Chapter Text
“So thas it? It got broke just like that?” A gruff voice spoke from the hallway Gin was approaching.
“It seems so… I suppose I should stop by the mall today to pick up a new, sturdier frying pan for myself.” A calmer voice stated back. Gin sharply stood up at the mention of someone going to the mall today, and judging by the voice… It was probably…
“Long-haired apron guy, woof!” Gin chirped up, turning the corner to see Kai and Q-Taro talking outside of their apartment.
“Ah, hello Gin.” Kai replied with a parental smile, “Is there anything we can do for you?”
“Apron guy, you’re going to the mall right meow?” Gin spoke excitedly, “Can I come with you, woof?!”
“Hmm, I don’t see why not… Your mother and I are acquainted well, and if she said you can go out…”
“Whatcha need at the mall, Gin?” Q-Taro spoke up to the small child with a grin. Gin held up his Mew-Chan stuffed cushion.
“It’s all about Mew-chan, woof!” he beamed, “They’re having new merch released at Claire's, and I gotta have it, meow!”
Q-Taro and Kai’s smiles faded into an indifferent expression, the ladder’s tinged with a bit of fear. “Claires…?”
“Y-yeah… woof…”
“Ah, I see.” Kai stated, “Gin, I’m sorry but… I am not welcome at Claire’s boutique anymore.”
“Oh no…” Gin stared at the ground in a mix of embarrassment and confusion, “L-Like the loner, meow?”
“Does everyone in this building have beef with Claire’s..?” Q-Taro asked himself out loud, before being cut off by Kai.
“Well, no, I am not a thief. But… I’m afraid it’s a long, quite tragic story...”
---
Kai supposed that working in a trashy mall for minimum wage under the control of your father is one thing, but working in the same store as your estranged, feral half-brother is another. It had to be a special kind of hell on its own.
He was sweeping the glittery floors of the store when he heard a sharp *bang* hit the counter he was behind. Kai sharply turned around to see the orange-haired rascal with his elbows on the counter smugly and an overflowing box of products right next to him.
“Hey bastard, it’s your turn to stock the shelves!” Ranger grinned from behind his :3 black face mask.
“Really?” Kai sighed out, “But… shouldn’t it be your turn, Rio? I sometimes feel like I am doing all of the work here.”
“Ah geez, Kai... That’s too bad for you!” Ranger exclaimed, picking up the box and setting it on the counter right in front of Kai, “But dad likes me better than you, so I get more breaks in my busy busy work schedule!”
“Pah, busy work schedule…” Kai muttered, before speaking a little bit louder. “If our father found out you were rummaging through the shelves and spending your time laughing at me and Safalin, you would not have a work schedule at all.”
“Hmph! Safalin is a much better co-worker than you…”
“She is not a co-worker at all, but an unpaid intern.”
Suddenly, the brotherly banter was cut short by a shrill voice emerging from the break room door behind them.
“What on Earth are you two doing?” Miley belted out, “I can hear you all the way from my manager’s office!”
“Kai’s not doing his work! You should fire him!” Ranger giggled out, but Miley didn’t appreciate the attitude back.
“Listen closely, both of you. Oh, and Safalin.” Miley spoke, being the first to notice Safalin sitting in the far corner of the store, probably crying. “If I hear one more quarrel out of the two of you sad sacks, you’re handing in those glittery little purple aprons! Got it?”
Everyone nodded in tandem.
“Good. Now… See that that box on the counter gets put away, Kai.” Miley ended off her speech slamming the door back to the manager’s office. Ranger looked back up at Kai with a smug grin, leaving the counter to go follow Miley into the break room.
“That’s that, ya bastard! And if you need any help… Safalin’s right there.” Ranger tiptoed his way into some unseen aisle. “I’m not helping you. HA!” He disappeared from view.
Kai suddenly longed for his second job, a homemaker at a lovely family’s estate where he was treated with respect… And where there was no pop music blasting overhead for every shift. Why did his father have to position him here after his string of failures as an assassin? Was it all a humiliation campaign? Perhaps…
Nonetheless, Kai resumed work, finishing the last bits of sweeping and picking up the box to see what he had to pack on the shelves today. Inside was what you would expect to see restocked at Claire’s, makeup, scented perfumes, more green beanies (since they were apparently in high demand), and many other things.
One thing that caught Kai’s eye though was… a series of bedazzled, sparkly, pink frying pans.
‘Why in the world would they mass produce this…?’ Kai thought to himself, ‘It’s much too hefty to be a toy, and it seems as functional as a normal pan.’ After casually flipping the pan in his hand for a minute or two, Kai put it back in the box and continued with his work. He walked through the small aisles, picking and choosing things out of the box to put back on the shelves with the care of a househusband who could make his wife groan in delight.
