Coming Up Short
Disclaimer: This is a purely fan-made piece that is using the world and characters from Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto and is made entirely for enjoyment. No financial gain has been made in the making of this piece
Summery: Iruka's register comes up short again. Written for HardPeanut
Author's Note: Possible out-of-characterness, alternate-universe, and abuse.
Constructive Criticism is always welcomed
Published: 26 October 2007
Rating: K+
Iruka shoved his thick-framed glasses up and shook his long fringes out of his face. He counted the till again, but the fact remained—he was short, again
He scowled before sighing deeply. He then decided that not only did life hate him, he hated it as well. He grabbed the money tray from his register and made himself walk back towards the office in the back of the store.
"Somebody's shoooort aagaaaain!" Anko—the assistant manager who was hired a year before Iruka was and got paid more—sang a bit gleefully. Iruka flipped her the bird and hated her as well. Her drawer was never short or over.
Izumo and Kotetsu glanced up, but said nothing. He hated feeling like some idiot. It wasn't his fault that his till always came up a little bit short every time he worked and closed a register. There had to be some reason that life hated him this much!
He knocked on the manager's office door, halfway hoping that his manager was not in. Because his luck was terrible, the deep, slow voice from inside called him in.
The evening manger looked up, his mismatched eyes catching the faint light. "Well, well, well. If it isn't our little gothic cashier. Let me guess—you scammed the company again and gave a customer too much change."
"I am not a goth!" Iruka snapped for the hundredth time, glad he had dropped the kohl around his already expressive eyes and still not yet regretting the red streaks he had in his fringes. "And yes, I'm short."
Kakashi leisurely picked up a cookie from his ever-present cookie plate and examined it lazily. "How much is it this, Umino? A fiver? A ten or a one? A twenty, perhaps?"
Iruka bit back a growl and recited lines from his angsty poems in his head to stop himself from smarting off to his nemesis. "A penny."
A fine pale eyebrow arched elegantly. "Really? Well, maybe I can finally tell corporate that they won't have to launch an investigation here. That's the smallest amount yet. Here, I'll even cover it for you." He flipped a small copper coin at Iruka with a condescending smile.
Iruka caught the coin and dreamed of the day he could punch his manager into next week and not get fired for it. He didn't care that Kakashi was supposedly a genius would organise shelves faster and neater than anyone else in the district or that he had a knack for picking the bestsellers and getting the not-so-good books sold; all he wanted was for the other man to leave him alone and to quit treating Iruka like a moron.
"Do you want a cookie to finally celebrate getting within one cent of being right?" Kakashi's smile grew more mocking.
Iruka shoved the coin into his money tray. "No thank you!" He stormed out of the office with Kakashi's patronizing chuckling following him.
As the door slid shut behind him, he allowed himself a small smile. He couldn't wait until Kakashi ate those damn cookies and found the little surprise that Iruka had put there. Then maybe he'd stop stealing coins from Iruka's till to make sure Iruka would have to stay late.
x Fin x
I don't know why this didn't get posted the first time...maybe it was during my suspended period...but oh well. Here it is now!