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He smiled to himself as he watched the music grate on the woman's ears. He leaned back, adjusting his suspiciously fish-shaped tie. “So sorry, but it seems we've closed, you'll have to come back next week,” the woman paused, slowly looking up, her eye twitching. “GRIAN, I WORK HERE. YOU CAN'T JUST CLOSE BECAUSE YOU CAN'T DO YOUR JOB!!”
“I can do what I want, and it seems we've closed as I am going home, and we are horribly understaffed. Also, I'm the boss, and I choose when my shift ends, and that's now. Please leave, I have fish- important paperwork to do.” The woman sighed deeply, her ginger hair falling into her face as she lowered her head. “I just wanted to try and buy a permit,” she laments as she walks to the door. “You're opening tomorrow, gem!” “I KNOW” the door slams shut.
Walking into the back room, not bothering to turn off the lights as he grabs his stuff, throwing it into his pockets, “phone, kays, jacket… phone, jacket… where the fuck-” he mutters, rummaging through his desk.
“Hey, Gri, I found your keys on the front desk-” Grian whipped his head around to see the sunglass-clad man now holding his keys by the mini fishing rod keychain as if he had just caught them. “Hey, Scar,” he says, stumbling slightly as he stands up behind his desk, adjusting his now slightly ruffled tie.
“I found your keys-” Grian quickly walks over, “right- uhm yeah, thanks.” he takes a breath, looking up at the man, “What are you doing here?” Scar shifts slightly, giving him a smirk. “I work here?” Grian sighs and walks back to his desk to grab his phone and pull on his jacket. “I mean, what are you doing here rather than at the station? And technically, you don't work here.”
“I wanted to check if they had any extra uniforms? Mine are uh-” he gestures to his admittedly very tight shirt, wow, those buttons are hardly holding on… Grian thinks to himself as the taller man continues “a bit too small” it takes a moment before Grian looks up to see Scar waiting politely “Oh- yeah- we can- I can grab that for you just uhm- just give me a minute."
Grian pushes past, willing the light flush to stop creeping up his neck. He walks into the storage room and rummages through 5 different boxes before he finds what he's looking for, pulling out a button-up Permit Office Enforcement (POE) uniform shirt. “Here you can have this one, and I think there's a changeroom-” he turns just in time to see Scar already pulling his shirt off.
“SCAR!” he throws the shirt at the man, turning away. “Put your clothes back on!” the other man laughs as he pulls on the new uniform. “Sorry, sorry. Anyway, how have you been?? It's been forever!” Grian turns back to look at him as they walk out of the room. “Not much? I mean, I've gotten into fishing recently, but other than that- nothing much.”
“Oh, that sounds fun!” Scar exclaims with a happy smile on his face as he stretches, “You know, I hear Ariana Griande is having a show this weekend,” he says as he walks back into the main area of the office.
“The drag queen?” Grian replies, a bit surprised, “I didn't know you liked that kinda stuff?” he acknowledges, no hostility, just curiosity. “Yeah, I mean, I think they're really cool. And it takes a lot of confidence.” Grian faltered slightly, “You like them?” Scar looked back, “Yeah? There, my favourite singer so-” Grian is genuinely shocked by the revelation. “Oh, I mean- yeah, they’re - they're pretty cool,” he says, turning off the lights in the back offices.
Scar follows “yeah, and I got tickets for me Cub and Skizz, and I can get some more if you and Mumbo wanna-” “No… or well- I’m kinda booked up this weekend and Mumbo usually has VIP tickets so-” Scar just stares as the shorter man for a moment “I need to go talk to mambo.” he decides then starts walking out “have a good night, Gri!” Grian looks at his form as he leaves, “Yeah uh- you too.”
The second Grian gets into the car, he is already idling by the time he has his seatbelt on and starts pulling out of the now-empty parking lot. The man on the other line has picked up “MUMBOHETHINKSI'MCOOLIMHISFAVROITEMUSICIAN.” The car falls into silence as he pulls onto the road. “Well, hello to you, too.”
Mumbo sounds confused for all of a second, then “what's happened?” Grian takes a deep breath. “Scar tried to invite us to my concert. Or well, Ariana's concert but still and I didn't know he liked that kinda music and he said I was his favourite musician and I said I couldn't go because I had work and told him you have VIP tickets and then he said he needed to talk to you and-” “ok ok- take a breath Gri. I'm not going anywhere, slow down.” Grian takes a much-needed breath, turning onto the main road.
“Ok. Basically, Ariana, who is me, is his favourite musician, and now he wants to talk to you about your VIP tickets, and you need a cover story on how you have those.” Mumbo audibly sighs. “I could just say I was a secretary there for a while, and we kept in touch?” Grian nods, waits 10 seconds, then remembers this is a call. Yeahh- yeah, that could work… I'll talk to my stage manager, and you can take them backstage if you want. It's just Scar, Cub and Skiz.” “Isn't that a bit risky? Won't they recognize you?” Grian curses, “right… uhhhhhhhh you can… or here I'll set up front row tickets for you all. You can just tell them that you pulled some strings.”
“Sure, Gri… you know you could just tell-” “no” grian cut him off “I can't just tell them what if I need to use her as an undercover persona?” mambo sighed “ok ok, I get it, I’ll see you tomorrow” Grian paused, then “I’m so sorry that I dragged you into this.” “It's ok. I'm glad you trust me with it.” He could hear the tone shift in Mumbo's voice, the way that he softened just slightly. Because they've had this conversation before, and they would have it again.
Grian sighs, “Still. I'm sorry, you have no need… well, I have to get ready for my shift, so I'll talk to you later.” Grian smiles slightly as he pulls into his apartment's parking garage. “Yeah, have fun with that. I'll talk to you later.”