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aurathian · 10 months

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HyMart | AO3

for @zelinkcommunity Zelink Week 2023, prompt: free day! thanks @jimmyjims for inspiring me to write supermarket au zelink this was therapeutic and like i was reliving trauma at the same time. no totk spoilers here!

Fandom: Skyward Sword (Modern AU)

Rating: G

Summary: Link deals with a rude customer and possibly meets the love of his life in his place of work: HyMart.

Link often hears the beeping and buzzing of cash registers in his dreams: swipe, beep… swipe, beep… swipe, beep, err…! An error… and oftentimes those same sounds morph into the blare of his alarm clock. Above him, the fluorescent lights from what had been a supermarket ceiling slowly become filtered sunshine as he opens his eyes.

That’s exactly what woke him up that hot July morning. His dreams soon became reality when he found himself wearing long pants and sweating behind his register. He would wear shorts, but if he did that he would be slapped with a dress code violation. Now, he forlornly scanned items and punched in numbers for a few hours, calling over his customer service manager Ghirahim every now and then for help.

In his flashy work vest that he glued rhinestones onto himself, along with his bedazzled nametag, Ghirahim tutted at one of the customers who insisted the shirt she was buying was only five rupees. “Ma’am, if you found it on a different shelf with different items, it was misplaced. This is ten rupees.” He took this stern tone with many of the customers (which they often perceived as rude), but he was arguably one of the best customer service managers the front end had. Despite the many complaints from customers who felt he was condescending and mean, Ghirahim was never fired. Yet, anyway. Link had no problem with it, since it usually put the customers in their place once they started to get frustrated with whatever employee they chose to take their anger out on that day.

“Then I don’t want it,” the customer, a blonde woman with her hair done in pigtails, snapped. “Put it back.”

“Can you run this back, Link?” Ghirahim asked, oddly kind, and Link nodded. “Oh, and then you can go on your lunch.” This encouraged Link to scamper off even faster to deposit the shirt back on its correct shelf, marked at ten rupees, but in his haste he forgot to take off his HyMart vest. He worked his way through the maze of shelving and aisles and approached the back of the store where the giant EMPLOYEES ONLY door called his name. Beyond that was a hallway, and beyond that was the break room, where his cold sandwich packed in a plastic bag beckoned him closer…

“Excuse me?” a light voice called. Link whirled around, realizing his mistake as his hands naturally found themselves in his vest pockets. “Could you help me find something?”

His eyes landed on a blonde woman carrying a tote bag and wearing a white sundress. His mind flitted between two outcomes: “No, sorry, I’m on break,” and “Sure, what do you need?” A good employee, one that wasn’t on the verge of getting fired everyday, would say sure.

“Yeah, what do you need?” he asked, approaching her.

“Oh, I was looking for this,” the woman said, pulling up a picture on her phone and showing him. “I’m just not sure where to find it.”

“I can take you to where the Loftwing Feed is,” Link said, motioning with his hand for her to follow. He didn’t mind showing customers where to find certain things, but in this case, they needed to travel to the other side of the store. So, to lessen the journey’s awkwardness, he made conversation. “Hot outside, huh?”

“It is. Really, it’s horrible you have to wear long pants.”

“Tell me about it.” A weird silence assumed, as silent as it could be with the outdated pop songs cracking out of the overhead speakers. “So do you, um, own Loftwings?” What a stupid question! If she wasn’t standing right there, he would’ve slapped himself. Why else would she be buying Loftwing Feed?

“Oh, yes,” she replied. “Two of them. A red and a blue one.”

Link deliberately slowed his pace. “What are their names?”

“The red one is Cawlin and the blue one is Strich.”

“Interesting names. I used to have one too–it was named Beedle.”

He didn’t miss the way the customer leaned a little forward to peer at his nametag with squinted eyes. Unfortunately, they were arriving at the animal feed aisle.

“Thank you for helping me, Link,” she said, a little too charming, brushing some hair over her shoulder.

“It’s no problem, uh…”

“Zelda.”

“It’s no problem, Zelda.”

That cold sandwich, soggy from sitting in the fridge, tasted a little more lonely that day. Most of his coworkers with whom he was friends were out on the floor, and of course that blonde customer probably hadn’t given him a second thought once she got her heaping bag of bird food. To his surprise, he was excited when his break was over because it meant he was a little closer to going home.

He was back on the register as usual, even though he would’ve preferred a spot down at self checkout, but didn’t complain since the constant flow of people helped pass time faster. That was until an obnoxious man with an equally obnoxious hairdo came up to his register with an overflowing cart.

