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thefinalcinderella · 5 years ago

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Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru Chapter 3 - Practice Begins (Part 1)

Hey I’m back (for real). Still aiming to finish this novel by the end of the year

Full list of translations here

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“They didn’t get up.”

“They sure didn’t.”

Five-thirty a.m. in early April was, if anything, close to the domain of nighttime. The early-rising birds were singing slightly out of tune. The sound of a newspaper delivery motorcycle’s engine was quietly fading away on the road.

The only ones standing in Chikusei-sou’s garden were Kakeru and Kiyose.

“Kakeru, was last night’s enthusiasm an illusion? ‘We absolutely will not give up, we will dedicate our bodies until we become the wind itself, we will give everything we have and aim for the mountains of Hakone!’ Didn’t they say all that?”

“I didn’t say any of that. King-san just got everyone fired up.”

He was pretty sure that Jouji and Jouta had also been pumping their fists in the air with King, but the three of them probably didn’t remember that. They had quite a lot of alcohol in them, Kakeru thought inwardly, but kept quiet so as not to provoke Kiyose.

Kiyose, who hadn’t considered the influence of alcohol, seemed to have grown impatient. “I’m gonna wake them up,” he said as he disappeared through the front door.

While stretching, Kakeru gazed at the eastern sky that was brightening in a pale pink color. From inside Chikusei-sou, he could hear the sound of a ladle or something striking the bottom of a pot. As though unable to put up with the racket any longer, Nira emerged from beneath the porch and sprawled out. Kakeru played tag with Nira in the yard.

When Kakeru’s body had completely warmed up, the residents--whose faces were puffy from waking up--came out of the entrance, being dragged by Kiyose.

“Now first, let’s build up our speed and stamina to qualify for the preliminaries.”

Kiyose said it with force, but the response was not quick; they were all listlessly staggering around, like seaweed that had been washed up on a shore. Kakeru gently supported Jouta, who was swaying while spreading his breath that stunk of alcohol.

Kiyose continued to speak without paying them any mind.

“This morning, let’s run right to the Tama River bank. We’ll check everyone’s level and I’ll set up a practice plan.”

“What about breakfast? I’m hungry,” Jouji appealed diffidently.

“You can eat right after waking up? So young.” Nico-chan yawned loudly and scratched his dishevelled hair. Next to him, Yuki was sleeping while standing up.

Kiyose completely ignored the drowsiness and hunger and discontent that was jumbling up together.

“Breakfast will be after we run. Now, let’s go.”

“You said to the bank, but I think it’s five kilometers there from here,” Prince said, turning pale. “Are we running a ten kilometer round trip? So early in the morning?”

“You can run at your own pace. It’ll be a piece of cake.”

Kiyose forcibly urged the grumblers onward from the grounds of Chikusei-sou. He was like a sheepdog watching a flock of sheep from a reasonable distance. Musa and Shindou took the initiative and followed Kiyose’s instructions, and the two of them took King by the arms and reluctantly started running.

“Let’s go,” Kakeru called out to the twins. “Your stomach will hurt if you run after you eat. It’s easiest to run when you’re a little hungry.” He lightly clapped Jouji on the back and pressed him to move forward, encouraging him.

By the time they got to the bus road, Prince was already gasping for breath.

“I might be able to meet up with you guys at the bank in about two hours,” he said while progressing at a speed not much different from walking.

“Kakeru, run ahead.” Kiyose didn’t rush Prince, only watching him quietly. “I’ll be the anchor. You record everyone’s arrival time.”

“What is an ‘anchor’?” Musa asked Shindou.

“It means the person at the tail end,” Shindou answered, moving his legs nimbly with the same air as usual.

The group, which had set off from Chikusei-sou at almost the same time, was beginning to spread out in accordance with the differences in their abilities. Kakeru broke free of the procession and started running at his own pace. The sounds of the breathing and voices and footsteps of nine people were washed away in the blink of an eye.

It had been a long time since he had run with someone. But in the end, he was by himself. You couldn’t share speed and rhythm with anyone, because it was your own.

