#But someone found something in HR saying it's company policy to not let you work 60 hours/week

[yoshistory]

Brought up the fact that we weren't informed about the sudden schedule change at work and she was like "you should've known that already .. we had a meeting awhile ago .. you all got Easter off but ..? Nothing's changed" when NO ONE knew about it and I had to tell the team I noticed it. Like ....

BUT we did end up having a meeting and got divided on A and B teams for working the 2 weeks in a row, 1 day given off

Good that it's GIVEN because they would take away given days if you decided to take off a day that week that wasn't the 14th day you worked, resetting your "days worked in a row" count. so that's. Something.

[eggluverz]

danheng and reader are interns at the same company and there’s one sided beef from reader’s end cuz they’re trying to compete with him but he’s clueless and just thinks she’s hardworking and cute 😭

— THE INTERNS

In which you view your internship as a competition and Dan Heng is simply attracted to your hard work and determination.

PAIRING. dan heng x f!reader

WORD COUNT. 1788

GENRE. modern au. rivals? to lovers?

NOTE. ty anon for this super fun request!! <3 clueless dan heng the loml… and reader is so chaotic ngl alsjdkdl i hope u enjoy !! ^-^

“Can somebody handle the emails from the Realm-Keeping Commission?” Mr. Yang asked as he rushed through the intern’s cubicle area. He had a cup of tea in one hand and a handful of folders in the other. “They’ve had a recent breach of contract issue so we should be getting an influx shortly.”

“I can handle it!” you immediately spoke up, sparing your cubicle-mate a brief glance. You had a smile on your face but your eyes were urging him not to butt in.

Dan Heng smiled back. “I’ll help her.”

“Great.” Mr. Yang nodded in appreciation. “We have such hard-working interns this year.“

Your eye twitched as you replied, “Right. Great.”

Once the intern director left, you turned to glare at Dan Heng. He was nonchalantly typing on his computer, no doubt responding to the Commission’s emails already. A job that you should’ve been doing alone. Alongside a million other things that naturally came with being an unpaid intern.

You wanted to prove yourself here. The Astral Express was well known in the industry and you wanted nothing more than a job offer after the internship. But how could you possibly secure that when Dan Heng constantly stole your shine? You had to keep pushing. Keep striving to do more and impress your bosses.

“Hey, Y/N,” said Dan Heng. “If you have too much on your plate, I can take care of the emails today.”

Heat rose to your cheeks as you frowned in indignation. “You think I can’t handle it?”

He titled his head to the side. The innocent look on his face made you more upset. You couldn’t tell if he was making fun of you or if he truly believed you were someone pitiful who needed constant help.

“Of course you can handle it,” he reassured. “I don’t doubt that. I just don’t want you to take on too much of the workload. I’ve noticed you push yourself quite a lot.”

You shook your head. “I’m not pushing myself too much. I can do it.”

Dan Heng’s gaze softened. “You know yourself best. But I just hope you don’t overwork yourself too hard. We’re only unpaid interns, remember.”

You puffed your cheeks indignantly. Of course he could say something like that and still be a top performer. “Thanks for the consideration, but don’t worry about me. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I better get back to work.”

He only nodded in response.

As you started scanning through the emails on your computer, responding to the ones you have already finished, you felt Dan Heng still looking at you. You turned your face away from his desk so you wouldn’t be directly in his field of vision, unsure why he was staring but not really wanting to find out. Besides, you had more important things to get to. How could you possibly get more work done than Dan Heng if you were too busy worrying about why he kept looking at you?

Perhaps his innocence was a facade and he was playing mind games to slow you down.

With a huff of determination, you worked extra fast, not wanting to let his plan succeed. He’d have to do better than that to win.

˖⁺‧₊˚❀˚₊‧⁺˖

It was your lunch break the next day and for the first time since you started (except for those times Mr. Yang wanted to take the interns out for lunch), you were not eating at your desk to work through the lunch period.

Apparently, HR was visiting the office so you all had to follow all the policies, no matter how silly anyone found them.

Instead of your desk, you were eating at a shaded seating area outside of the office. If you weren’t going to work through your break, you might as well enjoy it and get a breath of fresh air while you were at it. With your high ambition and willingness to push yourself for this internship, you were aware it probably seemed like you were a workaholic of sorts. That wasn’t exactly true.

You saw the important of work-life balance and valued it, but you also figured an internship is where you were supposed to work extra hard. Then, once you secured the job, you would be free to relax.

You took a bite of your sandwich you packed as you stared off at the gently swaying trees in the distance.

“Hey.” You almost jumped at the sudden sound. “Can I join you?”

You slowly turned towards Dan Heng, blinking. First, he tormented you in the office as an intern who provided ample competition. Now, he wanted to torment you during your lunch too?

Despite your inner thoughts, you didn’t want to be rude. Deep down you knew he was also just an intern doing his best. You just had to do better.

“Sure,” you acknowledged. “Have a seat, nemesis.” The words escaped your mouth before you could stop yourself. “I mean… Dan Heng…”

His brows furrowed. “I find it hard to believe those two words could get confused so easily.”

You cleared your throat. “Not sure what you mean.” Before Dan Heng could respond, you changed the subject. “What did you bring for lunch?”

As he sat next to you, he showed you his opened tupperware. It contained the yummiest smelling food with very neat presentation. You figured it probably tasted even better than it smelled or looked.

“I packed a bento box for today.”

You looked down at your soggy sandwich. Was even lunch a competition to him? Did he have to be the best at everything? You vowed to look up the most intricate lunch recipe and show it off to him once you made it.

He looked at your sandwich wordlessly before taking a bite of tender meat.

Your face burned in shame.

Tomorrow, you told yourself. Tomorrow you’d show him.

˖⁺‧₊˚❀˚₊‧⁺˖

Today, your internship started around noon. It wasn’t a whole day of work and you knew fully well you didn’t need to pack lunch. Still, you stayed up all night perfecting this recipe and you had to show Dan Heng you were worthy competition as well. You even made enough servings to pack a meal for Dan Heng to try too.

Towards the middle of your shift, you walked over to his desk.

He paused his typing and looked up at you. “Can I help you?”

You held out a tupperware of your homemade food. “Look. I made this.”

Dan Heng’s eyes widened as he cautiously took the container from your hands. “For me?”

“Yeah. I saw your bento box yesterday and wanted to prove that I can also cook! Just like I can do all the work we’re assigned!”

Confusion was written all over his face but he still managed to smile. “First, thank you for making this for me.”

You looked at him, equally confused. Why did he sound so sincere? You simply wanted to prove a point. Not do something out of the kindness of your heart.

“Second,” he continued, “I do agree you can do all the work we’re given. Have I made you feel like I believe otherwise?”

“Not exactly… It’s just you keep offering to help me even when I say I’ll do it!” you explained passionately. “You keep trying to steal my work and do more than me!”

Dan Heng blinked, mouth opening then closing. He opened his mouth once more, trying again. “I wasn’t aware you viewed it as me stealing your work.” He rested his chin on his hand as he thought things through. “I didn’t want you overexerting yourself so I was only trying to help ease your workload… I’m sorry for undermining your hard work.”

“You’re not doing it on purpose?”

“No. I admire your determination and how you always step up to the task— I would never want to take away from that,” he said earnestly. His stare was unwavering as he looked into your eyes. “I more than admire it, actually. I find it quite attractive even.”

You gaped at him, unmoving. “Huh?”

“Attractive, endearing, cute… Do you need more synonyms?”

“Me?” You pointed at yourself.

Dan Heng nodded. “Well, I was referring to your work ethic. But yes. You as well.”

You bashfully stood up straighter. “You’re not too bad yourself, I suppose.”

That wasn’t a lie. You did find Dan Heng rather attractive. His hair was dark and messy, falling around his eyes in a way you could only describe as perfectly framing the vibrant blues. He had a pretty face and a serious demeanor that initially drew you to him— Until he started competing (as you saw it, at least) with you in your internship.

As you stared at each other in silence, Mr. Yang came in with a stack of papers. “Good afternoon, everyone. Can someone run an audit of the company’s stocks?”

You jumped up, startled. You didn’t except to be interrupted like that, but you quickly regained your composure, rushing over to him to grab the papers. A part of you was thankful for the distraction, but another part of you wanted to see where it would’ve lead. “I can do the audit!”

“Great, thank you!” he said in acknowledgment before rushing back out.

Once Mr. Yang left, Dan Heng turned to you and said, “Let me know if you need any help. I’m here if you need.”

You smiled. Now that you knew he wasn’t trying to best you, you were much more open to the idea of working together. “Sure, I’d love some help.” You paused and Dan Heng raised one brow. Though it came from the heart and the sentiment was there, you both knew it wasn’t completely true. You still did want to be the very best after all. “Well… You can help, but only a little though.”

Dan Heng laughed, accepting the small stack of papers you gave him, not even one fourth as tall as your pile. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”

You hummed in agreement. Before focusing on your work, you thought of one small thing to ask him. “Hey, Dan Heng?”

“Yes?”

“Maybe next week you can bring me some lunch, too? Or, maybe we could go out for dinner even…”

“I’d love to,” Dan Heng smiled and it was the widest grin you’ve seen on his face thus far, “if you give me more of your paperwork.”

You gasped, feeling thoroughly tricked. So he did want to beat you—?

“That way, we can finish sooner and I can take you to dinner tonight.”

Your train of thoughts stopped in their tracks as a light chuckle escaped your lips. “Fine,” you agreed, finding yourself strangely looking forward to having dinner with him. “But just this once, okay?”

“Of course.”

dan heng: *stares at reader*

reader: he’s playing mind games to make me nervous and slow me down

dan heng: she’s hardworking and passionate and so cute u.u

[forgot-how-catflap-works]

Breaking News: Half-baked compromise proves shitty and divisive

Businesses trialling the four day work week have found it ineffective and unpopular, a new report has revealed.

Companies across our great nation participated in a trial of the four day work week, but employees report being just as tired and sick of their grinding existence as usual. 

It’s not the reduced hour work week campaigners have been advocating for, but rather a watered down version that sees people just working longer hours over fewer days. Literally something no one asked for but it’s the best you’re going to get so maybe smile and say thank you. 

“The longer days mean I’ll have two existential crises by lunch instead of just one,” reported Michael Hingecroft, a corporate compliance officer at Hostile Takeover Inc. “I start my day at 8am and don’t finish until 6pm. I’m so tired by the end of Thursday that I just sleep the whole weekend away. Before I know it, I’m back at the office and the robed figures from HR are chaining me to my desk again.” 

Totally Unbiased News heard from several other desiccated husks like Michael after Labour revealed it plans to strengthen workers rights by offering more flexible hours. 

“I was looking forward to spending the extra day at home with my kids,” said some crybaby who’s name we didn’t get. “But my entire life passed me by. It turns out they’re in their 30s now and have all flown the nest. I’m also divorced. I had no idea. When did that even happen?” 

The arrangement has been well received by employers however, with big businesses heralding it as masterclass in pretending to make susbtantial changes but actually doing fuck all.

“It’s great,” said Carol Lunchmeat, a spokesbabe for sustainable energy firm Frack Me Harder. “By offering this lukewarm compromise, we can easily prove that no one wants to work a four day week and so we can finally put the issue to bed. People should be working more hours for less money, not fewer hours for the same amount. That doesn't make a lick of sense. How are we supposed to hoard enough resources to survive total climate collapse if our drones are slacking off?” 

During a press conference held within a hermetically sealed dome so none of the plebs can get their filth inside the halls of power, prime minister and self-described socialist Sir Keir Starmer called his own party’s proposals a “communist delusion that will destroy the nation with its blind idealism”. 

When deputy PM Angela Rayner clarified that under the proposed changes employees would “still be doing the same amount of work”, Sir Starmer offered his wholehearted support to the proposal. 

“This is the kind of limp wristed policy that will be our legacy,” said the prime minister. “Ineffective, uninspiring and unambiguously aligned with the interests of capital. There’s plenty more where this came from, mark my words.”

In response to the announcement, Reform leader Nigel Farage MP said, “*****, those ********. I’ve never seen so many ******* in one place. Who lets these filthy ****** in here? Someone get my rifle.”

A representative from the Green Party also said something, but we weren’t listening and nobody wrote any of it down. 

Campaigners for the four day work week argue that committing to a wholesale reduction in hours will increase revenue, reduce employee churn rate, and is better for the mental and physical well being of workers 

“The data is there to support not just compressed hours, but an overall reduction in the hours worked,” said four day work week advocate Lesley Cimble. “On average, companies that trialed the full proposal saw a 35% increase in revenue and 57% decrease in staff leaving. Not to mention 71% reduction in burnout and 39% reduction in stress.

"We do not advocate for the half-baked compromise of compressed hours. It does almost nothing to change material working conditions, and seems more concerned with appeasing big businesses than supporting workers’ rights or fostering sustainability.”

However, the black clad anarchists that hang around outside our offices said that even this position doesn’t go far enough. 

“In his book Bullshit Jobs, anthropologist David Graber found that 37% Americans felt their jobs were completely meaningless,” yelled one of the hoodlums through an open window. “Obviously we’re talking about the UK here, but we share the same economic system that pedestals a protestant work ethic and values profit above all else so it's a fair comparison. 

“We should acknowledge that roughly a third of all labour is expended on pointless bullshit. What a catastrophic waste of human life. That in itself should be justification enough to completely change our ways of working. We shouldn’t need to appeal to the motives of big business by saying this will make them more money. That’s an ass-backwards approach that only further entrenches the profit motive as the primary driving force in poli–”   

Fortunately Nigel Farage was visiting our office at the time to reveal his upcoming collab with Elon Musk to deport all foreigners to Mars and was able to shoot the anarchist dead in self-defence. 

"It's ****** season," he said as he produced his flensing knife and descended out to the street.

(Inspiration: Does working a four day work week make you happier?)

[nationalharryleague]

Portfolio; Part 2

Pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

Genre: Angst, fluff, CEO!Harry

Word count: 3.2k!

A/N: Hi everyone!! I am back with part 2 of “Portfolio”!! The first part had such great reception and a few people have asked for a part two. As always, I would looooove some feedback and I hope you enjoy!! More of my writing can be found in my masterlist!

Part 1

“Nice work, Miss Y/L/N,” Harry told you, walking briskly through the office, holding up the binder that contained the proposal you had been working on recently. You watched as his long legs gracefully carried him down a row of cubicles, both of you doing your best to conceal the smiles threatening to break onto your faces.

“Thank you, Mr. Styles,” you chimed as he passed you and your secretary. He muttered something along the lines of ‘now get back to work,’ before he turned around and shot a million dollar smile in your direction. You quickly winked at him, hoping no one noticed, and hid your cheeky grin in your cup of coffee.

“I think Mr. Styles likes you,” giggled your secretary, Charlotte, taking a sip of her tea as you took a gossip break outside your office.

“We’re just friends now,” you lied through your teeth. “We work better when we’re getting along than when we’re at each other’s throats.” Oh, how you loved his throat, and his neck, and his jaw, and his smile. He was a never ending piece of art and you could stare at him all day long.

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed you two carpooling to work in the morning,” Charlotte playfully pried.

“We just figured out we live close by each other,” lie, “and it gives us more time to talk about work,” lie, “and we just think it’s better for the environment,” semi-lie.

“Whatever you say boss,” she said amused and moved to answer the phone that had begun ringing on her desk.

It had been four months since that night when you ended up in his arms with his pouty lips pressed up against yours for the first time. It was the first of many, many more kisses you shared.

You had spent these last four months peeling back his hard exterior and getting to know the mushy center. You knew the way he took his tea in the morning, the songs he sang (surprisingly well) in the shower, and the way he always slept on his stomach, sheets pooled around his waist. While you hadn’t said it, the two of you knew that you were quickly falling in love with each other.

Harry had become a huge part of your life and you two rarely were apart. Work was a series of knowing glances and stolen kisses any time you and Harry were alone. While you two had become an incredible professional team, your productivity when working together had slowed, unable to get much work done when he was constantly trying to convince you to hook up in his office. Outside of work, you spent nearly all your time in his penthouse dressed only in one of his expensive dress shirts that he insisted looked better on you than ever did on him.

Your phone buzzed on your desk, bringing you out of your Harry-induced daze. Meet me in the copy room ;), your phone read. You let out a laugh and playfully rolled your eyes before making your way across the office to your intended destination.

Opening the door, you only got a glimpse of your gorgeous boyfriend before he pulled your body to him, your lips falling into a well practiced dance against one another. You kept your hands rested against his chest, learning from your mistakes of previously messing up his hair during a particularly passionate trip to a storage closet. While you remained careful to leave no clues of what you two were doing in the copy room, Harry buried his hands in your hair and moved to leave kisses down your neck, sure to leave some type of bruise. You pulled away from him, breathless, gently scolding him for being so careless.

“Harry, I will not fuck you in this copy room,” you told him, smoothing your pencil skirt and straightening out your blazer. You were met with a needy and pathetic pout that made the large man look like a small child who was denied a piece of candy.

“What makes the copy room off limits?” he smirked down at you. “We’ve had sex in most of the rooms of this office.”

“No lock on this door,” you smiled, moving to your tippy toes to kiss him lightly on the nose and turning to leave the room. He reached out and grabbed a hold of your wrist, pulling you back into him.

“I don’t care who sees,” he spoke against your lips as he connected you once again. “I’m sure my girl and I put on quite the show.”

“You are an arrogant son of a bitch, aren’t you?” you giggled in between soft kisses, arms hooked around his neck. “And I care, Harry,” you confessed, pulling away from him and looking seriously into his bright green eyes. “I worked hard to get to this position and I will not let people attribute my success to me sleeping with my boss.”

“But you are sleeping with your boss,” he called after you as you separated yourself from him and moved towards the door again. “Quite a bit actually.”

“But it didn’t get me to the top, did it?” you winked, exiting your hiding spot.

“I quite like it when you’re on top.”

***

This was definitely not sustainable.

The “good working relationship” cover could only work for so long and the way you acted could give it away any moment. You were so comfortable and happy with each other now, a rare and impossible feat before, and it was hard not to notice. You two had done a complete 180 and you could only pray the office was turning a blind eye. It was hard to pretend that you weren’t falling head over heels in love with this man.

There was a reason this was forbidden. Harry was in a position to manipulate and take advantage of his professional power above you and you understood why it was absolutely not allowed. There was a laundry list of powerful men who had taken advantage of their female subordinates and hurt them and their careers beyond repair. While you both were very consenting, it was a power dynamic that could quickly turn sour.

You both had plenty at risk. While you were desperate to stay secret for the sake of your professional reputation and career aspirations, Harry had a Fortune 500 company to worry about. SPR was growing at a rapid speed and was quickly becoming the most sought after public relations firm in the country.  You anxiously held your breath whenever at work, praying both of you could be on your best behavior, refusing to be the reason Harry fell from his golden boy position in the business world.

Harry had briefly suggested you quitting and just letting him take care of you. That idea made you feel like a sugar baby in your own relationship and you were not okay with that. He also brought up the idea of quitting your formal position and working as a freelance consultant so the HR policy would no longer apply, but you were quick to shut that down as well. While you would do anything to be with him and stop worrying, your career came first. There was no guarantee that you two would work out and you refused to give up your career for any man.

There was a brief period of time that Harry had considered a publicity beard. Hiring some model to pretend to be Harry’s girlfriend for the paparazzi would take some of the heat off the both of you and probably advance both of their careers. But you knew you were far too jealous to watch him with someone else, even if they were being paid to be there. You tried to be cool, calm, and collected at all times, but when it came to Harry, something ignited in you that you just couldn’t turn off.

Watching from across the office when his new, and irritatingly attractive, assistant began was torture. Cami was smart and beautiful and way overqualified to be running to get his dry cleaning and scheduling his rides to the airport. She was a tall, stick thin, blonde bombshell and you couldn’t understand why she was working in an office and not walking a runway. You watched the bedroom eyes she gave him every time they made eye contact, annoyed at how similar they were to your own, constantly looking up at him and batting her eyelashes. You always got a kick out of watching him shut her down when she started on her breathy ‘Mr. Styles’ voice which resembled Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ for JFK.

“Mr. Styles,” she sing-songed, “would you like me to get you something for lunch today?”

“No. I’m going out for lunch,” he dead-panned harshly. It made you feel good that he was meeting you at home for lunch, and the strong possibility that you were lunch made you feel even better. You watched from the doorway of his office as he didn’t even look up at her from his computer, a smirk threatening to break out onto your lips.

“Hi Mr. Styles,” you alerted him to your presence. His eyes shot up to make contact with yours, fighting a smile off his own lips. “I have a proposal for you to review.”

“Have a seat,” he said, motining for you to sit across from him at his large mahogany desk. Cami hung in the corner, waiting for some sort of command when Harry told her to leave and shut the door behind her. Leaning back in your chair, you took in the man sitting across from you. He wore a light blue suit that was perfectly tailored, paired with a white dress shirt, and navy tie. His hair was pushed back, just long enough for some of his natural curl to show. His eyes shined in the light from the floor to ceiling windows of his office that framed him and as soon as the assistant left the room, a huge smile rested on his face.

“So, what proposal do you have for me?”

“I can see it now,” you began, putting on your best proposal voice. “Dinner, a bottle (or a few) of wine, and movies at your place tonight.”

“My love, you could sell wood to a forest.”

***

That night started out calm enough. You had ordered in your favorite Italian place, the same one that you had shared your first real conversation over, and ate it over a bottle of wine. You two sat at his kitchen island, both dressed in Harry’s comfiest clothes, and talked about your days. It was a long day in the office and you were exhausted and the few glasses of wine running through your system were not helping. You leaned over on your barstool, resting your head on his shoulder, receiving a light kiss to your forehead in between bites of his dinner.

“Just so you know, Marcus was a bit of a dick to me today,” you slid into conversation in between bites of a garlic knot, always one to stir the pot.

“I’m sorry, honey. I don’t like him very much either but I can’t just fire someone because I don’t like them,” he explained softly.

“You can fire Cami,” you said before fully thinking. You watched from his shoulder as he questioningly raised his eyebrows, mouth still stuffed full of food. “I just don’t like the way she acts around you. She looks at you like she’s ready to mount you at any second.”

“I can’t fire my assistant because you’re jealous,” he said with a light chuckle.

“Harry, I’m not jealous,” you asserted while lifting your head off his shoulder to look him in the eye, not sure if what you were saying was fully true. “I just don’t like the way she acts around you.”

“You’re jealous!” he pushed, poking and teasing you into anger. He wore his famous smirk across his lips and while you usually thought it was adorable, tonight it was pushing every one of your buttons. Your cheeks began to heat with a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment, intensified by the wine you both had been drinking.

“I would have been more jealous if you you went through with that stupid beard idea,” you spat. It was Harry’s turn to get offended now. His eyebrows shot up his forehead in surprise at your comment, before they settled in a frustrated scowl.

“I was just trying to help,” he countered, his voice low and gravely. “You’re the one who’s so uncomfortable at work.”

“I can’t be comfortable at work knowing that if we were to get caught, both of our careers are finished!” You slid off the barstool, unable to be so close to him right now, and began pacing the immaculate kitchen. “Knowing that you just want me to quit so you can keep me up in this penthouse barefoot and pregnant doesn’t help either.”

“Y/N, come on. You know I don’t want that.”

“You’ve asked me to quit for you more than once, H.” You were both standing now, circling around the kitchen island. You walked away from him everytime he got close, the thought of him touching you right now made your blood boil.

“I wanted you to quit so that we can be together!” he raised his voice as he defended himself.  

Your career was everything to you. Your work was what gave you the opportunity to escape New York and get a fresh start in London. You had to put an ocean between you and your ex to feel safe again, and your hard work and talent was how you did it. You would not give it up for a man.

You and Harry had never fought like this before and you were worried how similar it felt to when you and your ex would fight. You had promised yourself that you would never be in a situation like that again.

“You’re the fucking CEO!” You were both yelling now. “ You’re in charge of everyone there. You can change the HR policy if you want.”

“No, I can’t. Were both in PR; you know how that would look for the company and both of us.” He argued from across the island. “My employee can’t be my girlfriend.”

“Okay,” you said after a pause, suddenly calm.

“‘Okay’ what?” Harry asked, chest still heaving for yelling.

“I don’t want to be either anymore.”

You marched your way to his couch, grabbing your briefcase and work clothes. You heard his calls for you to stay and pleads for you to take it back, but you ignored them. You made your way to his front door, slamming it behind you as you left.

***

Four Years Later

You sat in the conference room of SPR for the first time in over four years. The table and chairs had changed, no longer the heavy wood conference table you had known. It had been swapped out for a long black oval table that was flanked with chairs that were now filled with lawyers.

Harry sat directly across from you, in the same spot he sat the first night you began to fall in love with him. He looked a little different now; his hair had gotten longer, he had grown out a bit of a beard, and he had a couple more tattoos. You couldn’t help but think about all the nights you had spent together in his bed, your fingertips tracing the designs on his skin. Your eyes bore into each other, scanning each other’s face for emotion and desperately trying to get a read on the other.

It was easy to fall back into your distanced body language. While you were connected through intense eye contact, both of your arms were crossed, shielding yourself from the others’ stare. You had been competitors these last few years after all. Today, that was all changing.

After you left that night in a storm of jealousy and hurt, you made good on your threats to quit and started your own firm. You began to climb your way up the PR ladder and four years later, you were Harry’s biggest competitor. When the idea of a merger came about, you were hesitant but understood it was what was best for both of your businesses.

A thick contract was passed across the table between the both of you, both CEO’s silently signing on the dotted line. “The merger is complete!” your lawyers cheered excitedly, only small smiles finding their way onto your faces. “You are now Co CEOs of Styles-Y/L/N Public Relations.”

“Congratulations Chief Executive Officer Styles,” you spoke as you lifted yourself out of your chair, reaching out a hand to offer a handshake. You offered him a cold smile you had practiced to perfection in the mirror in preparation for today’s events.

“Congratulations Chief Executive Officer Y/L/N,” he repeated after you. When your hands met, the familiar sparks shot their way up into your arm, your heart beginning to flutter. You knew that feeling in the pit of your stomach that he caused so well. You got it whenever he was around, like he continued to have some sort of magic over you after all this time.

You left as the small celebration died down, opting to meet with Harry in his office to devise a plan moving forward concerning office space and upcoming projects. Strictly business, you constantly reminded yourself. Soon, the sun began to set and you decided it was best for both of you to head home.

Walking out of the building, it felt strangely familiar to the night you had first shared together. Your footsteps fell insync as you silently walked into the parking garage and towards your own cars. You looked over at his hand and realized he had already put his ring on.

“Hey, I thought we said we were going to put our rings on together after the merger,” you smiled as you fished around your blazer pocket for your engagement ring and wedding band.

“Honey, I thought you saw me put it on,” he laughed, flashing you his bright smile and the golden band that sat on his left hand. You carefully slid the rings onto your ring finger, covering the slight tan line you got when you wore them outside of work. You intertwined your hands, walking the rest of the way to your cars as a couple. You giggled as you always did at the sight of a baby’s car seat in the back of Harry’s sports car.

“I’ll pick the baby up from my mum’s if you grab dinner on the way home,” he offered.

“Sounds like a deal,” you agreed and pressed your body up against him, pecking his lips as he ran his hands up and down your back. “It feels good not to hide at work anymore.”

“No one can take advantage of the other if we are both in charge, right?” he smirked.

“Not according to HR,” you chuckled softly, resting your head on his chest before pulling away and getting in the car next to his.

“I love you, Mrs. Y/L/N-Styles!” he called into your car when you both rolled your windows down.

“I love you more, Mr. Styles!” you called back. “I’ll see you at home for our business meeting!”

