Techie (Niall Horan AU)

2. Normal Day

Despite what many would comment about my exciting night life being Ace's techie, I actually lived a pretty normal life. I woke up, got dressed, brushed my teeth, did everything the same as the next guy in town. Except I guess most guys didn't work for the famous Ace, both for his company, and him personally.

Regardless of where I worked, there was always one thing in my life that was a constant: hardly any sleep.

I groaned as I woke up the next morning, the bright light making my eyes burn. The first thing I saw after rubbing my eyes and putting my glasses on was Megan sitting right on my chest, curled up into a ball of orange and brown calico fur. I rolled my eyes as Megan's tail hit my face a few times in her sleep, my fingers lightly scratching just behind her ears to wake her up. She did soon afterwards, yawning and stretching before hopping off of me, running down the hallways most likely to the kitchen for her breakfast.

I heard a drawn out meow coming from the kitchen minutes later, Megan getting impatient with me. I ignored her though, stretching as I got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. I washed my face and brushed my teeth quickly, my hair a mess before I brushed through it and attempted to style it out of my face.

Another long yowl was heard from Megan as I took my time walking to the kitchen, picking up her food dish and a can of smelly cat food that was supposed to taste like salmon. I scrunched my nose up in disgust as I pulled the can top off and threw it in the garbage bin, placing the can on the floor. Megan hurried over to her breakfast, wasting no time in eating it all.

I left her to eat in peace, going to my closet to get dressed for work and gather all my papers and files I would need. I stuffed the files in my black backpack, slinging over one shoulder as I walked to the kitchen again. I rushed to the pantry to grab anything small I could take as breakfast, settling for a few granola bars and my usual thermos of coffee.

I grabbed my keys and set off for work, hopping in my car and driving towards the center of the city. My work was in a huge skyscraper with a glittering sign that read "Styles Inc."

I was the lowest of all the workers, quite literally. Everyday I would get to work, swipe my key card for the employee entrance, and get on the elevator to go down three floors to the very heart of the company where I worked. For some reason, this made all the other employees believe that I and the other IT workers were somehow less than them, making snarky comments like one would expect a jock to make to a nerd in high school.

How juvenile, I thought as I saw some secretary girls in the elevator snickering at my Iron Man comic books I had picked up from inside my car tucked under my arm. If only they knew I planned on making his uni-beam projection gun a reality for Ace. I'm sure they wouldn't be laughing then.

Soon enough, all the people but me and another IT guy named Steve had gotten off the elevator, and when the doors opened we gave each other a friendly nod before heading towards our desks.

There were two main parts of the IT department: the offices for us, and the computer hardware and data storage for the entire company. I felt at home down here, surrounded by the soft hum of machinery and the clicks of computer mouses.

Computers were so much better than annoying people. Harry never understood why I preferred to be by myself a lot, but would let me be after I tried explaining to him the quiet beauty of the IT department. Harry was really the only person who never made some kind of remark about my days surrounded by more monitors than people.

My lonely days at my office consisted of checking the data storage and computer hardware for any problems, emailing troubled workers about solutions to their various computer problems (one would be surprised how many times the answer is 'Have you tried restarting the computer?'), and making my daily trip up to Harry's office at the very top of the Styles Inc. tower for Ace weapon updates.