I'm surprised I got this done so quickly considering that this chapter also gave me some problems. A note on chatracters, I've tried to write Arya as close to the book equivilent as I can, but taken out of the context of the book sometimes her character won't be a direct parallel. Given that her motivation behind her actions will not be the same here as it is in the book, but I have done my best. The way I have chosen to portray her is actually based rather heavily on someone I know. Anyway I hope you all enjoy it!
N.B: All mistakes are my own, as much as I try to catch them typos are slippery buggers and continue to elude me!
Flashes
Chapter 2
His throat constricted and he suddenly had trouble breathing, he could feel his eyes widening and in the back of his mind he was dimly aware that he must look like a right prat but he didn't care. He was smitten, it was the only way to describe the strange way his body was acting and how it wouldn't respond to any rational command that his brain gave it.
What held him so captivated was a woman, a beautiful woman. The first thing he noticed was her hair, ebony black and from what he could see dead straight. She had it scraped back into a ponytail and for that Eragon was very grateful, because it allowed him an unobstructed view of her face.
Her eyes, were mesmerising, a beautiful shade of emerald they were even more captivating that Saphira's and Eragon hadn't even thought that was possible. Her face itself was thin and angled at the bottom towards her chin, in a way that seemed elegant beyond compare. Her skin was flawless and Eragon had an overwhelming temptation to reach out and touch it to see if it was as soft to touch as it looked. He had to work hard to restrain himself.
The rest of her body was just as wonderful as he face. Curving in all the right places she had a willowy appearance, and from her stance Eragon could tell that she was just as elegant in movement as she was stood still. She was wearing a plain whit blouse with the two top buttons undone, leaving very little to Eragon's already over active imagination. Low riding jeans hung off her hips and if Eragon concentrated he could just see the outline of her hip bones over the tops of her jeans.
He was pulled from his dazed wonderment by the realisation that his angel was talking. Snapping his attention back to reality he listened, waiting to see if her voice compared to the rest of her. It did.
"…getting very difficult to get anything cleared because the bloody idiots in accounting keep slowing everything down." Her voice was in Eragon's mind like silk, soft and smooth, but there was a harder edge to it that showed her annoyance. To him it was like hearing for the first time and Eragon marvelled at the sounds and savoured it. He took an involuntary step forward trying to listen more.
"I've looked over the figures as well Saphira and something isn't quite right. I mean we're sending over £1 million worth of rations to these third world countries, but in the returning reports it seems to appear that only two thirds of it seem to be actually getting there!" his angel was frowning, causing a cute little line to appear between her eyes, which Eragon found adorable and immediately committed to memory. Both Saphira and the angel seemed to have either no idea that he was there or forgotten, but didn't seem to mind; he was quite content to enjoy the view.
"Ah man! I thought we'd settled that!" Saphira groaned. "I'll have to speak to Todd about that this afternoon." The angel nodded and opened her mouth to reply, but then her eyes flickered to the side and seemed to notice Eragon for the first time. Her mouth closed and the frown returned, turning to face Eragon front on she locked eyes with him, the intensity of her gaze caused Eragon to go weak at the knees.
"And who's this?" she asked, arching a sceptical eyebrow. Saphira looked between Eragon and the angel.
"Oh god yes! Sorry, this is Eragon, he's living with me and I've got him a job here." She smiled. "We've been pretty swamped lately and I figured we could have some help. Eragon this is Arya, my work partner." Arya, the angel had a name it was beautiful. Eragon maintained eye contact and stuck out a hand.
"It's nice to meet you." he smiled. Arya hesitated her eyes flickering up and down, taking him in before she reached out and grasped his hand firmly. The contact of skin on skin was enough to send fire racing through Eragon's blood, and he was ashamed to feel his jeans tighten. Thankful he had worn loser jeans he flashed her what he thought was a charming smile. Her raised eyebrow arched even higher.
"Nice to meet you too." She replied, he voice seemingly devoid of emotion. Releasing his hand she turned and spoke to Saphira again.
"Let me know what Todd says, I may want to have words with him myself." Saphira nodded as Arya turned to leave. Looking back at Eragon her smile dimmed slightly as she saw the look on his face. He was smitten; there was no doubt about it. But he had fallen for the wrong person entirely.
