6 Weeks ago
Yuki looked from the book he was reading as two customers entered the fairly large book store in downtown. Two males entered the store, a Burnett that had brightly colored hair like that of copper and another that had hair dark as that of a crows feather. He looked at both gentlemen for a moment before saying what was needed as his job,
"Is there anything that I can help you with?" His said in a soft but audible voice.
The coppered haired man spoke,
"Yes, we're looking for a certain book," He pulled out a small slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Yuki.
" La Dame aux Camelias" He read to himself, he glanced back at them before continuing,
" The Lady of the Camellias, am I correct?" They both looked at him in surprise,
the copper haired man nodded an chuckled,
"My apologies, I haven't heard someone speak french nor understand French in many years."
Yuki nodded and smiled,
"Well lucky for me, my step-father speaks strong with French heritage in his family, so I was given the privilege to be taught quiet a bit from him." Yuki softly sighed,
" Now shall we find this book then?"
The copper man nodded and smiled sympathetically,
Yuki smiled and went around the counter to the near back of the bookstore, both men followed him. He held the slip of paper with him as he searched for the book in one of the larger cases. His fingers swiftly went by the spines of other books before finding it.
"Here we go." he said as he pulled it out and handing it to the copper man,
the man flipped through the book and checked it's cover and grinned,
"Thank you."
Yuki nodded once more,
"Is there anything else I could help you with?" he said in soft voice.
"No, that should be all." He glanced back at the dark haired man,
"Let's get going, Masashi." Masashi nodded,
Yuki blinked for a moment,
"Then let me ring you up." Yuki and the others walked back towards the cash register, the men payed for the book then left. He sighed as the door clicked closed, rubbing his face lightly from tiredness and tried continuing reading his book. Yuki couldn't help but think about the the two males, in a way they both seemed out of place in appearance. He hummed at the thought of the darker haired one though,
"What was his name? Was it Masashi? Hm~...That should be it." He thought of his broader complexion he had compared to the copper haired one and how his darker nature seems to make his skin seem softer. Yuki chuckled at his thoughts,
"Why would I be thinking of a man like that, they are just customers after all."
He starred through the fronts windows of the bookstore, people passed by, mostly teenagers in more their 'party' outfits. Most holding some sort of alcoholic beverage in hand, others look like they're about to head out to clubs. Yuki sighed, he lacked those nights sometimes, going out with friends and doing things that might go out of hand, he took a glance at his uniform and frowned a little.
'I guess I'll be stuck like this for now on. Though, it's not like I have any excitement in my life either way.'
The next day
Yuki pushed through the doors of the bookstore with a coffee in hand, his eyes still groggy from waking up. Staying after hours took its toll on him last night, he barely even made it to bed without having to change out of his uniform.
His manager immediately spoke to him,
"Ah Yuki, you're just in time! We have a new employe that will be working with us today."
Yuki mumbled a bit before saying anything his eyes half closed from the brightness of the store,
"Don't tell me, you want me to teach him how things work around here."
His manager chuckled,
"Well someone isn't on the bright side today, though yes I would need to you to do that, I can't do myself since I have to keep track of the shipment of new books today. Anyways, his name is Masashi and I expect you to do him well, ok?"
Yuki perked up at the name,
"Masashi?"
the manager nodded,
"Yes, Masashi, he'll be working behind the counter with you, Martha couldn't come today either way."
The manager pointed towards his direction and continued on with his work after that,
Yuki stood there for a moment, looking stupid as he still held his coffee doing nothing,
'How creepy, one day he's a customer and now I'll have to show him how to deal with customers. Next thing you know they guy might be some sort of stalker.' he chewed on the thought for a moment and chuckled,
'Stalker...' he covered his mouth for a second, trying to hold back another chuckled.
Yuki walked over to the back of the counter were he met up with Masashi, the man sat on top of one of the counters, kicking his legs slightly, his hair coated his eyes slightly shutting a bit of the view of his eyes.
Yuki spoke first,
"No doubt I saw you last night." He said before taking a sip of his coffee,
Masashi glanced at him for a moment,
"No doubt I saw you either." he chuckled,
Yuki sets his cup near the register,
"Kinda creepy you know,"
Masashi looked at him now,
"Oh really? In what matter?"
Yuki smiled,
"You know~, not saying anything even though you knew you were going to work here."
"Well, lets just say it was a surprise." he flashed his hands in a sarcastic matter and laughed a bit.
Yuki chuckled and finished his coffee before clasping his hands,
"Well, let's get started; please tell me this is not your first job."
Masashi shook his head,
"I know how to deal with the customers, and handling the register of course."
Yuki smiled,
"Well all I have to tell is about finding the books for them."
Masashi nodded,
"So all books are ordered from the first two letters of the books title, so even if the customer doesn't provide the authors name, everything is conveniently ordered to help us find them." Yuki sighed,
"And just do the 'How can I help you' and 'Enjoy your day thing' as well. That should be all, not unless your going to work out back to."
"The manager said that he's going to go ahead and tell me about the stuff in the back later."
Yuki smiled,
"Ok, then that is all for me to say. If you need help with something then just ask me, alright? The others are ok but, most of them don't even know what they're doing since they're very lazy."
