Post by Consequence on Jun 11, 2014 10:41:12 GMT -5
The cool morning air was refreshing on his face. Curiously refreshing. Life had taken on a bizarre spark over the last week. It was different, like driving a new car or wearing new clothes to work. Not necessarily better, just, different. Things didn’t fit quite the same.
It felt like growing pains, a thing he had not experienced in over a century, but could distinctly recall. Like his bones were crawling around inside him, orienting themselves to make room for...something that just wasn’t there yet or were still on its way. A nondescript pain that you can take nothing for and do nothing to soothe except try to take your mind off of it. And that would be exactly the salve he would try first.
Two manillas folders were held in his left hand as he walked across the cobbled stones of the Command Annex’s open courtyard. The walk between the Lieutenant’s personal office and his Captain’s was not a long one but he did enjoy taking it slow, watching the light play through the Sakura and the fruiting Loquat that surrounding the meditation pond. His tabi tapped softly on the stone providing a muted but uncharacteristically pronounced approach to the sliding door marking his destination.
Always the door on the right. Never open her quarters. Ever.
With his mental check complete, a smile grow in the corners of his mouth as he climbed the three short steps and slide the door open. “Captain?”, he called out to a room that looked more and more devoid of her presence as his eyes adjusted to the sudden difference in light.
He crossed the threshold and a sharp tingle shot up his neck and twinged through his shoulders.
“We shouldn’t be here without her acknowledgment. This is a risk. A risk you shouldn’t take. Wait outside.” Her tone was unusually curt, even for her, and carried a shortened panic with it like a child who was searching for Christmas presents deep in their parents closet only to hear the front door to the house unlock.
There was no reason to panic in here. In fact, Kiriko might even take it poorly if he continued to take so long to settle into what could be described as comfort. His room and his office had finally become his own although he wasn’t much for personal luxuries. His bed was extremely high quality but understated in every sense of its look, and was also the only personal possession he brought with him except for his personal library of Earth’s classical literary works. A simple, matching, oak night stand, oak desk, and oak chair were already provided in the room and were simply...enough for his needs.
His office fared quite a bit better but still left much to be desired. A considerably more ornate, dark stained desk tucked itself near the front window and offered seating for two guests. The rest of the room was home to cabinets with files, drawers with folders, books with shelves. A round table and a pair of high back chairs that flanked it completed the workspace and it overall had a much more practical feel to it.
There, he was safe, comfortable, and in his element. He liked musty tomes, he just didn’t like being buried in a library. He liked folders and organization, he just didn’t like being buried in cold, impersonal storage. He liked sitting on something nice, he just didn’t like sitting on something ugly. And so on, goes the list.
But here, in Captain Chinda Kiriko’s personal office, he suddenly felt in violation of some hushed treaty spoken of in reverie. He’d been in here dozens of times, why was it any different now? Still, he couldn’t help but take her seriously. She had an eye for these things and if he didn’t get it, well, he just didn’t get it.
The smile wiped off of his face and he began to turn around. As he lifted his leg up to step back over the threshold he froze. A voice spoke up from inside the office. He wasn’t as alone as he thought...
Word count // 689 = 13 || 13
