Author's Note: I'm bored. Here's the next chapter. Two in a day, you should all feel special. However, due to the sad lack of interest in the ficcy, I'm probably not going to update again for a while. (By awhile I mean two days, I like writting this story)Also, I forgot the disclaimer on the other chapters. Please don't sue.
Just to clarify though, I have no idea what running a store or being homeless is like, I just write what I think would happen in my idealistic situation here. Tell me if Inuyasha is too OOC in this chapter. I think he is. Yes, hobo phobia is real; it was on a list of phobias that we obtained in French class a few weeks ago. Oh fun times. R&R!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. (x4)
Bread Crumbs
Chapter 4: Bowl of Ramen
Inuyasha was whistling when he walked into Higurashi's General Store. It was a little warmer out now that the sun had reached its zenith, and he was thankful that Kikyo had his sweater. She got chilled easily. The bells jingled when he entered the store, which had a considerably larger amount of customers than when he had previously been there.
His eyes searched for Kagome in the crowd. She was at the cash register, servicing a long line of customers with heavy arms full of purchases. Sensing that Kagome had no time for him at the moment, he moved to the back to wait. The clock about the front door read 10 minutes to 12. He wasn't late.
For the next hour he busied himself with straightening up the shelves. The morning rush had made a mess of the place. The soup cans were in piles, penny candy was all mixed up soft drinks were under wrong labels, the magazine staff was beyond recognition. So wrapped up in his work he was that he didn't notice all the customers had left and Kagome was staring at him as he reorganized the book rack.
"So you came?" she stated, sounding surprised.
"Of course I came. You think I'd blow off three meals and a pay check? Keh, I'm not stupid." He went to the counter where she sat. It didn't look like she had moved since this morning. "I've been here since noon, straightening the shelves."
"I noticed." She said flippantly. "Thanks a lot, lunch-time rush hour always makes a mess." She took on a more serious tone. "Ok, now that you're working for me, we have to go over a few things."
He nodded.
"Number on, you tell people I give you free food and you're gone. Number two, I am not hiring any of our friends. Don't give me that look; I'm not hiring random lowlifes whom I barely know. You're an exception and only because your so skinny. Number three, you're working 10am to 5pm, weekdays only. The store is closed on Sundays. Meals are at 11, 1 and 5. Any questions?"
Ya, why are you so paranoid about hiring homeless people? Was what he wanted to ask, but Inuyasha kept quiet. He shook his head, absently wondering if she was hobo phobic and if she would freak out if he poked her. He almost laughed at the mental image. Wait till Kikyo heard about this chick. She had the aura of a cranky middle aged woman, but she couldn't be any older than 25.
"Ok I know I seem like a complete bitch…" he smirked. She hit the nail right on the nose. "…but I have this thing about hiring people. While you work here, you will assist customers, stock products and help clean, so familiarize yourself with my store. I'm setting your salary at 10$ an hour, but that can be change fairly easily. I can pay you whenever, end of the day or end of the week."
His mouth dropped. 10$ an hour? That was more than he had ever made before. If he worked until 5 tonight, that would be enough money to buy meal for Kikyo for tomorrow and a new sweater for both of them! Kagome must have seen the look on his face, because she laughed.
"I'm the only other person who works here, so I figured it was time to be generous. However, it can change, you've been warned." She said gravely.
"So that's it? No fellow 3rd class citizens in your presence and I work as your janitor for a ridiculously overblown wage?" This definitely seemed too good to be true.
"Well I wouldn't put it like that, but that's basically it." She laughed. She probably thought he was so quaint. Inuyasha would have minded if he wasn't getting paid for being quaint. He gave no response for he was stunned into silence.
"You can calm down now." She said sarcastically. He shook himself back to being able to feel.
"Thank you so much. It's more than I can ever imagine. Where do you want me to start?" He was eager to start working, wanting to feel like he was doing something.
Kagome's blue eyes were full of some unreadable emotion that he hadn't noticed before and couldn't place. She was staring at him funny. He raised an eyebrow. She snapped out of it. "We got a new shipment of coffee beans in this morning. I need you to put price tags on all of them and then move what you can onto the shelves and take off what's there now. Everything you need is in the back room, Got it?"
