Archive of Our Own ^beta

Valerie: Mumbo

Valerie: Mumbo

Valerie: Mumbo

Valerie: Mumbo

Valerie: Mumbo Jumbo

Valerie: Jumbo Mumbo

Valerie: Mumbo Mumbo Mumbo Mumbo Mumbo Mumbo

Valerie: It’s starting to not sound like a name anymore

Valerie: Mumbo

Mumbo: Valerie what on earth could be so important that it has compelled you to spam me so late in the evening????

Valerie: Mumbo!

Mumbo: Yes that’s me

Mumbo: Is there something I can help you with?

Valerie: Yes actually!

Valerie: You working this Thursday?

Mumbo: Valerie

Mumbo: Xisuma updated the schedule for the week

Valerie: Is that a no?

Mumbo: I

Mumbo: No, I’m not working this Thursday

Valerie: Nice

Valerie: Would you be down to go somewhere with me in the evening?

Mumbo: We both work on Friday

Valerie: So?

Valerie: It’s not like I’m taking you out at midnight

Mumbo: I

Mumbo: Yeah okay

Mumbo: I’m free

Valerie: Nice

Valerie: you have a car right?

Mumbo: I’m going to have to drive

Valerie: yes

Valerie: Mumbo?

Mumbo: can I at least know where we’re going?

Valerie: I’ll give you directions :D

Mumbo: :{(

Mumbo: alright then

Valerie: :{D

Mumbo: did you just steal my emoji

Valerie: D}:

Mumbo regretted his decision to meet up the moment Valerie’s directions began leading them outside of the city. In hindsight, he probably should have noticed the warning bells blaring in his face when she asked to meet up in the evening of all times. But, in his defense, Mumbo only truly knew Valerie because of Grian. And even then, he didn’t really know much about her other than the role she played during the whole…Watchers incident.

Mumbo could have asked Grian about her on multiple different occasions, but he never did. In fact, it would have been easy to send him a quick text the moment he received hers. He honestly should have. But the thought of reaching out to Grian nowadays made his heart heavy, so he wasn’t as inclined to do so. A part of him wished he sucked it up and did though, especially after sensing a couple warning bells from her texts and directional instructions. Yet, he wanted to believe that he ignored them out of some belief that he should indulge her for aiding his best friend escape his past.

In reality, it was because he was an idiot.

“Valerie,” Mumbo turned to the woman in his passenger seat. “Why are we at the beach?”

Valerie raised her head away from the task of unbuckling her seatbelt. He waited for an answer but was rewarded with nothing more than a smile as she got out of his car. Mumbo glanced at the time on his dashboard, sighed, and turned off his car, following her out.

He made his way down to the beach, the tapping of his footsteps against the wooden walkway echoing in his ears. As the planks progressively disappeared under layers of sand, Mumbo silently mourned the eventual state of his shoes. If this outing ended with him wringing salt water out of his clothes, Mumbo might actually beg Xisuma to refrain from ever putting him on shifts with Valerie ever again.

Not that they’ve had many shifts together in the first place, but it was the principle of the matter.

Mumbo watched as Valerie stopped a couple feet away from the water before turning her back to the sea, placing the small backpack she had brought onto the sand. As Valerie pulled out a plastic Walmart bag, Mumbo wondered if he should have been more adamant about knowing why she wanted him to come with her. When she reached into the bag and started pulling out rocks of various sizes, his intrigue swiftly shifted to concern. His eyebrows further furrowed as she placed each stone, one by one, in a circle.

Then, she began removing a bunch of sticks from the bag.

“Are you honestly making a campfire right now?”

Valerie looked up from what she was doing. She dragged her eyes over his face, smiled, and continued her setup.

Mumbo buried his face in his hands.

Valerie eventually finished her task, getting to her feet with a satisfied smile. She pulled her phone out from her pocket, rapidly tapping across the screen before holding it out towards Mumbo.

“Here,” she said, pushing the phone into his hands. “Could you hold that up for me please?”

