Northern Italy, 2008
Rose glanced about the supermarket register before allowing herself to slouch against the counter and sigh. Business had finally slowed down for the day.
Of course, business had been extremely slow just a while ago—or, more accurately, the worker at her register had been. Every single day, the Greek would stand there chatting and bagging things with the efficiency of a drunken sloth. The line would stretch past the door on days there wasn't another register open. But was Heracles punished? Of course not. Only she was. Having to come in for the next shift and clean up after him every time. In the case regular customers couldn't be enough trouble, she always had nothing but the infuriated ones letting their last bit of patience float away elsewhere. The number of times she was reprimanded for bagging things in a perfectly acceptable way was laughable.
"Miss?"
Rose jumped, scrambling back behind the register rearranging her hair. "Yes, I'm sorry—"
"No, it's fine, ve~" Setting down a few groceries, the customer smiled. He looked at her reassuringly, although his eyes remained closed.
Not sure what else to do, Rose just nodded and seized the package of flour to scan it.
"You look kind of tired."
Putting the package in a bag, Rose glanced up at the customer. His eyes were open now. They were a very pretty amber, although there was something odd about them.
"A-a bit," she started, wanting to make sure there weren't other customers waiting but finding herself unable to look away from those eyes. "It was very busy when my shift started." She blindly reached for the next item, and the customer slid it towards her hand without blinking.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, eyebrows drooping. "But things have... slowed down now, right?"
She aimlessly spun the whatever-it-was so the scanner could find its label. "Yeah." His eyes were really pretty...
"So you can relax now, ve~"
Rose nodded weakly, her hands limply sliding off the item as the customer leaned closer, letting her see more of the subtle colour differences in his irises.
"Are you sleepy?" he said quietly.
"I..."
"I think," he whispered, leaning in closer, "you're getting very sleepy."
The next thing Rose knew, she was standing behind a cleaned-out register with her hand on the machine's key. The earlier customer and his items were nowhere to be seen, nor was the money.
Staring dumbly at the hand that apparently unlocked the register without defending its contents.
Well. She was going to be fired now.
Time to go mouth off to the superiors about Heracles.
