Disclaimer: I don't own Professor Layton or Claire or anyone else in this story, they belong to Level 5 games and nobody else!
Learning how to love.
Hershel, dressed in an apron and wearing a hair net, sighed dejectedly as he used a dish cloth to scrub off a messy plate, the rancid stench of lemon shaving assaulting his nostrils as he felt some puke building up inside his throat to signal that he was getting very aggravated with the disgusting smell that he would likely not want to smell for months after this.
For a week now he had been working in this stupid job that he hated quite a lot and he wasn't really one for complaining about this but it wasn't really a fair job to work in. He would be told to do something by his fickle-minded boss but then the boss would have a different task in mind for him and howl at him for doing the wrong thing.
For some reason, Hershel felt like he was the favourite to have been picked on here. He was the one most haze was directed at nowadays and he didn't even really do anything wrong!
The gentleman-to-be hummed a little merry tune as he stood at the sink whilst he stacked the plates in a nice little pile while they cleanly soaked in the running tap water, shining like polished whistles in the light being cast down upon them from the lamp hanging overhead and they seemed to have been in good condition.
"OI, LAYTON!" A voice roared angrily, snapping Hershel from his daydream and startling him into dropping the piece of porcelain he had been washing off with a damp cloth moments prior. His face twisted from one of utter boredom into one of surprise and shock as the sound of shattering glass broke through his eardrums and he jolted awake.
Hurriedly getting himself together, the young man turned his attention to the owner of that booming voice and found himself looking up into the angry eyes of a man with dark skin and he was also quite tubby in the mid section, the scent of sweat and old lemon shavings mixing in the air in his presence. The man was clad in a yellow and lime-striped apron and he wore a little cap upon his huge, rock hard head.
Hershel trembled under the stern gaze of his boss and he asked "Y-Yes sir?"
The tall black man with the figure of a skyscraper glared daggers right through the 17 year old Layton as he stomped his foot demandingly on the marble floors below, making Hershel jump startled by the sudden boom of a noise his foot made whence it came thundering down to the ground.
"Why aren't you peeling those lemons like I asked you to?!" He asked with his naturally low voice laced with a wolffish growl.
His shadow stretched over the young man who tried to keep a calm head about how intimidating his boss was when he approached him in such a scarily calm demeanour, trying not to crack beneath the fright this guy always struck him with like a knife plunging into your heart.
Confused and startled, Hershel kept a calm head as he simply held his hands out in a calm gesture "But, Mr. Phelps, did you not ask me to clean the dishes?"
He tilted his head to one side in confusion as he asked this, his expression blank. It seemed that his employer had once again decided to try slipping a job beneath him as the perfect excuse to deliver some form of verbal or psychical abuse but, despite that he wasn't usually one to take that sort of thing lying down, he knew that he had to bear through it.
This was the best job available right now and he couldn't afford to let his parents go through any form of poverty, not while he was around.
"Don't get sarcastic on me, boy!"
The man snarled angrily, his muscular arm swinging before throwing it forwards and smacking his young employer around the face so he could tumble to the ground with many more plates falling to the ground around him and covering him in yellow stains and glass pieces.
Hershel laid there for a few moments before he slowly picked himself off the ground, dusting himself off and ignoring the sudden tingling sensation to his eye. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the slap sent his way moments ago must have resulted in getting a black eye. This was confirmed when the young man reached up to touch his stinging eye but he quickly pulled his hand away from it whence he felt the swollen eye sharply sting upon the contact his fingers left.
Sparing a glare to his boss, Hershel climbed back up to his feet before he went to go and retrieve some napkins and other things to wipe up the mess on the floor.
He grumbled under his breath as he wandered towards a towel dispenser and grabbed a few of the soft materials before he returned to the spillage on the floor and he began the sluggish process of cleaning the mess up so he could try and move on to that other job that was shoved on to his priority list.
Slowly, he dropped back down to the floor.
