Work Text:
It was really warm this sunday, at least that’s what Eugene assumed. The comforting chill was present like every other morning. But the sun shined directly through his window and made it so he wasn’t that cold.
He turned the other way so he wouldn’t be blinded, and after rubbing his eyes and stretching, decided he would sleep a bit more. It was Sunday after all, it’s not like he had anything to do. Most of his friends were probably busy, and work doesn’t start till way later.
Getting into a cozy position, he was about to knock out before he saw something purple, reflecting the light from the sun, hiding behind his computer.
He got up and picked out the weird little thing… an egg? He shaked it a little and heard something rattle inside, this was probably from Hayden considering it is Easter today.
Inside he found a chocolate, one of his favorites. His lips formed a slight smile, and decided the egg was probably a sign that he should start his day.
He grabbed his hoodie like always, and felt something in his pockets. Another egg! He giggled a little, pulling out a second chocolate. At least he has something to eat with his coffee now.
The kitchen was cold and quiet, like it always has been. Eugene got his coffee machine started, and usually just stood by waiting. But he wondered, did Hayden hide more eggs in his house? It’d be a shame to not check..
He went to the living room, and found one in the couch. He found one in the kitchen cabinets, one in the bathroom, one in the fridge, in the sink, one in his closet, and one under his bed. 9 eggs in total!
It was a great start to his morning, and by the end of it he had a big smile, staring at all the colorful little eggs on his counter. He wondered if this would be every Easter, maybe he should hide eggs in the office in return.
For the rest of the day, Eugene didn’t do much. Mainly just doing chores or playing games, waiting for it to hit 8pm. He wished he could go earlier, but that didn’t go too well the first time.
By 5pm, he was getting tired and bored. Usually a ghost would pop in by now to ask how he slept or something, and usually Boss was there but even he went away before Eugene got back to his room. Evident by the fact his room was starting to actually get warm.
He laid upside down off the edge of his bed, slowly scooting off further and further, trying to see how far he can go without hitting his head.
“You’ll hurt yourself.” Said a familiar voice, lifting Eugene’s head up and gently pushing him back on the bed away from the edge.
“Boss!! Where have you been?” Eugene sat up right, excited he got to see one of the ghosts so early.
“What do you mean? I was at the office, of course. What have you been doing?” Boss noticed how things were scattered around the room, and the kid’s closet was wide open. He picked a few pieces of clothing up from the floor and placed them on the chair nearby, trying to tidy up a little.
“Oh uh.. I was looking for those eggs that Hayden hid.. Sorry about the mess!” Eugene apologized, while also doing nothing about it. He could clean it up later, and even if he doesn’t, Boss would probably do it for him while he’s sleeping.
“Hayden? He hid eggs in your room?” Boss paused, looking a little amused, at least that's what Eugene thinks.
“Yeaaah? The nine eggs? I mean I assume it’s Hayden, I don’t know who else would take the time to do that on Easter.. Maybe River, but she’d make them harder to find.” Eugene explained his theories and got a simple “Hm” in response.
“Finish your room later, I came to pick you up a bit early. The others wanted you to join in today.” Boss tossed aside a pair of jeans and dusted his hands like he could even get dirty.
“Join in? On what?” Eugene asked, half excited and half scared. He wasn’t complaining about going to work early, though.
“You’ll see.” Boss said as he motioned at the flower, and Eugene spent no time popping it in his mouth and laying down. It took a little longer to try and sleep, but he still managed, and Boss was still waiting by the time he sat up as a ghost.
“Can I guess on what it is?” Eugene hopped out of bed, taking Boss’s hand as they went out the window. He had this unusual excitement in him, almost like Hayden.
“You seem quite.. ecstatic today? Did something happen?” Boss avoided the question, knowing Eugene would probably guess right and he didn’t want him to.
“Yeaa,, I had all those sweets from the eggs and some coffee but not much else after that..” Eugene could already hear the scolding from a mile away, but instead Boss just sighed and squeezed his hand a little tighter.
“If this is how you are after 10 treats, then I’m nervous to see you by the time we get done with this.” He said with a slight grin. Eugene giggled in return, he wouldn’t mind having the boy like this more often, even if it was just from all the sugar, it was nice to see him more energetic than his usual quiet and tired self.
“Uhm actually! It was 9 treats, not 10!” Eugene jokingly replied, pushing his glasses up to his face and pointing his index finger up. Boss replied with a quick “You’re right” before heading into the office with him.
