Work Text:
Jun pushed his way through the crowd that had formed a semicircle around the foot of the staircase and the body sprawled out across it. The man’s briefcase had cracked open in the fall, and a trail of white paper led all the way up to the the top of the stairs. He looked down at the motionless body and its untied shoelaces, then proceeded to pull a notebook and pen from his bag with a sigh. Too many names were being crossed out, and not for the right reasons. At least not for him.
Jun could feel a headache coming on. Massaging the spot between his brows, he pushed his way back through the swarm of office workers and headed across the road to his own office building.
His shoes clicked in a quick rhythm as he strode across the lobby through to the elevator. Jun pressed the button to go down and adjusted his tie as he waited for the intricately gold-embossed doors to open. Looking up at a clear ding, Jun stepped into the brightly lit elevator, and reached down to press B23.
The elevator gave a tiny rumble, and from the speakers a woman’s voice announced pleasantly, “Going down.”
When the elevator doors opened, Jun was greeted by a garishly bright red statue of a bare-chested man. Looking up at him baring his fangs while raising one of his goat legs in the air, he couldn’t help but groan. He hated coming to this floor; it was unbearably tacky.
Jun made his way past the chattering swarm around the watercooler and turned the corner. A sudden wave of workers wove around him, barely giving him an acknowledging nod as they spoke urgently into their handsets. Locating the office labelled with the nameplate, ‘Soul Retrieval Division: Ninomiya,’ he didn’t bother knocking before throwing the door open to reveal a figure turned away studying his whiteboard intently.
"Can you stop getting in the way of my work?" Jun demanded as he settled down on the maroon velvet couch in the corner, crossing his legs and leaning back to stare in disdain.
Nino looked away from the whiteboard and pointed accusingly at him with the marker in his hand. “Where are your manners? Surely that sort of blasphemy lands you a banishment from heaven for a couple days, at least?” After a moment he added indignantly, “Leader and I could have been having a private moment.”
"Then I doubt you would've cared about any interruptions. Where is Ohno-san, anyway? He's always hanging out here instead of HR," Jun said.
“What, disappointed he’s not there whenever you casually drop by to personally hand over a formal complaint?” Nino raised an eyebrow when Jun didn’t reply. “Dear God, exactly how many complaints have you made?”
“He’s better company than you, at least,” Jun shot back. “And doesn’t stop me from reaching my monthly targets.”
“Hey, hey,” Nino said, raising his hands in surrender. “We’re both just doing our job - crossing names off the list, reaching our quota, yada yada. No need to be so competitive, Jun-kun,” he drawled. He popped the lid off his whiteboard marker and drew a squeaky line through the other four marked on the side titled, ‘DEMON UP FOR A PROMOTION, HELL YEAH.’ The other side was headlined, ‘JUN, INCOMPETENT ANGEL WITH A NICE ASS.’
“It’s not a good look. Oh, and that's five of your targets this week," Nino said, giving him a smug grin. Jun felt a sudden urge to punch it.
Jun clicked his tongue as he got up from the sofa. "Screw you," he retorted, halfway out the door. Nino waved goodbye with a bright smile, then turned back to look at the whiteboard, eyes thoughtful.
"I wish," he said to himself.