#(( figured you'd use Barnaby but didn't want to assume ))

[cpirits]

Send 🐈 for the receiving muse to grow cat ears and a tail for a day. (Kotetsu)

Stretching in his bed, Kotetsu woke up to start his day at his apartment, he felt bad about staying there away from his daughter, but work willing he had no time off unless he explicitly asked.

Getting to the bathroom, he passed by the mirror to use the toilet and did a double take -- did he have tiger ears on his head, and a tail too?!

"Huh, wonder if I have fangs too?" Fingers in his mouth, he checked for elongated canines, and deflated a bit when he saw there were none, just his normal teeth. The tiger ears on his head flopped with his little disappointment, but he was curious about his new appendages.

Getting dressed, his tail was pushed against his lower back as his pants were a bit high on his waist, but he'd grin and bear it for however long the features were going to stay (hopefully he'd not attract too much attention going about his day.)

@kitxkatrp

[usoppsstar]

"Holiday workers"🎄🎄🎄

S: Bad news, you have to work on Christmas! But at least it's with your crush at the most aesthetic store in town.

Pairing: Tanaka Ryunosuke x f!reader

Tw: none it's fluffy

Word count: 4.2k

Notes: Happy holidays! This is proofread but there may still be mistakes🎄🎄🎄

“Hello! Welcome to Bear stein’s!”

“Thank you! Happy holidays!”

These are the phrases you've been saying over and over for the last 3 hours. Which would technically be no different than any other work day if it hadn't been for the specific date today is. December 25th. Yes, you're working on Christmas Day.

You hadn't given it much thought when you checked that you were free to work on holidays when you were marking your availability in your application. Stores were rarely open on major holidays and you really wanted to work at the store you've loved since you were a baby. You didn't figure that holidays meant Christmas, but you should've known that everyone and their mom would want to go to the most aesthetic place in town today, and that you're not so aesthetic boss wouldn't hesitate to open it. You're pulled out of your thoughts when you hear a small voice.

“Excuse me! Lady!?”

You look around and don't see anyone, so you look down, and standing there is a little girl with big eyes and a determined look . She was absolutely adorable, with a little holiday get up on and her hair done up in twists with small red barrettes at the ends. You look up and notice two people that look like her parents watching your interaction. After meeting their eyes, you nod, getting that she wanted to pay by herself.

“Hi! You ready to buy that bear in your hands?” You say cheerfully and lean onto the counter a little so you're closer to her height. She nods firmly and places the bear that's been clutched in her arms this whole time onto the counter. You're surprised when you pick it up and find that it's not one of the usual options you see children her age pick. It was a grayish brown bear with a moss green,fabric bowtie. The kind you only ever see elderly women buy, and also one of your favorites.

“This is a great pick. Do you have a name for him?” You ask as you scan the barcode. She nods firmly again, on her tiptoes now so she can watch the entire process of you checking out her bear over the counter.

“ Yes! I'm gonna name him Barnaby! Do you know where the name Barnaby is from?” She asks and you actually think about it. You've got an idea but when you look back down at her, she's hopping from foot to foot, looking like she's a few seconds from just telling you the answer.

“ I'm not sure. Can you tell me?” You ask her convincingly. Once she sees that you're done with the scanner, she plops back onto her feet and quickly opens the mini purse on her hip before getting back on her toes and dropping a twenty dollar bill on the counter.

“Hello dolly!” She answers excitedly and you look up from the register, surprised. What did a little kid know about Hello Dolly? You thought she'd at least say Wall-E or something. You nod at her, impressed,as you place Barnaby into one of the holiday themed paper bags you're supposed to use this month, choosing the candy cane striped one. You make sure to stick his little arms and head out of the top, hoping it'll deter her from just pulling him out of bag like most kids do before even leaving the store( you'd just give them the bear in their hands like they want but you've had more than one parent get upset with you for “assuming” their child didn't want a bag). The little girl gasps as you put the bag in her hands but then quickly gets serious again.

“Thank you very much! Merry Christmas!” She says with a firm nod before running to her parents, squealing an excited ‘momma, poppa look!’.

