I had to write this and rewrite it almost nine times. I'm not doing it anymore.
He had rolled out of bed at least two and a half hours earlier than usual given his previous day and all of its stresses. After which, he'd gone through his usual morning routine.
He'd showered the evening before. But because he was nervous about what would happen today, he went ahead and did it again. After that he'd meticulously groomed himself.
Or at least tried too.
Taking the time to make sure that he didn't have a single hair out of place tended to take forever nowadays due to how much longer his hair had grown since his teen years. So it was understandable that it tended to take more time than usual.
Though today, grooming didn't go as well as it usually did.
Mainly because his hair was unruly even on the best of days. However, he had made the mistake of sleeping with it still damp the previous night, and now he was paying for it.
There was a cow lick on the side of his head that had his eye twitching while he growled at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, threatening that he should just shave his head and be done with it underneath his breath.
But the cowlick wasn't buying the threat. And neither was his reflection. Which was just...terrible since they were supposed to be buying it and co-operating.
So, after trying several different methods to get his hair to lay down like he wanted. He'd decided to simply put his hair in a ponytail for today to save himself some embarrassment. Though it didn't seem to help very much since his hair was still sticking up once he was done. But at least this way it was a wee bit camouflaged and less noticeable now.
After that he'd brushed his teeth, and then gone into his kitchen and made some coffee.
And after a cup or two he'd then headed out to his garden to get some flowers since he hadn't seemed to be able to make up his mind about what kind of flower arrangement to send to Miss Kurosaki's office today.
So, since he was on the fence about that, he'd simply decided to use his own flowers and arrange them as he pleased. Which was... somewhat exciting for him, since he didn't normally give his greenhouse flowers to just anyone.
He had first created the greenhouse garden with his dear mother in mind. So, the flowers that were grown there were unique and special, just like her.
And since the flowers from his personal greenhouse were meant to be one of the greatest compliments that he could give anyone. He spent about fifteen minutes, give or take, meandering through the greenhouse that he kept attached to his home, inspecting the roses, lilies, lavender and other flowers growing there.
Finding the most flawless blooms and snipping their stems so that he could place them in the all-important arrangement. He just hoped that the woman appreciated the gesture even if she didn't know just how important it was that she was getting flowers from his greenhouse.
Once he was done with that, he went back inside and wound-up setting everything up in his kitchen. And making a terrible mess in the process as he had removed the thorns from the roses. And then carefully placed every flower in a large crystalline vase and arranged them to look appealing. He fussed and added things here and there for the better part of another thirty minutes until he was finally totally satisfied with his work.
And then happened to take a second to glance down at his wristwatch and notice that it was time for him to leave for work.
Quickly snatching up the vase after grabbing one of the small cards that he sometimes used when his father accidentally forgot his mother's birthday gift or something- and the man called him to beg for help so that he wouldn't get into trouble. He took a moment to quickly write down a message and then picked everything up and briskly moved outside to his car and tossed it all inside. And then quickly followed suite.
After that it took him fifteen minutes to reach the branch office where she worked since it was just down the street from the main building that he worked in.
And then while as he was collecting everything from his car; he decided to call in sick so that he could do some snooping.
He feigned a cold so that he wouldn't have to go into work. At least not immediately anyways. And right on the heels of ending his call to the office- he called Yusuke since he was shocked by his own behavior and needed to blame his friend for being a bad influence on him in their youth.
Yusuke took being blamed for his sudden bout of utter insanity about as gracefully as one could expect from the former delinquent-turned-demon and laughed, loudly, in his ear. Eliciting a growl of annoyance from him as he warned his friend that he would do something terrible to him the next time he saw him.
And only made Yusuke laugh that much harder so that he was wheezing by the time he decided to end the call.
Everything after that went fairly easily. Especially since only a handful of people within the building actually knew his face.
The only real complaint that he had, was when he had come into contact with were a small group of nosy, gossiping women that he became trapped in the elevator with.
The moment that the elevator doors closed the harpies had set themselves on him like the terrifying predators that he knew them to be.
They had even had the audacity to stop the elevator so that they could question him about who was getting the flowers. And they hadn't seemed particularly thrilled to learn that their boss was the chosen recipient.
