Nearly a week or so later, Erwin woke up just like any other morning. He got dressed, drank his morning cup of coffee before heading off to work. He entered the office building as usual, having small talk with his fellow co workers as he made his way to his office room. Lucky for him he didn't have to work at one of those tiny cubicles that spread out in the middle of the floor.

He worked, and worked through stacks of papers, occasionally refilling his cup of fresh coffee just to go back to his desk and look over more paperwork. He sighed and wished he would have went into some other more exciting profession. His random thoughts were disrupted when he heard loud footsteps coming down the hallway and someone fling his door open.

"Mr. Smith!" The young man entered.

"Good afternoon, Erd." Erwin motioned towards the chairs in front of the desk telling the man to sit.

"Oh no sir, I didn't come to stay a while." he paused with a smile on his face. "I have good news for you."

"Oh what is it?"

"You've been summoned by the higher ups, from what I've heard you better go now."

"I see, thank you Erd." Erwin got up fixing his dress shirt and tie, and picked up his tuxedo jacket before leaving to go to the conference room. Saying goodbye to Erd as he walked to the elevators.

Erwin listened intently to the group of men and women sitting around the table, some older than him and some not. After the meeting Erwin said his thank yous and goodbyes before walking out the door. He waited until the door was tightly shut before jumping up and down happily. He had been promoted, he was now CEO Erwin Smith of Legion Incorporated. He cleared his throat, fixed his suit and tie before continuing down the hallway.

He stayed a little longer that evening so he could start packing some of the stuff in his office to get ready for his new one. Erwin was cheerful as he put his lamp inside one of the boxes, happy that his hard work has finally gotten him noticed. He packed a few more odds and ends of his office room before deciding it was enough and left for home.

As he drove into his driveway he was surprised to see that Mike hadn't left yet. He grabbed the tiny box of office supplies, that he no longer needed at the office, and got out to say hello to the man.

"Hello Mike, I didn't think you'd still be here." Erwin grinned at him.

"Hey Erwin, Ah, You caught me right when I was about to pack my things and head home." Mike chuckled returning a smile to the man while he stood up and dusted off.

"Oh don't leave in such a hurry, Come have a drink with me!" Erwin said cheerfully as he grabbed the taller man by the arm, pulling him inside.

He led the man to his basement where there was a much larger bar with many different liquors, wines, and other drinks.

"Wow Erwin, I didn't even realize your house had a basement." Mike looked around at the large room beneath the already large house.

Erwin chuckled happily, "What would you like to drink, my dear Mike?" Erwin smiled at the man as he walked behind the bar and looked through the cabinets.

Mike took a seat on one of the tall stools at the bar in front of Erwin, "Umm, I think I'll just take whiskey with ice."

"Ah, good choice." Erwin cheerfully got a fifth of whiskey out of the cabinet and poured the man a tall glass full.

Mike took a gulp of the liquor before sitting the glass down, "You seem like you're in a good mood today, did something happen?" he noted with a smile.

"I'm glad you asked." Erwin made himself a glass of whiskey before sitting down to continue his conversation, "Guess who got promoted at the office today" He prolonged the end of the sentence playfully.

"Oh, Congratulations!" He took another sip of his whiskey. "What were you promoted to?"

"Thank you, I was promoted to CEO" Erwin swirled the liquor in his glass at the man matter of factly.

"You must have worked hard" Mike held up his glass to make toast with Erwin.

"Ha ha I don't want to toot my own horn or anything." Erwin shot the man a playful smile before finishing the last swig in his glass.

"I'm sure you deserved it" Mike chuckled.

"You're too kind Mike"

"Nah, I'm only stating what's true"

"No really! You always come to work in my garden and you work so hard." Erwin excitedly complemented.

"Its the least I can do…. Its my job"

"Ah yes, but you've become a good friend of mine…" Erwin poured himself another glassful of whiskey and rested his head on his hand.

"Same here, Not many people remember me anymore."

"Oh really, such a tall man can go unnoticed in this town?" Erwin chuckled.

"Heh heh so it seems. I mostly just keep to myself anyway." Mike had a defeated smile on his face.

"No worries, I'm the same"

"You seem like the type that'd have a lot of friends, Erwin"

Erwin sighed a small laugh "Quite the contrary, I had two good friends about a year or so ago."

"What happened?... If you don't mind me asking…" He inquired finishing his liquor off.

