Hey y'all, Evii here. While everybody is off having fun with their shipping antics and big cool action Schnees (shut up that pun works) I decided to try my hand at something a little less crazy. This fic will focus around a young shopkeeper named Ashley Match and her interactions with both canon characters and one other set of OCs. The first two chapters (including this one duh) won't be super fast-paced due to the need to introduce characters in my writing style. So sorry in advance for that.
Updating speed is kind of up in the air as when I wrote this bit the first time it took like two days but this time it took over a week as I constantly found myself disapproving of it. But here it is. Comments and criticism are always appreciated.
Chapter 1: Grand Opening
It was a cool fall morning and a solitary teen was outside on this cobblestone street in Vale City. Her long black hair was tied up into a ponytail whose red tips dangled as she shuffled along the rocky road, sweeping the dirt away from the store she stood outside of. Her light brown uniform cut off just above her ankles and it swayed as she methodically continued her brushing. Taking a brief break, the girl's tired grey eyes saw that her work was almost finished. Thank Dust, she thought to herself as she picked the broom back up and continued.
She was not back into the work long before a loud interruption proceeded above her. Looking up into the calm blue sky, a fleet of airships soared overhead. The girl frowned a little and sighed, part of her still wishing she could be on those ships with the emblem of Beacon emblazoned upon them: the crossed axes that trained future Hunters to defend the realm. But no, that was not this girl's destiny; her life was to assist the Hunters and the everyday men, women, and children in Vale City with her wares.
After the soaring airships finished passing, the teen prepared to return to the warmer confines of her store. If she was lucky, she might even have time for a nice relaxing nap or bath before opening time was upon her. However, before she could enter the shop, a loud and brazen voice called out to her.
"How are we doing on this fine morn, Ashley?"
The boisterous voice was one of Ashley's few acquaintances in this big city she had just moved to and it always managed to make her smile. Turning around she saw the figure of an older portly gentleman walking down the street with greying hair and an impossibly large moustache. Wiping the dirt from her hands off on the apron she was wearing over top of her uniform, she turned and nodded politely. "Good, how are you doing, Professor Port?"
"If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times, my dear Ashley," began Professor Peter Port, chuckling beneath his facial hair. "You are to call me Peter. When your grandmother passed and left you the family store, she also told me to look after you. And of course, I, Professor Peter Port, shall do this with all the sheer tenacity and skill as should be expected of me!"
Ashley couldn't help but giggle a bit at the teacher's ridiculous pomp. Professor Port shot back with a stern glare from his seemingly closed eyes. "Sorry, umm, Profess—I mean, umm, Peter," she mumbled, her social anxiety popping into her second sentence with a person like clockwork. For as long as the teen could remember, she was able to sustain a very short social interaction with someone but if it was anything more than a simple hello or how are you, she would begin to mumble and start inserting pauses in her speech.
Professor Port was well aware of this, having known Ashley since she was only a little girl. "Do not worry, dearest Ashley; far more intimidating foes have been… ahh… Intimidated by me than you. Speaking of which, I am on my way to meet with my new first year students! I am going to be early so that I can both set a good example and regale them with a tale of my endless strength and skill!"
"You, uhh, might want to hurry, Profess—I mean, umm, Peter," the teen quietly responded, pointing up. "A bunch of, umm, airships passed by to Beacon a couple minutes ago."
She swore she caught a glimpse of Professor Port's irises in his initial shocked reaction. Though if she had seen them, it was such a sort period that she could not remember them. Yelling something about seizing the day and working hard, Port was off towards the nearest airship station, at a speed his size would suggest impossible. Once again, Ashley couldn't help chuckling before taking off the apron and brushing the dirt off her uniform and hands.
Once inside the shop, the young woman took a deep breath of the somewhat stale air and smiled. A few clear pipes were set-up on the left-most wall, half filled with a wide variety of brightly coloured Dust. Meanwhile, there were plenty of wooden shelves that held either more Dust, in other forms, and a variety of other convenience goods such as candies and magazines. It wasn't a large shop, being rather cosy, but it was Ashley's. She smiled to herself as she walked to the back of the store. A pair of doors were before her; the left one the staircase to her mini-apartment above the store and the right one a supply closet, in which she stored her broom and apron before removing a quaint little stool with a soft pillow nailed onto the top. As she brought it over to the central check-out and assistance desk, she plucked a copy of Young Hunters Monthly from the stand.
Sitting down with her favourite gossip and information magazine in hand and facing towards the glass door, Ashley cast a quick look over to her left to see the clock above the restrooms. 6:45, it read, much to the shopkeeper's delight. Opening time wouldn't be for another hour and fifteen minutes… Not like there would be a line-up. Ashley sighed as she remembered her attempts at spreading the news earlier that week, trying to use regular tape to put up notices and them all flying away in the strong fall wind.
Yawning suddenly, Ashley figured a quick nap wouldn't harm anyone, or her sales, so she slowly made her way up into her cramped little apartment with its cramped little bed to take a cramped little nap, putting her as-of-yet unread copy of Young Hunters Monthly on her small wooden bedside table before fumbling with her alarm clock. Drawing the covers over her uniform, she let her weariness whisk her away.
After what felt like no time had passed, Ashley groggily opened her eyes and looked at her alarm clock. 11:28, it read. "Oh Dustdammit!" she cursed, tossing her blanket aside and rubbing what fragment of sleep still remained in her eyes out. Grabbing her magazine, the young shopkeeper blazed her way down the stairs and over to her stool and the checkout desk. Dropping her magazine on it, she kept running until she reached the door, flipping the signage so that the 'Welcome! We're Open!' side of it faced the street.
