Blinded by Shades

Today was an important day for a certain crocodile known as Seismi Saur. After quitting his job as a server at The Soda Bottle Cafe a week before, he had finally been able to land another job that paid well and didn't even require kindness and proper etiquette when it came down to the treatment of customers. This job opportunity was great, and he couldn't wait to walk into the place with such confidence- that place being a Tsundere Maid Cafe. The only downside to this job was the fact that only females could work at such a place, as stated in the advertisements... but they didn't mention anything about female portrayal, and that's just where Seismi's idea was headed- but he needed help on the matter.

Bursting through the doors of The Cocoa Hut, he screamed across the cafe for Haru, not noticing the child he had slammed a door into on the way in until the kid started crying. This brought the attention of the kid's parents towards the crocodile. The parents looked upset and held their child close.

"Excuse me, you just smacked my child in the face with a door, I think you should at least apologize- and stop being so reckless," the child's mother demanded. The father just nodded at Seismi with his arms folded.

"Well, the kid was in my way. He shouldn't be playing by the door anyway!" The crocodile spat, slamming the door just behind him, the door catching another child's fingers, causing them to cry out.

"All you annoying pieces of MEAT ARE IN MY WAY!" he screamed after yelling out for Haru once more, "HARU, WHERE ARE YOU-"

"The children are not a piece of meat!" someone shouted from across the cafe.

"God, my love and savior, protect these children," another voice cried.

After the cafe started to get rowdy and Seismi almost found himself kicking someone, Haru emerged from the back of the cafe, yelling out just as he opened the door from which he came.

"I WAS IN THE RESTROOM, CAN YOU WAIT. HOW IMPATIENT CAN YOU-" the fox immediately halted his words after seeing the mess of people shouting and gesturing towards Seismi, who appeared to be holding a kid up by the wrist and hissing at them. "Oh my god," Haru said in shock before running over to Seismi and dragging him out of the cafe, embarrassed. He couldn't possibly manage to reason with Seismi around a riled-up environment. Seismi obliged and dropped the kid. With the child hitting the ground with a thud, the last thing heard before the doors of the cafe shut was "THIS IS CHILD ABUSE."

As soon as they were outside the once tranquil building, Haru stopped, causing Seismi to bump into the back of him. With a quick movement, the fox turned around and smacked the crocodile across the face before grabbing at the other's wrist and continuing to pull him towards the back of the cafe. Seismi complained and held the side of his face up until they had reached their destination. That's when Haru pushed the other against the hard wall of the building. Seismi was surprised at the force Haru had within himself, and honestly didn't know if he disliked it... or loved it. Soon, his thoughts came to an end after Haru had crossed his arms and began to speak in a dead-serious tone of voice.

"Seismi, you know I don't mind if you smack a child or two, but I've mentioned this before; NOT IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. I'm going to lose customers, and you know how much I need my salary for my daily imports of sliced apples." The fox tapped his foot on the ground, his ears pointed downward.

"Come on, Marshmallow, I didn't mean to this time. I busted through the doors looking for you and I accidentally hit a kid with the door on the way in- and then when I closed it, another kid's fingers got caught and then all of a sudden the people of the cafe started attacking me with words- and I had to defend myself against the mini cult!" Seismi cried out, his eyes beginning to tear.

"Oh my goodness, Seismi, don't cry." Haru wrapped his arms around the crocodile and held on tight, attempting to comfort him. "You know our friendship is more important than apple slices... maybe," he whispered that last part. That's when Seismi just decided to let loose, hugging Haru from underneath the fox's arms and crying on his shoulder. A few moments were spent like that- Haru patting Seismi while the crocodile just wailed onto his shoulder and dampened his clothing with his tears until another voice rose from elsewhere.

"Hey. The two of yous look sad," the voice claimed. Seismi's head shot up towards a shadowy figure peeking out from behind a dumpster. Haru let Seismi go and turned towards the voice as well.

"Haru, be careful- I don't trust him," Seismi warned, giving one last sniff before squinting his teary eyes at what appeared to be a suspiciously dressed man, covered in a large trench coat, eyes shielded with a pair of bright green shutter shades.

"Oh that's Shades. Don't worry about him, he's fine. We're pals," Haru said through a grin, "He's been giving me the greatest deals on my stocks of apple slices in exchange for helping him sell sealed packages of 'snow' as he calls it." Shades nodded at Haru with a smirk. "Also, I named him Shades because he refuses to tell me his actual name, but he likes it so-"

"Wait," Seismi interrupted. "Haru, do even know what snow- agh..." The crocodile groaned and just shook his head before Shades came closer to them, holding out a couple of cards with a set of numbers on each one.

"Hey, hey- before your boyfriend starts cryin' again, I wanted to give you these as a token of my appreciation. You know- Santa is very pleased that you were able to give snow to the snowless," Shades laughed. Seismi merely face-palmed, keeping his face hidden behind his face after he felt the growing heat of a blush spread across his features. Haru paid no mind to the boyfriend comment the other man had made.

