All In A (Very Long) Day's Work
Story Summary: On the run from the Elders and his responsibilities as the leader of the Li Clan, a penniless Syaoran escapes to Tomoeda, where he tackles several uncool jobs to hilarious results. Potential SxS, AU.
Disclaimer: All characters are CLAMP's.
Last chapter:
They were very nice about it, but Syaoran felt unspeakably embarrassed by the incident, and swore to get himself a job as quickly as possible- in fact, he would take the very first one that he saw.
He would soon regret it.
Seeking a shop assistant with a pleasant disposition, ready smile and good taste in women's clothing to work in UMEKO STYLE CIRCLE. Reasonable remuneration. Please call TOMOYO DAIDOUJI at xxxxxxxx or walk in to apply!
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Chapter 2
Syaoran scowled as he ripped the small poster off the glass door of the convenience store. The glossy black words were printed against a coloured illustration of plum and cherry blossoms. "Gay, gay, gay," he muttered under his breath as he scrutinised the text.
"Pleasant disposition, check. Hah. I'm too damn nice for my own good. Ready smile, eh... quality always worked better than quantity for me. One good one and all females within 50 miles are floored. Piece of cake."
He smirked in what he apparently thought was a sexy manner.
"Good taste in women's clothing, hmm… all that torturous shopping time with Meiling and the idiot sisters should count for something. There, I'm perfect for the job!! As usual!!!! Ahahahaha!!!!!"
The brunette smiled triumphantly and waved the paper. "Here I come, pansy job!"
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Syaoran listlessly shuffled through the hangers of clothing, wondering how he was supposed to arrange them. He'd collected most of the clothes piled behind in the dressing rooms and returned them to their hangers, hooking them onto the slim wood frames in whatever way managed to make them stick.
The narrow ankle-length silk skirt was a bit of a challenge- he couldn't see any way he was supposed to hang it on the inverse- "V" shaped hangers. But of course, his sharp, genius mind had quickly found a solution to the little problem. The skirt was now rolled up into a thick rope and tied into a fat knot around the metal hook of the hanger.
He'd no idea what the heck most of the garments he had handled were- he certainly could tell most pants, shirts and dresses apart, but there were some things there he hoped he'd never ever have to touch again in his life.
He shuddered.
He would have to scrub his hands hard under the tap later, and rid himself of the residual traces of utter girliness that must have infected them.
It was bad enough that he had subjected himself to an utterly humiliating interview earlier that must have made the boss-woman think he was some weak-wristed metrosexual…
He scowled, thinking back to an hour before.
"I've had… uh… an interest in fashion ever since I was young… played with you know, those gay Furby… um… Burby… dolls you can put clothes on, they were um, so fun…"
Ah crap. He thought he'd aced the interview until the boss casually asked the last question in her gentle voice- "As a male, Li-san, why are you interested in working in a shop for women's clothing?"
A small hand stifled a giggle, and large grey eyes framed with thick lashes clearly showed amusement.
"I believe they are called Barbies, Li-san. I am quite convinced that you adequately possess the basic requirements for the job, but I really think that a woman would be better suited to it. You won't only need to perform the usual duties of a retail assistant; I need someone who will also be able to give good fashion advice to our customers."
Syaoran hurriedly assured her that he was perfectly capable, waxing eloquent about his penchant for women's fashion magazines, the latest runway designs, and his sisters' clothes, barely stopping short of declaring that he was a cross-dressing drag queen.
The young woman's cellphone rang, and she looked apologetically at Syaoran.
"Moshimosh, this is Tomoyo Daidouji."
Soft black bangs brushed over white cheeks as she nodded, a concerned expression on her face.
"Yes, I did… no, no, the lace is supposed to be a creamy lavender, not the pearly shade… I think it was number 53…"
She listened intently. "No, don't do anything, I'll be coming right over."
Tomoyo turned back to the brunette and smiled. "I'm sorry, I have to leave now. Thank goodness you came when you did, will you be able to start the job right away? You can put your things in the cabinet at the back. Wear one of the gold badges with the store logo, they're in the box in the bottom shelf. I'll need you to clear out the clothes from the dressing room and return them to the racks, the hangers are in the clothes bin."
