Youji's Daughter: Arc of Years 3?
Disclaimer: I don't own WK. The boys are just helping me find my story
The lunchroom in the cave was clean, spacious, well lit with natural light piped in by fiber optic cable. The north side was clear of tables though and along the walls hung just about every weapon known to humanity. Real swords, western, katana, cutlasses, several doesn't shorter blades, bokins with the occasional dark stain on their wooden lengths. Wires, shurikins, clubs, poles, one lance that was half the length of the room, and laser pistols in stainless steal cabinet. No real projectile weapons. The real keepers of the cave had thought that too dangerous. The floor was swept clean and quite wide enough for throws and any generic grappling. The south wall of the lunch room went up three stories with an indoor climbing wall. The cave wasn't really without perks. Over all, Youji would take a climbing wall over free soda. Kim, their current supervisor, a petite woman with long black hair and a high tolerance for eccentricity, had once told Youji that he and his coworkers really just did not need the caffeine.
Caffeine had never been Youji's kick anyway. What he wanted was a whiskey and a pack of smokes. He hadn't actually had a smoke since he got pregnant with Amy, but the thought was strong with him just then. "No, Baby, I don't mind picking up Amy at all. I understand that you needed to leave a little earlier than we'd thought. Yeah, no, I understand," Youji said, one foot on the climbing wall, other hand holding his cell. "Don't worry about this kid they're sending you with. I'm not gonna get jealous."
Youji swallowed hard and closed his eyes. He wasn't going to get jealous. He was already right there. His own body was softer than it had been and he'd had to give up half shirts because of the scaring on his belly. Not that Aya had ever been into half shirts.
"Youji," Aya's voice said softly, "Please. I love you, you alone. You know that, right? It's a mission, but there is nothing more to it than that."
"I understand," Youji promised. "Look, my lunch is about over. I don't care what you do on this mission as long as you come home safe. You left the voice mails for Amy? Like you said you would?"
"I did. Sleeping Beauty and The Three Bears. I left one for you too, Youji. Don't listen to it at work."
"Oh," Youji's smile stretched slowly, crooked, almost feeling like it was going to break his face. "What did you leave me, Baby?"
"You will have to make it through the day and find out. I'll call you when I can."
"Just be safe. Use condoms," Youji said, only half teasing, only half nice.
There was no reply, but Youji sat there for another half a minute, waiting. When he looked at the screen of his phone, the line had been dead that whole half a minute.
Aya wasn't as young as he had been, but he was smart and lethal, fast and nefarious. He'd be fine. It was whoever he was going after that was going to have holes.
"Youji," a seemingly harmless boy with pink hair asked, "We ordered pizza, but someone has to go out and get it and we were wondering if you would do it?"
"Hell no," Youji said, clicking his phone back to the holster. "I have the worst record of getting through with my clothes on."
When Pink smiled, he had fangs and his eyes went slightly cat irised, "But you have to leave the cave anyway, and you could just bring the pizza back in with you."
"Why do I have to leave the cave," Youji asked suspiciously.
"Your husband went on a mission. That's the only time he calls you and you spend your lunch saying things like, 'I'm okay, really.' That mean your kid is now at the day care center and she hasn't been there more than maybe fifteen minutes. It takes about that long for her to get the attention of the people who work there, and then another ten minutes for them to send an email to Kim, who is then going to ask you to go up and calm her down. This is going to take you at least twenty minutes. Then you're going to go by the cafeteria and pick up whatever crap they're selling for desert up there and by then the pizza will be here and you can bring it back in with you."
Youji's cheeks sucked in like he'd just swallowed something sour. "You order mushroom and tomato?"
"I know what kind of pizza you like," Pink said, smiling. "Medium, with pesto."
"Youji," Kim called, coming into the lunchroom, "Can I talk to you a moment? I know you've got fifteen minutes of lunch left, but there's a small emergency. Nothing big, just something small."
Youji rubbed at the lines forming between his eyes. "My daughter's upset and you're okay if I go calm her down a little?"
"Yes, how did you know?" Kim said, dark eyes a little wide. The woman had only been their supervisor for about six months and the spooked look hadn't really worn off yet. "Take as long as you want. You can make it up today. We're expecting to have overtime available."
"Great. Thanks. Did you order pizza too?"
"Excuse me?" She was polished, Asian, and yet American She was also the first supervisor to last more than six weeks. The crew in the cave was actually taking fifty percent more calls and hadn't 'inadvertently' detontonated anyone's cell phone battery in three months. There was just something innocent about her.
