Work Text:
Asher was excited for his new job. The last couple of years he had been working for a tech firm, but they overworked and underpaid their workers.
It was almost out of the blue that he had some across a job posting for one of the most notable companies in Rushington.
He was coming into his first day as a junior technician for Stripes and Spots. Most people referred to the company as SS.
He took a deep breath before walking into the lobby. The floor was a deep red carpet, live plants were displayed in pots by the towering windows. Asher walked to a central wood desk.
A tired looking armadillo sat in a tall blue chair.
“How can I help you?” She croaked as she adjusted her spectacles.
“Im here for my orientation as a junior technician.” Asher replied in what he hoped was a cheerful voice.
“Oh yes, Asher was it? You can take the elevator to the 2nd floor and you can find Dave, he will begin your orientation.”
Asher thanked her and swiftly walked to the elevator, his tail wagging in anticipation.
He soon found himself in a warm waiting room. He was nervous, what if they didn’t actually want to keep him what if the fired him on the first day!
He bit his lip nervously his nails digging into his palms. A tall hyena turned to face him.
“Hi I'm Dave, you must be Asher?”
“Yes, I am here for my orientation!”
“Come this way, you already did all the paperwork, right.” The hyena led him to a row of cubicles.
“2nd one on the left is yours.”
Asher followed Dave the cubicle had plenty of space. Two monitors, and a dark blue office chair.
“So what will I be doing?” Asher asked, his green eyes full of curiosity.
Dave shifted glancing away, “it depends, most of the time it is sorting through emails, and fixing people’s computers, but it depends..”
Asher twitched his ears. “As long as you get your work done, and follow your contract, your job here should be easy enough.” The hyena added his intense glare making Asher a little uncomfortable.
Asher nodded vigorously.
“Now log onto the computer and sign in, I'll email you what you need to get done for today.” Said Dave before he turned away.
Asher sat at desk and logged in. The work day consisted of him organizing old files. It was kinda boring, but Asher still enjoyed how peaceful the environment was.
Asher was leaving the building after work, across the parking lot he saw a dark car with tinted windows pull up to the back of his building.
A tall cheetah in a black suit and sunglasses stepped out. She was accompanied by two huge kangaroos.
Asher held his breath, this cheetah was the most attractive animal he had ever seen. As this thought crossed his mind he blushed and hurried to his car. He looked back one last time and his heart caught in his throat as their eyes met.
Asher quickly hopped into his car, not daring to look back.
The next few days were uneventful. He went to his job, did various tasks, then went home. Friday was when things started to change.
Asher walked out of his car and entered the building. As he entered he noticed that security guards had been added. Two by each entrance and one by the center desk.
His green eyes flicked back and forth uncertainly, why was there so much security? He quietly made his way to the elevator. As the elevator doors closed he stared distractedly ahead. What was going on?
He was surprised as the elevator began moving down. He had forgotten to press the button. He quickly moved forward and clicked the 2nd floor button.
He stared at the wall blankly as he waited. Soon the elevator stopped, it had reached the 3rd below ground level. The soft dingging of the elevator made Asher jolt as he looked out the opening doors.
Asher had been expecting some sort of maintenance floor, but was shocked to see a long dark hall.
Wait, that was a scream. Asher's large ears had incredible hearing.
He took a step out of the elevator. Everything within him told him to stop, to go back, but what if someone needed help?
He slowly tiptoed into the hall. It was long and seemed to be shaped like a lower case t. He walked forward carefully. Straight down the hall there was a double door, from which loud sounds were coming from.
He quickly scampered down the hall and pressed his ear to the door.
“You still think they are coming to break you out of here? No, you will wish you could die. But you won’t be able to, and no one will come for you.”
Then Asher heard a whip cracking across flesh as an animal screamed out in pain. He stepped back with a gasp and turned to run.
Just then the elevator dinged once more as two muscular kangaroos exited the elevator. They saw him.
His fur fluffed out in fear, his lime eyes darting back and forth in fear.
The kangaroos were around him in only a couple bounds. They towered above him.
“What are you doing down here?”
“Um I u got lost and I…”
“Whatever, lets just put him in a cell till the boss has some time.”
Before Asher had a second to protest, he was roughly grabbed by the arms and tossed into a nearby room.
His knees hit the ground hard and definitely left bruises. His eyes started to water.
