Disclaimer: I by no means own any of the rights to the Clamp manga story of Legal Drug or its characters.

Third Tuesday

By Crystal Delphina

Completed: December 8, 2006

Revised: December 12, 2007

Part I of III

The third Tuesday of the month was a dreaded day in the Green Drugstore as far as one employee was concerned. Granted the day wasn't nearly as terrible as the second Sunday of the month when inventory had to be taken of the entire store; this sometimes resulted in the hired help not getting to bed until two in the morning. However the third Tuesday was not nearly as enjoyable as the first and fourth Monday of the month, days that provided them with lovely pay checks from their employer, though the amount on the check was sometimes disappointing. But when considering the entire spectrum, the third Tuesday was a day to be feared and generally was located towards the 'bad' end of the spectrum than that of the 'bearable'.

Not that Kudou Kazahaya was ever particularly excited - or willing for that matter - to get up on most days and head downstairs to his job. However, there was an added reluctance to rise from bed on the third Tuesday of the month, a reluctance that was so powerful he cursed the gods for his general good health and inability to be sick more often without having to fall into nearby bodies of water. As usual though, his prayers went unheeded and any temptation to just skip work for the day was quickly squashed, literally, when a shoe landed with a hard thud onto his chest.

"Rise and shine lovely. Time for work."

He knew who it was that had thrown the offending object; how could he have not known considering there was only one suspect in the apartment other than himself? And although shoe throwing was a common morning occurrence that he should have grown accustomed to, Kazahaya still opened his eyes to shoot an accusatory glare at his smirking roommate Himura Rikuo who stood over him. He noted with some disdain that Rikuo had the other shoe waiting in his hand, ready to complete the pair. Although he considered yelling at the other dark haired young man, he valiantly fought the urge to do so as to avoid having two bruises on his chest. Instead, he settled for stating the obvious. "That hurt."

Seeing that his co-worker was now fully awake, Rikuo merely shrugged before dropping the shoe and turning to walk away, calling over his shoulder with a lazy drawl that Kazahaya needed to get dressed quickly so he could make breakfast. As tempting as it was to engage in a morning verbal spar, Rikuo had more important things to do, such as sit on the floor and read his newspaper.

With the departure of his personal nuisance, the caramel haired boy groaned and contemplated falling back asleep. Sadly he realized it was a pointless wish; aside from the fact that he needed money and that Rikuo would come back to pester him again, if only so he could get his breakfast, the thought of an irritated boss struck pure terror into his heart. He groaned again. He hated the third Tuesday of the month. Work was work though and there was no point in trying to avoid it. Sighing in defeat, he moved the covers aside as he got up and prepared to go about his day.

-- -- --

Now thinking about this rationally, work would start for him on any given day between nine and eleven AM depending on how lenient Kakei felt like being. He would usually get off between six and eight depending on when Kakei would choose to close the store for the day and how much clean up there was. There was an hour around lunch time that he was given for a break to not only eat but gain a needed second wind before all of the high school girls would arrive as soon as classes ended for the day. Sometimes, knowing it was going to be a particularly bad day for whatever reason, Kazahaya would spend the hour sipping tea and looking into his cup, trying to will away the dozen or so girls that would be arriving in flocks in a few mere hours. But all that is beside the point. The point is that really Kazahaya at the most only has to endure an eight to nine hour work day of mediocre labor. Well besides those so-called 'special jobs' that would pop up from time to time.

And of that eight to nine hour work period, only two hours of that were spent stocking on the third Tuesday of the month. So truth be told, that was a reasonable amount of time he had to endure and really should not have caused him as much distress as it seemed to. And stocking was part of the job description in working in a drug store; he was practically handed an apron and a box of new items his first day. However, with certain owners and certain owner's lazy lovers lurking around, it could make particular jobs down right horrendous to complete when you were as easily embarrassed as Kudou Kazahaya was. Plus there was always the threat of the malicious stoic co-worker who seemed to take particular pleasure in making life difficult for our uneasy hero.

