Work Text:
There was a light presence of breeze on this Monday afternoon as the janitor found himself sitting outside, on a warm, well-preserved bench by the harbor. Eating his slabby home-made sandwich made from day-old bread, warm salad cream, and large flaps of lettuce. Clouds were present above him, so he didn’t have to worry about stinging sweat on the top of his head or having to bring a pair of sunglasses to combat the blinding light of the Sun.
This outside environment he easily found peace in smelled of wet grass. Well, that was due to the fact that the bench was obviously put in front of a patch of grass, the sprinklers turning off just minutes before he found the time to sit there. On his left brandished a view of the base’s academy, where little girls with odd uniforms ran around playing, some resting under the shade, very much like him. Excluding the sandwich.
And on his right side had the view of some warships, some being cleaned, whilst others just sitting there. As a janitor, he didn’t have much access to the information on how these warships turn into literal humans, and vice versa. All he knew was that whatever human form they used, they were visually pleasing. Like supermodels. More than supermodels, he thought. Alien supermodels which were hundreds or decades of years old. He’d seen some of them on posters, kind of like propaganda for the Navy, where young men were encouraged to join as a pretty woman in a formal navy uniform was plastered on the piece of paper, a rifle’s barrel resting on her shoulder as she marched with glee.
Some of them had pleasing, simple personalities, while others were more dramatic towards life. Others made themselves look like warmongers, but behind the scenes they were like kittens. He knew that many people joined only to see the pretty women working beside them. He knew what atrocities they had planned, or thought about when a fresh batch of new, ill-mannered group of young adults had come out of the transport vehicles, only to see them beat and force into respecting their superiors, which had undoubtedly worked. He would always laugh as they would struggle and break down through the thorough course of military exercise. Or how they would pretend to be deaf as the blaring mega-weapons of the battleships would fire blanks as part of the program.
He heard the gravel beside him rustle. Even as he aged his hearing could detect the tiny rocks on the ground roughly move and scrape around. “Hey, William?”
William was his name. A simple one, really. At his school, there would average three of the same students with the same name. He didn’t care, though.
He turned around, and there stood a higher-up. Three lines and a star was present on his sleeve’s patch. He didn’t know what those ranks meant, neither did he care enough to learn any of them. “Yeah…?”
The military man gave his hands a look, right before staring back into his eyes.
“You know, I could get you something better to eat.” He took a small moment to scratch the back of his head, like he was nervous that he was not being sensitive about his situation. “O-only if you want to, though.”
William shook his head, though. He smiled at both the man and the food item he had in his hands. “Maybe later. But I know that you’re here for something else, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” He looked at him bluntly. He wondered how people like him could enjoy greens on flappy bread. “There’s a big spill in my office, and I can’t really find a way to get rid of it.”
He nodded, taking one last bite of his food before he put the very little piece of sandwich left in his lunchbox. “Sure. I’ll be there.”
The man in the formal attire shot him a toothless smile, before walking back through the same gravel path that led him to the janitor. With this, he carried his little zip-loc bag and stuffed it in his left pocket, the pocket that had no zipper on it so he could easily access the sandwich when there was time for rest.
He followed the man in front of him, observing that he had been walking lazily with a slouch for the duration of the trip. He didn’t find anything wrong with it though. He would always listen to his chatters about how hard work was and how he was a victim of multiple near-death situations on the battlefield. By this, he didn’t eavesdrop. When he would talk to a friend, whether ship, human, or an animal, he would always bring a conversation about such. He had only heard a handful of them, but it was enough to tell him that his current posture was to be related to his situation.
Alas, he found himself walking through the doorway, greeted to a light laugh from a petite girl sitting on his couch, the smell of oranges and window cleaner lingered through. Within seconds, he had found why he had needed his assistance: multiple flower pots had fallen from their shelves, leaving a good amount of soil and water to spread across the room.
“Hm.” William stood away from the giant puddle in front of him, just so he could avoid an accident and leave footprints on his floor. “I’ll be back. Just stay away from the puddle so you can avoid leaving water on your step.
The petite girl stood up, hopping with glee as she eyed the two men in front of her. “Hah, a janitor giving orders to the Admiral. Now I’ve seen it all.”
The visibly disturbed man pulled her by her hair. It was white. Many girls William had seen around his workplace brandished unusual hair colors. She was no exception to him. “Hush… Vampire, that’s not how we treat people here!”
She fired back, rubbing her head in response. “Whaaat? I find it pretty funny!”
“Be more sensitive! Don’t just say that out loud!”
William thought it would be a waste of his time watching the show they had presented to him. Hence his departure, walking through the same doorway quietly, still hearing them argue as the door was still left wide open. Another day at work, he’d tell himself right in the dome.
Good thing a supply post was near him. A small warehouse filled with cleaning supplies and whatever. Some would go there to take cleaning supplies for themselves, while most would just drop by to get something to clean up a mess. He always found those who took supplies annoying, even calling them ‘rats’ at one point.
A creak of the door came up and he was in. As usual, there was a person or two inside, one of which was struggling to reach the higher shelves, clearly afraid to use a stool or a ladder as she wore those funny looking heels. He wanted to suggest taking them off, but he thought that it wasn’t really the heels that made her struggle, rather it was the fear of falling to the ground.