The room was dark and it was dark in the room. Asher searched the room for a means of escape, but there was only the door he had entered.
He was so stupid, he should have just gone to the office. Instead he had gone down that stupid hallway to that door and now he was caught up in what this was.
It wasn’t long till Asher heard footsteps approaching the room. His stomach twisted in anticipation. Is this where they killed him.
A beam of light illuminated the room as the door swung open with a loud groan.
There she was the cheetah he had seen the week before. She lashed her tail clearly impatient.
“Um Im sorry I didn’t mean to go down here, I promise I won’t tell anyone!” Asher’s voiced quivered as he spoke his eyes darting back forth nervously.
There was no response, the he heard a soft chuckle, that turned into a full laugh. Her voice was husky yet had a musical quality to it. He was enchanted, but he quickly brought back reality as she slapped him in the face.
His cheek stung, “hah no way, you aren’t leaving this place alive, unless…” She knelt down and gently lifted his chin. “You are pretty cute, I guess I could let you out here if you dated me..” she smiled at him, “if not you can just die.”
Asher swallowed, this was a bad situation, I guess dating this random lady was better than dying.
“Um ok, uh what am I supposed to do..?” He replied.
“Don’t worry about that right now, guards take him to my floor.” She snapped her fingers before turning to leave. She looked back, “see you later sweetheart.”
Asher was again roughly grabbed by his arms and was then dragged to the elevator. The kangaroo on his left with a tattoo of a snake eating a shark eating a dragon, pressed the button near the top. It had a letter R engraved into its gold metal.
Asher couldn’t think, all he could do was wait numbly watching the numbers grow higher and higher. Finally they arrived and Asher was lead to the entrance of a suite. Two more guards stood in front of the front door.
The guard on his right scanned a card at the door and it slid open without a sound. Asher landed on the hard tile with a loud crack, as the kangaroos threw him in then locked the door.
He was stunned as he looked around. He was in a large white tiled room with a massive chandelier hanging above, all of the furniture was grey with dark cheetah spots. He sat up then got to his feet.
He wandered around the suite, it was large and minimalistic. There was a bedroom with a vast closet, a massive bathroom with a tub big enough to fit 5 people, a kitchen with white marble and a double oven, an office full of shelves with a broad desk, and a living room with a large grey couch.
After about an hour of looking around Asher got tired and decided to curl up on the couch. The cushions were deliciously soft and he quickly dozed off curled up like a cat.
Asher woke up to the smell of food. He sat up his nose twitching. Where was he. He stood up and followed his nose to the smell. In the kitchen was the cheetah, and she was cooking something. She must have heard him because she looked up and met his eyes. She winked then beckoned him over.
Asher cautiously approached, she was making some sort of stir fry. He watched as she grabbed two bowls and filled them with the yummy food.
She brought the bowls to a small dining table that already had two forks. Asher followed and sat across from the Cheetah. He waited anxiously, was he supposed to eat right now?
“What are you waiting for?” She asked as she started to consume her food.
Asher quickly started to eat his food. After a minute Asher gained enough courage to ask a question, “So um what is your name?”
The cheetah stopped eating and looked at Asher, his heart started to race, “Rebel, I'm the one in charge of this whole organization, and your Asher right? One of the new hires?”
Asher nodded, “yeah I started working a week ago.” The food was good, really good. The rest of dinner was kinda awkward.
After dinner Rebel took the dishes to the sink, “go take a bath.”
“Oh ok..” said Asher he started to walk to the bathroom when he paused, “thanks for dinner, it was great.”
“Im glad you liked it.” She said with a small smile.
Asher made his way to the bath. It took him a minute to figure out the knobs, but soon he had warm water flowing into the tub.
The bath was luxurious, the shampoo smelled like lavatory and vanilla and the conditioner left his fur soft and fluffy.
After washing he got out and wrapped himself in a fluffy white towel that had been folded on a small table by the tub, it smelled of fresh laundry.
Under the towel was a pair of silk plain black pjs with a note that read: use these.
After drying off and changing Asher left the bathroom holding his dirty clothes.
“Leave those in that bin over there, you can sleep on the couch, and I will see you tomorrow.” Rebel said as she walked up to Asher gently ruffling the fur on his head. Instead of fear, he kinda felt soft and fuzzy inside.
As Asher curled up on the massive couch to fall asleep, he wondered what tomorrow would be like, something was bound to happen…