As she spoke, she walked briskly around the office, pulling sheets of colour schemes and files of elaborate ink-and-watercolour sketches from various filing cabinets.
"You'll be the only one in the store. I haven't gotten the cash machine installed yet- the loose change is in the first drawer, write out the receipts in the carbon booklet, it's in there too. Give the customer the white sheet, keep the pink one in the book. The paper bags are under the counter, wrap up the garments in the white tissue first. The tissue is stacked on the pull-out tray under the counter."
Tomoyo finished packing the papers into her monogrammed leather portfolio, and shrugged on a knee-length coat in rose pink.
"I'll be back in a couple of hours or so, we can take care of the paperwork then, and I'll bring you through everything."
She popped on an elegant little hat in the same shade as her coat, and with a smile and wave, was out of the door, leaving behind a faint flowery scent. A few seconds later, the bells on the glass doors outside tinkled.
Syaoran put his head in his hands. Shit, he was on his own now.
The bells on the glass doors to the boutique chimed again.
Funny, he thought the boss-woman had said she'd be back in two hours, and it had only been half an hour or so…
He looked up at the door, eyes widening in horror as a thin woman with a big helmet of brown hair and heavy makeup sauntered in. His first customer!
Syaoran schooled his expression into something he hoped looked vaguely welcoming and flashed a wide, enthusiastic grin at the lady, spreading his arms wide.
"WELCOME to Umeko Style Circle!"
His arms and smile froze, as the woman flicked him a disinterested glance and turned her bored gaze to the racks of clothes. Manicured fingers adorned with flashy knots of gold, jade and diamond brushed through the garments, and drew out a piece.
She looked at it for a moment, and tossed it at Syaoran, who managed to catch it before the heavy wooden hanger gave him a shiner.
She kept this up for about ten minutes, lazily making her way through the various collections, and throwing whatever caught her eye at the tall brunette.
When the woman had finally finished browsing through the whole store, a muscle was twitching under the young man's eye, which was almost obscured by the huge pile of clothes he carried in his arms.
A final bored glance around, and the woman exited the store.
Syaoran exploded.
"Shit, woman! Don't keep thanking me, I'll get embarrassed, I'm just part of the furnishings after all, right! And I expect you want me to put this whole bloody mountain back now-"
The bells at the door tinkled again, as an austere-looking elderly gentleman dressed in a suit stepped in, taking out a neat pocketbook from inside his coat. He was followed in by two young men, similarly outfitted in dark-coloured suits.
The elderly gentleman took out a gold card and gestured at the clothes in Syaoran's arms. "Madam will take all of her selections. Be quick about it."
Syaoran looked sheepishly at the clothes in his arms, and quickly dumped them onto the counter. He had forgotten that he always did that himself- having his personal assistant trail him to pay for and carry all his purchases. But the woman had no business being so rude to him, esteemed head of the Li Corporation and Li Clan and rich and handsome #1 bachelor in every women's magazine, anyway! Bitch.
The brunette ducked under the counter after going behind it, and found the stacks of glossy paper bags, and pulled out a few of the largest he could find, as well as the receipt book Tomoyo had told him about earlier.
"Ah… five silk blouses, 37,500 yen… seven scarves: two cashmere, two organza, crushed silk, beaded, leopard-print, that will be 31,776 yen, one faux ermine coat, 77,820…" Syaoran grabbed the tags on the garments, glancing at the description and price and scribbling them down in the thick booklet, punching away at the calculator on the table as he went along. The hangers were thrown in a basket under the counter.
When he was done, the bill spanned seven pages.
"Ehh, 466,920 yen."
Syaoran bundled up the woman's purchases into several big wads, stuffing them unceremoniously into each bag, and pushed the lot across the counter when he was done.
The elderly gentleman looked disgusted, and even more so when told that credit cards were not accepted. (More like, Syaoran didn't know how the hell to use the card-swiping device sitting on the counter; he surreptitiously leaned on the counter and nudged it out of sight) A thick wad of bills were dropped onto the table, and without bothering to wait for his change, the bags were gathered up and the men marched out.
Almost immediately, another customer flounced in.
"To-mo-yooo!!! How is business today?"
The young woman had bright green eyes and auburn hair that hung in gentle waves to her shoulders, pinned back at the sides with pearl barrettes. She wore a sweet white and pink-trimmed dress that billowed softly from the wind behind her.
