AN: I got this bizarre idea of a story one night while closing at my actual grocery store where I actually work (I hope you are comforted by the fact that I am not completely clueless like some authors are when writing stories where the characters hold occupations they know nothing about). I thought, How would Rikku handle the whole retail business? Would she be good at it? (Maybe when she isn't being so clumsy). So the little wheelies in my noggin started whirling and I decided, what the hey, why not give it a shot and we'll just see how it turns out? Now, I'm warning you right off the bat, I have never tried juggling two fics at once; usually when I begin writing a fic while in the process of completing another one, it means that I have completely and hopelessly given up on the first and that no one should hold their breath and wait for me to finish it. That won't be the case here, I have every intention of finishing Redemption for a Weary Soldier, (which you should all go check out –hint-hint-). If anything, I'm really hoping that this will help my tendency to burn out on projects. Like, when I start getting bored with one I'll just work on the other! I'm not totally sure that it will work, this is simply a hypothesis, but as I've said before, I have every intention of trying!

So, without further ado I present:

Rikku, Check Please

Disclaimer: I do not own FFX2 or its characters

Chapter 1

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BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

Rikku lazily picked up a can of vegetables and ran it across the scanner. She snuck another peek at the clock. Great. Another ten minutes to go. Why did time always feel like it was turning backwards whenever it was almost time for one to go home? She tossed a loaf of bread carelessly down the register and totaled the price so that it was displayed for her customer to see on the larger screen.

"Will that be all today ma'am?" Rikku asked, voice barely lifting in pitch she was so tired. Brother liked to make fun of how exhausted an eight hour shift could be on her, and perhaps he was right, it wasn't like she was constantly lifting heavy bags of forty pound dog food from the bottom of baskets, lugging unruly carts from one end of the store to the other, or the worst of it all, standing in one spot for eight hours straight until it felt like someone was constantly jamming daggers right through her heels and slicing up her claves settling at the small of her back.

Work put Rikku in a fairly foul mood, especially when it was almost over.

The woman behind the register put on finger on her stubbly chin and stared at the screen. "How much did that bread ring up?" she asked in a haughty tone. It was a tone that said, "I am better than you because I am standing on this side of the register and you are standing on that side, therefore I am your ultimate master and you shall kiss the very ground I walk on."

Rikku sighed and crushed the urge to roll her eyes. "The bread only rings up at the sale price with a ten gil total purchase, before the purchase of the bread," Rikku droned automatically. She had the mountain of bread loaves to be put back stacked in a shopping cart to prove how many times she had already gone over this with every other customer today.

The very large lady sniffed before frowning. "Well, it certainly didn't say anything about a ten gil purchase over on the aisle." She raised her nose. "I would have seen it if it had."

Rikku groaned inwardly, but outwardly she put on a tight smile and turned to man currently tossing the lady's purchases in plastic bags. "Clasko?"

He nodded in affirmation and ran off to aisle five. Apparently he had been through this drill many times as well. While he was gone, Rikku took over his job sacking the groceries with a bit more care. Or maybe care was the wrong word as she was simply sacking with sense. She rearranged a bag Clasko had done where the bread was on the bottom and several cans of fruit cocktails were situated on top.

The man returned moments later, a little out of breath and waving the sign showing the sale price of the bread and right below, in big bold letters: W/TEN GIL PURCHASE.

The lady merely sniffed again. "Well, maybe you should put it in a place where people will actually see it!" she retorted.

What, right underneath the bread display isn't good enough? Maybe you'd like it better if we stapled it to your head! Rikku let the delicious thought roll through her mind, but instead of voicing how she really felt, she asked in the sweetest tone she could muster, "So do you still want the bread or do you want me to void it off?"

"No, keep it on. I don't have the time to go running all over town for a loaf of bread. Now how much did you say it was?" Not waiting for Rikku to reply, the woman squinted her eyes and hunched forward, eyes mere centimeters from the screen.

It was about this time when Rikku realized that the woman wasn't carrying any kind of purse. And the shapeless mass of fabric encompassing the overweight woman didn't appear to include any kind of pockets whatsoever. Rikku paled at what this meant, and her worst fears were quickly realized when the woman pulled at the collar of her dress, reached in with one pudgy hand and rummaged around the massive expanse of her bra. Rikku waited with baited breath, calculating briefly just how many washings her hands would need afterwards, probably twenty or thirty. At least.

