An Off-White Christmas by UnknownRandomness

The Problems Begin!

A/N: Hello there! I hope you all enjoy my attempts at a cheerful seasonal tale. This is a sequel to my story 'Living Life' and I would recommend reading that first, but it's not necessary to. Yes, the story title is a play on the song "White Christmas", which I most definitely do not own. Happy reading and please leave a review :)

Prompt: Candy Canes

Word Count: 401

Kagome exuberantly smiled at the cashier; an adorable looking young woman (well, a teenager really) with heaps of bouncy chesnut curls that were adorned with a very festive pair of felt antlers. The elder woman had immediately felt that she had an affinity with this young woman- she quickly peered at the name-tag fastened on the hideous yellow vest- this "Haruhi", the minute she had laid eyes on her. She would do her very best to make this perfectly ordinary transaction a fun-filled experience!

"Hello Haruhi-san, I'm Kagome. Thank you so much for serving me today!"  

Haruhi smiled politely at her cheerful customer, but made no further attempts to respond. Clearly she wasn't used to such friendly people in this profession, Kagome thought sadly; most were impatient and eager to vacate the store as quickly as physically possible, or inisisted on being extremely anti-social to everyone within close vicinity. Well, today she would change that for once, the miko resolutely decided. 

Checking that there was no-one waiting in line behind her, the blue-eyed woman turned to the worker with her most brilliant smile and ensured to give Haruhi a genuine compliment on her gorgeous hair. 

"It's fake. Have you bought everything you want?" 

The monotonous reply stumped her for a moment. Here she was putting in all this effort to give this lady a positive experience that she could remember for today, and her attempts were being perfectly rebuffed! How would she manage to be successful in international relations if she couldn't even get a shop attendant to engage in pleasant conversation!? 

Taking in a deep breath, Kagome prepared to give it another shot when Haruhi suddenly leant forward and beat her to the punch.

"Look, Kagome-san, it's nice that you want to chat and all, but I'm working here." 

The raven-haired woman blinked, incredibly surprised, but gracefully resigned herself to defeat. 

"Sorry to bother you. I just thought perhaps a chat would be nice until the next customer came along." Kagome couldn't keep the melancholy tone from seeping into her voice as she picked her items up from the plastic counter.

Haruhi sighed heavily, trying to demonstrate her immense frustration at having to deal with this woman. Her bored eyes wandered to the surface and her gaze lit up as she spotted her potential salvation.   

"Yeah, whatever. Will you go away if I give you this free pack of candy canes?"