"Oh no problem, anything for Santa!" Haru exclaimed before taking the cards from the shady man. "What are these for?"

"Go to the address on the card. A surprise waits for you inside the place... you're lucky I had another to give to your guy here- maybe it'll cheer his whiny-ass up," Shades added before turning to walk towards a nearby alley. A few steps away, he stopped and gave one last look towards Haru before continuing to walk away. "Oh, and there's apple slices in there." A little growl could be heard from Seismi's covered face.

Haru's features lit up as soon as the man mentioned apple slices. He tugged at the ever-blushing crocodile's coat sleeve and practically screamed, "Seismi! It's a good thing you were able to get me out of the cafe! I would have missed Shades! He only comes around once in a blue moon and if I miss him, I miss him- and I'm glad I didn't this time because look!!" He tore Seismi's hand from his face, thank god the blush had lessened. "These cards lead to what I can only imagine to be a magical abundance of apple slices! We need to go now!"

Seismi was kind of sad that he wasn't able to tell Haru what he originally had planned to- about trying out a new job at a Tsundere Maid Cafe later, but for now, it was alright, as he didn't want to ruin the fox's happiness at that moment.

"Haru... do you really think you can trust this guy... what he described was kind of vague to me, and he could be getting you into some more trouble."

"More trouble? Trouble is what I haven't come across ever since Shades had come into my life! I trust him with my life- now come on, there's no time to waste, we have to go get those apple slices!" Haru Started to drag Seismi away once again, looking down at the cards, trying to find the location of Apple-Slice Heaven as Seismi just sighed and continued to follow him. If anything bad would happen to rise, Seismi could do his best to defend Haru and try to get him out of the situation, but he still worried about their safety.

Finally, the two arrived at what seemed to be the correct location that contained Haru's "surprise." It was a dark building wedged in between two other suspicious buildings on a back street. The windows of the place were tinted black, and all that was stated on the door on a neon pink sign was "open." Haru looked over towards Seismi, excited for what lay behind the doors, all the while Seismi gave the fox a face of doubt.

"Maybe you should let me in first..." Seismi offered. If there were to be anything strange in there, he wouldn't want Haru to be confronted with it- but the door slowly opened anyway, a female dressed in tight leather clothing gesturing them in.

"Haru...?" she called, to which said fox responded with perked ears and swishing tails.

"That's me! This is my friend, Seismi. I was told there was a surprise for me, and I've got two cards here, see?" He held the cards out to the woman. She took them and eyed them over before smiling at the two friends and once again gesturing them inside.

"There is indeed. Come in, you and your friend."

Seismi linked his arm with Haru's before he had been dragged into the place by the joyful fox. The woman quickly made her way through a tight-squeeze of a hallway until happening across a door. Loud music could be heard as soon as she had opened the door before shoving both of them into the area, closing the door behind them.

Large amounts of loud screaming and squealing could be heard as soon as they were pushed into the room, beating the sound of the booming music. Haru screamed at the sight he saw and Seismi merely froze with wide eyes- and moments before they could respond with walking right out of the damn place, they were bombarded with many girls who were barely dressed, and the ones who started to undress right then and there. All of them could be seen under and over the multicolored strobe lights in the darkened room in which Haru and Seismi were separated.

Haru was pulled into the direction of a small stage that held a single pole in the center, three frighteningly, almost completely naked females kept him there by dancing and rubbing themselves against him. Haru's screams were perceived as joyful ones by the cult of disgusting, sweaty females who tortured him.

After being pulled away from the fox, Seismi had been yanked towards another direction, to what seemed to be a covered photo booth to which he was thrown in with another girl. Seismi himself started screaming once the girl got on top of him and attempted to assault him with her grubby self and painfully annoying giggles- that's when Seismi decide that he had to put away whatever morals he thought he had and placed his hands on the girl's shoulders, forcefully shoving her against the side of the booth before dashing out and rushing through the many girls in the loud, dark room.

By the time he had escaped, he could clearly see Haru being harassed by a multitude of girls who pulled at his clothing as he clung to a nearby pole for dear life. Seismi pushed his way through the hoard and eventually was able to get closer to Haru by throwing the many girls off the stage. Seeing the path of escape much clearer, Haru ran towards wherever he thought the entrance was, but was stopped and thrown to the floor by yet another beast of a woman. Haru yet again let out another scream, grabbing a couple of portable strobe lights off the ground before shoving the light into his eyes and finally clearing his mind enough to shout for Seismi- the crocodile who had still been kicking his way through girls until tripping on the girl who lay atop the poor fox.

The crocodile grabbed the girl by the back of what he acknowledged to be a bra and huffed as he yanked her off of Haru. By that moment, the other army of crazed females seemed to notice the many girls that had been forced to the ground and kicked out of the two friend's way and started to back away from them.

Haru continued to scream until Seismi grabbed the strobe lights away from his eyes. Haru didn't seem to be responding to Seismi correctly, or at least didn't seem to realize it was him, so the crocodile decided to pull him up and throw him over his shoulder, hastily making his way towards the door they came through as soon as he felt he had a good grip on Haru.

