Work Text:
Not much had happened at Cleaner HQ recently, Enjin lost a bet and had to buy Semiu some more magazines, Riyo and Zanka sparred a bit too rough and ended up getting scolded, and Gob had probably put up more graffiti somewhere, but that was basically the usual anyways. So you'll understand why Semiu was extremely bored, she did overhear Enjin saying that he was thinking about going into a no man's land soon, but as a cleaner that wasn't exactly unusual, still going into one by choice is a little questionable. She had called her hookup from a few weeks ago aka Cthoni a couple times, sometimes she was busy, but other times they talked a bit. She got to learn a couple things about her, like despite constantly calling her coworkers annoyances she basically behaved as a mother figure to one of them and like a "mom friend" to the rest of them. Then again that might be the reason she calls them annoyances in the first place.
Once the evening came around she decided to go to her room, maybe flip through a few magazines or read a book, usually the Cleaners don't get any calls at this time anyways.
However those plans were then put on hold when her choker started to ring.
"Hello?"
"Hello Semiu are you free to talk by any chance?"
"Oh! Cthoni hey! Yeah i'm free, what do ya wanna talk about?"
Semiu's face lit up a bit at the fact that Cthoni had called to talk to her, it looked like this wouldn't be such an uneventful day after all. Once Semiu sat down on her bed Cthoni had started speaking again.
"By any chance would you happen to be good at baking?"
"Well I'm no five star chef or anything but I do know how to make some damn good cookies"
"That's good because-", Cthoni was cut off by a thud in the background
"Well we lost Fu", Semiu could've sworn she'd heard the man's voice before, but she just couldn't figure out where. After that a couple other voices started speaking and an exasperated sigh escaped Cthoni before she spoke again.
"Let's just say my attempt of baking didn't exactly go well and now my coworkers have told me I need to get someone to teach me how to bake before I poison someone"
"I mean ya probably just killed Fu" The same man in the background said. At this point Semiu was feeling very concerned for this Fu person.
"Jabber, shut up", "Just ignore him", Based on Cthoni's tone of voice it sounded like she had to deal with this Jabber guy a lot.
"Uh huh", "So...You're asking me to teach you how to bake?"
"If you're free of course, I wouldn't want to take up your time if you're busy"
"It's alright I'm free, and it'll be nice to bake again, especially with your company"
When Semiu and Cthoni had time to talk Semiu would always throw in a few flirty lines, which would then be (luckily) reciprocated.
"I'm glad, it will be nice to see you again, however I do apologize for anything and probably everything that my coworkers will either say or do"
"Don't worry 'bout it I'm sure I've dealt with worse at some point", After all Semiu had been the cleaners receptionist for a while now, and she's dealt with all sorts of people.
"I doubt it"
Semiu was honestly pretty curious to see Chtoni's coworkers at this point since she would usually just describe them as "annoyances", however Semiu was sure she'd met worse people, after all when you're a giver all sorts of people will start to call you crazy.
Once they finished up talking Cthoni told Semiu the address of her house, to which Semiu figured out that it was only 25 minutes away from HQ. She then changed out of her work clothes and into a black v-neck t-shirt with a leather jacket on top, paired with a pair of light jeans and boots. After that she notified Corvus that she was leaving, got to her car and began her trip to Cthoni's house. She started to wonder how many coworkers of hers would be there since her house wasn't very big. She'd be getting her answer soon enough though.
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Once she arrived at Cthoni's house she did notice an additional car parked next to her house, thankfully the lack of an ambulance told her that the "Fu" person was (probably) still alive.
She walked up to the front door and started knocking, almost instantly she heard some kind of scramble from behind the door and was soon greeted with the face of a man probably in his late teens with long dreadlocks put up in a ponytail.
"Who tha hell are you?"
"Jabber you back away from the door" A clearly pissed off Cthoni said behind him.
Huh, so this was the Jabber she'd been told to ignore.
"What? A guy can't be confused on who this rando lady is?"
"Her name is Semiu and she's here to help with the baking"
The man, Jabber, was extremely confused and surprised by this.
"You're tellin' me you know other people besides us!?"
So far Jabber didn't seem as annoying as Cthoni described him, just the usual amount of annoying for a young adult. While Cthoni and Jabber were bickering Semiu peeked her head into the house a bit more, which then allowed her to see Cthoni's other coworkers.
There was a teenager with white hair and a red underside who seemed to be unconscious laying on the couch with a bucket on the floor next to him, Semiu guessed that was the "Fu" she assumed passed out and fell onto the floor.