Link greeted him as he normally would and began to scan as efficiently as he could, sometimes pausing to punch in the numbers for fruits or veggies. The customer didn’t say much to him–just hummed, scrolled on his phone, occasionally nodded at a question. Link found it a little rude but kept on with his job hoping he could quickly finish the customer’s transaction. Everything had been going smoothly; groceries were neatly in bags, all the items were scanned correctly and there had been no system errors.

Then the man pulled out a stack of coupons.

“You want me to use these?” Link asked, picking up the stack. The customer nodded and raised an eyebrow. Link began to scan them, but each one brought up a few dollar signs on the terminal, signifying that they weren’t working, so he inspected them closer.

They expired last year.

“Sir, unfortunately these coupons aren’t working because–”

“They should work.” Ah, so he does speak. “I made sure it’s for all the right items. You can look yourself.” He pointed at the mountain of bags.

Link repeated himself after heaving a sigh to maintain his composure. “They aren’t working because they’re expired. These expired last year, sir.”

The customer dramatically exhaled and fumbled around his pocket, fishing out his wallet and picking through it exaggeratedly. He slammed a card on the ledge by the card reader and then pulled out another one.

“Okay, fine, if you won’t take my coupons, can I at least use this?” The red-haired man shoved a blue card into Link’s face. The words on it read Zora Juice. He could hardly believe his eyes–this was a gift card for a smoothie store. This man, this customer, was standing in the middle of a HyMart trying to pay for his groceries with a smoothie store gift card.

“Um, sir, this is for Zora Juice,” Link informed him after spending a moment mustering up the courage to do so.

“Yes.”

“Okay… this is a HyMart.”

“Yeah, I know.” The customer ran his hand over his bright red pompadour.

“This is a different store. You can’t use this gift card here.”

There was a pause as the air in the store stilled and time screeched to a halt. The customer–whose name was Groose, based on the debit card he put on the ledge–seemed to be going through the five stages of grief with the way his face contorted into twenty different expressions all at once. Then, he exploded.

Groose snapped at him, asking why he couldn’t properly do his job, saying this is why kids need to stay in school, that Link was an incompetent cashier, all other kinds of insults under the HyMart ceiling. Link glanced nervously over to the customer service desk where Ghirahim was dealing with a rush and clearly frazzled, the way he waved his hands about and the faces he was making. There’d be no way to get him over for help, so Link braced himself for the worst.

The customer was about to turn as red as his hair when suddenly, a finger in his face cut him off.

“And just who do you think you are?”

“I– uh–”

Link could hardly contain his shock when he saw Loftwing Feed woman, in her sundress and holding her tote bag, pointing a finger directly in Groose’s face.

“It’s not his fault those coupons or that card doesn’t work. Why do you insist on bothering him?”

“I suppose…”

“Suppose what?”

Groose stared at her for a few moments and the cashier, now awkwardly caught in the middle, didn’t miss the way his entire body softened for just a moment. But then Groose shook his head, swiped his debit card, and left with his groceries in a huff.

The woman–Zelda, that’s her name–stepped up to the register as Link began to scan her items, bringing himself down from the nerves and excitement of that encounter. Rude customers always had him a little shaky, but it was different this time having someone to support him.

“Um, thank you,” he finally said after a few moments of silence, poked with buzzes and beeps.

“It’s no problem. I used to work in a supermarket, too.” Her eyes darted around nervously, tapping her foot. “Say, I don’t know what your schedule is like, but do you like coffee?”

“Sometimes it’s the only thing that gets me up in the mornings,” Link joked, typing in some numbers on his terminal. “Why?”

“I was wondering if you would be interested in getting a coffee with me sometime.”

If Link did not have customer service training, he would’ve jumped for joy and said yes immediately, but he kept himself composed, used his hand scanner on her Loftwing Feed, and then answered.

“Sure.”

“Great, sounds good.”

Link handed her the receipt, but she instead pulled a pen from her bag, wrote some numbers on it, and handed it back to him. Her phone number.

“You might need this on your way out–”

“It’s okay!” she said, already walking off with her cartload of items, Loftwing Feed neatly tucked into the bottom. Thankfully, he watched her walk out of the doors without being stopped by one of the greeters, but his trance was broken by a customer waving in his face.

“Hello? Young man?”

Link turned to the customer with a sigh. Until that coffee date, his life would simply be the buzzes and beeps of the register.

#zelink week #zelink week 2023 #zelink #zelda #link #groose #skyward sword #modern au #supermarket au #grocery store au #free day #ghirahim #my writing

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innytoes · 5 months

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Ooo I got Werewolf AU + Grocery Store AU... Do with that what you will! <3

Okay so there's this one really good grocery store for werewolves in Los Feliz. Like it's not even on purpose, probably, some manager just accidentally ordered a lot of jerky and word got around and now five years later they have a lot of Fancy Meat Products and other things that are helpful to werewolves.

