Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. I own the extremely weird plot.
AN: Well, where to begin? This story is based HEAVILY on my experience working in a lab this summer and last summer. Most of the events will have happened, but a lot of it will be creative license. None of the events in this chapter actually happened, sadly. Still, it could have! Read and enjoy!
Kiku Honda arrived a half an hour early for his interview. This was his first big job on his own, even though it wasn't his first job. He'd just finished four years at University of Tokyo and though he planned to go to medical school, he'd decided to take off a few years to work, earn some money and begin to pay off his loans. So, he'd applied to a number of research labs in various places. This lab had really pursued him, plus one of his professors had recommended it, so Kiku had traveled to interview at it, even though it was in America. He had done a number of phone interviews with them, but had decided that he really had to see the place and decide if he wanted to work there.
He nervously played with his laptop case that doubled as a briefcase. The lab area was mostly empty, except for the odd person rushing down the hall. He was standing by the elevators, feeling a little lost. He saw the same person half run down the hall three times in five minutes. The first time, the blond was carrying a box with a bunch of vials. He heard a door open and then close and the blond appeared again, running as he attempted to turn off the beeping timer he was holding. Then, the blond was running back down the hall carrying a tray with vials full of flies. A door opened and closed and then the blond didn't appear anymore. A young woman with thick brown hair pushed a cart while a highly excited Italian chatted with her. Kiku glanced around and then carefully walked into the hall, only to have someone collide with him. Kiku started to fall, but the other person caught him around the waist. He grabbed onto their shirt as he was pulled back to his feet.
When Kiku finally got his bearings and looked up into the face of his rescuer, he found he was staring into the most brilliant pair of green eyes he'd ever seen. He winced as his briefcase fell to the floor with a clatter, blushing and looking away. The other man still had his hands on him.
"You all right?" The man had a prominent English accent. It suited him, Kiku couldn't help but think. The blond hair, the gorgeous green eyes, and the accent all fit together perfectly on this man where they might not on someone else.
Kiku nodded quickly. "T-Thank you, I'm s-sorry-"
"It's my fault, don't worry about it," the man said, letting go of Kiku and bending down to pick up the briefcase. "I wasn't paying attention. You sure you're all right? You look nervous."
"I-I am fine, t-t-thank you." Kiku gnawed on his bottom lip, still blushing and looking at the floor.
"You're new. Are you lost? I can point you anywhere."
"I am..." Kiku glanced up at the man. "I am supposed to b-be interviewing with Dr. R-Roma this morning."
"Oh! You're the new hire."
Kiku returned the man's smile nervously. "Not a hire yet. I am just interviewing."
The man shook his head. He had a very nice smile Kiku noted. "You'll be hired. I've seen your file. I'll take you to Dr. Roma."
"T-Thank you," Kiku half mumbled, following the man down the hall.
"Here's his office." The man knocked on the open door. They were told to come in.
The man and Kiku entered a big office with nice, dark wood furniture. The office would have been nice if not for all the papers and files and books that were occupying every free space. Dr. Roma was in the center of the mess, currently reading something on his laptop. He glanced up when the pair entered.
"Arthur, have you got that paper for me? And how has your research been going? You know you're presenting today."
The man-Arthur, Kiku assumed-nodded. "The paper's almost done and I'm ready for the presentation. I'm here because your interviewee is here."
Dr. Roma looked to Kiku and suddenly smiled. "Kiku Honda! How nice of you to come. Take a seat."
Kiku felt like saying anything to the contrary would be a bad idea. He nodded once and sat down in the clear chair. Arthur put a hand on Kiku's shoulder. "I'll talk to you later. Bye, Dr. Roma."
Arthur left. Dr. Roma went through a stack of papers and then came up with what looked like Kiku's resume. He glanced over it and then extended a hand to Kiku. "Thank you so much for coming to meet in person, Kiku."
Kiku shook Dr. Roma's hand. "Thank you for the o-opportunity, Dr. Roma."
