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_ Hard Labour _

I glared at the short straw in my palm. Again. As hard as I willed it to, it refused to grow longer. "...Do I _really_have to?"

"Listen, the straws have spoken," Manny replied, beaming his pleasure for the longer one in his grasp. The lion tilted his head towards the office building. "Get over there and tell him his time's up."

"Tsk, yeah, alright then." I didn't bother following his signalling away from the cold car park we'd retreated to. "Did ya see the look on him?"

"I did."

"Face of thunder don't cut it."

"Which is exactly why I ain't heading back over there."

I let my head drop, grumbling at the crumbly asphalt below. "Gods damn it..."

"Hey," Rik hollered from the van we were using to wrap up this office relocation job. "Still arguing the toss over there?"

I looked up and over to the broad brown bear striding our way, trying my best not to look too pissed off. "That's one way of putting it."

"Look, I've just had the boss asking for the latest." He stopped beside us, wagging his phone in our faces. "We gotta get the last of things loaded and driven over to the new site. Like, now."

"Tell that to the jerk holding us up," I snapped back, hurling my short straw to the ground about the same time I spotted Rik's poking from his paw. "It's not like _we_work for this company. Why's it our problem?"

"Yeah, you wanna say that the next time we're chased? I'm sure that'll fly no bother."

Finally, I glanced back over my shoulder and towards the two-storey office building. Or to be more exact, the row of Maleni-sized windows sitting mid-ground floor, next to where the larger ones stopped. For better or worse, I couldn't see through the darkened glass from where we were standing. Not that I needed to. Behind the little window closest to the corner of the building sat the very last office that needed clearing out... As did the manager it belonged to.

"Kris," Manny bumped me on the shoulder. "Just get over there and tell him what's what. One fox to another."

"Didn't you hear how he kicked off at me last time I tried?" I batted his arm away. "One fox to another ain't cutting shit today."

The taller lion smirked. "The straws say it's gonna have to."

Rik, the tallest of us all, stepped in to nudge me towards the building with his bear-sized mitt of a paw. "Just do it. Else we'll all be for the high jump."

Left with no other choice, I stepped away from the others and started a slow, short walk across the empty car park. Rik and Manny certainly talked a tough game when it came to getting this job done. So tough, in fact, they needed to convince me to draw straws over it. This manager they'd tasked me with shifting had damn near bitten my head off the first time I'd tried. Pretty impressive for a Maleni. Truthfully, I was less bothered by that and more concerned about his threats over filing a complaint about us to our management.

The Maleni office windows sat head-height once I'd stepped up onto the kerb, then frozen on the pavement. Damn, I really wasn't ready to start round two.

"What's the hold up?" Manny roared from the safety of the asphalt. Turning to find both his and Rik's expectant grins made me wish I hadn't. Man, on our next job, I'd make sure to get even with these two, I swear.

I forced my focus back to that window, not much bigger than my tablet computer screen. As hard as I huffed and as heavy as my arm grew, nothing had changed. Still, I was all out of options. I had to suck it up and deal with this smaller, older, jumped up jerk of a fox all over again.

With gritted teeth, I gave the window a couple of claw taps, drawing clinks that rang out noisily enough to get my fur frizzing. I held my breath. Those clinks faded into silence. No response from anyone on the other side.

I moved my head closer, nose practically pressing against the glass. From there, I could make out a faded, motionless, barely visible silhouette, sitting at an equally nondescript desk. The image of that office remained crystal clear in my head, lingering from my last attempt to negotiate with its owner. Regardless, it seemed like I'd be getting myself a refresher.

My claw hooked neatly into the grooved frame at the edge of the window. Sliding the top half of it open was easy, just like last time. But, as I hacked my throat clear, then poked my snout inside, I had no doubt that this'd be where 'easy' would come to die. "...Uh, excuse me?"

The jarring silence returned. The smaller fox in his neat business suit didn't so much as look at me from his big-budget, well-polished wooden desk, hiding away behind the tense paw clamped to his face.

"The, uh..." My shirt collar closed in around my neck. Loosening it didn't help do the same to my tongue. "We're... kinda nearly done. Just your-"

He swiped that paw towards me, frowning, adjusting his headset. It's then that I noticed the otter standing just inside this plush little office's scaled-down door, next to the relatively wide desk. The way he shifted and shuffled around on his feet, he looked as awkward as I felt. An assistant? Whatever, whoever he was, I definitely didn't need him watching me keep tripping up over myself, trying to get through to this manager guy.