50/50 on whether the manager realised the customer base and started planning stock accordingly or is really oblivious and so happy when customers suggest stuff and they sell well at certain times so he just keeps doing that. Maybe it's a religious thing! Who knows!

So just imagine like, Sunset Curve Wolf Pack, they take turns doing the shopping. And right before the full moon, this means A Cart Full Of Meat (and some potatoes, Wolf!Luke is a weirdo and he likes to cart one around).

So it's Alex' turn and he spots this really cute guy in a crop top who has a cart that looks Very Similar to his. But he's too shy to talk to him, he's not Reggie, trying to hit on random people in the supermarket with a cheesy pun.

But then their carts smash together in the Beef Jerky aisle and the cute guy sees his cart and gasps and does the Spiderman Point and Alex on instinct does the same because he's surrounded by nerds and all of a sudden they are flirting and talking and what is happening and suddenly he has a number and a date for the week after the full moon.

Reggie has never been prouder.

#julie and the phantoms #willex #fanfic #not!fic #I wrote a thing #AUs are awesome #werewolf au #grocery store au #ah yes the Werewolf Grocery Store they have meats they have jerky they have a wall of dog toys they have the best painkillers #of course after a few months Willie is just Absorbed into the sunset curve wolfpack

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animae-n-sht · 2 years

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Got a new pen and drew some grocery store AU (and kankuro)

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arrowflier · 2 years

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Gallavich Week 2022 Day 2 @gallavichthings

“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.”― Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Delicate(ssen) Feelings on AO3

Rating: T Words: 3,801 Tags: AU, Bad Flirting, Misunderstandings

Summary: Mickey doesn't mind his job working security at the grocery store. Actually, ever since the new guy started at the deli counter--you know, the pretty one, with the eyes and the everything, all of it too fucking good for this world--he kind of fucking likes it. Too bad for him, the things Mickey likes don't tend to stick around.

#I'm behind so the next two days will be rolled into one on Wednesday #fanfic #fanart #gallavich #GW2022 #grocery store au #what fucking world do you live in

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inthe-afterglows · 2 years

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Between The Aisles

Enjoy a fluffy grocery AU aka 7 times James and Lily were in the grocery store

Snippet:

James was ready to bury his head into a one of those refrigerators where they stocked the ice creams.

“…just give her a chance! Even Remus thinks she’s all right,” Sirius insisted, tossing a bag of rice into their trolley that James was currently pushing whilst attempting to resist the urge to run his very best friend over with it.

“All right? All right doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence, Padfoot. Especially not after the last nightmare you set me up with.”

“Ashley was not that bad.”

“She said and I quote ‘objectively, Trump has a point’ and then proceeded to not objectively pretty much say she was pro-Trump.”

“Yeah, okay that was bad but it’s not like I can vet girls on every single topic before setting you up with them. I’m a Tinder replacement not MI6.”

AO3

#jily #jily fanfic #harry potter #james potter #lily evans #grocery store au #total fluff piece

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apollo41writes · 2 years

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Goodnight prompt 22/∞

Fandom: Star Wars Ship: Ezra Bridger/Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker AUs/Tropes: (space) Grocery store Au, Accidental marriage Prompt: The store manager goes all out for Pride Month and decides to stage a LGBTQIA+ wedding inside the store. It's supposed to be a FAKE marriage... Until they find out that C-3PO actually can officiate marriages. Din and Luke did not signs for this.

Extra details: To kind of explain the level of silliness in mind, this idea was heavily inspired by the show Superstore, so just watch a couple of episode of that show and you'll get more or less the tone of this silly thing.

Let's just set this still in the Star Wars universe but with a lot less drama. Din is still a single dad, Luke still used to be a farmboy and Ezra can't find any other better job because he was arrested a couple of times when he was still a minor.

I for sure imagine the droids working at the store as well, mostly because I want Chopper bickering with R2D2. But also C-3PO would be hilariously perfect for this AU, which is why I made him the minister that officiates the wedding.

Not sure who would be the manager... Maybe C-3PO himself, but the person that actually runs the store when it comes down to it is Hera? Don't really have a clear idea about the little details this time.

I just imagine the group trying to decide who is gonna get married with who, and at first they want people to volunteer, but nobody offers themselves so they do a raffle and Din an Luke are the two unlucky fuckers.

Ezra thinks it's hilariously ridiculous. At least until he finds out that Din and Luke are actually married now, and he's fucking jealous that he can't be married to them as well.

