Crashing Into Love
By Laura Schiller
Series: Shugo Chara
Copyright: Peach Pit
CRASH!
Books, papers, pens and an empty coffee mug went flying every which way across the white tiles and beige walls of the Easter Corporation's office building. Sanjou Yukari landed painfully on her bottom and her outstretched hands, cursing involuntarily as a tiny, but distinctive ripping sound filled the air. Damn it – there goes my last pair of pantyhose.
"Watch where you're going, you moron!" she snapped, picking herself up with care to avoid any further damage to the delicate fabric around her legs. "You could've – "
Her tirade got stuck in her throat as she caught sight of the man she had bumped into. He was wearing a beige suit and reading glasses, just like her, but that was where the similarities ended.
His hair was the color of caramel, wavy and tied back in a messy ponytail. His bright green eyes were scrunched up into a nervous, rueful smile like the look of a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He was so...cute. No other word could describe it.
"I'm so sorry, Miss," he said in a light, warm, tenor voice, scrambling to his feet and then kneeling down again to collect his papers. "I'm just in such a hurry...are you okay? No bruises? No injuries? Great."
Yukari helped him gather his posessions, earning a meltingly grateful look. She found it very gratifying that he was calling her Miss; at twenty-eight people were starting to call her Ma'am and it aggravated her more than she would admit.
"I'm Nikaido Yuu, by the way," he said. "I've just been hired as a research assistant. At the Secret Department," he added with an air of mystery, as if hoping she would ask him what that department did.
"Oh, I'm in that department too. Sanjou Yukari, pleased to make your acquaintance."
The Secret Department was devoted to the search for the Embryo.
"Likewise, I'm sure." They bowed. "So, Sanjou-san. Is there anything I can do to make up for knocking you over like that? It was awfully rude of me."
Yukari, being a red-blooded woman underneath her starchy business suit, could think of several interesting things – and to her own dismay, she blushed.
"Er, well..."
"Why don't I take you out for a drink this evening? The Blue Angel Barat ten sound good?" He gave her an unmistakably admiring look, his emerald eyes glowing. Suddenly she wished she had put on contact lenses instead of those nerdy rectangular glasses of hers.
"Sounds great." She smiled, trying not to sound too eager.
"I'll look forward to it, Sanjou-san." He beamed, hugging the stack of books. "Oops, look at the time. Gotta run now! Bye!"
He set off at a reckless pace down the hall, showing her why they had bumped into each other in the first place. Yukari rolled her eyes – Clumsy fool! – but a smile hovered around the corners of her mouth for the rest of the day.
