There's a difference between work and a hobby...

[gotmilk]

'Almost there...not quite...almost, almost...done!' Hiro's concentrated face lightened a bit as a smile graced her lips. She sat back in her chair and stared at her drawing in accomplishment.

Art club was fun and everything, but she just didn't have the time to do some of the activities they required. Thus, drawing while working at her part timed job. She stared at her finished work for a while with a blank smile, and then groaned and hung her head low in dissappointment.

Grabbing a nearby erasor, Hiro quickly made the adjustments needed to her sketch. 'Draw the person that impacted your life, they said...make it look lifelike, they said...' she thought, carelessly tossing the erasor aside onto a counter and blowing away the shavings.
Hiro had decided to sketch her older brother, Heiji. He was an extremely hard worker and also a gifted student at school. He would have been in college by now, but they didn't quite have the payment to send him. As a result, she was stuck here ever since their father was laid off.
But, it didn't bother her at all. She liked doing hard work since it payed off in the end. Plus, she loved her brother and wanted him to become a doctor like he wanted.

Her sketch looked somewhat like him, physically of course. But it didn't capture his character like he wanted. Sometimes he was incredibly well humored and laughed often. Other times, he looked serious and in deep thought, staring out the window with a small smile. That's what Hiro had always admired about her brother. He was good looking, of course. But it was the way his eyes suddenly soften when he's thinking that she liked.

It was incredibly hard to draw though.

The sound of the resteraunt door opening caught her attention. Hiro had been so concentrated on her drawing, she's forgotten she's at work! Carefully tossing her sketch pad and pencil to the front counter, Hiro stood up straight and smiled in a greeting. Her face had some pencil shades on it from when she unconciously scratched her cheek while she was thinking and her hair was hung in a loose pony-tail.

"Hajimemashite! May I help you?" she asked politely.

[Mirai Ira]

"Phew..." sighed the young girl as she got off her bike. "Finally a ramen place." Ira had been searching for some sort of soup restaurant for an hour. Going all over Konoha because of a very strong craving on her bike had made her tired.

Just because she was socially withdrawn didn't mean that Ira didn't get the occasional craving like a regular girl. She was a little more interested in keeping her stomach happy than the average girl though. Ira didn't have anyone to entertain and had nothing to do other than homework she could buzz past in hour and a job that had easy hours. The lack of schedule left her with a lot of time to listen to music and answer her cravings.

Kicking down the kick stand carelessly, Ira leaned the red children's size bike on it by the little hut. She walked into the store to be greeted by a cheerful, "Hajimemashite! May I help you?"

"I'll have one pork miso ramen," was Ira's automatic response. She paid no attention to the other girl's interesting state. Her face was covered with slight pencil smudges, as were her hands. Her hair was tied only in a loose ponytail while Ira's hair- even after an hour of trekking across and around the village- was placed in a perfectly tight ponytail. Needless to say, she didn't even notice the other girl was a classmate.

Ira was wearing green cargo shorts and plain black tee. She sat down on a stool at the end of the bar and pulled her headphones out of her backpack. Time to relax.

[gotmilk]

"I'll have one pork miso ramen," Hiro nodded her head and jotted the order down on her sketch pad quickly before she forgot. She had always had a fairly short memory and small attention span.

"H-Hai!"

Hurrying to the sink, the first thing she had to do was wash her hands. It was an employee rule, plus, she really needed it in the first place. Hiro quickly pulled some vegetables out of the refrigerator and started chopping them up. She was still absent minded though, since she was thinking about what she should add to her sketch. "OW!"

Hiro looked down quickly and sneered in pain. Blood trickled down her hand as she examined her cut finger. Luckily, it wasn't too deep or bleeding much, but it still stung. Tears were even starting to form at the brink of her eyes. Shaking them away, Hiro peeked out of the kitchen into the shop where the customer was and laughed sheepishly. "Th-That was nothing! Eh heh, heh..."

Returning to the chopping, Hiro slapped herself mentally and forced herself to pay attention to where her knife went. As though the heavens were shining onto her, the rest of her hands came out unscathed and the ramen was finally done. With her finger bandaged up carefully, Hiro picked up the bowl and walked it over the the girl that looked about her age.