“Thank you! Happy holidays!” You call out with a wave as you watch them leave, before resting back onto the counter with a smile. This isn't the worst place to work on Christmas. Most of the customers were in a good mood and the store looks beautiful this time of year. Everything was lit up with string lights, there were bows and mistletoe everywhere. All that along with the soft, festive music playing, created a pretty pleasant atmosphere. The best part of all was the large tree across the store,but not because of the decorations on it. It was the one standing on a ladder and putting on the decorations that owned your attention. You glance over with a sigh. Tanaka Ryunosuke. The main reason you get out of bed when your alarm goes off in the morning. He's supposed to be fixing a few things on it(a baby had tugged the garlands loose yesterday) but it looked like he'd stopped to answer a customer's question. You smile softly at the animated way he gives them directions, your eyes then drifting down to the muscles poorly concealed by his apron. He had great customer service and a great body, what a guy.

“His arms look so good in that shirt.” You sigh, admiring the way his biceps fit into the seasonal shirt each of you were given for this month.

“Who's arms look good in what now?” A voice suddenly says from next to you. You flinch and look over, only to see your coworker Mika looking at you with a smirk. With a groan, you roll your eyes and make yourself busy with replacing the receipt paper for the register, already knowing where this conversation would go.

“Nobody.” You grumble with a hot face and you hear her laugh.

“ Uh-huh. You're ogling Tanaka again aren't you? Just ask the man out already.” She says and nudges your shoulder. Struggling not to pout, you continue to mess around with things at the counter before looking up at Tanaka again. Mika is a close friend of yours, and has been telling you to ask him out since the first time she's seen you look at him for more than a few seconds. She finds it silly that you won't just casually ask him if he wants to go to a movie or out for lunch, but she doesn't understand why you don't. If Tanaka Ryunosuke was any other guy, anything like the men you usually see, it'd be that easy, but unfortunately he's not. He was such a sweet person with so much energy and he was good to literally everyone you've seen him talk to. He has a lot of friends and even regular customers that know him by name and look forward to seeing him. He treats you just as good. He always looks out for you, he's considerate of you, and he makes you laugh on a daily. All that, and he's handsome with a good work ethic . How were you not supposed to fall?

It's because of all this that you have no idea if he's interested in you too though. You don't know if he's sweet to you because he has feelings for you if it's just because he's a great person, and you really don't want to be one of those creeps that assumes someone's feelings just because they show you some human decency. All in all, you'd have to just take the leap and ask him to find out. But who's crazy enough to do that?

“Like I've told you before, I can't just ask him out, Mika. It's not the right time.” You tell her as you sweep some stray stuffing off the counter and into the trash. She just rolls her eyes and huffs before looking at the clock and smiling.

“Actually it's the perfect time because I'm about to clock off, and the two of you will have the store all to yourselves.” She sings before walking away to restock some ribbons.You stand there frozen in place. “What did she say?” You think, before quickly chasing after her.

“What!? I thought you were working with us for the rest of the night!” You whisper-shout as you walk through the towers of bears after her. Mika just huffs a sheepish laugh and plays with one of her earrings.

“ That's what our manager thought too, but I've got a little ‘family emergency’ called hanging out with my boyfriend on Christmas. Suguru is coming to pick me up in 10.” She tells you calmly as if she didn't just change the course of your entire night. Mika leaving meant that you and Tanaka would be closing tonight. You literally would have the store all to yourselves!

“Mika- wha-? What am I supposed to do?!” you ask her in disbelief when you both stop behind an assortment of bears with ugly sweaters on.

“What do you mean? Working with Tanaka is great. You both work well together, he's great with the customers,and he isn't a slacker that makes you do all the work.” She shrugs and you give her a deadpan look. You knew all that already, that's why you loved the man.

“Girl I know that! That's not the problem! The problem is I don't have enough rizz to stay with my crush all by myself!” You tell her seriously while shaking her shoulders lightly, and she just burst out laughing, drawing the attention of a few customers. You quickly shush her and she giggles into her hand.