He was waiting with nervous anticipation for Kakei to call him into his office to tell him the latest shipment had arrived and needed unpacking, as was custom every third Tuesday, as if Kazahaya didn't already have the day etched into his brain. Kazahaya would nod his head in agreement to his order, eyes downcast and depression over the task apparent, however Kakei would seem to take no notice. After that he would solemnly leave Kakei's office and head to the back of the store. The dreadful box would be there, waiting, unmarked and unassuming in all of its brown cardboard glory and Kazahaya would drag it out to the store front to the aisle the contents of the box belonged. Taking his box cutting knife - and secretly wishing to slash the damn thing to shreds - he would instead cut the tape and begin the process of opening the box and removing all of the pesky packing styrofoam peanuts that would stick to his skin and clothes. And thus would begin his two hour chore.

This chore typically did not start until ten.

Kazahaya looked nervously towards the clock and saw that it was 9:48. He began to sweep more frantically as his last 12 minutes began to tick down, hoping against hope that for some reason the shipment had been late or lost in transit all together. In fact, perhaps they wouldn't receive the box at all because for some miraculous reason the items wouldn't need to be restocked due to lack luster sales and therefore no need to re-order. Kazahaya paused in his mindless sweeping to gaze out the front of the store, hoping to see flying pigs or a large robot towering above the buildings around them defending his part of the city from whatever evil was plaguing Tokyo on TV these days.

At 9:52 he heard Kakei's voice calling. He resisted the urge to throw the broom at a nearby display and instead walked towards the voice, something akin to the 'Death March' playing in his head.

-- -- -- --

The white packing peanuts were indeed clinging to his shirt thanks to the wonders of static electricity as he methodically removed boxes from the large cardboard container. Then he would open those boxes to take out even smaller boxes. Finally those small boxes would go on the shelves. But the amount of packaging required for shipping just those small boxes was quite preposterous and had Kazahaya wondering why they had to use the packing peanuts instead of the much easier to handle bubble wrap. Plus, even at the mature age of seventeen, he still enjoyed the task of popping the bubbles in the plastic.

Silently muttering curses to himself as he picked away another statically charged white styrofoam leech, Kazahaya wondered when the next stage of torture of the day would begin. That phase however was generally a large variable that fluctuated and never had a predictable start time. That was mainly due to the nature of the variable, which would sleep unexplainable amounts of time that seemed downright inhuman and impossible. However, eventually he would be roused from his sleep, seeing as it was his mission in life to find a way to make the poor teenage boy blush on a daily basis. His job was just made ten times easier on the third Tuesday of the month. And once the next stage had been initiated it seemed to have no completion time in sight.

Kazahaya looked around himself wearily, peering one way down the aisle and then the other, checking for his employer's partner who was bound to show up anytime now. He always did. Kazahaya had learned that the very first time he had had to unpack this particular shipment. Since that day, he had learned that these days were made purely for tormenting purposes at his expense.

"You look like a mouse looking out for the house cat."

Kazahaya visibly jumped, whipping his head around to face his roommate smirking down at him. He vaguely wondered how the hell Rikuo had managed to suddenly appear beside him in the previously vacant aisle (really, it had only been five seconds or so) without a sound but decided to not give the mystery any further thought. There were more important matters to handle at the moment, such as his current annoyance. His eyes narrowed slightly in irritation. "Keh, go away," Kazahaya muttered, turning back towards his job of stocking making his best attempt to ignore the other teen.

Suddenly there was an arm around his shoulder, fingers brushing against the exposed skin on his upper arm where the light blue t-shirt he wore fell short. Rikuo was crouched down beside him and had leaned towards him, his lips definitively close to Kazahaya's ear so he could feel the warm breath tickle the sensitive shell. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end from this close contact and he could feel the heat beginning to pool in his cheeks that would cause an inevitable flush. Why the hell did Rikuo feel the need to get so cozy all of a sudden?

