A/N: Last year Zephyr asked what happened during Spada's part-time job, and I kinda wanted to write it. It took a whole year.
I wonder if I should be worried about remembering something as small as "Jude is allergic to cats" when I can barely remember how old I am...
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Spada wondered, briefly, how he got himself into this situation. Then he remembered he really needed the money, so it didn't matter anyway.
Around him were over fifty cats, all meowing and scratching up props, not to mention the one attempting to claw its way up his black pants. It was noisy, there was broken wood scattered everywhere, and he was a little troubled by the feel of a kitten's claws on his leg.
This is all for Ruca, he thought patiently, ignoring the fact that even his internal voice sounded strained. Aaaaall for Ruca.
If that book weren't so expensive he could have picked literally any other job.
.
"Fifteen thousand?"
Yesterday, Spada walked into Velvet's bookstore with a single objective in mind.
Yesterday, Spada realized he needed a job, because he didn't know books could be so expensive.
His screech of disbelief caught the attention of some other customers, but once they saw the source of the noise they quickly went back to their own business, though a few did give him odd looks. Probably because it wasn't common for Spada of all people to be in a book store.
Oscar closed his eyes painfully, tilting his head away from the capped boy. He gave Spada a scowl before pushing himself off the counter he was leaning on.
"It's hand-made and copied by her little brother, the only person on campus who can translate the ancient text." He said tiredly. Spada noted the bruise forming on the side of his face from when a certain red-head had accidentally tripped him in the library, but he chose not to mention it.
"Ugh, can't you guys just sell these digitally? Everyone's got an e-book these days." Spada replied, looking back to the – surprisingly pricey – tome, pressing his face against the glass in an attempt to see just what made it so special.
"If we did that we wouldn't have a business, now would we." Oscar said, grunting as he reached forward to push Spada off the display case. He neglected to say Velvet wouldn't have a business – he was only here because Teresa decided he needed a job and Velvet was a good friend that needed an extra set of hands. "Besides, there are a lot of people that like physical books, and it's not good to stare at a screen so much."
Spada really wanted to say something about how Oscar had been doing just that for roughly three hours this morning, when the older boy was glued to a new game on his phone. That might have been the reason he didn't see Luke sprawled across the floor in front of the heater, causing him to fall face-first into the nearest bookshelf.
But he kept quiet. Spada wouldn't put it past the blond to raise the price by a few gald just to spite him.
Instead, he went back to staring at the book, head and wallet already starting to hurt from the sight of the numbers on the tag.
A tapping sound caught his attention, and he looked up to see Oscar pointing to the little red sign next to the book, reading "LAST ONE" in big, green letters. His jaw dropped.
"There's only so many we can make." Oscar said. "For the record, a few people have come in asking about it too."
"Wait, really?!"
"Really."
Off the top of his head, Spada could think of three people that would be interested in a book like this. He didn't think they had the money for this kind of thing, but at the same time, his spending habits tended to get the better of him so he wouldn't be surprised if someone had enough set aside.
If only there were some way to–
"C-can I put it in hold?" Spada asked hurriedly, standing up and leaning over the counter. Oscar backed up immediately, falling back into his seat.
"If we had more copies, yeah, but since this is the last one Velvet says it's first come, first serve." He said hesitantly, before regaining his composure and scowling. "And watch it, you know I don't like being startled."
Spada briefly regretted the "Yeah, I can tell by lookin' at yer face" comment that came out of his mouth when it got him kicked out of the bookstore, but he was at least grateful that Oscar had been "nice" enough to give him a deadline and some part-time suggestions.
Even if he was shouting them the whole time he was shoving Spada out the door.
.
"Seriously, one day felt like a little short notice, don't ya think?"
He said this while watching Ludger attempt to scoop up more cats, Rollo leading the way and meowing all the while as the cats flocked around them.
Jude's response was a loud sneeze as he opened his mouth to say something, looking haggard and pitiful. His eyes and nose were red, definitely not from the cold, and he had a box of tissues and what seemed to be allergy medicine on the table next to him.
"Well," He finally started. "you know how Jade can be. Once he gets an idea–"
He was cut off by another sneeze, this time the force of it sending his chair toppling backwards onto the ground. Spada winced at the pained groan that followed.
"Okay dude, I really think ya need to go home. Yer sneezin' up a storm here." He didn't say that he – very briefly – wondered if Jude's lungs would fly out of his nose with how hard he's been sneezing. He picked up the box of allergy medicine. "Are ya sure this stuff's workin'?"
