Chapter Text
The words of Father Overseer constantly rang out in Medkit's mind, always reminding him of his waning freedom even when he was far, far away from The Church and buried in the blankets of his cozy little apartment.
“No matter what you do out there, you need to keep a low profile.”
It wasn't as if he'd been looking to stand out anyway, however as a proud Blackrockian fugitive and defector his chances of being given the wrong kinds of attention weren't zero. He constantly remained on high alert, making sure no one knew of his past while also staying strictly out of trouble. Getting discovered and airing all his dirty laundry to his friends and the authorities was the last thing he wanted to happen, but he knew how strict Father Overseer could be about his wants too.
Medkit could confidently say he was quite boring, that was one of his few saving graces. Most inphernals didn't pay him any mind and he wasn't exactly inviting enough to have anyone wanting to stick around. There were special cases of course, he thankfully didn't have to wither away in isolation at Crossroads due to people like Sword but even that was a bit troublesome at times.
There were two big issues holding him back from blending into the background and living a peaceful life in Crossroads, especially one which included zero questions about his secrets and occupation.
Firstly, his gear.
Support-class inphernals weren't too common of a sight, especially when they had healing capabilities like Medkit. Whenever anyone found out about his gear they'd always have questions or favours to ask him, gaining interest when naturally there shouldn't have been any in the first place. He'd considered going by an alias or nickname but the lying would both make him even more suspicious and it'd be incredibly hard to keep up.
Problems would arise if he wanted to join a phight, or if he was unlucky enough to be ambushed and attacked by anyone. His gear was rare and incredibly useful, yes, but there was a reason he'd been forced to adapt to using a pistol alongside his first aid kit.
Secondly, his very suspicious job.
The Church of the True Eye didn't exactly have the greatest reputation among most inphernals. Medkit was very careful about divulging information relating to his worklife, even Sword was completely in the dark about it. He knew that any hint towards it would be a risk both towards himself and those around him.
He opted to simply not talk about what he did, or why he would disappear randomly all the time. Medkit knew this made him seem shady, after all he lived in quite a nice area of Crossroads– people didn't just get lucky and locate enough bux to live in his apartment building, the money obviously had to come from somewhere.
Thankfully, no one had gotten on his case about it yet. Sword and Rocket just happily accepted the fact that he was undeniably shady, the latter seemingly more aware of it than the former. Medkit didn't know if it was Zuka who'd warned Rocket, or if the demon just had a sixth scent for fishy business but either way that wasn't a good sign.
Medkit needed to get a cover-up job as soon as possible.
He wracked his brain for weeks, desperately trying to find a solution. A small voice inside his head constantly nagged at him, reminding him that every single day that passed without a solution was another step closer to someone catching on and inevitably forcing an answer out of him.
The volume of the reminders continued to increase until Medkit finally cracked under the pressure, wandering out into the Crossroads and desperately looking for anything to get his mind off of it.
Like most of the hijinks in his life, things suddenly fell into place once he had a chance encounter with Sword.
“Med? Are you alright?” Sword asked gingerly, catching on to his frazzled state within mere seconds of seeing him.
“Yes, I'm just…” He paused, taking a deep breath to compose himself. “On a walk. What about you?”
Sword nodded in understanding, and Medkit could've personally thanked each and every SFOTH deity for the blessing of his friend not being the type to grill answers out of him.
“I just got out of a phight!” Sword exclaimed cheerily, reaching into his pockets and showing off a decent amount of bux. “We totally won, and I had a lot of fun- uh. Don't tell Venomshank though, heh!”
“That sounds… nice. Congrats.” Medkit tried for a smile, but he'd mostly lost the ability to genuinely produce one of those over the years. Sword never seemed to mind however, making up for it by grinning widely enough to compensate for Medkit's lack of expression.
“Thanks Med! You should join me sometime, it'd be good to get your old bones moving and all,” Sword giggled mischievously, but before Medkit could intervene to address the ridiculousness of that statement, (he was not that old) Sword continued to speak without a care in the world. “I'm actually trying to get something to drink now, for some reason there's never anything good near the arenas so I gotta walk for ages… do you have any water?”
