Aug 23, 2025
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Absolutely now that I get to see you
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Happy? :D
Absolutely now that I get to see you
Plance cashier au where Lance is the cashier and Pidge is the one customer who walks in at closing to get one item
Closing Shift
pidge/lance
1478 words
gen audience
support it on ao3
fic requests are open!
It was 9:51:47 PM, which meant Lance had exactly 8 minutes and 13 seconds before he could officially lock the doors. Unfortunately, someone else was having just as long a night as he was.
Lance slumped over the counter, staring ahead at the sugary rainbow of check out candy neatly stacked and ordered. Within an hour of opening tomorrow they were sure to be a mess, but he was kind of proud of how hard he’d worked to make them look nice. It was one of the few things he actually got joy out of in this miserable job, miserable life really.
It was 9:14:47 PM, which meant Lance had exactly 8 minutes and 13 seconds before he could officially lock the doors. Everything was accounted for, every other register closed out, everything cleaned up, but he couldn’t leave until exactly 10 PM. Damn corporate policy. Nobody was even going to come in the damn store. He’d worked closing for the past 4 days and hardly anybody ever came in after 9:45. That might have something to do with Keith shutting off the lights that spelled out the store name at that time, but still. Finally, Lance caved. Fuck it. It was only a minute or two until 10, and it’s not like Shiro was going to write him up for that, he was a pretty chill manager.
Suddenly the door chimed, signaling somebody entering the store.
Lance, figuring it was pretty much 10 PM anyways said “Sorry, we’re closed-”
“No you’re not, it’s 9:54.” Snapped a voice.
Internally, Lance groaned, not even bothering to look up. He didn’t have the patience to deal with any more bullshit today. He already had that one lady try to cuss him out when she accidentally put the card reader in Spanish and couldn’t figure out how to change it back. She said that it was a damn shame that now she couldn’t even get groceries without ‘witnessing the assault of American culture by the gangs and rapists from Mexico’ and told him Trump was going to deport his whole family. He didn’t have the heart to tell her he was Cuban.
Lance flipped his light back on and rebooted up his register, grumbling the entire time. He couldn’t even punish her by faking a register problem or faking a need to call management. He wanted to go home. He’d just have to rely on karma to get this entitled customer in line.
To his surprise, he heard footsteps rounding into his lane and put something on his counter by 9:57. As he thoughtlessly reached for the big ass chocolate bar this cretin was purchasing, he heard a sniffle. It was faint, and if the muzak that usually played hadn’t been shut off a few minutes ago he surely would have missed it. At first Lance waved it off as allergies as he passed the first item over the scanner, but then on a whim he actually looked up.
Her eyes were red and puffy, a tear slipping down her reddened face. He froze, unsure what to do. He was trained to handle all sorts of situations like active shooter, robberies, fake IDs, suspected human traffiking, and mislabeled merchandise, but Lance had never been through a course on how to comfort a crying customer.
“Uh,” Lance said, setting down the item in a bag, “are you okay?”
She wiped her eyes and shot him a glare. It would’ve been petrifying if it wasn’t for the fact more tears were spilling out already. Realizing what she was doing wasn’t working she looked away.
“I’m fi-ine.” She huffed out, the declaration punctuated by another sniffle.
“You’re crying in a grocery store at 10 PM,” Lance pointed out bluntly, “I think that’s like, the opposite of fine.”
“Well,” she tried wiping her eyes again, and this time Lance noticed little mascara smudges and a hint of a shimmery powder on her lids, “it’s closing and you probably have a girlfriend to get home to.”
It was almost like she was just throwing the words haphazardly at Lance. There was an edge of bitterness, but for the most part it was just sadness and maybe a hint of jealousy behind it. He took another look at her appearance. She was wearing sort of nice clothes, nothing formal or fancy, but really cute he had to admit. It was nice shorts with an off the shoulder top. Her hair was in soft ringlets, probably looser now than they’d been earlier, so clearly there was some effort put into it. All that combined with the makeup pointed at the strong possibility that she’d just been burned by Cupid.
Lance snorted, starting to ring her up. “Nah, I’ve been single for nearly a year now. I found out my last girlfriend of 3 years had been cheating on me literally the day I was going to propose.”
