Vipers, Nights, and French Fries

by ThisIsARealAccount

The war for Humanity's autonomy is over, the alien despots of Advent have been overthrown by Xcom and a new age is on the horizon. However, world changing events do not occur without a price. Power vacuums were created in Advent's absence, their alien pawns, once completely under control, now have found their own autonomy. a young man, from humble beginnings, can NOT fix this.

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"I still can't believe you're going through with this," Josh said, a touch of concern in his voice.

"Not like I can change my mind now, especially after I got a week off to adjust," I responded.

"What did you even do all week?" He asked.

"Oh you know, the usual: Video games, anime, and shitposting."

"Jeez dude, and I thought I was a shut-in."

"I get out, I walked around in a park with Sammy."

"Yeah, one time in a whole week. That's not healthy."

"At least my room is clean."

"Shut up."

Ray butted in. "Look man, I get that you want to move on from Sammy, but this is too much. You're not gonna be online during the week anymore. You shoulda just taken a few days off instead."

"That wouldn't've been enough, and I'll still be online, just only for a couple hours before work. I'll be online on the weekends too."

I heard Dan sigh. "He's changing his scenery, Ray. It's perfectly normal to do that after you have a breakup."

"I still say it's actually because he secretly wants to hook up with that viper chick. Getting it on with your alien war criminal coworker isn't gonna help you forget, Vince." Ray said.

"Ok Ray. First off, I barely know that broad; second, she might not even be a war criminal; and third... uhhh, FUCK - YOU."

He chuckled. "You sound angry, bro, is it because you know I'm right?"

"Look, from what I've seen and heard: I'd sooner put in an anonymous tip to Xcom about her, than take her to dinner and pork her afterwards."

"So you've thought about it?"

"I have n—"

Josh jumped back into the conversation. "Hey, I heard you can get paid for tipping off Xcom to war criminals. Maybe if she's really bad, they'll give you a medal for it too."

"Yea, I could, but they'd be paying me with those physical X-credit things, and what the hell would I do with those?"

Dan answered my question as usual. "You could trade them in at any bank in the city. X-credits are leagues more valuable than shillings, they're backed by Xcom's resources, manpower, and technology.

"That's cool, I don't care about the money, but I'd turn her in to get Ray to shut up."

Ray laughed. "Suit yourself bro, more snussy for me."

"You'd have to visit her in jail if I turned her in. Maybe while I'm at it, I'll turn you in too."

"Hey, if she's my cellmate, I'm game."

Josh laughed. "Nah, you'd probably get paired up with the male muton that likes to rape people, if you're lucky. It'd probably be something even worse."

Ray was silent for a few moments before saying. "Bruh."

I saw my chance to exit. "You know, as interesting as this conversation is, I gotta be to work soon, so I'll catch you guys tomorrow."

Everyone said their goodbyes.

Ray added. "Try to not get killed by the snake." To the end of his goodbye.

"Like I said, I'm just gonna avoid her. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Ray chuckled. "Hope so, brotha."

After I said goodbye once again, I logged out of the group chat, and loaded up #chan on my web browser. I still had a few more minutes and I wanted to see what people were posting in the xenophilia thread before I left.

Despite aliens being on earth for some time now, being interested in them was still niche and there were not many places to discuss it that tolerated it. My friends were cool with it, maybe a little too cool with it, but xenophilia as of now was really only prominent on the net. Space Banditz is a recent example of a company trying to stir the pot, but that didn't happen too often. Can't recall the last time I saw a human even hanging out with an alien in public. Not that there were many in this city, but we outnumbered them. I scrolled through and looked at what people were posting. Some posts were arguing about anatomy, other people were asking for alien dating advice, and others were discussing media related to aliens. A couple drawings were posted, one was a tastefully drawn viper. She was on her back laying over the edge of a bed, her feminine features were not drawn not too thick, it focused instead on highlighting her lithe serpentine body's form by having it curve at tight irregular angles, forming a casual sprawl. It was posted somewhat recently, so I replied "tfw no viper gf that hogs your entire bed," to it.

I scrolled down a bit further and saw something surprising. It was a picture of a viper's scaly hand with the tip of her tail draped over her wrist. A piece of paper was next to her hand too, it had today's date and "hi /xeno/" written on it. The text on the post read "I just found this thread, I didn't know humans like this existed. I'll answer any questions about vipers you have." Occasionally aliens would make posts like this, and while it was a treat, it was strange to be reminded that aliens were browsing this thread. This post was only thirteen minutes old, but it already had a ton of responses. The first one was, "tits or gtfo", which made me chuckle. I love this community. There was a response to it, so I clicked it, and was taken to a picture of bare viper breasts with the same paper timestamp as the hand image. She was using one of her forearms to lift up her breasts slightly. They were shapely, with cream-colored scaled plates running down them, flanked by her orange diamond scaled shoulders. While viper's breasts didn't have nipples, I know I'm not the only one who still enjoyed looking at them. The text on that post was "alright. now ask me some questions"

Real lewd images of aliens were hard to come by, even online. They were borderline illegal due to the circumstances aliens lived in. I know a lot of them are in desperate situations, so if someone were to flash some cash to get them to show off some gash, or whatever people wanted to see, it would be hard for them to say no. For that reason, I mostly stuck to drawings to get my kicks. It's hard to enjoy a picture when all you can think about is whether or not the girl in it is doing alright. However, in this case, I didn't feel bad, she wasn't being paid to be here, and was clearly enjoying all the attention.

