"You have got to be kidding me."
Mia had set aside a chunk of land on her property for Cassie to build a vet clinic/ animal rescue center. It didn't really get too many domestic cases this far out, but it saw enough wildlife. So long as it was an animal that needed help, she'd help. They guys had (been) volunteered to help keep the place up, depending on who you asked anyway.
Ryo and Sai had jumped right in and helped. Kento was a bit reluctant until he'd made friends with the ball of fluff they had yet to identify. Now said ball would perch on his shoulder while he worked. Rowen was a bit trickier and in the end Cassie had bribed him with sharing some medical info with him whenever he helped. He had debated he could just read about it until she made the argument that you learned more from life than from lit. He'd agreed two seconds later. Sage hadn't been around for a while, having been with his family. As such Mia had allotted him a help time on the schedule.
Cassie admitted to being warned Sage was a bit of a… pretty boy? Prep? Neat freak? Eh, something in there.
What she didn't expect was to see him standing in the middle of the barn/medic center, leaning against one of the support beams, dressed in what to any normal person would be business clothes, looking like he expected her to snap to.
Yeah, that wasn't working.
She wasn't that huge of a stickler for things, but Sage had given his word to follow the schedule like everyone else. That meant working. Not posing.
Grrr.
"There are no cameras here."
A blonde brow quirked. Could have been both of them for all she knew.
"That means there's no need to pose. You can either help out or get out."
"What if I simply want to stand here watching you?"
"You will be in the way. If you aren't helping, you're bothering and taking up vital space and room. Now, move and work, or move and leave, either way I'm happy."
"Mia will be angry if I get back too soon."
It was her turn to quirk a brow.
"Not my problem. You agreed to be on the schedule. No one forced you."
"Again, Mia would be angry with me."
"Again, not my fault. Work or leave. I am"
With that she set down the bag of feed she was carrying and moved off to start working with a few of the smaller patients.
It had taken her about an hour to tend to the smaller inhabitants of the huge space, and she'd left a small list of reasonably easy chores. She may not expect miracles, but asking to have papers straightened and inventory was not hard.
Apparently Sage was either that arrogant or that dumb.
She was betting on C.
Growling she stalked over to the infuriating blonde who was SO going to regret flashing that smug smirk.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"EEK!"
Ryo, who had been dozing on the porch practically threw himself off his perch and darted for the barn. What the hell had made that shriek?
His answer came with a bang from the barn doors flying open.
"Next time, listen to what I tell you in there or it's going up your ass to join that flagpole!"
Ryo skidded to a stop, unable to believe his eyes. Sage was wide-eyed and staring at the smaller figure of Cassie, both hands held protectively over his rear as she wielded a large shovel. It became apparent what happened when she moved to hold it like a baseball bat and Sage whimpered and scuttled back.
Ryo was 'flopped' out of his hysterical laughter 10 minutes later when Byakuen decided that now was a good time for an ear scratch.