The group had left the room, with the plan thought through.  I thought I was going to fall asleep because of the dreary deails that the planning contained. 

The general concept was, I walk around the headquarter's perimeters, Kyle and five others get in, find the information, get out, and I was to evacuate as quickly as possible once it all was done.

Kyle had put up a fight, saying he was going to stay by me at all times.

"Kyle, we need you to get inside.  You're one of the best people we have." Brook had said.  "Besides, you'll regret it later if you didn't take this chance to get in their headquarters."

Kyle had looked at her, in a way he never looked at me, like they shared a mutual understanding of something.  He simply nodded. I wondered what they had communicated silently just now, and another twinge of jealousy bit at my chest.

"Theo, we're going to be in the lounge if you need us." Kyle said, and the three teenagers started filing out, Kyle ushering me out with him.

"Thank you, Cassandra." Mr. Reiner called over to me, and I stopped at the door, Kyle pausing impatiently next to me.

"No problem, Mr. Reiner. I honestly am glad to be of help."

"Please, call me Theo." He said, flashing me a friendly grin.

I smiled back, nodding slightly as I exited the room.  Mikey and Brook were looking at me, wide-eyed, but quickly looked away as if nothing had happened.  I would have been convinced nothing had happened if I hadn't seen their shocked expressions. 

"Theo likes you." Mikey told me, once we were out of earshot.

"Uhm...okay?"

"No, but seriously, he likes you.  He usually doesn't allow someone to call him Theo until after a year, and that's pretty early as well." Brook said, and I bit my lip, fighting down the feeling of being pleased. I glanced at Kyle, and he was frowning a little.

"What's the matter Kyle, worried you're not going to be Theo's favorite anymore?" Brook teased him, and he smirked slightly.

"Of course not, I'll always be his favorite.  I mean, have you met me?"

"I have.  And though I think you're dashing, you're too narcissistic and controlling."

Kyle rolled his eyes.  "And you're not?"

"No, I'm plenty narcissistic.  But I'm hot enough for it." Brook smiled deviously at Kyle and gave him the slightest of winks.  Kyle laughed, a little too loudly for my liking.

I could feel my blood start to boil.  They were flirting.  And Brook had a boyfriend.  How could she? And Mikey just watched as if it was a normal thing.  What was wrong with them?

Also, Kyle was childishly making a point not to talk to me, which definitely didn't improve my mood.  We made it to the lounge, which was more like a game room, with faint blue walls and fairy lights lining along the entire edge where the ceiling and wall met.  Plus, the entire ceiling was a massive window, which let in natural light from the ceiling.  There was a huge TV propped on one wall, connected to several gaming consoles, and couches in front of it.  A billiard table,  a foosball table, an air hockey table, and several arcade games were lined up against the wall. 

"Holy crap." I murmured, momentarily forgetting the jealousy I was feeling.

"Look at this." Brook said, and she took a remote control that was on the table, and pointed it against the wall.  Suddenly, the wall blinked into life, showing a sports program.

The entire wall was a TV.

I gasped.  Being at this organization just got a hundred times more awesome.

"You haven't even seen the best of it yet." Brook boasted.  I immediately felt the burning pit in my stomach again.  She got to use these facilities, and she used these with Kyle.  And she also had a place here, while I was a girl in danger, Kyle's job.  I sighed.  I was becoming so pessimistic.  I kept on thinking of things that shouldn't even matter.

"Come on, I'll show you the rest." Brook said, taking my hand.

"What? No, I'm good." I started protesting. No way was I going to be alone with this girl who's been flirting with...what was he even? A friend? A crush? I'll just keep it at bodyguard.

"It'll be fun!" She said. I looked to Kyle for help, but he was still not meeting my eyes. My heart sunk a little.

"Fine." I said, giving in.  She took my hand, dragging me.  She had rough callouses, I realized. She probably does gymnastics or rock climbing or something.

We walked back to where the glass door was, where Theo's office was in. 

"This section is where all the really important people have offices, and it has maximum security." Brook explained.  "Most people who work here never get to go in there after years of service." 

"But that was literally the first place I ever went in this whole entire building. Well, except for in Kyle's room."

