Jirou checked the large wall clock above the door. 6:15. In 45 minutes Echizen would be joining him. "Heh heh" he chuckled to himself inaudibly as he thought up more clever remarks to try on the shorty. He turned to start stocking shelves of dog food when the store manager approached him and shouted, "Oy, Jirou!"
"Oh, hello Mizuki-san."
"Hey, I need you to train this noob..."
Trying to hide his enthusiasm, Jirou smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I can do that."
Before long, a dark-haired punk with a white baseball cap strolled in. 'well well,' thought Jirou, 'Mr. Short, Dark, and Handsome is 10 minutes late to work.' However, he decided against pointing that out and instead blurted, "Oy! Echizen! Guess what? I'm training you tonight!"
Ryoma was taken by suprise at the enthusiasm, "Uhh... okay."
"Well," fumbled Jirou, "Mizuki-san was going to, but he had to skip out on some urgent business."
"Urgent business, huh?" Judging by what he knew of Mizuki from playing tennis against him, Ryoma decided it was highly suspicious.
"Yeah," Muttered Jirou, "urgent business. What do you supposed that is?"
They both looked at each other with the same thought and burst out laughing.
"Haha! I'll bet he has a girlfriend! Let's check the caller ID!"
Rushing over to the front desk, the two gathered around a small, white box.
"Hmm... lets see... Petco called earlier about some parrots... at 4:30... Fishworld called and complained about some tanks... at 5:16..."
'wow,' thought ryoma, 'this can hardly be considered training for work.' but in any case, he was highly amused, so he kept quiet.
"Ahh!!! Here we go! Personal calls!"
Ryoma glanced at the caller ID which read, "Akutagawa, Michiko" Suddenly Jirou blushed and said, "Oh, my mom called earlier." He quickly pressed next.
"Atobe, Keigo"
Jirou busted up. "Atobe-buchou?! Haha"
"I wonder, why would he call here?" pondered Ryoma
"Oh," Explained Jirou, "He has a pet cat that's sick all the time. He always calls about the latest dietary supplements and whatnot."
"Ahh."
Jirou pressed next as the two of them hovered over the small box, anxiously awaiting the name of Mizuki's hot date. After a few seconds nothing happened, so Jirou pressed the next button again.
Ryoma stared wide eyed.
"Oh..." Whispered Jirou slowly, "I guess that was the last call."
The two friends stared at each other in disbelief.
"I think," said Jirou, "that the first thing to do is to find out if Atobe really has a cat!"
Ryoma nodded, but reminded him, "Hey, how about that training?"
"Right," Jirou checked the clock. 7:45. They wasted 45 minutes, but there was still plenty of time.
They stepped into a large room with several cages. It was heated far above room temperature and had a thermometer on the wall that read 88 degrees farenheit. Several exotic birds filled the room. Most of the smaller ones inside the cages, the larger ones just roaming about freely. "We generally refer to this room as 'the aviary'" Jirou proceeded to explain, "Though many of us just refer to it as 'the sweat shack.'" Ryoma grunted in agreement. Jirou scanned the store, then said, "If there's no customers in the store, we're allowed to take off our work aprons and shirts when cleaning the aviary." Ryoma nodded, and the two of them piled up their clothing outside the door. For the first time, Ryoma noticed Jirou's build. It was very sleek, he was a pretty skinny kid. 'After seeing speed like his, I shouldn't be this suprised.' thought Ryoma, as he then dismissed the idea and concentrated on the task at hand.
Meanwhile, Eiji was walking down the street, in one of his quiet sentimental moods. He always set out with no particular destination, but somehow always ended up at the same spot. He felt free that way. After all, maybe that's how it was supposed to be? He liked pondering stuff like that.
Quietly, he entered his favorite pet store, and went straight to the turtles. Of course, he had named them all, but neither ginji nor hiroshi seemed to be up to fighting; more like napping. So he slipped over to the tropical fish section. They'd gotten a new shipment of angelfish. He kinda regretted that Oishi wasn't there to see them. He smiled: Oishi would have to come along one of these days. He'd like it here.
Jirou was plenty busy teaching Ryoma about cleaning parrot cages.
"These are lovebirds: see how they kiss?"
Ryoma nodded.
"The chaff at the bottom will blow away with just a little wind, but the seeds are heavy enough to stay in place. You blow it, like this, watch:"
Jirou took a deep breath and proceeded to blow all the chaff from the cage.
"Okay, now its your turn."
"Allright" agreed Ryoma, "But remember, I've never done this before, so don't make fun of me okay?"
"Haha, no worries!" Jirou reassured.
Ryoma drew a deep breath and blew. Nothing happened.
"No, no... that's all wrong. Your face isn't close enough."
Ryoma drew another breath and tried again. The chaff barely even stirred from the bottom of the cage.
"That's better, but don't be afraid to blow harder."
Ryoma blushed slightly at the inuendo, but when he saw Jirou's face, he decided the implication had been completely on accident. He drew a deep breath, and tried once more. This time, all the excess chaff flew away.
"Now, that's what i like to see!" Laughed Jirou.
Eiji decided that he would go try and make the parrots talk to him. It was fun, cause sometimes they repeated noises that they heard a lot. One of the cockatiels made the sound of a vacuum cleaner. It was hilarious. One of the conures even swore. It was amusing. He strolled over to the door, but stopped as he heard voices. 'That's Chibi!!!' he realized. He started to listen in on what he could hear of the conversation. He recognized Jirou's voice as well.
"...lovebirds. See how they kiss?"
Eiji froze. 'Okay... that's weird.' His brain told him. Then he told his brain not to jump to conclusions.
"You blow it. Like this. Watch:"
Eiji gulped as he realized there was a large pile of clothing outside the door to the aviary.
"...remember I've never done this before, so don't make fun of me, okay?"
Eiji started to hyperventilate. This was so much more than he could take in one day. First he ran out of toothpaste, now this. He thought he might go into shock.
"no, no that's all wrong. your face isn't close enough."
He pinched himself. now he knew he was in shock.
"don't be afraid to blow harder..."
Eiji nearly hiccuped in suprise. How disturbing! Then, 'oh crap!!! what if they see me here?!' Eiji took a step back. Then another. And another. When he was at the entrance of the store, he turned, and ran away as fast as he possibly could, yelling words of nonsense at passers-by.
Upon returning home, Eiji refused dinner and went straight to the bubble bath. All through practice next week, no one, including Echizen himself, could figure out why he was mumbling about Chibi being so young, and something about hyotei and pet stores.