Oh my god, she was beautiful
she was so beautiful that I, I had to count to ten:
one...two...three...four...five...six...seven...
eightnineten
--An Emotional Fish

Rikuo looks down from the shelf of vitamins he's been stocking at his watch and rolls his eyes. It's already five after, and there's no sign of his roommate. He woke that idiot up twice this morning already, and if Kazahaya still can't manage to get to work on time, it really isn't his problem.

Kazahaya doesn't have to take all those late-night assignments after all. Kakei isn't holding a gun to his head or anything melodramatic like that. And it isn't like he couldn't ask Rikuo for help once in a while, instead of insisting on haring off on his own. Left to his own devices, the idiot comes back half-dead most of the time, not to mention the few times he's moved on to mostly dead.

Finished with the shelf, Rikuo scoops up the box of vitamin bottles from the floor and moves onto one of the display cases near the front. These energy pills are flying off the shelf as the local high schools all come up on finals. It must do something if its so popular, and the store has been full of giggling teenage girls for days on end, and none of them can seem to find the stuff without Rikuo's help.

They keep on sending their friends, though. Maybe Kazahaya should try it if it's so great.

Lost in thought, dimly Rikuo hears Kakei chatting with a customer up at the front counter, and the murmur of Saiga's occasional interjections. Maybe he won't notice if Kazahaya is late, if he's occupied.

Why does he keep thinking about it? Rikuo frowns at himself and stocks a little more quickly, trying to tug his mind away from his roommate.

He succeeds for about twenty minutes, and is congratulating himself on not even knowing whether Kazahaya made it downstairs or not as he comes around the corner of a shelf with the empty stock box in his hand. He stops short when he spots a customer in this aisle, crouched down with her back to him, examining a label on a lower shelf.

She's gorgeous, slender and delicate, ribbed sweater a dark green that makes her skin seem pale and flawless, and her light hair brushes her shoulders, looking like silky honey even in the florescent lighting of the store. Rikuo knows he is staring, but he can't quite seem to get anything moving as the girl straightens and turns her face to him.

"Oi, what're you staring at?" Kazahaya snaps, mid-yawn, and Rikuo's brain stutters to a complete halt for a second. "And thanks for waking me up, jerk," Kazahaya adds sarcastically.

"I woke you up twice!" Rikuo barks, shaking off his stupor at last.

"Oh?" Kazahaya has the grace to look embarrassed at least. "Heh, I don't remember at all. Say, have you seen my apron?"

"No!" Rikuo knows he is shouting, but is afraid that if he stops, he'll go back to noticing how Kazahaya's slender fingers are running through his hair, ruffling the golden strands into disorder, and Rikuo has to get out of this aisle right fucking now.

"Geez, what bug crawled up your ass?" Kazahaya is giving him an irritated glare.

"YOU!"

Rikuo flees to the stockroom before either one of them can think about what exactly the implications of that outburst are.

"Goodbye then, come again!" Kakei smiles widely at the customer, then cocks his head as he hears the door to the stockroom slam. A moment later Kazahaya stalks angrily past the counter, yanking the ties of his apron into a messy knot, and disappears into another aisle. "What do you suppose that was about?"

"Who knows." Saiga murmurs, slipping an arm around Kakei's waist and resting his chin on his shoulder. "Too much sexual tension, probably."

"That's not good for young men," Kakei agrees, giving a soft 'hmm' when Saiga grazes lips over the tendons of his neck. "I suppose making Kazahaya stock the prophylactic aisle again would be asking for trouble?"

"I'll go tell him." Kakei can feel Saiga's grin against his skin before he nips Kakei's collarbone briefly, then he slides over the counter and saunters off in the direction Kazahaya went, hands in his pocket and whistling tunelessly.