"Never mind," Youji said. "I'll be back."
The day could only be made better by seeing his daughter anyway.
It took him fifteen seconds to cross their call center floor and five minutes to make it the security gauntlet. That's what you get when you deal with callers from the world's covert operations organizations. Damn spooks.
In the elevator, he felt decidedly underdressed. There were three ties and Prada knock off shoes. His tee-shirt and bohemian long blond hair made him only slightly less welcome than ants in the break room. He winked at the cute guy the diamond earring and almost immediately felt better. So what if Aya was sharing a hotel room with some knock off Youji. It wasn't the real deal.
Diamond earring's eyes went wide, his face white and he suddenly found an interest in elevator ceiling panels.
Good for him. It's not like he was gonna get any anyway. The kid center was on the twentieth floor, so he had time, which gave him plenty of time to smile suggestively to the young woman n prada knockoffs. Her reaction was even better and well, while he didn't really have what it took to seduce anyone anymore, her gasp and mutter as he left the elevator was deeply satisfying.
He could have seduced either of them, if he'd really wanted to. He knew he could have. He could have had them both in the same bed. Then he'd be hearing, "Youji, oh Youji, you're so wonderful…." Not.. "Youji, I'm not gonna sleep with the blond that's ten years younger than you and built like a bishonnen god."
Not that Aya would ever have said anything like that, but still. It came out to the same thing.
The kid center was big, a fifty child day care and tutoring center. Youji shuddered as he walked through the double sliding glass doors. Other people's kids.
Amy. Now Amy looks just like Aya. A dark haired, neatly prim Japanese woman pointed towards the monkey bars and Youji knew what kind of upset we were talking about.
The monkey bars looked like candy coated toothpicks, taller than Youji thought any place ought to be that was given to kids. Because. Damn. He did not want to climb up there and get her.
At the top of the thing, which was shaped like a castle, with some kind of belfry at the top, a little red headed girl clung to the bars, tears streaks white on her face, big green eyes just daring anyone to come close.
"Hey Chickie," Youji said, holding out his hands. "Daddy's here."
"Dada," she said, reaching a small hand out to him. "Down!"
"Jump, Chickie," Youji said, smiling, not a care in the world. All the calls, all the new partners Aya might have, all the ways his old employers were going to force him back into his old job, the scars on his body, his imminent lack of sex appeal, nothing mattered, except the little girl stuck at the top of the money bars. "Come to Daddy."
Both arms went around the bars, fresh tears flowing. "No."
"Want Papa!"
"Yeah, me too, honey," Youji said. He was pretty tall, but he still had to go up the monkey bars by two rungs to reach her. He did like climbing, but the candy colored thing just made him afraid it would fall all apart under his weight. Holding both arms out to her, he smiled. "Come here, Amethyst."
"Daddy!" She said and then he had her arms around his neck. "Home!"
"Hold on, Amy," Youji said, "We're gonna fly down."
"Nonononono!" Eyes closed, she got a fist full of blond hair.
He jumped, all of five feet down and she squealed. Then her eyes were wide open and bounced in his arms. "Again!"
"After Daddy finishes work, then we'll fly again, okay? Daddy has to help some people with their phones, but then we'll go home together and we'll make sandwiches."
"Chickies," she said, petting Youji's long hair.
"Chickies," he agreed, meaning they'd cut the sandwiches with a cookie cutter so they looked like little chicks, "Papa's gonna tell you a bedtime story tonight. He'll come home soon. I want you to play nice with the other kids for a little while. Then I'll give you a piggy back ride all the way to the car."
"Okay," she said, sulking just a little.
"Did you have a sleepy today?"
"No no, busy, busy," she said as he rubbed her back and she yawned.
"I bet Papa needs a sleepy too," Youji said softly, kind of rocking her a little as he walked towards the much relieved day care worker. "Amy needs a little nap. Let her sleep as long as she wants. I have to work a little overtime today."
"Fly!"
"Yes, honey. When we go home. You have a little sleepy then I'll be back soon, okay, Amy?"
"Daddy," she said, reaching for him as the worker took her from his arms. Her cries had already softened into pre-nap grumbles as he left though.
Now all he had to do was make it through the rest of the day, get through the security gauntlet without getting strip searched, deliver the team's pizza, and not think about his fiery lover off with some other pretty boy.
Fifteen minutes later, he was short fifty bucks, but he was through the gauntlet.
"Holy shit," Jav said, "You made it through. We thought you were going to get laid for sure."
