My Valentine || Ray Manchester x reader

My Valentine

"Henry!" A voice called from somewhere behind you "Where're my beans?"

"What?" Came the reply.

"My lucky beans!"

"I think Jasper has them," the boy who must've been Henry shouted.

You turned around to find the source of the yelling, but you couldn't see anything behind a curtain that blocked of the front of the store from the back.

You had only been working here at Junk N' Stuff for a few hours and you were still a bit confused about some aspects of your job.

Jasper, the curly-haired boy who'd hired you, had given you a quick tour of the store-except for the back, which he'd said was due to the construction happening-before ushering you behind the counter.

It was odd, you thought, leaning on the desk-you hadn't heard any sounds of construction over the past few hours.

You looked over at Jasper, sorting though a pile of pails and buckets with vigor and ignoring the conversation he had obviously heard about him and beans. He caught you watching him and smiled.

"I'm looking for the bucket that belonged to Louis XIV," he called, "You haven't seen it, have you?"

You shook your head, "Can't say that I have, but I'll keep an eye out."

You sighed. It wasn't your ideal job, working at a junk store. But you had known what it was when you applied for the job after seeing the strange yet intriguing ad in the paper. And this job would do in the mean time while you figured out what to do next.

"Why would Jasper have my beans?" You heard the first voice again, closer this time.

"Something about hair growth? I don't know," the younger voice answered.

You weren't aware that anybody else worked here besides you. You didn't think the junk store needed more than one or two employees. You hadn't even seen one customer enter the building all day.

The ad had said they were 'looking for someone to watch over the shop-the perfectly normal, nothing-at-all-weird-about-it shop and handle customers full time. Must have experience with plants'.

You'd thought that part was weird-actually the whole advertisement was odd-but had ultimately looked past it. The pay was good and you needed a job right now after the unfortunate end of your last one.

And the store did have some cool items, if you were into that sort of thing. You played with a toy monkey dressed like Elvis Presley laying behind the front desk.

"Jasper!" A man pushed through the curtain and entered the room. He wore dark jeans and a tight-fitting yellow shirt. He was followed by a blond-haired boy and a girl with dark hair.

Jasper looked up from where he was sitting.

"Hand over the beans," the man said, his back turned to you.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jasper held his ground. "Henry, Charlotte, tell him I don't know what he's talking about."

"Nice try, but your hair wasn't that lustrous and voluminous yesterday!" The older man shouted.

The girl-Charlotte-massaged her temples.

"Just give him the beans, dude," Henry said.

Jasper ran a hand through his hair, "Oh all right."

He reached into his pocket and handed something to the other man. But not before kissing what must've been the beans and whispering 'I'll miss you, my little hair-miracle workers'.