Do not own.

Enjoy.

It was a rainy early April afternoon when Kise decided to get a job.

First, he went to the inn and asked if the landlady needed help but she had just shooed him away and scolded him for taking a week before going out to find work. He bowed multiple times before heading into told. He visited the convenience store where a snotty teenage girl told him to get lost before Kise took off his glances and gave her his best model face which made her blush and dribble down her sweater a little. He walked out with his head held high.

He tried at the tofu shop but although the lady offered him to marry her daughter, there were no openings. The Chinese restaurant said no with a similar offer. Finally, Kise went to the grocery store because he thought for sure that grocery stores were always hiring.

"Um, hello?"

"What'd you want?" He was a teenage boy, thick black brows, spiky black hair and striking blue-grey eyes. He had a blue sweatshirt on under his green work apron and one earbud in, his fingers tapping to whatever he was listening to. Kise could vaguely hear the sound of a guitar solo.

"Are you hiring?"

"Did you see a sign?" The boy asked – Kise squinted past his glasses to see the nametag the boy was wearing: Kasamatsu Jun.

"No, but I thought –"

"Well, we ain't hiring, Mr. Glasses." The boy clipped, putting his other earbud back into his ear. "If they'd be a sign maybe that question would make sense."

"Hey now, list –"

"No, you listen, Mr. Glasses, we ain't hirin' and can't you see I'm kinda busy here?" the kid gestured to his earbud and apron. "Now get lost –"

"Oi, Jun, show some respect!"

Kise stood open mouthed as a man, a bit taller than the teenager but same eyebrows and almost the same hair, maybe a bit shorter and clean cut, came up from behind and whacked Jun with a clipboard.

"Stop it, aniki!" Jun grunted, trying to swat away his older brother. "Get off!"

"We're sorry for the disrespect, sir." The oldest of the two bowed, forcing his younger brother's head down.

"Ah – no, it's okay."

"See, its fine." Jun said, finally a safe distance away from his brother. "No biggie."

"Shut the hell up." The other snapped, hitting him again for good measure, "Go do something productive."

As Jun walked away, smirking at Kise as he went.

"Can I help you with something, sir?" Kise read his nametag: Kasamatsu Yukio.

"Um, I was just asking if there was an opening for a job." Kise mumbled, feeling self-conscious for asking again.

"Ah, did you see the ad in the newspaper?" Kasamatsu Yukio scratched at his chin. "Sorry, but that was a mistake on the newspaper's part. We filled that position last week."

"Oh, um, actually, I didn't see it. I just moved here, so I haven't had the chance to read it." Kise smiled. "I was just going around and asking."

"Ah, I see," Kasamatsu smiled back. "I think the floral shop across the street is looking for someone."

"Really?!" Kise felt himself get excited, he reached for Kasamatsu's hands and held them tightly, "Thank you so much, Kasamatsu-san! I've been looking all day and I've been turned all over town and I was starting to get discouraged! Thank you so much! Ah, Kasamatsu-senpai, thank you!"

Kasamatsu looked completely taken aback at the gesture, his cheeks turned a cute pink color that made Kise happy somehow, but it quickly vanished as he pulled away. "Oi, stupid, who are you calling senpai? You don't even know if I'm older! And I didn't even introduce myself!"

"Wah, senpai is calling me stupid?" Kise laughed a little. "You just seem like a very responsible type of man!"

"What an idiot…" The newly titled Kasamatsu-senpai blushed some more.

"Thank you so much!" Kise repeated, bowing once too many times before turning to leave for the shop across the street. Before he made his exit he turned quickly to the man that still stood dumbfounded: "Oh by the way, my name is Kise Ryouta! Nice to meet you!"

And, with that, Kise turned to go, adding another bow for good measure.

Kise had noticed the quaint little shop as he walked through the town, always thinking that it was one of the cutest things in town. It had reminded him the small café just down the street from his old place where he would meet Haruka-chan every Sunday afternoon before their engagement.

Maybe that's why he had avoided going in.

The little bell rung as he waltzed in, taking off his baseball hat and fluffing out his dark hair.

"Welcome." A quiet voice called out from the counter, an arrangement of flowers hiding the face.

"Hello, sir!" Kise came further into the room. "Kasamatsu-senpai just told me that you were hiring, is that true?" Kise leaned over the counter, finally seeing who the meek voice had belonged to.

A slight young man sat on a stool, a light orange blanket covering his shoulders. He had bright eyes that matched his hair but he looked pale, almost sick beneath the florescent lights of the shop. On his lap sat a puppy, a huskie, with his own little orange sweater.

"Kasamatsu-senpai?" The man looked surprised. "He let you call him that?"

"Aw, well, not really, but isn't he the type?" Kise nodded vigorously as he could tell the man was starting to nod absentmindedly at the thought.

"I'm Kuroko Tetusya. I apologize for not greeting you properly, but I'm quite sick and can't get up and move about normally." Kuroko bowed in his seat, his puppy yipping happily up at Kise.

