Push on, you're doing it for a good reason (Nicholas)

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Relax, just breath normally and you won't.... Cain thought in his head but his thoughts were interrupted by the familiar feeling in his throat and thus put his hand to his mouth.

The coughing started again, blasted cold weather. Course it wasn't just that. His right hand was bandaged in a white cloth once more. A new scar to add to his collection his palms, eventually he would have to start at a different spot. He'd do everything to not admit it but his health was in a serious decline, more focused on caring for his sister's needs was making his body weaker than it already was. After all, he was only human. Even if he stood a picture of full health, he'd be little match to anything supernatural. But in his state? He'd be killed immediately, not even having a change to protect her.

Despite how big of a store this was, it was rather empty today. At least there wouldn't be people staring at him as he coughed. After a few moments, he managed to stop and gasped for air for a few moments. Alright just breathe now, without causing another coughing fit. Standing up straight, he let out a sigh of relief. Okay maybe he was gonna be fine for now and it was good timing. As the sound of the door opening caused him to look toward the entrance way.

"Good day." Cain greeted the person.

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Nicholas stepped out of the town car in front of the bookstore and took a few minutes to return som pressing text messages to his manager at La Sombra, his restaurant. Apparently there were a few holes in the schedule from people calling in sick. As it was so close to the weekend, La Sombra was going to be getting very busy and. Nicholas prided himself on having one of the lowest wait times for his customers. However, that only happened if you had enough staff to cover everything. So, a few last minute alterations and a few bribes of time and a half pay were necessary to get some staff to come in on their day off.

But Nicholas wasn't too terribly concerned, not only did he have very loyal and motivated staff, his manager was also one of the best in the business. He know what to do before Nicholas had to tell him and he knew how to get it done efficiently. Nicholas texted him a few suggestions of who he would like to have work tonight and gave the approval for time and a half wages for anyone who made the sacrifice.

He looked up, realizing he had been standing in front of the store for a very inappropriate amount of time. He silently chided himself on not having all this done before stepping out of the car. He didn't want to look like one of those technology obsessed fools that couldn't tear himself away from his phone. Nicholas hastily stuffed the device back into his black slacks. He unconsciously adjusted the cuffs of the long sleeve white shirt he was wearing, his fingers brushing over the obsidian cuff links.

Nicholas pushed into the bookstore, organizing what books and magazines he wanted to get for the restaurant and wondering if he could get a bulk subscription through the store, or if he would have to contact the magazine companies directly. He grabbed a basket that was near the door, nodded to the polite but pale looking man that said hello, and began to browse the stacks, throwing books he liked the titles of into the basket.

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It seemed the person wasn't one for talking but that was okay. After all not everyone was a talkative sort and Cain was fine with talking, though that was hard to do when you had coughing fits. Watching the man walk about and look at the books, Cain turned his gaze away from the man and looked at the bandage on his hand. It was starting to get loose and that wasn't a good thing. So with his free hand, he tightened the white bandage that was around his hand for a moment.

"So how are you?" Cain asked.


(Ooc: -faceplant- I'm so so sorry for this awful post but I was drawing blanks on what to post. And it's a awful post at that)

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Nichols was concentrating on moving through the shelves as fast as possible. He had multiple other appointments that demanded his attention right away and he had to see to them all before dinner. He had concocted a new dish for the restaurant and a new drink for the club and he needed to make sure the staff new exactly how to prepare them.

The basket he had in his hand that he was casually flipping books into was almost full when the store clerk decided to open a line of conversation. However, he was almost done with these stacks and almost had the basket completely full, so Nicholas took a few more minutes of silence to finish both off.

Nicholas gave a small smile and an even smaller nod of his head to the store clerk as he sat the basket on the conunter. Filled with all manner of books, he pushed it to the side knowing he'd have at least three more baskets full before he was done and he was hoping to leave with closer to six baskets.

"I am doing well. How about yourself, sir?" He answered the clerk as he turned to pluck a new basket from the stack and moved to the next section of shelving, once again casually flipping whatever books caught his fancy down to land in the basket.

(It's ok, Nicholas can be kind of difficult sometimes and not leave people much to go on. )

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It was lovely to see that people liked to read and to see a whole basket full got the man surprised. Course this strange might've had a lot of spare time on their hands? Though seeing the man take up another basket caused more surprise to hit him. Okay then.....a lot of spare time?

"I'm doing well." Cain replied. "I take it your a very active reader?"

A lie of course but there was no reason to make the stranger concerned about him. It was bad enough that his coworkers freaked when he passed out yesterday. And they were still fussing about it. Trying to get him to go home and all of that stuff.

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Nicholas spared a glance at his black Rolex as he finished filling up the second book. This one had a lot more colorful children's books than the kart basket, but Nicholas liked the mix. Some people liked light reading and he tried to maintain a family atmosphere when the restaurant was open and these selections would help. His eyes roved over the myriads of shelves he still had to explore and also noted the location of the magazine rack.

He dropped the second full basket on the counter and started estimating in his head whether he'd have time to look through the large store or if he'd need to send his manager back later in the week to finish up. Deciding that he could push some of the appointments to a little later and still be on schedule, Nicholas plucked another basket from the stack and headed over to a new set of shelves which seemed to have more books suitable for adults.

"While I do like to read and will eventually read all of these, they are mainly for my customers use at my restaurant, should they like one. More and more these days, I see single diners coming in and thought they might appreciate something to keep them company."

