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Renegade Harmony Drifter
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I consider the options for how to talk to Reggie about needing more flexible hours. He’s busy doing his job, probably putting slightly more effort into it than before just because I’m here. He’s seemed like the type to slack off slightly less when he’s got people actually around to notice.
It’s not absolutely mandatory that I approach the topic immediately, so I settle in to work for a while.
-
A couple hours pass, and I’m still no closer to coming up with a good excuse. I don’t exactly want LESS hours, I just need to be able to bail on work sometimes, I think.
That would make me sound super irresponsible to say it that way, though.
Making this whole process even more difficult is Momo.
Not that she’s up to anything. Actually, she seems to have gone surprisingly quiet, with her tail just idly hanging out the back of my bag. Not a hint of her face for a while now.
It’s making me feel bad.
I doubt when she came to the mortal world she expected to get saddled with someone who sits around and binge watches cartoons, picks up extra shifts at work, and does her homework the moment it’s assigned.
Reggie is on the other end of the store, and there’s a tall counter between me and him as well. So I make a decision on impulse.
“Hey, Momo. Are you uh, sleeping?”
“Nope, just sitting!”
Momo’s nose pokes out of my bag, follows by her ears and entire head. Weirdly her tail doesn’t move at all or get pulled into the bag as she scoots up, and I imagine her just lengthening her tail rather than moving it. Or her neck, to look out of the bag without moving.
I shake my head and banish that weird image from my mind.
“It’s probably kinda boring in there, right? Do you want to get out for a bit?”
“Oooooh can I?”
Her eyes lighting up is a weird way to describe it, but that’s basically what happens.
“Only if you promise to try and stay out of where Reggie can see you. Oh, and act like you’re my pet if he does spot you, anyway. Reggie will believe that. Promise?”
She leaps out of my bag, and hops back and forth on her legs, grinning. I wonder if I’m making a stupid decision, but I’ve gotta trust her sometimes if I’ll be stuck with Momo in the long run. I’m sure she knows how to not be seen.
“Promise! Oh so much to see~”
I check my phone. About 15 minutes to let Momo stretch her tiny legs before we have to head out.
But when I look up to tell her this, I find a complete lack of fox on my desk.
Instead, I see Momo bolting at full speed down the aisle toward Reggie, whose back is turned away from us.
I panic a little. What the hell is she doing? WHY? This isn’t what I told her to do! I stand to call for her to come back and just barely stifle myself, to keep from shouting something Reggie would definitely hear.
I do sorta squeak and knock over my chair in the process.
And Reggie turns around to see what the noise was.
Shit.
But as Reggie turns to the right to look, Momo veers to the left and runs down a cross aisle, completely unseen.
“What’s up, Mia?”
He calls across the store, obviously seeing the look on my face as I stand here. Gotta cover, gotta come up with something. Anything!
“Ah it’s, it’s nothing. I uh, banged my shin on the desk. Sorry!”
“Yeah I do that all the time. Those crossbars are annoying.”
Reggie turns back to the display wall, and Momo comes prancing down the next aisle along, apparently having hit the end of the prior one and looped the corner.
She looks directly at me as she passes through the main aisle, an absolute grin on her face, before disappearing down the left side behind some shelves.
The little shit. She’s screwing with me.
I can’t think of a single way to tell her to get her ass back here without Reggie noticing though. And she hasn’t been seen yet. What’s her plan here?
I lean on the counter and wonder if maybe telepathy is something I’m supposed to be able to do, through the pact or something. It’s Momo’s move right now, but I’m pretty annoyed that she immediately went to break her promise.
Of course when she resurfaces, it’s one aisle closer to Reggie, and she makes the remainder of the dash up to him in one long go. I brace for her discovery.
Then she stops right behind my manager, and just stands there next to a box of materials. Not moving. No noise.
Ten seconds pass. Then thirty. A minute. Two.
I’m standing, watching this bizarre scene as Reggie taps away on his inventory phone, clipboard in hand, and Momo stands stock still right behind him. Waiting.
“Oh yeah!”
Reggie turns, to speak to me.
As before, when he turns to the left this time, Momo moves to the right. Staying right behind him the entire time.
