Kaito peered over the top of the paper bag that held his groceries as he carefully walked down the street back towards his apartment building. He stopped at the crosswalk, waiting for the blinking light to turn green and signal that it was safe for him to walk.

"Oof!" Kaito grunted as something barelled into him, knocking him on his ass and making his bag fall to the wayside. A pair of long, teal-colored pigtails met his eyes as he looked downwards as the warm, somewhat heavy person who was sprawled uncomfortably on top of him.

Sharp, teal eyes lifted up to stare challengingly at his face, and Kaito's darker, wide blue eyes returned the gaze. The girl who stared back at him was young, probably still only a teenager, but she had a hard look to her face that had nothing to do with the gentle, girlish curve of her feminine jaw.

One small hand pushed against Kaito's chest and she stood up, looking around herself quickly, not even offering an apology or a hand up as Kaito gaped up at her, trying to gather his wits back about him. He opened his mouth to say something, he wasn't sure what.

The girl whipped her head back around and gave him a glare, then ran away, across the street. The sound of horns blaring from the angry traffic were accompanied by a softer voice yelling from down the street. Kaito watched the girl's back as she disappeared around the corner across the street.

"Hey! Girl! You come back here!" A man was running after the girl, yelling, but when he reached the crosswalk, he stopped, panting, hands on his thighs as he regained his breath. "Tch!" He cursed softly, realizing that he had lost her. The stranger shook his head in anger, and ignored Kaito too, stepping rudely around the bluenette's shopping bag that had spilled groceries out.

Kaito watched in silence as the stranger stalked away, feeling a sweatdrop form on the side of his head. What was all that about? He shook his own blue-haired head and reached towards his groceries. Kaito groaned, irritated now, as he realized that the bag had ripped right down the side when it hit the road.

"It's never boring, is it?" He muttered to himself quietly as he tried to juggle the items, sans a bag, in his two arms. "Maybe I should invest in a canvas shopping bag for the next time."

Kaito's eyes followed where the teal-haired girl had run, but the girl didn't reappear as Kaito finally gathered himself and his groceries. The crosswalk light switched green, and Kaito resumed his walk back home.

...

"Looks like a long line tonight," Len mentioned offhand to Kaito as they set up for dinner. The line worked production-style, with one volunteer at each station, to hand out either entree, vegetables, or soup, with one more voluteer at the end of the line to keep a count of how many mouths the kitchen was feeding today.

Most of the people who came to the line for a free meal were either down on their luck or homeless. Some, Kaito suspected, were runaways. It was a good city to be in, for those people. Many of the other nearby cities didn't have a setup like Kaito's did; where there was not only an overnight shelter available for the needy, but also a soup kitchen attached to the shelter. Still, there were never enough beds, and the dinner line seemed like it got longer every night.

Kaito had started volunteering at the soup kitchen portion of the shelter years ago, while he was still in high school. It wasn't because he was trying to be a good person. If he was honest with himself, it was because he enjoyed interacting with the faces that came to his line. He would have expected bitterness from many of the folks he interacted with, but instead he got friendly, grateful smiles as he handed food back over to them.

It felt encouraging to Kaito to see the strength of peoples' spirits, even when they were obviously faced with difficult times. Kaito admitted, more than he necessarily wanted to, that he felt inspired by that strong determination of spirit. By the unspoken words: 'We will not be broken.' It lifted his heart to see.

Kaito's eyes traveled down the long line of people, and frowned back at Len, agreeing. "It's because of those layoffs that happened recently. If our businesses keep losing their workers, we're only going to see that line grow even longer in the future."

Len grunted his response, nodding his head and focusing on setting the hot pan of food into its slot in the heated table. "The thing that really gets me is when there's new faces that bring kids with them. That's gotta be the most rough." Len glanced back up at Kaito, and sighed. "And it drives me nuts when those guys who don't know anything act all judgemental. Like, have they ever been through a difficult time once in their lives?"

Kaito smiled, a little sadly. He knew why Len was going off onto a rant. He'd heard himself just a few days ago that the soup kitchen and shelter's funding was being cut. Yet again. The city saw their badly-needed services as just an eyesore. As if, if there wasn't a soup kitchen or shelter, all these peoples' problems would just somehow go away, to a place where the city council didn't have to look at them or think about them anymore.

