That Monday I head back to work alongside Paul and we take our separate ways once we enter the elevator, still a little confused at the layout. I wander round that floor for about 10 minutes until a man about my age walks up to me
"Hello miss, are you lost?" he says with a calm demeanor and I nod shake my head
"No, I am still new here so I was just wanting to get a good idea of the layout" the man introduces himself as Sam and points at a nearby office
"That's where I do my work, it's a little small but then again so are most of them" he lets out with a laugh. I look around with a bad feeling in the bottom of my stomach
"Well I should probably get going, don't wanna get the rest of my team worried" he looks at me with a smile and waves goodbye as he enters his cramped office. As I turn around I figure out what time it was and rush back to my office then as soon as I get close to the hallway of my office I notice someone standing at the door and as I get closer I realize it's Jack with a worried look on his face. I wave at him and it's almost as soon as he sees me he brightens up "Hey sorry to keep you waiting, I was just wandering around getting the layout in my head" he nods and heads into the office.
As soon as I enter the room I notice everyone at hard at work I go to sit in my chair while keeping my eyes on everyone I accidentally bump into something I let out a small "oof" and see there is a huge desk in front of my chair and Jack looks at me from the corner of his eye and smiles. I mouth the words
"Thank you" to him then he quickly gets back to work, as I sit down at my new overly sized desk I notice it's made of wood and it puts a smile on my face. I can't help but think to myself how much I enjoy wooden things, they just seem to be made with care and are whittled to the creators liking. I quickly open up my laptop and log into my new work email. As soon as I open the email I get spammed with notifications and I can tell just from that it's going to be a long day. I get started on the first article I am put into to edit and make completions, before I know it I've only done ten articles and it's already 3 o'clock. I look around the room to see the guys talking about what they're going to do when they get home and suddenly Jack looks at me and asks what I will be doing, at first I am not sure what I should say then I think about it
"Well I have to stay late tonight because I have about five more articles to go through" they look at me with an expression I can't quite understand then Jack speaks up
"You do know all the articles you receive on monday is your week of work, right?" I stare at him blankly then I look at Mark and Drew trying to stifle their laughter
"Well I guess I set for the week huh?" Mark looks at me and says
"No you'll have a lot of free time though, so what are you going to do with it?" I look around the room and slowly start to think, after a few seconds to process the meaning of free time I look back at Mark with a wary look in my eye
"I think I will start by finishing an article I had started a while back, then I will go practice with my swords. Oh, I want to write an article on those recent attacks here in New York!" I say with excitement and my face quickly drops when I see Jack staring at me with a judging face
"So you use swords too?" I glance up real fast and see him showing me a picture of him as a young boy holding a katana in what looks like a park. I look at him with pure joy and blurt out
"You should come practice with me" without thinking about anything else going on. Mark and Drew surprisingly look at Jack with a glare and Drew suddenly speaks up in a loud voice
"Dude I think you just got asked on a date" as soon as the words come out of his mouth Jack looks at me
"Is that true?" and I start to mumble to myself
"I mean I don't know about that but I suppose if you took it that way it doesn't bother me" and as I start to talk I look down at my feet and just sit there listening to their muffled laughs. I start to speak up
"You know what it's okay you don't ha-" then I am interrupted with Jack's sarcastic voice
"I humbly accept your offer miss Kokio" just then the room went quiet and everyone got back to their work like nothing had happened. I get up to go to the employee lounge for a break and when I open the fridge I see a paper bag with my name on it and a note. I read the note to myself in surprise
"Hey I hope you get this, and you better eat it! See you later" then Drew's signature is on the bottom of the sticky note, I smile to myself and go to sit down in front of the TV to eat. I quickly unpack a sandwich with mango jam and peanut butter with a bag of bbq chips. I look at the tv as I eat and on the tv I notice a huge label on the screen that states breaking news I go to turn up the volume because it's about the attacks on people happening in New York but can't seem to find the remote, as I look around the room with the sandwich in my hand someone walks into the room with the remote and I look up as fast as I can to see Sam, the guy from this morning, holding the remote so I ask with urgency
"Hey can I borrow that remote?" he hands me the remote without saying a word and I turn up the volume and sit back down to finish my meal as I hear
"The thieves who keep attacking people on the street seem to have a common goal in mind" and with that I punch my fist in the air with excitement and Sam looks at me confused. I start to talk to him about how I have been keeping up with these random cases and how I have seen a pattern along with every picture I find of the attackers they are all wearing a black owl mask, as I talk he looks more and more interested so I keep going after about five minutes of non stop talking I calm down and give a deep breath.
