Chance Maid-ting Logos x Doctor Althea
—Who would’ve thought THE Doctor Althea would work as a maid for a day and Logos could witness it firsthand?
; debuting with something silly ; based on Kay’s Daily Doodles ; #loghea ; #yumaiday24
***
“I did agree on replacing Mountain, but what is this about?”
“A special event?” Beanstalk smiled, tilting her head, trying to mask her amusement.
Doctor Althea turned to face the reproba, her heels clacking against the floor. The rim of the black skirt swayed and grazed the floor as she did so, the lace on the apron moving along. She crossed her arms, the puffy upper sleeve a bit deflated from it.
“I get that it’s a special event,” she sighed, massaging her temple, “but do I really have to wear a maid dress?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll wear one too, so you won’t be alone!” Beanstalk clapped her hand, beaming at the woman. “Besides, you know there are many operators who would love to see you like that!”
“Please don’t say it like that. You’re gonna get HR called on me.”
Standing in the back room of the Metal Crab Cafe, the two women each wore a maid dress. Beanstalk’s was more casual and free, with its knee-length fluffy dress and short-sleeved upper. Meanwhile, Althea’s was more classic, a floor-length loose and elegant dress, somewhat reminiscent of how she wore her usual robe and jacket.
Althea adjusted her collar and the bow on it and sighed. The dress was quickly made by Bibeak who was delighted despite the suddenness of the request. It fitted her perfectly, but it still felt awkward. As far as she could remember, she never wore something like this, especially not to act like a maid too. This was almost like she was going to be undercover as a maid. How silly.
She shuddered.
…why did she suddenly feel Kal’tsit glaring at her?
““Doctor!””
Her train of thought was broken as three pairs of footsteps rushed into the back room.
“Woah!” Althea held Bubble with Popukar and Ceobe hitting her back, stopping them from collapsing onto her. “You three okay?”
Popukar rubbed her nose and popped up from behind Bubble. “I-I’m okay, Doctor.”
Ceobe gave her a thumbs-up and moved to the side. “I’m oka—WOAH! Doctor, you look so pretty!” She immediately noticed Althea’s dress and watched her with glittering eyes.
“Kay is right! Doctor is pretty! So so so beautiful!” Bubble pumped up her fists, jumping around as she walked around her. “The dress fits so well with the lace thingy Popukar made yesterday!”
“R-really?” the small girl inches closer and wows at the elegant detailing of the apron. “It is! It looks so beautiful…”
Althea scratched her cheek and laughed. “Aww, thank you, all of you,” she said, “I’m still sorry Mountain has to go so suddenly… if I knew…”
“No, don’t worry! As long as Doctor is here, the day will still go smoothly!” Ceobe smiled, nudging Popukar. “Right, Popukar?”
“Y-yes! Doctor is great with talking to people too, so it’ll go fine!”
“You three,” she smiled, sighing in relief. “Let’s hope it’ll all go well, okay?”
“Mhm, it absolutely will! So don’t worry, Doctor!” Bubble nodded along. “We’ll take care of getting the customers too, so today will be perfect!”
Ceobe and Popukar cheered along with the cerato before excusing themselves to Althea and Beanstalk, ready to pick up the flier and get some customers into the cafe. The three children then rushed out, leaving Althea watching their back, still unsure how she should feel.
Looking at her sullen face, Beanstalk shook her head and took out her ace card.
“Doctor, the girls did so much preparation for today… you don’t want to disappoint them, right?”
Althea grimaced. It was her fault for sending Mountain on an emergency dispatch, so when she heard Ceobe, Popukar, and Bubble were planning something with him, she took over. She would’ve never guessed he was supposed to be a butler in Beanstalk’s cafe maid day event.
They came up with it after reading a comic about old Gaulish nobles, giving them ideas on decorating the cafe for a maid cafe event. Since Dobberman got Ethan to help with the A1 team to pay for his slacking, Mountain was the only one aside from Beanstalk who could work as staff of the cafe for the day. The girls would get customers to come while the two alongside the metal crabs worked in the cafe. And now that Mountain was gone for a week… she needed to fill in his shoes.
Althea sighed.
“Just keep Dr. Kal’tsit away from here, okay? I don’t wanna hear it from her.”
Beanstalk chuckled. “Of course, don’t worry about it, Doctor!”
At least she was free from paperwork today, she thought as she walked out and started preparing the cafe.
The morning went by quite quickly. As projected by Ceobe, there was a spike in customers because of the event. Althea kept saying it was because of the decor that the girls had helped transform into a cozy Gaulic castle interior but Beanstalk knew it was actually because the Doctor, unmasked and in a maid dress, was there.
