Chapter Text
His mouse moved over or the corner of the screen, pulling up the little window showed her computer’s main utensils, volume, and brightness. The time was close to midnight.
Mariana grumbled quietly to herself, knowing that she should probably head to bed if she wanted to wake up actually feeling refreshed for once. But instead she just kept looking at Reddit to see what brands people recommended for smartwatches. Her’s current say next to her on the desk, broken with half the screen turned black.
She didn’t technically need a new watch, but she used hers enough that it was worth it to buy a new one. And god knows it would be a lot cheaper to buy a whole new one than get the one he already has repaired.
Plus, a smartwatch was good for monitoring his heart rate. For some reason it always seemed to skyrocket whenever he stood up, and though there was apparently nothing wrong with his heart, he still wanted to watch it. Call him paranoid, but he wasn’t risking having a fucking heart attack or something just because doctor’s brushed everything off.
So here he was.
Sitting at her desk, the only light in the room from her computer, trying to see what kind of watch she should buy.
She took a look at a few brands that people recommended, searching them up and going to their store pages, seeing if they were on Amazon or not and searching up the brand names along with ‘controversies’ just in case. So far, most didn’t seem liable. And she really didn’t have the money to buy some extremely expensive watch. Not right now, that’s for sure.
But all the brands had at least something that made her not want to buy. Either a feature missing that she wanted, some dumb overly advertised AI thing, or a rocky controversy attached to it that she’d rather stay far far away from.
She didn’t want her information stolen and sold online. Believe it or not.
Eventually, she saw one that caught her attention. It seemed shady, but she clicked.
The website looked pretty plain. Incomplete, and not well done. And for a second she was worried she’d have to quickly close out and delete her browser history incase of malware. But she continued to look down at the descriptions for the watches.
No stupid Ai features…
Heart monitor, step counter…
Waterproof…
That was about all she could ask for. But it had a few more features than just that. A notes app, a few downloadable games that were probably pretty shit, a camera - for some reason, and a call feature. Her last watch didn’t have that last one.
Its price was pretty decent too. But still, she opened a new tab and searched in the brand name again but with the word controversy after it.
Nothing.
Mariana smiled to herself.
Seems like she’s finally found what watch she’ll buy. And it only took…
She looked at the time on her computer.
“Mierda!” She cursed, standing up from her chair.
It was fucking two in the morning.
She quickly bought the watch, putting in her card information and address, not even checking when it would arrive. The second she was done she slammed her computer shut and got ready for bed. Not even brushing her teeth before she threw himself under the covers.
He was gonna be so fucking tired at work tomorrow-
<~>
Just like she had expected, Mariana woke up feeling like shit. His alarm spitting violent noise right into his fucking ears. He grabbed his phone and turned the alarm off, slowly sitting up and swinging his legs off of the side of his bed.
His phone buzzed, and he looked down at it to see a text from his boss, squinting at the screen.
God, what could he want now?
The guy was never actually in the shop, always just dealing with things behind the scenes. And he usually only ever texted someone to ask them to do more hours.
Mariana grabbed her glasses and opened the text.
Boss: Hey Mariana, I’m texting to see if you can do about 2-3 more hours tomorrow morning? Cellbit can’t come in that day and I need someone to cover his shift.
Mariana sighed. She didn’t want to work more tomorrow, since she had something tonight and would probably end up going to bed late again, but she couldn’t really say no could she. She’d become good friends with Cellbit, and she already knew that she was the only other person who could do more hours tomorrow.
Yeah I can do that
Boss: Great!
Mariana shut off her phone and set it back down on the nightstand, getting up and heading to his closet. He got out the dark blue uniform; a polo shirt that had the logo on the breast pocket. A small cartoonish cat drinking from a large boba cup. Then he just grabbed a random pair of black pants.
He got ready, brushing his teeth and quickly scarfing down an undercooked piece of toast, making his bed and double-checking that the door to his apartment was locked behind him.
He checked his phone on the way there, looking at the website and its tracking information to see when his watch would get here.
He was a bit surprised to find that it was set to arrive tomorrow.
They probably had a warehouse in the same state.
Mariana pulled up to the building, putting her phone in her pocket and stepping out into the parking lot.
The place looked a bit shady, two missing cat posters taped to the windows outside, a trash bin right by the front door that was far too full, and a letter missing from the sign above.
Q’s Cat Cafe.
The C from cat was gone, only a few holes left behind to show where it had been bolted down.
Mariana unlocked the door and went right to the kitchen area, where Cellbit was already preparing some breakfast foods.
“Hey man.” Mariana greeted as he entered.
Cellbit looked up and waved.
His eyes were a bit sunken in, and he looked sad.
“Hi Mariana. Sorry I can’t come in tomorrow, I’m sure Quackity told you.” He sounded as tired and sad as he looked.
Mariana shook her head as she took stock of what was all in the refrigerator.
“Don’t worry about it man. I’m guessing it’s your boyfriend’s cat?”
Cellbit nodded. “Roier’s flying back as soon as he can, but… we might have to put Bobby down. The vet - she seems hopeful. But the chances of Bobby making it are low.”
Mariana’s gaze dropped.
“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that.” He half mumbled.
“It’s - fine.” Cellbit sighed, and his expression hardened a bit. “Let’s just wipe down the counters a bit yeah? Closing shift never does a good job.”