He quickly gathered a vacuum cleaner you can put on your back, and a bucket filled with disinfectant water and a mop attached to its side. It was back to the office, as he thought. That was until he realized that she was still there, struggling to get what looked like a spray bottle.
From there, he could read out what it said on the label. “Kitchen Degreaser” it wrote. Perhaps she was one of those working at the restaurants. Maybe she needed it for home, or maybe she was volunteering in the school’s kitchen. He didn’t want to ask. He had a task to do, and all he needed to do was to help her, not engage in small talk.
She noticed his presence, stepping aside to awkwardly smile at him, clearly showing the frustration she had trying to get the bottle into her hands. “Hey… uh-”
Before she could say anything, he took it down the shelf and gave it to her with a blank expression. He had expected a warm ‘thank you’ from her, and indeed it did happen as they locked eyes for a short period of time, watching her slowly bring up a smile while speaking her gratitude as he stood there, trying to return one back. It was short-lived, though as he turned back around, immediately dropping the smile into a straight face.
And off he went back to the Admiral’s office, where he immediately got started with whatever he found necessary, first plugging the vacuum cleaner into the nearest outlet he could find, before turning it on and getting into work, first pointing the vacuum towards the huge pile of soil, before sweeping whatever leftover layer of soil was in the ground, right before mopping the puddle away, constantly wringing and maneuvering the stick left and right.
He found this to be no hard task, easily completing it in a minute or two, and with this the Admiral shot him a smile of gratitude, thanking him while shaking his hand. Had he noticed the petite girl had left, thinking that she didn’t want to apologize for her insensitive joke from earlier. Well, he understood, after all, he had dealt with worse.
This was the moment where he was to return all the equipment and go back to the same spot to rest. Or maybe stroll around the area, keeping an eye out on anyone who needed help. He would do it maybe once or twice a day, but most of the time, he’d be greeted very kindly by the residents and the alien-like girls of the place. Sure, there were many other janitors to do that, but he’d like it if he interacted with one as he walked through.
“Mister, mister!” A very young voice echoed right behind him, noticing that no one else was close to him, he turned to where the noise came from.
William found two little girls, the uniforms clearly from the academy. He knew that these girls were also part of the war, seeing some of them boast smaller guns attached to their hips compared to the more mature looking women around. One had natural looking brown hair, while the other had a soft green hue to it. Of course she had them, he spoke to himself.
They cheerfully jumped in front of him, the childish joy radiating around him. “We have a gift for you!”
He bent down to their height, smiling only very faintly as they took him by his hands, eager to pull him along. A surprise, he thought to himself. How nice of them to give one to him.
And so, he found himself following the girls, struggling to keep his hands around theirs as they were drastically shorter than he was. He struggled to keep the same posture that kept him walking with them, but he decided to persevere. From there, bystanders took a moment to chuckle at the sight, some being the magic transforming girls, while others being other workers keeping the Port around and working.
They had soon walked slower, and came to a full stop. Multiple girls were found with a shocked impression on their faces, some heard grunting and some exiting the doorway with an exhausted face. This was no good news to him, but after all, it was his job as a janitor to keep those away. Maybe it was a mess by those two little girls who escorted him there? He didn’t know, but he was eager to find out.
A brunette woman turned to the two little girls with a disappointed face, right before switching into a face of relief as she locked eyes with William. “Ah, thank goodness you’re here. There’s a big mess in there, and I don’t even know who did this, class didn’t even start yet and-”
He bluntly walked past the girl who was spewing out words randomly, before entering the room, eyes pulled wide open, a feat he had never done since his mid-thirties. A growing shock stood by him as he scratched his head from the top, the other girls soon followed suit as they entered and stood right behind him, showing nothing but shock.
The room had been trashed. Tables on the floor and chairs right on the desktop, some even on the floor as well. The chalkboard was spotted on the floor, the screws that held it on the wall looked as if it fell off, leaving only holes on the wall. The trash can emptied right beside it, and paint supplies were spilled on the floor, the brushes mangled as if they were used toothbrushes.
A silver-haired woman looked at the crowd with disappointment, struggling to keep her hands on her head as her bust interfered with her elbows. “Who is responsible for this?!”
The green-haired child stood up front with pride, smiling at everyone with her friend as they confessed that it was them. The crowd gasped, looking at them with disappointed looks, eyebrows turning into an inward angle, and frowns all over.
The girl who stood beside them, who he had remembered as Illustrious, kneeled down to scold them, seeing the girls’ faces turn into confused looks as the others walked in to assist with the scolding.
Finally, the big question had come out of one of the girls. “Why did you two do this?!”
The brown-haired child spoke, looking at William with confusion. “We made a gift for the janitor!”
“A gift?! You two call this a gift- you’re making his job harder! What made you think this would be a great gift for the janitor who’d have to clean all of this up?!”
The green-haired one spoke back. “I thought that he gets paid more if he cleaned bigger messes!”
And soon, the crowd came into a full stop, struggling to find an answer for the mess they had brought up. William found it amusing though. Such thoughtful little kids, only with a horrible execution. It was indeed a surprise.
Well, this was his job after all. And shall he adhere to whatever he signed up for.