Dungeon Item Shop - Chapter 183: Terms and conditions (Patreon)

“A nest?” asks Veli after being asked by Fresh about the thing in the basement. It is past closing time, the last customers have left. Veli scratches his head, looking around the shop, clearly a little uncomfortable.

“Out with it,” snaps Jubilee, their fingers tapping against the counter in agitation. They seemed to have taken the news quietly at first, after Fresh had told them about it during the day. But now that everyone is gone, their tenseness seems to rise to the surface. Fresh can tell by how stiff Jubilee’s posture is getting, they always stiffen up when they’re anxious about something. “You have three seconds,” they threaten. “Three. Two. O-“

“Okay!” says Veli, rising up into the air. “It was Irina’s nest. She used to live here,” explains Veli. “That’s why a lot of the fairies come around here. She said you were nice.” Fresh blinks, remembering the half-eaten candy that they had found on top of the heated shelf. “It’s why I asked to work for you. We trusted Irina. She was really smart.”

“What else did she say?” asks Jubilee, reaching down for the bag of dirt on their hip. Fresh quickly walks over, grabbing their hand.

“Easy, Jubilee,” says Fresh quietly, squeezing Jubilee’s shoulder with another hand. “Everything is fine.”

“It might not be,” hisses Jubilee back to her. Fresh knows what Jubilee means, but she’s choosing to believe in the positive this time. If this fairy, Irina, was in the basement and had seen something she shouldn’t have seen, if she had heard something she shouldn’t have heard, this could be a disaster. If she tells anyone, if she says anything that she shouldn’t say, then they might have to leave the mountain. They would have to go on the run again before word spreads.

Tonight.

“That’s it,” explains Veli, shaking his head. “I swear!” he exclaims, looking up at Shamrock and Basil who both are standing there in quiet contemplation, also having understood the gravity of the situation. “Please don’t fire me. I really need this job!”

“You knew somebody was squatting here and you didn’t tell us?” asks Jubilee, still tapping against the counter with their free hand.

Veli’s desperate expression falls heavily. “I didn’t think it mattered.”

“You didn’t think it mattered?” asks Jubilee, repeating his question, as if they didn’t hear it right. “You didn’t think it mattered that someone was secretly inside of our home?”

“That was before you hired me!”

“That’s a shitty excuse and I won’t accept it. And why didn’t you mention it after?” asks Jubilee, their demeanor having taken a less explosive turn, now that Fresh continues to hold them back. But she can tell Jubilee is still on edge.

Fresh isn’t happy about being sure about this thought of hers. Jubilee has reached for the bag of dirt a few times as a joke before. But this time, she is sure that if she hadn’t stopped them, that they’d be looking for a new employee tomorrow.

Veli hovers in the air, not saying anything as he looks away.

“I thought so,” says Jubilee, shaking their head. “Disappointing. I guess I was wrong about you.” Jubilee looks at the others. “We don’t need somebody here who we can’t trust. All in favor of terminating Veli’s employment?” asks Jubilee, raising their hand. Fresh gasps, looking at the others.

“Please!” begs Veli, clenching his good fist, his other arm still in the sling.

Basil slowly raises her hand as well, leaning back with her eyes closed. Shamrock looks at Veli and then at Fresh, slowly shaking his head. He lifts his hand.

Veli looks distraught, his wings giving out as he lowers himself back down to the counter.

“You can’t throw him out!” says Fresh. “He needs the work!”

“You know we don’t need this kind of trouble,” says Jubilee. “It’s three against one.”

“I’m the party-leader!” argues Fresh.

“This isn’t about our party, goo-brain!” snaps Jubilee up at her. “This is about our home.”

Fresh stops, looking at Jubilee and then at the others, letting go of Jubilee, who pulls open the change drawer and takes out a silver Obol, sliding it across the counter to Veli.

“Veli!” cries Fresh, trying to find a way out of this for him, as she sees that he is close to crying, which is frightening for her to see, given how much he had suffered to get the job to begin with without so much as a squeak. “Where’s Irina?”

