Eleven

It figured! It sooooo figured that Jiroh was sick and couldn't work today! Gakuto muttered curses as he tried to restock some things they were out of alone. It was taking him 35 minutes instead of 15 to get everything cleaned up and customers were arriving.

"I'll be right there!" called out Gakuto as he finished up stocking the backroom. He went over to the counter and rang stuff up for his group of customers and went back to work. He was on a ladder restocking the higher shelves when another customer came in.

"Hello! I'll be right with you!" he called out not even glancing back.

"Where's Jiroh?" a familiar voice asked.

"He's sick in bed," replied Gakuto and then gasped slipping off the ladder and onto the ground in shock at who was here.

"Oshitari…," he breathed out.

The dark haired man chuckled and helped the boy up.

"So it's just you working today? It's quite busy out today, are you sure you can handle working alone?" he asked.

Gakuto pouted.

"I'll have to. I don't have a choice now do I?" he replied.

Oshitari pondered for a moment.

"I'll be willing to help you if you let me," he offered.

"Yeah and be caught by reporters and make a scene. I don't think so," said Gakuto.

"There's ways to change the appearance you know?" protested Oshitari.

"Psh, not majorly," snapped Gakuto going back to work. Oshitari grabbed his hand making him whirl around. He took off his fake glasses leaving his face bare. Oshitari ruffled his own hair a little and stole Gakuto's dark red cap he had on, placing it on his head.

"There," he said.

Gakuto blushed. Oshitari looked…really nice without those gold rimmed glasses hiding those beautiful dark features of his eyes. The cap he was wearing though looked ridiculous with dress pants, a button up shirt that was slightly unbuttoned, and a black jacket.

"I'll get you a different hat," Gakuto snickered grabbing his back off of Oshitari's head and onto his own. Jiroh had one of those hats that would look actually perfect with Oshitari's outfit. He ran upstairs to the closet got the hat and went back downstairs where Oshitari waited. Gakuto placed it on his head and laughed.

"Now you look more like Bi; just dressed more formally," said Gakuto between laughs.

Oshitari smiled wryly.

"You're comparing me to a Korean pop singer? Which music video or premiere did you see this at?" he asked.

"The music video 'It's Raining' silly!" Gakuto exclaimed.

Oshitari smirked.

"Wouldn't I have to be in leather and drenched in water for such an appearance?" he asked.

Gakuto blushed. Now that would be hot…but enough of that! There was work to be done.

"Less talk more work!" said Gakuto getting back on the ladder.

"Stock he bottom shelves while you stock the top right?" asked Oshitari.

"Yeah; when you finish just tell me and I'll get you something to do!" said Gakuto.

Oshitari nodded and began to work.

For someone who was rich and had no need to be working such a low paying job, and probably never had to work before, he was doing well and worked fast. He was done even before Gakuto was.

"Mukahi-kun, I'm finished," Oshitari quietly said.

"You don't have to call me Mukahi-kun; I can be called Gakuto if you prefer it. Mukahi-kun sounds like you're treating me like a little kid," said Gakuto jumping off the ladder and placing it in the corner of the small room.

"Gakuto it is then," said Oshitari.

"In the back room there are a couple things that need to be recorded. There's a new stock that just came in that won't be placed up until next week but all of it needs to be recorded down on those forms over there. I'm going to restock the backroom food supply up and if you need help just come and get me, I'll be in the backroom with you or I'll be out front here," explained Gakuto.

Gakuto made his way over to the counter and pulled out the clipboard that Gakuto had jotted down information on it when Oshitari first met him. He handed it over to the writer and they both went into the backroom to record and stock. Oshitari jotted down on the forms the ID numbers and such on the forms.

"When you're done place those shipment s in that corner over there," added Gakuto.

Oshitari nodded while he was writing.

"What's Jiroh sick with?" he asked trying to come up with a conversation.

"Just the flu. Sore throat mostly; he probably could've worked but he probably felt pretty miserable. He said something about having a headache too. I'll have to go out and get medicine later; for now the best thing I can do until I get free from work is for him to get some rest," answered Gakuto.

