PA Day
Allen Walker
The computer screen before me glowed bright white, multiple documents open and filled with sets of numbers that make sense to none if not cross-referenced with their counterparts in the neat piles of paperwork laid out beside me, all signed and alphabetized. All the desks were arranged in the proper cubicle-like manner, as nearly all firms such as these should be.
A cough from behind drew my attention, and I swivelled on my turning chair to find my immediate superior, Reever Wenham, standing before me, so I politely removed my black wire-rimmed reading glasses and looked up at the man expectantly.
Reever rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Allen, I'd like to speak with you for a moment."
The serious tone at which he used turned my blood cold. "Oh god… I'm fired." My mind went into overdrive, running through any and all possible situations that may have been the cause behind such a thing to occur, and I nearly cried at all the reasons I found in such a short span of time. "I didn't mean to order Komui decaf! I'm sorry for getting lost in file storage again! I'll stop snacking in the office! It's not my fault that the print-"
"Allen!" Reever held up his hands in the universal 'calm down' gesture, a bemused smile on his face. "You're not fired. God no. You're one of the best this company has; there is no way in hell we're losing you."
The relief that came from his reassurance was soon drowned out by the embarrassment that flooded through me over my little outburst and his praise "Then what is it?" I ask, fingers twitching nervously as I tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear, a habit I'd developed sometime in my mid-teens.
"Well, there's been a bit of a situation upstairs…" He began awkwardly. "You know who 'Yu Kanda' is, right?"
I nodded at the question. Of course I did. Everyone knew the name 'Yu Kanda'.
He was the third adopted son of Froi Teidoll, the Chairman of one of America's most up-and-coming design companies, The Black Order. Which was where we were right now.
Mr. Teidoll spent years building this company up from nothing, and his two other sons, one a musician, the other an international soccer star, were both sponsored by it. As a result, they also promoted the company by wearing its designs when taking part in interviews and the like.
That being said, Yu Kanda currently had near total control over the company, seeing as Mr. Teidoll had chosen to stay as Chairman in name only, with his youngest being the Vice Chairman. Even though he'd managed to erect offices all over the world and sell overseas, rumour had it that his personality was complete crap. Some said his simple presence enough to make one uncomfortable, others called him an emotionless bastard, while most just went with 'downright rude'. I could honestly say that I'd never had, and never will have any intentions of meeting the man.
"His PA quit this morning."
I nearly dropped my glasses. "It's only Tuesday!" That man went through PA's faster than an alcoholic could drown himself in… well… alcohol.
"We don't really have the time to find him a new one just yet, so could you fill the position for a while?"
My heart thumped against my chest. "I don't think I'm the right person for the job." God no!
"Nonsense!" Reever clasped my hands in his own, brown eyes wide with desperation. "I specifically recommended you to Komui, and he wholeheartedly agreed with me."
Please don't do this to me!
"It's only temporary, but this is a good opportunity for you," he continued, leaning in closer.
A bead of sweat rolled down my forehead. "How temporary?" A day? Please less than a day!
"A week at the most; just till we find a replacement."
His words made my heart sink. "I don't know…"
"We don't have anyone else to rely on." His tone had almost turned to begging now.
Swallowing my discomfort, I slowly give the sandy-haired man a nod. "Sure… I guess." Urg. Why am I such a pushover?
"Great!" He pulled me up, dragging me off in the direction of the main office's department head. "Komui!" He shouted excitedly, throwing open the door, "he agreed!"
"Fantastic!" A hand was suddenly at my lower back, guiding me to the lift. Another hand clamped down on my shoulder, almost like the purple-haired man was trying to prevent me from escaping. That thought only made the anxiousness I felt severely worse.
Komui pressed the button for the twenty-seventh floor, a place I'd never been before. The highest I'd ever gone to was eleven, and that was only because I'd somehow gotten lost. That was the last time I'd ever taken the stairs.
I prayed that the lift ride would last much longer as my palms grew sweaty, dread filling me when the door's slid open with an innocent 'ping'.
"Kanda~!" Komui called out in a singsong voice. "I've got your temp~!"
He flung open the door without waiting for an answer, pushing me in before him.
The first thing that stood out to me about the lightly-tanned man inside was his eyes; two orbs of azure that glared over at me unpleasantly. The next was his hair; long navy-blue tresses held up by a simple red Chinese-style tie. The third thing was the fact that he grimaced the moment he laid eyes on me.
Well this is going to be fun.
"This is him?" The man asked rudely, leaning back in his seat.
"Yep!" Komui said, obviously completely oblivious to the tension thick in the room. "Have fun you two~"
And then the traitorous bastard left me here alone with the dreaded Vice Chairman of The Black Order Design Company.
Yu Kanda stood, taking a folder from his desk and walking towards me. It took all I could to not back away from him with every step closer he took.
Instead of stopping right in front of me, he circled me, looking me up and down with critical eyes while I stayed perfectly still, not daring to move without his permission in case I somehow managed to upset him, even though his sharp gaze made my spine feel all tingly.
I don't like him.
