Infected(Vanessa/Vanny x Male Reader)

A small talk

     Working in a mall that's filled to the brim with toddlers running around with their parents struggling behind them isn't a top-job for young adults, but for me it's a stress reliever. Being told by everyone to grow up, to act like an adult stress my mental health, so seeing childish acts being done all around relaxes me. And what better way to do that than in the Daycare that's run down by the Daycare attendant? It's not all that bad. There's the Daycare attendant(duh), the enormous ball pit, the tunnels and slides, the nap time area, and the main door that connects the Daycare to the rest of the Pizzaplex. There I stood with my arms crossed and keeping an eye on the children, making sure that they wouldn't disappear like the recent rash of missing kids that spread all over town.

     As I hummed to the rhythm of some catchy tune you felt a tug at the bottom of my uniform shirt. I glanced down to see a little girl with bright blue eyes smiling at me, waving a piece of paper in her right hand.

     I returned the smile. "Oh! What's this?" I ask her in a cartoonish voice that made her giggle.

     "This's for you!" she squealed with an even brighter smile.

     "For me?" I asked, astonished by the gift. She giggled again and nodded.

     I took the paper she gave me. On it was a drawing, or a scribble, of what looked to be a figure with a bright blue shirt with black pants, a cap with white lines and a huge smiley face drawn on to him.

     "I drew you!" she said as took a leap. "'ya like it?"

     "I don't like it." I said, which made her stare at me with wide eyes, "I love it! I'll tell you what, as soon as I'm on my break I'll dash to my office so that every time I'm in my office, I'll see the pretty drawing you made of me."

     Her eyes lit up with joy as she proclaimed her victory with a loud, "YAY!"

     I grinned as I thanked her for her 'masterpiece.' She skipped away to the rest of the kids with pride from earning the approval of the nice security guard. That's the thing I like about behaving like a child: you think like a child.

     When you're a grownup, you want to control children by force. It won't work as kids want to be free. There'll be rebellion. Instead, I negotiate with them like the way a kid would trade their snacks at lunchtime in school. 'Work smarter, not harder.' As my father used to say. The kids at the Pizzaplex like me as an 'older brother' figure.

     What else can I say? I love my job.

     I felt a tap on my shoulder that snapped me out of my 'zone'. "Yo dude." Turning around, I locked eyes with Blake, the 17 year old 'bad-boy' who works at one of the snack spaces located around the second floor. Blake, who had a piercing on his nose, a bad case of acne, and already had tattoos going up his arms like a second layer of skin, had an AirPod in his left ear.

     "Yes? Can I help you, Blake?" I asked.

     "Mr. Doom wants to talk to you. Told me to tell you to meet him at his office immediately."

     What for?

     "Sure," I ultimately agree, but only because Mr. Doom's my boss. If I had the choice, I would've just told him he could've sent me an email instead of a personal meeting.

     I stepped out of the daycare and took a second to look at my surroundings. Anyone who's been here for the first time must've thought that they had time traveled back into the '80s. The animatronics on stage were using instruments only rock stars from the '80s would play: An electric guitar, a keytar, a bass guitar, and of course, a microphone. The smell of pizza sneaked its way into my nostrils as it became the first thing it registered. Apart from the music on stage, people cheering and talking, mixed with noises the arcade machines made were pretty much the only things I could hear.