Chapter 4: Ah... Office Life
Ludwig awoke the next morning to find himself, once again, sleeping on the right side of the bed. The left side was vacant with the blanket thrown off as though someone had slept there then got up. He's got to do something about that. Maybe it was becoming a new habit?
Veneziano was making breakfast again downstairs. This time it was just toast with some butter.
"Good morning Ludwig!" he greeted the same as the last two days.
"Morning…"
"Gilbert's feeling better now right? He's going to work now?"
Ludwig sighed as he took the mug of coffee pre-prepared for him and drank half of it. He's not even going to wait the five minutes opportunity for Gilbert to wake up by himself, which he never did anyway. Chances are, it's going to take a little longer for his brother to wake up today.
He climbed upstairs and entered Gilbert's bedroom.
"Oi Gilbert. Get up. Breakfast is ready."
Rustle.
"Gilbert."
"Argh c'mon Ludwig. I still don't feel good. I mean I still feel achy and in pain and you still want me to get up?" Gilbert groaned.
"Don't feign sick. I know you're well. Now hurry up and get up."
"…"
"Gilbert," Ludwig said warningly.
"…"
The German sighed. It has come to this.
Every single time his brother got better from an illness, he would pretend he was still sick and absolutely refuse to budge even though Ludwig knew he was fine. Every single time it involved drastic measures.
Ludwig pulled the cover off of Gilbert and seeing that he still hasn't moved, took hold of his legs and yanked him on the floor.
"Ow! Shit! Hey! This floor isn't exactly a bed of feathers you know! I think I—"
Ludwig didn't stop at that. Oh no.
He continued to drag Gilbert down the hall and into the bathroom.
He hoped his brother knew what this meant and to stop the charade before things got real ugly for him.
Unfortunately for him, Gilbert still had no clue what the future entails and stubbornly refused to get up himself and start brushing his teeth.
He's forced Ludwig's hand then.
Ludwig hauled Gilbert up and dropped him in the tub. He finally gets it because his eyes widen but it was too late. Before the red-eyed man could start protesting or even move, turned on the shower to cold.
"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"
Veneziano looked up at the general direction of the bathroom before Ludwig came tromping down the stairs again.
"Nah… was that Gilbert?"
Ludwig slid into his seat in front of his plate of toast and said, "Yeah. Don't worry 'bout him. He's fine."
Thirty minutes later, a grumpy and stormy-looking Gilbert slunk down the stairs and sat sulkily into the kitchen table in front of his nice, hot breakfast.
"You know you didn't have to do that," Gilbert grumbled.
"I've warned you," Ludwig replied simply.
"Yeah but c'mon! Spraying me with cold water that early in the morning? What kind of sick twisted man are you? You're just downright cruel," Gilbert accused. "Besides! This is no way to treat your older brother! I get no respect from you nowadays. You've gone too far! I should—"
"Gilbert eat your breakfast," Ludwig interrupted in an almost monotonous way.
Gilbert stopped his rant but was still grumbling under his breath as he started on his toast.
When it was time to head off, Ludwig felt a bit uncomfortable leaving Veneziano alone in the house but what he promised cannot be undone so he had no choice.
"Okay Veneziano. We'll be going now. Make sure you don't do anything funny such as stealing or anything otherwise I'll be forced to call the police and kick you out," Ludwig warned.
"Yes sir! I'll be careful! I'll see you later then!" Veneziano said as cheerfully as ever. He followed Ludwig to the front door and waved as Gilbert and he pulled out of the driveway.
~*~
The Muse Laptop Co. was one of the largest and best in the industry. It gave top services, used top-of-the-line technology, and came up with, not only designs pleasing to the eye, but designs that would help make it last a lifetime.
The company was divided up into three parts: the design, the manufacture, and the profit branch.
The design branch, as the name suggests, makes creative, new, fun designs that appealed to a lot of people. Not only that but they can also customize. So, a person might draw what they want their laptop to look like and the custom design section of the design branch would help make adjustments if it needs any then send it back to the customer for approval. Can't draw? No problem. Just send in a description of what the laptop should look like and the designers do the rest. Once both sides agree, the custom design would forward it to the manufacture branch, which is also divided into two sections.
The first section is for mass production. Since Muse Laptop Co. uses vertical integration, the manufacture branch stretches from the mines down to the making of wires to the creation of the laptop itself. The second section is completely devoted to custom designs. This section creates a laptop exactly as shown in the piece of paper the customers sent down to a T including the material they wanted so Muse Laptop does own quite a number of areas with raw material.
The last branch was the profit branch. This was where ideas were put forward to help the laptops sell better such as ads, where people monitor the competition and the company's own current events, where changes were made for the rest of the company, and where people oversee the distribution and selling of the product. This section was also responsible for customer services to keep the employees even more occupied.
The profit branch in the main building of Muse Laptop Co. was where Ludwig and Gilbert worked in. Everyday was bustling with phone calls or complaints and not a day goes by where someone hasn't spilled their coffee one way or another because of the general confusion that a certain manager was supposed to prevent.
Yes indeed, the profit branch was the most unreliable branch of the three despite how well off it made Muse Laptop Co.
Ludwig swore that the only other two sane people besides him are Honda Kiku, a quiet and serious, Japanese and Vash Zwingli, a straight-down Swiss who hates nonsense. Too bad it was an everyday occurrence at the office. Ludwig could only imagine the exasperation and anger he would experience on a daily basis.
Coming out of the elevator, cubicles are the immediate things seen. To the left, however, was a nice, long window with a potted plant sitting at each end, happily soaking up the morning sunlight that reminded everyone they had a long while before work ended. To the right somewhere was the door leading to the break room and the coffee makers that broke down at least once a month because of the overuse, the manager being one of the main reasons for their breakage. Also to the right was the door to the meeting room, the door leading to the office supplies and the copier, and the door to the manager's room.
Usually, the office was pretty empty because it was fifteen minutes early. People don't start coming in until at least twenty minutes later. Then there were the late stragglers who can't go to work on time if their life depended on it. That usually included the manager. Why was he the manager again?
Today, however, Ludwig and Gilbert were a little late because the latter had insisted halfway through the trip to go back for his iPod. So instead of being fifteen minutes early, they were right on time with the late-five-minuters, which meant the office would be busy already.
They stepped into the elevator, as usual, and while riding up, the elder put on his headphones and turned on his iPod, blasting his music so loud, Ludwig could clearly hear the lyrics.
As the elevator doors opened, the sight of dozens of bustling people running around the room met them. Voices and noises filled the air with the occasional ringing of a telephone punctuating.
Immediately after the brothers stepped out of the elevator, an Asianic man with a ponytail came into view or more specifically, came into Gilbert's view.
"Where were you aru?" Wang Yao, the company vice-president/secretary, asked.
Gilbert just strolled into the chaos called 'office,' ignoring Wang as he went along.
"Well you have a lot of work to complete now! You have two day's worth to finish today! You better start or else there would be consequences aru," Wang chided, following Gilbert to his cubicle, his voice growing ever fainter the deeper they went into the crowd of idling and moving people
Ludwig didn't dally on that spot for long. He went into his own cubicle among the dozen others and started on work. There were papers on the progress reports, price and values, etc.
He started off with recent updates on the company.
In about an hour, Toris Lorinaitis, the office boy, would bring him a small cup of coffee, a cappuccino to be exact, before running off to do other errands. Poor guy's been overworked for years but never complained. It was about time this place hired another office boy.
Half an hour since work started, Ludwig was shuffling through his papers from his briefcase when he realized that this wasn't his. It was Gilbert's. The evidence? Messily organized papers that looked as though they were stuffed inside in a hurry and a few papers with stains on them. Definitely Gilbert's.
Ludwig sighed, closed the briefcase, and got up to go give his brother his briefcase and to get his own back.
He walked to the front of the office with the elevators and turned to go to the left side of the office when he stopped abruptly.