"Oh, please, don't worry about it! I'm Kise Ryouta, I've just moved here." Kise shook Kuroko's outstretched hand and tried to be gentle (although it was quite hard since the excitement was still coursing through his veins).

"Kise-kun, it's nice to meet you." Kuroko moved to the flowers away and pulled a white slip of paper from beneath them and handed it to Kise. "I'm hiring a helper since I can't move around as before."

Kise looked over the sheet and grinned: no mention of references. "I'm very energetic and very helpful! I don't know much about flowers but I'm a fast leaner! I promise I can totally be useful! When did you want this back? Is it okay if I can bring it back tomorrow? Do you think more people will come in and ask to be hired?"

Kuroko blinked once before finally saying: "You're quite annoying aren't you?"

"Eh?!" Kise gave a puppy dog look – one that Midorima hated so much that he's resorted to grabbing his bottom lip whenever Kise did it to him – and pretended to pout. "The travel report said the people here were nice but both you and Kasamatsu-senpai have been mean, calling me annoying and an idiot!"

Kuroko found himself smiling a bit at the simpleton standing before him.

"I think I will hire you, Kise-kun."

"Really!" Kise nearly jumped out of his skin at the news. In all honesty, he's never really had a job like this before: he couldn't wait to call Momoi and Midorima to tell them. "Are you serious, Kurokocchi?"

"Eh? Kurokocchi?" Kuroko looked annoyed as he kicked his new employee out of his shop while Kise just laughed and yelled out in joy.

…

"A job! Wow, Kise-kun, that's great!"

Aomine, Takao and Kise were all sitting around the their table, their ramen and beer before them. Kise wasn't such a fan of the single-man diet as he thought he would be – mostly because he had gained a few grams – but he had to admit that ramen was damn good with an ice cold beer with the game on in the background.

"Where?"

"The floral shop across from the grocery store."

"What?!" Aomine slammed his can of beer down on the table, making both Takao and Kise jump. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Aomine got up and stalked out of the living room, only to slam the door to his room shut.

"Um, did I do something wrong?"

During the past week, Aomime had only said a few words to Kise, just the obligatory 'good mornings' and 'good nights' but that had been all. Kise had seen him during at the police box, helping old ladies with their groceries or with crossing the street, which at least showed Kise that he wasn't a complete robot. It hadn't really bothered Kise all that much because, after all that's happened in the past few months, Kise learned that sometimes people just wanted to be left alone.

"No, Kise-kun, it's just –" Takao stopped, playing with his chopsticks. "Mine-chan just doesn't really get along with Kuroko-san."

"Kurokocchi?" Kise furrowed his brows. "He's so sweet."

"Yeah, yeah he is, but they just aren't on the best of terms." Takao shrugged as nonchalantly as he could but Kise sensed that this wasn't the entire story but he dropped it because it wasn't fair to demand another person's story when he wasn't telling the complete truth of his own.

They watched the game for a bit before remembering his grocery store encounter.

"Oh yeah, Takao-kun, I met Kasamatsu-senpai today!"

"Kasamatsu-senpai?" Takao laughed wildly, "That's what we call him too! But, ya know, he actually was our senpai in high school."

"He totally acts like it! He helped me today and I felt like I was a first year and he was totally a third year on the first day of school. He even protected my honor against his younger brother!"

"Whoa, Kise-kun, you may wanna kept that bit to yourself…"

"Eh?!"

"Jun-chan is still in high school and you're like what? Twenty-four? Shouldn't you be able to protect yourself from a high schooler?"

…

"Senpai! Senpai! Look I got hired!" Kise called happily, waving at Kasamatsu from across the road.

"Senpai?" Kasamatsu Jun repeated, his mouth open in a wide grin. "He's your kouhai now?"

"Shut up." Kasamatsu Yukio slapped his younger brother upside the head and out-right ignored Kise as he entered his grocery store to open for the day. "We have work to do."

Kise grinned to himself, already enjoying his new senior.

Kuroko was already sitting at his counter, his puppy, whose name was Nigou, sat by his feet, wearing a mint green sweater today.

"Good morning, Kise-kun." Kuroko sighed, rubbing his temples. "I see you're already making a ruckus this morning."

"Aw, sorry about that, but it's important that I greet Kasamatsu-senpai after all he's done for me."

Kuroko just sighed, not really realizing what exactly 'all he's done for me' meant since all Kasamatsu did was tell him that Kuroko was hiring (which Kuroko would have to personally thank Kasamatsu-san for doing). But whatever, it was none of his business what his employee did before work hours.

"Well, let's with taking morning inventory."

...

