Frerard One-Shots

Whack-A-Mole

Written by wayby on AO3

Today's pee stain on the floor was shaped like a heart. How sweet, Frank thought as he sighed and went to grab the cleaning supplies from the supply closet. He wasn't entirely sure why he applied for a job at Chuck E. Cheese, seeing as there were much quieter and cleaner shitty jobs that also paid nothing right at his fingertips. He'd say it was for the free pizza, but he knew better than to consume the fake plastic monstrosity that caused many cases of food poisoning in toddlers.

Speaking of the toddlers, they always managed to pee on the carpet, and Frank was the one who always found the stains, which meant he was the one who had to clean them up. He was also the employee that his coworkers would send when a kid threw up in the tube-hell that was the play place, since he was as small as some of the kids even at the age of 19.

After cleaning up the stain, he went back to his spot behind the prize counter to survey the area. Luckily for him, the place wasn't too crowded so he had some breathing room in between kids coming up to him to cash in their tickets. The prize counter was probably why he took the job, if he were honest. He was a kid once, he knew how much it meant when an adult was nice. So he'd always let kids have the prizes they wanted even if they were a few tickets short, and had a collection of spare tickets under the counter to sneak into their pile so they'd have extra tickets. It made the kids happy and the parents thankful and his job a lot easier.

Scanning the room for a disaster to clean up, he came across a man about his age playing an arcade game. The guy, even from afar, looked really pretty, in a funky way. His long black hair was swallowing his face like it had a mind of its own and he was wearing a sweatshirt and ...pajama pants? Yes, those were batman pajama pants. To the untrained eye he'd look like a creepy homeless guy, but his face had nice soft features and a tiny nose, and he managed to pull off the disheveled look in a way that awed Frank. What was amusing about the guy, though, is that he didn't look to be with any of the children running around. He had his own overflowing cup of tickets sitting next to him, and he was playing the game as if he was actually having fun.

Frank had to admit, it was adorable. He'd seen his fair share of bored college kids coming in to win prizes, but this guy was alone and having the time of his life. He was mashing the buttons with such glee that he resembled all the 5-year-olds running around him. Frank watched as a line of tickets began spilling out of the machine, and the guy picked them up with a huge grin. His cup was already overflowing, so Frank wondered how he'd shove his newly acquired tickets inside.

To his surprise, the guy looked at the children around him, and settled on a little girl that was crying. Frank watched in amazement as he walked over to the girl and offered her the tickets in his hand. The girl accepted the tickets and stopped crying, instead choosing to giggle up at him.

Frank kind of maybe wanted to marry him because that was the sweetest thing he'd ever seen.

He watched as Cute Guy went over to the whack-a-mole machine, and inserted a token. He couldn't help but be mesmerized by the guy's accuracy with the giant rubber hammer.

That was, until he got a little too excited and began absolutely wailing on the moles with all of his strength. The moles could take the strength of a child, but not necessarily that much force. Sure enough, one of the moles got jammed, and the machine stopped working with an awful grinding noise that Frank was all too used to. He would usually be frustrated at another machine being broken, but the guy looked so embarrassed and scared that he just smirked and rolled his eyes instead, and left his spot behind the counter.

The man was looking around worriedly for an employee, and his focus settled on Frank when he saw him walking toward the machine. As Frank suspected, the guy looked better up close. He had perfect pale skin and eyes that were some color Frank couldn't describe, and the expression of a kicked puppy that made Frank want to kiss off of his face.