I could hardly contain myself as rode hours upon hours in the company car. I was going to see Deidara again after weeks and weeks, an eternity it seemed, and like hell I was going to miss a single second of this road trip there. I didn't even bother trying to read the book I brought or watching a TV show on my phone because I knew I'd never be able to focus, not even for a second.
I could feel the butterfly in my belly when the driver motioned to a large building in a field. It was probably four storys, and white in color, probably the only like it in a 5 country mile radius.
We'd gotten on the highway in Ohio and driven all this way, Across three states to the northern part of South Carolina. We passed though a few large cites after we'd gotten off the expressway and I'd gotten excited, however when we started into the suburbs and then moved onto the Soybean and Tobacco farm fields, I wasn't so excited anymore.
Jamie, South Carolina was a modest little town, maybe a mile long. Sure they had one everything, but compared to my city I'd grown up in, I felt like if I blinked I'd miss it. We left Jamie, and made our way back out into the farm fields before I saw Big Boom Incorporated, the place my long missed lover was working.
As we pulled up the drive, I could see him there, waiting for me, looking so mature and adult like as he stood near the front doors. I nearly jumped into his arms as I threw open the car door and flew from my seat.
"I missed you so much!" I squealed, wrapping my arms around him tightly, I didn't care that I'd been in the car all day bored out of my mind or that we were in the middle of nowhere, I was with my boyfriend again.
"I missed you too hm," He said quietly, hugging me back with the same intensity. He hadn't changed a bit save for his bangs were just a little bit more to the side, out of his face so now I could see both his pretty gray eyes. He'd explain later it was because he had to tie all of his hair back while working with the fireworks, leaving his bangs trained to the side now instead of in the front.
Deidara seemed so much calmer now as he held my hand on a small tour of the facility. He showed me a line of desks with people working on various sorts of fireworks. The way I understood it, as long as they had so many of each type my the end of the week to send to packaging, it didn't matter what you worked on. They worked very slowly and very carefully, assembling fountain fireworks. In another room, a few people worked on very large, warhead looking fireworks that must be the ones that shoot up into the sky.
While continuing our walk, he showed me packaging, which put some fireworks that were meant to go to stores were boxed and others that were just simple black boxes were set aside and sorted to be used for display shows.
"I've only done assistant manager jobs on performances, but I'll be able to go on the next one myself hm. We did a show for an amusement park grand opening last week, it was pretty awesome yeah," Deidara was smiling, and though I felt sort of nervous being in this building that could explode any minute, I was happy that he was happy and that we were together.
I found it strange that Deidara never introduced me to anyone, but everyone looked when he entered a room. He didn't look particularity happy with them watching him, he just smiled at me and averted his eyes from them.
"Whats that about?" I asked, but he just smiled and pulled me up a flight of stairs.
"They think my hair looks like a girl's," he sighed, I think he looked sort of defeated with the smile he was still forcing.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled, leaning over to kiss his cheek, "I think your hair looks manly as hell," I giggled. He looked more content with my reassurance, but I knew it didn't cure the problem. I could only imagine the gay jokes and the transgender slurs they made at him. Just because he was their superior didn't mean anything to them apparently.
"I handled it hm," his tone sort of even. I only assumed he'd finally lost his temper and either got into a fight or fired someone, if he had the power to do that.
"Are you happy here?" I asked finally after a long silence up the stairs, I couldn't imagine co-workers like the ones here. He nodded and walked me up another flight of stairs.
"Yeah, I am, I though I'd be doing more actual firework making, but I'm to busy with all the paperwork," he admitted, thought it sounded more to me like a coded message for "no, I'm not happy because I wanted to blow shit up not write papers about it, but I'm going to do this job anyway."
"It'll be better now your here," his tone sounded laughing, though he actually wasn't. I realized I'd been looking off into space for a moment, and when I looked back at him I could only see pure joy written on his face.
"I missed you," He admitted, pulling me into another tight hug. I didn't say anything, just held him as I returned the hug.
After we toured the facility, we went outside to find a high end gray SUV parked with all the old clunker cars in the employee lot.
"That's not yours is it?" I deadpanned, looking at him very seriously.
"Nope, its a company car un, but I drive it," he said, pulling out the keys with an arrogant smirk, "I might have lied and said I had a license, and then again I might not have hm."
"Ohhhh, no," I said, snatching the keys from him as we crossed the parking lot and I was glad that I did, all four sides of the car were dented and there was suspicious looking yellow paint on the front bumper that matched the yellow paint on the lamp post nearby.
I took us right out of the driveway instead of from the left like I'd pulled in. I gave it a little gas down the country roads, watching the corn and cow fields fly by. I fondly remembered Jiro the horse as we passed a ranch of sorts, and we spent some time catching up. It was dark by the time we arrived in a large town, Dei informed me that the the office head quarters was in this little city town. I was happy to know the town had roads that connected it to a city, and there were large suburbs nearby to live in. When we arrived at head quarters, he rushed me inside for a dinner with the company to celebrate complexion of the internships.
