Fly (Keishin Ukai) - COMPLETED

23 - Compromise

Keishin had spent the evening like he always did, sat back in his chair, cigarette in mouth and newspaper in hand. Tuesday was one of the quieter days of the week, and often he did not have to serve any customers after eight-thirty, so you could imagine his surprised when he heard the door scrape open at eight fifty. Mentally he scowled at whoever decided to shop at an ungodly hour, he would be closing in ten minutes - as much as he liked the older people that entered his shop, they were quiet and sweet unlike the teenagers, but they took longer than ten minutes to shop.

"Welcome to the-" he started to mumble his usual saying as people entered his store before his eyes landed on the customer. He tried to stand up and put down his newspaper, but the surprise made him lose balance on his chair and fall to the floor as his voice yelled, "YUKI!" He landed with a hard thud but was quickly back to his feet to make sure that it was truly, in fact, Yuki standing in the store.

The last time she was there was before their argument, and he thought she would never step foot in there again. His cigarette fell out of his mouth when they met eyes. It was Yuki. Her hair down, but fringe pulled back by a hairband. He could tell by the sweat glistening on her forehead and the twiddling of her fingers that she was nervous. There was only one reason she would have gone to the shop, and that was to fix the situation between them finally.

Yuki avoided his eyes as she tried to think of the right words to say. She had thought through everything on her way to the store. But now he was standing in front of her, she was drawing a blank, like someone had taken an eraser and rubbed out all of her planning. She used to hate the humming sound of the refrigerator, but now she was glad it replaced the awkward situation she had put herself in.

He was waiting for her to speak, watching her with eagle eyes. He did not want to go first, unsure of her real intention in the store. What if she did not want to fix the situation? What if she had come to the store to tell him she was leaving the team? He started to panic, a bead of sweat formed on his forehead, but he tried not to show his stress in his facial expression.

It felt like minutes had passed, and both still stood staring at each other. Yuki's could now only smell smoke from Keishin's cigarette, which had finally gone out. Finally, both swallowed nervously and opened their mouths to speak.

"I'm sorry," though the words came from neither them, "I know you're about to close, but we ran out of sugar, and you know Okura, he needs his Tea before bed." An older woman with thick grey hair walked into the store, a cane in her left hand helping her keep her balance. Both jumped at the unexpected visitor but sighed softly, seeing her go by.

"Don't worry Mrs Hitomi, I will get that for you right now," Keishin spoke before walking away. The older lady stopped and gave Yuki a friendly smile.

"I've have not seen you around in some time, Keishin said you were feeling unwell." Yuki was taken back by the woman's comment.

"Uh - yes, I'm f-feeling better now," she forced a smile.

The woman nodded and watched as Keishin picked up the sugar. "You know, he was quite a grump when you were not here. Not singing or smiling as much, barley keeping any conversation either." Yuki's eyebrows scrunched together; she glanced to the older lady, who was already looking at her with a smirk. "Whip him back into shape will you, I think you're the only one that can." She gave a final wink to Yuki as Keishin returned to the counter with sugar in hand.

Yuki blocked out the conversation between Keishin and the elderly lady as she tried her best to suppress her smile. Suddenly that weight of dread and tension faded. He had missed her, just as much as she missed him. If they talked it out, their friendship could be fixed, and go back to how it was. Apart from training with Keishin, Yuki's favourite times with him was working at the store. They would always sneak glances at each other when the other was busy. When he was with customers, she would pull funny faces or do silly dances to make him laugh mid-conversation. Despite her shooing him away every time, he would always end up helping her do stock, and when the store was empty, which it was a lot of the time, they would talk, about everything and anything. It was never awkward or forced. They both genuinely enjoyed each other's company, and both missed it - though Yuki would often find herself wishing their relationship was something more. How many times she thought - wished - about sneaking kisses between customers coming in and out, and hoped he would wrap his arms around her waist as she did stock.