CAUGHT IN A WHIRLWIND
Author's Notes: I've come to give you an offering in the form of a new fic. It's been a long time since I wrote something and this had been in the works since October of last year! Yes, I'm that lazy and have been hanging on a thread of miniscule inspiration.
Anyway... Supposedly, this fic was KK BUT, Kenshin turned into Battousai while I was typing the last part of this chapter. Meh. This was also supposed to be a one-shot but I think it'll stretch into at least three parts.
I'd like to thank the ladies of triumvirata for giving me inspiration when they post snippets of their works in progress. And big thanks to Ravyn and Shira for the suggestions and criticisms for the first part of this fic.
Disclaimers: I own not the characters nor the prompts for this fic.
Kaoru was in a rush. She barely contained herself from shoving people away from her path as she hurried to catch the train. She was running late and she was going to blame it all on her twin brothers Yahiko and Yutaro. Honestly, can't her brothers spend even just one morning not bickering over the most senseless things like their breakfast? She had walked in on them arguing about who was going to get the larger pancake and who deserved to get the remaining chocolate syrup. Feeling a headache coming with the ruckus they were creating, Kaoru took the pancake and chocolate syrup for herself, to which the two sputtered and protested. Grumbling to herself, she tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the next train that will take her to her workplace.
As she waited, she calculated the number of minutes that will take her from the train station to her office. Five minutes of train ride if the train will arrive now. Plus about ten minutes of fast-walking assuming she didn't need to stop at intersection points. Two minutes in entering the building. Two minutes more in waiting for the elevator. Five minutes in going up. Then another five minutes in walking to her table. That made it a total of twenty-nine minutes. Almost thirty minutes!
"Finally!" she muttered, when a train arrived. As soon as the doors opened, she pushed her way into the cabin along with the other passengers and settled herself for a short, but tense trip. People from almost all walks of life were on that train cabin: businessmen and women, students, artists, mothers, etc. She restrained glaring at one of the men who was eyeing her somewhat lasciviously as she thought of why she can not be late. Their department hired a new boss who was arriving today and as one of the senior officers, it was her job to be there early and welcome him into the company. But drat. Her brothers had to pick this day...
Cursing under her breath, she moved past the other passengers and made her way out of the station. From there, she walked quickly, running at times to beat the 'Don't Walk' sign. She can already see the building and after the last intersection, when she was already on the wide front of the building, she sped up her steps when a black cat streaked past her, with a fish dangling between its mouth.
"Kuso!" she cursed out loud and several people looked at her.
"What!" she demanded, before resuming walking towards the entrance of the building.
She had already lost precious minutes and she was becoming more irritated. Flashing her ID at the guard who grinned at her, she hastily made her way towards the elevator when she bumped into someone and all her things, those she were holding on her arms, went flying and her bag slipped down from her shoulder.
"Watch where you're going," she snapped without looking at the person, crouched down, then started gathering her things.
A folder, the one that contained the group's projects that she needed to present to her new boss, was handed to her.
"Thanks," she muttered as she finally looked up at whom she bumped into and she slightly drew back at what she saw. Lavender eyes looked at her apologetically as he offered the folder and long flaming red hair tied low at the back. Something in her brain told her he looked familiar.
Muttering another thanks, Kaoru gathered her things and sped to the elevators without another glance at the man. She hummed Pop! Goes the Weasel to calm herself as she waited for one of the elevators to open. One of the lifts opened and she shuffled in with the other employees where a few greeted her a good morning and some others nodded at her.
Arriving at her floor, she strode straight to her office, relinquishing her hold on her folders to her secretary Shura, and began the task of arranging her table.
Folders on that side. Pen holder over there. Pencils to the penholder. Stapler near the holder. Papers to read on the other side.
She was about to reach for her highlighters so she could properly put them in her drawer when Shura returned.
"Here's your coffee, Miss Kami-," she said as she started placing the mug on the table.
Kaoru's hand hit the mug and hot coffee spilled onto her table.
"Shura!"
The secretary hurriedly placed the mug on another table and grabbed a couple of tissue to clean up the mess.
Kaoru groaned before she went out and asked loudly, "Does anybody have a rag?"
"Here, Kao," Misao, a fellow officer answered as she quickly entered her office, got out, tossed the cloth to the woman who caught it, went back to her office, and began wiping the mess.
"Let me, Miss Kaoru," Shura said quietly.
With a sigh, Kaoru handed the rag to her secretary and let her do all the cleaning before she sat down on her chair and rubbed her temples as she closed her eyes.
This morning was not going according to plan.
"Everyone, this is Mr. Kenshin Himura, our Executive Vice President for our Global Operations Sector."
Everyone clapped respectfully at their new head and Kaoru's toes curled in lieu of clenching her fists as she stared at Himura, her hands hitting against each other methodically.
He was the guy she had bumped into earlier.
And he was also the guy who she had secretly mooned over during her freshman year in high school while he was at his senior year.
So that was why he looked familiar.
Kaoru was now wishing that the ground would swallow her up and hide her from the embarrassment that was sure to follow. She was wallowing in self-pity because of self-humiliation that she only caught the last fragments of the manager's introduction for her to him.
"... for our Electronic Banking Services Group, Ms. Kaoru Kamiya."
Her eyes snapped to his face and she gave him a forced smile. "Good morning, Mr. Himura," she said as she held out her hand. "I hope you'd find our group easy to work with."
Her face flushed as he took her hand and shook it and was it her or did he held it longer than was necessary?
"Thank you, Ms. Kaoru. I think I'd find working here quite satisfactory." His eyes twinkled in that I-know-something-and-you-know-what-it-is kind of way and his voice sounded quite teasing if one listened very closely. He was pleased to note that her eyes widened slightly and that she turned even redder.
The woman had already caught his eye when she crashed into him and he had decided to look for her when he saw her among the group that he was going to lead. He didn't bother to hide his grin at his luck and also her obvious discomfort. Especially when he heard who she was.
After all the introductions were made, Kenshin paused in his step to look back at the group.
"Oh by the way, Ms. Kamiya. Is this yours?" holding a blue folder for her to see.
He smirked as she stood frozen on the spot for a few seconds before she smiled at him, but not before he saw her flash him an annoyed look.
"Yes, thank you. I need that," she said stiffly as she walked towards him to retrieve the folder.
Kenshin nodded, before he turned on his back and followed the general manager to his new quarters.
Last Notes: Prompts for this fic were as follows (October challenge at MeijiTales):
Should include the following sentences
- "I don't think I own one of those."
- "Does anyone have a cloth/hanky/rag?" (I'm flexible; have a character ask for some piece of cloth material.)
- "I need that!"
And any three of these
- A book
- Ink
- A black cat running across someone's path. (My ode to the spookiest month of the year.)
- Cold tea
- A hat
- Fish (whether live or as food)
- A ribbon
Thank you for reading and I'd appreciate a review. c: