Work Text:
It started out as a normal day in Soho. Well, as normal as it could be with a new store that opened up. Connor had just opened his new instrument shop, and was excited to see what people would show up.
It was early and he had just opened up for the day. He didn’t expect anyone to show up. It was 8am, who wanted to buy an instrument at 8am? Surprisingly, that assumption was incorrect. A man (?) walked through the door mere minutes after the shop opened. The man was…odd… At first glance he seemed perfectly normal. But once you looked for more than a glance, you noticed something was off. His grin was slightly too wide, his pupils shaped like rounded stars, his limbs just barely too long or short. His hair looked feathery, almost like actual feathers without the rachis.
As he looked outside he saw another man trailing behind him. He was taller than most. And, despite it being cloudy, he wore weirdly shaped sunglasses that also covered the side of his eyes. His limbs were also just barely too long, and his hair had little cowlicks on the side of his head that looked a little like horns, though that could’ve just been a part of Connor’s imagination.
Despite all that, he didn’t let his grin falter. He couldn’t let his first customers be bad ones. The taller man walked over to where the guitars were, picked up a black bass, and started playing it, testing out the feel.
The shorter man walked up and smiled just a tiny bit too wide, almost as if he was an alien who took the term “grinning from ear to ear” too literally. He started speaking and his voice sounded like it had multiple different accents in it, though an English one was the strongest.
“Hello sir, my name is A.Z. Fell, I work at the bookshop right down the street!”
Connor looked confused for a second but kept his smile.
“The one with the weird opening hours?”
Mr.Fell seemed oddly startled at the question, almost confused at the idea that someone would only know his bookshop from it’s irregular hours.
“Um yes well um my partner here heard about you opening and wanted to check out the shop and maybe even get a um bass here!”
The man said “Bass” like the fish, and said so in the kind of tone that would indicate that they’ve only seen the word in writing and isn’t sure how it should be properly pronounced.
Connor looked at the man who was currently playing the bass he had grabbed. The man nodded, carefully picked it up and started towards the door before Mr. Fell cleared his throat for the taller man’s attention. He rolled his eyes, grunted, and walked towards the counter. He spoke slightly annoyed and awkwardly”
“Uh yeah this please”
“Um, £134.50 for the bass. Anything else?”
The man grunted, rummaged around in his pocket, and smacked down some wadded up bills and at least a pound worth of coins. Now that Connor could see the man’s hands, he realized his nails were unusually sharp and his fingers just barely too long.
Despite that, he counted the bills and gave the man his receipt. He nodded, grabbed the bass, and walked towards the door. He looked at Mr. Fell, and spoke impatiently.
“Come on angel let’s get out.”