„AHHHHHHHHHH!" She fell on her bed, hugged her favorite cuddle-pillow and began to scream into it as she curled and rolled around.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" A sleepy voice said and she froze over, slowly peeking past her pillow to see her brother, she was living with until she found something cheap enough to afford on her own.
"You look like a dear caught in the headlights." He mumbled and she couldn't help but grin, jumping up as she still pressed the pillow to her chest she was suddenly in front of him.
"I have it!"
"You have what?"
"The job, THE job!"
"Which one?"
"The one in America, in freaking California!" She said and would the pillow have been a cat it would have been died of the force behind her cuddling.
"Really?"
"Uh-huh!" She jumped back to the bed and took the letter, showing it to him, he took it and read through it, then he smiled at her.
"I'm glad you got the job but won't it be hard to see each other?" She pulled the pillow up until it hid half her face.
"At first… I'll come and visit you and the others when I have enough money! I promise, we'll keep in touch through Skypeia!"
"My little sister is going all alone into a whole new land… We have to make a party!" she hid in her pillow as she let herself fall onto the bed, screaming again. She felt like she could burst, explode and implode at the same time out of happiness. She had really wanted this job and now she had gotten it!
"Gosh! Chris! I need a place to stay! And a bank account and…, and…, and…!" She was rushing in circles as she went to her laptop and then went to pick up her phone, the next few hours they spend searching for a small flat that she could afford with little pay, she had saved much money for this, so she could go there, the most important things she had already taken care of when she had send her applications.
"Really?" She sighed and pressed the red button, another now, she glanced at her brother, he sounded hopeful.
"Sounds good to me, wait I'll give you my sister so you can discuss it with her." He smiled at her and she felt hope swell inside of her as she got the phone, he gave her a thumbs up and left, she knew it was time the two eat something, also his girlfriend would be coming over in a few.
"Hello?"
"Is that Annabelle Meyer?"
"Yes, Sir."
"You sound nice enough, I've got a free room it's not big so don't expect too much." She smiled as she looked out of the window.
"I don't need much space, I'll be working or out most of the time either way, it's more for sleeping than anything else." She replied, now looking at her things, if she was able to live in this small room she would get by!
"Okay, how old are you?"
"23 in this May." She said and bit her lip.
"Okay, can you email me your references? Your brother said you had a job but I would like to check that first."
"Of course." She scribbled his email down and then gave her greetings. As she ended the call she hugged the phone and heard it ring, jumping up she was at the door and opened it, smiling at the girlfriend of her brother.
"There are great news! I've got the job and maybe I have a room!" She said the words so fast it felt like a waterfall of words left her mouth at once. The other girl smiled at her and gave her a quick hug.
"Where's Chris?"
"Kitchen. Oh I've got to pack!" She was just so happy.
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"This really is goodbye eh?" She nodded, already feeling the tears and tried to blink them away.
"I'll miss you all so much!" She said and rubbed the first tear away, feeling sad and excited at the same time.
"We'll miss you too, so make sure to visit us." She nodded, hugging the tallest of her friends who easy reached seven foot. One after the other until she hugged her brother and was crying desperately.
"I want to take you all with me." She choked out and hugged them for a second time, until her brother hushed her to hurry or she would miss her flight. Biting her lip after she got through the safety-check and was labeled as safe, she turned once more to look at her friends for the last time in long. She waved her mother, who stood with her boyfriend behind her friends. Her father wasn't there, neither were her sisters, she didn't want them to know, having broken the contact as soon as she had left the house and moved in with her brother. He wasn't really her brother, but both had the same feeling on this, like brother and sister. She had loved having an older brother who looked after her and maybe she had a small brother-complex but she didn't care. She had needed him to fill the gap her parent's divorce had ripped in her heart.
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The heat was something she had not expected to be this… different. Taking a deep breath she had a hard time to get used to the dry air, she was used to Germany's air, which she found a lot wetter in compare. A taxi brought her to even deeper into the big city, halting in front of an expensive-looking building. She gaped at it and gulped, blushing as she saw the dirty look the boy at the door threw her. The driver put her two big suitcases out of the car and she took them after giving the man the pay and a nice amount of a tip. He had to drive around in a hot car all day, at least he should get enough for that. As she was more and more troubled with the big suitcases a man seemed to finally notice her problem and calmly walked to her. She stopped in her struggling and envied the man. He looked comfortable in the heat and he smelled so rich she was worried he might smell her sweating due to the hot air.
"Annabelle Meyer?" He asked and she nodded, recognizing the voice immediately.
"You're Mister Dracule, Sir?" He mustered her from head to toe first and then nodded.
"Yes, let me help you Miss Meyer" She may have expected him to take one of the suitcases but he simply looked at the boy at the door and snipped.
"Boy, take those suitcases to my penthouse." She nodded inwardly, he smelled like rich. The boy struggled with the suitcases, but he seemed to soon find a way to get them up the stairs with little effort and then it seemed easy, there were three lifts. One was for package and personal, the other two were for visitors and those that owned one of the big penthouses. As the elevator opened, in one of the highest floors she noted with a bit of concern and excitement at the same time, she gasped. There was more space in this one room that greeted her then in the big living-room her childhood-house had. She fast closed her mouth, noticing that it was improper and tried a weak smile at the tall man next to her.
"Come in, I'll show you your room." As she followed him she noticed the soft beige carpet that stretched over most of the floor, the kitchen-part was laid out with black tiles and one wall was nearly all windows, showing a breathtaking view over the city. He opened one of the white doors and she stared at the room behind it, taking in every detail she could this fast. The walls were cream-colored with a Rubin-red bordure that snaked its way once around the room. Dark wood stretched over the floor and a big bed was pushed against the wall opposite of the door. The whole room was decorated in red, cream and dark brown. It gave of a warm but clean feeling.
"This will be your room. I'll show you the rest of the penthouse, then get ready, we'll discuss a few rules." She nodded, there had already been many things he had asked about her and a lot of rules he had mentioned beforehand, as well as a few questions he noted her answers too, saying it told him what he wanted to know. She had not been the only one interested in living here and she knew she was very lucky, especially since this room was a lot bigger then what she had expected. After her suitcases had been brought she hurried in sorting the clothes into the closet and then went to take a short shower, she didn't want to stay sweaty. The penthouse had been big, it was decorated in a modern style and with a few more or less classy details she found very loveable.
Dressing in black jeans and a grey tank with a short black jacket over it she put on her silver amulet and redid her makeup, letting her hair free from its tail for it was now colder outside. When she had put on her slightly heeled shoes she smiled, she looked so classy in this room, with her good clothes. Her friends had given her a lot of money so she could buy nice clothes for her new job and the girls had taken her to shopping. She smiled, pulling on the top a bit, this one had been picked up by J. She felt a bit sad, not knowing when the next time was she would be able to see them, but she was also so happy, her dream was coming true. She was in America! Taking a few deep breaths she finally left her room and saw Mihawk, he told her to call him by his given name, he wasn't that old.
"Come." He simply said after mustering her once. The way he simply turned made her feel worthless, those things were cute and she knew she looked good in them! A small sigh left her as she once again had to accept that she, like most women, simply gave too much on others opinion but was unable to simply not care.
The restaurant was just like the rest of the building: big, sparkly and smelling like rich. As she sat down at one of the tables she saw why he had mustered her with that kind of look, everybody else did too, not as discrete as they seemed to think and she blushed, looking down embarrassed. The women here wore all dresses, some long, others short, but all looked expensive and smelled like rich.
"Don't care that much for others opinion." She glanced up at Mihawk, he sat with a perfectly straight back, hands on the table with a white shirt that had the two upper buttons undone and a black blazer, his dark hair was combed back but had a few unruly strands that gave him a more sexy look, as well as his piercing eyes of yellow. He way better then she thought she ever could.
"May I take your order?" The waitress clearly ogled Mihawk and send me a few short glares, those I replied by smiling at her. Mihawk didn't ask what I wanted, he simply ordered and I was angry that he even got something I liked.
"Let's get to business…"
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She took a few deep breaths, checking her outfit for the hundreds of times and chewed on her lip. She wore a tight black skirt that had thin white sewn stripes, her light blue blouse was opened at the first few buttons and showed a minor amount of her generous chest. Her feet were in heeled shoes, but she had made sure they weren't too high to walk in a whole day. She put on her thin summer-coat and brushed the few loose strands that framed her face behind her ear, before pulling them back again to frame her face. The rest of her mid-length hair was in a high ponytail. She looked at the clock, there was no more time, Mihawk would take her to work this morning since there had not been any chance to search out the subway she would need to take up till now.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes." She opened the door and smiled shyly, waiting for the judge to decide.
"Suits you." She relaxed and let out a small breath she was holding, this meant she didn't look too bad. She was anxious and scared and excited for her new job, having gone there only once before to get to know her new boss she was now full of concerns. What if she didn't do good enough? What if she had to go back to Germany, hung by her shame? She bit on her lip nervously.
"Stop doing that." She turned to look at him.
"What?"
"Stop chewing on your lip." He said again and she let go of her lip, to get distracted from her thoughts she mustered the car. It was one of the expensive types, she could smell that by the way it still had the new-car smell lingering on it, as well as the shiny wood and soft leather of the décor and seats. Letting her hands run over the pale leather of her seat she closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling, she had always loved to feel leather, so soft and so interesting.