People asked her mostly joke questions, stuff like: "how far can you squirt (venom)", and "Post a picture of your throat," but, there were a few genuine ones. She responded to all of them. I replied to her post and asked her "what's the quickest way to a viper's heart?" When I hit send, my pulse quickened.

After a few moments, I got a response. "I can't speak for all vipers, but treat her like you would treat a human girl. Get to know her, listen to her, give her food she likes. And most of all, be a good friend to her. Friends are not something all of us have."

About what I expected, but it was reassuring to hear it from the horse's mouth. It's too bad I had to go to work now, I'd like to ask more questions, but maybe some of mine would be asked by other people when I check back later. Not like it mattered anyway, I don't know any Vipers.

It was on the cusp of being dark when I walked to work, and a brisk wind blew. It took even less time to walk to work because not many people were driving this late. When I got to McDougalls and stepped inside the building it was like a breath of fresh air. It was almost quiet, there were only a few people in the dining area, and there weren't people clamoring for the counter to get their orders taken.

I'm liking this already.

There was a tall guy manning the counter, he had a short dirty blonde mop on top of his head, and he looked older than me, but that might be because he looked tired. His dull grey eyes shifted in my direction, as I walked up to the counter. "Wuz up? Are you the new night shifter?"

"Yea, that's me. The name's Vince. Who are you?"

"Ash, well, my name is Ashley, but call me Ash."

"Alright. Is, uh, Mark here? He was supposed to go over some training with me and introduce me to everyone."

"Oh yeah, he left tonight in a hurry, had something important to do, short notice. Told me to tell you he was sorry. But don't worry, he put me in charge of showing you around. Clock in and I'll introduce you to the crew."

As I walked around the counter and clocked in, he asked me another question. "So how new are you, exactly. Mark wasn't too clear before he left."

"I've worked here for a few weeks."

He sighed happily. "Oh thank God, I thought you were, like, brand - new. So what do you know?"

"I can take orders and work the ice cream machine."

He snapped his fingers and frowned. "Damn, that sucks. Oh well, we'll have to train you on the fryer."

I wasn't scared of the fryer, but I was confused. "What do you mean? Can't you just work the fryer?"

He nodded. "I can, but the grease makes my acne flare up, so I avoid it." He crossed his arms and gestured to the air. "We all sorta work the same spot every night, makes things easier around here. Sometimes Carlos and Tay switch jobs, but I'm always up front. Derek, the dude you're replacing, was our fry guy." Hearing the name Tay made my mind flinch, I knew somewhere back in the kitchen she was working, and I was dreading running into her. A part of me was still trying to pretend she wasn't gonna be here.

"That's fine by me, but I've never worked a fryer before."

He chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Tay can teach you, she's a master at everything in the kitchen, and we don't get as much business as day shift."

Oh fuck. Why does she have to be the one to teach me? What if she recognizes me? I doubt she'd even want to teach me or anyone else anything. Ash seemed confident when he said that. Maybe he's an idiot?

"Speaking of which, I'll introduce you to Tay and Carlos."

He walked towards the kitchen and gestured for me to follow. As I followed him, I braced myself for whatever came next.

Next to the grill was Tay, the pale viper I saw by the dumpster. She was leaning back against a stainless steel counter with her arms crossed, staring at the floor and tapping a claw against her elbow impatiently.

After standing there for a few moments, Ash said something to get her attention. "Yo, Tay, this is the new guy."

Her eyes darted to him and then to me. She held her gaze on me, I felt my pulse quicken. Fuck, shit, - fuck. What are the chances she remembers me? How many people has she pissed off? I hope that I was just one more dude that made her upset and that she didn't bother to remember me or my name. I didn't see any emotion in her eyes and breathed a little easier when she looked back at Ash. "Don't care."

Ash chuckled. "You should, he's gonna take over fries for you."

That caught her attention. "Yeah? He looks like he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground." She gestured to me and to the ground before recrossing her arms.

"Be chill, of course he doesn't know, he's new and most people don't work with fryers at home."

"Hu, huh. So you're gonna train him?" The way she said that was more of a command than a question.

"You know I am not going anywhere near those things. You'd do a better job than me anyway, I know you've trained people before."

She furrowed her brow and leaned her head forward. "Not gonna happen, Ash-ley."

Ash had been chill up to this point, but now he had a serious look on his face. "Look, just train him on this one thing, or I'll tell the witch about all your extra long smoke breaks."

Upon hearing that her confident composure broke and she let out a guttural sigh. "Ugggh, - fine. You're a dick." She threw her hands up in the air and pointed at him.

"Takes one to know one, Tay. Thank you."

She snorted in response and turned her attention to the grill. She muttered something under her breath, but I didn't catch what it was.

Ash continued walking, and as I followed, I looked back at Tay.

The grill had these press things that were pulled down on top of the burger patties to cook both sides at once. An alarm buzzed, and she lifted up the press to reveal some cooked burgers. She pulled a plastic gun from the top of the grill and squeezed the trigger a bunch to season the meat. Then she leaned over the grill to scoop up the burgers with a spatula and put them in a wax paper-lined plastic tray. As she did, the steam from the grill licked at her scaly face and soaked into the shirt covering her voluminous breasts.

Her eyes flicked in my direction when she picked up the tray and I immediately turned around to face forward. Ash took me back past the breakroom to the big sink. From around the corner, I could hear water spraying and see steam spraying out. When we got to its source, I saw a short brown guy, with short black hair, in an apron, washing a big pile of dishes, mostly spatulas, plastic buckets, and those plastic trays I saw Tay using. He had earbuds in and didn't even look in our direction.

"Hey! Carlos!" Ash yelled.

He continued to be completely absorbed in washing dishes. I could make out the music coming from his earbuds, it sounded electronic.

Ash laughed and looked at me. "Dude listens to dubstep at max volume, all - night. He has the hearing of an old man." After a moment he spoke the words "mute volume," clearly.

Carlos looked confused for a few seconds and turned to look at us. "Eh, - hey, hey. What's up Ash."

Ash gestured to me. "This is Vince, the new guy."

His confusion went away. "Ah, hello." He offered a hand for me to shake, but he was wearing a sopping-wet rubber glove covered with onion pieces. He noticed my hesitancy and took off the glove, and tried to shake my hand again.

I shook it. "Nice to meet you." Then I looked at Ash, "so, who's that witch you mentioned to Tay?"

Both Carlos and Ash looked surprised. Carlos spoke first. "Oh, you haven't met her yet? Count yourself lucky my man."

Ash chuckled. "She's the general manager for all the McDougalls in the city. Real bitch, no one likes her. When she comes around here it's all hands on deck and she gets up everyone's ass about something. But, you're on night shift now, so you won't see much of her; unless you have to fill in on a day shift, which will probably happen at some point."

"So, what? - You're saying I might see her?"

He rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, that's what I mean. Sorry, I'm more tired than usual today, woke up really late."

"Is it hard to sleep during the day?"

They both nodded and Ash responded. "Big time, first thing you should get is some blackout curtains."

"Ok. You know, I'm not really a morning person, maybe I won't have trouble sleeping?"

"You won't, at first," Carlos said. "There is what we call a honeymoon period on night shift. You start off fine, and for some people, it lasts for months and months, but sooner or later you'll be worn down like the rest of us."

Ash chimed in. "Besides Tay, she's the most awake out of all of us, most of the time. Probably because she's a non-human. She might actually be nocturnal, I've never worked up the nerve to ask her about it."

"You guys aren't giving me a lot of confidence."

Ash waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. Just have a cup of coffee before you come to work if you're tired. You'll make it to the end of the shift." He looked at Carlos. "We'll leave you to the dishes dude, have fun."

"You know I will."

Ash looked back at me. "Now, let's get you situated with Tay and the fryer." He must've been able to see the nervousness on my face because he said, "Don't let her get to you. Just do what she says and you'll be fine. Should be an easy night for you. Once you're comfortable with the fryer, I'll show you how to get orders ready and hand them out at the drive-thru window."

He led me back to the fryer and Tay, who was assembling sandwiches on the stainless steel counter across from the grill.

She glared at Ash as he walked up to her. "Alright, he's all yours Tay. Try not to break him." He chuckled as he walked to the front counter.

I was a castaway, and he pushed me overboard to swim with a shark because he couldn't be bothered to train me. Abandoned me to the one person I wanted to avoid. I felt someone's eyes bore a hole in the back of my head, so I turned to look at Tay.

Her hands were formed into fists and pressed into her hips, one was still holding a spatula. I was shorter than her, but that was only because vipers didn't have a set height. They could be as tall or as short as they wanted to be, so long as they kept their balance while moving.

I smiled sheepishly and clapped my hands together. "Ey, so, nice to meet ya. What do you, uh, want me to do?"

She didn't say anything and continued to stare. Her tongue flicked out a few times, and she squinted her eyes. "You seem… familiar. Have we spoken before?"

I wanted to look away from her eyes, but I couldn't, it was like I was caught in a trance. "Eh, I donno, maybe. It's a big place, a lotta people work here. We could've run into each other before."

She leaned her head in closer and flicked her tongue out a few times, inches from my face. "No, I know you."

"Ey, uh, mind backing up. You're in my personal bubble."

She backed away and was quiet for a few more moments before I saw recognition in her eyes. "I remember you. You were that retard that ate his lunch by the dumpster." She smirked. "You looked like you were ready to piss yourself when I left."

I had dreaded meeting her, and this exact scenario, but I wasn't about to take that sitting down. "Well yea, looking at sum'n as ugly as you tends to make a guy nervous."

She chuckled. "Oof ouch, my ego. If only I cared what a conformist faggot like you thought!"

I heard Ash yell from the front counter. "Hey! Let's keep it PG-13 in here dudes! We've got orders to finish, Tay!"

She looked up front and back at me. Still clearly upset, she pointed at a spot in front of the fryers. "Stand there two-legs, and don't move."

She was still being an ass, but if she was actually gonna train me, I'd cooperate. I walked over to the spot she pointed at. She slithered over to the counter across from the grill and got to work. Her movements were an impressive skillful blur of pure muscle memory. She pulled out boxes and paper wrappers and assembled the sandwiches from bottom to top: bun, meat, pickles, onions, and lettuce. To put on the sauce, she pulled out these things that looked like caulk guns and squirted them on the top buns before assembling the sandwiches completely. When she was done she slid them down the counter to a spot at the front where Ash could reach them.

