Chapter Text
Skelly’s retirement had forced his hand. Charon couldn’t man the store on his own, not with all the administrative business he needed to sort out behind the scenes and the fact that he used sign language. He had gotten used to Skelly’s presence against the store’s worn counter, his somewhat irritating banter, and his decent attempts at talking to the customers. It would be strange to work with someone new, but unfortunately necessary.
He hadn’t even known that Skelly was old enough to retire. The news was a disappointment, but he sent his friend on his way with congratulations and well wishes.
Hiring someone new was difficult. Even with the printed-out sign on the shop window, only a single person handed in their resume. They’d been bright, almost blindingly so, when they’d come in for their interview, but they were friendly and knew sign language enough to talk to him. They would have to do.
Hermes, despite Charon’s insistence that there was no set uniform, came bounding into the store on his first day at work in a button up shirt and black slacks. He had even taken off the scarf he’d worn to the interview and looked strange without it. Of course, Charon didn’t say as much, didn’t even say anything about the clothing his new hire wore.
It wasn’t like he could say much, dressed as he was. Hermes’s dress shirt paled in comparison to the full suit and wide hat Charon always wore, but that was personal preference and not a uniform. His business was nothing more than a general store of sorts, not something that required much of a uniform.
“Hey there, boss,” Hermes called when he reached the store’s worn counter. Charon leaned against the wall behind it, arms crossed over his chest. The young man almost seemed too jovial to be working in such a place, but who was Charon to question it when he was the only person who had bothered to apply?
Charon barely let out a grunt in reply and watched as Hermes dropped his satchel bag under the counter. His earrings knocked together as he moved, reminiscent of the sound of the bell that sat above the shop’s front door.
“I’m a little early,” Hermes was saying, hands on his hips and eyes surveying the street beyond the window next to them. “Figured it would take me a bit to get sorted. Can’t help those ‘first day on the job’ nerves, huh?”
Charon blinked back at him. When he’d chattered away during the interview, he’d believed it was a result of nerves, but it seemed that was just how Hermes was. It would take some getting used to, but even Skelly had been chatty. There shouldn’t be too much difference.
Luckily for him, Hermes wasn’t expecting some kind of response. He took Charon’s silence in stride, answering his own question in a flurry of words and hands. The store had yet to open; Charon should have flipped the sign at least two minutes ago, but Hermes chatter had kept him stuck against the wall.
“So, what’s first today, boss?” Hermes asked once he’d finished his little story. Something about an early morning run. Charon had tried his best to keep up.
Without a word, his strode past his new employee and flipped the store sign over, officially starting both of their long shifts. Hermes made a little ‘oh’ from behind him, as if he’d completely forgotten that the store needed to open.
Not that Charon could blame him. His resume had been… lacking, to say the least. At twenty-three, seven years Charon’s junior, he had only worked one job. If there had been other applicants, other people willing to work in a tiny store on the edge of town, he might have never hired him. That being said, it was good to see someone smile in his presence for once.
Charon waved for Hermes to follow him, walking between the aisles of goods towards the storage room at the back. It was filled to the brim with all the things he had yet to sell, to the point where it had begun to be difficult to walk through.
“Please don’t tell me I’m organizing all this,” Hermes said and let out an incredulous laugh. It was nothing but clutter, even Charon had to admit, but he knew where everything was.
He shook his head, ignored Hermes’s sigh of relief, as pointed to a single box in the nearest corner of the room. The trinkets within had to be stacked on the shelves near the front of the store, as neatly as possible. If he ran out of room, Hermes would put the rest back in storage.
The shorter man nodded along with his instructions, frowning in concentration. Charon signed slowly for him, slower than he usually would. It was hard enough to find someone who understood sign language. As frustrating as it was to sign slow, the way someone would talk to a child, it was better than having an employee completely oblivious to what he was saying.
“Can do,” Hermes chirped, grabbing the cardboard box and heading back out in the quiet of the store.
Charon watched from the counter while Hermes got to work. People walked down the street outside, mid-morning light bathing their cheerful smiles and unfamiliar faces in swathes of yellow. None of them spared his shop a second glance.
Hermes moved quickly, but meticulously. The trinkets, little antiques he’d bought or traded for years ago, landed on the shelves with speedy precision. Charon tilted his head to get a better look. Hermes handled each object with as much care as Charon would, and he couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows at him.
Despite his care and speed, the quite of the shop seemed to be getting to him. He shifted from foot to foot, glanced around the store, and heaved a long dramatic sigh. “Where did you get these from?” he asked, holding up a pair of earrings studded with dark purple gems. “Actually, where did you get most of this stuff from? I have to admit, strangest store I’ve ever been in. Antique store, general store, knick-knack store, who can tell?
“I think I’m going with antique. Not just because of the merchandise, but the state of these shelves. I think you could put these on sale and no one would bat at eye.” He patted one for good measure. “Put a little too much pressure on them and they might actually snap!”
In a strange way, he reminded Charon of Hypnos, who always commented on the state of the store with his usual bright grin. He’d finally headed off the college a couple of years back. They didn’t see each other often, and Charon had believed he’d heard the end of the judgements towards his business.