Standing next to the right side of the couch, leaning against the wall was a man who seemed to be in his forties with a hat and a large shoulder pad on, he had his head resting in his palm and was mumbling something that Semiu couldn't make out.
The last person there was a man sitting on the left side of the couch, he had black hair with white on the sides and a large coat draped over his shoulders, he looked pretty nauseous which made Semiu assume he'd also eaten some of the failed baking attempt. However one thing Semiu couldn't look past was the fact that this man had an aura around him that screamed power, it felt like an aura that she would feel from an experienced cleaner, except his seemed much more...hostile. She'd have to keep an eye on him, after all she didn't know what Cthoni's job was, just like she didn't know what Semiu's job was, jobs are a valuable piece of information on the ground, a piece of information that depending on the job usually warranted information of either equal or higher value.
The older man in the hat started to speak up.
"Zodyl, can't you make them stop or somethin'. I'm sure this ain't doin' great things for you or Fu's nausea"
The black haired man, Zodyl, let out a sigh before speaking.
"Jabber"
"Yes bossman!" Jabber immediately turned towards Zodyl as soon as his name left his mouth.
"Stop fighting and calm down, there is a guest here after all"
"Yessir"
After that Jabber walked over to Zodyl and sat on the armrest of the couch next to him, seemingly surrendering to Cthoni, though Semiu could tell this would just a time-out in their conversation.
Cthoni took a few deep breaths before turning to Semiu and speaking.
"I apologize for him, he can be...overwhelming. These are some of my coworkers, the man in the hat is Bundus, the teenager who is currently unconscious is Fu, and the man in the coat is my boss, Zodyl"
"I'm Semiu, nice to meet ya'll"
"Hello"
"It's nice to meet you as well, I will say as much as it pains me to agree with Jabber I was also surprised to meet a friend of Cthoni's, she doesn't exactly talk about her personal life", The man in the hat aka Bundus was definitely a conversationalist, and it seemed like Cthoni was very aware of this fact, since she took one of Semiu's hands into hers and started leading her to the kitchen.
"We haven't known each other for a while anyways", The curt answer left Cthoni as her and Semiu made their way to the kitchen, seemingly getting away from the possibility of a lengthy conversation.
"Your coworkers sure are, uh..interesting" Semiu said after they entered the kitchen.
"You can call them annoyances, they are after all", 'Annoyances' was apparently the default word for Cthoni when describing her coworkers.
"How long you been with them?"
There was a pause from Cthoni, going over the answer in her head perhaps? Or questioning how much info she should give away?
"...about two or three years, but I knew Jabber before then"
There was something in her tone of voice, nostalgia maybe? Semiu could basically read everyone she came across, but Cthoni was one of the people who has a very impressive poker face, it's probably one of the reasons she thinks Cthoni is so attractive.
Semiu started to look around at the kitchen, it was extremely clear that someone had tried (keyword tried) to bake...something in here. The worst part was it looked like Cthoni had cleaned some of it up and it still looked like someone gave ten kids a bunch of cake and flower, then told them to do what ever they wanted with it.
"So..uh..what were you tryin' to bake exactly?"
"Apparently a dessert that Jabber had once when he was a kid, it's called dukunu, have you heard of it?"
Semiu had in fact heard of it, but she also knew that it was a very complicated thing to make, definitely not something a beginner should be making.
"How 'bout we do something a little more..beginner friendly, like chocolate chip cookies or somethin"
"Alright, I belive I have some chocolate chips in the pantry"
Cthoni went to get the chocolate chips and an additional apron for Semiu which let her observe Cthoni's coworkers a little more. It looked like Fu was slowly coming back into consciousness, and Bundus was getting him up to speed about Cthoni's friend who is helping with the baking. Meanwhile Jabber was laying down with his legs sprawled on top of Zodyl's lap, something Semiu presumed could only happen in Zodyl's nauseous state. Jabber was also fidgeting with rings that Semiu noticed adorned each of his fingers, the rings looked practically spotless, he definitely took good care of them. Hell! they could be a vital instrument from the looks of it.
Soon enough Cthoni came back with Semiu's apron, while also wearing her own, she placed some ingredients on the counter and handed Semiu her apron. However Semiu's brain was completely filled with only one thought: 'Damn she's cute in that apron'. The apron that she was wearing was a plain, light blue one that had white stripes on the drawstring and a shoddily stitched on C on one of the pockets.
"Now, what is the first step of making chocolate chip cookies?"
Semiu snapped out of her thoughts, which may or may not have been getting unholier by the second, and reminded herself that she was here to help with baking and anything 18+ could be flirted and implied later once everyone was gone.