How could I? That sneer on his lips was doing nothing to change my view.
"Follow."
I walked out behind him, stopping when he threw the thick manila folder on the sleek black desk by the left of the door I'd been through twice now.
"You'll work here." He crossed his arms, already appearing bored with my presence. "These are last month's stock statistics for women's clothes sizes eight through to twelve from the Asia branch; transfer all of the data to computer, sort it by size, email it to me, then leave."
With that, my charming boss turned and slammed his door shut, signalling the end of our lovely first 'conversation', leaving me now knowing exactly what it was that caused all those PA's to quit.
WVW
My first day as the PA of Yu Kanda hadn't actually been as bad as I'd envisioned.
Actually, it hadn't even been a full day. There were still about four hours left, seeing as a normal work day ended at about five for me, usually beginning at about seven or eight. The folder he'd given me had only contained about fifteen or so sheets, meaning after roughly four hours, I was done. It had been pretty easy, nowhere near as difficult as what I'd done down in Komui's department. Then again, Komui always had piles and piles of documents, so those weren't actually difficult, more like there was just a never-ending supply of them...
A vibrating feeling in my pocket was what caught my attention, and I pulled out my white iPhone 4 to read the text that flashed across the screen.
Lenalee 7m ago
[ I'm off early and I kno you are 2 😘 ]
slide to reply
I smiled to myself as I pocketed the device, moving to unlock the car door. All I had to do was wait a few seconds and a force strong enough to rival that of an American footballer slammed into my side. "Morning, Allen!"
Lenalee grinned down at me as winced and rubbed my arm. Even without her high heels, she was still about three inches taller than me; it was just plain old cruelty that I stopped growing the moment I hit sixteen.
While I'd brooded on my height, or lack thereof, she'd slid into the passenger's seat and was now buckling in. "Come on, slowpoke! We've got shopping to do!"
Now that I thought about it, Lenalee had been wanting to get a new pair of boots…
WVW
Lenalee tugged my arm, pulling me into the seventh shoe store today, ignoring the chatter of the people around us. The two of us weren't so oblivious to the whispering as we made out to be. It was obvious, really, seeing as Lenalee Lee was, in fact, one of The Black Order's most exclusive models.
And why wouldn't she be?
She was a natural beauty; from her warm lilac eyes, to her Junoesque figure, it was as if she were made for the job. Her personality was nearly flawless, and she held herself with a kind of grace that was rare to see nowadays.
Then again, I may be a tad biased, considering she was my first ever friend and all. Or, it was more like she was the first ever person to ever truly show me kindness. She was the one to teach me that not all humans were monsters. She was like a goddess to someone as dirty as myself. Of course, I would never tell her that, unless I wanted her to deck me. She hated hearing me degrade myself like that.
"Allen!"
My head snapped up at the sound of my name to find Lenalee with her brows raised. She'd probably been calling me for some time now, considering the look she was now giving me. "Ah! Sorry! I kinda zoned out…"
"I gathered that." She gave me a wry smile. "Well, what do you think?" She modelled for me a pair of red leather boots, decorated only by a strange black bow on either shoe. They were absolutely hideous.
I wanted to tell her that they looked good, I really did, because I didn't think I could stand much more of this torture.
I sighed to myself, cursing my lack of ability to wriggle my way out of this hell. "They don't suit you at all."
She frowned, turning to study herself in the full-length mirror, only to decide that she actually hated them.
Glancing around tiredly, my gaze landed on a black pair of boots. The heel itself was about half an inch higher than what she normally went for, and they were also knee-highs with a silver metal band on the outer side hooking through two opposing flaps of material, tethering them tightly together. They didn't look all too bad…
I quickly stood to retrieve them, proudly showing them to Lenalee without saying a word.
She peered down at them, brows furrowed. "I dunno…"
"Try them on," I urged, desperate to leave.
I watched as she pulled them on and stood, walking a few steps to get the feel of them. "Well?"
She walked over to me, the additional heel lengthening her stride. "They're surprisingly comfortable."
I smiled, glad to have this torture all over.
Lenalee riffled through her purse in search of a credit card. "I should get you to help me out with outfits more often," she said offhandedly, freezing me in my place.
Oh please no.
I didn't want to have to suffer through this all over again.
"So, how'd it go?"
I went silent, cocking my head to the side in confusion, because what was she talking about?
Her face held this really creepy grin that automatically made me want to hide. Possibly in another country. "I heard that Brother made you Kanda's temporary personal assistant, how'd it go?"
I sighed, not even bothering to ask who'd she'd gotten that kind of information from. No one knew how, but Lenalee always knew everything that went on inside that building. "He was a little…" My mind scrambled about for a fitting word to describe the man. "He was an arse."
And that was how Lenalee Lee, Black Order model, very nearly chocked to death on her own laughter in public.
WVW
"Daddy!"
A pair of pale wrapped around me from behind, accompanied by a warmth at the base of my back.
Smiling down at the hands, I extracted myself from their hold, spinning around to find myself face-to-face with a head of reddish-brown mahogany locks and a big grin. "Hello, Katie."
