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What a long day it had been.
From all the mysterious incidents that had been taking place ever since they started working, ranging from onions falling on one’s head to the whole diner being flooded with (delicious) popcorn and getting bombed with negative reviews— to finally finding the cause of all their issues, befriending a pair of squirrels and turning everything back around!
It was tough work, truly. But they had managed to carry out everything just about well enough, and Cater would say he was satisfied with the execution.
By the end of their second day of working at the diner, they had managed to clear up the misunderstood conceptions and rumors going round on Magicam that had been spread from their earlier interaction with the squirrels, and also gain more attraction simultaneously by partnering up with the mischievous yet somehow extremely creative squirrels.
Dealing with all of this had, expectedly, been exhausting for all four of them. They were after all dealing with the management of a whole diner all by themselves. But with their combined efforts and one making up for the parts that another might lack in, they were able to operate business smoothly– and the business booming was just the cherry on top.
About half an hour had passed since closing time. They were almost finished with cleaning the diner up. Having decided to take a small break, Cater decided it was the perfect time to brainstorm some popcorn flavors for the new dish he wanted to add to the menu.
The idea was for the squirrels to have some involvement in the presentation of the dish (the ‘how’, he would think about later), given how much more it would add to the whole theme of the place. It would be a lot of fun as well, both for the customers and the squirrels.
When attempting to choose a flavor through voting didn’t work out, they ended up making the squirrels taste-test for them which.. also didn’t go that well. They seemed to have some kind of beef with every flavor presented to them, each creative and unique in its own way, yet still appearing to be lacking.
With that, the squirrels, having gotten tired of popcorn, just began scooping it out and throwing it about. They almost ran away too– or so everyone had initially presumed, only for them to return with acorns in hand.
It had taken Cater a hot second to understand what that could insinuate, until realization clicked. The squirrels wanted them to make acorn flavored popcorn, which was.. interesting flavor choice, truly. The squirrels were rather enthusiastic.
Subsequently, that’s exactly what they ended up trying. After confirming that acorns were edible, they worked out a recipe– and surprisingly enough, it turned out to be absolutely delicious.
With the recipe having been worked out, all that was left was the part where Cater had to conjure up a way for the squirrels to take part in the serving of this dish somehow. Since the acorn flavor did look much like the regular popcorn, the presentation had to make up for it somehow..
After some more discussion, Cater had found his solution. The squirrels scooping out the popcorn had given him a brilliant idea for how the presentation of this popcorn could be carried out.
Once he presented the same to the others, they all came to the unanimous decision that it was just perfect, and even the little squirrels seemed to be having good fun too– and hence, their brainstorming session had come to a well-rounded conclusion.
“Well, now that we’ve discussed as much,” Azul spoke up, pushing his glasses up, “We should round up with cleaning. It’s getting late, and I still have yet to check up on the lounge’s revenues for the day.”
“Oh dear, I hadn’t even noticed the time!” Lilia exclaimed with a chuckle, “I suppose it’s only natural when you’re having a lot of fun. Truly, this experience has come with many wonderful memories, fufu. But I agree, we should wrap up, I too have some duties to take care of back at Diasomnia.”
“Aww, TYSM for all your help you guys!” Cater thanked, “If you guys like, you can totes go ahead. I’ll take care of everything from here, there isn’t much left to do anyway.”
“Cater-san, we couldn’t possibly,” Azul shook his head, “Even if there isn’t much to do..”
“Oh relax!” Cater said, sending them a wink, “With Cay-kun’s amazing rollerskates, I’ll be done in no time at all. So leave it to me~”
“Ohoho, our acting-manager is truly generous,” Lilia teased, “I shall take you up on that offer then, seeing as it would be rather rude of me to refuse.”
“If Lilia-san is accepting, then I suppose I should too..” Azul said curtly, letting out a light sigh, “If you need anything, please do not hesitate to call.”
However, just as Azul and Lilia were about to exit, Azul paused in his steps. He glanced back at Idia, who was still seated down, looking through his phone. Azul raised a brow.
“Idia, are you not accompanying us?”
“Hm?” Idia’s head snapped up at the call of his name, “Oh, nah. I’ll stay back and help Cater-shi, or whatever.”
Azul’s eyes widened slightly. Idia? Staying back? To help someone? Help Cater of all people? The one he complained about always being super extroverted and unbearable?
“Did you get possessed amidst all this trouble?”
“What makes you think that?!”
Cater had also seemed a bit surprised by the initial statement made by Idia, but then chuckled, making his way over to the fiery-blue haired male. He lightly pinched Idia’s cheeks and tugged on them playfully.
