unforgiven ➽ a Halilintar-centric fic

06 | an infestation

6/3, Wednesday

Tweedledum and Tweedledee were already awake when Halilintar was brushing his teeth in the bathroom.

They were standing outside the hallway, whispering urgently within themselves and clearly wanting to talk to him, but for some reason (he knew why, he just couldn't bring himself to care enough) refused to. Either it was for common courtesy or manners to wait for him to finish his routine, they were dawdling.

What were their names again? Ali? Amir? Durin?

Gods above, it was going to be hell telling apart who's who.

He finished up his routine and stepped out, towel in arm and raising an eyebrow at the pair. They didn't show any signs of stray elemental energy, so it's definitely not because they broke any fuses. He can't sense anything wrong either, and it's too early in the morning for them to be roaming about.

They stiffened when his eyes laid upon them, but otherwise didn't run away.

"What do you need?" Halilintar demanded. "If it's any complaints about the room, you should can it and go back to sleep."

The red one shook his head vehemently. "The room's fine! That's not why we're here," he clarified. Oh? "We—we're just here to ask if we can go to the nearest convenience store in the morning to buy some stuff, because we didn't bring any—"

"No." Halilintar didn't want for him to finish. "You're not allowed to head outside."

"But—"

Halilintar glared, effectively shutting them up. "My decision is final." He flicked a switch, turning off the bathroom's lights. "Now go back to sleep."

Halilintar disliked those kids, but he hated Taufan and Gempa.

This was the conclusion he came to as he was setting up the Kokotiam at 5AM. He rearranged the chairs. He refilled the condiments and takeaway utensils one by one. He warmed up all the machines and made sure they were running smoothly, though the latte art printer was still all sorts of clunky.

All of it was busywork until the day comes and to keep him from drowning in his thoughts. Ones that he was forced to confront the moment he saw that video.

What is wrong with them? He found a stubborn stain on the counter that refused to come out. The counter was practically brand new with how hard he scrubbed it.

Years of silence and they saddle me with this? The ice canisters could still be filled. They were bursting to the brim with ice when he made the second trip back to the house.

Do they think I'm frolicking in a flower field or something? His stomach grumbled. He fixed himself a cup of hot chocolate and snacked on an energy bar he had stocked in one of the drawers. He kept his focus on each individual bite, cringing at the all-too familiar strawberry pieces mixed in with granola.

Hypocrites, all of them. He had nothing left to do.

Halilintar leaned far back into one of the seats, legs kicked up on the table as he combed his hand through his hair. Screw it. It's just three weeks. He's been through worse for longer and this time around he had the reigns.

It's 6AM now, and there's still one whole hour before business starts then the regulars would start coming in.

One whole hour of nothing.

Great. Just... great.

He fished his phone from his pocket, the brightness of the screen forcing him to narrow his eyes.

A red dot lit up on the corner of his messaging app, and he vaguely wondered what it was. 99% of the time it was a bogus message from some company, and the other 0.9% of the time it was Tok Aba asking him if he was doing alright.

The other 0.1%, however...

Unknown Number: HEY, HALIIIII! Are you doing alright with those rascals??

He shut off his phone.

The day went by relatively slow. Other than a handful of regulars here and there, there weren't much foot traffic in the park today, so he had plenty of time on his hands.

Much to his dismay.

The most interesting thing that happened was when the blue and white one came running when they broke their fuses within a five-minute interval of each other. He dealt with them easily, though the white one looked like he was forced to swallow a frog throughout the entire time.

But that didn't help his case much either, because they reminded him of the time when he, Gempa and Taufan were still children. It's been years since he had to deal with awry elemental energy, and now he had to deal with four ticking time bombs all at once.

Not that it's difficult, it's just very unpleasant. That's the nicest way he could frame it. The rude way would be downright putrid with a generous side of profanity.

Besides the two, nothing else happened. No cats running about, no random kid tripping on their scooter, no Karens coming in to leave a 1-star review of their horrible customer service. Not one single inconvenience had happened since the start of the business, and that by itself was an inconvenience on its own.

He rubbed his eyes and yawned as the clock ticked down to 7, and that's when he began to close up shop for the day. Another day passed, another day survived.

Another day closer to that godforsaken date.

His skin crawled just by thinking of it.

To everyone else, it's not a big deal—Taufan and Gempa are still up in TAPOPS, and Tok Aba would most likely make a comment in passing and nothing else—but it's infinitely more complicated than what lay beyond the surface.

To make things worse, his house had an infestation. An infestation of idiots.

edit: there is plot to this i swear... just give me another bajillion chapters to establish how tok aba can use four chopsticks in one hand on both hands.