Chapter Text
Haruhi was exhausted.
Piles upon piles of papers sat around her and all she could think was, ‘Why hadn’t they made all of this digital?’
Her brain had shut down, something which, in the only corner of her brain that was still functioning enough to keep her alive, surprised her since not in all her years of studying had she encountered such a predicament.
Why had she accepted this job?
She’d been here for almost two years and the most meaningful thing she’d done was fetch coffee for one of the partners trying to put a child murderer away for life. And, while putting a child murderer away for life was something to be proud of, fetching coffee for the person that did that duty was not.
She wanted to do things! She wanted to help people! Not work long hours shifting paperwork because she’d been hired only due to her connections.
She couldn’t believe that.
She’d been straight up hired, they hadn’t even made her do an internship. That, of course, had made her no friends with her peers. Despite the fact that the only difference between them and her was the fact that she got paid.
Actually, now that she thought about it, that was quite a big difference. Though she did put in more hours than them – most of them left promptly at five, while she was often at work past eight.
Abruptly the lights turned off, cutting off her thoughts.
Haruhi sat up quickly and called out, “Excuse me! There’s still someone here!”
Just as abruptly the lights came back on and a soft voice called out, “Oh! I’m so sorry! I thought it was empty.”
A small man with a round, friendly face appeared in the entryway to her cubicle. Haruhi recognized him instantly – Mamoru Tachiki, Mr. Tachiki’s youngest son and most recent addition to Tachiki and Sons. He’d only been here for a month.
“Hello! I’m Mamoru Tachiki, but you probably know that. You’re Haruhi Fujioka, aren’t you? My brother, Kenichi, was very impressed with you. He’s been very angry at my father for not utilizing you properly. Did you know that? No, you probably didn’t. Anyways, they’re setting up a staff for me and Kenichi suggested that you’d be perfect to head it, but Father’s being stubborn. I’m sure you know how fathers can be, right? I’m so glad I got to meet you! Now that I’ve met you I’ll second Kenichi’s recommendation. That will make Father back down, he can never say no to both of us. I think he feels guilty for spending so much time here when we were growing up, but I’m no mind reader, so he may just be very susceptible to family pressure. Oh! It’s almost nine, are you leaving?”
Haruhi found herself blinking owlishly at this motor-mouth. Not even Alianore could say quite this much in such a short period time.
“Well? Are you leaving?” he asked again.
“Um, yes, yes I am. I hadn’t realized what time it was.”
Mamoru frowned and leaned over so he could see what was on her desk.
“Really? Are tax returns from twenty years ago that intriguing? Why are you looking at them anyways? Kenichi told me they had all of the old files digitized three years ago.”
“What?!?”
“Oh, yeah, they had a surplus of interns that year, so Kenichi had them spend most of the year digitizing everything.” Now he frowned, “You didn’t know, did you? Who told you to look at these?”
“Mr. Tachiki, your father.”
Mamoru’s frown turned into a scowl, “Father…That doesn’t surprise me. I bet he’s done this a lot to you over the past two years. How come you never said anything to Kenichi? He’s the one that hired you.”
Haruhi shrugged noncommittally, her position wasn’t as secure as Mamoru’s, she wasn’t related to the boss, she couldn’t complain about him.
“Hmph, well, it’s Friday night, let’s get out of here. Hey! I have an idea! How about we go grab I drink? We should probably get to know each other some since you’re going to be leading my staff. Or maybe I’ll be leading yours?” He chuckled, “You know, I never wanted to be a lawyer? I wanted to travel the world and write about the grand adventures I had, but father vetoed that. So, here I am, doing a job I hate for a man I love.”
Haruhi tried to imagine her father vetoing any of her choices in life and just couldn’t picture it. He’d never been able to deny her anything. And while he sometimes acted like a big baby when she did something he didn’t like, he never truly tried to stop her. Haruhi smiled, she really had an amazing father.
As for working with Mamoru, she had the feeling that Mr. Tachiki would not like it.
And it was for that reason that Haruhi said, “Sure, I can grab a drink with you.”
“Great! Let’s go!”
Within an hour Haruhi found herself comfortably ensconced in a small bar not too far from her tae kwon do studio. It was a place she’d passed by three times a week for the past two years, but she’d never once thought about entering.
Mamoru ordered them both 300cc of the Kirin on tap and neither of them spoke until they’d take a sip. Haruhi watched in amazement as Mamoru actually groaned in pleasure.
He saw her expression and chuckled.
“I’ve been in England for the past few years, the only Japanese beer I could get there was canned.”
“Ah, I know what you mean,” said Haruhi. “I went to Oxford for my bachelors. My friends did get me to develop a taste for good, German beer though. The stuff they don’t export because it would go bad too fast.”
“Really? You went to Oxford?! So did I! In fact, one of my old buddies is in town for a few weeks. Mind if I invite him to join us? We can have a little Oxford reunion on the streets of Tokyo!” He grinned widely at this idea.
Haruhi couldn’t help but grin back, his grins were infectious. “Sure! But, do you mind if I invite a couple of my old Oxford friends?”
“Sure! The more the merrier!”
Alianore agreed to come right away. Apparently her brother was driving her crazy and all she wanted to do was get out of the house. Mei agreed to come, but only after Haruhi told her it was okay to bring the guy she was currently hanging out with. Masaye and Chiye politely declined. Apparently their mother was hosting a dinner with some rather big names and they couldn’t easily escape.
They ordered another couple of beers while they waited for everyone and reminisced about their time at Oxford. Though it was Mamoru who did most of the talking, Haruhi didn’t know how anyone could talk so much.
It was Mei and her date that were the first to arrive, about an hour after she’d been called.
“HARUHI!!! Oooo, who’s this cutie pie?” she asked, looking Mamoru up and down.
Mamoru turned a rather bright red and Haruhi laughed, feeling something inside of her begin to crack as the beer began to make her unwind. “This is Mamoru. He works with me. I just found out he went to Oxford also.”
“Oooo, really!?! That’s so exciting!”
Haruhi laughed even harder. Apparently Mei had already been drinking.
“I’m so glad to meet you Mamoru! Oh! This is Umehito Nekozawa!”
Haruhi put her hands over her ears, “Mei! Stop shouting or they’re going to make us leave.”
“Oh! Sorry!” she might’ve turned red; it was hard to tell under all the makeup.
Haruhi glanced over at the bartender to see him glaring at them. She smiled politely at him and then turned back to the group.
“How about we go wait outside for everyone else? And then find somewhere else to go?”
Mamoru glanced over at the bartender and then nodded his agreement, “That sounds like a smart idea.”
Mei and Umehito followed Mamoru and Haruhi out of the bar. As soon as they got outside Mei started telling them about the dresses she was designing at Hitachiin International as they waited.
It didn’t take too long for Haruhi to spot Alianore walking down the street.
“My friend’s here,” she said, interrupting Mei.
“So is mine,” Mamoru said.
Haruhi turned to see where Mamoru was looking, and then she burst out laughing.
There, coming up the street, from the opposite direction, was Zackarie, Alianore’s little brother.
She started laughing even harder when Zackarie and Alianore caught sight of each other. They immediately pointed at each other and yelled, “Tu!”
And then they began yelling at each other in French, much too fast for Haruhi, so she just kept laughing at the entire situation. And, as she laughed she felt all of the stress from the past two years leak out of her until she was empty and ready to face her job again. After all, it was just a job; it couldn’t keep her down – especially when she had such amazing friends.