Authors Note
Wow. I missed my deadline by 3 months. Way to go, me. This chapter should have been released a long time ago, and I want to just say that this was homework again, but I think even homework wouldn't excuse this kind of failure. I don't want to say that the next chapter will be made in a month, because it's starting to become clear that I can't complete a chapter in a month. However, there is no way that I will let this fic go un-updated for that long again. This chapter was suggested by sgtrinidad9, so finally, Chapter 3!
P.S: I just realized that before I wrote this chapter, I had the "wonderful" idea to not look up what a manager was and what jobs they performed. As far as I had known, a manager had to take care of all of the legal work of an Actress/Actor/some other form of artist. (again, I am full of "wonderful" ideas.) So more than likely, I got the entirety of a managers jobs wrong. So I am sorry.
There were many things people in Kalos thought of when they pictured the daily life of Serena Limone. Probably mornings filled with beautiful walks down the streets of Lumose city, with an endless trail of paparazzi following. In the evenings, her day would be filled with the filming of a new scene in some dreamy romantic Kalosian movie. A few days, she could be in the middle of an interview, discussing plans for the future of her acting career, combining both the skills she learned back in her days of being a performer, and her natural talent for acting.
However, most people would never think of her crowded in an office in her penthouse in the Lumose tower, pulling an all–nighter and filling out large piles of paperwork while her husband and teenage sister-in-law watched the entire mess go down.
"Should I ask what all of… this is?" said Clemont, gesturing to both the large stack of documents and his exhausted wife, who was now filling out what seemed to be her 1,537th sheet of the night.
"This, my dear Clemmie, is the result of my manager quitting yesterday afternoon without giving me time to find a replacement. Because I couldn't magically summon a new manager right after my old one left, the only one who could take his place was me."
Sighing, Serena curled up into a ball on the floor, and proceeded to instantly fall asleep. However, this didn't last for long, since Clemont and Bonnie quickly got her back up on her feet. "Serena," Clemont said while hugging her so she doesn't fall down again, "There's no way I'm letting you sit in here all day and go through all of this stuff! You're exhausted, and you deserve a break."
"That's nice, sweetie, but I have to do this - who's going to fill in for my manager? Like I said, it will take some time for me to find a new one, you have your own job to worry about, and Bonnie's too young!"
"Hey," Bonnie said, mad about that last remark, "I can totally do this kind of official kind of stuff! All you need to do is sign some signatures on the blank parts, and you'd be done!"
"Wait – say that last part again?" asked Clemont, suddenly getting an idea.
"Sign the blank parts and you're done?"
Yep, he had an idea. An idea that would take no more than 20 minutes to make. "Wait here!" he told the girls as he went to his workshop. Yes, he told himself, this will fix everything.
"Um, bro, not to be mean or anything, but you just wasted 20 minutes to make a copier," remarked Bonnie, looking at what appeared to be just that – a copier.
Ah, but this wasn't a copier – it was a Sign-all-of-your-papers-machine, made to fix all of your managing needs! "Just stick a document inside, and every part of the document that needs to be filled out will be, well, filled out!"
As a demonstration, he picked up one of Serena's many forms – this one in particular talking about a upcoming press conference – and placed it on one end of the machine. In a matter of seconds, the document came out of the other side, all filled out and ready to send to the contractors.
Both Bonnie and Serena looked at the marvelous contraption, the teen in wonder and the spouse in joy. That was what Clemont liked the most about the entire machine – not its success, but the relief it gave to his wife. She had spent the entire night working herself to exhaustion, and deserved a break from all of this repetitive labor.
However, what she said next took him by surprise. "This is great sweetheart! Now I can fill out these forms even faster. At this pace, I should only be done in 2 hours!"
"You mean I should only be done in 2 hours. You, on the other hand, shouldn't have to work anymore – you already spent the entire night on this work, and deserve a break. Or, at the very least, a nap."
Serena opened her mouth, ready to protest, but Clemont didn't want to hear it. "Girls, you two should go out and enjoy yourselves, especially you, Serena. Bonnie, I'm want you to make sure you and Serena have fun."
"Don't worry bro, I'll take care of this!" Bonnie said right before she went to the two couple's rooms to grab her brother's wallet, which would be absolutely necessary for them to have fun.
Once Bonnie returned, both she and Serena promptly left the apartment, while Clemont stayed behind and worked on the documents, promptly feeding them into the machine and removed them in a continuous cycle. Everything should be fine for when the girls come back – nothing could go wrong!
Except that, it did.
2 hours later…
As soon as the girls had gotten home from a day of shopping and ice cream, they noticed that something was off about their apartment. Mainly the fact that smoke was trailing out of the cracks – pretty sure that was new. Carefully walking inside, the girls soon found the source of the smoke, and unfortunately, it was from the office.
Inside, ink from the machine had splattered everywhere in the room – on the walls, the floor, even the ceiling! Speaking of the machine – if you could call that large smoking pile of metal a machine – it was ruined, collapsing in on itself with clear signs of a fire present in the center. And in the corner of the room, Clemont was curled up on the floor, firing an extinguisher onto what was left of the machine, with a look of terror on his face.
Once the machine had been removed of, Clemont went to face Serena and apologize. "Serena, I'm so sorry that I trashed your office! I don't know how it happened! One minute, everything was fine and the next, the machine was ON FIRE! I tried putting some water on it, but then the water caught on fire! After that it kinda exploded, so…"
But Clemont was soon cut off by a hug from Serena. "Clemont, I'm sorry that I wasn't here to handle the documents myself. I shouldn't have forced you to do my work – it's my responsibility, not yours!"
"Serena," Clemont explained, "I wanted to help you out with your work – you're my wife, and I care about you! Part of being married is helping each other when they need it the most!"
"Thanks, Honey." Serena replied, felling like she should hold her husband in a big bear hug right about now. Then she remembered about the paperwork. "Unfortunately, we still have to rewrite those documents."
"Actually, no." Clemont replied, "I was finished with all of the documents when the machine broke. They're all in our room, just needing to be handed in."
"Great! So it looks like we can go ahead and get started with our next project."
"And what's that?"
"Cleaning my office."