Chapter Text
It wasn't a particularly busy day in the Thieves’ Rest. A rather ordinary one, really. Vine Staff was making a customer’s order, as Shuriken was suffering over with the dishes - it’s not like she didn’t feel bad about him on duty, but it’s what he had coming after he thought it would be funny to steal Slingshot’s tips - and Slingshot was on register duty. Some other staff were there too, helping with other orders, cleaning up after other customers, and also murmuring their sympathies for Shuriken. All in all, the day was pretty okay. Slingshot didn’t actually look like he was going to burst a nerve.
Until Vine Staff had thought too soon, with Coil suddenly entering the café.
… Hopefully Slingshot wouldn't damage any arteries.
Now, it wasn't that Coil was an entirely bad person. Sure, he did steal some things sometimes, but there was no denying that Coil was of a great spirit, who definitely knew how to make a space more lively!
“Hey there kitten~”
“Please perish.”
… Coil really wasn’t helping their case. Maybe she should stop defending the guy.
But in all seriousness, Coil didn’t seem to be of horrible character. Skateboard introduced Coil to the three of them, and they’d come to the Thieves’ Rest regularly since. They also were friends with Boombox, if she recalled correctly. And well. Could they really be that bad if they were friends with Boombox? Really? Vine Staff didn’t think so.
And as for what they thought of Slingshot… Vine Staff honestly didn’t know. They seemed to annoy Slingshot for hours on again. Like… Ragebait Slingshot until he was driven insane. That was the word Skateboard had taught, right? She hoped so. It was almost amusing to watch, Coil’s smug smirk and Slingshot’s irritated expression. Not that she would tell her brother this. He would not take that well. As Vine Staff took out a chocolate cake slice from the display, she intriguedly watched the two’s conversation.
“Awh, don’t be like that.” Coil chuckled, which only deepened Slingshot’s annoyance. “Turn that frown upside down!”
Slingshot’s frown, in fact, did not turn upside down. “Coil, please. It’s 4pm on a Tuesday.”
“4.03pm to be exact!”
“Could you just tell me your order?!”
“Well, okay, since you wanna know so bad~” Coil teased. Slingshot just looked like an overworked retail employee. He kinda was. “I’ll have a cappuccino with double espresso shots, and then your biggest slice of chocolate cake please!” Looks like Vine Staff was gonna need to get some more cake.
Slingshot blinked. “Seriously? That amount of caffeine is gonna keep you up for days, you know?”
“Hey!” Coil scoffed, faux offended. “I was taught that the customer was always right!”
Slingshot shook his head. “Whatever,” he sighed. “That’ll be 8.75 Bux.”
“If you say so,” Coil hummed. He pulled out a 10 Bux note after some scavenging. “Here.”
Slingshot reached out to take the note. As he took it, Vine Staff’s brow furrowed as Coil flinched a little at the gesture. What was that about?
Vine Staff only felt more invested as she watched the back and forth. “Thanks. I’ll make your order in a minute.” Slingshot said, completely oblivious to whatever just happened. Was her brother seriously that dim?! Honestly…
“Oh? Then, who’s gonna be on register duty, hm?”
“Ah, it’s Vine Staff’s shift on the register now so she’ll be here in a sec.” Slingshot turned over to Vine Staff, who quickly looked away. He didn’t see her watching their conversation, did he?
“Oh, hey Vine!” Coil called, seeing Vine Staff by the cake display. A rambunctious grin came on his face, a smile that she couldn’t help to return. From his reaction, at least Coil didn’t notice anything.
“It’s good to see you too, Coil.” She replied. “However, let’s not bother Sling too much, okay?”
Coil rolled their eyes playfully. “Fiiiiiine. Only because you said so, Vine.” Coil laughed to himself at that.
Sling raised his eyebrows at that. “Seriously? You– Oh nevermind.” He slid over some coins across the counter. “Here’s your change.”
Coil blinked, before sliding the coins back. “Nah, take it as a tip. How could I not appreciate the guy who’s so much fun at the counter?”
