I have not yet determined a name for this

~Chapter Nine~

When Sun excitedly approached me a mere couple seconds later, he was expressing his regrets at not having greeted me sooner.

"JESSE!! JESSE!!" he cried, raising his arms enthusiastically in the air, "You're here earlier than usual! I wanted to be here the moment you arrived, but how could I know you'd show up earlier today?!" He dramatically raised his fists to his temples, and the employee manning the security desk could be seen raising a brow in the background.

I released a slightly nervous laugh, my body now brimming with anxiety thanks to my knowledge of tonight's intentional outage. It wasn't as though I was in any danger, and neither was Sun, technically—but I was going to miss him. And the guy had said they'd need to do this for a couple days or so, right? "Sorry, I should've told you," I replied with a wobbly smile, my hands clasped at my stomach. "I could tell you my whole schedule, if you want."

While this didn't exactly sound healthy out of context, Sundrop didn't seem to notice. "YES, PLEASE!" he shouted, as though I'd been holding out on him all this time. "That way I can be here the minute you arrive! Every single time! Not so much as a second late!"

God, could I really just go home like a normal person today? My gaze softened as I looked up at him. Before I could respond, he suddenly continued.

"Oh, but Jesse, I need to tell you something!" he stated, lowering his voice to a stage whisper at best. "Let's go over here, away from anyone else!" He wasn't exactly good at being secretive, I'd noticed.

He led me further into the daycare, pulling me determinedly by the hand until we reached an area that was relatively unoccupied, at least for the time being. He lowered his head a little once he'd deemed the spot safe, his hands dramatically cupped around his face as though he were about to divulge something big.

"The lights are going to go out tonight," he revealed, his voice a little lower but still pretty audible to anyone within range. "So you can't stay. They're trying to preserve power. I think it's a total bummer. What about our sleepovers?!" His robotic hands were perched on his hips now. At least he was just as disappointed as I was.

I offered him a melancholic smile. "Yeah, the security guy told me. I'm pretty sad about it. I really like spending the night with you."

Sun suddenly perked up a little, though he was waving his hands wildly in front of my face, practically obscuring my vision entirely. "SHHH!!!!" he hissed, exaggeratedly glancing left and right to make sure nobody was within earshot. "You can't just SAY that!!! What if the children hear?!?!"

I amusedly cocked a brow; he was the one who had brought up our sleepovers to begin with, but okay. "I'm sure it's fine," I assured him, gently pushing his hands away from my face. "But how long do you think this'll be for? Y'know, the outages?"

Seeming to have calmed down a little, he glanced briefly around again. "I'm not sure," he admitted in a lower tone, his hands fiddling with each other in that anxious way of his. "I was told it could be a couple days, but—I hope that's all it is. Maybe even less!"

My smile was wavering again; I really didn't like the idea of waiting. There wasn't even any way for me to contact Sundrop outside of my job. I shouldn't have been too concerned, considering I'd still see him throughout my shifts, but it wasn't like we could behave very intimately while on duty. Some hope filtered into my expression then.

"Do you think I could still stay for a little bit after the kids leave, but before they shut the lights off?" I questioned. "They told me to leave early just in case, but obviously they're not going to actually turn the lights off until the place closes, right? So I could just stay to finish cleaning up like usual, and make sure to get out before the doors lock." I'd take any amount of alone time with Sun that I could get.