Disclaimer: -sets a trap- Hey, finders keepers. I'll check in the morning.
Notes: I love the enthusiasm from all of you, but sometimes you just have to wait and see what happens. Hell, I'm thinking of half this stuff as I go and I got Hojou out of it (I admit it! He was originally going to be an intern! -gags-)
Well, thanks to everyone again for reviewing, and I hope I can please you all again with this chapter. Enjoy! - Bunny
Three Little Words: Chapter 5 - Mistakes and Manicures
strangely enough to Hojou's, even though it was only two down from where they had been.
Just then, though Sango couldn't recall exactly how it got to that point, she had her fingers soaking in the small basin of his manicure set and the three of them were all talking about whatever was on their minds, Sango just having finished recalling the bitter end of her latest relationship.
"Oh Honey, don't worry about it. You're so much better off without that jerk." Hojou removed her fingers from the basin and started drying her hands off in a fluffy towel while Tara went through the box of nail enamel, looking for a good color.
"I still can't believe it was your best friend who was spread eagle on your kitchen counter.
Wasn't she engaged?" Tara picked an emerald green out from the box and held it in front of Sango's face. "How's this one?"
Sango let out a sigh. "Yeah, the color's fine. And she WAS engaged, though I'm not sure if she was after what happened, you know."
Hojou took the small glass bottle from Tara and shook it so the little beads clicked around inside.
"I know exactly what you mean. I had this boyfriend, Ben, a few years ago. And I was all ready to move in with the bastard when my friend Moe caught him bent over with my Ex. Aint that a bitch?"
Sango and Tara gave a collective gasp as he started painting Sango's nails and went on. "Well,
all I know is that the bastard had the nerve to try and play it off like nothing happened. Ha!.. like he wasn't the one to pull his pants down."
Tara just leaned back in her seat and absently flipped through the copy of People magazine a guy from the mail-room had brought by earlier. "It's always the same sad story. But I'll say this much, my favorite line is when they're all like 'it's not you, it's me.'" She put the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically before taking a sip of the chaser she had sitting on the desk.
"And you know they're tripping, because if it really was them, you would've dropped their sorry ass a hot second ago."
Sango and Hojou raised their own glasses with a free hand.
"I hear that gurl." Hojou set his glass down and went back to his nail treatment.
Sango just sat back smiling. "So true."
It was at that moment Inuyasha had dragged himself back to his office, sore from having to clean up all the ink and scrub the copy room shiny by himself. He was greeted with a bitchy glare in his direction from the group as he passed them to get to his office, not particularly wanting to know what he'd done to deserve it.
Best not to ask.
skiddy dippidy doo wat wa
When the mail had come at Hojou's desk, Kagome took it upon herself to do a few of the runs from the task-box, mostly just wanting to get around the building more and meet the people. It definitely was more work than she had first thought it would be, but she was getting the feel for it as she went on. The only thing she hoped for, was that Inuyasha wasn't slacking off back in his office again. If he was, she might have to think twice before taking work off his plate.
Making her way back up to office 328, she was slightly surprised to see Sango and Tara chatting things up with Hojou at his desk as he worked on their nails, her own seat open and waiting for her to take a load off. And she did, but noting the drinks she rose and eyebrow at them. "Isn't it a little early for that?"
Hojou just waved it off as he brushed the purple tinted acrylic on Tara's lavender french tips.
"Cookie, it's never too early. Besides, nothing melts the stress away like a martini and a manicure." Of corse they weren't all drinking martinis, but it was the thought that counted, right?"Wanna join in?"
Kagome thought for a moment, figuring it couldn't hurt, but a second glance at the paperwork still under her arm begged to differ. She smiled at the group of them. "I might take you up on that later. But is Inuyasha in his office?"
Tara grinned. "Yes, he is." After turning to Hojou for a moment asking if she knew about the girl in the elevator, she added on, "and might just I say, Damn. How did you ever land that job?"
It was clearly a rhetorical question so Kagome just thanked her, told the four of them they should do lunch when she was finished and headed into the office without bothering to knock.
She's closed the door behind her, trying to hold onto the stack of papers, but nearly didn't when she turned around to face the office. There before her was Inuyasha topless, hunched over his desk and scrubbing away at his inky shirt intently, probably not even having noticed that she'd come in. His muscles looked nicely toned and smooth, and his long silver hair was pulled back loosely from his face. Not a bad sight, just not something she was prepared for just then.
"Uh.." Kagome dumbly stared as she set the papers on a chair next to the door, and he glanced over her direction, jumping slightly when his eyes settled on her. "Sorry, maybe I should come back later."
Inuyasha moved around his office, trying to figure out how to cover himself, but settled on folding his arms across his chest as he faced her. "No, not a bad time. What is it?"