As they ran, the sky grew brighter and brighter. The areas on the way to the riverbank were almost completely residential. They crossed over the two tributaries of the Tama River, Senkawa and Nogawa, cut across a large field and passed through an upscale neighborhood on top of a small hill--it was a course rich with ups and downs.

The embankment of the Tama River was visible beyond the rooftops of the houses. When the air was clear, the Tanzawa Mountains and Mount Fuji were visible in the distance, but it was hazy that morning.

Kakeru, running up the embankment, looked down at the water’s surface; the mist was hovering along with the current. There were only a few old people exercising and people walking their dogs scattered here and there along the bank. The Odakyu Line crossed over the railway bridge, and inside the cars were already packed with people heading to their jobs or school.

The greenery of the banks sparkled with dew in the morning sun. Because it wasn’t good to suddenly stop running, Kakeru slowly went back and forth along the top of the embankment. He had run to the banks at a speed of one kilometer per three-and-a-half minutes. For him, it was a markedly slow pace for only five kilometers. However, none of the other residents of Chikusei-sou had arrived yet. While cooling down, Kakeru looked between the road and his watch.

It was twenty-five minutes since they had departed from Chikusei-sou when the twins, Shindou, Musa, Yuki, and King finally arrived at the bank. King was panting heavily and looked like he was in pain, but the other five had composed looks on their faces.

“You guys look like you can still run,” Kakeru said.

“I have no idea about that,” Jouta said while showing interest in the function of Kakeru’s watch. “I’ve never consciously run 5k or anything like that before. We couldn’t figure out how fast or how far we could run, so we all took it kind of easy coming here.”

“I’m hungry,” Jouji said, not caring about the beauty of the morning dew and tearing up the grass growing nearby. Yuki stretched himself out on the damp embankment, trying to devour the rest of his interrupted sleep. Shindou and Musa, with nonchalant expressions, rubbed King’s back.

These people might by some miracle be suited for running, Kakeru thought. They were currently still inexperienced and hadn’t got the hang of it yet, but at least they didn’t seem to hate running.

Did Kiyose anticipate this? Shindou and Musa seemed to have enough basic stamina, and the twins and King apparently played soccer; for soccer, jogging would be incorporated in their training, so they should be used to running. Even for kendo, Yuki’s sport, they did long training runs and didn’t develop bulky muscles, which made him well-suited to long distances.

He thought they would give up right away, but they might actually have a chance. Looking at everyone who had finished running, Kakeru changed his thinking a little. Of course, it all depended on the practice from now on, but it was just as Kiyose had said—there was definitely hidden potential. Kakeru had sneered, “I’ll just go along with it half-heartedly,” but he was starting to feel like he couldn’t walk away.

“You have to relax your body after you finish running.” Kakeru shook Yuki awake. “Please run back and forth along the embankment slowly. After your breathing becomes regulated do some stretches, and then you can sit down and take a break after that.”

He wasn’t good at staying still and he still felt like running that morning. After Kakeru taught them how to stretch and entrusted his watch to Jouta, he decided to go and meet up with Nico-chan, Kiyose, and Prince, who still hadn’t reached the bank.

Right when he came down off the embankment and out into the road, he immediately ran into Nico-chan.

“Oh, Kakeru.” Nico-chan was desperately running while gasping for breath. “My body feels heavy, my lungs are in pain, I can’t do it.”

It seemed that during the long period of time he was away from track and field, Nico-chan’s body had completely forgotten how to run.

“I guess I’ll have to quit smoking and start dieting first,” Nico-chan said while heading towards the bank. Kakeru parted from him and went back further along the way he came.

At the foot of the residential area on the hill, Prince had collapsed and was lying lifelessly on the ground. Kiyose was squatting down while holding a bottle of sports drink, looking after Prince.

“Has everyone already arrived?” Kiyose asked, and Kakeru nodded.

“I just passed Nico-chan-senpai.”

“He’s slow.”

“He said that he’ll quit smoking and go on a diet.”

“That’s a good attitude. What about the others?”