“Hey guys!! Took you long enough!” River was the first to notice them, saying her hello’s before snatching Eugene away to talk with him.
He threw a quick hello to Joan who was busy doing…whatever she was doing, so she hardly noticed him.
“Eugene! Eugene! Hayden’s so glad you’re here!! Now Hayden doesn’t have to keep doing this with River!!” Hayden buzzed around Eugene, pulling at his arm and everything. Which was usually like him, just that this time Eugene can actually match it, maybe..
Before River could try to respond, Boss cut her off to speak, “I’m sure everyone knows that we have to keep a close eye on the kids today, that’s why we’re doing it before it gets too dark. River, try not to ruin Eugene’s first time doing this with us, please.”
River threw up her hands with the most offended expression she could manage, “How did you manage to make this about me?” She said, looking around confused.
“River doesn’t play fair!“ Hayden argued, getting a light flick on the forehead from her. She tried pulling Eugene into it, trying to get him to back her up, but was quickly told to ‘leave him alone’ by Boss.
“Okay enough, let’s head out before we get pulled into another argument.” Boss said, flying through the doors and waiting for everyone to come along.
Outside, the sun was starting to set a bit. It wasn’t exactly dark but the sun wasn’t out anymore, just sort of grey-ish. Which was good, the ghosts wouldn’t use so much energy with this. There were a few people roaming around, but they seemed to be heading home from work.
“Okay. You two be careful, if anything happens call for us, don’t get lost, stuck, or die, please. And don’t fight over the eggs, whoever grabs them first, it’s theirs. There’s plenty of eggs for everyone.” Boss explained the rules while Joan gave them these baskets made of yarn, Eugene guessed this was what she was doing in her chair earlier.
“You mean you three? I’m here too!” River asked with a smile on her face, Boss sighed heavily, which was what she did that for, “River, you’re almost 30.”
“So? Eugene’s almost 17? He can play but I can’t? Very unfair..” She shook her head disapprovingly. Trying to seem hurt, she was going to play either way, she just liked messing with Boss.
“Okay, Just don’t fight these kids over plastic eggs like you always do, now go you.. three.” Boss gave in and motioned for them to shoo.
Hayden went towards the lake, and River went towards the flower shop. The only thing is, Eugene has never really done this before so he’s not sure where to look first, he felt kind of awkward standing around.
He jumped feeling a hand on his shoulder, turning to see Boss. “Check in the park, and the alley.. quickly before they get to it.” Was whispered to Eugene, and he gave a big smile and ran to the park.
Contrary to what Boss said, they frequently fought over who grabbed an egg first. Having to take it to Joan, who made them rock-paper-scissors for it.
After maybe 30 minutes, Eugene got stuck again. Walking back to Boss to ask for more hints.
“Eugene.. I can’t tell you where all the eggs are. The other two didn’t ask.”
“Please? I literally have no clue where to look and they do!! They’ve been here longer, and I’m hardly getting anything!” He pleaded, and after having a staring contest, Boss sighed for the 50th time.
“Check the rooftops, your room, bushes, anything you don’t expect an egg to be.” Boss told him, and Eugene just groaned, he checked everywhere probably a million times, and he already found the eggs in his room! He didn’t expect this to be so frustrating..
“Okay… I can’t believe I’m helping you with this. I’m sure you’re good at following me even if you can’t see me, yes?” He asked him, and Eugene nodded a little confused but eager. “Good, and don’t tell the other two for anything or I won’t hear the end of it.”
Eugene got excited again and promised he wouldn’t, Boss put his fan in the boy’s basket so it wouldn’t show, and just.. went invisible?
He followed Boss around, who practically led him to where the eggs were.
They headed to Eugene’s room, and he insisted he found the ones in there already. “I know, why do you think they’re here?” Boss said, collecting them off the counter and throwing them into the basket.
“Wait, you hid these?” Eugene asked, and only got a shrug in response. When he asked if there were any more, Boss said maybe, but then ushered them out the window.
A few hours passed, and when it officially got dark they decided to wrap it up.
The three of them came back, baskets full of eggs and panting, at least Eugene was.. But he turned over and realized River didn’t have a basket. “River.. where are you keeping your eggs??” He asked, and she reached into her hair and pulled one out. Oh. He probably should’ve assumed that.