"You know Kazahaya," Rikuo softly whispered, causing the poor boy to freeze in anticipation and his pupils began to widen. Rikuo paused, enjoying drawing out the suspense and watching the panic begin to form in Kazahaya's amber eyes. When Rikuo was satisfied in the mimicked expression of a deer trapped in the headlights that Kazahaya had managed to pull off, he gave a small wicked smirk the other couldn't see. "You're doing a wonderful job of stacking those boxes."

Rikuo was a truly irritating individual; what the hell did stacking boxes have to do with whispering in his ear like it was some big secret? And why had it required the dark haired teen to continue giving small light strokes to his arm? Quickly snapping out of his delirious state, Kazahaya growled and then shoved a hand towards the chest of his partner in an attempt to push him over. Rikuo easily avoided the attack however and instead rose from his stooped position in one fluid motion, giving a small laugh as he walked away.

"You! Shutup! And leave me alone!" Kazahaya shouted after him in irritation and turned back to the task at hand.

Although he was more than a little perturbed at his partner's actions - and Rikuo of course provided an excellent scapegoat in all things relating to pissing off Kazahaya - he was also rather miffed at his own heartbeat for speeding up. Despite the brunette's reluctance to admit this, he could no longer deny the fact that reactions in response to Rikuo were becoming increasingly more frequent and progressively worse. Increased heartbeat rates were beginning to be on the lower end of the scale of physical reactions; currently the top of the scale consisted of (sometimes rather pleasurable) shudders whenever the other boy touched him. Along with sometimes he wasn't sure if the blush that would creep up his neck and into his cheeks was really from embarrassment anymore; rather – anticipation and excitement.

Frankly it was getting ridiculous. And Kazahaya tried to make a point of avoiding ridiculous situations, although that had become a nearly impossible task with his current occupation.

To Rikuo's credit, in terms of observational skills, the boxes were in rather straight perfectly perpendicular lines. He poked the corner of one box in retaliation, sending it slightly askew from the rest of its brethren – although no one would really notice.

Kazahaya continued stacking while grumbling about annoying pesky co-workers that caused him to blush and stupid Tuesdays.

-- -- -- --

Really, it did not make sense that stocking for these items occurred once a month. Because the truth of the matter was, although he was well aware he did not ring up every purchase in the store, it was on very rare occasions that Kazahaya ever did have a customer purchase these items. In fact, he hardly ever saw anyone even in this part of the aisle. So why the hell was he stocking these every month? It just didn't make any logical sense. Kazahaya glared down in disdain at a tube he held in his hand, mentally cursing the poor unassuming pharmacy item.

"I could always show you how to use it you know, Boy."

He froze, eyes wide, hand squeezing tightly around the tube in competing instinctual reactions of surprise and fear.

The time had come.

"I'm sure Kakei wouldn't mind... too much."

The earlier mild mental curses now transformed into urgent mental screams of panic. The young man quickly deduced there were three possible reactions: He wasn't sure whether to laugh nervously at the little joke (was it even a joke??), ignore the man all together, or sprint down the aisle and out of the store. He was sure he could make it at least half a block away before he was either tackled by his personal tormentor or the pesky guy he worked with. He realized with some disdain that both of those descriptions could fit any of the men who worked at Green Drugstore besides himself. Damn.

"Gah! Don't scare me like that!" And of course there was always secret option number four of acting in the 'typical Kazahaya' fashion: blush furiously, give a piercing scream, and wave your arms around in wild abandon from surprise and humiliation. Once he had given up on the option of the 'flight' response, he had gone with the remaining alternative of 'stand in fright'. Sadly, not attending high school meant Kazahaya was unaware that it was actually referred to as the 'fight or flight response', but that's just getting off topic. "Bastard!"

Oh right, and make sure to include a 'witty' insulting remark.

Chuckling, the bane of his existence that wore sunglasses sauntered down the aisle with an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth without another word. Remember to keep in mind Kazahaya regarded himself as having two 'banes of existence': the one that constantly wore sunglasses and the one that he was relegated to share an apartment with. Anyway, encouraging his breathing to return to normal and his face to resume its natural color, Kazahaya slammed the tube onto the shelf besides the others. He knew that that would not be the last he saw of the man for the day. He needed to be ready next time. There was suddenly a half fearsome glint in his determined golden gaze.