"That's because you're special. Or rather, Kyle is." Brook said.  "Anyway, you've been here already, let's go somewhere else!" I sighed.  How big was this place? How long did I have to be alone with Brook?

Brook led me to the elevator, and she pushed the button to go up.

"Let's go to the top floor first, and we can make our way down." I nodded.

"What's the problem with you anyway?" She asked suddenly, and my head whipped towards her quickly.

"What?"

"Why do you hate me? You don't even know me." 

"I don't hate you." I replied.

"Right.  You know, you're such a good actor, I would have actually believed you if you hadn't been glaring at me for the past few hours."

Was I glaring? I didn't realize.  Just then, the elevator arrived and we stepped inside.

"So, why do you hate me?"

"I just...don't think you're a loyal person." I murmured, realizing how stupid and bitchy I sounded.  I didn't even know her, and I was already being so rude.

"And why do you think that?"

"Because you were flirting with Kyle when you have a boyfriend." I answered.  

The elevator stopped, "whoa, stop right there.  Boyfriend?" Brook asked as we walked outside.

"Yeah, Mikey." I replied, getting confused.  Did she have multiple boyfriends, or was Mikey not a boyfriend at all?

Brook suddenly laughed. "No, no, no! Mikey's my brother!"

"What?" I gasped, thinking of Mikey's milk chocolate complexion and Brook's rather pale skintone.

"I was adopted into their family." She explained my confusion, and I soon felt my cheeks flush in embarrassment.

"I....but..." I didn't know if this made things better.  Now, Brook had the right to be flirting with Kyle.

"If you're worried about me liking Kyle, I don't." She said, reading my mind.  It was either she was incredibly good at knowing what people were thinking, or I was an open book.

"You don't?"

"No! I think of him as an older brother! And even though he's hot, he's...not my type."

I bit my lip.  I still had suspicions about her.  I couldn't just forget the way she was flirting with Kyle...

"And trust me, he definitely likes you.  I've never seen him so passionate about something, except for his work."

"I don't think it's that he's passionate about me.  I think he's passionate, like you said, about his job.  I'm his job, basically."

"No, trust me, I know. You know that time, at that Halloween party was it? You two got in a fight right? Which made him run off for a few seconds, made him forget about his responsibilities? Well, let me tell you, Kyle never loses his temper, never gets in fights except for physical fights, and never prioritizes anything or anyone, especially a girl, over his job. I've never seen him so interested in a girl."

I blushed.  Could that be true?  "You really think so?"

"Of course.  I think you should just tell him you like him."

"What?" I blurted. "I don't..."

Brook winked playfully at me. "Of course you don't."

I let my hair fall over my face, so she wouldn't be able to see my expression.  Most of my jealousy had passed, but I still felt the uneasiness of having competition, whether she said she didn't like him or not.

"So you really don't like him?" I asked.  I felt like such an idiot. I was sounding like one, for the most part.  I wouldn't be surprised if Brook hated me and thought I was pathetic.  I just hoped she wouldn't go to Kyle and tell him about all the embarrassing and ridiculous things I said to her in the past twenty minutes.

But Brook just laughed off my pathetic question good-naturedly.  "Oh darling, you really don't get it do you? I don't like guys...in general.  As in, I'm into girls.  And if you were to be worried about anything, I would be worried about you.  I like brave people, like you." She looked at me with a teasing smile, as if she knew saying this would make me squirm.

I opened my mouth to reply, but no words tumbled out.

"I understand why Theo likes you.  You're not scared to face the truth, and you involve yourself in these things.  It's courageous, and what he looks for in a lot of employees."

"I'm not brave. I didn't even know what I was doing back then, but I couldn't just stand there and let everyone else risk themselves for me."

"That's exactly what I mean." Brook said, beaming. "You run headfirst into the unknown."

I smiled awkwardly, "thanks." I didn't know what else to say, but it was definitely a wonderful thing to be told.

"By the way, aren't your feet hurting, standing in heels all day? Plus my neck is starting to hurt."

I laughed.  "Yeah.  I'm not used to wearing them very often."

"What shoe size do you have?"

"Uh...seven and a half?"

Brook's eyes lit up as she took out a pair of converse and socks.  "Here."