"Well first we should preheat the oven, it's not gonna take long to get ingredients mixed together"
"Alright..Do you suppose 570 degrees will be hot enough?"
How this kitchen was still standing, Semiu would never know.
"350 is usually the best temperature to bake them at" Semiu hoped her concern didn't show to much in her chuckle towards Cthoni's words.
"Hm..I see, I'll put the oven at 350 then"
Through a few mix-ups of which ingredient is which and how much of what should be added they eventually got the cookies in the oven, to which everyone, minus Zodyl, came to marvel at.
"I'll say they definitely look good, we can only hope their taste matches their looks" Bundus said while peering into the oven
Jabber, clearly skeptical, turned to Fu, "Hmmm, I still don't trust 'em, Fu you're tryin first"
"Right!" Fu said with immense determination in his eyes. So far Semiu supposed Fu was just a shy kid, mostly because after he woke up he hadn't done or said much, he really only did things when others asked or told him to.
Semiu and Cthoni started to clean up the kitchen, even though Cthoni had said she didn't have to Semiu would probably press her luck with some flirty comments later and see where that would get her, and it's better to be in someones good graces when doing that, especially in their house, she learned that the easy way though aka by listening to Enjin talk about how he had been kicked out of someones house cause of his flirting, but thankfully he worked on his flirting skills and was better at it now at least.
Even though they were focused on cleaning Semiu did notice the head peeking out from behind one of the kitchen counters to which she raised an eyebrow at out of curiosity.
"Sooo...Semiu, how exactly d'ya know Cthoni?" Jabber, who had finally stood up all the way once he realized he'd been spotted, spoke up.
"We met at a bar a couple weeks ago, hit it off and just kept in contact, not much to it"
To anyone else this would've been a completely normal response to which they'd go along with their day afterwards. Jabber however looked like he was finally putting together a puzzle he'd been trying to figure out for the past few hours, which in fact was completely the case. Nonetheless nothing could've prepared anyone for the words that would come out of his mouth next.
"Wait...YOU'RE THE MYSTERY DATE?!...wait a minute... CTHONI DIDN'T LET ME COME OVER THE NEXT DAY CAUSE SHE HAD SOME-", and then the last piece of the puzzle fit "HOLY SHIT DID YOU GUYS FUCK?!! AND IN THE HOUSE? CTHONI HOW THA HELL DID YOU EVEN PULL THAT?" Jabber continued on while Cthoni was looking like she was going to strangle him any second now, strangely enough Semiu was a little turned on by that, but that's not the point, the point is while Cthoni might've been plotting murder the others in the living room didn't seem like they were gonna be much help. Fu started panicking, Bundus looked concerned but also like he had already accepted Jabber's fate, and Zodyl looked...calm? It was almost like he'd seen that exact scene play out in front of him multiple times. Meanwhile Semiu was just hoping she'd be able to hold Cthoni back, because not only did her physical form tell people she was strong, certain...activities Semiu had with her undeniably proved that.
"Jabber"
"And I mean no disrespect but like, she's at least a nine!"
Surprisingly that was able to snap Cthoni out of..whatever violent things she might have been thinking.
"I may agree with that, but you don't even like women!"
"So? I can still question how ya pulled that unit of a woman!"
Somehow the conversation switched over to Jabber questioning how Cthoni pulled Semiu, and becoming even more confused after learning that Semiu was the one who approached her, however they both did agree that Semiu was definitely over a nine. Semiu wasn't sure whether to be confused or flattered.
"So..is this normal?" Semiu looked over to the others who were either seated on or near the couch.
"I'll be honest with ya', I'm only a rookie so far, but from what I've seen, pretty much"
"I-I've know them for a year...t-this just becomes the 'normal' eventually"
"Yes"
Semiu wasn't exactly sure what to think with those answers, luckily the oven timer going off prevented her from thinking too hard about it.
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"Well, Fu you're up", Jabber shoved Fu towards the cookies resting on the baking sheet.
Fu quickly picked up one of the cookies, shoved it into his mouth, and swallowed. Everyone, especially Cthoni, was anxious for the verdict.
"Mm..they're very good Miss Cthoni!" Semiu heard Cthoni let out a sigh of relief while Bundus, Cthoni, and herself also reached for one, and they were definitely as delicious as she expected, despite some of the mishaps that occurred in the beginning. Everyone else also seemed to be in agreement.
Jabber however was still looking a little skeptical.
"I'm still not fully convinced, but I'll try it", He carefully reached forward to grab a cookie and slowly took a bite out of it.
With a look on his face that she couldn't quite place Jabber turned to look at her.