"Not at all." Came a nasally reply, and he reached out a hand to help Jude up. He ran around to grab the chair too, seeing how wobbly the Gnome student was. "But I can't get anything stronger without a prescription."
"... Aren't ya a doctor? Can't ya just prescribe it to yerself or somethin'?" Spada questioned, moving back to his seat and setting the box down in front of Jude again. "How'd ya get stuck with this shitty job anyway?"
"First of all, while it's not illegal, most places look down on self-prescriptions." Jude said crossly, though Spada noted he looked a little disappointed. "Second: I owe Jade a favor and he wanted to cash in now..."
"Ouch." Spada's eye twitched at the idea of owing Jade of all people, and wanted to ask what exactly Jude owed him for, but he decided he didn't want to know.
"Anyway," Jude continued, noticing where the conversation was going and not wanting to discuss it. "we'd better hurry up with these props, the event's going to start soo–"
He was thrown back by another sneeze, and Spada sighed. This was going to be a long day.
.
"Where did ya even find this many cats?"
An hour into the event – which Jade had dubbed "Cat Circus", a name that only sounded funny to him but still attracted quite a few customers – Spada was finally able to get away from the crowd of children wanted to play with the kittens he'd been tasked with watching over, and approached Ludger with what he felt was a rather important question.
Ludger looked up from the horde of cats he was having chase a remote-control bird, flicking it this way and that. The children watching squealed with laughter as the cats trampled over each in an attempt to catch the robot avian.
"Oh, they're Rollo's friends." He said, glancing back to make sure no children were trying to climb over the small fence separating them from the cats. "I just asked him to invite them to play, and they came running."
Spada got the image of the cat horde running through town, destroying everything in sight with cries of "OH GOD EDNA WAS RIGHT IT'S HAPPENING" filling the streets.
... He refrained from asking if he could borrow the robot bird, if only because he was sure it wouldn't play out like he imagined and he'd get in more trouble than this job is paying him for.
"He has a lot of friends." Was his only safe response, and Ludger smiled and nodded before returning to his job.
With that brief distraction over, Spada wandered the area, looking at the various things Jade had set up. Apparently he'd done it because the increase in stray cats around the school kept getting reported, so he organized a way to gather all the cats in one spot to hopefully get some of them adopted or – at least – vaccinated so they wouldn't be a health issue.
The whole school was technically a health issue, but an image of Oscar's bruised face came to mind and he shrugged it off as something else entirely.
"Spada!" Someone called out, and he turned to see Beryl waving her large brush around, splattering paint all over her tent stall. A sign stood in front that read "Get Your CAT-icatures Done Here!" in bright rainbow letters. He found the pun incredibly stupid, but she had a long line of customers anyway, all wanting to drawn as a cat.
"What's up?" He said, walking over and leaning over to look at her canvas. It appeared to be the little girl seated in front of her, only with calico spots and features, with a mouse held in her claws.
Beryl continued painting with one hand while blindly reaching behind her for something, eventually shoving a piece of paper into his hands.
"Take that to Jade for me! It's a list of how many customers I've had tonight."
He didn't have a chance to tell the girl to do it herself since she went back to her calico human, so he just took it with a grumble. He was going to find Jade anyway to ask how much longer he needed to be there anyway–
Tonight?
He looked around wildly, finally finding the large clock perched in between lanterns near the center of the park. The time read five-twenty, and he was set to meet Ruca around six outside Lailah's cafe. Considering the park was on the opposite side of the campus from Velvet's store, he'd need to leave soon if he wanted to get there and back in time.
Rushing back to the main tent where the main show was meant to be done, he dodged around the cats wandering around, eventually finding Jade in the back room, looking troubled.
"Jade!" He said loudly, to get the man's attention. The vice principal's head snapped up at the sound of his voice, and he sighed.
"Oh good, I was just about to call you." He said, and Spada furrowed his brows.
"Uh, yeah? I was lookin' for you too, wanted to know how much longer ya needed me."
Jade hummed and looked him over for a second, causing Spada to take a step back with worry.
"Well, it's unfortunate, but I'll need your help a little while longer." He said with another sigh. "You remember how we're having the cat show at five-thirty, right?"
"Right..." Spada followed nervously, not liking where the conversation was going.
"You see, Jude was supposed to be in charge of emceeing the event, but his allergies seem to have gotten the better of him." He said, pointing over his shoulder. Jude was lying on a bench with a towel over his face, wheezing slowly. Spada gave Jade an incredulous look.
"Why'd ya put the person with a cat allergy in charge of a cat show!" He said, pointing to the small group of cats now crowding around them. Jade quickly scooped up the one heading towards Jude, and patted it on the head while looking at Spada.