“You needed to head out at some point, right?”
“Ye-yeah. I’ve got time, but maybe I should pack my [b]bag[/] right now and get ready.”
I try to emphasize that, to signal Momo to get her furry ass back over here. But I can’t help but glance, just for a second, down at her, and Reggie immediately catches that subtle motion. How the HELL did he spot that from across the room?
His fluffy ponytail flips as he glances back and down, at the floor, before looking back at me.
And Momo again darts around him, hiding in my manager’s blind spot, so all he sees is his box of promo materials.
“Don’t worry about this stuff, Mia. I got it handled. Glad I could have at least a little help today, honest.”
He turns to return to the wall, Momo dancing around behind again.
“Feels like I can’t keep any employees these days, even though it’s easy work. Maybe it’s just too boring.”
Momo looks at me again, and grins a toothy smile.
Oh, I get it.
Yeah she’s absolutely screwing with me, but she’s not breaking her promise. She hasn’t been seen at all. I didn’t tell her to stay near the desk, so she’s choosing to not be seen right behind Reggie. I sigh.
Mental note: Momo is absolutely willing to obey the exact letter of her promises.
But why? Why this? Why screw with me? She was being cool only a few minutes ago. Why give me a tiny heart attack and make me panic? I’ve gone from calm and relaxed to freaking out, all because I said she could-
Oh. She keeps telling me and I keep missing it because I’m stupidly thinking of her as a fuzzy human.
Delicious emotions.
She’s looking to experience emotions, isn’t she? I don’t know if she actually is eating or tasting them or something, but she’s screwing with me because it was boring before and now she gets to experience my panic.
I’ve been saddled with someone who delights in getting a rise out of me, a reaction of some kind.
Which means the best way to get her to stop this is to quit freaking out and play it calm.
I sigh, take some deep breaths.
Play it cool.
“Actually uh, that’s something I needed to talk to you about, Reggie.”
Don’t glance at Momo, don’t pay attention to her. Have a conversation with Reggie. I can do this.
“Aww, don’t tell me you’re quitting too?”
He turns to face me, disappointment on his features. I ignore the red and white blur circling around his feet.
“Oh, no that’s not what I meant! Sorry! I just need some flexible hours for a bit. I’ve got something that’s come up.”
Momo is moving his clipboard from the box Reggie’d set it in, into another box.
“We can work something out, sure. What’s up?”
Can’t say mediator.
Probably shouldn’t talk about magic stuff.
Momo grins at me, blatantly hoping I’m going to tell him exactly what I just decided not to.
“I have a g-”
Momo laying on my bed, outfit carelessly almost showing everything, pops into my head for some stupid stupid reason. I almost tell him I’ve got a girlfriend, due an attack of sudden insanity, I’m sure of it. Thankfully I smother that weird idea and veer in a different direction.
“-a roommate. I’m dealing with a temporary roommate situation, and she’s kinda a pain. Would be helpful if you’d be okay with me missing work occasionally to deal with this.”
Reggie nods sagely, like he’s been through this sort of thing before. I wonder if he has.
“Yeah I got you. Lemme know anytime you gotta bail, I’m not gonna hold it against you. Heck I could probably just put up a sign asking people to rent on the honor system and leave the place unlocked these days.”
“Please don’t do that, that’s a terrible idea.”
He laughs, and turns around to grab his clipboard and get back to work. Momo remains behind him, and I feel strangely calm. She’s screwing around but even Momo understands staying out of sight, and I’ve got Reggie on my side with the work stuff. I will also be putting the girlfriend thing out of my head thank you.
Momo looks over at me again, and I roll my eyes at her and point down at the desk in the universal signal for getting her ass over here. Surprisingly she complies, and patters down the aisle to come back to me.
Without warning, Reggie turns around again.
“Oh so with- What the hell is that?”
He’s looking directly at Momo, who froze right in the middle of the aisle upon the words.
My manager, who just spotted Momo standing in the middle of the store, looks up at me with a baffled expression, and then back down at the fox.
Momo looks back at him.
She’s been spotted. I told her to pretend to be my pet if she’s spotted.
“Meow.”
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