Russel woke to the feeling of something soft and warm hugging him, he opened his eyes, expecting to wake up on his uncomfortable old mattress and wooden ceiling but instead was in a colourful tent. He also felt more comfortable than usual, this was the best sleep he had in a long time. He looked around and saw that Mime was next to him on the invisible bed, hugging him with a peaceful expression etched on his face. He never saw him make that face before, he always made silly or exaggerated faces while entertaining people. Come to think of it, he never saw him do anything else other than circus stuff in front of people, in a sense, he pitied him how he paraded himself like a fool in front of the other tree friends. He is a good hugger though, he had to give him that. "Yarr, so, everything that happened last night be real" whispered Russel to himself.
He checked his watch, seeing that it was 6:30 in the morning, and that got him wide awake. "Yarr!" exaclaimed Russel immediately got up, waking Mime in the process. Mime rubbed his eyes and saw Russel rush through the tent's flaps. Mime tried to follow but his head begun to hurt, his hangover was still not gone after last night's events. He'll follow as soon as it's over, he still wasn't sure if he even told Russel what he wanted to say last night.
Russel weaved through several different rows of houses, trying as fast as he can to get to his restaurant. He was never late to open his seaside restaurant, not that there were many customers anyway, even Pop never came back. He saw his restaurant, immediately opening the entrance locks, unlocking the doors for the non-existent customers. Next, he had to unlock the employee backdoor, not entering just yet. He went to collect all the dried seaweed he had hung on a rack, and placed them inside a crate inside the cook's kitchen, the seaweed was too abundant in this side of the town anyway. He positioned himself in front of the counter, hoping that more customers would have at least wandered near happy tree town, but none had come for today.
Mime was feeling better after making some of his imaginary tea for himself. Remembering the directions from the newspaper back then, he had started walking to the direction of Mime's seaside restaurant… without his makeup. Maybe he could help Russel with his restaurant? He remembered the last time he tried it, he killed Pop and Cub, not to mention damaging the hearing of several other people. Maybe he could try cleaning or cooking for him? His thoughts kept thinking of Russel who had helped him last night, shouldn't he be despising him for what he had done? If that were the case, he could at least try to help him out without getting paid for what he did last night.
Russel sighed, "Yarr, why do I keep hoping somebody be hearing of me restaurant." Russel told himself. Russel pouted and rested his chin on his arms, he started getting sleepy when the sound of the door's windchimes woke him from his drowsiness. "Finally! And I thought that business would stop today." thought the wannabe pirate. But he only saw Mime entering, still without his makeup. "Yarr! Mime? Did you come to eat or something?" asked Russel. Mime shook his head, pointing at himself, "Y-you?" asked Russel, not knowing where this was going. Mime held his hand out in front of him as if he's holding a pan and cooking something with it. "Cook?" asked Russel. It took a moment for Russel to ponder what Mime meant and put the two words together. "Yarr! Look Mime, you won't be getting anything out of me business, not since…" drifted Russel, who just remembered what Mime did and felt guilty for reminding him of it.
Mime felt sad that Russel didn't need his help and started walking away. Russel felt remorseful for what he had just unintentionally said, and immediately called toward Mime. "Yarr! I'm sorry laddie. I didn't mean to be guilt tripping ye, if it makes ye feel better, I'll teach you how to run me business." This got Mime to immediately perk up, turning around and hugging him, this caught him by surprise and nervously returned it. Russel pushed Mime gently away after not letting go for a brief amount of time "Okay laddie, just because I'm going to teach you doesn't mean that I'll be going easy on ye, I got nothing better to do anyway." Said Russel trying to maintain their relationship as boss and employee.
Mime started heading toward the door, which Russel pulled him by the collar of his shirt with his hooked hand. "And where do you think yer going lad?" asked Russel. Mime was confused, wasn't he supposed to learn how to cook? Seeing Mime's puzzled face, Russel told him "Lad, before you can cook, you need to know where me ingredients come from" he prompted to follow him at the backdoor. Just behind the restaurant was a pier, below the pier was a ladder. Russel stopped at the end of the pier, looking down on the ocean with Mime who followed the otter's gaze.
"This, this is where I get one of me ingredients, seaweed. First, you need to know how to get them, you do know how to swim right?" asked Russel. Mime nodded at him, "Good then, lad, I need ye to get some seaweed until ye hang all of the racks full of em. Can ye do that lad?" asked Russel. Mime nodded, who dived down the seaside, occasionally coming back up to hang seaweeds. Russel decided to just watch, making sure that he doesn't get caught between the seaweeds, and drowning.
Russel got to admit, Mime was doing it faster than he did, mostly because he had three sets of complete set of limbs. What would normally be done in an hour, Mime had done it within 20 minutes. Mime was actually enjoying this job more than Russel had expected, it reminded him why he had placed the ad on the local newspaper that he was hiring people. Mainly because he had difficulty doing almost everything. "Ye did well lad, better than I expected, hold this if yer up for more, " Said Russel, handing Mime a towel and a fishing rod.
Russel placed a bucket beside Mime who was drying himself. After Mime was done, he gave him the fishing rod. "Ok lad, cast the fishing line anywhere on the water." Mime casted the fishing line of the rod which Russel then placed his hands on Mime's, unintentionally embracing him which got a blush from the flustered deer as his much more muscular arms rested between his shoulders along with his head "Now the line needs to be long enough to reach where you cast it, then when you feel a tug, start reeling the fish in when it bites." Said Russel, which got Mime to nod and wait.
