Paul x infected!reader
Warnings: None
Word count: 2,320 words
(A/N) - There will be a part 3 ;) also I like to have parts right next to each other so you won't have to dig for the next one-
~~~~
Your legs hurt as you stood for a long time, waiting for Emma to finish her shift. "Ugh, when are you done..." you whined to her. She rolled her eyes with a soft smile as she wiped the counter, "just half an hour left, (y/n)", "oh thank god." You breathed out. She chuckled as she went into the back room, most likely to get something, which caused you to decide to sit down. Paul didn't see you as he walked up to the counter. You flinched as you heard someone slam their hand on something and looked up. You were surprised to see Paul, "HELLO?!" He yelled. He looked terrified to you. "HELLO?! PLEASE GOD I JUST WANT A BLACK COFFEE-", You raised an eyebrow at his panicky behavior. His eyes soon met yours and he blushed saying "oh- H-hi (y/n).", "are you oka-", "black coffee~, I'm your coffee gal-", "NO!" He interrupted her. He looked at her and took a step back as if he was defending himself, "PLEASE, NOT YOU TOO EMMA. PLEASE GOD. STOP SINGING!" You and Emma gave an odd look to each other before she said "uh... okay," her eyebrows lifted as she realized, "right! You're the guy who doesn't like musicals. Paul, right?" He nodded his head and gulped. "Emma, you're talking to me... like a normal person." He said with a sigh of relief. "Yeah, and if my boss catches me I'll get canned. Not only do we have to sing when people tip but when they enter, when they order, all the time apparently!" She complained. "(y/n), Emma, I think there's something terribly wrong with the world today..." Emma rolled her eyes again, "yeah fuckin' tell me about it." You gave out a small chuckle, knowing that he was talking something way different than what she was. "I spent the entire morning learning some dumb ass new tip song and I'm exhausted."
Suddenly Paul gripped your hands and dragged you to the side, beckoning Emma to come with. She does and he said "I feel like there's something... sinister, infecting Hatchetfield. And I know this is gonna sound crazy, and not very scary, but it's scary if you think about the implications..." He gave you a crazed look as he placed a hand on both of your guys' shoulders. "Promise me you'll both think about the implications!", "Uh... okay-", "We promise-" He then removed his hands and moved them about as he said, "Okay, I think the world is becoming...", "A musical?" You finished. You didn't know why but you felt compelled to say that. His mouth dropped, "h-how did you-", There was a ding which made Emma groan. She then gestured to you guys to sit down on an open seat. "Okay guys, just sit down and wait for me-", "Emma~ tip...!" You sat down on the chair and Paul hid behind you as Emma practically pranced to Zoey and Nora with an annoyed look on her face. As Emma performed the tip song with them, Paul unconsciously squeezed your shoulders. You looked up and gave him a look of concern. "S-sorry..." He said, realizing what he was doing to you. He then moved his hands to the chair but you stopped him before he could. He gave you a confused look until you grabbed his arms and wrapped them around you, forcing him to hug you. You knew he didn't mind this because as soon as you let go, he squeezed you and went back to being scared of what Emma was doing with Nora and Zoey. While they were serving the drinks in the middle of the song, Emma stopped in front of you and Paul, giving you a smirk until they called for her name again. You blushed and rolled your eyes.
Emma presumed the song ended because that was where they finished teaching her, but when they continued doing some weird ass dance moves, she was surprised. "What? What is this?!" She flailed her arms around, trying to keep up with whatever the hell they were doing. The patrons kept watching her with confusion before she snapped, "Alright alright, stop stop stop!" She got their attention and walked in front of you and Paul. "What was that? A whole other a-section? God! When did you learn that- you know what? When I got this job, I signed up to serve coffee and cold shitty pastries. If I wanted to be in a musical, I'd be in a damn musical! Yeah, that's right Zoey," Their only response was just a continued stare and grin. You could tell it was making Paul uncomfortable by the way he was shifting around behind you. But for some reason, the grinning soothed you. "I was in Brigadoon in highschool and I fucking killed it! And now, I'm just trying to make ends meet by working my way through community college and I can do that, just as easily! Through Starbucks!" She was saying that as she untied her apron. "I quit!" She threw her apron on the ground as she stomped. "You can't quit Emma~" they said with a sing-songy voice. Emma raised an eyebrow as she said, "Uh, yeah, I sure as hell can.", "The song is so simple, we'll teach it to you! Why, everyone here will be singing it soon~", "what?", "They've all had their coffee... their apotheosis will be upon them at any moment." Their eyes drifted towards you. You jumped as the customers around you suddenly started coughing. You didn't feel like you were about to get attacked by them but Paul must've because he released his grip around you and gave you a frightened look as he held you by his side. "What did you do to the coffee?!" Emma yelled as she ran to the coffee pot. "Fucking gross!" You saw Paul gag at the sight of the blue shit that was dripping down Emma's fingers yet you weren't phased by it. "Get your cup of poisoned coffee! Your toxic cup of joey~, we'll make a jammin' cup of java, mocha latte with the goo for you jack, jack, jack-" They clapped along with what they were singing at the end. They stopped and pointed at the three of you as Emma went by your side. "Hey Mr. Business... How do you, how do you, how do you do~...?", "What the fuck?!", you shouted, confused as to why they were now only pointing at Paul. "Why are they all singing?!-", "Guys, we need to get out of here!" Paul shouted, grabbing your hand. "Don't look back, just run!", You grabbed onto Emma's hand to make sure she was still with you guys as you ran for your lives'. "Hey Mr. Business, and we'll bring it right up!"
