The Lonely Rabbit and Broken Thief

Chapter Nine

Why did he have to start coming around again?

Shifty had started officially working as a server almost a week after the incident with Cuddles. He cringed whenever he remembered how he allowed himself to fall weak to his touches and then had a panic attack when they almost had intercourse. Cuddles was considerate enough to stay behind to make sure he wouldn't freak when he woke back up, and he did appreciate it. Honestly, if Cuddles hadn't been there when he woke back up he would have hurt himself.

"Shifty, before you go, can you take out the trash?"

Shifty looked up from where he was sweeping at Dandy, a lovely dog with an upbeat personality. They were the only two guys, besides the manager and owner, that worked as servers. Shifty appreciated his attitude and he made the effort to be nice and remember his name unlike the others in the restaurant.

"Sure, don't burn the place down."

Dandy huffed after him as he went around collecting the trash bags that were left for whoever was supposed to take it out. He hummed a bit, brushing his bangs back for the millionth time that day. He had only realized recently that he let his hair grow out too much. He's been meaning to go find a salon, since he liked how ladies cut his hair compared to men at barbers. Plus, he didn't like buzzcuts. So he wanted to find a place where he would get pampered properly. In the meantime, he had his hair tied back.

He went around out back to the dumpster and began tossing bags in. He felt slightly faint, since he had been forcing himself to eat again, but it was hard to keep anything down. He got it all done and went to go back in when he heard a commotion coming from the end of the alley. He frowned a bit and went towards it. What could he saw, he loved drama.

Peaking out from the other side of the alley, behind the building of the restaurant on a different road, he saw a group of people arguing. He tilted his head and stepped out just a bit to see what was going on before he went back to finish closing up. The crowd around the group was recording and making comments, so Shifty got a little closer to hear.

"Ugh, those guys have been coming here more and more. Why can't they buzz off?

"The older one tried to grope one of the girls working. How despicable!"

From that, Shifty got the gist of what was going on and lost interest. He turned and walked back into the alley, boredom on his face. Typical issues with bars filled with women and men who didn't know how to keep their hands to themselves. It had nothing to do with him anyways.

"You took forever, Shifty! Come on and help me finish setting up the tables!" Dandy whined, but he had a playful smile on his face.

"Yeah, yeah. Some people were fighting on the other side. I took a peak. Nothing interesting though." Shifty replied, flicking him on the forehead.

Dandy was a new eighteen year old. He was practically a kid compared to Shifty and it... reminded him of Lifty. An ache hit his chest at the thought of Lifty. He hadn't heard anything about how he was doing and he didn't want to ask Cuddles. He was too prideful to admit he had regretted what he said. That he wanted to apologize to his brother.

A buzz from his phone had him sighing as he pulled it out. His number had never changed, and after some consideration, he had unblocked Cuddles. Once the rabbit realized this, he started blowing up his phone. Meaningless texts, random memes, various emojis, and sometimes voice messages. This time it was a bit of a mix.