“Idia-kun’s so reliable, staying back to help me out!”
Idia simply deadpanned in response.
“Looks like there’s no need to worry then,” Lilia commented, “Cater will have some company after all.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure,” Azul said with a small smirk, “Cater-san, are you sure you’ll be fine with Idia? I trust your capabilities, but he can be..”
“Do you have something to say, Azul-shi..?” Idia asked coldly, annoyed.
Azul smirked, “Oh, nothing at all, it just surprises me that you of all people would ever be willing to lend a helping hand like this.. Not too long ago, you had just been complaining about wanting to head back home early, no? Can you blame me for finding this rather.. suspicious?”
“Okay, okay, break it up,” Cater smoothly interrupted, “Don’t worry, Azul-kun, I’ll make sure Idia-kun helps me out one way or another. He’s not allowed to be a slacker under my watch, hehe.”
“You’re one to talk..” Idia whispered under his breath, only for Cater to pinch his cheek harder, “Eep–!”
“It’s getting late, you two should head off then,” Cater said, “Like I said, we’ll be just fine~”
“If you say so, Cater-san..”
“Good luck to both of you, fufufu..”
With that, Azul and Lilia finally left the scene, as Cater let out a small sigh of relief.
“Finally.” He commented, allowing himself to deflate as he simply flopped onto Idia’s lap, resting his head against the other’s shoulder. Idia followed this action by wrapping his arms around Cater’s waist.
“Tired?”
“Doesn’t even begin to explain it..” Cater said, “Customer service smiles come so easily to me, but they aren’t any less exhausting…”
“This is why the smartest move is to work in the background, Cater-shi. SMH.”
“Uh-huh, and let’s just pretend that whole scene with that one demanding customer didn’t happen, and that Idia-kun didn’t totally get roasted~”
“The menu clearly says the fries are supposed to be fluffy, not crispy!”
“Yet you couldn’t muster up the courage to say it to their face,” Cater retorted, poking Idia’s cheek with his finger lazily, “But I don’t blame you TBH, I probs wouldn’t be able to either. Butttt, I do know someone who would~ and I think we should totes ring him up for a lesson on it, hehehe.”
“IKWYM when you say that, and YK he’s probably napping RN right?”
“FS, but,, it’s clearly an urgent situation, plus he’s always busy practicing in the morning so that’s a no-go.”
“Sure, but JFYI, if he shows up here just to drop-kick you, don’t call me for help.”
“Have I ever told you you’re the best BF ever, Idia-kun?”
“Never too late to say it—”
“Good, I wasn’t planning to.”
“...”
Cater grabbed his phone and opened up the messenger app, pulling up the group chat the three of them used to text one another.
◤ ◥
You:
@blanket stealer
@blanket stealer
@blanket stealer
leona-kun
leona
You:
leeeeeeeeeoooooooonaaaaaaaaaaa
leona leona leona
leonaaaaaaaaaaaa
@blanket stealer
◣ ◢
“He’s clearly not gonna respond.” Idia commented dryly, peering over Cater’s shoulder at the latter’s screen.
Cater grinned, “Watch and learn.”
Idia let out a snicker, his tone sarcastic: “All eyes on you, Cater-shi.”
◤ ◥
You:
malleus is my favorite dorm leader
blanket stealer:
you lil shit
im coming over to your dorm
square up
◣ ◢
Idia stared at the screen in disbelief.
“Never underestimate Cay-kun’s methods,” Cater said proudly.
“YK that he’s literally gonna come after you now, right?”
“...We’ll deal with that when it happens.”
Idia let out a sigh.
Not too long after reminding Leona that he wasn’t at his dorm and was still at work, and then sending his live location, a heavy knock resonated through the door at the front entrance that had been kept locked, as both Cater and Idia flinched at its intensity.
“...Play the second playlist on my Music Magic account during my funeral, Idia-kun.”
“I got you. I won’t pay for premium to get rid of the ads though, I’m planning to save up some money for this new game that came out–”
“NVM, your funeral comes first.”
“Cater Diamond.” Leona’s voice came through very clearly from the door, and great seven did he sound pissed.
“Eepp–!”
“AAAaaAAAAaa!”
“...You scream like a little kid, Cater-shi..”
“STFU.”
“Feel free to do it yourself, whee he he—”
The knocking on the door only increased in frequency, as Cater shrieked in panic once more, wrapping his arms around Idia.
“C-Cater– *wheeze* y-you’re choking me– stOp–!”
Small sounds of squeaking sounded through the room, as two tiny figures passed right by Cater and Idia, heading straight for the door.
