Chiriko sat in one of the plush seats outside of the office of the CEO of Lambert Industries. He knew the work and products of Lambert, but every search for information on Shane Lambert had turned up next to nothing. He knew he was the youngest CEO to ever have the position and had worked up through the ranks of his families business to take over at 21. He was a smart man and had a bachelor's in business and was currently working on a masters of business while he was the CEO. It hadn't been expected that he would make CEO this early in his life, but his father's unexpected illness had made it necessary. However, from everything Chiriko had read and found online, this Shane Lambert was doing a good job. Profits and production were up for the first time in 5 years and Chiriko was really hoping for this internship to get his foot in the door.
Hearing his name called, the youngest seishi of Suzaku stood up and moved towards the secretary. His hand moved over the inner lapel pocket of his jacket, where his good luck charm, the photo of the Suzaku Seven and their Miko, was hidden. He was the last of the final applicant's to meet with Shane, never a good place to be, especially when all the others were more educated and had more experience then he did. He knew his age would also be a hinderance.
He glanced at the professional secretary and she gave the youngest applicant a smile. "Go in now, Mr. Van Ekred, Mr. Lambert is waiting for you."
"Thank you!" He gave her a smile and moved down the hall to the double doors. He raised his hand, gave a sigh and knocked. A faint "enter" was heard and he pushed the door open and slipped inside.
He paused, head still down and spoke, giving a slight bow. "I'm Douglas Van Ekred, thank you for agreeing to see me."
A sharp intake of breath had him freezing and he realized in his nervousness, he had done a habit from Chiriko's life. Knowing bowing wasn't customary in this part of the world, he could have cursed himself for his stupidity.
However the next thing he knew, the man behind the desk was chuckling, a cool and smooth laugh from long ago and he looked up in shock as Hotohori rose from behind the desk. "Well, I'm glad to see that the casualness of this world has not taken away your manners, Doug was it?"
Doug stared in fascination at Hotohori, not sure of what he should do. Finally he shook his head and nodded "Yes it's Doug. Are you Mr. Lambert?"
"Hai, hai. We are Shane Lambert. However, if you are to work here, you should refer to us as Hotohori."
Doug blinked at this, tears coming to his eyes. "Hotohori-sama?"
The man's smile became tender. "May I call you Chiriko?" With those words, the youngest seishi rushed forward in tears and found himself embraced by another of his brothers.
After an hour of sharing, in which Hotohori had expressed delight that Chiriko knew Chichiri, Mitsukake and Nuriko as well as how they had all met and about his life now, as well as spend time gazing at the picture Chiriko had produced from his inner suit jacket pocket, Hotohori blinked when the secretary rang into the office.
"Yes, Pam?"
"Sir, your interview has gone on for over an hour, you have a meeting in 20 minutes."
"Ah, yes. The time ran away with me. Thanks for the heads up."
He released the intercom button and glanced towards Chiriko, who looked upset. "What is it?"
"We never did the interview."
"No matter, you have the job."
Chiriko frowned "As much as I would love this job, I wouldn't feel right accepting it just because we are Suzaku Seishi."
Hotohori chuckled "And I wouldn't feel right giving it to you because you are Suzaku Seishi. Chiriko, you passed all the requirements that the company set, the interview with me was to determine if our personalities matched. I refuse to work with someone who won't work with me and be an asset. You fit the role I need to fill nicely. Now, would you like to start working? You can accompany me to this meeting and get a glimpse of what's expected of you. You will also have paperwork to sign, but you can do that tomorrow or next week. Monday will officially be your first day, although I'll pay you for today's work too."
Chiriko shook his head "Monday will be my official day, besides, I am excited to see what this company can do. I'll accompany you today and fill out paperwork tomorrow. Are you busy tomorrow night?"
Hotohori glanced at his new intern from the corner of his eye "What time?"
"Dinner, tomorrow is Thursday and I always have supper with Mitsukake and Chichiri on Thursday evenings, well and I guess now Nuriko."
Hotohori smiled as they left the office. "I'll make time." He stopped at his secretary's desk. "Pam, meet my new intern, Doug. He's going to accompany me to my meeting. Have a time card ready for him when we come back and he'll do his paperwork tomorrow. Also, please cancel my dinner meeting tomorrow night, something has come up, reschedule it if you can, but from now on my Thursday evenings are busy."