After that, she slithered in front of me and started packing fries into fry boxes. The fry cooking area had two parts to it, the fryers, and next to the fryers was a counter with a deep depression to throw the fries in and salt them, and above the fries was a heat lamp and a shelf to set the fry boxes on.

After she set the filled boxes on the warming shelf, she looked at me. "Watch me, this is how you cook the fries."

She grabbed the metal fry baskets and shoved them into this dispenser thing in between the fryers and the grill. It filled both of the baskets with frozen fries. She set them in the grease that foamed up when she put them in. "These are gonna sit for like 5 minutes. It should be obvious when they're done, even a mongoloid could figure it out. They start floating, and then they look cooked."

"Ok," I said, to let her know I was paying attention.

"Don't - say anything. Just watch those fries. Burn the image of them cooking into your mind."

She went to the grill and started cooking more burgers. I did as she asked and watched the fries.

After a few minutes, she broke the silence. "How do the fries look?"

They were floating like she said, but I wasn't sure if they were cooked. "Eh, they - might be done."

She grumbled and slithered over to the fryers. "They're done." She pulled the fry baskets out and hooked them onto the top of the fryer. "You have to leave them like this for a second to let the grease drip off, then…" She unhooked the baskets, "give them a shake like this," and shook them, splattering droplets of grease back into the fryer.

After that, she dumped both baskets into the fry warmer."Salting them is easy. Grab the shaker thing, and turn it over once. It'll dispense all the salt you need for 2 baskets of fries." She demonstrated how to use the salt shaker, and stirred up the fries with the plastic spatula she used to fill the fry boxes. Once she finished, she gestured to the fries. "Try one." Again, what she said was more like a command than an offer.

I pulled one out and ate it. Crispy, salty, and potatoey. "It's good."

"I know. That's what they are supposed to taste like. Burn this into your memory too, if you ever think you fucked up, taste one, and if it doesn't taste like these do, you fucked up."

"I'll, eh, keep that in mind. Seems easy enough."

"Good. Not too much to take in? You want to try making some fries right now?"

"I, eh, I'd like to watch some more."

"Correct." She seemed satisfied with my answer. "Yes. You're going to watch me do this until I feel like you are ready. A grease fryer can scar a thin-skinned human like you for life." She seemed serious about this.

"You know, I worked construction. I'm not a complete idiot. I haven't killed myself in an accident yet."

She smirked. "Most humans believe they are not idiots; most of them are wrong. And from what I've seen of you so far, I'm playing it safe."

"If you're so smart, what's the Pythagorean theorem?"

For just a second, I saw her mask of confidence slip, a moment where her intelligence came into question and she didn't have a response. "Who cares, we're here to cook food. Not do math."

I stole the smirk from her face and put it on mine. "So, you don't know what it is then."

She put a claw to her chin and scratched. "Mmm, You know something about math that I don't, so what? Should I care, should I be impressed? You don't even know how to make fries yet."

Damn, she weaseled out and turned it back on me. "That's on you, not me."

She frowned. "And I have my work cut out for me." She paused for a moment in thought. "I would be impressed if you managed to hurt yourself filling fry boxes. You just watched me, pack these fry boxes. We need two mediums and a small."

"Ok." I grabbed the plastic spatula and looked at the boxes. "Ey, which is which size?"

She snorted. "If you back up, genius, you'll see the labels on the cabinet."

"Oh, yea." Using the spatula in the way she showed me, I filled the fry boxes. "How's that look, pretty good huh."

She inspected my work with the concentration of an accountant laundering money. "If I hated the customers, I would give them these; luckily for you, I do. Try harder next time."

"Alright, wise guy, what's wrong with them?"

She plucked one from the heating shelf and showed it to me, pointing at the fries with a clawed finger as she spoke. "For a start, they're mangled. These fries look like someone threw them down the stairs and scooped them back inside the box."

I couldn't argue with her assessment. "You told me to - pack - them in."

"Yes, and you shoved them in without care, you might as well have used your bare hand."

"Ok, I'll be more careful next time, anything else?"

"Nope, you managed to get the fries in the box. Rather impressive, you have exceeded my expectations."

I took that backhanded compliment in stride. "I aim to please."

She returned to her work and ignored me. A few hours passed as I filled fry boxes for her. I chatted with Ash about video games when there were lulls in the customers.

"…my crit build is awesome, dude. It almost feels like cheating." He said.

"I never thought out my build that much, it's an easy game when you're playing with a full party."

"Of course, it's easier, but you're not getting the real experience if you play with other people. It's really meant to be a single-player experience."

"Yea, but there's other characters in the world. It's not only you vs. everything, if you upgrade your shit you're using someone else's help."

"The game is balanced around that, but I'm not trying to argue. I'm saying you should make another character for a purely single-player experience, it makes it—" he stopped mid-sentence as a customer left the store. "Ugh, finally, hey can you help me move the trash cans?" He asked.

"Sure."

We walked over to the trash cans, which had a big laminate wood box around them, marked clearly as trash cans.

As I helped him push, I realized we were pushing it in front of one of the doors to the dining room. "Are we, uh, blocking the entrance to the dining room?"

He gave me a confused look. "Yeah, why… Oh, shit, you've never done this before. Yeah, we close the dining area after 9pm, or after everyone leaves the dining room. Trash can blockade make it clear to the morons that don't bother reading the signs, or care that the doors are locked."

"Ah, I getcha... So, how do we leave?"

