Employment, Kupo? [Emi]

[Castle]

It was the third day since the arrival of the mysterious man, and by now, most of the debris had finally been cleared out of the Marketplace. People consulted each other on some blueprints for the rebuilding of the shops that were totally destroyed, as well as the repairs for the ones that still stood. The item shop that the moogle worked at was one of the destroyed ones. He had his single employee, along with the other helpers, of course, take away the unusable wreckage of it for the past few days.

Now, and until further notice, he was forced to open up shop in a small, makeshift stand around where the old store used to be.
"Where is that boy, kupo?" he muttered to nobody in particular.

Finally, Castle returned to the market with the empty bucket that he'd used to take away the last of the stone debris from the old store. He'd taken his time on the way back, not looking forward to another day in the Marketplace. As he expected, the moogle called out to him as he approached,

"There you are, kupo! I need you to mind the stand! I am taking my lunch break, kupo," he said. He sounded quite impatient, mostly because he'd been made to wait longer than he wanted to thanks to Castle's wandering.

"Yeah, yeah," Castle sighed, setting the bucket down next to the stand.

"You have a very rude tone, kupo," the moogle said disapprovingly.

"Sorry," he replied with forced politeness.

With that, the moogle floated off with a flutter of its little bat wings. Castle picked the bucket up again, turned it upside down, and sat on it behind the stand. He put his elbows on the makeshift counter and rested his chin in his hand.

There wasn't much else for him to do right now, construction wise. The blueprints were still being figured out or something. Castle tapped his heel slowly and thought back to the evening before. He wondered if Emi would actually show up here.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

"Let's get this over with."
--

Emi had finally made it into the castle library late the night before. She'd collapsed into one of the rickety, dusty armchairs that still sat in the room and slept hard for a good long time. Not the most comfortable sleeping arrangements, but it was better than the cold ground on most nights.

She took her sweet time getting to the Marketplace, not looking forward to seeing the destruction. But she finally broke down and made herself go.

It didn't take long to find who she was looking for. Castle's purple hair stood out in a crowd. Grumbling to herself, she walked over to the stall the moogle had set up in place of a proper store.

"Okay, so how do we go about doing this?[/color]" she blurted out, hoping he remembered. She looked around. "Where's the boss? I was hoping I could talk to him.[/color]"

If he wasn't around, she would have to wait around for him. That was definitely not on her list of things to do today. Not that she had anything else to do today.

That was another good thing about getting a job. It would keep her from being bored.

[Castle]

It didn't take long for Castle to zone out. He stared at nothing in particular, but that nothing happened to be in a direction away from Emi's approach. When her voice blurted out relatively close to him, he jumped a few inches off of the bucket and turned sharply to look at her. When he saw who it was, he immediately smiled and relaxed his shoulders.

"Hey, Emi. You just missed him. He went for lunch," he said casually, jerking his thumb in the general direction that the moogle had gone. "He should be back soon. He doesn't take very long when he eats, and he doesn't trust me alone with the stand for long," he added with a chuckle that faded quickly. Even though his boss's distrust of him was kind of funny, it was also kind of insulting, considering that Castle was actually experienced in this sort of thing.

He turned more toward her on the bucket and crossed his arms, and also his ankles.
"But, I guess you'd be talking more about the boss of the construction, right? I'm not really sure who that is, but I bet the ol' moogle can set you up with them," he assured her with a lopsided grin.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

It's not funny, you can stop laughing now.
--

Emi rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. Leaning against the stall, she said "Okay, fine. I guess I'll just wait.[/color]"

Several minutes later, after a heated discussion with the moogle and threatening to rip his pompom off, the moogle took Emi to speak to the man in charge of the reconstruction. The man made the mistake of taking Emi's gender into account. She stood there, eye twitching, arms crossed and jaw clenched while the man mocked her.

Another 'heated discussion' followed, and it ended up that the man has mind changed as far as Emi's ability to work. He told her she would probably be the only girl and warned her that there would be no whining, complaining or other 'female cop-outs'.

Then he handed her a bucket of nails, a hammer and a box of shingles and told her to figure it out herself. And then he walked away.

Emi turned with the armful of building materials and gazed up at the building she was supposed to be fixing. "Great... well, they can't blame me if their roof leaks or something,[/color]" she muttered. Now... how to get all this stuff up on the roof?

[Castle]

Castle had watched the entire process from the first heated discussion with the moogle, (which, for Castle, ended in the now agitated moogle practically shoving him out of the stand and telling him to "go do something productive, kupo!") to the gender-based argument with the one whom Castle assumed to be the head construction worker. He watched from a distance and tried not to laugh. Even though Emi was a girl, she seemed more than capable for the job, something that the construction guy just couldn't seem to process. He was almost disappointed when the discussion ended without Emi punching anyone's lights out.

He followed her to the building she was supposed to work on and heard her comment about the roof leaking. He snickered and put his hands on his hips.

