Timed Out - A DSAF AU

𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐮𝐭

This is a soulmate AU I guess.

Steven, Peter, Jack, Dave and everyone else work together in one joint. (Besides the other phoneys ig, they not in this story boohoo).

Steven is like the Big Boss Man; Peter is like a step down from him but still higher in authority than Jack n Dave who are regular employees along with everyone else.

It's a tradition that people are gifted a pocket watch on their 18th birthday, sometimes sooner. When they receive their pocket watch an internal ticking will start in their head till they find their soulmate. A person will know when they've found their soulmate if the ticking stops. The ticking will stop when soulmates touch hands, kiss, hug etc. Anything intimate ig yada yada cheesy ik sue me >:0 I NEED STEVENPETER CONTENT!!

ANYWAY, ON WITH THE STORY

***

"Jack, If-I-could-swear, you better not be snorting Pop Rocks in the bathroom again!"

Peter swung the door to the restrooms open after he promptly noticed a remarkable, orange-colored employee had not been out entertaining kids during a busy day.

Upon entering the men's bathroom, the phone-headed man was greeted with the unruly sight of Dave and Jack wrapping Foxy in toilet paper, like a makeshift mummy. If that mummy was a club stripper. And if that club stripper was an animatronic fox.

"Of all the places I find you, you're in here messing around on one of our busiest days of the week! There's a gaggle of kids out there right now looking for Spring Freddy and Spring Bonnie, they were surrounding me like hungry vultures! I had to pry one off of my leg to come look for you. Why aren't you two out there doing your job? You're not being paid to do whatever you're doing in here! What are you guys even do- actually y'know what? I don't even wanna know. Just get out there and start juggling or something! NOW!!"

Peter tapped his foot, pointing the two out of the bathroom.

Dave dropped his roll of toilet paper with an eye roll and walked the animatronic over to the Phoney, quickly tossed him into Peter's arms, and skedaddled out of the bathroom, his orange counterpart following close behind. Peter glared after the duo, absolutely done with their shenanigans.

Peter pushed the tp'ed fox aside, sighing and rubbing the sides of his phone head, the smooth plastic cold against his fingertips. The ticking in his mind was starting to give him a headache. He thought he was gonna hear the last of it when he met his wife, Caroline. They thought they were soulmates but throughout their dating years, his internal clock never quit, and even now that she'd passed, the mind-numbing tick, tick, tick, every second, every hour, every day. It never stopped.

Peter subconsciously patted the fabric of his pocket but remembered he never carried his pocket watch with him. The Phone man stopped checking it a long time ago. When he married Caroline, Peter decided he wasn't gonna need it anymore, he'd found his 'soulmate' despite the ticking never having ceased.

It filled his mind; it was like background noise to his thoughts. Really. Irritating. Background noise. Most of the time he would tune it out. But the last few days it had been especially infuriating. It was like it was forcing him to get over the loss of his wife. 'Oop she died of cancer now it's time to move on to your actual soulmate!'.

The pressure in his head increased and Peter realized that his hands were balled up in fists against his temples. Peter shook his head, washed his clammy hands, and left the bathroom. He had a long, exhausting day ahead of him.

***

Peter was covering for Mat at the prize corner as the creep took his lunch break. It was quite uneventful until a child with a shit-eating grin came skipping up to the counter. Peter noticed the kid was missing several teeth (undoubtedly from all the sugar he consumed if Peter had to guess) after the gremlin asked to turn his tickets in, in return for candy. The kid pressed his snotty nose against the glass, his eyes scanning the brightly colored packaged drugs, and after a moment he selected a few jaw-shattering jawbreakers, a chocolate bar from a sketchy-looking brand, and a tooth-disintegrating amount of pixie sticks. Peter put it all in a paper bag and handed it to the child.