Chapter Text
As soon as Intak drives up in the crappy delivery mobile the sounds of a party leaks through the streets. At the very least, it was his last delivery of the day. That didn’t mean he was excited to hunt down whoever actually ordered three pizzas. Whoever it is, they are a cheapskate. Or at least not a good host, because three pizzas was definitely an underestimation, he can tell by how far he had to park from the house itself.
Entering the house was what he would imagine a jungle’s atmosphere to be like. The volume levels were just as high, too; music and the sounds of hundreds of conversations infiltrated his ears. A stampede approaches him and quickly takes all of the boxes of pizza from his warmer bag, but none of them attempts to pay. “Thanks!” one of them shouts over the rest of the noise.
“Wait-” Intak is cut off by someone bumping into him, and by the time he looks ahead again, the stranger has been lost to the rest of the animals. Intak sighs tiredly before beginning to search around for someone to ask his question. “Ah, excuse me…” he attempts to approach a person sitting alone, but they just ignore him. Intak nods to himself and continues looking. “Do you know whose party this is?” he asks another person. The person quickly shakes their head. “Ok,” Intak replies. Determined to go home as quickly as possible, Intak interrogates several others, but not one answer is helpful. Intak makes his way to the second floor of the house, hoping the next group of people is a bit more knowledgeable.
“You look lost,” a voice appears from behind him. Intak whips his head around immediately. “What’s your costume? A sexy pizza delivery boy?”
Intak coughs, choking on his own bewilderment, “Uh, what?” After hearing that, things do make a lot more sense all of a sudden. There are definitely a lot of people in costumes around, but he hadn’t been paying attention to that up until now. Upon scanning the room a bit, this was most certainly a costume party.
Intak looks back at the stranger in front of him. He’s at least tipsy, Intak can tell that much by the glint in his eyes. Though under that haziness, there’s a gleam of something more that Intak can’t quite place. Intak’s eyes trail down to the man’s costume, eventually piecing together that he was dressed up as a cat when he sees the ears atop his head. His black hair matched the black cat ears well. Besides that, he didn’t bear much resemblance to a cat; his clothes were tightly fit, a black tank top, and simple black pants.
The cat-dressed man places a hand onto Intak’s shoulder, sliding down to the pizza warmer in Intak’s hand. Intak just stares at the glide of the man’s hand as it falls down. “You even have the pizza bag thing,” he snickers.
“Because this isn’t a costume,” Intak replies bluntly with an awkward smile. The man just laughs again. Intak continues, “I’m looking for the host so they can pay me.”
The stranger pushes Intak’s shoulder as he giggles, “You’re funny. I like you.” It’s at this point that Intak realizes the man wasn’t just tipsy; the man was absolutely hammered. “I’m Theo,” he informed.
“I’m Intak, I work for Pizza Hut,” Intak introduces, pointing at his black cap with the ‘Pizza Hut’ embroidered logo as evidence.
“So, are you lost, Intak from Pizza Hut?” Theo asks. Intak nods. Theo smirks at that and grabs onto Intak’s free hand, much to his surprise. Absently, Intak lets Theo lead the way. “How come I’ve never met you before?” he asks as he walks.
“I dunno… do you usually order Dominos?”
Theo hums, “I like Mr Pizza.”
“Hey, seriously, don’t you know? Nobody out-pizzas the Hut.” Theo chuckles at that, then stops in front of a random door. A few seconds later, he opens it to lead Intak ahead into the empty room. Theo reaches behind Intak and closes the door behind him, their faces becoming much too close as a result. Intak flinches a bit, and his ears start to feel hot all of a sudden.
“Nervous?” Theo questions. He could’ve backed away by now, but instead, his face is still much too close for comfort.
“What is there to be nervous about?” Intak asks dumbly.
Theo’s hand finds Intak’s again. “Why don’t you put this thing down?”
“I mean, I kind of need it for like…“ Intak watches Theo slip his hand in between the strap of the bag and Intak’s own hand, slipping it off, then hears the thud of it hitting the ground a few seconds later. “…delivering pizza,” Intak finishes.
“You’re so tense,” Theo says, intertwining his hand with Intak’s own. Intak swallows dryly, and now it's his palms that feel hot. All at once, he’s seemingly forgotten the reason he was even at this party to begin with. “You don’t drink?” Theo questions.
“I do, but I am driving,” Intak answers.
“Designated driver?” Theo assumes.
“No, pizza delivery,” Intak clarifies.
“Ah,” Theo cracks a smile and giggles. “No, seriously! Who are you here with? I wanna know more about you.”
“I don’t even know whose party this is,” Intak answers.
“Neither do I. We have something in common,” Theo continues to grin.
“Theo, you know I’m not joking, don’t you?” Theo tilts his head. Intak continues, “I really do work for Pizza Hut.”
“Wouldn’t a pizza delivery boy have the customer's name?” Theo asks.
Intak debates how or why, at this moment in time, he is supposed to prove that he’s truly a minimum wage worker. “There was no order name, I just got called in to this address,” Intak explains.
“Intak,” Theo suddenly announces. Intak raises his eyebrows, awaiting the finish of his sentence. “Are we gonna make out or what?”
“What?” Intak starts to become hyperaware of his current situation. The heat of Theo’s body becomes overwhelming in an instant.
“You know, you aren’t supposed to actually say ‘what’ when someone says ‘or what’,” Theo smirks.
“Theo, you’re drunk, and I’m sober,” Intak states. Theo seems a bit disappointed at that, his mischievous smile leaving his face. Feeling a bit guilty, Intak awkwardly adds, “I would have said yes if you weren’t drunk.” Theo smiles again at that.
There’s an abrasive knock on the door, and it's so aggressive the vibrations run through Intak’s back. Someone from the other side of the door yells, “Hey! Whoever’s in there, you gotta come out, party’s over! Someone called in a noise complaint!”
“Oh shit, I have to find my friends,” Theo says, before letting go of Intak’s hand. Theo takes his phone out of his pocket, presumably to call one of his friends.
“I can drive you home. We gotta get out of here,” Intak says. Theo nods, then quickly explains to his friend over the phone that he found a way home and to leave without him. Intak grabs his pizza bag and heads out the door with Theo.
There are so many people flooding the house, Intak wonders how much longer it would’ve taken Theo to get home if he hadn’t offered him a ride. Somehow, he had left the party with no money in hand.
Intak throws the pizza bag into the trunk of the delivery mobile, then opens Theo’s door for him. Theo inspects the car around him, “You really are a pizza delivery boy.”
“Yeah,” Intak agrees as he buckles Theo in. Intak sighs as soon as he is able to catch his breath, recollecting himself before he asks, “Where do you live?”
Theo guides the way to his apartment complex, which is thankfully nearby. It is the opposite direction of Intak’s workplace, so he would have to pinball around a bit, but he doesn’t care much about that. Happy to get Theo home safely, he drops him off and walks him up to his door. Saying goodbye feels strangely bittersweet. “Make sure to drink water,” is the last thing Intak tells him.
As soon as Intak’s back in the driver's seat, it hits him. All the transpiring events seem so far from now, like they never happened at all. Intak doesn’t drive off for a couple of minutes. Staring ahead into the darkness of the night through the windshield. Intak shakes it all off, starts the car, and drives back to Pizza Hut to pay out of pocket for those three pizzas. Having to close the building up, Intak has no idea what time it is when he finally reaches his own condo. Promptly upon arrival, Intak dozed off.