There, standing by the window was Francis with… Veneziano? What the hell was he doing here?
Forgetting the briefcase switch up for a second, he went up to the Italian, who was merrily talking to the Frenchman who seemed to be hinting suggestively at him.
Ludwig didn't waste any time.
He walked up to Veneziano and pulled him away a few feet.
"Hi Ludwig!" he chimed after an initial second of confusion at being suddenly pulled away.
"Did he do anything to you?" Ludwig asked hurriedly, cutting right to the chase.
Veneziano just blinked. "Do what?"
Ludwig wondered if he pretended to be stupid to get something out of him.
"Did he…"
Oh god he's going to look like an idiot asking him this.
"Did he… touch you anywhere you didn't want to be touched?"
Veneziano looked at him with a puzzled expression then asked, "Where?"
Ludwig didn't like where this conversation is going.
"Never mind," he mumbled.
But there was something else to ask other than whether or not the infamous Francis had performed another dastardly deed.
"Veneziano, what are you doing here?" Ludwig asked, changing topic.
The puzzled look vanished completely and a joyful one replaced it.
"I'm going to be working here as an office boy!"
Ludwig stared at Veneziano in disbelief.
No way. This cannot be happening.
First, this guy comes up to his house and says he's his guardian angel. Second he wants Ludwig to let him live in his house. Third, he has a book on his personal information. Now fourth, he's going to be working in the same area as Ludwig.
Unbelievable! This was no different than stalking!
Ludwig narrowed his eyes at Veneziano, who now looked uneasy.
"Is Ludwig upset?" he asked.
Is he upset? What sort of question is that? A psycho Italian is following him around!
"Veneziano, I am asking you politely to stop following me," Ludwig said in a low voice.
"But… um… I need to earn money so I can move somewhere else because Ludwig won't let me live in his house," Veneziano said, fidgeting. "I didn't mean to make Ludwig unhappy…"
Ludwig loosened up upon hearing the explanation but his suspicions weren't completely cleared.
What Veneziano said did make sense. He probably needed a job in order to get a home instead of staying at a random stranger's. But was his workplace the only place hiring? Probably not and the pay isn't exactly the best. Ludwig was sure he could have gotten a better job.
"It's… okay Veneziano. I'm sorry I got angry," Ludwig finally said.
Veneziano immediately brightened up again and a wide smile split his face.
"It's okay Ludwig! I have to go a meet someone named Toris now! He's going to give me a tour!"
The other just nodded but before Veneziano could run off again, Ludwig grabbed him back.
"Listen, you see that man?" he asked in a hushed voice, just loud enough for the Italian to hear him. He pointed discreetly towards Francis, who was flirting with one of the women workers. "That's Francis and I want you to stay away from him if you're going to be working here from now on."
The Frenchman they were watching slowly slid his hand to touch the woman's bottom but unfortunately for Francis, this was an experienced worker, which means she has dealt with the man for years. The woman just easily stepped away and walked off as if nothing happened.
"Why? He doesn't seem bad. He gave me a ride here!" Veneziano questioned, seemingly confused again.
Ludwig wondered if anyone could be this dense. They just watched him sexually harass someone for crying out loud. It couldn't get anymore screamingly obvious.
At that moment, Francis looked and spotted them and gave a small wave towards them, smiling charmingly.
"Come on," Ludwig said, taking a hold of Veneziano's arm, "I'm going to take you to Toris."
"Oh okay! Thanks Ludwig!"
Toris was carrying a stack of papers when they found him and he was hurrying among the maze of cubicles. Ludwig and Veneziano had to fast-walk alongside him.
"Hi! I'm the new office boy! My name's Veneziano!" the Italian introduced without hesitation.
Toris, still moving along, looked to the side and gave him a relieved smile.
"Oh thank goodness. Here, help me carry these please. I'll give you a tour afterwards but it's pretty busy so we might not even get around touring."
"Sure!"
Toris stopped near the wall of the cubicles to prevent backup to the flow of people and put the pile of papers on the floor with a dull thud. He gave Veneziano half then hefted his half up again.
