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Eros - Bar AU Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: THIS PIECE IS A MYSTIC MESSENGER AU. IT IS HEAVILY INSPIRED BY THE AMERICAN SITCOM CHEERS, A SHOW CENTERED AROUND A BOSTON BAR CALLED CHEERS AND IT’S REGULARS. EVEN THOUGH I HAVE TRIED TO KEEP AS MUCH OF CANON PERSONALITIES WITH ALL THE MYSTIC MESSENGER CHARACTERS JUST REMEMBER THAT IT IS AN AU AND A FEW THINGS MAY BE DIFFERENT THAN IN GAME OR YOUR HEADCANONS. THIS HAS BEEN FUN TO PLAN AND I HOPE YOU FIND A BIT OF JOY READING IT!

PG13+ FOR SWEARIN’ AND BOOZIN’.

Ch.1 Pt.1 | Ch. 1 Pt. 2 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 |

When you’re feeling down and like things aren’t going your way, go to the place where you will be met with open arms. Things will always work out, even if it’s not the way you expect it to.

“Say Red, a quarter?” Duckie leaned on the bar top with a hand held out towards the bartender patiently waiting for the token to go turn the jukebox on.

Red mused as he dipped his hand into the container where they kept the coins especially for these occasions. A deep frown crossed his features as he continuously felt around until eventually his eyes fell downwards, “Ah damn, sorry Duckie. Let me go find some in Zen’s office. We forgot to refill it.”

Duckie nodded with a smile, sitting back to wait for the other to return, the choice of song burning into his mind.

It was a surprise to everyone when within a week the young man memorized the entire song list from that machine. It was even more impressive that he knew every song and could remember every word. His affinity for keeping mass amounts of information was something to be envious of but for some reason he would do less than mediocre in his school work. How could a guy with that much potential do so horribly?

He just absolutely hated school now.

Spending the entirety of his high school life studying without enjoying anything else, he found this new freedom of exploring things for fun. As everyone knew in the bar, he spent most nights playing video games and as they came to find out when he first started coming to Eros, he adored listening to music.

He wasn’t musically inclined, though, as he couldn’t so much as carry a tune in a basket. Every song he listened to he absorbed and on his first few visits he quickly discovered the jukebox. He couldn’t help but be drawn to a simple machine that churned out tunes. It was a challenge to him to fit a song to a situation and having the restriction of the box’s playlist made it seem like a game for him. To appease the young man, everyone always urged him to pick the song. This made him feel important. This made him feel like he had a purpose.

“Anyone have a quarter?” Red shouted as he walked back out to the floor, digging through his own pockets to see if he had anything, “I forgot to go to the bank and get change, Duckie. I’ll find you one!” He walked around as the few scattered in the bar that early in the day checked their pockets and purses.

Duckie started getting nervous as it started to look like the coin would not show up any time soon. He never carried cash on him either since he was afraid of being mugged. Red walked up behind him and pat his back, “Zen should be here soon, he’ll find one! Just hang tight, okay?”

“Yeah...okay.” the boy’s voice was soft, his eyes focused on the mug of beer in front of him. His sorrow was distracted as Sunny had walked from the back room which prompted him to give her a smile, “Hey Sunny, how are you today?”

She beamed brightly in his direction as she set a few empty glasses on the bar top, “I’m doing great! Thanks for asking! Say...you look down. Whats going on?”

Duckie’s expression fell to a somber one then, “Oh...I just don’t have a quarter to play the jukebox with. But Zen will have one! He always does for me!”

Her head tilted to the side as she stared at him. Did he really get this upset over not being able to play a song? Reaching a hand into the pockets of her apron she pulled out a coin, “You could have just asked me! Here, go put something on, hot rod.”

His face lit up immediately as she flicked it towards him, “Thanks Sunny! You’re the best!” He jumped and ran towards the jukebox as he began to peer through the songlist.

Red came back around the bar to make a drink order but hovered around the girl, “You’re doing the lord’s work, yah know.”

Sunny rolled her eyes and turned towards him, “I just gave him a quarter. It’s not like I paid his college tuition or anything.”

“True, but this is important to him! You just made him pretty happy, take pride in that!”

Jingle~!

“Oh, look at all the beautiful people in here. I don’t know if I’m in the right place!”

“Hey Zen!”

Zen bowed deeply at the chorus of acknowledgment. He’d never turn down a moment to catch so much attention, “I hope you lovely folk are having a good time and that Red has taken care of you in my stead!” He pulled a new pack of cigarettes from his pocket and began to pack them against his palm as he walked around the bar, “Everyone is taken care of, right?”