“Oh, actually…” Medkit summoned his gear, retrieving a small water bottle he kept on hand just in case it was ever necessary for a situation– with how often he ventured to Lost Temple, it ended up being a pretty useful thing to keep around. He tossed the bottle over to Sword, and he caught it with no issues before chugging down the contents in seconds.
“Thanks a bunch Med! You don't know how much I needed that.” Sword sighed in contentment, before his eyes shone with some kind of revelation. Medkit watched him dig in his pockets once before, before scrounging up some of his hard earned bux and handing it over to Medkit. “There you go!”
Medkit examined the bills curiously, wondering why such a small gesture had prompted Sword to drop some of his hard earned bux on a whim.
“Why-”
“OH SHOOT!” Sword interrupted loudly, catching a glance at the time from Medkit's wristwatch. “Sorry Med, I gotta get going! Have fun on your walk!”
He dashed away with an obnoxiously wide wave, which Medkit returned in kind.
“Thanks.”
The voice in his head had calmed down after that– as it always did when he spent time with other people - but he found himself fixated on Sword's words, turning the concepts over and over in his mind until he finally came to a groundbreaking revelation.
Medkit knew what he needed to do to fix his undeniable shady behaviour.
Getting a proper job to cover-up his work with the church would be too much of a hassle, and it'd especially interfere with his schedule in ways inconvenient to him and his colleagues. If Father Overseer happened to call him in the middle of a gruelling shift, he would have to make a choice between leaving his cover-up job for suspicious reasons and risking getting laid off, or putting The Church on hold which had the potential to lead to dire consequences.
Neither option was ideal, forcing Medkit to get quite creative with his next steps.
The crisp morning of a brand new day in Crossroads greeted him kindly when he walked outside with a stuffed duffelbag and an irritatingly heavy foldable table, dragging him forward amidst the perplexed stares from passersby.
He eventually reached a relatively empty street, near where most local phights took place yet just far enough away to keep him from getting caught in the crossfire.
Medkit exhaled from relief, dropping the duffelbag and setting the table up before stopping to stretch his weary limbs. He was only half confident in what he was doing, but Medkit had learnt long ago that half confidence was good enough for him to make drastic life choices.
The rest of the process went rather smoothly, which he was thankful for as making mistakes in public would've been rather embarrassing. Medkit set up all the equipment he'd be needing today, laying out the plastic cups, straws, kitchen tools, packets of tiny water bottles, and miscellaneous ingredients he'd organised the night prior.
Finally, he pinned up the large sign he'd drawn up with his minimal art skills, staring at the neatly printed letters with a level of disbelief that surprised him.
‘2$ LEMONADE’
The previous rising star of Blackrock and current irreplaceable asset of The Church of the True Eye was selling lemonade on the street.
Subspace would probably be laughing if he was here to see this now.
Actually, he didn't want to consider what Subspace would be thinking, that time of his life was strictly behind him.
Medkit brushed away the encroaching thoughts, stepping behind the stall and beginning to squeeze the juice out of the lemons he'd brought along in a relatively large sack. He laid out a few cups and divided out the liquid evenly, scooping out measured amounts of sugar to go along with each serving before pouring in a large quantity of water to fill up each cup.
Before he was even done mixing up his current batch, an inphernal walked up with their young child and immediately ordered lemonade for both of them. Medkit was pleasantly surprised by this development, he was half expecting to just stand in the sun for hours with nothing to show for it.
He handed them their lemonade and thanked them kindly for their business, before making more lemonade to replace the ones they'd taken.
The next few hours were much the same, with the occasional customer and the smooth transactions, allowing Medkit ample time to relax whilst also providing him with a surprisingly steady income.
Eventually he heard the thundering voices of Flipside off in the distance, and Medkit curiously watched as they commenced a phight just a hundred or so metres away from where Medkit stood selling lemonade to young inphernals who watched along with glee.
He passively wondered if his strategic positioning would even work, watching along with the steadily growing crowd of curious inphernals interested in the phight but not brave or motivated enough to actually join.
After a few minutes it all came to a close, one side emerging victorious after a hard fought battle including (but not limited to) explosives, mildly comical foul play, and copious amounts of hurled insults. Medkit himself had never really indulged in the local phights, he usually had bigger problems on his plate but just from observing them he could understand why so many inphernals partook in them as a part of their daily routines.