Coming across some trash cans, you decided that now was the best time and place to stop. "Come on guys-", you had to drag Emma along with you because she wasn't prepared to run away from her co-workers that day. You heaved as you took a spot next to Paul. "Oh my god, what the fuck was that?!" Emma yelled at him. "I told you it was scarier than it sounds!", "I didn't think about the implications...," She let out a breath that she did know she was holding, "Oh my god, I didn't think about it!" She screeched, she placed her hands on her chest in order to try to calm her heart which was pounding rapidly. "I-it's alright-" Your thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging which caused you three to scream as you fell back, right into Paul's' arms. "No it's not alright Paul!", "Bill! You scared the shit out of us-", "Well how the hell am I supposed to pop out of the trash can and not scare the shit out of you?" He immediately retorted. You felt Paul shrug before he said calmly as he realized that Bill wasn't a threat, "I don't know..., give us a warning or something next time-", There was loud banging behind the trash cans before a woman jumped out just as Bill did before. You gripped Paul as you three screamed again, "Charlotte!" Paul yelled as he shook his head. This Charlotte shrugged her shoulders and said apologetically, "Sorry, I tried to warn you....", if this was in any other situation, you would've laughed. "Just how many people are hiding behind these fucking trashcans?!" You shouted and looked up at Paul. He shrugged again as Emma said, "Yeah what the fuck?! Who are these people?" Paul sighed as he explained, "they're my friends from work." You were a tad disappointed that he slowly let go of his grip on you. You shifted next to him again as Emma asked, "what are they doing in the trash?", "Probably what we were gonna do..." You trailed off as she gave you a soft glare because of the obvious answer. "Yeah, we had to hide... Mr. Davidson kept calling people into his office and they kept coming out singing!" Bill exclaimed. Charlotte went further as she explained, "It was the same at the bank, the butchers, and the post office...", "it's all downtown." You concluded. Paul nodded his head at you then looked up at Bill, "We were just at Beanies-", "You didn't invite me!" Someone shouted as they popped up. This time it was Paul's turn to fall into your arms, "Jesus, Ted!-", "Sh sh sh sh-, shut the fuck up Paul. Okay? If you want to stay in OUR hiding spot, you gotta be quiet! Alright so Paul, get in a trash can. You," He pointed at Emma, "Beat it!" he spat.
Emma gave him a confused look and flipped him off as she said, "uh... fuck you?" You let go of Paul and crossed your arms, "What about me huh?" He turned to you and looked you up and down. To you it seemed like he was undressing you with his eyes, "You can stay." He smirked. You gagged before you shook your head, "That's so unfair." You didn't see Paul glaring at him as he said, "No, Emma's staying with us." Emma looked at Paul and gave him a 'thank-you' nod. He returned it with a smile before Ted threw his hands up in the air then gestured at Emma, "I don't know her!" You scoffed and spat, "You don't know me either!" In order to get this situation under control before Ted makes it worse, Paul said "Uh yeah you do-", "Oh really?", "She's the barista... from beanies-", "and what about her?" Ted pointed at you, "Well uh..." Paul decided to use the analogy Ted said before this shit went down, "She's the uh..." He gave out a weird grimace as he used his hands the same way that Ted did, "...latte hottay..." He dragged on. "Damn, so I was right-" He was cut off by sirens and bright lights. Charlotte's face lit up as three figures appeared. "What the hell?", you heard someone say but you weren't sure who because you were too focused on Charlotte getting close to the three figures, "Oh thank god, they're here! I-I called Sam, he'll get us out of this!- Sam, sweetheart? Sam baby? Oh Sam, thank god you're here. They've gone crazy! Everyone's gone crazy..." He silenced her by shoving his hand in front of her face. Her mouth dropped and so did her heart as he looked back to another female officer with a smirk-grin. At his last line of the song, Ted interrupted him harshly with a smack on the back of his head with a trash can leaving all of you in shock. "Oh my god, oh my god! His head is open!" Ted scoffed at how she worried about him more than their lives, "Well I had to do something!" She ignored him as she picked up something blue with a hint of disgust, "Oh my god, his brain fell out!" You hid behind Paul so that you didn't have to see all the blood around him and the brain that she was holding=. Paul held your hand behind his back and gave you a squeeze. "Well put it back then!" Ted yelled at her, also not really wanting to see it. "I don't know how, I'm not a doctor!" Suddenly, something clicked in his mind, "Charlotte, look at that! That's not his brain, it's blue!", "Well how do you know? You're not a doctor either!" You took a peek from behind Paul and gagged as you said, "nope that's definitely his brain...", She turned around to stare at you, "Well are you a doctor?" She asked with a hint of sassiness. "Well, I'm currently in biology so..."
"Biology! Yes! I know where to go-", she paused from being caught off guard everyone to stare at her. "(Y/n), remember the kooky, reclusive biology professor?", "Professor Hidgens?", "yeah! He has a... doctorate! That's kind of like a doctor, right?" You were unsure but you went along with it for Charlotte's sake, "Great! But, how are we gonna get there?" Bill questioned. "I know where he lives, I'm positive he'll take us in." Ted gave you a smug look, "Whatever you're thinking, stop." You say with a deadpan look. He threw his hands up in defense. "How do you know?" Paul asked while looking at you. "I have to get tutored by him from missing so many lessons.", "Wait, have you not got kicked out yet?", "Well, he understands why I have to skip so many.", "Why? If you don't mind me asking..." Bill asked. You hummed with a frown on your face. If it was any other situation, you would've told them. Because of that reaction, they backed off of that subject, "Uh anyways... we should head out." Paul concluded, "Yeah, let's go." Emma agreed, helping Charlotte get off her feet.