"No Jean, for the last time, just because I'm your friend doesn't mean that I can excuse every single time you call off. I'm still store manager and I have a business to run. If you can't make it in today then I'm sorry, you're fired." Eren hung up the phone and put it down on the counter he stood behind, head dropping down on it in frustration. Why? Why did you not listen to Armin when he gave him advice on running this business? 'You should never mix business and your friends, it will just cause more issues than you'll already have.'
He sighed and scooted back the stool he was sitting on and grabbed the keys dangling from his pants to open his register and count his money. Eren had enough time to count it just about as many times as he wanted to because this store wasn't that popular.
It was run by his mother, an old antique type store, the type that used the motto "one mans trash is another mans treasure" and it was nice. Between eren and his mom and dad it was obvious who would keep the business up and running once his mom got too sick.
And she did. No one knows what happened or how it happened, she just got sick. She just passed away. They weren't even close to finding out any answers, and Eren was left to run the business since Grisha his father had picked up drinking. He was unbearable to be around half the time and he couldn't be trusted to run a business.
So Eren fresh out of high school had learned the harsh reality of owning a business since he wasn't going to let anyone take this away from him, the only real piece of anything she left behind.
He let his mind drift off and lost count of the money, sighing and putting all back in the drawer, giving up on that idea. Though he was bored for too much longer as he heard the bell jingle from the front door, someone coming inside and admiring the store for what it was.
"Hi there, welcome to Trader Jeager, how can I help you today?" Eren kept an eye on the top of the head he saw, this person was particularly short.. female maybe? The people that shopped here were mainly females so he wouldn't be surprised. However he was confused when he didn't hear anything back from the lady. He looked out the window now, reading the backwards words to make sure the lady didn't feel pressured to reply if she didn't want to.
It was weird though, even the people who were having bad days still said hello. He just shrugged it off and watched the top of the head move from around that isle and towards the counter Eren stood at. This wasn't a female, this was a very short man compared to him, jet black hair and piercing steel eyes that didn't look up directly at Eren yet but he could still feel the anger behind them.
"Hi there, I'm Eren. Can I help you find something today? Anything specific you might be looking for?" That strange man approached Eren and stopped on the other side of Eren, right in front of him, not saying a thing. Instead just putting a piece of paper on the glass counter and sliding it over. Then pulling out his phone to type something.
Okay? Was this asshole just blatantly ignoring him or was there something wrong with him?
He looked at the paper and then he looked back up to this man. It was an application form, filled out. Now Eren was just shocked that the man was in here offering this form over and immediately started texting someone. Those thought were quickly shoved aside when this... he looked down at the paper again, Levi Ackerman put his phone down on the counter for Eren to look at. On it was a paragraph that Levi had typed out, he pulled the phone closer to him and started reading.
"My name is Levi Ackerman, I'm looking for a job here. I know it's not very busy and that helps a lot, I'm not trying to be rude but I'm not allowed to talk."
Oh. His eyes narrowed a bit in confusion and he cocked his head to one side. "If it's not too personal, may I ask why you're not allowed to talk?" Levi looked off to the side and sighed silently and grabbed his phone off the counter, beginning to type.
"Car accident."
The brunette smiled and nodded, looking over at the application again. He had no issues with the application at all, everything looked great with Levi. He'd honestly be willing to hire him on the spot, but he still didn't really know a thing about him. "Well, I won't get too personal with that, I'm sorry it happened. Do you know sign language? Signing would be easier I believe, if not we can always just write back and forth."
The reason he mentioned writing back and forth was because he felt that it wasn't fair that Levi had no way to talk and Eren did. He'd try to make it as fair as possible. Levi brought his hand up to the collar of his turtle neck and tugged it, the heat killing him with how warm the shirt made him. Instead of taking his phone back and saying he knew sign language, his hands got to work and the raven haired man signed to him. 'I know sign language, I'd been practicing even before the accident.'
Eren chuckled a bit, biting his lower lip and turning his head the other way, signing back. 'I'll be happy to review your application, in the meantime, why don't you look around a little and get familiar with the store.' He had a gut feeling Levi would be staying a while.
Levi nodded, turning on his heels, looking away from Eren and going towards one end of the store to walk all the way around it. Eren on the other hand stayed at the counter for the next couple of minutes. Looking over all the information again and pulling up Levi's name on his laptop to see if he's had any prior convictions. He didn't need a convict working for him that would rob him blind... and the only thing that popped up was the car accident. Numerous links that would take him to blogs about what happened and who was involved.
However, this was none of his business. He at least wouldn't make it his business until he wasn't in the store with Levi. He sighed gently, smiling right after again, clearing his throat soon after. "Well,"
He paused again after he got Levi's attention and saw him looking over at himself, then he quickly started to sign again. 'By the looks of everything I'll be able to hire you without a problem.' Levi let out a silent breath and looked back over to Eren, lifting his hand up to his mouth and bringing it out a couple times. Giving his thanks to that brunette. Eren smiled again and brought his hand over to twist an item on the shelf to face the right way before bringing his hands back over in front of him. He made sure that Levi was looking before signing again.
"When can you start?"
||this is the most random thing I've ever done with no warning, I just got the idea to do it and the motivation to make it happen. So I hope you enjoy, and I'll update this whenever I can, the latest you guys should be waiting is a week at most.
Thank you ❤️