Mariana let out an amused huff at that last part.
Because they really didn’t do a good job.
So that’s what Mariana and Cellbit did, wiping down the kitchen first before setting up the tables out front and sweeping the floors. Cellbit fed the cats and cleaned their litter boxes, and Mariana cleaned the windows to the cat room and worked on stopping two of them from fighting each other.
A few weeks ago someone had came into the cafe to inform them of a bunch of abandoned stray kittens that were apparently right behind the building in the alley, so they were forced to take them in.
And one of the new kittens, Chyanne, seemed set on screwing with one of the older cats. A white male they called Cucurucho, who clearly didn’t care how sharp his claws were when swatting Chyanne away.
After that they switched the sign to open and waited. Their first customers weren’t set to arrive until an hour, so they had some time to kill.
Cellbit and Mariana sat at a table right outside the cat room, both on their phones.
Mariana took pictures of one of the kittens, JuanaFlippa, who was currently scratching at the glass trying to get Mariana’s attention.
“She wants to play so bad right now.” Mariana chuckled.
He didn’t typically smile, but the kitten managed to bring a smile to his face every time.
“Yeah, with Tílin still quarantined she’s been restless.” Cellbit hummed, not looking up from his phone.
Tílin was technically the owners cat, but for some reason Quackity insisted on her staying in the cafe.
“Why’d you think Quackity never comes to the store?” Mariana asked, snapping another picture of JuanaFlippa before setting his phone down.
“Probably ‘cause it’s a shithole.”
Mariana laughed at that.
“But genuinely,” Cellbit lowered his phone, “I think it’s because the cats all hate him.”
“Honestly I don’t get how someone like him even starts something like this. It’s like all animals hate him.” She said.
Mariana swears even the bugs have it especially out for him. If the flies could they’d probably kill Quackity.
Maybe that just said something about flies.
They hung around for a bit more, idily chatting and scrolling their phones. But eventually they had to get up and actually do their jobs. Cellbit worked with the people, and Mariana cooked all the food and occasionally went to the back room to check up on the quarantined kitties and give them their cold medicine.
It was a pretty boring time, all things considered. But he enjoyed being able to hold and pet Tílin and Pepito. JuanaFlippa was his favorite - though he’d never let anyone know that - but Pepito was close behind on the favorite list.
If he could, he’d probably adopt one of them. Take them home and get them all the toys they could ever want.
But Mariana’s tenant was always weird about pets, and he didn’t feel like dealing with that. Not right now.
A bit after midday, his shift was over. And both him and Cellbit handed over the keys to their coworkers once they arrived.
Mariana didn’t go home yet though, heading to the store instead to buy groceries. She had made a list in her notes app the day prior, and there were quite a lot of things she was missing.
She turned the radio on in her car, and listened as it played some cheesy love song.
Love.
It was something she tried before, and something she regretted heavily.
Her ex’s personality matched his nickname. He was foolish. But Mariana had been too, back then. She thought she was in love and after so many awkward dates and embarrassing moments, she finally realized she wasn’t. So she cut ties to Foolish and ended their relationship there. It happened a long while ago, but occasionally something would bring her mind back to it.
Mainly stupidly cheesy love songs.
Mariana turned the radio off and just drove in silence.
She bought what all she needed, a few items on her list not yet bought on account of her being unable to find them in the store. He didn’t buy any cold things though, so he didn’t need to rush home.
He headed to a nearby comic book store first.
He had recently joined some DnD group, having never played but hearing that it was fun. He didn’t have a minifigure though.
Already in discord he had talked with the ‘DM’, and she had helped Mariana come up with a character to play. After that Rivers had suggested he go to a comic book store and see if they sold minifigures. If not, she said she had some that were already painted that he could use.
Mariana looked around the store for a bit, feeling a bit overwhelmed and confused by everything.
Eventually a store employee walked past and casually asked what she was looking for, and Mariana got them to help her pick out a minifigure.
After that she went back to her apartment.
She put up all the groceries and made herself lunch, as well as making a few pigs-in-a-blankets to bring to the dnd group. He heard online that people usually brought snacks, and he wanted to make a good first impression. When he left the house, he made sure to double check that he locked it.
<~>
Several hours later and he was finally heading back home. DnD went great though, and he had a smile on his face as he left the dm’s house. He was now in a discord group chat with the rest of the players, where they could either infodump about their characters, share art, or theorize on what Rivers was cooking up for the champaign and their characters.
When Mariana got back to his apartment, he noticed a package in front of his door.
He raised his eyebrows at it, grabbing the small box and heading inside. She sat down at her kitchen table and cut the box open with a knife, and she was surprised to realize that it was the watch she ordered.
It had only been a day, yet it was already here.
“That was fast.” She hummed to herself as she took out the smartwatch’s box and opened it. A yellow band with green accents.
She flicked it on, and it had a little startup screen with the company’s logo. Guess she’ll be setting this up before going to bed.
Even if it was already ten O’clock… and even if she had a longer shift tomorrow starting earlier…
Maybe she should go to bed first.
Mariana got ready, getting out of her work clothes - which she hadn’t bothered to change after work - and into pajamas. She cleaned some dirty dishes and brushed her teeth, tossed out her old broken watch, and set her new one on her nightstand next to her phone and glasses.
She turned the lights off and quickly climbed into bed.
She’ll set up the watch tomorrow after work.