Flipside congratulated the winners and handed out prizes before announcing an intermission, leading to many of the phighters dispersing into the streets and filling the atmosphere with pure energy and excitement. Medkit carefully watched as a large group walked over to his stand, trying to figure out how true his hypothesis had been before he suddenly spotted some familiar faces within the mess.
“We make such a good team, Rocket! Did you see when I totally ambushed that other guy while he was busy focusing on your-”
“Sword. I was literally right there, why wouldn't I remember.” Rocket deadpanned, causing his companion to frown like he'd just been told that he was banned from using his gear for the rest of his life. “Don't look at me like that! Okay, it was pretty cool I will admit, you happy now?”
“Absolutely!” Sword laughed heartily, and Rocket struggled to hide his fond expression as they continued down the street. “Hold on a second…”
Sword suddenly turned and made direct eye conract with Medkit, staring at him with unfiltered shock as he continued to prepare more servings of lemonade.
“Is that… Medkit?!” Sword grabbed onto Rocket's arm without any warning and ran up to the stand, the two inphernals skidding to a stop just before they could collide with Medkit's dutifully organised setup. “You run a lemonade stand?! How come you never told me??!!”
Sword's tone was filled with heartbreak and betrayal as he took in the scene, and Rocket's mouth hung open as he blinked repeatedly as if the stand was some insane hallucination he needed to will away.
“Well yes, I need to make a living somehow.” Medkit explained casually, handing a cup over to a nearby customer and filing away the bux. “Sorry for not telling you, this is a recent development.”
“Hold on! You make a living… selling lemonade?” Rocket questioned doubtfully, his eyebrows raised in suspicion.
“Something like that.” Medkit replied hurriedly, hoping and praying that'd be enough to prevent a full-blown interrogation.
“This is so cool, seriously!” Sword cried excitedly, waving his arms around as he switched between reading the sign and watching Medkit work. His smile suddenly grew exponentially and he actually looked like he was getting emotional, eyes shining with something between pride and gratitude. “Did you… remember me complaining about having nothing to drink after a phight all that time ago…?”
“Yes actually.” Medkit admitted, “It helped me finalise this idea.”
“AWWWW!!!!! You didn't have to!” Sword joyfully turned around to where the other inphernals stood loitering around, cupping his hands around his mouth. “GUYS! HE'S SELLING CHEAP LEMONADE OVER HERE FOR EVERYONE WHO JUST GOT DONE PHIGHTING!!!!”
“And water.” Medkit added helpfully, brushing off his surprise and simply accepting the business Sword was bringing to him out of the pure goodness in his heart.
In what felt like a miracle, a large number of inphernals suddenly gathered up before him, eagerly awaiting their turn to get their hands on something refreshing after breaking a sweat in combat. Medkit watched as the inphernals who'd previously been at each other's throats politely organised themselves into a single file line, chattering happily amongst themselves and getting into petty yet unserious arguments.
“...Wow.” Medkit marvelled quietly, probably showing more emotion than Sword had ever seen throughout their entire friendship. “Thank you, Sword.”
“Oh my SFOTH! You really can make a living out of this, I've never even seen a line like this at my dad's place!” Rocket's jaw had reached the concrete sidewalk at this point, and he stared at the line behind him before quickly shaking his head and turning back towards Medkit. “Alright, we'll both have one each… and can I also have one of those water bottles?”
“Yes.” Medkit scooped some ice into two of the freshly poured cups, snapping the lids on tight and sliding them towards the duo before also retrieving their straws and a singular bottle of water. “That'll be five bux.”
Rocket slowly turned towards Sword, who chuckled nervously and began to scratch his head. “Heh… uh… I forgot my wallet… oops!”
“You just got some bux from the phight, idiot!” Rocket snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at Sword.
“Right! Sorry!” Sword hurriedly reached for his spoils of war, smacking five bux on the table and grinning triumphantly at Rocket. “Here, this is me returning the favour for all the times you bought me stuff in the past!”
Rocket huffed and rolled his eyes, grabbing his half of the order before murmuring “That's nowhere near enough to pay me back but alright.”
“Thanks Med!” Sword grabbed ahold of his drink and stepped out of the growing queue with rocket, “Good luck, we'll let you get back to work now!!!”