The rest of the day seemed to be mainly a blur for Eragon. People and names were thrown at him; he was shown around the massive building to all the places he was likely to be needed to go. Filing away everything in his brain Eragon seemed to be working on autopilot. For a large majority of the day he was too preoccupied with thoughts of Arya. He found himself drifting off into daydreams at regular intervals, sitting at the small desk Saphira had had set up from him just outside her office. His first day had been spent mainly getting to grips with the new environment that he had been thrust into. After a morning of introductions Saphira showed him down to a busy canteen. Directing him to the food she met him at an empty table. Eragon craned his neck as subtly as he could trying to catch a glimpse of Arya, of his angel. He caught Saphira watching him with a strange look on her face when he sat down, but when he questioned her she just shook her head. Eragon chewed mindlessly at his food; gazing around at all the people who had gathered top eat their lunch, very aware that Saphira was still stealing glances at him when she thought he wasn't looking.
"So how are you finding it?" she finally asked. Eragon smiled.
"Different." He paused. "But very enjoyable." Saphira raised an eyebrow but didn't comment further.
XXXXXX
The first week of his new job was one full of new experiences for Eragon. Working on a farm was a job of few rules. The main one that Garrow had drilled into Roran and Eragon had been 'look after the land and it will look after you.' the processes were simple enough and the etiquette was minimal, a horse did not generally answer back. But here in the office environment things suddenly got a lot more complex, there were people he should talk to, some he was advised not to talk to and other who he should just steer clear of. There certain times of the day that he should use the elevator and others to use the stairs. His lunch break should be at the same time as others of his position but if someone of a higher position decided that they wanted to eat lunch at the same place he was to move without argument or complaint. The structure reminded Eragon heavily of the structure of an old English monarchy court he had read about in the stories of his childhood. There were many rules that Eragon forgot and as such he had his first run in with a colleague just two days in.
He was sat at his desk, sorting some files that Saphira had given him to look through when a shadow fell over his desk. Looking upwards he saw a man standing by his desk leering down at him with an expression that instantly made him wary. The man was very fat and the blue pinstripe suit he was wearing seemed too small for him emphasising the massive stomach that bulged over his trousers. He had a large file clutched in one hand and a Blackberry phone in the other. Every few seconds he would pull his gaze away from whatever he was looking at to check the phone, regardless of whether or not he had received anything.
"You must be Eragon." he said, his voice rough and almost mocking. "I'm Roger Sloan, Head of International Meat Shipping. I heard Saphira had a new assistant but I wasn't aware that we were hiring children." He let out a guffaw of laughter and checked his phone again. Eragon had only been in the man's presence less than a minute but he already didn't like him, this dislike was only increased when Sloan hefted the file he had been holding and put it down on the desk in front of him, over the papers he had already been looking through.
"You couldn't have a look through that for us could you? Sort it out and get it back to me by…" he looked at his phone. "…4?" Eragon glanced at the clock, it was ten to two and the files he had already been sorting had taken him best part of two hours already and they were three times smaller than the file Sloan had given him.
"Err; I'm not really sure that I'm supposed to be doing your filing." He ventured. "I've already got something to do for Saphira." Sloan's eyes widened in surprise at his words and then his face darkened. Placing two meaty hands on Eragon's desk he pushed his face forward until he was but two inches from Eragon's face.
"Listen boy." He growled. "I know you're new here so I'm going to pretend I didn't hear what you just said, because around here, generally when I ask something to be done, by whoever I choose it gets done!"
"Does it really Roger?" a voice behind Eragon made him turn round and Sloan look up. Saphira was leaning in the doorway of her office, and from the looks of things she had heard the entire conversation. "Because I was under the impression that you have your own time to manage your own files, and that you've already been warned about getting other people to do your work when they have no need to." Pushing away from the door she came to stand behind Eragon's chair and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"I also don't appreciate you picking on my assistant who has only been here two days and really doesn't know anything about you and your reluctance to do ANY form of work!" Sloan's face had flushed a deep red and was slowly turning purple with a mixture of anger and embarrassment, Saphira raised her eyebrows and with a huff he snatched his file up off the table and mumbling something that could have sounded like sorry stalked off. Saphira clapped Eragon on the shoulder.