Cater’s eyes widened, as he quickly leaped right off of Idia’s lap, who, now finally free of Cater’s tight, air-squeezing, life-taking grip, took in a sharp breath and then let out a relieved exhale. Meanwhile, Cater ran right after the two squirrels before they did what he thought they were about to do.
He was too late, however. They got to the door before he did, and with mischievous squirrel noises which he roughly translated to be joyous laughter derived from Cater’s suffering, they twisted the lock of the door and immediately backed away.
Before Cater could go after them, a pair of hands grabbed him by the collar and pulled him right back.
“Look who it is,” Leona said with clear displeasure, “Just the guy I wanted to see..”
“Leona-kunn, you cameee…!” Cater laughed nervously, “Since you’re here.. can I indulge you in some yummy popcorn..?”
“I think I’d prefer some roasted diamonds, what’dya say? You serve any of those?”
“Ahaha.. not really..”
“Too bad, huh. Looks like I’ll just have to cook you up instead.”
“Just reminding you that I love you very much. Like,, so much. And that, YK, you’re the best boyfriend ever..?”
Cater offered Leona a sheepish smile, in the hopes that the latter would let Cater go. But of course, Leona wasn’t one to just let people off scot free.
“Oh yeah? Let’s test that out, then.”
“RIP Cater-shi.”
“Erm, hello, Idia-kun?? Help??”
“I don’t have enough HP to deal with this final boss…”
“You—”
Leona picked Cater right off his feet, throwing him over his shoulder, then walked over to Idia.
“Leona-shi, did I tell you you look very handsome today?”
Leona effortlessly picked Idia up as well, placing him in between his torso and arm, then began walking over to the kitchen.
“Can’t believe I’m wastin’ my precious sleep hours over idiots like you two..”
“Your boyfriends, BTW.” Idia added.
“We’ve kissed before, BTW.” Cater added.
“And if you don’t stop yappin’, it’s gonna be ‘You beat our asses, BTW’.”
“...”
“...”
Once they reached the kitchen, Leona let them down, not too gently but not all too harshly to the point that they would get hurt either. Idia was placed on his feet. Cater was just dropped to the floor.
“Cook.”
“But we just cleaned the dishes–” Idia started, but zipped his mouth as soon as he felt a glare directed at him, “Yessir.”
“Well, since Idia-kun is the kitchen expert,” Cater said, pushing himself off the ground and dusting himself off, “I’ll leave it to him, while I finish cleaning up.”
He pulled out a menu card from one of the drawers, handing it to Leona, who was now leaning against the kitchen counter-top. He accepted it and began skimming through. A minute later, he closed the menu card, handing it back to Cater, who set it on the table.
“I want—” And so, he began listing a bunch of items off of the menu as Idia could only stare at him in pure horror.
Cater grimaced, before slowly walking away, giving Idia an awkward thumbs up for good luck. Idia only looked back at him in pure betrayal, given that it was Cater’s fault all of this even happened to begin with; but he could do nothing but accept his fate.
Leona raised a brow at Idia, his lips curling up into a knowing smirk. Clearly, he was enjoying this.
“Well? What are you waitin’ for?”
“Eep– so demanding–!”
“Wanna run that through me again, radish sprout?”
“Nope, your order’s coming right up–” Saying that, Idia quickly scurried off to get started on Leona’s endless order.
Meanwhile, Cater had already begun to clean up all the remaining part of the diner that they had yet to finish cleaning.
He could use Split Card and make the process a whole lot faster, but did he really want to? No, not really. The more time it took, the more time he could stay back here with Leona and Idia and chill, which was a total win in his books since it wasn’t often that the three of them got the chance to do that, what with two of them being dorm leaders and with himself being a pretty wanted and busy student at Heartslabyul.
Plus, he was already pretty exhausted, and while it wasn’t at all unusual for him to use Split Card even when he was at his limits, he knew the other two would definitely chew him out for it.
Hence, instead of using Split Card, he opted for slipping on his rollerskates so that he could speed around the place a bit faster. Now that he had befriended the two trouble-making squirrels, he didn’t need to worry about anyone oiling the wheels of the skates that could cause him to lose his footing like earlier.
Speaking of the squirrels, they came right up to him as he was cleaning. Cater crouched down slightly to talk to them, giving them a stern look.
“You naughty little squirrels, letting Leona-kun in like that when he was clearly going to roast your one and only!”– The squirrels seemed to chuckle at that, and with how adorable they looked, Cater couldn’t help but let out a chuckle himself, “Buttt I guess it was warranted. I’ll forgive you ♪~”
The squirrels let out a small squeak– which Cater deduced to be a happy one– before glancing at the kitchen door with a curious stare.