He flushed, realizing that he didn’t know why he’d just told her that. It wasn’t any of her business, and in fact Lance had told 3 people the truth about why he and Nyma weren’t together anymore. Maybe he just felt bad for her.
“Oh shoot,” the girl mumbled, “I’m sorry, that sucks.”
“Yeah, but don’t feel too bad for me,” Lance added dully, “I’d caught her cheating the month before but she promised it was a mistake and that she was so sorry. So I forgave her. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise when I walked into our bedroom and saw her being fucked by two guys at once. I should’ve known she didn’t just stop, I was the ultimate cuck.”
The customer cringed, but chuckled a bit. “Oh god, and I thought I was having it bad.”
“Well, whatever you’re going through,” he sighed, finalizing the sale with the cash she gave him, “I’m sure it’s not as bad as getting cucked.”
“Probably not,” she mumbled, accepting her change, “I just got stood up by guy who was dared to ask me out as part of his fraternity rush.”
Lance shut off his register as the lights in the back of the store went out. “Wait, you knew he was a frat boy and you still accepted?”
“He was my bio partner,” she explained, following him as he made his way over to the time clock, “and I didn’t know he was joining a frat. It’s not like he mentioned it to me and I don’t talk to people on campus who are part of that crowd, so I just didn’t know.”
You didn’t look this guy up on social media or anything?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow. The pair made their way towards the exit. “That’s rule one of dating in college.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “I don’t really know those rules. It’s not like anyone ever told me about them.”
“Okay, fair,” Lance said, leading them over to a park bench so they could talk some more, “so this guy asked you out and you said yes.”
“I guess- I mean, yeah.” The girl sat down next to him, jiggling her foot, “he’s always been super sweet, talks to me in the hallways, and we would text a lot too. He’d ask for pictures of my dog like every day.”
“Ah, animal loving,” Lance whistled, “that’s how they get ya.”
She glowered at him, but continued anyways. “I agreed to meet him for a milkshake, and I waited 3 hours but he never showed up. Finally one of my friends texted me saying there was a timelapse of me sitting at the diner barstool for the first two hours taken from a security camera up on social media. I guess one of the fraternity members works there…”
Her bottom lip trembled and Lance’s heart really hurt for her. “Wow, that’s just… wow.”
“Yeah,” she let out a shuddery breath.
They sat there in silence for a bit, the cool night breeze playing with her curls. He couldn’t help but steal glances at her every now and then. He felt really, really bad for her. He’d been the victim of some cruel pranks in the past too, and he knew what it was like for someone to just toy with your feelings. He bit his lip, hesitant to offer this. Was he even ready?
“Hey,” Lance said, after a few moments, “do you still wanna get that milkshake?”
She looked up at him and he could see she’d been crying again.
“Only if you want to,” he added hastily, feeling his face heat up, “and it can just be as a friend thing, or well, not a friend thing, I’m just your cashier but like, hey, I don’t want this asshole to ruin your night, you know?”
She gave him a small smile. “Actually, I think I’d like that.” She got to her feet, offering her hand. “I’m Pidge, by the way.”
“Lance,” he grinned, accepting her handshake before getting to his own feet. “Let’s go bring all the boys to the yard.”
(like the story? reblog it! let me know if you want a sequel!)
I swear with my paw on my heart. You are my meow meow 😽
Your meow meow? What's that?
How do you always manage to be so happy and positive? You're a ray of sunshine☀️
Hm? Well, my secret is simple.
I lie to myself♡
Every day, I wake up, and say everything will be okay
But I'm lying.
I think you and Kate should kiss
@ask-kate-robin
If that makes her happy!
YOUR HAIR LOOKS SO FLUFFY LAISUWJDIDNSNEJ can i pet u pls ellis 🥺🥺
Hm? Alright sure!
Ellis, I hope you're feeling good today and that you take good care of yourself
-@askrogerbarel
Hey Roger! I've been keeping myself good and healthy, only pushing it when I need to do work, listening to your advice too! How have you been? Need me to get you anything?
hi ellis um. you're such a scrunkly scrimblo a little. spoingle maybe even a mipy.
Huh?