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Punz swore he wasn’t panicking. There were worse things that could happen. Someone could steal his wallet or rear end his car. He could get evicted out of his apartment or lose his job. None of those things seemed as imposing as what was happening at this exact moment, though. He felt incredibly uneasy. He was pretty sure his hands were shaking as he searched every nook and cranny behind the deli.
He’d noticed it right before he went on break. He’d reached up to his neck, what he usually did when he absentmindedly fiddled with the gold chain that hung there, only for his hand to meet the edge of his hoodie. His chin snapped down, hands pressing against his collar in search of the necklace that wasn’t there. He frantically looked around, not spotting it’s dull shine anywhere nearby.
And, he didn’t think he was panicking. It would be stupid, getting anxious about losing a necklace. It might have been one of his most prized possessions that he’d had since he was a kid, but that didn’t warrant him to full on panic, right? He always messed with it when he was anxious or just thinking of something to say. He instinctively reached up to where it usually sat against his chest, missing the smooth metal beneath his fingers. He closed his hand in a fist and sighed. He pulled his head out of a fridge and shut the door, pressing his forehead to the cool metal for a minute. He’d find it. He willed his racing heart to calm down. He’d find it. He’d be fine.
“Punz?” Ponk’s voice shocked him away from the fridge, making him spin around on the brown tile. Ponk was leaning around one of the refrigerators, eyeing him curiously. “You alright? Weren’t you going on break?”
“I-uh-yeah, yeah I’m good,” Punz answered shortly, brushing his hands off on his pants. They’d gotten oddly sweaty. That was something he wasn’t used to. “Just-um-checking stock, making sure it was all unloaded correctly.”
Ponk raised an eyebrow suspiciously but turned and waved him off. “Alright, I’m going to trust you and try to forget that I just watched you pull your head out of a fridge.”
Punz sighed again, leaning all his weight against the refrigerator. He pushed his palms into his eyes and dragged them down his cheeks. He needed to get out of the deli. He’d already searched it up and down twice over. His chain wasn’t here. It had to be somewhere else.
-
Purpled rested his head in his arms on top of the deli displays, watching the aisles tiredly. Today was a slow day, and Punz had taken that opportunity to roam the store instead of being at his station. Purpled watched as he shuffled things around on the shelves, hastily moving them back before Tommy yelled at him once he was done. He was combing each and every aisle he could manage. He’d been weird for the past two days, and Purpled was starting to get a little concerned.
He tilted his head to the side, noticing Ponk walking up beside him. He returned his attention to Punz, who was now shoving around boxes of pasta. Ponk had his eyes on the show, too.
“I think he’s going crazy,” Purpled commented.
“Me too,” Ponk agreed. “He’s been like this since our shift the other day. I found him with his head shoved in one of the refrigerators. He won’t tell me anything when I ask if something’s up.”
“Should I try?” Purpled questioned.
Ponk shrugged. “You could give it a shot.”
He was feeling generous, so he decided he would. He slid off the deli display and pushed through the swinging doors. He joined Punz in the pasta party, where he was now digging through boxes of mac n’ cheese. Punz… had no idea he was there. He cleared his throat to no avail. Purpled practically leaned over his shoulder and didn’t get his attention. He resorted to the basics.
“Punz,” he said loudly.
The man jumped at least a foot off the ground. He swirled around, meeting Purpled with a smile that was much too wide to be casual. He shoved his hands in his hoodie pocket and rocked back on his heels.
“Hey, Purpled! What’s up?” he asked, the high energy in itself suspicious.
“Not a lot, I was just wondering why you’re digging all the way to the back of the macaroni shelf,” Purpled told him, leaning around to see the mess Punz had left in his wake.
“It’s-It’s nothing, Purps, don’t worry about it,” Punz insisted, reaching out to tousle his hair.
While Purpled appreciated the attempt, he wasn’t stupid. Something was obviously wrong. Before Punz could slip away and continue to hide, he grabbed the man’s wrist. Punz eyed him with surprise, stopping in his tracks. Purpled scanned Punz’s expression. His features were tight. His arm was rigid in his hand and his shoulders were tense. It didn’t take much longer to figure out what was wrong. One thing was seriously off.
“If you’re stressed or something, don’t keep it all bottled up,” Purpled said, releasing his wrist. “If you don’t wanna tell me or Ponk, at least tell Dream or something. They’d be willing to let you take time off.”
Punz’s shoulders slumped. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck guiltily. “Yeah, I know…” He looked up and wrapped an arm tightly around Purpled’s shoulders. “Thanks.”
“No-No problem,” Purpled stuttered, very surprised by the sudden vulnerability.
