First Day Fun

Alex was starting his first day working at Tesco. Should be a nice, easy-to-quit, part-time job that he could do for a bit of extra money in between missions. MI6 were kinda douchebags when it came to paying him on time. He was pretty sure that half the crap they pulled was technically illegal but there was not a whole lot he could do about it. They had started him on stocking shelves. Probably advisable, since-

"Hey, can you move it along!"

Alex bristled at the tone. He answered in a rather clipped voice. "Certainly."

Alex yanked the cart, carefully slamming into their toes just hard enough to bruise. He was barely keeping back a shit-eating grin.

"Bu-"

Alex moved out of the aisle entirely before the man could get another word in. Being fit had benefits. A few aisles down, there were some cans of beans that needed restocking, anyway. Alex glanced around before beginning to load the bean cans onto the shelf.

"Mister?"

Alex nearly jumped at the accompanying poke to his thigh. Kids were little blighters. "What's up, kid?"

The kid crossed his arms. Alex just looked at him. "My name is Nathan. I think I lost my mom."

Sure enough, there was absolutely nobody in the aisle. Alex let out a sigh. "Alright, let's get you to the manager so we can try paging the store."

Nathan followed him and his cart. Thankfully, his manager was already talking to a sobbing woman.

"He was just there one moment and gone the next!"

Alex moved up towards the front and looked to his side. The kid stared at him. "Is that your mom?"

Nathan flushed. He looked at his feet and shuffled. "Um, I can't tell? She's a little blurry."

Before Alex could reply, the woman let out a yell. And ran towards him.

"NATHAN! What on Earth were you doing, wandering off like that?!"

Alex was yanked into a hug. She released him just as it got uncomfortably long.

"Thank you so much for finding him!"

She swept off with her kid before he got in a word. The manager was giving him a thoroughly amused look. "Eventful first day, Alex?"

Alex rolled his eyes. At least Will had a great sense of humor. "At least we didn't have to call the police."

Will grinned at him. Alex just knew he was about to get teased. "Don't talk like that, you're her personal hero."

Alex flipped his boss off. They lived near each other and had kind of been acquaintances before he applied. "Oh, fuck you, Will."

Will chuckled at him. They both knew Alex didn't mean it. "Take a break. It's almost time for your morning one anyway."

Alex ditched the cart of supplies and went to the break room. He had about eight thousand text messages from Tom. His best friend was somehow convinced that he was unable to get through a day without setting something on fire. Alex rolled his eyes as he texted Tom back while drinking his water. Tom sent him a mocking surprise face back. Alex rolled his eyes and slid his phone back into his pocket. Time to get back to putting shit on shelves.

After the shelves were done, it was time to restock the bags. Alex was kind of surprised that they still ran out of plastic bags regularly since the store had begun charging for them. Then again, it was probably easy to forget the reusable ones at home.

"-and if you could finish ringing me up today, that would be nice."

Alex stared. That was Cecily. A perfectly fine woman who was recovering from a stroke. Alex knew she still had a few fine motor problems.

"And what are you looking at?!"

Alex gave her his best mildly feral smile. She flinched slightly. "The bag area. It might help if there were bags to bag your groceries."

She flushed a deep red and clamped her jaw shut. Alex hoped that all that grinding and slamming reduced the life of her dental work. He was personally hoping for a crown or two to crack on her. After she flounced out of the door, he looked at Cecily. She looked more resigned than anything else.

"Do you think I should resign?"

Alex clamped a hand on her shoulder. Cecily looked up at him. "Nah, she was just a bit of a cunt. You just had a stroke, remember?"

Cecily didn't exactly look quite as cheered up as he hoped but didn't look like she was about to hand in her resignation. Alex would call that good enough for now. He was going to take his afternoon break now.

"Thanks for being nice to Cecily. She's been down rough since she got back."

Will was waiting for him in the break room. Alex lifted a brow at him. "You know that's a little creepy, right?"

Will shrugged at him. Alex fixed him with a look. "I like knowing what goes on in my store, man. We both know that Cecily's a little slower, but she isn't going to rob the till."

Will was tilted back in the rolling chair. Alex was reminded of the fact that the man was barely five years older than him. "How did you end up as a manager, anyway?"

Will grinned at him. The chair bounced him back up. "I was a trust fund baby but pissed off my dad. Probably a bit like you, huh?"

Alex folded his arms. He wasn't that wealthy. The bank was being bitchy but had finally sent him the will and trust conditions. And the actual bank where the money was at. "I didn't get good scores in school, so it's all locked up unless I get a degree from like one of two schools."

Will gave him a half shrug. And gave Alex a rueful look. "Don't worry about it, man. That's some crap. Just keep up the good work."

Alex was left in the breakroom for his remaining five minutes of break. Well, that was interesting.

"-WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T USE THE COUPON?!"

Alex finished off his water with a gulp. It sounded like Will might need some backup.

Fin

Based on a prompt by Zyzyax (see story summary). This is the 167th work in the Winds of Change 2022 Alex Rider Prompt event, where a new prompt (plus a short 1-3K work) is posted every day. For more details, see the AO3 collection. We have an index of all the prompts used in this event so far and going forwards - join the discord to get access to the online index (and to take part in our events, chat about everything and anything, and meet a load of awesome people!