Love At First Sweep (Max X Broom AU)

Chapter 2 First sight

My hand was bandaged up, and I was off to work the next day.

My heart was heavy and my stomach had an unfillable void inside it.

My mind kept on drifting to Swiffy. I had loved her, I really had. But then why did you do what you did?

I had to admit to myself what I had been denying: we had been drifting apart. I had caught myself eyeing up the dust pan a few times. Her swivel head had become stiffer. Life was getting boring.

We had stuck to what we knew: the dry messes. And when it came to the wet ones, we couldn't cooperate. I panicked, we fought, and... and I killed her.

I kept telling myself that it was for the best. I had too, in order to keep moving forward.

'Let her go, Maxy-boy. You'll have a different broom now. Don't let old ghosts haunt you.'

I pushed open the doors to Fairy Tail Enterprises.

Gray and Juvia were fighting again. Cana, one of the salespeople, was passed out drunk in one of the potted plants. Lucy, the receptionist, was trying to convince Erza that 'Zodiacs and horoscopes are totally legit' and 'Just because you're a Libra and Mars is in it's third orbit, doesn't mean that you have to be such a close-minded bitch.'

Happy stood in the middle of the chaos, his cold dead fursuit eyes staring into my soul.

"Max," he called out, motioning me towards him. "Come on, let's go to the janitor closet, OwO."

My heart started racing a mile a minute and a million questions were going through my mind.

'Are they a girl or a boy, or maybe somewhere in between?  What are their intrests? Are they funny? Good looking? What kind of wood? Plastic? What colour are they? Religous practices? What are their thoughts on the inequalities that the Aboriginal community faces in Canada?'

We stopped in front of the closet. My heart was practically leaping out of my chest.

Happy opened the door and waved his paw towards my cleaning trolley. Swiffy wasn't there. In her place stood the new broom.

"Hey, UwU, listen up Maxy-wax," said Happy. "As you can tell, you won't be cleaning up any spills and stuff with that kind of broom, rawr. Because of Juvia's problem, we've removed all water from the building and filled all of the septic tanks with almond milk, so there won't be too many liquid messes. If you see any, just tell Sting and he'll clean it up, asterisk nuzzles you asterisk."

"O-okay," I mumbled.

I felt like my eyes were glued to the broom, I couldn't look away.

I felt Happy studying me through his suit before saying, "Whatever weirdo, just do your job."

He stepped back from the closet, yelled "Aye sir!" at the top of his lungs, and ran away on all fours.

I stood outside the closet for a whole minute, staring at my new partner.

Shyly, I took a step inside the closet and shut the door.

They were beautiful. They had a slender handle and a wide rectangular head. The wood (balsa no doubt) was sanded and smooth. The bristles on their head were the colour of the night sky and well-groomed.

The stars were colliding. Fireworks. Ecstacy. Passion. Eros.

"H-hi, my name is Max," I whispered. "I'll be your new janitor. What's your name?"

"Hello, Max. I'm Bartholomew," said Bartholomew the broom. "I have to be honest with you, Max, I've never been with a janitor before. I-I'm a little nervous."

"Nervous? About what? Don't worry about anything at all. We'll start off slow, I'll do most of the work. You'll do great, Swiffy. I'm sure of it!"

Bartholomew didn't answer me.

"Are you still worried?" I asked softly.

"I- umm... you called me Swiffy. Who's that?"

I felt my mouth go dry and found it hard to talk.

"A-Are they... another broom? That's okay!" Bartholomew said the last part quickly, and it felt like they were trying to convince themselves more than me. "I just thought that I'd be the only one..."

"No, Barth. No, you, are, the, on,ly, one. I just... we parted ways quite recently, and I'm worried that I won't be good for you."

"Max, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. Don't feel bad about it. I-I'll help you through this. We'll be a great team."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "You're okay with that? Swiffy was never open-minded. She would always- sorry..."

I suddenly heard a crash and a yelp.

"Cana, you buffoon! That was the bonsai tree! Where the hell is Max? He needs to clean this up!"

I turned to Bartholomew. They were so nervous that they were shaking all over.

"Are you ready?" I asked as I grabbed the handle of the trolley.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" answered Barth as they let out a shakey breath.

I opened the door to the closet and quickly made my way to the lobby.

Cana and Lucy were fighting with each other and saying things like 'it's very Gemini of you to spill all that dirt everywhere' and 'maybe if you weren't so damn annoying, I wouldn't be a crippling alcoholic with daddy issues.'

Warrod was in hysterics and was clutching the smushed tree while yelling:"MEDIC! WE NEED A MEDIC!"

I sashayed over to the mess with my cleaning trolley.

I stopped in front of the pile of dirt and broken pottery and glanced quickly over at Bartholomew.

'Damn, they look so nervous. Swiffy wasn't as worried as Barth the first time that we- stop it Max! Don't compare brooms. That's objectifying and rude.'

"I'm ready!" declared Bartholomew, trying to cover up their worry with a brave face.

I nodded with an encouraging smile on my face and tore the cast off my hand with the power of friendship.

I reached over to grab Bartholomew, but something stopped me (it was not the pain in my hand.)

"Is there something wrong?" Bartholomew asked me, started at my hand that was hovering a few centimeters away from their forehead.

"N-no!" I exclaimed, feeling the colour rise in my cheeks. "This is just the first time that I will be touching you."

Bartholomew started to blush, but didn't say anything, so I rapped my mutilated hand around them and lifted them out of the trolley and took out the dustpan.

I set Barth up next to the dirt pile and-

I couldn't move.

The magnitude of the situation suddenly came crashing down on me.

This was the make or break of our relationship.

If we screwed this up now, it would almost be impossible for us to make up for it.

I suddenly became very aware of everyone in the room watching me. Cana and Lucy had stopped fighting and Warrod had passed out from shock, but I could still feel his subconscious staring at me.

My hands started to tremble. I had never felt this way before with Swiffy. What was I going to do?

A/N: Bonjour! J'espère que tu as aimé le deuxième chapitre! Comme j'ai dit au premier chapitre, Max et le balai est mon OTP et j'adore écrire à propos d'eux. Laisse-moi savoir s'il y a des fautes de grammaire et/ou autographe et si tu aimes l'histoire!