Author's Notes:
This idea stemmed from the fact that I really wanted to do another Sora/Riku fic. And I also wanted to write a fic about what I know, and the best thing I know (as of now) is working in a bookstore. Here, is the drama that can follow working in a mall.
Disclaimers: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.
Gravity
Chapter One: When I was darkness out of time
By Chibi Michi
The natural force of attraction between any two massive bodies, which is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
It was official. Riku Kabik was bored. When you start looking up words in the dictionary, its time to just hang yourself above Self Help. The best part is: his shift had just started.
"Riku, are you reading the dictionary again?"
Riku looked up and focused his aquamarine eyes on the keyholder on duty, Cloud Strife. Riku turned back to his dictionary and closed it. "I was just looking up some words. It's a Monday, no one is here," said Riku, "I could be home catching up on some well-deserved sleep."
Cloud walked towards the PC and checked the traffic report. $534.45. That was all they made today and it was now 6:00 pm. "Man, if Leon don't hurry up off his break I'm leaving you here," muttered Cloud.
Riku shrugged. "You can go. I doubt I'll have a line."
Cloud grinned, "You never know. You could have a line all the way down to cooking when I leave," he teased. Cooking was about 12 feet away from the register.
Riku sent a glare at Cloud and rapped his knuckles against the wood. "Knock on wood. Don't jinx it Cloud!"
The door chime for the backroom sounded, signaling the emersion of an employee. Cloud and Riku both looked to see Leon making his way to the counter. A cup of coffee in his hand, left over from his dinner. Leon walked behind the counter and set his cup down.
"Alright, I am gone!" announced Cloud as he threw off his nametag and walked into the office where his coat was. A couple minutes later Cloud walked back up and waved goodbye to the two. "See ya!"
Riku sighed. "See ya." Personally, Riku preferred to close with Cloud. Leon was too…quiet. He never spoke to Riku unless absolutely necessary and he left him stranded at the register, which he absolutely hated.
Leon turned to Riku. "I'm going to scan Audio. Afterwards, you can shelve the rest of True Crime." With that, Leon left Riku to watch the front. Riku decided that the dictionary wasn't all that entertaining. So he decided to skim the trashy celebrity magazines at the magazine rack.
"Britney pregnant again…Nick and Jessica have a rendezvous again…Nicole and Keith are married…"
Riku would have kept reading off the stories except a customer came up to him. "Um…do you work here?" she asked hesitantly.
Riku refrained from rolling his eyes. No I just wear the nametag as a fashion statement. Riku put on a fake smile, "Yes." Tidus is right; working here is making me bitter.
The customer stumbled through her question; "Well…there was this book I heard on the radio. Uh shoot…I left the paper I wrote it on in the car. Um…it's by this famous doctor on how to improve your health….I think."
Riku stared at her blankly. No author. No title. Did she think he was psychic or something?
The customer smiled, "Oh! I believe it has a green cover."
Yeah, let me just take you to the section that has all our green covered books. "I would not be able to locate the book without a title or an author. Maybe if you look it up online where you can see the picture, just call us and we will check our computer."
"Can't you do a keyword search for the title?" pressed the customer.
In order to do a keyword search I would need some keywords. "Not if I don't know any of the title," replied Riku. Dumbass.
Defeated, the customer moved towards the medical section, mumbling "thanks" to Riku. Riku grabbed a music magazine and settled behind the register. Like I know what the hell your talking about lady.
Riku was completely engrossed with his magazine, silently wishing he had enough money saved to buy him a guitar. It really sucked to live paycheck to paycheck. Whenever he said this to his mom she would just respond with, "This is why you go to school, so you can get a salary."
That future salary wasn't helping him right now though. You can't take future salaries to a music store.
"Um…excuse me?"
Riku sighed, wishing that he could just get paid to stand there and read the merchandise. He didn't move his head but lifted his eyes to see who was in front of the counter. His eyes widened slightly at the sight before him. It was the feeblest boy he had ever seen. He had wild brown hair, worse then Cloud's, and the clearest sky blue eyes; everything about this boy screamed effeminacy.
Riku found his words quickly. "Yes?"
"I was wondering…are you hiring?"
Riku straightened. "Yes. How old are you?" he asked. Eighteen was the age you had to be to work here. There was no way he was…
"I will turn eighteen in a few weeks."
Riku raised an eyebrow. No way. Riku was this close to demanding to see ID from this kid. Riku shrugged it off and grabbed an application for him. "Here." Riku handed the four-page application to him, then went back to his magazine.
"Ah…do you have a pen?" he asked.
Riku nodded and handed him a pen. The boy turned and went to sit in one of the chairs. He continued to flip through his magazine. He didn't look up until he heard the squeal of wheels.
"That cart is annoying," commented Riku. Much like the customers.
Leon nodded, and stopped in front of Riku's register. He looked over to where the brown haired kid was filling out an application. "Is he eighteen?" he questioned.
Riku nodded. "Yup, in a few weeks." Riku glanced at the boy. "He looks more like jailbait if you ask me."
Leon raised an eyebrow at him. He didn't say a word, and continued to wheel the cart of audio returns into the backroom. After a few moments, he came back out and stood behind the counter with Riku. He grabbed his coffee and took a sip. As he set the coffee back down, he spoke. "Go shelve True Crime."
Riku nodded, and closed his magazine. He walked over back to the magazine rack and placed it back where it belongs. He then walked in the back room and placed the True Crime books on a handcart and rolled the cart out into the store and went over to the section. Of course, as soon as he went over to the section, he noticed several books out of place.
"Son of a…"
Riku sighed angrily; he knelt down and began straightening the section. Riku was completely oblivious to the rest of the store till he felt a presence beside him. Riku turned to his right side and saw the feeble boy placing books back slowly.
I guess he felt Riku's eyes on him, so he spoke, "Looks like someone left these book by the chair," he said quietly. His voice had a childish tone to it. Riku could imagine his lips forming into pouts when he didn't get his way.
"Thanks," responded Riku. It wasn't everyday that someone actually put books back. That was about as common as when a kid comes in, destroys a book, and the parent actually pays for it.
Riku watched as he put away the last book and then the kid stood and straightened. It was then that Riku noticed how slender the boy was. Riku was wondering if he was…
"Should I turn in my application at the counter?" he asked, interrupting Riku's train of thought.
Riku nodded. "Yeah, just hand it to Leon."
He nodded in response to Riku and turned towards the chair and grabbed his application.
"We usually hold applications for about a year," stated Riku as he shelved his handcart. Riku heard the kid walk up to Leon and turning his application in. He even heard the "thanks" the kid muttered to Leon. Of course, Leon didn't say anything. The most he probably did was nod.
Riku straightened and watched as the kid walked out of the store. Riku returned to shelving. Once finished, he returned the handcart to the backroom and then resumed his position behind the counter.
As Leon knelt down to open and counts the safe, Riku looked at the back counter and saw the kid's application. He scanned over the name.
Sora Brenbrook.
…………………………………………….
End of Chapter One.
I know it's short but I wanted to get the basic idea out. If anyone has any suggestions for this fic (mostly if anyone has Retail horror stories) I might put them in here (giving you credit of course).