The room was large, filled with red clothed circular tables with large flower arrangement as center peaces. We sat with another couple and their young son,the tables already assigned, but we didn't talk to them much. I picked at my salad and hardly touched my spaghetti because I was still so absorbed with Deidara. It wasn't even that we talked much, but I was so content just to smile and hold his free hand that I could have burst from pure joy. A glass clinked near the end of the dinner to call the attention of everyone in the room.
"Everyone, if you could please head outside," a man in a dark suit said loudly as he stood up from his own table, "The interns have put together a small display to show us the skills they've learned," he said in a very curt tone. Deidara informed me that he was the CEO of the company and was sort of an asshole. We all filed outside slowly, shuffling shoulder to shoulder into the sidewalks, and across the street where a park was located. There was a crowd of people here to see, and I hoped it'd turn out well.
In an instant, a button was pushed at set off the first set. It sent off five rockets up into the air that each exploded in a different color, and then they fired randomly after that.
"Did you do this too?" I asked, my head tilted back to see the show.
"mhm, I worked on coordination and I did a few of the rockets, just because I like the rockets yeah, I wasn't supposed to," He said sort of flatly. I couldn't see his face, but I could tell he was proud.
"Are you happy yeah?" He asked, reaching over to grip my hand.
"Very," I replied, and I can say confidently I was very happy. A few large fountain fireworks went off at the base of the rockets, illuminating the park with more color. He stepped up then, bringing my attention to him, I could see the lights going off behind him, the shadows playing across his face.
"Can I ask you something hm?" his tone very serious, when I didn't respond, he continued,"Will you marry me?"
The finale went off then, shooting off another five rockets again, and then again and again. I wasn't even paying attention them, I just gawked at him open mouthed. His mouth fell open too, only slightly in shock. I could see the hope in his eyes leave. He thought I didn't love him like he loved me.
My mind was blank, I knew it should be rushing, but it just wasn't. I was only focusing on his face, those eyes that looked like home, that beautiful face, his gorgeous blond hair, I couldn't hardly believe it.
"Yes," I told him, and from the bottom of my heart I meant it, only when his face fell even further, did I realize I hadn't said it outloud.
"Of course!" I shouted, throwing my arms around his neck and held him tight. I put my hand on the opposite side of his head and pressed my face into his neck as he held me tight.
"You are my world Dei, of course I'll marry you," I admitted as he rocked us back and forth, unable to contain his own happiness.
Deidara's one bedroom flat was my home away from home for the night, his bed wasn't terribly comfortable and off course he'd have to be moving out soon, but none of that mattered now, only our wedding.
"Oh this is insane!" I buzzed, "we can plan this all ourselves and oh, oh" I stuttered, my brain overwhelmed with wedding jitters until finally a hitch came in my plans, "oh, my parents," I groaned, "there's no way there gonna let me get married, no way in hell."
"Well go home and I'll talk to them," Deidara tried to assure me, but that thought was almost laughable. My parents weren't about to listen to him either.
"I mean, it makes a lot of sense, you have to move in with me anyway hm," Deidara's words sounded strange. He couldn't be serious about that, could he?
"Why the hell would I move out?" I demanded. My parents paid for my collage, food, housing, I'm currently unemployed so they often gave me money, how could I just leave that?
"The company is here, how else could we stay together?" He asked me, his time sounding slightly irritated, like a 'duh' should have been placed on the end of that sentence.
"I don't really know, I can't just abandon my life," I spat, my words reflecting the truth. Honestly, until now I'd been pretty childish up until now. I'd never had a job, I'd never even made my own doctors appointment, but for some reason I let myself believe that everything was really going to work out with Deidara and I. How could it in all actuality? Not only had he come from a completely different place than I had, but how could I really just pick up and move to this strange place?
"May, I left to get a job so we could live together. I'm not going to throw this away hm," his voice was stern. This was more than bickering, this might have well been a midlife crisis while I was still in my teens.
"I'm not going to throw away eighteen years for a guy I meet a few months ago!" I shouted, and after I said that I regretted it. At first his face looked hurt, but I could see the rage dance on to his features shortly after.
"Son of a bitch! I can't believe this!" he shouted, putting his face in his hands. I thought for a moment that he might cry, but when he took his hands away, I cold only see defeat and sadness.
"I didn't mean that," I stuttered, why had I said that why? "I'm sorry."
"No, its okay," he sighed and lay down flat on the bed. He'd already taken the ponytail out of his hair and his blond locks feathering out behind him, "maybe we aren't ready to get married."