Their radios crackled, and Purpled wasn’t surprised when Tommy’s voice threatened, “I swear to god, Punz, if you don’t stop messing up our shelving, I will come into the deli and fight you myself-”
By the end of his shift, Purpled had made a plan. He’d clocked out and immediately headed to the manager’s office. Surely at least one of them had to be in there. When he knocked on the door and stepped inside, he wasn’t surprised to find George and Sapnap lounging around the desk. As he opened the door, their attention shifted to him. Sapnap leaned his chair on it’s back legs, head tossed over the back to look at him.
“Sup, Purpled?” he asked casually. “Need something?”
“Uh, yeah, sort of,” Purpled answered quickly, closing the door behind him.
George tilted his head to the side, and Purpled could feel him analyzing him through his glasses. “Is something wrong?”
“Not with me, but, I’m gonna assume you guys have noticed how fucking weird Punz is being,” Purpled started, moving forward and pushing Sapnap’s chair back against the floor to grab the back with both hands.
“Yeah, we were gonna bring it up with him tomorrow,” George said. “Why?”
“Because I think I know why he’s acting all strange,” Purpled answered. When the two stared at him expectantly, he continued, “It’s his necklace, the gold chain, he wasn’t wearing it today. He always has that thing on.”
He watched Sapnap and George’s faces go blank. Did he just like… crack a case? It took him five minutes to get it once he actually tried. What were they doing for the past three days?
“I mean, it’s really important to him, right?” Purpled prompted. “If he doesn’t have it, he probably lost it or something.”
Sapnap groaned and shoved his face in his hands. “We’re so stupid. George, we’re stupid, right?”
George had slumped halfway down his chair. “Yes. Very stupid.”
“So…” Purpled drawed out the syllable. “What are we doing about it?”
George sighed. He pushed his glasses up to rub at his eyes. “Okay. We’ll talk to Dream so he doesn’t freak out and-and we’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about it, Purpled. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”
“Uh,” Purpled swallowed, nodding and stepping away from Sapnap’s chair, “okay… See you guys tomorrow.”
He left the manager’s office, half certain things would be okay, half worrying about what was about to change in the store. He sighed and shook his head. He guessed he’d just have to leave it up to the managers.
-
Punz got out of his car slowly. It was time for his fourth day of work without his chain. He was sort of growing used to the bare feeling around his neck. He really didn’t want to, but he was barely--just barely--starting to accept that he would just have to go on living.
He slammed his car door shut and started the trek across the parking lot. He tightened his grip on his backpack straps and stared at his feet. Everyone was treating him differently. He’d lost his radio yesterday and Ant had returned it to him with an odd sort of tension. Punz thought about it more than he liked to admit. It was that obvious, huh? That necklace was such a comfort over the years. He hadn’t gone one day without it since he’d started wearing it. Now that it was gone, it felt like a piece of him was missing. He couldn’t exactly help himself from acting a bit differently. Still, it kinda hurt that everyone was treating him like some kind of wounded animal. He hadn’t told them what was wrong, so it's not like he could blame them for treading carefully. They probably didn’t notice that the gold chain had even disappeared. They just saw him searching the store like a maniac and thought he was stressed. At least, that’s what Purpled saw.
He walked through the sliding doors as they parted. He glanced up then, expecting concerned looks or at least the usual shenanigans, but saw neither. Purpled was on front end with Quackity and Eret today, and they were all gathered around Eret’s register, heads tilted close as they talked into one of their radios. While he was intrigued by the odd sense of seriousness, Punz took the chance to speed-walk by unnoticed.
He spotted more of these gatherings and felt the strange serious feeling throughout the store. He saw Ranboo and Tubbo scurrying around the back of the bakery while Niki handled customers. George and Sapnap were scanning one half of the aisles while Tommy, Wilbur, and Fundy scoured the other. Even the entire produce department was out from wherever they hid, searching their area for something Punz didn’t know. He found Sam near the salad bags, actually doing his job and clearing out old lettuce from the shelves. He ignored that he seemed to be chewing on something when he walked up and decided to just ask his question.
“So,” he started, back to the lettuce, “what’s everyone treasure hunting for? Did I miss a memo, or…?”
“Actually,” Sam answered, turning to face him with a smile, “they’re all looking for your necklace.”
Punz’s heart leapt to his throat. His neck twisted to look up at Sam, not willing to recognize the pressure he felt behind his eyes. He questioned tightly, “Really?”
“Really. We’ve noticed how anxious you’ve been all week, so we took it into our own hands,” Sam told him. “Dream tried to make it a competition and offer a prize, but everyone just wants to help so you can stop stressing out.”
