Transaction

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah crap blah.

Author’s Notes: So, good afternoons and apologies for the lack of update last night. I just passed the hell out. Anyways, yay for me! The daycare hired me. I'll be getting a call next week. I've got another interview in a few hours. But here's another chapter for you guys!

Thanks to Silverone for reviewing! It's really appreciated when we get reviews.

Also, the sequel is going swimmingly! I love that word. So look out for that when we get to the end of this.

Enjoy!
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Transaction
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Chapter Forty-Six
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Tohma hated feeling useless and lazy. Especially when he had to deal with annoying old men all day blathering off on dirty jokes and smoking too much and getting too drunk. It wasn't his idea of fun. Then again, neither was spinning slowly around in his desk chair.

Eventually he stopped, digging through his desk drawer and pulling out a remote, turning on his stereo across the room. It played loudly, but not loud enough to disturb. Setting the remote down, he shrugged off his suit jacket, leaving him in the button down and uncuffed the sleeves to roll them up.

When all else fails, clean.

Tohma pulled the gloves off one finger at a time and left them neatly on his desk. Though he hated removing them, he didn't want to damage the soft leather with cleaning chemicals.

He pulled the items out of the bottom drawer and set them on the desk. Hm. Window would be best to start with. I took up nearly all of the wall behind his desk. It did require a little boost though. Grabbing up a handful of paper towels and cleaner, he eased himself up onto his desk chair steadying himself before starting. Eventually he forgot about his boredom and was singing along loudly to the CD playing, head nodding.

Taki would have been dragging his feet all the way up to Tohma's office if it hadn't hurt so much to do so. Even still, he took his time, though he did make a point to avoid the stairs. He wasn't quite ready to make a martyr of himself just for obstinacy.

Sometimes, though, it certainly was tempting.

When he got past Tohma's secretaries desk, he started to hear the music. It was familiar, but nearly everything was familiar to him. He was a musician at heart, and now on the other side of playing, Taki was quickly resorting to collecting.

He banged hard on the door instead of letting the secretary page him in, because it gave him a sense of perverse pleasure to know that he was interrupting. And, if he listened closing, he could hear a voice that didn't quite match with the music.

It made him want to laugh.

Tohma was singing. It didn't really surprise him that Tohma wasn't that bad. He was music, through and through, and he'd had to do his own vocals since Nittle Grasper parted ways.

Still, Taki liked his voice better when it was through a filter, and not a door.

Tohma paused midwipe across the window, pausing as he continued singing, only a notch lower. His head tilted to listen closely and it registered that the noise had been a knock at the door. Carefully, Tohma hopped off the chair, throwing the used paper towel away and taking up the remote to shut off the music.

The blond didn't bother fixing himself before opening the door with a smile. After all, he liked to think himself a friendly open boss. He liked to prove that he was human like the rest of them.

If this didn't prove any of that, he didn't know what would.

"Aizawa-san," Tohma greeted. "A very pleasant surprise. I'm sorry for the wait, I was in the middle of something when you knocked. Come in."

He stepped aside and held the door open for Taki and shut it when he stepped through, absently wiping his hands on his slacks. It was force of habit when his hands were bare.

"So, to what do I owe this visit?"

In the middle of something. Taki would have laughed if his expression hadn't hardened as soon as the door opened. He didn't want to be here, he reminded himself. He was only here because it was his job to let Tohma know what was going on.

"Haido called." He said as he closed the door, though he regretted it a moment later. It would have made it obvious that he wasn't planning to linger if he'd left the door open.

Now it looked as if he didn't want to leave at all, and that simply wasn't the case.

"He said that he's going to try to bring Kenji back by the end of the week, and he'd let us know how it goes." And, that was all he was there to do, but he made no move to go back toward the door.

Tohma nodded, walking over to his desk to just toy with the few objects sitting on it. No matter how much paper work he had to do, you could never tell.

How odd that everything had seemed to inadvertently come down to one week.

"Well... I'm sure Haido will try his best," the blond said, looking out the large window for a moment.

Suddenly, everything that was so... content before had gone. Why was it that when Taki stepped into the room, everything that circled in his head about them finally came to a boil?

"Will you still leave even if they pull it together?" he asked, dragging his pale fingertips across the dark wood of his desk and looked over at Taki. "I've been thinking about it for a while now. I'm not sure what I want to say... but I'm willing to change the contract however you'd prefer if you'll stay."

Leave?

Taki wanted to glare, but he knew he'd considered it. He would leave if Haido couldn't bring Kenji back, but only because Tohma had no place for him.

He actually had to wonder if Tohma did at all. It certainly didn't seem that way.

But now Tohma wanted him to stay. Taki felt the bitterness well up in his chest, and he had to fist his hands at his sides to keep himself quiet. He had to think before he spoke now, because this could mean the end of his job, the end of... everything. He didn't want everything to end.

"I'm not leaving." He finally decided, glaring not at Tohma, but at the front of his desk. "And don't bother changing the contract. I can't... afford to lose everything I have here."

The glare faltered, but only for a moment. Had he meant to say that?

No... No, he hadn't.

Jerking his eyes up back to Tohma, he gave the first jerky bow he'd offered to Tohma in months. "I need to get back to work." It was rushed, and obviously an excuse to leave as he turned to head for the door.

Tohma just watched the other man over his shoulder in silence as he left. When he saw the door close and the quiet steal over the room again, he knew he was alone. For all that he'd done, said and ever did to try and do anything right, a portion of himself had always wound up failing. With doors being closed on him, walls being built to avoid him... he was alone.

Maybe his age was starting to addle his mind.

Tohma looked out the window, seeing streaks as the job was half done. But the urge to clean was gone now. It felt like a chore. But he had to do it. Climbing back up on the chair, Tohma started again.
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Author's Notes: Ooo, what developments do we have here? This was a very charged scene. We didn't know how it was going to go. But we have a few leaks from Tohma and Taki with very few words spoken. I love that. Just the things they're feeling and the impass they're at now. I can't help but love it. What will happen next?!

Find out in the next chapter!

~Subby