…
Returning back to the mall would take half-n-hour. Unfortunately for Natsu, that would be enough for him to fall asleep again. Despite the filling breakfast, his eyelids were dropping down, his walk became more sluggish by the second, and he already made the same mistake twice of thinking the closet was the bathroom door. By the time he got into the car, he was beginning to get worried he might not be ready for his first day at work.
“Hey Nuts, here.” Rio showed him a label-less bottle, small enough to fit Natsu’s hand.
“Um…excuse me mister, what is this?” he asked, analyzing it. The liquid looked the same color as the glass, dark-brown. Natsu wondered if he was just given some sort of magical concoction.
“I noticed you are still groggy, so take one on the road,” Rio said, before pulling out another. He downed one swig right before entering the car.
“Is that alcohol? I don’t drink.”
“No alcohol,” Rio said, now inside, starting the engine. “It’s not even coffee. Its…sorta like an energy drink. Give it a go.”
Natsu’s brows were furrowed. What type of person did his brother put him with was a thought that has occupied his mind as of late. Things like these just brought these thoughts out some more. One could never be too sure of strangers, even if they showed themselves as nothing but nice. 
Then again, he was really thirsty. 
He unscrewed the bottle and drank a bit of it. The taste was sugary, but not sweet. Almost like coffee, without the actual caffeine in it. Weird aftertaste, though not because of gas. Natsu took another look at the bottle, becoming more curious over it.
“What’s in here?”
“Like it? Personal creation,” Rio laughed. “Need to watch out for my heart. Anyways, we’re getting late, get into the car!”
As they drove through the street, Natsu took another look at the houses around him. The neighborhood was less pretty than that of his area, where every yard was decorated with flowerbeds and had their grass kept below three inches. Even though their lawn, of his family, wasn’t anywhere near the top best lawns in the world, his felt a bit better than those that he currently saw. From tall grasses, to odd decorations, to one home being filled with bunch of orchids, and only orchids. Natsu took another drink from the bottle. Suddenly, he felt like he came from a well-off area.
And that was nothing to say about one home, which seemed to be filled with people, just standing around. This got the young wolf’s curiosity. All of them looked old, with only three young people, and all of them wearing baggy clothes. One old man had a picture of the flag on his person. He was a dog, with a droopy, thin face. Rio gave out an anxious sigh as they passed them.
“I don’t like what they are doing,” Rio said, speeding up just a little bit. In few seconds, they had already gone fifteen feet away from those people.
“Oh, why?” Natsu asked, and mindlessly drank from the bottle again. He slowly came enjoy the taste. He even felt more and more energized by the second.
“They are…scary.” Rio slowed down, but still had a nervous disposition. Natsu could not understand as to why.
“They remind me of my grandpa’s place,” he said.
“Oh?” Rio sounded a bit apprehensive. “Is your grandpa a nice man?”
“I think so. He always hands me money.” He took another swig. The taste was really good. “As long as we said some stuff he liked.”
“What stuff?”
“Like, guns, airplanes, military. That stuff.”
“Oh, really? Is he a military veteran?”
“No, a coffee shop owner.” Natsu checked the small bottle, then found it already half-empty. “He never been to war, but likes movies about them a lot. Last time one we watched was about some Romeo and Juliet, but in the trenches. Just…REALLY cheesy! Do you like that type of stuff?”
Rio laughed, growing less stiff. “Sorry, I’m not into them. The wars I’m familiar with still used bows and spears, and these modern technologies just really…surprise me. I mean, how are you supposed to feel any glory while riding a car instead of a horse, amirite? He-he…”
Natsu blinked twice. He looked at the bottle again.
“I don’t think I want the drink anymore.”
“Oh. Why?”
“I think I’m hearing things.” Natsu threw the bottle into the backseat. 
Rio wouldn’t say anything for the rest of the ride. He seemed to been busy recounting something in his head.
They arrived to the parking lot without a hitch. It was early on, with not too many cars occupying spot, and Rio apparently had access to a personal space. He said that he even pays for it every month, to Natsu’s amazement. When asked if it was worth it, he said he was able to get it down to half the usual price, actually.
“How?” Natsu asked curiously.
Rio put the car on parking then took out his bottle. He drank it all to empty in one go.
“With dignity.” He turned it off and immediately exited.
When Natsu followed suit, he saw the former walk briskly at the direction that is not to the mall’s entrance. Getting worried something was wrong, he yelled, “Where are you going, um, Mister Rio?”
“Just call me Rio, kid!” the lion yelled cheerily. “I have, uh, someone in mind to talk to with. You can go inside if you want to!” 
He then doubled his step, leaving Natsu wondering why. That said, looking over, he did notice another man standing, also just exiting his own car. He looked very well kept, even wearing a business suit, and was somewhere around Rio’s age. Seconds later, him and Rio met each other. Perhaps a friend, was what the young Natsu thought. Seeing how the two of them got into conversation, Natsu considered heading into the mall. It might take a while. 
