Work Text:
Unbelievable
This was unbelievable.
Zyanya stared at the new announcement on the pin up board, waiting as if the words on the paper would magically change to something else.
"Youve got to be kidding me! The crab? The fucking crab is the new manager?!"
Yet there it was. Bright as day in neat writing.
Store Manager for the Emerald City: Belle
Great! Real fucking awesome! Instead of being led by a stuck up nepo baby, Zyanya would be bossed around by a crab.
She groaned, resisting the urge to slam her head against the wall. Great, she sticks with the company for most of her high school years and now none of that matters. Retail sucked and no one ever came in to be nice, but it was a job. The only one that would hire her due to her "record", whatever that meant.
Zyanya wasn't sure whether this was a better outcome than-
"Zyanya."
Her.
Wonderful, she was finally here to see this.
Jade. Zyanya's coworker. She had been here for just a bit longer than Zyanya had. While Zyanya was trapped in high school, her final year in progress, Jade was in her first year of college. Something she held over Zyanya to prove she was "more responsible." Psh, as if. Jade was just as stuck up as Anurak and Veradite, who had thankfully been fired.
Jade had, regrettably, been allowed to continue working at the Emerald City, but apparently that hadn't been enough. No, she had also decided to submit an application to be the new manager, something that Zyanya had applied to a couple days before Jade had.
And now here they both stood, with a crab as their new manager.
Awesome.
"Jade. Did you see-"
"Yes. I...have a strong opinion on the matter, but if upper management thought it was best, I suppose I can't argue."
Despite her words sounding calm and composed, Jade's expression was anything but that. She looked irritated and like she wanted to pick a fight with someone. She was clearly just as against this as Zyanya.
This seemed to be one of the very scarce things they could agree on: neither one was happy to have Belle as their manager.
--
Which made her leaving out of nowhere that much sweeter.
Zyanya would have loved to say that Belle quit because the job was too difficult for the crab, but that hadn't been the reason.
The people that took over the branch for about two weeks had offered Belle money to turn the other way. And Belle had agreed, took the money, and left. It had been some gang that had taken over the Emerald City, claiming it for their leader of sorts and had essentially removed Zyanya from the schedule. Something she had viciously fought over. She needed this job, they couldn't just get rid of her! They couldn't!
Yet they had.
Zyanya wasn't sure what to do at that point, she couldn't go back to her dad at home and explain that she got fired from the only place that would have hired her, She wouldn't be able to stand how disappointed he would be. So she didn't. She let him believe she still had her job and kept going back to the shop, trying to fight for her job back.
It wasn't until Jade came back with Yokan and her friends that they had finally been able to get "Denial" out of the store.
And now, they were back at the original issue: There was no store manager.
Of course, Zyanya immediately offered to take the position, but so had Jade. And so, to avoid anymore fights, they had, reluctantly, been set up to run the store together.
It wasn't a bad choice per say, it was just...
To put it bluntly, if Jade ever did something to try and get her fired, Zyanya was taking her down with her. There were plenty of things that Jade had done that definitely went against company policy. Now, has Zyanya broken a couple rules herself? Maybe. But at the end of the day, as long as Jade didn't get her in trouble for it, neither would Zyanya.
--
If Zyanya was honest, things weren't so bad.
Sure, she and Jade had argued over certain things, but at the end of the day, it was...nice to have someone there.
She hadn't thought Jade would think the same, the other girl still glared at her and barely interacted with her.
So it came as a surprise when Jade had come up to her after work and well-
"Are you free tonight?"
Zyanya frowned in confusion. Jade never asked for her schedule outside of their job, she was always "too busy" to worry about what Zyanya did. It wasn't something that ever bothered Zyanya, after all, if Jade didn't want to interact with her outside of work, Zyanya wasn't about to argue against it.
"I... guess, yes? I don't have plans tonight."
Jade seemed to falter for a second before straightening her posture. "Let's go somewhere where I can damage everything but your face."
Zyanya blanched, thoughts swirling around in her brain frantically. Had she done something to piss Jade off? The two hadn't been butting heads as often but maybe Jade still held a grudge over something she had done before. Fuck, she was waiting for Zyanya to say something. Shit, what to do, what to do?
Jade's voice cut through her panic. "I might have phrased that incorrectly. I will pick you up at...7PM? I know your address."
.....well shit. Guess Zyanya was just...stuck with whatever plans Jade had for the two tonight.
--
"Okay, it's fine. This is fine. Worst case scenario, she kicks my ass. Which, yeah, embarrassing and painful. Best case? I....there is none!"
Zyanya ran her hands through her hair, fingers catching on a couple knots. Jade would be there any moment to pick her up for....whatever she had planned. Of course, Zyanya wasn't about to let Jade hurt her. She was a lot of things, but stupid was not one of them. She was perfectly capable of holding her ground if and when Jade tried anything.
Still, she hoped it wouldn't come to that. Zyanya had told her dad she was hanging out with a friend and that sort of lie would fall through if she came home bruised.
A knock at the door caught Zyanya's attention, rushing out of her room and lunging for the front door before her dad could open it. She leaned against the doorframe, trying to look as casual as possible. She glanced up at Jade-
"....oh."
Jade stood at the door, expression neutral as usual, hands in her pockets. She had....dressed up slightly. At least Zyanya thought she did, she mostly saw Jade in her work uniform. Tonight seemed to be different, she kept a very similar color scheme, green top and black pants, just in a more....fancy version. Her outfit seemed...not overly dressy, just not very fitting for a fight of any kind. It more resembled something that would be worn for a night out.