"You want some help with that?" he asked.

There was a pretty good sized chunk missing from the roofing, and the shingles around it were badly damaged. They would probably have to rip all those out first. Then, of course, there was the matter of even getting up there.

"Looks like we're gonna need a ladder," he added before she could answer his first question.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

"This will be the best goshdarned roof you've ever seen!"
--

Emi wasn't sure if she should accept his help. Mr. Sexist Construction Worker had told her to figure it out on her own. That's what she was doing right? He didn't say she had to do it alone. She didn't particularly want to accept Castle's offer, but even if she was going to turn him down, he made a decision for her and said something about finding a ladder. And, she was probably going to need some help getting all this stuff up there.

So, she put down the supplies the man had given her and walked off to find a ladder. She found one and took it, not really stopping to think if someone else was using it. They weren't using it right then and if they wanted it back, they could come and get it. And be treated to a lecture on why it's not wise to leave your ladders unattended. She called over to Castle. "Hey, come help me carry this thing![/color]"

She started dragging it across the ground. The sound of metal scraping on stone made her cringe.

[Castle]

Castle jogged over to help Emi carry the ladder, picking up the end that was scraping on the ground and thus relieving everyone of that awful noise. He sort of wondered why she didn't ask for his help before she started dragging it, but it didn't really matter now.

"So, I'm guessing from the look on your face back there that you've never done this before?" he asked.

Honestly, he didn't have much room to talk. He'd helped a neighbor fix a roof in Traverse Town once, but that was pretty much it. He sort of remembered what it entailed, but no specific details. He glanced at the building in question now and noted that it was shorter than just about all of the town houses. The damage was extensive, but at least any potential falls would be slightly less lethal. Castle wasn't overly worried about that, anyway. Thanks to his high jumping, he knew how to land from a long drop.

He wondered how Emi would fare with it. She was pretty tough, that much was obvious, but did she know how to land? Well, if she had any amount of coordination in those long limbs, she probably wouldn't end up falling off in the first place.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

"One of these days I'm just going to chop all this hair off..."
--

"Nope. But I learn fast? Have you ever done this before?[/color]" she asked as they carried the ladder. They sat it down against the house, and she shed her jacket and tied it around her waist. She looked up to the roof, shielding her eyes against the morning sun. It was going to get hot, it was summer. She was already thinking about stripping off her shirt and working in her camisole. Perhaps she would once the day got warmer.

"Have you got a rubber band or something I can pull my hair back with? I don't want to get heat stroke or something,"[/color]" she asked him. She thought maybe he at least had a piece of string or something back at the stall. She gathered her hair and pulled it over her shoulder for the time being and picked up the bucket of nails.

It felt good, having something to do, something to work at. For so long, she'd just been drifting with no real goals. But now, it looked like things were finally starting to settle down. She had a job, albeit a temporary one. And she was working on finding a better place to live.

Things were looking up. She smiled to herself.

[Castle]

"Hold on a sec," Castle said, reaching into his pants pocket. In a moment, he withdrew a simple black hair tie and offered it to her. It was his spare, and he was glad he had it in his pocket instead of with his other stuff that he'd left on the gummi ship. He wondered if her mass of poofy black hair would break it, but that wouldn't make him too upset. He could probably get another somewhere if anything happened to the one he wore now.

"Here ya go! And..." He glanced up at the roof. "...I helped a neighbor out once. But, I gotta admit, that was a only a few shingles," he laughed, as if it were a joke, "This shouldn't be too hard though, right? Not with the two of us." He had to add a wink on the last line, just for the heck of it.

Now that his gaze was back on her, he noticed how slim she looked with the jacket off. Well, slimmer. It looked almost painful at first glance, but, at second glance, her figure looked too tough for that. It reminded him of metal poles, slender but strong. Well, she had been pretty ferocious in that battle last evening. She had to have some kind of physical strength going for her.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

"Shouldn't we have some kind of safety equipment...?"
--

"Thanks.[/color]"

She sat the bucket down and took the hair tie from him. She somehow managed to shove her hair into it without breaking. She had broken so many rubber bands. Her hair was actually quite pretty when she managed to tame it, but she just never bothered so it stayed a tangled, frizzy, poofy mess. With that taken care of, Emi picked up the bucket again and started climbing up the ladder.

It felt shaky, like she was going to fall off, but she made it to the roof without any complications. She peered over the side, but didn't lean over too far.

"Bring up that box! I'll get started up here, you try and see if you can find another hammer,[/color]" she directing, pointing to the box of roofing shingles. She wasn't trying to boss him around; she was just giving everyone directions.

While he was doing that, she knelt down and examined the roof. All of these shingles would have to be taken off, the roof underneath it repaired, and then new shingles put down. Emi frowned. How come Mr. Sexist Bossypants Construction Worker Man had given her the supplies to fix the underlying roof?