Then again, he still had little knowledge of the mall itself. Should he really go inside, without knowing what else he might run into? Then again, it was only a mall. Huge one, of course, but it’s a mall. Although, he might run into that kid again. Or even deal with another false alarm thing, which could be a real alarm instead. Or maybe, just maybe, none of that will happen. Who was to say he was going to run into same things twice? Who was to say, he will run into same people again? Maybe he was overreacting.
“AWAY FROM ME YOU PLEB!” 
Natsu spun around and saw a cyclist, same one from yesterday, whirring right past him. On him were the same violet and gold jumper, which brought out color next to his graying blond fur. This time, Natsu took a note that the man was probably of a corgi decent. 
“NO BIKING IN THE PEDESTRIAN ROAD, YOU MULLOCK!!!” 
Before he could even react to what just happened, a cop ran past by him, who suddenly doubled down. While he was a canine, Natsu had no clue what decent to make of him, thanks to his bushy, curling moustache. He was also breathing heavily, mumbling something about his missing, irresponsible daughter, or something along the lines of that. Natsu stuck out his head to listen better, and the cop immediately noticed him. 
Without a word, he removed his hat and gave a bow. 
“YOU’RE ASKIN’ FOR ANOTHA FINE, HARRY!!!” he yelled and then took off on foot.
Watching them both leave, Natsu was struck with a rather unsettling thought. And that was, perhaps, he had little knowledge of the outside world and its customs. Maybe, being so used to his own household, he never had to deal with what real people were in their day-to-day lives. Could he even handle them? 
Not long after he asked this himself, Rio returned. He was carrying a smile, though roughly, and appearing a bit deflated. He looked like he got yelled by someone and was trying to brush it off.
“Well, guess that’s that,” he said in such a pitiful tone, Natsu thought he should give the adult man a hug. “Didn’t take too long. You still here?” 
Natsu considered his words a bit carefully, not sure what to say. Not wanting to prod the big guy, he blurted out, “Are people here very weird?”
Rio raised on brow while looking at him. Then after he cocked his head, answered with, “If you go to a Caribbean restaurant, you expect there to be some spices, no?”
Natsu thought about it, and then asked, “You mean like pepper?”
Rio opened his mouth, only to shut it up.
“How many restaurants you’ve been to?”
“A few. Mexican ones, mostly.”
“Oh, really?....Really?” Rio asked more incredulously.
They entered the mall through the nearest entrance, without saying a word about what happened. Rio did note that, above all else, he was hopping that the schedule of the skull kid that he had was up to date. He was, of course, happy to see that they were, not seeing the kid even once. When Natsu asked why they were avoiding the skull kid so much, Rio’s expression became grim. All that he said was “Don’t be like the last one.” 
Natsu did not ask again for the rest of the day. At this point, he was dealing with a completely new territory with its own set of rules. Better focus on surviving instead.
Thus, Natsu was going through his second trip to the mall. Thankfully, there were no oddities, such as people making alarms and announcing serial killers on the loose. As such, he had time to check out the mall as it was. And, without beating around the bush, it was huge. As they moved through it, more and more of the store’s wares became apparent, and how varied and wild they were. While sections such as clothes, boutiques, small cafes and gift shops were here and there, it also had car dealerships, motorcycle dealerships, movie theatres, mini parks, indoor golfing, pool, garden and according to map, even more. To proceed further, without pummeling around the same bush, it was not just huge, it was massive, with each level containing just about whatever anyone had wanted.
“Wow!” mouthed Natsu, using the mall navigation screen to see more of the map. It didn’t even have enough room to show everything. He thought this whole building could literally house people with what it offered.
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Rio laughed, seeing the kid take it all in. “With all of this in place, we STILL not the number one biggest mall in the world! Can you believe that?”
“Why not?”
“Well,” Rio sighed, “we are one inch short from that one mall in Arabia. Heh, Frank is still sore about that.”
Natsu thought about asking who Frank was, but Rio patted his shoulder and pointed to some people behind him waiting to take a turn with the map. Getting out of the way, him and Rio proceeded to make their way to the gym. After seeing the map, Natsu was happy to know how close it was compared to everything else inside there. He could do good jumps, but he wasn’t that athletic at all. And he wasn’t going to hop his way everywhere, as he rather not get another comment about being a bunny.
“Okay, we are here. Olivia!” Rio waved to the “bull.”
Both Olivia and Rick were standing right beside the entrance to “Apollo’s Garden.” Rick waved first, doing in stiff forty-five degree angles. Olivia noticed later and spit something into a garbage bin. Natsu thought he saw the former then puff a cigarette, but he later learned that it was just a strawberry lollipop.
