Author's Note: This is just an extra companion story to What Makes a Monster. The first four chapters of this deal with the time skip that happened between Chapters 3 and 4. All other chapters will just be extra things that I think of.

Chapter 1: First Day of Work

There was a soft knock at the door.

"Come in." Sephiroth did not look up from his ever-present pile of paperwork. He couldn't afford to.

The he heard the door open and shut again. Heels clicked over to the second desk that had been placed in his office just yesterday. A paper shopping bag was set on the desktop. He heard the continuous rustle of paper followed by soft clicks and taps that indicated several items were being removed from the bag and placed on the wooden surface. This was all followed by a chipper, "Good morning, Sir!"

He finally looked up. "Good morning, Annya. You are early."

She stood there dressed in a grey pantsuit, a far cry from the other day's pink ensemble. "Well, I didn't want to be late on my first day. Did you eat breakfast?" she asked.

He returned to his papers. "No, I did not have time to grab anything."

"Good! Because I brought you something." She reached into the shopping bag again and pulled out a thermos and a plastic container as well as a mug and small plate.

She carefully set the dishes in the only empty space of his desk. He forgot his paperwork and just stared at her impassively as she served him. Then she opened the plastic container and thermos and the smell of sugar and coffee hit his nose. She removed a cheese danish from the plastic container and placed it onto the plate and then poured the coffee into the mug.

She uncovered two small, glass bowls, which had earlier been arranged neatly on her desk, to reveal single creamers and sugar cubes. "Would you like any cream or sugar?"

"You are absurdly prepared."

She looked a bit uncomfortable. "Sorry?"

He gave his head a little shake. "Nevermind. Thank you. Both, please."

"How many?"

"Four creams, five sugars" He grabbed the danish with his free hand and took a bite. When all that met him was silence he swallowed and quickly explained, "I actually hate the taste of coffee. I just need the caffeine."

"Fair enough." She laughed lightly and added the cream and sugar.

He went to take another bite of danish. "This is good. Where did you get it?"

"I made it."

He stopped mid-bite. "You made it?"

"Yes," she replied as she tossed the empty shopping bag into the garbage and sat down.

"How early did you have to get up to do this?"

"Four."

He sighed and put the danish down. "You do not have to make me breakfast."

She smiled at him. "I know I don't. I made for Zack too if that makes you feel better. Besides, I've gotten up that early since I really young, so I would have been up anyway."

"Why would you get up that early if you did not have to?"

Her smile grew bitter. " I did have to. My mother insisted that a proper housewife has to be able to wake up before everyone else in the house. I guess the lesson stuck because now I can't wake up later than four if I tried."

Sephiroth nodded slightly as if in agreement. That was something he could sympathize with all too well. His childhood was spent being woken up at the crack of dawn for testing and as a result he actually had to make an effort to sleep in.

He sighed and looked at the two largest piles of paperwork on his desk. He rested his hand on the much smaller of the two. "This is all finished papers. File them by 'identification number', please. The file cabinets on the far wall."

"Yes, sir." She stood immediately and got to work and once again he devoted himself to the unfinished pile. He only looked back at her when he heard her return to her desk. She looked like she wanted to say something but was holding back.

"Go on. I cannot expect you to not have questions when you have just started."

For a moment, she considered where to begin. "How come my furniture is here and yours isn't?"

"I had it rush delivered so you would have somewhere to work."

"Shouldn't I be somewhere outside your actual office? Isn't the noise of a whole nother person going to distract you?"

"I am not that easy to distract."

"Zack says otherwise."

"Zack makes special effort to distract me. If the only noise you make is from you working then we will not have a problem."

She nodded. His meaning was perfectly clear. "Why do you have so much paperwork in the first place? Why aren't there other people to handle the administrative things so you can actually focus on your men?"

Sephiroth sighed. "There are other people. Yet I still have paperwork. Red tape comes with every company and it can be quite hard to cut through."

She paused for a long time before continuing. "Are you sure you want me as your secretary? I have zero experience and you don't know me from beans."

He sighed yet again. "Honestly, no, I am not sure. But I was trying to do your brother a favor."

"That's what I thought." She grew silent.

He reached into his top desk drawer and pulled out a planner. He tossed it perfectly in front of her. "That is my appointment book. I always just jot things down whenever I have a free second. That means it is full of mistakes. I need you to go through it and sort out any conflicts. After you finish that, that book will be your responsibility from now on. You will run my schedule and make sure I know what my schedule is."

"Got it, sir." She idly flipped through the notebook. She could already tell he wasn't kidding when he said it was full of mistakes.

"The Shinra Directory is in your top desk drawer. It contains whatever you will need to know about who is who in the company. When I go down to the barracks today, I suggest you go introduce yourself to as many of those people as you can. They will be going through you to get to me now and they will have to know who you are if we expect them to listen to you. I would rather introduce you myself but I am unfortunately too busy."

"It's no problem. I'll do that."

"Good." He returned to his work without another word. Annya pulled out the Shinra Directory and a blank notepad and got to work herself.

Only the sounds of pens scratching furiously across paper and pages turning filled the office till ten of ten when there was a knock at the door. Zack entered without waiting to be invited.

"Mornin' guys," he said cheerily.

Sephiroth nodded in greeting and Annya gave him a quick "good morning", neither looking at him.

Unperturbed by being ignored, he walked over and leaned against his sister's desk. "How's your first day, Ay?"

"Fine." She pushed the plastic container towards him.

He opened it and beamed. "Danishes!"

"All yours," she replied, smiling.