Pam, always the professional, simply nodded, jotted a few notes down and returned to finish her already started work. Hotohori, sure it would get done, turned and walked towards the elevator, Chiriko on his heels.
Thursday passed quickly for everyone. Chiriko and Hotohori had thought the day would drag by till supper, but one seeming crisis after another had the two busy. Chiriko felt he could have slapped Hotohori, when at lunch, the CEO had muttered "What else can go wrong?" and about that time the electricity flickered and went out in the cafeteria.
Startled feminine screams filtered around the room and Chiriko sighed. "You just had to say it."
Hotohori shrugged almost sheepishly and then stood. "Let's go see what happened."
An hour later, with only back up generators running the building, Hotohori put down the phone and glanced to Chiriko and his secretary, Pam. "Well, it's not outside wires, the electric company says there must be faulty wiring in the building. Anyone know any good electrician that can come quickly?"
Pam smiled "My neighbor does good work and he just rewired my house. He's very knowledgable and just starting his own business, do you mind?"
Hotohori shook his head "No, as long as his work comes guaranteed. I trust you Pam, you don't trust just anyone to do stuff for you like that. I'm sure you researched him completely, even if he is your neighbor."
The secretary nodded and reached for her cell phone. "Yes I did, his work reputation is excellent, even if he is young." She dialed the phone number and spoke quickly with someone on the other end. Smiling to herself, she hung up. "Gregg said that he won't be able to do much tonight, but he said he would come in and talk to you. He said it was good timing because his job for tomorrow cancelled right before I called, so he can do the work tomorrow."
Shane smiled at this. "Good, I need to finish a few things before the generators shut down my office. Doug, with all this excitement, I don't think you got to finish all your paperwork. Why don't you finish that and get it to Pam before she leaves."
Chiriko gave a nod and retreated to a desk across from the secretary and swiftly set about to doing his paperwork. He was just finishing it when some talking was heard from the stairwell and his head came up sharply.
"I'm tellin' ya Kevin, yer never gonna get me in an elevator, especially when the building's wires are all screwy."
The door from the stairwell was shoved open and Chiriko felt his mouth fall open as Tasuki strode through the opening, a blue haired man on his heels. He managed to close his mouth as Tasuki greeted Pam.
"Hi Pam. I have a few guys already running taps on the wiring to see where the short is."
She nodded "Alright Gregg. I think Mr. Lambert would like to meet with you before he leaves." She glanced at Chiriko who stood and spoke. "I'll take care of that, I'm done with my paperwork."
Tasuki's head had whipped around at Chiriko's words and he mimicked Doug's expression from a moment before. Kouji poked him with his elbow. "Stop starin at the kid. It's rude. If ya need me, Ima gonna be down stairs with Lewis."
Tasuki jolted from his stare and nodded to his best friend as Pam looked between the aide and her neighbor. "Alright Doug, I'll leave that to you."
Chiriko gave his paperwork to the secretary and then smiled at Tasuki. "Hi, I'm Douglas by the way. Come with me and you can meet Mr. Lambert."
He started down the hall and Tasuki followed him. "Douglas eh? Ya don't look like a Doug."
At the door, Chiriko looked back at Tasuki and smirked. "And you don't look like a Gregg either. You look more like a Genrou or a Tasuki, truth be told."
Before Tasuki could do more then break into a big grin, Chiriko knocked on the door once and then opened it with "Hey, Hotohori. Electricians are here."
The youngest seishi then burst into laughter at the stunned looks and sputterings the two did before Tasuki and Hotohori gathered their wits about them and Tasuki yelled out "Chiriko! Hotohori!" before somehow engulfing the two in a massive hug.
Chiriko did not feel bad about playing a trick on Chichiri and Nuriko. After all, he knew how Chichiri felt for Tasuki and of course the entire world probably knew how Nuriko felt for Hotohori. So it was with little discussion that the three brought Mitsukake into their little set up.
The doctor was thrilled that Chiriko had managed to find the last two and was more then willing to get Chichiri and Nuriko back for their previous prank. So plans were slightly altered and Chichiri and Nuriko agreed to go see a movie with Mitsukake and Chiriko before supper.
Chiriko didn't know how he and Mitsukake had managed to keep their excitement from showing. Finally Chiriko heard Tasuki's voice coming from the walk up and he felt Chichiri tense beside him and then as he looked at his friends, he saw Nuriko tense as Hotohori's smooth voice replied to Tasuki's words. He and Mitsukake shared a smile and then joined their brethren in looking down as Tasuki and Hotohori came into view.