He nodded. "Ya. Thanks a lot Kagome, for this job I mean. It's really going to help out."
"Your welcome, I'll bring your supper around at 4:30 ok?" She had a smile on her face. It blatantly showing the good feeling she was getting for helping out the needy.
He nodded again and took the key to the back room from Kagome. A few more words of advice later and he was off to work. In the back room he found an entire wall in the back room was staked with canned goods. About a quarter of it were canned coffee beans. On a little table was a pile of orange price stickers, the bright color blaring the $4.99 price at him. The room smelt good, a warm aroma of coffee, cigarettes and new books.
The job was harder than he anticipated. All the coffee had been stacked on top of each other, hindering his ability to price all of them at once. As a result, he had to move around the cans so that he could reach all of them. Before he knew it, all the cans had nice neat stickers on them and Kagome was standing in the door way with a thermos and a cup of steaming coffee.
"I brought you dinner." She said quietly, setting the thermos and water bottle on the table net to the pile of empty sticker paper. He looked up. His stomach growled at the sight of food and he all but jumped to the table. He opened the thermos and was greeted with the beautiful sight of ravioli noodles covered with a savoury red tomato sauce.
"Pasta…" he whispered. It had been so long since he had eaten pasta. At the back of his mind he recalled that Kikyo loved pasta. He definitely had to bring some of it back for her.
Startled at his hesitancy to eat, Kagome curiously asked him if he didn't like pasta.
"No. I think pasta's great. It's just been so long since I ate some that I almost forgot what they looked like." He spoke quietly. "May I take some of this back with me?" he asked her.
She shrugged. "I don't see why not. That is my only thermos though, so you can buy your own and take it home."
He smiled. "Thanks." No more words were said for Inuyasha was reacquainting himself with his long lost friend, dinner. Kagome smiled at him and left for the front of the store. Luckily she had made a large pot of pasta the other day and saved the leftovers. At the counter, she played with a lock of hair as she wondered what she was going to feed him with for the rest of the week.
The final hour of Inuyasha's first day of work passed by uneventfully. Once he had finished with the coffee beans, Kagome put him to work sweeping the floor. At 5 sharp he put away the broom and went to the counter with a small armload of things he had amassed for purchasing through out the day.
He waited in the line of customers for his turn. When he was up front, he placed the thermos (already filled with the pasta he saved for Kikyo), a bottle of water, two cinnamon buns, a box of matches, a pair of chocolate bars and a small metal garbage can on the counter in front of Kagome. She was looking at him strangely again as she scanned each item.
The amount came up to a little over half his day's earnings. Double checking the amount on his paper, he handed it to Kagome. He had written down the name and price (tax included) of each item he had bought, the total is would have cost him and what he should left have left over of his earnings.
"Can you deduct this from the money I earned today and then pay me what I have left over at the end of the week?" he asked.
"Of course." Kagome told him. He nodded and gathered everything into the garbage can. "Your handwriting is incredibly good by the way." She told him, a little surprised. Who knew that someone like him would have handwriting this neat and clear?
"Sure." He said a little unsure of what to do. "Well, I'm going to go now. See you tomorrow at 10." With that he turned around, garbage can in his arms and left the store.
Kagome smiled and waved after him. Overall she had been please with his performance. She sighed with relief when the door shut behind him. That anti-feeling of belonging had stayed away the whole time he was here. It was possible that this was the one employee that she didn't have a problem with me.
Kagome closed the store a little earlier. She quickly inventoried and locked up. In her apartment she immediately set to work cooking meals for the rest of the week. She spent at least 3 hours slaving over the stove, preciously caring for the food that she was creating. Ever since she was little, her mother had taught her to cook and she considered herself a pretty good one too.
Once the kitchen was clean and a whole weeks worth of meals was stocked up in the fridge, she thankfully climbed into bed. She lay there for a few moments, thinking over the day. It was remarkable how much Inuyasha had reminded her of her mother, before her dad died. She had always been so eager to work and so thankful for everything. She had to stare at him for a long while, just to convince her that he wasn't some strange creature-from-another-dimension that personified her mother.
Finally she rolled over, said her prayers and fell into a peacefully dreamless sleep.
