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WHO: Matsuka and Bakura
WHERE: Upper West Toys
WHEN: Early Friday.
SUMMARY: Matsuka has his first day at work. It's probably a very good thing his new boss is also his friend.
FORMAT: Para to start as always.

Bakura yet again had come to work early. Normally, night security would be the ones to open up the stores for the early morning employees, Bakura had been the first to arrive all week. There was no special reason for it (that he would acknowledge) he just wanted to get things done early. that was all. He was a person short, after all. Though that was changing as of today. Today he'd get to do Matsuka's job training (since, like with Safeguard, he wasn't comfortable letting one of the... native... managers handle that sort of thing. Especially since he was pretty sure Matsuka would have a few questions that a native employee wouldn't, being from a drastically different time and world.

He looked up at the monitors on the wall again, scanning for signs of his friend's arrival.

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It couldn't be more difficult than being in the military, Matsuka told himself. Sure, he hadn't been a very good soldier, but he'd gotten by.

Thinking it didn't help much.

Anxious not to cause problems on his very first day, he hurried to get there a little before the agreed-on time, already fretting and a little fidgety. What had seemed like a great idea when Bakura first suggested it was already starting to worry Matsuka. He was bound to mess something up, and the last thing that he wanted to do was make trouble for his first friend in the city. Maybe it would have been better if he'd turned down the offer...

Bakura perked up at the familiar figure on the monitor and set down what he was working on, getting up and heading out to greet his friend.

"Matsuka!" he called, waving as he approached. "You're early!"

"Just a little bit," Matsuka said with an embarrassed little laugh. "I wanted to make sure I wasn't late."

It was no use even trying to seem calm; it was nearly all Matsuka could do to stand still. "I want to thank you again," he said earnestly. "I hope you don't end up regretting it..."

"I won't, I'm sure of it," Bakura assured with a warm smile. "Here, let's go to the back, you can sit down and try and get some of your nerves out," he offered. "I promise, I'm not a harsh boss or anything like that!"

Not that he could blame Matsuka at all for being nervous. Bakura had been just as bad his first job in the City, when he had been waiting tables, and his world was similar to the world the City was in! He couldn't imagine how much worse it had to be for his friend!

"Ah, sure." Matsuka trailed along after Bakura towards the back of the store. "I keep on telling myself it'll be all right, but my nerves won't settle down," he said, in a tone of voice that turned the words into an apology. Still, it was better than the fleet, he reminded himself again. At least Bakura didn't think he was useless.

Bakura nodded sympathetically. "I know the feeling!" he assured with a smile. "The first time I do anything new, it's like I have to nerve myself up to do it the entire day else I fall apart and can't do it," he said with a small, soft laugh. Wasn't thinking about Alastair and the inevitable confession that--

He shook his head slightly as he pushed open the door to the back, holding it open for his friend. The stock room wasn't very well lit at the moment, only half the lights on as if the store were still closed. It was still early enough that there wasn't much need for anything past the main pathways to be lit up. "The office is back this way!" Bakura gestured to a half open door in the back with the sign "Manager" on it. There was natural light coming from inside it and even from where they were, it could be seen that it was a much more welcoming environment than the looming metal shelves full of colourful boxes.

Matsuka craned his head around curiously, taking in what he could see of the stockroom as he followed Bakura to the office. "I feel like I should have asked you more about what I'll be doing," he admitted with a little laugh. "It seemed simple when you were explaining it, but I think that I probably assumed a lot..."

"It's really not all that much, don't worry!" Bakura assured, holding the office door open. "And I can explain whatever you have questions about."

The inside of the office as well lit, with a few small windows high up in the wall mostly to let in the sunlight. A large wooden desk sat in one corner with a computer was against one wall, a row of four small monitors showing the inside of the store mounted above it. Another table with a long line of catalogs and binders lined up like a bookshelf was next to it, another desk chair like the one at the main desk in front of it. Across the room in the other corner was a smaller table with an electric kettle, a few mugs and boxes of tea, sitting next to a small sink.

"Did you want some tea or something?" he offered with a smile. "I'm afraid I don't have any coffee in here, but I think the breakroom has a coffee maker."

"Ah, no, that's okay. Thank you." Not quite sure what to do with himself, Matsuka wandered a few steps into the office, clasping his hands behind him briefly and then letting them drop again, looking curiously around at the the contents of the room. The computer was particularly distracting - recognizable, but at the same time, the design was just odd.

"...how have things been going?" he asked, looking back towards Bakura.

Bakura sat down, nodding in invitation at the other chair.

"Aaa--" he faltered at the question a moment. "Not badly!" he said with a smile that was a little awkward.

Between the increasing awkward around Alastair, Safeguard being stuck in binary, being spotted by Keith in the park and all his usual worries it hadn't been the most... relaxing of weeks, but that hardly made it bad.

"How about for you?" he smiled.

