Danti One Shots

•Cozy and Glum•

Clouds were rolling in over the city, a large spectacle to a cozy rainy day. You could drive down the streets of this city and be given a warm feeling in your chest at the array of fall decor that lined the streets. Shops were emitting wonderful smells into the frowzy air. In the shops were people lined up and waiting for some coffee or a sweet treat to curb their hunger. It always had a lonely feeling to it, though, no matter how many people were ambling down the sidewalks. A few drops of rain pattered onto a full head of black hair. The man it belonged to was Damien Doom. A mousy man in stature and personality. 

A mousy man that covered his stove top with cellophane whenever he wasn’t using it to cook. A man that vacuumed his apartment each morning and night. His cupboards were in pristine condition. Every book he owned was carefully put away in alphabetical order. There wasn’t a speck of dust on anything, not even the top of his refrigerator. Some may say he was dramatic, he would say it was proper procedure. 

On this day though, he had to skip the vacuuming in order to get out the door on time. He wasn’t so sure he could have finished his cleaning if he wanted to with the horrible pain in his stomach. The horrible pain that made him think to himself, “I’m falling, I’m falling, and this pain is dragging me down”.  It was this pain that had made him late, late to cleaning and to his doctor's appointment. 

The appointment was useless in retrospect. The doctor had nothing to say except to eat mushier foods and chew more thoroughly. It seemed like a diet of mashed potatoes and soup was on the menu for however much longer the pain lasted, Damien supposed. He really should switch to a different doctor and not one that seemed to have won their degree out of a cereal box. Pain killers were thankfully prescribed to him. 

As the day went on it got colder and gloomier. The autumn leaves were being swept along the walkways in a dirty stream of filth and into the sewers. The sight made Damien shiver as he walked along. He ducked into a shop with a smaller waiting line to get his daily cup of coffee. The cafe was fairly bright. As bright as it could be when the main light sources were yellow bulbs, fairy lights, and what natural light that managed to sift through the clouds and foggy windows. There were many bookshelves. Probably meant more for the aethstetic than of actual use. 

However, he did indeed like the vibe the place gave off. Especially since the booths were dark and fairly secluded from the rest of the restaurant. The perfect place for Damien to sit if he ever thought of staying longer than it took to get his order. Perhaps he would stay today though since it had started pouring the second he got inside. Damien walked up to the counter and gazed at the sweets in the display case as he waited for the person in front of him to get done ordering. 

He couldn’t help but shudder when he saw a fly stuck in the case, meandering from pastry to pastry, leaving germs and possibly disease like a trail of breadcrumbs. Pitifully disgusting flies were. Serving no real purpose to the world. They were one of those things that lived just in spite of every other useful thing on the Earth. Mocking those who did good with their grotesque infestations. 

Damien was pulled from his wandering thoughts as the employee at the desk caught his attention. 

“What can I get for you today, sir?”

Damien didn’t think twice. “I’ll have a coffee, black, please,” then he couldn’t stop speaking. “There’s a fly in your display case. If I were you I would throw everything in there out and thoroughly sanitize the whole thing. I myself would use bleach, but I suppose you can’t do that with something containing food. Then again it can’t possibly be worse than eating something a fly has been on.” 

The shop employee stared Damien down with an expression that he could only describe as, “do you think I give a rats ass?”. 

Oh, rats. Just another thing Damien didn’t think the world needed, and don’t even get him started on mosquitoes.