Chapter Text
Davis' POV
Davis had had difficult patrons before, but this time it was a little different. Sure, people got wasted every now and again, it was a tavern after all, but most of the time they weren’t directly aggressive with Davis. He was just the bartender, no point in getting upset with him. Currently, however, a certain human man was yelling at him across the counter.
"These prices are unreasonable!” he shouted.
They weren’t. For an establishment like this, they were shockingly low for what he could be charging. Davis was getting rather tired of the yelling, and it was drawing attention away from the bards who were trying to preform and consequently distract people from the argument happening. Could you call it an argument if it was one sided?
“I’m sorry sir,” Davis replied for what seemed like the tenth time, raising his hands in surrender, “but there’s really nothing I can-“
“LAIR!”
Before he had time to register what was happening, strong hands grabbed the front of his vest, lifting his feet off the ground and pulling him into the counter toward the angry, drunk man. Davis’ eyes widened in fear.
“Now ya’lisen ta me and you li’sen good. I’m not leavin’ thi’place ‘ntil yuh gimme a fair price,” the man slurred.
The smell of the man’s breath would’ve made Davis gag if he wasn’t so used to it.
“S-sir, I pl- please let’s c-calm down.”
Upon not immediately receiving what was requested, the man raised his fist and drew it back, getting ready to punch Davis across the face. Davis shut his eyes and braced himself, this was gonna hurt. After a few moments of no impact Davis cracked an eye open.
“I wouldn’t suggest doing that,” threatened the voice of a white bear folk.
Davis nearly melted with relief. The white bear, Molten, was his bouncer. He was heavily augmented though, making him far stronger than anyone else in the room. Unfortunately, he did have a temper about him. He had his mechanical claws on the man’s shoulder and was holding the arm that was about to punch Davis in the other paw. Molten’s red, mechanical eye narrowed slightly as he scanned his victim.
“The fuck? Get the fuck off me, stupid fucking animal,” the man muttered, trying to shrug him off.
Davis cringed, this guy was not making what was about to happen any better for himself. Molten grabbed the wrist that holding Davis and squeezed. The man let out a shout of pain, dropping Davis almost immediately; letting him fall backwards onto his ass behind the counter.
“I’ll take it from here,” Molten sneered.
Davis took a few shaky breaths as his adrenaline started to settle, then nodded, “Thanks.”
The guy tried to fight Molten as he was escorted outside, but it was honestly a pathetic scene, like a scruffed kitten trying to fight back. As Davis got up from the floor, the tavern was awkwardly silent, but luckily for him the Foxkin, Foxy, was quick to break it, and Freddy and Bonnie weren’t far behind. Soon after, the tavern went back to its normal ongoings and Davis could pick up where he left off: making drinks and chatting with patrons.
. . .
Davis was cleaning up the tavern, with the help of the construct who’d joined them, Eclipse. Eclipse was a rather nice… fellow? Davis wasn’t quite sure if Eclipse was a person, because he was literally made of metal, but he acted like one, so he deserved to be treated as a person at the very least. Davis thought Eclipse appreciated that, but he was a bit difficult to read with his lack of facial expressions. He was also awfully helpful. He helped Davis clean the tavern every morning, even when it was particularly messy, and even helped with general repairs to the building while Davis was gone! In return Davis gave him a room in the tavern. He’d tried to pay him, but Eclipse had adamantly refused, and that had been the end of that. However, he had tried to learn a bit about Eclipse so that he could give him some of the minor repairs he needed occasionally, it was the least he could do.
Molten didn’t trust him. To be fair, Molten didn’t trust anyone. Davis was a bit surprised that Molten hadn’t been more confrontational with him yet. Sure, he’d gotten up in his personal space before and he’d been a bit threatening, but he never really got physical with him, or the bards for that matter, no matter how irritating they got sometimes. It’s not that he couldn’t though, Davis had seen what Molten could do to bad patrons on occasion. So, it was only a mild surprise to Davis when Eclipse sheepishly approached him about repairs early that morning.
“Um, Davis, I seem to need some assistance, if you have time of course, I wouldn’t want to take you away from other important things you might be doing-“
"It’s alright, Eclipse,” Davis said cutting off his rambling. “What can I help you with?”
Eclipse slowly stretched out his hand slowly towards Davis to show him the damage. First glances revealed that it looked like it had been crushed, but further inspection also showed there were also holes pierced through the metal casing.
"How’d this happen?” Davis asked, turning Eclipse’s hand over.
“Oh, you know, just um… was trying to fix a brick or two in the wall and I wasn’t careful enough”
Eclipse had never been a good liar, but Davis decided he wouldn’t push it right now. He knew how Eclipse could get.
"Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes? I mean, I’m metal, so not as much as it would for you, but sometimes when I try to do certain things with it.”
Davis began walking with Eclipse up to Eclipse’s room. That’s where they kept all the stuff for his repairs, since they unfortunately didn’t have any better place to do it. As they sat down and Davis got to work, trying his best, Eclipse tried to fill the silence with casual conversation.
“How was business last night?”
“Eh, pretty normal, there was one problematic guy, but Molten took care of him.”
Eclipse hummed, “Typical comments and rough housing?”
“No actually, kinda surprised but he came after me.”
“You!? That’s odd.”
"Ya,” Davis waved his hand as if dismissing the thought, “something about prices.”
As Davis worked on Eclipse’s hand, he began to wonder what had really happened. It obviously hadn’t been a brick, because a brick wouldn’t have left holes in his hand. They seemed more akin to- oh. Claws. Lots of things could’ve probably happened, but the fact the Eclipse was lying about it and Davis knew Molten’s distrust of the construct, it was pretty easy to put together.
"Eclipse,” Davis paused, trying to figure out how to word his question, “do you want any locks on your door? For safety?”
“Oh! No, it’s alright Davis.”
"Are you sure?”
Davis didn’t know what a lock would do against Molten, but at least it’d be something. Eclipse seemed to catch on to what Davis was asking.
“I’d don’t think it’ll happen again. Thank you.”
Davis nodded, continuing to adjust little mechanical bits in the hand. He wasn’t cut out for this at all. They sat there for many more hours as Davis stumbled his way through fixing the hand. He would’ve tried to use the little magic he knew to make it go faster, but he was more likely to make something explode than fix it. In the end, it wasn’t the best fix in the world, but Eclipse seemed more than delighted with his work, so Davis supposed it would do for now. He was also exhausted. Walking down the stairs and to the exit, ready to go home, he ran into just one more trial. A rather soft one though. The fluffy obstacle in the doorway looked straight down at him.
"Davis.”
“Molten.”
“What are you doing? Normally you don’t stay this early.”
“I know, I was fixing up Eclipse, a brick crushed his hand.”
Molten huffed in annoyance but moved out of the doorway so Davis could leave.
"Goodnight, Molten.”
“Good day,” Molten corrected.