Chapter Text
The snapping of fingers suddenly burst Wise out of his slumber, along with the giggle that followed it. “Wise! Hey sleepyhead, no nodding off at work! Told you you had front of store duty today.”
Wise’s eyelids finally struggled themselves open, still a bit dazed from being ripped from his little nap, the light of the videostore blinding him for a couple seconds before his eyes finally got used to it again, revealing Belle’s face with a teasing smirk.
“You still insisted on playing around in VR all night, I was almost concerned you were gonna compete with Fairy for our electricity bill! How else would I afford that new TV- I mean the new stock we needed?”
You know, Belle did have a point, Wise was so immersed into the new challenges and levels they released onto the VR system that he completely forgot the time. Well, it was mostly the fault of that other person who was constantly beating his highscore the moment after he set it, it was like an indirect war between the two players for at least an additional three hours.
Their back and forth went so far that even Fairy asked if they should just manipulate the score so Wise stayed on top all the time, but he instantly refused, stating it was a matter of honour.
“Y-Yeah, sorry, you’re right. I did kind of overdo it… but that other guy was just too good!.. maybe some work will help me wake up easier, we still need to restock those shelves behind the door anyway, I’ll get to that, you can grab the car and buy the groceries for the weekend.”
“Hah, you got it bro, but no more slacking off!”, with a wide grin and a short pat on Wise’s head, Belle quickly swiped the car keys out of Wise’s pocket and gunned for the parking lot exit. Wise, alone with a crate of tapes, and an empty store exchanged glances with 18. “Eh..Nu-nah?”
“Well, duty calls, and I doubt anyone would enter the store at 8 AM, so I got some time to spare…”
Wise lightly pushed the crate of tapes to the side and stepped upstairs, his legs still pretty wobbly from the nap and the extended night he had. Grasping the handrail up the stairs and taking a bit of extra time to ascend the stairs he managed to get into his room. He then starting the water boiler and pulled out his neatly sorted box of teabags. According to him a good morning after a long night is ensured with green tea, and thats exactly what he needs today.
As the water was slowly starting to heat up he carefully placed both the cup and the teabag onto the table, before stealing a glance at the video surveillance.
Obviously, the store was completely peaceful, as only 18 was standing at the counter, wobbling back and forth peacefully to the quiet tunes that are always played as the background noise in the front of the store.
Honestly, it was kind of entrancing watching the Bangboo just happily sway around to the tunes, not a care in the world other than his assigned duty, it was kind of like the water flowing at a beach, just going forward and back with a nice, warm breeze.
After like two minutes of just staring at 18 flop around, his water was finally done, Wise filled his cup, threw in the teabag and went back to the storefront.
Since he was just waiting for the tea to steep, Wise placed the cup on the counter, then dragged the crate of tapes over to the empty shelf on the opposite side. He didn’t really remember buying this many tapes... Belle must’ve thrown a bunch of them in again. But hey, at least that way it’s not as noticable when he sneaks a bunch of them into his room to watch himself. Not that he’d ever do such a thing, of course.
Standing in front of the shelf, Wise observed it with a knowing eye, figuring out exactly how and where to order each tape in so that every single cover art still manages to stand out even when they are still roughly sorted by genre and setting.
Having settled on a plan, he turned back to the counter and picked up his cup of boiling hot and freshly steeped green tea.
Then, with a loud slam that wouldve shattered the earth’s very core, but certainly made the walls shake, the front door to the store smashed open, and a loud, energetic voice shouted:
“New Eridu Public Security! This is a routine patrol, so stay calm, nothing bad is happening!”
The pure shock from the slam and the shout made Wise jump, hell, almost pass out with tea in hand, spilling almost the entire cup of fiery hot green tea over himself, resulting in a scream of pure pain as he had to hold himself up on the front counter. The cup dropped to the floor, shattering and spilling whatever has not yet landed on Wise’s clothes.
“Oh crap! Sir?! Hey Sir? Hey, are you alright?! Hello?”