"Ugggh... idiot,[/color]" she muttered. She looked back over the edge of the roof. "Hey, Castle! How do we fix a roof...? Not just the shingles, either![/color]"

[Castle]

Castle had held the ladder for her while she climbed up, but that didn't seem to make much of a difference wobble-wise. Once she was up there, he stepped back so he could see her better. She called down some instructions, and he nodded and bent down to pick up the shingle box. Bossiness didn't even occur to him. It wasn't like he knew exactly what to do here.

Very carefully, with the box held securely under one arm, he began to ascend the ladder. He was halfway up when Emi asked about the actual roof repairs. He paused in his ascension and looked up at her.

"What, the actual roof? Like the beams and stuff? I don't know!" he said. He climbed up the rest of the way, put the box on the roof next to Emi, and then surveyed the damage himself. "Do we even have the supplies for that?"

Had Mr. Construction Boss even given her any real instructions? All he saw was him giving her the nails and shingles and sending her off to get it done. He drummed his fingers on the edge of the roof. If they had to rip those beams out, they would need more than just the two of them, wouldn't they?

[Oathkeeper Emi]

"I'm so mad right now, grr~"
--

Well, that did it. What kind of idiot stupid moron person gave two teenagers a bucket of nails and expected them to fix a whole roof? With no training, no safety equipment and barely enough supplies! If there was one thing Emi couldn't stand, it was incompetence. Especially from adults who were supposed to know how to do their job.

Emi picked up the hammer and chucked it off the roof with a scream and the proceeded to fly into a raging fit. This fit was not complete until she'd spotted the boss guy who had given her this job, pointed at him and made several comments that made his co-workers question his sexuality.

Then, she stomped a little too hard. The ruined roof collapsed beneath her and she fell through.

She was miraculously mostly unhurt besides a few cuts. She would probably be bruised. She sat up amongst a pile of rubble and looked up through the hole she'd made in the ceiling.

At least the fit of anger had passed. She knew she was probably in Big Trouble, but she felt so much better and calm.

"Uh... Castle? I think we're probably gonna need to get more supplies, dude.[/color]"

[Castle]

Castle ducked when Emi threw the hammer across the Marketplace. She then proceeded to throw a fit, shouting and pointing and stomping on the already weakened roof. In any other setting, perhaps one on the ground, he would have found this extremely entertaining, but as it was, they were in a bit of a hazardous spot. Castle hung on for dear life and prayed that the ladder wouldn't tip over.

Suddenly, the roof caved in and took Emi with it. Castle braced himself, and when everything was still again, he lifted himself up enough to peer down the hole. Thankfully, Emi didn't appear to be injured beyond a few little cuts.

"More than that!" he laughed. He could laugh now that the rage was over, though he had been tempted to laugh earlier anyway at a few of the things she said about Mr. Construction Boss. "You okay? Hold on, I'm coming down..."

He descended the ladder and went into the building to where Emi was. He had to chuckle again.

"Well, I guess we won't to worry about removing those old beams anymore!" he joked. He looked up at the hole. "Dang, man..."

[Oathkeeper Emi]

"Ow."
--

Emi sat there a moment in shock, but then she pushed off some of the debris and stood up. She brushed herself up and continued to look up at the roof. Now that she could see the beams that held up the roof- although now they were mostly splintered and broken- she had a better idea of how to fix it.

She did feel calmer, but she was still kind of mad that the man in charge of this hadn't given her the right supplies. Of course, maybe he didn't know the extent the damage, but it was still his fault for not properly inspecting the building. It was kind of sad that two untrained seventeen year olds knew how to do his job better than he did.

Speak of the devil, the construction boss now blocked out the sunlight looking through the hole she made. He was blubbering incredulously, so angry he couldn't get the words out. Emi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms before shouting up at him "Spit it out, old man, we don't have all day.[/color]"

"You're a--"
"Demon child? Infuriating harpy? Yeah, I've been called many, many names, good luck coming up with an original one. Whatever, just get us the supplies we need to fix this thing.[/color]"

She smiled up at him, but it was a dangerous smile. "Please?[/color]"

[Castle]

Castle crossed his arms and aimed his own dangerous grin up at the guy. It felt good to gang up on someone who deserved it. Heck, it felt good to be able to do anything with the word "gang" in it that wasn't "oh crap they're ganging up on me and I know I can't take them all so I have to run before I end up in the hospital again." Yeah, it was good to have an ally.

It occurred to him that, after having one of his workers fall through, the guy had climbed up to the roof rather than go into the house to find her. Either he was concerned about the structural integrity coming down on him if he entered, or he was more worried about the new damage to the roof than the potentially lethal damage to a minor, a minor that he had working for him. Heck, he didn't even ask if she was all right. He just blew up on her like it was all her fault.

Yeah, Castle decided then, I kind of really hate this guy.

"And while you're at it, how about finding a first aid kit? If those cuts get infected..." He gestured to the cuts that Emi had gained from the fall, "...we won't be the only ones upset about it, I'm sure."