Chapter Text
"Employee! Did you do this?!"
Jack sighed, making his way over to the direction of his phone-headed boss' voice. "Do what?"
Steven pointed at the (now disrepaired) Breadbear arcade machine. "The whole joystick is gone! A kid couldn't have done this, Employee."
Jack shrugged. "You'd be surprised."
Steven glared at Jack for a moment, before Jack decided he should just give in. He sighed.
"The joystick was stuck, so I tried to pull it back into place, then it snapped off."
Steven crossed his arms, tapping his foot anxiously. "Employee, what am I gonna do with you?!" He sighed.
Jack blinked.
"How would I know?" He asked flatly.
Steven let out a frustrated groan, his irritation seeming to have increased.
"Don't start with me, Employee. Go ask Matt for a wrench so you can fix this mess. I sure hope you have enough faztokens, because I'm not going to be lending you any."
Jack watched in slight confusion as Steven exited the room. He knew Steven got angry easily, but most the time he could atleast pinpoint a cause.
In this case, he couldn't really figure out what he said to piss Steven off even more than he already was. He shrugged it off and walked to the prize corner.
"Hello, old sport."
Jack narrowed his eyes at Matt. "Don't call me that."
Matt cocked his head to the side. "Why? Isn't that your name?"
His name? Where the hell did Matt get that from? "What? No. Why would you think that?"
"That's what Dave always calls you."
Well, that's true. He did wonder sometimes if Dave knew his actual name or not. Did he know that his name was Jack but just decided to keep calling him old sport? Or did he genuinely have no idea? Anyways…
"That's just a nickname he uses. It's not my actual name."
Matt processed that, then squinted. "So then, what's your actual name?"
Jack thought for a second, he really didn't want this creepy motherfucker to know his name. "Uhm… Fritz."
Matt smiled wider, but somehow it still looked fake. "Fritz." He repeated.
Jack felt uncomfortable, this was starting to get awkward. "Right… Anyways—" He cleared his throat. "Can I get a wrench?"
"I don't know, do you have 150 faztokens?" Matt asked back.
Jack paused, looking off to the side awkwardly. "No."
"Well, there's your answer." Matt grinned.
Jack sighed. He'd have to find a way to farm those tokens. The easiest way he knew how to do that was serving cake in the suit, which he really didn't feel like doing, but he also didn't feel like dealing with Steven yelling at him again.
"Right. Okay, I guess I'll get to that then." Jack said flatly.
Before he could walk off, Matt spoke.
"You know, Fritz. You're not very approachable."
…Whatever that's supposed to mean.
Jack sighed, leaning against the saferoom door. He stared at the yellow bear suit. He hated wearing that thing. This was going to be a long day.
"Sportsy!" A familiar voice called.
Yup. A very, very long day.
"Hi dave." Jack greeted tiredly.
Dave walked up to him. "Ya look tired." He observed.
"You don't say." Jack replied. His shoulders were slumped, his hair slightly messy. His body language told Dave all he needed to know.
"Need help puttin' on da bear costume?" Dave offered.
Jack thought for a second, then shook his head. He didn't feel like dealing with all those toddlers just yet. "Just a few more minutes of peace."
Dave nodded.
"Phoney on your ass today?"
Jack huffed out a small laugh, then nodded.
"As always. I accidentally broke one of the machines. I think I said something to piss him off, because he yelled at me after."
Dave's eyes narrowed.
"Yelled at ya? I don' like that. Want me to superglue his cords together again?"
Well, that would be pretty funny, but maybe a bit overkill for this situation. "No, no. It's fine. I'm not that bothered by it, anyways."
That wasn't a complete lie. He wasn't bothered by being yelled at. That wasn't very uncommon behavior for Steven. What bothered him was he couldn't understand why he got so mad.
That and now Matt telling him he 'isn't approachable'? He had a lot to think about—but not right now. Not yet.
"Anyways…" He pushed himself off of the door, making his way over to the suit.
"Here… let me, uh…" Dave trailed off as he helped Jack into the suit, making sure every piece fit into place perfectly, adjusting every single springlock.
"There ya go. It should take a miracle for dat thing to come apart." Dave exclaimed proudly. Jack smiled, amused at how obviously overprotective Dave was of him.
"Thanks, Dave."
Dave grinned, he almost seemed a little giddy. "Anytime, old sport. Ya look great, by the way."
Jack laughed softly.
The remainder of Jack's time was spent serving cake in that sweaty bear suit. He had almost gotten all the tokens he needed— just 20 tokens behind before 6pm struck.
Well, he'd just have to do it tomorrow.
He was stopped by Steven on his way out.
"Employee, didn't I tell you to fix that machine today?"
Jack stared at him for a moment. Well, yeah, but he didn't have enough tokens for that wrench right now. "Yeah, you did. I'm going to do it tomorrow."
"Do it— do it tomorrow—?! Employee, when I told you to fix it, I wanted you to fix it today." Steven said sternly.
Jack put his hands in his pockets. He was thinking— maybe he should've given context before he said that.
"I know, but you didn't give me what I needed to fix it— I had to find that myself, Steven."
Steven snapped.
"Oh, so this is my fault?!"
What? Jack didn't say that. Why was Steven getting so mad again?
"I never said that, I was just telling you the truth." Jack said. His tone lacked any of the genuineness he was trying to convey.
Steven turned around sharply, taking a deep breath. His hands were in fists. "I wish I had the money to fire you."
With that, Steven walked off, leaving Jack confused again.
Steven was just his boss— Jack didn't care about what he thought of him, but he hated when he couldn't figure out the reason behind it, when he couldn't figure out what he did wrong.
Jack stared at the ceiling. It was hard to sleep, as usual, but this time was different.
He'd been having experiences like this all his life— but today really stuck out to him. Specifically, what Matt said.
"You know, Fritz. You're not very approachable."
Was that true? Is that why Steven kept snapping at him? Is that why cashiers at the grocery store always looked at him weird after he spoke? Is that why it was so hard to connect with other people?
If that was true, he'd have to do something about that. Life was already difficult. This just made things worse, more annoying. He had to fix this. Somehow.