Sugar & Spice

VIII A kiss from a pocky VIII

February is slowly coming to an end and the store's Valentine's Day menu was an amazing achievement. Everything was sold out and made a decent amount of money to do us, but also to treat the dogs with something. Even the mayor was very pleased with our hard work, he even told us to take some time off during March and the summer. And he isn't gonna take no for an answer. For the past few days, Robin and I have been enjoying our time off; walking around the town with the dogs, practising new recipes, thinking ahead of new menu options for the future and getting the upstairs room done up, but today I'm going to take a small break and visit Alphonse.

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Alphonse's pov

I was going on about my day as usual; wake up, get dressed and open up shop. Before it never really bothered me since customers hardly stop by, but now I'm suddenly caring a bit more. At first, I didn't know why maybe it was because of Ava. No matter what I do she always appears in my mind, so here I am; stocking up the selves and minding my own business till the sound of the bell brought my attention back to reality. I looked towards the door expecting to see a customer but it was Ava instead. I was surprised to see them but I greeted them with a smile.

"Well well well, ain't you a sight for sore eyes," I greeted them as they gave the usual warm smile and walked up to the countertop. Looks like it won't be a dull day.

Ava's pov

"Afternoon Alphonse," I greeted him with a smile.

"If you're here to apply for a job I've got bad news, I'd only be able to pay you expired goods and the occasional shoulder pad of approval," he said to me with his cheeky smile but I also gave one back.

"Sounds like a bad pay to me."

"Hey, it's more than my pops have paid me, well that's not exactly a shocker," he said as he try to defend himself but failed in the end.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"I inherited the store in a soul-crushing amount of debt because a little place like this can't really compete with the big retail chains. So essentially I've got all the debt of going to college but no degree to wipe my tears with."

From the moment he said that I couldn't help but hold a hardened stare at him. I knew that he struggles now and then, but I didn't think it would be that bad. And from by both looks and sounds, he struggled with school life as well, almost like how Robin did.

"Oh come on don't look so serious, I don't have anything better to do and if worst comes to worst, insurance fraud or fleeing the country is always an option," he said bringing me back to reality and I immediately did not like that idea.

"You're not serious right?" I asked him with a nervous smile and received a slight chuckle from him.

"I'm kidding, I think, maybe."

Sometimes it's hard for me to tell if he's joking or not, he is completely different from Robin. At least with them, I could tell whenever they're serious; so I don't know how much of a flight risk Alphonse is. I'll do my best not to think about that possibility and remain calm as he started to speak again.

"Oh yeah, also I don't need any help. Trust me, I've got nothing but time on my hands but if you're here to keep me company while I stock the shelves then you can stick around."

"That's alright, I'm good on the job front. I did come by to see you anyway; I didn't have anything going on, plus Robin isn't feeling so great today," I said to him and he looked pretty shocked with my reasoning.

"You are weird, I mean I'm weird too but, I'm not exactly accustomed to a sweet thing like you showing up just to check in on me out of the kindness of your heart," he said with another slight laugh with a nervous smile. Is he not used to someone being nice to him? I mean, I can tell that it wasn't always like that. So what could have happened to him?

"I can go if you want me to Alphonse. I understand that not a lot of people like that kind of treatment."

"Hold up, I'm not complaining I appreciate it; I've just I've had some incidents. You know, people with ulterior motives; people who just want something from me and bounce whenever they can't crack my candy-coated shell. And before I knew to look out for people like that there were a few people who just sort of I don't know, saw right through my tough guy act and saw me for the dumb naive scrub that I was. Took what they wanted and then they left," he said to me while pouring his heart out. Just who was the person that hurt him.

TO BE CONTINUED

(So I thought I'd switch up a bit by adding in an Alphonse pov, I can only apologise if it was awful but again this is all a learning experience😊)

📢I DON'T OWN ALPHONSE AND SETH! THEY ARE BOTH YUURIVOICE CHARACTERS SO ALL CREDIT GOES TO HIM!📢