Square One

Allen Walker

I'd been waiting around to be found when things first started going fuzzy. After pulling my all-nighter I was already incredibly tired, and my head was beginning to feel warm.

That wasn't good.

I couldn't fall asleep. I was supposed to file the folder and then return. That was what I'd been told to do, so I had to do it. If I wasn't perfect, I ran the risk of losing my job, and I couldn't afford that. I needed the cash. Supporting three children and myself was impossible without a well-paying job like this one.

Unfortunately, try as I might, sitting in a cooled corridor curled in on myself with nothing to do but think the time away all but forced me to drift off to sleep.

VWV

My dream was one that I couldn't for the life of me remember, which was nice, considering I was usually subjected to detestable nightmares that woke me from my slumber and left me with a racing heart and a body slick with sweat. Those nightmares did strange things to my head, warping the way I perceived the world while I was still under their spell: my clothes were horrid, the fabric rough and itchy against my skin; my sheets became confines, trapping me as I tried in desperation to wrestle free; my room was dark and frightening, a prison that I could only escape by navigating my way around sinister furniture that stuck out and caused bruises or falls in my jittery haste.

This time was different though.

When I came to, many voices spoke in hushed tones around me and there was a pain in my gut that suggested I was over someone's shoulder.

I took in a slow breath, forcing myself to remain calm and pretend as if I had not awoken while I quietly assessed the situation; feigning unconsciousness was a good was to gather information and keep others from thinking of me as a threat – it also often lead people letting their guards down prematurely.

"Yu-kun, that's not how you treat the people who work for you."

My brow twitched as I held back a frown. Is that… Mr. Tiedoll?

"The heck happened to his clothes?" Another familiar voice asked.

Lavi?

The person holding me shifted, the arm across the backs of my thighs that kept me in place squeezing my legs tighter. "Che."

It was only one word -if you could even call it that-, but I recognised it immediately.

I opened my eyes and was greeted with the dark suit-jacket back of the bastard who'd sent me downstairs knowing full well I wouldn't be able to return on my own– with the back of the asshole who had the nerve to treat me like a sack of potatoes after all he'd done. Out of spite, I angrily tugged on the long ponytail that dangled down beside my face, a mixture of satisfaction and subdued fear filling me when he cursed.

That feeling was lost when my legs were abruptly released and the floor rushed to meet my face. I cried out as I met the hard ground, wincing and grimacing because ouch, that would definitely leave a mark.

"Did you just pull my hair?" Kanda hissed, hands flying up to fix what I'd ruined. Longs fingers gently dragged their way through his ponytail and smoothed down anything that wasn't in its proper place.

Refraining from snorting, I carefully picked myself up from the floor and gave myself a onceover, and after realising the horrendous state of my attire, I said, "I did."

"Why the fuck did you do that?"

"Why did you send me down to File Storage, BaKanda?" I fired back with an equal amount of venom. He knew what happened last time, so why had he been such an ass and done that to me anyway? Was sending my off to waste time and then search for me again somehow fun? Did he enjoy making my little life even more miserable and then coming down to play the hero who rescued me?

Kanda huffed and finally stopped fiddling with his freakin' perfect hair. "Why're you such a brat?"

"Why're you such an arrogant knobhead?" I gritted out, letting my bitterness seep out to coat my words.

"Speak English, idiot!"

Terror swept through me as his voice rose in octaves. He was being too loud. "I am speakin' English, you uneducated twat." Arguing and standing close to him like this made me realise just how tall he really was; I'd never really noticed that my boss towered about a head over me because every other time we'd talked or argued involved either him sitting at his desk or me constantly bowing and keeping my head down.

"No, you're not!"

"S'the Queen's English," I said evenly, quelling a shiver. Too loud. "Jus' because ya can' un'erstan' doesn' give ya the right ta say it ain' English."

He scoffed, gesturing at me with a wave of his hand as if my own words had just proved his point. "It's stupid and no one understands what you're saying!"

"Shut yer mouth!" I winced at the volume of my own voice and tried to ignore the way my throat suddenly tightened. There was a throbbing in my head that suggested all this noise was bringing on a migraine. "Lena would."

Tiedoll apparently took it upon himself to step in. "Yu…" A brief glance at his face told me that the man was currently deliberating on how best to placate us. "Maybe you sh-"

"How about you shut yours‽" Kanda snapped, drowning out whatever his father had been about to say. "Also, don't bring that woman into this!"

"How 'bout ya let me go back down ta workin' with Komui so everthin' can go return ta how it should be and then we can finally stop gettin' at each otha's throats‽" I retorted, and then as an afterthought considered what he'd tacked on at the end. "Don' call 'er tha' woman!" Lenalee had always there for me since we'd met and had become my closest friend and sister, so there was no way I'd allow this dick to refer to her in that way, especially around me.

Kanda didn't respond, frowning irately as if something I'd said had displeased him. "Just go home. You're more useless than usual right now."

I exasperatedly sighed, honest to God amazed that I was still employed here. To calm myself, I took a deep breath and massaged my right temple with two gloved fingers. "Kanda… I didn't even file what you wanted me to."

Kanda stared at me for one very quiet and very awkward moment before opening the manila folder he held, revealing the blank papers within.

My eyebrow twitched, and I really felt like falling to my knees and crying in frustration. I didn't though, because that would have meant he'd won. Instead, I decided to take him up on his offer and leave, but not before I yelled, "Go ta hell, ya bloody wanker," and slammed his office door behind me, my heart beating painfully loud inside my aching chest.

I took the elevator straight down to the car park floor and only stopped once I saw the snazzy Maserati GranTurismo beside my own older vehicle. It was black, shiny, and easily outshone mine in terms of appearance.

My eyes developed a strong urge to roll. I glanced inside and… Yep. Black leather seats.

"So dumb," I mumbled, climbing into my car when my lower lip began to quiver and my eyes filled with tears.

Angrily -and also partially because I was sleep deprived and irritated with my boss and annoyed with that stupid speech and even angrier with myself for crying so damn easily-, I hit the steering wheel, causing two things to happen: first, pain shot through my hand because of course I just had to hit a particularly hard part of the wheel, and second, the horn beeped and scared the living daylights out of me, the loud sound sending a wave of panic through my ravaged nervous system.

Clamping my mouth shut to keep myself quiet, I cradled my injured hand to my chest and tucked my knees close, bringing my other arm up to hug my legs as I sat curled up in the front seat of my car wishing that my day had somehow gone differently.

VWV

I KNOW THIS CHAPTER IS SHORT. I APOLOGISE.

This chapter was a little boring to write. The next one is better though!

So~ Is~ The~ One~ After~