The two new arrivals looked up as Chiriko and Mitsukake waved them over, Doug calling out "Hey, over here. We saved you seats."
Chichiri and Nuriko turned and gaped at their youngest brother as Chiriko turned a smirk on them. "I invited a few people, you don't mind do you?"
The next few minutes, much to the amusement of a few people down closer to the front, was a loud reunion between most of the seishi of Suzaku.
Tasuki sighed as he slumped into his seat at the restraunt and then smiled widely at his friends. The movie had gone by mostly unnoticed by the group as they had divided up into small groups, Chichiri and Tasuki talking softly and Nuriko and Hotohori talking softly. The wing seishi was sure that only Chiriko and Mitsukake had managed to see any of the movie.
Looking across the table at Hayden, who was laughing at something Nuriko and Hotohori were saying, he smiled. His dreams of Chichiri had not done the man justice. He was more beautiful in this life then the last and from the way he was now smiling at Tasuki, the former bandit had high hopes that Chichiri was still attracted to him. Hotohori apparently felt that he didn't have to uphold to the need for an heir that he did before and was smiling warmly at a blushing Nuriko, much to Tasuki's delight. Maybe in this life he wouldn't have to listen to the purple haired man bitchin about the ex emperor.
Glancing back at Chichiri, he smiled and leaned closer to the photographer. "Hey, ya busy on Saturday?"
Chichiri smiled and pulled out his blackberry, quickly scanning his schedule. "I have a photoshoot in the morning, but after that I'm free."
Tasuki smiled "Wanna go do something?"
"Well, why don't you join me at the photoshoot and then we can go eat afterwards, it's on location about an hour from here."
Tasuki grinned "That sounds fun."
Chichiri just smiled more "That it does, no da. How long is your job for Hotohori gonna take tomorrow?"
Tasuki frowned and this gained the attention of Hotohori and Chiriko "Well, I looked over the schematics of what our testing found and I don't think your wires are up to code. I've located your current problem, Hotohori, but there are interruptions on every floor. Some are small, like an outlet doesn't work, but a main wire went down yesterday. I'll know more when I open the wall tomorrow where the main wire is, but typically when we have a situation like this, you have a rodent problem eating through the wires."
Nuriko and Chiriko shuddered and Hotohori sighed. "Let me know tomorrow what you find out. I'll hire an exterminator if that's the case."
Tasuki gave a nod and the conversation moved onward as the group slowly caught up with each others lives and told small antidotes of their new lives. All found out that Kouji had been reborn as Gregg's friend, Kevin.
The next flew weeks flew by. Previous couples slowly began to know each other and grow closere to each other till it became obvious that there was still feelings present and they would be starting a relationship in this life. It was a Saturday, about a month after they had all been reunited when their group finally became complete.
Taka, previously known as Tamahome, was smiling lovingly at his wife of 2 years. Miaka, also his miko, was excitedly pointing at restraunts she wanted to visit. This was their first full day in New York City and they would be here for 2 weeks, on a second honeymoon.
Grinning to himself, he felt a twinge that the rest weren't around to share in their happiness and he quickly hid his feelings as Miaka turned around to look at him. "I'm hungry, Taka."
He chuckled and took her hand "Well, where do you want to go to eat?"
She looked around and spotted a small, cozy looking restraunt tucked in between two large buildings. "How about that place, look a large group of people are being seated and it seems popular, let's try there."
He grinned and took her hand, walking towards the restraunt. As he passed the window, he glanced in, Miaka gazing elsewhere and he almost froze as Nuriko's wide eyed expression mimicked his own. With almost identical sly grins, he gave a nod and turned his attention on Miaka as he guided her towards the door.
Inside Nuriko tried to hide his excitement and almost succeeded, except of course Hotohori was watching him now, a questioning look on his face. Giving a big grin he leaned over and whispered something to his boyfriend.
At the door, Miaka turned questioning eyes when Taka told the host that they were meeting friends and they were already hear. As he walked towards the table where Nuriko was standing, along with Hotohori, he shushed his wife's loud questioning and ended up standing behind Chiriko as Miaka fell silent in surprise as she looked around the table. Chiriko gave a start as Taka dropped a hand on his shoulder and the entire table rose as one, in shock, to swarm Taka and Miaka warmly. The Suzaku Seishi and Miko, once again together.