Chapter 3 Home With Aya
"Hello, ladies!" I called to our fan club as I grabbed an apron to take over Ken's shift. A collective squeal was heard throughout the assembly.
"Oh man, is it just me or are they referring us to their friends?" Ken whispered to me as he pulled off his flower shop gear.
I laughed and leaned on his shoulder. "Eh, you get used to 'em."
"Which reminds me!" Ken suddenly pulled away, grabbing his soccer bag from the ground. "You have a shift with Aya today. It's his first time around the, uh.." He motioned to the girls, at a lost for a good collective noun.
"Oh, I'm sure they'll love him," I said as Ken pulled on his sneakers.
"That's what I'm afraid of!" He called to me as he got up to leave the shop.
I laughed. "Ja ne!" He waved to me and was on his way to the park. I sighed and looked around the shop to see what had to be done first. There were about five minutes before Aya's shift officially started so I figured I'd let the girls know what to expect.
"Well, ladies, I have a special surprise for you today," I said to them, leaning on the counter by the cash register. There was a collective whisper among the crowd.
"What's the surprise, Yohji-san?" One girl in a high school uniform called out.
"Let's play a game. I'll let you guess," I said, winking at her.
"You're finally single?" A girl from the back of the crowd called out to me.
"Oh, I'm never completely single."
"Has Omi-kun broken up with his girlfriend?" Another shot in the dark. I briefly wondered where that came from seeing as Omi most definitely did not have a girlfriend. Unless the chibi has been keeping something from me. I raised an eyebrow in my contemplation.
"No," I finally answered. "That's not the surprise."
"Hmm," said a middle school girl that stood near me and tapped her chin. "Have you gotten a new worker?"
"Bingo!" I said, smiling at her. Yet another collective whisper and a few squeals broke out amongst the girls. "And you'll get to meet dear Aya in just a few minutes."
The girls suddenly all looked up at me with perhaps the most serious faces I've ever seen on them. "A girl!?" One called and almost fainted.
"Yohji-san, tell us it's not true!"
I laughed. Wow, did I laugh! Well, you can't blame them for thinking that Aya was a girl, but still. The irony! They all looked at me as if I had just fallen through the roof, wondering what I could possibly be finding so amusing.
Before I had a chance to object, all the girls suddenly fell into a stunned silence. I looked up to see what had caught their attention and saw Aya gracefully descending the stairs into the flower shop.
"This is Aya, ladies!" I said, gesturing towards the bitter redhead. A united gasp was heard throughout the shop. Perhaps even a few of the girls collapsed. Oh yea, Aya was crowd-pleaser if I ever saw one.
"Aya," I said, looking up at him, "the ladies." I gestured to the girls.
"Are these all customers?" He turned to me as he pulled an apron over his head.
"Not quite," I responded, "more like.. admirers."
"Hn," he said to me and then turned to face the girls. "If you're not going to buy anything, leave!" And so began the infamous 'buy something or get out' speech.
"Ah, he's so mysterious!" Someone from the back of the shop commented.
"And gorgeous, too!" Her friend added.
"I knew they'd love you," I said to Aya as I flipped through the arrangement orders that Ken left behind for us.
"How long do they usually stay?" He seemed to only be interested in getting rid of the fan club.
"For a while before school and for an hour or two after," I replied and handed him the orders. "If you want, I'll take care of the walk-ins and you can do the arrangements."
"I've never done arrangements before," Aya confessed, looking down at the orders in his hands.
"Believe me, it's a piece of cake. Just get the flowers they asked for, de-thorn the roses," I paused for a second. "Aya, please do not leave the thorns as some sort of vengeance."
He glared at me. "What if I run out of a certain type of flower?"
"There's plenty in the back in our little makeshift garden. After you're done getting the right kinds, just tie a pink ribbon around it or something cute like that. You'll have a hang of it by the end of the day," I assured him and took my spot behind the register.
My day was perfectly average. Even with the new recruit, nothing noteworthy happened at the shop. I was; however, interviewed by several mesmerized school girls about the enigmatic redhead. I told them that I know as much as they do, and they oh-ed and ah-ed all over him.
Aya, as predicted, got the hang of the arrangements in no time. He seemed to actually have a natural flare for them. As a matter of fact, Aya seemed like the kind of person who had a natural flare for just about everything. We've all seen him wield that katana around, and that takes a certain amount of skill. Besides, the way he moved around the shop, or anywhere for that matter, seemed to be graceful and fluid enough for a dancer. I found myself eager to see how he'd handle his first mission.
