Onigiri Harvest

[Kazuki Sohma]

Flushed slightly and out of breath from running, Kazuki walked into his place of work and right into the back his distinctively peeved manager. Said manager turned around and glared down at him, in a menacing way. She had a good four inches on Kazuki anyway – something he felt was very unfair - and her anger only served to make her seem even taller.

"You're late, Sohma-kun!" she informed him quietly. "I told you. You have to stop dawdling and get here on time! So, what's your excuse this time?"
"I'm really sorry. I got held up at school. It couldn't be helped," He was lying through his teeth but somehow, he didn't think telling her the actually reason he was late would save him any brownie points. Being held up at school was a far more legitimate reason for being late than ‘I was held up talking to some girl’. She sighed dramatically. She couldn't exactly scold her staff in front of customers, especially when they weren't even in uniform. It created a bad image for the shop.

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever! Just get changed and go reorganise the self-help section!" And with this she flounced off to help some customers at the desk. Although, Kazuki was certain he was in for a serious telling-off later on, once the shop closed.

Kazuki sighed and disappeared through one of the 'staff-only' doors to change into his uniform. He was completely unaware at this point that Kagura had chosen to follow him. He thought she'd gone to wherever she'd been rushing off to before he had crashed into her. Sighing dejectedly once again, Kazuki began to unbutton his school shirt.

[Kagura Sohma]

Still dashing down the sidewalk, she stopped upon reaching the mall and nodded to herself. Sure, this was probably one of the more bold things she'd ever attempted, but guilt was guilt and she was NOT going to go back home with that on her shoulders - whether she got in trouble or not. Her mother would understand!

After searching through the mall for what seemed hours ( but was really about ten minutes ) Kagura stumbled upon the book store and dashed in, glancing around. "Kazu-San better work at this one." She said, feeling mental if it ended up being the wrong one. Curling her toes inside her boots, she stalked off through the aisles. If she couldn't find Kazu-San then she would find his book.

Gray eyes scanning the different sections, she swiftly looked for anything that would lead her to Sci-Fi. Whyever he'd want to read such an odd type of book was beyond her - she preferred the classic romance story. Searching for a nice length of time, she grinned happily, hiking her bag up on her back more and snatching the book from the shelf, eyes happily scanning the familiar cover. Hugging it to her, she grinned and made her way to the counter, glancing around in the propect of spotting Kazuki. What if.. his boss fired him. The thought shot through her fast enough to make her jump out of her boots, but she didn't. Instead, she marched up to the counter and layed the book on it, not glancing at the cashire as she spun her bag around and dug around for some money.

I just hope he's still got his job... She thought, dropping a couple yen and ducking to pick them up quickly. "Whoops..."

[Kazuki Sohma]

Kazuki walked back into the main part of the shop, trying to get the collar of his uniform shirt straight. It was surprisingly difficult to make the collar of his polo shirt go the way it should. He had the sneaking suspicion that it had been crushed and bent out of shape while left overnight. Honestly, couldn't the shop get a non-iron uniform? ...And why the self-help section? Every other self-help author had a name beginning with 'G' and he could never remember what letter that was after in the alphabet! It must be his manger’s sick idea of punishment.

As he walked past the counter on his way to the self-help section, Kazuki noticed a girl had dropped some of her money and, being the helpful employee that he was, knelt down to help pick it up; only to come face to face with a familiar face from just a few minutes ago.

"Kagura-chan?" he blinked at her a few moments, before remembing the change he was holding. "Here!" he held it out to her. Kazuki had been sure she wouldn't have followed him. Hadn't she been in a rush to get somewhere? Maybe she'd been rushing to the bookshop? What a strange girl, even he didn’t do that.

Kazuki wanted to question her about this but there were self-help books awaiting him. Besides, he was already is trouble and his boss was sitting right there, giving him a very dirty look. So he instead settled for;
"See you later." He smirked at her then walked right past in the direction of self-help. He didn't mean to be rude and not stop to talk but he did kind of have a job to do.

[Kagura Sohma]

Grumbling to herself as she reached for a piece of yen at the same moment that someone appeared out of seemingly nowhere and reached for the same coin. Pulling her hand back swiftly, she looked up into the face of Kazuki and nearly fell backwards in surprise, "Oh!" She took the money he'd picked up for her and smiled some, standing quickly and dropping the coins on the counter. "U - uhm..." She watched him walk off, assuming that he was dressed like he was because he - thankfully - still had his job.