“Of course, boss! By the way, we need quarters. We ran out from the Duckie bucket and Sunny here had to save us from a meltdown.”

Zen grunted a bit as he tugged a cigarette from the box, placing it to teeter between his lips, “Oh, I have an emergency jar in the office. It’s under…” He grimaced thinking of the state of that room, “I’ll go grab it.”

Sunny scrunched her nose as he watched him light the stick in his mouth, “You should really think about quitting. Do women really enjoy kissing you when you taste of tobacco?”

He stopped in his step and turned slowly. Taking a long drag he tilted his head upwards to blow smoke into the air, gaze kept steadily on her, “Would you like to kiss me and find out?”

“No.”

Zen slouched defeatedly. He couldn’t fathom the idea that there was a female out there that wouldn’t melt at his advances. His beautiful face, his perfect body, his sex appeal; there wasn’t anyone that could resist him, or so he thought. A cheeky grin spread across his face as he had a revelation and he wagged a finger towards her, “You are playing hard to get, aren’t you? I can see right through you, Sunny! Fear not, fair maiden! Your knight will persevere! Drag me through whatever test you choose but I will prove my worthiness!”

Accompanied by an irritated sigh, she called out after him as he had started to take long confident strides towards his office, “What? I’m not putting you through any tests! I really just-” Her words were cut off by the door closing behind him, “I just don’t want to kiss you!”

“He won’t let up, yah know. So either kiss him or deal with the fact that your boss is slightly delusional,” Red said as he took a seat at the bar top, “We’ve all just accepted the latter and let him live his fairy tale life.”

“Isn’t that a bit unprofessional of him, to be hitting on his employees?” She huffed slightly, busying her hands with cleaning off the serving trays, “You know, sexual harassment and what not.”

Red gave a hearty laugh, “Oh, you think that’s him flirting? You’ll know when he’s trying to hit on you and that’s definitely not what he was doing. But seriously, if it bothers you that much just have a chat with him. He’s not unreasonable and I’m pretty sure if it makes you uncomfortable he will stop immediately. He acts like a big shot but he’s really just a softie.”

Sunny looked towards the office. She wasn’t really sure if it did bother her or not but for the sake of professionalism she would have to have a conversation with him. Her attention was stolen, though, by Duckie pressing the buttons on the jukebox harder than normal, “Hey, Duckie, you okay over there?”

“It ate the quarter!” He slumped over and walked towards the bar, “This is the worst day!”

She giggled slightly and flicked another coin at him, “Don’t worry, have another one.”

He immediately perked and caught it, running back to the machine, “Thanks again, Sunny!” He slipped the quarter in and pressed the button but it failed to play once more. He continued to press, each time a bit more pathetically, “Not again! Ugh…” His leg swept up to kick the jukebox but it brought him pain instead of success, “Ow! Ow ow ow!” He crumpled to the floor to grab at his now sore foot, “All I wanted was to play a song!”

Red shot up from his seat to jog towards the blonde, “Hey! Don’t hurt yourself now!” He knocked on the side of it to see if it would start before turning to shout towards the office, “Boss, come out here!”

As if he were summoned by the heavens above Zen swung the door wide open, “What? What happened?” He looked at the boy sitting on the floor and rushed over with the jar of quarters under his arm, “Are you okay, Duckie? Do I need to call an ambulance? Red, call an ambulance!”

Duckie shook his head and pointed towards the jukebox, “It’s not working!”

Zen frowned and examined the thing closely. He leaned to search the back and after seeing it plugged in straightened up to start slamming it all over. Sunny rolled her eyes as she watched them try to fix the jukebox, “You should probably call someone to-”

The bartender held a finger to his lips to silence her, “We’ve got this. Hey Red, help me shake it.”

Red nodded and between the two they rattled it around a bit. Satisfied with the amount of movement, Zen grabbed a quarter from the jar and pushed it into the coin slot. He turned to Duckie with a big smile, “Do you believe in magic?”

Duckie shook his head slowly, “Not really…”

“You will today!” He slammed his hand on the button, “Tada~!”

Silence.

Zen coughed a bit, “I said...tada~!” He hit the button again but nothing played. He turned his head to glare at the machine that dared make a mockery of him. Pressing the button a few more times he let out a sigh, “Sorry, kid. Looks like it’s broken. I’ll get a guy out first thing tomorrow, okay?”