"Okay, let's go," Toris said before once again making his way through the crowd.
"I'll see you later Ludwig!" Veneziano called behind him as he followed but then bumped into a water cooler.
The German sighed, rubbing his temples.
He could already tell that the office was going to be much more hectic with Veneziano around.
~*~
It wasn't even three hours later that a commotion arose from the office staff somewhere near Ludwig.
He arose from his seat to see what was the cause. He didn't even need to because someone shouted out, "Hey! Where's my report? It was supposed to have arrived half an hour ago! Does someone have it?"
Someone else a little further away replied, "Yeah I think I have it! Actually I have ten of these reports but I can't tell whose they could be."
"I have twenty of these things!"
"Why is there a stack of blank white paper here?"
"Man if I don't get my report soon…"
"Eh I don't care anymore. Whatever."
That was Gilbert slacking off at any opportunity that presented itself, with any little excuse.
But before Ludwig could speak, Vash had already beaten him to the chase.
"Everyone quiet down!" a scowling blonde yelled.
Everyone did as told because it's unwise not do whatever the guy who's carrying a gun twenty-four seven says. Isn't there supposed to be some policy against that? Who's crazy enough to carry a frickin' gun here? Well, someday someone's gonna sue.
"I have a headache so let's resolve this quickly and quietly before I decide to blow up all of your asses."
Just not now because y'know… work and all. It's a busy life.
Ludwig sat back down. Everything is being handled already.
Until the manager burst from his office.
"Hey guys! I have another brilliant idea to—"
"Aw!"
"Geez man! Give us a break!"
"Boo! You suck!"
Alfred F. Jones crossed his arms over his chest and said with a face of a five year old who couldn't get what he wanted, "But you haven't even heard my idea yet!"
"We don't need to 'cause we already know it sucks," a bored female voice called out from somewhere. That was probably Yukimo Suzaku, one of the, at least, moderately good workers in the office. She got her work done on time, got down to business if needed, and was reliable. Perhaps if she didn't tend to get so wild sometimes, she would be one of the best employee out there. "Besides, ideas are shared only at meetings, which is every Friday and what do ya know, it's not Friday," she continued.
Ludwig decided not to participate in the 'shoot down the manager' game, which occurs most everyday. Instead, he needed to know who the heck caused such a mix up in the papers. Something in the back of his head already knew though but before he could grasp it, someone shouted out, "Oh my god yay! Someone replaced the water in the cooler with chocolate milk!"
Now the office's attention turned to the lone water cooler and the woman standing in front of it, looking gleeful about the change from boring ol' H two O. And indeed, replacing the clear liquid was a brown one.
But before anyone could say anything, someone cried from the break room, "Hey! Who left all these boxes of spaghetti in the cupboards?"
Talk started all throughout the office and Ludwig finally recognized who the only culprit could be.
Veneziano.
He was the one helping Toris carry a stack of papers earlier and office boys could usually go wherever they needed so they had access to a lot of different places.
Wasn't Toris watching over the newcomer? But then again, Toris is a pretty busy guy. He's always bustling around and the only time he rests is lunchtime.
Ludwig decided he needed to talk to Veneziano about the mess he made. He probably doesn't know how the office works and Toris is obviously too busy to keep an eye on him so maybe Ludwig could take over the responsibility and show Veneziano the ropes to help ease some of the old office boy's burdens.
"Holy smokes! The supply room is on fire!"
Right after the office was back in shape that is.
Author's rambling section: Sigh... I think I would like to work in an office like that. It'd be so much fun :3 And wouldn't it be great if such a company exists? Where you just send in designs and they'll make it for you? That'd be so excellent!
Um... I dunno how exactly an office works so I just put the sterotypical office that comes into mind. I'm not even sure how a company works but please just humor me. This company is special okay?
I also added an OC lulz. Dun worry, she's just a minor character. I added her because it'd be kinda sad if this story didn't have more female characters and the legit females won't appear for a long while.