First Day On The Job And…

"Hey Mint, C'mon! You gotta wake up!" the sound of Fai's sweet voice is what he awakens to on this fine morning in Castelia City. She's woken him up much earlier than usual compared to the past two days since today is the first day that he'll be working at the cafe. She wants to make sure he's in tip-top shape before he starts. He opens his eyes to see her looming over him. "I want you to get ready, it's your first day at the cafe and you don't wanna be late, right?"

He sits up, almost completely wiping away the feeling of sleep and then realizes that she's on the bed with him, their faces very close to each other now. She pokes him on the nose. "Are you gonna stare at me or are you gonna get yourself ready?" he flinches in response.

"Y-y-yes! I-I'm gonna wash up!" he says as he pulls himself away from her, hops off the bed, and runs off to the bathroom, his cheeks super hot and red from being so close to her. She watches as he runs off and giggles to herself.

"He sure is lively this morning… Hopefully the job will take his mind off of whatever it is that's been weighing him down lately." she says, only a little worried about what it was. She wishes he would tell her that way she could possibly help him out, but if he's hellbent on keeping it locked up, then she won't be able to help him at all.

30 minutes goes by and Mint comes out of the bathroom, sparkling clean. He broke all sorts of cleaning records with that time, more specifically, the record for how long it takes a Cinccino to clean itself off. Despite the short time, he's sparkling from ear to foot and spotless. Fai comes out of the guest bedroom and sees him. He turns to face her. "I-I'm ready! What about y-you?"

She snaps her fingers. "Before I woke you up, I took the time to get ready myself. All we have to do now is head on out! I'm much smarter than I look you know!"

"I-I never said you w-weren't smart…"

She chuckles. "I know, it's just an expression silly. Let's go."

She skips over to the door, places her right hand on the doorknob, opens it and motions for Mint to go through but he declines, shaking his head. She finds this rather interesting, but doesn't question it and goes through, he follows once she leaves and closes the door behind him. They walk down the steps and down towards the sidewalk, making a right at the end. They head towards "Cast Square", not hand in hand like the last few times they went out somewhere together. As they walk, the cars and buses fly right past them, people on the sidewalk commute to their day jobs, and the early morning sun shines in from the east.

They enter "Cast Square" and walk all the way down to "Cafe Amour". This time, Mint opens the door for Fai and motions for her to go in and she happily enters. He closes the door behind him as he walks in and the cafe presents itself to them. There's only one customer here but they already got their order a few minutes earlier and seem to be satisfied by it. Mint and Fai walk all the way down to the counter but instead of going to the cash register, Fai takes Mint through a small gate on the far end of the counter and this grants them access to everything behind it. They go into the back rooms and inside, they find Tony. He seems to be just standing there for no reason but he's simply been waiting for them to arrive. Fai calls out to him. "Tony! We're here!"

He turns around to see them. "Ahh! It's Mint and Fai, so good to see you two!" he claps his hands together. "Fai, you can go and get ready, I gotta show Mint the ropes here so you'll have to handle customers and cooking for a bit."

She nods. "Nothing I can't do, I'll make sure they're happy with what they want." she then runs off to another room that has a small plaque on it that reads "Changing room".

Mint raises an eyebrow at this. "H-huh? W-why would she need to go in t-there?"

Tony notices that he's eyeing down the changing room. "Oh! You seem quite curious about the changing room. Well, hehehee… lemme tell you. Since you've said you never had a job before, things are done a bit differently when working. Here, all employees are required to wear professional clothing regardless of what they're doing, be it working the cash register, cooking the food, cleaning the floors and tables, or handing out the orders. It doesn't matter, you must look the part while working. So, with that being said, I took into account that you and Fai are exactly the same height so I have the perfect outfit for you." he then taps his fingers together. "Unfortunately… you may not like it because it's not meant for…" he cuts himself off.

"N-not meant f-for what?" he says, a bit anxious at what he means.