"We use the back door." He said while we shoved the trash can in front of the door.

As we walked to the other one I asked him. "So you use the back door a lot?"

"Yeah, like every night, dude. That's where I go when I get off."

I chuckled. "I didn't take you for that kind of guy, but, ey, if your girlfriend is happy with it."

"Oh fuck—" he burst out laughing. "You got me good ."

After we finished I took my break. When I got back from my break, Tay was giving me a look. "We just ran out of fries, and you're gonna make the next batch."

"Uh, ok. If you think I'm ready."

"I don't, but I don't feel like making fries anymore."

"You know, eh, you're not a very encouraging teacher."

"I don't care what you think. Just do what I've shown you."

"Ooo-kay." I loaded the fries in the baskets and dunked them in the fryers.

She crossed her arms. "Now how long are those gonna cook for?"

"Five minutes."

"Good, let me know when you think they are ready."

[Five minutes later]

"They're done," I said.

Tay finished putting burgers on the griddle before she came over. When she did, I took the fry baskets out, hooked them, waited, and shook them. Then I dumped them in the fry warmer and salted them.

"How are they?"

She pierced one with a claw and tossed it in her mouth. "They're undercooked, but I could tell that just from looking at them. You'll have to make a new batch."

"Can't I just throw them in the fryer again?"

She shook her head. "Nope, you salted them already. Dump them and make new ones."

"Alright, fine, whatever. But, why didn't you tell me they were undercooked if you knew?"

She smirked. "You didn't ask. Use this fuck up to help you remember to not undercook them again." She slithered back to the grill. "Let me know when your next batch is ready."

I didn't say anything and got to work making another batch. When they were finished and salted, I called her over to try one.

She swallowed one and after a few seconds gave her review. "These are passable, not perfect, but they won't make anyone feel sick. You can use these for the fry orders." She went back to assembling sandwiches.

"Ok." At least she didn't insult me, saved me the trouble of having to think of something to hurl back at her.

The rest of the night went smoothly, towards the end of my shift Carlos finished with the dishes and helped Tay assemble sandwiches. As the morning sun began to peak out on the horizon Ash and I had to move the trash cans back to where they were before. Soon after, morning shift people trickled in and it was time for me to go. My shift ended later than the others, and I said goodbye to Carlos and Ash as they left. When Tay left I said nothing to her, and she didn't even look at me as she left. When it was finally time for me to go, the sun was fully out from the horizon.

I shuffled to my locker and gathered my things before shuffling out the door and being blinded by the sun's piercing rays. Fuck, that felt like someone stabbed a needle in my eyes. I better remember to bring sunglasses tomorrow.

The sun beat down on me as I walked home. I felt like I was walking through the desert after a crash landing. I couldn't focus well and hoped no one would hit me with their car as I crossed the crosswalk. When I finally got home, I stripped off my clothes and collapsed into bed.

0-

When I woke up the next day I felt much better, but I slept longer than usual. I quickly took a shower, made myself something to eat, and chatted with my friends for an hour before work.

I took a few minutes to check what was posted on the xenophile thread from yesterday. The viper kept answering questions for an hour after I left, and one stood out to me.

There was no picture with the post, but the text was: "How was adjusting to civilian life for you?"

She posted a picture of a cartoon viper looking sad, with the text: "It was difficult, even after completing the rehabilitation program and getting approval from the city government, few humans trust us. Even those of us that serve Xcom and in other governments as combat units, who prove their loyalty time and time again are only permitted to out of necessity. I feel most would prefer it if we were all just kept in prison. I'm not saying that isn't for a good reason, but it makes it hard to live a normal-ish life. Not that most of us are into the idea of living a normal life, but I have faith that the next generation will adjust better than we did.

TLDR: the government helps us along, but most people aren't ready to forgive us. We manage as everyone else does.

As weird as this thread is, (lol, no offense) it makes me happy to know that some humans actually like us."

It was interesting to see how self-aware she was. As much as I liked vipers, there was a good reason most people didn't. It was the same reason they didn't like any aliens: Advent. The wounds from that were still fresh and they would take time to heal. I couldn't spend more time pondering this because I had to leave for work. As I left and turned the key to lock the door, I remembered to grab my sunglasses and darted back inside to grab them.

The walk to work was like yesterday, chilly, low traffic. I was greeted by Mark when I went inside McDougalls.

He was on a footstool, pouring the ice cream mix into the shake machine from a big plastic bag, and turned to look when I came in. "Hello Vincent, how did you sleep?" He looked way more tired than I felt.

"I slept fine, bout as good as I usually do. How are you doing?"

He smiled and shrugged. "Oh you know, living the dream." The bag he was pouring became empty, so he stepped down and closed the top of the shake machine. "Sorry I wasn't here last night to introduce you to the crew, but Ash told me you were great and learned a new job quickly."

I rarely got praise for anything, so that felt kinda nice. "Yea, I'm quick on my feet."

He nodded. "Keep up the good work."

"I do what I can. So, - what were you doing last night, anyway? If you don't mind me askin."

There was mild surprise in his eyes when I asked and he looked away. "I had some personal business to take care of." He looked back at me. "Nothing too exciting."

Ash walked out of the kitchen and over to the computer to clock back in. "I'm back from my break."

Mark looked happy to move on from our conversation. "Perfect timing Ash, Vincent just came in. I'm going to do some work in my office, if it gets busy for you guys out here, let me know and I'll help."