In fact, they had decided to regale him with some stories of the woman that they were fairly certain were true. Not that he believed a single word of anything they said. He didn't know the woman well enough to judge her for anything.
And even if he had known her that well, what she did in her personal life was none of his business. Yet.
Besides, he'd had the envious women pegged the moment that they started spouting their nonsense. Jealousy tended to be an ugly color on some women.
So, he was more than prepared when one of them actually tried to rip the flowers from his grasp, only to have her hand sharply slapped by him for her efforts. After that he'd engaged in a quiet stare down with she and her cronies.
However, they did something else stupid- and he might have lost some control over his temper a bit. And though he didn't normally go around assaulting women, he wasn't entirely sure that it was unwarranted in this case.
He lost track of what happened exactly but suffice to say that by the time the elevator began to move again- not only were the women all huddled in one of the corners sobbing fearfully. But they were also fired. He had spent the last few moments of the elevator ride calling for security on his cell so that they could remove them from the building.
After that it was only a matter of delivering the flowers and doing whatever else came to mind.
Leaving the arrangement with Miss Kurosaki's secretary turned out to be a good move. The woman was fairly swooning at the sight of both he and the flowers so managing to get past her after wringing the promise to tell no one that he was there was more than alarmingly easy.
Frankly he couldn't help but wonder if the fact that possible corporate espionage could take place underneath her nose, even flitted through her head. But no matter.
What was done was done and now he could finally see the inside of his vixen's office.
The moment that he stepped inside and closed the door, he leaned his back against it and breathed deeply since Miss Kurosaki's scent clung to everything. Sure, it was a tad bit old and faded, but that was to be expected for now.
Miss Kurosaki's scent surprised him though.
Not just because she smelled of citrus and flowers. But because he could distinctly tell that it wasn't from anything artificial. There was no hint of anything remotely perfume-like or similar to any kind of bodywash clinging to anything in her office.
And aside from the simple scentless soap that he could tell that she used- the scent was entirely natural. Entirely her. Feminine, unique, but not overwhelmingly so.
He liked it and couldn't wait to catch her scent when it was fresh.
Especially when he was constantly surrounded by women who wore more artificial stuff than he could stand to smell in an effort to be enticing to him. Honestly some of them gave him sneezing fits.
Once he finished smelling the place, he then set about snooping around in an attempt to get a better grasp of her likes, dislikes and personality. But her office held so little that he couldn't figure any of those things out at all.
Honestly, what he'd found there was that her office was so bare- with only a desk, a mesley, uncomfortable looking chair, and a safe. The fact that she was going without the usual comforts that others in the office had, nearly had his hackles raised.
As it already was, he had to viciously suppress the growl that rose in his throat. The gears in his head turned furiously as he went over the mental list of things that she was without.
A carpet on her floor was one of them, a more comfortable chair- one that he knew didn't stick her with its springs whenever she sat down- nice curtains, a shelf for books, a file cabinet...
Holy shit she didn't even have a file cabinet! The shock of this realization made his jaw drop open in utter horror.
After all, without one, how did she even file her work?!
She also had a small laptop computer instead of one of the bigger, more state-of-the-art ones that he'd seen others use.
"How the hell does she get anything done?" He wondered aloud in total bewilderment once he managed to find his voice. The bare bone state of the office was fucking cringeworthy.
It was just so horrible that he could barely stand to be there any longer!
So much so that he was backing towards the door while furiously going over various plans to fix this crap by any means necessary, when he heard her voice and paused at the door with his hand on the handle.
He managed to open the door the barest sliver to see her. Absently noting that she was staring at the flowers while chatting with her secretary.
He eavesdropped shamelessly. He simply couldn't help it. But once she had read the card and asked about the delivery company that had been used, he'd suddenly realized that perhaps the message that he'd written on the card had been worded wrong.
And with that realization firmly in mind, he decided to stop her from fretting by distracting her. Oh sure, he'd tell her that the flowers were from him. Eventually. But only if she didn't let the subject drop.
Miss Kurosaki's secretary seemed very amused by the fact that that her poor boss reacted in such a shocked manner when he stepped out of her office and into the open. Not that he could totally blame her any. Even he had some difficulty tamping down on his own amused laugh when he saw the comical look on his vixen's face.