Dr. Roma waved his hand, saying it was no big deal. "Well, you have quite a compelling resume. Top of your class at University of Tokyo, worked in a lab setting before, wonderful recommendation letters...we've covered most of this in the phone interviews."
Kiku nodded, taking out a notebook to write notes as needed.
"So, let me tell you about our project and what you'd be working on..."
And for the next half an hour, Kiku listened and took notes. All the information that was being thrown at him was a little intimidating, but it meant that this scientist thought he could handle it. The project was very interesting, more so than he had known when first applying for the job. They then segued into Kiku's background, eventually finishing up.
"Anything else?"
Kiku shook his head. "Thank you very much for meeting with me."
Dr. Roma smiled warmly. "I'll get someone to give you a tour of the lab."
He got up and left the office, returning with the Italian Kiku had seen earlier.
"Kiku, this is Feliciano Vargas. You'll be working with him," Dr. Roma said. "He'll show you around the lab."
"Does that mean I have the job?" Kiku asked timidly.
Dr. Roma nodded, shaking Kiku's hand. "You have the job, Mr. Kiku Honda."
Feliciano grabbed onto Kiku's arm. "It'll be so much fun!"
Kiku swallows, a little overwhelmed. "Thank you so much, but I will need-"
"A few days to consider, of course," Dr. Roma says, shaking it off like it's nothing. "Take a few days, but please give me an answer by the end of the week. Feliciano, give Kiku a full tour."
Feliciano dragged Kiku out of the office, past the secretary who waved, and into the hall. "Okay! Now, I am Feliciano, but most people call me Feli, so you can do that same! I love pasta!"
Kiku blinked and then nodded once. He could deal with crazy.
Feliciano continued speaking, leading Kiku down the hall. "I'm working on my senior thesis from the university down the road. I've been here for like six months now and it's really great here. Everyone is really, really nice! Ve!" He opened a door. "This is what we call the big fly room. It's full of dissecting microscopes and flies and those are the two incubators, where you can put flies at certain temperatures and half of the microscopes are for our lab, the other half is for Elizaveta's lab and Roderich's, if he has the odd student working on flies, but normally he works with mice and DNA and that stuff."
"There are other labs on this floor?" Kiku asked quietly as Feliciano closed the door and led him down to another room.
"Si! Dr. Roma shares equipment and lab space with Elizaveta and Roderich, they're very nice. All of us are working in the same sort of thing, so we have lots of meetings together. This is the small fly room." This room was about quarter the size of the other room, with only two microscopes. The big room had eight squeezed in. "You'll probably spend most of your time working here. Come on!"
Feliciano towed him back down the hall but stopped when a different blond man walked out of the large fly room. "Vargas, I need some of your data. Do you have a moment?"
Feliciano's smile got bigger. "Si, Ludwig!"
He went after Ludwig, back into the big fly room, leaving Kiku standing alone in the hall. Kiku looked around, feeling very lost. He waited there, five minutes, ten minutes, and then Ludwig and Feliciano reappeared, but they walked down the hall without a single look at Kiku. Kiku didn't know if he should follow or not. He took a hesitant step forward, then heard someone behind him and immediately jumped out of the way. Arthur pulled the cart to a stop.
"Hey, what are you doing out here all alone?"
Kiku studied the contents of the cart, finally realizing that there were vials of in boxes wrapped in plastic piled high. "I-I was being shown around by F-Feliciano and then Ludwig-"
"Asked him a question and he disappeared?" Arthur's smile was kind and understanding. "It happens a lot."
Kiku shyly met Arthur's eyes from beneath his bangs. "Really?"
Arthur nodded. "Come on. I'll give you the tour if you help me put these trays away. Shouldn't take too long."
"Okay."
Kiku followed Arthur down the hall and into a room with a thick door. The sign outside read 'Eighteen Degree'.