Or… Q-Taro, he supposed.
Suddenly, just when the weight of what Kai was carrying was almost gone, he heard a loud crash from the other side of the store. By the time he arrived on the other side of the store, he was met with the sight of Ranger sprawled out on the floor with broken merchandise all over his body. And yet he was still reaching upwards for another rack that was teetering off the shelf. Safalin was also there too I guess. She was probably dead on impact.
“Wh... Ranger!? What have you done?!” Kai shouted as he waded through the broken eyeshadows and asbestos-flavored lipsticks to get closer to his half-brother.
“Get away, bastard! I got it under control!” Ranger blindly lashed out from under the pile at Kai’s ankles, causing him to slip and fall. Kai’s well-trained assassin instincts immediately kicked in, grabbing the nearest weapon he could and swinging it towards his target.
It wasn’t until Kai was being pulled out of the wreck and Ranger had long since temporarily shut down that Kai snapped out of his initial daze. He heard Miley’s voice screaming at him, calling him something along the lines of a “raging mutt” as he looked at what was in his hands. He had been beating his own brother with the sparkly Claire’s-brand frying pan, which he dropped in shock. It landed on Ranger again, making his servos let out a mechanical whine.
Kai was left outside the mall, in the rain, without his apron uniform or pay. What would his father say about this? He couldn’t stomach the thought of being an assassin, but now his son had failed at a standard retail job.
He sighed and started drudging towards the first place that came to mind. Ringing the doorbell upon arriving, he was met with a much kinder face than the one Miley had shown on his way out.
“Kai? Whaddya doing, looking like a wet dog out in the rain?” Mr. Chidouin smiled as he ushered the lean man inside.
“My apologies, Master…” he replied, “I suppose today has just been very rough for me.”
“Why’s that?” the father asked as he tossed Kai a towel to dry himself off from the rain and mud.
“I was working at a chain retail store in order to make a little extra money,” Kai neither wanted to mention that it was a shop meant for little girls and that it was under his father’s instruction. “But only just today, I was… laid off.”
After his hair and clothes were a little less damp than before, Kai sat down on the couch and rested his fatigued head on a pillow. “Awh no… I’m sorry to hear that Kai, I’m sure it was all outta of your control.”
“Yes.” Kai stated, not elaborating.
“Well, I was thinking...” Mr. Chidouin took a sudden, more upbeat tone, “You do so much around the home here, cleaning, cooking, looking after Sara… I’d be glad to raise your pay for a couple more hours per week.”
The exhausted man only moved his eyes up to face Mr. Chidouin, “R-really? Master, I-”
“You need the extra money, we need the extra help. It’s no biggie, Kai!” the man shrugged happily and walked off towards the kitchen. “Now… let’s getcha some hot cocoa, it’s cold out there.”
Kai moved his eyes back down to the pillow he was resting on, wishing he had a (normally colored) frying pan to hide the joyful tears pricking at his eyes behind.
---
Kai arrived back at his apartment just in time for dinner, carrying a plastic bag of groceries the Chidouins had provided for him and Q-Taro tonight. They really were too kind…
When he entered the apartment, however, the reality and consequences of his actions were facing him. Right on the couch.
“Oh, um… good evening Ranger.” he spoke with his classic stoicism.
“Hi.” Ranger punched back with every bit of hate and rage he could muster. He was wearing the fursuit head of his neon sparkledog fursona that he spent almost all of Q-Taro’s life savings on last year, meaning he obviously didn’t want to be seen.
Kai set the bag down on the table. “I… Ranger, I would like to apol-”
“NO! FUCK OFF!” Ranger’s voice was muffled behind the fursuit head. “Do you know how HUMILIATING that was!?”
“Yourself knocking over an entire aisle’s worth of merchandise and killing Safalin or…” Kai whispered to himself, mostly out of annoyance.
“The PAN, you idiot!” Ranger crossed his arms. “You ruined my gorgeous, beautiful, homewrecking face with those whacks!”
“You do not even have blood, Ranger, I’m sure it’s not horrendous.” Kai said as he quickly pulled the fursuit head off of Ranger’s face to get a look at the damage. It was completely normal, besides some minor scuffs that could be fixed with a fresh coat of paint or a mask that Ranger wore anyways. He pulled the fursuit back over his head.
“Whatever.” Ranger groaned, “Now that you’re gone from the job, Miley and dad are gonna put me on duty for everything you were doing before.”
“Perhaps it will teach you some responsibility.” Kai huffed and made his way towards the kitchen. “I apologize for my violent outburst, but not for the new position you must take.”
“Stop being so pretentious, bastard.” Ranger sighed and turned on the TV to drown out his brother, “It’s fucking Claire’s. What’s the worst that could happen?”