hey there pretty boy (klance)

CHAPTER 02

three months later

Welcome to Arus, town of tourists and old guys with more money than common sense.

Blessed with blue skies, heavy sun and sparkling ocean in the summer months, their year-round trademark is copious amounts of rain, and Keith has gradually come to terms with the idea that he could drown on land during their wet season.

It rains for the third day in a row, this time only a light drizzle that fills Keith with annoyance more than anxiety. He groans inwardly at the sloppy footprints on the floor. Can't people learn to wipe their feet on the big, obvious mat by the door?

Although Keith can physically feel his face starting to get sore from scowling, he likes his job. A lot. The store used to belong to his grandparents, but after one passed away and the other left on a spontaneous trip around Europe, it was left in the hands of his older brother, Shiro. Most of the boys' memories from... after...involve the shop. Keith really does enjoy the place.

Voltron. They specialize in selling Cool Shit. Some art, some furniture, clothing, even some Arus souvenirs - anything that they could put a pricetag on.

He doesn't mind his co-workers, either. Besides Shiro there is Hunk, a big friendly guy who sometimes brings homemade snacks for everyone, and Shay, a college student from the next town over who helps out during school breaks and over the summer.

The one thing that bothers Keith are the customers. Their location is perfect - a quiet oceanside town full of old and rich people, who had the kind of money to spend on Voltron's outdated collectibles, along with the tourists who flocked in when the beaches were open, willing to fork out some cash for a neat little souvenir. Except Keith hates old rich people, and tourists.

Though the town rarely sees sun through its permanent springtime cloud cover, there were some days when it was warm, breezy and not pouring rain, and those days should be increasing in number as summer gets closer, except it's early June and still as wet as it was in April. The miserable weather has kept away most customers for the morning. Keith had wandered around and looked at some of their stuff, even taken an hour to thoroughly sort all of the books on the shelf in the corner. So far he has sold a little glass bird on a stick to an elderly lady looking for garden decor.

Eventually he had retreated to the front desk where he sits now, staring blankly at his phone screen.

Once it reaches two in the afternoon, there's still no sign of life in the store. Keith is starting to wonder if there's even life in this town, or if all the oldies finally croaked. He rubs a smudge on the glass display case next to the register. It leaves fingerprints. Another reason why he hates customers - they can't keep their goddamn grubby hands off of anything.

The door chimes. Tacky. Keith hates the bell. Shiro always tries to halfheartedly argue that it goes with their image, and Keith always tells him to shut up. He pauses before he looks up, praying that it's going to be his brother finally showing up for his shift two hours late for his shift. (It's not).

Keith takes a deep breath because shit it's a customer and shit said customer is really, really hot.

He's quite tanned, with soft brown hair to complement his skin tone. His face is smooth and absent of any marks or blemishes, and his eyes are a vibrant blue that ties the entire image together. Keith is polite enough not to stare, but he takes as many glances as he dares once the man is focused on one of their many wall displays, head tilted back to look at the decorative road signs and license plates. The grandfather clock plays a brassy tune from across the store to announce a new hour - it's exactly three minutes and forty-two seconds late. Shiro still hasn't fixed it.