“Are you guys sure you got them all?” Boss asked them, and they nodded confidently, well, Eugene just sort of shrugged, giggling a little.
They headed down to the office, and on their way there, Eugene spotted something small and yellow near the stairs, unfortunately so did River. They both ran and threw themselves at the egg, and Eugene would be lying if he said it didn’t hurt to slam into the stairs like that, but it was worth it since he won it after two rounds of rock-paper-scissors.
”So is there anything in the eggs?” Eugene asked, opening them up one by one to check them. “No, ghosts can’t exactly eat, but if you found the most eggs then you get a prize.” Boss said, looking around for whatever reason.
They dumped their eggs out on the floor and counted them individually. Which took a lot longer than expected, having to restart constantly. Boss helped Hayden count his, and River occasionally tried to steal an egg when Eugene wasn’t looking.
“Hayden got 80!” Hayden stood up and shouted, “Well, I got 82” River said playfully, poking Hayden on the nose who sat down and pouted, saying how she probably cheated. They waited for Eugene, who was still counting, after a few minutes he had 87!
“87? No you didn’t! Move!” River shoved him aside and counted, turning her head back at him, “Did you cheat?”
“What! No?” Eugene was always pretty bad at lying and would’ve probably said ‘maybe’ or something, if Boss and him didn’t already rehearse what to say when they asked about it.
“Yes you did! Boss probably handed you the eggs himself!” She punched Eugene in the shoulder, and in return he threw an egg at her.
“I thought we had 250?” Joan got up and whispered.
“We did, there’s one more that hasn’t been found yet, but don’t worry it’ll come back.” Boss reassured her, like it mattered if they lost one egg.
“Where did you even put that thing?” Joan asked as she poked at Eugene and River with her cane in order to get them to stop fighting.
“Okay I get it! Can you stop doing that?” River pushed the cane out her face and stood up. “I still believe Eugene cheated, but it’s his first time doing this with us so I’ll let him have it!”
“You say that as if you’re the one to decide. Eugene, what would you like for this?” Boss quickly changed the topic, turning his attention to the kid who already had his hoodie off and a few scratch marks.
“Umm… caaan i get the candy I would’ve gotten if the eggs had it?” He asked warily, already hearing the ‘thats too much’ from Boss.
“You don’t think it’s too much?” He asked, like Eugene knew he would. Still, before Eugene could try and think of something different, “But alright, hopefully you can handle eating it all.” Boss said, patting him on the head a little.
Eugene didn’t expect him to agree so quickly. But he’s not gonna complain!
“Okay, now that we have that done with, let's talk about patrol.” Boss didn’t even have to finish his sentence before everyone groaned at the thought of work.
Sitting in bed, the ghosts surrounded him, still bickering about how unfair the hunt was this year. Eugene brought his knees up to his chest and enjoyed the noise, the comfort it brought to feel a part of a family.
One by one, the ghosts told him goodnight and headed back to the office. Boss was the only one left, and before he could even say anything, Eugene practically threw himself at Boss. Squeezing him into a hug so tight, Boss would’ve felt the air get pushed out of him if he could still breathe.
“Are you alright?” He asked, rubbing Eugene’s back and trying to bend forward to place him back on the bed, but Eugene still wasn’t letting go.
“Thank you for helping me find those eggs, and for taking me to do that! I’m so grateful to you and everything and..” Eugene continued rambling about ‘everything boss has done’ for him. And Boss sighed, again, knowing he wasn’t gonna be allowed to leave for another hour or two until Eugene stopped crying.
Eugene gave him this same rant every other week, it was sweet of course, he just can’t help but feel awful knowing Eugene is saying this to the wrong person. But he might as well enjoy it for the kid.
Eugene woke up the next morning with a headache, he probably should stop staying up late chatting with the ghosts or crying. He rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed. Noticing a small bag on his nightstand, he grabbed it and looked inside. Candies! How did Boss get them so quick?..
That doesn’t really matter, he has half his lunch sorted out already. The other half is just him stealing his friend’s food, at least he has something to pay them back with now.
He grabbed his backpack and stuffed it with all the homework he did on Friday and Saturday. In the middle of it, he saw something blue at the bottom of his bag. An egg! Leftover from yesterday!
He opened it up to see a chocolate inside, how did he miss this one? Oh well, he ate it and put the little egg on his nightstand, he had to continue getting ready.