"Semiu..you need ta' come over more often. This is like the single-handedly best thing ta' come outta this kitchen"
"Y'know he's not wrong, you should come over again" Cthoni lightly smiled at her while she spoke.
oh...she's really cute.
"Well I'm definitely not opposed to that, tonight's been fun after all" Semiu smiled back at her, and she didn't miss Cthoni's face taking on a light pink pigment.
Jabber grabbed two more cookies and ran back over to the couch where Zodyl was (still) sitting.
"C'mon bossman ya' gotta try one, I know it's not your 'usual' but it's too good to not try", Jabber perched back onto the armrest where he sat earlier and handed over a cookie to Zodyl.
Slowly, the man grabbed the cookie from Jabber and took a bite out of it. Semiu had seen plenty of "emotionless" people in her time and there was always some kind of barely noticeable detail that could tell her everything about how the person was feeling, Zodyl was no different he was just a little harder to crack, however she didn't expect a cookie to be the easiest way. His eyes opened and softened slightly after he took a bite out of the cookie. Then he turned towards Cthoni and Semiu and spoke.
"This does taste quite good, this is a desirable improvement from your last attempt Cthoni"
Next to her Chtoni appeared to let out a breath even she didn't know she was holding.
"Thank you sir"
Maybe Zodyl wasn't that scary in the end, frankly he was most likely just an introvert, who either couldn't or didn't feel the need to express much emotion. Corvus was friendly but once you get to know him you realize he's also very good at controlling his emotions, Zodyl however didn't seem like he was exactly "good" at controlling his emotions, he's just good at not letting them show.
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A couple hours later everyone was sitting either on the couch or on a beanbag on the floor (courtesy of Jabber), Semiu did learn that the second bedroom in Cthoni's house belonged to Jabber, apparently it was a place where he could experiment with his "creations" and crash for the night when he needed, what the creations were Semiu didn't know exactly but Cthoni did warn her that if she asked she'd be pulled into a long rant from Jabber that could and probably would last more than six hours. Maybe she'd ask him on another day when she had the time for that. He did seem pretty excited at the possibility of being able to explain all about his creations.
Eventually Zodyl said he should be leaving by now and told Bundus to get the car started and Fu joined him after saying their goodbyes. Semiu didn't miss when Zodyl went back into the kitchen to grab another cookie, but she'd keep that information to herself for now.
Soon it was just Semiu, Chtoni, and a Jabber who had passed out on the couch earlier.
"It is getting late, I should probably head out too"
"I suppose you're right...it would've been nice to have you around a little longer though", Cthoni was grabbing a blanket from the closet while she spoke, the dissapointment on her face was hidden but Semiu could still hear it in her voice.
"Yeah, but work can be a pain in the ass and require you to wake up super early to get everyone ready" Semiu was also hoping she would be able to spend a bit more time with Cthoni but the odd family dynamic that Semiu spent the night with was also an entertaining experience.
Cthoni carefully placed the blanket on top of Jabber's sleeping form, and turned to look at Semiu.
"Well, may I walk you out before you go?"
"Yeah, I'd like that"
They both walked out into the chill night outside Cthoni's house and towards Semiu's car.
"Tonight was fun, maybe we can actually get together one-on-one next time?" Semiu leaned against her car and added a wink to the end of her sentence.
"It would be nice to have a proper date, and not something where my coworkers are in the next room"
"I'd like that", Semiu smiled towards Cthoni when she finished speaking.
"Well, you should be going, I wouldn't want to make you to tired for your job", Cthoni took a step forward, stood on her toes and leaned in to kiss Semiu's cheek, "I'll see you later Semiu"
"Uh, yeah! See ya!"
Cthoni walked back into her house and closed the door, meanwhile Semiu looked like schoolgirl whose crush just kissed them, which technically might not've been that far off. If Semiu was going to act all schoolgirly she could do it once she got back to the privacy of her home, and then hopefully get some rest. She got into her car and drove off, looking back at the house where she was sure she would have more visits in store for her future.
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Cthoni shut the door behind her and leaned back onto it, her face heating up as she replayed what she had done in her mind. Despite them actually having sex that kiss seemed to be much more intimate then she realized, at this point she really needed to take the other woman on a date.
"You likeee her~" Jabber, who was awake, taunted Cthoni while twirling one of his locs with his finger.
"Aren't you supposed to be asleep?" Cthoni pushed off the wall and put her hands on her hips.
Jabber hummed a noise of uncertainty as he flipped to lay on his back. Cthoni rolled her eyes and began to walk towards her bedroom, stopping at the door when Jabber spoke again.
"She's nice"
"...she is", Cthoni smiled, "Goodnight Jabber"
"Night"