Ideal

Stepping Up

"CALENDAR! I NEED YOU TO GO THROUGH THESE NUMBERS FOR ME, NOW!" Mr. Ton started stacking papers on Retsukos desk, which he did everyday. Retsuko sighed, but nodded. "Yes Mr. Ton.." Retsuko shook her head a little and looked down at the work she had already been doing. She had almost finished her own work, and now having to look through all these other ones kinda ruined her slight chance of hope she would get out of work on time for once. But, nonetheless, here she was. She looked back up at her laptop screen, and on the other side of her desk, was where Haida was working. If Retsuko could find one good thing to make from today, is that Haida was back and out of the hospital. Haida had been hospitalized with Pneumonia, and he wouldn't tell Retsuko or Fenneko how he got it. Anyways, Haida had told Retsuko how he felt about her, which immediately made her wonder when Haida would officially ask her out on an actual date. Today maybe? She didn't know.

Fenneko started packing up her stuff, looking over and seeing how much work Retsuko was stuck with. "Jeez Retsuko, best of luck getting all that done. I wish I could stay and help." Retsuko smiled a little. "No you don't." Fenneko nodded, and picked up her laptop. "You're right, I really don't. See you tomorrow." Fenneko headed out the door as nearly everyone else did, including Mr. Ton, followed by Tsunoda who was talking his ear off about some Golf thing she didn't even understand. However, one person stayed at their desk. Haida was still working, and didn't even look up to watch everyone else leave. "Uhm, Haida?" Retsuko asked. Haida looked at Retsuko across the way and smiled, also instantly blushing. This was the first time the two had been alone since the hospital visit. "What's up Retsuko?" "Shouldn't you be going? Everyone went home for the day." Haida shook his head. "Nah, got some work to make up from when I was gone. Besides...I don't want you to be lonely." Retsuko blushed a little. "Thanks." Haida, still blushing, chuckled a little.

He took a moment to look to Restuko's right, where she had stacks of paper still to go through. "Man, Mr. Ton really needs to stop giving you so much extra work." Retsuko simply sighed, as she was too afraid to agree to that statement. Haida reached across and took half of the tall stack and put it on his own desk. Retsuko made a slight confused noise as he did that, because it nearly tripled the amount of work he still had to do. "Haida, why did you do that?" Haida smiled at her. "Because if we split the load, we can get out of here at the same time. Nobody left behind, right?" Retsuko smiled, thrilled she could get out of there earlier. "Thank you so much Haida!" She exclaimed, causing Haida to smile as well. "Anytime Retsuko." The two got back to work, going silent so they could focus.

About an hour and a half later, Haida and Retsuko made their way out of the accounting department and down to the entrance of the office building. "I really can't thank you enough for helping me. I would've been here for two more hours if it wasn't for that." Retsuko and Haida got into the elevator to the first floor. "Like I said, Anytime. If you want to start splitting the load more often, I'm happy to do it." Haida said, while blushing and smiling. "He's gotta mention the hospital at some point, right? Unless he was just ina daze because of medication and didn't really mean any of it..." Retsuko thought as the elevator opened. "Should I do it now? I feel like it may be a bad time. What if she says no? Will that make her hate me? What do I do?" Haida's mind was going as fast as a racecar with nerves about asking Retsuko out, but he felt that if he waited any longer, he'd end up waiting another 5 years.

The two of them walked into the Japanese night and started walking to the train station. Retsuko looked up at Haida, and noticed he was sweating a little bit. This was odd, as it was actually a rather cold night. "You feeling ok Haida?" Retsuko asked with a concerned tone, almost like a mother. Haida snapped out of his little mind prison. "Who, me? Of course I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be fine?" Hehe..." Haida sounded nervous as hell, something Retsuko caught onto instantly. "Damn it, she totally knows I'm losing my mind right now! Alright, enough waiting...here it goes." Haida smiled. "So Retsuko..you remember what we talked about...in the hospital?" Retsuko smiled, and nodded. "Finally!" She thought. "So..uhh..I said I wanted to get to know you better...maybe we can go out sometime this weekend? We can do whatever you want, we don't have to jump into plans. Unless, you want to, which whatever you want to do I'm-" Retsuko put her finger on Haida's lips to shut him up. Retsuko smiled, turning pink like cotton candy. "That sounds like fun, Haida. We can talk about plans over the phone."

The train that Retsuko got on pulled into the station, and she got on. "Bye Haida!" She waved. Haida smiled and waved back as the train drove away. "Holy mother fucking god of all that exists." Haida thought, getting a big smile on his face. "Yes!" He verbally shouted in the station he thought was empty. "Haida! What're you yelling about?" He looked over and saw Manumaru from sales, walking down the street. "Oh, uhh, n-nothing! Just uhh...b-beat the high score on a game is all!" Haida smiled nervously. Manumaru gave the thumbs up and kept walking. Haida breathed a sigh of relief as his train pulled into the station.

Meanwhile, Retsuko had just gotten home. She flopped down onto her bed and was smiling widely. She wasn't in some lovestrucken trance like she was with Resasuke, but just genuinely happy. This was Haida, someone she had been working with for 5 years now. Honestly, she kinda wanted to know more about him too. As she was thinking, her phone went off with a text from Haida:

Haida: So, plans? Sorry if this is a bad time I'm just really excited...

Retsuko: Will you stop apologizing for everything?

Haida: Sorry! I mean, Damn it!

Retsuko: Lol, anyways, how does Saturday afternoon sound? We can get lunch.

Haida: Sounds good! See you at work tomorrow! :)

Retsuko: Yeah, you too ^^

Retsuko put her phone down, smiling like a mad man. Since when did Haida get so damn cute? Retsuko flipped her comforter on and went to sleep. Tomorrow was work, than the next day was Saturday. So close, but so far.