a night like any other (prologue)
pairing: nanami kento x reader
series summary: it starts with a usual night at the hotel when your night audit lead calls for your numbers. but as time progresses, and fate deals a heavy hand, is there potential for more than just a fleeting infatuation?
tw/warnings: none really? mostly spelling errors and grammar as not proofread. if I missed any potentials tho, please let me know!
a/n: ahhhh my first attempt at a series on here, so i hope this is fine! I’ll try to write a full part 1 soon as I am also juggling another series I’ve been planning (but that one will be fully written out before I post it vs this one is my work project lol). I hope yall enjoy this snippet into what I hope will be a lovely mini series!
You were lounging in the back office of your front desk, scrolling through Pinterest while monitoring the lone camera that faced the front desk. It was six months into your night audit job at the Ryo Hotel in the city, and one of your first solo nights in who knows how long. Still, it was a weekday, which meant that things would not be so bad. And with the low occupancy? Well, it meant it would be a night filled with manga and anime if you had anything to say about it.
After six months, you had settled into a bit of a routine for how these slow nights would go. You’d talk with your PM shift and go over any pending issues that may arise, and then man the front desk for an hour as guests cleared from your lobby and you gathered the necessary numbers to submit to your leads. All simple stuff and not at all time consuming, you had optimized it to be done in half an hour.
Which left you here, now, waiting for your leads to call to confirm your numbers so that you knew when to run your audit. When Pinterest got too boring, you looked to the large Carhartt tote that was now a staple piece for you—wondering just which item in the overflowing bag would entertain you.
You pressed ‘#-0’ before the phone could reach its fourth ring, pulling out the sheet without looking at the caller ID. Who else would be calling this late at night?
“Ryo Hotels in Shibuya, how may I help you?” You said the mantra in your cheery-customer service voice, fully on autopilot.
“Hi, it’s Kento, just calling for your numbers.”
You couldn’t help the slight curl of your lips and shortness in breath as his smooth, melodic voice caressed your ears through the phone’s speaker.
Clearing your throat, you kept an easy back and forth as he verified everything you had submitted. With everything looking good, you said your goodbyes and ended the call.
And that was that, the entire highlight of your shift done in under a minute.
But you couldn’t ignore the slight blush across your cheeks.
You had not met Nanami Kento, had made sure not to be a stalker and look him up on LinkedIn either. All you knew was that he was one of your leads from a Yaga Hotel in Kawasaki, and he had an oh so lovely voice that you loved to roll around in your head. You both belonged to the same hotel management company: Ita Hotels, but different brands and a whole city away meant your paths were never meant to cross.
But you could not say you minded that, exactly. Nanami served his purpose well. A bit of ear candy that you never really had to interact with, nor would you ever be disappointed if he wasn’t single or just plain not your type. You could admire him during those few nights you heard his voice and that was good enough for you.
Anything else you figured would be a bit creepy.
Now knowing you had two hours to kill until you needed to run audit, you pulled out your Switch 2, fully intent on starting a new Skyrim playthrough, when the phone rang again.
Confused, you answered it, giving your usual greeting.
“Just calling for your numbers.”
You frowned. “But you just… took my numbers?”
“No, Gojo said he needed more time.”
Your frown deepened. Because Gojo was not an employee at your hotel. Well, not exactly. Sure, he worked at the one right next to yours and could definitely be counted on to bother you during your shifts with his antics and sarcasm. He also was the last resort to cover if something ever happened where you and your other two coworkers could not come in.
But the fact remained, Nanami—sweet, perfect, Nanami—had made a mistake.
You could hear a woman gently speak to him informing him as such.
Gods, was it so wrong you wanted to hear him say that again?
Nanami cleared his throat. “My apologies, it appears I called the wrong hotel. I meant to call the Resurgence next door.”
“That’s alright,” you said in a far huskier tone than you intended. “It happens.”
“Right, um—“ Nanami cleared his throat again. “Have a good night.”
And then promptly hung up the phone.
You stared at the receiver for a moment, cursing yourself for making things awkward. It hadn’t at all been intentional and yet… it happened.
Gods, you couldn’t afford to lose this job. Not when you just got settled at a second one so you could afford to move out. Your mind began to spiral before you occupied yourself with a different distraction—your switch—and played it late into the night until audit came and went and then until AM shift came to relieve you.
But that didn’t stop your brain from berating yourself the entire way home.
Nanami groaned as he hung up the receiver—silencing Gojo's giggles. He leaned back in his seat, ignoring the grinning Shoko and Haibara lounging around the back office of their hotel.
“You could just admit you like hearing her voice,” Shoko deadpanned.
Nanami glared at her. “It was a simple mistake.”
“You make mistakes?” Haibara cocked his head to the side. “That’s some new information.”
Nanami returned to his own nightly audit tasks, surveying the list of hotels he still needed to call.
But he would be lying if he said he wasn’t thinking of your sweet voice the rest of the night, wondering if he’d ever get to hear it more or if you both would continue on like this—ships passing in the night with a one minute phone call a few times a week.
a/n: thank you so so much if you made it this far and I hope you enjoyed! I’ll try to work on the next part ASAP as well as some other one shot ideas I’ve been having (and if you have requests, please let me know as this has been so good to get out of a writing slump)
