"Here you are, sir. I hope it is satisfactory."

When Tsuki put the sandwich on his table, Adam finally uncovered his face. The wrap smelled of meat and cheese, his stomach rumbled and his mouth watered. He didn't know how, but he was ravenously hungry again. But Tsuki kept talking and he didn't want to be rude to her by scarfing down the sandwich like the animal he was.

He focused back on her as she was thanking him for the note. Well, that meant she liked it and he did good, right? Thankfully, she seemed to still want to be here. Some of the tension in Adam uncoiled and he relaxed at her word. She would be back. She wasn't leaving yet. With that settled he was able to answer her a bit more composed, or so he thought.

"Not right now. Was the work to your sactis," Adam huffed. He knew that was not how someone said satisfactory. He slowed down a bit. "Was the work to your sactifac," With a shake of his head he stopped. Not right again. He tried one more time. "Is it sadisfad, rrgh!" Adam growled at himself and rubbed his face roughly once more. He thought he was over this kind of stupid stuff. "Is the work I gave you okay?" He settled for that question, saying it a bit louder and harsher than he meant to.
 
Tsuki waited patiently for him to find the right word. When he snarled out his last question, she drew back instinctively, but at least now she knew he probably didn't mean it quite how it came out. She let herself breathe a bit before answering.

"Yes, sir, the work is perfectly fine. I look forward to addressing the task," she said with a smile. It was good to have work! She walked to the door and paused. "I will leave you to your work, Mr. Gonzalez. I will check in again before I leave." She stepped out and slowly closed the door so he would have plenty of time to call out if he needed anything. There! That hadn't gone badly at all!

She smiled in a highly satisfied way as she walked back to her cubicle. Then promptly tripped and almost fell on her face. Red-faced, she brushed herself off and scurried the rest of the way. That's what she got for getting too confident! She set a timer to make sure she had time to go check on Mr. Gonzalez one last time. She knew it was lunch time, but she'd just taken a break and saw no need to take another. She settled down to work, content with her task until time to log out for the day.
 
It was a relief to Adam when Tsuki stated that her work was fine. It was even more of a relief when she left. Right now, he was seriously lacking in self-control. He needed to run. Maybe after work, he would go for a jog before going to his apartment and finishing the letters. It seemed doable. Now, he could focus on that proposal and try to talk to Villeneuve about a movie deal. With his mind on other things, he forgot that he did not tell Tsuki what to do.
 
Tsuki frowned a bit as she poked through the items Adam had given her. It had seemed straightforward at first, but now she realized she wasn't entirely certain what to do with all this. Should she go ask? No, that didn't see like the right response. Sure, it might be anywhere else, but she strongly suspected that Adam Gonzalez never asked for help, and therefore expected no one else to ask for help. Since he hadn't explained it, it must be simple, right? She started examining the documents.

Each document had an email address attached. Of course! She must be replying to the senders of the stories! Replying what, exactly? Yes, no, maybe, congratulations on your win to a trip to Tahiti? Maybe if she could find an email Mr. Gonzalez had sent, then she'd know what she was supposed to be sending. After a bit more thought, Tsuki pulled up Adam Gonzalez' email account. That was the easy part. The hard part would be hacking into it. Actually, that turned out to be easy, too, as she guessed his email on the second try. She felt a tiny bit guilty, but not really. She only chose the emails she knew belonged to the project she was working on, read them, then closed out. Got it!

From that time on, Tsuki composed email after email, getting each word and punctuation mark perfect. She didn't send them, still not fully confident that she was doing what Mr. Gonzalez had wanted, but she got them all completed and printed two out for examples to show him. Her timer went off right as she printed the last page.

Smiling, Tsuki crossed hallway to Mr. Gonzalez' office, knocked, waited, then stepped in. "Mr. Gonzalez, it is almost quitting time, sir. Is there anything else you needed from me?"
 
While it was not often, even Adam could admit that he needed a break. When letters began swimming and his eyes hurt to stay open, Adam knew he couldn't push himself any further. Talking to Villeneuve felt like pulling teeth. And it was just scheduling! Every word he said felt like he was pulling them off of his sandpapered tongue. His head throbbed like he hit a brick wall. And honestly, he just wanted to sleep.

So he did. It would only be for a few minutes. He set his watch and everything. By the time someone came to check on him, he would be up and at work once more. With his watch set, Adam laid his head on his arms and closed his eyes.