Sephiroth stood up suddenly, drawing the attention of both Fairs. "I am leaving for the barracks. Are you coming with me, Zack?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Zack spat out though a mouthful of danish as he saluted and shuffled out the door with the plastic container in hand. Sephiroth started out the door himself. As he passed Annya he wished her luck and told her not to be afraid of throwing his name around to get where she needed to go.

xXxXxXx

Annya clutched the Shinra Directory to her chest as she made her way to the science department. She had also brought Sephiroth's planner. If she was making rounds she might as well try to fix the disaster that was his schedule. It was a wonder how one of the things Sephiroth was known for was his punctuality when the man couldn't keep his schedule straight.

She has already met with Palmer, Heidegger, and Scarlet. Or rather she had met with their secretaries, who had been pleasant enough till she had inconsiderately tried to change around some of Sephiroth's appointments and interfere with their bosses' busy schedules.

Reeve had been out when she stopped by but his secretary had politely asked her to see if she could fit in a meeting between Sephiroth and Reeve sometime in the next week.

Next, she visited the Turk office. Tseng had met with her directly, agreed easily to reschedule a meeting, and wished her luck in her new job. Before leaving, she was snared by two Turks, one redheaded and the other wearing shades, who made her agree to join them after work for a welcome-to-Shinra drink.

Professor Hojo was next on her list. Every single appointment with Hojo had a scheduling conflict in the planner.

She reached the labs and stopped the first person she came across. "Excuse me, is Professor Hojo in?"

"He's in his office but he doesn't like to be disturbed," the lab assistant replied.

"Can I speak with his secretary?"

"He doesn't have one. He doesn't trust anybody enough to handle his things."

"Sephiroth sent me. It's important."

"All right. If you say so. It's back there." He pointed to the closed door in the back of the room. "Good luck." He scurried off.

She walked back and knocked lightly on the door. There was no answer. She knocked one more time and the door opened sharply.

"What," the bespectacled man said curtly.

She smiled widely. "Good morning. I'm— "

"Get to the point."

She refused to let her smile falter. "I'm here about Sephiroth's schedule. He— "

"Right. Tell him I need him to be here Thursday at three p.m." He closed the door in her face.

She stared at the door for a second. She took out a pen and opened the planner. Thursday at three was perfectly free. She penned in the meeting with Reeve.

xXxXxXx

When she got back to Sephiroth's office he was still out. She rested her things down on her desk and called Reeve's secretary to confirm Thursday at three was a good time. Then she got to work filing the new papers in the finished pile. She kept a list of which id numbers she was filing in case she needed to pull them out again; he hadn't actually told her to file this set yet, after all.

Last paper filed, she looked around the office for something to do. The wall clock said it was only half past two and she had no idea when Sephiroth would be back. She sighed. Her father always said that "a good worker can always find something to do". But there really was nothing she could think of. She'd already finished smoothing out Sephiroth's schedule and she didn't want to touch any of the other papers because she didn't know what they were. Otherwise, the office was as tidy as could be. She wished Sephiroth was a slob so she could at least clean.

She idly opened the drawer of the nearest file cabinet. The labels on the folders were kind of faded. And that's how Sephiroth found her half an hour later: sitting on the floor with a black marker, tracing over all the labels.

He just looked at her, expression unreadable. "What are you doing?"

"Tracing these labels."

"And the schedule?"

"I cleaned it up already. Well except for Hojo's appointments. But it's his own fault he wouldn't cooperate."

Sephiroth snorted. "I apologize. I should have warned you about Hojo. Did you meet everyone else?"

"They were all busy so I just met their secretaries. I met Tseng and the rest of the Turks though."

"And what did you think of the Turks?"

"I like them. I'm going out for a drink with two of them after work."

Sephiroth cringed. "They go to exactly the types of bars I was trying to keep you out of by giving you this job."

"It's just one drink. Besides it can't hurt to have a few friends in the Turks."

"That is true. It is much better to have the Turks as friends than enemies." He sat at his desk and grabbed the first paper from the unfinished pile and placed it in front of him. He looked at her. "I apologize that you are spending a lot of time just sitting around today. I do not currently have the time to properly train you. I hate to ask you to stay late but I do not have free time till after work."

"I don't mind."

He nodded. "Until then, you are just free to sit there and read or something unless something comes up."

xXxXxXx

"Work's over everyone! Let's get goin'," Zack said as he burst into Sephiroth's office.

Sephiroth checked his clock before casting his pen aside. "Actually, Zack, Annya and I are staying late today— "

"Damn, Seph, you move fast!"

"— because I have to train her and I did not have time to during the day, Zachary." Sephiroth glared at the Second Class. Annya snickered from behind her book.

"You are such a hardass, Seph. Keeping her late on her first day." Zack tsked and wagged his finger at him before plopping down onto a loveseat.

"You are not staying here, Zack," Sephiroth said firmly.

"So, you are trying to get her alone." He waggled his eyebrows at the silver-haired man.

Before Sephiroth could get angrier, Annya interjected, "Hey, Zack. Would you mind doing me a favor?"

The Second Class looked to her inquiringly.

"I was supposed to go with Reno and Rude for a drink. Can you just tell them to go ahead without me and I'll meet them when I'm done?" she asked sweetly.

Zack's face fell. "You can't go drinking with the Turks."

"I can and I am. As soon as I'm done with Sephiroth."

His brows furrowed. "Alright, I'll let them know. I need to have a few words with them anyway it looks like."

They watched the raven-haired man leave. Annya turned to Sephiroth and grinned. "I got rid of him, General. You're free to have your way with me now."

Sephiroth rolled his eyes.