And with that Medkit was immediately sucked into a loop of slicing, squeezing, scooping, stirring, and serving, a seemingly endless amount of inphernals showing up to either get a drink or to figure out what the big deal was.
Medkit was not too sure how he got himself in this situation, but he didn't have any time to ponder– he was nothing if not a perfectionist, Medkit would lose a lot of the good will being directed towards him if he suddenly began making mistakes in the middle of an admittedly very simple process.
Soon enough Flipside returned to announce the end of the intermission, and inphernals once again flocked towards them. Funnily enough, a sizeable number of individuals frantically ordered some more lemonade before shooting off to rejoin the phight, some being in such a hutry that they forgot to grab their straws.
Sword and rocket also zoomed away from where they'd been stood, reinvigorated by the promise of bloodshed and probably also the sugar they'd just consumed.
Medkit sighed a little, the tension in his shoulders just barely fading as his customer base dipped to a manageable amount once more. The amount of bux he'd made from this seemingly menial venture was downright unbelievable, he'd somehow both broken even and made a significant amount of profit within just a few hours.
He began to brace himself for the end of the next phight, churning out enough lemonade to feed an entire army of dehydrated soldiers whilst continuing to serve anyone stopping by of their own volition. Medkit was beginning to worry that all this juicing was going to give him carpal tunnel but he was in too deep to give up.
As the timer went off and Flipside announced the winners once again, Medkit prepared for another onslaught. However, before he could get barraged by more inphernals with a taste for sweet and sour, Sword and Rocket ran up to his side once again.
“Hey Med! D'you want any help?” He asked, pure sincerity on his features. It felt like the heavens had parted to offer him some grace after a particularly stormy day, Medkit had never felt more grateful for having Sword in his life.
“Do either of you want to keep squeezing the lemons?” Medkit raised up the juicer and a freshly cut lemon, and Sword immediately perked up in excitement.
“Sure!” He immediately took the tools from Medkit and began blitzing the lemon pulp at unbelievable speeds, and Rocket jumped in to actually make the lemonade. Together they formed an extremely chaotic yet efficient assembly line, and Medkit couldn't help but be impressed.
“Don't worry, I'll handle everything else! I know what I'm doing.” Rocket affirmed, probably preparing to put the skills Zuka had taught him to good use. “Go take a break Medkit, you look exhausted.”
“Okay…” Medkit nodded slowly, watching as inphernals crowded in from the corner of his eye. “Thank you, I'll be back soon.”
“Don't worry, we got this gramps! Go get some rest!” Sword proclaimed, gently shooing him away as the pair fell into a steady rhythm just as Medkit had been doing previously. He was almost too mesmerised by the display to step away, but eventually the aching in his bones won over and he stepped away from the fray.
Medkit wandered the nearby streets until he found a relatively hidden and untouched washroom, tumbling in through the door and shambling towards the sink.
He turned on the water and washed his hands, the cold water rejuvenating his senses and wiping away the sweat that'd been bothering him for ages. He briefly looked in the mirror, assessing his appearance and being mildly surprised by how different he seemed.
He'd ditched his heavy coat and rolled up his sleeves at some point, optimising everything to allow him to work more efficiently with less standing in his way. The look was surprisingly different, especially when paired with his mildly dishevelled appearance.
Rocket was right, he really did look exhausted beyond belief. The last time Medkit had worked up this much of a sweat must've been back when he worked for Blackrock, and even then the biting cold always helped to make him look significantly more put together than he'd actually been.
There was something fulfilling about the feeling sizzling through his body.
Helping people always came naturally to him due to his gear, but this was different. It felt fresh and new, like a cold glass of water on a particularly hot day. As tired as Medkit was, he couldn't imagine never doing this again.
He took in a few deep breaths, before washing his face and stepping back out into the chaotic streets of Crossroads.
It was beginning to get dark. As he walked back to his stand he noted how Flipside seemed to have gone on break, but he didn't know how to determine if it was a short break or if they'd simply had enough for the day. Either way, it indicated that business had probably slowed down since he'd left.
Turning the corner to see what Sword and Rocket had been up to, he found the pair locked into meaningless banter as the area cleared and inphernals seemed to start heading home for the day.