Thank you so much for reading!! Please let me know what you think in my ask! Requests are also open :) 

[bangtae-sohotddaeng]

we’ll be counting stars | k.th. | 1

(^ gif cred: ON THE VOYAGE | pinterest)

pairing: idol!Taehyung x publisher!Reader

rating: nc-17 (for language and themes)

summary: You’d sworn off love and relationships forever. You were here to do your job - work with the biggest boyband of the world. Not forge friendships and...and whatever it was that you and Taehyung were building up with these sneaky glances. It was, to be very fair, your Chief Editor’s fault that you’d landed in this mess. Maybe you should quit your job? Maybe you should quit life -

Oh, he was staring again, and did he freaking lick his lips?

warnings: swearing (reader’s got a potty mouth) + this is set like 5 years in the future + reader has emotional issues, she's a relationship phobe + mentions of weed

genre: so much ANGST ugh + fluff + comedy + some crack

words: 2.1 k

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gimme feedback, much much appreciated!

SIX MONTHS AGO

“Wait a second, really?” You blinked up at the Chief Editor, your boss, in wonder. “Heading this?” 

The chocolate skinned, tall woman smiled at you. “Yes, heading this. I’d been looking to hand you something from a really long time, to be honest. This is just the right fit."

You grinned at her, hugging the contract file to your chest. In your thirteen months of employment at the publishing company, through the departmental transfer from HR to Editorial and then the promotion to the Associate Editor position, this was the best thing to happen to you, so far. You finally had a project you were gonna head. You would finally, finally get to handle things on your own—curate your own team, work on an individual project where you made all the decisions.

You breathed out, happily. “I’ll read this thoroughly and report back within an hour, boss. With my sign on it, in all likelihood.”

“I’m counting on it.” Your boss smiled at you.

You looked down at the file. You were going to work with a K-pop group on their auto-biography. You were gonna fly to fucking Korea, for six full months. This was huge. This was awesome. This was what you fucking needed, right now. Your best friend that you had been rooming with for a year was starting to get too comfortable. You were so not up for that kinda shit again.

You looked at the bottom of the front page. Athena had drawn up this contract. Your eyebrows arched. It was no secret that she was your boss’s favourite Acquisition Editor. Some even suspected they were having an affair, despite the gleaming diamond you could see—even right now—on the woman’s finger. 

This project had to mean a lot to your boss. And she’d picked you to head it.

“This sounds big, boss,” you mumbled, leafing through the hefty files. You were gonna need a couple hours, maybe, to go through this properly. “And looks big, too.”

“It is big, Y/N. In all the ways. This idea had been brewing in my head for a really long time. I had Athena make the proposal to this K-pop group’s management company, a few months back, and they said yes. She and I had been brainstorming how to approach this. Those guys are pretty tight about their privacy and, um, well. Fraternising policies. It’s all in there, you’ll see.” She pointed a finger at the file in your hands. “We were finally able to draw up the contract with the company’s CEO and Manager. And you were the only one I had in mind when we thought up of building a team and having someone head it so that we don’t have to leave.”

You gave a small, delighted giggle. “Thank you so much, boss. I won’t disappoint you.”

“I know you won’t.”

You got back to your desk and flipped to the first page of the file.

BTS

Your eyes bulged. You had been a busy—and irritable because of all the stupid shit that just constantly kept on happening in your personal life—woman during the past couple of years and really uninvested in anything and everything that had to do with entertainment. This past year had been especially rough ever since your move to the States. You freaking smoked pot when you needed to unwind, what could be worse than that.

But. But—before, when you were a normal, happy woman with a soul, BTS had been kind of a really humongous deal. Did that somehow change in the past couple of years? You strongly doubted it, recalling how huge they’d been growing worldwide, the last time you kept a check. Which you did like crazy.

You momentarily wondered if your boss would still have you as the first consideration if she knew about your crazy ARMY days…

You blinked, coming back from the mental journey, and turned the page. BigHit’s owner was still the same, obviously, but the group members now apparently had individual managers. You blinked, uncomfortable at the knowledge. Reading further, you found something that disturbed you even more.

All the BTS members were done with their Military Service, with Jungkook, Jimin and Namjoon having returned from it just this year.

You swallowed, thickly. A lot had changed in the world outside of the one you’d been living in, too, apparently.

You read through the terms and conditions and your duties, thoroughly. Few points were pretty obvious and things you’d been expecting, but some of them made you frown.

You brought one such issue to your boss’s acknowledgement when you were done reading the entire booklet of a contract, nearly two hours later. You were ready to sign the thing, otherwise.

“And? What about it?” Your boss blinked at you, unfazed.

You sighed, and lifted your left hand up, pointing at your empty ring finger. “No ring, no fiance, boss. They want the team members to be at least engaged. I’m as single as it gets.”

She chuckled at that. “Tell me honestly, are you unprofessional enough to fraternise on your job? Such a high profile one, at that?”

You worried your bottom lip between your teeth. “I don’t think they’d care about what I think, boss, or that they’d even ask.”

Your boss gave an exasperated sigh. “Okay, let me put it in a different way.” You tilted your head to show your interest. “What’s your opinion on relationships, in general?”

You grimaced, unable to help your knee-jerk response. But then you shrugged, trying not to scowl while you said the words you’d started to believe in since the past couple of years. “Well, as I’d informed you through my quite less-than-professional letter at the time of my joining, boss, I think relationships are pointless. Humans keeping relationships beyond professionalism with each other is pointless, actually, because with a personal attachment comes a buckload of expectations, and then it’s just a rabbit hole down the middle of the earth. At the end of which, we burn.”

Your boss seemed to be suppressing laughter. Did the moral of your life amuse her? “You actually quoted the letter word by word, there, Y/N.”

You sighed. “That wasn’t something I’d thought through when I mailed it, boss. The voice input tool turned my rants into a letter. And my frustration over your concerns about fraternising in the office made me mail it.”

Your boss nodded. “Well, I talked to BigHit’s manager over the phone. The company’s not the group’s,” she added when you frowned in confusion at the singular term. “I explained to him about where you stood—taking references from this letter—and explained to him why I needed my most valuable Associate on the team.”

Your cheeks heated up, both due to the huge praise and embarrassment over the exposure of your letter. “Oh, um. Thank you. I guess?”

“Ugh, sign the damn piece of paper and start collecting the damn team, Y/N!”

You’d resorted to staying back at the office till late hours just to avoid your roommate.

When you’d moved to the country, thirteen months back, and decided to share your decade old friend’s flat—feeling lucky as shit that he worked in the same city as you—you and him had been on the same page. You’d both been fed up with the concepts of relationships and entanglements, even the strictly-physical ones, and wanted to just burn away your youth on the grind and pot-smoking weekends.

But then, gradually, you noticed the shift in him. He was trying to get into your pants. It could not end well.

It wasn’t to say you weren’t attracted to him. You’d jump the gorgeous guy’s bones in a heartbeat, in an alternate universe. But in this one, you’d had a first hand experience of ruining multiple friendships, and you so did not wanna risk another.

That idiot didn’t get it, though.

Hence why you were brainstorming your project’s team at ten oclock of the night in your nearly empty office building.

“Any luck?” Your okay-ish colleague—the least clingy out of the lot—peered at your spreadsheet over your shoulder.

“Why the heck are you so against it, Sana?” you groaned into your palm, frustrated.

“Because I’m ARMY!” she said in an aghast tone.

“So? Dude, that’s nearly 70% of the earth’s population, at this point, I’m guessing.”

“Um, maybe, but. I don’t trust myself to be professional, Y/N,” she morosely mumbled, dropping into an empty chair on the table next to you.

You looked at her from above your glasses. “Why the heck not?”

She ducked her head, her honey blonde hair covering almost all of her face. But you still spotted the red that bloomed across her face. “Because I have a crush on Yoongi, the size of freaking America, Y/N!”

“What? What? That’s your reason?" You covered your mouth with a hand to hold back your laughter. "Lame fucking reason, Sana!” You glared at her when she nervously looked back at you. “Get your shit together, and pack your bags. And give me your husband’s number, I wanna tell him something.”

You hadn’t imagined that picking out five people from a group of thirty would be this hard. You had spent an entire week literally running after these people to convince them. They were all married or engaged save for one, who had plans of proposing to his boyfriend a few months later, during Valentine’s before you convinced him to do it now so that he’d be able to join the team.

You’d come up with a total of four women and two men, including Sana, that were all fluent in Korean. That was kinda one of the biggest prerequisites, other than being in a committed relationship. You’d briefed the lot of them about what was to be done on this trip, who you were dealing with, and how long you’d be off for. They were all on board, now, and the only thing required was your boss’ approval.

And now you were all standing in the Chief Editor’s cabin, waiting for her to finish reviewing the team members’ profiles you’d collected and presented to her.

Your brain was nearly short circuited, at this point. If she said she wasn’t happy with any of your selections you were prepared to tell her to make the new selection herself, because there were only three more married people in this office, and none of them spoke Korean. There were only two more Korean speakers, but they were both female interns who’d be the worst nightmares to put on this project.

You looked at the six people standing next to you, all looking a varied degree of nervous.

But your boss looked impressed as she perused the file. She beamed at all of you, and then nodded. “Prepare for a six months’ stay, people, and prepare to do your best there. The only two real rules to remember are to keep it all a secret until the BigHit people are ready to disclose the news, and not fall in love.”

You all grunted in barely concealed annoyance at the last part, excluding Sana who bit her lip. You rolled your eyes. “It’d be a bigger concern for their partners than it would be to you, if that happens, boss. Don’t worry. We’re all a bunch of professionals, here.” You reassured your boss, shooting a glare at a fidgety Sana. 

“I have complete faith in y’all. Now, off you go. Brush up your Korean, spend time with your partners.” She looked at you. “Or just, you know, catch up on lost sleep. You fly to Seoul this Friday.”

Three days from now, oh God.

You all trickled out of your boss’ cabin with furrowed foreheads. You had the most workload out of them all, though, because in addition to preparing to spend six months in a foreign land, you also were to prepare a formal itinerary for said six months. You, of course, were clear on the details because they were mentioned in the contract, but writing them out for your team would definitely take a lot of time.

You briefly wondered if you should employ Sana’s help, before quickly deciding against it. It wouldn’t do you any good to do anything to sway your professional relationship by asking for personal favours.

“Hey, Y/N, all okay?” Simon, the guy that was proposing to his boyfriend early because of you, asked you when you dropped into your office chair with a huge thump.

You turned to scowl at him. “You guys have got to stop asking me that all the time! When have you ever gotten a good answer?”

Simon’s eyes widened, and he quickly shook his head. “My bad.”

You kept squinting at his retreating figure. Another member of your team met your eye, before quickly scrambling away.

You hummed in thought. Did they all think you were a bitch? Maybe you were.

Good. It’d do you some good in Korea.

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Tags: @tangledsparkles​

[xmxisxforxmaybe]

Decryption_Error: “Out of Reach”

Summary: Mr. Robot protects Elliot when Y/N pushes too hard; she’s left to wonder if she’ll ever see the man she fell in love with again.  

A/N: My tech lingo is gibberish—don’t @ me, tech peeps, unless you want to rewrite my dialogue because that would be super cool 🙃

Decryption_Error: All Chapters

Word Count: 4000

Tags: @sherlollydramoine​ @rami-malek-trash​​ @teamwolf2411 @limabein​ @txmel​​ @alottanothing​ @ouatlovr @backoftheroomandnotbelonging​ @moon-stars-soul​​ @free-rami​ @ramimedley​ @hopplessdreamer​ @sweet-charmie @polarcrystall​​ @hah0106​ @clumsybookworm18​

Warnings: ANGST, shouting, aggressive posturing and grabbing/hurting (let me know if I need to warn for anything else)

It was the second Monday of March which meant it was time for a monthly status report. This was one of the hundreds of meetings I attended in which I usually had a razor-sharp focus because this was the part of my job I missed. I missed having a direct role in operations, subverting attempts at data breaches, and working on scripts that would improve day to day operations.

I looked around the table and my eyes settled on the new Senior Manager, although I guess I couldn’t call him “new” anymore. Tim Millner-Brown had already weathered three anonymous hacks and managed to keep everything (and everyone) calm.

Since Dad retired in January and this was now considered a transitory time, it was all the more important operations ran without hiccups. I fixed my gaze on JaLeah, then switched to Ali as he began to speak about a new script to assess WiFi network vulnerabilities. As I listened, my mind flashed back to the meeting Colin and I had with Ali to reprimand him and a wave of disgust prickled through me. I swore to Elliot that his attackers would pay, but here was Ali, confident and happy, leading Elliot’s team.

Tim interrupted Ali, asking, “Why can’t a two-way handshake be enough? Less connections, less chance for an attack?”

Ali was quiet before he said, “Let’s get Alderson to explain. He’s leading the work on the new script.”

Jayne returned after a few moments, Elliot following her like he had been summoned into the principal’s office. He scanned the room, his eyes lingering on mine until I gave him a quick smile, reassuring him he was here to do what he did best.

Tim redirected his question to Elliot who thought for a moment before clarifying, “A three-way handshake is necessary to avoid half-connections. If one ISN changes their mind and doesn’t want to connect, the server doesn’t see the re-sent SYN so it thinks the ISN got its ACK and the connection was established, but it wasn’t—it won’t ever be closed. If we can cut the time it takes for the GTK to associate with a device, we can cut the time a hacker has to gain an access point.

“Without compromising data flow,” he added.

This was not the same Elliot who was ready to quit a year ago rather than give a presentation. I felt a swell of pride at how far he had come, the confidence he had gained. All he needed was someone to believe in him and to push him. And along with my swell of pride came a surge of anger as an image of Elliot, blacked out and bleeding in a broken server room, flashed through my mind.

“Tim, work with Elliot to determine how much time he needs, then work with Ali to find out how much that time will cost. I want a report by Wednesday. And if everything adds up, you can start on Friday—or should we make it Monday so as not to infringe on anyone’s weekend plans?”

My eyes never wavered from Ali’s face as I watched it pale, but from my peripheral vision, I could also see Elliot’s eyes widen. Then, Miles’ voice echoed through my mind on the day I was forced to appoint Ali as Colin’s replacement: You bet the house, and you lost.

But as long as I was in charge, Ali would know I’d never forget what he did. And in that moment, I wanted Elliot to know I hadn’t forgotten either. Never mind that the secret I was keeping from him was burning a hole in my stomach, pushing me to feel even more protective of Elliot than usual.

JaLeah smirked, but she played the placater better than anyone. She peppered Elliot with questions, then Tim dismissed everyone so he and I could go over his analytics.

“Thanks, Elliot,” I said, as he left the room, his lips turning up in a soft smile.

“The two of you are dating?” Tim asked as soon as the door shut.

I raised my eyebrow and turned to look at him.

“Yes?”

“So, it’s not against company policy to date someone you supervise?”

“Elliot and I were in a sort of unique circumstance. We signed a contract with HR, but I ended up being promoted almost immediately afterward, which eliminated the direct conflict.”

“Hmm,” Tim said as his fingers tapped on the folder in front of him.

“Why?”

“JaLeah is . . . well, she’s—”

“Say no more. Obviously I’m a proponent of shooting your shot in the workplace, but Elliot and I were sure to be super transparent about it. And that’s all the advice you’re getting from me. If you want to know if she’s interested, ask her.”

Tim smiled, and I felt like I saw him as a person for the first time instead of just as my replacement.

“And I would be happy to take over her evaluations in the event she is interested.”

Tim’s smile grew a bit wider and he thanked me, twice, before we dove into the data.

It was close to lunch time when Tim and I finished, so I sought out Elliot to see if he wanted to go out. As I walked toward his workstation, he was oblivious to the world, his eyes glued to the screen and his shoulders almost perfectly still despite the furious pace at which I knew his fingers were moving over the keyboard. A pang of guilt resurfaced for the thousandth time this month as I reminded myself I needed to make a decision about what I discovered.

Since I found the grand jury’s testimony, I had been conducting some “research” on my own. All 23 members of the jury, even the one who had voted not to indict, had been receiving the same amount of money for the past 13 years: 2,500 a month.

All 23 people claimed the money on their tax returns, but in 23 different ways—gas leases, oil leases, rental properties, gifts, renting their parking spot in the city, tips, bonuses, and on and on. It was clear someone had met with them and told them exactly how to keep this money under the radar. And if someone met with them to lay out the process for receiving money, then there had to be evidence of that meeting—or that person.

A part of me was dying to share this with Elliot, but another part of me was adamantly against it, afraid of what I would unleash within him if he was given the opportunity to pursue vengeance. My mind kept returning to who he was on the night of Dad’s party and wondering if I could trust that part of Elliot, that part who seemed ready to do something a lot more rash than scratch an itch or even just file a lawsuit. There was a part of Elliot, hell, there were still so many parts of him I didn’t know, didn’t understand.

What I did understand was that every time I looked at him, I felt guilty. And when Elliot’s eyes glanced up and noticed me, he stopped and smiled, a sweet, open grin and Miles’ words flickered through my mind again.

You bet the house, and you lost.

* * * * *

Time has a funny way of making decisions for you, especially if you’ve been riddled by indecision. Once enough time has passed, the control is going to be taken from you—the decision will be made for you, rather than by you.

By the end of March, something uncomfortable had settled between Elliot and me. He was growing distant, closed off, and I stopped working to maintain our open line of communication. The more guilty I felt about hiding the grand jury transcript, the less I wanted to see him. I knew I needed to tell him, but if I had found out about the juror payoffs, Elliot would be able to, and in half the time.

And everything could lead back to my father.

And something deep inside of me knew he knew—I didn’t know the how or the what, but I was certain he knew I was hiding something.

It was after 10:00 pm on a Thursday night when I got home from a dinner party, a business meeting disguised as a social gathering, something I never invited Elliot to anymore after his vitriolic rant.

I was more than surprised to find Elliot sitting on the floor near the balcony, the door open as a wet March wind blew in, smoking a cigarette as nearly half a pack of butts were already stubbed out in the ashtray I knew had been empty.

He was drinking a beer and he was clad entirely in black, topped off with his well-worn hoody, which was something I hadn’t seen on him in a long time.

His hood was up, probably to fight off the chill of the wind, but I wasn’t sure if the explanation was so simple tonight.

“Hey,” I said softly as I pushed the door shut behind me. “I told you I had a thing tonight, didn’t I?”

Elliot nodded yes, as his lips wrapped around the end of his cigarette.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, dread settling over me like a weighted blanket as I watched him take a long drag, the cherry flaring red in the dim light of my apartment.

I slid out of my coat and hung it up on the rack before reaching down to unzip my boots. As I kicked them off, I waited for Elliot to answer. I was tired and wanted nothing more than to change out of my clothes, maybe shower away the day, and go to bed.

Except the smarter part of me knew that wasn’t going to happen and filled me with a sudden desire to just  get this over with—just blow the lid off the box and let the scraps settle so we could get back to our normal.

But that would require fixing Elliot’s biggest flaw: his inability to move forward because he never really addressed the root of his problems.

I watched as he stubbed out his cigarette and tipped his beer back, finishing the last swallow.

I sighed in frustration.

“Either tell me what this,” I said as I gesticulated to and around him, “is all about or let me go to bed. It’s been a long day.”

“Where were you?”

I blinked, irritated because we just went over this.

“I told you where I was—at a dinner party. You know, those things I don’t invite you to anymore because you hate everyone?”

Elliot stood, reaching back to slide the balcony door shut. He didn’t take his hood down as he walked to the kitchen sink and rinsed out his bottle before setting it on the counter next to the others.

Chalk that up to something else out of character; Elliot never drank alone.

“You’re lying to me,” he said quietly, his back still turned.

“About the dinner?”

“No. Maybe? How am I supposed to know when you’re the one who’s always lying?”

“I can’t do this,” I said, running a shaky hand through my hair.

“You can’t do this?” Elliot said, his voice rising as he turned around. “You’re the one keeping things from me!” he shouted, his eyebrows raised, making his eyes look impossibly huge, and the cords on his neck standing out as he pointed his finger at me.

“How did you find out?” I asked quietly as I leaned on the counter, looking at the swirled pattern within the granite, unable to meet what was surely an intense gaze.

“I’ve been waiting, Y/N. Waiting for over a fucking month, wondering why you wanted to hide it from me. Wondering what else you decided not to tell me. Wondering if everything you have told me is just a way for you to manipulate me—”

My head shot up, my eyes finding his instantly as I asked, “Why would I want to manipulate you?”

Elliot didn’t answer; his eyes were dark, a stormy grey as they swirled with clouds of emotion. He felt betrayed, and I watched as his eyes settled on my tote that was sitting on the kitchen stool.

“You saw the transcript,” I said with a sad sigh. “You weren’t supposed to find out like that.”

I lowered my gaze back to the granite of the countertop, a strange relief pushing off that weighted blanket of dread. No more hiding. No more agonizing over whether to tell him.

The silence that followed my realization was dreadful, stretching out until my ears rang and my eyes blurred as I stared at the countertop.

“I can’t trust you anymore,” Elliot said, his voice cracking.

But that was the wrong thing to say. My nostrils flared as a thick, white-hot anger rose up in my throat like bile.

“You! You can’t trust me because I withheld something from you? Once! When have I ever done anything like this in our entire relationship?” I questioned, my voice bordering on shrill, so unlike my usual tone that it didn’t even sound like my own voice.

“You’ve broken promises.”

“When?”

“After the server room. You promised me ‘the fucking assholes’ would lose their jobs. And now one of them is my supervisor.”

I stared at Elliot dumbly until he dropped his gaze, leaning back onto the counter.

“We talked about that,” I said, my tone a few octaves closer to normal. “I offered to refuse to promote Ali. You told me things like that happen—it’s a part of the way to ‘enact change.’ You told me not to fight back against his promotion.”

“You promised,” Elliot mumbled, his knuckles growing white as his grip tightened on the countertop.

Once again, Elliot said the wrong thing. If this was all he could come up with, I was livid. Every thing he did that I had to work to let go of, to not make a big deal over, every hurt I had to swallow because I loved him, came rushing out.

“And how many promises have you broken to me? Fuck, Elliot! Not even promises. How many times have you bailed on me? Hacked me? Hurt me?

“No,” I scoffed, “You never meant to do it, but you fucking did do it. I have been so patient with you—”

“I’m not a child!” Elliot interrupted through clenched teeth.

“You’re pissed at me for something you told me to do!”

“I told you to withhold information about my dad’s death?”

“I needed time, Elliot. I needed to analyze the risk—”

“I’m not a piece of fucking data, Y/N! You can’t—” Elliot paused as he pushed off the counter and stepped toward the island. “You can’t analyze me. You can’t predict my next move or maybe that’s the problem? Maybe that’s what you’ve been doing all along? Manipulating me because you think you’re smarter than me.”

“That is not what I meant,” I said, my brows drawn and my mouth closing into a frown.

“You begged me to trust you and I knew—I fucking knew someone like you couldn’t be trusted!”

“Someone like me?” I shouted back, pushing away from the counter and marching around the island to stand in front of him. “Someone like ME? Surely you’re not going to throw Dad’s money in my face again. You’re starting to sound like a broken fucking record!

“You know what—no,” I said, shaking my head and turning away from him pacing to the balcony door before turning around and slowly walking back toward Elliot. “You don’t get to do this and get away with it this time. I can’t walk on eggshells while you get to be shitty to me whenever you have a bad time. Don’t you want to know why you’re like this? Don’t you want to know why you’re so paranoid, why you push away people who fucking love you? Don’t you want to know why you don’t trust anyone?”

I was a breath away from him as he began to withdrawal further and further into himself. And because I was watching his face, my eyes desperately pleading with him to see reason, I saw the change—Elliot looked away, seemingly in exasperation, and his eyelids fluttered so subtly that if I had blinked at that very moment, I would have missed it.  

When he looked back at me, Elliot Alderson was gone; now, I was met with the steel gaze of the same person who had demanded I leave Elliot alone as he sat on the floor of my closet during the Fourth of July.

I took a step back, my mouth dropping open as fear rushed through my body, my eyes filling with tears as I realized I was afraid of him—afraid of Elliot.

“You should be afraid, little girl,” he chuckled darkly, his voice low, the intonation different. “Now get the fuck out of here and leave him alone.”

“You’re—you’re in my apartment,” I stammered, still clinging to anger despite my fear.

He looked around, remembering, and he fixed a glare at me, his eyes unwelcoming as his jaw clenched, the muscles twitching before he moved toward the front door.

As I watched him walk away, my anger and fear turned to desperation. Darlene’s words rang through my mind, ‘If he bails on you, tries to push you away, it’s not really him.’”

It’s not really him.

“Stop—Elli—whoever you are! Please. Don’t go,” I pleaded. “Stay. Talk to me. Help me understand.”

He paused, his head turning to slightly look over his shoulder before he moved toward the front door again. I raced to it and wedged myself between him and the door, placing my hand over the knob.

“Stay,” I begged. “Don’t leave like this. After everything—please don’t leave us like this. I want to help you, Elliot—if you’re in there, come back to me.”

His hands flew up and slammed into the door on either side of my head.

I jumped, flinching as he leaned into me, his lips beside my ear as he growled, “I fucking warned you!”

“During the Fourth. I remember,” I whispered.

He pulled back and looked at me with those icy eyes.

“That was the first time you pushed too hard, came too close. I can’t allow you to do that, sweetheart. Elliot’s had enough time with you. It ends now,” he said as he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me away from the door.

I grabbed his arm and he shook me off, but I grabbed him again and pulled him back enough to allow me to wedge myself against the door again.

“I told you,” he yelled, his voice harsh and unrecognizable. “I can’t protect him if you keep forcing him to open up!”

I didn’t let my fear stop me as I pressed him.

“Protect him from what? Did someone hurt him? I read about what can cause—”

His hand flew against my mouth with enough force to knock my head against the door. He pressed hard and cut off my words.

Never did his eyes leave mine as Elliot’s would have, especially in a situation of such discomfort and intense emotion. Never once did he look away.

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”

I held his gaze, refusing to waver. He pressed harder, the pressure on the back of my head becoming a painful throbbing.

“Can you shut the fuck up?” he asked, his brows nearly reaching his hairline.

I watch his face transition to a look of smug satisfaction as I manage to slightly nod.

He released his grip, and I deflated, the fight leaving my body as I stepped away from the door. I leaned against the wall before slowly sinking to the floor.

I didn’t raise my eyes as I quietly asked, “Are you going to keep Elliot from seeing me again?”

He sighed, some of the fight leaving him, too.

“Elliot loves you—this wasn’t supposed to happen, Y/N.”

As he said my name, my head jerked up, the syllables so foreign on his tongue I knew, without a doubt, that whoever was standing in front of me was someone completely different than Elliot Alderson.

“You have to understand that it’s my job to keep him safe. Not yours, not Darlene’s. No one else’s. No one else can keep him safe.”

“What about a psychiatrist?”

“Don’t be fucking ridiculous. If they don’t fuck him up with 15 different kinds of meds, they’ll just throw him in an institution. Is that what you want? Elliot locked up like some kind of sick-o creep?”

“I would never let that happen.”

“Daddy’s money gonna buy Elliot a happy little place in the Adirondacks? Get him a nurse, someone nice to take care of him like his worthless mother never could?”

“Is that why you hate me? I have money? Or because I consider Elliot family?”

“My job is to protect him, and I’ve decided you’re not worth the risk, sweetheart.”

Without another glance, he opened the door and slammed it shut behind him.

I buried my head in my hands, the tears I had held back throughout the entire ordeal bursting out in a harsh sob. I crawled over to the door and locked it, pulling myself up by the knob in order to secure the deadbolt.

Not that it mattered since Elliot had a key.

Not that it mattered since Elliot was being held prisoner inside of his own body.

And no one, except himself, held that key.

* * * * *

Elliot didn’t come to work on the next day.