The day continued on lazily as both men just help few customers that walked in through the doors of the place. Yuki spent most of his free time read; Masashi brought out a thick sketch book and drew whatever he can it. The soft noise the pencil made as Masashi drew in it, in a way soothed Yuki as he read. Every time Masashi would stop, Yuki would glance from his book to see what the man was doing that would make him stop. Sometimes it was a customer or two but usually he just stopped to take a small break.
"So what are you drawing?" Yuki finally asked,
"Oh, just a few sketches." he said in a soft voice,
"Can I take a look?",
"Sure."
Yuki walked over to were Masashi was. Masashi flipped through the begin for Yuki to look, he let the man flipped through the pages.
The very first page was filled in with a library, the shading bounced from the book cases as a fireplace was lit, a large elegant table with its seating was near the fire place to it's right, filling up most of the bottom page, small detailing could be seen carved into the table as well.
"Impressive, were you drawing this out of mind?"
Masashi shook his head lightly,
"No, it's just a sketch of the large library in my home."
"In your home? Well I have to admit that's a very nice setup you have going on there."
Masashi chuckled and flipped to the next page,
it was a portrait of the coppered haired man it was even colored in.
"I did this with charcoal and used color pencils to color it in."
"Really?, wouldn't the charcoal smear?"
"Yes, but I left those areas white; by the way his name is, Kamijo if you were curious."
"Kamijo, well that's a unique name, especially yours."
"True." He flipped to the next page,
It was another drawing of a room, it had a large canopy bed in the middle of the front wall with two windows on either either side draped with what seemed like thick curtains, the canopy bed was styled in a more gothic term, the drapes to the canopy were filled with a style of roses and thorns and the bedsheets were in the same style as well. There was a chest in front of the large bed and a fairly sized table near the window, there was also two nights stands, each with its own lamp, a bookshelf on the far right and a bulky wardrobe to the left.
"That's a very beautiful room, I like the gothic theme to it."
"It's a sketch of my room."
"Well you have expensive taste."
"Most of it came from the family."
"That's some heritage you got there then."
The men continued through the rest of the sketchbook, the rest mostly filled with landscapes, people, more rooms, and even a drawing of the bookstore.
"How long have you been drawing, Masashi?"
"Most of my life, I'm sure when I really started but, I've had both a huge talent and interest to it so, I really never stopped practicing through out the years."
Yuki nodded,
"Well I have to admit, even these are just still life drawings, you have a sort of style to it that I like, in a way were not everything is too sketchy but also not to shaded either, so there's a pleasant mix to the both."
Masashi smiled the comment,
"Thanks for noticing, I've actually been working on it."
Yuki jolted before he could respond as a hand clasped on his shoulder, it was the manager,
"Well it's closing time, men."
Yuki half yelled at him,
"Yutsu! You nearly scared the hell out of me!"
Yutsu laughed,
"Well it's not my fault that you don't noticed when I'm coming."
"Well maybe you should stop sneaking up on me!" Yuki blushed in angered embarrassment,
the manager looked up at Masashi,
"Let's ask Masashi then; did you see me coming up from behind him?"
Masashi chuckled,
"No,"
"See I told you I don't-."
"But you are a pretty short man, Yutsu." Masashi half laughed at his comment, even Yuki couldn't help but laugh at the truth of it.
"Well someone isn't getting their paycheck this month."
Yuki gave him a sarcastic firm look,
the manager continued,
"Now lets close up, it's starting to get late."
Both men nodded and helped clean up the scattered books that might have fallen or lazy customers that didn't want to put them back. Everyone left except for the manager who was doing a few more shipment checks.
Yuki and Masashi talked to one another as they walked towards Masashi's car
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then. Oh by the way where's your car?" Masashi said, noticing that there weren't anymore cars in the parking lot
"Oh I live a few blocks away, in one of the apartment complexes."
"Want me to drive you there?"
Yuki hesitated for a moment,
"Sure, I'd appreciate it."
They entered the black Lincoln Ford, Yuki explained the directions to where he lived, Yuki starred out through the window as they drove, lights of various stores flailed various sales or deals or whatever they had to offer. Yuki closed his eyes, the bright lights giving him a headache, he laid head against his hand. He dosed off for a moment, eventually falling asleep by accident. Not long after he felt a small shake on his shoulder. He looked at Masashi with tired eyes,
"You ok?" he said in a soft voice,
Yuki nodded but Masashi put his hand gently against his forehead, checking if he had a fever of some sort,
"You feel a bit heated, you sure your ok?" his voice was a little more concerned now, he didn't want Yuki passing out considering that he already has in the car.
Yuki nodded and got out of the car,
"Thanks for the ride."
"Anytime."
Yuki shuts the door, as Masashi drove away, he couldn't help but touch the place were Masashi's hand was. It feeling of it was really soft and tender, easily compared to baby skin in a way.
He started to walk up 3 sets of stairs and into the familiar corridor of apartments, he took the turns that were need and pulled out his keys to his apartment and unlocked it. As soon as he entered he lazily sat down on to the couch and laid down, he couldn't help but touch the spot once more until he easily fell asleep once more in his living room