A/N: What's My Age Again? - Blink 182

Heads up - updates will happen less frequently because uni is starting back.

Umi's daily routine was basically clockwork: Wake up at 7, go to archery practice at 8, come home at shower at 9, then get ready for work to start at 11:30.

As always, the shop would open at 11am, and Nozomi and Rin would be inside.

So when Umi saw Rin standing out the front of the store, shivering from the icy temperature, shock would be an understatement.

"Rin?" Umi walked closer to the apprentice and pulled out her own set of keys.

"U-Umi-senpai!" Rin looked up, her nose and cheeks pink from the cold.

"Where's Nozomi?" Umi opened the shop door and disarmed the alarm with her clicker.

Rin followed the piercer inside, and moaned with pleasure as the warmth engulfed her.

"I don't know, I hoping you would?"

Umi pulled out her phone; brows knitted in confusion, and looked down at the screen.

There was a text message from Nozomi's number:

9:28am
'Umi, this is Eli. Sorry about this, but Nozomi will be late to work today.'

Umi's blood ran cold at the message.

"…Oh…" Umi quickly turned on the shop lights and powered up the computer.

"Rin, I am so sorry, but I actually got a message from Nozomi. She's going to be late today, but it's my fault I didn't see it until now because I actually hate technology an-"

"Umi-senpai, it's fine," Rin got to work by setting up the stations.

Umi shuddered as she turned on the lights to her piercing room.

"Nozomi is going to kill me."

"Did she say why she's going to be late?" Rin perked up from the station, beanie slanting on her head.

"No, but I think I know why," Umi grimaced while Rin bounced over to the computer to check their schedules.

"Okay, so you have a piercing at 11:45, and Nozomi-senpai has a tattoo at 12pm. Do you reckon she'll get here in time?"

The second those words left Rin's lips, the door to the shop opened.

There, in a leather jacket, stood Nozomi. She had her hands in her jacket's pockets with an e-cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth.

"N-Nozomi!" Umi whipped around and threw herself into a bow.

"I am so sorry, I only just saw your message and I thought Rin had her own set of ke-"

Nozomi waved away Umi's words as if they were a cloud. She walked into the breakroom and took off her jacket, revealing a white button-up shirt with two suspenders that were attached to a black skirt.

"It's fine, Umi-chan," Nozomi smiled while she adjusted her twin tails.

"Were there any clients waiting outside?"

"N-No, just Rin," Umi mumbled, noticing Rin was still wearing her coat.

"I'm so sorry, Nozomi-senpai, I left my keys inside the breakroom," Rin also bowed an apology.

"I know this is the last thing you want to happen, especially after everything you told us yesterday and what's going on with you right n-"

"Rin-chan," Nozomi's voice was like a whip crack, and the apprentice immediately shut her mouth.

Nozomi sighed and placed her hands inside of her skirt's pockets. She looked from her apprentice to the piercer, both were worried and apologetic.

"It does not matter that we only just opened. I had a rough night, and texted Umi in the morning, who did not receive the message, and Rin left her keys here. I understand that none of that is professional at all, but," Nozomi opened her eyes and peered at the computer, which was currently at the login screen.

"If there were no clients, then it's fine. It would be a totally different story if we had clients at 11am, now wouldn't it?"

Rin and Umi nodded, clearly imagining the scenario.

The owner of Lily White took the necessary steps towards the counter, and picked up the phone.

"Rin-chan," she addressed her apprentice. The orange-haired girl snapped up at once.

"Y-Yes?!"

"Relax," Nozomi grinned, and handed her the phone.

"Before we start your training, I'd like you to call Jo's and order some more ink in for us, okay?"

"S-Sure," Rin gingerly took the phone and got to work.

Nozomi turned on her heel to set up her station, but Umi grabbed her shoulder.

"Nozomi, is everything okay?" the piercer lowered her voice so that only the tattoo artist could hear.

"Everything is fine, Umi-chan,"

"So what's going to happen?"

Nozomi sighed and took the e-cigarette out of her mouth.

"The plan is to go about business as usual, and if he shows up, you leave him for me to deal with. This is my issue to resolve, okay?"

Umi grimaced, but nodded and squeezed Nozomi's shoulder once more before letting go.

Eli stood next to Maki, watching the younger girl finish up her bouquet with the red ribbon.

"Perfect, Maki," the blonde smiled at the redhead, who stuck her nose up slightly.

"This design is easy," Maki moved the bouquet over to the vase, and got ready to start a new one.

"Do you and Nozomi have any plans for Valentine's day?"

Eli tapped her lips with her first finger, "Well it's in a couple of days, and I was thinking of just doing something with Nozomi to take her mind off of everything."

"Th-That was too much information," Maki's eyebrow twitched, and Eli turned bright red.

"Get your mind out of the gutter!"

"You said doing things!"

"Nozomi is not the thing!"

Nico burst out laughing, turning around with the weight of the watering-can to pull her.

"Maki, you dirty-minded minx!"

"Sh-shut up!" Maki was losing control over her words as Eli's eyebrow twitched.

"I'm going to do banking."

Eli stalked out of the store, in desperately need to clear her head and calm down.

She needed a focused mind to deal with everything, especially valentine's day.

Eli wanted nothing more than Nozomi to be happy, surrounded by people who loved her. Unfortunately, the majority of Nozomi's family were scattered about the country, and the only family member who would be dropping by soon was someone the tattoo artist did not want to see.

The blonde's pulled out her phone while she waited in line for the bank, scrolling through her favourite florist's website for ideas on how to style different bouquets.

Eli might have been trained in Japan, but her style of flower arranging was more western; another reason why Bibi stood out from other florists in the area.

She had always wanted to learn ikebana, and other traditional Japanese styles of flower arranging, but there was no one willing to teach her due to her 'foreignness.'

Eli remembered the day that she had been turned down for the third time, and had stomped home and slammed the door to the bedroom.

tarots - and - twintails . tumblr . com

*Massive shoutout to captaingeekface for the insanely good picture of tattooed Nozomi! it's currently my phone background. You've done the lord's work, my friend.