At the nod, Matsuka moved to settle down gingerly into the seat. "Probably... about the same," he said - which was to say that, after the confrontation with Jomy and Blue and Keith at the lab, it had been a pretty uncomfortable week for him as well. "I'm still not really sure how things are going to turn out... but nothing else has happened lately, so it's not bad."

Bakura nodded. "That's good, at least. Hopefully..." He hesitated a moment. "Hopefully it'll all work out."

Another slightly hesitation before he shook his head. Not the time. He wanted Matsuka to be less nervous, not more uncomfortable!

"Aa-- so-- so you said you had some experience with files and things like that?" he smiled, going for the topic switch. "Are you any good on the computer?"

"Yes..." Matsuka replied hesitantly, and glanced toward the computer on the desk. "At least, I'm all right with the ones that we use where I'm from. I haven't tried using one here yet."

He still wasn't quite sure exactly how technology here compared to what he was used to; the existence of the 'Porter and the communicators sort of confused the issue. "It might not be the same thing."

"Did you want to give it a try? I'm really not very good with them, even still," Bakura admitted with a soft laugh. "Sort of a secret shame almost, since I'm really supposed to be, considering where I come from!" He rubbed the back of his neck a little. To be fair, he had only been just proficient back home, using the computer for Monster World and little else. It just wasn't something he had been interested in. Computers were for games, as far as he was concerned.

Matsuka smiled a little at that. "Well, if it's not something you've needed to bother with much..." He glanced toward the computer again. "But, sure. If it's going to be too different or - or be a problem, it's probably better to find out now."

Better for Bakura to have the chance to change his mind as soon as possible, right? He started to get back up, then hesitated, uncertain.

Bakura got up as well, moving a side to let Matsuka have access to the computer. "Even if it's too different, most the files are still paper. It'd just be nice to have someone who was better at it than I was besides Safeguard," he smiled, trying to be reassuring. "This is the program for most the tracking of things like inventory and things like that," he explained, nodding at the screen. "I still mostly just keep everything in the binders and just type it in for an extra copy of records," he admitted sheepishly. "Or print things out after I type them in."

Matsuka put himself in front of the computer and eyed it anxiously. He actually reached out to touch the screen when Bakura showed him the program, and looked faintly puzzled at the lack of effect. No, that clearly wasn't going to work.

He looked at the keyboard, then sheepishly up at Bakura. "Maybe you should show me how it works..."

Bakura rubbed the back of his neck with a smile. "Aaa-- I should have figured it'd be different. Here--" He moved to hover his hand over the mouse. "See, this moves the cursor like this..." he demonstrated. "And you can click on things with the button, and the keyboard here is for entry of text."

He pulled back with a sheepish smile of his own. "Sorry, I probably should have explained to start with! The ones you're used to, they're all touchscreen, right?"

Matsuka's face turned a little red, and he ducked his head in embarrassment. "Yes," he admitted. "Well - we use keyboards too, but it's hard to tell from looking what the command keystrokes are..."

Very, very sheepishly, he reached for the mouse, and nudged the cursor experimentally around the screen a little. Yes, that worked better.

Bakura nodded, still smiling. "Un, it took me a little while too. The keyboard's a little different than I'm used to since it's in English," he smiled, trying to be as reassuring as he could and holding back his instinct to tease a little, not wanting Matsuka to at all take it the wrong way or get even more uncomfortable.

"Here, I'll show you how this works. So if you click over there where it says 'Inventory,' it'll give you a list of everything I've entered in so far," he pointed out. "Mostly I use the list that's in the binder there," he nodded to the desk where a thick blue binder lay open to a printed out page. "and then update the computer afterwards."

"I see..." Matsuka nudged at the mouse a little more, clicking as Bakura had instructed, then hesitated. "...I think so, anyway. So... you use this to keep track of inventory? That means it needs to be updated every day, right?" He'd never been part of the operation of anything like a store, but it was probably something like managing supplies and equipment for a fleet - not that Matsuka had done a lot of that either, but it was at least a concept he could get his head around. He hoped.

"Un," Bakura nodded. He liked to think of it like managing the party's stats and equipment for a really large RPG, but he was pretty sure that would be pretty meaningless to Matsuka.

"There's a program on the registers that keeps track of everything that we sell, and that program links to this one, so I can just tell it to update and it'll adjust the numbers. There's the print outs from that in the red binder there," he nodded to the shelf. "Things we get in, like orders and things like that, those need to be entered by hand. It's actually not as hard as it sounds, I promise!" he smiled. "I'll walk you though it the first few times, so you don't have to worry about figuring it out on your own or anything like that."

So at least not as big a job as managing supplies for a fleet, Matsuka decided with relief. For a moment there it had sounded like too much to keep track of, but at least some of it would be automated...

