If Only Work Was Always This Fun
Author's Note: Jet Grind Radio and all related characters, places and events are copyright Sega and SmileBit. This story was made for entertainment purposes, no more, no less, and no monetary gain is involved.
SCENE BREAK
The following story will eventually feature mature situations that are sexual in nature. You've been warned!
"No, no, no. Absolutely not." Gum crossed her arms over her breasts, felt them swell beneath her work uniform. "There's risk, and then there's just plain stupidity. I won't do it."
"Aw, come on!" Beat urged, throwing his hands out and grinning. "It'll be great. I promise!"
Gum sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as the two Rudies trudged towards another fun-filled nine-to-five at the Grody Burger. Yo-Yo and Piranha trailed behind them, and they would meet Thrash at the front doors (she was exceptionally punctual for a Poison Jammer, let alone one reluctant to do any sort of work that fell outside the typical purview of a Rudie); it was a crisp autumn morning, the air chilled, but not so much that it nipped at her cheeks, and the fact that there wasn't a breeze to sift through her hair, to make her eyes water, bettered the circumstances exceptionally. She hadn't yet needed to wear warmer clothing over the work uniform while traveling, but those days loomed nearby, so she made sure to relish it while she could. The leaves had already turned and begun to fall, and the sidewalk was cluttered with the things, crunching beneath the feet of the Rudies as they trudged onward. In the distance, the sun had started to peek up over the rooftops of Park Street; still, it was a mostly drab, overcast day, the sky the color of unyielding steel, with a wafering promise of rain later. Mew and Tab said rain slowed things down at their job, but it never stopped anybody coming in for some quick, terrible, cheap food.
"Beat, you know how we have to do it."
"But it'd be soooo hot, and you know it."
"Yes, I know it," Gum snapped, snorting. "But there are some things that aren't worth the risk. If I want to do the 'I'm not wearing anything below the waist' thing at work, I need to have my pants bunched around my ankles in case of an emergency. Or in case, heaven forbid, another employee comes in for a snack."
"I thought you hated the job," Piranha said, bringing her arms up and placing her hands behind her head, grinning. "What's the worst that could happen? You get fired? Oh snap, child." She waved her hands above her head and rolled her eyes, complementing the sarcasm in her voice.
"Yes, I do hate the job, and yes, I would love to not have to go there, but you know how the economy is." Gum shrugged and shook her head. Her shoes scraped over the concrete sidewalk, and every once in a while she'd shuffle over a small pile of rust-colored leaves. A small breeze whistled past, and Gum shivered, hugging herself tighter. "I can't guarantee I'll find another job if I do get the boot, and then you'll have another GG mooching off you; bad enough that Cube, Garam and Slate are digging into our funds without returning the love, not to mention Combo only just found work in construction. I love them all, I seriously do, but I would hate to be useless like that." She quirked an eyebrow at Beat and added, "Unless you don't mind me being the kind of Rudie who uses her skates to transport her from customer to customer, if you know what I'm saying."
"Whoa, hey, let's not jump to any hasty conclusions here." Beat held up his hands and laughed, the sound swallowed up by the buildings yawning up towards the sky on each side of the street. "You know the rest of us wouldn't mind."
"Don't put words in my mouth, yo," Yo-Yo said, running a hand through his ginger hair and sighing. "And don't take that the wrong way, babe. I just like having enough money to buy Rusto. I swear, we have to go back to Krylon..."
"Don't worry about it, because it's not going to happen." Gum shot a pointed glare at Beat. "I'm not giving you the pants, end of story."
"Alright, alright, I get it." Beat shrugged and crooked his head. "No free rides. How about a trade, then?"
"Are you proposing a sex dare?"
"Sorta?" Beat shrugged again. "You go your entire shift without any pants whatsoever. I'll...uh..."
"Mmm. Not an opportunity to waste, honey." Piranha clapped a hand on Gum's shoulder and leaned over it, a grin pulling up on her mango-colored lips. "You've got him in the palm of your hand!"
