Chapter Text
It had taken a while, but Ten had finally found a job.
Not only that, but it was a pretty fancy job, too. La Gueule de Saturne, the restaurant that Ten had been hired to work at. It was French for.. something..? Ten hadn’t bothered to do much research on it. All he cared about was the fact that he could start to pay his bills.
And, at last, buy his girlfriend something nice.
For a while, Ten had been dating Seventeen, a light pink Algebralien who, like Ten, lived in the Equation Playground. It was almost their one-year anniversary, so Ten wanted to get Seventeen a thoughtful gift. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a job, so he never had the money to buy her anything special.
But that all changed once he secured a job to some restaurant he couldn’t even pronounce the name to. The place looked quite sophisticated, very old-timey. And in Ten’s book, those words meant “money”.
The place was a quick drive (on bike, Ten didn’t own a car yet) away from his house. He officially started Monday.
It was currently Sunday night. He was not ready in the slightest.
Ten decided he should go to sleep early, so he had enough energy for the day ahead. He did have to wake up pretty early, after all. As he laid down on his sofa, he gave a quick glance to the telephone that sat on his coffee table.
He called Seventeen every night. Most nights, she never picked up. On the rare occasion she did pick up, she would only talk for a few minutes at most, and then would make up an excuse as to why she couldn’t call for any longer.
Ten sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. He reached for the phone part, dialing Seventeen’s number as he mumbled a silent prayer to himself that she would answer.
No such luck.
He placed the telephone back on the coffee table, staring at it for a moment. Before he could dwell on it, he sunk back down into his makeshift bed. He closed his eyes, his breathing began to steady.
He just needed some sleep.
…
Ten woke up at 5:00 A.M. the next morning. He blinked his eyes awake, stretching as he got up from the sofa.
He brushed his hair, combing through the knots with his fingers. He threw on his work uniform and grabbed his bike, sighing as he looked at it. His work wasn’t all that far, he could easily bike there.
A few minutes later, Ten was finally at the restaurant. He jumped off his bike and ran inside.
He looked around, taking the place in. There were a few booths, as well as a couple tables. There was a door that he could only guessed went to the kitchen area, and-
“Ahem.”
Ten whipped around. Now in front of him stood another Algebralien, one who was a bit taller than Ten. He had long, dark green hair and pale skin, as well as eyes that could only be described as “tired”.
“Oh-, hi!” Ten gave the man a quick look-over. Judging his outfit, Ten could only guess that he was the chef, which meant that he was also Ten’s boss.
“I’m guessing that you’re our new employee?” The man spoke in a monotone voice. Ten nodded, suddenly intimidated. He couldn’t tell why, though.
“I’m your boss, Fourteen. I’m also the owner and head chef of this place. As I’m hoping you already know, you’ll be serving our customers as a waiter. Now, follow me.” Fourteen motioned his head in the direction towards the doors of the kitchen area. Ten followed close behind him.
“Uh, where are we going..?” Ten asked, scratching his head.
Fourteen replied in a bored tone. “I’m showing you around.” He pushed the doors open, looking behind him to make sure Ten was still there. “This is the kitchen.” He pointed towards another door. “That door leads to the dumpster, which is also where you will need to throw out trash. Besides that is the dining room, which I’m sure you’ve already seen. There’s also the freezer room, of course, but you won’t be working with that. So pay it no mind.”
Ten nodded, taking in the information he was being given. It all seemed.. simple enough. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. But he wasn’t counting on it.
“So, Chef Fourteen, When do I start?” Ten asked, looking back at his boss.
“Soon.” The green-haired man. replied. “Follow me into the dining room, and we can get you started.”