But when his watch beeped he didn't wake up. His arm twitched, making his watch hit the desk and go silent. His sleep continued and went deeper, going into his dreams. Dreams of laughing, playing, then screeching metal, and heavy rain. Adam's twitching turned into shaking. By the time his door opened, he was so lost in the cold, wet, sad, dream, he could not hear the door open. He could not feel the tears on his face as his body shook.
 
There was no answer other than a soft, tiny squeaking noise. Tsuki frowned and looked at the figure at the desk more closely. Was he asleep? She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She stepped closer, still considering leaving him to sleep, then frowned in concern when she saw the tears wetting his cheeks. Maybe she should wake him up.

She stepped around the desk and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Mr. Gonzalez," she said in a soft, gentle voice, "it's time to wake up and go home, sir."
 
In the dream, which was so real at the time, the touch on his shoulder was pulling him away from the wreckage he found, pulling him away from his mother. So he reacted like he would at that time.

In a blink, he turned and grabbed the person’s wrist firmly.

“STOP!” He snapped his fangs and bared his teeth in a growl at the person. Waiting for them to attack.
 
Tsuki yelped in surprise as an iron grip clamped down on his wrist. She pulled back instinctively, wincing at the sudden pain. "Mr. Gonzalez! Mr. Gonzalez, please, let go! You are only dreaming." She tried to keep her voice calm despite the urgency creeping in. "Wake up, Mr. Gonzalez."
 
Adam blinked as Tsuki’s voice registered through his ears. He sniffed the wrist in his hand, smelling the warm, calm, clean scent of the beach. Not the earthy scent of mountains and rain. The coldness and coppery scent from lifelessness was suddenly gone. The clean scent cleared his eyes and senses. Adam realized where he was and what he was doing.

“Sorry!” Quickly he let go Tsuki and jumped away from her. Which led him to jumping out of his chair and slamming into the floor. “Oof!” Though he quickly got into a crawl and scrambled back. His head throbbed and his heart pounded. He wanted to run and hide but his human body couldn’t cooperate. All he could do was stare wide-eyed at Tsuki.

Did he hurt her? What did he do? How much did she see? Was she going to quit now? How could he let this happen?

“Ah, ah, I,” Adam swallowed his shaky breaths. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” He said slowly, for his benefit.
 
As soon as he let go, Tsuki all but bolted backward, rubbing her probably bruised wrist gently. She didn't run or go far, watching him worriedly as he crashed to the floor. He really did not look well! Had he hit his head in the fall? Or otherwise hurt himself? She could only stare at him for a moment as he asked if she was okay.

Cautiously, Tsuki stepped forward and crouched, careful not to get too close. "Mr. Gonzalez, are you alright?" she asked softly. "I know you can do your job, I am fully confident in that! But you do not look well. I am worried you might be working to har- that is... I think your body cannot keep up with your mind."
 
“Heh, funny, it’s usually the other way.” Adam chuckled darkly as he rubbed his head. He winced as his hand hit a tender spot. If he did this to himself... His eyes went to Tsuki’s wrist. They were so small and dainty. Her other hand rubbing it. He could smell the sudden rise of copper in her scent. She was bruising.

“I’ll be fine,” He stood up to add emphasis to his words. But he quickly had to grab his desk as everything spun for a second. He blinked a couple of times and everything was straight once more.

“You need to report to HR. Since you haven’t clocked out, they can file an incident report for you and compensation can be made for any hospital stuff.” Adam gestured in the air vaguely with one hand, as he leaned on the desk with the other.
 
Tsuki stood and reached out instinctively when he swayed then drew back as he straightened, her hand going back to her wrist. At his words, she glanced at it. "What? Oh, no, it's fine, sir. Just bruised a little, I think, nothing that a bit of ice and a wrap won't help." She looked a little closer. "Did you hit your head? Maybe you should sit down."

Maybe she should call the hospital. Paramedics, maybe? She wasn't sure if she should call the emergency number or if there were medical facilities in this giant building.
 
Sitting sounded like a great idea. But that required moving, and Adam definitely wasn’t ready for that.
“I’m good.” Adam waved her off. “You’re free to go home.” For once, he was considering the idea himself. But he still had so much work...
 