"I see. I hope he gets well soon," said Oshitari.

"Me too. It's getting close to Christmas time and it'll be crazy soon and there's no way I can work here alone during that time of year. It'd be impossible," Gakuto explained.

Christmas was coming up in a couple weeks wasn't it? Today was the sixth of December. And like Jiroh said it was warm a couple days ago but it ended up getting a lot colder a couple days later. Much colder. It was probably why Jiroh was sick; weather change did that to people after all.

Gakuto went back into the front room as another group of customers arrived leaving Oshitari alone in the backroom. He grinned and pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed a phone number.

"Hey…. You might flip if I tell you this but Jiroh's sick in bed…. Yeah? I can't come over to help you, I'm here helping Gakuto run the shop, he's been working alone and hasn't had time to even get medicine for Jiroh. ….Pfft, I wish I could see you try doing that… Okay, I'll see you later then. Don't stress out too much. Ja."

Oshitari pocketed his phone and continued to work and a quickly finished. Gakuto returned just minutes later when he was moving boxes into the corner.

"You already finished writing down everything? Even the ID numbers and what's in them?" asked Gakuto surprised.

"Look for yourself," answered Oshitari with a proud smirk on his face.

Gakuto looked through the papers on the clipboard.

"Damn… For a rich guy who's never worked a job before you're really fast," he complimented.

"Writing s my job," pointed out Oshitari.

Gakuto rolled his eyes.

"I know but that's probably enjoyable for you. This is my job and it's enjoyable but I'll tell you right now; it doesn't pay much," he said.

Oshitari chuckled.

"I guess you don't mind as long as you're happy with what you're doing. Writing isn't easy either by the way. I have deadlines to finish that require all-nighters sometimes, then there are so many places I have to travel to for interviews and meeting other people. It's not a walk in the park," he said.

"At least you get to travel. I only have been to Tokyo, Chiba, and here. Each move being hell," said Gakuto.

Oshitari blinked.

"Why did you leave?" he asked.

"You really wanna know?" Gakuto asked.

Oshitari nodded, "I don't mean to intrude on your personal life, but if you don't mind then yes. Gakuto…I want to get to know you better. As friends."

Gakuto gave a small smile and then sighed.

"I first lived in Tokyo with my mom and dad along with my older brother and sister. And then when I moved from Chiba it was because my parents got divorced and I ended up being in custody of my dad. My brother and sister lived with my mom and my mom was broken all up about it because I was the youngest, and my dad was….well…..abusive towards me. He didn't like me but mom couldn't afford to take care of three kids and the court and the parents fought over who was keeping who until finally it was settled that my mom would have Ryoko and Kazuma because they were older and would be out of the house soon and mom would be able to support herself again. I ended up being with dad because he's the one who had a job."

"He loathed me though and tied me up all the time and threw me into the closet and left me in there for a whole day or two when his girlfriends would come over and everything else. Jiroh ended up being my only friend and his parents ended up being really strict and disowned him after highschool because he didn't want to become what they wanted him to become. Jiroh knew about my dad and told me both of us had to get away from them. So finally after a while, our friend Hiyoshi whose lives in Virginia at the moment helped us get money to go to the US….ah… Sorry I'm rambling and giving out too much."

Oshitari was shocked. The poor kid. Poor Gakuto. Poor Jiroh. Gakuto had nobody to tell this too probably and he had offered to listen; and Gakuto was finally able to get it all out.

"No, it's okay. I'm sorry, that you went through all that. It wasn't fair for you. You should've been able to live with your mom and your dad should've sent money over to you and your brother and sister to help support you all. That's how it should've been. You shouldn't have had to leave Japan to get away from your father. Jiroh shouldn't have been pushed away from his family either. It's not fair for you guys. It just isn't," said Oshitari.

"But it wasn't like that and I have to live with it. I enjoy it here though. I lost a lot of things including what I really wanted to be when I became an adult because I had high chances even, but the past is the past and I can't look back on it," snapped Gakuto his voice trembling ever so slightly.

"What chances did you have?" Oshitari asked.

