Chapter Text
The first time it happened, Larry didn’t think much of it.
He’d had a long and uneventful day of truly horrible work, and Larry had been standing at the cash register in one of Elmore’s many gas stations, drifting in and out of sleep, trying to avoid passing out. This was all fairly normal for the man, so he was mostly just zoning out, until suddenly he heard the subtle but distinct noise of static. Snapping out of his haze, Larry rubbed his eyes, hoping that the sound wasn’t from something broken. In less than a minute though, the noise was gone, and Larry didn’t think much of it, or the few stolen snacks, just being grateful that nothing seemed broken.
This would have been fine, and Larry wouldn’t have thought any more of it, if in the coming weeks it didn’t become such a pattern. A few times a week, fairly late at night, he’d hear the static and no matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to find its source. It’d always start at varying times at night, stick around a few minutes, and then suddenly disappear like how it came, leaving the store a bit emptier than before.
He’d tried checking the security cameras, only to find they were made of poorly painted cardboard, and didn’t even work, which didn't really surprise the underpaid employee considering how cheap his employers were with… well now that Larry thought about it, everything.
This seemed to be just one more thing Larry would have to deal with, like all the other nonsense that he seemed unable to escape, until one day, soon after the static started, he heard a crash, followed by a bit of hushed swearing and what Larry could only assume was the noise of the customer trying to quickly fix whatever they’d messed up.
Sighing, Larry started his walk to the back of the store, hoping it wasn’t one of those darn Watterson kids, or even worse, their father. What he didn’t expect to see, though, was an odd looking teenager who he had somehow never even seen around before.
Elmore was a small town, and Larry, working about half the jobs in this godforsaken town, knew everyone here, or so he thought. Larry was no stranger to strange people, he himself undoubtedly being one, but this kid was on the next level. He seemed like he was maybe some sort of cyclops, only having one eye, but that wasn’t what Larry found odd. Parts of his body seemed not to be attached to each other, just hovering in place near where they would normally be connected to each other, and his arms, legs, and part of his head seemed to be made of what looked like tv static.
One of his hands was a mess of polygons, and one of his feet didn’t even seem to be there, replaced instead by a wireframe outline, like what you see on the inside of 3d models. Parts of his body seemed to glitch and then snap back into place seemingly randomly. Strangest of all, the static that had been periodically bothering Larry all week seemed to be coming from the kid, as it was louder now that he was only a few feet away from him.
The two just stood there shocked for a moment, both seemingly unsure what to do, before the boy dropped the bags of chips he was rapidly trying to put back on their shelf, and tried to make a run for it. Larry stood there for a split second, frozen, before he snapped out of it and quickly started following after him. There was no way Larry was going to let this mystery thief get away without even talking to him first!
The teen was faster than Larry expected, but right before the kid made it through the door, Larry grabbed him by the arm, pulling him back inside.
The teenager looked back at him, eye wide, clearly scared of what was going to happen to him.
He spoke slowly, carefully. “If you let me go, I promise I won’t come back, ok?”
“There’s no reason for that, I just have a few questions”. Larry gave a strained smile, just wanting to figure out what in Elmore was going on with this kid.
“Um, we could probably have this conversation in the break room, I don’t feel like dealing with any more customers tonight.” Larry walked over to the door and flipped the open sign off, before leading the worried kid to the back of the store.
Rob was internally cursing himself for knocking that stupid shelf over. Now, this random store employee was going to call the cops on him, and he’d be right back where he literally just escaped from three weeks ago! Why was it that when anything was going even slightly well in his life, he managed to fuck it up?!
Stuck in this cycle of self hatred, he hardly noticed they had already gotten to the employee area. It was pitifully small and pretty empty, except for a few chairs, two of which the oragami(at least that's what Rob thought he probalby was? He couldn't really be sure.) employee set up, gesturing for Rob to sit, which he did. The employee -his name tag read Larry Needlemeyer- followed suit, awkwardly smiling at him, looking like this was the last thing he wanted to be doing right now.
“So…. you’re the reason things keep going missing, I assume?”
Wait. How would he know that? “No, I’m not? Why’d you assume that?”
Larry sighed, “I don’t know how to break this to you but you’re not exactly the most inconspicuous person.” Rob looked at him, confused as to what he was referring to. “You know, the static?”
Rob froze. “Wait, you’re telling me you can hear that??”
“Yes?”
Rob was going to fucking kill Gumball. The rational part of his brain knew this wasn’t really his fault, but damn it, he needed someone to blame for this.
“I… was not aware of that.” He paused for a second before giving up on lying. “Yeah, it was me. I didn’t want to, I've just been having a... really hard few weeks. Food doesn't grow on trees.” Rob frowned. "Well, maybe it does but- never mind, you get what I'm trying to say, right? I didn't have a choice.
Rob didn’t exactly have a reliable food source, or money, or a place to prepare any real meals seeing as he lived in a junkyard… yeah, it was probably for the best if he didn’t dwell on this too long. He just hoped that this Larry guy wouldn't be too pissed that he'd been stealing.
Surprisingly, instead of getting upset, he just frowned. “Don’t… you have parents?”
“No, I don't.”
“A place to stay?”
