The word of Gilbert's little crush getting in contact with him spreads quickly throughout all 6 of the people who work at the station. Francis and Antonio are more than pleased with the new developments, having not seen Gilbert so romantically happy in a while. He's feeling better too. She's called the station a few more times since he's asked why she's up. He knows because Matthias checked the call list to match numbers and now knowing it's his crush calling, he tells Gilbert when it's her request.
Gilbert is looking over his playlist for the night in the excess office, thinking of any snappy lines he can say between songs when Ivan comes barging in like he owns the place. Technically he does but he doesn't need to march around like it. Ivan pauses at the end of the hallway, turns around and almost walks out before turning back around to keeping going on his original path. Gilbert rolls to the ground to watch from the doorway as his so called boss nervously talks to Francis about something.
He died laughing when he found out Ivan had given a love letter to Francis to read for some girl he had feelings for. It's a good thing he didn't find out sooner because he would have laughed harder and quite possibly ruined the whole event. He raises an eyebrow as Ivan hands a new paper to Francis and leaves the sound booth, twiddling his fingers together in a fit of anxiety.
"Yo big man," He calls from the floor. Ivan jerks and freezes. He stares down at Gilbert like he's growing out of the carpet.
"Yes?" He manages to say back. Gilbert snorts at the response.
"Why don't you just hand your love letters to your girlie?" He props up an elbow to lean his head against it and Ivan begins to fidget more.
"She is- I- Don't- She wouldn't- Can't-" Ivan's words jump all over the place and he hides his face with his scarf. Gilbert lets out a low whistle.
"Hey dude didn't mean to make you freak I was just curious," He says easily. He doesn't want to be responsible for panic attack Ivan. They tend to get on each other's nerves and he'd rather not aggravate their strained relationship even more.
"Why don't you talk to your romantic interest?" Ivan suddenly asks him having calmed down. Gilbert sighs and flops over onto his back. He knows Ivan doesn't mean his words to sound harsh or mean. They are both fairly in the same situation.
"Don't know her name," He shrugs as best he can. Ivan makes a low 'hum' noise and walks away from him, pausing just before exiting the building to look back at him.
"At least you know she somewhat feels the same," His tone is bitter as he sweeps out of the building and back outside into the wild winds. Gilbert glares at the door, wiggling to rest on his side and keep looking over song titles. It's not quite true he knows how she feels. It'd be nice, but it's still up in the air. He sighs and puts his papers over his face. Ivan's words are stuck in his head taking him from concentration.
He has no idea if she feels the same as he does, wondering constantly if their conversation could have been a lead up to more if either of them had been smart enough to exchange numbers, or names. He just wants to talk to her one more time, figure out what song has became her favorite of the week. It's a good thing he's not in charge of the main order of the songs because he knows for a fact he would only play songs she likes and ones that remind him of her.
With a dramatic groan he wiggles across the floor, happy that he vacuumed it just a few days ago. He wants to know more about her but he can't do that very well in their current circumstances. The only thing he can hope for is her song requests in the late hours of the night.
He takes over hosting with a bit of a melancholy mood compared to his last few shows. Maybe the audience can tell with the set list since he moved it around just a little bit based of what he would kind of like to hear in what order. Matthias will hopefully not mind too much. They tag team taking song requests, giving Gilbert just another edge to try and talk to her though it might not work.
"Thanks for calling BTT Radio, what song you wanna listen to?" He prattles on to the new caller while a song plays overheard. He narrows his eyes at nothing in particular when they don't say anything right away. There's a soft sniffle and his heart snaps.
"Hi," The broken voice says and he releases a huff of air. It's her he can tell, but it's not happy or giggly.
"Hey," He says back, not knowing what else there is to say. There's a few more sniffles before she talks again.
"Can you play a song for me?" She asks with a crack in her words. He nods his head, then shakes it to remind himself she can't see him.
"Yeah I can, yeah just.. Hold on a moment," He says and changes the mic so he can talk over the broadcast. He says his song transition, then flips the line back over to where she is. Maybe he's not supposed to do this, but she doesn't sound okay, and he'll be damned if he can't at least talk to her about it.
Madeline blinks down at the flyer Amelia slaps in front of her. Her sister looks entirely too proud of herself for creating such a thing. She grimaces and picks it up to scrutinize farther, her expression turning more sour the more she reads.
"Do we really have to host a party?" She tries to make it sound like she's not whining but it doesn't work too well. Amelia laughs loudly from beside her and takes out a small stack of the party flyers. Madeline can't stop the sigh that comes out of her. Of course she's happy the café has reached four years of successful business, but the idea of holding a party for such an occasion makes her stomach churn just enough for her to not want to host one.
"Come on! Wouldn't it be cool to hold a get together party for all our loyal customers?" Amelia nearly gets away with her subtle motion but Madeline catches her glancing over to where Ivan is reading a book with a cup of coffee in front of him. The glare is hard to keep off her face.
"None of us are going to want to do actual work on a celebratory day," She counters, handing the flyer back to her sister with a huff. Amelia blinks down at it dumbfounded then turns a skeptical look up at her.
"It'll hardly be like working." She snatches the flyer still leveling Madeline with a questioning stare.
"Yes it will. Someone is going to have to make drinks and food. There will be so many people knowing it's a 'party'," Madleine makes air quotations with the word party. Someone will have to be working, and even if they shorten the menu for the day there will definitely be more people they can handle and on a day like that, most employees would rather be relaxing over dealing with others. Amelia scoffs.
"We can totally handle that! What's your problem?" She asks a little louder than she means to. They both freeze quickly and walk to the small back room to continue their bickering without the possible audience.
