"And I've been travelling through the dirt and the grime, from the past to the future, through the space and the time."
—Grateful Dead, "Any Road"
6 Years Later, March
"The day is almost over, yaa shabab, but it's not done yet. Get your asses in gear and get that last beam up and you all can go home."
There was a collective groan from the men stationed in a staggered circle, ready to depart for the day, and Lucifer glanced over his shoulder at the setting sun, still scorching its path across the sand with no absence of spite about its descent beneath the horizon. He turned to follow his co-workers further into the site to finish the day's job and lifted the rim of his hard hat to wipe the sweat and dirt from his brow.
He didn't get very far before the construction manager called out "saghir!", the nickname Lucifer had acquired during his first month in Cairo since he was the youngest on the site, even though he would be turning 25 soon.
Khalid waved him over and Lucifer obliged, but slowed when an unfamiliar man in a suit walked up to stand beside him. Khalid waved more vigorously, and when he reached them, he clapped an arm around Lucifer's shoulders and turned him to meet the other.
"This is Mr. Adair," he introduced, in English now. "He is head of company in New York."
"The very same company funding this project you're working on, actually," Adair said, lifting his chin in the direction of the structure that was currently all metal beams. Lucifer didn't follow his gaze, knowing full well what it looked like — he'd been working on it for the better part of a year, had even offered architectural tips in its early stages that had helped them get it off the ground faster.
Adair finally cracked a smile at the younger man's unphased expression, not at all put off by how thoroughly unimpressed Lucifer was with him.
"Walk with me, Lucifer — can I call you Lucifer?" Lucifer's eyes pointedly dropped to the cross that glinted from a thin chain between the open buttons of his shirt, then back up to meet his.
"If you're comfortable with that," he said dryly, and the business man's smile widened in amusement as they moved further away from the bustle of men trying to finish out the day, Khalid trailing to the other side and slightly behind.
"I hear you've been around," Adair started pleasantly, walking slowly. "Came here from Greece? Athens, if I remember correctly?"
Lucifer only nodded, wary about the direction of the conversation.
"And before then?"
"Rome."
"Don't hold out on me now." Lucifer grimaced.
"Berlin. Paris. Barcelona."
"Fascinating. How long have you been traveling?"
"Nearly 7 years." It took him a moment, to count. He'd never considered how long he'd been gone before, never counted the years as they went. It was a bit of a shock to him to say it outloud in those terms.
"If you don't mind my asking, Lucifer, what brought you over here?"
Flashes of his family's faces played through his mind, and his fists clenched. A flash of red and there was an ache he hadn't allowed himself to feel in a long time.
"University. Oxford," he finally answered.
"Oxford is very prestigious. And yet you're not there anymore?" Lucifer's knuckles whitened indignantly.
"Is this going somewhere?" he asked through gritted teeth. "I didn't know you'd come all the way here from New York just to grill a carpenter on one of your projects."
"Ah. I apologize, I see you're not one for small talk. That's the thing, though. You're not just a carpenter. Khalid tells me you were the one who proposed the new design for the braces, back in February last year," Adair started, slowing to a stop. "Saved me a lot of money, you know."
There was a pause while Lucifer waited, expecting more. When he looked up, Adair was staring at him.
"It got me to thinking… You see, I run my business from New York City. I have some of the greatest architectural minds on hand, and they didn't think of that," he gestured in the vague direction of the structure behind them, "in all the time they'd spent designing it."
Lucifer was unable to help the incredulous arch of his brow and scoffed, "You needed an entire team to design this tragedy?"
Khalid finally jumped into the conversation, trying to amend, "Well, it's not terri—"
Adair held up a hand to stop him, a look of intrigue passing over his features, "'Tragedy', you say?"
Lucifer raised his shoulders, passively making making his stance on the building clear. He could feel his manager's hard glare on him.
Adair's hand moved to his chin, a watch that probably cost more than everything Lucifer owned glinting in the light of the setting sun on his wrist, and asked, as if to humor an audience, "What makes it so, do you think?"
Khalid's expression darkened as he glared at his carpenter, as if to say, "If you dare step out of line…"
Lucifer met his eyes, in a moment of joust, until he panned his patronizing gaze to Adair.
He leaned back, the tools hanging at his belt shifting, gestured to the brilliant sun behind him, and coolly inquired, "It was pretty hot today, no?"
The CEO's head tilted, unsure of the relationship this had with the conversation.
Lucifer continued, "And I'm assuming the sorry sacks that'll be working in this building won't want to be that toasty."
Adair spoke up here, a bit of the pride of being accomplished and revered sneaking into his voice, "All the buildings I've overseen have been nothing if not boasted for their comfort. We'll have the building air conditioned, of course."
He looked to Khalid, sharing his pride with the supervisor.
Feigning to be impressed, Lucifer's eyebrows rose on his forehead. He said, dryly, "Wow. Air conditioning—"
Khalid cleared his throat, to which the youth laughed at, without humor. Adair questioned, indignant, "You're surely not suggesting zero air conditioning?"
Lucifer turned his eyes to him, glinting almost golden in the fading light, a stern look on his face.
"The sun sets in the west and you have us building that wreck — yes, a wreck," he clarified pointedly in response to Khalid's sharp look, "facing the same direction. It's going to be hot as hell when it's finished."