And then he didn’t come for another three days.

When I read the email from Ali questioning Elliot’s whereabouts, I wasn’t surprised. I called him up to my office and had the secretary shut the door after she let him in.

Ali had the good manners to look concerned, but I could detect the haughtiness underneath.

“I’ve noticed that Alderson’s been out for the past few days. Can you provide some insight? He was the lead on our new WiFi scripts, as I’m sure you remember.”

The lie came much easier than any other lie in my life had.

“He’s had a death in the family, Ali. I suggest postponing the project until he returns. Ask JaLeah for someone who can handle white hat duties if your team needs another hacker.”

Some of the haughtiness fell from Ali’s face.

“Oh. Well, my condolences to him when you see him.”

“Thank you. Will there be anything else?”

“Nope—you’ve always got the answers, boss.”

“Don’t call me that,” I said as I rolled my eyes and offered him a crooked smile in an attempt to subvert his attention from the abnormality of Elliot’s absences.

Ali grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

The partial smile fell from my face the instant the door shut behind Ali, and I felt sick as my mind worked over my lie. I didn’t live my life in the shadows. I lived with integrity.

And I had just told a boldfaced lie, one that would surely make its way around the office, and if Elliot never came back to work, everyone would know I lied for my boyfriend.

What a fucking mess.

I had to see him; I had to try to talk to my Elliot, the one I was in love with, and not this other who seemed to want nothing more than for me to fuck off for good.

I made a promise to Darlene not to let Elliot bail, and clearly, the Aldersons took promises made to them seriously.  

[wondertainmenttoys]

A Gamer and a Wondertainment intern talk over video chat

Document POI-9874-12

Date: 10/12/2019 - 10/19/2019

Background: POI-9874 (Arthur Mullin) is a suspected member of the group of interest “Gamers Against Weed” and has been under Foundation surveillance since 07/16/2018.

Document Summary:  Document POI-9874-12 are transcripts of online interactions between POI-9874 and Thomas Randall, who is believed to be a friend of POI-98745 and possibly associated with the group of interest “Dr. Wondertainment”. Reclassification of Randall to the status of POI is pending.

For the sake of brevity, POI-9874 will be designated as “Gamer” and Randall will be designated as “Vendor”.

—

Vendor: DUDE

Gamer: Wat???

Vendor: I GOT A JOB

Gamer: DUDE

Vendor: DUDE

Gamer: [IMG]

Note: Image was an animated gif of a video game character dancing

Gamer: what is it

Vendor: Some vendor job. The interview was kind of weird but I’m just happy to finally get a paycheck.

Gamer: weird? You got nervous or something?

Vendor: Nah. The interviewer just seemed way too happy to talk to me. like come on it’s just a vendor job what are you excited about.

Gamer: lmao probably desperate to get someone to fill the spot. hope that doesn’t mean that they’re about to go under or something.

Vendor: God please no

Gamer: I’m sure its fine

Vendor: hope so

Gamer: when do you start

Vendor: tomorrow

Gamer: dude you have to tell me how it goes

Vendor: lol it’s a vendor job so I’m not expecting much, but I’ll let you know

Gamer: whats the place called

Vendor: it’s dumb. Wild Oddities, Neat Doodads, Rare Terrific New Magic Toys

Gamer: [IMG]

Note: Image was a jpeg of a zoomed in picture of Shrek. The character has a neutral expression.

Vendor: I know. But whatever I’m getting paid for it

Gamer: True true. Good luck tomorrow!

Vendor: thanks!

—

Gamer: yo

Vendor: yooooo

Gamer: dude how’d that new job go? Did you vend hard. Sell some of those terrific rare toys?

Vendor: it was pretty boring. I sold some things. they’re stupidly cheap.

Gamer: cheap?

Vendor: yeah. Like some of the pricier stuff only costs like $5 max. it’s wild.

Vendor: especially with how much they said they’re gonna pay me

Gamer: how much are they paying you???

Vendor: $30/hr

Gamer: holy shit

Vendor: YEAH

Gamer: Dude not to alarm you but that’s kind of shady. might not be something that stays in business for long

Vendor: I know. Maybe they’re the type of company that sells a ton of cheap stuff en masse.

Gamer: maybe

Gamer: what are you coworkers like

Vendor: uh there aren’t any. it’s just me at this small store I think

Gamer: wait so they’re making you clean up and restock without help

Gamer: that’s some bs

Vendor: I don’t think so? It wasn’t in my job description, so I’m guessing someone comes in at night or something after I close.

Gamer: bro

Gamer: bruh

Gamer: brokowski

Gamer: ngl that’s shady as shit

Vendor: yeeeeeeah now that you mention it

Gamer: you’re like in a front for the mafia or something

Vendor: I’ll see how it goes for the next few days. if it gets way too shady I’m out.

Gamer: bro I’d just get out now

Vendor: but the pay

Gamer: bruh

—

Vendor: hey so you know how we talked about shady shit

Gamer: uh yeah?

Gamer: please don’t tell me that you had to bury a body or something

Vendor: someone broke in last night and stole a ton of the merchandise and the cash in the cash register

Gamer: oh shit

Vendor: smashed the window in too

Gamer: you ok?

Vendor: I thought i was going to get fired

Vendor: but I got a call from the manager and told them about it

Gamer: yeah?

Vendor: and they thanked me??? like they said that was the biggest sale I’ve done for them and that I’m doing a great job?

Vendor: dude you got your shit stolen why aren’t you mad

Gamer: calling it now that stuff had drugs stuffed in them. it’s too shady

Vendor: yeah it’s freaked me out a little

Gamer: way too shady

Vendor: but that’s not it

Vendor: After my lunch break I went back to the register

Vendor: and all the stolen stuff had been restocked

Gamer: what

Vendor: like when I wasn’t looking someone just restocked the shelves or something

Vendor: and the window as fixed too

Vendor: I didn’t hear the door open or anyone walk in or anything

Vendor: not even a customer

Vendor: It’s a really small shop so I would’ve noticed

Gamer: okay that went from shady to scary way too fast

Gamer: get the fuck out of there

Vendor: I know I’m already looking for a new job

Vendor: this is some paranormal shit

—

Gamer: you doing ok

Vendor: yeah.

Gamer: your still at that Wild Terrific Toys place right

Vendor: Wild Oddities, Neat Doodads, Rare Terrific New Magic Toys?

Vendor: yeah

Gamer: anymore spooky shit go down

Vendor: no. the shelves are still doing that restocking thing when I don’t look but other than that it’s been quiet.

Gamer: I was thinking

Vendor: what

Gamer: what do they sell again

Vendor: toys and games.

Vendor: board games

Gamer: and this is in Portland right

Vendor: yeah?

Gamer: Just throwing this out there but have you heard of Portland with a 3?

Vendor: ???

Gamer: Like a 3 of Portlands or a 3rd Portland at your job

Gamer: 3 Portlands

Vendor: what no

Gamer: ok just had an idea but I was wrong

Vendor: what was your idea

Gamer: it was about that weird place you’re working at

Gamer: i thought it might have to do with something

Gamer: hey can you send me a pic of the store logo?

Vendor: sure. why though

Gamer: i’m going to see if any of my friends know about it. I know one who is super into bizarre stuff like this

Vendor: yea tomorrow I’ll get you a pic

—

Gamer: hey you got the pic

Vendor: no. for some reason everytime I try to take a picture it comes out blurry or unfocused

Gamer: weird

Vendor: the store’s haunted or something

Vendor: I drew a sketch of it though

Intern: [IMG]

Note: Image is a sketch of the Wild Oddities, Neat Doodads, Rare Terrific New Magic Toys logo on a yellow sticky note. The font style loosely resembles that of previous logos used by Dr. Wondertainment.

Gamer: thanks

Note: Shortly after this interaction POI-9874 discussed the topic in an online chatroom with other members of Gamers Against Weed. See Document POI-9874-14 for a full transcript.

—

Vendor: hey so I know it’s 3 AM and you’re probably asleep

Vendor: but i decided to stay late at the shop just to see if any other employee would come in

Gamer: oh fuc

Gamer: k

Vendor: and someone did at like midnight

Vendor: OH YOU’RE AWAKE

Gamer: ye

Gamer: dude was it a ghost?

Vendor: no

Vendor: some old lady

Vendor: I think it was the janitor

Vendor: but like everything else there she was weird

Gamer: a ghost

Gamer: calling it

Vendor: she was surprised to see me but didn’t seem too bothered by it

Vendor: like complimented me for working late or whatever

Gamer: ok

Vendor: but I swear dude

Vendor: her eyes

Gamer: DEAD GHOST CALLING IT

Vendor: I DON”T KNOW DUDE

Vendor: but I SWEAR I saw them glowing in the dark

Vendor: like glowing green

Vendor: like a Christmas light

Gamer: ghost

Vendor: She was super nice and cheerful but it was unnerving

Gamer: dude you saw a ghost at your haunted toy store

Vendor: i dont know it was weird like everything else

—

Gamer: so I spoke to my friend

Vendor: yeah?

Gamer: Does Wondertainment ring a bell to you?

Vendor: yeah I think most of the toys there are from them. why.

Vendor: are their toys supposed to be haunted or something

Gamer: something like that yeah.

Vendor: are you kidding me

Gamer: I mean they said it’s harmless

Gamer: like some sort of urban legend that’s weird but doesn’t hurt you

Gamer: you just do your thing and they’ll pay you

Gamer: I’ll have to introduce you to them later

Gamer: they can explain it better

Intern: ok

Gamer: they also said that Men in Black type stuff can happen if you stay there too long

Vendor: uh men in black? like the movies

Gamer: no like the creepy UFO stories

Gamer: where they show up at your house and try to shut you up or mess with your memories

Vendor: what even is my life right now

Gamer: Like I said, it might be better to get a new job

Vendor: I think I’ll weather things out for now

Vendor: at least until I get my first paycheck

Gamer: I guess. just let me know if more weird stuff happens dude

Vendor: will do

—

Vendor: ok so weird stuff happened again

Gamer: oh boy

Gamer: you ok?

Vendor: yeah I’m fine. I’m honestly starting to get used to it

Vendor: so the less weird thing was that this morning I found a basket of baked cookies

Vendor: with a note thanking me for being a hard worker

Vendor: they were still warm too

Vendor: so I guess the janitor or someone else just dropped them off right before I arrived Intern: look if it’s just weird stuff happening, then I guess I can live through it

Gamer: ok

Vendor: but then I got a weird customer

Vendor: like some random guy

Vendor: just walked in saying he’s here to inspect the store

Vendor: it’s a small toy store what is there to inspect

Vendor: i mean it’s haunted but that only happens when I’m not looking

Vendor: anyways he said he’s part of some Social something Policy

Vendor: Social Coordination Policy

Vendor: Social Corporate Policy

Gamer: uh

Vendor: something like that

Vendor: Social Corporate Policy. Yeah that’s what it was

Gamer: uh

Vendor: The guy kept wanting to get into the back but I told him I’d need to call the manager

Vendor: really pissed him off

Note: This seems to be describing Field Agent ████████’s investigation into the venue, which was conducted on 10/18/2019.

Gamer: uh

Vendor: uh?

Gamer: I think that’s the men in black stuff my friend warned you about

Vendor: OH

Gamer: what did your manager say?

Vendor: They didn’t seemed really bothered by it. Said it happens and that they’d take care of it, whatever that means.

Gamer: ok

Gamer: so he was basically like

Gamer: [IMG]

Note: image is a jpeg that depicts a cartoon character leaning back with the caption “Not My Problem”. Testing revealed that the image is anomalous in nature and temporarily makes any individual who sees it resistant to amnestics.

Vendor: lmao yeah

Vendor: if this is the Man in Black stuff then the moment I see that dude again I’m running for it

Gamer: not sure if that’s a bad or good idea dude

Vendor: maybe my ghost manager will protect me

Vendor: or maybe I’ll find another job before anything else happens

Gamer: I can help you look for something if you need

Vendor: thanks. I think I got it though

—

Vendor: uh

Vendor: remember how you offered to help me find a new job

Gamer: yeah??

Gamer: what happened

Vendor: the store is gone

Gamer: waht

Vendor: it’s gone

Vendor: poof

Gamer: like gone gone?

Vendor: the place is empty

Vendor: [IMG]

Note: Image displays a photo of an empty storefront. The inside of the store looks abandoned and shows signs of structural decay. A Foundation agent monitoring the location that morning confirmed that Thomas Randall was the one to take the photo.

Vendor: It’s like it’s been abandoned for years

Gamer: ghost toy company

Vendor: YEAH

Vendor: and this morning I got an email from them

Vendor: thanking me for my work and saying I’m pretty much fired

Gamer: wow what dicks

Vendor: NO BUT THEY’RE LIKE PAYING ME A YEAR’S WAGE

Vendor: a year’s worth of $30/hr

Gamer: wow what not dicks

Vendor: yeah

Vendor: I got spooked a lot but I kind of don’t regret it?

Vendor: I won’t lie I’d work for a haunted toy company again just for that kind of pay lmao

Gamer: honestly I don’t blame you

Gamer: glad you didn’t get kidnapped or killed

Gamer: especially with the Men in Black

Vendor: lol yea

Gamer: Fucking Tommy’s Bizarre Adventure with Wondertainment

Vendor: [IMG]

Note: Image depicts a heavily edited image of an cartoon character with the caption “IS THAT A MOTHERFUCKING JOJO REFERENCE”

Gamer: HA

Gamer: Speaking of that I still need to introduce you to my friends

Gamer: they know a lot about this stuff

Vendor: dude please do

Gamer: also might help with anymore weird stuff that happens

Gamer: because after this I think you might be running into more weird shit

Vendor: My Bizarre Adventure begins

Vendor: as long as it’s not shady anymore

Gamer: [IMG]

Note: Image is similar to the last, but with poorer spelling

Gamer: yeah here you go.

Gamer: [LINK]

Note: link leads to a chatroom that POI-9874-12 frequents, which is believed to be associated with Gamer’s Against Weed

[lovelyirony]

In the Company of Fools

Tony absolutely hated the fact that every single damn time he was in front of his boss, he made a fool out of himself. Every. Single. Time. This time, it was seasonably worse because he had gotten a huge amount of oil on his shirt, took it off, and forgot to put on the backup supply of a shirt. (Yes, it had happened before. Dum-E never forgets his main role as a tragedy.) 

So he had no shirt on and was explaining the complications of the simulation system set in place for a security company they had a new contract with, and his boss hadn’t even mentioned anything. 

It wasn’t until Pepper hissed at him to put on a shirt that he realized that he had just basically been the worst. In front of his boss, who was also his crush, but that’s not the professional title of it. 

James Rhodes was a good boss. Tony called him Rhodey. He was part of Rhodes International, aka the best company to work for ever, and the only tech company that was actually the best. (Hammer and Stane could go suck an egg for all Tony cared.) 

Rhodey was also extremely handsome. Well-muscled, lean, and a particularly attractive face to go with it. He was also put-together, sometimes had fun socks on depending on whether or not he got to see the school tour groups and explain robotics, and ordered Chinese from the best takeout place every two weeks on a Thursday. 

Not that Tony particularly paid attention to him in a non-professional way. (Obviously.) 

“You are literally such a loser,” Pepper says, snorting. “I bet if I looked you up in a yearbook, you’d be the kid with the big glasses and suspenders.” 

“I was cool!” Tony defends. 

(He was not. He was the only member of his robotics team, the only one who came to chemistry club meetings, and got made fun of religiously after some of the guys found his journal and found out about his crush on basketball star Richie Houser.) 

“I was definitely cool!” 

“Sure you were,” Pepper says snorting. “That explains everything. Like why you don’t have a life outside work and you freaked out because you missed a day on your online wordsearch puzzle.” 

“I would’ve gotten some free challenges, okay?” Tony says. “Let me have my fun.” 

“Sure...nerd.” 

Tony really does love Pepper. A whole lot. She’s probably the most scarily efficient co-CEO ever. She would and could take over the world if she had the proper motivations, but right now she’s okay with bitching about her new skincare routine and the HR department. 

But Pepper also finds it very hilarious that Tony cannot interact in front of his crush, who also happens to be his boss. Which is unfortunate, but Tony is all about providing free entertainment, and Pepper is genuinely very nice and kind. (And has a great wine selection.) 

“What does Friday look like for the presentation?” Pepper asks him. 

Tony blanches. 

“Oh my god, you forgot that you were presenting to the interns?!” 

“Um...maybe? To be fair, it was a pretty compelling episode of Forensic Files. They’ve just gotten to this arson case, and--” 

“Tony,” Pepper sighs. “You can’t just watch Forensic Files every night, it’s gonna give you nightmares.” 

“Body recognizes it as sleepy-times show,” Tony says seriously. “But holy shit, I need to work on that presentation.” 

-

Currently, Rhodey is working on ignoring Natasha, his scarily-efficient bodyguard, as she mercilessly makes fun of him for not only staring at Tony Stark, but contining to make a damned fool out of himself. 

“You should just ask him on a date already.” 

“It goes against company policy.” 

“Who gives a rat’s ass about company policy? You’ve worn pajama pants in. I doubt anyone would mind if you and Tony dated.” 

“And then if we break up, I have the potential to lose my best.” 

Natasha rolls her eyes. 

“You’re such an idiot for being the smartest man in the world. Tony would have to be a total Neanderthal to give up working here. It’s the best tech company anyone has ever seen since after the monopolies were banned, he gets the best medical benefits, and if it wasn’t for you mooning over him, you guys wouldn’t actually have to see each other that much.” 

This is true. Rhodey hates it when Natasha’s right. 

“Still...what if he says no?” 

“Then you move on,” Natasha says bluntly. “You’re not going to be bitter about it, because you’re a good man. You’re just gonna say ‘oh okay, thank you’, cry in your apartment suite for about a day, and get over it soon enough. It’s not going to kill you.” 

True, it isn’t. 

It’s not until lunchbreak when Pepper walks in for their halfway meeting that anything is said. 

“You should ask out Tony.” 

“You too?” 

“Everyone is in on this,” Pepper says. “You like him. He’ll say yes.” 

“He will?” 

She rolls her eyes. 

“Only an idiot or me would say no to you, and I would say no because I have a girlfriend. And Tony is a genius. So, no way will he say no.” 

With this new information, Rhodey has to decide when. Because he can’t just ask out someone like Tony on a whim. Tony needs to have a special circumstance. 

He also has a presentation on Friday. 

So Rhodey decides to do it on Saturday, when Tony leaves for his weekend at noon. That way, it won’t be awkward if he does, in fact, say no. (As his nightmares have predicted.) 

But he comes to the presentation on Friday. And it’s awesome. 

Tony has a natural charisma to his character, something that makes you look and see and listen to exactly what he wants you to. Even high school students, who Rhodey is terrified of because teenagers are far more dangerous than anyone has you believe, are listening with rapt attention. 

Rhodey doesn’t even think about it. He comes up to Tony after the students have left and Tony’s packing up the holo displays, and just blurts out: 

“Wanna go to dinner with me?” 

Tony blinks. Cocks his head to one side for a moment, and then grins. 

“I’d love to.” 

Rhodey doesn’t even think of the place. He gets the feeling that Tony won’t like all the fancy food places, and neither does Rhodey, if he’s being honest. 

They go to quite possibly the shadiest restaurant ever. Tony, of course, loves it. He talks with the waitress and orders what seems like the weirdest burger ever, but hey. 

They talk for about three hours, way longer than both had anticipated. They find that they’re insanely compatible, have the same taste in humor, and can discuss politics easily without getting too divided. Which is way more meaningful than he thought, which is great! 

So yeah. Technically it’s against company policy. 

But Rhodey doesn’t give that much thought when he gets a good morning kiss from his boyfriend before they take the train to work. 

[branlovestowrite]

Reunited: A Stucky Story

I recently fell down the Stucky wormhole after @dracosollicitus started posting her Stucky WIP What’s Left of Kisses (side note, go read that when you’re done here). I’ve read a lot of Stucky stories in the past two months, but I couldn’t find one that had them reuniting in a modern-day, non superhero setting. After a while I decided I should write it myself. I added in Shuri/Bucky BroTP because I LOVE them as besties, as well as a little Jessica Jones/Bucky Barnes friendship because I love JJ and want her in all the Marvel stories. And of course, the women of Marvel ship Stucky and take measures to throw them together. This is my first Stucky story, and, if it’s a ship you’re into, I hope you’ll like what I’ve come up with.

Title: Reunited

Rating: T for mild language and brief mentions of sex

Summary: Bucky Barnes never thought he’d see his childhood best friend, and source of his first heartbreak, Steve Rogers ever again. He is thrown for a loop when Steve ends up working for one of his new clients. What happens now that these boys are together again? Can Bucky finally overcome his nerves and confess his true feelings to Steve?

Also on AO3

On a typical Wednesday morning, Bucky Barnes walked into work, completely unaware that by the end of the day, his life would change forever. That morning had seemed like a normal day in the office. The coffee was stale, the old donuts sat untouched and unmoved, and Shuri was teasing him just like she did every day. “Hey Bucky!” she yelled from across the room. “Yes?” He asked, the corners of his mouth twitching with amusement as he approached their shared workspace. Shuri’s brown eyes sparkled with mirth. “Peter and I are in an argument-” “More like a disagreement,” Peter interrupted, his head poking above the cube wall. “An argument,” Shuri continued “about what dating was like before cell phones. I figured you could help me settle it.” “Really?” Bucky raised his eyebrows in response. “I’m not that much older than you guys. I got my first cell phone in high school.” “But that was old tech,” Shuri clarified. “No dating apps; limited texting. What did you do when you had to… call… people?” She said the word ‘call’ as if it offended her. “I don’t know,” Bucky replied, “I just called them.” He dropped his messenger bag to the floor and sank into his desk chair. “What even is this argument about?” “I say people didn’t… have sex,” Peter explained, a flush rising up over his cheeks and ears. “I mean, that is, they didn’t have sex as soon. They waited longer. Since, you know, they weren’t sexting or sending-” he cut himself off as the remainder of his face turned the same shade as a tomato. Shuri gave an exasperated sigh. “Dick pics, Peter. The phrase is dick pics.”

Bucky groaned and hung his head, his chin length hair falling around his face. “You know, we are working…” “Anyway! I say that even if they couldn’t send dick pics, people still found ways to get nasty because people have always found ways to get nasty.” “What did I just walk in on?” Shuri’s brother, their boss and owner of the company, T’Challa walked up with a concerned look on his face. “Do I need to call Okoye?” “No, please, sir,” Peter fumbled. “Ha!” Shuri laughed. “Peter’s scared of HR!” “I’m not scared of HR; just Okoye. She can be so tough!” “Please make them stop,” Bucky pleaded, turning to T’Challa. Their boss only laughed in return. “If you find a way to make my sister stop, Barnes, you come let me know. I haven’t found one yet.” He walked on, continuing his morning lap of the office. After a minute, as Bucky was bringing up his email, Shuri pushed her chair over to his desk. “So, old man, what did you guys do?” Bucky stopped his perusal to reminisce. He remembered rushing home to get to his computer and see if Steve was online. They would chat for hours via AIM, unless one of them had to get off the computer so a parent could use the phone line. When they each got cell phones they would call each other at 9:00pm sharp, when minutes were unlimited, and talk until one or both of their phone batteries died. A flush grew on his cheeks as he remembered the not-so-innocent turn their conversations sometimes took. While he never did anything explicit with Steve, he thoroughly remembered some of the thoughts he’d had during those conversations; thoughts he’d been too afraid to express. And the things he did with other people, in an attempt to get Steve out of his head. “Shuri’s right.” He said, looking at Peter. Shuri smirked conspiratorially. “Oooo… Bucky got nasty!” “That’s all I’m saying,” Bucky replied, turning back to his screen. Bucky worked for Wakanda Tech, or WT as the employees called it, a startup taking the corporate communications world by storm. T’Challa inherited the company from his father, but most of their recent products came directly from Shuri’s designs. She was a wunderkind, with an innate understanding of technology that put people twice her age to shame. And somehow she managed to combine her technical ability with a personality that was warm and engaging. It was impossible not to like Shuri. Bucky considered himself lucky to have landed a position at WT. Most of the employees were in their early 20’s. He was a random outlier, having met Okoye, their director of HR, at a job fair for veterans. Okoye was not your typical HR rep. She had a strict no-bullshit policy and had no issue with calling out her employees when she felt they were in violation of that. But she was also fiercely loyal and dedicated to the success of WT, having grown up alongside T’Challa. Okoye had an eye for talent, and she saw something in Bucky, even if he didn’t really see it himself. He worked as a implementation manager, helping get new clients on the platform once they’d purchased a license. Bucky had an eye for organization, a direct result of his military training. His personal life might be a mess, but he knew how to get other people in order. Once Shuri and Peter settled their dispute, the office became quiet, although a hum of anticipation still hung in the air. Today was a very important day for WT. T’Challa had been in discussions with Tony Stark about bringing their product to Stark Inc. If they landed this contract, there would be a huge bonus for everyone. Negotiations were almost complete; Stark was coming by later to hopefully sign the final documents. Bucky couldn’t calm the anxiety that crept up his spine. He never liked brash, overcompensating men like Stark- or at least the way Stark was portrayed in the media. When he was younger, he’d stopped more than a few of those types from beating Steve to a pulp. He’d learned to live with them in the Army, being surrounded by meatheads who preened like peacocks to hide their insecurities. He’d had his fill of guys like that during his time in the service, and did his best to avoid them now. Unfortunately, there was only one other Implementation Manager at WT, Peter, and he was too green to take on the Stark job. Like it or not, Bucky would have to be in the room with Stark later that day, and he’d most likely also have to suck up to the man. His stomach roiled and he skipped lunch, hiding out at his desk while he nibbled on a few crackers.

The day kept moving like a freight train, and, before long, it was time. The quiet, efficient atmosphere of WT was turned on its ear when Tony Stark walked in. Bucky watched from the safety of his desk as Stark was greeted by T’Challa. “Mr. Stark,” the always professional entrepreneur began as he shook Stark’s hand. “No no,” his guest interrupted, “if we’re gonna work together, you gotta call me Tony.” The man spoke his words in a rapid clip, as if he didn’t have time to breathe properly between syllables. “Very well, Tony: welcome to Wakanda Tech.” T’Challa gestured proudly around the office. “Small operation you got here, huh?” “We believe in a flat organization structure, to maximize efficiency.” “Great use of buzzwords there, pal,” Stark replied, placing his hand on T’Challa’s shoulder. Shuri chose that moment to stand from her desk and extend her own hand to Bucky. “Shall we go in?” “Do I have to?” Bucky whined petulantly. “Yes!” she scolded, looking much older than her 22 years. “Get off your ass and come with me.” Bucky straightened up and grabbed his tablet, standing to follow the younger woman. They headed to the conference room and made it inside just before Stark and his entourage entered. “This must be Shuri!” Stark exclaimed, greeting the lady on question with a hug. Shuri halfheartedly returned the gesture before pulling away with a smile. “It is good to meet you, Mr. Stark.” “I already had this conversation with your brother. Call me Tony.” Shuri smiled politely in response and then turned to Bucky. “This is James Barnes. He is the Implementation Manager that will be working on your account.” “Jamie!” Tony said, patting the other man on the shoulder. “Tony,” Bucky returned with a bemused smirk. “Finally someone who gets it,” Tony said with a smile. He turned to the people surrounding him. “Allow me to introduce Pepper Potts, my right hand and the only reason I have any success in this world.” A tall, willowy redhead nodded her head toward Bucky and Shuri. “And this is Rhodey, my other right hand and best friend in the world.” The man in question smiled tensely at the group. “And finally, this is-” “Steve,” Bucky said in awe, looking up at the last member of Stark’s party. “Steve Rogers, from my legal team,” Tony filled in, a little deflated. “I’m sorry,” he said, pointing between them, “do you two know each other?”