“Okay, even if you don't have any rizz. It's Christmas time and you're working alone in the most aesthetic place in town. There's literally mistletoe hanging everywhere. The stage is set!” She smiles and waves a hand toward the store before walking back to the counter with you. It's true that the manager went a little overboard with the mistletoe this year, but because of it, this place is a popular date spot for couples. You're about to respond to her when you hear your name get called.

“Yo! Y/n!”

You turn around and your heart immediately flutters in your chest. Tanaka walks over with a bright smile that you would've loved to be meant especially for you, but considering the fact that Mika is standing next to you, it's most likely meaningless.

“ Oh! What's up Mika? Didn't see you there.” He says next, chuckling cutely. Okay, so maybe he was smiling at you. You avoid his eyes when Mika nudges you with a knowing look.

“Hey Ryu.” She responds while throwing an arm over your shoulder and resting her weight on you, at the same time you belatedly tell him hi. You wonder what Tanaka would think if you called him by his first name too. Wondering if he'd be cool with it or if it would make him uncomfortable. After all, Mika calls him Ryu because they knew each other in highschool( something about his and Daishou's volleyball teams competing and watching each other's games).

“What're you gals chattin about?” He asks after greeting a customer and leans onto the counter, his eyes glancing between the two of you before they rest on yours. You momentarily forget to speak until Mika nudges your back again.

“ Just uh- How Mika is ditching us to spend this lovely holiday with her boyfriend like the little grinch she is.” You sigh dramatically and give her a sideways glance, making him laugh, Mika too but you don't really hear it. You try not to so obviously smile just because he thought your joke was funny, but man, you were whipped. Mika just rolls her eyes as you shamelessly simp in public.

“Yup! It'll just be you two all night.” She says with a suggestive lift of her eyebrows, making you internally groan and rub your face. If Tanaka notices what she's trying to do, you can't tell. He just laughs lightheartedly.

“Playing hooky huh?! I can respect that! I'm not worried about it though. We work great together huh y/n?” He says optimistically, bringing a smile to your face, his good mood being contagious. He lifts a hand up for you and you high five him, appreciating the short contact. Unfortunately he high fives the rest of your coworkers the exact same way.

“Yeah we've got it.” You agree with him, your outlook on the rest of the night changing in a second( again, you purposely avoid Mika’s eyes). For a short second Tanaka intertwined yours and his fingers, turning what was a normal high five into hand holding, before letting go.

“That reminds me. I came up here because the candy cane bears need to be restocked. Y/n, you mind helping me out?” He asks and looks into your eyes.

“Yeah no problem!” You respond while not exactly meeting his. Tanaka is the type to hold eye contact with people when he speaks and when they speak, and you always look away, as if he'll somehow see through you and find out you like him.

“Cool! Can you watch the front until we get back Mika?” He asks her cheerfully as he opens the tiny door attached to the counter for you.

“Yeah, but I leave in a few minutes. Don't spend too long back there. Ok?” She responds with a wink and you gently but quickly push Tanaka through the storage room door, scowling at her before stepping inside after him. The two of you walk through the tall shelves in silence for a moment, which is peculiar because Tanaka can be quite the chatterbox. You're too afraid to look up at his expression so you just look around before suddenly thinking of something to say.

“Those candy cane bears are so popular huh?” you state while looking at the boxes full of different types of bears, each with their own print and name on them. You glance up at Tanaka and see him brighten up slightly as if he was relieved you initiated conversation first.

“Yeah they're flying off the shelves!” He crows proudly as if the design was his idea or something and you suppress a laugh. He then starts going into detail about why they're so nice as you both walk to the back. Saying things like how cool the knit-looking texture is, and how the peppermint circle buttons down their bellies were a great touch. You just smile fondly the entire time because there's nothing cuter than your crush passionately describing how high quality a teddy bear is.

“ Yup! It's a simple design but it's pretty freaking adorable I gotta say!” He finishes right as you guys finally come across the boxes with the candy cane bear's design printed on it. You groan when you see that they're on the top shelf though. You have no idea why the morning shift employees loaded them on the shelf farthest from the door, on the highest rack when they know how often they're needed. Attempting to reach them anyway, you stand on your tippy toes and tap at the box's corner, hoping you can tug it out of place just a little.

