Chapter 13

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The room we found ourselves in looked like a completely normal office space. Medium sized, large desk strewn with papers, a few chairs near the desk, and a desktop. The fast click-clack of keys filled the room.

"Knock before you enter, please," An annoyed voice said from behind the desktop. I tilted my head to see a boy with big, curly brown hair and a pair of simple black glasses.

"Silly Lucca, this is my house!" Liam laughed, throwing himself into a chair like he owned it. Which, I suppose, he did. I sat down in the chair next to him.

"Oh, Liam. I'm glad you're here," Lucca said, sounding not at all glad. "I have some paperwork regarding the basement-"

"Okay, great. I need a Band-Aid," Liam interrupted, crossing his long legs on Lucca's desk. He made a sort of hmph noise, then reached down and fumbled around in his desk.

Lucca sat up, holding a Band-Aid. "Liam, please remember to sign the humans in and out of the basement when you take them. It is getting overcrowded down there, and if you keep adding more-" 

"Cool, will do," Liam said, snatching the Band-Aid. Lucca scowled, then slid back behind his desktop, typing away furiously at something.

"Wonderful. Remember more bandages the next time you go out, and get that thing out of here. You're stinking up my office." Lucca poked his head out to glare at me, then disappeared back behind his computer.

"Speaking of 'that thing', this is Blythe," he said, grabbing my right arm and waving it. "I think I might have done something to her. She's kind of...broken."

"No I'm not," I said. Because I wasn't. Liam unwrapped the Band-Aid, then handed it to me.

"Okay, Tough Girl, put this on your right wrist," I stared hard at it, then stared at my useless arm. Obviously I couldn't put it on with just one hand. 

"I can't," I said, handing back the band-Aid. "Not my arm."

Liam pointed at me. "See? See? She can't use the arm I bit!" He almost whined to Lucca. Lucca made a non-committal sort of grunt.

"I don't know how they work. Put on the adhesive bandage, leave her alone for a few days, then see if the problem persists. Or, if you prefer, I could just bring her down to the-"

"No!! No, thank you. That will not be necessary," Liam almost yelled. I raised my eyebrows at him, but he wouldn't look at me, putting on my Band-Aid with more concentration than was probably needed.

"While you're up here, perhaps you could actually sign her out this time," Lucca said, bored and annoyed. He rotated the desktop and keyboard over to my side of the table, revealing a rather orderly spreadsheet.

"Oh, yeah. I'd better sign her in too." Liam said, starting to type out my name. 

Before he could, though, Lucca slapped his hand, eliciting a yelp. "I'm sorry, do you mean to tell me that this is a new human?"

"Don't hit me again or I'll fire you. And yes, I brought her in last night," he said, threat holding little weight, even to my ears. 

Lucca rolled his eyes. "If you fired me, this place would go up in flames. Hell, even with me here we're having problems getting enough food for the basement. Which you would know if you bothered listening to me instead of always feeding your unwholly urges you glutton," he said, not stopping once. 

I expected Liam to make some kind of whiny, childish comment, but he didn't. He pulled his legs off the desk and stood up. He smiled, eyes colder and harder than stone. 

"Take it back, Lucca," Liam said. He sounded calm, pleasant even. Completely conversational. 

But for some reason, Lucca looked down. For the first time since I'd met him, he did not look bored or annoyed in the slightest. He looked completely cowed. I glanced between the two, feeling the air in the room grow thicker with tension.

"I apologize Boss. I didn't mean it," He muttered. Liam stood for a few moments, face almost unrecognizable in its stoniness. 

Then, suddenly, he grinned. He plopped right back down in his seat, replacing his legs on the desk.

"What's this about a food crisis, buddy?" The whiplash from that complete change nearly made my head spin. What had Lucca even said?

Lucca looked back up, shoving his glasses back up. "Well...um...there's barely enough...uh...food and space for the...the basement. We can't afford even one...new one," Clearly, he and I were in the same boat.

"Huh. Where to put this one, then. And before you suggest it, no." Liam said, studying me. Lucca shrugged.

"If not that, then I don't know. I could keep her in an empty room with basement-like conditions, though you'd be in charge of feeding her. Or just throw her to the interns and the like," he said, not looking at Liam.

"Lucca, Lucca, Lucca! This is why you're my secretary. You have the best ideas," Lucca scowled, bored-annoyed expression making its way back on his face.

"I am your second in command. Not a secretary," he said. Liam shrugged.

"Actually, you know what? I think I'll keep her with me." Lucca's eyebrows shot up.

"In your bedroom?" He asked, to which Liam nodded. 

"Why not? I want to see whether she gets better." He said, grinning at me. I wrinkled my nose at him.

Lucca did too. "You are absolutely disgusting. Just...don't do anything that would cause me to purchase more laundry detergent than I already do."

"What are you implying?" I asked, stomach churning a bit. Liam wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"I think you know exactly what my dear secretary is implying," Liam said, barely holding back snickers.

I very nearly threw up right there. "Stop. You stop that right now."

"I am inclined to agree with the human," Lucca said, turning his computer back around, and starting back up his typing. "Now get out. I'm budgeting."

"Aye aye, captain. Now come on, bedroom buddy. Let's fix your arm."

A shiver of dread made its way up and down my spine. "Never, ever utter the words 'bedroom buddy'," I growled. "Unless you want me to show you your own goddamn spine."

Liam cackled, and I left the room, leaving him (still giggling) to catch up with me.

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