Red couldn’t help but snicker as he pulled Duckie up from the floor, “You should really work on your magic tricks, boss. That one didn’t really pan out the way you wanted.”

“Oh quiet, you. I’ll go call a repairman, you get Duckie a drink.”

Dragging a defeated Duckie back to the bar, Red swung around behind it to pour the boy a beer, “Tough break, huh?”

The blonde shrugged as he took the glass, “What else could go wrong today, really. It’s just been one thing after the other.”

“What’s been going on? You’ve been pretty sad lately,” Sunny said as she leaned towards him, “Want to talk about it?”

He began to tap his fingers along the condensation forming on the outside of his drink. It wasn’t normal for him to wear his heart on his sleeve so candidly even though he often came with flimsy complaints about school to the bar but this day was wildly different. The deep breaths he took seemed to gather every concern from his mind but when his lips moved not a sound came. He let out a frustrated sigh as he leaned to rest his head on his left arm, “Sunny, how do you not worry about school? Every time I see you here you are bright and witty. What’s your secret?”

Her eyes blinked slowly at his question, “Duckie, I’m always worried about school. Who wouldn’t be?” She pulled out her tips from the pocket of her apron to organize the bills in attempts to busy her hands, “Midterms are here and I have two research papers due at the end of the week. I try not to bring my worries to work though, you know?”

“I slept through my midterm this morning!” He finally cried before his face buried into the crook of his elbow, “I’ve already missed so many days in that class! There is no way for me to pass now!” His head raised to finish off the beer, handing her the glass for her to refill it, “My parents are going to kill me! I already took a year off and I had to repeat a few courses that I failed before.”

“Duckie, what are you majoring in anyway?” She pushed the beer back towards him, “I never got around to asking.”

“I’m still undeclared. I don’t know what to do with my life.” He let out a small groan and chugged half of the drink in front of him, “I have no idea what I’m going to do. I feel like everything is crashing down around me. Why can’t I just stay home and play video games all day?”

Red came behind Sunny and nudged her towards a table that were ready to order, “Go take care of them, would yah?” She gave Duckie a smile before wandering off to the patrons, “Deciding what you want in life is hard, don’t think too hard on it and live your life the way you want. Things will turn out alright!”

Duckie shrugged a bit as he finished off the beer, “It must be nice to have a job and a place to be, yeah Red?”

“Sure! But you have a place as well!.” Red widened his arms and took a look around the establishment, “You can always call Eros home. We’ll be here for you. How about another beer, friend?”

********

“Oh come on, Sugar! It’s not like it will break the bank. It will make Duckie happy!”

“But why not just buy another jukebox? I see no point in trying to fix that piece of junk. Perhaps a more stylish one would suit the bar’s needs.” The raven-haired man was glancing over the paper that Zen had handed him before pouring a glass of wine, “Is this really a necessary expense?”

“It isn’t necessary, but I don’t want to replace it. I wouldn’t want him to have to memorize an entirely new song list! Plus it’s part of the bar! It was here when I bought the place. ” Zen placed a napkin down along with the wine glass in front of Sugar, “Just give me the thumbs up so the guy can buy the part tomorrow.”

Sugar rolled his eyes and initialed the page, “I will need a copy of this and any receipts. You better be glad that I am satisfied with the revenue this place is bringing in.”

“Thank you~!” Zen stuffed the estimate in his pocket and asked Red to watch the bar as he disappeared into his office to make a phone call.

“Cut the boss some slack, Sugar. Duckie seemed really distraught about the jukebox and he just wants to put a smile on his face.” Red said as he came back around the bar, “Can you put a price on someone’s happiness?”

“Around two-hundred and fifty, actually.” Sugar took a careful sip of his wine, “There’s always a price, Red.”

Jingle~!

“Hey Duckie!”

“Hi everyone!” His face adorned a smile, unlike the day before. Sunny grinned and ran over to him, “You seem in a much better mood! I’m glad!”

Duckie blushed a bit as he sat relaxed at the bar, “I talked to my professor and she’s letting me take the midterm tomorrow. I get a percentage taken off but at least I can pass it if I study hard enough!”

“Then why are you here instead of at home studying?” Sugar almost chided the boy from across the bar. The blonde ducked his head as Red had served him a beer almost immediately, “I just wanted to stop by and say hey, and thank you guys for being supportive yesterday. It means a lot! Oh…” His eyes fell to the jukebox that had caused him to spiral less than twenty-four hours prior, “Were they able to fix it?”