"How long do you plan on stroking the seat?" She blushed and opened her eyes, quickly pulling her hands into her lap.
"Sorry." She piped up.
"We're there." She looked to the side and noticed all the stares, feeling even more nervous it felt like she had a lump in her throat, making it harder to breath. She held onto her amulet in hope of help and turned a last time.
"I'll come and pick you up at seven." She nodded and with a last wish that everything would go nice unfastened her seatbelt and opened the door, taking her little bag she carefully closed the door and gave a weak wave, then the car drove off. As she turned to make her way to her new life, and office, she tried to ignore the stares but couldn't help the blush that spread over her cheeks. The elevator was full, she was feeling even more uneasy and had no idea where to look at, two other females somehow got inside the already fully used space and giggled. They were talking fast, but Ann wasn't different and thus could easily understand what the males in the elevator tried to grasp. As the door opened with a "Bing" on her floor she barely got out in time and then saw the other two women, they had went to a group of desks and sat down, a third female smiled at them and held up a can with what looked like coffee. This reminded her of the time she had learned, such a good job and she even did very good in it, but in the end… it had not gotten her what she had wished for, until now.
She walked towards the glass-door and opened it, closing it behind her and sat down at the lonely desk. There was one other desk at the other side of the room, it was filled by pink little stuffed animals and all kind of accessories in pale colors. Just as she sat down at her new desk and had started her computer a woman came flying in, her long pale-pink locks gracefully put up at the higher back of her head in a knot and a few loose strands framed her face with a fringe. She wore tight washed-out jeans with pink boots that were way higher then Ann thought healthy and a red tube-top with a white short jacket over it. Her small bag was a cherry red and her big eyes were framed by thick eyelashes. She was a beauty to behold, her red-painted lips moved fast as she spoke to a person on her phone. She didn't stop talking as she started her computer, put her bag down, started to look through the files on her desk and then finally looked up and stopped talking.
"Bearsy, Honey, I gotta hang up, I'll call back later." She slid her finger over the touchscreen of her phone and put said thing down, standing up she walked over to Ann.
"So, who are you? Oh wait, the boss mentioned something about a new secretary! What's your name? I'm Perona, nice to meet you, hey do you like animals?" She talked fast and Ann smiled, this was her speed of talking.
"Nice to meet you too, I'm Annabelle, but call me Ann." Perona seemed to glow with happiness.
"A woman after my taste!" She squealed and suddenly hugged Ann.
"Come, I'll show you and get you to know everything." Before she could protest she was grabbed by her arm and pulled out of the glass-office. Perona was fast in showing Ann where the kitchen was, the restrooms and the small cafeteria they had downstairs. After she was introduced to the three women from earlier - Nico Robin, Neferatri Vivi and Mikan Nami – she was glad to sit in her chair again. Over the day she got different files to sort away, plan diners with business-partners of her boss and get rid of people who offered strange services she once even looked at her phone with shock and Perona began to laugh so hard she had to apologize to the person she was talking with on the phone.
"What happened?" she asked after she hang up and rubbed her tears away.
"Is it normal for people to call here… to sell sex-toys?" Ann asked and Perona fell into another flash of laughing, rubbing her tears away again and again. She nodded, putting a small pale-blue dog back to his place on top of her eraser-pyramid. Ann couldn't help but laugh too, this was just too strange! The first time she actually got to see her boss that day was at three o'clock. He looked stressed and was continually talking to a person on the phone. Ann gulped as she saw him, he only passed by and came back a few minutes later with a cup of coffee before he went back into his office.
"Oh I know… some sexy as hell Hottie!" Ann looked at Perona, her interest was dimmed by the possible interest of the other woman.
"He's like mister Perfect. Good-looks, the right money, taste in more than only what he is wearing and he's even single." Ann tilted her head to the side.
"So why didn't you make a jump at him then?"
"Can't ever do that to my son. Bearsy is my one and all, plus no mixing of work and private life! It's only ruin to everything."
"You talk about love, right?" She looked shocked as she realized and then fast nodded.
"Of course, we have to take a good drink sometime after all!" Ann laughed and scribbled a few notes onto a post-it before she stuck it onto a file. She knocked and waited a few minutes before she opened the door, her boss sat at a huge desk, papers filled nearly all of the surface and various names were scribbled down, there were different pens and even more pencils stew over the papers, some showed the slightest of new design, others were full of text. She cleared her throat and the blonde man looked up, he raised a brow in surprise and put down his half-moon glasses.
"Who are you?" She felt annoyed by the question but decided that he looked way too stressed to be put into responsibility.