“No.”
Larry really didn’t like the sound of that. “…Anyone to help you??”
The kid sighed, seeming tired of being asked this, “Again, no.”
“What’s your name?”
“It’s Rob.”
Rob, huh. That didn’t ring any bells for Larry, which was weird considering he overheard almost all the gossip in town. Well, all except for most of what the Wattersons talked about - he tended to attempt to ignore as much of their nonsense as possible.
“It's strange, I’ve never heard anyone mention you before.”
Rob laughed bitterly. “Yeah, I'm not surprised.”
Larry had no idea how to interpret that, but what Rob had admitted earlier was starting to sink in.
“Wait, so you’re telling me you’re homeless and don’t have anyone to help you?!”
“That pretty much sums it up.” This was heartbreaking to Larry. Why was no one helping this poor kid?! Larry really didn’t know what to do in this situation. “I- should I call someone to help you out?”
"No!" Rob didn't mean to yell, but nothing good could come from anyone else getting involved in this mess. The static on his body was flashing and distorting faster as he rapidly tried to convince Larry not to do that. “I mean- I-I’m fine-! There’s no reason to call anyone, really! I can handle this on my own! I- I’m sorry for stealing, I’ll never do it again-”
Larry raised his hands, signaling for him to stop. “Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can in good conscience just leave a homeless teen to “handle things” on their own. Is there anything I can do to help?”
The younger boy took a breath, trying to try to calm himself before speaking again. “It’ll be better for both of us if you just forget this whole conversation happened. I promise you’ll never see me again.”
At this point, Larry was really getting worried. What did Rob mean it’d be ‘better for both of us’ if he just forgot about this?!
“I, um, I really do want to help! I might not be the most well off guy, but if you’re at the point where you have to steal food to survive, surely I could do something?”
“I don’t need anyone’s help, ok? Now, what’s my punishment for taking stuff from the store?”
Larry knew if this was any other situation, he’d be glad to get this over with and get back to his job, but something in Larry wouldn’t let him give up yet. “No, no, there’s no punishment, just let me know what I can do!”
Hearing this, Rob's eye narrowed. “I said: I don’t need your help.” he repeated, before standing up and starting towards the door out.
Larry panicked and grabbed his wrist, trying to stop him, persisting despite the shock that came from making contact with whatever the glitchy material Rob’s arms were made of was. "Wait, please don’t leave yet!“
The static noise coming from Rob went from a quiet background noise to an almost overwhelming wave of sound as Rob gave Larry a glare that could probably kill someone that hadn’t spent ten years in customer service. “Let. Me. Go.”
“I can’t just let you starve, knowing I let it happen!!”
“I already told you, I’ll be fine!” Rob knew that was a lie, but he sure as hell wasn’t gonna let this complete stranger know it.
The near defeated cashier was just about to give up and let the kid leave to go do hell knows what when suddenly he had an idea.
Larry smiled.
“I just thought of a way you can pay me back for robbing the store. A deal, if you will. You allow me to assist you for one week, and then after that, you’re free to leave and never interact with me again. Sound good?” Larry smiled nervously and prayed to his corporate overlords that Rob would agree (and also maybe calm down a bit).
Surprisingly, Rob sighed, all of the anger he'd been feeling leaving him as swiftly as it came, leaving him just feeling really fucking tired and in no mood to argue.
“Fine.”
“Wait, really? I thought you’d push back more than that.”
“I would, but I’ve been living off stolen snacks for three weeks now, and the junkyard doesn't really provide a luxury sleeping experience.” Rob noticed the concerned face Larry was making and the fact that the employee’s hand was still grabbing his wrist and pulled away, folding his arms. “Stop giving me that look. I was trying to lighten the mood.”
Larry blinked, before giving him a small fake smile despite how utterly appalled he was by what this poor boy has had to go through. “S-sorry about that.” His face then brightened for real as he remembered the agreement he and Rob had come to.
“So, if I’m helping you out this week, there’s no way I’m letting you stay in the dump. I have an apartment- sure, it’s not the nicest or the largest, but it is fairly comfortable, and you can stay there as long as you’d like.”
Rob would never admit it, but half of him thought staying in a real home for even a week sounded incredible. The other half hated the idea of him going back to any semblance of comfort when he deserved all the shit he’d been going through lately. Luckily for him, he was pretty sure he wouldn't have a choice anyways. This Larry guy was real stubborn.
As Rob sat there, clearly lost in thought, Larry broke the silence. “I closed the store down early, so unless you want to stay here, we should go sooner than later; it’s already dark out.”
“Sounds good.” Rob hated that he didn't have any more excuses but he couldn't think; the exhaustion was catching up to him fast. He hadn’t slept a wink last night because apparently Tina decided to invite some old friends over for a sleepover. Let’s just say four dinosaurs having a pillow fight wasn’t really something you could just ignore.
Hearing that confirmation, Larry stood up, and noticing just how tired the teenager looked, offered a hand to help him up.
Rob hesitantly took it with his good hand, pulling himself up, and quickly realizing the extent of how tired he was. Pushing through the exhaustion, he drowsily followed Larry out of the gas station, climbed into the back of Larry’s car, and fell asleep the moment he sat down.