Punz sighed shakily, rubbing the tension from his eyes. He never thought, in a thousand years, that the store would come together and do something for him. Especially search every inch of the store for his freaking necklace. He wasn’t one to get too emotional over things, but this felt incredibly overwhelming. He might have expected this from the produce department or the managers, but not the entire store. He didn’t think they’d care enough to look for a lost gold chain. It meant more to him than the words he had to describe it.
“They-They actually wanted to? You’re not lying to make me feel better?” Punz asked uncertainly, finally releasing his backpack to grip Sam’s forearms instead.
Sam laughed, wrapping his hands around Punz’s wrists. He squeezed them comfortingly and insisted, “Yes, Punz, everyone’s worried about you. And they’re not gonna stop looking for that chain until they find it.”
“Okay,” Punz exhaled, easing his grip slightly, “alright.”
“There, now that you believe me, get to work. Someone in here actually has to,” Sam joked lightly, knocking their shoulders together before continuing to replace the lettuce bags.
Punz blew a half-hearted raspberry and slinked away from the produce section. At his place behind the deli counter half an hour later, he stared in wonder as Dream and Techno walked by, staring down at the same clipboard and mumbling into Dream’s radio. He could see Niki and Tommy sweeping under tables and chairs. Wilbur and George looked like they were giving orders to the rest of produce and grocery. The whole store was in motion, and it wasn’t just because they were hitting rush hour.
He didn’t realize it until they finally hit a lapse in customers, but he felt more relaxed than he had all week. He didn’t feel the need to ask Phil or Ponk if they’d seen his necklace anywhere. He didn’t feel like he had to check every space between appliances and crates he passed. He knew other people were looking out for him, and right now, that was enough. He could ignore the nakedness of his neck and just feel at peace.
It was an hour after the rush was dealt with when Quackity’s voice crackled across the radio.
“Jackpot, baby! Punz, where you at, man?” he asked excitedly.
Punz immediately snapped to attention, locking eyes with Ponk across the deli as he answered, “Where I usually am, Quackity, where the hell are you?”
“In the back. Party at the break room, everyone, chop chop!” Quackity announced triumphantly.
Punz ripped off his apron and sprinted from the deli. He heard Phil tell him to slow down, but Punz had no intention of doing so. If Quackity had really found his necklace, if it really wasn’t gone for good, he had to know now.
He burst into the break room, startling Quackity right out of his chair. His face lit up when he saw Punz and he met him halfway across the room. Punz nearly broke right then and there. That was it. What Quackity had in his hands was really his gold chain.
He slipped the necklace into Punz’s hands and said, “There ya go, back in the hands of the rightful owner.”
“Where did you find it?” Punz asked, confused and delighted tones mixing and making him sound slightly insane. “How did you-?”
“It was in the bottom of one of those milk crate stacks in storage,” Quackity explained over his sputtering. “I’m not surprised you missed it. I was just looking there because everywhere else had been checked already.”
“This is--unbelievable,” Punz sighed, letting his shoulders slump, admiring the piece of him in his hands.
Quackity pointed at the end of the chain and continued, “It must have just got caught and snapped, cause look- the clasp’s broken. So, ya know, fairly unharmed. Not like it’s unfixable, either, so, I’d call it a win.”
Punz clamped his fist shut around the chain and threw his arms around Quackity in a hug. He tensed, surprised, before laughing and squeezing Punz in return. This was one of the nicest things anyone’s done for him. He had all of his friends to thank for this.
When half of them came barreling into the break room at once, he got the chance. He didn’t think he’d ever receive a hug from Tommy in his life, but when he ended up sandwiched between him and Tubbo, it didn’t feel all that strange. It was definitely the most hugs he’d ever gotten in his life, that was for sure.
“Thank you, guys, really,” Punz said once the room was calmer, doing his best to not sound too shaken.
“You have Purpled to thank, he’s the one who pointed out it was missing in the first place,” George stated, lightly elbowing the teen’s shoulder.
“I-I mean, it’s no big deal, I just-” Purpled messed with the hem of his hoodie sleeve embarrassedly. “I know it means a lot to you, so… thought I’d mention it. Really, it was Dream’s idea for the whole storewide search party, so-”
Punz didn’t let him finish. He pulled Purpled into a hug and felt his heart swell when arms wrapped around him shortly after.
“Thanks, Purp,” he mumbled sincerely.
“It’s no problem, Punz,” Purpled mumbled back.
“Okay, this is too cute, I need in,” Sapnap spoke up. Punz couldn’t help but laugh when he felt arms wrap around him from behind.
“Group hug!” Ponk shouted, slinging his arms around all of them.
Punz would never admit if he started crying as more people joined their pile. Saying he felt warm was an understatement. He felt loved. He felt at home. Punz never thought a grocery store job could bring him so much, but he would never regret this time he spent with the people surrounding him.