"Yes, sir, thank you- Oh!" Tsuki bit her lip then retrieved the papers from the floor where she'd dropped them when Mr. Gonzalez had grabbed her wrist. "I printed out a couple of example emails for what I was supposed to send to the authors." She watched his expression, hoping for some hint that she'd done the right thing as she laid the papers on the desk. "I have never done this exact job before, so I was hoping for some feedback. They are all typed up and I just need to send them if you approve, but maybe I should do that on Monday if you are not feeling well."

She hoped he'd be able to glance over the emails quickly and approve or disapprove so she could send them before she left. Then she wouldn't spend the weekend worrying about whether or not she'd done the right thing, but if he was unwell, it wasn't something that couldn't wait until Monday.
 
Adam huffed and took the paper. With a quick examination it seemed okay. Just a couple of things were missing. Granted, he really just glanced over it. He didn’t (couldn’t) give it the keen eye it needed, but right now, he gave her what he had.

“Looks fine. Just add my letter critiques and the computer logo to make it official.” He handed back her paper, his hand shaking just a bit. “You can get the logo from the document folder under logo.”
 
"Yes, sir, thank you, sir." Tsuki hesitated as she watched him. "You are shaking sir. Is there someone you would like for me to call?" She was already reaching for the phone. Maybe she could call security to at least help him out? Or one of his siblings? Unless she should just call the paramedics, but he didn't seem to be bleeding. Just exhausted and probably underfed.
 
No! Adam barked quickly and loudly. Then realizing what he did, he took a deep breath. “Sorry, I meant that you don’t have to call anyone. You’re free to leave.” He sighed. It wasn’t that he wanted to scare her more, or that he was even angry at her. He just didn’t want his family involved. They were, a little intense about things.
 
Tsuki nodded slowly, the anxiety clear in her eyes. "Very well, sir, as you wish," she said. "I will be here a few minutes longer to make those changes you wanted, then I will be on my way. Good night, sir. I hope you have a good weekend."

She walked out slowly and closed the door, unable to resist a glance back. She hoped he was not so stubbornly stupid as to not take care of himself, but she had done what she could. She went to her cubicle and quickly made the changes to the emails. It actually only took about five minutes to change the original, then five more to copy and paste a bunch to the others before sending them off. It was amazingly satisfying to see them all go! She smiled to herself, streched, and hopped down off her chair. Time to leave for the weekend! She shuft everything down and padded out.

As she headed to the elevator, she tucked the book into her bag and started thinking about her next stop. The long term care facility for her father! She and Papa ate dinner together every Friday, and she'd been overjoyed to discover she got weekends off here. That meant more time to spend with Papa. She rode the elevator down, mounted her bike, and peddled off with a slightly lighter heart.
 
Adam let out a sigh of relief before sinking to the ground. He probably should go home. Get some rest or ice for his head. That's what he should do. The likelihood of him doing that though, slim. He had to finish reviewing the first half of his proposal for Villeneuve and get a letter for Emma and Paige allowing them to change the illustrator. He at least had to do those two things before going home. Just those things. With a grunt, Adam pushed himself up, throbbing head, tired body, and all, to go to work.


George wasn't one to get emotional, but, he hated this. Glaring at the shop next door, George snarled. How dare they let his catch leave? Especially to Enchanters Inc. The only building infested with dogs. George let out a growl. It had been three days since he saw her. And with any other pray, that meant he already took it or it was lost. But he didn't want to lose Tsuki, especially to a dog. But he did know things, as he did with any other prey. She would be having dinner with her father tonight. He overheard her mention it to another coworker as she left. And there he could make sure that he still had a claim on her. That no dog touched what was his.
 
Reuben watched George with worry mixed with fear. It was never a good thing when George got snarly, and he'd never seen him so snarly about a girl. Tsuki must have been far more important than Reuben had realized, but what could he do about it? He couldn't exactly go and fetch her back or make the curio shop across the way hire her back. He couldn't imagine a curio shop had anything better to offer than a great place like Enchanters Inc. He'd heard the building Enchanters Inc. was in had its own café! No wonder Tsuki had left. Reuben would have left, too, if an offer like that came out.

"Um, George?" Reuben asked tentatively, finally breaking the tense silence. "You are kind of scaring the customers away. Maybe there's something you could do to calm down? How about an ice cream?"
 
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