Ash gestured to him with a finger gun. "You got it."

With that, Mark went into his office and I took my spot at the fry station. Tay was cooking stuff on the grill, and I could hear Carlos washing dishes in the back.

It was almost completely dead when I came in and then at the drop of a hat 18 people showed up at once. In my time working here that's what it was always like. Rarely did two or three people trickle in here or there. It was always either no one or the whole fuckin neighborhood; like everyone was deciding to get eats all at the same time. Bullshit is what it was, but the busy times always went fast, and then we were back to doing nothing. Tay wasn't much for conversation, she communicated through grunts and groans whenever she could get away with it. It was different than when she was training me, but I guess since she didn't need to talk to me anymore she decided to be silent.

The first words I heard out of her that night were. "I'm going on my break, Ash."

He did a peace sign gesture with his hand and said. "Alright, enjoy it, but not too much."

She grunted in response and slithered out the back door.

McDougalls was empty at this point, so I crouched down and took some time to wipe up the fry station.

Ash saw me doing that and looked confused. "What are you doing?"

I shrugged. "Uh, you know, cleaning up."

He chuckled. "No, dude, no. You're trying to look busy. You're on night shift now, you don't gotta do that shit. I'm not gonna snitch and neither would Tay."

I stood up, and as I did, my knees creaked. "No shit? That's cool."

"He gestured to the empty room. One of the benefits of being on nights: low supervision."

We made small talk for a bit, and I decided to ask Ash about Tay since he's been a total bro and she wasn't present at the moment. "So, what do you know about Tay?"

He looked at me weird. "Tay? Like, what do you mean?"

I lowered my voice. "I mean, you know, about stuff she's done. You know, like, bad stuff."

He shrugged what I said off. "Oh that, yeah those guys on day shift like to gossip a lot."

That was surprising. "Wait, so they were lying?"

"Yes, - well, uh. I don't know, dude, what'd they tell you about?" He thought for a moment. "Let me guess, they told you she does drugs and is involved with certain people."

What? "I— actually I haven't heard that. She does drugs?"

He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Oh, uh, no she doesn't. Not unless you count weed. She smokes weed, and cigarettes, but not anything dangerous, like meth."

I raised an eyebrow. "Weed huh, could be worse. If it's just that, why do you look so nervous."

He put his hands up. "Look dude, there's plenty of rumors, I am not trying to add to them." He sighed. "So, what did you hear then?"

"That she was a guard at an Advent blacksite."

"Oh, that. Yeah, I've heard that too."

"Yea, so, is it true?"

He shrugged. "Honestly, I don't have a clue, dude. She doesn't talk about her personal life at all, big surprise, much less about her past. Though I'll say, even if she was a blacksite guard, you don't have to worry. Believe me, if she was going to kill someone she would've done it a long time ago. You thought she was mad yesterday, tsk, that just scratches the surface of what I've seen out of her. Think about it this way, she does anything off-color to catch the attention of the authorities, they're gonna throw her right back into a detention center."

"Look, I don't wanna sound like an asshole, but I can't say she's got much to lose. Workin here ain't exactly a primo position."

He raised his eyebrows. "Dude, don't worry so much. She doesn't hate you any more than anyone else. She distributes her anger evenly."

"Why is she so angry all the time?"

He scoffed at my question. "Why don't you ask her yourself, dude. I just work with her, I don't know anything about her."

"Fuck it, maybe I will."

"Be careful, start asking her questions like that and she might single you out. But whatever, I don't like talking about her behind her back. Let's get back to my Rebuilding Civilization game."

"Ok."

"So, there I was minding my own business and then the Nigerians declared war on me for no reason. They send siege equipment over, with no supporting troops, and I destroy it, then I take one of their cities in retaliation, and suddenly I'm the bad guy. I swear the AI all conspire against you in single player…"

Tay came back from her break and we kept working. Mark left before a quarter of my shift was over and said goodbye to us. It wasn't long after he left that customers poured in. We dealt with it as best as we could and got people their food. After that rush died down, I saw something I never expected to see: Ray, Dan, and Josh walking into Mcdougalls. Josh was the shortest, with a wide head. He had on black-rimmed glasses and a baseball cap with a leaf pattern on it covering up his short dark brown hair. Ray, the one flanking right, was taller than the other two, and thinner, but he had surprisingly broad shoulders. His head was taller and had a ginger-colored thick mane of unkempt hair on top of it. Dan, the one in the middle, was closer to my height, trimmed brown hair sat orderly on his round head, and his thin pointy nose sliced the air as he looked between Ray Josh and I. Dan. They were all wearing sweaters and shit-eating grins.

My energy had been on a downturn, but their appearance perked me right up. "Holy shit guys, what the hell are you doing here?"

Ray walked right up to the counter and leaned on it with his elbows, completely ignoring Ash. "Well, we were in the neighborhood, figured we'd come over and get a bite."

Dan spoke next. "Personally I'm just here to say hi, but I might as well get some food."

Josh spoke last. "I saw these two guys walking around town, so I just followed them here."

I laughed. "Let me be the first to welcome you to our humble eatery." I bowed. "Welcome to McDougalls!"

All the noise we were making attracted the attention of Tay from the kitchen, but she only observed silently. Ash spoke next. "So these are your friends, I take it?"

Ray switched his attention to him. "Yeah, we are V-I-P-Sss, and we expect to be treated as such! With the full courtesy of an employee discount."

