Chapter Text
Shuriken hadn't been particularly close with Coil. Although Coil had been a regular at the Café, the guy only really came to the place just to banter on and on with Slingshot, and of course: get his regular coffee.
Yet, today Shuriken had been asked to work at the register this time, Sling needed to run some errands today, so Shuriken would only have Vine to keep him company, which of course was nice but she's a lot at times, especially when Shuriken had been on a streak with his vigilante work, and had found himself to be quite irritable today.
The day was going on fine though, thankfully it was slow today and the only customers of note were Skateboard and Boombox coming in together, and Shuriken was hoping that it'd continue being an easy day, taking orders, Vine helping him with said order, customer is happy, get paid. Easy enough.
Is what Shuriken would've thought for the rest of the day if his luck hadn't betrayed him. Just as he thought that he'd been safe from any mishaps, a certain orange inphernal just had to waltz in like he owned the place. Shuriken had grimaced for a split second before mindlessly masking his face with a (hopefully) not crooked grin.
"Welcome in! What would you like to order today?" Shuriken began tapping his fingers on the counter, attempting to focus his mind on something else instead of working himself up over someone like him…
"Knew you'd say that." Coil had a indescribable look on his face as he tapped on his chin, looking up at the menu.
Seriously?
"I want an iced Mocha."
Shuriken scribbled something down on a notepad.
"Alright—"
"No, Greenie. I'm not done. I want two cubes of sugar, with an extra shot of caffeine. And of course, drizzle some cara—mel over that as well."
"Right. That'll be-"
"Oh, and give me some extra whipped cream too."
Jeez, how extra can this guy get. Somehow Shuriken was even more annoyed than how he was last night when struggling to pick off that Biograft that wouldn't get off his tail. Though, thinking about that…he did need to redress those wounds he had from that later.
"As I was saying… that'll be around ~6.57 bux."
Coil rummaged through his wallet, and just ended up handing Shuriken 7 bux instead.
"Keep the change, pretty boy. You guys are quite generous here."
Shuriken rolled his eyes at that, wondering how Sling manages to deal with this so often. He grabbed the money, promptly shoving it into the register, basically drowning whatever else this bum had to say by focusing his inner noise on the pop music that had been loudly playing on the cafés speakers. This time around Vinestaff had gotten to choose a playlist, the song playing at the moment was some sort of EDM-Funk sort of thing, which was the usual when she'd gotten playlist privileges.
Knocking him out of that state though, was Vine herself. Poking at Shuriken and swiftly stealing his notepad that he'd written the order on, along with Shuriken himself, dragging him to the backroom.
"Hey, Shuri? Do you need me to take over for a bit? You seem…out of it, I should say."
"Ah, sorry…this guy just—…I don't get how Sling puts up with him."
"Hey, it's okay! I'll handle it from here, you can just take a break, alright?"
Shuriken nodded, thanking Vine as she went out and finished his order. He was not excited for the rest of the day…or night for that matter, but he'd have to endure, especially for the safety of his family.
After a semi-reasonable amount of time, Shuriken had been restless enough, and he was done with his own thoughts. So he decided to get up from his break to join Vine again, hoping that Coil would be gone, or atleast drinking his coffee outside.
And, thankfully he was infact gone, so Shuriken was adept on the fact that his day would from now on go perfectly, or as perfect as it can be and-with the help of Vinestaff of course, it'd be good enough. They had swapped their positions for the time being, mostly due to Shuriken hardly being able to pay attention anymore. But at that point, it wouldn't be long before closing time anyways, so it was easy enough to tune out the rest of the day, get an order, mix, brew, occasionally make a 'unique' order, repeat.
—
By the time his shift was over, Slingshot hadn't been back yet like he said he would. Shuriken had tried to text him earlier about, but that hadn't really worked out well either. Now, Shuriken hadn't been planning to go out as The Silver Shadow tonight, and he was actually planning on taking a day off from that stuff, but it'd been a few hours since Sling was supposed to be back, and Shuriken almost hated to admit that to himself, but he'd been really worried for him as of lately- mostly unrelated to this though, as it was more of an overworking issue, but still, Shuriken felt that he needed to do something.
Later that night, he geared up for the excursion, making sure to send another text (or a few) to Sling in hopes that maybe he'd just left his phone on silent. He made sure to keep his phone in close proximity the whole time as he finished packing the basics, but not as heavy as he usually did—since he didn't actually plan on Phighting anything tonight.
Shuriken left a note on the fridge for Vine, saying something like he was going out to hang out with a friend, and if he didn't return to not be worried, like he always did when he went ot as his persona. At this point it was a norm for him though, so he didn't really have to, but he always did feel the need to- just incase.
Shuriken started by swinging around the crossroads, though he didn't really think that Sling would be there, he made sure to check anyways, as maybe he just got caught up with someone?
Of course he wouldn't be in the crossroads, but Shuriken did find something else interesting, that definitely spun him off-track, specifically near an alleyway close to Blackrock's entrance. A group of decommisioned Biografts , and alongside it? Coil. He seemed to be tearing one open, dissecting it- like something Subspace would do, but to an actual Inphernal.
Shuriken swung closer, to a building besides the alleyway, dropping down perfectly on his feet. He creeped closer, slightly peeking over a corner to try and get a good look at what was actually happening, not actually expecting to get noticed or anything.
He watched as this guy picked at a Biograft's insides, carelessly throwing parts that he deemed junk towards further out the alley, as he continued ripping through the Biograft, picking at it wire-by-wire…like he was looking for something in specific. It was almost mezmerizing. Shuriken leaned in closer from where he had been hiding, opting to climb up the wall just to get another closer look. As he did Coil seemingly found what he had been looking for, judging by the fact that as soon as he grabbed the 'thing', he kicked the bot as hard as he could onto the hard wall.
Shuriken finally got a look at what Coil had been chasing for…and it was a crystal..? Biografts have those? With how cheap they looked, he'd always just assumed that they ran on batteries, or something equally as stupid to power them.
As Shuriken's thoughts dissipated, he realized that he needs to actually go back and focus on his actual objective, looking for Slingshot. But first, he'd check his phone to see if maybe Sling finally texted back yet. And to his suprise, when he pulled out his phone—which he had a phone case appropriately decorated to match his awesome outfit as a 'identity-safety-precaution'—he saw that he actually did have a notification from Slingshot!!
- - - Sling 🐾 - 9:38 PM - - -
— "Hey, I'm sorry I wasn't able to get back today, I'll probably be gone tommorow too. Something came up- and I need more time to finish my errands, sorry but you and Vine will need to take over for me once again 3': —
Shuriken's face lit up behind the mask knowing that his brother was okay, he turned his phone back off, planning to respond later while he wasn't wearing gloves that would most definitely hinder his typing abilities.
Shuriken looked up after putting his phone away, and he was met with a quite amused Coil infront of him. Who was smirking directly at him.
Shit.