Despite her prior apprehension, Althea navigated serving customers quite well. Her smile, despite almost falling a few times due to some customers pulling out their phones to take a picture of her, was natural. The way she moved around the metal crabs walking around, twirling, and helping carry the tray was nothing short of amazing. Most know her as an overworked, tired woman, a weird woman who kept eating Vanilla’s slug and the ramen stash in the pantry, a great strategist, or the ghost of Babel—so something like this was surprising.
Lunchtime arrived, and the number of customers started rising even more. She tended to each of them quickly and effectively, already forgetting the costume she was in. That is, until the door opened again and someone familiar strolled in.
“Welcome to Metal Crab Cafe, how can I help y—”
Althea’s sentence ended abruptly when she saw the figure standing on the cafe door. The tall man’s crown twitched a bit as he scanned her up and down, his mouth nearly hanging open in surprise.
“...Logos?”
The banshee took a few seconds to compose himself before talking. “Doctor, why are you here? And wearing that?”
She laughed, eyes darting away. “This? I’m helping Beanstalk.”
“I see.”
They stood in silence for a few seconds, unsure of how to navigate the situation. They are close, sure, but mostly in professional settings. Both carried themselves with professionalism aside in some situations like stool racing or scouring for noodles, so even they couldn’t realize or imagine both wanted to get closer in a more casual manner, more than mere admiration for each other.
Well, some, like Blaze, already noticed how much warmer and lenient Logos was towards the Doctor and often spent her time trying to get the two together, despite their confusion.
“Doctor~ Please help me get this coffee sent~” Beanstalk yelled from the counter, sliding the coffee on it. “The metal crabs are busy~”
Startled from her daze, Althea turned to face her. “Got it, a minute!” She yelled back at Beanstalk and turned to face Logos again, her hand on her chest. “So, would you like to take a seat?”
Logos closed his eyes, seemingly thinking, before opening them again. “If you can, please.”
Althea nodded and glided over to an empty seat with Logos following behind.
“Then please take a seat here.”
Logos sat down, looking up at her as she took out a note and waited for his order. “What will you order? Our specialty here is coffee, but we also have other items.” She started reading other things on the menu with the eloquence he always admired. “Of course, I recommend specialty coffee. It’s brewed personally by Beanstalk and picked from only the highest quality beans aboard Rhodes Island.”
“Give me a specialty coffee please,” Logos said.
“Understood,” she bowed before walking to the counter.
After fifteen minutes, Althea walked back to Logos’ table with one hand on a tray, balancing it perfectly before putting the cup down on the table.
“Why did you come here anyway?” She pushed the cup to him. “You’re not a coffee person, aren’t you?”
Logos reached for the cup, gliding his fingers on its rim. The aroma of the coffee was great, and the cup was high quality, prepared especially for today’s event.
“The children were walking around where I was, spreading flyers about Beanstalk’s metal crab cafe event for today. To be sure, I was already confused about who would be a maid in a metal crab cafe, so I wanted to check it out, but I certainly didn’t envision you to be the one doing it.”
“It’s a long story,” she said with a chuckle. It wasn’t long, she just didn’t want to talk about it.
Logos nodded. “But, I implore you, do not be ashamed of it, Doctor,” he lifted his cup, bringing it to his lips, “after all, you look good in that dress.”
The words came out of his lips so easily she would never have thought the feathers slowly covering part of his eyes and cheek was so she couldn’t see his red face.
“Thank you, Logos.” She smiled, running her fingers through her hair, hiding her own embarrassment. “Bibeak did a great job with it.”
He sipped the coffee as she watched, both clearly wanting to spend more time with each other yet unsure if they could say something like that so blatantly.
Althea was the first one to speak again, clearing her throat and speaking in a light-hearted manner. “Bibeak said I could keep the dress, so maybe I could wear it for some casual time?”
“Well, it’s up to you, Doctor,” he said, glancing at her, “but I would love to see you wear more of it.”
She chuckled. “Is that so?”
As the tension between the two of them started to get more friendly, another person cleared her throat and called out to Althea.
“Doctor~ Don’t flirt on your shift~”
“I’m not flirting.” She groaned, turning to the grinning reproba. Only then did she realize how most operators and staff in the cafe were looking at the Doctor and the Banshee Lord, an Elite Operator talking so casually to each other. She sighed, trying to ignore them. “And don’t smile like that, go back to grinding coffee.”
“Hehe, yes, Doctor~”
Althea shook her head, fiddling with the tray in her hand. “I’m afraid I must go now. I still have to finish this… job.”
She turned on her heels, but as she was about to take a step away, he spoke up, calling her name.
“Dr. Althea.” Logos looked up at her, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Maybe we can talk more after you’re finished with this?”
Althea chuckled, turning slightly to face him. “Gladly.”