Perfection
Mosquitos were everywhere, buzzing incessantly around Vash's ears as he walked around the construction site, men and women working tirelessly in the mostly sunny day, on the edge of a small town in Austria. His clipboard gripped tight in his left hand and a pen in the other, the short, blond man went around the site, checking the progress of the workers, and making sure everything was up to code and being done properly. He could look at a nail in wood and tell if it was crooked; he could tell if a beam was centimeter to the left. His eye for perfection and safety had landed him this job early on in his career, for which he was thankful. He had a sister to get through private school, after all.
There was a smack on his arm and he jumped back, prepared to hit the smacker with his clipboard.
Ludwig lifted his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, Vash. There was a big one on your arm."
Vash scowled and looked down at his now red arm, covered in blood and mosquito guts.
"Please get back to work."
Ludwig rolled his eyes. "Yes, sir." He turned and picked up his saw, cutting boards. Vash watched his technique for a bit, before he put a checkmark on his board, calmly wiping the mess from his arm and onto the side of his suit pants.
Walking on, he wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was very hot, in the height of summer, and he was wearing a full suit, as required by his job as a safety inspector. However, it was obviously a poor clothing choice for the current weather. Vash just paused under the shade of a tree, ducking below a beam that nearly smacked his head as a person carried it by. Re-catching his balance, he flipped through some pages on his clipboard and scratched out an angry X on one space, glaring after the offending beam.
The construction site was to someday hold an office building for Greentech Systems, a company that had started its beginning in the United States of America, eventually spreading throughout Europe. They sold equipment for clean energy and other "green" practices for both "The Home and Workplace", as their slogan informed Vash. As to why they decided to build the office in a small town, Vash only had an inkling of the reason, which may have to do with the lack of jobs available for the town inhabitants. The actual factory was near Vienna.
The office building was in the structural stages, one of Vash's most busy inspecting times. He was almost always on the site, making sure everything was...perfect.
However, after another hour of walking in the sweltering heat, the sun moved to perfectly overhead, and Vash noticed something was off. His head felt stuffed full of cotton, and his mouth was dry. His heart was beating rapidly, and something was off about his vision. He was next to the building now, watching a woman hammer a support beam. Every hit made him flinch, and he looked down at his clipboard, and noticed it was shaking. Then, it started to fade to black.
Vash slowly came to consciousness, his body feeling heavy and his mouth dry. He squinted against the light and, through his blurry vision, looked at the room he was in. It only took a few seconds for him to realize he was in a hospital bed, an IV drip attached to his arm. He pressed the call button on the side of the bed.
A nurse hurried in and smiled at him.
"Good, you're awake. How are you feeling?"
He coughed and attempted to speak as she took his vitals. Finally, he got out a "thirsty", and she brought him a large hospital cup with a straw, which he drank slowly and shakily.
"Your sister, Lili, is out in the hall. Do you want to see her?" Vash nodded, and the nurse left, Lili replacing her. She rushed over to the bed and gave him a gentle hug.
"I was so worried! They said you passed out at work and I got a ride from Georgie's mom to here. Are you feeling alright?"
He slowly scooted to a better sitting position with Lili's help, and nodded. "Alright is a good word for it. You said I passed out."
"You had heat exhaustion. I told you, you work too hard, brother." She patted his arm and smiled, while he rolled his eyes.
"It's not my fault it's so damn hot outside." He grumbled, sipping his water. "When can I get out of here?"
Lili sat down in a chair next to the bed. "When they say you're rehydrated. You need to drink more water." She rifled around in her purse and pulled out his phone and handed it to him. "You got a message from work."
He took the phone and put in the passcode, opening up the text. It was from his boss, and it said, "Come to my office at 2pm tomorrow to discuss a reassignment." Vash sighed and set the phone down next to him.
"They want to reassign me."
"Is that bad?"
He shook his head. "Not necessarily. I'll probably start working indoors or something. It doesn't look good on the company when one of their inspectors pass out." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "How have you been doing, Lili?"
Even if he called her every day and saw her once a week at her school in Vienna, he still didn't get much chance to talk to her, since he worked often and her schooling was demanding.
"I started working on a new piano piece yesterday. I forgot the name, but it's really pretty. My grades are still good in everything else. Michelle and I did a sculpture together in arts."
"You two are still getting along?"
"She's really nice. You don't have to worry, brother."
He opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, but I do. It's my responsibility to look after you."
She smiled. "Of course. I'll go talk to the nurse." Lili got up and left, closing the door softly behind her.
Vash drank more of his water, picking up his phone again and replying to his boss, saying he would make it to the meeting. He looked at the news until Lili returned with the nurse that Vash had seen earlier.
The nurse wrote a few things on the clipboard at the end of his bed. "Doctor Ulrich will be in shortly to give your final evaluation before you're relea-" She was cut off by a doctor rushing into the room, breathing heavily.
"I got this, Katlyn. Thanks." He leaned against the wall as the nurse nodded and left, Vash and Lili staring at the doctor while he caught his breath. Once he did, he looked up and gave a bright smile to Vash, his grey eyes almost looking eccentric. He picked up the clipboard.
"Heat exhaustion with quite a bit of dehydration? Let's seeā¦" He checked Vash's vitals and looked at his water cup. "Right. You can take that with you." He gave Vash a stern look. "Drink as much water as possible, and keep off your feet for the next few days. Let's see you try to stand real quick before we release you."
Vash got up shakily, Lili rushing over to his side and helping him. Once he found his balance, he stood straight up, holding onto the bed for support, taking deep breaths.
Dr. Ulrich had him sit back down. "I'll have a nurse walk you out in a wheelchair. Your sister said you had transportation. Just keep off your feet for the next few days or so, drink a lot of water, and keep cool." He smiled and the nurse brought in the wheelchair, Vash being sent home and Lili taken back to school.