Mumbo frowned but still took it. “What do I do with it?” He asked, glancing at the screen. It was open on the camera app.

Suddenly, Valerie began to chuckle in a low voice. She held up a small, thin piece of paper. “You’re going to record me burn this.”

Mumbo stared at the paper. “I feel as though I might regret asking," he hesitated. "But may I ask what that is?”

“This.” Valerie waved the item in the air. “Is a friendship receipt!”

Mumbo narrowed his eyes in an attempt to read what was on the paper. Though the difficulty of the task was enhanced by her waving it around like a mad woman, he managed to catch:

It looked like Valerie’s handwriting.

He turned his attention back towards the woman in question. She was grinning like a fool as she delicately deposited the ‘receipt’ over the stick pile. “Does Etho know that you ma—have that?” Mumbo asked.

Valerie paused in her actions. “Oh,” she mumbled. “I knew I forgot something.”

She got to her feet and held out her hand. Cautiously, Mumbo handed her back the phone and watched her snap a picture of the ‘receipt.’ She zoomed in, nodding to herself, and sent it to Etho before turning the phone screen towards Mumbo.

Valerie: *sends image*

Etho: ?

Etho: Are those sticks?

Valerie grinned at Mumbo. “Done!” she announced, making a peace sign with her free hand. She handed her phone back over to him. “Okay, now record me!”

Mumbo, resigned, gently took the phone back in his grasp. Once Valerie gave him a thumbs up, he held up the phone and began recording.

He nodded his head, and Valerie took it as her sign to start. She coughed into her fist before pointed towards him, her expression dropping, sending a brief shiver down his spine. “ETHO!”

Mumbo kept his eyes on the screen, waiting for her to continue. He glanced over the phone and raised an eyebrow. “What's wrong?” he prodded.

She frowned, lowering her arm a bit in thought. “I don’t actually know his full name,” Valerie admitted. She shook her head. “Never mind that,” she said, raising her arm back up.

“Etho!” Valerie continued. “What you are about to watch is a momentous event! One that is of utmost importance to the existence of you and I as what most would call friends!”

She stopped again.

“Now what?” Mumbo asked.

He watched through the screen as Valerie made her way over, snatching the phone out of his hands as she pointed it towards him.

“I forgot to introduce my witness,” she explained. “Say hi to Etho, Mumbo.”

Mumbo closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath. “Hi Etho,” he greeted, his tone as dry as his desire to be here. He then gave Valerie a look. “Are you, perhaps, stalling right now?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Valerie flinched. “Wha—pshh, no,” she denied, shoving the phone back into his hands. Her attempt at a smile resulted in what Mumbo could only describe as painful. “I’m just… uh…” Valerie appeared to be scrambling. “You know… um…” Valerie dropped her smile and sighed. "I'm bored now," she confessed.

"You're bored?!" Mumbo exclaimed. "Didn't you have a whole speech planned?" At least, he assumed she did. He didn't actually know if she did.

Valerie shrugged, motioning for him to step back. "Not really," she admitted, pulling out a lighter from her pocket. A strangled noise escaped him as Mumbo watched, keeping a steady hold on her phone, as Valerie kneeled before the border of stones and set alight the pile of sticks, receipt and all. The silence that followed was broken up by the crackling of the flames.

Mumbo ended the recording. He made his way over to the fire as if he were in a trance, handing Valerie back her phone. She took it back, quietly tapping away at her screen before pocketing it. The two stood, side by side, as they took the time to take in the anti-climactic end to… whatever it was this was. In all honesty, Mumbo felt as though everything that had just transpired had been rather pointless. Now, he was just...awkwardly staring into a flame with his coworker at a beach. Because that's what this was: awkward. Despite having orchestrated all of this, even going as far as to ask him for his time and presence in advance, Mumbo simply refused to believe that this was all she had brought him out for.

Eventually, the two got tired of standing around and sat down on the sandy beach, watching as the ‘receipt’ slowly burned away before their eyes.