Nicholas idly picked up a business card for the book store and stuffed it into his front shirt pocket before sliding past the counter to the third set of shelves he wanted to look at.

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"Ah, well that is good reason." Cain replied.

Cain never thought of that. Course he hardly ever went to restaurants and even if he had, he certainly never went to a one that actually cared. It was nice to see that this man seemed to care about people in the restaurant he owned. Watching the man place another basket on the counter and put a business card into their pocket, it would probably be best to start scanning these.

"Shall I start scanning these for you?" Cain asked, no harm in making sure.

After all, what the customer wanted was important and there was no reason to do something that would upset them. Though the all too familiar feeling started up in his throat and despite hoping that it wouldn't, he ended up starting to cough anyway. Placing his hand over his mouth, he tried to make the coughing stop but it was going strong.

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Nicholas quickly checked the black Rolex on his left wrist as he made his way to another shelf. He was running out of time and still had much of the store to look. He sighed imperceptibly as he started to flick more books into yet another basket. While he loved owning and operating his own business, it did make it hard for any free time to just enjoy the simple things. How long had it been since he'd had a morning to just relax and enjoy breakfast and swordplay?

Nicholas glanced with a little concern out of the corners of his eye at the poor clerk who sounded like he was hacking up a lung. If he didn't get that cough checked out soon, Nicholas knew that it could lead to some serious and permanent damage to the poor man's lungs.

Nicholas smiled in sympathy as he set the last basket on the counter and waits for the coughing fit to stop. He didn't have time to do anymore shopping and he couldn't push his other appointments back any further. He pulled out his wallet and slipped out the no limit credit card he used for business purchases.

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There was probably gonna be worse damage then to his lungs, after all. Having a vampire for a sister wasn't easy, especially when she didn't have to bite him to get blood. Pretty much cutting your own hands open seemed like the best way to do go about it so his sister wouldn't cause harm to anyone. Though it was certainly causing harm to him even if he didn't think so. After a few moments, the coughing finally stopped and it left Cain breathing heavily to regain the air he was losing constantly during the coughing. Once he had it back, he reached under the counter and rubbed hand sanitizer on his hand.

While he wasn't a health nut or anything like that, he knew it was the best thing to do. After all, it would show customers that the employes here did take precautions to make sure they weren't gonna get contaminated by something. Oh well.

"Sorry about that." Cain replied with a weak smile.

With the apology given, he started to ring up all the books. Man this guy was buying a lot of them but that was just how some people were. Plus the man did explain why he was buying so many. Once he had managed to get everything rung up, Cain took notice of the credit card. That was a way to pay for a large amount of things. Picking the card up, he scanned it and the card was indeed capable of handling the price of the books.

"Here you are." Cain said as he handed the card back to Nicholas. "Would you like the books in a plastic of brown paper bag?"

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Nicholas was absently checking his phone as the young man rang up all the books. He didn't even look up at the total as his card was swiped, he knew there would be no problems. He shot a quick text to his driver to make sure the back of the town car was open for all the books before quickly tucking his phone back into his pocket.

Nicholas quickly considered the best method of carrying out all these books. He honestly hated carrying things in bags if he could avoid it, it felt more like he was chained at the wrists than anything else. So instead he stacked the plastic baskets on top of each other.

"Actually, can I just borrow these baskets for the day? Or may I buy them? I promise to have my driver return them in a few hours if you'd let me borrow them."

Notching how some of the baskets were leaning precariously, he reached into the shadows that were in between the baskets and subtly bolstered them, making them into imperceptible shadow pillars. The baskets shifted slightly, aligning into a nice even stack which he hoped the clerk hadn't noticed.

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Hm.....could the man borrow the baskets? Cain didn't know how the other employees handled such a question nor what the boss would think. Buying them was something Cain didn't think could happen. Standing there, Cain turned his gaze away from Nicholas with a expression on his face showing that he was thinking on it. As such, he didn't notice the stack of baskets straight up and when he soon returned his gaze to him.

"Well, I think it be best to borrow them." Cain started. "No one's ever asked that before but I think borrowing is the best option."

It really did seem like it was the best thing. Even if Nicholas paid for them, Cain had no clue on how his boss would react to selling baskets. After all they were a bookstore and thus sold books. Not the baskets you carried round to collect your purchases in.

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Nicholas smiled pleasantly at the poor man. He knew it was a question completely out of left field and he hoped the clerk didn't get in trouble for being kind enough to left him borrow the baskets. He nodded his head as he singed the receipt with a quick flourish, not even bothering to look at the total. If something was off, his accounts manager would bring it to his attention, but he doubted the young clerk would have tried to cheat him.

Nicholas reached into his pocket and pulled out a double sided business card. One side had the name and address of his nightclub, the other the restaurant and both had his name and number on the bottom right corner. He's slid it across to the young man and then reached over to pick up all four baskets at once.

"In a case your manager asks about the baskets, there's my name and number. I plan on having my driver bring the baskets back in a few hours though. Also, keep that card. If you take it to either of the businesses listed and show it to them when you pay, you'll get 25%."

(OOC: I have to be the WORST RP partner in the history of RP. Im sorry for making you aviator so long again. Im trying to get into a routine where I check and post at least once a day. I promise I'll be better, if that is you still want to continue!)