"The real world doesn't work that way," Kaito murmured, almost more to himself than to Len. The blonde laughed a little bitterly.

"Well, maybe it should," Len said, begrudgingly towards the city's council. "If they lived like these guys did for even a day, they'd be crying to go back home to their mothers. No freaking compassion or empathy, not a single one of them. But the crappy part is they'll probably never even have the chance to learn it, either."

Exhaling a loud, frustrated breath, Len finished setting up his area, and stretched his arms high over his head. Kaito quietly returned his attention to his own area. It was almost time for dinner.

...

The line ran smoothly, like its norm. It was indeed rare for the guests at the soup kitchen to be anything other than polite and kind to the volunteers there; even on their worst days... and who doesn't have those..? the people who were in bad moods were generally just quiet or withdrawn. Everyone who came wanted to be here, so random bouts of violence pretty much just never happened.

Kaito got into his usual rhythm of doling out the predetermined quantity of food onto each tray that passed in front of him, giving a friendly smile or word of greeting back to the guests who interacted with him. When the boss wasn't looking, Kaito sometimes snuck a larger portion onto the plates of the people who he knew really appreciated the extra food. When they noticed and smiled at him, he winked a little bit, as if sharing the secret, which always drew an even bigger smile, and sometimes a quiet, pleased laugh.

When the last person had been served, if there was still food left over, the volunteers were allowed to have a serving for themselves. Len, Kaito, and two of the other volunteers served plates for themselves, grabbed a few folding chairs, and sat down at the only empty table; the one reserved for the volunteer staff.

"Good thing the cook made an extra portion of the entree. We almost ran out tonight," One of the volunteers, a girl with pink corkscrew pigtails said, as she plopped down next to Kaito in her own seat.

"Yeah," Len added to the conversation, "Kaito and I were just talking about how the line's been growing bigger lately."

Kaito tuned out the conversation as it started to turn into a bitchfest about the city council. He already knew everything that his coworkers wanted to say about it, because he felt the same way himself. Instead, he found his mind drifting back to that teal-haired girl who had knocked him down in the street. He wondered if she was okay. Wondered if he might even see her in his line tonight, but of course she didn't appear.

Wondered who that guy who had been chasing her had been. From his angry expression at losing her the other day, Kaito didn't think whoever he was had been the girl's friend. Kaito sighed a little and poked at his food.

"Hey, don't waste that. Are you gonna eat it, or what?" A voice scolded Kaito mildly, and Kaito looked up into a face that was giving him a raised eyebrow, and he blushed a little bit.

"Heh... don't worry, I'm eating," Kaito replied to the short-haired brunette and gave a little smile.

"Make sure you do. You're already too skinny," She replied to him teasingly, smiling easily back. "Do I need to beat you to get you to take care of yourself? Maybe you need my gentle mothering touch."

Kaito laughed out loud at that, and grinned wide. "Your idea of a gentle, motherly touch is kicking somebody's butt, Meiko. It's hard to be feminine with a beer can in one hand and asskicking boots on your feet, you know."

The brunette laughed in sheer entertainment and the rest of the table joined her. Len slapped his hand against his own thigh from his mirth.

"Hearing /you/ say 'asskicking boots,' Kaito... I..." Len cracked up further, almost helplessly. "Oh, man... that's priceless!"

"Our little Kaito is growing up," The pink-haired girl grinned widely, and wiped a pretend tear from her eye. "Next thing you know, he'll be wearing grunge and spitting chewing tobacco!"

Kaito blanched, "Uh, no thanks, but thanks." He gave another small smile to ease the sting of his words.

"Eww, Teto!" Meiko scolded the younger woman and slapped her on the shoulder. "Don't encourage bad habits!"

"Owww!" The pink-haired girl whined and rubbed her shoulder. "You're a brute! My poor, delicate, maiden flesh!"

Len's loud, vibrant laughter rang through the room, and some of the guests raised their heads to look over at the volunteer staff table, grinning to themselves. Their volunteers were at it again.

Kaito shook his head and tucked back into his food, blue eyes raising every now and again to pay attention to the friendly banter between his coworkers. They were goofballs, but good people. The world needed more guys like them.