"Gr-reat. R-real-," he couldn't say it. Fuck this. Customer or not, this was bullshit. He couldn't say it. No. Not in a million years.

"-lly cute."

God, he said it. God, he actually said it.

And God, did it make him want to puke. Left the fucking most horrible taste in his mouth.

But, thus was the sad life of Yao Wang. An American born and raised Chinese man running a pathetic little business as a pet photographer. Late 20's, single and with a mother on parole for trafficking drugs. Not exactly living the all American dream but he was getting by just fine. Just fine.

"Um…excuse me Mr. Photographer, sir?"

He turned to face her with an annoyed look, which was quickly replaced with a painfully forced smile before asking, "Yes?".

"Well I was wondering if we could amp up the lighting in here. I don't think the atmosphere is really capturing Kitty's beauty."

Yao snorted. Yeah right, beauty. 'Kitty' was an overfed cross-eyed hairless monstrosity with a squished face and one of its canines sticking out of its mouth, and it was also currently wearing a tutu. A face only a mother could love.

"Of course. Of course. Hey Alfred, crank up the lights a little." he said, calling out to his assistant.

Yes, he had an assistant. Actually, he had two. Twins. Not that either of them were any use to him for the majority of the time. One was completely incompetent and the other was always missing, so much that sometimes Yao would forget that he's even supposed to be there. Those two were probably the only ones that were even more pathetic than he was.

At that age, they were supposed to be in college but neither had been received into a school. Well the other twin, Matthew had gotten into a local community college but then got himself kicked out after failing to attend any of his classes. Much like what he was doing here at work.

The only reason they were working here was because he owed their parents-who really were nice people-a favor for helping out him and his wreck of a mother when his father walked out on them. Or died. Or went to jail. His mother was always too drunk for him to get a proper story out of her.

"No problem, dude." Alfred said, flicking the switches for the lights. He didn't even look at them, nor realize he had just set it to MAX. He was too engrossed in a burger he'd been munching on.

"Gah!" Yao cried out, shielding his eyes from the lights' intensity with his hands, "Not that much! Turn it down!"

"No!" shouted his female customer, "It's perfect."

"What?!"

He didn't want to raise his voice at a customer but this was insane. He couldn't even see 'Kitty' like this, let alone take a picture of it. He didn't even want to think about how the picture come out.

"Yes, yes. It's perfect! There! Right there! Take the photo now! Now!"

Oh Hell, the woman's out of her mind.

Squinting, he took up his camera and started shooting blindly at a dark blob he assumed was 'Kitty'. Stealing a quick glance at its owner, he could see that she had her eyes wide open. How was that even humanly possible?

"Brilliant. Magnificent." she exclaimed before she fell into a fit of maniacal laughter and started stroking his head.

And he let her do it. No matter how much it freaked him out.

Oh, the things he had to put up with.

Yup, he was getting along just fine. Just fine.