Monachopsis

Chapter 4 Pt. 1

"Ranboo?" Tommy whispered as he drifted awake. "Oh, good morning Tommy. Tubbo's still asleep, and I have to go to work. Today's an in-person school day." "Ok andddd?" Tommy groaned. "Get off your ass so you aren't late." Ranboo said while sliding a plate of pancakes and a Fanta into his eyeline from the couch. He just about fell off the sofa. "Ok ok, what time is it?" His mouth full of pancakes. "One, don't talk with your mouthful, it's gross, and it's 6:30 am, you have an hour. Hurry up."

"Wait," Tommy gulped down his pancakes, "why are you leaving so early?" "My boss needs me to open today. Why?" "Just," Tommy hesitated, "leaving Tubbo here worries me." "Oh Tommy," Ranboo laughed, "well, here is my boss' number along with mine, which you need to memorize, ok? You can save them into your phone, and they'll be on the fridge for Tubbo to do the same." He stuck two sticky notes onto the fridge, grabbed his bookbag, and gave him a one-armed hug as Tommy walked to put his plate in the sink. "Love you Tommy, tell Tubbo I love him too." Ranboo said, halfway through the door. "Of course, king." Tommy smiled.

———

Fiddling with the keys, Ranboo opened the door to the café. "Ah, this beautiful place." If alt tiktok was a place, this was it. Plants galore, karaoke, pride flags, eat the rich symbols, and the smell of hot cocoa. It was literally heaven. They walked over to the speaker and turned on some Bo Burnham as he turned on all the coffee, tea, and hot cocoa machines. As they warmed up, he readied everything else. Getting cups out, setting tables, getting the pre-orders ready, lighting the candles, etcetera. As he was taking out the 1st batches of cookies and biscuits, Mrs. Puffy came in. "Oooo~ Ranboo I can always rely on you." She laughed as she twirled in. Her poofy rainbow hair flew in the air and shiny, leather, black, high heel boots scraped the concrete floor. She's wearing a white blouse and blue jean shorts today. "Of course, Mrs. Puffy. You look great, per usual."

"Awe Ranboo, you're too nice." She laughed as she pulled the frozen cakes out of the freezer and onto the displays. "Put on the 'groovy' playlist, will you?" "Oh, yes ma'am," Ranboo smiled.

———

"Hey, how's the tips today?" Tubbo asked. "Decent, but rush hour hasn't happened yet, so I could double it."

"Ranboo! It's rush hour in a quarter! Hurry up with your call!" Puffy called.  "Sorry Tubs, but I need to go." Tubbo laughed, "no, you're fine boss man. I'm going to try to get a coding job today, buh bye!" "Bye," Ranboo ended the call and ran out from the back to the cash register. "What can I get you?"

~After an hour (the 2nd rush hour (noon) was almost done)~

"Hello, what can I get you?" Ranboo tapped away at the tablet to his left. "Hey, can I get a hot cocoa, two espressos, one vanilla, one mint chocolate chip. Oh, and one hot tea with a muffin and two cookies. To go." "Ok, that'll be $32.84, anything else?" And as he looked up to meet this customer's eyes, Wilbur.

"Wilbur?" Ranboo asked. "Right you are. Question, can you buy these tags? Like, in bulk?" "Oh um, they aren't for sale in bulk, no. Though, you can buy 1 or 2 pronoun tags for a quarter each, sir."

"Oh, please don't call me sir. I'm not that old. Anywho, if you don't sell them, who's your supplier?"

"What...?"

"I mean," Will restated," where do you buy them from? I need a ton of them and these ones actually last. I've tried other ones and they wear out after a less than a week." "Well, I make them." Ranboo looked down. 'The smell of the coffee. The sound of the footsteps. The sound of the-'

He caught the cocoa sliding his way in his hand and put the two cookies he caught from the slanted shelf above-head into the bag. "Wait really?! Can you make me some?"

"I don't know, they take a lot of time, and I definitely can't make them in bulk for a quarter each..."

Wilbur looked excited, to say the least. "I'll pay you one dollar for each!"

"Well, wait wait what? How many do you need?" Ranboo stammered.

"About 50. Is that ok?" Wilbur saw Ranboo open his mouth and started rambling with anxiety. "Well, it probably costs more then that to make, so 3 dollars, no 4. Is 4 ok?" Ranboo started at him for a second. Finally, he spoke. "By when?" Wilbur smiled. "How fast can you finish them?"