Work Text:
Everywhere you look there are customers.
You've taken for granted the calm atmosphere of the stationery store you used to work at. The rowdiest it would get was when you ran out of the cream colored sticky notes and had five angry middle aged women jumping down your throat threatening to stop shopping at this store and go to Yamada-san's boutique across the street. That was fine with you.
Now you would give anything to only have older women in your store. At the sports equipment store where you're working today, most of the women come in with their dipshit pre-teens that don't know the difference between shuttlecocks and wiffle balls. You’ve lost count of how many kids you’ve had to chase around because they think putting the display-only athletic cups over their crotches is the world’s funniest joke.
The manager that hired you six months ago assured you that most of this job would be tracking inventory. Small items like shoelaces and whistles tended to “disappear.” You thought you’d be spending most of your shifts counting and recounting the displays to make sure the number of items missing match the number of items sold. Wrong. High school athletes with a point to prove take up way too much of your time.
“Yeah, not to brag but we’re going to nationals this year,” A soccer player says. His bag is slung over his shoulder and brushing against a row of shin guards. A couple dropped to the floor, but there’s no room for you to squat and pick them up.
“That’s great,” you deadpan. “Take this to the counter and she’ll check you out.”
“Aw, why can’t you check me out?” Wow, you’ve never heard that one before. You’re stunned into silence, but actually you’re just trying to not lose your job by telling this guy to either pay for his shit or get the fuck out.
You weave between a few customers to get to a less crowded part of the store. Weekend shifts are your least favorite because that’s when all the students do their shopping. On top of your usual flow of customers, you have a wave of teenagers coming in with their friends to goof off. The soccer players have congregated near the wall of swimsuits, and there’s a suspicious group of girls circling around the rack of leggings. But you don’t get paid enough to prevent trouble from brewing.
You wander close enough to the front entrance to see people milling about with their shopping bags and milk tea from the stall around the corner. There’s a tall guy pushing his way through, or maybe people are just getting out of his way. He looks a little pissed off, in the permanent scowl kind of way. He looks down and smiles ever so slightly. He’s getting closer and you start to realize why you picked him out of the crowd of shoppers.
Sure, his skin is darker than average and his hair uniquely blue, but this is a mall in Tokyo. You’ve seen stranger things including a girl with striped hair and at least thirty bracelets walking with a guy skinny enough to hide behind a lamppost.
You recognize him as one of your less frequent regulars. A basketball player based on the shoes he buys. He usually comes in with a pink-haired girl, but now she mostly comes in by herself. You haven’t seen this guy the last couple times she’s been in the store.
The automatic doors slide open and he waltzes inside.
“I wanted to try it out but… “ His voice fades into the chaos of the store. Casual conversations. Scuffing shoes. Bouncing balls, which is against store policy.
Ignoring the annoying customers, you look around for anyone that needs assistance so that you make sure to steer clear of them too. Your shift has only just started, but you're entirely ready to go home and be alone.
“Hey.”
“Oh shit.” You turn around quickly to a face full of that guy staring at you. He’s a little close so you back up a few inches into a mannequin. It teeters but stays upright. “Can I help you?”
“Got any more basketballs in the back? All that’s out here are those little kid sized ones.”
The audacity of this guy to ask you a sports question at the sporting goods store you work at. You can’t tell if the look on his face is smug or bored. And before your manager can appear out of nowhere and see you, you fix the look on your own face to be somewhat congenial. “Let me check, sir.”
The walk to the storage room is long and arduous. A mother asks you to explain the difference between tennis and badminton and you manage to pawn her off to a coworker before she gets into a rant about her kid’s expensive sports hobbies. Yuki will make you pay for that later, but she owes you because you covered her shift yesterday.
There are a few basketballs left so you grab two so that you can put one on the shelf. On your way out, you make a note on the whiteboard for your manager to add basketballs to your next shipment.
You spot the blue-haired guy next to the basketball shoes. He’s manhandling them, tossing them in the air and trying to balance a shoe on his index finger. There must be a girl he’s trying to impress. Maybe that pink-haired girl showed up. He keeps looking down like he could be talking to someone standing right next to him.
It pisses you off that he moved to the shoe section instead of staying up front because now he might ask you to go back to the storage room and grab a pair of shoes knowing we probably won’t carry his size anyway. And then you’ll be stuck in hell running back and forth for every other customer until your shift ends.
He turns to the side just as you’re about to hand him his ball. “Come on, you’re trying to kill me. A guy can’t survive on just one occasional kiss from his b–” He turns back to you unprompted. “What took you so long? We were about to leave.”
You scoff viciously and hold the ball out in front of you. “Take it.”
