Into the Human Realm [Book II] Rascal x fem reader

8

You wake to the early morning sun pouring in through your thin curtains. Before opening your eyes, you regain consciousness. The very first thing you expect to be looking at when you do open them, is the joker grinning from ear-to-ear right in front of your face. You are expecting him to play a joke on you, but instead you open your eyes to an empty room.

Strange. You untangle yourself from the sheets and lightly tip toe to open the door to the living area, finding Rascal still curled up in the same position you last saw him in on the couch.

For a split second, your heart does a little backflip as you silently near him, then kneel down to the floor to get a better look. The jester's side rises and falls to your relief.

Aw, you cannot help but think, he is still sleeping. He really must have needed the rest from relentless searching through the galaxy for years, telling you that he had not slept in months. You remember Rascal never really sleeping in the Shadow Realm, even though he was storing a lot more negative energy than he is now.

A part of you is a little relieved, since you are scheduled on to work a full day's shift at the café.

While you get ready, shower, make yourself breakfast then toss you and Rascal's damp clothes in the washing machine, the jester still does not even stir. You kneel beside him to feel his head, and it has significantly cooled down from last night. For a minute you watch this clown, dressed in your clothes and curled up on the couch. His red, blue and yellow hair hangs softly across half of his placid face and dark eyelids.

A part of you wants to laugh at how strange it looks.

Another still believes you are dreaming.

Nevertheless, you take one more glance and head out the door.

...

"(Y/n), I'm not even kidding, I can't remember anything." The portafilter is wacked against the grind bin, emptying out the used grinds.

You wonder every shift how you are able to tolerate the noises of a busy café.

"Neither do I." You tell Nina, again, hoping that the blander you are, the quicker the conversation surrounding the night Rascal caused a dark zone and the two of you fell into a state of negativity will finally be let go of.

Alas, you return from serving a table and the confusion on Nina's face has yet to fall.

"What was the issue again?" The girl squints at you from behind a cloud of steam emitting from the espresso machine. You place the table number back with the others on top of the display cabinet, hesitant to even meet her eye.

You give a playful shrug, knowing the truth. "I already told you, you needed some space and I was disruptive." Then the excruciatingly loud sound of the milk wand bursts your eardrums, your face uncontrollably scrunches into a wince. You are about to walk anywhere else, when..,

"Wait (y/n)! Are you sure it was that?" Nina cries over the noise as she continues making coffee, causing a few poor customers to turn their heads. "What if the reason we can't remember is because we were drunk!? – Ow!"

Your boss Maree appears behind Nina, giving her arm a light whack. You pinch your mouth closed and watch from the corner of your eye as Maree gives the girl a stern look and says something inaudible over the noise of the coffee machine, then raises an eyebrow and walks back off into the kitchen, holding a few things under her arm. She is a cool boss, luckily.

When Nina averts her gaze from Maree back to you, you hear the bell ring from the kitchen. Saved by the bell, you make a hasty escape and depart from the counter, hoping the conversation has finally subsided as it has continued for the last four hours.