The figure from the doorframe rushed over to Wise, holding him up with their arms and quickly trying to clean off the hot tea with a handkerchief and… something more furred? Wise was still in a bit of a shock to realize who or what exactly was taking care of him.
“Damnit Seth, I told you not to be so overdramatic, it’s just a patrol. And just because I told you to announce that its just a routine check-in you don’t have to bust down the building like its a raid…”
Wise slowly came back to his senses, he was definitely wide awake now, so the tea being there to wake him up technically still applied.
He slowly looked upwards at the person holding him in a caring grip, it was a white haired young man with a face full of emotion and genuine worry that looked back and… with… cat ears? Was it a Thiren? The blue getup with the sweater, armguard and chestpiece with the huge “PUBSEC” imprint was more than enough to confirm that he was, indeed, a Public Security Officer.
Standing a bit further behind him was a slightly more familiar face, the black and red hair being and signature jacket equipped with a bunch of weaponry a dead giveaway to who it is, Zhu Yuan.
“I am so, so sorry for this Wis-I mean Manager, Seth might be a great asset on the field, but his overzealousness is a.. bit wonky for general affairs and patrols, it’s amazing he even got this much energy this early in the morning”
Wise’s full awareness finally returned, and he slowly tried to lift himself up again, the cat Thiren closely supporting him to stand.
“It’s… it’s alright, I guess I needed a wake-up call… Thanks Zhu Yuan.. and… Seth, was it?”
“Yes sir! Seth Lowell, Public Security! I am so, so sorry for startling you in this capacity, and with hot beverage in hand aswell… you have my deepest apologies!”
The way Seth spoke was still overly enthusiastic and zealous, it even made Wise chuckle a bit, despite the tea-induced burns.
“Ah, no worries, really…”, Wise waved his hand dismissively, not wanting to put any more pressure onto him than needed. Seth instantly noticed the burn marks on Wise’s hand, quickly grabbing it with both his hands and carefully holding it before inspecting this further.
“Hold on, you took some serious burns there... I got this, I got this.”
Seth pulled a bandage from one of his side pouches and started to treat Wise’s burnt hand with an immense amount of care.
During this, Wise looked down at Seth, who was completely focussed on the task at hand. Heck, he kinda looked cute like that, but Wise couldn’t finish the though. He just gave him a quick smile before glancing over at Zhu Yuan.
“So, to what do I owe the honours? It’s not every day high class Public Security walks in here, especially with support.”
“Well, after a recent operation I am not allowed to disclose, Seth here got removed from active field duty for a while, and I, being part of his unit, was ordered to keep an eye on him. So I decided to start out with simple patrols in a more quiet area to show him the ropes. I should have expected him to still take his job extremely serious and with… a lot of energy.”
As soon as Seth finished his work, he looked at Wise for a bit longer before taking a step back to give him more space, bowing in apology once more.
“Yeah, what the captain said! I am sorry once again Sir! Is there any way I can compensate you for this mistake? If its dry cleaning for your outfit, I’ll pay it!”
Wise took a quick glance at his now bandaged hand, then at Seth, and then towards the box of tapes near the shelf.
“Actually, you guys could help me finish up stocking the shelf. Being one hand down would make it a lot harder, and customers usually arrive around 11… if it’s not too disrupting to the patrol, of course.”
Zhu Yuan shook her head as if to deny any objections. “Sure, its the least we can do. Plus, focussing on something for a while might help him calm down a bit.”
With a nod, Wise stepped towards the empty shelves and picked up one of the tapes for demonstration.
“Alright, here’s the deal, you have to pay attention to quite a couple of things. The cover art most importantly, you have to keep them seperate enough that every piece stands out well on its own, they are all art! However, you also have to make sure the entire shelf is appealing to look at, so try to keep some colours together for example.
Tape covers are the first thing you see of a film, and that can already decide if a customer picks it up or not, and we want to give each tape an equal chance. Besides that... if you take a glance at the back, each film has a small description written on here, use that to try to determine genres, themes or settings that fit well together and try to roughly group them together aswell. It’s a big balancing act, but such is the art of tape shelf stocking!”