"I'm Annabelle Meyer, your secretary from today onwards, I thought one had informed you but it seems nobody did, so, nice to meet you Sir. Oh and this is something from red-Line records, they said they want your opinion on the designs." She put the file down and turned to leave.
"Annabelle." She stopped and turned once more.
"Welcome to the family." As he smiled at brightly she felt the heat rush to her neck, ears and cheeks.
"Thanks." She barely got out before she turned and fast left, back at her desk she stared at nothing, not even noticing the phone ringed until Perona threw one of her stuffed animals at her. Fast she picked up and discussed with the man who wanted her to buy some strange magazine from him.
"My… you went in confident and come out in trance and blushing like mad, did he ravish you?" Perona asked with a wide smile as she painted her nails in cherry-red.
"He smiled…" Ann mumbled and hid her face in her hands.
"He smiled, for real?! Gosh, you have luck! He doesn't do that often." Peeking past her fingers at Perona she saw that the pink-haired meant what she said.
"America is so weird." She mumbled and let herself slide into half-laying on her desk. Perona laughed.
"It was probably your accent, one can only love it."
"My accent?" Ann raised her pose a bit, glancing at Perona.
"Yes, it's sweet. Most people have such a heavy accent, but yours is subtle but still good to hear out, it's nice to listen to."
"Argh." Ann mumbled and let herself sink back down, there was a knocking on the doorframe and as she looked up she saw Nami with a cup of coffee standing there.
"What happened to Missy?"
"Marco smiled at her." Perona said and blew over her nails, looking satisfied with the outcome.
"He smiled? Wow… you let your magic accent lull him in?" Ann groaned and got laughs as reply.
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The day went over with Ann avoiding to meet her boss and Perona talking about her son and how well he was doing in school. As it was seven her phone suddenly went off and she jumped a little.
"Meyer?"
"I'm here, hurry up I have a few things to do." Before she could answer the line was cut off and she stared at her phone.
"I got to go, see you tomorrow Perona."
"Was that your boyfriend?"
"I've got no boyfriend." She snarled as she put her summer-coat on and hadn't noticed that her boss had come out of his office.
"Nice to know, however, where do you think you're going?" she blushed and slowly turned around, seeing him with crossed arms in front of her desk.
"Uhm… home?" She said confused, he raised a brow.
"It's only seven." She sighed and fiddled with the hem of her coat, her bag lay in front of her on her desk, it was all tidied up.
"I don't mind staying longer tomorrow, but today I can't." It felt like everything had gone silent to witness the misery. Ann began to chew on her lip as she was nervous, her first day and she was making a bad impression, she would be back in Germany sooner then she wished and she felt the desperate tears burn already in her eyes. She would ruin everything she had ever wanted.
"I told you I'll come to pick you up at seven, I just called you five minutes ago, why aren't you downstairs and in my car yet?!" she glanced up with big eyes at Mihawk, he looked a bit stressed out and she felt it was partly her fault, he had hurried to get there punctual and she was running late. She would surely loose the room and then she would have to sleep out on the streets and get herself a new job before she was send back to Germany because America didn't want someone like her! She could already see her demise right in front of her eyes.
"And you are who, to demand my secretaries schedule?" Marco asked and somehow the room filled with more and more testosterone. Ann could see Perona stare at the two men with wide eyes and as if she couldn't decide who was better looking and then stared at her, admiration in her eyes.
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She lay in her bed, covered by the blanket as she stared through the big glass-wall over the enlightened city. Mihawk and Marco had something like a stare-down, only it looked as if they would both fall down the next second as they looked both so exhausted. In the end she promised to stay longer the next day and had fast grabbed Mihawk and took it for a run, not literally but it surely looked like she fled, which she did. The next day would turn out very uncomfortable, she just knew it, as she slowly drifted to sleep she smiled. Her last thoughts with her brother and friends she had just before sent an email telling them that she had already found someone to chat with during work… Her dreams being her usual mysteries mixed with crocodiles…
Tell me what you think. You of course don't have to but I'm always unsure if everybody gets my kind of strange thoughts and ways I describe things sometimes…
I tend to throw everything together and this story as absolutely no plot, I'm simply writing how it comes to my mind, so please don't ask how something will turn out, I have no idea myself. Also even if I go as far as to plan something out, it will mostly go another direction because my brain likes that idea better at the moment.
Pairs? Any? Which ones? No idea. They come and go. I'll probably let you decide in the end and take a count on who you want Annabelle to be with… your momentary choices, as of how far this Story goes:
Mihawk
Marco
That's it, for now at least, I have a little idea about the next chapter it has to do with subways… oh any suggestions on who I should let her meet next?
Bye bye
-chan