-- -- -- -- --

This time he had been stocking the bottles when Saiga appeared and threw an arm around his shoulder grinning like a maniac. "Good thing I don't need those things. What about you Boy? Everything working properly for you?" Kazahaya glared at the bottle in his hand that promised miracles for those gullible people who were easily fooled by marketing gimmicks and flashy packaging. Anything that promised to make mountains out of mole hills in three seconds should be regarded as questionable at best. Kazahaya turned his head to fix the man beside him with an icy stare.

"Yes...everything...is…fine…" he gritted through his teeth in annoyance and slammed the bottle upon the shelf, the pills inside jostling around upon the impact.

"I don't know...you could always try it. On one hand, it might be fun, ya'know? Provide a few new sensations," Saiga mused, tilting his head up towards the florescent lights on the ceiling as if he was in deep contemplation about the meaning of life. The light haired brunette rolled his eyes at that thought and slammed another bottle down, trying to dislodge the heavy arm still relaxing on his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure I'm good on the sensations I have now, for free, and without risk to my health."

Even Kazahaya had to admit he was impressed by his quick and sharp response instead of floundering around in the abyss of sputtering and blushing as he normally did. Apparently the plan of mentally preparing himself for Saiga's embarrassing comments had actually paid off. He wasn't sure how, but it had. Score one for Kudou. He'd have to make sure to do this more often from now on.

Saiga looked down at him astonished as well before the corner of his lips quirked up. He let go of his hold and walked off without a word.

Despite his brave words, he realized that his face was still felt rather hot. Damn again.

-- -- -- -- --

He had done it; he had managed to survive the two hour stocking time with few altercations and minimal awkward embarrassing moments. Perhaps the gods had been looking out for him that day up in the big green drugstore in the sky. He only had to finish putting a last few items away and he was able to go upstairs and get lunch. Then he would forget the whole ordeal for at least another month. The thought was a thrilling one indeed.

"Kudou-kun." Kazahaya jumped and turned around to face his employer that had placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. Everyone seemed to be rather touchy and feely with him today. And why the hell did it have to keep being his left shoulder and arm?

"Kudou-kun," Kakei repeated when Kazahaya only blankly stared at him. "you can go take your break now. Just finish up and throw the boxes in the back." He nodded mutely as Kakei left him to track down Rikuo on the other side of the store and relay the message. Kazahaya quickly shoved the rest of the items on to the shelf in his excitement to leave the wretched aisle behind that he'd spent nearly all morning in. He grabbed the large cardboard shipping boxes and headed back to the storage room that would lead out to the ally behind.

Disposing of the boxes that had caused him nothing but annoyance all day was a joyful occasion. Really, he thought about hopping up and down on them in glee as a method of flattening them but decided if someone happened to come out of the store and see him that way, his employment would be in question. Instead he settled for just enjoying tearing them apart with his hands and giggling silently in his head. Sure boxes such as these would be back in a short four weeks to torture him, but at the moment who ever knew recycling cans could ever make a man so happy?

He smiled as he left the boxes in the alleyway and headed up the stairs to grab some food. Food and tea. He felt he deserved a little quiet time with tea. Girls would be arriving soon to complete his 'perfect' day. But first he would appease his starving stomach and his weary nerves.

-- -- -- -- --

"Thank you and come again!" Kazahaya called from his spot behind the counter as the last customer of the day left the shop. As soon as the customer was half way down the street, Rikuo left the interior of the store to grab the pink plastic bunny mascot and drag it inside for its overnight safekeeping. The other shelves already inside, he reached up and dragged the metal security door down indicating they were finally closed for the day. He turned to regard the surprisingly cheerful shorter young man who smiled back in an unperturbed fashion at his own growing scowl. Why the hell was that idiot so chipper?

