Tick-tock-tick-tock, click-click, click, tap, tap, tap, pop, creak, squeal!

It was the normal chorus of the daily office chores. The clock was ticking, people were pecking away at their keyboards, a phone was ringing, the intern in the copy room was smacking away at her gum, and a young man was tapping his pen against the desk insistently. It was as reassuring to Dimitri as it was distracting. The chairs squeaked and the sharpeners were buzzing; the solid slap on his desk jolted Dimitri back.

"Hey, man, you almost done? We've got a meeting in, like, ten minutes." Dimitri looked up to meet the stable blue eyes of Christian Ozera, his best friend. With a mocking smile, Dimitri nodded and left his work untouched. Christian couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's mood swings; the guy was PMSing all the time now that they were being sent down to California.

Both men laughed about the intern's stupid frilly skirt that would get her fired just on principle, and continued to make their way to the elevator hitting the button for the top level of Trinity Affair magazine.

Trinity Affair was a magazine owned and funded by Dragon Corporations, the top in publications. The entire company was managed by one person, one person alone, and she had always been doubted. She succeeded in keeping the company alive; and now, it was spreading out from New York, which was why Dimitri and Christian had to go to several meetings in the past few months.

They headed up to the top floor and got out when the elevator dinged. Dimitri stepped out first and walked past the head secretary towards the main conference room on the left side of the hallway. Christian was right behind, but was hesitant to enter the conference room.

His sister, Natasha Ozera, was the head of the New York publications for Trinity Affair. Natasha was harsh and cruel and she hated screw ups, mainly Christian. Taking a deep breath, he followed Dimitri in shortly after.

They both sat on the far side of the table, by the ceiling to floor windows. Everyone, all seven, sat back in relief; Tasha wasn't there yet, which meant she was probably ruining someone else's life for the moment.

The relief was short lived, because after three minutes, she was walking through the double doors. They all straightened instantly, and Christian scooted further away from the head of the table.

"Thank you all for being prompt to this meeting. I apologize for being late, someone thought to waste my time with their personal issues. I'm here now, so we can get started." The table let out an uneasy laugh, Christian and Dimitri stayed silent and focused on Tasha.

"As you all know, Dragon Corporations has decided to spread their 'wings' and have Trinity Affair distributed throughout the US. California is, of course, their first stop. Throughout the past few meetings we've discussed sending out a team to California to help the starting offices. If they succeed, they will be transferred there immediately; if not, the team will be pulled from the project and management will take over. That isn't something I want. If management gets their hands on this, I can promise you I will make your lives miserable." The threat hung in the air and the room just soaked it in.

"Have you decided on who will be sent down?" Dimitri said, shattering the tension that was beginning to suffocate them. Tasha turned to Dimitri with a false smile.

"Of course; you, Christian, Tatiana, Meredith, Mason, and Avery will be flying down tomorrow morning. I'm not sorry about the short notice; life does tend to make unexpected turns every now and then." Her sickly sweet voice made Dimitri want to wretch, but he couldn't because this job paid very well, "You're all dismissed, oh and if you miss your flight tomorrow, I'll have your head!"

Christian tore out of the room and Dimitri watched as Tasha chastised Jillian for her pink ensemble. He made his way out with the rest of the group and smiled at Christian, who couldn't get the elevator door open fast enough. He caught up to Christian easily and pressed the down button. The doors slid open silently and Dimitri stepped in.

"I loosened it for you…"

"Loosened what? It was a button Christian. You can't loosen a button..." Christian grumbled a 'whatever' under his breath and pouted all the way back down to their floor.

-o.o-

"You've got to be kidding me! We have to stop in North Dakota? Why the hell do we need to stop in North Dakota? That doesn't even make sense…" Christian sat at his desk complaining over the email Natasha had sent out. Apparently, the head of Dragon Corporations was vacationing in North Dakota and wanted to oversee the operation herself. That meant that the plane would land in North Dakota to pick her up and then fly out to California from there.

Dimitri stayed silent, letting Christian fume out at him, "Does any of this make sense to you? Ugh, I hate my sister…" He looked over his stack of paperwork to see Christian slumped over his work.

"You do know that you need to get that all done tonight, right?" Christian sprung up.

"What? Damn… you're done aren't you? Of course you are, you freaking ninja! Want to do me a solid and help me out?"

"No, not really; good night Christian," Dimitri called out behind him as he left his desk to go back to his apartment.

"You son of a bitch; get back here, Belikov!"

He chuckled and left the office and then the building altogether. Heading straight to the car lot, Dimitri took off his coat and threw it over his shoulder. He loosened his tie with one hand and then popped open the first two buttons of his shirt.

Dimitri got into his car, started the engine, and pulled out of the space. He got back onto the road in record time and tore out through the streets as fast as he could in the late night traffic.

His apartment was about twelve miles away from his work, so it took him only a couple of minutes to get there. He pulled into the back car lot and headed up the stairs to his floor.

Once inside of his decent sized apartment, Dimitri flicked all of the lights on and tossed his coat onto the plain sofa that was tucked into the side of the living room. The small kitchenette housed his very modest collection of cookware and the mini fridge, which was practically empty. The living room, if you could call it that, had the sofa, a small coffee table, and the beat up TV that Christian gave to him. There was a small bathroom and bedroom in the apartment as well; Dimitri headed straight for the bathroom and started up the shower, letting the steam flow from under the spray into the rest of the high-rise.

He loosed his belt from his dress pants and wound it back up into a ball before tossing it onto his bed. He pulled off his socks, then stepped out of his pants and tossed them into the hamper right beside his bedroom door. Shrugging off his dress shirt, Dimitri breathed in the heavy steam. Lastly, Dimitri removed his briefs and stepped under the warm spray of the heated water.

His muscles easily relaxed and let go of all of the undue tension that they had built up during his hours at work. And although Dimitri missed the busy chorus of office activities, he enjoyed the soft hum of his heater and the soft pitter patter of spraying water.

He finished his shower and wrapped an old towel around his waist, before padding into the kitchenette barefoot to hunt down some food. Dimitri made due with the day old Chinese food and heated it back up in his microwave before plopping down on the sofa. He leaned back and flicked on the TV, relaxing to the chatter of news.

It was going to be a long day tomorrow… Definitely…

Author's Note:

Okay, here is the very short first chapter of Flying Home! I really hope you enjoy! This story was brought on by the marvelous Tatiana Belikova; she is truly awesome! Go check out her stories :)

Please review, for me, because it'd make me happy. And it may just make you happy as well. You never know!

I hope you had a great Christmas, if you celebrate that is. I hope everyone had a great break so far! :) I'll be updating soon… hopefully!

-Lolita