I also have been going back and forth for hours if it would be funnier if the three of them were already in a relationship, or if they were all pining and thinking the classic "why can't I just choose one of them" thing people not used to polyamory sometimes think.

#goodnight prompts #skybridjarin #fic prompt #daily prompt #prompt #luke skywalker #ezra bridger #din djarin #grocery store au #accidental marriage #star wars #the mandalorian #star wars rebels #feel free to change whatever detail as well #feel free to use this prompt however you want

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payasita · 3 months

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God's Mouthpiece (Echo + Narcissus)

silent protagonists, yknow

#cotl #cult of the lamb #narilamb #not a serious au but an idea i had at the grocery store parking lot that made me haul ass back home #at least one of these lines i remember verbatim from reading a version of the myth in school #doodles #comics #i cut so many corners on this but im resolving this year to just. get things FINISHED #SO TAKE IT

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darcymariaphoster · 2 years

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Chapters: 2/3 Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Denmark/Sweden (Hetalia) Characters: Denmark (Hetalia), Sweden (Hetalia), Finland (Hetalia) Additional Tags: Human AU, Grocery Store AU, Panic Attack, dealing with customers, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, Mentions/hints of abuse, Tino and mathias are both idiot dorks its fine Series: Part 9 of Nordic Tales Summary:

(Please, I am super proud of this cheesy title. 🤣)

Same AU as "I asked For Coffee and Got You", but takes place about 3 years prior. [Do not have to read to understand. Just know that this is a grocery store AU.]

Mathias is the front end manager and he can deal with just about anything. Usually. But the night he can't, is the night he and Berwald finally have a conversation without Mathias making a complete idiot of himself. [SuDen]

#my shit #my fanfiction #hetalia #hetalia fanfiction #aph Sweden #hws Sweden #aph Denmark #hws Denmark #SuDen #grocery store au #first date #and it's not extremely awkward

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groovyskulls · 28 days

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sun if the pizzaplex started charging rent

#anywayz this is my grocery store au #lmao it’s silly #…it has lore #daycare attendent #fnaf #fnaf dca #fnafsb #securitybreach #dca fanart #fnaf daycare attendant #dca fandom #fnaf fanart #sun fnaf #fnaf sun #eye contact #i’ll add a tag for the au once i draw it more #and once it has a name #my art

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lambiewrites · 3 months

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I got called an OSHA Violation at work and since I’ve branded myself the Johnny MacTavish of my work place, I thought of this little thing.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

• Working in a typical 9-5 with Johnny is either super fun or absolutely fucking miserable. He’s wired 90% of the time and absolutely feral.

• Talks your head off about nonsense until the manager/s (AKA: Price & Laswell) tell him “if you have time to lean, you have time to clean.” 🧼

•They beg him to work the registers because he’s a “people person”, but when he’s back in the stockroom…well, he’s nothing short of a nightmare.

•zero concept of personal space and knows no dangers.

•Held a box cutter up to his face obliviously because he had to wipe his nose.

•Crawled underneath a conveyer belt WHILE boxes were being pushed down it because he didn’t like the side he was standing on.

• Throw boxes like their shot-put balls (or whatever their called). Doesn’t matter if the boxes are stocked up higher and taller than he is, he’s still gonna throw them.

•SHOWS OFF

•Takes his shirt off when doing truck, doesn’t matter if it’s 0°F back in the stockroom, does it anyway.

•Everyone except Johnny wears headphones because he loves to talk and sing to the horrible retail music. Dances too. Has no shame.

•Steals people’s food and snacks even if their names are on it. (I have a Drabble of this!)

• Always has a Redbull or coffee even though he doesn’t need it? People have to force him to drink water.

•Spends his breaks gossiping with Kyle ❤️ (Sometimes Simon, if he’ll listen)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A/N: I hope y’all liked that! And feel free to add more or ask about how the others would be in a typical 9-5! I think these are fun to write and yes, I have branded everyone as their own CoD character & trust me when I say this, I am definitely Soap at work. I have many more fun stories and ideas too ❤️ love you guys!

#call of duty #cod #call of duty nonsense #call of duty headcanons #call of duty x reader #cod!au #cod headcanons #taskforce #taskforce nonsense #taskforce141 x reader #johnny mactavish #soap #johnny soap mactavish x reader #grocery store au #9-5au!#kayla’s headcannons #kayla's nonsense #want more?

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unfinishedslurs · 1 year

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child lost in the grocery store (platonic stobin)

“Oh no no no no no,” Robin says, panicked. “Don’t cry, tiny child. Please don’t cry, oh God you’re crying, uh…Steve!”

He rounds the aisle. “They’re out of Dustin’s favorite cereal,” he says sourly, before his eyes fall on the crying child Robin is kneeling by, and he raises his eyebrows.