“It was a little less than five minutes or so per kilometer.”

“What do you think of their running?”

“It seems that there’s still room for improvement. For people who have never run seriously, their forms are well balanced.”

Mmm, Kiyose looked satisfied. However, there was an unresolved problem: the presence of Prince, who was currently collapsed lifeless on the roadside.

“Um, is Prince-san okay?”

“Like hell I am,” Prince himself answered. “I don’t even want to stand anymore. Kakeru, carry me back to Aotake.”

If it was running long distances, then he could do it no matter how long it was, but he had no confidence in carrying something heavy. With Kakeru at a loss for words, Kiyose shook his head and said, “Nope.”

“Walking is fine too, so let’s go to the bank. It’s important to experience the distance of five kilometers with your own feet.”

Kakeru surprisingly felt the patience of Kiyose. Until they started running, he had been acting as the despot of Chikusei-sou who invoked strong authority and pressured people with the dinner menu. After they started running, Kiyose seemed to have the policy of respecting everybody’s own pace. He was trying to quietly watch over everyone as they ran to the end with their own strength.

Haiji-san is a bit different from the managers and coaches I knew until now. Kakeru suddenly felt restless. At the time, he didn’t realize that it was because of the anticipation sprouting in his heart. Since Kakeru had never met a ‘mentor he could get along with’, he had been unknowingly smothering his expectations.

“Can’t I at least take the train home?”

Kiyose wordlessly rejected Prince’s proposition.

“If you walk, you’ll want to start running before long,” Kakeru told Prince, immediately forgetting the tremor that had occurred within him. He himself had been bad at taking his time walking since he was a little kid--as soon as he could move his legs, he had been running before he knew it. It was faster to reach his destination that way, and the feeling of the wind on his skin as well his quickening heartbeat felt good.

“There are people who hate exercise, you know.” As if to say ‘good grief’, Prince stood up. “Oh, a butterfly.”

Turning around to follow his gaze, they saw a butterfly that looked like white flower petals about to flutter across Kakeru and Kiyose’s backs. Right then, the morning sun cast a smooth and pale ray of light from behind the eaves of a house on the street corner.

For a while, the three watched the butterfly cross the band of light.

“Let’s walk without rushing. If you do that, you’ll be able to run,” Kiyose said. It was directed towards Prince, but at the same time, his tone sounded like he was also telling it to himself.

Like a butterfly dancing with the wind, people stamped their feet against the ground and ran. For Kakeru, it was a process that was more natural than breathing, but there were also people for whom that wasn’t the case. How strange, Kakeru thought.

Until now, the only people Kakeru had associated with were almost all people who had set themselves on doing track and field. A large part of his life was taken up by practice, and many of his friends and teachers were involved in track and field.

That was why he didn’t know that there were people who rarely ran and complained of pain if they ran even a little; that there were people who couldn’t run as much as they wanted to because of various circumstances, even if they wanted to run.

All my life, I’ve been living without thinking or feeling anything, Kakeru thought. An extracurricular activity where people with the same goal of ‘being able to run faster and for longer’ gathered together. It was because he was desperate to live within those narrow relationships.

Amateurs were aiming for the Hakone Ekiden. From the morning of the first day of practice for an outrageous and reckless challenge, Kakeru was already struck by surprise. Everybody, starting with the twins, who seemed to have the strength to run but lived without showing any interest in running. Kiyose and Nico-chan, who couldn’t run as they wanted to because of an injury or years off. Prince, for whom running seemed unbearable, even though it could be considered a basic activity for all animals with legs.

The world is much more complicated than I thought. But, it’s not an annoying complexity that confuses me.

While thinking that, Kakeru chased the butterfly that was flying to the waterside with his eyes.

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#Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru #kazetsuyo #kazetsuyo translations #run with the wind

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fanfictionlive · 5 years ago

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I wish I could just WRITE

This may not make much sense as a rant, I'm not really sure what the issue is myself, I'm just gettin super frustrated and need to let some of it out.

