keep his eyes open as he sat for longer and longer. Eventually, in his half awake haze, he noticed Ketchup had stopped crying.
"You alright?" He asked, groggy. Ketchup nodded. "Alright. How about you sit down and I'll get the mop," Jeff tried to get up and set the baby down, but Ketchup's tiny hands possessed great strength in that moment, clinging to handfuls of Jeff's apron. "B-but... 'effy..." He pleaded. Jeff crumbled, sighing with resignment and scrubbing a tired hand over his gray face. "Okay." He relented, letting Ketchup cling onto him, holding a loose arm around him as he head to the closet.
He mopped the spill, and despite his barely adequate hold on the kid, he remained there on his side. He clung there like a little opossum, and eventually, his hiccups fully subsided. After Jeff finished cleaning, he walked over to the toy pile and snatched up Ketchup's favorite plushie-- some raggedy purple bunny with a red bow he found while cleaning out the old business's stuff. Probably an Easter thing.
"Do you want Sunny?" He asked monotonously, Kets excitedly fingerspelled "B-O-N-N-Y"
Jeff adjusted his hold so Ketchup could free a hand for the toy and placed it in his arms. "Sure, Bunny, whatever it's name is." He said, placing Ketchup down on his feet and moving over to the oven to remove the large pie, putting it out on the counter to cool.
"You wanna finish makin' your pizza or should I?" Jeff asked, glancing over. "I do it!" Ketchup excitedly flapped his free hand. Jeff felt a bit better seeing the kid calm after earlier, and a brief thought flashed across his mind: *"What scared the little man so bad? Was it the noise?"*
He shook it off and let Ketchup get back onto the stool, he passed the shredded cheese and pepperoni over. Ketchup switched his bunny over to one arm and began placing wayyyy too many pepperonis and too much cheese onto the dough, especially for the size. Jeff did not correct it, it was... endearing. He didn't feel this usually, when this child had come into his care he accepted him out of necessity, but the more he came to know Kets...
"All done." A little voice interrupted him, "All done? Alright." He reached over and pulled the ugly little pizza onto the tray the other pie had been on previously and put it in the oven.
After the fact, he just stood there next to Ketchup. Silence. Nothing. Just standing. And yet it was good. They looked at eachother occasionally, but nothing was said. Ketchup eventually went to trying to replicate Jeff. He hunched so his head was hung low, he put on a comically sleepy expression and let his arms go limp.
Jeff eventually stopped his distant staring and looked down, he suppressed a chuckle. "Hey, not nice." He flicked Ketchup lightly in the forehead, making Ketchup squeal-giggle. "You're a mean kid." He pointed a finger at Ketchup's stout nose. "Mhm!" Ketchup nodded, a smile splitting his chubby face.
"So you admit it?" He shook his head "Ya!" Ketchup nodded vigorously once more. "Wow, I raised you better than that." Jeff responded, looking back at the oven to watch for the food to finish.
Once it was finished, he pulled it out and sliced it into fourths, he sliced the large pie-- which had gone slightly cold, into eighths. "Alright buddy, I'll be back." He put the pies onto a tray and carried them out.
"What took you so long?" The male customer said with a glower, "Busy." Jeff said blankly. The customer looked down. "What the hell happened, this looks like a toddler made it!" They erupted. "Yeah." Jeff said, staring blankly forward, "Don't play with me, I'll be informing your manager!" They took their food and stormed off to a far table. "Alright." Jeff tried not to smile in amusement at their threat
He turned back into the kitchen, but bumped into Ketchup who had been in the doorway. He made a sign with two fingers like pulling something away from his chest, an easy sign, "like," probably a question right now.
Jeff looked back at the irate customer, then at Ketchup and smiled "They loved it. You outdid yourself, little guy." He ruffled his curly hair.
"Proud of you."