Work Text:
being around 7pm on a wednesday night, the store was practically empty; with only a few customers deciding to come in last minute after finishing work.
with a sigh, you lean against the counter of the till, nails rhythmically tapping against it in boredom as you blankly stare at the clock on the wall, as if staring at it would make time go any quicker.
you usually didn’t mind weekday closing shifts, as they tended to get quiet pretty quickly. yet, due to the looming presence of christmas, you slowly noticed the amount of people trickling in on the usual slow nights increasing for last minute christmas shopping. the store itself wasn’t too bad, originally being a small cosmetic brand, before it eventually expanded overseas. it, however, was not the quietest shop in the area on weekends, with the consistent entitlement of many of the customers making you contemplate if the job was even worth it.
the slam of something against the counter causes you to flinch slightly, quickly blinking yourself out of your trance. flicking your gaze over to the perpetrator, you’re met with the frustrated gaze of an older woman, and you internally cringe at her scrutinising gaze that glosses over you.
chuckling awkwardly, you pick up the item she had slammed on the counter, “hi ma’am, very sorry about that, it’s been very slow tonight. are you-” as you reach to scan the item, another item is slammed down beside it - being a receipt.
“can you even do your job? i clearly want a return.” she snaps, scowling at you, “maybe if you weren’t so away with the fairies, then maybe you would’ve actually noticed.”
remaining silent for a moment, you blink incredulously at her. is she being serious?
analysing the expression on her face, you internally scream, knowing she was going to be extremely irritated no matter what you do. you swear there was something in the air whenever december rolled around, as people just tended to become more arrogant for no apparent reason.
a hesitant smile crawls onto your lips as you place the scanner down, followed by the item in your hand, “i’m very sorry about that, ma’am. i’ll just need to call my supervisor to process this for you.”
twisting the wire of your headset in your fingers, you’re about to press down to turn on the microphone to speak, quickly being cut off again.
“are you that incompetent at your job that you can’t even do a return properly? what kind of people are getting hired here? this is supposed to be a high end makeup company, not that you would know.” she obviously looks you up and down, frowning, “can you even afford this?”
your jaw almost drops in disbelief. so she was serious. schooling your expression by only allowing your lips to slightly part, a silent exhale of frustration escapes your lips. you completely ignore the last segment of her complaint, mentally battling with yourself to keep up your positive customer service facade. “it’s just company policy, unfortunately. regular employees don’t have the ability to process returns, i’m afraid.” shrugging, you notice the frustration on her expression increasing.
before she can say anything more, you quickly speak into the headset, “yeah, hi. can someone come to the till? quick, please, thanks.”
fingers resuming their tapping on the counter, you wait with bated breath for a response, eventually being greeted with a slightly muffled, “one minute” in your ear. despite the shocking quality of the device, you were still easily able to make out who’d responded, causing you to groan internally. it was a 50/50 chance on who would respond - and you were silently begging it was hange who had responded.
averting your gaze back to the woman before you, you try your best to smile faintly at her, “someone’s on their way.” you relay, noticing the scoff that she lets out at the prospect of being made to wait longer.
“well can they hurry up? i haven’t got all day.” she retorts, and before you can respond, she cuts you off for the third time. “honestly, do they just hire anyone off of the street here? especially that guy i saw over there with the long hair.” you raise an eyebrow, and she grimaces at something she’d just thought of, gesturing to her neck and face, “all those.. disgusting tattoos and.. piercings. i don’t understand why you young people decide to ruin your bodies like that. it just looks so tacky and-”
“everything alright, doll?”
despite the instinctive furrow of your eyebrows at the repetitive pet name that he knew pissed you off more than anything, you’d never been so happy to see eren in your life. who also just so happened to be the guy she’d previously been ranting about.
watching the colour drain from her face in real time, you wished more than ever that you had a photographic memory to remember her expression, yet, it was likely one of those moments that would stick with you for years.
suppressing a laugh, you instead flit your gaze over to eren as he looks down at you expectantly as his arm brushes against yours, head tilted to the side as he rests both hands against the counter. the position allowed you to see the tattoos scarcely littering his neck, which delve beneath his collar. the raising of his eyebrow draws your attention to his eyebrow piercing momentarily, before flitting down to his snake bites.
you had no idea where the woman was coming from, because his tattoos and piercings made him ten times more attra-
you pause.
why the hell were you thinking about him like that???