So I started posting a new WIP. This is kinda a new thing for me, haven't really published anything in-progress before, especially not anything long. I'm releasing chapters every 2 weeks, aiming for about 4k per chapter, have a buffer of 2 chapters (so there's a month between me writing and me posting), so I only have to write 8k a month to keep that up. It didn't sound too difficult because 10k a month is like, on the low end for me.

Me: I can totally do this! There's no way I couldn't write at least 8k in a month! Me to me: Challenge accepted.

I don't know what it is but just sitting down to write has become so hard lately. Yeah, I've always struggled with procrastination and ended up leaving my daily word goals until like, late in the evening... but I still did my daily word goals then (okay, most of the time, I'm not perfect lmao). Lately it's been kinda different somehow. Like before there was usually a feel of "eh I know I can always do it later" and now it's more like I just don't want to. And I don't know what it is that's making me feel this way.

I have been more successful at getting words down in my notebook, but then I experience the same avoidance about typing them up, and I'm still not writing consistently even if when I am making myself write I can get a good amount out. I don't know, it's not that I feel bad, exactly? I don't usually feel that positive about my own writing but this is definitely on the upper end. I think the idea has big potential and it's gotten a good response so far (only 3 chapters out) considering all the factors, so I want to keep working on it. I re-read what I'd done so far before I started posting and I actually really liked it? An author I admire who knows the characters I'm dealing with super well has left glowing comments. I really have no complaints and so I'm totally confused about why my overwhelming response right now is a kinda feeling of "meh".

It's just... a big frustration, because I can see all these short term/immediate plot points I've mapped out (like 'act 1' of the story I suppose), I know how to get to them, but there's enough flexibility that stuff can be altered on the fly and I've actually already done that several times. It's exactly how a plan should work for me. Except it just seems to take so many words to get things done and I know it's not because of word padding, it's just that things have to play out--and I know all the reasons, like part of the point of the fic is it's a slow burn so the character interaction and dialogue that can take up several hundred words actually is important for advancing the "plot" even if nothing really happens. I can map the progress to chapters and see that I am actually hitting those plot points as a concrete marker of progression. But it still feels so god damn slow, and the fact that I'm struggling so much to sit down to write it makes it feel just that much slower.

I just wish the words could flow easily, you know? It's not like I sit here obsessing over every sentence. I don't! I don't like, go back and edit on the first draft, I don't spend ages thinking about a sentence before I write it, yet it still feels like it takes such a long time to accomplish so little. If I write 500 words I haven't even finished the scene and I can see how much more there is to do in Act 1 and the even larger, later parts of the story I haven't thought about in too much detail yet and it feels like I've done nothing. I sit here looking at people who wrote 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k, in one day and I'm like: how? How?? Which is equally stupid because I have done that, I have written that much! (Okay, I haven't done a 10k day for over 10 years, when I was in high school and had no responsibilities, and 5k days happen once in a blue moon, but I used to do 1-2k days semi-regularly. Like one a week or so). I've done NaNo several times! I can definitely write words! It just... doesn't feel like I can right now. Even 200 words and I'm like, 'wow, that was so hard' and then I won't write again for 3 or 5 days. And there's nothing wrong with writing 200 words a few times a week if that's your normal output, but I know that I can and usually do write more than that and massively, massively more consistently, and it has me really worried.

Maybe it's anxiety? I'm nervous about the fic because I want it to be good and do well. I know other people always like my fics more than I do and if even I don't think it's awful that's probably a good sign. There's just such a lot going on, I feel like I'm making a lot of decisions and having to commit to things for the plot, and I don't... think it's gone badly wrong so far but I always have doubt. I have a beta but they're fandom blind and I don't know who to talk to about characterisation issues or who to run things past that require a bit of lore/background info. It's not like it's a tiny fandom and I don't know anyone else in it, I just... don't know what to say? That sounds stupid but I'm not used to talking to people about plot stuff, I'm not really used to working with a beta for brainstorming, when I've used betas in the past I've just handed off the written stuff to them and that was it. I don't know how to just... talk about my things? Like, how to just... talk about the plot and discuss it with people. To be honest I've never really known how. But now I feel like I'm at a point where I'd really like someone to say 'oh, yeah, that makes sense' but I don't know how to approach anyone about it.