“Bucky and I go way back,” Steve said, his smile still as devastating as ever. He flashed his blue eyes at Bucky, and the other man felt himself get weak in the knees. “Bucky?” Tony asked with a smirk. Bucky grimaced. “My full name is James Buchanan Barnes… but my friends call me Bucky.” “Splendid!” Tony said. “You didn’t tell me you knew someone who worked here, Rogers.” “I didn’t know I had a connection,” Steve replied warmly, still looking at Bucky. “It’s been a while since we talked.” Bucky gave Steve a shy smile. “A lot has happened since we last saw each other.” They stood like that, staring awkwardly at one another while butterflies danced in Bucky’s stomach. Finally, T’Challa intervened. “Shall we get started?” he asked as he gestured toward the table. Bucky wasn’t sure how he made it through that meeting in one piece, but, in spite of the awkwardness he felt, the meeting was a success. Stark seemed keener to sign the contract knowing there was a personal relationship between a member of his staff and someone at WT. As soon as the meeting adjourned Steve pulled Bucky aside.  

“You look good, Buck.” “Thanks,” Bucky said, refusing to meet the other man’s eyes. Steve had changed so much since he’d last seen him, He was at least a good foot taller, with much broader shoulders. Bucky had to actively try not to drool. “You do too, but… I thought you were smaller.” Steve chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. “I had a growth spurt right after I moved away.” “You look… really good,” Bucky said. He took in Steve’s chest and thick arms that filled out his jacket just right. His mind wandered to the last time those arms had been wrapped around him in a hug, when Steve was thinner and shorter. He couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel now to have them wrap around his body; to get lost in that strong embrace. “Bucky?” Steve asked, meeting the other man’s eye. “Huh? Yeah?” Bucky came back to himself with a jolt, cursing his train of thought. “You wanna get a drink later? Catch up?” “Yeah,” Bucky replied as a brilliant smile bloomed across Steve’s face. “Yeah, I’d like that.” Steve gave Bucky his card, adding his personal cell number and making Bucky promise to call him. Then he had to go, and Bucky was left standing there, feeling dumbstruck. He heaved a sigh the moment the room was clear. He was so, so screwed. ~/~ “What the hell was that?” Shuri asked the moment he got back to desk. “What are you talking about?” “Um… how about the way you eye-fucked Stark’s lawyer the entire time? Although it seems to have worked in our favor. We should pimp you out more.”

“I did not ‘eye-fuck’ anyone,” Bucky protested. “Steve’s just an old friend.” “Right… ‘friend.’ You know, it’s 2019. You don’t have to use euphemisms anymore.” “I’m not covering anything! I’ve never tried to hide my sexuality. But Steve was never like that. We grew up together.” “From the way you were looking at him, it seems like homeboy ‘glowed up.’ You gonna go for it?” “Nah. Steve’s not into guys. He’s a heterosexual, all-American boy,” Bucky replied, unable to hide the tinge of sadness in his voice. “You might want to reconsider that opinion,” Shuri replied. “What makes you say that?” “Because he spent the entire meeting looking at you the same way you were looking at him.”

This new information distracted Bucky for the rest of the day, and he had trouble focusing on even the most basic of tasks. Finally, at 4:55, he decided he couldn’t do anything else, and began to pack up. As he flipped through his portfolio, the business card Steve had pressed into his hand fluttered to the ground. Before he could retrieve it, Shuri scooped it up.

“Steve Rogers gave you his card, did he? And he wrote his personal number on there?”

“Yeah… he mentioned going to get a drink.”

“So call him!”

“Yeah… I will. Just… I need some time. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Steve. A lot’s changed. I’m not the same kid I was in high school.”

Shuri’s gaze softened and she placed a gentle hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “I think the issue is actually that you’re a lot more like that kid than you realized, and seeing an old friend brought it all back.”

Bucky huffed a sigh and gave her a wry smile. “As usual, you prove how much smarter you are than me.”

“You heading out. Bucky?” Peter asked, poking his head over the cube wall once more.

“Yeah Pete. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Actually, would you be free to head over to Nick’s with me? I wanted to ask your advice about something.” His gaze shifted to Shuri and he gave a scowl “ Away from interfering parties.”

Bucky laughed. “Alright Pete, yeah. Let’s do it.”

~/~

Steve Rogers was an adult. He’d graduated early from Harvard Law and landed a lucrative position at Stark Inc. before he’d turned 25. So influential was he in that role that he’s ended up becoming one of the principal members of the legal team at the company 18 months later. Steve was on lists like “30 under 30” and he didn’t like to brag, but he was considered in some circles to be a ‘big deal’. So why did he currently feel like a nervous teenager waiting by the phone?

He’d tried to play it off, but seeing Bucky earlier that day had thrown him. Bucky had been his best friend for the majority of his young life. He brought school work when Steve was sick and sat by his bed, helping to keep him entertained. As they got older, he’d helped protect Steve when he got into fights he couldn’t finish. He’d been there in good and bad times. Losing Bucky in his life was a blow Steve had never really recovered from.

After the meeting, he’d wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the day catching up with his friend, but there was too much to do. He cursed himself for not getting a commitment to meet the other man somewhere later on. Leaving the planning up to Bucky filled him with anxiety. Steve did not like to wait. He was not a waiter. He was a doer.

At five-o'clock his phone finally rang, the caller an unknown number. He felt his heart pounding in his chest as he pressed the ‘accept’ button.

“Bucky?”

The voice on the other end of the line gave a dry laugh. It was definitely female, so not Bucky. “No, this is Shuri.”

It took a moment for his brain to catch up with the name. “Oh, yes, from WT, right?” It was a bit strange that she was calling his personal line, but he wasn’t going to be rude. “How can I help you?”

“This isn’t business related, Mr. Rogers.”

“Please, call me Steve.”

“Yes, Steve,” she replied. “I thought you might want to know where Bucky Barnes is heading for an after work drink.”

“Oh, well if he wants me to join him, I’m sure he’ll call me and give me the place.” He pulled his phone away from his head to look at the screen, silently hoping there would be another incoming call.

“No, Steve, I don’t believe he will. I have worked with Sergeant Barnes for two years, and I know when he is vacillating. This is one of those times. He needs a nudge in the right direction.”

“I don’t know if that’s really-”

“Trust me Mr. Rogers, he would not call you of his own accord.”

This felt wrong to Steve, a violation of his old friend’s privacy. “I mean, if he doesn’t want to call me, he doesn’t have to. I’m not going to force him if he doesn’t want to.”

“No, he wants to. Of that I am sure.”

“What’s your aim here?” Steve asked, his tone changing as his suspicion rose. He didn’t want to insult the young woman, but he was starting to wonder why she was so invested in telling him where Bucky was going to be.

“I don’t mean any harm. I only wish to see my friend Bucky happy, and I know he’ll talk himself out of calling you if left to his own devices.”

Steve sighed as he took in her words. He wanted to believe that Bucky was more confident than that, but the last time he’d been in contact with his friend, he’d had the same impression. “Tell me.”

She gave him the name and address of the bar where Bucky was heading.

“Are you sure he’s gonna be there? Maybe he’s just going home?”

“He’ll be there. Our coworker Peter is going with him to make sure.”

“Is everyone at WT in on this?”

He could practically hear her smile on the other end of the line. “Just get there, Mr. Rogers. As soon as you can.”

~/~

Seeing Steve earlier in the day brought back a flood of memories for Bucky. Steve had been his best friend for his entire childhood, all the way through to the summer before their junior year of high school. He and Steve did everything together. They grew up alongside one another and had been closer in many ways than Bucky was to his own flesh-and-blood sibling.

But Steve was more than just a brother. He’d been Bucky’s first love. At the same time that he was just starting to realize his sexuality, he simultaneously realized that he was head-over-heels for Steven Grant Rogers.

When they were younger, Steve had been overlooked by nearly everyone. He was the smallest kid in class and had a slew of health problems that were the likely culprit for his stunted growth. Most prominent was his asthma, followed closely by a spinal curvature that led to him wearing a back brace for a few years. He had poor eyesight with color blindedness, which he wore thick glasses to help correct. And he had a weak immune system that caused him to get sick, and therefore miss school, all the time.

None of the other kids wanted to play with Steve. They were irritated with his inability to keep up when they ran. Or how he would break into a coughing fit in the middle of a dare, freaking everyone out with the fear that one of their cohorts might actually die from one of their stupid stunts.

Bucky was the opposite of Steve. Rambunctious and outgoing, he’d been friends with nearly everyone. He always had kids asking him to play. But Bucky only ever wanted to hang out with Steve.

He couldn’t remember the exact moment he’d first felt drawn to Steve. Bucky had known the other boy since the first grade, but they weren’t in the same class until the third grade. Because they lived in the same building, Bucky would often bring homework for Steve to do when he was out sick. At first, Steve’s mom had just expected Bucky to leave the work and run off, as other children must have done, but Bucky was precocious little fuck.

“How’s Stevie doin’ Mrs. Rogers?”

“Oh,” she’d replied, genuinely surprised at his question. “He’s getting better. He’s in his room, but he’s up and reading.”

“Can I go say hi to him?”

“Sure. Let me just poke my head in and let him know you’re here.”

Steve had seemed just as surprised at Bucky’s appearance as his mother, but welcomed the company.

“Whatcha readin’?” Bucky asked, pointing to the comic book in Steve’s lap.

“Oh, um… X-Men.”

“Killer! I like X-Men too! Who’s your favorite? I like Wolverine.”

Steve smiled at Bucky then, a real, genuine smile, and launched into a diatribe about how his favorite was Professor Xavier because even though he was in a wheelchair, he was one of the most powerful of the X-Men, but he still used his power for good, taking in young mutants and helping to guide them.

From that day forward, Steve and Bucky spent almost every afternoon together, talking about comics, movies (they once had a very heated debate about which trilogy had the superior Harrison Ford performance: Star Wars or Indiana Jones), and, when they were older, girls.

One afternoon, when they were 12 and sitting in Steve’s room, the blond turned to his friend and very innocently asked “You ever kissed a girl, Buck?”

“Yep,” Bucky replied nonchalantly, only half listening while he flipped through a comic book.

“What?! No way! When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Bucky looked up at his friend and cringed. “It’s not my proudest moment.”

“When was it?”

“At Sharon Carter’s last birthday party. She wanted to play ‘spin-the-bottle.’”

Steve got a dreamy look at the mention of Sharon’s name. It was hardly a secret that he had a thing for the girl. She was kind to Steve, but had no inclination toward him. Steve had actually been invited to that party, but hadn’t been able to go because he was recovering from a wicked bout of bronchitis.

He looked back to Bucky with a goofy smile. “Who’d you kiss?”

Bucky’s face went red at that.

“Who was it?”

Bucky bit his lip for a moment, deliberating what to say, before finally deciding on the truth. He never usually kept secrets from Steve, and this one had been eating him alive. “I kissed Sharon.” He watched in horror as his friend’s face fell. “I’m sorry man!” Bucky continued. “I know you like her, and I didn’t want to, but the bottle landed on me when she spun it, and it was her birthday party, and I didn’t want to reject her in front of everyone.” He huffed a breath as he paused.

Steve, being Steve, gave him a gentle smile. “It’s okay, I get it.” His smile broadened into a grin. “How was it?”

“Kind of embarrassing,” Bucky admitted with a groan. “We went into a closet, and I was so nervous that I just barely gave her a peck. I couldn’t touch her because my hands were so sweaty. I didn’t want to gross her out.”

“Well maybe there’s hope for me yet.”

“As long as you can kiss better than I did.”

“Doubtful,” Steve snorted. “At least you’ve kissed someone once. I’ve never kissed anyone.”

Bucky got a wild idea then, and didn’t have the good sense to censor himself before blurting it out. “Wanna practice on me?”

“What?” Steve’s face was a mixture of shock and confusion.

“I mean, we’re buds, right? Let’s just practice with each other. Make us more ready when the next time comes.”

“Um… okay.”

Although his first kiss was technically with Sharon, Bucky always considered his kiss with Steve to be his first true kiss. It ignited feelings in him that he didn’t quite understand. He had a hard time looking at Steve the same, once he knew how soft the other boy’s lips were.

Steve eventually did get to kiss Sharon. Despite her initial reluctance, she decided to give Steve a chance and they even went steady for a few weeks in the eighth grade. But beyond that, Steve never had much luck with girls.

He remained smaller than all the other guys in their class, and ended up being the target of more than a few bullies. But Steve was scrappy. Although he was small, he could take a hit, and refused to run or stand down when confronted. Bucky always teetered on the fine line between when to let Steve stand up for himself and when to intervene to make sure Steve didn’t get seriously injured.

Bucky continued to hang out with Steve, even as he was taunted for it by the more popular kids in high school. He didn’t really care what anyone else said. Steve was his best friend.

One night during freshman year, when they were talking on the phone, Steve was whining to Bucky about how he would never have a shot with another girl in his life.

“You’re great, Stevie,” Bucky’d said, more than a little annoyed with the situation. “The right girl will come along eventually. She’ll see all the good in you and not worry about the other stuff.”

“I wish I could find a girl just like you, Bucky.”

That caused a lump to stick in Bucky’s throat. He’d decided to never tell Steve how he felt, knowing that Steve didn’t reciprocate his feelings. Bucky was terrified of destroying their friendship. He swallowed thickly before replying. “You do?”

“Yeah. You’re my best friend, Buck, and you always see the best in me. I’m so glad I have you.”

“I’m glad to have you too,” Bucky choked out in response. He’d almost decided to confess his feelings then, but Steve sighed and changed the subject before he had a chance.

“What about you, huh? I heard Lori’s got a thing for ya’.”

“Well, um… I think I might be gay,” Bucky replied, in lieu of confessing. He had been deliberating for some time on how to share this with Steve. He knew Steve, and knew his friend would never reject him, but, nevertheless, he braced himself for a bad response.

“Oh yeah?” Steve simply replied, and Bucky was immensely relieved to hear the smile in his friend’s voice.

“Yeah,” he sighed in relief.

“Okay man, cool. You got your eye on anyone, or just been thinking this for a bit?”

“Just been thinkin’ it,” Bucky admitted, not quite ready to tell Steve that he only had eyes for his best friend.

That had been the extent of Bucky’s coming out for another year, before he finally confessed to his parents and friends. He ended up going on a couple dates, had a few kisses, but never dated anyone seriously until after Steve moved.

The summer before their junior year, just after Steve turned sixteen, a bomb dropped in his world. His father, who had left his mother heartbroken when he was just a baby, suddenly died. Steve was shocked to learn that his dad had left him a house and a sizable amount of money. The house was in Indiana, and he was contacted by the grandfather he never knew he had to come out for a visit.

That summer ended up being a turning point for Steve. He got into a medical trial that ended up helping him overcome several of his physical ailments. Sarah went out several times to visit her son, and ended up really liking the area. When the summer ended, Steve’s grandpa asked if they would consider moving there. The house was nice, and Sarah would be able to make more money as a nurse if she wasn’t paying rent. And Steve wanted to get to know his family. His only concern was leaving Bucky.

“Come on, man,” Bucky’d assured him. “We got lots of ways to stay in touch. You ain’t getting rid of me.”

So Steve had gone, and although he never said anything, Bucky’s heart broke that day.

At first, they’d stayed in touch much the same way they had during the summer, through email, phone calls, and instant messaging, but, as the school year progressed, they began to drift apart. Steve had new friends. Since he wasn’t sick all the time and missing out on everything, he had an easier time meeting people. It was a fresh start for Steve, and Bucky didn’t want to keep his friend from his new social circle.

So, instead, Bucky dealt with his heartbreak in self-destructive ways: drinking heavily, experimenting with drugs, and losing his virginity to a random encounter at a party. He had lots of sex during his last two years of high school, with boys and girls. The further Bucky fell down the rabbit hole, the less he would talk to Steve. In the end, he screwed his grades up so bad that he barely graduated and didn’t have any college offers or scholarships to speak of. Directionless, he’d opted to enlist in the Army.

Enlistment had been the final thing to sever his connection to Steve. They had separate lives, and Bucky just assumed there was no chance he’d ever run into the other man again.

~/~

Bucky sat in the bar, trying not to lose his shit on Peter. He really did like the younger man, but he could be a bit over eager at times, like a puppy. Today seemed to be one of those days.

Peter got up to head to the bathroom, and Bucky decided to approach the bartender and order something harder than the beer he’d been nursing. As he stood there, waiting for his drink, he heard a surly voice speak from behind him.

“Barnes.”

“Jones,” he replied, turning to face the newcomer. Bucky liked Jessica Jones, even if she was an acquired taste. She was a PI that he’d met in this very bar, when she’d caught him on a date with a cheating husband. Jessica didn’t want to blow her cover, but after she had the pictures, she pulled Bucky aside and clued him in. Bucky had no idea his date was married, and thanked God that he hadn’t slept with the man.

“What are you doing here?” Jessica asked, the hint of a smile playing across her face. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Yeah, I haven’t been going out much. It’s cheaper to drink at home and don’t have to wear pants.”

“Can’t argue with that logic.”

Bucky considered her for a moment. Her dark hair hung down past her shoulders, and she was dressed in her usual armor of a t-shirt, jeans, boots, and a leather jacket. But something was different. It could have been a trick of the light, but she seemed to have taken a little more care with her makeup. Her brown eyes looked bigger than usual thanks to her artful eyeliner. And she wore a dark lipstick that set off her creamy skin beautifully.  “Something’s changed about you, Jones. What’s going on?”

She schooled her features and gave him a stern look before breaking out into a full-on grin. Bucky couldn’t stop his small gasp when she smiled. She was truly beautiful, but her usually sour disposition tended to put people off.

“Okay, who are you and what have you done with my friend Jessica?”

“Shut up,” she replied, shoving his shoulder. “I’m on a date.” She nodded her head to the table behind her, where a gorgeous man with tan skin, jet black hair, and a neatly trimmed beard sat, watching them with interest.

“Damn girl,” Bucky replied, looping her arm with his own. “Does he swing both ways? Cause if so, send him my way when you’re done with him.”

“Oh fuck off, Barnes,” she laughed, freeing her arm.

Bucky relaxed for the first time all day, forgetting his nerves about Steve in his excitement for his friend. “You look good, Jess. Happy.”

“Thanks.” She glanced at something just over Bucky’s shoulder. “Well, I just wanted to come say hi since I haven’t seen you in a while. I’m gonna go back to my date and let you get back to yours.”

“Oh, no, I’m not on a date, just here with Pete from work.”

“Yeah?” She leaned in close and whispered as quietly as she could in the din of the bar. “Then who’s the blond beefcake two stools down who keeps staring at you?”

Bucky turned his head suddenly to see Steve sitting there, wearing a smirk and looking positively delicious. He’d removed his jacket and unbuttoned the top three buttons of his shirt, exposing the hollow of his throat. Bucky bit back the sudden urge to trace the other man’s adam’s apple with his tongue. “Oh my God… that’s Steve. I didn’t call him. How’d he know I was here?”

“That’s Steve?” Jessica asked, and Bucky automatically hissed at her to keep her voice down. He had shared the story with her one night over drinks, and she knew all about the torch he carried. “Well, Mazel Tov and all that,” she said with a wink. “Let’s get coffee sometime and you can tell me how good he fucks. And um…” she leaned to the left slightly, presumedly to check Steve out, “maybe we could arrange a trade.”

“Fuck you Jones.”

Jessica had already turned away when she called over her shoulder “We tried that, remember?”

Despite his annoyance, Bucky managed one last smile while he flipped her the bird, before gathering his courage to turn around and face Steve.

~/~

Steve watched Bucky with interest as he turned away from the stunning brunette he’d been talking to. He couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the ease between them. It was obvious they weren’t lovers, but they were friends, and Steve missed having Bucky as his friend.

Bucky downed the shot he’d ordered and left the glass on the bar as he sauntered over to Steve. That was really the only way Steve could describe his walk. He didn’t seem as confident as the Bucky Barnes of their childhood, but he sure as hell knew how to fake it.

“Either you’re stalking me or Peter slipped something in my beer and I blacked out, because I don’t remember calling you.” Steve felt his cheeks warm as Bucky spoke. He took a minute to process the words, realizing they were harsher than the tone Bucky used to convey them.

“Um, right… well, Shuri called me and let me know you’d be here, so I thought I’d stop by after work and see if you’d be up for that drink.” He hadn’t looked Bucky in the eyes yet. “I can go, if it’s making you uncomfortable.” He moved to grab his wallet and pay for his beer.

“No, Steve, wait,” Bucky said, with a chuckle. “I was fuckin’ with you. Don’t go. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Yeah?” Steve’s lips spread wide in a grin and he finally looked up to meet Bucky’s gaze. What he saw there was heart-stopping. Bucky always had the most beautiful eyes, their color a cool gray-blue that changed from icy to steel depending on his mood. Right now they were brilliant, even in the dim light of the bar. And they were complimented by an amazing smile.

“Yeah,” Bucky replied, not breaking eye contact.

They stood there for a few seconds, just drinking one another in, before the spell was broken by the approach of Bucky’s coworker.

“Hey Buck-” Peter began.

“Shit! Pete! I’m sorry man,” Bucky replied before Peter could finish his sentence. “I abandoned you. I just ran into a couple people, and-”

“Yeah, man, no problem,” Peter replied. “I was actually gonna say I gotta split. My buddy Ned called and he needs me to come over.” Bucky raised his eyebrows at that, but before he could say anything, Peter sputtered on. “I mean… not ‘needs me’ like that, needs me. Ned’s just a friend. I mean… not that I have any problem with dudes, but Ned’s got a girlfriend and I’m kind of into this girl we went to high school together, and-”

Bucky interrupted the younger man’s diatribe. “Pete, it’s okay. You didn’t say anything to offend me.”

“Phew, that’s a relief,” Peter said, literally wiping his hand across his brow as he said the word ‘phew.’ Steve’s nerdy heart went out to the younger man. He could definitely remember being just as awkward in his own youth.

Peter swiftly made his exit, and Bucky ordered a fresh beer, abandoning the one he’d had at the table he was sitting at with Peter. He settled onto the stool next to Steve.

“So, bigwig legal guy at Stark Inc. at 28, huh? How’d you manage that?

Steve blushed again and looked down at the bar top. “I met Tony in college, and he took over his Dad’s company just as I was finishing law school. He contacted me and asked me to interview for a job on their legal team. I wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity like that. After I got the job, Tony told me he needed to clean house and that he wanted someone with his ear to the ground in legal. I helped him catch some bad actors, and when their positions were vacated, Tony asked if I wanted to take one.”

“Damn, that’s quite the story.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of unbelievable, right? Little guy from Brooklyn like me ending up here.”

“Yeah…” Bucky trailed off as he took a swig of his beer. “I always believed that little guy would go places.”

“That means a lot coming from you, Buck.” Steve looked over at the other man, his eyes soft.

“I never stopped believing in you, Stevie,” he replied, his voice soft.

“So…” Steve said after a pause. “What about you? How’d you’d end up at WT?”

“I met Okoye, the head of their HR, at a VA job fair.”

“Yeah? I remembered you enlisted after graduation. How long did you serve?”

“Six years, three tours. I was planning to retire, but I got injured on my last tour and was medically discharged.”

“Shit… What happened?”

“IED. Not a very big one, but enough to do some serious damage to my left arm. I was a sniper, and I couldn’t keep doing that job if I couldn’t hold the gun steady.”

“Oh damn… I’m sorry to hear that man.”

Bucky looked at Steve for a second, his eyes watering and his upper lip quivering. Steve felt his heart speed up at the thought of his friend’s pain. He started to stand up to give the other man a hug when Bucky’s face broke into a huge grin.

“You always were so gullible Stevie.”

“You jerk!” Steve replied with a laugh as he settled back on his stool.

Bucky pretended to look hurt. “What? Me? I’m not the one laughing at a wounded veteran, ya’ punk!”

“Yeah. yeah, asshole.” Steve tilted his beer to take a swig, his eyes never leaving Bucky’s. When he placed the bottle back down on the bartop, his smile faded a little, becoming wistful. “I’ve missed you, Buck. What happened to us?”

“I’m an asshole who doesn’t deserve nice things, that’s what,” Bucky said, suddenly looking anywhere but at Steve.

~/~

“What the hell does that mean?” Steve asked, and Bucky felt his heart constrict a little more. Sweet Stevie, always caring so much about everyone else.

“Look… it was a long time ago. Let’s forget I said anything. Tell me more about you.”

“No, Buck. I don’t want to forget it. What did you mean? If anything, I’m the asshole in the situation since I left.”

“No, Steve, no.” Bucky suddenly felt panicked at the thought that Steve would ever blame himself. Without thinking, he grabbed Steve’s hand in his own. “You could never be an asshole. You have always been the kindest, most selfless person I know. You going to Indiana was a good thing, wasn’t it? Without that, you might never have gotten healthy, and I doubt you could have afforded law school if you and your mom stayed in Brooklyn.”

“Then why? Why did we lose touch? We were always so close. Even when I had nothing, I had you.”

Bucky cringed. Even after all these years, it physically pained him to keep anything from Steve. “It was all my fault. I became a mess those last two years of high school. I was a drugged out loser. I barely graduated. You didn’t need someone like me dragging you down.”

Steve’s face softened and he squeezed Bucky’s hand with his own. “You would never have dragged me down. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to help you. It sounds like you were really hurting back then.”

“I was trying to find something.”

“What was that?”

Bucky looked up at Steve then, his eyes a bright cornflower blue, expressing his earnestness. “You,” Bucky replied, unable to tear his gaze away. “I was trying to find you.”

“You knew where I was, Bucky. If you needed me, I would have come back in a heartbeat.”

“I didn’t want to tear you away from your new life. You finally had everything you ever wanted. How selfish would it have been if I’d asked you to come back because I was working through a little bit of depression?”

“But, other than my ma, no one has ever been more important to me that you. I would have done anything to help you.”

“Naw… you had a new life. I remember those pictures on Facebook. You had that cute little girlfriend. The blonde one, kinda looked like Sharon. What was her name?”

“Kate,” Steve said with a small grin. “I think the main reason I first talked to her was because she reminded me of Sharon.” Bucky made to pull his hand free, but Steve kept his grip strong. “But what did you mean when you said you were trying to find me?”

“I…” Bucky sighed deeply and looked at the floor. “I wanted to find someone to take your place in my life. So I wouldn’t feel so empty.”

“Did it work?”

“No. Every person I hooked up with just made me feel more alone, but I kept trying. I must have slept my way through half of the teenage population of Brooklyn, but no one could hold a candle to you.”

Steve suddenly got very still. “What do you mean, Bucky? We never hooked up.”

Shit , Bucky thought, there goes my big fuckin’ mouth gettin’ me in trouble again. He looked up to meet Steve’s eyes once more, his mouth gaping like a fish out of water..

“Bucky… did you… did you want to be with me?”

“I… uh…” fuckfuckfuck “Um… I mean…” He felt his face flushing crimson red. “Shit. I never meant to tell you that Stevie. I’m sorry. Fuck… Let me just.” He grabbed his wallet out of his pocket and threw down whatever cash he had on hand, praying it was enough to cover his drinks. He’d just humiliated himself in front of Steve. The last thing he needed was to also stick him with the bill.

Steve stared open-mouthed as Bucky turned and walked as fast as he could out of the bar, heading for the parking lot. He was unlocking his car door when he heard Steve calling out his name.

