Office on Fire
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters etc
Chapter One
Satoshi walked down the street, she had found herself doing this a lot lately but not by choice. Her rust bucket of a car was on its last legs, unfortunately the weekly repair bill to get it going was now more than she spent on petrol and to make matters worse she couldn't figure out the bus timetable so she always missed the bus and was left to power walk to work. When she finally arrived at work out of breath and red faced she got glared at for being late and had to work over her lunch break. But today was different, today Satoshi had planned to walk to work, she got up an hour earlier than usual, carefully did her makeup and tied her long curly red hair into a tight bun to prevent the wind messing it and packed a bag with her favourite heels so she could wear flats until she got to work. It was a reasonably pleasant walk, the streets were nearly empty of people except for the trash collectors, cleaners, homeless stoop-sleepers, shop owners and people who had nothing else to do other than get up early, an occasional cloud drifted in front of the morning sun and only a slight breeze ruffled the orange and yellow leaves that had fallen from the evenly spaced trees to litter the pavement and fill the gutters. Satoshi loved to live in the city. City's have mood and emotions, and the bigger they are the more they have, in autumn the city always looked so crisp in the morning, stuffy at noon and impatient at night, always changing and reflecting the thoughts of the population. It was so different to the small boring town that Satoshi grew up in, nothing ever changed in small towns, they always felt and acted the same, were filled with the same characters and everyone was always too depressed to do anything new or were anxious to escape the place.
Satoshi looked up at the giant clock on the front of the Juchaman building just as its chimes began to indicate that it was 7:30, it would take Satoshi about 14 more minutes to reach the high rise building, then about 1 minute to get to the elevator and get off on the 4th floor. That left quarter of an hour for her to get rid of the slight pink tinge that had managed to creep into her cheeks, check her makeup, change her shoes, make a coffee and straighten her desk before most of her co-workers arrived.
Everything went exactly as Satoshi had planned; she got safely to her cubical and had everything perfect when her boss walked in with the new employee. Satoshi's boss was called Kanoya, he was 35 years old, had blonde hair, sparkly blue eyes, was easy to smile, slightly chubby and always wore a suit and shirt but no tie.
"Good morning Satoshi" he smiled to her, he had a nice smile.
Satoshi smiled back, then she noticed the man standing slightly behind Kanoya, he must be the new employee. Kanoya noticed her looking and cleared his throat so her gaze returned to him before telling her "this is Ryoga, today will be his first day at work, so... make sure you make him feel welcome"
"Nice to meet you" Satoshi said as she shook Ryoga's cold hand, Ryoga merely looked into her eyes and nodded slightly before Kanoya indicated for Ryoga to follow him to his office. Satoshi watched them walk down the 'hallway' that ran the length of the cubicle filled room and enter Kanoya's office at the end.
"Was that the new guy?" a female voice asked from the cubicle on Satoshi's right, Nabiki had obvious arrived.
"Mmmm... um... yeah" Satoshi replied as she forced herself out of the daydream that she hadn't even noticed herself falling into "his names Ryoga"
"Ryoga, huh" Nabiki said.
"What do you mean 'huh'?" Satoshi asked as she looked up at Nabiki who was looking over the cubicle divider.
"Nothing... I just went to school with a guy called Ryoga, he was a total jerk, made me have an instant dislike for anyone with that name. But I'm sure this Ryoga is lovely" she laughed as she sat down at her own desk so Satoshi could no longer see her. Nothing more was said and they both started their days work.
About an hour later Satoshi noticed Kanoya giving Ryoga a tour of the office, another hour after that they were standing next to Satoshi telling her that Ryoga would have the cubicle to her right. Ryoga still didn't speak to her.