Tony clears his throat. "It's not meant for a male Pokemon, but because I never expected to hire one, I never ordered a proper outfit for a Pokemon under 2 feet tall that's male…"

Mint realizes what he means and his entire face grows a deep red. While some people and Pokemon may think that the somewhat girly look a Cinccino has can lead to wrong gender labels being applied to them, he's never really had a problem with the way he looks, only just how the others back in the colony would treat him. If what he's thinking is correct, he'll have to wear something that will for SURE make it seem like he's a girl.

Tony notices this and he looks away, feeling a bit bad for him. "I-I'm sorry Mint… it's only temporary because I contacted the place that makes these things and requested they rush deliver one that'll suit you better. It'll only be for a few days at most, so try to bare with it as best as you can. I'll make it up to you by giving double the pay rate this week even though I shouldn't do this to a brand new employee…"

Mint taps his paws anxiously. "Great… just what I needed, I'm practically gonna be wearing a sign that says "hey, make fun of me!" for the next few days…" is what he thinks to himself as he follows Tony out of the backroom and back behind the counter.

A few moments later, Fai comes out all dressed in what can only be best described as a maid-like outfit. When Mint sees this, he almost screams and to prevent this, he covers his mouth with his paws, muffling the high pitched sound that would've escaped his mouth. This makes her raise an eyebrow at his reaction. "What's wrong? Haven't you ever seen a waitress outfit before?"

He points at it with his left paw, face super red, and he stutters and fails to make words come out of his mouth. "B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-bu-bu-bu!" he gives up trying to talk and simply covers his entire face with both paws.

Fai looks at Tony. "What's going on here? Why's he all flustered and embarrassed like that?"

He chuckles. "Hehehee… well, I should've told him yesterday, but I don't have any proper male outfits for a Pokemon of his size. Since it would be unprofessional to wear nothing, he's going to have to wear what you're wearing."

Her eyes widen. "Oh shit!" she then covers her mouth. She said this a bit too loud and the only customer in the cafe looks up in response. She sees this and her cheeks become red. Luckily, the customer simply ignores her.

Tony sighs. "That's exactly what I said to myself yesterday when I realized that. I wish I knew about it beforehand but, oh well."

Fai's very worried now, this can only spell disaster. "This is going to suck so much Tony, it's his FIRST DAY and they're gonna expect him to know what he's doing in an outfit like mine."

He nods. "I completely understand that." he then turns to Mint. "Which is why I want you to remember that if someone starts treating you badly, you simply walk away from the situation and come get me. I don't want anyone starting a fight with you or doing something to you that could get you injured. I've had a few customers who had beef with Fai before, but she's handled herself well and managed to fix the situation. Since you're quite nervous and stuff, I don't expect you to be able to do that, so don't attempt it, alright?"

Mint slowly takes his paws off his beat red face and nods slowly. He's starting to regret taking the job as he can only imagine what's gonna happen if someone has a problem with him. Tony gives him a few pats on the back. "Don't sweat it, most customers have quite a bit of patience in the morning since we tend to get a bit busy, we're a bit famous for our breakfast special."

Hearing that makes him a little less worried, but not by much. He sighs and talks to himself quietly. "I'll be lucky to survive the entire day without fainting from embarrassment…"

For about the next hour or so, Mint is shown how to cook food properly, use the cash register, and how to balance the platter on his shoulder when bringing food and drink out. After all said and done, he's ready to do it for real this time, but now, with a dress on. He loathes this and while being taught how to do these things, Tony also tells him that he'll be working for 5 hours since he doesn't want to overload him knowing that he's never done this before. Now on his own, Mint heads into the backroom and tries to mentally prepare himself to combat the shame he's about to experience upon putting the outfit on. "Alright… it's just clothes, not like it means anything… Y-you already look like a girl, so t-this shouldn't be a big p-problem, right? Y-yeah! I-it's just a stupid outfit that I'll have to wear for 3 days… for 5 hours in this place…. While serving… c-customers…" he thinks to himself. He pushes the changing room door open and he comes face to face with the only outfit on the rack, the dress that he'll be wearing while working. A few drops of sweat form on his forehead, slowly roll down it, and his heart begins to beat a little faster. His left eye twitches once and he swallows a large amount of spit, making a 'gulping' noise in the process. It's no use in hesitating and he has a job to do so he sucks it up and grabs the outfit off the coat hanger and quickly puts it on.

