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[quartetnightsshopau]

Chapter 5

The day was almost upon them. After three delayed weeks of renovation, anticipation, and decoration, the shop would be opening tomorrow night.

After putting a selection of lingerie on the mannequins, Reiji looked wistfully out the window. He stared up at their new unlit sign as an unnamed feeling squeezed in his chest.

“Hey, are you done yet?” yelled Ranmaru, shaking Reiji from his daze.

“Sorry Ran-Ran, I was just thinking; What if nobody comes? I mean, was this really a good idea?”

“It’s too late to be asking those kinds of questions,” Ai says as he stacks vibrators on the topshelf.

“Yeah,” Ran says, lining up the leather goods. “We’ve invested too much time and money into this. Hell, Ai quit his job to do this. It’s definitely gonna take awhile to turn a profit from this, but, isn’t it better to do something you have some passion for then to have your soul sucked by a job you hate?”

“Wow, Ran-Ran. That was… really insightful.”

“Shut up,” he says throwing a wadded up blindfold in his direction.

”If you’re done with the lingerie, can you break down all the cardboard boxes to recycle?”

“Sure thing, Ai-Ai,” he says, finally peeling himself away from the window.

Later, when Reiji is locking up the shop, he asks, ”So, did Camus say if he would be here tomorrow?”

“Haven’t heard from him since yesterday,” Ran says, blowing smoke as he leans against Reiji’s green bug. “Said something about a french business.”

“He’s likely lining up his next job,” Ai says, leaning on the other side of the car.

As the sun began casting its first light, Reiji finished locking the shop.

They loaded in the car and drove back in stiff silence. Even though Ai had put blackout blinds in their apartment, Reiji barely slept a wink.

At six pm the next day, the three guys drove out to the shop, an unnamed unease sitting with all of them.

Once inside, Reiji stood by the window as Ran flipped the switches, illuminating the store and the new pink neon logo. Seeing that sign, he let out a small contented sigh and walked into the office.

He turned on the store speakers and started playing a selection of songs he chose one day when he couldn’t sleep. Reiji took the seat behind the register, just as Ai emerged from the break room with a cup of fresh coffee for him.

Ranmaru pulls his phone out of his pocket, dials a number, and walks into the office.  A few moments pass and Ran returns, saying, ”Still no word from the quote unquote ‘manager’. Fucker could at least tell us if he’s showing up.”

Reiji stares into his cup as the clock chimes seven. He furrows his brow, downs the coffee, and focuses a gentle gaze on the window.

“It’s our first day. Someone is going to show up.”

Ai glances at Ran, who gives a shrug and disappears into the breakroom. Ai looks at the back of Reiji’s head, remembering the eagerness he had two days prior when they posted flyers all over town. He had wondered how an adult could have that much drive, but now he wondered where all that energy has gone.

“I’ll be in the office. Yell if you need anything.”

“Okay. Thanks Ai.”

And for the next few hours he sat there, listening to the soft upbeat music and watching the cars that pass the store drive into the dark night.

Midway through the night Ran went out and got hamburgers for everyone, but Reiji didn’t even eat a bite.

Finally, the clock rang in five and Reiji stood from his long sat position.

“Ai, I’m gonna go to the bathroom. Can you watch the store?”

“Sure,” he replied watching as the brunette slowly made his way to the toilet.

Once the lock clicked, a soft sob echoed in the tile room. Upon hearing Reiji’s sobs, Ai was concerned, but still wasn’t sure how to comfort Reiji, even after 9 years.

Then, the bell on front door chimed and the crying stopped.

A russell of paper towels could be heard, followed by a puffy-eyed Reiji emerging from the bathroom.

“Welcome,” he says in shaky voice in the direction of a man dressed in all black, with sunglasses and a scarf covering his face. The man says nothing, but in his hands he holds a fairly large plain white box.

[quartetnightsshopau]

Chapter 4

The renovators came and went over the next few days.