"Hmph. Blimey, the man did not need to act so rashly..." He started to use the napkins to wipe up the lemonade spilt on the floor and the shattered pieces of plate, grumbling moodily beneath his breath, and he slowly gathered the broken pieces of plate into a neat pile and he carried them (protectively, of course) to a rubbish bin and he dropped the broken pieces inside.
Right now his life was just unfair...
Sighing irritably and recollecting the calm composure he had adopted, he prestigiously walked back towards the kitchen sink and he grabbed some lemons off from the counter as well as a cheese grater.
Ignoring his black eye, Layton scraped the lemon along the cheese grater so little stringy bits could fall through the metal kitchen tool and into a bowl. Once again the appalling smell of sour lemon juice reached his nose and almost got a gag out of him but he managed to keep a calm head like he always done.
Hershel drew in a slow breath before letting it back out so he could keep himself calm and well-maintained.
The lemonade restaurant was a new establishment that consisted in many lemon-related dishes and beverages that would always find a way to have a scent that burned into both of Hershel's mind and into his olfactory receptors. He didn't exactly know what was with lemons these days but the boss was especially a lover of the yellow sour fruit, that was obvious, but the fact that there was lemons everywhere in the menu drove Layton bonkers.
He continued to sprinkle some lemon residue into the bowl beneath the cheese grater. He decided to hum a little tune while he done this, wagging his hips from side to side so they could synchronise with the beat of the song he murmured under his hushed breath.
However his humming was cut off when he heard a bell 'ding' and he lifted his head to gaze at the reception counter and saw that there was no cashier yet there was a costumer awaiting their order.
Hershel put a thoughtful hand to his chin and closed his eyes in deep thought. While he was supposed to take care of the lemons and make sure they were grated into little sprinkled bits, he could most certainly recall that his boss didn't exactly say that he couldn't go and rectify an error in one of the employees duties.
"...Hmm, well he didn't say I couldn't sort this little mishap out." He told himself with a rather mischievous yet confident smile tugging his lips into a curled line.
Dusting himself off from the sprinkles that went astray on his apron, trying to make himself look more presentable, and he abandoned the lemons so he could go to the counter and not keep the costumer waiting for so long.
"Hello there, madam, what can I help you with-!" Hershel asked but then he saw the costumer's face. He was rendered speechless within the blink of an eye.
The young lady he saw was a pretty thing indeed. She had a nice round face, her eyes shone through the lens of her round-framed pair of glasses and she had fine ginger hair that was pulled back into a nice ponytail. She wore a red cardigan and a chequered skirt that was red in the pattern.
She looked to be about maybe a little younger than Hershel but she also seemed to have wore clothing that was akin to a school uniform.
The girl blinked with a smile as she requested "Hello, good sir, if its alright can I have a glass of lemonade? Its a real scorcher out there today."
Hershel was flabbergasted to the point where he couldn't even speak properly. How could this angel of a woman exist? She seemed to have been a very polite girl too so he decided to snap himself out of it as he smiled warmly at her, giving her a subtle bow with a hand swept over his stomach whilst he bent forwards.
"Ah, of course. Let me get you some."
He abandoned his bow and hurried back behind the counter and quickly got a cup and he began to make some lemonade. Hershel glanced over his shoulder to the young woman occasionally and decided to make some small talk to her, it would have been a nice change of pace and besides it actually brought his mood back up.
"So..." He started slowly through his hands quaking anxiously "I haven't seen you around before, have you moved here recently?"
The young lady giggled, finding his slight clumsiness amusing, and she shook her head "Actually I'm here as an exchange student from London."
Hershel gave a light-hearted whistle of amazement. London, huh? That did seem like a nice place to live alright! But why would she be here in the first place as an exchange student?
Luckily for him, the girl answered this question before he could even open his mouth to ask.
"I'm just attending Mr. Collin's class of the local college until the end of term."
Hershel's eyes lit up like stars. She was attending his school, seriously!? That was the best news ever since he really wanted somebody to talk to since -again- his friends have been avoiding him since the loss of his dear friend Randal. It did hurt him every time he remembered that fact but he tried to ignore it.
If he wasn't holding some cups right now he would he done a dance of rejoice.