Surprisingly, the outfit fits him perfectly to a T, but then again, Tony did say that it was specifically designed for a Pokemon of his height. He turns around and on the back of the door is a mirror and he looks at his reflection. The black and white dress seems a bit fancy for a job, but this isn't the main concern on his mind. He frowns and shakes his head, trying to ignore how embarrassing it is and comes out. He takes a few deep breaths before opening the door leading back to the counter. Tony hears the door and looks back to see him. He takes note of the rather unpleasant expression Mint has and speaks to him. "Alright, I know you hate it, but you can't give customers a look like that. Try your best to hide it please, otherwise customers may not be so friendly to you."

Mint looks up at him. "T-this is… this i-is soo e-embarrassing…"

"You'll be fine, it's only for a few days. Now c'mon, I need to get in the back so I can get food ready when customers order, so you'll handle the register for now." he says

Mint gulps and nods. "O-okay… g-got i-it…" but deep down, he's freaking out. He's gonna have to engage with the customers socially and be confident, something that he's not good at doing at all. Tony heads into the back where the kitchen is and Mint steps up to the cash register. He breathes a bit deeper than normal and shakes very slightly. He watches the front door, anticipating a customer to come in at any moment and each passing second makes him more and more anxious. He gets so focused on the door that he doesn't notice Fai approaching him from the front. She jumps up onto the counter, and knocks on it a couple times with her right fist to grab his attention. This freaks him out and he jumps slightly, flinches, and looks to see who it is.

She talks to him. "So, Tony showed you how to do everything, right?"

He recovers from what felt like a heart attack and sighs. "N-never do that again… and yes, h-he did…"

She can see how nervous and anxious he is, it reminds her of when she first met him and she doesn't like it at all because it's going to get in his way while trying to do his job. She reaches over the counter and pokes him in the cheek with her right hand. "Loosen up! This is like the 3rd time this week I've had to tell you this! If you can't calm yourself down, I'm going to zap you into being calm!"

He takes his left paw and slaps himself across the face. Fai is taken aback by this and gasps, not expecting him to do such a thing. He shakes his head many times rapidly to try and get rid of the anxiety but all this manages to do is leave him slightly lightheaded alongside the light red mark across his left cheek. She gets upset by what he did. "What the heck was that for!? When I said for you to pull yourself together, I didn't mean to inflict pain on yourself!"

He lets loose a deep breath. "I-I'm sorry F-Fai… I… I d-don't know if I can d-do it…" his voice is shaky and all over the place with anxiety.

She sighs. "How about this, I take care of the register and you hand out food? Tony doesn't mind who does what as long as things get done."

If all he has to do is hand out food, then that's not a problem at all and he won't have to interact with anyone. It sounds much better than what he would've had to do. "Y-yeah… I-I think t-that's better…"

She comes around and gets behind the counter. Mint steps down from the register and she takes his spot. She motions for him to leave and he comes out from behind the counter and stands where she was a few moments before. "Okay, this is simple. When a customer orders their food and drink, they're gonna sit at a table and all you have to do is take it to them. Tony showed you how to balance the platter on your shoulder, so this should be a cakewalk for you."

It's less nerve wracking, but he's still super anxious and nervous. "Y-yeah… I-I can do t-this…"

They both wait for a while, about 50 minutes before a couple customers, two humans, show up and come in. They go right up to the counter and order a couple things, one of them orders a hot coffee and some toast with eggs while the other is undecided. While the first person orders, the other customer continues to glance over at Mint, taking note of his odd fur coloring and giving him a very odd and strange look. This reminds him of the looks the others in the colony would sometimes give him and as upsetting and frustrating as it is, he does his best to pretend they're not looking at him and simply ignores them. With Tony in the back making the food, it takes only a few minutes for everything to be done and in no time at all, the platter is ready to be brought out.

Fai takes the platter and hands it over to Mint. She winks and whispers to him before handing it off. "You got this! I believe in you!" she then hands it over to him and he takes it.

