all you’ve been waiting for rumbles through your ears at once [skyla]

Ryuu did not like meetings anymore. That was a strange thing to think, as no one truly enjoyed meetings, but ever since he moved to England and transferred to the British Ministry, he came to find meetings more tedious than informative. Back in Japan, he had been the head of the Auror department and got many opportunities to speak his mind and contribute to the conversation. He felt like he was actually making a difference there, but sitting in this room, at the other end of the long rectangular table from the man currently speaking, Ryuu felt like he could have left and no one will have noticed.

There were many things Ryuu had to get used to now that he had switched both departments and countries, but not being in charge or being seen as an important figure bothered him to no end. He glanced around the room at his “colleagues”, most of them fighting desperately to stay awake. When the man, Mr. Greenling, had called the meeting earlier that morning, Ryuu’s enthusiasm for the day had vanished. It seemed rude to call a meeting so early in the morning, before people had time to settle their affairs and have a cup of coffee. Ryuu himself was feeling rather listless since he had not had his morning green tea yet and was not feeling charitably toward the portly, pushy man speaking, berating them for some short-coming or another.

It bothered him to no end that though he was an actual Japanese Auror of high standing, in Britain he was relegated to a spot somewhere beneath the Ministry's British Ambassador to Japan, and was thus forced to be at this meeting for assistants to the ambassadors. Assistants. Who did they think he was? Ryuu had diplomat status, but the people in this Ministry refused to acknowledge it with the respect he felt he was rightly owed. How troublesome. Ryuu’s slender fingers twitched slightly from where they rested on the cold, dull table, pushing some papers around in front of him. The meeting had been called so quickly that Ryuu had not had a chance to have his morning smoke either. The listlessness continued.

Ryuu’s dark eyes fell on the other assistants at the meeting, not recognizing any of them. Who were they all? How long would he have to endure this man’s empty drabble? How many times could he berate them? When would he run out of things to say?

Oddly enough, just as Ryuu had this thought, he heard a small voice. His eyes refocused and his mind came back from the place it had wandered to. He turned to the source of the sound, a young woman sitting two people to his left. Omoshiroi.

Skyla was naturally a morning person, so one of the heads of department calling a Department-wide meeting first thing in the morning did not phase her in the least. Though she never really enjoyed meetings, to her it was simply another part of the job. She went through the motions, attending and dutifully taking notes, which helped keep her mind from wandering away from the subject at hand. She was just another cog in the machine, after all. Being that this was a Department-wide meeting, the room was filled with young men and women of all colors and nationalities. Many were white and English like herself, but she could see a few East Asians and those she assumed to be Africans sprinkled throughout the gathering.

Covertly gazing about the room, she could see that nearly everyone was bored. Some did not even bother to hide their boredom. A few of them were openly dozing, and a couple of women she knew to be assistants to the British Ambassador to Italy seemed to be passing notes back and forth. She rolled her eyes, returning her attention to the front of the room. Catching the eye of one of her fellow assistants who worked closely with her, she smiled slightly at the absurdity of this meeting. She was sure the moment they were dismissed, everyone would start complaining about the self-important Mr. Greenling, who obviously compensated for in smugness what he lacked in other areas.

The topic had moved on to reports, and their responsibility and key role in making sure the reports were prepared and delivered timely. After all, even though the Ambassador’s name appeared on all the reports, it was the assistants who did most of the work in compiling the reports. “Sir?” she called out, raising her hand. “I have an idea on how to streamline the processing of reports submitted by our British Ambassadors,” she said after he acknowledged her. A silence fell over the room, as if her colleagues were surprised that someone had spoken up and actually contributed, interrupting Greenling’s tedious monologue.

“What’s that? No, Davenport, we don’t need any of your ideas. Don’t get above yourself. You don’t have the experience or the authority to suggest changes in this department,” Greenling cut in, dismissing her out of hand and waving his hand in a gesture of derision. He chuckled, annoyingly self-satisfied. The room was deadly quiet, and she could feel dozens of eyes looking at her. She blinked, shocked at first that he even knew her name. But then, he and her boss were on very good terms. She had had dealings with Greenling before and knew what an arse he was. She could feel herself growing warm, her heart racing and her cheeks flushing a brilliant pink. She was angry and embarrassed at her idea being so publicly rejected without even being given a chance to explain herself, especially since she was not used to being put down like that. Her fingers closed tightly around her quill in order to stop them from trembling.

After what seemed like forever, during which Skyla fumed with impotent rage, they were finally dismissed. She jumped to her feet, clutching her notes to her chest. She was determined to get out of the room as quickly as possible. “Excuse me,” she murmured, brushing past the men and women seated in her row as she made her hasty exit. It was only once she had left the room that she realized how hot and stifling it had been in there. She was grateful for the cool air on her burning cheeks and the distance she was able to put between herself and Mr. Greenling.