Jade cleared her throat, avoiding eye contact with Zyanya. "Well, are you ready to go?"
Zyanya felt her face burn as she looked down at herself. It wasn't that she was dressed badly, just uh...a lot more casually than Jade. She had essentially tossed on one of her t-shirts instead of her work shirt. No matter, she didn't want to leave Jade waiting outside or, god forbid, in the house.
"Uh, yes."
Jade looked....disappointed? What, did she expect Zyanya to be more excited for whatever this was? She had barely told her anything! Just to be ready at 7, so here she was! Ready at 7!
She sighed, following Jade to her car and settling into the passenger seat. Jade drummed her fingers against the steering wheel, almost like she was nervous about something. Maybe she had finally realized that Zyanya wasn't someone to take on so easily. Good, that would make things easier to clear up and maybe they could get food or something.
kind of like a date she supposed.
Zyanya groaned at the thought. It was stupid really, harboring a bit of growing affection for the other girl. Jade had made it clear that she had very little interest in Zyanya as a person, even with the two of them constantly interacting at work.
Yet, it would be a little nice. Zyanya was able to admit that Jade was beautiful. She had a slight arrogance to her, yes, but she was proud of herself and confident in what she could do. Her pride wasn't misplaced, she was just....a bit of a show off. Which, being fair, so was Zyanya.
The car ride was mostly silent, the only sound floating through the car being the radio murmuring in the background, the station set to some kind of typical pop station, almost like what they would play at the store.
Zyanya should probably not mention work. They were supposed to be doing something outside of their job. Plus, she was pretty sure whatever Jade was mad about was going to be about their job, so Zyanya wasn't too eager to open up the conversation.
It seemed like neither was Jade, as just a couple minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of some building Zyanya didn't recognize. It took her a bit to park, she seemed to glance over at Zyanya, almost like she expected her to say something about how long it had taken. Zyanya couldn't say much, she herself hadn't gotten her driver's license yet so who was she to judge? Parking was hard.
Jade awkwardly stopped Zyanya as she reached for the door of the building, her eyes refusing to meet hers. "This probably won't be what you expected. But I thought....we might like it? It seemed like a good idea, especially after everything that we have had to deal with."
Okay, now Zyanya was definitely lost.
She was expecting a fight. But apparently, Jade was thinking of something completely different. It's fine! Zyanya could definitely roll with this!
She shrugged, trying to seem casual. "I'm sure whatever you planned is fine. You have never asked to spend time with me out of work before so whatever this is, it's sure to be....something."
Jade nodded, pushing the door open for the two to walk in. The inside of this place seemed very casual, a receptionist desk right as they walked in and two doors on either side leading to more rooms. Jade had a short conversation with the receptionist, but Zyanya wasn't really paying attention to that, her thoughts swirling around brain. Jade wasn't going to punch her or anything, at least that's what Zyanya was assuming from her words earlier. Did she misunderstand something? What was this place then? Was this a coworker hang out? Did this make them friends? Was Jade just being nice?
A hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her thoughts, Jade leading her into one of the rooms. "-it has been a stressful time for both of us, with all the.....issues we went through at work." Jade seemed a little nervous, but that couldn't be right. Jade was always so smug and confident, what would she need to be nervous over?
"So I thought, why not find somewhere to let off some of the frustration out. I had to look for this place and I was hoping for an earlier reservation so we would not have to be out so late but this was their only open slot."
Okay. Enough of this dancing around.
"Yeah, so that's very nice of you Jade-" Her expression seemed to soften at Zyanya's words. "But uh, what exactly are we here for? What is this place?"
Jade stared at her for a second, almost as if she expected Zyanya to say she was joking. "....It's a rage room. To break things that aren't ours."
Oh.
That was.....kind of thoughtful? In a weird way.
"We've had a....rough time to say the least," continued Jade, handing her a baseball bat. "I thought this would be a better outlet for that."
Zyanya stared down at the bat in her hands, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Yes...it would be."
Standing in this room, full of glassware and flimsy furniture, remembering the absolute nightmare she had been forced to go through, well, it would make this something to remember.
Zyanya raised her bat high, swinging down at some stupid table, putting every single piece of anger she's held in for the last weeks, but one main thing came to mind.
"I HATED THAT STUPID IDIOTIC CRAB"
--
All in all, it had been a nice night.
The floor was cluttered with glass shards, broken pieces of wood that once resembled furniture, pieces of broken plastic strewn around, and in the middle of it all stood the two of them, breathing heavy, a large grin on Zyanya's face, with a very satisfied Jade standing next to her.
It was....nice to walk back to Jade's car, the silence that accompanied them feeling comfortable rather than the stiffness they had felt just an hour earlier. Zyanya couldn't help but wonder if they would be able to do this sort of thing again.
Maybe she'd get the guts to ask her out on a date.
Zyanya ignored that particular thought, choosing to focus on the drive back, eyes drifting back to Jade every so often. She seemed to also have fun. Zyanya should take her somewhere next time. As coworkers or friends or wherever they stood.
The car began rolling to a stop, her place being just ahead. Zyanya almost wished the ride back had taken longer.
The two of them sat in Jade's car, stopping in front of Zyanya's place. This had been....nice. Zyanya wouldn't admit it just yet, but she had enjoyed being out with Jade.
.....staying out a little longer wouldn't hurt.
Her dad wasn't expecting her home until late, she hadn't specified what time.
"Jade."
She turned to look at her at the mention of her name.
She always thought Jade had beautiful eyes, full of life and vibrant.
"Do you want to have dinner somewhere?"