the two of you weren’t exactly friends, being more.. acquaintances.. due to the fact that you went to the same school together. and it was just your luck that when you received news that you’d gotten the job, it just so happened that he had also received the role of supervisor at the same time - which did piss you off more than you’d like to admit.
but, the two of you did often clash heads, with any sort of statement from one being quickly rebutted with a snarky comment from the other. it was a surprise you were even still allowed to close together.
stepping slightly to the side to allow him to slip behind the counter, and to get away from his touch, you rest your elbow on the counter, resting your cheek on your palm. “this woman’s looking to return that,” you gesture to the item with a nod of your head, “can you do it for me?”
a slight grin snakes its way onto his lips as he remains unresponsive for a moment, and you fight the urge to throttle him there and then, he always did this. just to push your buttons. but part of you believed he just liked humiliating you. “please?”
chuckling softly at your annoyance, he nods, “only because you asked so nicely.” he chides, sparing you a glance. but, you just can’t believe he’s actually pulling this shit in front of a customer, one that had basically just insulted him in his entirety at that. gaze lingering on you for a moment longer, he glances back over to the woman, who is seemingly still struggling to recover, “is it just this? was there something wrong with the product?” smiling sweetly at her, he scans the item in hand, before sliding the receipt closer to him.
blinking herself awake, she resumes her defensive tone, “of course there is! that’s why i’m returning it.” she huffs in frustration, followed by an agitated mutter, “god, you people.”
your gaze shifts back to eren, and you notice how he subtly glances at you from the corner of his eye, yet you can barely make it out as his hair falls over his face. he doesn’t hear her muttered statement, or acted as if he didn’t, continuing the exchange as if she hadn’t said anything.
“i’m sorry to hear that. can you specify the issue or..?” he asks, a rare - obviously fake - politeness in his tone as he tucks his hair behind his ear, leading to more of his piercings becoming visible. intentionally or not, you didn’t know.
as much as you desperately wanted to see her expression, you couldn’t tear your eyes away from him, to not so subtly take in his side profile. gaze flitting to his ear, you briefly count at least 6 different piercings at a minimum.
just how high was his pain tolerance??
and how did they all heal so perfectly???
you unintentionally space out slightly, not hearing the probably irrelevant reason for the urgency of the return. yet, you’re quickly brought back to reality at the sound of eren’s voice. “okay, and do you have the card that you paid with?” he asks, mirroring your previous action of drumming his fingers against the counter.
with another scowl, she gruffly reaches for her purse, muttering something incoherent about how hard it is to make a return now due to technology, before eventually presenting him with her card.
taking the card from her, eren eventually manages to sort out the return, handing her back the card with a feigned smile on his face, “the money should be in your bank by tomorrow morning. have a great rest of your night!”
snatching the card back from him, she stuffs it back into her purse, mumbling a frustrated “thanks” before storming out of the shop, not even bothering to return the farewell.
the second she steps out of the door, you quietly groan, running a hand through your hair to brush it from your eyes. “what a bitch.” you mutter, earning a hum of agreement from eren beside you.
“why’d you think i made a show of moving my hair?” he raises an eyebrow again, and you avert your gaze back to his, slightly struggling to maintain eye contact.
“you heard what she said?” you ask, blinking up at him.
he leans his palms flat against the counter, the metal of his rings colliding with the surface, “no shit i did. there’s no other customers. you can hear everything in the back.” he shrugs, and you balance on the balls of your feet to lean over the counter, confirming eren’s claim of there being nobody else there, and you guessed hange was in the back office doing god-knows-what.
“so, anyway.” he interrupts, a ghost of a grin finding its way back to his lips, “you were just checking me out.”
the smugness in his voice almost causes you to stutter, yet you bring yourself down to stand normally, crossing your arms as you shake your head. “must be imagining things. is your ego so big that you think everyone’s constantly checking you out?”
he chuckles in response, continuing to glance down at you, “i only care if it’s you, doll.” he admits, shrugging once more.
you bristle slightly, “i thought i told you to stop calling me that.”
tilting his head, he taps a finger against his lip, pretending to be lost in thought. “you know, that does actually ring a bell.” he murmurs, the sarcasm evident in his tone as he grins at you boyishly. “shame i never agreed to it, though.” easily pushing himself off of the counter, he glances back down at you, suppressing a smirk at the protest evident on your face.
“i’m going to the back, try not to get into a fight with any customers again, please.” he mocks you, forcing his voice to go slightly higher. which causes you to attempt a swat at his arm, but he quickly steps back to avoid.
“i hate you.” you retort.
“no you don’t.”
and maybe you didn’t.