Slingshot bristled at that, his face taking on a strange, unreadable expression. “I– Huh? Okay, I guess. Thanks for the tip…?”
“Anything for you Sling~!”
“Please stop.”
Vine Staff was currently resisting the urge to facepalm. How was her brother so dense?! Surely she wasn’t the only one who sensed something else behind Coil’s words! She looked around for some assurance, before remembering that she was the only one listening to the two. Sure, Shuriken would have normally been listening. But he was too busy whining about the dishes and doing them ever so slowly. Why did they even trust Shuriken with the dishes? She loves him, really, but he never gets much done when he’s on dish duty.
Then, she realised that Coil was drifting away to wait for his order and Slingshot was calling her over to take over the register. Noticing her absentmindedness, he asked,
“Hey, Vine, you doing good? You seem a bit out of it.”
Vine Staff very much wanted to scream, ‘No, Sling, you’re being the densest inphernal to exist!!’, but of course the world wouldn’t let her. What a cruel world. Instead, she opted for just; “Why, I’m just fine Sling. Don’t worry about me.”
Slingshot clearly didn’t believe her words entirely, but then again he had no proof otherwise, so he just nodded and walked away to get Coil’s order. As she was checking everything was okay with the register, another familiar presence found themselves in the Thieves’ Rest.
“Hello,” A voice spoke. Vine Staff looked up only to see Katana magically materialise in front of her.
“AH!” She jumped. Where on earth did Katana come from? Katana remained still, but Vine Staff could tell that he felt bad about scaring her, from his posture and all. And also his next words, those too.
“... My apologies, for scaring you. Are you all right?”
Vine Staff felt a bit mortified, if she were to be honest. Katana was just here as a customer, not a serial killer. She shouldn’t be screaming her head off.
“O- Oh, no! It should be me who’s apologizing!” she stuttered out. “Uh, here, what would you like to order?”
Katana hummed in thought. “I apologize, but I’m not sure what to get. I… haven’t been here before. Do you have any recommendations? I can take those.”
Vine Staff thought carefully before speaking again. “We have some jasmine tea I believe? For a brief time, but it’s still there nonetheless.”
Now, she wasn’t a psychic here, but she could feel Katana’s interest through his mask. “I see… I’ll have some of that then, I suppose.”
“Excellent!” she quickly put in Katana’s order through the register, the price flashing on the screen. “That’ll be 4.95 Bux, please.”
Katana took out his money, handing over a 5 Bux note and a 3 Bux tip (“Are you sure, Katana–” “Please, I insist”) to Vine Staff, who put it all in the register. As she did this, her thoughts wandered to Sling and Coil again. Thinking about it, Coil’s behavior was… definitely different, right? Was she really just making this up? She glanced over to Coil, who was idly looking out the window. They didn’t… appear different. But…
The way they looked at Sling… Surely that was something, right? It had to be.
“... Vine Staff?” Katana asked. Vine turned to Katana, the question to ask ‘what was it?’ on the tip of her tongue, when she noticed she was … crushing the register. Oh gods above, she was crushing the register.
“Oh!” she gasped. “This is, uh–”
“Are you all right?” Vine Staff couldn’t see it, but she was sure his eyebrows were raised. “You appear a bit unsettled.”
“I’m fine!” Vine Staff quickly countered. “I’m sorry, I’m just… thinking of something right now. Nothing you need to worry about, really!”
“If you say so.” Katana nodded. He then turned on his heel to wait for his order as well.
Vine Staff sighed. What was even happening today? With her thoughts racing in her mind, she went to quickly try to fix up the register. Oh dear, Slingshot was not going to let this slide. Hopefully it would be a bit longer until he noticed.
Truth be told, she just was wondering whatever was the deal with Coil and Slingshot. From her analysis, there had to be something else going on, at least on Coil’s side.
As her next customer came up to her, she decided that those thoughts were for a later time, pushing them aside as she continued to work.
(At the end of the day, Slingshot just wanted to know how on Inpherno had Vine Staff crushed the cash register. Vine Staff couldn’t bring herself to tell him the reason she did it.)