“Not until tomorrow, sorry bud.” Red leaned over the bar to pat Duckie on the head, “Let it be a reward for when you ace that exam tomorrow, yeah?”

Duckie nodded with a hint of a smile although he was a bit upset that it was still out of service. “Yeah, I guess it’s good that I don’t have any distractions. I can’t stay long, I have to cram!”

Sunny threw an arm around his shoulders as she still stood next to him, “Hey, things worked out! And you know what? You don’t need that machine to get a song going in this place!” She cleared her throat as she started tapping along the bar top and began to sing, “Don’t worry about a thing~ ‘cause every little thing is gonna be alright~!” Her voice was shaky and slightly off-tune, but she continued on with confidence, “Rise up this morning~ smiled with the morning sun~ three little birds~ pitch by my doorstep~!”

Red started bobbing his head to the beat of her song, taking a pen from his apron to tap along the metal of the dishwasher to help her keep the beat.

“Singing sweet songs~ of melodies pure and true~ singing-!” She turned and pointed towards Duckie, “This is my message to you-u-u~! Come on everyone, sing along! Don’t worry about a thing~ ‘cause every little thing is gonna be alright~!”

Everyone sang along with the chorus, a few joining in with keeping the beat along tables. Zen had emerged from his office then leaning against the frame of the door, arms crossed, as he watched Sunny start to bounce around. She caught his gaze and stuck her tongue out towards him, slinking over with awkward dance moves which led to her grabbing his wrist to pull the man towards the bar top to join in.

“This is sweet of you,” He whispered as soon as he was close enough to reach her ear. Her heart skipped a beat at she felt his words seep into her. Her body turned so sharply she nearly pushed him back, “Oh, which reminds me, Zen, I need to speak to you. A moment in your office?”

“Surely!” He twirled back around and led her to the room, letting her sit on the couch, “What’s up, princess?”

“Well, that’s what’s up. I’d like to ask you to discontinue your flirtations with me. I think it’s inappropriate at work and I’d prefer if you addressed me as you do your other employees.”

Zen pursed his lips at the request. It never occurred to him that anyone would be uncomfortable with how he was as most not only welcomed but begged for it. “Of course, Sunny. I never thought you’d be offended by that. This is a bit awkward.”

“It’s not that! I just think that if I work for you we should act professional. No hard feelings!” She nodded firmly and held her hand out for a handshake, “Right boss?”

He smiled softly, meeting her hand to shake it, “Right, no hard feelings. Thanks for letting me know, I promise I won’t do it anymore.”

“Of course I’d come talk to you. I heard you were a reasonable type anyway. Thank you for taking my feelings into consideration.” She stood up and brushed off her bottom, “Now let’s get back out there. I know I don’t sing well but I think I hear Duckie singing and...well…” She winced a bit as the incredibly off voice started getting louder.

Zen opened the door to let her exit, rubbing his temples as his body stood to keep it open, “You’re sweet, yeah. But I didn’t say you were smart…”

She elbowed him lightly as she walked past, “Duckie, shouldn’t you go study for your test?” Her voice called out over the sounds, hoping to stop the torture that he was now inflicting on the rest of the patrons.

“Oh yeah! I really should. Wish me luck, everyone!”

“Good luck!”

********

Jingle~!

“Duckie!”

“I passed!” The boy shouted as he made his way towards the bar top, “Can you believe it? All that studying paid off!”

Red passed by and pat him on the back, “Congratulations, buddy! I knew you could do it!”

“Damn, there goes five bucks.” Cannon dug into his apron and slapped the money on Red’s chest, “Seems like he’s not useless after all.”

Duckie frowned, slipping his backpack off to sit comfortably at on the stool, “Hey! You put a bet on my grade? That’s pretty harsh.”

“You passed your midterm, I made five bucks. It’s a win for both of us! Oh, guess what!” He pointed towards the jukebox, “It’s fixed! Go on, play something!.” He flicked a quarter at him, “You deserve it.”

Duckie’s eyes grew wide at the news, catching the coin mid-air, “Awesome! Thanks Red! I guess Sunny was right, yeah? Things always do work out.”

Red chuckled slightly while he prepared the two drinks that Cannon had barked at him, “I suppose she was. Cannon, order up!”

let the tags begin! @illneverrecover @zenscrotch @suzunesays @serensama

#mystic messenger #ERos Bar AU #mystic messenger fic #mystic messenger AU #Yoosung Kim #Zen #Hyun Ryu #Seven #Luciel Choi #Saeyoung Choi #Unknown #Saeran Choi #Jumin Han

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