Mint tries to replicate the technique that Tony showed him for balancing the platter on his shoulder and while it isn't perfect, it works good enough for him and despite it looking like it would be way too heavy, it weighs almost nothing to him. With the platter on his left shoulder and him holding the bottom with his left paw, he slowly makes his way over to the table that the first customer sat at. It takes him a solid 20 seconds to get there and the customer watches him the entire time as he makes his way there. When he reaches the table, they grab their stuff and with that, Mint is able to take the platter off his shoulder and gets ready to head back but as he turns around, the customer says "thank you" to him, which shocks him and as quickly as he can, he turns back and with a super quiet, trainwreck of a voice, responds. "Y-y-y-y-you're…. Y-you're w-w-welcome…" he then runs back, hoping they don't comment on the atrocious way he said this.

The other Human customer at the counter finally decides what they want. "Yeah… I know what I want now. Lemme get an EXTRA hot coffee, and the breakfast special, chop chop!" However, their tone doesn't sound so friendly and they seem to be a bit impatient.

Sweat forms on Mint's head and he gets a bad feeling. "T-this person d-doesn't seem nice… T-they just ordered F-Fai to be fast… I hope they d-don't get upset w-with me…" is what he thought to himself as he watches Fai punch in his order at a blazing fast speed. From the corner of his eye, he catches this person glancing at him a couple more times, giving him the same weird looks from before.

Fai finishes placing his order and witty responds to their rude attitude. "Fast enough for you sonny boy? It'll be done in about 5 minutes, so calm your tush and take a breather, that's why this place is so lax and chill after all." she hands him the receipt and he swipes it out of her hands, giving her a stern look. She notices that Mint saw all of this and she calls him. "Psst! Mint, get over here!" He goes up to the counter and she whispers to him. "You see that guy over there? He just ordered and is a prime example of a potentially rude and nasty customer. He already gave me an attitude and that fits the criteria for "rude customer", so chances are he's not having a good day or some shit. Not my problem nor is it yours, but be wary, I saw how long it took for you to do the first order and the entire time that guy kept glancing over at you, so if they order you to hurry, don't listen to them and do it at your own speed, okay?" she then winks and sticks her tongue out at him a little.

He nods, extremely worried about what will happen when he goes to deliver it. Sadly, the food takes about 6 minutes to be made and this already shoots down what Fai said to this guy and as he looks at his phone to check the time, he calls over to her. "Yo! You said 5 minutes, where's my stuff!?"

She responds back. "I didn't say exactly 5 minutes, I said ABOUT 5 minutes. It'll be with you very soon, please be patient…"

Mint shakes a little. He doesn't wanna go anywhere near this person but he has no choice. Tony comes out with the platter and hands it off to Fai who prepares to give it to Mint. She whispers to him once again. "I'll be watching… if he tries anything stupid, I'm gonna jump over this counter and try to stop it before it happens." her expression reflects her seriousness and this fills him with a little bit of confidence and he nods.

He takes the platter from her, situates it on his left shoulder, balances it, and then takes a deep breath and heads over to the man. In his head, he's repeating the same thing. "It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay… hand the food over and everything's gonna be okay…" he slowly approaches the table and the guy turns to face him. He notices how slow he's going and he makes a rude comment.

"C'mon, you're not a granny Pokemon yet, let's GOOOO!"

Mint ignores it and keeps going at his own speed. The guy makes a sound of disgust but it only takes him a few more seconds to get there. He takes his shit quickly from Mint and this super fast transfer of weight almost makes him fall over. He manages to gain his balance back and sighs, putting the platter under his arm and getting ready to turn and leave but as the guy sips his coffee, he spits it out onto the plate with his food. "What the fuck!?" he says, looking at the cup again. This stops Mint right in his tracks and he begins to shake. The guy stands up and goes over to him, kneels down, and speaks right in his face. "Care to tell me what this fucking shit is?"

Mint doesn't know how to respond, not like he's given much time to think about it, because the guy yells in his face. "THIS FUCKING COFFEE IS ONLY WARM, NOT EXTRA HOT LIKE I FUCKING ORDERED YOU REGURGITATED BOOGER!" this makes Mint flinch and back up a little.

Fai sees this and yells from the counter. "HEY!" but sadly, it's wasted and the guy simply takes his disappointment out on Mint.