"This is the eighteen degree room, but I think you already read that. It's where we store the food, which is in these vials," Arthur said, indicating the boxes in bags on the cart. They moved from the front room into the back room with another thick door. The front had a sink, some more microscopes, and some tanks with eggs in them. The back room had shelves full of trays with flies and trays with food and some more tanks. "The frogs also get kept here. The mice are kept on a different floor because there's radiation with those experiments. Now, we're going to stack the trays here." He indicated two shelves.
Kiku put his briefcase down and started stacking the trays. He had to stand on his tip toes to reach the top shelf. Arthur hummed quietly, not overwhelming Kiku with constant information. It was nice, but Kiku sort of missed listening to him talk.
Kiku was struggling to put the last box on top of the tall shelf. He was on the shorter side which helped him hide, but wasn't a good thing right now. Arthur stood behind him and leaned up to steady the tray, hand brushing against Kiku's. Kiku blushed faintly, dropping his hand immediately after the tray was on the shelf. He went to pick up his briefcase, looking at the ground.
"Thanks. That would have taken me forever alone. Now, let's just put this cart away and I can give you the real tour."
Kiku took a steadying breath as he followed Arthur back down the hall and into a room full of freezers. "Do you not have a presentation tomorrow?"
Arthur laughed, turning to look at Kiku after putting the cart in a corner. "You were listening. I can't really work right now. Too many people interrupt. I like to be useful, so I'll show you around."
"Agrit-" Kiku broke off, forcing himself to switch back into English. "Thank you."
"I like how Japanese sounds," Arthur said as they walked once again down the hall. Kiku was beginning to figure out how everyone stayed in shape here.
"Do you speak it?"
Arthur shook his head. "No. Haven't the time to learn it. I've heard it though."
They entered a large spacious room full of lab benches. There were various machines scattered around, people were everywhere, talking and working. There is buzzing and rattling and beeping, chatter and laughter. A radio was playing somewhere. Kiku swallowed, eyes darting nervously around.
Arthur put a hand on Kiku's arm. "Relax. I know it's a bit overwhelming, but you'll be fine."
Kiku couldn't help but trust Arthur. He nodded.
Arthur spent the next hour showing him around the lab. He was introduced to a lot of people. Most of them had very ethnic names, making it a little harder for Kiku to remember everyone's name. He tried to all the same. He muffled a yawn, jet lag finally catching up to him. He had hoped Arthur hadn't seen and thought he was bored.
"What time did your plane get in?" Arthur asked, checking the autoclave machine.
So he hadn't missed that, but he was being understanding. "Around one in the morning here."
"You didn't sleep on the plane," Arthur said with certainty.
Kiku shook his head slowly. "No. How did you...?"
"You just seem like the type who'd be working the whole time. You fancy a coffee? I'm due for a break."
Kiku looked up at Arthur, a little confused. "W-what?"
"Come on. It'll be fun."
And before Kiku knew it, he was out of the building and walking out the courtyard to the city. It was one of the rare sunny days and everything looked beautiful. Arthur pointed out landmarks as they walked to the coffee shop. He held the door for Kiku and ushered him in. A real gentleman.
They ordered and then sat down at a table in the window. Kiku immediately took a sip of his coffee. He needed the caffeine. Arthur watched him, stirring his tea.
"No sugar?"
"No. I do not like the taste, but I...need the caffeine," Kiku said lamely.
"You could try getting more sleep," Arthur suggested.
Kiku held a hand in front of his mouth, laughing softly. "I have heard that before. And tried."
Arthur laughed too. "Fair point."
They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments. Then Arthur decided to play twenty questions.
"So, why do you want to leave Japan?"
"I do not want to necessarily, but there are more jobs here. Dr. Roma has some very interesting research. You are not from around here, are you?"
"I've been in the States for about a year. My cousin lives here, actually works on one of the other floors, so when he heard about the opening, he called me. It works," Arthur said, sipping his tea. "Do you have any family here?"
"No. I am doing this for myself, so they will support me no matter what."
"You think you're going to come work here?" Arthur asked, looking a little hopeful.
Kiku glanced out the window, then back at the green eyes. "Maybe."