Chapter Text
"Dude!" Someone calls. Hat Kid flinches. She was just about to fetch something inside her fridge, and she looks around to find Timmy, who was hiding inside a trashcan (gross). Hat Kid lends a hand so Timmy can get out, he shakes the dust and pats his hair to make sure it is aligned.
"Wait, you told me another guy called you dude. He totally ganked it from me."
She giggles and tells him it is ok, the guy started calling her 'dudette' instead.
"Aw, fuck", that is a swear word that comes from another planet, "he's smart too. Anyways, good to see you, I'm here to ask for a favour."
The chapter title!
Hat Kid sighs. One could assume she's getting used to people having second intentions; no one ever goes see her just for the sake of seeing her. Except for Bow.
She seems fine with it!
"Sooo... I doublescheduled something." He scratches his neck. "You know that land Mustache Girl used for her final judgment thing? There's a lot of dark magic resi... redi... residues there and. I'm the Dark Magic Lord." He smirks. How corny.
The girl replies with a very mature 'ok, Timmy Tough Knuckles' and gets a very mature punch in the shoulder in return.
"Yeh. So. I need to manage that wasteland, but I also remembered Snatcher has some sort of prisoner on the Horizon. He's contractually obi- obligated to release him, but he hasn't. And for a while now."
Hat Kid furrows her eyebrows. That is, paradoxically, totally Snatcher behavior and totally not Snatcher behavior.
"I know right! It's hella weird, the guy is practically bound to his contracts. The Horizon falls on the Dark Magic area and, again. Dark Magic Lord." Smirks once more, but now he shrugs, too. Oh my cod.
"I sheduled to do both things on the same day, and I can't really push one of them to tomorrow, because both are of urg- urgent importance. So I need you to help me."
Hat Kid hastily volunteers for the task involving Snatcher. BFF time!
"Sure, Hatty Time, I'll tell you what to do in a sec... Hang on..."
After searching for it in his back (like a cartoon character), Timmy throws something at the girl. She catches it, and is quick to analyse: A red, plastic cup with a glowing cyan string that clip through the ground. It is connected to Timmy's own cup he's holding, smiling in pride.
"Sick, right? I call it Cupphone, made it with Thor. You can make some pretty rad stuff combining my magic and his mechanics."...Don't think that's mechanics.
They both stand awkwardly for a brief interval. Upon meeting with the girl's gaze, eyes blue and curious, the boy's cheeks slightly redden.
However, it i due to a completely different feeling.
"...Could you... Not tell your boss about this?" His voice is now quiet and he avoids eye contact.
Clenching her fist beside her leg, Hat Kid bites her lip.
"Tim's gonna be real mad at me. And I don't want him to think that I'm falling behind on my work or anything. Because I'm not. I'm not!"
The girl relaxes her fist. She gets the feeling. It's fun at first to play jobs, but at some point it gets exhausting; she doesn't even know why she's back at that planet!
She had fixed the rift on Calcite 03T, was heading home, Mafia Goon knocked on her spaceship's door and we know the rest of this story. As soon as she arrived home, she received a notice from her boss saying that she had work to do... on the same planet she just visited without even meaning to.
Going home felt like a brief vacation from work. Which it was, to some extent.
"Okay" is all she says.