Hershel asked, glancing over his shoulder again to see her "O-Oh really?" His voice tone brightened up "I go to Mr. Collin's class, he's the history teacher."
From out of the corner of his eye, he saw the young lady smile cheerily in response. He had to confess, she was utterly adorable in a sense and that little face she had did make his heart race for some reason or rather.
Hershel smiled, a blush creeping on to his cheeks and tainting them a dark red colour "He is rather strict at times but he is a very nice man when you know him well enough."
The girl nodded with a smile. She looked really thankful for that information as she rocked back and forth on the heels of her little buckle shoes with the her hands locked behind her back. She stood on her tip-toes as to help her see over towards the young man assisting her and she looked around for any other employers, a small frown on her face.
"...Erm, aren't there any other people to help you?" She asked.
Hershel shrugged his shoulders lazily but his voice remained earnest "Not at the moment, it seems; it would appear that everyone is on their break."
The young lady looked kind of empathetic as she peered closer to see the young man's face hiding behind that large Afro that hid beneath the hairnet. There wasn't any signs of him being sad because of this but it still bothered her that the poor man was being treated unfairly.
Giving a steady slur of speech, the young lady asked another question "But what about you?"
Hershel didn't reply.
He didn't want to bring up the fact that he was the target of bullying here and shame the poor lass very bombarding her with his problems. It was his burden to carry and his alone, he shouldn't need anyone to help shoulder it when they didn't deserve it.
Again, he shrugged his shoulders "...I think your lemonade is almost ready."
The young lady sighed with a sad smile. Hershel knew that she probably didn't want to bombard him with irrelevant queries either despite the concern swimming in her eyes and decided to just prepare the whole thing quickly so they could jump off the topic.
He squeezed a lemon into juice, emptying it into the cup, and when the beverage was prepared he simply carried it back over to her and held it out towards her with a soft smile gracing his lips. Hershel watched eagerly as the young lady took the cup from him and hold it carefully in her hands as if it was the most frailest of glass and she looked back up at him with a smile.
Hershel held out his palm expectantly, even though doing this killed him on the inside "That would be £3.30, madam."
The girl seemed shocked at how expensive this was. Three pounds and thirty pence for a single cup of lemonade!? That was very stingy if she were to say so herself...
However, as she was digging around in her pocket, she was stopped by the young man who continued to smile gently at her and he looked shiftily around as if he was checking to see if there was anyone who could see this before he whispered one, tiny sentence in her ear:
"Its free."
She couldn't even ask much more before Hershel gently pushed her back towards the direction of the open door but she couldn't help but look back at him when she realised that a big, black bruise was starting to make itself known over one of his eyes.
The young lady, feeling guilty, hurried out the door but she looked at the young man through worried eyes and she mouthed the words "See you at school" to which Hershel nodded, accepting that he was to see her again.
While he had a chance to peer into the cash machine, he popped it open while removing four whole coins from his trouser pocket and he dropped them into the machine before hastily closing it and scurrying back behind the sink so he could continue with the lemons.
Moments later, the boss returned with a sandwich in his hand and a few chomps were taken out of it as he glared evil eyes at the young lad who had just been kind to a costumer without his knowledge.
He asked moodily "Did anything happen while I was gone, Layton?"
Hershel hid a secret smile as best as he could. He couldn't deny that the face he made as it twisted in tight determination made his eye sting badly but he didn't really care about it. He shook his head and lied "Nope, nothing happened, sir."
As the boss dismissed this, Hershel laughed cheekily under his breath. He was glad to have gotten a hint of payback at least, lying to his boss about this felt good and he usually hated rule breaking.
However he couldn't help but wonder when he would see that girl again? He didn't even get to learn her name...
A/N: This is the second chapter up.
Poor Hershel Layton, he seems to have it rough. We shall see what else he goes through in the next chapter then shall we?
I also made a slight "Layton brothers" reference and I would like you to see if you have spotted it.
I'll give you ONE guess who that girl was who the not-yet-Professor had just helped out.
Reviews would be highly appreciated.
-Chloemcg