hanahaki // borderlands

chapter one

"Alright, Rhys, I'm gonna say this real slow for you, just to get it through your thick skull to your tiny brain. I know, I know, it's hard for you to understand some things because you're an idiot, so that's why I'm making accomadations for you."

Rhys had to make his eyes resist rolling at the sound of Vasquez's condescending bullshit spew. Were he not so attached to his job, he'd have told Vasquez to shove it and hit the road a long time ago, but he loved his job at Hyperion Headquarters, and he loved bringing home thousands of dollars every month, so he kept his head down and his mouth shut.

Vasquez leaned against the door jamb with a stack of papers in his hand. He kept his eyes down, on the paper, so he, thankfully, didn't see the disgusted faces Rhys was making. "Okay. I need you. To run these numbers. Then deliver - which means take to someone - them back to me. Before you clock out. Do you. Understand. What I. Am saying."

Rhys did roll his eyes that time. "You give me the same damn instructions every freakin' day, so, in reality, I got it the first time."

Vasquez glared.

Rhys sighed and let his eyes roll again. "Yes, sir, I understand."

"Good job, kiddo." Vasquez slipped the stack of papers right under Rhys's right elbow, just to piss him off. He knocked on the metal and walked towards the door with a dismissive wave. "Back to work, lackey. I'll be in my office, so if you need me, don't."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Rhys muttered to himself, getting started on the stack.

As Vasquez left, Vaughn entered, watching Vasquez leave for a moment there. "What did Wallethead want?"

Rhys snorted with a small smirk. "He was just giving me more work to do and was being an ass while he did so. You know, the usual."

"Yeah, yeah, sounds about right." Vaughn hopped up onto Rhys's desk and glanced around the room. "At least he finally gave you an office as his assistant."

Rhys sighed. "I'm starting to think that the office was just an apology in advance for all the bullshit he was planning on giving me."

Vaughn snorted at that, leaning back on his palms and lightly swinging his feet some. "You really think Vasquez would apologize?"

Rhys pursed his lips and paused for a moment before responding. "Good point."

Vaughn hopped back off the desk and strolled around the room, his arms crossed. "This office is pretty swanky though. It's better than mine and I'm head treasurer."

Rhys shrugged. "I'm five steps below the CEO. I think it makes a little sense for me to have a better office."

The shorter man scoffed. "Whatever, wise ass. Rub it on in that you're the big cheese in our friend group."

"I'm the big friend in general. I'm the tallest." Rhys grinned. "And you're the smallest."

"I am five-feet-four-inches of pure rage."

"Suuure you are. And I'm the Queen of England."

"Wow, Your Majesty, you sure have changed." Vaughn turned to face Rhys. "Anyway, I came in here with a purpose. Yvette wants to grab lunch with Fiona and Sasha and I came up here to ask you if you wanted to tag along with us."

Rhys sighed heavily. "That sounds actually amazing. Let's go. I need a damn break."

--

Lunch was nice, going back to work wasn't, and at the end of the day, when Rhys got home, he wanted to detach his own arm and throw it across the room just for the fuck of it and being able to at least control some form of action in his life.

The better half of him decided against throwing his arm, however, in favor of just ordering Chinese food and putting on some Netflix.

While he waited on his X-Box to load up and the Chinese to arrive, he went up to his room and changed into some sweats and a hoodie. The perfect lounging attire, it was, and he wanted comfort and warmth as well as wiggle room. He kept his mismatched socks on, and he hurried back downstairs for fear of missing the Chinese food guy. It normally only took them less than ten minutes for them to get there, and it had already been about five, so he didn't chance missing them and parked his posterior right on the middle seat of the couch and waited, turning on Netflix and playing the last show he watched just for some noise. When the Chinese guy arrived, Rhys snapped himself out of the zoned-out blank stare he was in and answered the door, receiving and paying for his food then plopping right back down on the couch. The smell of the oily, greasy food gave him ghost cramps, but made his hungry stomach growl and his mouth water. He reached for the bag of egg rolls with a grin, and that grin dropped as he heard his phone ring from the counter where he left it.

"You gotta be dunkin' my donuts," Rhys muttered before going for the phone. He looked at the caller ID and gagged. It was Vasquez, and when he called this late, it was never good. (Then again, there was never really an instance where Vasquez called and it was good, either.) He answered with a swipe of his thumb. "Hello?"

"Rhys, it's me. I just received an email. A very serious email. Concerning you."

Rhys's insides turned to ice. Vasquez was giving him The Business Voice, and he sounded so serious that it gave Rhys heart palpitations. "C-concerning me? From who?"

"That's why it's very serious." He paused, and with the way he did it, it made Rhys think that he was contemplating telling him the truth. Rhys waited with bated breath. When Vasquez spoke again, he jumped. "It's from.. It's from Jack. As in the CEO. As in the guy who signs both of our paychecks. He wants to see you tomorrow morning at nine sharp."

Rhys froze. His knees turned into water and his stomach churned. "W-why does- how does- w-what?"

"I don't know, I don't know, and I don't know." Vasquez heavily sighed. "I don't know why he wants to see you at all. You're just a lackey."

"Wow, thanks for that one, Vasquez."

"I'm serious, Rhys. The fact that the CEO of our workplace, the CEO of one of the most successful businesses in the world, wants to meet with you... It can only be bad things. I can't imagine a scenario where it would be good. He only talks to us little guys when we're about to get cut out."

Rhys bit the inside of his cheek. "Maybe it's some kind of behavioral infracation... Have you reported me at all?"

"Surprisingly, no. You've got a clean slate this work term. It's really... confusing." Vasquez sounded a bit bitter. "On a separate but related note, I'm especially pissed because it was about you, the email was. Jack Hyperion finally emails me and it's about my underling."

Rhys groans. "Yet again, you get me with those confidence boosters." He sighed heavily. "I don't know if I can stomach anything right now, but I'm gonna try to eat my dinner. Unless you had anything else to-"

Vasquez hung up.

Rhys bit his lip thoughtfullly as he tossed his phone onto the couch. Jack Hyperion... wants to see me?

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. Did it a couple more times.

Then he ate a wonton, packed the rest of the food up, put it all in the fridge, took a shower, and went to bed.

After all, he did have a big day ahead of him. If we was going to get his head handed to him on a silver platter and ultimately fired, he might as well be ready for it.