I rolled my eyes and prepared to turn him down, but Ash responded before I did. "Sure, you guys ordering separately, or all together?"

Ray looked shocked. "Damn Vince, your coworker is way cooler than you. We'll have to come here more often.

"Sure, again, just make sure to come when it's not busy," Ash said.

I nodded in agreement. "Yea, we can't shoot the shit if there's people around."

Josh was looking around while Ray ordered. "Nice place you got here, so you're the fry cook, Vince?"

"Sure am, vro."

"If you fuck up my fries, I'm gonna give you shit until the end of time."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Once Ray finished ordering, he waited off to the side while Dan and Josh ordered. I saw him staring at Tay the whole time, I could almost see the gears inside his head turning as he thought of what to say to her. I mouthed the words "do not" to him, but he ignored me. I knew it was a fool's errand deterring him. Once he got a stupid idea in his mind he couldn't help but follow through with it and I was dreading what he was going to say.

After Dan and Josh finished ordering, Ray adjusted his position and leaned on the wall. He looked at me and said, "Hey Vince, I didn't know you worked with any hot babes: who's that performing sweet magic on the grill?"

I glanced at Tay, silently hoping she didn't hear anything he said. She was frozen in place, the pupils of her blue eyes were thin slits, and she was staring daggers at Ray. I looked at Ray and made a throat-cutting gesture to tell him to stop, but he kept going.

"Come on man, you gotta tell me. Or maybe she could come over and introduce herself."

Ash looked mortified, maybe he had seen something similar happen before and he knew exactly what was about to happen. Either way, what had been set in motion could not be stopped, and everyone besides Tay and Ray was along for the ride. Dan and Josh seemed oblivious to what was about to occur.

Ray continued his foolish endeavor. "Hey, you, in the kitchen, don't be shy. Come over and say hi. I want to meet all of Vince's coworkers."

Tay furrowed her brow and set down the spatula violently with a clang. She slowly slithered up to the front counter.

Ray's grin somehow got even wider. "So, what's yoouuur name?"

She pointed at her nametag with a claw and tapped on it twice.

"Tay, that's a cool name." She said nothing. "Not much of a talker, huh, I can respect that. I can do enough talking for three people. So, what do you like to do?"

She stared angrily at him but did not respond. Poor Ray, he never did know when to quit. "You're so quiet. You know, some people are scared of vipers, not me, I think they are really kinda, sexy." Upon hearing the word sexy she dug her claws into the front counter. Up to this point he seemed as oblivious as Josh and Dan, but now he was beginning to realize the error of his way. "Uh, y-you don't have to be scared of me." That sentence petered out at the end when he noticed how hard she was gripping the counter.

Tay spoke quietly at first and gradually ramped up her volume to a yell "Scared - of you? As pathetic as you are? You should be scared of me, you sniveling - cunt smudge." She leaned her serpentine head forward over the counter and sized up Ray. "You're a disgusting creep! If you keep talking to me, I'm going to bite you. And, while you con-vulse on the ground, slowly dying as my venom burns through your veins, causing the worst pain imaginable, I'm going to flay the skin from your body with my claws. No one here could stop me from killing you, - you greasy soulless ginger degenerate, so shut - the fuck up, ok?" Ray had slowly leaned back away from her during her tirade and was practically falling over. Shit, I don't know how much I can relax around her after hearing all that.

Ray was speechless and looked like how I did when she went off at me by the dumpster. He swallowed audibly and nodded.

Tay lunged her head forward and smirked when Ray flinched. She seemed satisfied and slithered back to the kitchen.

Ray smoothed his hair out and took a few breaths. He looked between Josh, Dan, and me, and said, "I think I'm in love."

When Tay started preparing sandwiches. I followed her out of earshot of my friends. "Hey, Tay. Don't you dare spit venom in their food. I'm sorry Ray is a dumbass, but he'd probably like it if you did."

She looked at me with fiery eyes to try and intimidate me. I stood my ground and watched her as she made the sandwiches. After she made the first one, she relented. "Your friend is a real jackass, you know that?"

"Yea, look, he didn't mean nothing by it: he pulls stunts like this all the time. And, he wasn't you know, being ironic to make you feel bad, I know he likes vipers."

"I don't care whether he meant it or not! Eugh!" She rubbed her head and sighed. "You get the fuck away from me too, and let me work. I'm not gonna poison them."

I raised my hands non-threateningly. "That's all I wanted to hear." I backed off and made my friends' fries.

Once their order was ready, Ash let me take my break and hang out with them. We all gave Ray shit for being a complete idiot, but he maintained that it was a victory. He hit on a viper and lived to tell the tale, and this gavone had the chutzpah to call me out after he almost fainted, said that at least he had the balls to say something to her. And I had to admit he was kinda right, guy did the very thing I'd thought about doing: walking up to a viper and trying my luck. Not with Tay of course, nah, I'd try it with a friendlier viper. But, besides that, we had a good time together, none of them got poisoned, and, once my break was up, they said goodbye and went home. Ray was a total legend for that, an idiot, but a legend nonetheless.

After that, it was back to work, hours, and hours of work. The drive-thru filled up and we emptied it a few times. When a few hours were left in my shift, the drive-thru filled up completely, so I kicked my fry-making into high gear. I was making so many fries that the fry dispenser ran dry, and Tay didn't have time to fill it. She told me where to go in the freezer to get more. I found the fry bags where she said and filled the dispenser, a big clump of ice fell out of the bag into the hopper, but I ignored it, there were many more orders to fill.

