A/N:
Gonna Get Mine - Halestorm
"Do you need water or anything?" Umi asked.
"I'll be fine, thank you Umi!"
The piercer went into the breakroom to get her own bottle of water.
The second Umi took her water bottle out of her bag, a vibration sounded from the desk.
"The heck?" Umi straightened up and observed the desk. It was Nozomi's phone.
The number, brightly lit up against the screen, was flashing.
Umi bit her lip, and instinctively chewed on her snakebite. Without even thinking, she reached forward to pick up the phone.
"Umi-chan,"
The piercer whirled around as if gun shots had sounded, and raised her hands to cover her head.
Nozomi stood in the doorframe, leaning against his lazily with her arms folded.
"Is everything okay?"
Umi forced her mind's cob-web covered cogs to click back into gear to speak, but nothing came out apart from some spluttering.
Since her voice did not wish to cooperate, Umi pointed a shaking finger at the phone on the desk, that was still vibrating.
Nozomi sighed and walked towards the desk.
"I better take this,"
"I-It's not-"
"It's not him, Umi. But I still need to take it. Please, excuse me," Nozomi picked up her phone and swiped a finger lazily against across the screen.
The artist walked straight past the piercer towards the door to the back alley, and Umi just stared after her.
"Umi-senpai! Someone wants a bellybutton piercing!"
Rin's voice made Umi sigh and turn back to the floor.
Eli gave her flowers three days before disposing of them in the recycling garden she had out the back of her shop.
Eli never saw the point in people throwing out perfectly good flowers into bins.
When the blonde took over Bibi, she set up a rectangular flowerbed in the small concrete area outside of her shop that was connected to the post office adjacent to her.
That, and she changed the name of the store to Bibi. Being the manager of Fun Flowers was something she'd only consider if hell was freezing over.
Eli knelt down and planted the old daffodils into the soil of her concrete garden, quietly humming a tune. Upon realising what the tune was, she groaned and stopped immediately.
"Dammit, Nozomi! Now I have Halestorm stuck in my head!" Eli mentally cursed the artist upon standing up and dusting down her apron.
She felt her pocket vibrate, and shoved a hand in to grab her phone.
"Well, speak of the devil," Eli grinned and swiped the screen to answer Nozomi's call.
"Hello, Nozomi,"
"Afternoon, Elichi,"
"What do I owe the pleasure?" Eli stared out at her garden as Nozomi took a deep breath.
"Well, you said I needed to be more open so…"
There was a pause, and Eli's grin dropped at once.
"Is something wrong?"
"Apparently my shop is getting a new owner."
"Wh-What?!" Eli's heart stopped.
"Not like that, Elichi," Nozomi chuckled, and Eli let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh thank goodness."
"I meant a landlord…The shop is changing hands to a new landlord."
"Oh, okay?"
"You'll never guess who it is."
Eli tapped her chin in thought.
"Vladimir Putin?"
"No, your father is not my new landlord,"
Eli huffed in annoyance as Nozomi laughed.
Feeling her eyebrow twitched, she ignored that jab and continued.
"So, who is your new landlord?"
"Kotori's mother."
"Wait, seriously?" Eli nearly dropped the phone.
"Yep, apparently she wanted a change of scenery from being chairwoman of the high school. Now she's a landlord."
"Well, good for her, I guess. She's nor raising your rent or anything, I hope?" Eli fiddled with the strap of her apron.
"No, there's been nothing like that. I just wish my old landlord gave me more notice."
"Yeah, true. Did they let anyone else know?"
"No, he just fucked off and probably fell down in the process."
Eli chuckled and turned to head back inside to escape the cold.
"So, what did you want to do tomorrow?" She walked down the small alleyway back to the main street with one hand stuck in her jeans pocket.
"Not really, I'd like to close up early and just come home. If it's alright with you, I'd just like a quiet night in, Elichi. Perhaps Friday night we can go out and do something?"
"No, I understand, that's totally fine. I'm gonna be wiped out tomorrow anyway," Eli grimaced at the thought of the hell of a day that valentine's day was going to be for her shop. But, at least they were going to beat budget.
"Ah, sorry Elichi, but I need to get back to Rin-chan. She's almost finished with Hanayo-chan's tattoo and I'd be an awful teacher if I wasn't there."
"Go for it, and send me a picture!"
"Will do, I'll see you tonight, Elichi."
"See you, Nozomi," Eli smiled, then hung up as she placed a hand on the door to her shop, the other hand clutching at her chest, which was now warm.
"What took so long?" Nico huffed, trimming more thorns from red roses.
Eli ignored her friend and proceeded to the counter to do a daily count.
"Nozomi has a new landlord that just happens to be Kotori's mother."
"But she was our chairwoman at highschool!"
"She must have wanted a change of pace, but she's still in charge of something," Maki grinned.
"True," Nico sighed, and went back to setting up the ribbons.
"These orders are never ending!"
"It's double what we had last year," Eli was scribbling down measurements for a unique order on a piece of paper, then pulled out the blue highlighter.
"No one is to touch this box unless your name is Eli. Okay?" she held up the obtuse box and showed it to Nico and Maki.
They both nodded, knowing that Eli would surely murder them if they dared touch that box.
The phone rang, and Maki rushed over to answer.
"Bibi flowers, Maki speaking," The young student twirled at her red strands while she was on the phone.
Eli left Maki to handle the phone, and got Nico to get more boxes to pop up for flowers from their back room.
Maki's face paled upon hearing the voice on the other end of the phone. Her hand that held ribbons started to shake, and her violet eyes twitched.
Once the other person on the phone hung up, Maki practically slammed the phone down back onto the charging station and shuddered violently.
"Wh-What kind of sick bastard says that about his daughter…"
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