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The room was dimly lit, the lamps in the room giving a soft, orange glow in OJ’s office. OJ felt so drained from the day, and was currently burying himself in leftover paperwork just to take his mind off of everything. Doing more work to get rid of stress didn’t really seem to make sense, but it’s what worked for him. Most of the time anyway.
The peaceful quiet was abruptly interrupted as someone knocked on the door. OJ frowned a little; he was enjoying the silence but nevertheless, he knew it’d only be a matter of time before someone came to bother him again.
“Come in.” OJ said aloud as a sigh followed, not really up to talking to anyone at the moment but he wasn’t doing anything urgently important anyway.
To his dismay, he looked up to see Mephone poking his head through the door, a stupid grin on his digital face. OJ internally held himself back from instantly kicking him out.
“How’s my favourite winnerrr?” Mephone singsonged, stepping into OJ’s office with his hands kept suspiciously hidden behind his back, his foot nudging the door closed as he came in. “God, why’s it so dark in here? I can barely see anything,” He huffed, flicking the lightswitch beside the door and practically blinding OJ as the bright white light instantly flashed the whole room.
OJ groaned slightly in annoyance, shutting his eyes for a moment to let himself process the artificial light suddenly attacking his eyes.
“.. Mephone, I am not in the mood for whatever this is.” He replied in an irritated tone, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes. As he slipped them back on, he glanced behind the robot, noticing that he was holding something. “What is that? Are you up to something because—“
“Relax, I come in peace.” Mephone grinned, stepping closer to the dark oak desk that stood between him and the very exhausted hotel manager.
“.. Huh?” OJ blinked.
“What do you mean ‘huh’??” Mephone responded, his eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Come on, I’m trying to be nice here. I’ve got a peace offering for you.”
“A peace offering? For what?” OJ questioned, leaning back in the office chair as he looked up at Mephone.
Mephone moved his hands away from his back, revealing a medium plastic container that appeared to be filled with chocolate chip cookies. He had a dumb little smirk on his face, acting like he just solved one of OJ’s biggest problems. OJ glanced between the container and Mephone as he placed the plastic box on the desk.
“I know we’ve had our.. ups and downs lately, and I can tell you still sort of maybe dislike me but- I just wanted to clear the air, you know?” Mephone explained in a bit of a ramble, a slight guilty look on his face as he reminded himself of all the times he’s pissed OJ off.
“Where did you even get these from?”
“Um, I made them? Duh..”
“Who let you back into the kitchen??”
“Jeez! Can’t I just do something nice for once?” Mephone huffed, crossing his own arms. “And paintbrush was there.” he added.
“.. So, to clarify, you think a bunch of inedible cookies can make up for locking people in a mystery room in my hotel for weeks without my knowledge?” OJ remarked, giving a stiff smile that didn’t exactly seem happy or forgiving.
“First of all, they’re not inedible. Well, this time at least, I tried a different recipe and even got some taste testers!” Mephone said proudly in defence, reaching over to take off the lid of the container, nudging it closer to OJ to try and convince the manager to at least try one. “And second.. um, well, okay I can’t exactly defend that- but I thought we were over that!”
OJ glared at him, not very impressed at his feigned innocence. As he lifted the plastic lid, the pleasant, warm scent of freshly baked cookies emerged from the container. It was a little surprising, especially since his first impression of Mephone’s baking was an absolutely horrible memory he wished he’d forgotten.
OJ let out a sigh, knowing Mephone wouldn’t leave him alone until he tried one, so he picked up a cookie and hesitantly lifted it to his mouth. He felt a bit awkward noticing how intently he was being watched by the robot, but nevertheless he finally took a bite.
After a few seconds of chewing, OJ’s tense expression relaxed a little. Mephone felt nervous for some reason, hoping that was a positive reaction. “Soo..?”
“It’s.. decent.”
“Decent? Really? I work my ass off in that kitchen just for you to call them decent?” Mephone joked lightly, but he could tell that OJ meant a lot more than just ‘decent’.
“They’re just chocolate chip cookies. For all I know you could’ve just generated them,” He shrugged, taking another bite. He didn’t want to admit it just yet, but it might be the best thing he’s ever tasted.
Mephone grinned again, seeing right through OJ’s little nonchalant act. He let out a faked, exaggerated sigh, “Well, if you don’t like them then I guess I’ll have to take them back..” Mephone drawled dramatically with a teasing lilt, reaching to take the container back, but OJ’s hand quickly snatched it before he could grab it.
“I didn’t say that.” OJ replied firmly, snatching the container as if he was guarding them with his life. His face subtly blushed, not meaning to reply so defensively.
“I.. ugh, they’re good, alright? Is that what you wanna hear?” He admitted with a stubborn tone, yet he couldn’t help but smile a little.
Mephone didn’t need to hear anything else. He felt an odd sense of relief and satisfaction at OJ’s reply, he knew that it’d still take a while for them to be fully okay again but he’d take this small victory for now.
“Enjoy, OJ,” He said softly. He slowly pulled himself away from the desk and gave the hotel manager one last grin as he exited the room.
“Idiot,” OJ laughed quietly to himself as he was left alone in his office once again, admiring the little gift from Mephone left on his desk.