“Oh? You’re planning to head to the kitchen?” Cater said, gaze shifting to where their glance had been pointed, “Wanna go make new friends, hmm? Well, as long as you won’t be naughty, hehe.”
With a small boop to each of their noses and receiving a cheerful squeak, Cater parted ways with the squirrels who moved on to head to the kitchen, while he decided to take a small Magicam break.
Of course, with his momentary distraction, he didn’t notice as both the laces of his skates came undone, and were stolen away.
Inside the kitchen, Idia was still not yet done with the list of items Leona had ordered. He might as well have made a menu in itself, what with its unending length. Whatever he had finished, he would serve right to Leona, who would then proceed to devour it within under two minutes, then continue grinning at Idia with sheer amusement, enjoying the predicament he had placed Idia in.
Finally, after cooking up the twenty-third item from Leona’s order, Idia slumped down and leaned against the counter with a sigh.
“Time-out, time out..”
Leona let out a taunting snicker.
“This the energy you’ve been working with durin’ work hours? Crowley ought to rethink the people he hires for these things.”
Idia let out a small scoff, before his lips curled into a challenging smirk.
“I’d like to see Leona-shi do better.”
“Oh?” Leona raised a brow, walking over to stand right in front of Idia, leaning in close as he placed his hands on the counter behind Idia, trapping the latter between the counter and himself, “Finally learning to bite with those sharp teeth of yours, radish sprout?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy.”
Amidst their banter and bickering, neither noticed as the pair of squirrels sneaked right in through the kitchen door as soundlessly as possible. The squirrels shot each other a mischievous look, before slowly making their way over to the two tall males, whose conversation just continued on.
“...You're drivin’ a hard bargain here, Shroud.”
“Oh yeah? Leona-shi seems pretty tempted— huh,” Idia blinked, the corner of his eyes catching a glimpse of a blink of blue and green shimmering amidst the dim lights. His eyes widened, “Wait– our pens!”
The squirrels had somehow managed to steal their magic pens, as they raised it in the air and cheered and squeaked happily. With those in hand, they quickly made their way over to the vent in the kitchen that connected to the main area of the diner.
Leona’s eyes widened as well, before he let out a huff and moved to catch them– only for him to trip and fall, pulling Idia right down with him– not physically, but somehow.. which now ended up with him on the floor with Idia laying right on top of him.
His gaze shifted downwards, and the sight explained exactly what caused him to trip.
Two small ropes– that looked suspiciously like shoelaces– had been tied around their ankles, and that too very messily but in a way that the knots would be impossible to untangle..
The squirrels only snickered at their current laughable state, before making their exit through the vents with their pens in hand. Without the pens, neither of them could use magic to break out of the messy tangles of laces either.
Idia pushed himself up onto his arms, as he shot the squirrels a glare.
“You’ve gotta be kidding– I thought Cater-shi had made amends with those squirrels!”
Leona seemed to share the annoyed sentiment, shooting the squirrels a glare of his own, “Those lil’ brats, next time I see ‘em—”
Idia’s arms gave way, and he fell right back on top of Leona. They both went silent momentarily.
“I can feel you judging my PE skills…”
“Good, because that’s exactly what I was doin’. I’m gonna start draggin’ you both to the gym with me.”
“...The gym..” Idia shuddered at the thought, before his focus shifted back to the situation at hand, “Whatever, we’ll chew the squirrels out later IG. How are we getting out of this one?”
Leona tried to think up different solutions. Trying to reach out and untangle it wasn’t viable, firstly because they would be difficult to reach and secondly because of his earlier conclusion of how tough they would be to untangle. It would just be a waste of time trying.
They could call out to Cater, but he seriously doubted the latter would even be able to hear them. Plus, he was probably distracted by his phone by now.
“Where are the scissors?” Leona asked.
Idia’s gaze shifted upward, as he raised his arm to point to the further corner of the kitchen, where he had left the scissors… which was literally the furthest away from them as it possibly could be.
Leona’s ear twitched, “You’ve got to be fuckin’ kiddin’ me..”
“Wish I was…”
Idia let out a defeated sigh.
It looked like they would have to somehow coordinate together and stand upright, then slowly make their way over to that point without tripping all over again.
“...Wanna just stay like this for a bit longer?” Idia offered. It wasn’t all too uncomfortable, if he was being honest.
“..Yeah, sure. Sound’s good.”
After about twenty minutes, ten of which was just spent lazing around on the floor, the two of them finally made an attempt at slowly standing up. Once they did, it took a few cautious, slow steps and a few hops to get to the scissors. The process involved a lot of bickering amidst the coordinating, but they pulled through. Somehow.