"He said he'd take some medication and that would take care of it. I didn't think his allergies were this bad."
Spada groaned and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't have time to do something like this, but at the same time, he wouldn't put it past Jade to cut his pay for bailing at the last minute, and he needed as much as he could get in case he needed to actually fight someone for that book.
"Okay, uh, how long is the show supposed to last?" He asked hurriedly, looking at the clock. It was almost time to start, and while he didn't have time to rehearse any lines, he doubted Jade would be opposed to him ad libbing everything if it meant the show still went on.
"It was meant to go on a little past six, if things went well. So far, things haven't been going well." Jade said, also taking a quick look at the time. "I assume this means you'll do it?"
"Yes! Let's just start already, I have to be somewhere." He said, turning around to rush out the door. He was stopped when Jade grabbed his jacket.
"Not so fast, you can't emcee dressed like that." He said disapprovingly.
Spada looked down at his clothes. They didn't have classes today, but he still threw on his uniform and the scarf Ruca had given him, since Jade told him to dress nice for the event. And it was a school event, so it wasn't like he was out of place?
His train of thought was cut off when something fuzzy was shoved into his face, and he realized slowly that it was the collar of a Santa jacket. A hat and black slacks followed and he gave Jade a confused look.
The smile he was given sent a chill down his spine.
.
Oscar jumped as the front door slammed open, bell ringing loudly. The magazines he was stacking into the shape of a pyramid crumpled onto the desk. He quickly gathered them into a messy pile and shoved it aside before sitting back down in his chair, pretending to look busy. When he saw who walked in, he almost choked on a laugh.
"Wipe that smile off yer face, pretty-boy. I don't want to hear it." Spada said darkly, expression grim. Oscar cleared his throat and straightened his back, though he was still smiling broadly. "Ya know what I'm here for."
"Of course." Oscar said with a chuckle, reaching below the counter and unlocking the display. He grabbed the book off its perch and held it carefully against his chest – it may have been a copy, but it was an expensive copy – and stood back up, sliding the book across the scanner. "And of course, with the holiday sale bonus, you get an extra forty percent off, so your total comes up to... nine-thousand gald."
Spada stared at him dumbly for a few seconds, which Oscar responded to with a very salesman-like smile, before something in his brain clicked into place and he was yelling.
"Why didn't ya mention that sooner?!" He shrieked, grabbing the older boy's shirt. Oscar's smile went from salesman to amused, if not a little nervous. "I could have afforded that yesterday!"
"You were staring a lot so I wanted to make you suffer." He said calmly. Spada felt his eyebrow twitch at that.
"You can handle havin' yer face burned and losin' sight in yer left eye, but ya can't handle someone starin' at a goddamn bruise on your face."
Talk about self-conscious.
He was about to say more, but Oscar cleared his throat again, grabbing his wrists in a tight enough grip that forced Spada to get go and push away.
"Do you want the book or not?" He said impatiently, any mirth gone as he held a hand out.
Spada fumbled with his pouch, pulling out the amount of gald he was asked for – Jade had been "nice" enough to give it to him in cash – and deposited it in the blond's hands. Oscar counted it quickly before punching something into the machine and waiting, before a receipt was printed and placed inside the book. When it made its way to Spada's hands, he immediately plucked it out.
"Thank Maxwell I finally got it." He sighed, shoulders slumping. Oscar rolled his eyes, before reaching back into the case.
"Yeah, you owe me one." He said. Spada gave him a confused look before he heard what sounded like something sticky being peeled off, and Oscar brought a hand up to reveal a sticker that said "For Display Only", which he stared at in shock.
"Wait, did you–"
"Wow is it six-thirty already? Time sure does fly on Christmas." Oscar cut him off, looking pointedly at the clock on the wall. Spada's head snapped in its direction, seeing the time was exactly as he'd said, and scrambled to stuff the receipt into his pocket.
"I'll make it up to you later, gotta go!" He said, rushing out the door. Oscar waved lazily, but he didn't have time to comment.
Ruca was waiting for him.
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A/N: Last year's story was edited slightly to match up with this on, which actually was also changed a few times because I could not make up my mind.
I've been taking a lot of liberties with the Berseria cast on account of this being AU, but Oscar has definitely been one of the harder characters to integrate, because we only see so much of him. But he's getting there. And I will admit to getting... briefly distracted, trying to figure out the layout of Velvet's bookstore. Needless to say, I have that now.
Obviously I ran out of ideas for Christmas and went with my default, but hopefully it was entertaining enough to count! Merry Christmas!