There was silence.
Just crying.
Then, there was a squeak.
Sven looked up slightly to see Melody, standing beside that shark plushie.
"You... Brought it to me... From the desk..?" Sven reached out and slowly dragged the shark across the floor until it bumped into his feminine legs.
He scooped it into his arms and stared at it, feeling his tears dry.
"Thanks... Melody..." he murmured, snuggling into the shark plush. "Guess you're not always mean..."
He tapped a singular finger on the floor, beckoning her forward.
The parakeet hopped forward and climbed onto the back of his hand.
"Heh..." Sven smiled, feeling her soft feathers brush against his hand.
He looked at the shark plushie, then Melody, and realized that two of the best things in his life were from Burt.
"Thanks, Burt..."
Melody gently nibbled his hair.
He sighed.
"What am I doing..? I-I should be doing paperwork for the clan, not sulking..." He stood up, placing the shark plushie back on his desk and setting Melody on the shark.
"Perhaps you need help from your Right Hand Person for that," somebody, unmistakably Carol, said from the doorway.
"N-No, I got it," Sven assured her, looking up to meet their dark gaze.
"Sven, the whole reason you have a Right Hand Person in the first place is because you can't do it alone. Let me do my job, sir."
Why are you switching between calling me Sven and sir? Pick one!
"I-I..." Sven hesitated, then nodded. "Okay."
As Carol walked over, Sven remembered something to remind them about.
"Careful, one of the chairs is squeaky," he warned.
"It's a guessing game," Carol joked.
Carol sat down, Sven also sitting down.
He sighed, swivelling forward and starting to write.
"You got the squeaky chair," Carol commented.
"I always get the squeaky chair," Sven retorted.
They were silent for another moment, nothing said and no noises except for the occasional flipping of paper and tracing of pens.
Sven perked up. He didn't want to disrupt Carol's focus, but at the same time he needed to say something.
"Hey... Thanks for helping me... And accepting the role of Right Hand Person..." he mumbled, scribbling something on a sheet of paper and neatly stacking it on the other finished worksheets. "I needed one..." He grabbed another.
"No problem." Carol smiled, finishing one of their papers. "I know you needed one, and I wasn't about to pass up being Right Hand Person in your time of need. Besides, it was about time I got a promotion anyway."
"You could've told me you wanted one," Sven sniffed.
"That's not how it works, Sven. You have to earn it."
"You did a long time ago."
YOU ARE READING
The New Toppat (Curtisson)
Fiksi PenggemarThe government is on their tail. Sven's so overworked and stressed, and nothing can help him. Everybody's assuring him but none are getting to him. He believes that it's all his fault because he failed to be the leader they thought he would be. He i...