As I was later to find, Aya is also somewhat of an intellectual. After we closed up the shop for the day, he seemed to have disappeared. I was planning on making up for the stupid way I acted the night before, but I couldn't find him anywhere so I settled to see him in the morning. Instead, I decided that I'll let the TV lull me to sleep tonight.
I waltzed into the living room and, surprise surprise, there sat the mysterious Aya himself, on the couch.. reading.
"Always the last place ya' look," I said as I plopped down on the couch next to him.
"Hn," he replied and shifted his feet underneath him at the added discomfort of me taking up his space.
"What'cha reading?" I looked over his shoulder but got no actual response. Not even a "hn". He just moved the cover of the book into my view so I could read the title, his eyes not leaving his current sentence. I didn't bother seeing what it was. I didn't ask for the title just to know the title.
Now this part is where you'll start seriously thinking I'm crazy, but this is my story and I don't care how crazy I sound. Anyway, I looked over at Aya and he kind of reminded me of home. Not my home, Kami no. I mean just your average mom, dad, and 2.5 kids home. A small lamp served to shed some light on him and his book as it ignored everything else in the room, leaving him illuminated in his little corner. He had his legs tucked under him, and his head rested on the back of the couch, and he had that 'there is nothing in the world but this book' look on his face. It just made me think that back when he was normal, back before Weiss, he had the perfect little family with the perfect little house.
"Well, I hope you don't mind some background noise," I said and stretched out on the remainder of the couch not yet occupied. I pulled the remote from under my ass where it seems to always be when I need it and flipped on the TV. I kept the volume low as not to disturb Aya's reading, but I doubt that if the volume had been at full blast would he even look up from his book.
I surfed through the channels, but everything bored me. I eventually settled on an old detective show. I got a kick out of those. They always managed to get it all backwards.
After about an hour of being the mindless television zombie I'm so good at portraying, I felt something touch my shoulder. I looked up and saw that Aya had fallen asleep with his book settled comfortably on his stomach. Wherever he kept his hand before, it slid down to my shoulder, unconsciously, against his will. I was about to wake him up when I suddenly felt very languid. I didn't want to get up, or move for that matter. It felt kind of.. calming, there on the couch.
In fact, before I knew it, my eyelids took more and more time opening and closing with each blink until it became too much of a chore to keep them up.
"Hello, ladies!" I called to our fan club as I grabbed an apron to take over Ken's shift. A collective squeal was heard throughout the assembly.
"Oh man, is it just me or are they referring us to their friends?" Ken whispered to me as he pulled off his flower shop gear.
I laughed and leaned on his shoulder. "Eh, you get used to 'em."
"Which reminds me!" Ken suddenly pulled away, grabbing his soccer bag from the ground. "You have a shift with Aya today. It's his first time around the, uh.." He motioned to the girls, at a lost for a good collective noun.
"Oh, I'm sure they'll love him," I said as Ken pulled on his sneakers.
"That's what I'm afraid of!" He called to me as he got up to leave the shop.
I laughed. "Ja ne!" He waved to me and was on his way to the park. I sighed and looked around the shop to see what had to be done first. There were about five minutes before Aya's shift officially started so I figured I'd let the girls know what to expect.
"Well, ladies, I have a special surprise for you today," I said to them, leaning on the counter by the cash register. There was a collective whisper among the crowd.
"What's the surprise, Yohji-san?" One girl in a high school uniform called out.
"Let's play a game. I'll let you guess," I said, winking at her.
"You're finally single?" A girl from the back of the crowd called out to me.
"Oh, I'm never completely single."
"Has Omi-kun broken up with his girlfriend?" Another shot in the dark. I briefly wondered where that came from seeing as Omi most definitely did not have a girlfriend. Unless the chibi has been keeping something from me. I raised an eyebrow in my contemplation.
"No," I finally answered. "That's not the surprise."
"Hmm," said a middle school girl that stood near me and tapped her chin. "Have you gotten a new worker?"
"Bingo!" I said, smiling at her. Yet another collective whisper and a few squeals broke out amongst the girls. "And you'll get to meet dear Aya in just a few minutes."
The girls suddenly all looked up at me with perhaps the most serious faces I've ever seen on them. "A girl!?" One called and almost fainted.
"Yohji-san, tell us it's not true!"
I laughed. Wow, did I laugh! Well, you can't blame them for thinking that Aya was a girl, but still. The irony! They all looked at me as if I had just fallen through the roof, wondering what I could possibly be finding so amusing.