“Irina’s dead!” states Veli. “That’s why I didn’t think it mattered!” he explains. “She never said anything except that she liked it here and that you seemed like nice people!”

Fresh looks at him and then at the others who haven’t stirred from their spots. “What happened to her, Veli?” she asks, knowing full well that he has been trying to avoid explaining it. But she also knows that he needs to, for her plan to work. Veli looks at her and grabs his coin, getting ready to leave. She places a finger on it, stopping him. “What happened to her?”

Veli stands there, holding onto the coin. “They tore off her wings.”

“Huh?”

“They tore off her wings and put her in a jar!” shouts Veli.

“And then?” asks Fresh, lifting her finger from the coin, as she sees that she’s opened the door that she needed to open. She hopes Veli can forgive her for this cruel manipulation. But she’s doing it for him.

“They threw it…” says Veli, breaking down. Fresh cups her hand around his back to comfort him as she looks around the room at the others with a quivering lip. Basil stares at her for a moment, trying, but failing to be resolute.

The priestess lowers her hand and sighs.

“Let’s give him a second chance.”

Basil nudges Shamrock in his side. He lowers his gaze down to her and the two of them exchange a knowing look with each other. Shamrock lowers his hand as well.

“You fucks!” barks Jubilee. “Are you really going to let some sob-story like that win you over?”

“I am,” says Basil, crossing her arms and looking to the ground.

“Yes,” says Shamrock, nodding once, his chest heaving.

“Pleeeease, Jubileeeee~?” asks Fresh. “I promise I’ll take full responsibility if anything happens.”

“That gives me literally zero comfort!” yells Jubilee, placing their hands onto their hips. “But I guess it’s three against one now, so fuck me, right?”

Fresh shakes her head, blocking sight of Veli with her other hand to give him some privacy as he cries. She realizes that this is probably more difficult for Jubilee than it is for herself or the others. They’re likely being protective of this new life that all they share with each other. The fact that they value it this much means a lot to Fresh, even if the end result is a little cruel in her eyes. Then again, she’s a bit of a softy herself and she knows it. “That’s not how this works, Jubilee. This is about our home. You need to be on-board too,” explains Fresh, turning the conversation back around. “It’s all of us or none of us.”

Jubilee crosses their arms.

“If you don’t want to, we understand,” says Fresh. “Right guys?” she asks the others who quietly nod.

“Fuck’s sake,” mutters Jubilee, shaking their head and not saying anything for a moment. The storm continues on outside, echoing through the tunnel. “Fine. He can stay. BUT-!” says Jubilee, gesturing her over. Fresh leans down, leaving her hands on the counter as Jubilee whispers their conditions into her ear. Fresh nods, listening intently. Hearing it, she realizes that this is a sensible idea that she should have done already, honestly.

“Tonight?!” she asks, surprised at the given time-frame for the second condition.

“Tonight,” states Jubilee.

Fresh sighs. The conditions of the deal are fair, if not lenient. “Deal,” she says, nodding to Jubilee. Standing back up, she looks behind her hand. “Are you okay now?” she asks. Veli nods, wiping his face on his sleeve, before he looks up at Fresh’s beaming face. Her plan had worked.

“Thank you,” mutters Veli, looking away.

“Mm!” nods Fresh. “Go home, Veli. Get some sleep. We’ll see you tomorrow, right guys?” she asks.

“Yup,” grumbles Jubilee, rolling their eyes.

“Mhm,” nods Basil, leaning against the wall and Shamrock’s side.

Shamrock just exhales loudly, nodding his head once.

Without anything else, Veli takes his coin and quickly leaves after Fresh carries him to the door and wishes him a good night. She sighs as it closes. There’s always trouble to be found somewhere.