“I’m sorry Stevie. Please… let me go home and hide for a while. I can’t deal with this right now.” He realized he was babbling, but it was like a dam broke and he couldn’t stop. “We were just reconnecting and then I went and fucked it up. Damnit… I am so sorry Steve. Please can we just forget I said anything? It was a long time ago and-”

He was cut off abruptly when Steve surged forward and captured Bucky’s mouth with his own. Bucky was shocked momentarily before his reflexes kicked in and he kissed back, Steve’s lips just as soft as he remembered them. He moaned softly as Steve’s hand grazed up his neck and over his jawline. The kiss seemed to drag on forever, a heavenly meeting of plush lips and velvety tongues and light nips of teeth. Bucky felt himself swoon a little inside.

When they finally broke apart, their chests panting, Steve brought his other hand up to cup Bucky’s cheeks. “You still talk too fuckin’ much,” he growled, and Bucky laughed before leaning back in for another kiss.

“I didn’t think you liked guys,” Bucky said in awe when they separated once more.

“Bucky… I have been gone for you from the moment you kissed me when we were kids. I was just so afraid to tell you then and lose you as a friend.”

“You punk… we could have had so much more time together if you’d have just said something!” Bucky chuckled as he pulled Steve’s body closer to his own.

“If I’d have said something? You’re the chatterbox you jerk! You should have told me how you felt.”

“I didn’t want to lose your friendship either.”

“Shit… we gotta get better at communicating with each other if we’re gonna make things work this time around.”

“Why don’t we start practicing on Friday? Will you go out on a date with me, Stevie?”

“Yes,” Steve whispered before closing in on Bucky for another mind-blowing kiss.

~/~

The next morning, when Bucky walked into work, Shuri was standing in the middle of their shared workspace wearing a self-satisfied smirk. “Did you have a good night, Bucky?”

Bucky tried to look offended, he really did, but he’d spent the night having pleasant dreams of kissing Steve at an outside table of a restaurant by the waterside. He smiled at his coworker. “I did.” He shrugged off his backpack and sat at his computer.

“How is Steve?” She asked as she followed him. “Will you be seeing him again?”

“You really don’t do subtle, do you?”

“I don’t have time for such things. Do you have a date or not?”

“Yes,” he replied, unable to hide his grin.

Shuri squealed with delight and danced in place. “Bucky’s gonna get nasty!”

“Just don’t send him any dick pics,” Peter mumbled from the other side of the cube wall.

Bucky blushed in response and Shuri cackled. “It’s too late for that, Peter!” she called back. “Did he send you one back?”

“I’m not saying anything about that, Shuri.”

She chuckled and took her seat at her desk. “As a sign of your gratitude, I fully expect your first daughter to be named after me.”

“Well, I was planning to do that anyway,” Bucky said with a grin.

“Damn right you were.”

Bucky looked up at his monitor and began to peruse his email. A minute later a notification popped up on his phone with a text from Steve.

Can’t wait for tomorrow night.

Bucky was unable to hide his grin as he picked up his phone to send a response.

If you enjoyed this, I’d really love a like, reblog, or comment (or all three!). Thanks for reading!

[newstfionline]

The Virtual Work Skills You Need—Even If You Never Work Remotely

Barbara Z. Larson, Erin E. Makarius, HBR, October 05, 2018

Maintaining strong, productive relationships with clients and co-workers can be challenging when you never see the person you’re working with. Yet, it is common to have ongoing work relationships--sometimes lasting years--with people you’ve never met in person.

We often think of “virtual work” as working with someone located outside an office, or in another city or country. This type of work is on the rise: a 2017 Gallup report found 43% of American employees work remotely; in another survey, 48% of respondents reported that a majority of their virtual teamwork involved members from other cultures.

However, virtual work also encompasses how we are turning to technology to conduct business with nearby colleagues, sometimes within the same building or campus. At a large consumer-products firm where we’ve been conducting research, an HR director recounted the changes she witnessed in employees located in two buildings a few miles apart. “Ten years ago, we would regularly drive between buildings to meet each other, but today, we almost never do; meetings are conducted by videoconference and everything else is handled on e-mail and IM.”

In our interview and survey research, we find that people tend to significantly underestimate the proportion of their work that is virtual, largely because they believe virtual work occurs outside the office. But it’s important for us to recognize the true extent of virtual work, because successful virtual work demands a different set of social and interpersonal skills and behaviors than face-to-face work.

Research consistently indicates that virtual work skills--such as the ability to proactively manage media-based interactions, to establish communication norms, to build social rapport with colleagues, and to demonstrate cooperation--enhance trust within teams and increase performance. Our surveys indicate that only about 30% of companies train employees in virtual work skills, but when they do, the training is more likely to focus on software skills and company policies than on social and interpersonal skills.

Our recent review of 30 years of virtual work research shows that the most effective workers engage in a set of strategies and behaviors that we call “virtual intelligence.” Some people tend to be naturally more adept at working virtually than others; yet, everyone can increase their virtual intelligence. Two specific skill sets contributing to virtual intelligence are 1) establishing “rules of engagement” for virtual interactions, and 2) building and maintaining trust. These skill sets are relevant to all individuals who conduct virtual work, including coworkers in the same office who interact virtually.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. When working with someone face-to-face, the “rules of engagement” for your work together most likely evolve naturally, as you learn the best times of day to connect, where to hold productive meetings, and the most effective meeting format. In virtual work, however, these “rules of engagement” typically require a dedicated conversation. At a minimum, virtual colleagues should discuss the following rules around:

Communication technology. Once you know you’ll be working virtually with someone on a regular basis, initiate a short conversation about their available technology, and agree on the best means of communication (e.g., “We’ll e-mail for simple, non-urgent matters, but get on Skype when there is something complex that might require us to share screens. Texting is fine if we need to get in touch urgently, but shouldn’t be used day-to-day.”)

Best times to connect. You might ask your virtual co-worker, “What times of day are typically better to call or text? Are there particular days of the week (or month) that I should avoid?” Establishing this rule early in a virtual work relationship both establishes respect for each other’s time, and saves time, by avoiding fruitless contact attempts.

How best to share information. If you’re collaborating on documents or other electronic files, establish a process to ensure you don’t inadvertently delete updates or create conflicting versions. File-sharing services such as Dropbox can help monitor revisions to jointly-owned documents (often called “version control”), but it is still wise to establish a simple protocol to avoid lost or duplicated work.

Building and maintaining trust. Two types of trust matter in virtual work: relational trust (trust that your colleague is looking out for your best interests), and competence-based trust (trust that your colleague is both capable and reliable).

To build relational trust:

Bring a social element into the virtual work relationship. Some people do this by starting conversations with non-work-related questions, such as “How are things going where you are?” or “How was your weekend?” Avoid making questions too personal, and don’t overwhelm your colleague with extensive details of your life. Keep it simple and sincere, and the conversation will develop naturally over time.

Let your enthusiasm and personality show in your virtual communications. Keep it professional, but try adding a little of your own ‘voice’ to give your virtual colleague a sense of who you are, just as they would have in a face-to-face meeting.

To build competence-based trust:

Share your relevant background and experiences, indicating how these will help you support the current project. For example, on a new-product development project, you might say, “I’m really looking forward to contributing to the market analysis, as it focuses on a market that I researched last year on another project.”

Take initiative in completing tasks whenever possible and communicate that you’re doing so with periodic update e-mails. Doing this shows commitment to the shared task.

Respond to e-mail quickly and appropriately. We risk obviousness in making this point, but many virtual work relationships fail due to inconsistent e-mail communication. Silence works quickly to destroy trust in a virtual colleague. We recommend replying to non-urgent e-mails within one business day (sooner if it’s urgent). If you need more time, send a quick acknowledgement of the e-mail, letting your colleague know when you will reply.

As the use of technology for all types of communication has become ubiquitous, the need for virtual work skills is no longer limited to telecommuters and global teams; it now extends to those of us whose work never takes us out of the office. Making a concerted effort to develop these skills by setting up rules of engagement and establishing trust early can feel uncomfortable, especially for people new to the idea of virtual work. Most of us are used to letting these dynamics evolve naturally in face-to-face relationships, with little or no discussion. Yet, workers with higher virtual intelligence know that these skills are unlikely to develop without explicit attention, and that making a short-term investment in developing the virtual relationship will yield long-term benefits.

[moonprincess92]

Alliance Industries 

Cassian starts his 8 week internship at Alliance Industries with a goat in an elevator…oh yeah, and a hot receptionist. 

For @deadpanprincess Happy Valentine’s Day! MUCH LOVE <3 

I.E. a ‘they all work in an office’ au  (Read on AO3) 

PART 1 

He had to ride 12 floors in an elevator with a hot girl and a goat.

Sure, he had no idea what he was getting into with this internship, but truth be told he really wasn’t expecting the goat. He’d squeezed onto the elevator on the ground floor of the Yavin Building with what felt like a billion other people and while not exactly comfortable, he’d figured that he’d been doing ok. Maybe even fairly well, considering it was his first day of this internship and all. It was somewhere around floor five, however, when she walked on dragging said goat behind her and literally no one batted an eye. Cassian stared at the goat, then at his phone open on the last email he’d been sent from his future supervisor, and back at the goat again.

This hadn’t been on the website. 

He decided not to concentrate on the goat that was currently trying to eat the hem of the girl’s pencil skirt and rather stare pointedly at the numbers on the elevator wall as they climbed. If it hadn’t been for the subtle side-eyes, he honestly would have questioned the goat’s existence entirely, considering the lack of attention it got. People slowly filtered out without a word, and the girl and goat thankfully got off at floor eight. Cassian himself exited on floor 12, breathing a sigh of relief upon finding the giant sign indicating that he’d found the offices of Alliance Industries… although it was rather short-lived. The reception appeared to be utterly abandoned. Cassian glanced around anxiously, but he was rather alone apart from some haphazard papers scattered behind the reception desk and what looked like a gnawed on stapler.

Shit.

The email had just said to ask at reception once he arrived and that their receptionist would show him through the offices until his supervisor arrived at ten. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

He was just debating whether to email back or whether to try and find someone else, when he heard the elevator door open once again behind him. He turned to see the goat girl from before rushing out, her face flushed, hair coming out of its superb bun and swearing like a trucker.

“Fucking bollocking balls – I’m so sorry!” she called out. She dashed for the reception desk, not even taking the time to walk around, but instead catapulting herself over top of it. Sliding gracefully on her ass, she even managed to stick the landing in her high heels before turning and facing him. “We had a bit of an emergency – you must be the new intern!”

“Is the goat ok?” he asked, dumbly.

The woman, who was clearly the receptionist, blinked at him once before letting out a bark of laughter. “That goddamn fucking goat – it escaped from the insurance company on floor eight, we’ve been trying to catch it all morning. You saw?”

“I was in the elevator.”

“Jesus, I really am sorry – my name’s Jyn, I’m supposed to show you around,” she held out her hand over the desk and Cassian might have been a little blindsided, but at least had enough sense to shake it. She smiled at him, before hastily gathering up all the paperwork that had been scattered. She made to go and staple them all together, when of course she noticed the mangled stapler and cursed once more.

“I’m going to kill that goat.”

“It’s fine, I swear–” Cassian said, quickly.

He accepted his copy of the Alliance Industries Policies and Guidelines all in loose pages, although not without Jyn insisting that she at least find him a clip or something to keep it all together with. “Anyway, let me do my actual job and show you round,” she said, moving around the desk once more.

He was almost disappointed that she didn’t leap over it this time.

A few days later she was in the elevator again, only this time she was sans goat.

“Hey!” she said brightly upon seeing him.

“Oh, hey,” he said, talking awkwardly over the forced quiet that always accompanied every elevator journey. “no farm animals today?”

“You talk as if that was a regular occurrence.”

“When it’s the first time you walk in the building, can you blame me?”

“I swear, goats are not a usual thing at Alliance,” Jyn said. “But hey, I never caught up with you earlier, how’s your first week going with us so far?”

“It’s going…” Cassian racked his brain for words in English that would accurately describe the last few days he’d had. After the goat and his new supervisor Draven, he was starting to wonder if his university actually understood what kind of internship he had signed up for. “Is it always like this at Alliance?”

“Whatever it was that happened, probably,” Jyn answered with a slight smirk.

“They gave me my own office at least,” Cassian said. “Well – I say office – it’s just a spare cubicle they said I could have because the current employee is on leave until after I finish, but it’s nice to feel like I have a place here.”

“How long’s the internship?” she asked.

The tone was casual. Cassian couldn’t kid himself that there was anything more to it than that because flirting with the objectively hot receptionist was not exactly one of his tasks that would go towards his university credits. Still… he would be an idiot to not realise that with her ability to jump desks in tight skirts and heels, he wouldn’t exactly say no to flirting. It was fine. His heart was allowed to race a little imagining that she was asking because she wanted him to stick around.

“Eight weeks,” he answered.

“Sounds like ages, but that’ll go really quickly,” she said. He wanted to say more, except that was when the elevator stopped on their floor, and they clattered out along with several other people. He lagged near the reception desk as she walked behind it, booting up the main computer and opening the phone lines.

“Yeah, I guess it will. See you around?”

“Of course,” Jyn smiled at him from over the desk. “Have a good day.”

“You too.”

She was always there.

In the elevator, without fail, they somehow always managed to arrive at the same time, about ten minutes before eight. She would come over, pushing through the meagre space until she was at his side and would ask how his time with them was going. He was always brutally honest because he hadn’t been kidding when he’d wondered what he’d gotten himself into, and it seemed that if he wanted to survive this internship he needed someone like the Alliance Industries receptionist on his side.

The goat hadn’t even been the start of it. To be perfectly honest, Cassian wasn’t even sure any more about what the company actually did, which had to be saying something. From the initial application it had looked like a law firm, but the data he was analysing as his tasks covered everything from taxes to supply lists to transportation costs. One day there would be a meeting about the local market and the next, a photoshoot for the latest issue of Vogue, complete with full make-up crew, wardrobe and background models that would take over the entire office bullpen with their smoke machine and dramatic headpieces until eventually, several secretaries would manage to rope them into the right part of the building. Nothing about the company seemed to make sense, and every time he asked for clarification, the only answer he could ever get was along the lines of,

“I don’t know. Something to do with computers?” Jyn had told him quizzically once.

“You’ve worked here how long and you still don’t know what your company actually does?”

“I’m the receptionist! I schedule shit and take angry calls from clients, you think I know what kind of operation the CEO is running? This could be a black-market trade centre for all I know.”

(Cassian hoped to god he wouldn’t have to explain how he’d interned for two months with a black-market trade to his college professors).

Either way, the company kind of terrified him so much that it took an entire week just to get up enough courage to use the break room. 

Look, on his first say he had set one foot inside the room only to find everyone practically screaming as apparently, someone had accidentally set the toaster on fire. Rather than brave that, Cassian had promptly turned right back around and opted to eat his lunch at his desk. He might have just stayed there again if it weren’t for the fact that his lunch needed reheating today. Much to his relief, he’d only been hovering in the doorway to the loud and packed break room for a minute when someone had called his name and he’d looked up to see Jyn waving him over.

Thank god.

“So what’s it like having Draven as a supervisor?” she asked him through a mouthful of pasta once he had sat down with her.

“It’s…” he debated. Davits Draven, HR Advisor and Head of the Alliance Internship Programme, at least seemed competent and like he knew what he was doing. Cassian figured that he could be trusted to sign off on all his paperwork needed to get the required credits at the end of the internship… although there was the fact that according to two very gossipy PAs, he also apparently had a reputation of being ‘that dickhead who keeps calling meetings about shit that could 100% be solved through email’.

“It’s interesting,” Cassian decided on.

Jyn scoffed so loudly she nearly choked on her pasta. “You’re so nice,” she coughed. “Honestly, I’m pretty sure Draven hates me because I keep accidentally-on-purpose redirecting angry clients to his office phone.”

He tried not to laugh too much. She had sat with her legs resting long ways across one of the sofas that dotted the break room, but she’d swung them down when she’d called him over so that he’d have a place to sit. He noticed her heels had been tossed to the floor some feet away and she apparently didn’t give a damn if her pasta spilled all over her.

“Thanks for eating with me,” he said. He glanced over again at the other side of the break room where an argument was still apparently brewing over who was first in line for the microwave. It looked like it was all on the verge of boiling over and he added, “Also look, tell me the truth, am I going to get to heat this up today or not?”

“First rule about this office,” Jyn said. “never bring lunch that needs heating. You’ll never eat.”

“Noted,” He bitterly clipped the lid of his lunch container closed.

Jyn wrinkled her nose in sympathy. “Want some of my pasta?”

“Oh, I couldn’t–”

“Nah, it’s fine, promise–” She practically shoved the container into his hands. “It’s not the best, sorry. I’m not a chef for a reason.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Cassian said, warmly. “Your accent is British, right?”

“I am in fact one of like three British people in this office, yes,” she nodded. “I’m fairly certain my accent was the sole reason I was hired as the receptionist.”

“It wasn’t for your goat-wrangling skills?”

“No, believe it or not but those were just bonuses,” Jyn grinned. “What’s your accent?”

“I’m from Mexico.”

“Oh, nice. Sucks to be so far away though, right?”

“I’m not as far from home as you.”

“Still,” Jyn said through her food, barely pausing to swallow. “We’re the foreigners, we gotta stick together, you and I!”

He watched her in slight bemusement as they carried on eating in mostly companionable silence. The arguments over the microwave got louder and escalated to the point where someone actually started an official ‘Microwave Order’ list and others ditched the building entirely to go and buy something from the street vendors opposite.

Jyn snorted and shook her head at them. “Idiots,” he heard her say. 

“Ok, so on the first day, I was required to give you the official bullshit orientation of Alliance Industries,” Jyn was saying as she lead them through into the office bullpen. Cubicles lined the large room, phones ringing, colleagues talking over walls and the tell-tale noise of fingernails clacking on keyboards. Jyn glanced up at him and carried on, “You know, about getting your paperwork in on time and how to file complaints with HR, shit that no one really cares about. Today, I’m going to give you the real orientation.”

She started down one hallway lined with cubicles. Her hair was always tied back in some kind of bun, always professional, always poised, but the way her eyes sparked as she looked up at him said that this receptionist knew things. He was glad that she’d practically insisted on becoming his friend. She pointed out the first cubicle and said, “We start in legal. That’s Jason Biggs, he’s all right. Next to him is Han Solo,” she snorted a little. “You’ll never meet a bigger arsehole in your life, but he at least tries. Will hit on almost anyone, despite the fact that he is 100% in love with our PR manager.”

Jyn continued in this stride as they traversed most of the entire office. She pointed out colleagues, friends, the managers to watch out for, the ones to not cross under any circumstances, and the ones who could be bribed with coffee to extend your deadlines. She pointed out one of the HODs Raddus, who had apparently borrowed her hole punch once and never given it back, and a new hire in graphic design who everyone knew had a ridiculous crush on his boss.

Cassian’s brain practically swam with the onslaught of information. “That’s Shara Bey – hey, bitch!” Jyn called out then into one of the fancier corner offices. “You can count on her for anything, except being on time. She’s 30 weeks pregnant and insists he’s the reason she’s so slow. Her husband works in IT.”

“So… it’s ok to date colleagues here then?” Cassian asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Jyn leaned in the doorway to Shara’s office. “What was it Draven said at the Developing Professional Relationships seminar?”

“‘You can fuck each other in the copy room all you like, so long as no one has to see it’,” Shara snorted, not even turning around from her computer.

“It’s good, though,” Jyn mentioned after laughing. “It means everyone can just get it out of their systems, rather than cluttering up the office with sexual tension. Unless you’re Han and Leia, amiright, Shara?”

“The less said about those two, the better.”

“Anyway,” Jyn turned back to him. “next thing to know: understand what someone means if they say they need help with the photocopier.”

Cassian was about 90% sure the entire conversation was going too damn fast. His mind was overloaded with information, his brain couldn’t keep up in English (or maybe it was the way she laughed) but whatever the reason was, he didn’t quite catch Jyn’s meaning and he ended up asking,

“I’m sorry? What does it mean?”

Thankfully, she didn’t tease him. 

“It means they’re asking to go do it.”

He blinked. “But what if I actually honestly need help with the photocopier?”

She smiled. “Then you’re fucked.”

“Either way you’re fucked!” Shara threw back, making Jyn choke a little with laughter and step in to swat her upside the head.

They moved on from Shara’s office after that and honestly, Cassian was a little disappointed. She eventually told what seemed to be the life history of the entire office – who was sleeping with whom, who was looking to move up and who was looking for a new job, who had just transferred and who to make friends with so that you got free home-made muffins at four o’clock every Friday – but honestly, Cassian only wanted to know about her. And if there was anyone whose story she didn’t mention, it was her own.  

But it was fine. He had several more weeks to go, after all.

The first time she wasn’t in the elevator was a few weeks in.

Honestly, he was fine with it. He barely even knew the woman, he had no right to be disappointed or whatever the hell feeling it was that he was swallowing down from creeping its way up his throat. No, instead he gripped his briefcase harder and thought of what kind of data he would be analysing that day.

When the elevator dinged on his floor, though, he at least quickly figured out where Jyn was. She was already at her desk, ten minutes early and apparently in a heated argument with Draven over what seemed to be a broken email attachment.

“I don’t know what the hell else you want me to do!” she was saying hotly, work phone tucked under one shoulder and also clicking around on her computer, clearly flustered.

“I’ve told you, get it fixed!”

“I’M ON HOLD, do I look like bloody tech staff?!”

“Is that how you talk to all of your direct superiors?”

“I’m the receptionist, not your PA, I don’t work for you,” she snapped. Someone on the phone must have answered her then because she suddenly snapped up straighter and grabbed the phone in her hand. “Yes! Thank god, look none of the attachments are opening in email and–” 

“I have to print 50 copies of this by eight thirty!” Draven yelled in the general direction of the phone.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M TRYING TO DO?”

Cassian honestly didn’t know what to do. Other workers were eyeing the two with interest, but ultimately just walking on past like it was no big deal. Cassian, on the other hand, was loath to even approach should he accidentally get stuck in the crosshairs. No one deserved to be chewed out like Jyn was, at least not this early in the morning, but Draven was also his boss, and he needed this internship to pass. Shit, shit, shit.

In the end, he hid himself behind a group of workers from customer service and walked in alongside them. He managed to avoid Draven’s eye, but accidentally caught Jyn’s just as he clearing them and heading for the main office. She smiled a little and mouthed, “Hey,” before rolling her eyes at Draven.

His heart pounded back.

The day naturally ended up being a bit of a crazy one. It just had to be one of those days when Han Solo would declare, “OFFICE FLOOR IS LAVA!” and Cassian was forced to spend most of his day trying to get places without touching the floor. Usually, it meant climbing over cubicle walls and hastily stepping around his collegues PCs and photo frames. At least Cassian had discovered that he was rather adept at the game, (“Andor’s light on his feet, who knew?” Han pointed out, impressed). However today all he had wanted was to reach Jyn’s desk, and without anything lining the corridor down to the elevators, nothing short of wheeling himself there on his desk chair was going to make it (which he kind of interpreted as a bit pathetic). As a result, he didn’t see her until the end of the day, as they were all leaving the building.

“I’m sorry Draven chewed you out this morning!” Cassian practically yelled after her once he caught the sight of her retreating back out on the street. For a second, he feared that Jyn wouldn’t or didn’t want to talk to him, but she paused when she heard his voice and turned.

“Hey, thanks,” she called back. “Sorry, I can’t stop and talk, the bus leaves at ten past and if I miss it I have to wait another half an hour–”

“I’ll walk with you,” he hurried forward to fall into step with her.

There was something about walking alongside her through the busy financial district in the early evening. They were out of the office, her in her leather jacket over top of her business casual and him simply trying not to trip over that fact.

“Draven’s an arse,” Jyn said, quietly.

He was starting to become familiar with the sentiment. “Is he like that with everyone, or…?”

“Or just with me?” Jyn shoved her hands in her pockets, heels clacking against the concrete beneath their feet. “He’s hated me ever since I started working there. I always assumed it was because I was young, but now I think it’s just because he’s a prick.”

“You’re not that young.”

“Exactly what a girl wants to hear,” she grinned.

“I just mean,” he held back the urge to knock her shoulder with his. That would be far too familiar, considering how long they’d known each other. Yes, definitely. “You can’t be much younger than me and I’m 26.”

She smiled a little. “I’m 24. I’ve been with Alliance since I was 19.”

“As the receptionist?”

“I know,” she rolled her eyes. “five years and I’m still only a receptionist. Will I ever figure out what I want to do with my life?”

“I wasn’t thinking that,” Cassian assured her.

“I know,” she said. “or at least I hoped. Just ignore me, I’m wallowing and feeling sorry for myself.”

They were approaching the bus stop now and the quick pace she’d kept up the entire time was apparently worth it as it seemed that the bus was only just pulling up now. “You’re allowed to – what was it? Wallow?”

“Yeah,” Jyn walked backward so that she could keep him in her sights as she joined the line. “thanks for listening.”

“No problem.”

“Hey,” she added, quickly. “who won the floor is lava today?”

“I did. Apparently, I’m light on my feet.”

Jyn laughed in response, congratulating him just as she climbed onto the bus and disappeared into its depths. He waved once and turned away, a grin on his face.  

“So you’re the new intern?”

Cassian glanced up at the head that was staring over the dividing wall between his cubicle and the next. He had dark scruff, hair pulled back in a ponytail and a smile spreading across his face that was far too bright for someone at work at eight in the morning. “Um, yes,” Cassian replied.

The man leaned even further over the wall, extending his arm down so Cassian could shake his hand. “I’m Bodhi!” he said, happily. “So good to meet you, it’s been boring without a cubicle buddy.”

To be honest, Cassian wasn’t sure how anything in this office could ever be described as ‘boring’. Within his first three days, there had been at least six emergency drills for wild animal attacks (“Back away slowly! NEVER play dead!”) two minor fire incidents in the break room and one rather epic wheelie chair race from one end of the office to the other without touching the floor. He STILL didn’t know what the company actually did, but that was about when Leia Organa had kicked herself off a wall and spun her wheelie chair in front of Han Solo’s by about an inch, declaring herself the winner of the race and all fucking hell had broken loose.

“Boring! Right, wouldn’t want that,” he said, hastily.

“You’ve met Jyn, right?”

“The receptionist?” Cassian really needed to work on his self-control. Get it together, idiot. Don’t sound so excited.

“Yeah! She said that she’s been showing you around and stuff. Me and her and a bunch of others usually go out for drinks after work on a Friday,” Bodhi explained. “It’s just casual, no benders or anything, we do the pub quiz, that kinda thing. Did you want to come this week?”

“Oh,” Cassian suddenly blanked on words. Quite honestly, it sounded great. A chance to get to know his colleagues more, a chance to really get to know Jyn… “I’d love to – but I’ve got a lot of work to do and – I wouldn’t want to impose or anything–”

“No, no!” Bodhi insisted at once, frowning. “I swear, we all want you to come! Gotta get you on our side before Draven turns you into one of his mindless slaves, haha.”

Cassian hesitated. “It’s just drinks?”

“Just drinks.”

“And you’re sure no one minds if I come?”

“Jyn would have asked you herself, except she apparently had some kind of meltdown and made me do it,” Bodhi rolled his eyes. “Please, I’m dying to get to know the man who made Jyn Erso speechless!”

“You’re joking, surely.”

“Well… half joking,” Bodhi snorted. “Please?”

Cassian took a deep breath.

“Ok.”

She looked about as hungover as he still felt in the elevator on Monday.

“I blame you,” he told her at once.

“I did nothing,” she insisted, not even moving from where she was leaned back against the elevator wall, dark sunglasses covering her eyes even inside under the artificial lights.

“You’re a dirty enabler is what you are, getting me to drink two nights in a row so that I’m literally still feeling it on Monday morning.”

“Not my problem that you can’t handle tequila.”

