Piffle World/Land of Personal Assistents (Scene 1)
Requested by cheyola: If you've been reading Tsubasa, I imagine you're aware of the world in which Tomoyo is the President of a massive company... I say, Watanuki is her personal chef and (since she appears to have purely female bodyguards for herself) Doumeki is the guard she prescribes to Watanuki!
(Because we all know that Yuuko is basically Tomoyo when she grows up, right?)
Didn't quite get Watanuki in as a chef or Doumeki in as a bodyguard in the end, but I think this was an acceptable compromise. (Also Yuuko being Older Tomoyo? So. utterly. true.)
Whatever else might be said about him, it had to be said that Watanuki was good at his job. There were a few reasons for this – firstly, he was a perfectionist, prepared to work long, neurotic and sometimes grossly over-caffinated hours to make sure things stayed perfect, secondly because he was fully prepared to yell loudly and at considerable length at anyone who got in the way of the level of perfection he was aiming for – everyone, that was, with the exception of his boss Daidouji Tomoyo, which was a very good thing because it was doubtless one of the crucial factors which had allowed him to keep his job at all. For her own part, Tomoyo (who had attained the label 'eccentric' before she'd attained the age of twenty) had never found herself with the slightest reason to be displeased with his work, though it was a source of some distress to her that her wonderfully efficient personal assistant was going to high-blood pressure himself into an early grave – the only question around the office was how long it would take, and who's job it was going to be to clean up the mess afterwards, since clearly no-one who lived as loudly as Watanuki did could ever die by means as peaceful as simply as keeling over quietly where he stood. And now, after the preliminaries of the dragonfly race had gone so much less than smoothly and the finals looked set to make even the preliminaries feel like just a standard day on the job, Watanuki was looking set to boil over any second.
Her dear assistant was taking on far more work than any one man could be expected to deal with. Clearly, with the finals only a week away and her whole staff running raged trying to track down the saboteurs before it was too late, it was time to bring up the subject of hiring more help again.
Fortunately for all involved, the first fifteen minutes of the interview were all she needed to decide that Doumeki Shizuka was exactly the man she was looking for.
Watanuki did not precisely see things the same way, but Tomoyo was well prepared to talk him into the idea.
"What?!" he said, looking at Doumeki as if he might turn into a frog (or worse, reorganise his paperwork) at any second. "But… but Daidouji-san, you must realise this has got to be the worst possible time we could choose to start bringing on new staff! There's far too much he'd have to be brought up to speed on, and that's even after we get through all the standard orientation period, and…"
"…and that's just why we're so lucky to have found someone as perfectly qualified as Doumeki is." Tomoyo beamed. Watanuki fidgeted. Doumeki looked from one side of the room to the other as though this might be a show worth waking up for.
"But… but you know how much trouble we've always had with hiring additional assistants," Watanuki protested helplessly. "The last four…"
Tomoyo appropriated the most innocent look of concern and disappointment imaginable. "Oh yes, didn't they all leave in under a week citing extreme work related stress as the cause?" In his corner, Doumeki raised an eyebrow.
"Exactly!" said Watanuki quickly.
"Watanuki," said Tomoyo severely, "of course, you know very well how fond of you I am, and how pleased I am you do such a wonderful job, but don't you think it's possible you might have been just a little hard on some of them…?"
The panicked look Watanuki took on was a familiar one. It meant he wanted to get out of this situation by yelling a someone, only there was something about being in Tomoyo's presence that make all his rant circuits short out simultaneously. "No… really, I mean – it's just this job that's the problem! Not that I mind remotely," he said very fast, "I can't even imagine working anywhere else, but when everyone else tries it, the stress just gets to them. It's a very stressful job, you see."
"Is it really?" said Tomoyo.
"Oh, it really is! But never fear – for Daidouji-san's sake and the future of Piffle Princess, the great Watanuki Kimihiro will brave through a mountain of paperwork!"
Tomoyo beamed. "Well then, that settles everything!"
"Of course!" said Watanuki, thinking this meant he'd won. "So clearly…"
"Clearly the fault here is mine," said Tomoyo seriously. "I see now how terribly irresponsible of me it has been to anyone to shoulder so much work alone. But I'm sure Doumeki is exactly the man you need to help you out." Tomoyo clasped her hands together in victory.
Watanuki didn't move a muscle, so it was very impressive just how visually something in his expression slid sideways off his face.