Cosmo's oneshots / drabbles

a necessary arrangement

It was a normal day at hotel OJ. Things were a bit more quiet than usual, but OJ himself didn't really mind. That gave him plenty of time to take it slow for the most part, for once not having to rush himself through a daily hotel occurrence or task.

It was while he was folding fresh out of the drier towels when paper approached him.

"Uhm, you've got a call! I didn't answer it, but it's still ringing if you want me to finish up the towels for you while you do that?" Paper gave his usual, almost anxious smile. OJ smiled back, giving a nod with his response as he placed down the towel he had just finished folding onto the top of the pile; "Yeah, okay, I'll go answer it."

And so he did, speed walking to his office. Thankfully it was still ringing by the time he got to the phone, answering it with the usual;

"This is OJ, of hotel OJ speaking? Are you calling to book a room?"

"Oh, oh no, I'm actually calling for something else." A voice answered. An eerily familiar voice, though OJ couldn't exactly tell. Either way, this was already weird.

"Oh, well if this is a fan who got ahold of the number I don't really have time--"

The voice on the other end let out a loud sigh, almost annoyed.

"No, it's still something else. Do you recognize my voice?"

"Should I?" OJ asked cautiously. Sure, he recognized the voice, but he couldn't just put a face to that. It wasn't like OJ had time to really care about someone like who was calling, considering he was busy enough with his hotel.

"Why, I'm only THE Steve Cobs, and I'm actually calling because you have a very important decision to make."

OJ's face paled once the man said his name. The manager didn't know him personally, but he had heard enough from TestTube, that he was a terrible person, and even worse parent, from the few things MePhone opened up to him about. Wherever this was going, OJ knew this conversation wasn't going to end well.

"What do you want?" OJ's tone immediately dropped to something unhappy.

"Oh wow, no need to be rude. I assure you it's nothing big. Well, at least, it doesn't have to be." OJ hated how he could hear the coy tone in the man's voice.

"Get to the point."

"Fine, fine! It's just a simple proposition. A deal, perhaps." An annoyingly long pause.

"I want you to tell me MePhone 4's exact location."

"Hah, I'm not doing that. What makes you think I would tell you anything. I've heard enough about you."

"Oh, well you might think of me negatively, I don't really care, but the reason you definitely will be thinking about it is the simple fact that if you don't, I'll destroy that silly little hotel of yours."

"... What?" OJ didn't know if he had heard that correctly. He was almost scared to hear him repeat himself.

"Simple, really! You turn in the robot that rightfully belongs to me, and I'll leave your hotel alone. If you refuse, well, I'll find him anyway, and send some of my nifty little robots to cause some problems. We really don't need to go into the details. I'm sure your imagination can fill those in." His tone was completely serious now. He... He couldn't be... Right?

"See, you don't even need to tell me your answer now. It's... Only noon, right? I, and some of my robots will be coming by this evening, say... Six O'clock sharp. Have him ready for me, or else."

OJ was speechless. He couldn't just turn MePhone in to the man who hurt him enough for him to still be unable to open up about it to this day. That was... That would be unforgivable...