"You owe me fifty bucks," Youji said, shoving the stack of boxes off into Pink's waiting arms. "A body cavity search is not sex, but then you might not know the difference," Youji said to Jav, with a smile.
What a day. Calls were starting to actually look peaceful at that point.
Headset on, he logged into the queue.
"Thank you for calling Hell's Cells. My name is Youji. How may I help you?"
"OH My god! I think my phone is stuck to a bomb! It's gray and I can't get out of the bathroom."
Youji twitched. There were days when it didn't matter what you were doing; it was all sucked. Funny how those days had something do to with when Aya was on his way to Paris with some snot nosed blond spy want-to-be. "Whose phone are you calling me on," Youji asked, not making much effort to sound customer service worthy.
"It's my boyfriend's. He doesn't know I have it, but I wanted to look at his call history. I know it's not good. I'm a bad person, but I think he's cheating on me. OH my god! I don't deserve him!"
"Okay, it's going to be okay," Youji said, and it would, one way or the other, he was having chickies with his daughter in a few hours. He was going to get a call from his lover and husband. Macaroni shaped like fowl, he shook his head, took a deep breath, and wondered how that could get to be the highlight of his day. Smiling, he asked, "How big is the bathroom? Are there metal stalls?"
"I'm on a plane. We're going to Paris. Why did someone stick my phone to the wall?"
From across the small call center room, Kim glared at Youji with supervisory authority. He doubted she knew what would happen to him, or likely any of the other employees in the small, specialized, call center, if they were 'let go'. He wasn't likely going to tell her. She was the best supervisor they'd had.
Youji grinned back at her, almost flirty, and took a new track, "I'd be happy to help you with your phone, but I need to verify the password before we can go any further."
"What password? I don't have a password."
"I assure you, there is a password," voice lower, he whispered, "Is the stopwatch function counting down on your phone?"
"Yeah," the guy said.
"What do you think the password might be?"
"21403? That's the day we became boyfriends."
"Uh, no, I'm afraid that's not it. Where did you take off from?"
"London! I met him in London! Is that the password?"
"No," Youji said, smiling his best customer service smile at his supervisor. "Again, I would be happy to assist you with any troubleshooting matters, once we have verified the password on your account."
Kim, a tall Asian woman with long black hair and an attitude like too many post-it notes, turned and headed towards where Var was inhaling pizza and throwing daggers at the wall.
Youji leaned a little closer, one hand over his microphone, "Was there a man with bright red hair on the plane?"
"How should I know? What difference does he make?"
"Well, if he's on the plane, it'll motivate me to help you not blow up?"
"I'm going to blow up? OMG! I knew it was a bomb! I'm going to die."
"What's the password," Youji sneered, putting the idea that Aya might be on the plane.
"I'm going to die! I can't get the door open either," the boy cried, now banging on the door.
"Hey!" Youji yelled, suddenly much more concerned that Aya might be on the plane after all, "Listen to me!"
"I hate my boyfriend!"
"Thank you," Youji said, "I will now be able to help you troubleshoot the phone."
"That was the password? 'I hate my boy friend'? I'm going to kill him."
"Is he on the plane as well?"
"You have to help me, please? Please help me!"
"I'm going to try," Youji said honestly.
"You're the best cell company in the world, right? You're trained how to fix phones?"
"Yeah," Youji said, "Tell me what it looks like, exactly."
The kid, more sobbing than talking, was doing his best when another voice, cold and sharp, abrupt broke the drama with cold logical rudeness. "What are you doing?"
That same cold, ruthless voice, brought euporia to Youji's heart! "Give the phone to him. It's going to be okay! Just give the phone to the red headed man."
"Here," the kid said, "Someone wants to talk to you!"
"Hello," Aya said.
"Hi," Youji purred back. "There's a bomb in the bathroom, should be right by the toilet."
"Got it," Aya snapped. After a couple of minutes, the kid's sobbing in the background, flight attendants banging on the door, Aya said, "Simple. It is resolved. I'll search for further concerns. Whose was this?"
"Possibly the kid there with you, but also his 'boyfriend' Be careful, Love, uh? We'll save you some 'chickies'."
"I'll still call you when I get there," Aya said, and to Youji, he could hear the connection, love between them.
Youji could feel his supervisor watching him and he quickly started typing closing notes onto the account. "Have I resolved all of your concerns today, Sir."
"You always do," Aya said.
"I hope you have a great day and thank you for choosing Hell's Cells," Youji said, smiling brightly at his supervisor, even as her dark eyes narrowed in suspicion.