Monday mornings were always depressing for Kiba. It had a dreary "back-to-work" vibe even when he worked on Sundays. Normally, he worked Sundays, skipped that dreaded Monday, and happily worked again on Tuesday. It was a silly psychological thing, he knew, but that's how it worked for him. Yet here he was, slowly steering his car towards the downward ramp that led to the shopping mall's underground employee parking. The summer morning was sucked away as he entered the glaring, yellow-orange lit vehicular dungeon.

He fully blamed his bratty high schooler coworker for this, the nerve of that punk to call in sick the first day of summer break! Kiba could go on for days how it wasn't fair, that this kid (he couldn't be bothered to remember his name) obviously WASN'T sick on a bright and sunny late-May morning, and that he was an ingrate for not appreciating that he had a job when college students like Kiba, who actually NEEDED to work for every little bit of cash, would gladly scoop animal shit to pay for school.

Being one of the first mall employees to arrive at this hour, he pulled his open-top Jeep into a space next to a familiar VW Beetle.

"Akamaru, we're here," he announced towards the general direction of his Jeep's rear. A canine whimper of protest was the response.

"Suck it up, we gotta work. Let's go."

At that, a large white dog leapt out of the back of the car and followed his master into the dingy elevator that time, or more likely the janitorial staff, forgot. Employee elevators were never as nice as the mall patron elevators.

One buzzy, short-circuity "ding" later, and Kiba and Akamaru trudged their way to the pet store. The doors were already unlocked, not that he would have expected otherwise when Shino was opening with him. He walked in to find his friend and coworker sitting on a stool behind the counter, reading The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Revisioning the Insect-Human Connection. Again.

"Morning, Shino," Kiba greeted as he walked into the back room to clock in.

"Good morning," Shino responded without looking up from his book.

Judging by Shino's non-work related activity, all the store-opening duties were done, an hour before the store actually opened. Kiba went behind the counter and found that Shino had even pulled out and filled Akamaru's food and water bowls.

He gave Shino a playful slap on the back. "Thanks for opening. But you could've waited for me too."

Shino put a bookmark in his book, perfectly parallel with the book's spine Kiba noticed, and pushed his dark glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "I decided to come early when the boss called to tell me our younger coworker would not be coming in."

"Pfft, and I volunteered to cover that kid's shift so you wouldn't have had to come in early."

"Thank you, but I was up already," Shino responded, then added, "Breakfast?"

Kiba ruffled his hair, shoved his hands in his pockets, and shouldered open the shop's door. "Yeah, let's go. We'll be back Akamaru."

As the two young men approached the escalator headed down to the food court, a tiny girl ran up and cut in front of them. They wouldn't have even noticed had she not turned around and squeaked out an apology before walking down the already moving steps. Kiba took in her outfit: a gigantic grey hoodie with the hood covering everything but her nose and mouth, white, neatly folded socks, and pristine white sneakers. He thought she'd forgotten to put on pants until she stepped off the escalator and revealed a glimpse of the hem of her royal blue cotton shorts.

Oh, the poor girl.

"Hot Dog On A Stick," Shino confirmed.

"Yeah. She must be new," Kiba said, watching the girl remove her sweatshirt behind the counter, revealing the colorblocked sleeveless shirt all Hot Dog girls wore. She rolled her waist-length midnight blue hair into her uniform cap and bobby pinned it all in place. Then a large young man stepped out from the back in the slightly less humiliating male version of the Hot Dog On A Stick uniform to greet the newly arrived girl. Kiba and Shino recognized the assistant manager, Chouji, and waved hello before heading in the other direction to the coffee stand.

"Good morning, gentlemen! How may I be of service to you?" was the grandiose welcome issued by the coffee stand's manager, Gai. Many wondered if he snorted ground espresso beans directly, but Gai insisted he stuck strictly to decaf.

"Two grande drips, black please," Kiba ordered, then paid for both drinks. Shino wordlessly pointed to a blueberry scone and a banana nut muffin in the pastry display, which a second employee pulled out, bagged, and rung up for Shino. Kiba raised an inquiring brow.

"Hey Gai, where's Lee?"

"Oh, Lee!" the coffee manager exclaimed. "He has advanced and moved beyond food service! As his mentor I am exceedingly pleased that he has surpassed me!"

"Right. Where's he surpassed off to?"

Gai blinked away his tears of pride before answering, "Sports Authority, second level!"

"Nice. Have a good day, Gai," Kiba said before heading back to the pet store with Shino.

"Have a successful and productive day, young sirs!" Gai called back at them.

----

"Looking forward to your first day, Hinata?" Chouji cheerfully asked.

The girl had folded up her gray hoodie and was looking for a place to keep it until her shift was over. "Oh, yes, of course!" she replied a little too enthusiastically, then much more quietly, "I-I didn't get a chance to thank you for putting in a good word for me with your manager. I really appreciate it."

The man waved it off, "Don't worry about it. Jiraiya was looking to hire more help anyway, and I just happened to know someone who could do a good job." Chouji was too polite to give the full reason why he thought Hinata would do spectacularly at Hot Dog On A Stick. She was a bit sheltered and would probably fall in a dead faint if she knew. He inwardly cringed at the fact that he was about to train her in the one job duty that he was sure would make her one of the most popular Hot Dog girls they've had to date.

"So, have you ever made lemonade before?"

Hinata, ever studious, shook her head and waited eagerly for instruction.

"Okay, normally, you would mix lemon juice, sugar, and water in a pitcher. However--" Chouji pulled out a large bucket and a juicer so large it had handle bars, "--because we're serving large numbers, we have to make the lemonade in large batches. And it's always fresh squeezed."

Chouji dumped cut lemons into the bucket, placed the juicer base, essentially a big disc with holes, on top, then poured water and simple syrup in as well.

"Okay, this is the hard part. It's also a trademark of Hot Dog On A Stick." He gripped the handle bars and pushed down hard . "We squeeze the lemons like so, and while the seeds and rinds stay pressed to the bottom, the juice comes up and mixes with the syrup and water." He continued to press down on the lemons, then stepped aside to let Hinata try. This was the defining moment.

The petite girl took hold of the bars and did her best to press down on the lemons, but it was a weak attempt. After a couple more tries, she looked put out and looked at Chouji as if asking for tips.

He obliged, "Uh, try jumping up then putting all your weight on it."

"I-is that okay?" Hinata looked unsure.

"It happens all the time, especially with the girl employees. I mean, I'm a big guy, and even I break a sweat doing this."

Hinata nodded, albeit still unsure. "O-okay."

She steadied herself, firmed her grip on the juicer's handle bars, then with a squeaky grunt, jumped onto the juicer, pressing her full weight down onto the lemons. Then she did it again, more assuredly. Then again, and again, and she looked up and grinned at Chouji.

"Heh, you're doing great, Hinata, keep it up!" he said with a thumbs up. "I have to go in the back and prepare the batter for the dogs." He quickly ducked into the back room, but not before noticing nearly every male food court employee halting their opening duties to watch the cute though very top-heavy girl bounce up and down with her little grunts and whimpers.

Chouji sighed. The lines were going to be very long this summer at Hot Dog On A Stick.

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading!

Starting up another story, yet another AU. This one will be much shorter than Subjective Humanity. I'll be writing them simultaneously, so we'll see how this works out. The next SH chapter will be out soon, I promise!