Kagome nodded, trying to remain calm as her eyes wanted to wander over him, and retrieved the papers from the chair. She spread a few different piles of papers over a open section of his desk and pointed to them as she explained what they were. "This one is your employment papers from Mr.Sirosenshi, this is the evaluation form from the Main Frame on what you think needs to be improved- but that isn't due until next week, and well, these are memos of meetings you need to attend over the next week."
Inuyasha had sat on the front of the desk and looked down at the papers over his shoulder, not sure what to do first. Kagome saw his confused look and kind of felt bad for him, especially noting the inky mess of a shirt that was still laying open on the applewood, looking hopeless in itself.
She smiled over at him, glancing between his confused face and the shirt. "You want to tell me about it?"
Inuyasha just shook his head and cringed. "I'd rather not."
Kagome let out a little laugh and turned to head back out the office so he could finish cleaning himself up. "If you want, I could help you through the papers after lunch."
He nodded at her and let out a deep breath. "That would be great."
She closed the door behind herself on the way out only to see all eyes on her, Tara's mouth agape along with the others'. "Was his shirt just off?"
"Yup."
loop a doop za zoo
After lunch, the office was hell. Even Sango and Tara had to go back to their desk to sort out some of the back-up work that was piling up for their office worker who apparently wasn't working. Kagome had helped Inuyasha with some of his paperwork for a while, but even a hour in she had to go work out things on the floor he couldn't get to.
It was exhausting to say the least.
After dropping off the last of the papers and checking in with the interns, she was beat and her feet were sore in her heals. She turned from the copy room to head back to the comfy seat that awaited her just outside office 328 when a familiar voice reached her ears and she turned to see the older of the two Sirosenshi brothers standing at the top of the stairs. "Nice to see someone working around here."
She smiled at him and adjusted the clipboard in her arms. "I would say the same, but I'm not exactly sure what you're doing."
Sesshomarrou rose his eyebrows at her. "Indeed." He just looked at her for a moment with his cold eyes piecing through her before he turned back to the stairs calling back at her as he descended. "Well, don't let me keep you."
Kagome took her cue and headed back toward Hojou's desk, wondering if he had a spritser lying around...because she sure as hell could use one right about then
pip pap nippy skip
Sesshomarrou sat back in his lavish leather chair rubbing his temples to sooth his growing migraine. It would figure that the one person out of the whole stack of interns who was even slightly qualified for a position at Sirosenshi-Com, would be the one he stuck with his nitwit of a half-brother.
He had spent the good portion of his morning scrutinizing her file, and was torn between emotions in his findings. She had an academic scholarship to Tokyo University and was in the top ten percentile of her class. From her performance just that morning, he could tell she was organized and could at least improvise halfway decently under pressure.
Under normal circumstances he would be thrilled to find someone like Higurashi Kagome and place her under management. But as his half brother's personal assistant, he had to be slightly more critical as to her significance.
From mail-room gossip, plenty of things were already spreading about the younger Sirosenshi brother. But nothing indicated that he'd done anything particularly negative in his first day other than being over an hour late, which he'd even managed to clean up.
Sesshomarrou pressed the call button on his phone and Rin answered with her usual energy.
"Yes, Mr.Sirosenshi, how may I help you?"
"Connect me with my father, I have something I wish to discuss with him."
"Right away Sir."
Hell, if Inuyasha didn't fuck up soon, things might not go over as smoothly as he first imagined.
A grin spread over his face as the classical music played over his speaker phone. '..I suppose I'll just have to help things move along then...'
tat a tat rah bang bloop
Nothing was on TV, he'd done the laundry... then ironed it, and had just finished organizing the cabinets in the kitchen. It was too early to go out, and he was tired of being in. Even the free porn they got on cable failed to excite Miroku after so many cheesy pizza deliveries and hot tub moments.
Something had just come over him, and it could only be one thing. Boredom.
'Sheeze, this never happened when Inu was around...'
Deciding he sounded like some housewife even in his inner monolog, Miroku grabbed his jacket and fled the apartment building, figuring he'd find something to keep him busy for a few hours.
And amazingly, he didn't even mean 'someone'.. What was the world coming to?
gah ax ax we lax pah
Mr.Sirosenshi had listened to his elder son's briefing and found himself agreeing with every word of it. Something was wrong with this picture, he just didn't know what it was at that moment.
"So, you think that by having Inuyasha involved in the Tasoni account it would boost our marketing and help him with his business endeavors all at once." It seemed reasonable though,
but Sirosenshi remained skeptical.
"Yes. As I've we've already found, they are practically tied to accepting our offer, or otherwise will be forced into bankruptcy and debt. Even a man as idiotic as Steven Tasoni could see that if he was blinded and unconscious."