Paying for the book quickly, she thanked the lady behind the counter and took the bag, looping it on her arm and starting towards the exist, but stopping as she spotted him down one of the aisles messing with the books there. Mentally Kagura knew that bothering him would probably make his boss angrier than she was - if possible - but she didn't want to have come, bought him a new book and then leave.

Digging the toe of her brown boot into the carpet of the bookstore, she sighed and turned in his direction and she shook her head and began leaving again... only to stop once more and wander back in and over to the aisle next to the one he was in and took a deep breath before peeping her head around the corner.

"Er.. Kazu-San. Sorry to bother you again..." She said, knowing she really should be deadly sorry. Destroying his book, making him late and now bothering him at work. "If you boss gets mad, just... blame me and give her my last name." She offered a smile, knowing that they'd be able to find her at the Sohma house hands down. "Anyway." She walked out from behind the shelf, bag behind her and then held it out to him, both hands clasping the handle of the bag, head angled down, "I don't know if this will make up for it, but it's for killing your book today - " She said, cheeks flushing lightly. " - either way, though, you're still annoying!" She added.

[Kazuki Sohma]

Kazuki looked up from books on gaining self-confidence he was trying to resort. People were so inconsiderate. They took books of the shelves to look at then, rather than putting them back in at least the general place they found them, stuck them back any old way. Then, of course, it was up to poor shop-employees to put the books back into order... They could at the very least put them back into the right section; Kazuki had so far removed two DIY books and a romance novel from this shelf already.

"What's the matter? ....I mean; Can I help you?" asked Kazuki smirking faintly up at Kagura. He had to at least pretend to be professional, not that his manager could actually see him from the counter. The view from behind the counter was surprisingly limited.

"My boss can't see over here unless she stands on the counter or something... but that would of course be extremely unprofessional and a bad example to her staff!" he assured her, looking highly amused by the whole thing. "Don't worry though. If she does notice, I'll just tell her that I was helping you find the book on improving you sex life you were looking for! I can't be told off for helping customers."
Kazuki winked at her then quickly hide a laugh by turning to return ‘Learn to Love Yourself' back to the shelf. Consider she was a fellow Sohma, he didn't think giving his Manager Kagura-chan's surname would do anything in is favour... he'd just get told off for talking to his family during work hours, as well.

Giving her a weird look, Kazuki accepted the bag and opened it. "You bought me a replacement?" he blinked at the identical copy of his now deceased book, then at her. "I thought I said not to worry about my book? It was my fault for not looking where I was going. You really didn't need to but thanks." Kazuki blushed slightly and bowed politely. He choose not to add in the bit about being able to get a replacement cheap because he worked here.

"It's good to know that hasn't changed," Kazuki sniggered when informed, once again, that he was annoying.

[Kagura Sohma]

She smiled some as he attempted to pull a professional attitude with her and her eyes widened as he mention her asking for help with her sex life. "I'll have you know -- " But she stopped, knowing that any arguing might bring misses psychopath over. She dropped her hands swiftly to her sides, pulling on the hem of her dress as he pulled the book out. "Uhm... yeah." Shen nodded a couple times, wondering if he didn't want another copy of his book... oh well, what could you do?

Kagura gave him a stern look as he joked about being annoying. Most people wouldn't want to be referred to as annoying, but well, Kazu-San sure wasn't like most people.

"So.. maybe I should go." She muttered, pointed towards the exit and taking a small step backwards, towards it. "After all, I've caused you enough trouble for the day and wouldn't want you getting into any more problems today." She bowed quickly and then started leaving. Placing her hand on the shelf and she turned to go, she glanced over her shoulder.

"Ugh." Kagura rolled her eyes and then dropped to the floor next to him on her knees and proceeded to pull out "Learn to Love Yourself". Not because she needed to read it, but to give her an excuse to keep Kasu-San company... or keep herself company. Either way she didn't want to go home. Not like she knew the way back from the part of the mall anyway... but she wasn't about to mention that being her main reason for coming back and following him.

Peeping over the top of the book, which she'd randomly opened, she looked at him, "Is your job hard?" She asked casually, flipping a page and making a face at the information on it. Who in the world would need one of these books, anyway? Kagura paused, the laughed softly - Shii-Chan, probably.. She thought, picturing Shigure in her head waving the book around as if he'd just discovered something peverted, no doubt.