"You think this is funny?" Mint shakes his head 'No' but he has an odd smirk on his face. He doesn't know how to react to any of this. This makes the guy really mad and instead of yelling, he opens the plastic lid off the coffee cup and pours it out all over him. The rather hot Coffee burns Mint's fur and skin a bit and this makes him jump back in response. He falls to the floor, screeching and yelling a horrible sound of pain that nobody in the cafe thought a Cinccino could produce, but it also grabs the attention of Tony.

In response, Fai does exactly what she said she'd do and hops over the counter, jumping at the Human's face and pushing them down to the floor. "What the hell are you doing!?" she says as she stands on their chest. They don't respond and instead, they punch her off their chest. It stings her a little and the forces makes her fly into one of the chair legs behind her but she's not hurt at all. She doesn't care about this scumbag and turns to Mint, who is now on the floor, rolling around with tears pouring out of his eyes. The outfit he's wearing and his entire body appears to have been soaked with hot coffee. She runs over to him, helps him up, and coaxes him behind the counter.

Tony comes running from the kitchen. "What was that scream I just heard!?" he says before looking down and seeing the coffee soaked Cinccino crying in pain with Fai by his side, trying to wipe him off with paper towels. He looks over to the guy that is about to leave without paying or finishing his food. He yells to them. "HEY YOU! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" Tony runs out from behind the counter and takes off after the guy who pushes the door open and starts to run away.

Fai tries her best to sop up as much of this steaming coffee off him, but for some strange reason, she's not getting much on the towels. The oil on his fur managed to repel most of it, but not all of it. Whatever did get through managed to reach the skin under his fur and burn him. This coffee wasn't hot, it was extra hot, just the way it was ordered. This person was being a complete asshole just because they could and saw Mint as the perfect vessel to harm since he seemed new to the cafe. Fai wipes his face off, the water of his tears mixing with the little bit of coffee as she picks it up off his face. Through his crying, he speaks, his tone extremely upset. "I-I d-d-didn't... d-do anything w-wrong!"

She stops wiping him down and gives him a big hug, rubbing his back. She can't believe that person did what they did. She's glad she stepped in though, otherwise they might've done something else to him that could've caused more problems. She holds a big frown and a very irritated look on her face, she knew that customer was bad news, but this was unexpected. Tony comes back in, out of breath, a few minutes later. He slams the door shut and the bell clangs and bangs against the glass. "Dammit!" he says, angry that he couldn't catch the bastard. He stomps his way behind the counter and kneels down to check on Mint. "Hey, you alright there?"

He shakes his head. Fai is still hugging him and rubbing his back. She turns to him. "I-I don't even… Why would they do that to him?"

Tony punches part of the counter. "Nothing but a fucking asshole who wanted to cause trouble, that's what!" he hurts his hand slightly and shakes it off, growling a little before turning back to Mint. "If you want, you can have the rest of the day off. That was uncalled for and nobody treats my new employee like that and gets away with it." he then grabs the cordless phone next to the register and dials 911, walking into the kitchen in the process hoping to get the police on that person's ass.

Fai goes back to tending to Mint. "You alright? I know that probably hurt a lot but, I don't want you to stay out here anymore."

He responds, his crying starting to slowly subside. His voice sounds nasally and stuffy. "I-I'm fine… t-that h-hurt though…" he sniffs and stands up, holding a heavy expression. "I was j-just doing w-what I w-was told to d-do…"

Fai grabs his left paw and the two slowly walk towards the door to the backroom. "I know, I told you that guy was bad news, I just wish I knew he was planning on doing that. I'm so sorry Mint, I wish I could've stopped him before he did that…"

He accepts her apology, but deep down, this whole event has sparked the thought that all of this was mistake a yet again. He didn't even do anything wrong this time, someone was just looking to pick on him for the sake of seeing him in pain. It isn't fair at all, and as he walks into the backroom with Fai, he truly begins to doubt that all of this was actually a really good idea. He's starting to live the same life he was living a few days ago, just with a new coat of paint and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

PD: Rude customers fucking suck, right? Figures you get one on the first day of your first job... How will Mint react to this and will he continue to work for the rest of the day? Find out next chapter! Seeya then!