Help, she pleads with her eyes, and he sighs, setting the boxes he’s holding in the cart and crouching down next to them.

“Hey there,” he greets warmly, so calm and caring it makes Robin want to throw herself into his arms and sob. “What’s wrong?”

The kid just shakes her head.

Steve takes it with grace. “This is my friend Robin, I came here with her. Did you come here with anyone?”

“M-m-my mommy,” she blubbers. “But she’s gone.”

The sentence ends in a drawn out wail that makes her want to simultaneously hold the poor kid and slam her own head into a wall. Steve widens his eyes in sympathy.

“That’s not good. Do you know where you last saw her?”

She shakes her head no again, and Robin stares at him, silently pleading for him to make the kid stop crying.

He rolls his eyes at her before turning back to the kid. “That’s okay,” he soothes. “It happens sometimes. I bet she’s just as worried as you are right now. Do you want help finding her?”

A small nod, and she finally looks up, enough that Robin can see her big, bloodshot eyes. Are kids' eyes really just that big? They’re like tiny little aliens.

“Okay, here’s what we’ll do,” Steve says confidently enough that both she and the kid relax. “We’ll go to the checkout with the nice lady, okay? And we’ll wait there for your mommy. That’s rule one of getting lost in the store, always go to the front desk.”

“Really?”

He smiles down at her, beginning to straighten up. “Oh, yeah. Sometimes I still have to do it, and I always find who I’m looking for.” He offers a hand, and the kid clings to it like he’s her last lifeline on earth.

“What if she’s not there?”

“Well,” he says, starting to walk towards the desk. Robin hurries to fall into step with them, and he smiles at her. “If she doesn’t come by the desk, my friend here will go find her, and tell her where you are.” He lowers his voice conspiringly. “She can be really loud.”

“Hey!” Robin protests, and the kid giggles. Giggles. If she were in any way, shape, or form attracted to men, she’d kiss him on the mouth.

“Do you wanna tell me your name now?”

“It’s Jess!”

“Jess, huh? Short for Jessica?” She nods. “It’s a pretty name, it suits you.”

“Thank you,” she says shyly, pulling her dark hair in front of her mouth.

“My name is Steve, this is my friend Robin.”

Jess perks up, even though Steve had introduced her earlier. Poor girl probably had bigger things to worry about. “Like the bird?”

“Exactly like the bird.” He grins. “Do you like robins, Jess?” Apparently Jess is really into birds. In the short time it takes to get to the counter, Robin has found out that robins hop on the ground to make worms think it’s raining, that you should feed ducks seeds instead of bread, and Jess’s favorite kind of bird is a woodpecker.

#stobin #steve harrington #robin buckley #robin is bad with kids is canon #steve is good with little tiny kids is technically not canon but that man has babyfever so bad #stranger things fanfic #if i were this lost child i would not go back to my mommy rip jess but i'm different #child lost in the grocery store au

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portraitofalonelydyke · 4 months

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this human au i’m reading: “perhaps we could go to the bandstand over there”

me knowing something bad is about to happen:

#fuck #i’m in the grocery store parking lot #i can stop now and go inside or get it over with #the bandstand #it’s the storm chaser/weatherman au #very good so far

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jtl-fics · 10 months

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Fluent Freshman - Part 28

FF does not like being on pain medication.

Everything feels floaty and it is so hard to focus on anything around him.

He’s almost glad that his Gran has given him something to focus on that something being helping her sell her lie to the Foxes that she only knows Polish. Coach Wymack must know but the man is a steel trap and FF finds himself envying his Gran that HER secret keeper is Coach Wymack.

“Smithy! My sweet beautiful idiot!” Nicky cries when Gran gives Wymack the OK for them to come back in. FF finds himself on the receiving end of 2 forehead kisses and a kiss to each of his cheeks from Nicky. “Next time you see a crazy mafia hitman looking to kidnap me you just grab me and RUN.” He orders pointedly, “No more cool guy shit where you take ‘em out in the weird sex alley.” He runs his fingers through FF’s hair and…

Yeah it’s okay that Nicky is the one that knows.

Nicky is so nice.

“What about Aaron?” FF asks.

“If Romero could grab Aaron when he is in whacky inflatable tube mode then I don’t think he’d be taken out by you and Andrew.” Nicky says with a watery smile.

“Hey.” Aaron’s voice is offended.

“Learn to dance at a club already. We’ve been going for years.” Nicky shoots back but never takes his eyes off of FF’s face.

“I dance just fine. I’m better than Kevin.” Aaron argues.

“Hey.” Kevin’s voice is offended.