“Hey Med!! How was your break?” Sword asked cheerily, still squeezing the juice out of the lemons as if they owed him bux.
“Good.” He answered plainly, watching as Rocket organised his ridiculous amount of bux into strategic stacks before returning them to Medkit's duffelbag.
“You should get a register or something, Medkit, there's way too many thieves out here for you to be comfortable just stuffing it in one of the pockets here…” Rocket commented, zipping up the bag and brushing himself off.
“That's true, I'll think about it.” Medkit strolled up to join them behind the stand, and they both finally broke out of their rhythmic flow of labour. “It's getting quite late, you two should go home.”
“Yeah… I hope Venomshank doesn't ask why I was out so late today.” Sword chuckled, an uncharacteristically nervous edge in his voice. He seemed to harbour it everytime he spoke about his mentor, especially when the potential to upset or disappoint him came up.
“My dad's never gonna believe this.” Rocket mused, before patting Sword on the shoulder. “Medkit, could we both get some lemonade to go? I think we're gonna need some proof here!”
“Ooh!! Good idea Rocket!” Sword cried, every ounce of worry in his body flying away in an instant.
“Of course.” Medkit reached out to hand them some of the lemonade they'd been painstakingly working on to give him the honour of rest. “You don't have to pay, I think you've both earned that.”
“Aw, sweet!” Sword celebrated, and Rocket followed suit. They both grabbed their belongings and began to walk away bidding their goodbyes.
For a moment Medkit wondered if he needed to pay them but they were gone before he could even reach for the bux he'd earned that day.
As the sky continued to darken, more inphernals retired to nearby bars and restaurants, bantering and laughing with friends as the day came to a sweet close. Medkit began to pack up the stand, serving the last few customers who passed by while also preparing to go home.
Before he could fully declare the stand closed, one final inphernal stopped by.
“Hey! Sorry, I know I'm late.” The inphernal sprinted up at unimaginable speeds, “Could I get three- no, four lemonades to go? Uh- I can pay extra since youre closing up!”
“Okay.” Medkit agreed, deciding that just a little more work couldn't hurt.
He gave the inphernal their cup, allowing them to drink whilst preparing the rest of their order. Medkit's pace had significantly slowed down after the busy afternoon he'd had but he couldn't be bothered to care anymore, especially with how understanding the other inphernal was.
“This is pretty good!” The inphernal remarked, before glancing up at Medkit with a very serious expression. “Do you have a permit?”
A pause.
“I need a permit?” Genuine confusion embedded itself within Medkit, as the realisation that he had most likely been doing something illegal all day struck him.
“Ohh boy...” The inphernal chuckled, “Thank Illumina I got to you first.”
“How can I get a permit?” Medkit enquired, finishing up the rest of the inphernals order and sliding it over to them. He'd never really worked in food service, so he'd simply never thought about what he'd actually need to legally run a business without being at risk of being kicked away to the banlands. Medkit could see the irony of him being imprisoned for selling lemonade over literally everything else he'd ever done in his life, but it was not an appropriate time to dwell on that thought.
“How about this? Come to Thieves’ Rest tomorrow morning and I'll help you get one.” He picked up the three other lemonades, somehow finding a way to juggle all of them with no issue. “My name's Slingshot by the way! It's nice to meet another fellow business owner.”
“I'm Medkit.” He replied, mulling over the offer in his head before landing on the obvious answer. “That's very kind of you, what time should I arrive?”
“Around seven, before we open fully.” Slingshot grinned slyly, “I'll get everything sorted for you in no time, don't even worry!”
“Thank you, I'll see you tomorrow then Slingshot.” Medkit concluded, and the other inphernal jumped up and began to… fly away?
“Cya tomorrow! Bye Medkit!” Slingshot vanished into the night, leaving him alone once more.
Medkit finally managed to finish putting everything away, stuffing his duffelbag as it'd been that very morning and folding up the table. He noted that he probably needed to wipe it down once he got home, but for the moment he was strangely happy.
He began his slow yet steady walk home, watching as the sky filled with stars above him. Medkit couldn't help but think about how content he felt after his hard day of work, realising that he somehow felt more fulfilled than he felt after spending his time with The Church.
That was something he could think about later though, there was no reason to ruin such a nice night.