Work Text:
There were many moments where Soul would think to himself about how exactly he’d ended up in certain situations.
Usually it’d come down to cleaning up after Maka’s sanguine personality or straying from his usual routine of classes and bartending, but he hadn’t considered running around holding greasy pizza and hearing the blaring noise of a hyperactive mascot band to be part of that issue.
The young man set another pizza down in front of a hungry family and reminded himself that this was only temporary until he found a better part-time gig.
Truth be told, Soul had anticipated getting his hours cut as a bartender simply because Giriko, his manager and owner of the small bar he was employed at, had been put into hot water for being caught in some strange illegal ring run by his aunt, making his patience stretch even thinner and cause him to find Soul even more insufferable.
It was by some sick twisted miracle that Blake had been promoted as the manager of Death D. Cheese earlier that year, leaving him to suffer through Giriko’s shit for 10 hours every week and stinky hyperactive children for another 10 hours of the week.
“Sooo, how’s it going?” Liz hummed behind the prize booth as Soul leaned against the counter filled to the brim with useless junk.
“I love it. Think I shoulda’ majored in bein’ the perfect minimum wage employee instead of music theory,” the young man answered before his friend released a grunt and swatted him with a small plastic toy hand.
“Oh c’mon, your best bro is the manager, so you pretty much can do the bare minimum and not get heckled. Plus, BunBun is supposed to come out soon. Make sure to stand in another corner when that happens though because the last thing I need to see is your stupid puppy dog eyes when you ogle Maka,” Liz exclaimed, forcing Soul to grumble in her direction before their work radio blared that they needed assistance at the salad bar.
The young woman waved him off as he resisted the urge to slightly perk up at the thought of his girlfriend being only 5 feet away from him, even if he was supervising leafy greens and she was walking around in a mascot suit entertaining children.
“Oh, came to get a good seat dude?” Kilik giggled while he greeted Soul from behind the counter and made room for him.
“Man, you too Kilik? I knew Liz would throw those kinda’ punches, but I expected better from you,” the young man practically groaned, causing the other man to shake his head in amusement before they heard the call for Death D. Cheese and his girlfriend BunBun to come out to greet everyone.
There was practically a wave of children jumping and screaming right beside the salad bar as the two characters came out hand in hand.
“Who’s the stupid mouse this time?” Soul questioned before he noticed the two fuzzy linked hands and swallowed the burn that’d started in his throat.
“Pretty sure it’s Hiro? Don’t know why Blake would hire a dude like that,” Kilik responded while he added more broccoli to a container, leaving Soul to watch as Death D. Cheese high-fived each of the children and planted a kiss onto BunBun’s mouth.
Soul couldn’t help but bare his razor-sharp teeth at the action, forcing himself to take a deep breath and remind himself that this stupid mascot meet-and-greet was nothing more than a facade.
He couldn’t have gone even 2 minutes past calming himself down and helping Kilik do their job before he noticed Hiro pull Maka into a dance, or at least attempted to as his feet slipped and he fell backwards against the edge of a table.
There were a set of screams from both the group of children and the parents sitting in the booth seats Hiro was currently laying in front of before a few of their other coworkers came rushing to take care of the scene.
“Yeesh, didn’t mean to jinx him,” Kilik whispered while Soul watched the scene unfold in front of them.
An immature selfish part of him was glad he wouldn’t have to see his girlfriend get whisked into a dance and doted on by some creep, but Hiro being concussed was definitely not what he’d planned to end all the fake lovey dovey shenanigans.
He was just about to respond when their radio blared at the highest volume, signaling that it was Blake talking this time.
“I need you get ya’ lanky butt to my office ASAP Soul…”
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His eyes desperately tried to stare at the cute cotton ball tail attached to the back of Maka’s suit, the plaid skirt fitted on the midriff of the bunny suit, or even the sheepish smile she leveled towards him before looking down at the fake rat head in his hands.
“I promise it’ll be quick Soul,” Maka sighed as she reached forward enough to bump their stocky costumes together and give him a quick peck on the nose.
The young man wanted to say that the idea had left him picturing running through the double doors of the entrance and calling his grandma for some funds the exact minute he walked into Blake’s office and Patty stood with a backup Death D. Cheese suit, yet here he was proving everyone right when it came to being an absolute sap for his girlfriend who seemed to take this summer job a little too seriously.
Soul let Maka lead them past the employee section and into the babble of children once more, probing him to almost chuckle at the small screams of “you’re alive” and “you didn’t die” from the crowd.
It wasn’t hard for the young man to shuffle around and high-five the kids surrounding them. In fact, it eased him enough into standing still for a few pictures with the kids.
If it’s gotta be quick, why not make it fun Soul then mused as he wrapped his hands around Maka and angled his rat mouth to plant against his girlfriend’s bunny mouth.
There was a string of ewws carried across the crowd at the action, causing Soul to let go of BunBun and raise his hands defensively.
“Tough crowd,” Liz called through the radio as Soul rolled his eyes at the level of sarcasm that was evident in her voice.
The music blaring across the building then shifted to a rendition of happy birthday, allowing Tsubaki to enter the area with a large sheet cake that had a set of sparkling candles added to the top.
Maka raised her hands into a clap at the sight, causing Soul to act surprised while being urged to hold the cake by the raven haired young woman.
His hands grappled for the dessert before feeling his girlfriend hold onto the other side of the cake and lead them towards the table where the birthday girl was impatiently waiting.
It was hard not to smile at the sight of the girl laughing at the bunny and rat delivering her cake and then enthusiastically blowing out her candles, probing Soul to look over at Maka and give her a sappy hug to further act the part.
He wasn’t expecting a kid to gallop forwards and hug them both at the same time from behind, leading the pair to subsequently tip forwards at the sudden force and Soul to somehow land face first onto the ground while Maka laid awkwardly ontop him with a winded giggle.
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Soul wanted to consider the possibility of giving Blake a heads up that he wasn’t coming back after two weeks but found it incredibly hard to do anything while Maka dabbed a small packet of ice from the soda machine onto his cracked lips.
Their gracious manager had given them both the rest of the day off while mumbling to Kid over the phone about the possibility of a ghost cursing his employees into falling down like dominos that day, leaving them in the staff room to recover from all the commotion.
He stared at the slight intensity of Maka’s gaze, the smallest scrunch of her small nose, and the jut of her lips turned into a pout and tried not to laugh at the thought of her being cute enough to act as a cartoon bunny that was somehow dating a scruffy rat boyfriend.
“What’s so funny?” Maka questioned as she raised an eyebrow at him, eliciting Soul to give his girlfriend a small smile before feeling her push back a few strands of his gel slicked bangs and clip them in place with one of her skull shaped hair clips.
“Just thinkin’ about how my cute girlfriend is keeping me from being borderline unemployed,” Soul sang while watching the young woman release her own giggle at the statement and cup his bruised cheeks between her palms.
The small pecks she scattered across his face almost felt like a cure from the aches and pain of being thrown onto a dingy flat carpet.
“Yea, well my boyfriend did pretty good today. So good that I was thinking of asking him about maybe going to that old arcade downtown and then getting something to eat…” Maka replied while scraping a thumb against his stubbled jawline.
“Mmm yea sounds exactly like what I needed. Guess we should get outta’ this crappy staff room first,” Soul mumbled as he bent forwards and lightly pushed his lips against hers, only to yelp backwards in pain and hope the action wouldn’t push his cracked skin into bleeding again.
He figured it’d be worth it anyway once hearing Maka let out an airy laugh that made the day already start to feel a lot less like a capitalist slog and more like the thrill of an impromptu summer date.