While Zhu Yuan seemed slightly distracted during the entire speech, Seth was fully engrossed into the explaination, staring at the shelf, then back at the tapes, back to Wise. He even picked up a couple tapes from the box, comparing them to one another, reading the back of them and genuinely trying to understand what is being told to him.
Wise couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at Seth’s full attention to learn and his dedication to the task at hand, plus, he felt kinda happy having someone so eagerly and intently listen to what he says for once.
After looking at one of the tapes again, Seth looked upwards with an enthusiastic smile that made Wise’s heart melt in an instant. “Yes sir! I think I got the gist of it!”
With a soft smile, Wise responded. “No need to adress me so formally, Wise is more than enough. Now, let’s get to work, shall we?”
He stepped towards the box again, grabbing a couple tapes out of it and started carefully placing them on the wall shelf, trying to keep up a steady visual pattern. Both Zhu Yuan followed suit, each taking some tapes and working on the arrangement of the tapes. Zhu Yuan’s actions were all done with a sense of pure professionalism and skill, despite the lack of initial experience, but what else could one expect from a high ranking officer.
Seth on the other hand fumbled a bit with his tapes, but the progress he made even over the span a couple minutes was clearly visible, as he took a strong interest to his work and the job itself.
“So, what movies would you recommend to someone who just kinda needs to kill time when alone in a dormitory?” Seth asked, eyes focussed on Wise as he held up one of the tapes.
“It all really depends on what type of stories you enjoy a lot. The usual action or fantasy adventure of course is always great for distraction, but some people prefer emotional dramas, horror stories or crime thrillers. Though as an officer of course, you have to bear in mind those aren’t too rooted into reality.”
Seth nodded eagerly, taking a couple moments to think about what he would like to watch before returning to his work.
It took them around an hour and a half to place most of the tapes safely into the shelf, Wise grabbed the ladder to finish put the last couple tapes in place to finish the entire wall.
As he was standing on top of the ladder, he could hear their company car pull into the parking lot, followed by the engine being turned off.
Zhu Yuan stepped outside to greet Belle, and they both chatted in the parking lot for a couple minutes as Seth and Wise continued working.
Suddenly, the back door sprang open and Belle started shouting “Bro, you can’t believe this! They had a special event were all snacks were 50% off! We can have such a movie party tonight!”
Almost as if its some twisted deja vu, Wise got startled by the loud voice of his sister and the bang of another door that he slipped off the ladder. Lucky for him, Seth’s reaction time was on point, catching Wise before he could hit the floor, holding him in almost a princes carry-type grasp.
They both looked at each other, and Wise blushed for a moment before Seth quickly helped him stand up normally again, scratching the back of his head in embarassment.
Honestly, they could both count themselves incredibly lucky that the girls was preoccupied with the huge grocery bags in front of them that neither caught the entire act, otherwise they wouldn’t ever hear the end of it about it looking like some bad movie clichee.
Wise, trying to play it cool, looked back over at his sister and quickly rushed to pick up the bags. “Oh, hey sis! Zhu Yuan probably already told you, but she brought a new rookie along, and I got them to help me to stock the shelves… after he got my hand burned with tea.”
“Suuure its not just an excuse to slack off and go to bed again?”
Both Belle and Wise started chuckling, atlthough for Wise it seemed more like a nervous distraction.
After another couple minutes of chatting together and helping unpack all the bags, Zhu Yuan looked over at the clock, then over at Seth
“It’s almost 11, you guys should be getting your customers soon, and we have to return on patrol, so we’ll get back to it, alright? Was nice talking to you two again.”
Seth and Wise exchanged another long look, before Seth bowed nervously “Y-Yeah! Sorry about the tea thing again, sir! Very sorry!”
Wise blushed for a quick moment before both officers left the building, leaving the siblings to tend to their store together again.
“Alright, I’ll pack all this up properly and you get to survive the initial customer rush today! Have fun Wise!… Wise? Are you listening?”
Wise looked at the empty doorframe for a moment longer, then shook his head and smiled at his sister
“Oh yeah, sorry, I was just looking at the shelf again, they did a great job, especially for rookies in this.”