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Somehow... Someway... Izzy always found himself pulling the short straw whenever it came to closing time at the DeLuna Craft Cafe.

For the fourth night in a row, here he was, dealing with the last few customers, while everyone else either went home, or headed upstairs. Sans mom and dad, who were cleaning the kitchen.

And, okay, he understood the fact that he was probably the best at cleaning, and the best at dealing with customers, and the absolute best at kicking people out, but it would have been nice to simply be the one to go upstairs and just rest.

Alas, life wasn't like that, so here he was, sweeping away, and looking outside, where the night was slowly becoming more and more gray.

"Guess it's going to rain..." he muttered softly to himself. Good. He didn't want to go out patrolling tonight anyway.

A soft, irritated growl let Izzy’s lips as he heard the rat-tat-tat of someone knocking on the glass of the cafe. The store technically wasn’t closed yet, but with three minutes remaining, he had the whole mind to beat whoever was there with the broom grasped in his hand.

To his surprise, it wasn’t just some entitled d**k bag lurking outside of the shop, but a familiar face, and still kinda a dickbag for showing up so late.

He pushed open the door, poking his head out under the nice dry covering that protected the door.

“Hey, what the heck are you doing here so late? You look like someone pushed you in a lake!”

“I mean... It’s a nice sentiment, but why in the world would you wait until closing? We serve coffee all day.” It was tempting to slam that door and lock it but... Arthur was supposed to be a friend. After a quick peek around the corner to make sure the other customers were gone, he nodded, and held the door open wider for him to step in.

“Fine, fine, you can come in. Just don’t drip on anything that’s already been washed. I’ll be mega ultra pissed if you make a mess.”

“Alright, alright, enough of the excuses. You don’t have to explain yourself. I’m just glad you got here safe. It just came out of no where, didn’t it?” Who wouldn’t pity a creature like Arthur, who looked more like a drowned rat than a prim and proper cat he tried to be.

Honestly, it was hard not to laugh. And soon enough Arthur was all shaken clear of the super wetness and inside the warmth of the cafe, and Izzy quickly went behind it and locked the door, flipping the sign to ‘close’.

“Well, yeah, it’s still February, the heat’s going to be on. But you’re still going to get a cold if you stay like this.” Without thinking much of it, or asking for much permission, he picked the cat up, placing him on the counter near the register. “Okay, you stay here for a second, I’ll get you a towel or something. Got it? No wandering or else you’re gonna get yeeted back into the street!”

Once Arthur was placed on the counter, Izzy disappeared into the kitchen, scrambling around for a little bit, before popping back in again with a fluffy towel and a hot cup of black coffee.

“I hope you don’t mind, it’s a quick cup so totally not the best. Do you like cream or sugar in your coffee?” Before he would offer up the hot drink. He laid the towel out flat, then promptly picked up Arthur again, Placing him in the middle of the blanket, and simply rolling him up like he remembered watching on YouTube videos. A nicely swaddled cat. That should warm him up nice and quick!

“... Oh yeah, I should get you a straw, huh?”

"Pfft." How could he not laugh at this certified cat-burrito in front of him? It was just as ridiculous as it was effective in keeping the cat warm and dry and not wandering around. Izzy pulled out his phone and snapped a quick picture of the mauvian before he could protest, then went along his way to get the cream and a bendy straw. It took a second, but soon enough it was placed just in reach of Arthur without him having to move.

"There. Nice and cozy, right? Don't worry, once I'm done cleaning, I'll let you go. Probably be best to take you upstairs and get the hair dryer to fluff you up. But in a bit. I can't just ditch here, or my mom will be pissed!"

“Pfft, if you always look pretty, then what’s the point? You take pictures of things that aren’t always there, so boom, this picture it is! Maybe I’ll print it out and get it framed and give one to Nix!” It was a good little idea to start a conversation between the two of them, teasing Arthur about it, but that anxiousness in his heart from before was much less over-powering.

Sometimes life just worked out like that, and he smiled a little to himself before putting his phone in his pocket and picking up his broom again.

“Nah, It’s fine. You may be a pretty smart thing, but no one can predict the weather to a T. Unless you can, then dude, you messed up.” All in all, it wouldn’t be surprising at all of there was a senshi out there that had the power of a weather man. It would explain things like that weird warm snow from the holiday times.

“... Hmm... I think three years now? They did always want something like this, but they weren’t very good at money. Then Anxo went to college and changed his major to help mom and dad out, so he takes care of the finances, and they take care of the baking and all the other stuff. And this building was partially destroyed by some weird mishap, magical based I bet now that I know about it, and they got the building for pretty darned cheap. And being the Mexican family we are, of course we had lots and lots of people to help rebuild and get it back up to code... And bam, here we are. I think it’s going well.”

"He is. Though I think part of it was because he found his boyfriend, Arian, and while he was originally going to go to California for work, he didn't want to leave, and decided 'hey, I have a guaranteed job here'. so Stayed. It sounds stupidly mushy to me to stay and change your dreams for love, but it's like that Tangled movie. You can get new dreams." Now that the floor was mostly swept, Izzy grabbed a rag to start cleaning up the last of the tables that were used, along with the one that had the Arthur puddle on it from before.

There was a pause, a thought coming and going out of his mind, before he simply shrugged.

"I got no idea. Probably college, working here part time. I wanted to be like, a mad scientist before! Making up chemical mixes, fighting the good guys, causing problems in a way that wants to take over the world, but not really hurt alot of people. But I don't think Toby would like that. And my mom would def kick my a** if she found that out, so maybe something less menacing, like Science Teacher. Teach the next generation to be mad scientists!" A loud cackle left his lips while he scrubbed one particular spot extra hard.

"What about you? What are you doing right now anyway, besides trying to live your life?"