Gradually, the building soon looked less like a dumpster fire and more like a functional establishment.

Everyone sat in the newly furnished office, the smell of new paint still very present. A new desktop computer gently hummed as Camus clicked away at its keyboard.

“...And, done,” he announces, laying back into the plush chair.

“Now that that’s all settled, we must start placing our product orders. Which manufacturers have we received contact from?”

Ai pulls out his notepad. “Reiji was able to contact six eligible dildo manufacturers and four vibrator companies. I contacted multiple companies, and received word from word from seven condom and lubricant companies, as well as five pornography publishers. Ranmaru acquired reliable contact with three bdsm and bondage related manufacturers. All of these producers support smaller facilities, such as ours, have reasonable bulk prices, and ship to our location.”

Camus folds his hands on the desk. He speaks in a hushed tone, “And what of the lingerie companies?”

A tense few seconds passed as the others uncomfortably shifted in their seats.

“You mean to tell me that you idiots didn’t connect with one of the biggest facets of the sex industry,” he sneered.

“Didn’t think you would be one to get worked up over underwear, Camus,” Ranmaru absentmindedly admitted.

“It’s not JUST underwear, you blithering buffoon. Lingerie is a keystone to any sexual activity. How would one expect to have it unless they look physically appealing?”

Reiji opens his mouth to say something, but stops himself, thinking that it's better to not patronize an angry grizzly.

Camus lets out another heavy sigh. “I’ll arrange this, but while I’m doing that, I need one of you to place the orders.”

Reiji’s hand shoots up. “I can do it. I do it all the time at the hardware store, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Camus stands up. “Put your hand down Reiji, you’re not in a school. Ai, make sure he doesn’t go over budget or buy too much unnecessary bullshit.” Ai nods to Camus as he closes the office door with a slam.

“At least he finally got my name right.” Ai commented, watching Reiji scammer behind the desk and making the swivel chair spin freely.

For the next few hours, an eager Reiji, a focused Ai and a reluctant Ranmaru browsed through the near endless selection of sex material their new suppliers had to offer.

A pattern soon emerged, with Reiji honing in on a certain type of object, say a sixteen inch dildo, finding all similar items and Ai reasoning which few would be better based on design and description. The only time Ranmaru would butt in would be if he or someone he knew used a similar product, and would give his two cents about it.

The concentration was broken when a new wall clock chimed once. Reiji sprawled out on the mostly empty desk.

“Ai-Ai, how much longer do we have to do this?”

”I’m not sure. Ranmaru, can you go ask Camus?” Ran lets out a sigh, stands up and walks out of the office.

After a few seconds of silence, Ranmaru yells, “Hey, quick question, where the fuck is he?”

Reiji and Ai share a puzzled look and join Ran in the main room. Reiji starts going to the other doors and peeking in to try and find the missing manager.

“It appears he has left,” Ai says, pointing to the dirt parking lot with a severe lack of black cars.

“Shit,” Ran curses under his breath. He angrily grabs his phone from a jacket pocket, but Reiji puts a hand on his shoulder and gives a small head shake.

“Let it go, Ran-Ran. Camus isn’t emotionally attached to this project like we are, but he is still trying to help us out.”

Ranmaru shrugged off the hand, walked out of the shop, and lit a cigarette.

“I’m going to save our current orders, but we’ll wait to send them until a later time.”

“Alright, Ai-Ai. I’ll just be here,” Reiji says, a tired tone painting his personality.

When Ai disappeared into the office, the brunet slid into a sitting position against one of the fresh pink walls.

“Is this whole thing even going to work?” he whispers dejectedly as he curls in on himself.

[quartetnightsshopau]

Chapter 3

A few days had passed since that night at the bar.

Ranmaru called up some of the business management graduates from his vo-tech and managed to convince one of them to help them out.

The three boys loaded into Reiji’s car and drove out to the shop. Reiji unlocked the glass door and pushed it open.