“You are better than Kevin, but that’s not a real standard of good.” Nicky dismisses, “Regardless, next time grab me and I’ll grab Aaron and the three of us can hide literally anywhere other than the weird sex alley. We could go to the back room with Roland or, if it means you not ending up in the hospital with a stab wound, I would even tolerate hiding down in the straight swingers club in the basement.” Nicky says.

He sees Andrew and Captain Neil tense off to the side.

Oh, that’s right.

Oh fun another lie for him to focus on instead of feeling floaty. Gran always talked about the virtue of telling the truth but the only thing set free would be Nicky in a club that he’s not supposed to know about.

“I wouldn’t ask that of you Nicky.” FF says instead.

Nicky laughs and kisses his cheek one more time. “You’re my favorite family member now. Sorry Aaron, you’ve made me endure the horrors of a heterosexual relationship for too long.” Nicky says stroking FF’s face as he looks up to where FF assumes Aaron is.

“Hey.” Aaron says in the exact same way he said earlier.

“Andrew-“ Nicky starts but is cut off.

“I don’t care.”

“That’s the spirit.” Nicky says, “Neil-“

“Nicky, I also don’t care.”

“At least you have one another to support each other.”

“Wait, what about me?” Kevin asks.

“You won’t even LEARN the family language Kevin, you were NEVER in the running for my favorite.” Nicky dismisses and doesn’t bother to turn back to the “So Smithy is my favorite family member now with Aras coming in second.”

Two things strike FF in the wake of family conversation.

First, when in the world did Kevin get here? Why is he here? Is he going to ask the doctors to run tests on FF to figure out stealth mode?

Second, Nicky just used his Gran’s nickname. The nickname that causes FF no small amount of embarrassment. It was a youthful indiscretion! He had thought he understood Lithuanian quite well! He had wanted to impress his Great Gran and his Gran with his knowledge.

“You’re looking pale Smith, do you need more pain medication?” Captain Neil asks.

“No, I’m fine.” He is pretty sure that pain meds can’t numb the psychological pain of his friends hearing about his youthful mistakes and he doesn’t care how bad his stomach is going to hurt he wants to only take the absolute minimum amount of pain meds required to get through this so he can stop floating.

Having friends nearby makes it so much easier.

Conversations go on with him and around him. He’s tired still from everything and when a nurse comes in to try and give him more pain medication he declines. All present in the room except Gran try to convince him to take it but he declines all but the most minor amount to take the edge off.

He finally realizes that Kevin had not been with them and asks why the hell he’s here. He gets an answer that makes him reconsider being on any pain medication at all because it doesn’t really make any sense. Why in the world is Kevin telling him not to trust the nutritionist?

Neil lets him know that the FBI are going to be coming around at some point to talk to him. He says that Agent Browning is a dick but generally fine and that there will be a local agent Iruma Matsumoto stopping by before him, probably today. He looks right at Andrew and says “Yeah, I’ll talk with them about how Romero stabbed me.” Andrew lets out an amused puff of laughter that makes FF feel like he might be doing alright at this friendship thing.

He apologizes to Andrew that he can’t make the pie today and gets a flick to his ear.

He finds out that he slept through all of Saturday and that it is Sunday morning. Finds out that his Gran and Wymack had stayed over at the Columbia house last night and that Wymack has him excused from his classes this week. He also finds out that Nicky has given his grandma a key to the house in Columbia so she could stay there while she’s visiting him.

He apologizes to Nicky for messing up the clothes he’d let him borrow and earns another flick to the ear from Nicky.

Wymack hands him a new phone that Nicky has apparently set up for him. His lip quirks up slightly when he sees that Nicky registered it as ’Smithy’s phone’. Neil shows him some stuff since he has the same phone model but Andrew rolls his eyes.

“You’ve barely figured out how to set anything on your phone Junkie. You still haven’t even set a screen lock.” He says as he pulls Neil back from FF’s space.

“I’ve figured out how to change the notification ping.” Neil argues but lets himself be pulled away and if Andrew keeps his arm around Neil afterwards? No one comments on that.

He translates things for his Gran when it seems important for her to be able to respond to and helps Nicky with some pronunciations.

He falls asleep a couple times and wakes up to his friends and teammates in all sorts of different configurations. Nicky gets him some good sugar-free Jell-O from the nurses while Aaron smacks Kevin upside the head when Kevin complains that it’s not good for him and not part of the diet he’s making to get FF back on the Court ASAP. “He’s gotta be on a clear liquid diet for 24 hours after his surgery.” Aaron hisses.

“Why does it have to be clear? I can put it in a blender but it won’t be clear.” Kevin grumbles.

