[PRP] Graveyard Shift Visit (Akira, Zacharie, & Mathis)

[Akira Midoriyama]

Quote:

It was late at night at the convenience store that Akira worked at and the silver-haired young man unstacked boxes off to one side as he prepared to stock the shelves. He sighed as he adjusted his ear pieces, wondering if anyone would come in that evening.

Sometimes there were some interesting late-night runs or drunkards to deal with, but Akira enjoyed the peace and quiet when he could get it. It gave him time to think and mentally compose when he wasn’t simply enjoying listening to his music.

Once in a while he let his pokemon out to him to help him work or simply for company, but he knew his team mostly preferred the outdoors or, like Silly, would have rather stayed in his pokeball. Since it seemed like it would be pretty dead that night, Akira decided to just spend the time alone immersing himself in his mundane tasks.

 

[insidiousEnigma]

“If I find out that you've stolen something while we're in here I'll make sure you don't leave the base for a week.” Zacharie grumbled as he slid out of the truck they'd arrived in and adjusted his hoodie. Every day was getting warmer but it was still too chilly to go without a jacket at night.

“I would never.” Mathis snickered as he trailed after his superior, hands stuffed into the pockets of his leather jacket. “Gonna peep the snacks.” He jerked his head in the direction of the chips but more importantly, a silver-haired cutie.

Zacharie seemed distracted by the magazine rack so the greaser wandered over to the clerk and crouched beside them, a sly smile on his face. “Hellooooo beautiful~”  

[Akira Midoriyama]

The shop clerk started as he heard the door open, jumping up to walk around the isle and up to the counter where he could greet the newcomers. They didn’t seem to be inebriated, but Akira wasn’t terribly good at being able to tell. They seemed to be having a conversation between themselves, so he simply nodded and waved in greeting rather than to interrupt. It wasn’t for a couple of minutes that Akira realized that one of the young men was none other than Zacharie and he smiled, though he still didn’t dare say anything. Perhaps the purple-haired young man wouldn’t have wanted to associate himself with a convenience store shop clerk, which Akira wouldn’t have blamed him for at all.

As he heard the pair discuss things over the sound of his music, he began to wonder their relationship with each other to be spending time together this late at night. Were they friends hanging out? Having a sleepover? Boyfriends?

But as he began to head back to the boxes he had meant to open up and stock the contents of, he caught sight of the smiling stranger and read his lips. Akira blinked in bewilderment and glanced behind him. Seeing no one there, he glanced back and took out one of his earbuds, asking, “I’m sorry, were you talking to me?” Perhaps if he pretended he hadn’t heard or understood, the young man would repeat himself and Akira could verify he hadn’t been imagining things.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Mathis’ smile grew, “I was.” He confirmed with a slight nod. “I thought beauties went to bed early to keep up on their sleep but here ya are at 2 in the mornin’ gracin’ me with your presence.” He winked, before propping his chin in his palm. “The handle’s Mathis, ya think I could get yours?”

While his tone was playful he seemed quite serious in the way he was scoping the other out.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Though he had thought that by now he would have surely gotten used to such blatant flirting, Akira’s face began to burn right up as the young man’s words began to process. He had to plant himself in place to keep from succumbing to the temptation of turning his back on the guy or somehow hiding his face from view, neither of which would have been proper customer service etiquette. Or any sort of etiquette that Akira knew of, for that matter.

Swallowing hard, he tried to remember his manners and said, “A-a pleasure to meet you, Mathis. My name is A-a - “ He actually had to pause and glance down at his nametag at the corner of his peripheral vision. “ - Akira. If...that’s what you were asking for.” He shook his head vigorously. “But I’m sorry, you must be mistaken. I, er...you...know I’m a...man, right…?” He felt kind of stupid asking, but he’d had the issue before of people mistaking his gender due to some of his more androgynous features. It was better to be up-front about it now rather than to be blamed for having tried to deceive someone later.

Trying to busy his fidgety hands and attempting to diffuse the focus of Mathis’ attention, Akira turned to his box and began to unpack it in order to put up the contents within. He kept himself at least half-turned to the other male, however, so he didn’t think he was trying to ignore him and he wasn’t being rude. If only he could have dumped out the box’s contents and hid himself inside.