He grinned though, despite himself. His weekend had been a blinding two days thanks to her. What had started as ‘casual drinks’ on a Friday night had of course turned into still hitting the clubs at three am, Jyn’s skirt almost up around her hips as he gave her a piggyback home. They had made quite the scene, Bodhi crying as he carried Leia’s heels in one hand and a bottle of wine in another, Han belting out Queen songs with his tie around his head, Leia barefoot and with her arm around who was apparently her brother Luke, who had turned up somewhere around midnight and worked in graphic design. Cassian couldn’t even remember adding Jyn on Facebook, but the next morning he had woken dumped outside his apartment door and with about five messages from her saying that they should hang out later. She had talked to him Saturday night over the aforementioned tequila, told him stories about office pranks on Draven and Han, told him about how she’d always wished that she’d gone to collage, about the one time a criminal from the Bail Bonds Office on floor 17 had taken someone hostage and the entire building had been forced into lockdown, and he had laughed and taken it all in.

Taken her in.

“Why did you never go to collage?” Cassian remembered asking her. They’d invited everyone else on Saturday, but they’d all had the sense to bail early this time. By eleven, they’d been the last ones left in the bar and she had sighed underneath the lights.

“I guess I didn’t think I could,” she’d answered him.

He glanced at her now, leaning her head back and attempting not to groan against what was no doubt a throbbing pain in her head. He watched the line of her jaw as she stared at the ceiling, the curve of her neck, the dip where her collarbone met her blouse and… oh, shit. 

Yeah, he really was in trouble.

Thing is, it hadn’t been long.

Technically, he knew it was normal. People develop crushes within hours, let alone weeks, but the point he was trying to make in his head here, was that he was only going to be with Alliance for the next month and a half. Couldn’t he have at least, like…TRIED? What had started as a fleeting ‘I wouldn’t say no’ when he’d first met her had at some point turned into a monstrous crush so yeah, he was fucked, for sure. He at least liked to think he could also be subtle about it. He could subdue the smile that came to his face whenever he saw her in the elevator in the mornings, pretend that it wasn’t the highlight of his entire day. He could hold back, remain friendly and professional, asking for work advice and being able to admire the way she would lean over his desk without flipping his shit. Yes, he had this. He could do this.

Apparently, Bodhi didn’t seem to think so.

“Ok, what’s the deal?” he asked.

“What?” Cassian asked dumbly, ignoring how the other man’s head had stuck up over the dividing wall once more, like it usually did at varying times throughout their day.

Bodhi rolled his eyes in exaggerated exasperation. “You and Jyn!” he said. “I thought you totally liked her!”

“I’m trying to work here, can’t this wait until later?”

“I’m sorry, you think office hours are for work?”

Cassian shot his new friend a look, and Bodhi grinned.

“Ok, ok, but seriously. Ever since drinks last week, you’ve been acting weird. Did something happen between you guys?”

“NO,” he said, perhaps too quickly to ever actually be reasonably considered the truth. He caught Bodhi’s look and he groaned, “No, seriously, nothing happened. I just…” He shoved his chair away from his desk and computer, rubbing his forehead warily. “I like her, yeah, but I’m trying to be professional about it, all right?”

“And how’s that working out?”

“Divine,” Cassian grumbled. Luckily, before Bodhi could grill him more, Jyn herself suddenly burst into Bodhi’s cubicle. Cassian tried not to have a heart attack as she practically threw herself up to the wall alongside Bodhi and exclaimed,

“Guys! You have to come witness this!”

Apparently unable to get out of whatever it was that was happening, Cassian and Bodhi followed Jyn all the way down to Shara Bey’s office on the opposite side of the office bullpen. Shara was apparently finding it tough to find things to do in her last week of work, since she totally welcomed them all piling slightly suspiciously into her office. She swung herself around in her chair like Doctor Evil while Jyn happily boosted herself up onto her desk.

“What’s going on?” Bodhi asked in amusement.

“Ok, I’m going spare with nothing to do, so I’ve been fucking with Han all afternoon,” Shara explained. “I got Kes to go and change the settings on his computer while he was at lunch so that every time he gets an email, the notification is a duck quacking. It’s driving him mad and he doesn’t know how to change it back – watch!” She turned and hit send on what must have been a pre-written email. They all listened carefully and sure enough, a faint quacking from out the door and down the other end of the corridor echoed down. As if on cue, someone roared in annoyance and quickly yelled out,

“SHARA BEY, I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD!”

They all burst out laughing. Cassian tried not to, but it was hard when Jyn looked at him like that (doubled over, face and neck flushing red). She caught his eye and he was unable to help it.

“You – you want to know the best part?” Shara added once they’d all somewhat calmed down.

“What?” Cassian asked.

“Watch what happens when I send out a group email.”

With ‘reply to all’ entered into the recipients box, Shara hit send once more. Almost at once, what sounded like an entire menagerie of animals sounded off. Ducks quacked, cows mooed, and horses neighed as the entire office collectively groaned in exasperation and Jyn nearly fell off the desk in her hysterics at the office turning into a zoo. Cassian hastily moved forward, arms outstretched, to keep her from face-planting. It was only once he was assured she wasn’t going to fall and was moving back when he caught the look on Bodhi’s face from across the office.

“Stop it,” Cassian insisted later that day.

“Stop what?”

“It. That look. Everything.”

“Yeah,” Bodhi grinned. “You’re brilliant at staying professional.”

“So you’re a math major, right?”

Cassian nodded in the affirmative, glancing at her from where he was keeping her company on his lunch break. Jyn wasn’t allowed to have hers today since at approximately 11.59am, someone had fucked up and some kind of Statistical Disaster had apparently happened that, according to the HOD, SHE had to fix since it had already been emailed through. “Goddamn motherfucker…” she had been grumbling when he’d swung by her front desk and he’d tried not to be too pleased when she’d called him an angel upon finding out that he’d brought her lunch to her desk for her. Now, she turned her computer screen to face him and he tried not to have a mini heart attack when she grabbed his hand, pulling him forward and closer towards her.

“I’m going bloody nuts! Look at this, am I even doing this right?”

Cassian squinted at the spreadsheets. He was silent for so long, Jyn started whacking his arm.

“Oh god. Oh fucking lord. I fucked it up even worse didn’t I? Mothma is going to FIRE my arse–”

“Jyn, you literally did this?”

“Yeah – I mean, I tried, but this really isn’t my area and I wasn’t really sure what I was doing with the–”

“You could fucking do my job,” he laughed, turning back to her. He might’ve been slightly in awe.

“Seriously?” Jyn peered back at the computer in amazement. “You mean I did good?”

“Fucking good,” Cassian said. “Do people make you do analysis like this all the time?”

“I usually wing it and hope for the best after a lot of Googling. Honestly, what even is your job?” 

“I’m still asking myself that and I’ve been here weeks now,” She snorted, leaning back in her chair. Cassian copied her stance opposite her against her desk as he added, “Jyn, I wasn’t kidding. You could do this job, if you wanted. Really, why did you never go to collage? You said before you didn’t think you could, but you’ve really proved yourself wrong just now.”

Jyn shrugged a little, but sighed. “Have I ever told you about my dad?”

He blinked a little at how on earth the conversation had suddenly gone in this direction. It suddenly seemed all so personal, too personal for the little length of time that they’d known each other, but somehow at the same time the exact right amount of personal for the way they’d been getting to know each other. He shook his head and Jyn carried on,

“He’s a scientist. Chemistry, specifically and something else even more so, but I never exactly understand what it is. All I know is that he’s world-renown, published what feels like thousands of articles in journals and shit and is probably the smartest man you’ll ever meet. I love him to pieces because at the end of the day he’s just my dad, but… it was a lot to live up to.”

“Wow.”

“Thing is, I was always interested in business,” Jyn shrugged. She gestured back at her computer screen and added, “This kinda thing, it fascinates me, but I guess I never thought it was as good as studying chemistry so I just… never did. Dad’s always supported me no matter what, but…”

“You could do this, Jyn.”

“I think I’m finally starting to realise it, yeah,” she said. She nudged his leg with her own and said, “Thanks, Cassian. I’m glad you chose this insane company as your internship.”

He might have blinked a fraction of a second too long, burning the feeling of her looking at him like that into his brain.

“I am, too.”

Sometimes an unexpected fire drill could be a great thing… and other times, not so great.

“This presentation is going to run late now!” Leia was huffing next to Cassian as they were all forced out of their wonderfully air-conditioned office and out to the evacuation point across the street. “and since the presentation will run late, my meeting with Mothma will run late, which means I will probably miss the ten past bus, which means I WILL MISS PILATES AGAIN, GODDAMN–”

“Oh no,” Jyn’s voice turned up, rolling her eyes as she flung an arm around Leia’s shoulders. “not Pilates!”

“Get off me, it’s like a tropical sauna out here,” Leia said in disgust.

Jyn just laughed. “So what set off the alarm this time? Any bets? Rats chew through the wiring again, or was it yet another Microwave Incident?”

“For some reason,” Leia was glaring in the direction of the building. “I shrewdly suspect Han.”

“You suspect him for everything.”

“And I’m right about 90% of the time,” she pointed out.

Cassian stayed quiet. He’d quickly learned that that was the best approach to surviving whenever Han and Leia came your way. They seemed like such a contradiction, Leia always looking very professional in her blouses and elaborate up-dos, the PR Manager always ready to talk their arses out of anything… and then there was Han Solo, with his tie always shoved rebelliously in his pocket, bedazzled briefcase and known for always accidentally spilling confidential details about clients on prime time news channels. Half the time Cassian couldn’t tell if Han and Leia even liked each other, although Jyn had at least assured him that his guess was as good as the rest of theirs.

“Yeah, for two people who can’t seem to talk without bickering, they sure as hell are terrible at staying away from each other,” she’d once mentioned.

They were forced to stand out on the lawn in the park across the street for a good half an hour while the designated fire wardens cleared the building. The fire department then arrived to inform them all that the cause of the fire had probably been someone attempting to cook instant mac and cheese with the fax machine again. Han looked smug for all of five seconds before Leia was yelling his name, and then he had the decency to look ashamed.

“Look, Princess–” he began hastily.

“You moron!” she thumped him hard on the arm. “I am not forgiving you for this!”

“How do you even know it was me? I deny everything!”

“Because who the hell else would attempt to use the fax machine as a cooking implement?”

“Hey, that thing is so damn ancient I literally risk exploding every time I’m forced to use it! It’s so obsolete, I don’t even know why–”

“So you admit that it was you!”

“I confess to having used said machine before at some point in time,” Han pointed out cheerfully. “Nowhere in that statement, however, did I confess to setting off the fire alarms.”

“You really are a lawyer, aren’t you?” Cassian pointed out.

“I don’t know, sometimes I think he got his degree off the internet,” Leia glared, causing Han to furrow his eyebrows and exclaim,

“Oi!”

“I don’t know why you’re all still arguing, there’s clearly only one solution here,” Jyn pointed out. When both Cassian, Han and Leia all turned to stare at her, she shrugged and said, “Leia’s pissed because she’ll be missing pilates. It’s hot as balls out here. Make him do pilates as punishment.”

“I like this plan,” Leia said with a smirk, turning her folded arms onto Han.

His expression was stricken. “But this is a new suit.”

“On the ground. You’re working your core.”

It was as good as a confession when Han finally conceded and allowed himself to get ordered into doing crunches on the hot grass.

At around 3.30pm, the late-snack munchies apparently ran rampart throughout the office.

You couldn’t so much as rustle a protein bar wrapper without getting at least ten people’s heads popping up from over their cubicle walls like meerkats, all in search of who had the coveted snack. Therefore, whenever Cassian wanted to eat his trail mix in peace, he usually ended up seeking refuge underneath Jyn’s desk. The only downside was that he had to share as payment.

“God, I could live off this stuff,” she said with her mouth full of pecan nuts and M&M’s. “Only an hour and a half to go.”

“Only four weeks to go,” Cassian said. Jyn pulled her chair out from her desk then so that she could glance down at him.

“What? You’re halfway through already?” she asked. “It feels like you’ve been here forever.”

Her tone changed slightly with her words, though Cassian couldn’t figure out how. Jyn had never exactly struck him as a overly cheery person, but she could laugh. She could smile. But now she wasn’t doing either and maybe that was because now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen those laughs or smiles directed any anyone other than himself, excepting maybe Bodhi and the occasional prank on Draven. He didn’t know what that meant, or even if it did mean anything (not to mention that he berated himself for even thinking that he might want it to mean something in the first place).

“I know,” he forced himself to say casually. “This place is nuts, but I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t want to leave.”

“Then don’t.”

“Sorry?”

He stared at her a moment as Jyn swung back to her desk. She gestured for him to come up and he clambered to his feet to join her. She was pulling up an open tab on her computer screen, which if he wasn’t mistaken at first glance, looked like a job vacancy for somewhere within Alliance Industries. Jyn pointed it out and said,

“The lady on maternity leave who’s desk you’ve been using – she told Mothma that she’s not coming back anymore, so the job’s open,” She nudged him with an elbow and added, “You should apply.”

“No… really?” Cassian peered at the screen closer. “Wait, what does the title say, I need to know what this job fucking is–”

“‘Reporting and Data Analyst’, apparently.”

“Well, that is moderately unhelpful,” Cassian muttered. But on a louder note, he added, “but I can’t apply – I haven’t even finished my studies yet, I have another entire year to go!”

“Oh, who needs a fucking degree?” Jyn waved a hand.

“Seriously–”

“You might think I’m joking, but I’m serious too – look –” She pointed out a headline that said ‘Potential applicants should have the following’. “They don’t even specify a degree, they’re asking for shit like ‘experience with leadership’ and ‘positive attitude’. Plus they know you! You’ll have worked here for two months doing this sort of thing, I’ll bet if you applied, you’d be guaranteed an interview, if not the job entirely.”

Honestly, it was a serious consideration and a tempting one at that. He had heard their CEO Mothma talk on more than one occasion about how she always preferred to hire within the existing company, that it was ideal since the candidate would already have affiliation with them and know how things worked and operated. Not to mention the appeal of staying and working alongside Jyn for however long he wanted, rather than having to face the bright red deadline of a few weeks from now when his internship would be over…

But he glanced up at her hopeful face and realised that there was a much better candidate who should apply, rather than him.

“You should do it.”

“I’m sorry?” Jyn snorted.

“You should apply!” Cassian insisted. “We both know you have the knack for it, you just pointed out that you don’t need a degree, and you already work for the company! It would be better pay, work that you’re more interested in… Jyn, you should honestly do this.”

She shook her head, scoffing. “You’re out of your mind. Gimme more trail mix.”

He handed out the bag exasperatedly and she practically snatched it off him. “You’re being stupid,” he pointed out. 

“And you’re hogging the snacks!”

It seemed that she wouldn’t discuss it any further, since his attempts at pushing the subject fell on distractions and otherwise deaf ears until eventually, Draven tracked him down and forced him back to work. Still, as he was being practically frog-marched away, Cassian glanced back and noticed her sitting and staring at her computer screen hard. Like her mind was blowing through a million thoughts per second.

She could do it. 

He had to make her see that.

[letsimportanttreecollection-blog]

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I'm a 16 year old girl who just got her license in March. A week after I got my license, I rear ended another car while driving my mom's new car that is insured. We got it fixed and only had to pay the 500 dollar deductible. I do not have my own car. My sister, who is 19, has her own car that is not covered for collision. My dad's car is not covered for collision either. My sister just got into an accident, rear ending someone as well. I really need to get a car next year for work and such but my parents said my insurance would be high enough already with both of me and my sister's accidents. Couldn't I just buy a car on my own and not get collision coverage on it like my dad and sister's cars? Would that be cheaper? I really don't know how car insurance works at all, i only know what my parents tell me, so any help would be appreciated :) Oh, and if it matters, I went to traffic school after my accident to remove the points against my driving record (I think that's what it did) My sister had already gone to traffic school recently for a speeding ticket so she can't go again for her accident.""

I got a speeding ticket yesterday does my insurance go up?

Im a first time driver and have only been driving 9 months and i was caught speeding, yeah i know its silly but it was down a steep hill i was doing 40 in a 30 and there was a police man in his car catching everyone. I was just wondering if by me having 3 points now will my insurance go up and how much by roughly. Im paying 1200 third party f+t on a fiesta at the moment Thanks""

Auto insurance rates question?

How is it when you buy a newer car, your rates increase, while there is no decrease as your car ages? Pure greed on the company's part?""

I want a baby but don't have insurance?

My husband and I just got a new apartment and then got married courthouse style. We have both decided that we want a baby soon but right now we don't have insurance. Is there any cheap option that would cover the entire pregnancy?

Cheapest car insurance?

I'm 21 and I'll be getting a new car in a week or so. I've been in a few accidents (mostly little fender-benders that we didn't claim on the insurance) but about a month ago I flipped my car. I'm wondering what kind of car will be the cheapest to insure? What kind of coverage should I get? And what insurance companies should I look into?

What is the best individual insurance for a pregnant woman?

I just found out i am 5 weeks pregnant and dont currently have insurance. My husbands works and his employer offers insurance for the family for $850.00/mo, which is completely ridiculous and not affordable for us right now. I stay at home with my daughter in Missouri, but we are having a hard time getting medicaid. Any advice. Thanks...""

What are the best health insurance companies with the best plans that covers everything?

Hello, I am in the State of Pennsylvania which is USA. What are the best health insurance companies with the best plans. I'm not happy with free, but people tell me I can't afford plans, and I still do it anyway. I looked at BlueCross. Well, both Highmark, Capital. Capital said they had a Senior PPO plan. I believe that's the name. They have a once year dental plan, but it doesn't cover anything else for the dental. They do have that plan for medical, vision, prescriptions, and the such. What companies, and what plan from that particular company would cover everything, but affordable? I am 29 years of age. I'll be 30 in January. I'm not qualify senior. I do have benefits coming for disabled Medicare of a disabled deceased record.""

Do Car Insurance rates go up when being rear ended?

I was rear ended and it was NOT my fault. I live in California and have State Farm. Will my rates go up?

How much should I expect from the insurance company for these damages to my car?

I have a 99 oldsmobile intrigue, my car was hit on the drivers side between the front and back doors. The front door is really damaged and the rear door has some""

Is progressive auto insurance good?

Is progressive auto insurance good?

I got a speeding ticket. Any estimate of how much insurance premium may go up by?

Got my first speeding ticket in Collingwood, Ontario. Drove 80km on a 60km limit road. Just wondering how much insurance premium rate can go up by... or is there any chance it won't? Would love to fight it, but I live in Toronto and the drive up there is a waste of 4 hrs/miliage/gas vs paying a $95 fine, losing 3 demerit points and having it on record for 3 years.""

Can i get affordable baby health insurance?

Can i get affordable baby health insurance?

Who can I get cheap health insurance through that covers from State to State?

move alot because my bf's job requires him to do so now and again. I have lived in a couple of States in the last year and we are due to move again but his job hasn't said where to yet. Is there a health insurance company that covers most (if not all) States that has reasonable pricing that I could get covered under? I just had a baby a few weeks ago and I am a homemaker with some not very nice health issues so I need to make sure I'm taking care of myself too (especially now). If you have any suggestions, please help. Thank you :)""

Does having a nissan 350z as your first car and a new driver added gonna make the insurance go up?

their are 3 drivers in my family and the insurance is like 200 i think would the bill go way up if a new driver is driving a 350z?

Car insurance problems.?

I've been in a car accident a week ago and I haven't received any phone calls about anything. I sent my police report and my insurance still has not send someone to look at the damage. I want to get this fixed asap. How long does it take before they send someone to look at it. And who looks at it my insurer or the insurer of the other guy?

Car Insurance Question?

Hi, im 16 and 17 in August living in Ireland, and i'm thinking of buying either a Honda Civic 1999-2001 or a Honda integra 1998-2001 aswell, i'm a guy and i'm wondering how much it'll cost to insure either one of them, and also what car is better""

Insurance costs for a Yamaha Majesty?

or Yamaha Morphous? I want to purchase one of these two scooters, although I'm leaning more towards the Majesty. For a good driver with a good record, How much is the insurance on these?""

How much will the insurance company offer for my car?

a couple questions and description..... my car was involved in an accident and deemed a total loss. I was curious on how much the insurance company may offer? the accident was not my fault. i would like to buy it back though and fix it. how much do they usually offer a totaled car back for? its a 1994 honda accord lx with 128500 on her. shes in good condition with a small 1/4 size spot of rust on the left rear fender. everything else is in working condition. its a dark blue/green color. A/C, cruise, good tires, new cd player/ am/ fm, new speakers, new timing belt, distributor and ignition switch. it has a 2.2 4cylinder, automatic. any help is appreciated. interior is very clean, and paint was good condition. thank you!""

Do you think teen drivers are the only ones with trouble getting cheap car insurance?

There was mature man who was very successful in business. I think he was 35 or 40. He finally got his new drivers license and decided to buy a $90,000 car. He bought it for cash, to save on interest on the loan. When he tried to get insurance it was $10,000 a year for liability and collision insurance. He asked if he could return the car, but since it was no longer 'brand new' he would loose $10,000. If he kept it the insurance would be $30,000 for the first 3 years! He kept it.... too bad he didn't know anything about insurance before he bought it! He should have had a cheap car in his name with just liability insurance, for 3 years before he went out and bought his dream car. This would have created insurance history . That together with his over 25 years old status would have cut insurance expenses way way, down.""

Right now Im on my parent's car insurance policy b/c im 17 but im looking to move out soon?

Can someone please tell me how much your car insurance goes up once you are on you own plan. im paying 360 every three months now.

Any affordable health insurance?

i am trying to look for health insurance right now and im trying to look for one thats good any suggestions?

Car insurance for 19 year old?

I currently drive a 2005 Mazda6 (4cyl, 140 hp sedan) and I am under my dads policy. I want to buy a 2008-09 VW GTI which is a 4cyl 200 hp turbo hatch, I want a 2 door, but will opt for the 5 door if it saves a good amount of money. How much more should I expect to pay for insurance with the GTI if on my dad's policy? Will it be cheaper to get my own? Also would waiting until I am 20 to buy the car save more money? I have never had a speeding ticket, I had one minor accident when I was 17, I have had a traffic violation last year, but I wasn't even the driver of the vehicle for the offense, also no points were added to my license for this as I did a traffic course and paid a fine instead. (florida)""

Is it typically cheaper to pay car insurance monthly ? semiannually? or annually?

Is it typically cheaper to pay car insurance monthly ? semiannually? or annually?

Which cars are cheap on insurance for a 20year old new driver? And which cars dont drink petrol fast?

I am doing an intense driving course, i would like advice and which cars aint too high on insurance and also which cars dont drink petrol fast as i know some do!""

What does an insurance broker do?

I know it is something to do with insurance, but that's all I know. What schooling do you need for this job and what is the general pay? What does a typical day usually look like for a broker? Do they work for a company or on their own?""

Will my motorcycle insurance really be 145 dollars a month?

i did a quote online at progressive just to get an idea of how much the insurance would be for a 2005 yzf r6. i am 18 years old had my motorcycles license for 2 years and have been riding smaller bikes for 2 years now the r6 i am looking at costs 6000 with very low miles and an aftermarket exhaust from a dealer and i will be making a 2200 trade in which will go towards the bike but the rest will have to be financed. i heard the online quote is wrong because i didn't use my social security number and is different from the real quote i should get. also the loan will most likely be under my parents name and if u know of what type of coverage i will need since it is financed ive been doing alot of studying but thought id ask on here. i live in wisconsin which isn't a very populated area which should also make a difference if u know anything or need to know anymore just ask thanks alot

List the 5 conditions that must be met by populations to insure stability (no evolution).?

List the 5 conditions that must be met by populations to insure stability (no evolution).?

What is the bare minimum for full coverage auto insurance?

I live in Idaho. I have not yet payed off the auto loan so I'm required to have full coverage insurance. According to some people I am paying too much (about 700 for 6 months), as they are paying far less. I have geico, but from time to time I look around and get quotes, and it is always slightly higher than what I have now. However, that might be because I am opting for coverage I might not need. So the question boils down to, what is the bare minimum requirements for full coverage auto insurance in Idaho?""

Should i be mad at my husband or his mother?

my husband gave his entire paycheck to his mother to pay her bills, She had a bunch of vet bills, her other sons (hes 30ish and has a job w/ insurance) medical bills, and a 1000.00 dollar tattoo, but couldnt pay her bills. our house payment was due and now i cant pay it cause he gave her all this money? also he chewed me out cause i started crying when he told me he did this. Help plese what should i do. p.s we have 3 small children that this could have helped out for food and stuff liek that.""

Is there a grace period for insurance in california on a new vehicle?

How long can you go without insurance after purchase of a new vehicle? I know it should be done immediately but I have other things going on right now and dont have time to get quotes currently. If there is no grace period I just wont drive until I get insurance.

Good car insurance companies for a low cost??

Good car insurance companies for a low cost??

Aetna student health insurance cover accutane?

Does anyone know whether Aetna STUDENT health insurance cover accutane? I don't know whether regular Aetna and Aetna Student are the same. also, for guys who have taken accutane, do we take the ipledge too? if so, how long do we have to wait before taking our first pill?""

Benefits of life insurance?

long term benefits of life insurance

Free term life insurance quote?

How do I get a term life insurance quote online?

""Why do i pay $400 a month for car insurance, is it cause its my first car?""

Why do i pay $400 a month for car insurance, is it cause its my first car?""

Is progressive auto insurance good?

Is progressive auto insurance good?

I got car insurance and it allows me to drive other peoples cars on my insurance?

if i were to buy another car, 2nd car will i be able to drive that without registering to any insruance company? i wont be selling my 1st car, it will still have the insruance, and the insruance it has allows me to drive other cars, but im not sure if the other cars also need insurance from a company""

""Car insurance, advice and help!?""

Im 16. Ive done a bit of research and it looks expensive, so im going to try to be put on my parents plan. I know it depends on their plan and everything, but im just looking for an approximation per month or per 6 months or per year. They have pretty good coverage if that helps, and my dads on geico and my moms on progressive i beleive. i live in miami if thats useful, and i will only use one car if that would make the insurance cheaper (its in their name). Any bit of advice to make it cheaper or any tips would be extremely appreciated. If i could get somewhere around 500 per 6 months that would be ideal. Thanks u guys""

How can you make insurance for your car cheaper?

Young driver and cannot find any reasonable insurance companies at all!

HELP!!! Car insurance - 10 month bonus accelerators and cheapest insurance companies?

Hi has anyone had any problems with a bonus 10 month accelerator policy when renewing??? also any ideas for the cheapest insurance companies especially when paying monthly and being a young driver (only 20)? thank you xxxxxxx

Direct line car insurance?

hi, does direct line car insurance allow there to be more than 2 drivers on the the one car insurance policy""

A car insurance question...?

So... I had a 1998 VW beetle that I traded in today for a 2003 VW beetle. I purchased this car in the state that I am currently in for college (MD). In order to purchase the car I had to get a MD tag. My old car is insured under Farm Bureau in NC. Can I transfer my old insurance to cover this car? I am not a Maryland resident, but NC resident. Any help/advise is greatly appreciated. My 98 beetle was in great shape, but the newer car had more additives like sunroof/less miles etc.... The difference was around $5000 that I am having to pay.. Because of the financing I had to get MD tag and such.. Thanks in advance for your help!""

Can I cancel car insurance before expiration date?

I got car insurance and paid a fee but the expiration date says it ends in one year, I paid for 1 month and now I need to get insurance from another company. Do I cancel the insurance I have now? if I dont will they charge me every month? Or should I just forget about it and let the ppl cancel me off.""

Maintaining car insurance for DMV (lawyers chime in)?

