Notes: Title is from Coldplay's "Atlas", which I listened to a lot while writing this. Originally written for Ryuutchi for Alpha's Magical Fic Exchange 2013.
When Casey turns 18, he knows he doesn't want to go to college or anything right away. He hears a load of complaints from his parents and even some of his friends, but he needs some time.
He had always sort of assumed he'd have some greater purpose or calling in life that would just have hit him by this time, but he hasn't found it yet.
So he goes looking for it.
He doesn't exactly expect that journey to end with him working in a pizza parlor with a funny dancer and an uptight math wizard and a very eccentric boss, but then, he figures, life is funny. He's probably in the right place at the right time, or something.
And if he's not, well, he'll keep moving. He's laid back about life like that.
"So, this is the kitchen," RJ tells Casey as they tour the pizza parlor together, Casey already putting on his apron, "Ah, and this here is Theo, he's our assistant manager."
"Did you hire someone without consulting me again?" Theo demands, lithe hand on his jutted out hip.
"As the owner, I reserve the right to hire at my own discretion," RJ says, waving his hands around, his voice sounding amused, "And I like Casey's…" he waves his hands up and down near Casey's face for a moment, then finishes, "Energy."
The assistant manager looks him up and down once and then frowns. "I don't know," he says, clearly unimpressed, "He looks like a slacker to me. Have you ever thrown pizza dough in your life?"
Casey smirks, shrugs his shoulders. "I'm a fast learner."
Theo sighs unhappily, but then a girl comes over from the other side of the kitchen and puts a hand on his shoulder, leans her head against his and says, "Oh, don't be so gruff, Theo. You're turning into a real buzz-kill." The girl straightens and offers her hand to Casey. "I'm Lily. If Theo gives you any trouble, you just let me know. I've got his baby pictures."
Casey grins at her and nods, and Theo grabs some cheese from the pizza station he's working at and shoves it into her mouth good naturedly.
Lily baulks, spitting out the cheese and crying out in revenge. She picks up the pizza sauce spoon and smears it across Theo's face.
Casey looks to RJ to see how he's going to react and scold them, but instead RJ just bounces a little on his toes and says, "Oh, food fight!" and joins in.
Yeah, Casey has a pretty good feeling about this place.
Casey meets Fran and Dom his third day. They're sitting at the bar, Fran wearing a frilly pink shirt and holding up a book and waving it around fervently, Dom laughing at her while sipping his drink.
Casey goes over, pen and pad in hand. "Have you been helped yet?" He asks.
Fran stops her flailing and looks over at him, her face confused. "Oh," she says, looking him up and down. "New guy."
"We don't need to be helped," Dom says, "We're not customers. We live here!"
Fran nods enthusiastically. They introduce each other, explain they are RJ's roommates and that they only help out in the store when they need spending money or when they lose bets with RJ, and then Fran tries to involve Casey in their argument by asking him what he thinks about pirates in literary settings. Theo comes over and reaches up to pull Casey's ear down before he can answer.
"Are you bothering my two favorite customers, Casey?" Theo asks, and Casey squakes, trying to get Theo to release his ear.
"Theo," Fran says, swatting his arm with her book, "Let him go. He seems sweet."
"Don't let him fool you," Theo says, narrowing his eyes but letting Casey go, "I think he's a spy."
Fran and Dom exchange a quick, apprehensive look. "A spy?" Fran asks.
Theo nods, giving Casey another once over. "From Hans Pizzeria downton," he says, and Fran and Dom deflate notably. Theo holds up a find to point at Casey. "I'm watching you, spy."
Casey smirks and lets out a puff of air. "Let me know if you need binoculars down there."
Theo makes a face and storms off, and Fran stifles a laugh while Dom sips more of his drink.
"I don't know," Dom says, grinning, "Maybe he is a spy."
Fran elbows Dom and smiles sweetly at Casey. "He's kidding," she says, shooting Dom a look.
Casey just raises his eyebrows at them.
Then the bracelets they are wearing make little matching noises, and Fran jumps. "That'll be our alarm," Dom says, casually standing while Fran gathers her things, "Nice meeting you, Casey."
Casey watches the way they try to look nonchalant as they exit the pizza parlor, and then sees them go sprinting off through the windows.
Weird place, weirder people, Casey thinks.
After about a month, Casey starts to feel like part of the team. He and Lily put on salsa music and dance together while they close up the store at night, RJ decorates his nametag with little kitten stickers, and Theo loosens up. He learns the regular's orders, and Theo even agrees to start helping him learn how to throw the pizza dough.
He feels pretty at home, so he starts joining in with the "Theo" jokes. "Don't mind him, he doesn't like anyone," he tells a customer. "Careful, Theo will hear you and make you scrap gum off the tables," he and Lily snigger in the kitchen.