"Okay," he said. "I think I can do that, if you show me how a few times." He looked toward the binder that Bakura had mentioned. "...do you... make hard copies of everything?" Another somewhat puzzling concept.

"Aa-- of most things!" Bakura admitted with a small laugh. "Sometimes it's just easier for me to find something in a binder than it is to figure out how to find it in the computer," he admitted sheepishly. "And that way there's a backup, if something happens to the computer."

"It seems like a lot of paper," Matsuka said slowly. Then caught himself, and ducked his head in embarrassment again. "But if that's how you do it, then I'll make sure that's what I do." This wasn't the world he came from, after all, he reminded himself. Things worked differently.

"So... what other kinds of things will I be doing?" he wondered.

"Aa, it is, sometimes," Bakura agreed sheepishly. "You don't have to do it the same way, really. I know I should rely on the computer more," he admitted with a small smile.

"Most of it is inventory related, making sure orders get placed, checking them when they come in, making sure everything's filed and the mail's taken care of-- oh! And scheduling. Though most of the time people's schedules are the same every week, so that's really easy," Bakura listed with a smile. "And sometimes when everything's all taken care of, if you want, you can man the tables in the store and try out the new games," he grinned. "That's the fun job!"

The fun job? Matsuka felt kind of intimidated by the idea, himself. "You probably don't want me to do any of that," he said ruefully. "I'd end up giving people the wrong idea, I think. But the other things, I think... if you show me how you do them first... I can probably manage all right."

He hoped so, at least.

"Why would you say that?" Bakura smiled. "Even if you're new to them, I'd think it'd be hard to mess that sort of thing up. But it's all right if you don't want to," he assured quickly, trying to prevent another deer-in-headlights look.

"Most everything's pretty simple once you get shown how to do it all, and you'll be working the same hours I will be, so I'll always be in to ask what to do if you need it," he smiled.

A nervous little laugh escaped Matsuka. "I should really stick to my main responsibilities for a while first, at least," he said. The idea of being out there doing work where a lot of other people could be watching was... an uncomfortable one. "I'll know more about the games and things once I've been here for a while, too."

A brief pause, then he added, "Thank you again for giving me the chance. I don't know what I'd do if I had to start working somewhere where I didn't even know anyone. I'll do my best not to mess things up."

Bakura nodded. "Whatever you're most comfortable with," he assured before giving a warm smile. "As long as you try you're best, you'll do fine, I'm sure of it. And you better beleive you'll be more familiar with games later on," he grinned, trying to lighten the air a little to get his friend to relax a bit more. "One of the perks of working here, if there's a game you want, you can get it at cost. And I can show you how to play almost any of them too."

Matsuka laughed again, less nervously. He still didn't feel very confident, but it was easier to feel encouraged with Bakura making such an effort to reassure him.

"That's good to know," he said, with a brighter smile. "It'll be fun to learn. Although," he admitted ruefully, "I still haven't solved the cube yet, either."

Bakura covered a soft laugh, unable to help himself. "Aaa, don't worry about that! There are some people who take years to get it, it's actually pretty hard if you're not used to that sort of thing!" he assured. "I probably should have suggested something easier for your first, sorry!"

"I'm enjoying it, though." Matsuka answered Bakura's apology almost cheerfully. "I don't mind if it takes a while... now that I've gotten started on it, I want to keep working on it until I figure it out. I think you picked well." He was invested now, though it wouldn't occur to him to use that word specifically.

"That's good!" Bakura smiled, sitting back in his chair again, very happy to see Matsuka upbeat. It was a good face for him, and not once it seemed like he made often. "Puzzle games like that... they're a lot of fun, and when you finally get them... Aaaa, it's probably the best feeling!" he grinned. "Almost as good as when you finish a game with a team of friends," he smiled fondly.

"Yeah? There were some team games on the education station, but I didn't play them much... since I wasn't very good, I'd just end up holding my team back." Matsuka ducked his head in embarrassment at the memories... but even with that, he'd managed to relax a bit, and still smiled.

"It's funny, but I don't feel quite as nervous now," he said.

"Things like that don't matter if you're playing with friends," Bakura assured with a smile. "I'm no good with sports or anything like that, but there are other games you can play with friends that are a lot of fun, even if you're bad at them!" In fact, Bakura was of the opinion that some games were more fun when everyone was bad at them.

"Aaa, that's great! Hopefully the more you're here getting used to things, the less nervous you'll be until you're not nervous at all!"

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9kTVZiJ3Uc&feature=related

...yes, exactly XD

Poor Matsuka :D He'll learn eventually how it all works, I'm sure :)

at least he's acquainted with the concept of keyboards!

Yep! He's not totally clueless! :D

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And here's where I have a flail of "uuuhh... what else would need doing? @_@"

Sorry about that! Handwaves for great justice <3

Huzzah for BSing and being vauge! :D

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laaaaaate orz

Dun worry about it. :) You got to it, that's what matters :)

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