“Valerie,” Mumbo started. He didn’t look at her. “What’s going on. Why did you bring me out here.”

Valerie’s eyes flickered over to him before focusing back onto her makeshift fire pit. She brought her legs closer to her chest and curled herself around her knees. “…felt like you needed it.”

“…What do you mean?”

Valerie shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said, leaning back against her hands. “…You looked like you could use an escape.”

Mumbo hummed. “Was the whole receipt thing something you came up with at the last minute?” he asked. “A reason to get me out of the city and have me do something?”

Valerie barked out a laugh. “Sort of,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to do something like that for a while now, so I wouldn’t say it was just a reason to get you out. But I won’t deny that I didn’t really plan much of what we would be doing out here.”

“And like…” Valerie rested her cheek against her knees, watching her hand as she ran it through the sand beneath them. “Things have been…awkward. Between you and Grian, I mean.” Mumbo felt like someone punched him in the stomach, but he stayed quiet.

She raised her hand and the two watched the sand trickle down from between her fingers.

Valerie shrugged. “Though you might need to get away for a bit.”

Mumbo leaned his elbows against his knees. “Why do that though?” he asked.

“Why do what?”

“Why be the one to get me out of the city?” Among other things, he thought to himself.

Valerie breathed out through her nose. “I don’t know Mumbo…” she hesitated, biting her bottom lip. “I guess… I always found it hard to move past something…” Valerie dropped her hand, somehow curling into herself further. “Especially when no matter where you look, you’re constantly surrounded by reminders,” she mumbled into her knees.

She closed her eyes and chuckled, voice devoid of amusement. “Then again,” she said. “I guess I sort of count as a reminder.”

“Eh.” Mumbo made a see-saw motion with his hand. “Depends on the subject.”

Valerie snorted. She leaned her head back to look up at the stars. “…did it help?” she whispered.

Mumbo hummed, turning his attention to the stars himself. He breathed in the salty air of the sea, letting the cool evening breeze brush against him as he soaked in what he now realized was a peaceful moment. Other than when she brought him up first, Mumbo didn’t think he thought about Grian once during their time at the beach. However… “I’m not sure,” he ended up saying.

Valerie nodded to herself, and the conversation eventually drizzled out. The two listened to the waves drifting against the shore against the sound of crackling fire until Mumbo decided to break the silence once more.

“Valerie?”

She hummed.

“There’s probably no point in me asking this now, but…” Mumbo continued to stare at the fire. “Is this…legal?”

“What is?”

“Lighting a fire at the beach.”

Valerie blinked. “I mean…” she eyed the flames as they licked closer to the stone border. “They do it in animes.”

Mumbo didn’t like where this was going. “Right…” he hesitated. “…But Japan has different laws.”

The two Brits turned to stare at each other, their faces illuminated by the light of the flames dancing away a couple of spaces away from them. Without breaking eye contact, Valerie reached into her backpack and pulled out two red plastic party cups. The two maintained the stare until Mumbo eventually sighed, reaching over to grab one.

They spent the next couple of minutes switching between scooping up piles of sand to dump onto the fire and rushing over to the crashing waves in an attempt to douse the flames. Once they had successfully buried the ashy evidence of their presence, the two stashed the sodden sticks, along with the rocks, in a bush near the car, before heading back home.

Valerie: *sends video*

Etho: really?

Valerie: >:D

Valerie: now you’re stuck with me >:D

Etho: darn

Etho: but like

Etho: I guess there are worse people to be stuck with

Valerie: I can make you regret that statement

Etho: please don’t

Mumbo: Valerie’s an odd one

Grian: ???

Grian: I mean

Grian: I guess so

Grian: What brought this on?

Mumbo: Nothing

Mumbo: We just hung out

Grian: …alright then

Mumbo: I think I understand her a bit more though

Grian: That’s good

Grian: I think

Grian: Uh

Grian: What did you guys do?

Mumbo: Nothing

Mumbo: Nothing she had planned

Mumbo: Sort of

Grian: ?????

Grian: What does that even mean???