Sitting up on her wooden and pillow perch, Ashley finally opened up her magazine to sigh in disappointment. Pyrrha Nikos was, once again, declared the champion of the Mistral Regionals. The shopkeeper was none too fond of the red-head as she seemed to be perfect. Ashley was no stranger to her own flaws and knowing people better than her but perfection really browned her biscuits. It couldn't exist and yet she saw it staring back at her with those shining green eyes and warm, generous smile. No, she thought, adamantly. She has a flaw I know it! No one can be so pretty, so nice, so strong…
Her nitpicking was interrupted before it began by a quiet chime that Ashley had been looking forward to hearing all week. Her first customer had arrived! Quickly stashing her reading material, the young shopkeeper smiled as warmly as she could towards the middle-aged man who had wandered into her establishment. "Good morning sir, is there anything I can do to be of assistance?" Ashley felt as if the greeting had carried on any longer, it would have left her shaking.
The rather non-descript, for Ashley could not discern much about him that would be memorable, man was not the first customer she had hoped and made a little Dust shrine to in her room. Rather, he simply needed to use the restrooms. Visually disappointed, she gestured to her left and returned to her magazine.
Just as the man was leaving and thanking her for letting him use the restroom, Ashley finished the interview and leaped to her feet. "Pyrrha's coming to Beacon?!" The storekeeper grinned mischievously. That meant that she would likely end up shopping for Dust. And if she ended up buying Dust from Ashley… She'd be famous! She was already imagining how fast business would take off if she could put the face of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes all over her promotional material…
Ashley took another, more mischievous, thought. Perhaps she could give the girl bad Dust or maybe trick her into stealing some Dust. That would work perfectly… If Ashley had the capabilities to go through with such a terrible thing. Pyrrha might infuriate her with what seemed like perfection, but Ashley couldn't do something cruel to her; it just wasn't in her nature. Not to mention if Pyrrha got angry over it, the poor shopkeeper wouldn't stand an ounce of a chance of the maelstrom of pain the Mistral Regional Champion would bring down upon her. And Ashley was not one to sacrifice her own life for the sake of a sense of twisted justice.
Although as the minutes on the clock crawled by, the girl was beginning to regret that lifelong belief. Maybe if she had pushed herself just a little harder, moved just a little faster, thought a little more intelligent… Missing out on making it into a school for Hunters-in-training was one memory that the teen relived every day. She hadn't been strong, fast, or strategic enough for the schools; almost always falling just short of reaching their standards. She had thought about applying one last time when her grandmother passed. At that point, she had been entrusted with the store and she couldn't just leave it to pursue her own dreams. There was no way she'd be able to fund her way without being able to do well enough for scholarships…
Ashley's long thought process of regret and paths untraveled was thankfully interrupted by what could potentially be her true first customer. Stowing her magazine with surprising speed and effectiveness, she smiled at the newcomer – a woman who was also seemed strangely featureless upon examination – who was in fact looking for a Dust crystal for her daughter! She had been leaving to catch the next airbus when she saw that the store was open not far from home.
After a rather muted conversation, Ashley was boxing a beautiful emerald crystal which she assured the customer would bring out the azure in her daughter's eyes. She couldn't help but smile as the woman gushed over her daughter who was on the rise and not long from Beacon. Noel was her name and the woman said that Ashley reminded her a lot of her in that she was far too timid for how smart and kind she was. The shopkeeper giggled at that, trying to deflect the praise. As the customer left from Ashley's thanks and invitation to come back, she felt a warm feeling of joy inside her. Not only had she earned some money but had made a customer happy simply by listening and mumbling the odd reply.
However, the store returned and remained quiet as the closing hour quickly approached. Ashley, now the fond memory of her first customer and her daughter Noel beginning to fade from memory, sighed as she moved to turn flip the sign on the door over to the 'Sorry, We're Closed!' side when she saw a familiar figure barreling towards her. "Professor Port, how are you doing tonight?"
"I am doing spectacularly wonderful, my dear Ashley," replied the older man, surprisingly not wheezing for breath despite having run from the airbus station to the store. "I simply wished to drop by to ask after your inevitable runaway success."
Ashley chuckled nervously and scratched the nape of her neck. "N-not, umm, great. Only one real customer…"
However, the teen caught a sparkle behind Port's closed eyes. "Oh well, the first day is always a rather tumultuous time. I, Professor Peter Port, can state, without a shadow of a doubt, that tomorrow your business will increase by at least an astounding 400%!" Checking his pocket watch, he bowed shortly to Ashley before smiling another coy grin from beneath his bush of a moustache. "My apologies, my dearest Ashley, but I must be off. I have promised to help another old friend with the beautiful and cherished art of babysitting whilst she is working the night shift. Until our next wondrous meeting!"
And in the blink of an eye, the rotund teacher was off running again. Finally getting back to her duty of closing the shop, Ashley tiredly shambled up the stairs, letting loose a surprisingly loud yawn. Quickly getting into her boxy new pyjamas with the wooden-esque design, she crawled between the sheets for the second time today, reflecting on what had happened. But her mind was dead-set on unlocking the answer to Professor Port's secret riddle. And so Ashley Match drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the possibilities of who would stop by Ashes to Dust, of red-heads and blondes, of athletes and dweebs like her.
A/N: So... That was a thing. I hope you enjoyed it and got a bit of a feel for little Ashley Match. Next chapter, Ashley comes face to face with one of her worst fears: her peers! (ha that rhymed!) Also, if someone can guess what little crossover hint I dropped in this chapter gets... A congrats from me, I guess. Tune in for the next chapter of Ashes to Dust: DISHING OUT DIRT!