“Geez, don’t look too happy.” His left hand is in his pocket so he lifts up the right. Another hand is attached. It’s small, or maybe just normal sized. He looks over his shoulder and steps to the side. A short guy appears. He also has blue hair, but it and his skin are lighter than the tall guy now with a stupid look on his face. “Didn’t notice you holding my hand, must come natural now.”
His grin is both cheesy and slimy. It makes you scoff again. You’re still holding the ball so you jostle it a bit to get his attention.
“Whoops.” He bops your hand and the ball pops into the air. He catches it with ease.
You’re very unimpressed. And somehow even more unimpressed at the scene in front of you. This guy already has a girlfriend. Right? It really has been a while since you saw them together, and it’s not like you keep tabs on him like that. But a girl like her, she’s hard to forget. She’s pretty and a little loud, but he probably just brings the anger out in her. She’s handsy too. They always walked close together; and when his hands were in his pockets, her arm was wrapped around his. You don’t remember them kissing, but plenty of people don’t kiss in public. Except this guy is talking about kissing the short guy. Right in front of you.
“See Tetsu, I knew they’d have more. And you didn’t believe me.”
Tetsu looks entirely unbothered. As if he had only just now been plugged into an outlet or had his flip switched on. You don’t dismiss your suspicion until you hear him talk, and even then his voice is impossibly soft and difficult to hear about the general chatter surrounding you.
“I did believe you. I just thought it was rude of you to ask so impolitely, Aomine-kun.” Tetsu turns to you and blinks his wide eyes. “Thank you.”
“Pay at the counter.” You sigh and walk away.
Normally that would be the end of any other irritating customer interaction. But this tall guy, Aomine or whatever his name is, keeps popping into your store like a drenched cat escaping a rainstorm, which actually has happened once or twice. And the pink-haired chick, what are you supposed to do about her? You might be apathetic about your employment duties, but even customers are real people. They don’t deserve to get cheated on.
You decide there’s plenty of time left in your shift to get your tasks done and do a little snooping. You can pass off your time on the main floor as checking stock and waiting for customers to ask you questions when really you plan on slipping away right as they approach you and disappearing to another corner of the store.
You camp out near the swimming section. The soccer players have cleared out and now the swimsuits are in disarray. You reorganize the speedos by color from where they had just been put back on random racks. As you card through the hangers, you’re eternally thankful for the fact that the dressing rooms have been closed for the last two months because the warehouse sent too many boxes of equipment and you needed a place to store them. You really don’t understand why people are allowed to try on swimsuits when it's basically the same as underwear in terms of—
There’s movement in the corner of your eye. Aomine pulling Tetsu toward the opposite end of the store. You almost forgot about them in your organization skills-induced haze. Lucky for you, they don’t seem to be in a hurry to leave and they certainly don’t seem scared of getting caught. This seems like a bold move for the little meek one. And yet, maybe looks can be deceiving. Tetsu did clap back at Aomine’s rudeness, which you do appreciate now that the moment is over. And Aomine was the one begging for a kiss. Does Tetsu actually run this relationship?
A guy with the wide shoulders of a butterfly stroke swimmer steps next to you. You give him an arms length of distance and continue adjusting swimsuits and realigning bottles of sunscreen into a straight line.
Tetsu stops despite Aomine’s tugging; they both fall toward each other just a bit. Aomine has a small apology written on his lips but Tetsu is looking forward.
Tetsu being the boss makes a weird amount of sense. The pink-haired girl is also bossy, and Aomine has a lazy attitude. As if he’s content to let the time pass by when he’s not interested in something. Shopping is surely something he’d rather not do.
Even though you don’t know much about him, his look is enough to tell you who he is. Loose pants, looser shirt, and messy hair. Not quite careless enough to be a delinquent, but definitely a troublemaker when something strikes the wrong chord with him.
Tetsu looks much more put together. A cream colored cardigan and striped shirt with cropped khakis. You’d think his blue hair would make him stand out, but the guy is practically invisible. He probably keeps to himself.
Maybe it's an opposites attract thing with them, though you’re having trouble placing them into the typical roles. Aomine seems mostly domineering, but Tetsu keeps him in his place. That’s what it’s like with the pink-haired girl too. They keep Aomine on track.
But how did Aomine and Tetsu ever come into contact with each other? Aomine is all about basketball and Tetsu looks like he’s never even held a ball. The pink-haired girl is certainly familiar with basketball, that’s probably why Aomine let her hang around him in the beginning. Then they probably grew to like each other. Maybe they go to the same school. She might even be a basketball player herself, or the manager for the boys team.
