Chapter Text
Another day more chilly weather to head to work in. The weather's been so bipolar as of late… Apollo sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets while walking onto the street. A flyer goes by in the wind and he follows it with his eyes before continuing to walk. ‘Right, the circus…those flyers have been all over the place and everyone’s talking about it…’
He steps on another flyer, no doubt discarded by some jackass who let it fly off. ‘Even if it’s not my speed even I can admit they’re quite interesting and definitely better than those typical clowns you always see’ Apollo’s brought out of his thoughts by a yell coming from the middle of a crowd.
“Hey!! Get out of here weirdo!!”
Ahh another douchebag, probably drunk out of his mind and divorced. Apollo pushed his way through the crowd to get a better look at what was going on only to see about what he expected; a drunk douche picking on someone. What he wasn’t expecting though was it to be one of the performers on the floor.
The man's voice cut through Apollo's thoughts “I’m talking to you, you freak! Get out of our town!!”
Okay this was going too far now. ‘Damned people, always too hesitant to step in…I’ve needed a good stress relief anyway’ Apollo made his way to the front of the crowd before walking out and hitting a right hook to the man's face. Blood poured from his nose like a faucet.
He was on the floor now and holding his nose “What the hell!! Who do you think you are, huh?!”
A person with common sense? “Who do you think you are? Harassing someone for doing their job?” Apollo put himself between the man and the performer, a glare easily forming on his face as he stared the man down.
‘Damn, guess Josh wasn’t kidding when he said regular people can’t really handle actual punches’ Apollo thought to himself, almost impressed at his own strength. He even pulled back just in case.
“I’ll call the cops on you! You assaulted me!!” The nuisance yelled suddenly, voice sounding pinched from how he held onto his nose.
“Call them then. We’ll see how they appreciate you harassing and assaulting someone while they were doing their job.” That shut him up real quick, he sputtered before picking himself up and hobbling away.
“Your heads in the clouds! I hope they take you as well!!” and with that he was finally gone. Apollo sighed, his shoulders easing slightly before turning to the performer who was still on the ground.
“Hey, you okay? Don’t listen to those jackasses, they’re just low life’s who have nothing better to do” He held out a hand to the performer to help him up, which the performer took. ‘Dang he’s around my height, I couldn’t really tell since he was on the floor’
Apollo then noticed the blood on his face and instantly went into action, “Ah, you’re bleeding…here” He dug into his pockets before pulling out a silly looking dog bandage, ‘better than nothing I suppose..’ He carefully stuck the bandage onto the performer's face, making sure it was on properly before pulling back. “There we are! I doubt it was anything too serious but check in with a doctor if it feels worse, alright?” The performer nods to that.
Apollo then remembers the whole reasons he even left his house and checked the time ‘shit.’ “Sorry to cut this short but I’m late to work, be careful out there!” He gives a small salute before turning to jog towards the cafe. ‘shit, shit, shit’ he practically ran into the door before pulling himself together and walking in.
“Sorry I’m late boss, had some troubles on the walk over” Apollo immediately started to apologize profusely as he walked towards the counter ‘I really really don't feel like losing this job’.
“No worries, just start as soon as you can since it’s quite busy with the cold. Carol hasn’t come in yet so I’ve been covering her shift” The boss, a large albeit kind man, immediately shut down any apologies that were uttered.
Apollo quickly put on his apron, clocking in just as fast before registering his bosses words, “Carols still not in? That's odd for her…No response to texts nor calls either I’m assuming?” He looked at his boss inquisitively while putting on his gloves.
“You’d assume right, and based on your confusion you haven’t been contacted by her either?” Apollo shook his head and with a sigh his boss crossed his arms before speaking again, “Well nothing else we can do but wait, run these orders would you?”
“Yup!” Apollo easily scooped up the plate with the orders and with his best customer service smile went off to give out the orders.
Apollo’s shift went as usual, some rude customers, some nice, the only new thing was the flyers people left behind that he now had to pick up… Despite this, he couldn’t shake this feeling that someone was watching him the entire time. It was probably just his mind playing tricks though… right?
The bell ringing brought him out of his thoughts and he quickly shoved those thoughts and the papers aside. Now going to the customers side, a well dressed man with his hair pushed back.
“Hello there and welcome in! How may I help you?” Like a switch was flipped Apollo instantly went into customer service mode, his notepad out and ready for the man's order.
“Hello, I’d like a strong, hot coffee please” The man was unsettling but nothing Apollo wasn’t used to nor couldn’t handle.
“Alright I’ll be right back with that for you!” He left to go prepare the coffee, ‘quick and easy, such a relief from some of the orders people get…’ Apollo was back soon after with the coffee, “Here you are sir, make sure to be careful, it’s hot” He was about to go back to absent-mindedly wiping tables when the man spoke again.
“What's with those flyers?” Oh right the flyers, he had forgotten about them…
“Nothing much, just flyers that people have been leaving behind…”
“How rude to do that in a place of business, right?”
“Yeah, it just creates more work for other people really…”
“If you want, I can take them from you. I’ll toss them out when I leave, no big deal. I was gathering paper for recycling anyway.”
“Oh! That would be appreciated, much better than just throwing them away. Thank you!”
“No problems dear”
“Do you nee-“
“Do you like the circus?”
“Wha-? Uh, I don’t know. I’m probably too old for something like that now.”
“Nonsense, the circus here isn’t for kids. They have some truly horrifying stuff. It'll leave you shocked to your core.”
“So you’ve been to the circus?” As much as I wish I could end this conversation I am on the clock so I have to be polite. At least I can satiate my curiosity.
“Are you listening?” Shit.
“Sorry, I was in my head.”
“I thought so, here take this.” The man holds out a pink ticket towards Apollo before continuing, “Go check it out and try telling me it didn’t give you chills.”
“Ah, I can’t accept something like this.
“No worries, I already went. I had planned on going again but I’m leaving town soon. Keep it or sell it, as long as my ticket doesn’t go to waste.”
“Really, I can’t accept this.” As lovely as this seems, I really doubt taking a free ticket is a good idea… “We can’t accept things like this during company hours.”
“Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to find another to give it to. Thank you for the coffee”
Finally… ”Of course sir, call me if you need any more assistance!” The man nodded as Apollo went off to wipe down the tables.