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"No one's here!"
"Good. Let's go that way next."
"How many more spots have we got to check?"
"Not too many, be patient."
Venom moved near the light of a streetlamp, but stepped to the side of it, into the shade. The street was quiet. It usually was on nights like these. Him and Robo-Ky were currently moving through it, with Robo-Ky carrying Venom's pool case in his noodley arms. The moon's dim light illuminated the two of them as they walked near the edge of the now empty street.
"Hey, I never said anything about being impatient," Robo-Ky scoffed. "We're on a tight schedule here, how are ya planning on getting enough rest ‘till tomorrow's shift?"
A stern look was thrown back at him, "We can't just leave a job half-unfinished. You can take some time out of prep to recharge, if you must."
Venom noticed an alleyway leading off of the main street and ducked inside in an attempt to be discreet, with Robo-Ky following soon after. Robo-Ky rolled closer so that him and Venom would almost be walking side by side.
"Don’t change the subject, this is supposed to be about you! As far as I know, humans don’t usually run on 3 hours of sleep a day. That’s not even enough time for me to recharge! How are ya gonna continue working when you’ve been neglecting yourself like that?"
"I have not been," Venom looked over his shoulder. "...And even if I have, I can manage myself; I would hope that you'd be able to understand that."
"I'd be more willing to if you actually did manage yourself. When was the last time you ate?"
Venom stopped in the middle of the alleyway. He wanted to say that he ate just before going out on patrol, but...
Turning away, he let his long bangs cover his face. "...I had lunch earlier today."
"Lunch." His face was further covered by his hand. "The one ya had this morning cause you said we were gonna be too busy to have any during the day."
"I assure you, even if the circumstances aren’t… ideal, I’m capable of going without food for prolonged periods of time, if the situation calls for it."
"Phehh, well, not everyone’s as resilient as you are." Robo-Ky rolled ahead of Venom and sat down on the pavement, putting the pool case down next to him. His chest compartment popped open and out of it, he pulled out a to-go bag with their bakery’s logo on it.
Venom looked on in astonishment as Robo-Ky took out an almond cookie and put it in his mouth, crushing it between his tooth plates and tilting his head back to swallow it.
"Well? Do ya want any? We're gonna need the energy if we wanna finish the patrol," Robo-Ky waved him over in between mouthfuls.
Yes, Venom supposed that was right. He silently walked over and sat down next to him. Out of the bag, Robo-Ky pulled out a bun, which was then handed to Venom.
Venom settled down on the pavement and took a bite. Blueberry filling, one of his favorites.
The alleyway was quiet. Venom occasionally looked over, back to the main street, still guarded in case any people out on a late walk noticed them. After a while of no one showing up, he allowed himself to relax. He enjoyed his bun in peace, the only thing distracting him from it was the sound of Robo-Ky crunching down on his almond cookies. Speaking of that —
"I thought you said before that you don't eat food?"
Robo-Ky startled and put down a cookie he was about to stuff into his face. "Eh? Well... I don't need to, but I can if I need to get a quick energy boost in. We've still got a few streets we need to check, right?"
"Yes, we do," Venom looked down at his blueberry bun.
"...Can you taste anything that you eat?"
"Nah, I wasn’t built with functions like that in mind. I had only the highest-grade alloy weaponry,” a fist proudly thudded against Robo-Ky’s chest before he glanced down at the rest of his body, "—I did but that's all I really had. Guess no one saw the point of puttin’ anything else in me."
"Is that so?" …Such a tactless question. Venom cringed internally at his blunder. "Whenever I think about what items I should add to the menu, or what to recommend people, taste is an important factor. It's impressive that you're able to manage without it."
"Yeah, well, I can still have opinions on our pastries without that. Recommended the peach cobbler to that lady a few days ago."
"Yes, I remember," a barely there smile appeared on Venom's face. "You really helped her."
"Damn right I did! Not the kinda thing I’d go for, but the way she described it, it was just what she needed. She even came back a few days later and thanked us cause of how good the cobbler was! Ooh, and she asked to say hi to you, looks like you’re a real hit with the ladies~"
Venom promptly ignored Robo-Ky nudging his side with his arm. "She asked to say hi to me?"
Robo-Ky gave up on his teasing and sat up to face Venom, "Well yeah, you’re the one that baked it after all. We have people coming in and thanking you for the pastries all the time, y'know?"
"Right..." Venom did occasionally see returning customers in the bakery. An old man asking for his chocolate muffin recipe, a person making small talk about customer service, some kid scrounging up enough change for a lollipop, though Venom ended up giving it away for free. He would help them and they would come back, often exchanging pleasantries and kind words. It’s become routine for him, so it didn’t feel nearly as strange as it used to.
"There’s been a few people recently who asked to see you when I talked to them," Venom looked over at Robo-Ky.
"Huhh?! Asked for me?" a clear look of shock etched itself onto Robo-Ky’s face, "I mean— uh— What exactly did they want from me?"
"They remembered you working the cash register and wanted to chat with you again. You were quite interesting to talk to, so they wanted to see you when they came back to buy more pastries. Sorry for not calling you over, you were out at the time and it slipped my mind afterwards."
"Eh… it’s alright…" Robo-Ky was looking straight ahead, face unreadable. He was hard to get a grasp on like this. Venom pushed some of his hair behind his ear as Robo-Ky shuffled and turned back to look at him. "Next time we’ve got something big comin’ up, maybe I could help out more with the customer service."
"We do actually have a big order we need to finish soon. That couple from last week is coming to pick up the rest of the sides for their party."
"Gah, I completely forgot!" Robo-Ky hurried to finish the rest of his cookies while Venom stood up, putting the to-go bag in his pocket to throw away later. While fumbling around and trying to get up, Robo-Ky looked up to see Venom offering him a hand.
Venom thought he saw a flash of emotion in Robo-Ky’s eyes as he got up, before Robo-Ky let go of his hand and looked away, "Thanks."
"Let’s hurry now, we’ve still got a few spots left to check."
"Yeah, yeah, and we’ve gotta rest to get all those appetizers out tomorrow."
"Yes, we do." The pair walked down the alleyway, towards the next street, soon to be back in their bakery.