PURELY PROFESSIONAL

THE PEINKONAN COLLECTION

Concerning the purely professional relationship between a boss and his employees.

DISCLAIMER: These brilliant characters belong to Kishimoto, but the subversions/characterisations, plot and world belong to this author four years ago.

AUTHORS NOTE: These have been due to be posted for four years. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did when I found the stored files on an old computer. xD

CLINK.

Clink clink clink. Clink. Clink clink. Clink clink clink clink clin-

There was a dull thunk as the paper knife thumped into the wood of the desk, the hand holding the idly angled and tapping pen now frozen and quivering as the owner, the newest secretary sent by the 'bureau', who insisted he have at least one, if not more, assistants to distribute the work load more evenly, or at least make his cover of Company CEO (which he was, practically, as he did run the business) more plausible to the public eye, stared in barely concealed horror at the weapon vibrating ominously bare millimetres from the offending hand, petrified glance awaking from its trance to only flick from the scene in front of her to the burning amber glare of the shadowed man across from her, rising scream dying in her throat as she was caught up in that dark gaze.

"If you would please refrain from making any unnecessary noise, Miss…" He paused, his silence expectant and demanding despite the polite connotations.

She blinked, mouth working silently for a moment before she managed to find her words, voice small and on the verge of a stutter as she spluttered out, "Sally Harkins."

"Miss Harkins, yes, -then I believe we will have a very good working relationship. Do you understand, Sally? Silence is essential to maintain concentration, which is essential in this field of work, as I'm sure by now you already know, and thus I can not afford to be distracted by anything, not in the least by the bored habits of new employees."

Her eyes widened as his gaze darkened, hands detaching from their enclosed clasp in front of him to reach down to his desk, piercing gaze never breaking contact with hers for a second as he withdrew a second paper knife, to turn it lazily between his hands.

"As this is your first day, Miss Harkins, I understand you may not have known better, so we'll let this one slide. But I hope you will learn from this mistake."

He looked at her expectantly, and she gulped, mouth fluttering open once again to whisper a withered "yes"…

The knife's rotations increased in frequency, shock fading in the woman as fear slowly crept up in its place – she had heard his reputation, and thought it was just a lie in revenge for some petty argument with the man, but was there some truth behind it?-, catching her breath as she was sucked into a kind of trance by its deadly hypnotic whirl, fear steadily growing as it spun faster, faster, tilting up, up, and back- until he grabbed it securely in his palm, curved blade glinting in the fading light of the sun, and smiled, apparently oblivious to his assistants fear as he calmly slid it back into its draw, and she was finally released from his piercing gaze, quivering fingers causing the pen still clutched numbly in her frozen grip to tumble lightly from her grasp, where it rolled across the table, elegantly manicured hand moving quickly from the spot where the previous knife had stilled.

There was silence. Feeling a pang of pain in her lungs, she seemed to remember to breathe, breath exhaling in a whirling gust until, in a rush, everything that happened hit home, and, clutching her hand, she stood up quickly and backed away from the table, stumbling slightly over herself, until she hit the back wall. Breathe coming in faster and faster gasps as she bought each hand before her face and turned them frantically, she examined each finger, mouth silently mouthing the numbers, before her whole body began to shake- and she caught eye of the weapon, inch deep into the worn wood of the desk.

There was a clatter, attracting her attention once more to the sanctioned office ahead of her and its shadowed inhabitant, as she watched the man put down his pen and regard her calmly, the memory of that darkened gaze as he wielded that knife so impossibly skillfully sending another wrack of jolts through her body, and the room seemed to spin and her breath came even faster, panic seeping into every crevice of her being.

She vaguely recognized the smooth voice of her employer lilting softly across the small space between them, but the world was darkening, her blood bubbling in her veins, any and all words and their meanings lost as all she could think of was escape, as far as she could away, from here, from this man.

Hands starting to move through the shudders and jolts and scramble softly at the wall behind her, she tried to think, think through the rushing roars pounding through her ears, along her veins, dredging through her brain as it permeated her very consciousness, until it was too much, and she heard a faint sigh as she crumpled, cold hands catching her shoulders just before she hit the floor, and the world went black.

"…There was an… incident." He closed his eyes at the smothered snort of the 'Head of Security' as he obviously tried and failed to withhold his laughter at the demise of yet another of the head's many secretaries, the longest of whom had only managed to survive a week before ultimately going missing, the investigation towards the cause for her sudden disappearance still as of yet unsolved. The dying rays of the sun glinting dully off of the metal pole piercing his lip as he turned his head briefly to check the condition of the newest – and, to his annoyance, still unconscious - applicant, before after a moment of considering silence he continued.

"You do realise that every time they send another one of these so called 'assistants', this company waste more of our valuable time than any one of these people have saved."

Clickclick clickclick clickcli- click.

His attention wavered from the sheets before him, silver gaze focusing briefly on the muffled shape of a woman as she entered the doorway before he flicked her file shut, the woman taking that as her acknowledgment to come forward, the dulled cream of the carpet absorbing her footsteps until she halted in front of his desk.

His hand moved lightly to indicate the chair he had placed their earlier, and he took a note with a slight hint of pleasure at her perception as she took it, delicate hands folding neatly in front of her as she focused her attention on him.

Looking up from his desk, he paused minutely as she caught his gaze, tinted sapphire calm yet intent, before he chose to take note of her fully, from her primly suited and neat attire to her perfect posture, eyes never leaving his face in a rare display of confidence that he was surprised to find rather pleased him.

She might be able to stay.