Tetsu on the other hand, it makes no sense. He’s cute like she is. Aomine must be drawn to that. An air of innocence that contrasts with their assertive personalities. Tetsu is flipping through your store catalog while Aomine is still holding his hand. It’s like he’s on a leash; Aomine wants to wander away but Tetsu won’t budge.
You’ve mostly finished reorganizing the swimsuits. It’s going to get messed up again before the end of your shift so you decide to leave well enough alone. Besides, Tetsu might have a question about the catalog items, so if you hover closer to them, he’ll call on you instead of Yuki or someone else.
You stalk closer and see Aomine’s mouth moving. He says something then closes his eyes and hangs his head in defeat. Somewhat close to them is a bin of baseballs that people love hiding shit in. You dig both arms in and try not to disturb the balls so you can hear whatever Aomine is saying.
“Tetsu. Please?”
“No.”
They’re not even facing each other. Tetsu is reading the catalog and Aomine is behind him, Tetsu’s hand in one hand and balancing the basketball in his other.
“Then let me come to your house.”
“No.”
You find a half empty cup of milk tea in the bin; there's a lipstick smudge on the lid and it makes you gag a little. You sit on the ground and continue digging.
“A love hotel then?”
“Absolutely not. And don’t talk so loudly.” Testu turns the page.
“Fine!” He yells. “But when are you gonna stop flipping through that thing? I’m tired.”
“You were late today because you were napping.”
“Okay, but I still want to lay in bed. With you.”
You look up briefly to catch the sleazy grin on his face. He stops spinning the ball to concentrate on Tetsu’s response. Tetsu gently tugs his hand and Aomine twirls around.
“Aomine-kun, you’re embarrassing me.” They’re standing close to each other so Tetsu’s head is tilted up at a big angle. And Aomine is tilted down. Neither wants to give in, or at least it appears like Tetsu is pressuring him.
“... sorry,” Aomine sighs.
Tetsu doesn’t forgive him, but he does leave the catalog alone. He holds Aomine’s hand in both of his and the size difference makes you giggle. They snap toward you and you bury your head in balls.
Gross, a used bandaid. You come back up for air and they’re walking past you. Tetsu’s looking at his phone.
“Momoi-san will be here soon,” he says. Aomine steals his phone and glares at the text message. He slams the phone shut and stuff it into Tetsu’s pocket.
“Screw her!” He groans. “She’s gonna want to look around then I’ll be stuck here for another thirty minutes.”
They’re almost out of range. You barely hear Tetsu’s response. “Be patient, Aomine-kun.”
“Only if I get a reward,” Aomine says through kissy lips. Tetsu looks briefly then hurries them to another part of the store.
You pick up the pile of trash you pulled from the ball bin and stuff it back into the center. This way, you can go back and pick out the trash again so you can look busy. You take the long way around the store to find them again. Luckily Aomine is taller than most of the displays and even among a crowd of athletes, he’s still pretty tall. They’re tucking themselves into a corner by a mannequin showing off a set of golf clubs. Hardly anyone comes to the golf section so it’s perfect for a little privacy from all the shoppers bumping shoulders.
It would be too conspicuous to also be cleaning out the golf ball bin. But there’s no need to hide, Aomine and Tetsu are too focused on each other to care about who might see them. Aomine is mostly blocking Tetsu from your view, but you do see him stand on his toes while Aomine leans down. If this wall wasn’t in your way, you could scoot over just enough to get visual confirmation that these too are making out in your sporting goods store.
Not making out—Tetsu has too much decorum for that—but there’s no doubt that they kissed and it was Tetsu who initiated it. Aomine may have put the thought in his head, but Tetsu controlled the when, where, and how.
Aomine steps back then falls against the wall. He slides down with his eyes closed. He’s still holding Testu’s hand, so with Tetsu still standing, it seems like Tetsu is having to put up with a lazy dog who doesn’t want to be on his walk anymore. Tetsu shakes his hand and Aomine’s arm flails uselessly. Tetsu drops his hand and steps over Aomine’s outstretched legs. Aomine gets over himself and calls out to Tetsu who stops then sits next to him against the wall.
They must be waiting for this Momoi person to show up. Whoever it is, you hope they know nothing about what a scumbag Aomine is. He’s bold to cheat on his girlfriend in a store they frequently shop at together. Surely he knows that the employees recognize him. You can’t come in with your girlfriend all the time and think we won’t notice you replaced her with some doe-eyed boy!
It’s pissing you off really bad. That pink-haired girl doesn’t deserve this. You just hope Tetsu doesn’t know Aomine is already taken. Your heart can’t take it if Tetsu knows he’s a homewrecker.
There’s really nothing else for you to learn by spying on them. You might as well get some work done while you’re on the clock. But it’s so hard to concentrate. You wonder if every new person that walks through the door is Momoi and if Aomine and Tetsu will switch up once they arrive. Stand further apart and stop the admiring glances. They could be hiding their relationship. It wouldn’t be hard for them. Tetsu would just have to keep Aomine’s mouth shut and hands to himself.
“Excuse me,” a cute voice says from behind you. Someone taps on your shoulder and you turn around. “Have you seen two basketball players walking around here? A tall one and a short one?”
It’s her! The girl with pink hair is here and she’s looking for two people. There are plenty of basketball players here, but from a quick glance around you don’t see any walking around in pairs.
“Nevermind, I see them.” She bows her head then runs off behind you. “Thank you!”
She passes the basketball section and keeps going further into the store. Then she runs up to Aomine and kicks his shoe. You weren’t expecting this. If they’re who she’s looking for, then Tetsu must be a basketball player too. He’s way too scrawny, but there’s nothing you can do except accept it as fact.
You creep closer to them once again and stop at a rack of compression shirts to peek through the hangers. Aomine’s yelling at her, gesturing widely and almost knocking stuff off the shelves. She probably woke his lazy ass from a nap. Tetsu is bleary eyed too. She somehow shoves Aomine out of the way and pulls Tetsu into a soul-crushing hug.
“Momoi-san… I can’t breathe.”
“Quit hugging my boyfriend!” Aomine pulls at her purse strap but she doesn’t budge. “Get your boob’s outta his face! You’re smothering him!” At least Aomine sounds concerned for one of his partners.
There’s too much going on. You look between the three of them and come up with so many questions and answers. Momoi is the pink-haired girl. They’re all friends; surely they know who’s dating who.
But what if they don’t?! Aomine’s cheating right in front of her and Tetsu! Only a lowlife would date both of his friends and then make them hang out together. Wait… are they all dating each other?!
Aomine called Tetsu his boyfriend, did he say that out loud by mistake? You wait for Momoi to react, but she only hugs Tetsu tighter. He is indeed smothered. But she doesn’t stop, and she pays no attention to Aomine’s words.
“... momoi-san…” Tetsu eeks out his last words on a shallow breath. She finally lets go and Tetsu gasps and chokes on the air he takes in too quickly. Aomine catches him and pats his back.
“Took you long enough,” Aomine growls. “We fell asleep waiting for you.”
“Sorry, Tetsu-kun!” She whines but he’s still in recovery. “Ever since you two became boyfriends I always get thought of last. I could have caught an earlier train if either of you told me yesterday that you wanted to hang out.”
“You invited yourself! I didn’t ask you to come! I already get enough of you at school. Let me hang with Tetsu alone.”
The longer you listen in, the more you sense that all of this is a lot more innocent than you’re making it out to be. Except Aomine clearly trying to undress Tetsu with his eye. Well, working retail makes you pretty bored. You’ll invent stories about anyone as long as it helps pass the time. In the end, there’s no love affairs or homewrecking, and they are not all in a relationship together. Aomine and Momoi go to the same school, so they must be close. Maybe she really is the manager of his basketball team.
But Tetsu doesn’t figure in so easily; Momoi was texting him, not Aomine. The three of them must be familiar for some other reason which you give up on trying to figure out. It won’t do you any good. Once they leave the store, they’re no longer your concern. Even if they come back, it’s not like you’ll talk to them about this. You’re not supposed to know a single thing about their relationship, although it’s not like Aomine was subtle.
He brushes the dust off the back of Tetsu’s pants, probably to touch his butt, but the floor really is dusty. Tetsu swats his hand away and points to the basketball they’re going to buy. Aomine kicks it up with his foot and Tetsu catches it.
“We shouldn’t loiter in the store any longer,” Tetsu says. He breezes past both of them. It’s strange that Aomine and Momoi have the same eyes for him—a deep look of longing. But it’s not your business.
“Are you alright?”
“Huh?” You jump and knock some of the hangers loose. Tetsu is standing directly next to you. “Oh! Yeah, I’m fine. Just hanging some clothes.”
“Let’s go, Tetsu.” Aomine throws his arm around Tetsu’s shoulders.
“Yeah, Tetsu-kun. I can’t wait to spend time with you!” Momoi wraps her arm around his waist.
All of the bodily contact is making Tetsu wobble. And it doesn’t help that Aomine keeps trying to sway Tetsu closer toward him. Tetsu drops the ball and Momoi retrieves it. You suspect that might have been on purpose. He peels himself from Aomine and entwines their hands once again.