Before I had a chance to object, all the girls suddenly fell into a stunned silence. I looked up to see what had caught their attention and saw Aya gracefully descending the stairs into the flower shop.
"This is Aya, ladies!" I said, gesturing towards the bitter redhead. A united gasp was heard throughout the shop. Perhaps even a few of the girls collapsed. Oh yea, Aya was crowd-pleaser if I ever saw one.
"Aya," I said, looking up at him, "the ladies." I gestured to the girls.
"Are these all customers?" He turned to me as he pulled an apron over his head.
"Not quite," I responded, "more like.. admirers."
"Hn," he said to me and then turned to face the girls. "If you're not going to buy anything, leave!" And so began the infamous 'buy something or get out' speech.
"Ah, he's so mysterious!" Someone from the back of the shop commented.
"And gorgeous, too!" Her friend added.
"I knew they'd love you," I said to Aya as I flipped through the arrangement orders that Ken left behind for us.
"How long do they usually stay?" He seemed to only be interested in getting rid of the fan club.
"For a while before school and for an hour or two after," I replied and handed him the orders. "If you want, I'll take care of the walk-ins and you can do the arrangements."
"I've never done arrangements before," Aya confessed, looking down at the orders in his hands.
"Believe me, it's a piece of cake. Just get the flowers they asked for, de-thorn the roses," I paused for a second. "Aya, please do not leave the thorns as some sort of vengeance."
He glared at me. "What if I run out of a certain type of flower?"
"There's plenty in the back in our little makeshift garden. After you're done getting the right kinds, just tie a pink ribbon around it or something cute like that. You'll have a hang of it by the end of the day," I assured him and took my spot behind the register.
My day was perfectly average. Even with the new recruit, nothing noteworthy happened at the shop. I was; however, interviewed by several mesmerized school girls about the enigmatic redhead. I told them that I know as much as they do, and they oh-ed and ah-ed all over him.
Aya, as predicted, got the hang of the arrangements in no time. He seemed to actually have a natural flare for them. As a matter of fact, Aya seemed like the kind of person who had a natural flare for just about everything. We've all seen him wield that katana around, and that takes a certain amount of skill. Besides, the way he moved around the shop, or anywhere for that matter, seemed to be graceful and fluid enough for a dancer. I found myself eager to see how he'd handle his first mission.
As I was later to find, Aya is also somewhat of an intellectual. After we closed up the shop for the day, he seemed to have disappeared. I was planning on making up for the stupid way I acted the night before, but I couldn't find him anywhere so I settled to see him in the morning. Instead, I decided that I'll let the TV lull me to sleep tonight.
I waltzed into the living room and, surprise surprise, there sat the mysterious Aya himself, on the couch.. reading.
"Always the last place ya' look," I said as I plopped down on the couch next to him.
"Hn," he replied and shifted his feet underneath him at the added discomfort of me taking up his space.
"What'cha reading?" I looked over his shoulder but got no actual response. Not even a "hn". He just moved the cover of the book into my view so I could read the title, his eyes not leaving his current sentence. I didn't bother seeing what it was. I didn't ask for the title just to know the title.
Now this part is where you'll start seriously thinking I'm crazy, but this is my story and I don't care how crazy I sound. Anyway, I looked over at Aya and he kind of reminded me of home. Not my home, Kami no. I mean just your average mom, dad, and 2.5 kids home. A small lamp served to shed some light on him and his book as it ignored everything else in the room, leaving him illuminated in his little corner. He had his legs tucked under him, and his head rested on the back of the couch, and he had that 'there is nothing in the world but this book' look on his face. It just made me think that back when he was normal, back before Weiss, he had the perfect little family with the perfect little house.
"Well, I hope you don't mind some background noise," I said and stretched out on the remainder of the couch not yet occupied. I pulled the remote from under my ass where it seems to always be when I need it and flipped on the TV. I kept the volume low as not to disturb Aya's reading, but I doubt that if the volume had been at full blast would he even look up from his book.
I surfed through the channels, but everything bored me. I eventually settled on an old detective show. I got a kick out of those. They always managed to get it all backwards.
After about an hour of being the mindless television zombie I'm so good at portraying, I felt something touch my shoulder. I looked up and saw that Aya had fallen asleep with his book settled comfortably on his stomach. Wherever he kept his hand before, it slid down to my shoulder, unconsciously, against his will. I was about to wake him up when I suddenly felt very languid. I didn't want to get up, or move for that matter. It felt kind of.. calming, there on the couch.
In fact, before I knew it, my eyelids took more and more time opening and closing with each blink until it became too much of a chore to keep them up.