creepycreepyspacewizard:

6. Bookshop AU & 63. Mistaken For A Couple

Techie has a Masters in computer science and no particular wish to run the specialist bookstore he inherited from Brendol, but Armitage already has a successful career and they did both agree that it’d be a shame to shutter a business that was doing so well despite the economic climate.

Some people are surprised that the ‘blind’ brother was the one to take on the business, but contrary to popular belief Techie has retained about 20% of his vision. He can easily manage the financial side of the business with the help of screen reading software and luckily he has just enough vision to see that the nervous, awkward young man applying for the clerks job is really well build under his ill fitting clothes.

Matt isn’t the sort of person you’d expect to see in customer service. He’s too easily riled up, too quick to take offence, but Techie soon works out how to calm him with gentle reassuring touches to the back or shoulder, and Matt proves himself to be amazingly tenacious with suppliers. The bookstore soon gets a reputation as the best place for hard to find books because Matt will always get whatever the customer asks for.

The two of them enjoy working together, they develop an unspoken routine of morning coffees and lunchtime treats, working late just because they find pleasure in one another’s company but neither of them realising just how close they’re getting. At a local business owners gathering Techie hears someone talking about ‘the gay couple with the successful bookstore’ and he spends two weeks trying to work out who the competition is. It’s only when Matt takes a day off for dental work and a regular asks where Techie’s boyfriend is that it suddenly occurs to him. And that idea doesn’t sound half bad…