After digging around for a good and solid minute, the woman glanced down at her ample cleavage and donned another frown. Her hand had surfaced and she scratched her hairy chin thoughtfully again. "I couldn't sworn I grabbed a twenty gil before I left the house…" she murmured before reaching her hand in again, this time on the opposite bosom.

Rikku prayed fervently in her head, Oh Yevon, please let her have forgotten the money! Please let her just leave without buying anything! Unfortunately, Yevon has this nasty way of not pulling through at the most crucial of moments.

"Found it!" the woman crooned and pulled the wadded piece of currency from deep within the folds of her breast. She handed the defiled money to Rikku who cringed as her own trembling hand reached forward…

--

Yuna was in tears as Rikku finished her story. Head slumped over the small table in the break room, her bottled water had been pushed dangerously near the edge and was threatening to overturn at any given moment. "It wasn't that funny," Rikku groaned snatching the bottle and taking a swig.

"Hey! That's my water!" Yuna cried, instantly forgetting the hilarity of Rikku's story as she grew possessive over the bottle Rikku now nursed.

"It was your water," Rikku retorted and tilted back in her chair as she took a long deliberate sip of the liquid.

Yuna merely rolled her eyes, before letting them wander over to the window of the break room, which displayed the interior of the whole backroom. Occasionally people in uniforms would pass by in a hurry. Suddenly, Rikku heard a snag catch in Yuna's breath and she gasped, "Who's that?" before pointing out the window to a new member of the crew, currently engrossed in the task of lifting hundreds of pounds of diapers onto a pallet jack to be hoisted out onto the front end.

Rikku studied the man Yuna gaped at and was surprised that she was able to keep her own jaw from dropping as well. Tanned arms rippled with well-defined muscles underneath the standard work shirt issued to every employee at the store. For once, Rikku appreciated the otherwise dull article of clothing. His blonde hair had highlights of all variations of browns and golds scattered through the tresses, which naturally spiked outwards in many different directions. His head turned briefly and before the two girls knew what was happening, he had turned around and was waving cheerfully at the dumbfounded girls. His eyes sparkled with a boyish mischievousness and his grin was almost lopsided, with a carefree dimple right below the cheek.

Rikku began giggling. "Yunie! I think he's checking you out!" Rikku nudged the girl in the ribs.

Instantly, her face turned beet red her hands flew to her cheeks. "No! You don't really think so…do you?" She hurriedly looked away from the grinning man, hiding her blushing face behind a hand before carefully peeking over the upturned palm and giving a goofy rendition of his grin in return.

"So go talk to him!" Rikku encouraged.

"No way! Th-that would hardly be appropriate Rikku!" Yuna's face turned about ten shades brighter (if that was even possible).

Rikku flashed Yuna a sly smirk as the mystery man started making his way toward the break room. "It looks like you won't have to do any of the work yourself. Here he comes!" Rikku sang out chuckling as Yuna's color suddenly drained and she went from red to shock white in a matter of moments.

Suddenly, the intercom interrupted Elvis as he crooned about his blue suede shoes as a chiding female voice announced, "Rikku and Yuna, check please." In other words, get your asses to the front this minute, break was over five minutes ago."

Before Rikku could breathe a word, Yuna had dashed from the break room in a whirlwind fairly knocking the confused man right to the ground. Rikku followed her friend at a more languorous pace stopping in front of him and giving him a sheepish grin. "Er…sorry about my friend there," she said scratching her cheek and grinning.

"S'okay," the blonde man brushed off Yuna's cold shoulder. He looked into the direction she had disappeared. "What's her name anyway…?" he asked and Rikku chuckled under her breath, obviously the man was quite smitten.

"Her name's Yuna," she extended her hand, "and I'm the best friend Rikku. All inquiries concerning her may and probably (in your case) will be answered. So…who're you?" Rikku asked.

The man gave her a sideways look. "Uh, I'm Tidus. I'm new here," he answered before looking back at the place where Yuna had scampered off. "So…is she…you know…available?" he asked.

Rikku giggled at the man's bluntness. Yuna was going to have a hard time avoiding this one. "Yes, and for a reason," she answered finally catching the young man's attention. "You see, she has plenty of admirers, but she will hardly give any of them the time of day," Tidus seemed slightly crestfallen at this. "Some would call it playing hard-to-get, but if you ask me, Yuna's just shy. All she needs is a little old-fashioned persistence," she winked at Tidus.

