Work Text:
Chitose hated paperwork.
It was always his least favorite part of working the many jobs he did. Every job he had, he loathed doing the paperwork that was inevitably dumped on him. He’s prone to messing up more on paperwork compared to anything else. Either because his hand slips from a twitch turning his neat handwriting into chicken scratch, or his hand writing isn’t neat enough for his boss, or something new that hasn’t happened before like that one time the photocopier somehow ate the original page before any copies were made.
He still can’t figure out how that last one happened. Either way he lost the job that day.
And now with his new job, he is currently the only one in the department. The sole member and by proxy the department head of Video Production for Thunderbolt Entertainment. With nobody else he was unfortunately forced to do all the paperwork and shoulder the responsibilities since help wasn’t really there. He hopes there will be more people in the department with them starting up a new project soon, he can’t do everything himself. Knowing his boss thought, he would probably shoulder the responsibility himself and leave him alone in his department.
Ah right, his boss.
Chitose sighed and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palms thinking about his boss. Nice Arneb Thunder himself, or Yoshihide Sanda he insisted he be called by him in the office. The man who saved him from his job hopping nightmare and the one who saw his apparent dedication to his work and took him in to do something he actually enjoyed.
He didn’t entirely get it, but as long as he wasn’t fired again he was okay with it. It was the longest he’s ever had a job thus far.
Yoshihide was loud in every sense of the word for better or worse. He dressed loudly with that rainbow sparkly suit that came in a variety of colors apparently and his extravagant mannerisms that matched his outfits perfectly. It all reminded him of a very flamboyant rainbow peacock. And yet, even his garish casual outfits managed to fit his personality perfectly and looked good with his abnormally dyed hair. Really, he couldn’t imagine the man in anything other than those outfits when he walks around the office.
And yet he really didn’t have to imagine otherwise.
His outfits never changed but his attitude did after a few days. Maybe it was the first time he started shaking like a neurotic prey animal when Nice raised his voice similar to a stage performer and was physically animated in a way that he struggled to read making Chitose think he was about to be fired on his second day, but his mannerisms changed. They were calmer, still more animated than the average person, but calmer regardless. His voice was also a lot quieter, something that made Chitose feel a bit more confident than usual and brought Yoshihide down to a level that felt reachable compared to his other past bosses.
He didn’t do it for anyone else in the office either. It was weird.
He wasn’t going to ask questions though, that’d probably risk him being fired. Especially now that he’s getting low on his pins.
Chitose dropped the pen in his hand on the desk with a small clack and rolled back in his chair, throwing his head back and staring at the ceiling. One hand was in his lap and the other was fiddling with the two pins on his button up under his nametag. He had more when he had first gotten hired, but he messed up one too many times on the clock. Every time he messes up, he takes a pin off. When he reaches zero, he knows he’s going to get fired. Ten times always seemed to be the amount of mistakes he could make before his bosses would fire him no matter how much he begged or pleaded. And now, he’s gotten down to two pins to his name. When he takes them off, he hands them to his boss. Yoshihide always keeps saying that he won’t fire him no matter how much he messes up when he hands him the pins, but he really doubts that. Clumsy workers like him are disposable after all. There’s always someone more qualified for the job at any time if they so much as look. He really does want to stay working at Thunderbolt Entertainment, though. Yoshihide really stood up to his stage name and-
“God. Can I think about something else for a few minutes...”
For the upteenth time that night he rubbed his eyes again, sighing heavily to himself. He needed to not think about his boss all night again. It was late and the paperwork had to be turned in for the next day to be reviewed for approval. This stuff needed to be approved so he could start working. He got lost in his thoughts like this last week causing him to drop a lot of papers in the hallway, making him turn in one of his pins. The reasons why he got lost in his head could be focused on at home another night. Pushing himself back forward to an upright position, he tucked some of his stray messy hair back behind his ear and rolled back to the desk. Reaching out to grab his pen he halted mid movement, his eyes wide and hand frozen midair.
“Oh fuck...”
There was pen ink everywhere.
Various colorful profanities fell from his lips as he shot up from his chair, scrambling to save what he could of the papers, but it wasn’t much. The pen had apparently opened when he dropped it causing the new ink cartridge he put in to spill everywhere on the desk. The blank ink managed to bleed through a lot of pages, staining many of the signed papers in the small stack. His hands were shaking as he moved the salvaged papers he could and put the ruined ones to the side. How could he have been so stupid. He should’ve made sure the cap was twisted on properly before writing. Really, that could’ve prevented this from happening if he so much as checked. He’s always clumsy, it was bound to come off at some point. Either now or later, and maybe it was better it happened now on less important paperwork. But the documents were still important regardless and if his boss walked in and saw it he would be-
“Chitose! How are we holding up here! I want to check in before I head home!”
Just his luck. That's what he gets for leaving the office door open,
Chitose stood up straight hearing his voice. Everything stopped shaking but he could feel sweat start to build on the back of his neck. He messed up again. This would be another pin gone from his shirt, he knew it.
“U-um, yeah about that Nice-san...”
The other walked over to where Chitose was standing and peered over his shoulder to look at the desk. Yoshihide let out a sigh of annoyance at the situation, putting his hands on his hips. “I really should invest in new pens.”