They walked into the stale air of the store. Although Reiji had done a fair job fixing the place up, there was still a mountain of work to be done.

“This place looks like shit.”

“Why thank you, Ran-Ran. I hadn’t noticed”

“Could you two please stop your bickering? He’s here.”

A luxurious black car pulled into the dirt parking lot. The tall, blond man slammed the car door and walked inside the small shop.

“So, what are we looking at here?”

“Hey there! Camus, right? I’m Reiji, this is Ai, and I’m assuming you already know Ranmaru.”

“No, you nitwit. What funds are we looking at to start your little ‘Sex-cursion’.” Camus said doing the air quote motion with a disdainful expression.

“From the three of us, we have approximately fifteen thousand dollars to spend on this venture,” Ai replied, looking at the notepad he brought.

Camus lets out a haughty laugh. “That’s not even going to be enough to shape up this shoddy dump,” he spoke, gesturing to the exposed concrete floor, gaping holes in the drywall and empty door hinges.

“As usual, I’ll have to be the one to invest in this project.” He continued.

Camus had successfully launched two chains and saved multiple failing startups within his seven years of being what he calls ‘a consulting business manager’.

“Alright, this week, fix-up. Next week, stock-up. After that, open-up. Got that notepad?”

“Yes.” Ai says finishing his quick writings. Pausing for a moment, he added, “And my name isn't notepad, it's Ai.”

“Alright, I got it.” Camus dismissively replied, signalling Reiji to give him a run through of his plans with the sex shop.

Reiji, followed by Camus, goes through the building, designating each room, listing all services and furniture needed for each room. Along with Ai taking everything down and Ranmaru regretting that he thought this would be a good idea.

“...and there will be shelves lining this wall. We’ll put mannequins in the window, standing shelves here, here, here, here and here, and the register will go right here,” Reiji gushed, sunset light filtering through the harsh fluorescence of the dusty store.

“And the appearance?” questions Camus, nursing his growing headache.

“Oh yeah. I think the floors should be black, maybe like a short kind of carpet, but what if something spills? Maybe a wood would be better, but tile is also good, and-”

“Let’s just go with carpet.” Camus barks, annoyed.

“We’re almost through with this monotony. Just choose a wall color so we can leave already.”

“Oh, that’s easy. It’s obviously gonna be hot pink.”

Everyone collectively stares at Reiji like he’s sprouted three, more annoying, heads.

“Common guys. Pink is the color of romance, flirtation, and physical weakness. Take it from a guy who knows a thing or two about color theory.”

“Fine. Whatever. Can we go,” Ran asks from his sat position in a corner.

“That should be enough for today. I’ll arrange all the necessities, but we all must be here to oversee that everything gets done smoothly. Is that clear?” Camus asks.

“You don’t need to worry. I’ll make sure they show up,” Ai says as he rips off the paper and hands it to Camus.

“Thanks notepad.” Camus  acknowledged. Ai huffs at the new nickname, visibly annoyed at their soon to be manager.

They all step outside as the sun finally sets on the horizon.

Camus points up to the unlit neon sign and asks, “and what about that?”

“I’ll think of something,” Reiji says, placing his hand on his chin, trying to look thoughtful but in reality looking more like he has no clue with what he’s doing.

[quartetnightsshopau]

Chapter 2

Nobody had planned to work in a sex shop, it just kinda happened. One of Reiji’s distant cousins died and had left a little shop in his will for him.

Reiji found it odd. He barely spoke to his immediate family, much less remembered if he had aunts, uncles, or cousins.

However, at the same time Reiji was a beggar, so he couldn’t be a chooser. He had graduated about 5 years prior for graphic design but couldn’t land a solid job, working part time at the local hardware and auto store can only sustain so much.

He was still living with Ai, his college roomate, and felt guilty whenever he was unable to help pay the rent.