Before anyone says burn out: I've been burnt out before, badly, this doesn't feel quite the same. Maybe it's just a new and exciting way of feeling burnt out (yay...) because even though I've been writing for over a decade I still feel like I don't know anything about how to do it right. But it doesn't feel like my other burn out because I'm not totally dead creatively like I was then (still have other story ideas, got several new plot buns over the last few days, playing potential scenes in my head, etc).

So I don't know. I don't know lots of stuff and I kinda vomited it all out in this post. If you read this whole thing give yourself a pat on the back because you honestly deserve it.

submitted by /u/holliequ [link] [comments] from FanFiction: Where Magical Ponies battle Imperial Titans https://ift.tt/2TPUKBM

#fan fiction #writing #fanfiction #tv show #series #movie #fan #write

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lily-liegh · 7 years ago

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poyomon2 replied to your post “prettyboyvoid replied to your post “what even is consistent chapter...”

I know this feeling so bad though, one of my old fics from 3 years ago consistently had around 10k words per chapter because I just didn't know where to stop.

oh goh, yeah same with one of my fics. The Dimension Where Only I Am Missing, at least in its early chapters, has some that range anywhere between 5-13k. i now cut them up so i can post them on time and try to aim for around 3-5k ... but sometimes they still get out of hand and i can’t be bothered to deal with it ^^;;

#poyomon2 #liegh replies

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captainwhogotthecanary · 8 years ago

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Something in Your Eyes (4/16)

So because I'm covering a week per chapter, and some weeks are more eventful than others, the chapter lengths on this fic are way more variable than mine usually are. This chapter is the shortest at 2k words; the longest so far is about 5k.

Humor me? <3

Paragraph or so at the end of this first section isn’t particularly safe for work but isn’t explicit, either.

Read on AO3.

Something in Your Voice

Sara turns on the water for her shower and wishes again that she could say the morning after was awkward, but it really wasn’t.

They woke at nearly the same time, and after they were dressed, Leonard cooked bacon and eggs for the two of them. Once, Sara was sure he wanted to reach for her, and once, she stopped herself from doing the same, but by the time their plates were clear, they’d fallen back into their easy pattern of talk and banter.

It’s like sleeping with him made things both easier and harder. It’s not that she got him out of her system—not even close. It did, at least, diminish some of the curiosity about what sleeping with him would be like.

But it isn’t like the night was bad. Even a few days later, when the memories should be starting to fade if it was really a one-night thing with a friend, she can easily say it was one of the best sexual encounters of her life.

She was already worried about fucking everything up. It was part of why she’d decided they should stay friends. Romantic relationships just never work out for her, and she doesn’t want to lose him. She still stands by that, only…

If they’re as good in bed as they are everywhere else, what difference will it make, if they’re friends or more? Aren’t they just denying themselves?

Sara sighs and steps into the shower, hoping the water will help her clear her mind. Thoughts of Leonard in general make her smile. When her memories shift to that night, she finds her hands lingering over damp skin, tracing routes Leonard took, until her breath is uneven and her knees are having trouble keeping her up, and she chooses to forego conscious thought for the next few minutes.

Calling Leonard’s name during climax isn’t a problem if there’s nobody around to hear it, right?

***

lunch @ your office at noon?

Leonard isn’t sure what to think when Sara texts him—they aren’t really in the habit of eating lunch together—but he has no hesitation in his affirmative response. When she shows up a couple hours later, she’s got takeout from a sandwich place he likes. He mentioned it once, weeks ago now, and he smiles as she hands him his favorite.

She meets his eyes for a long moment, before blinking and looking away, and Leonard feels his expression shift almost immediately.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“Nothing!” she says a little too brightly, holding a fake smile for two seconds before sighing and dropping into the empty chair. “Okay, so I’ve been thinking about… stuff, and I wanted to talk to you.”

Leonard gets up and shuts and locks his office door, feeling Sara’s eyes on him the whole time. When he sits back down, she’s still watching him. “Go ahead,” he says.