"My problem-" Madeline hisses, "Is that you didn't think to ask me about this first. We don't have the means to host a party." She goes on gesturing about her to the limited space they barely have for the sparse food they do serve. Amelia is now glaring back at her.
"We can make it happen though and you don't want to!" Her voice goes higher and Madeline raises her eyebrows at her sister for yelling.
"There's no reason for us to make a special thing, if anything we should be closed to give us all a break!" She raises a hand to pull at her hair softly, a subtle reminder to make sure she doesn't lose all control. She doesn't believe they should be closed the whole day, but maybe have shorter hours to give everyone a moment's peace. She's angry though and words are just coming out.
"There's every reason to make a special thing! What's more special that a fun party for customers!" Amelia crosses her arms indignantly. Madeline twists her face up in annoyance.
"You just want a party so you can talk to Ivan because you're too chicken to do otherwise!" She inhales sharply as the words leave her mouth. Amelia's jaw drops and her glare grows sharper and her eyes go cold.
"I haven't spent months pining over him and refusing to call him to talk to him over the radio."
"Like you're any better, pinning at him from the counter when he writes you such sappy letters you don't even notice." Amelia's eyes go wide. Madeline doesn't feel as bad as she should. Amelia had to find out sooner or later those words over the radio are for her. She puffs up and Amelia practically growls in anger.
"At least I know his name!" Amelia shouts at her. Madeline flinches at the sound. She hates yelling and sudden loud noises in general, but hearing it from her sister directly at her is so much worse. Especially over that situation. She holds her arms to her as Amelia silent and seething collects her stuff an hour before her shift actually ends to stomp out the door and go home.
Once she knows Amelia has left the building she lets a few tears slip out. She hates fighting and she hates the situation she's in. She doesn't know what to do. She takes a seat on the random chair they have in the back and curls up on herself. She wishes she knew his name. She wishes Amelia had talked to her about the party idea before going to print out a stack of flyers with no one else's opinion. She wishes she had stayed calm enough to not snap at her sister.
She takes a shaky breath and wipes at her eyes, hearing new customers come in for a late night fix of caffeine. She smiles as best she can and takes their orders with smile that is more forced than she would like. She nearly hopes Lovino will come in with a scowl to rant about his day to give her a distraction but the empty café leaves her nothing to do but think.
It's not that she wouldn't mind hosting a party, but the idea of working during a celebration sounds not fun. It would only be a party to those who come in for the deals they might have, but her and the other workers would be swamped. If they all worked it would be easier, but that would be cruel to make them work long busy shifts. If they could host a party between the staff and maybe few guest it would be a private endeavor and more relaxing. She runs a hand through her hair and clunks her head to the counter.
"What if people don't panic at the disco? What if they rage at the disco instead?" She tilts her head up to the speaker. A new song comes over head and she makes another rash decision of the day. She dials the radio number and hopes that it's him that picks up. She wants a comforting voice right now.
"Thanks for calling BTT Radio, what song you wanna listen to?" She releases a slow breath at hearing him, thankful for whatever made her get him to answer her call. He doesn't say more and silence sets in. Her fight with Amelia comes crashing back to her and she sniffles.
"Hi," Her voice sounds broken as she speaks, not being able to say more for fear she will actually break down. She rubs at her eyes and takes another deep breath to calm herself.
"Hey," He says back, softer, gentler. Tears are threatening to come down. She sniffles a few more times, not wanting to full on cry for him to hear. A small part hopes he doesn't know it's her but she knows he recognizes her by now. Hopefully.
"Can you play a song for me?" She forces the question out quickly to not let her voice crack as much as it could. She grips the phone tight.
"Yeah I can, yeah just.. Hold on a moment." She nods her head even though he can't see. It gives her time to blow her nose and hear him change the song. She's confused, thinking he hung up when his voice comes back to her.
"Hey are you alright?" He asks. She sniffles once more.
"Not really," A choked laugh comes out as she tries to make light of the situation. He sighs on the other end of the line.
"Do you want to tell me about it?" He offers and she finds a smile coming to her face. They have only talked in passing maybe six times now, but just the idea of him willing to listen between songs is nice enough.
"It's my sister. I'm not really ready to talk about it," She sighs out honestly, now feeling guilty for wasting his time. He makes a grunt like noise in response.
"Well hey, what song did you want to hear? I can slip it in soon." She runs a hand through her hair, thinking of a song to play. She didn't actually think of one, just wanted to hear some comfort.
"Maybe something Owl City?" She suggests and he laughs lightly, rattling off a few titles they have on record for her to pick between.
"Enchanted sounds nice right now," She says. He scoffs and she smiles softly.
"That one is so slow though."
"But it reminds me of you," She says easily and not fully regretting her words even though they are slightly embarrassing. It's a little quiet and then he sighs.
"You have no idea how many songs make me think of you." He covers up his sad tone with a laugh. The song overhead is coming to an end and Madeline doesn't want to take him from his job any longer.
"Thank you," She whispers. A small smile is on her face now and she feels just a little better with his distraction.
"Anytime birdie," He says. The line goes dead and her heart pounds just a little at the silly nickname. It's a typical thing for him to call his night listeners 'birds' but it sounds cute when he calls her that. She tries to take her mind off the fight and more on the facts while she cleans. She's able to smile easier when customers come in later, no longer feeling super weighed down. She feels even lighter when the song she requested comes over the speaker with a special after comment just for her.
"Feel better birdie, it'll all be okay." She doesn't think he understands just how much better she actually feels.