rubber ducks are ducks made of rubber

part three

part three

osamu was on his fifth consecutive lap of the ground floor. he was looking for something to buy, but hadn't seen anything that interested him. so he'd kept walking around, solely for the purpose of evaluating all potential products.

he was definitely not using it as an excuse to look at suna rintarou.

however, it may have happened that one of the shelves in the clothes section provided an opportune point from which to look at whoever was working on the tills.

it also may have happened that osamu found himself continually drawn to this section, in order to re-examine the items of clothing.

these two events were by no means connected.

osamu watched as suna put items in bags, tapped at buttons and counted change. he noticed the little things as well, how suna would wipe his forehead after every customer, the way he sifted the coins through his fingers, how his narrowed eyes kept shifting to the clock like he was counting down the hours.

after a while, suna left the till he was working on and went back to the staff room and out of osamu's sight. osamu then started his sixth lap, hoping that something new would have materialised on the shelves.

he stopped by the christmas card rack, momentarily contemplating buying one for atsumu. he hadn't bought anything for his brother; they never made it a habit to exchange gifts. still, there was a first time for everything.

"hey."

a voice next to his ear caused osamu to jerk round with such speed that some cards on display fluttered onto the floor. it was suna, who was now staring down at the red and green paper with his lip curled.

they both bent down to pick them up, suna's deft fingers easily sliding them off the tiles while osamu struggled to even get one.

"sorry." osamu flushed red. "but you didn't have to help me."

"i work here. i kind of do."

"ah." osamu stood up and awkwardly placed a card back on the display. "but what are you doing here? you scared me."

"i'm on a break. so i came to say hey."

"you did?" osamu was surprised that suna had even noticed him here.

"i thought you wanted to talk to me. you were staring for two hours."

the flush returned to osamu's cheeks.

"i didn't know you saw."

"you were kind of obvious." suna neatly stacked the rest of the cards up, looking at osamu as he did. "did you find anything you wanted to get?"

"uh, no. not yet."

"there's more rubber ducks-"

"i don't think i need any more rubber ducks."

"you don't?" suna gave a grin which osamu described as cheeky. "you know, if you buy one hundred rubber ducks you get a twenty five percent discount of your next purchase-"

"i have been made aware of that."

"- and you can use that discount to buy even more rubber ducks."

"what would i do with all those ducks?"

suna laughed, and it was the first time that osamu had heard it.

"if i ever needed a rubber duck, i could come to you."

osamu smiled wearily.

"that's great, but i'm not looking for a duck today. i don't know what i want."

"well." suna fixed him with a stare that could have meant anything. "since i work here, i guess i have to help you look."