However as funny as her expression was, the fact that she seemed to be in such shock by his presence that she simply ceased to function- wasn't funny. Which was why he after thanking the other woman for her keeping quiet about his impromptu. He then grasped her upper arm in his hand and quietly excused the two of them from her secretary's sight.
He only meant to see if she was alright and maybe try to coax her into functioning again so that they could speak for a bit. But the second that they were in her office and the door was firmly closed behind them, she finally seemed to shake off her shock enough to jerk her arm from his grasp and move away from him.
He would be lying if he said that the way that she quickly put some space between them didn't hurt his feelings a little bit. After all, he wasn't used to woman- any woman, really- reacting to him in such a negative way. He was more used to them wanting to be so close to him that it was a wonder that he hadn't been smothered by someone just yet.
Taking a moment to shake off his hurt feelings, he smiled at her and stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets before saying, "I apologize for the sudden visit. I know that it's a bit of a shock. But I wanted to swing by and check up on you."
She blinked at him and frowned. Obviously not understanding what he meant. So, he decided to hint at her previous day's activities. Just to help her along.
"Saving that nice elderly couple from being mowed down by that runaway bus must have been quite harrowing for you. I can't imagine being able to pick up one person, much less two and running like you had too just to avoid being hit by a speeding vehicle. Especially while injured."
She didn't say anything. But he could tell that she was tensing her muscles underneath her clothing.
It's what he usually did when someone said something about him being a demon- so he would imagine that being actually seen using even a little bit of her abilities by someone that she likely deemed normal or civilian, would lead to a similar reaction from her.
Especially if she was trying to keep her head down, blend in, and go unnoticed.
Finally, she took a deep shuddering breath, squared her shoulders and gave him a look of utter disdain before saying, "I don't know what you're talking about Minimoto. You must have been hallucinating."
He smiled at her. His smile was nothing but sharp, white, teeth. It was the same smile he gave someone before he went for the kill.
Now don't get him wrong, he wasn't actually trying to upset her or hurt her. But he also wasn't going to allow her to lie to him either. Not about something as important as saving his parents, anyways.
But if she wished to lie to him about other things, that would be fine. For now.
She started to go to her desk and pick up some of the papers lying there when he said, "I saw you, you know." He didn't care that he was lying to her right then. He just wanted her to know that she had been seen and wouldn't escape him.
She stiffened visibly, her hands going still as she slowly turned her head to glare at him from over her shoulder.
He grinned at her, knowing damned well that he was pushing her buttons and that she was likely to retaliate somehow. But he didn't care. As far as he was concerned, a great hero of any kind wasn't likely to murder someone in cold blood. Especially while at work. However, injuring him if he continued to refuse to leave her alone was another matter entirely.
Finally, after several heartbeats of utter stillness and silence, she sighed. The sound was one of exhaustion, and it made him feel like a total jerk. But he also knew that he had her right where he wanted her too.
So, he wisely stayed quiet as she turned back around to face him and asked, "What do you want?"
"I want nothing but to talk with you. Civilly, if we can both manage it."
She gave an un-lady like snort, obviously not buying his nonsense but asked anyways, "And what do you want to talk about?"
He searched his mind for a moment, after all, he had nothing but questions pertaining to her. But he would settle for at least one to kick things off. He went with the first thing that actually came to mind.
"Why did you save them? The elderly couple, I mean."
She looked him dead in the eye and merely said. "Because I wanted at least one family to be whole."
He stared at her hard, trying to determine if she were serious or not. But soon gave up since he could smell how honest she was being.
Her scent became a bit stronger, so much so that he was incredibly tempted to corner so that he could bury his face against her throat. But he also had the common sense to know that she'd really, really hurt him if he was so forward with her.
So, he stayed put and merely fisted his hands tightly at his sides as he asked her if she had liked the flowers next.
She flushed prettily with embarrassment for a moment and then looked away as she told him that the flowers were very nice, but ill-suited for an office building.
She wasn't looking at him right then, but he still smiled at her happily knowing that this would become a routine for them from now on.