(A/N: request as a pic. outsider's pov on this one fellas! i didn't really incorporate the 'finding out' part, but i hope this satisfies ur req :3!!)
Maria liked working at the cafe. It was tucked in a small corner of a busy street, beside a fashion store of a popular brand and an antique shop that sold vases and pots. It wasn't much, but the pay was pretty good, the owner was kind, and usually, customers were polite and fun to talk to.
Now, as a cashier, Maria would admit that she did like watching people. Call her creepy, but there was just something so interesting about watching how people moved and acted, how they interacted with people, their habits, etc...
Her favourite one, out of all the people who would come and go, was the English major that always sat two seats in front and five seats to the left of her. The same English major who would always sit at the furthest table that the cafe had, and who was arguably the attraction of most of the college students.
Maria had a lovely partner that she would not leave, but she could see the appeal in him. Techno Pandel was a pretty interesting student, and he was well known around campus to be some sort of cryptid.
Still, she thought she had his habits down to a dot, so it was kind of surprising when he strolled in with another man by his side, one with a beanie worn over stray, curly brown hair, and who was wearing a long black coat over a yellow sweater and long, baggy pants.
'Sheesh,' she thought, even as she smiled brightly at the customers who were coming up to the register. 'He must run cold.'
"Hello, welcome to Dewey Lights, how may I help you?" she chirped, plastering on her Customer Service voice.
"The usual," Techno grunted. He seemed a little awkward, and looked so much shorter standing next to the man.
"'Uhm..." the other man — and wow, he was so tall, holy shit — squinted at the menu. "I'll take a Frappuccino with extra cream and sugar!"
"Alright," Maria calculated the price. "That will be $18, sirs."
The other man took out a $50 bill, and ignoring her protests, told her with a bright smile to, "Keep the change."
And, well, Maria may be making a decent amount of money, but it helped to have some extra, right?
"Wilbur," she heard Techno say exasperatedly, as she was placing the money into the cash register. The two men took their seats, and Maria called out to her coworker for the day, Aya, to start making the drinks.
'Wilbur,' she thought idly, busying herself with cleaning the back room while Aya handled the drinks. 'That's a nice name.'
The rest of her workday passed by in relative peace. That was, until a few minutes before closing time, where the only customers were Techno and Wilbur, did someone else come in.
Maria was no stranger to rude customers, but even so, she did feel a little sting from the words he had hurled to her. Aya was the one to throw him out, while Maria rubbed her arm to numb the pain from when the man had grabbed her. She continued about her job
"Well that was rude of him," Wilbur commented, just as Maria was packing everything up. Maria shrugged.
"Yeah, well, not like I can do much about it," she responded, falling easily into the casual conversation. "Besides, I wasn't about to take someone who thought that having black coffee without the coffee part was logical."
At that, Techno snorted. Maria felt a little bit pleased with herself. Wilbur looked a little thoughtful, and his eyes were distant, but he said no more on the matter.
She chatted with Wilbur for a few more minutes, until her watch beeped, signalling it was time to close everything down for tomorrow.
"It was nice talking to you!" Wilbur smiled, waving goodbye before Techno tugged him along and away. Maria finished packing everything up, and left the store to head back to her and her partner's shared apartment, humming happily to herself.
The next day, which was an off-day for her, she woke up to her partner's shout.
"Riri!" her partner, Silk, called. "There's a package for you at the door!"
"Coming," Maria yawned, greeting Silk a good morning before grabbing the package at the door and heading to their living room to open it up.
The only information she could find on it was a paper, which read, "For Maria. A little compensation for yesterday. Signed, Wilbur."
"Is it a wrong package?" Silk asked her curiously, when xey finished cooking breakfast. Xey sat down next to her as she turned it around. The package fit comfortably between her arms.
"No," Maria frowned. "I... think it was from the guy from yesterday?"
"The bastard?"
"No, the Wilbur one."
"Oh," Silk hummed. "Well, why not open it? It looks harmless enough."
"If I die from this, you're coming down with me," Maria joked, before opening the package up. Inside, there was... a wallet? And another piece of paper.
"To Maria," it read. "Hey! Wilbur here! You're nice to Techno, and you didn't deserve that shit that the rude man did to you. So, here's some compensation for it! Keep the change, and try not to contact me for a while. ;)."
Maria quickly picked up the wallet upon reading the paper, and when she looked through it, she found a lot of cash and cards, including... an ID card of the rude customer yesterday.
...fuck. Did Maria accidentally get help from a mafioso?
"Riri? Is everything okay?"
"Babe, I think I just indirectly murdered a man."
"What?"