Erwin motioned at the fifth welcoming Mike to it. "Of course I don't mind you asking…" He settled further in his seat. "Ahh you see they both got promoted in the office, but the job required them to travel to different cities frequently."

"Hmm, I see" Mike listened intently.

"Tell you the truth I was also offered the promotion as well, but you see I just don't like having to travel and move continuously." Erwin paused and looked at the man thinking that he sounded stupid.

"I understand, moving to a new town frequently sounds like it'd be a huge burden."

"I know right? But my friend Levi didn't necessarily move he just isn't home often, he lives in the light blue house across and down two houses from mine. I think its been about 5 months since I've seen and talked to him last." Erwin huffed a sigh.

"Wow then it has been a while. Have you tried calling him?"

"Well you see he doesn't have a personal cell phone, he would always say it'd be too much of a hassle to carry it around along with a business cell." Erwin chuckled. "Besides I only have his house phone."

"Ha ha I guess that's somewhat true."

"Ah, now my other friend Hanji took the promotion but they changed her's so she would just get to stay semi-stationary in the city she and her wife, Petra, moved to. I haven't heard anything from her in about a year or so now. I tried calling her but it seems she changed her number." Erwin sighed. "So after I hadn't heard from them I didn't know how to quite find new friends, considering I've known them since High School."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but at least staying here seems to have done you some good." Mike tried to making Erwin feel better about the situation.

"Ahh true and I guess I've been successful at acquiring you as a friend as well." Erwin laughed

"Hmm touché." Mike smiled and took another drink.

Erwin laughed, "So how about you? How did you become such a master at landscaping?"

"Ha ha, I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm a master at it." Mike blushed.

"Oh come now, you're really good! Did you learn everything on your own?"

"Nah, I learned everything from my father." Mike grinned.

"I see, so its a family business?" Erwin raised a playful eyebrow while taking another drink.

"Yeah, but when I was younger I wasn't so happy to be a part of it." Mike let out a sigh and twirled his glass making the liquid inside swirl.

"Hmm? You don't take me for the type that would've been a rebellious child"

"You'd be surprised then." Mike huffed. "I said some pretty mean things to my father"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Erwin looked at the man concerned.

"Its a sort of long story."

"I have time."

Mike took a deep breath. "Ahhhh well, it was around the time I had just turned 21, I had always helped my father with some of his jobs ever since I was a young boy but I guess after a while it started bothering me…."

"Started bothering you?"

"Yeah, when I reached 21 I just wanted to go out and have fun with my life and not be stuck with, what I thought of at the time, a stupid job that I didn't want to be the successor of." Mike paused and pondered on his wording. "I was young and ignorant, I didn't realize how good I had it. I wanted to go to a college after I graduated just so I could attend frat parties." Mike shook his head disapprovingly.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, like you said you were a young man." Erwin gave the man a worried look.

"Oh, but Erwin I said such mean things to him….." Mike rubbed his face. "I got into a huge argument with him the morning of a landscaping job. It was a huge job too, we had to do so much and it was a hot day… before we got there I had screamed at him about how much I hated this, and how I hated him chaining me down to it, and how I was tired of him always guilt tripping me when I didn't want to go to jobs with him or when I complained about taking the business over." He had a troubled look on his face.

"You see Erwin… My father was getting old he was in his late 50s and was having tons of heart problems and….." Mike pushed his hair back anxiously. "We had arrived at the job and I was still ignoring him like a little brat…. Ugh he was using the saw to cut down a small tree when he suddenly fell over. The other landscaping guys we had got to him before I did, we tried calling his name and slapping his face hoping he'd come to as another guy called an ambulance… but once we got to the hospital and waited a couple hours the doctor came and told us it was too late…" Mike rubbed at the bridge of his nose as his eyes began to tear up.

Erwin got up from behind the bar and walked around to pat and rub on the man's back.

"The doctor told us later that my father had a stroke caused from stress…." Mike breathed between increasing sobs.

Erwin felt so bad for the man, he never would've thought that Mike had something pent up inside of him for so long, at least not something like this. Erwin embraced him letting him cry it all out and he rested his head on Mike's slightly as he comforted him. Mike had reached at Erwin's arm as he cried latching on so Erwin would stay. After a while his heavy sobs had subsided.

A couple hours later both of the men were inebriated. The mood had lightened considerably and they both were laughing at each others stories they had started telling of embarrassing moments in their childhood.

Erwin had to argue with Mike that it would be for the best if he stayed in the guest bedroom that night instead of driving home.