Katerina's grin broadened at that. She loved it when I called her by the nickname we'd made together.
"He's back!" Someone cried, and then two small bundles of limitless energy tackled me.
Groaning from the floor, I winced as someone screamed in my ear.
"Hi daddy!" Those words were accompanied by a childishly happy face that shoved itself into mine.
Another suddenly butted in, wanting my attention. "You're here early!"
The first glared at the other, clinging tighter to me. "I was here first!"
"Too bad, Mana! You can't have him all to yourself!" The second said haughtily, poking out his small pink tongue.
"Daddy! Neah's being mean again!" Mana wailed, shaking me.
"I am not!"
"Am too!"
"Am not!"
"Am too!"
"Am too!"
"Am not!" Mana cried, red in the face, only to stop and rethink what he'd just said.
"See! He admitted that I'm not!"
"Am I invisible?" Lenalee asked, looking down at her hands.
"Auntie Lenalee!"
"So you only notice me now?" She queried, a hand on her chest as she feigned hurt.
The two boys looked at each other guiltily while I mouthed 'thank you' to Lenalee. She always knew the exact moment when I needed saving.
Katerina clapped her hand together, successfully catching the attention of all four of us. "Get your bags!"
Neah was the first to react, grabbing at his bag from the hook where he'd left it, throwing said backpack onto his back and practically dragging Lenalee out the door, followed up by Mana who complained about how 'Neah was hogging Auntie Lena again'.
"Just let me sign you guys off first!" I called after them, taking the clipboard handed to me by the familiar black-haired white-fringed man beside me. I quickly jotted down my name and time of pickup, then put the board down and ran. "See ya, Krory!" I yelled back at the afterschool care manager as I ran towards the car. Last time they'd done this, I'd been locked out of the car for a solid fifteen minuted before anyone had let me in.
That included Lenalee.
Those four were always conspiring against me in one way or another.
WVW
"Bye, Lena!"
The four of us waved goodbye as Lenalee did the same whilst opening her car door and sliding in.
We waited until she was out of sight before we began to head back in.
"Shower time!" I declared, still irked about having been stuck outside my car for ten minutes, and taking it all out on Mana by picking him up and throwing the screaming and giggling child over my shoulder.
I swung Mana onto the most padded section of the couch, putting on an innocent façade when his head shot up and he looked at me with that big grin I hardly ever saw him without, noticeably missing one of his front teeth.
"Did you lose something, Mana?" I knelt down a little to get a better look, resting my hands on my knees.
He nodded furiously, sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of the couch. "My tooth came out today!"
"Already?" I bit back my own grin, swapping it out for a look of surprise.
It wasn't all that hard to see just how excited he really was; Mana had always been the easy one to read.
Not wanting to put a damper on his high spirits, I leant in a bit closer to whisper conspiratorially in his ear using hushed tones. "If you're a good boy and put it under your pillow, the tooth fairy will come and give you a dollar while you're sleeping."
"Like with how she did for Neah and Katie?" He asked, eyes wide with wonderment.
"Yep!" I gave him a quick peck on the cheek, this time not bothering to hide my laughter as he rubbed at that very same –now bright red– cheek with the back of his hand. "Don't lose that tooth, 'kay?"
"'Kay!" He agreed, hand drifting to the pocket of his little tan trousers.
Neah poked his head over the back of the couch, looking between Mana and I curiously. "Wha'cha talkin' 'bout?"
"How the tooth fairy's gonna give me money for my tooth!" Mana proclaimed happily.
I stood, slowly drifting over to the base of the stairs as they continued to talk about what Mana would spend the dollar on. "Be sure to get your towels." I reminded them, watching as they looked up at the sound of my voice, nodded, and then ran off to collect their towels from the cupboard, closely followed by Katerina who watched them like a hawk to make sure that they actually made it to the cupboard and back again without any detours.
Taking the steps two at a time, I hurried to the bathroom, eager to be under the hot spray of the shower, especially considering how cold the weather had been as of late. I turned the tap to warm the water while I waited for their return, seeing as the heat always took a while to kick in. I would have to get that fixed eventually…
As I stood there, with only the sound of water hitting tiles for company, I began to undress, unbuttoning my shirt and letting it quietly slip from my shoulders to the floor.
And then my smile finally slipped.
I know I don't deserve it…
Dull grey eyes, filled with disgust as I gazed at myself through the fogged bathroom mirror.
…and I'm sorry…
That lanky mop of white hair, long ago having lost its pigmentation.
…but…
An ugly red scar, twisting its way down the left side of my face.
…I can't…
A deep black arm, hard to the touch, sensitive when touched.
…Not for much longer…
WVW
So this is just to see if people like the idea. I'll decide whether to continue or not on the kind of response it receives.
Anyway, I was upset because I wanted to say that the area around Allen was like a bunch of little cubicles only with desks and apparently 'cubiclised' isn't a word.
Oh yeah, I'll only do this once. Dark themes – rape, suicidal thoughts, prostitution, etc.