Making fun of the uptight assistant manager seems to be a running joke around here, and while he acts like he doesn't like it, like he's offended or miffed by their teasing, when Casey joins in it seems to endear him to Theo a little bit. He's at least a little less hostile, anyway.
"Let's go see a movie, or something," Casey offers one night, just after closing, when they are working at cleaning up together.
Theo looks up and looks around, like he's trying to decide if Casey is talking to him even though there isn't anyone else around. "Excuse me?" Theo asks.
Casey shrugs, sweeps the floor some more. "Let's hang out," he says casually, "It's a nice night, it's still early."
Theo looks like he's considering this while he wipes down another table. "Technically," Theo says, "We're not supposed to fraternize with other employees outside of work."
Casey scoffs. "Yeah, but it's not like RJ enforces that rule. I mean, you and Lily go do stuff together all the time."
"Lily and I have been friends since we were kids," Theo corrects, "Before we started working here. That's different."
Casey nods, leans down the sweep stuff into the dust pan and throw it away before replying. "Look, it's cool, if you don't want to hang out with me, don't think you have to hide behind the anti-fraternization code that RJ doesn't even enforce. Just say so."
Theo opens his mouth, closes it, and then shrugs. "I didn't say that."
Casey frowns, coming over to pick up the dishes from the counter and take them to the back. "Uh, huh," he agrees, because he doesn't know what else to say.
"It's just," Theo continues, stopping Casey before he goes through the swinging door, "If we were going to do something, I think I'd prefer something other than just hanging out."
Casey frowns, watching Theo smirk. "Like what?"
Theo doesn't look at him as he says, "Something more like a date."
Casey raises his eyebrows. He's still standing in the doorway with the dishes in his hands, and Theo finishes cleaning his tables without saying anything else. Finally, Casey grins and says, "Let's see, did my boss just ask me out? That's not just fraternizing, that's fraternizing with a superior. I didn't think you'd approve of that."
Theo looks over at him, tossing his rag on his shoulder and coming towards him, clearly intending to go into the kitchen. "Yeah, well," he says, his cheeks the faintest shade of red for all his cool and collected posturing, "Maybe I'll have to promote you," he says, and he pushes past Casey into the kitchen while Casey laughs.
Casey follows him in, and starts doing the dishes while Theo puts everything away from the prep table.
When Theo finally joins him at the dish washing station, Casey lightly bumps his shoulder. "So, where we going on our date?"
Lily gets sick the week of the local college campus finals, so Fran and Dom fill in with Casey, Theo and RJ to run the pizza shop. All goes fine until that strange noise comes from their bracelets again and they have to run out on them. This time, RJ runs out too, despite Theo's objections, promising Theo a raise if the parlor is still in one piece when they get back.
"One of these days," Theo promises, angrily punching some dough.
"Right to the moon?" Casey wonders, and he feels really good when Theo cracks a smile at him. "Come on, we can do this. You start making the orders and I'll take care of the dining room. And if anyone complains, we'll discount their order and tell RJ it was necessary."
Theo smirks. "We could just close the place for the afternoon, make out in the walk in fridge," Theo says, grinning, and Casey stifles a laugh.
"We could tell RJ that was necessary, too," he grins, tosses a pepperoni at his assistant-manager-sometimes-boyfriend.
Theo waves him off, starting on the pizzas, but the thought of pushing Theo up against the racks in the walk in fridge and kissing him until he can't breathe makes the rest of the afternoon unbearable.
By the time RJ, Fran and Dom return from wherever they've been, Casey and Theo have handled three rushes and it's only two hours until closing.
Casey takes off his apron as the three of them come into the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" Theo wonders, still putting together a pizza.
"We," Casey tells him matter-of-factly, "Are taking the rest of the night off."
Theo raises his eyebrows at him. "Oh?"
"Now," RJ says, coming over suspicious, "Raises were promised, but I don't remember giving anyone the night off."
"No," Casey agrees, "But you're going to. I have had three students cry on me this afternoon, and despite the incredible rushes, we only had one person request a discount for slow service. We've gone above and beyond, RJ, and the three of you can handle it from here."
RJ seems to consider this. "Well," he tells Theo, "You can't have both a raise and the night off."
"That's okay," Casey answers for him, "He doesn't need a raise."
"Actually, I kind of do want that raise," Theo tells Casey, who turns to Theo and narrows his eyes.
"You want the rest of the night off," Casey tells him seriously, to which Theo raises his eyebrows.
It takes a moment, but finally Theo swallows and agrees.
Casey walks around the table, takes Theo's hat and apron off, and grabs his hand and leads him out the backdoor while calling goodbye to their boss and co-workers.
