Author: Snow Tigra
Pairings: Kiba x Neji
Warnings: AU. Yaoi. Semi horror and general weirdness.
Summary: Neji is perfect, living up to his name in life, even if his station in society is one of the lowest. And then he ends up falling for someone, the most unlikely person in the world, only to discover that his life has no intention of letting him be with anyone. And his life will stop at nothing to stop him.
Chapter 1: Mopping
Neji arrived the next night, all ready for work. His clothes were clean and wrinkle free, even a crease down each of his pant legs, ironed in that morning. His button down shirt was starched and clean, pressed and perfect, looking almost tailored thanks to his care in choosing just the right size. His hair was perfectly brushed and pulled back into a neat pony tail at the bottom of his scalp, echoing the anal retentiveness in his personality. The only personal affect on his entire body, is a small silver necklace with an equal armed cross, looking very old and ornate, but polished to perfection.
Neji made sure he arrived to the office on time, even early on most mornings and he walked through the maze of cubicles and small meeting rooms to his main broom closet where all of his cleaning supplies were kept. If people didn't know him, they might have guessed he was just another office worker and wondered at his lack of briefcase or blackberry and why he never really talked to the others. But like most office buildings, all the men and women were well into their work and most never even noticed Neji when he arrived or when he started walking down the halls, cleaning each floor with the upmost precision. It also helped that his work day started about an hour after most of the normal employees left the building.
His locker was part of a row of five, all situated in the broom closet with little slots in the side, which worked like mailboxes for letters from the managers of the company. Neji used his key to open his locker and was pleased to find no notices waiting for him. Back when he'd started and there'd been other workers, he's always seen them with notices about how certain parts of the building weren't kept up to cleaning standards and how they had to do a better job. Neji remembered them being fired one by one, the dreaded pink slip taped to the front of their locker rather than in the slot, advertising their status to everyone else. This had happened until Neji was all alone, cleaning the building himself. He didn't mind the work and he even took pride in it. After all, he'd never had any intention of getting in trouble for someone else's work, which couldn't happen if he was the one in charge of all of it himself.
Neji pulled out his ring of keys to the meeting rooms in the building and attached it to his belt, then made sure his cleaning cart was all full of what he needed. Glass cleaner, polishing rags, various small tools and the old worn broom he'd used for the last few years.
"He's working late tonight," came a voice from behind him, near the cart. Neji didn't turn from his locker as he straightened his hanging coat and used the mirror to make sure his shirt still had no wrinkles and that there weren't any stray hairs.
Neji snorted softly. "Don't think that will change my view of him, Lee, new employees are never good. And they are always messy." He finally turned, nodding to the young man standing by his cart. The man had very busy eyebrows, almost large enough to cover his eyes and resemble something an animal would have rather than a human. His black hair, rustled a bit, but clean, was in a bowl cut while he wore a faded brown outfit of pants and a shirt, a cigarette in his fingers as he blazingly ignored the "no smoking" signs in the room. Neji frowned at him. "Put that out."
Lee shrugged and snuffed it on the floor with his foot and Neji glared at him as he had to pick up the cigarette butt and douse it in water before putting it in the garbage. Neji then pushed his cart out of the closet, not even glancing back at the man's laugh, as he began his cleaning rounds.
It wasn't long before he passed the office from last night. Just as Lee had said, the light was on and he could see the man sitting in his desk, the chair turned as he focused on his computer, typing quickly. The man was a bit taller than Neji himself, from what he could tell and in spite of his wearing a neat business suit, he had a fur-lined hoodie hanging off the back of his chair and his hair was messy, refusing to obey a comb, brush or dryer. Neji frowned as he knocked on the door, checking to make sure he wouldn't be disturbing the new guy just out of habit.
Kiba looked up and flashed him a smile of greeting. "Come on in, I'm not busy."
'Just here for your trash." Neji avoided eye contact after that point and stepped over to the trash can by the desk. He dumped it in his large garbage can on wheels and then went to return it, only then did he see the one thing that solidified how much he would hate this new worker.
Lying next to the desk, on the floor, was a green blanket covered in silver swirly leaf shapes and dog hair. A doggy bone and water dish sat on the blanket and Neji did his best to keep from snarling as his eyes moved around the room, looking for the furry culprit.
In all his years working at the office, the one thing he hated the most, more than anything, was 'Dog Day'. Dog Day happened on the first Thursday of every month and was some sort of misguided attempt to make the work place more friendly and enjoyable. On the first Thursday of every month the employees were allowed to bring in their pet dogs and let them sit next to them while they worked all day, provided they were well behaved and didn't leave messes on the carpet. Neji disagreed with the Human Resources department and thought the practice was completely unprofessional and just plain horrible to allow in a work place. Not to mention that it was a given that there were always a couple dogs that decided to make his night hell by staining the carpet in their own way.
Luckily most the owners and their dogs left before Neji came in. Sadly this wasn't the case at the moment.
Not finding the dog, Neji turned back to his cart as he heard a ruffling and a growling sound. To his dismay, a roll of toilet paper rolled out of the cart with a little white furball attached to it. The dog growled and snapped at the toilet paper, ripping it to shreds right in front of Neji's look of horror. Small scraps of the offensive thin paper flew around the room in a flurry as the puppy wagged its tail and proceeded to rip it all to shreds.
"Akamaru! No!" Kiba stood up at his desk, yelling at the dog. But the dog didn't listen; instead it just shook the roll more, hitting the cardboard finally with its teeth. Rolling on its back it proceeded to attack it with all four paws and its teeth. Neji stepped toward the cart, already reaching for the broom to knock some sense into the little pest. Luckily, for the dog only, Kiba was quicker and immediately beside the dog, tearing the scraps of the roll away while he held him by the scruff of his neck. He attached the dog to his leash, tying it to the chair so he'd stay on his blanket and dropped the very dead roll in the garbage.
"I'm so sorry about that, let me help you clean it up..."
"No, I'll simply use the vacuum after you leave tonight." Neji resisted the urge to glare at the dog, quite certain his hatred would only give the little devil more pleasure then the little show.
"Are you sure?"
Neji nodded once. "Yes, I'm sure." Neji bent down and picked up the larger pieces, dropped them in the trash and then quickly left the room. Walking down the hall he encountered another puppy which looked up at him with one of those 'pet me please, I'm cute' looks. Neji responded with a deadly glare, mean enough to make the puppy sink back under the desk with a whimper.
Neji hated dogs. And he was quite sure he hated the new worker.
"He has a dog. I hate dogs." Neji muttered as he stepped into the bathroom, starting to sweep and clean up the floor. Lee was standing there, leaning against the wall as usual.
"Oh dogs aren't so bad. And besides, it's only one day a month."
"One day of hell. Last month there were five messes left behind. Five."
"One for each floor."
Neji glared at Lee and took the broom, sweeping the floor angrily in short and jerky motions. "It was a stupid idea anyway. Who in their right mind would want to bring their dogs to work anyway?"
"Well let;'s see, there's this Kiba, and Sakura from the second floor with her poodle. Not to mention the security guard and his two dogs, then the guy who does the computer repairs with his huge Dalmatian-"
"Shut up."
Neji slapped the broom against the wall, but Lee kept talking, rambling and rambling, naming off every single employee who ever brought in a dog.
In the end Neji left the broom in the bathroom, and left Lee to his own taunting as he went to hunt down the vacuum to clean up the mess of toilet paper.