One Visit Out of Many

It was quiet in the room, just Shoot and Hutch. So far, it seemed like this trip to the Imporium was actually going to be incident-free for once. Taking the opportunity, Shoot spoke up.

“Hey, Hutch. I’ve been meaning to ask you something. It's about the little dude I got from here.”

Hutch paused sorting out different flavors of imp treats and looked up from the counter. “The phloof? Sure, ask away!”

“Lemme show you, hold on…” Shoot began as he coaxed his phloof, Scratch, out of its hiding place in his shirt. “I was eating some dango, and it turned red after taking a bite. It’s not acting any different, but I'm kinda worried.”

A couple moments of silence passed before a giggle fit from Hutch filled it. “Nothing’s wrong with it, don't worry!” They cleared the laughter from their throat, a smile lingering on their face. “Sorry about that. It's just… have you never seen imps of a different color before?”

“I have!” Defensiveness pitched up Shoot’s voice by an octave or two. “I thought they just came like that! How was I supposed to know it came from them eating succubun food?!”

“It is a strange phenomenon, to be fair. I’ll get you a chart of all known foods that change imp colors before you leave.” Hutch picked up a treat from the pile that they were sorting. “Feeding imps black sesame treats like this won't change their colors. They're always a safe pick. I keep some black sesame dango around as well if you want to change its coloration back to standard.”

Patching up his ego, Shoot’s voice lowered back down to its usual register. “Nah, I like the red. Makes it look cooler.”

Hutch smiled as they looked at Scratch. “I think so, too.” They gave it a couple pats on the head as it wiggled with pride. “Y’know, I think this is the first time I’ve seen it since you adopted it out. It looks very well taken care of!”

That rapidly expedited the healing of Shoot's self-confidence, for better or for worse. “Really? Damn, I should tell the people who said I couldn't handle an imp that you said that.”

“You should! You're a very capable imp trainer, from what I've seen! That loafki you helped me with has been making some great progress, thanks to you.” An idea lit up Hutch’s face. “Speaking of! Would you like to check up on it with me? We could probably start teaching it some basic tricks at this point!”

“Sure. Sounds interesting enough.” Shoot stood up from where he was leaning on the counter. “Wait… Was that flattery just to get me to help you? Nice play.”

“Huh? …Oh!” Hutch jumped as if they had been startled. “No, not at all! …Though, that is a good idea in hindsight…”

When they entered the loafki holding room, one loafki peeled off from the group to greet Shoot. It was natural-colored instead of the standard coloration that it was when Shoot and Hutch gave it its initial training.

“Hey, little weirdo, hardly recognized you with the new colors,” Shoot said softly as he petted the loafki. “Let’s see, that’s uh…” He started muttering different flavors under his breath, trying to think up what would turn an imp such colors.

“Kinako dango,” Hutch stated simply, knowing exactly what Shoot was trying to puzzle out.

“Right. Makes sense.”

Hutch kneeled down to scritch the loafki as they spoke. “Now, loafkis are too laid-back to do anything too crazy, but there’s still some little tricks that you can teach them. Today… we could probably work on having it spin in a little circle.”

Shoot kneeled down next to the other bun. “Sounds good to me. How do we start?”

“Well, first…”

For the next hour, the two worked on training the loafki how to spin around on command. They would’ve gone on for longer, but Scratch got envious of all the treats going to some other imp and began snatching them out of their hands. Nothing was going to get done from that point on. Shoot said he was starting to get bored anyway, though whether or not he meant it is up for debate.

His phloof on his shoulder, Shoot gave a nonchalant hand wave as he left the Imporium. He always acted like it was only a possibility that he’d drop by again, but the truth of the matter is that he’d always come back at least once per week. He’d get roped into helping out. He’d see that loafki again. Slowly but surely, he was becoming more responsible, more invested in matters that didn’t immediately benefit him. 

The only thing that was up in the air was how he would react when he eventually realizes that it’s happening.