Honestly, Haru didn't stop screaming until Seismi got him away from the noise and outside of the building where he carefully placed Haru onto the ground, sitting in front of him.

"SEISMI, I CAN'T SEE-" Haru cried, his pupils dilated to what seemed to be their maxed size.

"YOU WERE BLINDING YOURSELF WITH LIGHTS. WHY DID YOU DO THAT," Seismi demanded an answered before covering Haru's eyes from the sunlight.

"I DID IT BECAUSE I'M GAY," he screamed his answer, raising his two hands towards his eyes that he had said were burning, seeing little sparks everywhere. Seismi kept Haru's eyes protected from the light, all the while blankly staring at the other, really not hearing what the other had been saying after claiming to be gay.

Haru moved Seismi away from his eyes and whimpered, patting at them. This lasted for a few moments before Seismi attacked the fox's lips with an eager kiss. Haru jolted and waved his hands around before pushing at the crocodile who didn't want to budge. Finally getting Seismi to move away with a kick to the stomach, he shouted, "CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I'M BLIND- WHAT ARE YOU DOING-"

Seismi curled up onto the ground and held his stomach for a few seconds before replying with a groan, "R-Right, I... Let's just wait it out then, just..."

"Oh wait, my vision's coming back." Haru rapidly blinked his eyelids before squinting at the other who still lay on the ground. "Oh my goodness. I'm sorry Seismi, my adrenaline from being assaulted is still making me a little jittery and forceful-"

"It's fine." Seismi attempted to grin but really, after coming out of such a horrible experience as well as being rejected, he couldn't really keep it long. "It was horrible in there, Haru. Are you okay?"

"As far as I know, I'm okay... besides blinding myself... I'm okay- just shaken." The fox's ears had pinned themselves back, his tails completely fluffed. "I didn't see one apple slice in there, that's what hurts the most."

The crocodile sighed. "Let's not trust anyone with long coats and strange shades anymore, alright?" Seismi let out a pained chuckle before pushing himself upwards, offering a hand to the fox on the ground.

"That's reasonable."

After calming down from the unsettling situation they had been pushed into, Seismi had convinced Haru to take a walk to a certain store with him. They both agreed that they needed to somehow get their minds off the traumatic experience they had. Upon entering the store, Seismi, with a soft smile, brought up the topic he had meant to mention ever since the start of the day.

"So Haru, I've finally found a job that I think would be worth taking."

"...and what would that be?" The other asked, observing the store they were in, girl's clothes hung on the walls and in racks all around them, three large mirrors could be seen across the way near what looked to be a changing room.

"A Tsundere Maid Cafe."

"What?"

"An all-girl cafe that serves their customers in maid outfits. The best thing is... you get paid to treat the customers like trash."

"That sounds that like something you'd go for... but you said it was an all-girls cafe," Haru reminded. Seriously, the things Seismi got himself into was just unbelievable at times.

"The flyers said nothing about portraying a girl, so I'm going to give it a shot- and I need your help... to make me look cute."

Seismi then dragged Haru throughout the store, getting many strange looks by other customers and they held different clothing items up to Seismi's body. They soon found an outfit as well as a couple of accessories that they thought would make Seismi a somewhat convincing girl. Away Seismi went into one of the changing rooms- though after a few minutes of struggle, he had to call Haru in with him- as they had also picked out a corset that wasn't so easy to get on without the help of another person.

By the time Seismi found himself completely dressed, He stepped out of the changing room with Haru and looked himself up and down in the elongated mirrors.

"I don't know, looks pretty cute to me...?" Haru stated, admiring the side ponytail held by a hair tie with a couple of beads in Seismi's hair. What the crocodile took note in the most was the slightest bit of discomfort from the corset that caused him to breath shorter and quicker breaths in an attempt to adjust to the feeling. Other than that, the frilly maid outfit he wore with just as frilly socks and shiny black shoes impressed him quite a bit. Realizing Haru's comment, he blushed, not able to really hide his reddened face this time, but Haru noticed, making him blush as well- as if it were a chain reaction.

"Thank you," Seismi replied, "Honestly, I've taken so much time to put this on that I don't really want to take it off... The interview is hours away anyway- let's go ring the stuff up. Hopefully there won't be a problem with all of it on me.

There was indeed a bit of a struggle to ring up all the items Seismi wore, and the cashier had to admit that she was quite impressed with the transformation, as she had seen Seismi when he first entered the store. Seismi held his regular clothes in a bag, and after exiting the store, they decided to head towards the park they had once visited during a strange cranberry event. After having settled down and sitting on the benches, Haru gave a tap to Seismi's shoulder.

As soon as the crocodile had turned his head, Haru had planted a small kiss on his lips. Seismi furiously blushed before reluctantly recoiling. "W-What are you doing??" he questioned.

"I'm not blind anymore, you can kiss me now- and gently, to be specific. You almost ate me earlier and I did NOT appreciate that," Haru replied with a sweet smile and perked ears.