“He’s not going to be on puree’d food for at least two weeks idiot.” Aaron smacks his head again.

“Stop that.”

He hears from Wymack the other Freshman Dealer won’t be returning and that Sheena is now their only Dealer and she does not do defense well. Kevin’s disapproval for the Jell-O cups only grows stronger in light of this news. His grumbling only stops when Gran looks at him and says “Maybe someone should help you pull that stick out of your ass young man.” In her nicest most grandmotherly voice.

When Kevin turns to FF for a translation Nicky beats him to it, “She said a handsome young man like you shouldn’t ruin your face with worries.” He says without a hint that he’s lying.

Kevin preens at the grandmotherly approval of his looks and FF gets to know that he, Nicky and his grandma all have lying in common.

Eventually it’s lunch time and the natural hunger of college athlete boys trumps anything else. Kevin won’t eat anything at the cafeteria since he doesn’t trust the nutritionist so they agree to head out of the hospital to grab food. He’s more tired than hungry so he tells his Gran to go with them. She pats his face and promises she’ll be back with some clear soup for him per the Doctor’s order and despite Kevin’s grumbling that he could make a clear protein shake.

His Gran kisses his forehead and tells him that she’ll be back soon and that he should rest as much as he can.

***

FF can’t sleep.

He tried.

He really did.

But without the noise of everyone else his mind keeps going back to the last time he was in a hospital. He closes his eyes and he can see Gran’s pale face when she tells him that his dad didn’t make it and the tears when she tells him neither-

He can’t sleep.

So he gets up against medical advice and decides to go on a walk. He’s not been connected to any of the monitoring equipment since he had first woken up, just the IV keeping him hydrated. FF decides he wants to get his dad’s leather back because it would make him feel better. The leather jacket has weight that would keep his feet strictly on the ground and it’s something his Gran had given to him when he went off to college so that he could keep his dad close. He could call a nurse but it feels like he shouldn’t distract them with something as stupid as getting him his dad’s jacket so he doesn’t have a panic attack.

So he lets himself slip into the background and heads towards the nurse station. He thinks that might be where they’re holding his belongings. It’s a good first stop if nothing else.

He can’t help but notice a strange number of men in suits but figures that maybe they’re just there to talk to people who seem to have gotten caught up in some sort of mass casualty incident.

He makes it to the nurse station and when a whole 5 minutes goes by without a single nurse clocking that he exists he considers speaking up until he sees a nurse bagging up some clothes, slapping on a label, and heading away.

It’s nice when things work out for him.

Another suit wearing man comes up and a different nurse sees him there immediately and comes up, “What can I help you with?” She asks.

“I’m looking for someone with the last name Smith, he has a stab wound?” The man asks.

“You’re going to have to be more specific.” The nurse responds with exasperation but FF is already almost out of earshot when he hears it because he’s following the nurse with the bag.

He follows her down the hallway and she thankfully takes an elevator instead of going down the stairs because FF doesn’t know how he would have gotten his IV stand down with him.

FF walks in with her and he watches her slump as the doors slide close. Relaxing like most people do when they think they’re alone. Her shoulders go straight back when the elevator opens again and he follows after her.

He follows her to a door that she unlocks and proceeds to enter and FF sees a room full of the same bags with belongs all tagged with a last name and a room number. “Christ, why are there so many fucking Smiths in here right now?” She grumbles but takes him straight to the S section and he sees his own ‘Smith’ and room number.

He grabs it and heads out the door before the nurse and heads into the elevator.

His phone pings with a text message. He opens it and sees a text from an unknown number.

“Come to the Cafeteria. - IM”

FF stares at his phone for a few minutes before the initials click.

Iruma Matsumoto, the local FBI agent who was coming to talk to him today according to Captain Neil. It’s weird to be texted like this but this is the first time he’s ever had to talk to the FBI. Maybe it’s normal? He doesn’t really want to bother Captain Neil about what getting interrogated by the FBI is like since Captain Neil is out at lunch.

He decides to go to the Cafeteria.

FF follows the directory in the elevator and then the arrows that point him towards the cafeteria. He takes a moment to pull his dad’s jacket out and it does help him feel better. He realizes the McDonald’s toy is still in his pocket and thinks that he really should probably turn that over to Agent Matsumoto.

When he gets to the cafeteria he sees even more of those guys in suits and then he sees a well dressed Japanese man sitting by himself at a table. FF has a moment where he thinks ‘Wow that FBI agent sure does look like a member of the Yakuza.’ Before he squashes it because ‘OMG that’s such a fucking racist thing to think. Thoughts from the abyss are the worst and Agent Matsumoto is probably a perfectly nice guy.’