Time had went by quickly and, before Kise knew it, a month had already passed. Kise lived his life as if he really was just an ex-businessman and not what he really had become. He still kept his glasses on and had to re-dye his hair last week but everything was fine. Midorima called a few times a week and Momoi was getting closer to giving birth so Kise didn't hold it against her for not calling as often as the other. Life was completely normal, the cherry blossoms were gone, his dreams consisted of trivial things and not of the scary nightmares of the past few months, and nobody treated him any different than what they took him for.

And, work, well, work was pretty good.

Honestly, he had no idea why Aomine had a tiff with Kurokocchi. He was literally one of the nicest people Kise had ever met.

"Are you an idiot?!"

Well, maybe 'nice' was the wrong word. More like 'genuine.' People that Kise used to work with were nice because they were paid to be but the moment you'd turn your back, they'd be talking about every inch of dirt related to your name. Kise was used to dealing with fake people, but Kuroko was nowhere like that; in fact, every one he'd met in Namimori was entirely genuine.

Including a certain owner of the supermarket across the street.

In the past month, Kise had learned a lot of the people he's come to know in town. First there was Takao-kun. Takao came from just outside of town; his parents still lived in his childhood home where they were still raising his younger sister who'd Kise met when she and her friends came into the floral shop to flirt with him.

Then there was Aomine-kun. They still didn't talk much but Takao was a good source of information on all matters 'Mine-chan.' His dad had been a police officer and his mom had been a Brazilian immigrant that had fallen in love with the humble police officer. Their only son was the joy of their life and they tended to spoil him when he was younger. Today, his parents lived in Rio and visited every so often to take care of their only child. Takao still wouldn't spill anything over why Aomine refused to even step inside the floral shop, but Kise was comfortable around Aomine enough that he wasn't in that much of a hurry to figure it all out.

Kurokocchi, his boss, had absolutely no patience with him at all. He often strained his soft voice to scold Kise. It was a hard job, he had to do all the inventory, cleaning and arranging the back room. Kuroko wouldn't let him work the cash register although there was an influx of women of all ages coming in to visit the handsome new dark haired, glasses wearing employee. Kise enjoyed being an entry level employee though, he enjoyed doing work that he downright sucked at because all his life he'd been allowed to be somewhat of a little prince.

But one of his newest favorite things about Namimori was early mornings.

He'd walk into town, come up to the shop with the key that Kuroko made for him, and stop and wait. In just seconds Kasamatsu-senpai would come down the empty road on his bike. Kise would pretend to be just opening the floral shop door when Kasamatsu greeted him a good morning.

"Good morning, Senpai." Kise would smile and wave, feeling his ears tingle as Kasamatsu still flushed at the title.

"Morning." Kasamatsu would mumble under his breath.

And then they'd just go on with their day. The Kasamatsu Grocery would open and the floral shop would open. Kise would sweep the front step and Kasamatsu would sweep his own front step. He'd wave again and his new senpai would just shake his head and continue to work. Jun would come over after his school and scoff at Kise through the window. Kise learned that there was another Kasamatsu son, Hayato, a first year in high school that seemed to be MIA whenever Kise was at the store.

"So what's their story, huh?"

It was a slow May afternoon, no one had come in since earlier in the morning so Kise and Kuroko were both sitting behind the counter. Kuroko had deep circles under his eyes and he still kept a blanket over his shoulders even though it was getting hotter by the day. Kise hadn't asked what sort of sickness he had and he wasn't going to say anything until he was told.

"The Kasamatsu's?" Kuroko asked, slowly petting Nigou who was in his lap.

"Yeah. Senpai is so shy that we only talk about the weather and things like that." Kise sighed, watching the store front from across the street.

"Well they live over by the river in a small little house. My granny used to live right next door to them before she moved to the nursing home a few years ago." Kuroko smiled to himself at the mention of his grandmother. "It had always been men living in that house. Their mother had never been around and passed away a few years after Hayato-kun was born, although none of the boys were ever concerned over it."

"Their father?" Kise kept his eyes on the store.

"He was great." Kuroko danced over the word 'was.' "Every kid in the neighborhood loved him. He was the basketball coach and he would always give away free sweets to kids who went with their moms at the store. He always had a smile on his face."

"He sounds wonderful."

"He was." Kuroko sighed. "Everyone is town was devastated when he passed away last year."

Kise asked what had happened.

"A drunk driver had hit him on his way back from deliveries in the next town over." Kuroko said quietly. "Ever since then Kasamatsu-san has been in charge of the store and his younger brothers. He's done a really good job as a father figure for them. He's a very capable young man."

Kise smiled. Kasamatsu-senpai sounded like a really good guy, another genuine country guy.

"Speaking of Kasamatsu-san," Kuroko's voice sounded somewhere excited, "Every month we have a get together for all the young men business owners."

"Really?!" Kise recalled a manga he once read that had something like that and he felt giddy at the thought of it.

"Since I won't be able to go, you should go as my representative."

Kise hopped up, "Are you serious, Kurokocchi?! I would love to go!"

It's a very slow start to this story, but it will pick up with more KiseKasa next chapter!

Thanks.