[Team Two] The archive!au

[rin-aokuro.livejournal.com]

Hokuto, Kochi, 770 words, G for now.

— — — 

What a bloody disaster. He was going to give Juri a piece of his mind the next time they met. 'A great opportunity' indeed. Juri had meant to be kind and helpful of course, but this? Really?

The lobby was absolutely depressing, with greenish-gray floor tiles and dark blue walls. There were no windows as he was about four floors underground, and the large house plants between the lobby sofas must only stay alive with the power of proportionally sized pinkish-shade grow lights. And the worn-out sofas - Hokuto wished to never sit on them. The canvas upholstery was shabby, and there were suspicious dark stains on the fabric. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was obviously spending their money on anything but the interior design of their archive cellars.

Since the sofas were un-sittable, the only option was to stand and wait until someone came to collect him. They were late, which wasn't helping his mood at all.

Hokuto rubbed an itch under the collar of his white turtleneck, smoothed the lapels of his blazer, pushed up his glasses, and shared a gloomy gaze with Emperors Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei, whose photos were hanging on the opposite wall in a neat row. <i>Good morning Your Majesties. Nice to meet you, how are you doing? Has His Majesty, Emperor Reiwa gone on a travel around his domain, since he's not here? How about the guardian of this place? Where the h-</i>

"Good morning! I'm sorry you had to wait!"

From the door on the left appeared a young man balancing a tall pile of gray cardboard archive folders in his arms. His face was spread into a stupidly wide grin. 

“Matsumura, right?” the man continued, taking a side-step, “My name is Kochi Yugo and, uh, would you mind grabbing a folder or three from the top?”

Hokuto leaped over to take some folders to himself and raised a brow, but swallowed whatever biting words he was about to utter.

“Oh, I wasn’t going to drop them,” the man, Kochi, said, his grin growing even wider, “they were heavy, that’s all. Here, follow me.”  

Following the man, Kochi, Hokuto stared at his back - the moss green knitted cardigan and the straight-legged pants - and felt his mood sink even lower. He could already see himself rotting off in an archive storeroom deep underground, while gradually starting to resemble his own grandfather. Kochi had obviously gone through that change already.

“This is my office,” Kochi said and placed the folders onto a table into a small office room. The table was flooding with similar folders. “Yours is the next door. Feel free to settle down, I’ll be there in a minute to give you a tour.”

Hokuto simply nodded, dropped the folders in his arms on top of Kochi’s folders, and slipped back into the corridor.

The next door was locked. Of course it was.

“Excuse me, I can’t get in,” he said loudly enough that Kochi had to hear it into his office. “I don’t have any keys yet.”

“Sorry,” Kochi said with a grimace, “I forgot. We’re going upstairs for lunch, and get the keys on the way. Who let you in though?”

“The lady I wrote the contract with,” Hokuto said, shrugging. “She was too busy to stay, she just dropped me at the lobby.”

“She should have given you the keys too,” Kochi mused, already turning back to his own office. Hokuto let him go.

His own office was just as cramped as Kochi’s was. Hokuto switched on the light and let his gaze sweep around the room. It seemed like it had been used as a storeroom, or perhaps a temporary working space for someone else. There was a desk and a chair, a trash can with a few takeaway coffee mugs and candy wrappers in it, and a bookshelf with folders of rather unimportant-looking documents and scrap paper. On the table there was a monitor, a keypad and a mouse, some pencils and papers, and a bunch of cables, one of which might or might not fit between the monitor and the laptop he was yet to receive. It wasn’t a complete mess but it wasn’t neat to his tastes either. Sighing, he placed his bag on a side chair and started to pile up the papers and empty folders.

After about fifteen minutes, Kochi was grinning at his door again. Did the man ever stop smiling? He had laugh wrinkles around his eyes, so probably not. At least they looked pretty. In fact, the guy didn’t look half bad.

“Ready to take a look around?”

Comments

[damagea.livejournal.com]

This is forever one of the most amusing story ideas ever asdfghjk archive!AU XD I also liked everything about this because you wrote all the nice details about the surroundings, and it was very easy to picture everything in my mind. Poor Hokuto for being so unimpressed by everything ahahhahahaa and Kochi smiling all the time — I especially liked the ending After about fifteen minutes, Kochi was grinning at his door again. Did the man ever stop smiling? He had laugh wrinkles around his eyes, so probably not. At least they looked pretty. In fact, the guy didn’t look half bad. asskldfksakföaf there's already something going on clearly!!!🤭 And I agree with Hokuto; Kochi's laugh wrinkles ARE pretty, and he doesn't look half bad. All the opposite, actually, hehe...

Btw I was wondering if this happened to you in real life or did you come up with it by yourself? XD Anyway, it was awesome and funny:

“The lady I wrote the contract with,” Hokuto said, shrugging. “She was too busy to stay, she just dropped me at the lobby.

“She should have given you the keys too,” Kochi mused, already turning back to his own office. Hokuto let him go.

THANK YOU for writing and sharing!!!

[rin-aokuro.livejournal.com]

Thankyouu❤️❤️❤️ Lmao Hokuto's life is hard indeed. XD But yess I absolutely love Kochi's laugh wrinkles, they deserve all the mentions. ❤️

Haha no, while the archive lobby is very much the lobby of the archive I worked at, nobody abandoned me there without any keys. It was merely an easy way to not have other characters around for now. 😂

Thank you for the comment, too! 🤩