As realization dawned on Adair, Lucifer continued, "Your first mistake, a ridiculous one at that, is that your building is facing the wrong way," here, the corners of his lips twitched up in a subtle, smug smirk, "I wonder how much it'll cost this building to run the air conditioning full blast all day?"
His face going a little red in embarrassment, the CEO turned on Khalid, a tempered frustration in his voice as he asked, "Why was no one informed of this? It's too late to make any changes now."
Not one to leave his foreman helpless at his doing — this man had after all given him this job and trusted all his advice — Lucifer interjected, "We advised your architects, but you guys never listen to us 'blue collars', do you? Even the change for the braces almost fell on deaf ears."
There was a beat of silence, a tension so thick it was almost suffocating settling around them.
Lucifer was unable to hide his surprise as Adair smiled and began to laugh, "Okay Khalid, you were right. I admit it! There's something in this boy."
Unamused by the turn of events and being called a "boy," Lucifer scowled, looking between his boss and his boss. Khalid finally allowed his tense shoulders to relax, and cracked a smile of his own, slapping a hand across Lucifer's shoulder.
"I told you! All experience, this one. And books." Lucifer shrugged his hand off, his eyes narrowing.
"What are you talking about?"
"Books?" Adair asked, that curious tone coming back to his voice, and Khalid's grin showed teeth.
"Yes, yes, kathir - many. Always on his breaks he is reading, architecture books."
"I'm still here," the youngest party said through gritted teeth, hating when people spoke over him or pretended he wasn't there. Khalid raised his palms to him in surrender, laughing, "Asif, asif," while Adair inclined his head.
"Yes, of course," he said, his smile still playing on his lips, and Lucifer wondered if it ever truly left. "I don't mean to be rude, I apologize. Truthfully, I did come here to look at the progress of the building, which I know now is going to cost me a terrible penny." His smile turned a bit rueful here. "But, I would be lying if I said I hadn't come to see you, too."
Lucifer gave him a bland look, and Khalid thumped his back again, switching back to Arabic to mutter under his breath about ungrateful kids. Lucifer's lips twitched again, and he struggled to remain stoic while he waited for Adair to continue.
"After I got word of the change for the braces, I called Khalid to thank him for the idea. He told me that he wished he could take credit for it, but it was really a new carpenter who had given it. And that new carpenter, I'm sure you could guess, was—"
"Me," Lucifer finished, glancing over at Khalid, who was grinning ear to ear watching him.
"Yes. You. He told me he saw potential in you. I've worked with Khalid for a long time now, I trust his judgment. I told him to keep me updated, and here we are."
"I'm still not sure I understand — what exactly do you want with me?"
"I'd like to offer you an internship."
"A — what?"
"Well, technically it would be an 'apprenticeship', but the gist is the same. You're very gifted, and I'd like for you to come work with my team."
"Don't you need a degree for that? I'm not going back to school. It wasn't my thing." Adair smiled again, and Lucifer wondered if he should start keeping count of how many times he did that as Khalid snickered behind him.
"Degrees would make things easier, I suppose. But no. There are a few states where you can acquire your architecture license without it, given that you have proper work experience and can pass the exam yourself. New York is one of them. I'm willing to give you the 'experience' part, if it's something you're interested in."
Lucifer just stared at him, unable to believe what he was saying.
"Are you serious?"
"Completely." When Lucifer didn't respond right away, he added, "It will be paid, of course. Livable wages, full time. This internship will be your job, the first step to your career, if you so desire."
There was another long pause as Lucifer tried to process the implications of what an internship in New York entailed.
"I can give you a company stipend to get your living arrangements in order and - forgive me if I'm wrong, something appropriate to wear into the office? Until you start getting paid."
It was an amazing deal. It was something he'd never even allowed himself to dream of, but now that it was real, tangible, and within his reach…
He was crazy to not have said yes yet. There was nothing about the offer he didn't like. The one thing holding him back was the fact that he would, in fact, be returning to the US.
He hadn't been in the states since he'd left. He had never thought far enough ahead to wonder if he would return one day, to all he'd left behind. Granted, New York was far from the Golden State he'd grown up in.
"You don't have to give me an answer right now. I'll be in town until Friday, and then I'll return to New York." He fished in his suit pocket for a moment, before procuring a business card and extending it to Lucifer. "Contact me before then and if you decide you want to do it, we can arrange for you to come back with me—"
"No," Lucifer said, cutting him off before he had the chance to finish. Adair's brows rose in genuine surprise.
"No?"
"I mean, no, I don't need to think about it."
He'd spent years travelling. He'd seen more than he could've ever hoped, learned more than he wagered he would have if he'd stayed in Oxford. And architecture had interested him for the better part of 6 years, soon after he'd stumbled across his first construction site looking for work in Barcelona. He couldn't imagine a bad side to this deal.
An opportunity like the one presented to him would have been stupid to pass up. He met Adair's eyes, his expression shadowed by the disappearing light of the sun, but the determination set in his eyes clear.
"I want to go." A slow smile found its way back onto Adair's face, and he stuck his hand out.
"It sounds like we have a deal. We'll get you ready to travel to New York and once there, we can get your contract all set up."
Lucifer clasped his hand, Khalid's joyful whoop behind them threatening to break the stoic set of his jaw.
It wouldn't hurt to smile a little, he supposed.
