Pairing/Extra Tags: Ticket Taker/Reader, Gender-Neutral Reader, can be depicted as romantic or platonic, fluff(?)
Word Count: 468
A/N: I'm not too much of a writer tbh, so this is more of an attempt to get rid of my perfectionism and to dip my toes into fanfiction again. I wanna give this man some love cs TT is one of my favorite characters lmao, just send me an inbox if you wish to see me write more of these guys <3
Gifts. Ticket Taker had never seen the appeal of such things, observing that they were items that humans either kept away for preservation or something they would fiddle with repeatedly until it has slowly withered away and it is no longer of use. It felt wasteful to give, to him at least. Common courtesy and obedience were much easier to impress such as him, nothing more, and nothing less.
A few visitors have gifted him a few items, either because of his work ethic was acknowledged and wanted to reward him, or possibly his prim and proper demeanor had admired certain individuals, or maybe they considered him as a handsome man they wish to woo and court for his affection.
Even then, all the outcomes ended the same answer. He politely declines, telling them that it would be unprofessional to take such things and simply moved on.
Some of the outcomes didn’t go all too well, however.
But there were his colleagues to rid of such nuisances, after all.
It was another night in the circus, Ticket Taker stood at the entrance of the gate as he punched each of the visitor’s ticket, greeting each of them with similar courtesy. Same nod, same smile.
From the corner of his eye a familiar figure walks up to him: The Barista. A red ticket was held out in one hand, and the other rummaging inside their bag, muttering incoherently as they tried to search for something.
He stood there, hands behind his back as he waited patiently, watching their face curled into nervousness, frustration, and finally, relief as they pulled out a trinket from their bag. They took it into the palm of his hands, giving it to him with a soft smile.
His visible eye squints as he took the trinket in his hands and put it in his pocket, deciding to rid of it later. He punches the Barista’s ticket, returns it to them and watched as they entered the circus, back turned to possibly search for Pierrot or Harlequin’s tents.
As each visitor enters the circus, the crowd outside grows smaller, and smaller until he was the last person outside.
Everything was dark, empty, and he felt lonely. Uncomfortably lonely. Strange.
His fingers slowly, but deliberately took out the trinket from his pocket the Barista had given to him several minutes prior, eye staring longingly at the little thing.
His fingers slowly spun the charm, thumb delicately feeling its texture before resting it into the palm of his hands. He was unsure why he had taken it instead of declining like he usually does, and he did not know why on earth he had entertained such notion.
He has a job to finish, after all.