"Don't worry about him, he's just bitter because he's never gotten higher than Head of Meat Shipping, which is not a desirable job at all!" with a laugh she retreated back into her office.
Aside from this incident Saphira's high position within the company meant that Eragon did have the respect of people further down the food chain, copiers and various small time accountants, but the executives treated him with a cold disdain, treating him like crap or just ignoring him altogether. He could handle this, as he had been used to being looked down on his entire life. But it was not something Saphira seemed to tolerate, she spent most of the first week fighting his battles and scaring off anyone who might give everyone problems. As much as he appreciated all that Saphira had done from him he felt uncomfortable letting her fight his battles for him. To Eragon it always seemed that whenever Saphira fought a battle for him Arya always seemed to be there. It was mortifying and Eragon seemed to spend a lot of his first week blushing a bright beetroot red.
Arya. A source of both amazement and secrecy for Eragon. because most of his work required him to sit outside Saphira's office sorting papers and a lot of her work required her to go back and forth between Saphira's office and her own it meant that Eragon saw quite a lot of her and was able to watch her. He was able to see the way she moved and have his assumption that her movements were as elegant as he imagined confirmed. He was able to take in every detail of her face, until he could close his eyes and bring it to mind within seconds. In particular he was able to notice how she interacted with the people around her, how her demeanour and attitude changed, specifically different genders. With the woman Eragon had seen her interact with he had noted that she was relaxed, she smiled and a glint would appear in her eyes that transformed her whole face, brightening it and holding Eragon captivated. She spoke more as well and her body language became more flamboyant.
But all this changed when she interacted with men. She seemed to physically tense, her mouth thinned and her eyes took on a glassy almost steely glint. It was harsh there was no other way to describe it, she spoke in few word sentences and seemed to try and get conversations with men over as quickly as she possibly could. The difference were subtle, most people would never notice but Eragon had been paying very close attention.
Saphira buzzed through to Eragon's desk.
"Can you come in for a moment Eragon, I need you to take some folders to Arya." His heart did a flip at the very mention of her name, and as he stood up he mentally chastised himself for allowing a reaction like that. He entered and without a word took the folders that she passed him. Saphira nodded and went back to her work.
Eragon knew the layout to the building quite well now, and although he had never been inside Arya's office he knew where it was. Set aside from other offices there were very people around and as such it was very quiet as Eragon made his way down the corridor to the office at the end. The secluded nature of her office showed once again a seeming reluctance Arya had to interact with other people.
Pausing in front of the office door Eragon took a deep breath and tried to compose his features into a calm, neutral mask. Raising a hand he knocked sharply.
"Come in." Eragon slowly pushed open the door and poked his head round the door. The office had exactly the same layout as Saphira's, a big window with a desk, computer and cabinets filling up the space. Arya was sat behind her desk, frowning at some papers paid out in front of her. As the sound of the door opening she looked up.
"Eragon." she acknowledged him with a curt nod before returning her gaze to her desk. He inched all the way into the room and closed the door. Crossing the space between the door and the desk he held out the files, Arya glanced up briefly and stretched out a hand. As she took the folders their hands touched briefly, which send a jolt through Eragon's body, he tried not to let it show on his face. Arya leafed through the folders as Eragon made to leave.
"Wait." Stopping her turned. "I'll go over these and sign them now so you may as well wait here." Without looking up she gestured to the seat opposite her, after a second's hesitation Eragon timidly sat down.
There was silence for a few moments, Eragon stared down at his hands, trying to think of something he might say to break the awkward silence, this was the first time he had been in a position to speak to Arya since he had started work and here he was staying mute like some sort of fool. When he did glance up he was surprised to find Arya gazing at him intently, she had stopped working and was just watching him. The intensity of her gaze, the same as that of the stare she had fixed him with on his first day, made him feel uncomfortable and he shifted in his chair. This seemed to break the spell and Arya looked down.
"So Eragon? How are you finding working at Varden?" she asked. Eragon realised it was the first time she had said his name, he liked it so much that for a moment he didn't respond.
"Err…it's different." He finally replied. Arya flashed a hint of a smile.