“Where’d your ass been, Rio!?” Olivia complained with a voice that made Natsu think that he might rethink on taking that job again. “You called me early in the morning, got me to skip my beauty shower and have me smell like shit, and then just waltz in like nothing happened? C’mon, old man!”
Rio laughed. “Sorry, I just…thought I had time to detour.”
“I have customers too, you know.” Olivia bit on the lollipop. “Whatcha got there?”
Rio motioned Natsu to come closer. As he did, the young wolf noticed very quickly how Olivia was easily a head taller than Rio. And that compared to the latter’s blue eyes and white fur, the former’s were crimson red, overpowering the sclera and had coal-black skin. It even overpowered the blue and green work uniform that was on the latter. It was like someone put dress on a boy’s action figure, Azrael Crusher the Terrible.
“Alright, Nuts, say hi your new supervisor for the time being!” Rio said.
Natsu looked over to Olivia, the former being latter’s half the height could lead into a craned neck, and gulped. When his brother told him about working for Rio, he was that at least that the lion man’s good nature could be easy to deal with. And after yesterday, with his lack of coordination showing itself loud and clear, that there was a glint of hope he could weather through his time there by Rio’s good graces. 
But now, he was standing within the line of sight of the “bull,” and now all that hope has been lost. It was like looking at the face of war god himself. Like he was about to be measured up and then thrown down a bottomless well, because who would even care train a guy whose arms are spindlier than their pinky fingers? And while cafés were not the same as ancient Greek warrior tribes, he was familiar with the latter enough himself, he had no idea how it got behind the counter. 
Rio prodded his back a few times, telling him to talk. Natsu took a deep breath, then tried to lock into Olivia’s eyes. He stopped as soon as he saw the lowers contours of the mouth.
“H-hi…” Natsu whispered meekly. He had no clue if the latter heard anything.
“So, try to play nice?” Rio said, trying to fill up the space with sound, and then laughed. “Take it easy on the kiddo, Olivia. He is here for a short while, and, I remember you specifically saying, you’ve been needing some new recruit. The last one had…ran away, hasn’t he?”
Ran away? Natsu thought.
“Yes, something about being locked in the freezer,” Rick pointed out, matter-of-factly.
Olivia glanced at both of them and then sniffed the air.
“Yeah, still need to figure out what the hell’s up with that. I’m gonna ended going through new recruits more than you do with toilet paper!”
Rio sighed. “One bad shrimp, one time! Please, I don’t need this today.”
The “bull” snorted, and then looked down at Natsu. The kid felt as if he was about to be chosen for a ritual sacrifice. He was just young enough, and a virgin no doubt!
“Alright, I’ll play with this one.” Olivia then spat into the bin again. 
“Great! Aaaaand, he’s back,” Rio said, suddenly turning secretive at that moment. Natsu looked over and saw the same nicely-dressed man from the parking lot. “Gotta deal with something there. Can hold the place a bit longer for me, Rick? Play nice you too!” And then Rio quickly disappeared.
Natsu didn’t have time to say anything. This included pleas to not be left alone yet. But sadly, the big lion-man was already few feet too far to be heard, and a heavy hand had already landed on his shoulder to freeze him in place. His fate got sealed.
“Do you know how to handle register?” Olivia asked, with the same attitude as a general asking if he could load a cannon. Mostly so that the loader would get himself killed from it exploding.
“Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y….” Natsu choked on his own spit, and then stopped himself from answering.
He waited for the “bull’s” reaction. Perhaps, he was looking for some strong and powerful command to drop down and give him a hundred, while licking the floor cleaned. Instead, he heard a sigh.
“If you need extra time, see me in the office.” Olivia then went into the café.
Giving it a few seconds, Natsu finally gulped and exhaled. “Yes,” escaped from him. He felt like he just escaped from the grip of a giant tiger.
A light series of taps on the shoulder, done three times consecutively, grabbed his attention. When he turned, Rick was there looking at him with green and yellow eyes. 
“I’m sorry,” Natsu said sheepishly. He wasn’t exactly sure why he said it, but it felt appropriate. 
“Don’t worry about it,” the panther assured.
Natsu nodded without a word.
“Olivia may be crass, intimidating, and demanding of exceptional work ethic, but she has a big heart and can be very sweet.”
“…Ok.” 
He then gave a smile, then turned around. Natsu watched him leave, looking puzzled over what he was just told. Specifically the “sweet” part. A big heart was probably true, consider that person’s size, but was the “bull” really sweet? Maybe not to him. 
Natsu looked over to the café again, and read its name, “Apollo’s Garden,” again. Here starts his first day of work. Nothing left to loose. Natsu felt his throat dry up again. That said, he just swallowed his spit and made his way forward.
He did wish he had that bottle with him again.
…