#also she should have spots on her face that looks like a pencil moustache

[spicy-apple-pie]

Alfred the cat should be a girl cat send post

[rockthistowninsideout]

18.08. Profession AU

Digimon OTP Week Part 5

Rating: General Audiences Pairing: Taichi/Sora Words: 1467

In which Sora is Taichi’s new colleague and their boss organizes a “bonding event” to bring the team closer.

It was a bleary Monday morning, much too early to function and the coffee machine had gone defunct. Again. Everyone groaned and grunted as they gathered in the meeting room where their boss had ordered them to come.

“Good morning everybody” she said much too cheery. “I hope everyone had a great weekend and we can start afresh and motivated into the new week. You will also have something you can look forward to.”

“Yes, the next weekend, to drown our misery in gallons of Gin Tonic”, Taichi muttered and the few of his co-workers standing near him laughed.

Their boss overheard it, or at least pretended so, and continued. “On Friday, after the end of the work day, we will all go to an Escape Room as an after work treat. Recently, we have employed many new consultants and we want to give you all the chance to get to know each other better. That’s why we will now draw the lot. The number you pick will be the group in which you will be attending the game.” She went around, holding out the box for everyone to pull a scrap out of it. Taichi had drawn the number one.

When everyone had a number, the boss unveiled a flip chart were the numbers from one to five were written on it. “Please, everybody put their name under their respective number and, please, form a line.” It was indeed necessary to add this as everyone had already prepared themselves to rush forward at the same instant.

***

On Friday afternoon, the whole department trudged off to the nearest tram station, no one in fact was in the mood for some “bonding games”, as their boss had liked to call it. Some had speculated on pretending to forget, but this proved to be impossible. Constant reminding e-mails had flooded their inboxes and after the Friday lunch break they had found a neatly hand-written invitation card on each of their desks. This, however, didn’t stoke the anticipation for the event; on the contrary, they all just wanted it to be over. Now.

So, after a silent tram ride, they arrived at an old and stately red-brick building at the edge of the town’s park. Their boss herded them into the airy entrance hall, where she ordered them to separate into the groups they had established on Monday. Taichi saw himself surrounded by Iori, the shiest person of the ward, Miyako who was the most intelligent of his co-workers, and one of the new consultants, a red-haired woman with a motherly expression. She came over to him and bowed slightly, greeting him.

“Hello, my name is Sora Takenouchi. I started working here only two weeks ago.”

He smiled and extended a hand. Though not the slightest intrigued by the prospect of solving a riddle like a ten-year-old, he wanted to start on good terms with his, admittedly rather attractive, new co-worker. If she behaved like an old shrew, he could leave her alone soon enough. “My pleasure. I’m Taichi Yagami. I actually have more fun plans for a Friday afternoon than playing detective in a closed room” he replied, flashing her a smile to show her that this was way below his level, and hopefully, below hers, too. But he was wrong.

“What, like drowning your misery in gallons of Gin Tonic?”

He scrunched his face, not believing that she really remembered the remark from Monday morning.

“You will be surprised, those things are actually fun. The colleagues from my old place and I went there once, and we had to investigate a Mafia hiding place and who had murdered them all. All this was fictional, of course, but, mind you, when you’re knee deep in a very realistic setting you can easily forget that and start dreading the arrival of more Mafia members with every minute passing by.”

Taichi was not yet convinced but just then the head of the Escape Room appeared. He all gave them blindfolds and then herded them out of the vestibule.

“Your task today is to find out what your suspicious neighbour is up to. You have sixty minutes to search through his garage. Should you not manage to do so, he will catch you in the act and nobody knows how he will react but it will be probably rather unpleasant. So hurry but don’t rush through your investigations or you’ll miss crucial details.” With that he left the room and locked the door.

They took off their blindfolds and saw themselves surrounded by a very authentic garage. The walls were lined with shelves and low sideboards on which stood tools and other car maintaining equipment. Nothing seemed off at first but then they turned and looked at the gate. A map of the city was pinned to it, covering it completely. Threads of red, green and blue wool spanned over it, twisting and entwining on several points marked by thumbtacks. It was not obvious what the threads or pins meant but it was clear to them that it certainly wasn’t something pleasant or legal.

Taichi, who always felt a little like an alpha, clapped his hands to get the others’ attention. He had totally forgotten his dislike for the whole undertaking. “Right! Whatever this Mr Wheeny is up to, we will find out and probably also sabotage it while we’re at it. I suggest that Miyako and Iori have a look at the map to collect as much information as possible from there. Sora and I” he turned to her to wait for her consent. When she nodded, he continued “will sort through the shelves and cupboards. We still have fifty-five minutes left; that should give us enough time. Let’s go!”

Miyako and Iori were already at the map, studying it carefully. Miyako had managed to sneak a pocket book and pencil inside, and she was now turned with her back to the installed camera to hide the notepad from view, as such aids were actually not permitted. Iori whispered to her, examining a huddle of thumbtacks in the upper left hand corner. Sora had knelt down in front of the very right hand cupboard and was pulling out drawers. Taichi did the same on the opposite side. In the first two of Sora’s cabinets there wasn’t anything suspicious. Spanners, screwdrivers and a small set of scissors was all she could find. But when she opened the first drawer of the next sideboard she let out a small gasp, loud enough for Taichi to hear. The other two were too engrossed in their study of the map to pay attention to it.

“What is it?” Taichi asked, subdued excitement showing in his voice.

“These are German newspaper clippings from the 70s” she said and sorted through them. “About the... RAF? What is the RAF?” She turned to Miyako and Iori. “Hey, any of you capable of speaking German?”

Miyako didn’t even seem to listen but Iori turned and nodded, then walked over to them. He scanned the articles and his face went pale. “So, from what I get is that the RAF - Red Army Party - were a left-wing terrorist group in the FRG in the 1970s. Their procedure was to kidnap people, famous and not famous, and blackmail the government. They also committed several murders.”

Sora and Taichi looked at each other in shock. Miyako, undisturbed from it all, finally trudged over and beamed at them. “The points marked on the map are all places critical to the public. They include the town hall, several administration buildings and from what I know also the homes of several politicians and famous people. I just don’t know yet in which way they are related. But I’ll get to that now. I mean, we still have nearly forty minutes left. What do you have here?” Still oblivious to her surroundings, she grabbed the clippings.

Sora, Taichi and Iori exchanged worried glances. It had dawned on them all simultaneously that the places on the map could be scenes of possible crimes. Taichi opened his mouth to say something when, suddenly, they could clearly hear a car outside. But that was impossible. At least, they thought it so. They still considered themselves somewhere near the vestibule in the big brick building they had entered about an hour and a half ago. Frozen to the spot they stood as the gate slowly started to roll upwards.

Strong legs in dark denim and worn cowboy boots came into view. They watched in horror, unable to move, as the gate - a real garage gate, not just a replica in play room - gradually revealed a hunky man in a light blue shirt and with a huge brown moustache. He had narrowed his eyes.

“What the hell?”

@digiotpweek