I have a bit of a tricky situation that I can't get a clear answer online. My question is I have misdemeanor on my driving record that is not yet 3 years old. I have moved out of the US for awhile but will be back and some point in the future. I have no use for my current car insurance and as I will be relying on public transportation for everything. For California DMV purposes, do I need to keep my insurance policy up or is it ok that I cancel my policy since I will be off US roads (all roads in general)? I have read a stipulation that requires 3 years uninterrupted SR-22 coverage or something of the like. I would like to get rid of this monthly charge that I'm getting nothing out of but my worry is that negatively impact my driving record at the DMV for not fulfilling insurance obligations. Thank you.""

Insurance estimate on a car?

So right now i have a 2010 nissan sentra SR and my insurance payment is 120$ a month. i have only used my insurance once, and that was comprehensive collision due to some terrible luck, but my cost did not go up. i want to get a 2008 nissan altima coupe 3.5. i am a 20 year old male, never had a ticket, no bad record or anything like that. would my insurance double if i was to make the switch or what would i be looking at? THanks!""

Insurance question?

has anyone been or is currently pregnant and without insurance? I see that it's possible to get individual insurance with a maternity package, has anyone applied for any of these? Does anyone have any experience in this situation?""

Second Owner of a Car = Insurance? (FL)?

This is for the state of Florida. Yes, I could have looked it up, but there are too many answers to get a straight one. Scenario: Say a parent owns a car. They pay insurance. There's an 18-year-old who still has their permit but wants to get a license. They should become a second owner of their parent's car. However, there's word going around that there would be a second insurance? 1) How will the second insurance work? 2) Do you LEGALLY HAVE to have insurance? I'm not sure what else to ask, but, if someone could shed some light on how this has to be done, just let me know. Thanks.""

Most affordable Health Insurance provider for my employees?

I am looking for an affordable Health Insurance Company for my employees. I have 7 employees w/families and no coverage to offer because the prices are outrageous. My compnay is Incorporated, if that factors in. I have already used the sales companies that do this research for me, but I am not satisfied with the results...plus they call every 2 seconds with high quotes.""

What's the cheapest full coverage Insurance?

I want to buy a car from carmart but I need full coverage insurance it's a 06 Chevy silverado...I'm 22 I've never been in a accident or had a ticket around what will insurance cost???

Re. Car insurance?

Anyone work in insurance buisness? I have 2 cars, my mobilty car and a smaller car. I origionally bought it for my wife as she doesnt like driving my mobility car as its too big. I was advised by insurers to keep car in my name, Using my insurance in my name with my wife as a named driver and my 18 year old son who as of yet cannot afford a car as he is attending college and only gets 30 a week EMA if he attends. My wife and I want to give him the car as a joint 18th and christmas present. Now I am stuck if I hand ownership to him and he is pressured into taking out his own policy, my insurance that I have built up over nearly 35 years will possibly be voided and if I need to insure another car in next 3 years after my mobility car is handed back, I may loose my max NCD. Can I legally keep car in my name also my insurance and make him a named main driver, my wife as second and me as third. I have life threatening illnesses and want to give my kids their own cars. cont'd""

""Any opinions on good home insurance companies in Anchorage, AK?""

Just shopping around for good home insurance. Currently have accepted offer for our first home, and want to get the best home insurance rates.""

Does one speeding ticket make your insurance go up?

i'm 16 and never had a ticket...i think it's state farm insurance.....i'm in california

Car insurance for temporary work in California?

I have a 4 months of temporary work in California and I am thinking of taking my car. My current car insurance will not cover driving for work purposes in California. What is the easiest way to get car insurance for 4 months for California?

Auto Insurance in 2 States?

Folks I am dealing with an issue that involves 3 cars 3 drivers ( my wife, my son and I) and 2 different states (my son away at college) the insurance companies are thiefs trying to stick it to me. Even though my son is at college more than 1250 miles away from home the insurance company still charge me for him, I bough him a car and since he is in another state my insurance premium is almost triple. Any ideas? remember 3 cars 3 drivers and 2 states my son at college with a new car. Will it be cheaper if he gets his own insurance? Help is needed and much appreciated""

How to get my stolen car's value back from insurance?

Hi, my car was stolen from a repair shop that I had left overnight for maintenace work. I say they are negligent for not securing the keys. I filed a claim through their insurance and through my insurance thinking mine would go after them and give me a fair price for what I payed, not the current market value. I heard about the arbitration. Any suggestions on steps I can take to recover more money? plus why should I pay the deductible? Shouldn't I receive money from both insurances? I also incurred other expenses, I had to spend money on notaries, lost time from work, gas money making all these trips for the investigators etc. Thank you very much for any advice.""

Should my car insurance company be forced to cover preexisting conditions?

After all, liberals want preexisting conditions be covered for health care. What's the difference? I want them to fix that dent in my front end that was there when I bought the car.""

Insurance for 250 Ninja?

I will be buying a new 2011 Kawasaki Ninja 250. I'm 18 yrs old. We will pay the bike in full..... How much will be my insurance on this bike? thanks

19 Y/O searching for health insurance advice?

I am 19 years old, I will be starting college in late August/early Sept. as a full time student at comm. college. I am not employed and my mother supports me. unfortanatly, she ...show more""

How can i get my car insurance quotes down?

i have just passed my driving test for a full license in the UK, i am 18, male and after looking at several different websites (some comparison ones and some direct ones) i have found that for what is considered a good first car (no more than a 1.2 engine) i am likely to be paying the minimum of 4000! and this is just for third party and theft. i am wondering if there is any way i can get this number down.. can anyone suggest a good insurance company or anything like the pass plus that will lower it by a reasonable amount? or even a specific car that is generally cheaper than others. any help would be appreciated!""

BEST HOME INSURANCE for a town house in allwntown Pa in the USA?

What would be a good home insurance for my town house in allentown PA.. i am looking for something good and affordable ANY IDEAS

Who has the cheapest auto insurance in California?

I have a second car that has been inop and I want to sell. I only need insurance for about a month.

Is progressive auto insurance good?

Is progressive auto insurance good?

How can I get a fair replacement cost by the auto insurance company when my car is totoaled?

my car is being paid off by the other person's insurance company, not mine.""

Trying to find cheap car insurance!! Help!!!?

Whats some cheap car insurance companies out there?? Not allstate, geico and etc..""

Question about medical insurance?

how can i find out whether or not my medical insurance is expired or not? i have medicaid and i was told i should receive a letter about the matter in the mail but i haven't yet.

The cheapest way to change insurance to a new car whilst keeping current car insured whilst i sell it?

Hi, I am 20 years old and I have just bought a new car. I am trying to find the best and cheapest way to change my current insurance ( with one years no claims) to my new car and then i need to insure my old car whilst I sell it. My current car insurance policy on my car runs out on 15th February 2013 and I have cancelled my renewal. I have received the renewal which is proof of my no claims which will be transferred to my new car. Another question is... can I claim the one years no claims on my new car whilst it still runs out for a week on my old car? I have looked at temporary insurance for my current car but this was almost 400 for 28 days?!?!? If insurance companies want me to do it the legal way, they are not making it very easy! Any advice on the best way around this would be great. I know it's confusing! Thanks, Adam White""

Help. I've missed two car insurance installments by accident and now they want me to pay the rest in full.?

I've stupidly missed two payments. Not on purpose. I'm pregnant and at college with exams and I'm due in March so my mind is trying to focus on revising, focus on saving money to buy baby things with (which we still need to buy most stuff). and focusing on bills etc. Anyway. How can I still be insured but avoid having to pay them the rest of the due fees for my contract term? An idea I had was to cancel it, and then start new insurance with another company? I would have to pay a new deposit and to cancel the old insurance I would have to pay some money as well. Any other ideas?""

What is the Best & cheapest insurance in Texas?

I drive a 1989 Toyota Camry, I just go to and from school (less than 2 miles away) i only drive the car like Mon. & Wed. and yet i have to pay like 150 for car insurance, in 6 months of paying, i pay what my car is worth. So i wanted to know is there any cheap insurance i dont care if they suck or anything like that, i just want something below 100 dlls. so please tell me which insurance you use and how much you pay a month that would really help. Thank you in advance -Angela""

Adding a teen to the insurance with past accidents?

I take my license test exactly one week from today. I have all the insurance papers that I needed from my driving school. do I wait until I get my license to get on the insurance or can I do it now so that I'll be on there for next week? also, when I had my permit, I had two minor parking lot accidents that my dad had to take the blame for. Now that I will be on the insurance can I tell them it was me so that I will pay for the increase directly to the insurance company or should I just pay him the difference of what it is now and what it used to be each month? because I know his driving record will follow him for life. thanks in advance!""

How does car insurance work? do u have to pay for it monthly?

i'm buying my first car and am confused as to how car insurance works. i know its better to have insurance before driving your car off the lot but how does insurance work? do you pay insurance monthly liek you do for a car note?

Insurance company wants to total my car/not insure it.?

So my dad rear ended someone really softly, but it was a truck that he rear ended with a hitch or something that damaged the grill and the bumper. Problem is, I put a total of $2700 to have transmission replaced and the engine repaired after the timing belt broke and caused damage over the last 2-3 months. It is a 2004 dodge neon and the body to these things are flimsy to begin with. I'm taking it in Monday to get it looked at better, but they said from what they could see it might be a total loss. Which means its only gonna be worth $2000. they said they have to replace the hood, the grill, and the bumper and other stuff which is **** because I know people who could fix these problems for less than $500. they aren't even visibly bad, a few dents in the places i mentioned but when i took it in they reacted like i had been in a head on collision going 50 mph. It runs perfectly, we wouldn't have even reported it except we were worried the guy might claim injury after the fact (which he did). What can I do? This is my only car, and I am already in debt from student loans. $2000 isn't gonna buy me a new car. How can I convince them not to total it when I take it in?""

How much will my auto insurance go up if I am at 100% fault?

I was in an accident recently where I was found to be at 100% fault - accident was not too bad-- other car's front bumper dent-- How much should I expect my insurance to go up?

Does a ticket make ur car insurance go up?

ok so im not going in to details about how this happened but basically i got a ticket for driving on the wrong side of the road. will that make my car insurance go up? im 16 if that makes any difference to it...but some telll me it will and some tell me it wont help???

2 door sports car insurance costs?

I've been seriously looking into purchasing a 06 Hyundai Tiburon or an 04 Nissan 350z. I'm 18, and everytime I mention it to my parents, they ALWAYS bring up the fact that we ...show more""

Report old ticket to insurance company?

I am looking to get new car insurance, and I had a failure to control ticket over 2 years ago, which means that it is no longer on my driving record in my state. When filling out insurance information, it asks me to report any violations in the last 5 years. If my ticket is not on my record, should I still report it to the insurance company?""

Can someone provide best independent health insurance i can buy thats affordable?

I have been chewing tabaco for about 8 years i am 26 years old my teeth havent rotted out yet, but i have a very tiny bump on my tonsils (which i think its just irritated) However to ...show more""

2000+ Toyota Celica Insurance and More?

I'm a 16 year old boy and expecting to buy this car for about $6,000 in August. I am looking for details such as mpg and insurance rates for a 16yo boy buying this car. I heard the mpg are really good on this car but will it be worth it if the insurance is high? Help me decide and give me other car ideas under the budget of $7,000 -Cory, CT""

How much is insurance on a 2008-11 Honda Accord Coupe Ex-l V6 for a teen?

I want this car for graduation and I want to know how much would insurance be? I live in a small town

With geico does insurance increase once your child gets a drivers permit?

With geico does insurance increase once your child gets a drivers permit?

What Car insurance should i get at 18 years old?

I am an 18 year old who is unemployed. I need car insurance that is cheap and is helpful. I need to know how much insurance is.

Car insurance?..........?

Who gives the cheapest car insurance?!

What is the cost for home insurance based on?

I am thinking of buying properties in other states to use as rental income. The properties are cheap so i can afford to pay cash the issue how ever is that the rent is also cheap in Update : Yes i know being a distant landlord is difficult so if it makes economic

""Car insurance decreases, when? 26 yrs old?""

I started driving when I was 22 years old, and never had an accident. Right now, I'm 26. I pay $116/month for insurance, which I think is kinda high. The vehicle I drive is a 2006 Hyundai Eantra. Car insurance is: Erie Insurance http://www.erieinsurance.com/""

My auto insurance covers anybody who drives my car...is my teen covered? I cannot afford to list him....?

Me and my teen have a car. I have both cars listed on my insurance with full coverage. If he is not covered is there an insurance company that will cover a driver of his age without ...show more

Can i get insurance then put modifacations on my car?

Hi i am getting a mk 2 golf and will be modding it out with rims tint lights and lowering suspension. If i get the insurance quote at 4grand and then put the mods on the car is it a year of cheap insurance or do i need to tell them i have altered the car? Thanks.

How much is Progressive auto insurance for one car?

I'm 18, almost 19 years old and I recently figured out that with American Family Insurance that my parents have for me, I'm actually paying like $40 more than everyone else in my family just because I'm a young male driver. I think that our current insurance company is total **** so I wanted to look up how much a different company would be (in this case progressive because it seems to be one of, if not the best insurance company out there). But I went to their website, and I couldn't find jack about how much car insurance would be with them. I saw stuff like discounts, information about bundling (or something like that), but not a goddamn thing about how much it would be to be insured by them. Am I just looking in the wrong place, or do they just not list their prices unless you talk to an insurance representative?""

""I got into an accident using another person's car, do I get the insurance?""

I was using my friend's car with his permission. Somehow I got into a small accident, which I hit my friends car while taking reverse in a petrol pump. Do my or my friend's insurance company cover the expenses?""

Is progressive auto insurance good?

Is progressive auto insurance good?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/home-insurance-i-buying-my-first-georgia-need-what-should-peterson/"

[prorevenge]

Call me a terrorist and threaten my pay? Enjoy your nuked careers, yuh heathens.

warning: very long story. tl;dr is at the end.

I used to work in hospitality in a metro known for it's obscenely huge tourist population, you know, the city built around the Mouse. I was a manager for the recreational division of the hotel. So one day, my boss (who we'll call Mary for the purpose of the story) comes into the shared managers office and starts rummaging around for something, and strikes up a small conversation about work related minutiae with me. It's important to note she is actually 2 tiers above me, but was acting as head of the department while searching to replace my previous boss who recently quit (great guy by the way, huge loss to the company).

As we're talking, she abruptly stops and says "By the way, you need to shave your beard, you look like a terrorist and I don't employ terrorists". Haha, funny joke between colleagues, right? Nope. I am half Indian and I do look middle-eastern, and have been taking this kind of shit since middle school. Plus, we're not close, at all. So I reply as calmly as I can muster, "Hey, I get you're trying to be funny, but on my end it comes off as pretty ignorant, so I'd appreciate it if you chilled out with the terrorist stuff" to which Mary retorts "Oh, I'm ignorant? We'll see how ignorant I am during your annual review", and proceeds to walk out of the room in a huff. My jaw dropped so low I could taste the floor.

You would think it was an easy fix, right? Go to HR and all. She's made rude comments like this before. I've refrained from contacting HR because I didn't want to be petty, but now she threatened my pay, and that's no bueno. So I go to HR like a good boy and tell the HR director, who we'll call Boyd. I explicitly ask him not to mention it to anyone, just to log it away in case someone else reports something similar and he can establish a pattern of behavior. Well, Boyd decided that he simply must talk to Mary about it. I stress again that I am not comfortable with it, since she strikes me as the vindictive type. No good. He promises there will be no retaliation and tells me he'll contact me later for a statement (which I thought was weird, why not make a statement now?) and that was that.

About a week goes by and I follow up with Boyd because I've been getting some less-than-pleasant vibes from Mary. Nothing substantial, but odd. When I ask what happened, he tells me "Well it appears that Mary was just joking, but she has agreed to never say anything like that again. Your annual review is not in jeopardy"... ooooooook. At that point, I decide to just let it go. Fast forward a month, a new Director for our department is hired and surprise, surprise, it's her roommate and former front desk supervisor, "Joe". Ok, cool. I'm used to the nepotism because the entire hotel basically operates that way, whatever. Never had an issue with him, didn't know him too well but I'm happy our little hive has a leader again. Man, how fucking naive I was.

From the get go he is unpleasant. Snide comments left and right, changing my schedule at the last minute every week or scheduling me on my established days off, giving away opportunities to my peers that I'm never considered for, making me take "improvement classes" none of my peers have to take. All strange but up to that point nothing "earth-shattering", until one day I get written up out of the blue (first ever write up btw), for "refusing to inform a superior of leaving the premises", referring to me leaving the day prior without literally saying the words "Hey Joe, I'm leaving for the day".

1) This is not an established policy written or otherwise. When I say I'm leaving, it's a courtesy. 2) I know for a FACT my peers don't always say when they leave (personal observation), and was corroborated by them after asking around. 3) Knowing that my peers aren't held to the same bogus standard AND having never been written up for it, I know this is a direct shot at me. My review is fucked. Best part? Joe let it slip that MARY asked for me after I left and when it was found that I was indeed gone, she REQUESTED the write-up. That was fuck up #2, lady. #3 came when Boyd decided to cover his own ass when I approached him with all the evidence pointing to retaliation and discrimination in the workplace. I learned he never properly documented his discussion with me or Mary, and that he's been basically playing the whole fucking thing by ear. I decided to write my long past due statement then and there, turn it in, and e-mail a picture copy to the corporate office. I tell Boyd that I am sorely disappointed about how he handled the issue, and he responds by accusing me of "dramatizing" the whole ordeal. He was very flippant about the whole thing, rolling his eyes and everything. K, buddy. I see you now.

So finally, we've reached

THE REVENGE

After some time, I scrounge up all the evidence I can. My write-up, my co-workers write-up records (with their permission), company policy manuals, my schedules for the past month (including the bogus classes only I was made to attend), my co-workers schedules, witness statements (from peers when Mary has said other demeaning things), and a few others items. Next step, I tell off Joe, because fuck him. I make sure he is VERY angry when I leave. You'll see why later. After crossing my T's and dotting my I's, I resigned with a two week notice.

That night, I type up a letter to the EEOC and attach all my evidence. I mention Mary, Boyd, and Joe by first and last name. I hint that I am pondering a lawsuit. A few weeks later, I have my girlfriend call my old job pretending to be a potential employer asking for a reference. I give her the extension to Joe's desk. As I predicted, he slanders the ever-loving shit out of me (straight up lies, even got my resignation date wrong along with my attendance record, all verifiable, helping my case). I tried the same trick with Boyd, but he was smart enough to point my GF in the direction of a third party reference dialer the company is supposed to use for these kinds of calls. I proceed to send my old employer (corporate included) a Cease and Desist letter with a transcript of the call, hinting I may sue for slander.

THE RESULT

Some time passes, and the other day I'm at the bank with my GF, I get a call from an old co-worker. I miss the call, but I resign to call him back later. Less than an hour later I get 5-6 calls and texts informing me that Mary, Joe, and Boyd were all fired the same day and walked out of the building. Mary cried. Apparently, the corporate office was contacted by the EEOC and launched their own internal investigation, matching their records with my evidence. The EEOC sent me a return letter with the companies statement, which was fallacious as fuck (due to their interviews with the 3 stooges), but nonetheless I suppose they decided it was easier to nip it in the bud and sack their asses to be safe.

Karma may be a bitch, but in this case, she had nothing to fuckin' do with it.

TL;DR: Boss A makes racist joke and threatens my annual pay raise, two other stooges get themselves involved and a few months later I get all three of their asses fired the same day.

(source) (story by dragongrl)

[swordarkeereon]

21 Things You Need to Know About Writing as a Career Before You Quit Your Job. #amwriting

I know – I know! Geez, Steph, way to piss all over someone’s dreams. But I don’t think people really understand what it actually takes to sell and THRIVE as a self-employed writer, and a lot of that depends on your personality, your productivity skills, your strengths, your motivation, your weaknesses, and whether or not you have someone to support you. A lot of people THINK they want to be career writers, but mostly because they think it’s fun and easy. Sadly, a lot of people will publish books, get nowhere, and give up. Or writing and publishing will be a hobby and nothing more — and that’s okay, too.

Being a writer full-time is cake-walk when someone else is paying the bills. But alas, most of us do not have that luxury. We are either self-supporting (meaning if we don’t work we don’t get paid, and we don’t eat), or our income, combined with our partner’s income, is required to keep us afloat. Long gone are the days when a single income could support more than a single person, and hell — oftentimes single incomes can’t even support a single person these days with the price of everything through the roof.

Do I make a full-time-living from writing. Well, yes. But also no because aside from the publishing company, I help to run our family business, and it bounces me around like a yo-yo, while at the same time helping me be the sole income earner for my family. But the bulk of my income, about 80% of it, comes from writing.

Do I love the writing life? Absolutely. I love spending time alone. My time really is my own. Aside from days I spend at the family business doing payroll, accounting, and HR, I can pretty much do what I want, when I want. I can sleep in. I can go for a walk in the middle of my day. I don’t have to punch a time clock. I can take time off whenever I feel like it. Sounds great, right? But I also work, on average, about 70 hours a week. Even if I didn’t split my time between our other business and the publishing company, I would likely work the same number of hours because for me, it would mean more time for writing.

Career writers work LONG hours. If you expect to have a ton of free time, career writing may not be for you. Sure, I may take a day off to read, but I always split that reading time between a marketing or craft-of-writing book, and something I want to read for fun.

Career writers never really take vacations or time off, even when they do. If you like the 9-5 and being able to leave work at work — forget it. You won’t get that being a career writer. Every shower, every walk, every trip to pick up groceries, every vacation — I’m thinking about the book, article, or story I’m working on, different marketing strategies, or my to-do list when I get back.

Career writers have to think long term about their schedule, their savings account and budget, and their marketing strategies. If you’re bad with marketing, scheduling, or budgeting, writing may not be for you. Writers often get paid upon publication, once a month, or every 3-6 months. You don’t get weekly or bi-weekly paychecks like a normal job and you have to adjust to that. I already have books/projects scheduled into 2022, advertising scheduled a month or six in advance, and I keep the savings accounts as full as I can just in case I have a shitty month. It sometimes happens and writers have to be prepared for that. You should probably be good at juggling your finances.

Career writers have to be self-motivated and somewhat disciplined. There isn’t a boss to give you direction, or a co-worker to really help you when you get stuck (that’s what writing groups and research are for). I make a choice every day about being a full-time writer. I can either wake up and binge watch Netflix, or I can get up and sit my ass in front of my computer and work on the current project. Be honest with yourself. Are you self-disciplined enough and self-motivated? This doesn’t mean you need to write every single day. I don’t. I only write 4-5 days a week. Others do write daily. But when I do sit down to write, I can often produce 3K to 5K (or sometimes more) in a day.

Career writers must be prolific. No one ever made a career on a single book alone. So if you only have one book in you, a career in writing may not be for you. If you want to do well** at this gig, you need to publish a new book 2-6 times (minimum) every year just to keep yourself in front of readers.

Career writers must be tech-savvy. In this day and age, not being tech-savvy is a huge handicap. You need to be comfortable with computers and adaptable to changing technology and a constantly changing publishing industry. The more tech-savvy you are, not only the more time and money you save, but also the easier it is to deal with things like updating your website, running a newsletter, or automating your social media.

Career writers may sacrifice certain things to make their dream a reality because the reality is we each only get 24 hours in the day and sometimes you can’t FIT everything you want into that 24 hours. So you have to give something up to have time for the thing (writing career) you want. One of the things I often sacrifice in favor of my work is house cleaning. If it were just me, it likely wouldn’t be so bad and I could call in a housekeeper once a week. However, it’s me, my husband, and three very messy cats. While day-to-day like laundry, dishes, wiping down frequently used surfaces, cooking, and litter tray cleanup is habit for my husband and me – vacuuming carpets, scrubbing tile floors, dusting, and deep cleaning is not something done on a regular basis. I usually take a day off each month just to do those deep cleaning chores.

Career writers often have a lot of things on the fire for different income streams. They write fiction. They write articles. They may be contributing to anthologies. They may write company policies on the side. They may be ghost writing on the side. They may also write non-fiction on top of the fiction. They may teach classes or sell items related to their books. I have yet to meet a career author who doesn’t have some kind of side income related to their writing that isn’t direct income from book sales.

Career writers often don’t live glamorous lifestyles full of parties and social events. Most of your working time will be spent in front of a computer, writing. But – what about all the cool travel, conventions, and conferences? You have to remember that conventions and conferences may be “fun” and “educational” for attendees, but for the writers who are speakers, presenters, or vendors at these events – it’s part of our job. We’re not there to have fun. We’re there to work. That’s not to say we can’t have fun doing our jobs. I have a lot of fun at Denver Pop Culture Con because that’s my scene and those are my people. It’s one of the reasons I do that con year after year. If we have fun while we work – that’s a bonus. Let me just say that some events are more fun than others. So it may look like we’re just having fun all the time, but never underestimate the pain of a solid conference crash that keeps you from writing for days when you get back home. Outside of conventions, conferences, or writer events – I don’t attend parties or social functions outside my small group of friends. I haven’t done that since I was 21, back in 1993. So if you’re looking for the party life, a career in writing may not be your thing.

Career writers must be able to work alone for long hours After all, writing can be a very solitary career. If you’re a person who needs other people around or you start to go a bit stir crazy, you may not be prepared for the long hours spent alone with yourself. I’ve never found this to be a problem. I love being my own boss and spending hours alone with myself. I’m a natural introvert. That’s not to say I can’t be extroverted. I go through phases of wanting to be social. But I am quite happy nestled in my office working. I also have a group of supportive author friends who I get together with through video chat on a regular basis. That’s enough to satiate my need to hang out with others. Only you would know if that would be enough for you.

Career writers can fail, even after they succeed. So if you think once you succeed you’ll automatically be a billionaire, being a writer may not be for you. This can be a feast or famine career (which is why the most adaptive authors diversify their income by doing different types of writing or working as a writer for hire). It’s not like if you have one successful book you’ll be set for life. Unfortunately. If traditionally published, your traditional publisher may not offer another contract after you work out the current one. Meaning you have to go find the next contract, just as if you were starting all over again. If indie published, your last series may have sold like hotcakes, but your current series didn’t go over as well with readers, and is barely moving. I’ve had each of these scenarios happen to me and somehow, by the grace of my readers and my muses, I’m still here.

Career writers must be persistent. See #11. If you give up or get discouraged easily, a career in writing is not for you.

Career writers must have thick skin. If you fall apart at the first sign of criticism, writing is DEFINITELY not for you. There is no such thing as an author that every reader, everywhere, will love. There’s always going to be that one reader who hates your work and is going to share that in a review. Career writers don’t let the haters get to them. It’s part of the job. And if you’re saying, “But Steph, I have nothing but good reviews!” — then my response is — you haven’t had a book that sells well enough to get bad reviews yet. Or your work isn’t visible enough yet. Give it time. Eventually you’ll get *that* review, and when you do, you’ll know that people you don’t know are actually reading your work (or that you have haters, which means you’re visible at least).

Career writers may eventually have to hire support staff. If you’re a control freak or don’t want to run a business, being a writer may not be for you. Because you can’t do everything and still be able to focus on the writing. I resisted hiring help for years. I’ve had a personal assistant for a few years to help me deal with websites, emails and scheduling, but he wasn’t able to help in areas I really needed help. Just this year I finally hired a person who manages my social media, and that freed up my time to write considerably. Does it cut into my profits? Yes. Unfortunately. But it was worth it to me because I need to be writing — not looking for memes and articles to post on my author pages. Just like I hire editors, cover artists, attorneys, and accountants as needed, because I don’t possess all the skills to do all the things, plus I don’t have time to do everything.

Career writers have deadlines. If you don’t work well under pressure, a career in writing may not be for you. I’ve always excelled under the pressure of a deadline, but not everyone does. Now, I can’t say I’m fond of pre-release pressure (since that comes with a penalty for non-compliance), but I know what I want to get done and I bust my ass to meet those particular deadlines. I’ve always been that way.