"Here you go, Miss! I-I'm sorry for the wait." She smiled with a flustered face again as she reached behind and scratched the back of her head sheepishly, wincing when her bandage rubbed against her hair tie.

[Mirai Ira]

Ira absentmindedly hummed along to her music, leaning on her palms with her elbows propped up on the bar. Her peace was disturbed by some yell.

"OW!" was all Ira could hear through her headphones. She removed them from her ears, leaving her headset hanging around her neck in their usual 'default position'. The girl that had taken her order before popped her head out from the kitchen and said sheepishly, "Th-That was nothing! Eh heh, heh..."

"'Kay..."breathed the customer as she frowned. 'Weird....' she thought, placing her headphones back on her head.

There were no other mishaps for a few minutes as Ira listened through a few songs on her ipod. Then, the girl from before emerged, carrying Ira's ramen.

"Here you go, Miss! I-I'm sorry for the wait." The other girl smiled as she placed the steaming bowl in front of Ira.

"Thanks," she nodded back, pulling out her chopsticks.

[gotmilk]

[[Bleh. This is pretty short too...]]

Hiro stood beside the table straight and patiently. There seemed to be no sign of annoyance or irritation on the girl's face, so that was good. She wanted to ask her if the noodles were alright and if she tasted anything funny with it. It WAS her first time ever making it, and she wanted it to taste the customer's money worth.

A small but comfortable enough quietness rung the resteraunt with slight clinking of bowls and utensils. The night was calm, thankfully, and there hadn't been any rowdy customers like the manager had warned her.

Hiro sighed inwardly in relief at that and spent the next few seconds analyzing the girl's features. "Ano, you go to Konoha High school...right?" she asked.

[Mirai Ira]

The girl that had brought Ira her ramen just stood there, leaning on the counter. Ira didn't care to notice that there were other customers; there were only a few people. She couldn't hear the quiet conversations that were drifting throughout the little hut from a few friends eating their ramen together. Simply eating and listening to Thrice was what Ira considered a good time. She didn't need a conversation or any company to keep her happy.

Because of her somewhat quiet nature, Ira just sat at the bar eating in a neat manner. She didn't slurp her noodles or make much noise at all while consuming the soup. Being an orphan, she was never too comfortable in even the homes she was adopted into. That led to becoming one of the stealthiest teenagers in Sunagakure. Ira never wanted to bring attention to herself or bring any cause for discussion between herself and any of her foster parents, so she was quiet and almost polite during the few hours she spent with each of them.

Ira was nearly a third done with her ramen before the girl at the counter spoke.

"Ano, you go to Konoha High school...right?" asked the girl timidly. Ira could barely hear this over the music from her headphones.

"What?" She asked, once again removing the headphones from her ears. "Oh....yeah," she added, recalling the question. "Why?" She turned her head to face the other girl.

[gotmilk]

Hiro's cheeks flustered into a tomato red color of embarassment. She hadn't exactly planned her answer after that. She hadn't even thought that she'd bother asking her the question in the first place. It just....slipped out, she guessed. Twiddling her fingers a little bit and suddenly finding the ground interesting, Hiro smiled a little it.

"A-Ano...No reason...I just th-thought I saw you somewhere before. And, s-since you were a-about the same a-age as me, I thought I'd h-have seen you somewhere in s-school before." she answered, tugging at the hem of her shirt shyly. Her back suddenly straightened as she gasped a bit.

"I-I'm sorry!" she apologized, bowing low and letting her face fluster once again. "I m-m-must be bother y-you! I'll l-leave right a-away!" Almost running back to the safety of behind the counters, Hiro ducked once she reached the haven and took a deep breath. Creating small talk was NOT something she was excellant at. Not even good for the least bit. Lifting her hand for the counter, she felt around until she touched her pencil.

Feeling around for the drawing pad, Hiro accidentally shoved it off the counter and made it land at the top of her head. She winced and could suddenly see stars floating around her head. "I-Itai..." she murmurered unintelligently with a dazed smile on her face.

Shaking her head, Hiro picked up the drawing pad and continued her sketch of her brother once again. Erasing and redrawing every once in a while as she was accustomed to.