I looked at her with amusement.  "Do you just carry around sneakers everywhere?"

"Basically."

I laughed, slipping off of my heels.  With my heels off, and her heels on, we were the same height.

"Much better!" Brook chirped. I nodded in agreement.

"Well anyway," Brook said spreading her arms out, "this is the top floor of The Office, and what everyone calls the training room." I looked around for the first time since we came in here.  It was a wide room, with machines and weights and treadmills and all the work out equipments anyone would ever need.  We walked through the equipments, where some people were working out, and into a huge expanse of space.

There was a soft mat on the entire ground, soft enough to not hurt if you fall but hard enough to be able to run on, and a huge plank on one side of the wall with a ladder attached to it.

"That's where people practice their jumps and falls and techniques for when they're running away." Brook explained.  "It's also used to train people with a fear of heights."

 My eyes were wide as they took in what was around me.  This was insanely massive.  

"Look there," Brook pointed at a glass wall, and inside it was a huge swimming pool.

"There's a swimming pool in here?"

"Yeah. The deep end goes up to 25 feet, and we do every underwater training in there." I let out a low whistle.  

"This is crazy." I said, and Brook grinned, her pride glowing.

Brook led me to the stairs, and we went down a flight.  Glancing at the windows by the staircase, I realized we were actually really high up, and the cars and people under us were miniscule.

"How high up are we?" I asked.

"We're on the 50th floor." 

"Why is this building so huge?"

"There's a lot of people working here.  And we have a lot of information to contain."

"But isn't it dangerous to put all the classified information in one building?"

Brook laughed.  "The security here is insane.  And there are hundreds of separate rooms, so it's not like they're all filed inside a room with the sign Classified Stuff on it."

I nodded.  I don't think I'd ever be able to understand all of this spy logic.

"These are basically all offices, everyone gets their own little square of a room." Brook said as we walked through a hallway, room after room on both sides of us. Some doors were open, and I glanced inside them, and they all looked quite normal. A computer on their desks, files and papers stacked all around. Many people had pictures of their family propped up on their desks.

"It's basically the same thing from floor 15 to 50.  There's a lounge about one in every five floors."

"How many people work here?" I asked.

"Like 4,500."

I let out another low whistle.  We glanced inside the lounge that was on that floor, and it was similar to the one we had gone to previously, with plushy sofas and TVs and refrigerators stocked with cold drinks and chips, but there weren't any games or things like foosball tables.

"This building is crazy." I commented.

"Starting to want to work here?" I laughed it off, not even contemplating the question.

Brook led me to the elevator and we went to the 14th floor, where there was a huge cafeteria, and hundreds and hundreds of tables. We went down a floor, and there were small cafes, and my eyes widened.

"Is that a Starbucks over there?" I asked.

Brook nodded, "even the people working there are spies."

Just then, Brook got a phone call. "It's Kyle." She told me as she put him on speaker.

"Where are you two?"

"Chill, we're at the cafeteria."

"Okay, well Theo said Cass has to stay here overnight, maybe for a little while, and he can't get a room ready tonight, so she has to stay in one of our rooms."

"She can stay in your room then." Brook said, giving me a wink. My eyes widened.

"But you're a girl."

"That makes no sense. We're both attracted to women."

"Brook. You know what I meant."

"I really don't. Besides, she's already stayed in your room before."

"Yeah, but she was barely conscious."

"You're not planning to take advantage of her, right?"

"What? No, of course not—" Shock was clear in Kyle's voice, and Brook laughed.

"Okay, so it's all settled. See you in a while." Brook said, hanging up before he could reply.

My mouth was slightly agape, not being able to form coherent sentences.

"You can thank me later." She started walking towards the elevators again, and I followed her. "By the way, Kyle hates sleeping on the sofa."

"Oh, I'll sleep on the sofa then."

She rolled her eyes playfully. "But he likes...human warmth when he's sleeping." My cheeks heated up when I realized what she was saying.

"You're telling me to sleep on the same bed with him?"

Brook shrugged, "it's only a suggestion."

I sighed as we stepped inside the elevator. "Do you like playing the cupid?"

"Oh, it's the most entertaining thing ever." She said, grinning vibrantly.

* * * * * 

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