[Kazuki Sohma]

Kazuki laughed at her reaction to his comment about improving her sex life. He had of course been joking and would just tell his manager he was helping Kagura-chan find a generic, unspecified book, if she by some chance asked.
"Thanks again but you really didn't need to do anything." He folded the bag around the book and slid it under the self. It would be safe there until the end of his shift. After all, only the staff actually looked under the bookshelves... and that was only because they had to. It wasn’t very pretty under there.

"Okay... Bye! Have a nice day," he gave her the forced, sickly-sweet smiled that accompanied that line, then raised his eyebrows as she turned around and sat down next to him.
"First you say your going then you sit down and start asking me questions... Weird!" Kazuki couldn’t figure out what went through Kagura-chan's head at all. Rolling his eyes, he resisted glaring at her for removing the book he'd just sorted. It would be much easier to do this job if people didn't insist on taking books off the shelves the second he got them in the right place.

After watching her for a few moments, Kazuki turned back to his self-confidence books and answered her question. "My job’s not particularly hard. Except, y'know, when customers come and mess up the shelves I'm in the middle of reordering and I have to start over again," he smirked and gestured the book she was holding. "How about you? ...Do you have a job?" he asked.

[Kagura Sohma]

"Well yeah, I guess I'm a very indecisive person." She responded nonchalantly, peering at the contents of the book and making a face, quickly flipped passed that page. Tapping the toe of her boot against the bottom shelf, she chewed idly on the inside of her mouth. Listening to him, but keeping her gray eyes on the novel, she nodded a few times, "I'll put it back, I remember where it goes." She pointed with her boot to a small gap on the shelf where the book once sat, another book falling over some to bridge the gap. Sniffling some, she peeked back over the top of the book and lifted both eyebrows as Kazu-San continued fixing the shelf.

Listening to his question, she laughed some and shook her head, holding a hand up, "Of course I don't - I mean, I'm in college." She shrugged. College wasn't much, being as she didn't live on campus and still lived with her Mama. "Do... you need any help?" She asked, slipping the book back in it's original spot and tipping her head as she watched him. It was a confusingly curious thought that hit her - but he reminded her of someone. "Uh..."

Of... Haa-San.

Shaking her head quickly, she laughed to herself and went back to staring at the spines of books. He wasn't like Haa-San. Haa-San was reserved and.. sure Kazu-San had been shy in the beginning, but he wasn't so bad now. And he was nice. Well, so was Haa-San... oh, this was stupid. So what if he was a Sohma, he wasn't anything like any of the cursed ones. Wiggling her toes around inside her boots, she crossed her legs and sat her hands on her ankels.

[Kazuki Sohma]

Kazuki watched her putting it back where he'd originally placed it and sighed. He still found it annoying that people took books off while he was trying to sort them out so that they could find them easily... even if they put them back in the exact some place as he had. Kazuki was oddly possessive of his books.

"You're in college?" he asked, pulling a Gardening book of the shelf and depositing it in the ever growing pile of books that needed to be taken back to their correct sections. Honestly couldn't people even read those big signs saying what Genre was in this area? "I thought you were still in high school... But I really shouldn't make assumptions like that, given how often people get confused about how old I am! Sorry about that"

Kazuki pulled a face a the memory. He couldn't remember how many times he'd been asked if he was a freshman at school and once while he was working here one old lady had even gone as far as to ask if he was still in elementary school! He hated being so short.

"It's alright. It's my job to do this... and my manager gets kind of prissy about customers helping," He added in a low voice and rolling his eyes, He then noticed her wearing an odd expression... almost as if she'd suddenly recognised him or something. That could be it. Kazuki could have sworn that he'd never met her before. Maybe he just reminded her of someone, did she know anyone else who was unfortunately short?
"Are you alright?"

[Kagura Sohma]

"Uh-huh. A woman's college." She pointed off randomly in the direction she assumed it to be - not like she really payed attention. Leaning back some, propped on her hands, she bobbed her feet back in forth in a rhythm while watching him continue to sort the shelves. "You diiid?" She laughed some, shaking her head, "Nope. Are you still in high school?" She asked, tossing him the question as well with a small smile on her face. He seemed to be reliving something unplesant by the look on his face.