Her enormous eyes widened comically when they spotted Syaoran, and she let loose an unholy shriek.
"BURGLAAAAARR!!!! HELP HELP! BURGLAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!"
She rushed forward to the counter where Syaoran stood, counting a thick stack of money in his hands, and swung her pink handbag wildly at his head.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO TOMOYO! DON'T THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH IT!"
She continued to batter his head with her silver-tipped purse, as Syaoran, terrified by the screaming whirlwind of pain-giving pink and white, tried to duck behind the counter.
"I'm the shop assistant! The SHOP ASSISTANT DAMMIT!!!!"
The pink bag sailed through the air, hit the wall behind Syaoran with a soft "bop" and fell to the floor.
"Kehhh?"
Two huge eyes appeared over the counter and stared down at him.
Syaoran glared back for all it was worth, pretending he wasn't crouching on the floor and holding on to a clothes basket for protection.
The green eyes slowly made their way down to his chest, where the gold badge reading "STYLE ADVISOR" was pinned.
"Eep."
The brunette exploded.
"'Eep?' 'EEP'? That's all you can say, you stupid woman!? I almost got a bloody concussion from your retarded loser Hello-"
His eyes dropped to where her bag was lying forlornly on the ground, the embroidered Hello Kitty on the front trailing a few loose whiskers.
"Hello Kitty!? Oh my god, woman, have you missed a few crucial steps in your formative years? Are you mentally challenged? Because, you know, I'm willing to overlook this little matter of your attacking a perfectly innocent shop employee, minding his own bloody business, and giving him a bloody almost-concussion, if you are indeed retarded and can't help your brainless, violent, behaviour!"
The big green eyes still staring over the counter in an expression of frozen horror started to blink rapidly, filling up with tears that threatened to spill over, eyebrows drawn together over them in a pitiful puppy-dog look…
"Ah shitttt… okay okay I was wrong, don't cry, please don't cry, dammit…"
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And this was how Syaoran found himself a half-hour later in the tiny pantry with the brain-challenged girl (whose name, he found out, was Sakura), munching on chocolate-chip cookies and drinking cold milk from matching pink Piglet cups. The wastebasket was filled with soiled tissues, and the taps in her head had, thankfully, run out of liquid.
"I'm really really really sorry about that, really, I'll get Tomoyo to give you the rest of the day off, so you can see the doctor about those bruises, okay? Are you sure you don't want me to do something about them for you? I'm really quite nifty with this sort of stuff, really."
Syaoran winced quite visibly. Like he would let that little terror get her hands on him. If she wasn't a girl, he'd have kicked her sorry little butt all the way to Langkawi, then dragged it back so he could do it a few more times. But, unfortunately, Meiling had taught him (the hard way) never to lay a hand on the weaker (snort) sex. Moreover, if she tried to cry again, gods… terrifying…
"Nah, it's nothing. I've had much worse than this before." (Some male posturing was, of course, necessary to make up for the earlier embarrassment, though Syaoran would never had admitted it to himself)
"Then would you like another cookie?" She smiled broadly, dipped hers in her milk, and shoved it into her mouth. "Mmm, never fails to cheer me up. Thank goodness I got Tomoyo to stock up for when I visit. The sugar rush, you know! Always makes me a little bit hyper!"
She flashed him another crumbly grin.
"You know, Tomoyo and I have been best friends for ages and ages! We went to school together! She used to design all sorts of pretty clothes for me, and I told her, I think you really should set up a shop, your stuff's really good, and she really did! How cool is that! So now I'm half an owner of the shop, I don't do anything much, I just model the clothes she makes for photos and stuff, you know for the advertisements, she does everything else.
"Anyway, where do you come from? I don't recall seeing you around before, and I know almost everyone in this town, Tomoeda's pretty small after all, right? Ahh! Let me guess let me guess! Don't tell me the answer! I'm sure I'll get it right!"
Syaoran sighed, and started to sink down in his chair.
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A/N: No, Sakura's not like that normally, sweets just make her hyper.
Not done with torturing Syaoran yet. He's gonna get much worse than one rude customer and one lunatic Sakura, of course.
Again, please review! )