Work Text:
Jevin
He took a deep sip of the powdery instant coffee he’d been surviving on. He had a proper machine, but well…not much access to beans when the rifts were sealed. Instant was doable, though.
The slime mutant leaned back in his office chair with a drawn-out groan, arms flopping to the sides as he squeezed his eyes shut. His hair, or well, a jelly-like impersonation of hair that he styled atop his head, shone blue in the yellowish lightning of his office.
The Medical Wing of the labs had been nothing but work for the past three months. With the constant quaking, there were cave-ins more frequently. Without the release valve of escaping through rifts to the surface, monster build-ups and surges had broken new records.
And who was the man who steered that ship?
Jevin.
He kicked his legs out under his desk and slid down even further, slouching till more of his back than his rear rested in the seat.
“Last of the big move-out was this morning…no more quakes…surge numbers are down…ahhh…”
His coffee mug sat peacefully on his desk, as he just enjoyed the ability to breathe easily in his office for the first time in months.
“I might even be able to get back to streaming that dark fantasy X was tellin’ me about…wonder if connection is back up for that yet…that would be so…”
Rattle.
Rattle.
Rattle.
His coffee mug was quaking a bit on the desktop.
Jevin stiffened.
“No…”
Footsteps were storming toward his office door.
“Noooo…!” He whined as he slid down so low he was almost under his desk with the doors slammed inward.
“Surpriiiise! Doctor of the year, over here! Delivery!”
Jevin suspiciously slid up in his desk a bit to peer over the edge at XB, who’d just come trotting in, his large frame filing up the doorway.
“Not…not an emergency? Not a surge? Not a cave-in? Not a railcart incident?”
XB giggled. “Nah, none of that. At least, I’m not here to tell you about them. I’m here to give you this!” He plonked the box on the desk, and Jevin gasped.
“Is that…?”
“A present from Joe, he sent it down with Keralis after he finished his first trip. Beans for the best doctor in town!”
Three bags of coffee beans in fluorescent green branding.
Jevin could’ve cried.
Maybe he did. Just a bit.
“Ahhh! Thank you, thank you so much, man!”
“Don’t thank me, I’m just the delivery guy.”
“I’ll text Joe!”
“You should, he said to get to ya on the double.”
Jevin stood up from his exhausted slouch and grinned up at XB.
“Personal delivery and all, huh? I’ll take it…ugh, this is gonna be so good…”
He scooped up the box of coffee bags like it was a precious treasure, his expression brightening by the moment across his pale blue, gel-like features.
XB hung around a little longer. Jevin made them both a cup of the strong stuff.
Ahh…
Time for coffee and conversation? In the Under-City? With the faux bedrock broken and the rifts reopened…maybe they could squeeze it in.