Chapter Text
Sitting in the middle of her apartment, Belle had a strange time trying to sort through paperwork. Normally it was just a little boring, but necessary for the library. There just wasn't usually a greasy, vaguely cheesy smell in her living room while she did, well anything, ever.
She noticed it early on into starting on some forms she needed done soon, first she thought she must've been hungry and her mind was playing tricks on her.
Now, nearly an hour later, Belles had enough. She tossed her pen down, quickly standing up to walk downstairs. She didn't know what to expect, her neighbors weren't really the type to cook anything this obnoxiously.
Every step she took down the old stairs of this ancient building, it was a more familiar scent now. Pizza. Pizza?
Finally reaching the bottom floor, Belle stood stunned. In front of her was suddenly a fully operating pizzeria
She had to be dreaming. She must've noticed this be in progress before today.
There was a boy in his late teens waiting tables, a man from behind a bar sliding pizzas into a massive oven, a couple people scattered throughout what Belle remembered to be her apartments forever empty lobby.
To add to the bizarre nature of this, an older man came rushing out of a back room, tossing her out her perplexed state.
"Henry! What are you doing? Get her a table!" He yelled at the waiter Belle took note of earlier and gestured at her.
"Who?-"
"Oh! Sorry, I'm not a customer.. I live upstairs." Belle cut off whatever Henry was trying to say. Thankfully he didn't seem to mind and sped walked back into the kitchen.
"You're already here, you may as well grab a table now. Pizzas half off for residents." He hardly looked at her while he spoke, and by the sound of it he wasn't thrilled about the discount he advertised to her. Although he did at least smile.
Belle only nodded in response, at last moving from the staircase to a table near the bar separating the rest of the room from the kitchen.
Even though she wasn't really thrilled about how pizza smelled, it was oddly comforting now that she knew what was flooding her apartment.
Shit she had so much paperwork to do.
Just as her waiter— Henry— was approaching her, Belle rushed a quick "excuse me" and ran back up to finish her work. Leaving what she could only imagine to be a very annoyed waiter behind.
During her usual walk of the heights, Tilly slowed down next to a building emitting an almost aggressive pizza scent. She peered through a small window, quickly taking note of the layout she could make out from the view before backing away. The open sign on its front door said in giant letters, "open everyday: 10am-10pm."
Walking off, and continuing on her regular route, Tilly reached into her pockets to check her wallet. Sent a swift prayer before she opened it. Aaaaand nothing. Great. She'd have to wait another hour or so to sneak in there.
Or pick pocket some unfortunate soul. In either case, she'd have to be patient for the right moment.
Though, everyone she saw happened to be in cars. Hyperion Heights wasn't exactly a big, bustling city, but it's daily evening traffic was a pain. Even for a chronic pedestrian. Especially for a chronic pedestrian actually. She could hardly go a couple blocks without some asshole honking at her to walk faster.
HONKK
Great, right on time. Tilly sighed and sped up for the hundredth time today.
A block later, she slid back into an auto-pilot state. Blocking out most noise, and letting herself lose track of time. There hadn't been much to do other than this lately, sure it was peaceful but God was it annoying.
It'd be nice to actually do something one of these days.
Lost in her head, Tilly eventually rounded back to the pizzeria she passed earlier. It seemed to be closed.
Now, obviously it had to be locked, but there was no harm in checking if it wasn't. She twisted the doorknob, pushed, clo-
Oh. Who the hell leaves a restaurant unlocked?
There was a good bit of light sneaking in from the street lamps. So far she couldn't spot anyone in here. She made her way to the bar she'd seen earlier. Walking behind it she spotted a staircase across the kitchen entrance, probably the owners living upstairs.
She had to be fast if that was the case, Tilly opened the oven first in hopes there'd be a forgotten pizza. There wasn't. Obviously there'd be something in the freezer but she didn't want to wait and haul it to her place.
Tracing her back her steps, she saw an employees only door. What the hell with this places lack of security there's no way it was locked.
In some tragic, frustrating twist of fate, it was locked. If she weren't trying to steal from this restaurant she'd actually be concerned for whoever was on closing shifts.
She huffed and kneeled to start picking the lock. It wasn't her best skill, but she wasn't awful at it. A couple tries later she finally heard a click. Opening the door, the room behind it already had its lights turned on. It seemed to be a rather plain break room.
But by some kind of blessing, a pizza box laid on a small table. Rushing towards it, Tilly found half a pizza. She picked off a slice and midbite heard someone coming down the steps. Fuck.
She didn't have enough time to run out before she saw an old, miserable looking man come in. They stared at each other for a second in shock.
"Did you sneak into my restaurant, and not steal my money..?" Tilly nodded, still eating the slice she grabbed, "Take the pizza and get out. It's too late for this crap." He waved her off and went back upstairs.
She almost said something to him, but the last few minutes have been increasingly confusing. She didn't need to make it worse by asking any questions.
Tilly did as that weird old man said, she took the pizza and left. Horrible business man if you asked her. But at least he was kind.