"The Olympics. I'm really good at gymnastics. I haven't done any for a couple years now but I could probably still do everything without a fear in the world," replied Gakuto.

Oshitari once again got that huge shock. Gakuto really didn't have it fair then. The Olympics. That was a huge chance and was taken away from him.

"How old were you when you left?"

"Sixteen. Four years ago," Gakuto answered shortly.

"That's so young…and wait…you're as old as me. I thought you were eighteen at the oldest" said Oshitari.

Gakuto turned pink the face and made a little huffing sound as if he was insulted.

"My birthday is in September. The nineteenth to be exact," he said.

Oshitari blinked.

"You're older than me!" he exclaimed.

Gakuto grinned and laughed.

"Really? Oh geeze, then I wouldn't be Mukahi-kun now would I, Osh-tari-kun?" he teased.

Oshitari himself turned a light shade of pink at the teasing.

"You can call me Yuushi since I'm able to call you Gakuto," he murmured.

"Fine then," said Gakuto finishing up his stocking. Oshitari himself had already finished placing the shipments in the one corner that Gakuto told him to place them in.

"Oi, Yuushi, you never told me why you left Japan," pointed out Gakuto.

"You really want to know?" asked Oshitari mimicking Gakuto previous question to him about asking him why he left Japan.

Gakuto shook his head yes. "It's not fair, you know about me but I know nothing about you."

"I left for a couple reasons. One to get away from reporters, I wanted to be able to write in peace. My main reason though was to let my older sister Hoku, have her chance at becoming something and my mother and father being proud of her. I guess you could say that my parents were like Jiroh's parents until they figured out that I was known world wide and made quite a sum of money. My family has price signs in their heads all the time, everything is about money… My sister Hoku wanted me to leave and so I did because I knew that she was stressed out."

Gakuto sighed.

"We're adults now; but I swear I can't understand adults! Well at least the ones some of us grew up with! They expect too much and everything you try to do is never good enough for them. You can't do your best you have to be the best," he said.

Oshitari nodded and agreed. Gakuto actually understood that theory and both he and Oshitari loathed it obviously. This was the first thing they probably could agree on, and Jiroh would probably agree with it too. It was sad really; that you had to leave the country you were born in because you didn't live up to your family's expectations or were just used and abused like a toy.

"I…. I really have a lot of reasons for being out here; some are way too embarrassing and personal to even explain," murmured Oshitari another blush tenting his face.

Gakuto grinned.

"You don't have to say all of it at once, sheesh. Anyway we're finished here; you can leave if you want. Everything else can be handled," he said.

Oshitari shook his head.

"I'd like to stay with you for a while Gakuto, if you don't mind that is…"

"I just have to watch over the place, ring up stuff, and show people where things are at. It'll be boring," Gakuto warned.

Oshitari made his way over to the front room where he left a case he brought with him when he first arrived here and held it up.

"That's why I brought my laptop. I can talk to you and help but when you're working and don't need me I can write for a while," he said.

Gakuto rolled his eyes, "Absolutely crazy." He muttered before walking out with Oshitari right by his side.


By the end of the day everything was cleaned up and it was about closing time. A Lamborghini stopped in front of the shop and Atobe stepped out with three bags in one hand. He looked worried and determined all at the same time when he made his way into the store.

"Where's Jiroh?" was the first thing he asked.

Gakuto blinked and Oshitari snickered behind a hand.

"Upstairs, he's sick why?" he asked.

"I know he's sick and I brought medicine and other things to make him feel better. Lead the way and show me where he is," Atobe ordered.

Gakuto looked stunned for a moment and looked at Oshitari only once before telling Atobe to follow him. He made his way back down stairs a minute later still looking shocked.

"Y-You called him up and told him!" he said.

"Did I now?"

Gakuto grinned.

"Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome. I thought since Atobe always has free time, that he'd be able to help us out," answered Oshitari placing his fake glasses back on and whipping the hat off his head.

Gakuto couldn't stop smiling. He was thrilled that they both had gotten to know each other better and Oshitari was willing to help him out. He had helped so much today and Gakuto wondered if he actually liked him back…