The girl spoke up, her voice quiet as she attempted to offer Greenling an idea, and then was shot down immediately. Ryuu rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, not realizing he had been leaning forward curiously, his interest piqued. Out of the corner of his eyes he looked at the woman who had spoken. He most likely would have never noticed her if she had not. She was dressed modestly, much like most of the other women here. She was neither attention-catching not did she stand out, but Ryuu had to admire her bravery to speak up at while Greenling was meeting. Even in his short month at the Ministry, he had learned that Greenling was probably the least reasonable man he had dealt with thus far. The man insisted on calling him “Roo” and making border-line racist remarks. Ryuu would never interact with him if he was not forced.

Finally the meeting was adjourned and they were released from their confinement. The girl who had spoken—  what was her name, Davenport? He could not remember clearly— nearly shot out of her seat, mumbling an apology as she all but fled the room. Something in her expression made Ryuu’s sympathetic side take over, and before he knew it, he had made his way out of the room with reasonaly less trouble than she did, as the rest of the people moved aside for him. His maroon coat fluttered behind him as his long strides ate up the distance between him and the hastily departing figure before him. His head of snow white hair bobbed and weaved through the crowd, all six feet and two inches towering above many of the people flowing steadily against him.

Soon he was beside her, matching her pace step for step. Ryuu glanced at the girl beside him, keeping his face neutral. He had been wrong before when he called her unremarkable. Though her hair was a simple dark brown, when it caught the light as it did, it shined rather prettily. Obviously she took good care of it. And her eyes were a very striking light blue, almost grey, color. He would probably never get used to seeimg light colored eyes. After all, he had grown up only ever seeing brown eyes. It wasn’t so much as this woman was unremarkable, it was that her beauty was understated, perhaps like a ginkgo tree. Not florid and calling for attention, but still lovely in its own natural way.

As he strolled alongside the girl, he pushed his hands into his pockets and looked straight ahead as he spoke up. “It was very rude of Mr. Greenling to dismiss you as he did. I am interested to hear more of the idea you spoke of, as it is relevant to the department and may make us more efficient.”

Skyla was more upset than she would admit to herself by Greenling’s rude brush-off. Due to her difficult - strike that, non-existent relationship with her father, she unconsciously sought the approval of male authority figures in her life. It was part of the reason why she worked so hard for the Ambassador, who was a man. If her boss had been a woman, perhaps she would have a different approach to her work. Even if Greenling was a bumbling fool, it still hurt to be utterly shut down before she even had a chance to speak. She brushed an invisible piece of lint from her dress in an attempt to calm herself down.

She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she did not immediately notice when a figure fell into step beside her as she strode down the hall. After a moment, she glanced sideways and was startled to see a tall, apparently Asian man with snow-white hair walking beside her. His face appeared young, with black brows and dark eyes, which made the contrast even more striking, especially given the deep maroon coat he was wearing. She was not used to being towered over by an Asian man. Most that she had come into contact with had been about her height or perhaps slightly shorter, although she did not have much experience with Asians since her work kept her confined to London and Paris.

She racked her brain, attempting to place him. She certainly didn’t know his name, but she vaguely remembered hearing office gossip mentioning a new attaché that had lately come from Japan. She had not paid much attention because it was irrelevant to her position. But why was he in a meeting that was meant for assistants? It didn’t make sense. She hesitated, feeling rather awkward. She had no idea what to say to him. She opened her mouth, but it was he who spoke first.

“It was very rude of Mr. Greenling to dismiss you as he did. I am interested to hear more of the idea you spoke of, as it is relevant to the department and may make us more efficient.”

Too right it was. She nodded, agreeing with his assessment. The second part of his speech gave her pause, however. She slowed her hurried pace, the color that had begun to fade from her face surging back as she realized that he was actually engaging her in conversation. Surely he was humoring her in wanting to know her idea, but she decided to humor him back and tell him what she had tried to tell Greenling earlier.

“When the Ambassador’s monthly reports are due, the assistants are the ones who mainly write and compile them. But when the reports are complete, about five different people have to look at them before they are approved. It’s inefficient and delays the process. My thought is that one or two trusted staff members should be appointed this responsibility, which should help speed up the review and ensure that the reports are submitted timely.” She spoke confidently, sure that hers was a good idea. As it stood now, monthly reports were extremely frustrating, but streamlining the process would help make things flow much more smoothly. It was easy for her to talk about work-related subjects with another colleague. Once she had finished answering his question, though, she felt unsure again. Should she shake his hand? Was that proper? With an English colleague, it wouldn’t even be a question. But since he wasn’t English…

“My name is Skyla,” she said, extending her hand in a handshake gesture to cover her confusion. “Davenport,” she added as an afterthought as she looked up at him, a faint smile at her lips. “I’m a Junior Assistant to the British Ambassador to France.” Her job title was a mouthful, but it was something she took pride in, knowing all the hard work it had taken to get her to that point.