Ai, on the other hand, had graduated for accounting and landed a solid nine-to-five office job. He didn’t mind paying rent, but he couldn’t do anything to help Reiji feel any better about not paying it.

One day, Reiji got a call at work. After a hectic week full of lawyers and accountants, he was entitled a deed to an unknown store.

The next Saturday, Reiji dragged Ai to the nondescript building on the outskirts of town, in a sort of ‘Tada!’ moment.

Ai was not impressed.

The building was in severe disrepair. There was peeling paint, dead foliage, rusted bars on a cracked window, and a busted neon sign reading ‘J’s Liquor store’.

Over the next month, Reiji threw away the expired products, fixed the window and gave the exterior a new coat of paint.

Laying in bed one night, Reiji contemplated on whether or not to sell the property until he got an unlikely call from one of his college drinking buddies.

“Hey Reiji.”

“Hey Ran-Ran! What’s up?”

“I’m in town and wanted to know if you wanted to grab a beer.”

“I would love to, but I’m broke.”

“My treat, but you gotta take me to the best dive in town. I would kill for a decent burger.”

“Consider it done.”

So Reiji and Ranmaru went out to the local bar and ordered a few drinks as they started talking about their younger days. Ranmaru had gone to a vocational school to be an electrician. But, because of his hot-headed attitude, he never managed to hold onto a job for long. So, he's been drifting from city to city looking for work.

A few drinks turned into too many drinks.

Later in the night, Reiji, shit-faced and horny, ended up telling Ran about the shop and asked if he should sell it.

Ran, equally as shit-faced and horny, told him he should fuck logic, open a strip club and be a stripper.

Reiji, inspired by becoming a stripper, stood on the table and started dancing, even though no music was playing in the bar.

A few minutes later, Ai was at the bar, following the routine he normally does with a drunk Reiji. Reiji did the same thing more than once in college, so Ai, being used to it, ended up dragging Reiji and Ran back to the apartment and reprimanded the both of them the moment they returned.

“How many times have I told you, in this city, there is less than a 10% chance of being a successful male stripper.”

“But Ai-Ai, I wanna make the new store place a sexy sexy sex place full of sparkly sexy things.”

Ranmaru interjects, “If it’s a sex store you want, just make it a sex shop. Easy-peasy pumpkin-squeezy.”

Ai pondered, “Considering the area, an adult store would be fairly successful. Although, other than expenses, I feel we don’t have the best skill set to run a small business.”

“I think I know a guy,” says Ran.

“Just give me a few days, let me crash here and I think we might be in luck. What do you guys think? Are we actually going to do this?”

“I feel like it would be fairly advantageous in the long run, so I’m in. What about you, Reiji?”

The two turn to a passed out body on the apartment floor.

Ai sighed, “Ranmaru, you’re welcome to sleep in Reiji’s bed. I’ll be doing a bit of kitchen-work, but feel free to make yourself at home.”

“Couch is fine, thanks Ai.”

Ai grabs a blanket, haphazardly covers the sleeping Reiji and disappears into the kitchen.

[quartetnightsshopau]

Chapter 1:

“I’m sorry sir, but for the sixth time, we cannot do returns on used items,” Ranmaru said in an annoyed tone.

He had been arguing with a customer for five minutes because his partner “didn’t like the smell” of the peppermint flavored lube.

“I’d like to speak to your manager,” the man said. “You asked for it,” Ran spoke under his breath.

“Aye, Camus!”

There was a loud thud as the office door slammed into the buttplug doorstop. The tall, brooding blond marched towards the register, standing next to the seated Ranmaru as he gave the customer an icy glare.

After a few seconds of silence, Camus smiled and asked, “And what seems to be the problem sir?” The man began to fumble with is words. “I-I wanted t-to return this p-product.”

Camus kept his smile, continuing in his customer service tone. “I’m sorry sir, but unfortunately we have a very strict ‘No Returns’ policy that we heavily enforce. So, unless there was a defect in the product we are unable to help you.”