It seemed that Hermes was more than willing to continue a tradition that he didn’t even know existed.
As he worked, he pointed out the dust on most of the trinkets and antiques, the chips in the china, the peeling paint on one section of the wall. All of it came under Hermes’s close inspection, while Charon stood and watched and tried to make sense of the strange creature that had come under his employ.
There was a judgement to his words, as there always was when someone walked into his store, but he didn’t stop smiling. He had a light in his eyes, like he was seeing something beautiful among the dust and clutter Charon knew his store to be. He questioned everything, even when he was so far between the aisles that he couldn’t see Charon even if he chose to respond.
It wasn’t until Hermes stood at the storage room door that Charon realized he had finished stocking the shelves. How many minutes had passed, listening to the idle chatter of his new employee?
His voice faded away when he wandered into the back room and Charon sighed from against the wall. The days would stretch out if he had so much noise to listen to, but it wouldn’t take him long to get used to it.
He jolted from his place when the bell above the door tinkled. Sliding his hat back in place, he watched the woman close the door gently behind her as if it would break. After Hermes’s judgement of the building, he wouldn’t be surprised if it did. Immediately, her eyes clouded over with a sense of distaste at the state of the store. If she turned around and left a second later, he wouldn’t be all that surprised.
“Hello!” she said instead and wandered over to his counter. “I’m new in town, wanted to get a gift for those I’m staying with. I saw this place and thought maybe I could find something here.”
He signed to her, telling her both that she would have to wait one moment and that he couldn’t speak. She made a noise of surprise, but along with him in a way that told him that she had no idea what he was saying. There was something apologetic in her eyes, something so close to pity that it made him frown.
A bell sat on the counter next to the till for situations such as these. He rang it once before realizing that Hermes would have no idea what it meant. Such a concern didn’t seem to matter, as his bright new employee called out to them from the storage room. The sound was followed by something clattering to the floor and Charon winced, knowing he would have to reorganize his storage room after closing.
Hermes was by the counter in an instant, glancing between Charon and the customer expectantly. All Charon had to do was gesture to the woman and Hermes was in front of her, a friendly grin on his face.
“Were you looking for something in particular?” he asked.
His question seemed to pull the woman from whatever stupor she was in. Hermes guided her away, nodding along with her story with a practiced expression. For a moment, Charon actually believed someone would buy from his store.
He shook his head and huffed in amusement, keeping an ear out for what Hermes was saying. It had been a long time since anyone had actually bought something. There were a lot of reasons for it, not the least of which being his inability to pick a niche for what he wanted to sell, but he had a lot of interests in a lot of things. Why not appeal to as much of them as possible?
But when the woman returned to the counter, Hermes at her side and a pair of purple studded earrings in her hands, Charon found himself more surprised than he had been since Skelly announced his retirement.
Whatever Hermes was saying to the straw-haired woman stopped the moment he looked at the till. “Uhh… turns out I have no idea what I’m doing with this thing,” he said and laughed, looking over his shoulder briefly at Charon with an expression that asked for help. “First day on the job and all that.”
She waved him away with a little chuckle, waiting patiently for Charon to ring up her purchase. Friendly chatter drifted through the store and before he knew it, Charon found cash pressed into his hand. Then, before he could notice, bell above the door tinkled again and the store was bathed in silence.
A silence that lasted only a few seconds before Hermes clapped his hands together and aimed his grin at Charon. “Well, that went better than I thought it would,” he said, and his smile morphed into a frown. “That was the right way to do things, wasn’t it?”
Charon, still holding the crisp note in his hand, nodded. He didn’t say it, but Hermes had done far better than he’d expected him to. He stashed the money in the almost empty till and gestured for the short man to come closer.
The rest of the shift was spent with Charon teaching Hermes how everything worked, including the basics of his storage organization, which Hermes had chalked down to ‘put it down and hope for the best’. Not quite accurate, but Charon wasn’t one to argue when there was work to be done.
By closing, Hermes seemed to be getting the hang of using the till, even though there were no more customers to practice with. His talking didn’t cease, constantly asking meaningly questions or telling stories about people Charon didn’t know. He took in as many words as he could, struggling to keep up, all the while making sure that Hermes stayed on task.
“Well,” Hermes said when Charon flipped the sign back over, the hues of sunset spreading out across the dusty shop floor. “How’d I do, boss? I know I don’t have much experience with all this, but it doesn’t seem as hard as I first thought it would be.”
Charon took a moment before he signed, thinking through his words carefully. The money in the till called to him, gave him the answer he needed. “Come back tomorrow,” he signed. Somehow, Hermes grin got wider. It didn’t seem possible. “I will sort out all the necessary forms tonight.”
Hermes thanked him profusely as he slung his bag over his shoulder, promising to be just as good the next day. Charon waved him away and when the bell above the door tinkled a final time, heaved a long sigh. The silence that followed was heavy, but something he had grown accustomed to over the years.
On the shelf under the counter sat the single resume he had received. Hermes’s name glared up at him, the familiar surname bright against the paper. Charon shook his head. As long as he was a good worker, it didn’t matter to him why the mayor’s son had chosen to work in a near abandoned antique store.