Chitose was reaching up to his pins, about to take one off to hand over but he paused and looked at his boss in confusion. “...Huh?”
“Yeah, the pens I got for the office a few months ago all seem to be a bit faulty. I had this happen to me a few days ago. Apparently the caps don’t screw back on right once you unscrew them.”
Chitose was incredibly lost, “...What?”
Yoshihide just ignored him and kept going, “It’s my fault for not giving you a new pen when I knew.” He shrugged casually, “No biggie, I can just print these out again and we can push back the approval another day. You can go home for now, I’ll pick up a few pens tomorrow and get better ones for the office another day - Hey wait, take your hands off the pins.” He turned his attention to the other person in the room finally.
Chitose just collapsed in his chair, the stress and nerves making his knees buckle under him making it hard to stand. “I messed up though? It’s one more pin to be taken off of my outfit isn't it?” His voice was small, smaller than normal.
Yoshihide just kneeled down on the ground, keeping himself level with the other to hold eye contact. Chitose tried to look elsewhere, but couldn’t get himself to pull away from the other’s purple eyes. “You know you didn’t mess up right?” Chitose just shook his head, words were failing him and he didn’t trust his voice. He felt like he was being talked to like a toddler who is expecting to get in trouble. He really shouldn’t have someone younger than him talking to him like this. He was twenty-four! And yet, it wasn’t patronizing. It was comforting, somehow. “It falls on me. Bosses can make mistakes too, you know.” Yoshihide really cared, didn’t he.
“Here, let’s make a deal.” He pushed himself up and reached into his pants pocket, pulling out one of the many heart pins Chitose wears. Why does he have those? “I made a mistake, so you get a pin back. A fair trade if you will. I’ve held onto all the pins you’ve taken off, I hired you for a reason you know. Your determination and passion shines, no matter how anxious you get.” He forced Chitose’s hand open, placing a pin in it and moving his fingers around it to grab. Chitose sat up and looked at the pin placed in his hand. It was the blue one that matched his shirt in color. It was the exact one he took off recently for his fumble in the hallway. Had he kept it in his suit pocket the entire time? “And I want you to stick around! Every time I make a mistake or you do something extraordinary for Thunderbolt Entertainment, you’ll get a pin back. It’ll be a reward system, not just a countdown for you leaving the company. It can’t be healthy to think like that constantly, and I think this is rather nice~” Yoshihide ended the sentence in english, like he normally does to the crowds of people when saying that word.
Chitose could only just look back and forth at the pin in his hands and at his boss, somewhere between confusion and awe. He was expecting to be scolded and chastised, leaving him begging to not be fired. He didn’t even get to the begging stage and he could keep his job? After that?
Putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest slightly, Yoshihide spoke louder than he normally did around the other, “Fasten that pin on your shirt and stand up! We can get this cleaned up pretty swiftly and you can head home for the night, too. I will probably have to restock the paper towels in the kitchen after this though...”
His loudness was motivating this time around. Not overbearing or overwhelming. With a shaky nod, Chitose put his pin in his shirt pocket and stood up. “I’ll put the pin on when I get home, I should clean this up first. Thank you, Nice-san.”
Yoshihide let out a small huff and shook his head, “Not you, we. We are both cleaning up this mess. Ink is tricky and annoying to clean up and like I said, this is also my fault.” He spoke strongly, leaving no room for argument. “And you don’t need to call me Nice when we’re around the office, you know. I keep telling you this, just call me Yoshihide. Or even Sanda if that’s more your speed.”
There was no way he was doing that. It felt too personal, and he shouldn’t be more attached than he already is. If he got more attached it would be worse when he was inevitably fired, no matter what the other said, “S-sorry, Nice-san.”
Yoshihide just sighed, he knew it was a losing battle. Pulling the other close, he put a soft kiss on the other’s forehead and ruffled his hair endearingly after, “No matter, you will stay here regardless! It doesn’t matter to me how many times I have to tell you or how much I need to take care of you. Your dedication will help Thunderbolt Entertainment shine! Everything you do is improvement not only for the company, but also for yourself.” Pulling away, Chitose just stood there frozen with his face heating up. That wasn’t professional at all, but when was his boss ever overly professional? Yoshihide let out a small laugh that sounded a bit awkward, as if he just realized what he did, “I’ll go get the paper towels. Can you clear the desk of the papers while I do that?” And without waiting for a response, he left speed walking out of the room and shutting the office door with a bit more force than normal.
Yoshihide was nothing but an enigma to Chitose. He acted differently compared to every other boss he had, and he was more attached than he’d like despite only working for a fraction of the time his coworkers had been at the company. He actually liked it here, he didn’t feel nearly as much fear as he did at his other jobs. Dare he say, it felt secure.
He needs to not think like that.
With a sigh he stomped out those thoughts, he could think about it another night. He needed to focus on not messing up again and start to clean up before his boss came back with the towels.
And if in the days after this incident while working towards getting the Megasphere set up at Ensemble Square Yoshide made more mistakes to keep Chitose’s pin count no less than three, neither of them acknowledged it. Chitose just needed to keep working hard with the ounce more motivation he had going through him.