"How much cleaning up is there?"

Rikuo gave a relieved sigh as he ran a hand through the black locks of his hair. "None. I did most of it during this past half an hour of dead time. All we have to do is count the till in the register and we can go."

"You can go ahead upstairs and start dinner while I add up and give the money to Kakei." Dark green eyes stared at Kazahaya for a moment, contemplating the offer. As pleasing as it might sound to stay in the drugstore any longer than he had to, he decided he'd let his partner enjoy the pleasures of calculating their sales for the day. Instead, he'd enjoy the warm water of his shower after he set dinner to start cooking. It sounded like a rather fair trade. Rikuo shrugged his shoulders - his form of accepting the deal - and turned around to open the large metal door he'd just partially closed. While the metal slid back down into place after his departure, Kazahaya glared after him mumbling to himself about ungrateful roommates who didn't thank him for kind offers as he opened the cash register to retrieve the money.

Thankfully, due to what had been a slow business day with very few sales, he was done in a relatively short period of time. The money securely placed in a plain brown envelope and tucked under his arm, he knocked politely on Kakei's office door before entering. However the knocking seemed to have done little good as he was greeted with the site of Saiga on top of Kakei, pressing him firmly into the small couch in his office. They were fully clothed mind you, but regardless, perhaps he should have waited for a response before entering. He tried not to think about the likelihood that much more happened on that couch – the couch he often sat on – than just mild making out. But once he thought about not thinking about it…

He blushed and stammered, unsure whether to spin around and leave the room as rapidly as possible or gouge his eyes out with the scissors he saw sitting across the room on Kakei's desk. When both options seemed rather foolish at this point, he averted his eyes from the intimate couple, let out a small cough and quickly rushed to the desk to place the envelope on its metal expanse. "Uh…here's the money…um…for the day."

He nearly sprinted for the door after accomplishing his task in attempts to get away from the uncomfortable situation as soon as possible. However Saiga, as usual, had other plans. "Yo Boy!" Kazahaya turned to look just in time to avoid the flying projectile heading straight for his forehead. Ducking quickly, the object skimmed over the top of his head, brushing against his honey brown locks before squarely hitting the wall behind him. "Are you trying to kill me!?" he bellowed, pointing an accusatory finger at the culprit of his near murder. "Shush, and just find a way to enjoy the present you worked so hard for today," the larger man responded with a lazy drawl and accompanying smirk. Kazahaya was sure he probably winked as well, but couldn't be sure considering the dark sunglasses the man always wore.

There, lying innocently behind him, Kazahaya found the bane of his existence in the world of stocking. He gapped like a fish as the box's contents finally registered in his head and a blush quickly flooded his cheeks. And Saiga didn't help matters any when he gave an evil grin and said, "I'm sure Rikuo-san would be more than happy to help you use them." That lovely suggestion only made the blush deepen in color.

For some unknown reason that not even he could comprehend, much less even begin to try and explain, Kazahaya hastily bent down to retrieve the item and ran out of the room, slamming the office door behind him. Saiga stared at the closed door in shock. "Wow, he took it. I was just kidding. I can't believe he actually took it." He looked away from the door when his lover beneath him began laughing in mirth. The only real indication that he was perplexed at the small chuckles was that a dark bushy eyebrow raised far up past the frame of his glasses. "What?"

"Those were ours I'd like to remind you."

There was a momentary pause.

"Damnit!"

"Best go replenish our supply from those newly stocked shelves so dutifully done by Kudou-kun."

"You know you're lucky you have a continuous supply thanks to you owning a pharmacy."

"You do know I can foresee things, right?"

12/08/06

This was the first part of a three part story, inspired by my newly found love of Legal Drug, in which I became obsessed and wrote a 25 page story during the span of a month or so. Please review to let me know there are readers who are 1) reading the story 2) enjoying it and 3) wish for it to continue. The story as a whole is already completed and only waiting upon your responses. I look forward to seeing you next time dear readers.

-Crystal Delphina