“Ugh it's too high, we're gonna need a step ladder-!” You freeze though when you feel Tanaka walk up behind you.

“Nah, I think I can reach it!” He says as he raises his arms over yours and grabs the box, and you feel like you're short circuiting with his chest so close to your back. The cologne he wears washes over you a bit and can feel your neck get warmer.When Tanaka tries to bring his arms down with the box, he notices that you're still standing quietly in the space between his arms. He quickly clears his throat and backs away from you.

“Whoa sorry! Didn't mean to crowd your space like that!” He apologizes and looks away nervously, his ears brightening in shade while you're still in the process of remembering how to breathe.

“No it's ok! I should've gotten out of the way.” You say once you recover, hoping he can't tell just how flustered you got just because he was close to you for less than 60 seconds. Someone would think you've never been in a relationship before with the way you react to every small thing he does. Tanaka just nods and adjusts the box in his arms.

“Welp! Let's get this box back up to the front before Mika really turns into the grinch.” He jokes lightheartedly before stepping back so you can walk first. The two of you walk back into the store only to see Mika already getting her back pack, ready to leave, and a line of customers.

“ There you two lovebirds are! Looks like I'll be heading out!” She chirps cheerfully as if there wasn't a mob of customers in the store.You quickly walk over and see that she had put a ‘ back in 30 minutes’ sign on the counter. She freezes when she feels your hand on her arm.

“Mika. Did you even try to dwindle down the customers while we were gone?” You growl and she struggles to meet your eyes.

“ Um- of course I did, there are just too many! Bye I'll text you later! Happy holidays you two!” She laughs nervously before running out of the store ,leaving you speechless. You sigh and plop a hand on your forehead as you watch her go. You loved that girl but her work ethic was horrible. Tanaka just laughs out loud and puts a hand on your shoulder.

“Don't worry about it! I'll just help you and we'll knock it out real quick-!” He's cut off when a child tugs at his apron.

“ Excuse me! Can you help me grab that!” They say and point to one of the higher shelves all the way across the store. He's about to answer them when an elderly woman walks up to him to ask a question too. You start to hear customers getting restless in line and before you both know it, the store is in chaos. There's customer after customer in line, and as soon as you finish checking out one there's another waiting. Tanaka is in no better shape than you. He's either running back and forth from the stock room or he's helping a customer find something. Despite how busy it is though, everytime you look up to find him, he seems to look up too, flashing you a cute smile that gives you an embarrassingly effective boost.

*🎄*🎄*🎄

“I'm never working on the holidays again.” You groan while you're slumped over the counter. What were people in such a rush for on Christmas day anyway? If they were trying to get last minute gifts they're a bit late.

The rush of customers kept you so occupied that closing time arrived before you knew it. What's worse is that you were so busy that you were only able to spare Tanaka a few glances. You were hoping you'd both share a few cute moments while you two were the only ones working. Stocking bears, listening to music,maybe brushing hands by accident, or at least some time to try and flirt with him. You probably wouldn't have but still, it would've been nice to have the opportunity. It wouldn't have mattered if you had something to say anyway because Tanaka would've filled the silence for you. He always does that. Creating conversation and asking about the stuff you like and your opinion on things.

“ Hey now, you falling asleep on me?” You hear and look up to see Tanaka walking towards you, a soft look in his typically intense eyes at the sight of you dozing off on the counter. You pull yourself up and yawn.

“Mhmm. Oh! Do you want help covering the bears?” You ask casually while you stretch, the exhaustion from fighting off a horde of customers calming your usual nerves. His eyes get a little wider at the sudden suggestion before he looks back at the displays. It wasn't really a job so difficult that two people needed to work together for it.

“Yeah! I'd appreciate it!” He says anyway when he looks back at you before opening the small door to the counter for you again, letting you walk ahead of him. He follows behind you, hoping you don't suddenly turn and notice his change in complexion.You both decide to start on the big shelf by the window. While Tanaka pulls out the tarp, you remember something and pull out your phone. He looks up when he hears some music start to play softly, incidentally one of his favorite Christmas songs. He glances at you while you calmly stretch the tarp on your side, making sure the clear wrapping properly covers the toys, before clearing his throat.