"I have, haven't I?" Gum replied - and it was tempting to give her a devilish smirk, but at the same time, she really didn't want to be put into this position. She could toy with Beat - pretend to actually lay something out, something that, logically speaking, he wouldn't follow through with. But just because he had no experience with exhibition didn't mean Beat was a chicken. He was a swell guy, and he always had her best interests at heart, but he was also male, and just as prone to thinking with the wrong head as any other. She could give him something ridiculous, like work the entire shift naked sans goggles and Grody Burger hat, but there wasn't any mystery in how this sort of thing worked out. She'd seen enough cheesy porno to know better: she'd give him the conditions in return, and as outrageous as she made them, Beat would still do it.
So, no, that would not be the wise choice.
At last, she said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, 'Ranha, but I'm gonna hafta take the pass. Status quo hasn't gotten boring quite yet, but if you're that hard-up to have Beat at your command, you and he are more than welcome to trade kinky-work dares between yourselves."
Beat sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets - and yes, whenever he did that, he was accepting defeat, and that meant Gum didn't have to keep debating with him on the subject. It was awkward enough talking about that sort of thing out in public (no, the irony did not go unnoted, thankyouverymuch), but they'd been fortunate, and the sidewalk was (for the most part) empty of other pedestrian traffic. Only a few businessmen and businesswomen had taken to it, marching with a brisk pace towards the bus terminal (always towards the bus terminal), too preoccupied with their own issues to really notice what the four GGs had been discussing. Hopefully.
She flicked a stray lock of blond hair out of her eyes, and...yes, there, opposite one end of the playground hunkered one of Shibuya's many Grody Burgers and the current one to employ the four GGs. As predicted, Thrash perched on a ledge near the door, her uniform rumpled but otherwise clean, her tangled mess of ginger hair pulled up into a ponytail, her bangs draped over her narrow, pale face. Gum could see, even from this distance, that the Poison Jammer's eyes were half-open, aimed-but-not-focused on the sidewalk.
"Mornin', yo." Yo-Yo held up a hand when they drew near enough to the store, and Gum saw a wry grin curling up on his lips. Thrash grumbled something unintelligible in response, and Gum empathized...she'd heard that the Noise Tanks were getting frisky with Poison Jam turf, so it must have been a long night for her. The GG was more than familiar with those circumstances, because regardless of how many members of different gangs wound up lumped together at one job, they were still rivals once the skates went back on. Sometimes you just had to pull late nights with the Rudie schtick.
"When the hell did Starbucks start charging four hunnert-twelve yen for a small cup of coffee," Thrash grumbled.
Gum winced, and once again knew the Poison Jammer's pain. Like any other, the aforementioned late nights were usually absolved with caffeine, which, for Rudies, meant copious amounts of soda. That...didn't work for everybody, Gum and Thrash amongst that unfortunate lot; all the Coke in the world couldn't keep the blond GG's eyes from drooping, rejecting the sensation of her eyes being so dry that it felt like somebody had scooped them out. Thrash loved strong, black coffee - "a nice punch to the balls," she'd put it, a brutal metaphor that nonetheless served its point. Gum wasn't as stout as Thrash, but she, too, was a woman of coffee.
Grody Burger had coffee, and the Rudies could abscond with a cup or two with no problems, but the Grody Burger was still a good distance away from Kogane-Cho's borders, so it'd still be a miserable walk. Lord knew Gum had enough trouble making it from the Garage to here, and that trip was just a fraction of Thrash's. There weren't any indie coffee shops in Kogane, where a large cup was, like, one eighty-three yen, and the closest one to here was way out of the way for both GG and Poison Jammer alike anyway. When you worked part time at a place that gave you just barely more than minimum wage, and when you had paint to buy, skates to maintain, and public laundromats to use (because squatters tended not to have private access to the latter), you had to be really, really careful with your funds. Four-twelve for a small cup of crappy coffee wasn't financially responsible, and even Thrash knew that much.
"Well..." Beat drew a deep breath through his nose. "Here comes another fine day at work."
The GG leader led the assembled Rudies around to the back of the building, where they'd begin to open up for the day.