They sat in silence, sitting on the pier, waiting for the line to hook a fish. Sooner than they expected, the line had begun reeling, "Lad, what're you doing? Start reeling her in!" yelled Russel, signalling Mime to start reeling as hard as he can. Mime was enjoying it, this was more thrilling than juggling chainsaws. When he reeled in the fish, Russel helped him unhook the fish and place it in the bucket, this continued until the bucket was completely filled with the fishes.
Mime followed Russel back to the restaurant, and into the kitchen area. "Next thing ye need to know me lad is ye have to wash your hands before touching anything. Wash up before we start cutting the meat." and with that Mime did as he was instructed. "Next thing is how to fillet fish, just cut across each side of the fish, like this" Russel fillets the fish, getting the meat and placing it on a container inside the refrigerator. "Now ye try it lad"
Mime had never cut anything with a knife before, he juggled them but never did he intend to cut anything in his life. He placed the knife near the tail, letting it slide across the fish, he was doing well until he cut his finger, making it bleed. Mime flinched from the pain, dropping the knife on the counter and holding his hand. "Yarr! Hold still lad!" Russel said, holding Mime's bleeding finger and wrapping his handkerchief around it. Mime liked the warmth of Russel's hands around his hand, blushing while Russel ripped the unwrapped part of the handkerchief from his finger. "Ok, try again lad"
The whole morning had been spent trying to teach Mime to fillet the fish properly, by then, Russel's handkerchief was now gone and ripped apart on different parts of Mime's hands. Russel sighed, "Mime, I don't think that yer cut out for this here job" which made Mime beg on his knees with his bandaged hands to keep his job. "Fine, but that's enough for today, ye did well on the seaweed and fishing, but by the end of the week ye still can't cut without cutting your hands I'm going to have ta fire ya." Said Russel.
Mime silently cheered, it wasn't so bad to actually have a job, in fact, he enjoyed it better than what he usually did most. "Ye can go home now laddy, we'll continue tomorrow." Said Russel. Mime was sad to hear this but was glad to have been of use to Russel and left. Russel smiled, it was a long time in a while that he did after what happened, he was glad that Mime came to actually help him. Then he remembered he forgot to pay Mime and rushed to get him his money.
Just outside, there was an expensive car parked in front of the restaurant, three men, two tigers and a wolf. The wolf seemed to be approaching the restaurant along with his two bodyguards. Mime was smiling to himself how he actually learned to do something worthwhile when he accidentally bumped into the wolf, the wolf remained unfazed but Mime fell down. "Ugh, watch where you're going you-" the wolf got cut off when he saw Mime's appearance. He helped Mime up with his hand though Mime was reluctant to accept this wolf's help.
"What's a cute little thing like you doing here?" asked the wolf. Mime didn't know what to say, its been a long time since anybody else outside of happy tree town. "At a loss for words eh? You know, I know of a good place where we can have a… private time together." Said the wolf, feeling up Mime's slender shoulders while the two tigers just gave dirty glances at each other. Mime was becoming scared, who were these people?
"Leave him alone" said Russel, who came from the restaurant's entrance. "Ah Russel, just the man I came to see. Have you reconsidered your decision yet?" asked the wolf, not stopping at molesting the scared elk. "I never will and stop touching him" Russel said, stomping towards the wolf and smacking his hands away from Mime. "Him?" said the confused wolf. "Oh I see, you know I don't mind, he looks so beautiful that there's no difference… I'd happily leave you alone if I get to spend the rest of the day with this lovely little fellow" the wolf said, caressing Mime's face who cringed from the contact despite Russel clenching his fist in anger. "I be a restaurant owner, not a pimp you seadog" yelled Russel at the wolf, pushing him away from Mime. The two tigers approached Russel, preparing to beat him to a pulp.
"Halt!" yelled the wolf, making the tigers stand down. "I wouldn't want to have a bad reputation, especially in front of a beautiful individual such as you" told the wolf to Mime. "You're being difficult here Russel. You can't stop progress. Fine, I'll see if the moose man will comply with my offer. He might just be smarter than you." The wolf snapped his fingers and the two tigers followed, a butler had opened the door as the three entered, but not before the wolf gave a flirtatious wink toward Mime who found it creepy.
When the car left, Mime sank to his knees, berating himself internally why he forgot to put on his makeup. The whole reason that he became a Mime was because of all the flirty men that came to town years ago when it was still popular. And just when he thought things would get better for his future. Russel looked at Mime's crying form, it was one thing to see him cry while he was drunk, but for him to cry sober just after being harassed? If he could get his hands on the wolf he'd strangle him. "I-I be sorry Mime" said Russel, putting his hand on Mime's shoulder "he be wanting to claim this seaside port for his company for a while and I kept refusing. This town would have been known for the company, not the people living in it. I be understanding if ye quit no-" Mime hugged him suddenly, attempting to salvage as much of his dignity as possible from that one hug, crying on Russel's shoulder. Russel slowly returned the hug saying "So I be guessing that yer not quitting?" asked Russel which Mime replied with a nod to his shoulder.