“ So uh- You got any plans for the rest of the night?” He asks you while keeping himself busy with strapping the plastic down on his side of the shelf. You look up slightly before continuing on your task.

“A few of my cousins are having a small get together, sleepover thing. Most of us had work today, so we'd thought it'd be a good way to celebrate even if we're tired.” You explain with a small smile, looking forward to seeing them after such a long time, and Tanaka looks at your smile with a soft one of his own.

“Sounds like fun! I bet you'll enjoy that.” He says as you both make your way to one of the displays towards the middle of the store. You nod while you both start to take down the bears from the very top.

“ Um- what about you? Are you hanging out with friends or family?” You ask him this time as you step around, grabbing the pushies, Tanaka doing the same. He just scoffs.

“ I wish! I've got to pick my older sister up from a Christmas party. She's probably wasted by now.” He sighs and you laugh a little at the thought of Saeko hanging off of him. She's come into the store before, just to say hi, and it's always quite the sight when they bicker.

“ That's sweet of you.” You say quietly, not at all surprised to find out that he looks out for his older sister, and give him a smile.

“Ah it's no big deal.” He laughs sheepishly, feeling his ears start to burn. You're about to grab the last bear when Tanaka's hand lands right on top of yours. You both freeze and glance at each other before pulling away and then reaching back again, before Tanaka is eventually the one to pick it up. You groan internally, face hot. There's no way your little fantasy from earlier actually just happened.

“So uh-! What's up with all the mistletoe the boss put up!?” Tanaka suddenly says, awkwardly changing the topic towards the fake kiss inducing plants above you. You look up, then back down at him and finally notice just how red the tips of his ears are. Feeling your heart beat a little faster you decide to work towards making a move, hoping what you're thinking is happening, is happening.

“Yeah, it's like they're begging people to kiss.” You laugh quietly and wait for his reaction. Wondering if it's actually possible that your oblivious crush is setting up a chance to kiss you right now.

“Do you- want to? Kiss I mean.” He asks while rubbing his neck before looking up into your eyes. His face is red and his chest is rising and dropping underneath his apron, but he doesn't look away. Your jaw drops slightly as you try to compute what's about to happen. Because you don't answer though, Tanaka immediately starts to panic.

“ Only if you want to! As friends or something if you want! I didn't mean to make you uncomf-!” he rambles quickly until his lips are pressed by yours. Gingerly, you take his face in your hands and hold him closer while tilting your head. Tanaka freezes for only a second before he hums into you and rests his hands on your waist. When you pull away he gives you a dazed look before blinking out of it, and you both laugh before pulling back a little, slightly out of breath.

“So um- does this mean you like me too? Or was that just as coworkers or something?” You ask nervously before Tanaka quickly takes your hands.

“ Forget that I said the friends thing! I've actually liked you for a long time!” He says hastily and you just stand there. You're crush had really liked you back all this time and somehow you hadn't noticed. Your mouth opens and closes like a fish before you finally speak.

“I-! Why didn't you tell me!?” You eventually whine and Tanaka just laughs and pulls you into a hug that you've both wanted to be able to do casually for a long time.

“ I'm not- used to telling crushes how I feel. I'm more of a ‘just enjoy their presence’ kinda guy. But ugh! Now I wish I would've just asked you, instead of wasting time!” He groans above you and you can feel his chin move against your head. You nod and sit quietly for a moment, enjoying his embrace. You get where he's coming from, but did any of that matter now? You look up at him and he looks down, feeling himself start to blush with your lips so close to his again.

“ Yeah but, it's better late than never, right?” You say softly before glancing back down at his lips and Tanaka just gulps before leaning in and you kiss your crush again, on Christmas evening,in the middle of the most aesthetic store in town.

You'd have a lot to thank Mika for tomorrow.

A/n: Merry Christmas!(⁠｡⁠・⁠/⁠/⁠ε⁠/⁠/⁠・⁠｡⁠) Hope you all enjoy your day whether you celebrate or not! Thanks for reading!🎄🎄🎄

🎄taggies: @bokutosbiceps , @cookieswithay