Work Text:
Joe
“So there’s a layer of dust on everything, but the window wasn’t broken in, so I’ll take it!” Joe declared cheerily.
“So glad that won’t have to come out of the budget.” Cleo’s voice was tinny over the speaker of his phone as he wandered his way around the tables of the Hyper Shack. A psychedelic mess of colors on the walls, crazed and brilliant…the countertops were dusty, and some of the chairs had fallen, the paintings or photos on the walls had gone down from the quakes…but nothing an afternoon of work wouldn’t fix.
“Ah, would the program have helped foot the bill?”
“Only because I like you so much, Joe.”
“Hahaha! I’ll bet!”
The man circled around the countertop and knelt, gently brushing away the grass to pull a photo of the Hyper Shack’s opening day free, the frame was broken.
But he could buy a new frame.
“The school is gonna kick off semester again starting tomorrow, I hear, so I better go. Gotta get to work getting ready, I mean, I still haven’t even done inventory!”
“I can get on that.”
Joe lowered the phone and popped his head up to see past the countertop.
Standing in the doorway in his favored black, a cardigan tied around his waist and a tired smile on his face…was Hypno.
“HEY!” Joe exclaimed, shooting to his feet and nearly slipping on the broken glass before he steadied himself on the countertop.
“I gotta go Cleo, I’ll call later!”
“Good luck, Joe!”
He hung up and scrambled around the countertop.
“Hypno! You got back ok! I’m so glad to see ya!”
“Back at you, boss,” Hypno replied, smiling tiredly.
“You look pretty beat…and classes kick back tomorrow, you sure you wanna work? You don’t have too, I’m a pretty good one-man team, y’know!”
“Yeah, but…two heads are better than one. And I wanna make sure you don’t forget to order anything that I have to explain to customers tomorrow.” Came Hypno’s dry response, and Joe’s grin was brilliant.
He pushed up his diamond blue glasses on his face and spun on his toe once.
“Happy to have ya then, my friend! Let’s get to work!”