"A fight doesn't mean we aren't ready to get married," I scoffed, feeling that I was ready and that I very firmly wanted it, "if you think that, then we shouldn't ever get married. Married people have fights too you know."
I too flopped down on the bed, my long hair matching his now, my dark strands mixing with his light. My head tilted to the side, his matching, and our eyes caught together. It wasn't really a staring contest, but neither of us blinked. The light in his eyes was fading I could see.
"Marrying me won't make you happy at your job Dei, its not a problem if you want to find something different to do," I sighed, turning over on my side and cupping his cheek in my right hand.
"What am I supposed to do hm? I was sure this is what I wanted," he trailed off with a sigh. It was times like these I think that we were both glad he was still on medicine. My prescription had run out a while ago, leaving me (finally) in well enough condition to care for him.
"I've never asked you what you wanted to be yeah," I'd gotten distracted for a moment, but my eyes were back on his gray ones. I gave it a little bit of thought before I answered.
"I want to be a painter but, it wouldn't be so hard to, like, do other stuff while," I muttered, I didn't want to give him a straight answer. I knew being a painter wouldn't work well for us, they didn't make near enough. I didn't want to tell him that one of us was going to have to get a good paying job because I wanted that person to be me. I wanted Deidara to be able to relax, to do what he wanted to do. He seemed to be considering my answer.
"Okay," he sighed after a long minute of silence. Neither of us spoke another word, but together we drifted to sleep.
We went out for breakfast the next morning at a dinner Deidara frequented before I joined him at work. He was sitting down at a desk, puzzling through paper and trying to write a neat looking sentence on a few in ballpoint pen. We worked on the third floor, the CEO up a flight of stairs on the far side of the cube farm on this level. I sat in an extra chair off to the side, trying to clean up Dei's messy desk while he tried to work.
"Good thing about you being here hm, now I don't have to google all these words I don't know, what's fulminate mean?" He asked, sounding out the word like full-min-ate. I shrugged and proceeded to google the word myself.
A loud clatter pulled everyones heads away from their papers. A blonde woman, tall in a professional looking pants suite stormed down the stairs, throwing papers around and screaming at the top of her lungs how she was 'done.' She threw a particularly large clump of paper as she passed Deidara's office, scattering them all over the floor and onto Deidara's desk where it mixed with the ones he was currently working on.
"Fuck you! I quit! Fuck all of you and this god damned place, this is an outrageous organization! Have a nice life motherfuckers!" She screamed, everyone's head turning to look at the stares where an older man sat with a cane.
"Good riddance, yeah," He muttered as the elevator was called and the explosive woman left the room. I lent down to pick up the papers from the ground.
"What was that about?" I asked, trying to smooth out the wrinkles in the papers.
"Macy is insane, I swear to god un, all she does is cause trouble around here," He said, groaning and trying to reorganize papers after the confusion. He'd marked the wrong thing on several pages, and was currently trying to white out his mistakes. He muttered something about the 'Macy' woman being a dumb bitch, and sighing, I went to collect the rest of the papers. Luckily, the former secretary had walked in a straight line, right down the main isle way of the room, and it was fairly easy. The man with the cane was no longer on the stairs, and unsure of where else to take them, I took the stack I was currently holding up.
"Hello?" I called, coming upon an empty desk where I assumed they went, and sat them down. I was about to turn around and leave when the old man hobbled out from a room in the back.
"Thank you, very much," He smiled.
"Your welcome," I returned, and again tried to leave but the man continued speaking.
"I don't think I recognize you, you don't work here do you?" He asked, his hand shaking along with his legs. This man had to be damn near eighty.
"Uh, no, sir, I don't, My boyfriend brought me here with him," I tried to leave Deidara out of it, but it was useless, he knew who I was talking about regardless.
"Ah, yes," He laughed," Uh, Deidara was it? As soon as you said that, I knew exactly who you were speaking of," he chuckled, "He never shuts up about his wonderful girlfriend."
"Yes," I continued smiling, sort of awkwardly now. Honestly, I was impressed the way the man said my boyfriends name, the best with any American accent yet. Not to mention, I was flattered. Deidara never shut up about me huh?
"You know, my granddaughter, Macy, she means well, you know, its just, when I put my son in charge of the company, it got a little too much for her. Its too bad, really, We have quite a bit to be done here, and company can't function without her job," the old man spoke, seemingly not upset. He seemed kindly and honest, smiling still in that cute old person way. I knew where this was going.
"Are you offering me a job sir?" I asked hesitantly, I defiantly wanted it. I wanted so badly to work here after I realized what was happening, I could be close to my.. fiance, every day. I cold feel the excitement in my finger tips.
"If you'll take it," he nodded, a very serious look coming over his features.
"Yes!" I nodded frantically. The old man smiled and hobbled a little closer to me, holding out his hand to shake on it.
"Welcome to Big Boom Incorporated."