"What-" Theo starts after they are out the door, but Casey turns and lifts Theo up against the brick wall just beside the door, and presses himself against him, so that Theo's mouth is just above his as they kiss.
Theo has pretty much no choice but to wrap his legs around Casey's torso, and his hands come up to grip Casey's face while they kiss, Casey pressing them together in all the right places.
"Sorry about the raise," Casey says when they pull apart enough to breath, "But I've been wanting to do that all day and I didn't think I could wait any longer."
"Well, don't let me stop you," Theo smirks, pressing his lips back against Casey's.
Casey grins into the kiss, runs his hand down his sometimes-boyfriend's thigh, and kisses him until he can't hold them up anymore.
"Alright, we've got a birthday party of 18 kids already hyped up on cake and ice cream, so try to push the diet soda's and get that prep work-" Theo is telling everyone in the kitchen when he is cut off by RJ, Fran, and Dom coming down the stairs from the loft at a run.
"Oh, no," Lily says, and even Casey sighs dramatically.
"Not again," Casey says while Theo throws up his arms and threatens under his breath to take off his assistance manager badge right then and there.
RJ pauses just long enough to pat Theo happily on the shoulder and say, "Believe me when I tell you that there was never anyone more capable than the three of you to handle this crisis in my absence. You have my complete faith!" Then he bolts out the door.
"One day I'm going to find out where they go," Lily says thoughtfully, her eyes trailing up the stairs to the 'off limits' loft where their boss and his two best friends live.
Casey smacks her over the head with his hot pad. "Not today, Lil. We've got work to do."
"Lily!" Theo is calling up the stairs as Casey comes into the kitchen the next Saturday.
"She didn't," Casey says, coming up beside him at the base of the stairs.
"She did," Theo corrects, anxiously gripping the hand rail. "RJ, Dom and Fran ran out a few minutes ago."
"Well," Casey says, shrugging, "They probably won't be back for hours. What's the worst that could really be up there?"
"Casey," Theo scolds, sounding uptight and uncertain, "There are some things you probably just shouldn't know about your boss, like what he does in his loft with his live in boyfriend and girlfriend."
Casey double takes at the titles Theo has given Fran and Dom. He hadn't thought… but then, they did all live together. It wasn't impossible. "Come on," Casey says, waving Theo's assumptions off, "Let's just go check it out. Can't let Lily have all the fun!"
Casey jogs up the stairs, Theo yelling after him and then following. When he gets to the top he stops abruptly at the brightly colored and incredibly spacious loft, his eyes widening a little bit.
"Wow," Casey says, walking a little bit forwards as Theo comes up behind him, "This is really nice. Oh, check out these cool weapons! I didn't know RJ did martial arts!"
"He doesn't seem the type," Theo agrees, walking up into the kitchen area and inspecting it.
"Lil," Casey shouts, holding up a large bo-staff, "Check this out!"
But Lily doesn't answer, isn't even looking at him. Instead she is staring at a small assortment of TV's in front of an armchair, her face gone slack. Casey exchanges a quick glance with Theo, and then they go over to join her.
On the screen, the city's three Power Rangers are fighting some monster.
"Lily?" Theo asks. Lily shakes her head and just points at the screen.
"I don't believe it," she says, still in awe.
Then, there's a flash of light on the screen, and the three rangers turn back into regular humans… who look suspicious like their boss and his two best friends.
Casey takes in a deep, happy breath and lets it out, sipping his fruity drink while he lays in his chair at the beach.
Beside him, Theo is reapplying his sunscreen for the hundredth time.
"Theo, relax," Casey tells him, grinning, "You are covered from head to toe, I made sure." Casey gives him an eyebrow wiggle for emphasis.
Theo rolls his eyes. "I have very sensitive skin," he says, still rubbing in the lotion, "I don't want to take any chances."
"It sure was nice of RJ to give us a day off to spend at the beach," Lily comments, holding up her reflecting mirror to her neck. Casey can't see her eyes behind her sunglasses, but he grins at her and shakes his head all the same.
"Something tells me you were very persuasive," Casey says, to which Lily laughs and Theo snorts. "So, are we sworn to secrecy forever?"
Lily shrugs. "I bet we could milk this a bit more before we let them off the hook," she grins, and Casey leans back and closes his eyes, sipping his drink again.
He's always trusted his destiny. He had never known what it was, but that hadn't stopped him from knowing he had one, and that it was meant to be good. It turns out working at Jungle Karma Pizza had been a good decision after all. It had led him to Theo, which was a happy accident he meant to hold onto. And now it had led him to the Power Rangers, and there was no telling what was going to come next.
Casey smiles, reaches out for Theo's hand as they bask in the sun. There was no telling.