"Rikku, check please," the voice over the intercom sounded quite annoyed. It was the "if you don't get yourself up here right now, you'll be sacked so fast your head will still be spinning tomorrow" tone. Rikku knew not to dawdle.

"Well, I better get up to the front before Nooj bursts a vein," she said in farewell and tossed a wave over her shoulder as she jogged to the front of the store.

The scene meeting her when she arrived was one of Yuna busy with a two-cart order, trying to catch Rikku's eye and trying to juggle the groceries down the register while avoiding her bagger, Ormi, who was always leaning just a bit too close in order to "get a better reach." Shelinda, the other checker on duty was also busy with an order of her own, but she took a moment to send Rikku a haughty smirk before she went back to work. Rikku merely rolled her eyes. If things weren't done exactly by the company regulations, Shelinda was the very first person to know, and the very first person to run off to the store director, Nooj to tattle. No doubt she had already spoken with the store director about Rikku's tardiness.

Moving to the office area, Rikku was faced with yet another miffed worker. "Rikku, you know if you keep up being late all the time like this, Nooj is going to fire you," said Nhadala the office cashier on duty as she handed Rikku another pan of currency. Rikku was about to open her mouth and give some kind of excuse about helping out some customer on her way to the front, but Nhadala held up her hand. "No excuses Rikku, you know I'm about to leave, but Nooj won't make you office cashier if you keep up this tardy streak. No matter how bad you need the raise, he won't care. You know that," Nhadala gave Rikku a pointed stare before dismissing the agitated girl with a "Go to register three."

Rikku skulked to her appointed register. She heard a triumphant huff from Shelinda's direction and knew the submissive look on her face was the cause of the other cashier's joy, but didn't care. She took an extra long time counting her pan before opening her lane so that she could think. It wasn't like she enjoyed being late or anything, on the contrary; no matter how many times Yuna, Nhadala, and even Maechen sometimes got onto her case about it, she felt terrible every time someone reminded her of her questionable work ethics. There really wasn't any excuse for her antics, she simply dreaded the very thought of going to work, which resulted in her finding trivial tasks that she absolutely had to take care of before she lumbered off to the working force. What with Cid still being shell shocked over Rikku's mom's death, and Brother out of commission from an injury on the job…Rikku was pretty much the sole source of income right now.

But it didn't take away from the fact that she hated her job.

One time, while discussing this issue with the assistant store director, Maechen, the elderly man (who was more of a father figure to Rikku than ever her own Pop was) had suggested that she try finding something that would make work worthwhile, "something that would make you want to show up and face every day," a comment which earned the aging man a round of laughter on Rikku's part. Sometimes, Maechen had suggested that she look for a job that interested her more saying that he would be more than willing to write any letters of recommendation that Rikku could possibly need. But Rikku had declined this suggestion too, because as much as she detested work, the thought of trying to move on to something new terrified her even more.

A meaningful cough from directly behind her told Rikku that Shelinda who wouldn't waste a minute running to Nooj to comment on the lethargy was observing her her coworker seemed to have taken on. So with a sigh, she opened her drawer, put the pan in, unfastened the rope warding off the lurking customers, just waiting to jump into the fastest lane they possibly could, and went back to work.

--

AN: So I've finally managed to pull off the first chapter of this story! Whew, I've been on this Harry Potter rampage reading both Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince over the past three days giving my writing a distant, yearning thought before plunging right back into the halls of Hogwarts…

After finishing this first chapter, reading it and then rereading it, I'm not so sure that it is going to make for an interesting enough story to continue, but I suppose I'll just wait to see what kind of reader responses I get before continuing on. After all, I don't really want to waste my time on a fic that nobody really cares for, and that is slightly depressing for me to write seeing as how I can relate to Rikku so well…so just tell me what you think and I'll decide if I'm going to go on based on my feedback.

Also, any suggestions as to which direction you'd like to see the story go would also be nice as I have a very vague direction in which I want the story to kind of veer, but I as I've said, I'm really up in the air about this one.

Oh, also, let me know how you feel about the use of many of the minor characters in this story, I know some people don't like that so much. But then, I also know that there are odd balls out there like me who do!