Even with the scissors, attempting to reach the laces without crouching down proved to be the most difficult task. Neither could bend their knees with the position they were tied up in, nor were they all that flexible either; but still, after some back and forth and trial and error later, they finally accomplished the tedious task of cutting one snip of the looped lace, which allowed the rest of the binds to come through.
Idia let out a sigh of relief. Not that he didn’t like being close to Leona, but he was downright exhausted after all the work they put into freeing themselves. He really didn’t know what Cater saw in those squirrels– those little creatures were clearly downright evil!
Leona seemed relieved too, as he placed the scissors aside, right back on the table where they were initially.
Idia took a step back, only to trip on the laces that had been yet to be pulled aside. Fortunately, Leona managed to catch him in the nick of time, grabbing hold of his waist and pulling him right back up.
“I know I’m a real catch, but you don’t have to go fallin’ for me like that,” Leona said with a teasing smirk.
“Leona-shi, please don’t say such cringy, cheesy things…”
Idia says that, but his warm cheeks which were all too clear given its contrast with his pale skin. Leona just rolled his eyes and pulled Idia closer, pressing their lips together as Idia just gave in and wrapped his arms around Leona.
A few moments later, the sound of a crash sounded through the kitchen door, as well as multiple things clashing and falling over.
Leona and Idia immediately pulled apart, glancing at each other then quickly hurrying out the door. Well, not before tripping once more because they forgot to pull the laces aside.
The sight that greeted them was a Cater fallen over face first, with a couple of cleaning supplies toppled over on the ground next to him.
“What’s with you and fallin’ like that?!” Leona scoffed, as he made his way over to Cater, “You did it when you were sick too.”
“Cater-shi, are you alright??” Idia questioned, his brows pinched together with concern.
Cater could only push himself upright as he glanced at his rollerskates pointedly with a huff. For whatever reason, his laces were missing, which caused his skates to be way too loose.
He had finally finished his Magicam session for the day, uploading all the pictures he’d taken today as well as creating an account for the diner. Deciding to go check up on Idia and Leona, he got up and stretched his limbs a little before pushing his rollerskates forward to head over to the kitchen, only for his balance to be knocked right off due to the loose grip of the skates, and ultimately leading him to fall forward and crash into all the supplies he’d placed beside him.
“I swear, they were there before I sat dow—” Cater’s eyes wandered off to the laces in Idia’s hands, as he deadpanned.
“Hey– hey don’t draw conclusions!! Cater-shi, your squirrels did it!”
“You shouldn’t shift the blame like that, Idia-kun..” Cater let out a dramatic, disappointed sigh, “They would never do such a thing, how could you say that..”
“They literally opened the door to our demise–” Upon hearing a warning cough from Leona, Idia changed his choice of words, “I mean, uh, our amazing BF…”
Leona shot him a side-eye, before glancing back at Cater, “They’re just as much of troublemakers as that spikey and spade of yours.”
“Is Leona-kun referring to the Adeuce duo?”
“Who else?”
Cater blinked.
“You guys seem personally offended, did something happen?”
“Uhm, yes something happened!” Idia said with a huff, then proceeded to explain the whole fiasco that took place in the kitchen, as Leona crouched down beside Cater and pulled his legs up to examine the knees that had now been scrapped from his fall.
After Idia finished explaining, Cater was torn between feeling shocked but also wanting to laugh, because great seven was it absolutely hilarious. Eventually, after trying to contain his laughter, he gave up and began laughing hysterically.
Leona and Idia just looked at him in disbelief, then shared a look. The absurdity of the situation finally caught on to them too, as they slowly began laughing as well. They probably seemed like crazy people, but they couldn’t care less.
It took some time for the laughter to die out, but eventually it did. And then they all just sat in the silence for a bit, before getting up and finally rounding everything up. Surprisingly, Leona also provided some assistance under the muttered excuse of wanting to head back already.
Once they had locked up the diner for the night and were getting ready to head off, Idia realized both he and Leona had yet to get their magic pens back. Cater merely chuckled, reassuring them that he would retrieve it for them.
He placed aside some acorns for the little squirrels at the roots of the tree they nested in, which they happily accepted. He talked to them a little despite having barely any knowledge of squirrel language, yet his words seemed to be conveyed unnaturally perfectly as the squirrels handed the pens right back.
“After everything we’ve been through because of them…” Idia let out a sigh.
“Aww, how could you possibly be mad at them? They’re so adorable~”
Leona rolled his eyes, “Adorable my ass.”
And when Cater’s back was turned to the squirrels, they simply stuck their tongues out at Leona and Idia.
“You little–”
“Leona-shi, no! Stop!”