"Go on..."
Sesshomarrou let out a sigh. His father could be a stubborn old prune sometimes. "Father, I am merely suggesting that we include Inuyasha, to see how well he does with a pitch. After all, there is a difference between someone who is worth billions in investments, and a low grade company with more...sentimental value, than anything else."
He had a point. But dammit there had to be an alternative motive!
After thinking about it for a moment, Sirosenshi couldn't come up with anything, but wasn't about to put his intuition aside so easily. "I'll think on it."
"You have until tomorrow morning. The preliminary arrangements with Tasori begin Wednesday." Click.
The dial-tone droned on from the other end of the line and Sirosenshi let out a stream of curses.
THAT, was more like the Sesshomarrou he was used to. The prick gave HIM a deadline!
He pressed the button on his phone and didn't wait for his secretary to respond before yelling. "I have a bastard for a fucking son, and he's one of my best damn employees!"
"I'll send in some fresh scotch Sir."
"Thank you Lily."
roo roo shampoo wa ya
Kagome was sitting back in the chair, enjoying the little umbrella drink Hojou had made for her as Manuel rubbed her shoulders and resisted falling asleep right there.
"This feels amazing Manuel."
"Isn't he a doll?" Hojou was reading out horoscopes from the newspaper as the Cuban continued the massage.
Kagome smiled and tilted her head to face the secretary. "You know, if he wasn't gay, I'd be half tempted to keep him for myself."
Manuel smiled, showing off his dimpled cheeks. "Oh stop." Glancing down at his watch he let out a groan. "Kagome, my dear I am sorry, but I must get back to work." He moved around and exchanged kisses with Kagome on both cheeks like the Italians do and blew a kiss to Hojou as he slowly walked away form the desk. "I'll take your love to the mail-room Cupcake."
"You always do." Hojou blew a kiss back before settling back down at his desk and turned to Kagome. "Isn't he something?"
"He's amazing with his hands, how long have you two been going out?"
"Sweety, that is not my boyfriend. It's his second-cousin from Cuba. He just used to be a masseuse is all and I take advantage sometimes. I met my sweet-thang a month and a half ago when he was making a special delivery to my cubical. And Honey I'll tell you, that was some package."
The two of them burst into a fit of giggles and hadn't noticed when Inuyasha opened the door to his office and stood in the doorway, slightly confused.
"Uh... Do I really want to know?" This got their attention and the two workers turned in his direction.
"Sorry Inuyasha, did you need something?" Kagome pushed the rest of her drink away from her,
feeling she'd had enough in her already to last her the rest of the work day.
"I just wanted to talk to you for a minute."
"Alright, I'll be there in just a second."
He turned and headed back into his lair as she helped Hojou to clean up the little mess they had made in their private little happy hour. Once she was done, Kagome made her way into the office, closing the door behind her.
"What is it?"
"I have a favor to ask of you."
Gods, he already had her doing practically all of his task-work, helping him with his own damn paperwork, not to mention having dumped the interns on her that morning even after being late,
what could he possibly have left for her to take? His whole fucking position?!
She could only wish.
"You know the mishaps that have been going on around here.. I mean, this floor?"
"Yeah." Kagome raised an eyebrow, wondering where he was going with it.
"Do you think maybe you could talk with them.. you know, sort things out?"
"Uh... Inu, that was your mess. Besides, even if I did take it, then who would do all the other task work?"
"I will."
Kagome eyed him suspiciously. "You will?"
"Yeah. If you take care of the ink mess, I'll take the task work."
"YOU are going to do the task work?"
"Uh.. sure."
Kagome resisted the urge to laugh. "Inuyasha, you don't even know what to do for the task work!
That's why I was taking care of it in the first place!"
"I could figure it out." He huffed and was getting a little frustrated with the way she was being.
Couldn't she just agree? It wasn't even that big a deal.
"Why don't you just take care of the mishaps?"
Okay. He couldn't take it anymore. "BECAUSE THEY WONT LISTEN TO ME!"
Kagome looked at him, unbelieving, not sure weather to laugh or sympathize. "They wont?"
"No... they said something about how wrong it was for me to 'leave you in the dust' this morning and blew me off. I even had to fucking clean the damn ink mess up myself. And, trust me, ink is not as easy to clean off tile as it might look."
Kagome winced as he explained, figuring it was partially her fault for their response with the way she'd acted that morning in rushing to not screw up herself. In that moment, she realized she had to have had a hell of a lot better day than he did. Shit, she didn't have her dad breathing down her back and watching her every move.
Biting her lip, her eyes dropped to the carpet before trailing back up to lock with his amber ones.
"I have a better idea."
snap
crackly
pop
Okay. There it is, let me know what you think! Until next chapter - Bunny