On the last few orders, I shoved the baskets into the dispenser and that big chunk of ice landed squarely on top of the fries in one of the baskets. In my tired stupor, I forgot all about those safety videos and assumed it was going to melt.

Tay happened to glance over as I was setting the basket into the fryer. She yelled "STOP!" as I put them in the fryer, but it was too late. The grease sizzled and popped, splattering boiling oil all over my right hand.

The pain wasn't immediate, for a split second, I felt something hit my hand, then as soon as I looked at it I felt immense searing pain. "Ma - rone! Fuck!" I backed away from the fryer into the counter, clutching my hand. Watching as it turned red and blisters began to form.

The grease in the fryer had started to foam up and was almost reaching the top of it. Tay slithered over immediately and pulled the basket out of the fryer.

Ash looked over from the drive-thru window. "Is everything ok?"

I responded. "No it's fucking not, I got burned by the fucking bullshit fryer!"

Tay observed my outburst quietly. After I finished, she reached out two of her hands gently. "Can I see it?" Her voice was so soft, without thinking, I complied with her request. She put her hand under my palm to spread it out, so she could look over the back of my hand. I winced as she did.

Her eyes softened and I saw something in them I never would've expected to see: sympathy. "I'm sorry." She looked over at Ash. "Get the burn cream and gauze out of the first aid kit, the orders can wait a moment!" He ran out of view. She looked back at me. "Follow me to the sink, we need to run it under cool water." She led me by the hand to the sink and put my hand under, low pressure, cold water. It hurt at first, but then it started to feel better. "Keep your hand here until I get back. We have to finish these orders and get these assholes out of here." She left and Ash set gauze and burn cream by the sink.

After a minute or two Carlos walked in through the back door from his break and saw me with my hand in the sink. "You alright man?"

I shook my head. "No, grease burn."

"Shit, are they working on orders right now?" He pointed to the kitchen.

"Yea, trying to clear the drive-thru."

He nodded. "I'll go help them." He ran off to help Tay and Ash.

As I stood there with my hand in the sink I thought about my life choices that led me to this moment, and I also thought about Tay. What the hell was that? I had somehow seen her at her most violent and her most gentle today. After about six minutes under the sink, my hand wasn't hurting as much anymore, and I saw Tay round the corner.

Gone was the look of sympathy and softness from her blue eyes, she looked upset now. "We cleared out the rest of those orders. Let me see it again."

I gave her my hand and she took it gently, like last time. "You are soo-oooo fucking lucky, you understand that? Thin skin like yours isn't resistant to hot grease, retard. Do you have any idea how much you could've hurt yourself? Did you even pay attention to the safety videos?" Now I felt like a child she was scolding.

"I wasn't trying to burn myself. It was an accident, I'm tired and I forgot about the ice—"

She cut me off. "I know." She sighed. "You have to be more careful and not put giant chunks of ice in the grease. I told you that the fryer could scar you for life."

"I know, I know."

"Clearly you need a reminder. Now I'm going to apply this burn cream and dress your wound, hold still."

She caressed my hand as she gently rubbed on the burn cream with her finger; the cooling sensation of the burn cream gave me instant relief. You wouldn't get this out of me if you tortured me for three weeks, but I was kinda enjoying this attention, and I realized partway through that I was holding her hand as she held it steady. At that point, I tried very hard to maintain my composure. If I was blushing, she paid no mind to it. After she finished with the cream she carefully wrapped the gauze around my hand.

When she finished she looked me in the eyes. "Do not pop those blisters. if it hurts, take some pain medication and put a cool wet towel on it, understand?"

At this point, I was a hot mess, with the burn, and someone giving me some one-on-one attention, all I could say was. "Thank you."

Her face was stoic. "You can repay me by never burning yourself again, dipshit."

"Y-yea, I'll be more careful. Are there any orders?"

She shook her head. "Oh no, you're going home early tonight, dipshit. Your lame, gimp ass is only gonna get in our way, and you'll get your burn wound infected. Go home and if it's not mostly healed by tomorrow, call in. Ash and I will vouch for you with Mark."

As much as going home sounded appealing, I didn't want to leave them hanging. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, we'll be fine. Go home and take care of your burn."

"Ok." I walked past her towards the front of the kitchen. She followed me until we reached the grill, staying there as I walked to the front. I turned around to look at her again. I got the urge to say something to her, to let her know how much I valued that moment of kindness, but I couldn't think of any words to express that. She looked at me with a neutral expression for a moment and turned her attention to cooking more burgers.

Ash and Carlos both looked at me as I walked over to the computer. "Are you gonna be ok, dude?" Ash asked.

"Yea, Tay said I should go home."

He nodded. "You should. Don't worry, Tay and I will explain things to Mark."

And that was that. I clocked out and walked home. My hand still hurt like hell, but without Tay's help, it would be worse. As I took off my work clothes and laid down in bed I thought about how well she treated my burn. It was almost like she had done that before, or had training with it. I looked at my hand: the gauze was wrapped perfectly, or as perfectly as I would expect. I wasn't a doctor or 'nuthin. That sparked my imagination: it really made me wonder what she did when Advent was in control. My thoughts were filled with possibilities as I drifted off to sleep.