He takes a seat in front of the man who is surrounded by two other of the men in black he’s seen. Oh that guy was probably looking for him to bring him here so they could have the talk.

None of the men seem to notice him and FF realizes that he’s still in stealth mode. He sets the bag with the rest of his clothes to the side and clears his throat.

Three sets of eyes are on him immediately and FF breathes through the anxiety as the two men at either side of Agent Matsumoto seem to reach for something at their holsters.

“Captain Neil said you wanted to talk to me.” He says.

Captain Matsumoto raises a hand and the two men on either side of him return to an at ease position.

***

Ichirou Moriyama could admit to himself that he had been startled when a young man seemingly appeared out of nowhere in front of him without any warning. He sees a bulge in the man’s pocket that says that he’s armed and he could have done anything before bringing attention to himself. He had men throughout the hospital and no one has spotted Wesninski or any of his cohorts but they had their eyes peeled for the uninvolved civilian who had taken out Jackson on his own and had assisted Wesninski’s guard dog in taking out Romero.

Interesting.

Ichirou clasps his hands together in over the cafeteria table.

“Yes, let’s talk.” He agrees.

MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU

@i-have-three-feelings @blep-23 @dreamerking27 @andreilsmyreligion @belodensetdust @rainbowpineapplebottle @yarn-ace @iwouldlikesometea @lily-s-world @obscureshipsandchips @booklover242 @whataboutmyfries @sahturnos @pluto-pepsi @dreamerthinker @passinhosdetartaruga @leftunknownheart @aro-manita-muscaria @hologramsaredead @Chaoticgremlinswishtheycouldbeme @tntwme @tayspots @nick-scar @crazy-fangirl2524 @blue-jos10 @stabbyfoxandrew @splishsplashyouropinionistrash @sammichly @the-broken-pen @bitchesdoweknowu @very-small-flower @ghostlyboiii @its-a-paxycab @bisexual-genderfluid-fan @cheesecookie @theoneandonlylostsock @foxsoulcourt @blueleys @adverbialstarlight @elia-nna @can-i-just-stay-in-the-corner @nikodiangel @foxandcrow-inatrenchcoat @hallucinatedjosten @satanic-foxhole-court @vexingcosmos @chalilodimun @insectsgetcooked @angry-kid-with-no-money @queer-crows @lillyndra @themundanemudperson @readertodeath @apileofpillows @mortalsbowbeforeme @hellomynameismoo @next-level-mess @youreonlylow @interstellarfig @notprocrastinatingatalltoday @percyjacksonfan3 @queenofcrazy27 @bsmr261 @ghostlyscares @spencellio @adinthedarkroom @harpymoth @sufferingjustalilbit @anxietymoss @oddgreyhound @ohno-myhyperfixation-itsbroken @ken22789 @atiredvampire @isoldescorner @not--a--pipedream @azure-wing @bushbees @roonilwazlib-main @crumplelush @foldedaces-paperbirds @thesenseinnonsense @let-tyrants-fear @ketchupandfries @legowerewolf @deadlydodos @but-we-respect-his-craft @cariniqe @zanypersonapricotbiscuit @lesbian-blackbeard @lesbiansupernatural @silvermasquerade @thepeachfuzz @minniemariex @kazoo-the-demjin @gaypomegranate @ji-nk-ies @neilimfinejosten @omgrubelangel @itsyouitsmeorpheuseurydice @percabethotplove @cozyrosykay @foxyatlas @theoneandonlylostsock @cindersapsecrets

The requests to be added to the tag list keep being spread out across a few different areas. If I missed you please just ask again in the replies I promise I just missed you.

As stated before if you’re up here and I spelled it right but you didn’t get a notification there might be something switched around in your settings that won’t let me tag you properly?

If you didn’t get notified on the last part it’s probably because I used tumblr mobile to post and our most beloved garbage fire site just didn’t like that.

#Fluent Freshman AU #Guess who accidentally took FF's phone?#It's Neil #He realizes it halfway through the grocery store run #Sorry FF your grandma is now the Monster Grandma #She's got knitting projects planned for each of them #She's already asked about allergies #She jokingly tells Nicky she'll knit Kevin a muzzle because he's commented on the amount of butter she uses four times #He always shuts up when he eats it at least #Neil is blissfully unaware that he has FF's phone and FF has his #Some poor Moriyama grunts are wandering through the hospital having to check every single Smith room for the one they're looking for #Ichirou was planning some mild intimidation shit on Neil #But was hampered because JFC why so many Smiths #Does Ichirou know Smith's first name?#Perhaps #Does he use it?#Probably not #AFTG #AFTG AU #AFTG OC #Andreil #FF - Pt. 28

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