“O-okay. S-sorry,” the man said, grabbing the product and slinking out of the store without another word.

When the car had pulled out of the dirt parking lot, Camus strode over to a closed door in the corner. With a quick turn of the door knob, Reiji fell face first onto the carpeted floor.

“Sure looks like we’re doing a great job taking inventory, aren’t we.” Camus said coldly. “Oh, Myu-chan, you know I can’t resist good drama. Besides, Ai-Ai isn’t any better,” Reiji says, nursing his hurt face.

Ai walks out of the resource room. “I must admit, it is hard to ignore Ranmaru when he gets worked up. However, I did finish alphabetizing the DVDs while you barely even finished half of the next shipment order.” Ai says, picking up the dropped clipboard.

Reiji lets out a nervous chuckle when the clock in the office chimes 5 times. “Finally,” Ranmaru says, emerging from the breakroom, peeling a banana. Camus lets out a heavy sigh. “You’d better finish inventory tomorrow, or I’m not letting you order more of your donut malarkey.” Reiji’s face goes pale.

Ai walks over to the front door and reaches into his pocket. He tosses the shop keys to Ranmaru saying, “Remember to lock up. Come on Reiji, lets go.” Reiji scrambles from off the floor and quickly follows Ai out the door.

Ranmaru turns towards Camus, “It's not like you’re any better than them. I saw your shadow under the door, listening to everything.”

“I have no idea of what nonsense you’re talking about,” Camus says emerging from the office with his belongings.

“See you tomorrow. Goodbye.” Ranmaru waves to Camus as he leaves the store.

Ranmaru straightens up some of shelves of paraphernalia before flicking off the lights and walking out into the warm early morning. He locks the glass door, starts his car and watches as the store disappears in his rearview mirror.

[quartetnightsshopau]

Story summary:

Just a few miles away from the bustling city sits a insequential little shop. To a normal passerby, this shop would appear to be nothing out of the ordinary. Plain white exterior, black trim, and a few plants lining the concrete under its overhang. However, its light pink neon sign can easily be read against the dark night sky; QN Adult Shop.

[quartetnightsshopau]

Happy New Year

On this, the 1st day of 2019, we’ll be resetting the blog. Expect the first of the renewed chapters to come in a few hours, along with the take down of the previous chapters.

Thank you for supporting the story. See you all in 2019!

-Writer S & Writer T

[quartetnightsshopau]

We’ve reached 100 followers!

Since we’ve reached 100 followers, we’d like to thank everyone who has been supporting this au! This is actually quite the milestone for us since we haven’t been active lately.

So here’s an update of what we’ve been up to recently. Both Writers have gotten down to work despite our busy schedules and have decided to post our soft reset on AO3 as well as on Tumblr. The link will be posted once we managed to get some things organised and done with.

We might do something for 100 followers but we haven’t decided yet.

Thank you for your support thus far and hope that you’ll continue supporting the QN sex shop au!

-Writer T & Writer S

[quartetnightsshopau]

In regards to the recent ban.

Thank you again for staying with this story. We really do appreciate everyone who likes and/or reblogs our content.

So, because of the recent guideline change me and Writer T are spreading out a bit. None of our posts have been flagged, but we don’t want to take the risk of not getting the story out. That’s why Writer T is making us an Ao3 account.

We will still be doing our soft reset here on Tumblr, but after the couple of intro chapters are posted, all future chapters will be posted in full on Ao3. We’ll post links to them on the Tumblr so you can still stay in the loop.

Me and Writer T are still working on chapters, the current one we’re on being particularly saucy. I expect the reset of the blog to take place a week or so after the ban takes affect, so thank you for being patient while we make cool things for you lovely people.

tl;dr: we’re making an Ao3 for this story, but will post links when chapters come out. Also expect new chapters in a few weeks(!).

-Writer S