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Shiro, with his earbuds around his neck, fingers intertwined with the cord, yawned and watched as his mother and siblings strolled down the aisles of the toy shop from the cashier's counter. His siblings chattered excitedly at the selections of Barbie Dolls and Tonka Trucks, grabbing at their mother's shirt and pointed with eagerness at the prospect of owning one of the toys, to which she would smile for a response and move onto the next row.
The teen had offered to pay for whatever his brother and sister wanted through his occupation, and when the pair had heard, they giggled and jumped wildly and demanded to head straight to the town's toy store that minuet, keeping him up half the night with their squealing. Though they were disappointed they had to wait a number of hours for it to actually open, they now seemed to have completely forgotten waiting at all.
Caught up in watch the childish joy of the majority of his family, Shiro was caught off guard when the bell rang atop the shop's door, a new set of customers entering the toy shop. Shiro tugged his phone out of his pocket, pausing his music and setting his earbuds down and making a move to exit his counter position, but a coworker, Matt, stopped him with a wave of a hand and a signature smile.
"It's nearly lunch," His tone was easy, carefree. "Go ahead and take a break, I'll cover your family. Allura and I got it covered."
Matt and Katie Holt, a set of siblings in both his grade in class that were renowned for their intellect and daring. Top of the class didn't begin to cover what wit the pair had stuffed away in their brains, though the two had a knack for using said abilities to stick themselves in idiotic, and frankly hilarious, situations. They'd blew up half of the science lab's tables, set numerous things on fire countless times, had balded the school's mascot with a chemical compound, and legally changed the principal's name to 'Doctor Doofenshmirtz'. They'd kinda become the school's heroes, in a twisted way.
It wasn't much better that Matt and Katie had become two of his closest friends, as he had begun having involvement in their insane shenanigans', though Golden Boy Takashi Shirogane tried his best to be their impulse control. The job of all three's' was a form of punishment from a particularly nasty incident, though he didn't mind much, as long as he still got to hang out with the smartest and funniest people he'd ever met.
It was worse than he'd began to fall for the sly, crooked-grinned Cheshire-Cat that was Katie Holt, a golden eyed, golden hearted girl who was simply too much for him to handle, though he tried his best to keep ahold of his heart. He once thought perhaps she'd somehow performed a secret experiment on the raven-haired teen, but his attempts to search for any evidence left him a stuttering mess with his hands in his pockets and eye glued to the ceiling.
He strolled in the break room, an earbud blasting into his head, where he found Katie curled up on a lounge chair, aggressively rubbing her eyes. His footsteps coming to a halt against tile floors, he offered the girl a smirk.
"Trying to rub your contacts out, or..?" Shiro let his feet lead him to the chair next to her's, leaning on his knees with his hands tucked around his phone.
Katie pulled a palm away from her honey eyes, evident dark circles just below. Her response was mixed with a yawn, an adorable sound, which led him to believe she'd spent yet another night sleepless.
"Shut up, Shiro." Her tone was soft, sarcastic as she mock-glared at him, hands limp in her lap. "I spent all night trying to upgrade my Rover project, thank you very much."
Heartstrings and corners of his lips tugged, his shoulders fell and blood pooled under Shiro's skin. The teen reached for the other earbud, sliding his fingers down the thin cord and chucking it her way. Katie Holt frowned at him, raising a thin eyebrow before accepting her friend's offer, plugging it in her ear as she watched his movements. Shiro's fingers pressed against the screen, selecting a quiet, slow song he'd often use to get some sort of shut-eye on sleepless nights, his back straightening in his chair.
"Go ahead," His face lit aflame, though he hardly noticed, gesturing to his shoulder. "We don't need you fired, so might as well."
Katie grinned tiredly at her coworker, arranging herself against his much larger form with minimal effort, muttering a thanks all the while. After a series of seconds and soft tilted of her head, Katie stilled, and passed out only a matter of breaths later. He laughed as softly as he could as not to move or wake her, crossing one leg over the other, folding his arms, and allowing the gentle melody to whisk him away to the land of sleep.
Little would he know that his mother had entered the break room, spread a blanket over the pair of unconscious workers and taken a picture, just for reference.