Sara takes a deep breath. “I tend to run away from things,” she says. “That, or I jump into them without thinking. Not everything, but definitely relationships, and both of those things? They screw stuff up. The healthiest relationship I’ve ever had really wasn’t healthy. And afterward, I mean, most of my exes, or at least the ones that count, are still in my life, at least to an extent, you know?

“But it’s not the same. Any chance we had of being real friends…” Sara shakes her head. “It’s gone. And I feel like you and me matter too much to screw it up that way.” She breathes, watching him, clearly not finished. She hasn’t really told him anything he didn’t know, not yet. “The other night, though, felt just as right as keeping you around. I can’t shake it. Hell, I can’t even shower without—” She stops abruptly, and Leonard raises his eyebrows when she turns red, feeling himself stir in interest at the implications.

“That’s not…” she continues. “That’s not relevant.”

“It might be,” he says.

Sara reddens further but rolls her eyes and seems to find her focus again. “Shut up. What I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to mess up this time. I don’t want to keep running away, and I don’t want to move too fast, but I know staying in this gray area isn’t fair for either of us. So I was hoping we could give it a month.”

“A month?” he repeats, not sure what else to say. Is she suggesting a trial run, or…

“A month. Well, four weeks. We’re friends until then, but if we’re still good and we still want what we’ve tried once—”

“Three times, technically,” he can’t help but interrupt, smirking. “Just the one night.”

She pretends he hasn’t spoken. “—then we’ll go all in, no more holding back.” Sara falls quiet, watching him. “What do you think?”

Leonard runs her proposal over in his mind. His gut instinct is to accept, but he always has preferred thinking things through, if time allows for it. What she’s offering is more than he hoped for; he was ready to accept friendship, without any overt romantic entanglements, without acknowledgement of the other night. It’ll be hard to wait four weeks, maybe, knowing how good they are, knowing they might try it again, but he’s certain it’ll be worth it.

“Four weeks,” he says. Sara stares before breaking out in the biggest grin he’s seen on her.

“Four weeks,” she repeats, and he feels a smile playing at his lips, and they watch each other until their connection gets to be too much, and he’s pretty sure he’s not going to make it four minutes without begging her to touch him.

He stands and opens his door before sitting back down. “Don’t want my team getting the wrong idea,” he says in explanation, distracting himself with the sandwich. Sara’s digging into her own.

They aren’t eating for long, the silence comfortable and only slightly charged, when Mick knocks at the door.

“Hey, boss, can I talk at you?”

“Come in, Mick,” Leonard answers, setting down the remains of his sandwich and wiping his hands. He sees Mick studying Sara, who’s studying him right back, both of them appraising. He sighs. “Mick, this is Sara. Sara, this is Mick. You’ve both heard enough about each other. What do you need?”

Mick’s eyes have barely shifted to Leonard when Sara speaks, regaining their attention.

“You talk about both of us, huh?”

Leonard doesn’t dignify that with a response, but Mick chuckles.

“I like her,” the man says. “She doesn’t take any of your shit, does she?”

“You came for something?” Leonard shoves his amusement aside, aiming for long-suffering, and he’s pretty sure it works. At least, Sara’s grin fades to a smirk, and Mick finally answers.

“Just need you to sign off on my plan of attack for the Hex case next week.”

“Mind if I stay?” Sara asks. “I can sign something for confidentiality if you need me to. I don’t know how that works.”

“You can stay,” Mick answers before Leonard can. “He’s the boss, he makes the rules.”

Leonard isn’t surprised when she ends up contributing to the heist, only confirming his earlier thoughts about how well she’d fit in this sort of job, and he starts forming a different plan in his mind.

***

Over the next couple days, they manage to avoid discussing the state of their relationship. There’s nothing more they need to add to that right now, anyway. As they talk work instead, Sara becomes increasingly enamored with what Leonard does for a living.

When he offers her a job, it’s like he’s granted her a wish she didn’t know she had.

She can start working at Acquisitions.

