Torako Toushi
Torako, engrossed in his composition, hardly noticed the commotion around him. What did snap him back to reality was the fact that he'd been sitting there for much longer than he should've just for two cups of hot chocolate. Getting up, he tucked his notebook and pencil into his jacket pocket just as the owner came hurrying over with two cups of coffee.
"Here you go, sir. I apologize for the wait, but one of our waitresses was causing trouble."
Torako raised an eyebrow at the owner. "She may have caused a single accident or whatever happened, but at least she always gets my order right, idiot." he'd been a regular at the cafe for some time and he almost always ordered the same thing, so it bothered him that his order was brought to him incorrectly.
"I'm leaving. It's not worth my time to come to a cafe run by an idiot that fired one of his most competent workers." sticking his hands into his pockets, he turned and headed outside.
After wandering for a few minutes, he stumbled upon the waitress girl, her name was Rei if he remembered correctly, and one of the boys that had been in the cafe when he'd first arrived.
"Yo. If you need a job, I can probably hook you up with one at the gym I work at. It would probably just be running errands, but the people are nice, at least. He pulled his music composition notebook and pencil out of his pocket, flipped through to the back page, and wrote down his phone number and name on it before tearing out the page.
"Here. Call this number if you're interested." pulling out his phone to check the time, he cursed quietly to himself. "Ah, if I don't hurry up and make my stop by the shrine now I'll be late getting back for lunch."
Handing the page to Rei, he waved as he tucked his notebook and pencil into his pocket and took off at a jog in the direction of the shrine. As he ran, it vaguely occurred to him that he hadn't even introduced himself to the girl, but he half-hoped she'd remember him from his daily trips to the cafe. Truthfully, he couldn't think of a viable reason as to why he'd given the girl his number and offered her a job. It wasn't like the gym needed a new employee; they were doing fine with everyone they had already. Shaking his head, he chuckled. It was a little late to be thinking about all that.
Within a couple minutes, he'd arrived at the shrine to find the white-haired caretaker, Taiga, finishing up clearing the steps of ice and snow.
"Good afternoon, Taiga! Sorry I'm late, but there was a commotion at the cafe, so I also seem to have no hot chocolate. Is there anything I can help you with today?" he grinned. He usually came by earlier in the day with hot chocolate and helped out around the shrine. It wasn't that he enjoyed cleaning, but the presence of the friendly caretaker was pleasant.
Taiga Sohma
Taiga shivered. His nose had long gone numb from the cold as he worked to clear the steps, leading up to the shrine, of snow and ice. He couldn't help but grin, though, as a familiar face popped into view.
"Little Tiger!" he teased the younger boy with the literal meaning of his name, as he often did. "Don't worry about it, I understand perfectly. You don't always have to come help out if you don't want to, though. You should know that."
"It's no problem! You know I enjoy visiting." Torako grinned back.
"Ah, let's see. If you're feeling daring today, one of the trees is starting to block the Torii gate. I was hoping to get it cleared up before Nani got back, but I don't think I'll have enough time to do it myself." looking back up, Taiga wasn't surprised to see that Torako was already gone in search of the tree clippers.
Shaking his head, Taiga chuckled to himself as he finally finished up the steps. Jogging back up to the shrine, he set to work cleaning up the temizuya; making sure the water and water ladles were all clean, as well as the temizuya itself. That didn't take long, so he moved on to the Haiden and began cleaning the flooring in there.
Despite being in a different section of the shrine, he heard Nani's call loud and clear. Putting away his cleaning supplies, he headed out of the Haiden and back around to the living quarters tucked behind the Honden. Stepping inside, he took off his shoes and headed into the kitchen.
"Welcome back! I'm almost done with the cleaning, so I'll get started on lunch shortly." he smiled and bowed slightly, more out of habit than anything else. He'd always felt that women ought to be treated with more respect than his fellow men, so he tended to be a little more formal with them. Nani, even though she resided at the shrine with him, was no exception.