Career writers must be organized. There are a lot of dates that need to be coordinated with marketing, release dates, beta reader copies, editors, cover art, contract deadlines, etc… in the publishing world. So if you’re disorganized and you start missing deadlines, it’s going to throw your life into chaos and you’ll be racing to get things done, or losing contracts as a result. Or you may over schedule yourself and find yourself sinking. Been there. Organization is still something I struggle with, but I am getting better at it.

Career writers must have some self-confidence. A lack of confidence can greatly hamper your career by keeping you from doing the things you need to do to make that career work. So if you’re going to go for it, I want you to start working on your confidence now. Even if you don’t feel confident, learn to fake it. From pitching a book to a buyer (whether reader, editor, or agent), to doing an interview or podcast, to just casually chatting with folks at events – a little self-confidence makes the job a lot easier.

Career writers can’t afford to care what others think (unless they’re paying you a hefty sum to write what they want you to write). This means that your stories are your own and readers, friends, family don’t get a say. Writers who care too much what others think are likely to balk at sending stuff out, or publish something different. They’ll play it safe for the sake of not upsetting anyone, or to please a certain person or group. This can kill your career faster than you can read this article.

Career writers must be able to focus and finish. To sell your work, you have to be able to write, and finish, a completed manuscript. This means there’s no time for hemming and hawing and edit-forever syndrome. If you’re a perfectionist – start working to get over it because nothing is perfect. If you are having a hard time focusing on finishing your creative work, writing as a career may not be for you.

Career writers love to read and read often. If you don’t like to read, you definitely shouldn’t attempt a career at writing. I’m a slow reader and even I manage to read 30-50 books a year (not including my own or the books I read for my publishing company by other authors). I’ve always loved to read and have been a voracious reader since grade-school. Most of the successful authors I know, when they’re not writing, they’re reading.

Career writers are business owners. You are basically self-employed and have to keep receipts, hire/fire people, pay your quarterly taxes and any sales tax from events etc…, and pay all your writing related bills. You have to collect on contracts, stay on top of your sales reports, make sure everything goes out on time, coordinate your team of people. All things anyone running a business does. So if you don’t want to be a business owner, career writing is not for you.

So think carefully when it comes to your choice to become a career writer. Be honest with yourself. Career writing is not for every writer.

**As in $40K + every year. I say that because a lot of writers can make $10K-$12K a year writing. As a matter of fact, $10K-$12K is what a good majority of traditionally published writers make after the IRS get’s their cut, the agent get’s their cut, and they’ve paid for all their convention stock, marketing, and travel expenses. Ouch!

[askpetethelibrarian]

Oh, boy.

Here is a post from a librarian FB group I’m a part of. I’ve crossed out identities because, well, I don’t think they’re necessary. It may help you to know the OP and the second comment are the second person. 

I also want to say that I’m not 100% clear whether this is asking about a police ban or something else. The comment makes me think this is a police ban, so that’s how I’ll address it. 

Okay, let’s get into it. 

Let me start by saying that I don’t mean to share an opinion or idea on how justice can be attained or advocated for. I don’t have those answers, and I don’t want to pretend like I do. 

I also don’t think that advocating for justice is a bad thing on any level. However, this particular method has some issues beyond the immediately-apparent.

The obvious starting point is that we can’t do this. Barring someone from library use, libraries being a government-funded institution, because of their 100% legal occupation, also government-funded, might be a winner amongst some online, but it’s not going to be a winner in a legal/financial sense, and it’s not going to work. We could try, but I can just about guarantee that the best result is a legal case that costs us some minor amount of money and a significant amount of time. That’s the GOOD result. So, while a statement would be made, I estimate it would be a VERY costly statement, which is not a good use of taxpayer money at a time when library budgets are hurting (or, arguably, under any circumstances). To put this in perspective, libraries have lost more than one court case while attempting to bar white power groups from using public spaces for meetings in the library. If you can’t ban an outright white power group, there’s no way this one’s going to fly. 

The other obvious one, if we look at Philadelphia as an example, the math there is that there are over 1,000 black police officers in Philadelphia. So, barring police from the library in the interest of helping out with the campaign for black lives is leaving a group behind. This is likely an already difficult thing for the people in that situation, and I think cutting out their library access isn’t helpful to anyone on any side of the argument.

The last obvious one, if a library allows people access to information and ideas, I don’t see how creating an undereducated class (police, by the way, often being undertrained and undereducated) contributes to the cause, here. 

Let’s talk real world logistics:

These are some basic questions that need to be resolved before you could ban police from the library.

How will you identify officers, and how will you enforce the policy? Not to be too cute about it, but...who are you going to call to remove police officers who refuse to leave? A policy that cannot be enforced isn’t a good policy.

What will be the library’s response if there is a police protest of this? If this has the reverse effect of INCREASING the police presence at the library, as most libraries cannot prevent people from demonstrating outside, what’s the plan?

What is the security plan? Some libraries are pretty chill and do fine without calling on any type of security. Some definitely are not. I know many have spoken about reforms and bringing in psychologists and whatnot to these situations, and while I think there’s merit to those ideas, the library can’t just say, “Oh, we’ll wait until that’s ready.”

What will be the library’s response if the community, in majority, is against this policy? I understand there may need to be a way to look at this other than a majority vote, but I do think the community, as a whole, should be allowed to weigh in on this idea and express their ideas and concerns.

Is this an idea discussed with the black community, and what is their take on it?

What is the plan in the case that the promoted lack of police presence results in an uptick in problematic behavior to the point that something must be done? I’m not saying this will happen, and maybe everything will be fine. But those familiar with public service understand the need to prepare for this sort of possibility.

How will the library handle library users who call the police themselves? 

Can HR and insurance needs be accomodated? Can staff be asked to work in an environment where they do not have access to police? 

Okay, now let’s talk solutions

I don’t like to harp on someone else’s ideas without providing some possible solutions of my own. 

My solutions definitely water down the idea. I think this is necessary in this case, because I think without being watered down, it just won’t be successful. I don’t mean to water down the idea of campaigning for black lives, but to talk about methods that have a higher probability of being, well, real. 

Option: Ask officers using the library to come in plain clothes I have a friend who works with career fairs, and one of the controversial attendees is ICE and Border Patrol. Through various back and forth, they’ve essentially found that they cannot legally tell these folks that they are disallowed from the fairs. However, they have had a lot of success asking these folks to show up in regular clothes and without any weapons or tactical gear. These agencies were very receptive to this suggestion and have abided by it. I think it would be very reasonable to ask that police using the library come in plain clothes. 

Option: Reducing police presence To be harsh for a sec, most of the times that police are in the library, it’s because we’ve called them. I recommend training and the book by Ryan Dowd. His stuff deals with homelessness and libraries, but the principles of conflict resolution and de-escalation apply to a lot of situations, and he does a good job making it specific to libraries and library staff, who are often not physically intimidating people. Rather than banning police, why not see if we can learn to resolve conflicts in ways that prevent them from being called in the first place.

Option: Identify common areas of conflict When you have called the police in the past, what initiated that conflict? Do you have a policy against people sleeping or policies about people’s stuff in the library? Can those policies be removed or altered in such a way that they’re easier to enforce and easier on the people that violate them?

Option: Hiring security Now, this one’s dicey because you have to do it right. You can’t half-ass it and hire some security company that pays the guards minimum wage. Trust me on this, you will get what you pay for. Are you willing to look into the possibility of hiring and training your own security that’s better attuned to library needs and who are trained to work with patrons the way you’d prefer? 

Option: Who You Gonna Call? Do you have a number that allows you to call paramedics without police? How about the number of the nearest homeless shelter? Do you have a number for a counseling center, and do you have relationships with them that might help you come up with ways to deal with common problems that don’t involve police?

Overall

I think this idea comes from an overall good place, if I’m giving the benefit of the doubt. But I think this idea is also so rife with problems once it comes to application that it’s not even really worth discussing. What I do think is worth discussing is the idea that police presence can be greatly reduced by doing a few simple things that are well within the library’s control. 

The big thing here, you won’t get to crow about it. You won’t get to tell everyone how you did this thing, bravely standing between police and library users. The options I’m suggesting are slow and subtle. But I think they’re also effective. 

And that’s the question I’d pose: Do you want to be able to tell everyone what a good, big thing you did, or Do you want to do what’s most likely to help the most people?

[biasedwriting]

Tales of a Consulting Firm ||11||

Find all parts here

We love feedback so you can ping either @vixxscifiwritings / @animeotakupooh or me :)

Warning - really long. Prepare yourselves because @animeotakupooh and I went a little nuts here

 “What's this?” Minah asked when Sanghyuk put down a card in front of them.

“Seems like a wedding invite” Haneul hazarded a guess.

“You won't believe who’s wedding it is” Sanghyuk said sourly.

“Who's is it?” Minah asked picking it up. Haneul sipped on her lemon tea. The two of them had been going over possible restaurants for Hakyeon’s dinner since said man was out of office.  They had decided on the cafeteria since Minah had been hungry and Haneul had been craving lemon tea. That was till Sanghyuk appeared, pushing an envelope to them.

“No freaking way” Haneul started to laugh.

“Yes way. I'm even a guest of honour” Sanghyuk grumbled.

“Guys, context?” Minah asked, feeling left out.

“Im Jimin is getting married. To Han Yesul” Sanghyuk told her.

“Great. I'm happy for them. But I should know them because?” she prompted. Sanghyuk just grumbled while Haneul took a moment to compose herself.

“Im Jimin is an ex employee. He was amongst one of the first set of people we worked with. Unfortunately, he quit a while ago. But while he was here, Sanghyuk was the person who set him up with Han Yesul unwillingly” Haneul explained. Minah blinked.

“How do you set someone up unwillingly?” she asked the pair.

“Well… this requires a little bit of  back story” Haneul told her. Minah nodded and she continued while Sanghyuk shrunk in his seat. “When the HR department was setup, Sanghyuk had the brilliant idea of an anonymous harassment reporting system. Except not every complaint lodged on it was harassment per se” Haneul continued.

“So one day Jimin lodges in a complaint saying that his co workers keep eating his food. And Sanghyuk brilliantly replied that he should not eat lunch with his team” Haneul explained.

“That does not sound like a brilliant solution” Minah said with an incredulous tone.

“I was being sarcastic” Sanghyuk protested.

“Well it never carries over text. So the next day Jimin ended up in Sanghyuk’s office to eat lunch with him instead” Haneul put in. Minah stared at her as Haneul broke into a fit of giggles.

“What did you do then?” Minah asked, looking at Sanghyuk.

“I ended up finding another lunch partner for him. No points for guessing who” Sanghyuk told her.

“More like bullied. Yesul was his assistant at the time and he basically ordered them to go eat together” Haneul put in.

“She quit us too. A few days before you joined us actually” Sanghyuk put in. Minah nodded, apparently Sanghyuk was not just a HR head, but a matchmaker.

“I have a question,” she said, sliding back in her chair to stretch her legs out Sanghyuk eyed her suspiciously but nodded for her to go ahead “why haven’t you set the trio up?” she finished, throwing a Haneul a smirk as the head of tech choked on her lemon tea.

“Listen, leave me out of this,” Haneul grumbled as Sanghyuk rolled his eyes “maybe he should focus on setting you and the boss up.”

“He will do nothing of the sort. I don’t understand why you think Jung Taekwoon, the boss man even likes me.” Minah frowned at Haneul as Sanghyuk fought the urge to roll his eyes at Minah’s obliviousness.

“What Sanghyuk should really be focussing on is firing the employee who has been sabotaging client meetings.” Hongbin said, entering the cafeteria and pulling a chair to join the group. The three turned to the handsome man who was now frowning.

“What’s the scene?” Hyuk asked, pursing his lips.

“Well, there have been rumours going around about Song Jungkook. That kid still on probation? You remember him.” Hongbin looked at Sanghyuk, who nodded.

“Oh yeah, I remember going through his file. He hadn’t given in a letter from his previous employer, though.” Minah wondered out aloud. Sanghyuk had said they were rather particular about those since he’d be holding full-time jobs in two organizations and that would make him not very trustworthy.

“I needed to follow-up on that.” Hyuk mumbled, maybe it was time he hired more people for his department. He turned to Hongbin “so, he’s been mucking around during client meetings?”

Hongbin sighed “you know how I don’t let the new ones pitch on their own, Jungkook sits in with Changhun, yes the one with the really bad bladder control, and apparently every time he leaves the room to take a leak and comes back, the relationship with the client has soured.”

“That’s awful.” Haneul frowned as Minah nodded, trying to figure out how exactly it was happening. Sanghyuk hummed, his mind was already at work with a plan to catch this Song Jungkook fellow in action. His fist landing on his palm was what snapped everyone’s attention to him as he declared.

“I have a plan!”

The sighs around him were the typical reaction to every time Hyuk came up with one of these plans. They leaned closer to him as he spoke in a hushed voice, raising his index finger almost to prove a point.

“A sting operation.”

“Listen Sanghyuk, this is serious.” Hongbin glared at Sanghyuk who pursed his lips, his eyebrows furrowing.

“I know it is, but this is the only way we can confirm that the man is doing something that could sabotage company relations. We’ll send someone in as a client and then see how he behaves. You can give the entire meeting to him in fact. We’ll know for certain then.” Sanghyuk said, turning from Hongbin to Minah “I trust you can put on a disguise for it.”

“Hey hey, why am I getting involved in this sting operation business? Hakyeon will need me to be at his division, so leave me out of this. You’re the one who put me in there for an extra week.” Minah exclaimed as she vigorously poked the Human Resources head as Haneul watched the three now squabbling over this, a thought occurred to her.

“Have we decided on what we’re doing for Hakyeon though?” causing the three to turn around and gape at her.

“Haneul. Priorities.” Hongbin said as Haneul shook her head.

“Priorities - Hakyeon leaving or firing kid on probation?”

“If you put it that way…” Hongbin mumbled but Sanghyuk’s brain buzzed furiously.

“You have to do it,” he said turning to Minah “you’re new and people in the office don’t know you yet.”

“Of course they do, Hongbin literally put me up for display.”

“They didn’t recognise you without your glasses.” Sanghyuk shrugged as Minah glared at him.

“So should we do a picnic?” Haneul asked Hongbin who rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Nah, that will make too much of a ruckus with the office. Also it seems like a school field trip.”

“What the hell Sanghyuk, I know I signed up for almost anything but I am NOT walking in as a heiress to the GDU Group. What is the GDU Group? Did you make that up?” Minah argued as Sanghyuk shook his head, standing up to leave as Minah stood up to follow him, still outraged.

“How about a properly organized MT? And we’ll give him twenty six birthday gifts over the day?” Haneul put in as Hongbin nodded, agreeing that it was a good idea. Looking up, he noticed the youngest two had disappeared.

Taekwoon on the other hand bumped into Sanghyuk who was now following a pouty and sulky Minah saying “Listen, you’d look beautiful in it, you just need to wear it, walk in and do your bit and walk out! I’ll even book that nice meeting room. Just please dress up all pretty and come won’t you.”

Taekwoon didn’t particularly understand what was going on, but he didn’t like it one bit. He was going to have to investigate what this meeting was all about. He grabbed a cup of coffee and followed the two of them out. Haneul exchanged a look with Hongbin before breaking into a grin.

“If you are thinking what I think you are thinking then I am not getting involved. No wonder he calls you Monster” Hongbin said shaking his head.

 “But you know that BossCat likes Duckling. He just needs a gentle nudge” Haneul insisted. “No he doesn't. He is an adult who will figure his feelings out. You on the other hand have work to do for Hakyeon” Hongbin reminded her. Haneul pouted, mentally deciding to trouble Taekwoon later. “Also speaking of figuring things out, you shouldn't leave Jaehwan and Wonshik hanging either” Hongbin said with a winning smile. He laughed as Haneul protested causing hearts to melt across the room.

Meanwhile Taekwoon frowned, closing the door to his office that he had just opened (which Jaehwan noticed as suspiciously cat like behaviour for the next set of doodles) and walked towards the HR department instead. As suspected he found Minah and Sanghyuk in his office. Minah’s hands were folded in exasperation while Sanghyuk was making puppy eyes at her. “I thought harassment was against HR policies. Why are you harassing Minah?” Taekwoon asked.

“Why can't I harass Minah?” Sanghyuk asked, only to receive a whack from Minah.

 “You're not supposed to harass anyone” she told him. Sanghyuk smiled sheepishly.

“Which brings me back to my previous question. Why are you harassing Minah?” Taekwoon asked.

“I'm asking her to help me out” Sanghyuk told him.

“With what?” Taekwoon asked.

 “Top secret” Sanghyuk said, zipping his lip.

Minah just sighed and facepalmed. “Sanghyuk wants me to act as a rich heiress and a potential client to find out if Song Jungkook has been sabotaging client relations. A sort of sting operation” Minah explained. Taekwoon gave Sanghyuk a look.

 “That's the stupidest idea I have ever heard” he told Sanghyuk. “Why does everyone keep saying that? It might be the only way to find out how he behaves with clients. And have my plans in the past ever failed?” he asked gesturing to Minah. “I even got two people together” he added, holding up the wedding invite from earlier.

“You're not harassing Minah for this. If you want I'll talk to Jungkook” Taekwoon told him. Sanghyuk raised an eyebrow sceptically. He stood up and checked Taekwoon out, taking an entire circle around him. “This could actually work” he said, nodding to himself.

 “I don't even know anymore” Minah said to herself as Taekwoon hit Sanghyuk on his shoulder. “Just trust me on this!” Sanghyuk said, dragging Taekwoon out of this office and god knows where. Minah just blinked wondering why she worked for this place. She nearly screamed when Sanghyuk came back and dragged her along too. What in the world was happening in his head?

--

“Jungkook” Hongbin called, trying to hide the exasperation in his voice. Haneul had died of laughter at the plan while Wonshik had to placate a troubled Hakyeon who had protested to Minah’s involvement. But Jaehwan had suddenly been inspired for more Boss Cat comics and the group had gotten busy with that instead. Hongbin was probably the only one who was cringing from the awkwardness at the entire affair.

“Yes boss?” Jungkook asked. Hongbin smiled his business smile. “I have a couple of clients coming in at 11 for a business meeting. It's kind of impromptu but it will be good business to get a marketing partnership with them” he explained. Truthfully he had forgotten everything Sanghyuk had cooked up so he settled just for making them important. “You want me to accompany you for the meeting?” Jungkook asked him. “I am busy so I was actually hoping you take the lead on this one” Hongbin lied.

He could tell that the marketing team was confused by his decision. Everyone had definitely heard the rumours and if these clients were this important then why was their boss trusting him? “Really?” Jungkook asked, surprised himself.

“Yes. I have booked the large conference room on the 2nd floor. Important clients you see. Be ready to receive them at 11 and then for the meeting” he told him before leaving.

“I won't let you down boss!” Jungkook replied. Hongbin cringed internally. This was going to be horribly awkward.

“This is going to be very awkward” Minah complained.

 “This is madness” Taekwoon agreed. It was forty minutes past ten in the morning and the two of them were sitting in a rented Mercedes car around the block from the office.

“You can do it. You just have to act like you are rich heirs from that drama” Sanghyuk assured them.

“I don't pay you for this nonsense” Taekwoon growled.

“You actually don't. I assign my own salary and Hakyeon is the one who finds the money” Sanghyuk told him. He exclaimed loudly when he got hit again. “No hitting the driver!” he reminded them.

“This is madness” Minah said again when Hongbin texted them saying the meeting had been set up.

A rather elaborate plot had been set up. Minah and Taekwoon were to play a rich couple poised to inherit a large conglomerate. Chaebols in essence of the word, who were looking for a happening young company to advertise for them. They were supposed to act rich and spoilt and Sanghyuk had ensured so by making Minah dress up in a dress and heels and all made up like a doll. He had also gotten Taekwoon to dye his hair brown (only because he had been thinking about trying it out for a while) and had his hair up making him look like a model in a dark grey business suit. Minah screamed internally at the sight. Taekwoon looked the part.

“All you have to do is remember this.  You both are going to be owners of the GDU group. It's a very successful company. And you both have been born rich. In fact your families instantly disliked each other because you were competitors but love prevailed. And now you've been happily married for two years and are expecting a child” Sanghyuk told them.

“What the hell. Do I look pregnant to you?” Minah yelled. “I have a solution to that” he told her, throwing a small cushion over to the back. Minah hit him with the same pillow. All of a sudden a hand pulled him out. No one had noticed Taekwoon get out and come over to the driver’s side. Taekwoon held Sanghyuk up by his collar.

“I was only kidding” Sanghyuk said weakly. Taekwoon silently dropped him on the sidewalk before getting in and driving off. “I need coffee” was the only explanation offered as Minah turned back to see Sanghyuk waving his hands about and yelling after them. “A new Starbucks opened up three blocks away” she told Taekwoon. Both of them just silently agreed not to talk about this anymore.

--

Hongbin and Haneul seemed to be the only ones who cared about actually planning Hakyeon’s birthday out. Jaehwan said he was working on some banner for Hakyeon’s birthday and Wonshik simply shrugged and said he had no idea. But with Sanghyuk causing enough drama in the office, there was not a single moment to sit down and figure things out. Haneul had gotten everyone to agree to the idea of doing an office outing in Hakyeon’s honor. Maybe even extending it over the whole day or two where they could start off by looking at the sunrise (something Hakyeon really liked doing) and ending it with a bonfire and relaxing after a day of fun and frolic (also something Hakyeon enjoyed). Maybe they could take an early bus to the closest hill station, watch the sun rise, have some fun activities arranged, and then stay the night there and come back. Wonshik said he had a few contacts for that so it could be done easily and with the least amount of expense to the company.

“What about the twenty six gifts over the day idea?” Hongbin asked, sighing at the three who now sat across him in his cubicle. He could see the curious faces from around peeking at them making him roll his eyes.

“Well, Haneullie and I can go pick stuff up. I can even design a few doodles for him and get them printed out on different things.” Jaehwan piped up as Wonshik raised his hand.

“Yes Wonshik, this isn’t a classroom you know?” Hongbin chuckled.

“I can go with Haneul while Jaehwan arranges for the doodles and stuff to be printed. I mean that would take up time. Plus you have your Jungkook to deal with.” Wonshik said, making Jaehwan pout.

“I want to spend time with Haneul.”

“As do I, but Hakyeon’s stuff is priority here.” Wonshik replied.

“You know what, you figure the MT out, Jaehwan can do the doodle and printing, Hongbin can deal with this whole...uh...mess that Sanghyuk is creating. And I will go and buy stuff for Hakyeon.”

“They threw me out of the car and drove away!” Sanghyuk squealed, storming into the cubicle which was now extremely cramped. Sometimes Hongbin wished he had an office to just deal with these idiots.

“Wait, what?” Haneul asked turning to Sanghyuk.

“Taekwoon and Minah threw me out of the car when I told them she was to be pregnant with his child and now they’ve driven off somewhere.” Sanghyuk grumbled as Wonshik shook his head and Jaehwan laughed.

“No shit they drove off! You idiot.” Hongbin growled, slowly losing faith in Sanghyuk’s sanity.

“Sit down and help us plan Hakyeon’s birthday now that your sting operation is bound to fail.” Jaewhan said, patting at the tiny spot left on Hongbin’s table which Sanghyuk squeezed into.

“Are we really going to do this?” Taekwoon asked Minah.

“Not as elaborately as Sanghyuk hoped. Maybe we can just go in and I can go back to work while you take the meeting time to talk to Jungkook?” Minah suggested.

“Seems like a plan. Maybe I will call Hongbin as well” Taekwoon agreed. They nodded, picking up their coffee cups and getting out of the car. They went up to the fourth floor where the office was located and Taekwoon stopped by the receptionist to ask her where Hongbin was.

“You must be Mr and Mrs Im” Jungkook said spotting the pair. “I was worried but I understand that traffic is horrible in the area. Please come along. We've set up the meeting room on the 5th floor” Jungkook told them. He ushered them along before the receptionist could point that it was in fact his boss and colleague and not a client. Minah shared a look with Taekwoon who was just as perplexed.  

“It would be good if you can tell your clients apart from boss and colleagues” Taekwoon said when Jungkook stopped talking. Minah pitied the guy because he just seemed nervous at having to deal with important clients. “I’m not your client. In fact I'm the CEO and Minah works in the division right next to yours” Taekwoon told him.  

“It's an honest mistake really. You must have thought we looked like someone else” Minah said, stepping in because Taekwoon had looked really intimidating at the moment. Taekwoon wanted to say something but Minah tugged at his sleeve and shook her head slightly.

“Mr and Mrs Im have cancelled the appointment. I'm sorry you had to waste your time” Taekwoon told him before walking away.

Jungkook nodded and turned to Minah worriedly. “I am so sorry. I really thought both of you were a rich chaebol couple from the way you were dressed. You even had matching coffee cups!” Jungkook apologised. “That's because it's Starbucks. Everything is the same coffee cup” she laughed.

“So you just went out to get coffee with the boss?” he asked, a little confused. “It's a long story” she said with a facepalm. “Okay…” he said warily and she instantly knew there would be rumours and trouble now “let’s just say that we happened to see each other in the same coffee shop. That is all.”As if she wasn't teased enough by the group.

Jungkook nodded to her before leaving just in time to hold the door for Hakyeon who walked up to her fuming and whispered “Why did you not tell me that you are pregnant with Taekwoon’s child? And why are you drinking caffeine? That is bad for babies!”

Minah was going to kill Sanghyuk. Turning to Hakyeon she hissed “Do I look like I have any relationship with the CEO of this company? Let alone have his baby? Also, do I really look pregnant?!” she began undoing the scarf around her neck which Sanghyuk had insisted she wear for the more ‘classy’ look (which she declared made her look like an old lady). Hakyeon eyed her and shrugged.

“Well, you guys did look like a couple when you tugged at his sleeve and shook your head. And Sanghyuk told me...you were pregnant.” he mumbled as she shot him another glare, now choosing to look for the makeup wipes in her bag to wipe the dolly gunk off her face. That was when the door flew open again and in walked Lee Joon with his slimy lizard face.  

“Ah, always wonderful to walk into a lovely sight,” he said grinning as he approached Minah who cringed at his voice “did Hongbin tell you I was coming in today?” he asked, completely ignoring Hakyeon’s fierce glares in his direction.

“Uh, unfortunately, he didn’t.” Minah said, as the inner office door flew open again and Hongbin came out with his business smile on.

“Ah Mr Lee, glad you could make it, do have a seat I will be with you in just a second.” he said, indicating to Joon to take a seat as he  gave Minah a look over and turned to Hakyeon and her “so apparently Jungkook is a good kid and the reason that meeting didn’t go too well was actually because of Changhun getting up to go to the toilet multiple times. I’m glad you didn’t go through with that sting operation.” he whispered as the two sighed in relief.  

“Will Minah be joining us?” Joon asked from his seat as the office door was gently pushed open again and Taekwoon walked out, still in his Chaebol glory looking a little awkward only to straighten up when he caught sight of Lee Joon.

“Mr Lee.”

“Mr Jung.”

Joon was nearly half a foot shorter than him and Joon could only dream of intimidating Taekwoon. He looked up at Taekwoon who now stood next to Minah as they held matching coffee cups and wore matching grey clothing almost like they had planned on it.

“Unfortunately, Minah has to work in my department, so she will not be joining you for your meeting.” Hakyeon piped up, ending the glaring match between Taekwoon and Joon as Minah stood looking around rather confused.

The door flew open for the millionth time and Minah was ready to whack the person walking in, which was Sanghyuk (all the more reason for her to want to kill him). As he loudly and proudly declared

“Everyone please keep your weekend free! In honor of Hakyeon’s birthday we are going on an MT!”

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