It’s not something she considers lightly, and she doesn’t think she has it in her to quit her current job; the security team at Timeless Bank is hers, and she can’t dismiss the sense of pride she feels, even when work isn’t particularly challenging.

However, Leonard mentions that they accept part-time consultants.

“If that’s something you might be interested in,” he drawls as they talk on the phone over a lunch break, “I have an in with the head of that department.”

Sara snorts. “An in, huh?”

“In fact,” he continues, “I’ve already convinced him you’d be perfect for the job.”

“Tell me about it?” she prompts. “I mean, I basically know what you and Mick do at this point, and Ray… Where would I come in?”

“Primarily,” he answers, “you’d be involved the way you were at lunch the other day. You’d sit in on planning meetings, point out what we might have missed, maybe pick up some more tools of your own in the process.”

She nods to herself, tapping her pen against her lips. “Would I actually go on any jobs?”

“If you’d like,” he says. “You’d have to go through training, first, before you do more than reconnaissance. Raymond can tell you all about that.”

Sara laughs. Ray and Kendra have started dating, and Sara pretty much keeps her distance as much as she can, letting them go through the new-couple phase alone. “I’ll consider talking to him,” she allows. “I probably can’t work normal hours. I can rearrange my schedule here some if I’ve got notice, but I can’t take off every day.”

“That’s where the part-time contractor bit comes in,” Leonard says. “When you’re available, you help. If not, you don’t. If something ever changes, we can make you a bigger part of the team, but for now, that’s how it would work.”

“Can I have a few days to think about it?” Sara asks. “It sounds pretty great, but I don’t want to commit and then flake.”

“Of course,” he answers. “You know, you think you make bad choices, but you really don’t.”

At the reminder of their conversation, Sara realizes something.

“If we end up dating,” she asks, “will that be a problem with the job?”

“No,” Leonard says, but there’s some hesitation. “But we’ll need to fill out a form saying that we’re in a relationship before your employment starts. We can’t start a new one if you’re working for me.” Sara’s quiet while she thinks, and after a minute, Leonard continues. “This isn’t a now-or-never offer. If you’d rather wait until we’ve decided what we’re doing, you can still accept four weeks from now.”

Three weeks, four days, Sara corrects silently before scolding herself.

“Alright,” she says. “Give me a few days, and I’ll get back to you.” She sets her pen down and glances at the clock. “You should have time to finish telling me that story about Lisa.”

Leonard chuckles, and there’s a warm sound to it that Sara’s already come to associate with his sister.

“So she was pretending to be King Midas…”

***

It doesn’t end up being a hard decision. Sara checks her schedule, finding slow times and getting all the specifics from Len before she approaches her boss.

“Hey, Rip, you got a sec?”

He looks up from his paperwork, taking a moment to focus on her. “Yes, of course, Sara. What is it?”

She lays out the details, and he listens impassively while she explains what she’ll be doing and the ways she’s ensured it won’t affect her work at the bank, and when she’s done, he’s quiet. Around the time she’s ready to start fidgeting, he nods.

“As long as it doesn't become a conflict of interest, I don’t see any reason to object.”

Sara breathes a sigh of relief. She and Rip get along relatively well, but he doesn’t always react well when things don’t go according to his plan.

Which is exactly why she’s the one who handles security.

“Thanks, Rip,” she says, leaving the office with a bounce in her step. She gets back to her own office and makes sure she has a few minutes left in her afternoon break before she dials.

“Sara,” Leonard answers, and she can’t help the smile that pulls at her lips.

“Leonard,” she mimics. “I’ll take the job, and I’ll sign the paperwork,” she says. “I already ran it by my boss, just to cover my ass, and I figure that’s what the paperwork is doing, too: covering our asses.”

The fact that she doesn’t really want anything covering their asses except maybe for bedsheets is an entirely different matter.

“Come in tomorrow,” he says, and she knows him well enough by now to hear the pleasure in his voice, even if it’s not obvious, “and we’ll get you started.”

#captain canary #captain canary fic #fic: something in your eyes #accidental pregnancy

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