She nodded a few times while he pointed out that his boss might not approve of her helping him sort out the shelves, "Ooookay, have fun doing it alone then." She said lightly, sitting up and crossing her legs once more. Jumping some as he looked at her and asked if she was fine, she waved her hands quickly with a very embarrassed look on her face and laughed nervously, "N - no, I'm fine! What makes you think I'm not?" She rubbed the back of her head.

| ooc: ooh, baaad post. but i'm not feeling well at all, so yeah.. |

[Kazuki Sohma]

"Yup... Although I don't look it, I'm in 11th Grade at Kaibara. Wasn't my uniform earlier a give away?" Kazuki asked playfully. He had after all been walking straight here from school when he ran into her. That reminded him suddenly of the massive amount of homework he had to complete after this and he sweat-dropped. Considering the mood his manager was currently in with him, doing that while here probability wasn't going to be an option. He was working as a cashier right now anyway so he didn't have a desk or anything to do it on.
"I have a lot of homework to do later. Yay, no sleep tonight!"

Kazuki rolled his eyes at her comment about having fun resorting the books by himself. "Will do! The money I get for this makes it worth while," he laughed and put the last book onto this shelf. Sighing faintly, he stood up to start on one of the higher shelves. He raised his eyebrows as Kagura-chan turned red and started laughing nervously.

"I dunno... you looked like you suddenly recognised me then or something," Kazuki looked down at her - not something he could do very often and this was only due to the fact that she was still sitting . He shook his head.
"Did you? I'm sure I've not met you before... Unless, I remind you of someone. And I thought I was individual," Kazuki sighed in a very melodramatic manner and smirked at her.

((occ: Don't worry about it. ^^ Feel better!))

[Kagura Sohma]

"Eleventh grade?" She gave him a look. "No, of course I didn't notice your uniform. I was too busy clinging to that pole and yelling at you." She said seriously, giving him a look. Of course the only thing she'd really noticed was that he was wearing his working uniform... Still giving him the same look as earlier, she looked off down the aisle at a few people as they passed before she got on her knees, "Well that's not good, you need sleep or otherwise school is pointless." She knew how that went - she'd usually just ditched the next day to do homework and made up some excuse revolving around being 'sick' or 'family issues'. After all, the entire Sohma family had 'family issues' so her sensei would understand.

Wringing her hands together some, she stared up at him as he stood. It was odd, if she'd been standing she was his height with her boots - without them she was about an inch shorter and kneeling she felt like a little child. It wasn't a bad thing that Kazu-San was short, not everyone had to be tall like Shii-Chan, Ayaa-Kun and Haa-San... "Recognized you, well... I suppose you could say that." She paused. What face had she made to make him think that. "You just look like someone I know. Haa-Sa-- er... Hatori. He's the family doctor." She shrugged, stopping and knowing that he probably wouldn't know him...

She stood, brushing her skirt off and offered a smile as he smirked at her as he proceeded to fix up the shelf. She'd never expect the 'self help' section to be so disoriented. Walking passed him to the other side in an attempt to appear as if she was just looking and not bothering Kazu-San, she made a mental note to always put a book back where it belonged...

[Kazuki Sohma]

"Oh, I suppose that's an excuse. You don't notice what someone is wearing if you are too busy shouting at them," Kazuki laughed at the look she was giving him. .
Sighing slightly, he turned back to his shelf. He knew he had to sleep but he also knew that he had to finish his homework on pain of death. Some of his teachers weren't exactly forgiving and, while he was generally considered a good student, he didn't think they'd take too kindly to him turning up without homework.
"Yes... but if I don't do my homework, Sensei is likely to murder me and then it wouldn't matter whether or not I'd gotten enough sleep," he laughed nervously. That and if he did decided to skip his homework, the cat would probably sit on him and do lawnmower impressions all night, so he wouldn’t get to sleep anyway.

Kazuki paused for a moment and thought about what she had said. "Hatori? I don't know him, I'm afraid," he replied, frowning as he scanned his memory for anyone by that name he could have possibly run into. If he was the family doctor, Kazuki should know him... but his family didn't go to the 'family' doctor. He probably didn’t treat the outsiders anyway. "Nope, no idea... I'm sure I'm more annoying though." He added as an afterthought. He needed to be reassured that he was indeed more annoying than whoever this Hatori person was. He couldn't have people stealing his title as most annoying now could he?

"By the way," Kazuki had suddenly remembered something. "When I ran into you, you looked like you were in a rush... You aren’t lost are you?" He asked, the idea dawning on him. It might explain why she was still hanging around, not that he minded her company. Kagura-chan was fun to have around and was certainly killing the boredom that usually occupancied this task.
"I could give you directions."