"So anyway I have some more leads but I don't want to give those out until the news reports them!" we turn our attention back to the tv and notice the reporter that was speaking is now talking about weather " well, that was quick" I get up and throw my garbage away, before I leave the room I wave at Sam with a smile "see you later" he nods back at me as if he is still taking in everything I said to him. I head down the hallway back to our office and notice everyone except Jack has gone home. "Everyone calls it quits for the day?" I say in a cheerful voice, we exchange smiles and I go to pack my belongings as Jack walks up to my desk
"Hey want to go practice with our swords tonight?" I look at him with the biggest smile I can muster "sure, let me give you my address and phone number" he writes everything down on a piece of paper and hand it to him. I finish packing my things and head out as Jack does some touch ups to one of the articles, when I leave I head towards the elevator and Sam walks up to it as well
"Are you heading out for the day?" He looks at me like I've said something offensive so I ask him "Is something wrong?" he looks away and says
"No, nothing, it's just nice to have a refreshing smile in this office. Not many people have fun here, but you seem to brighten everyones day" as he says that my smile gets bigger and I start to blush. When we finally get to floor one we go our separate ways, he heads up to the receptionist desk and I head out the front door. When I get home I slap open my laptop and start watching some videos on the internet about the attacks in New York, I simply stare at the videos not in shock at the violence but how well the attackers coordinate their movement with flawless execution. I suddenly hear a notification come from my phone and it snaps me back to reality, I look at my phone and see it's already 5 oclock. I shout out "Oh crap!" and quickly sent Jack a text asking when he will be heading over, less than a minute later I get a text back saying
"I'm on my way now, be there in ten" I quickly jump away from the desk I put in my room and start to get ready. I decide to put on a baggy t-shirt and some jeans, when I finish I grab my longsword with black lacing around it's handle and sheath it. I head downstairs to find Paul sitting on the couch watching a special on the attacks
"It's so interesting, right?" he keeps his eyes on the tv and has a troubled look on his face "aren't you scared it might happen to you though?'' I look at him blankly and hold up my sword in response, he gives me a meaningful nod and goes back to watching the tv. A few moments later we both hear a knock at the door just as I'm about to go answer it. Paul gets up faster than me and answers it to find Jack standing at the door with his katana in hand. Paul just looks at me with a look of disappointment and all I can do in reply is shrug, I run up to the door to find Jack with a look of disappointment in his eyes but a smile on his face. I push my way past Paul and greet Jack
"Hey! I'm glad you could come! We can go practice out back '' I grab Jack's hand and lead him to the back door like I am walking a dog. When we get to the yard alone he speaks up
"So you really do live with our boss" I try to change the subject real smoothly
"Yep, so who do you usually practice with?" I look at his sword with great interest and he pulls it out of the sheath to show me the blade, as he slowly sets the sword onto the grass I plop down in front of it and examine every feature. Before I know it Jack is sitting next to me looking and the sword I have sheathed on my hip "Wanna see my blade?" he nods excitedly and I unstrap my sword and hand it to him "You can test it if you want but it is a little heavier than a katana so be careful" Jack stands up and unsheathes the black laced sword. Then he goes into a battle stance and just then he realizes how heavy the blade is and almost drops it. He lets out a sigh then continues to practice, I can't help but stare as the blade glides through the air with ease. When he finally stops he looks at me with a sense of pride
"So that's why you can hit so hard, you get lots of exercise with this sword in hand" I stand up to grab my blade but I can't seem to grab it from him, he jumps away and acts like he isn't going to give it back so I play along and jump at him reaching for the handle.
We continue that dangerous game for a good fifteen minutes until he stands still and I don't realize it in time to stop my jump. I fall into his chest with a loud thud but for some reason I don't fall. I open my eyes to see Jack caught me while still holding onto the blade with ease and I say with a hesitant voice
"Th-thank you". He chuckles and steps back as I gain balance again
"I hope you don't fall on just anyone, they might not be strong enough to keep balance" I look at him as he smiles a genuine smile and we start talking about random stuff from there on out. When I go to look at the time it's gotten pretty late
"Hey, maybe we should call it quits for today we have work tomorrow" We look at each other disappointed but he nods in agreement. We pack up our swords and head inside to find a freshly ordered pizza on the table in the living room, we give each other a evil look and as if knowing what he was thinking we head straight for the pizza and take two pieces each
"You know he is going to get mad at BOTH of us right?" As we sit there eating our pizza on the couch we hear Paul leaving his room, I give Jack a quick look and say "oh shit, we're busted" he stands up and grabs my hand and rushes me out the front door with a quick step. When we make our way to the window we watch Paul come back into the living room and as soon as he opens the box he yells
"Maaax! Jaaaaack!" we hide around the corner of the the house and as soon as we look at each other and burst into laughter. We finish up our stolen pizza and say our goodbyes, I enter the house with haste and swiftness but as soon as I get to the stairs I feel a cold glare coming from behind me. I hold up my hands and turn around with a guilty look on my face to see Paul holding up three garbage bags and says "You're on trash duty for the next week!" with a harsh tone in his voice, I silently nod and grab the trash bags. When I am done taking the trash out I go upstairs to my room to get ready for bed, I take a quick shower and put my pajamas on.
Soon after I fall into a deep sleep, when I finally wake up I realize I've overslept so I quickly jump out of bed to get ready for the day. As I'm deciding what to wear for the day I look over and see some of my clothes are still unpacked, I go over to look through them and wind up finding one of my old skirts from when I was in high school
"Well let's see if it still fits", I quickly go to pull up my long black skirt only to find out it's a little big. I reach over to my desk and grab a small hair tie and tie it around the loose part of my skirt "that's better" after that I leave to go down stairs only to find a missing Paul. I looked over at the front door and there was a note taped to it saying he had some urgent business at the office and that I would have to walk to work today. I let out a little sigh but picked up my things and headed out the door. I start to walk a little faster than normal so that I can make it to work on time, but end up being late anyway. As I walk into our office Drew gives me a quick smile then returns to work, when I go to sit down at my desk I notice a small note taped to my chair. I read it after I saw it was from Paul again "Sorry for ditching you, have a good day" and at the bottom of the note there is a horribly drawn heart and I giggle to myself seeing how bad he is at drawing. I quickly get enveloped in my work and without looking at the time all day it's quitting time before I know it, I yawn and pack up to leave.