"I'll bet." She replied." She made a note on her paper and looked up." So…tell me, do you always get women to fight your battles for you?" she asked, a smirk pulling at the corner of her mouth. Eragon coughed and blushed furiously.
"Well no…I mean I don't think they can't or anything…but I don't technically ask. Saphira just kind of thinks I need protecting. She worries about me." He babbled. Arya stood up and walked over the cabinet, as soon as her back was turned Eragon mentally slapped himself for giving such a stupid answer. Looking up again he noticed that as she walked away he was given a wonderful view of her ass, hugged perfectly by tight jeans.
"That sounds like Saphira, always looking out for everyone else. Trying to solve everyone's problems." Eragon snapped his eyes away from her ass as she spoke again, he was surprised to head a hint of tenderness in her voice as she spoke about Saphira and for a heart stopping moment he wondered if perhaps the two of them were an item. But the thought was banished from his head as soon as it entered, Saphira would have mentioned that!
"You two are close?" Eragon asked, still a little curious. Arya looked round and fixed him once again with a stare. He found himself unable to draw his gaze away from her emerald orbs; he searched for a sign of emotion, and found none.
"Saphira is a very special person." Arya spoke carefully as if she was choosing her words with extra care. "I admire her a great deal and am grateful to have her both as a friend and a colleague." She was now sat down opposite him once more. Eragon hated to even acknowledge it but he could feel a certain coldness emanating from her.
"You err…you're not so happy that I'm here are you?" he asked. Arya didn't seem to respond and for a moment Eragon was worried that he had overstepped the mark. The seconds seem to pass agonisingly slowly before she finally looked up.
"I trust Saphira's judgement." She said once again with care. "I'll admit I was sceptical on your first day because it did seem to be rushed and no one had said anything about it to me." Eragon's heart fell a little and it must have shown on his face because Arya seemed to hesitate.
"What I mean is now I've had a week to see you I'm not so sceptical anymore." She gave him a tiny smile. "I'm almost impressed…apart from the whole having women fight your battles." Her smiled widened slightly and gave away that she was jesting. Eragon also guessed that he 'almost impressed' comment was about as high praise as he was going to get.
"Well hopefully I can change your opinion from 'almost' impressed to 'impressed'" he grinned. Arya arched an eyebrow and leant back in her chair.
"I'll look forward to observing your efforts." She replied.
Eragon couldn't help but wonder if they were flirting. His experience with the female gender was very limited to stuttered sentences and a couple of hurried fumbles. He didn't really think Arya would flirt with him considering the way she acted around men, but top Eragon it certainly felt like flirting.
Looking down at his hands again Eragon suddenly felt very nervous. Feeling he must have been in the room for ages he sneaked a look at his watch, to his amazement he had only been there five minutes. Glancing up he caught sight of the name plate stamped to the front of the desk. 'Arya Dröttningu'.
"Your last name is an interesting one." He said. Arya didn't look up.
"Yeah confuses a lot of people." Eragon smiled, trying not to notice how she had reverted back to short few word sentences.
"I can imagine." The silence descended again and Eragon realized that he had absolutely nothing to say, his mind had gone blank. Swallowing he tried hard not to watch Arya work. She was even more beautiful that she had been on the day he had first met her. She looked at her work through downcast eyes, her lashes framing her eyes in a way that took his breath away. Her tied up hair had fallen over one shoulder revealing one side of her neck to him. The skin looked so smooth and soft that Eragon had to shake his head to stop himself leaning across the desk. Finally Arya signed the last paper and closing the file handed them back across the desk.
"Here you are, sorry it took so long." She apologised.
"It's no problem." He stood up and turned to make for the door.
"Eragon." Once again she stopped him. "I hope you enjoy working here. But be careful, there's always a trap that you can fall into if you're not paying attention." Eragon nodded slowly not even pretending to understand what she was talking about and quickly left the room without looking back. He could feel Arya's eyes on him as he left. Leaning back against the door as it closed he exhaled deeply and closed his eyes. After a moment he walked off, feeling more confused than he'd ever been.
Welllll I do also apologise for the pace it's something I need to work on and hopefully it will pick up in the next couple of chapters. Please review and let me know what you thought, as i value your inputs greatly! :)
Pirate-x-Girls