The others head upstairs. Fresh goes to the basement, fulfilling the first part of the deal. She heads to her workbench and makes a thin, mesh grate out of an iron bar. This grate is then encased in a small, rectangular wooden frame that has the diameter of the air-shaft. Carefully, she slides it up the shaft and nests it in place. Now, nothing can fly into the basement. Though, she has her doubts that anything else will.

“Irina, huh?” mutters Fresh, looking at the empty nest. She would have liked to meet her. Maybe if the fairy had come down and talked to her in some dark hour of the night, maybe things would have turned out differently.

Smiling a sad smile, she dusts her hands off and washes up to get ready for bed. She wonders how the logistics of this are going to work, given the small space? Still, she thinks that it’s cute. Jubilee must have been very troubled by today’s revelations.

Thunder crashes outside of the window. Fresh stops as she reaches the top of the stairs. Shamrock and Basil are fast asleep. She remembers that Jubilee was always a little troubled by storms back in the north. She supposes that it’s the same thing here. Or maybe it’s both things. Or maybe it’s just everything. These last few months have certainly been a lot for all of them.

Heading across the room, she tucks in Shamrock and Basil and then grabs her blanket, knocking on Jubilee’s door. They open up and Fresh steps inside. Jubilee is wearing their mask, but they're also wearing something else. If Fresh didn’t know better, she’d say that Jubilee is wearing a night-time version of their obscuring outfit. The bright green fabric is thinner, cleaner and looks softer. They’re odd pajamas, certainly, but they’re pajamas. She wonders if Jubilee wears this every night, or if they just made them now because she’s sleeping over. They haven’t had a sleep-over in a while, now that she thinks about it.

“It’s going to be a little cramped,” Fresh explains, looking at her bouncing reflection in the enchanted mirror. She waves to it and it waves back, before she covers it up with the drape hanging there. “If we put the mattress here sideways next to the bed, it should fit between the walls and stay upright,” she explains, spreading her blanket out on the floor.

“Shut up, goo-brain,” says Jubilee, as a clash of thunder shakes the outside world. They climb onto their bed, laying sideways to face against the wall.

Fresh stares at their back for a second and then down at the empty space on the mattress next to them. She smiles, sitting herself down and grabbing the blanket. “Are you scared of storms, Jubilee?” asks Fresh, pulling the blanket up over both of them. Laying down on her side, she lays her left arm over Jubilee, waiting for a reaction to shoo her away. But nothing comes as she traps them in an inescapable grip, feeling the warmth of her body radiate against Jubilee’s back, trapped beneath the blanket that they share.

“They give me bad dreams,” mumbles Jubilee.

“I see,” smiles Fresh, yawning loudly into the back of Jubilee’s head as she stares at the anti-dream sheep tucked into the corner of the bed.

“Go to sleep, dumb-ass.”

“Good night, Jubilee.”

Jubilee mumbles something and Fresh closes her eyes, her right arm under the big pillow, her left arm laid over her friend as she pulls them against herself.

It’s warm.

There is a knock on the door. Fresh opens her eyes.

“Fuck’s sake,” sighs Jubilee. “I knew this would happen, that’s why I made the pajamas,” they explain. “Come in!”

The door opens. Basil and Shamrock stand there, peeking inside.

“What’s up guys?” asks Fresh, yawning again.

“Uh…” Basil and Shamrock look at each other. “Can we sleep over too?”

Fresh blinks, looking around a little confused. She hadn’t expected this. “Jubilee?”

“Fine, whatever,” says Jubilee. Scooting against the wall. Fresh scoots with them, opening up a spot next to her. It’s going to be very tight though. Basil lays down on the edge of the bed, worming her way under the blanket next to Fresh. Fresh doesn’t really know how Shamrock is going to fit here, but the man seems to have just brought his entire mattress along with him and tosses it down next to the bed, closing the door behind himself.

The storm rages on outside.

Fresh wiggles herself back into position, wrapping her arms back around Jubilee as Basil does the same to her from the other side.

It’s very warm.

Fresh smiles, this is the best.