"I-_we're_wondering if... you're able to wrap things up soon? Your office is the last to be packed up and 5pm's our deadline-"

"Excuse me," the fox snapped. Hard enough that I think I felt it. "Can you not see that I'm on a call?"

"Uh-"

"Give me five minutes!"

Jeez... I'd given this guy his five minutes at least ten minutes before. That otter caught my eye again, glancing around at the pictures and certificates hanging on the opposite wall, then up to the ceiling, his lips pursed tight the whole time.

"Hey," the manager growled, squeezing his headset's mic while waving me away. "I'll tell you when I'm done."

My paw tightened around the straw still in my paw. Words became that little bit easier to come by. "Appreciated, but... _We're_all done. Right now. We can't wait much long-"

His palm crashed down to his desk. Everything from his stationery to his keyboard jumped. "Do you think I want to be stuck on this call?"

"I-"

"I didn't ask for this shipment to get stuck at Velikan customs, but here we are."

"I'm sure, but-"

"Give. Me. Five minutes." He dragged his claws over that pristine desk, scowling daggers at me. "Okay?"

Holy gods, this guy looked so pissed, so pumped up. For a second, I think I saw a vein pulsing in his head. Genuinely, I was glad he was the size of my water bottle. "...Sure. Five minutes."

I couldn't wait to pull my snout from the window. The sun seemed so much lower as I turned, meeting the tops of the leaf-bare trees surrounding the lot. Another reminder of how little time we had left to get this job wrapped up.

"So?" Manny called, arms folded. "What's the story?"

"Same as it was before." I stepped off the pavement and hurried across the car park towards him and Rik. "He wants five minutes. _Another_five minutes."

"Did ya not tell him we need to get this finished?"

"Tried, but he ain't having any of it."

"Oh, man."

"Seriously?" Rik asked, shaking his head. "I can't tell the boss that when he calls again."

"Hey, I tried. Honest!" I stopped beside them both. "But this guy, he's not budging. I dunno what to do to get him outta there."

"This is the same fella that got pissy at you about the noise while I was at the new site, right?"

"Same guy."

"And he was threatening to put in a complaint about it?"

"Yeah!" I kicked out at a stray piece of gravel. "Which is _exactly_why I don't wanna push him... the pint-sized prick."

Manny snorted hard and loud, broadcasting a toothy smile. "I can think of a few ways to _make_him get outta there."

My ears perked. I shared a glance with Rik, then redirected it back towards the lion. "Like?"

"C'mon, it ain't like it needs much imagination. Hell, you could just jam an arm in there and yank him and all his swanky stuff right outta the window."

"Don't think that'd go down well-"

"Or, if you wanna be more precise about things, I reckon you could crowbar the whole damn office outta there. Carry it over and dump it in the van like it's just a big box or something."

"Precise? Pfft." Rik crossed his arms. "And you'd be good with the damage coming out _your_paypacket, yeah?"

"Be worth it just to bring that tiny fool down a peg." Manny looked my way. "Am I right?"

"Hmph... Can't say the guy wouldn't deserve it." My thoughts started to wander, back to the office behind me. Picturing its entire contents, owner included, getting tossed in the truck and driven off to their new site got a good grunt of a laugh from me.

"See, Kris is with me!"

"I mean, sure, in spirit. 'cos fun as something like that'd be, and as much as it'd make _me_feel good... I kinda need this job."

"Ahh, you're no fun!"

"Hey, hey, hey." Rik waved that away with both paws. I hadn't expected him to start grinning before he said, "You could get even but still be low-key."

"Well?" Manny leaned towards him. "Let's hear it, big man."

"I'm thinking... You could grab the fella and just stuff him in your pocket. March him clean outta there while Kris and me clear his office in peace. No property damage that way."

The lion snickered like a goofy teenager. "Or stuff him someplace else."

They belted out a laugh. I joined in, too, before offering up a warning. "With how pissed that guy is, if you stuff him down there, I'd seriously worry about him... biting something."

We tossed and toyed around with a few more ideas, plotting various hypothetical ways of removing a tiny prick fox from their tiny prick office. Most involved stuffing or throwing him into various places or containers, with a personal favourite of mine being Rik's idea of jamming him into a work boot and 'forgetting' to remove him once at his company's new site. But, to the shock of no-one, I'm sure, our thoughts kept returning to this mouthy manager getting crammed into increasingly intimate areas, all in the name of getting even... or something.

All of our discussions, and our laughter from said discussions, rolled on and on, lasting right until a fourth voice piped up to throw in their two pennies' worth from the office building. "My call's over..."

I whipped my head around. Followed by the rest of me. Hearing the manager's voice carry so loud, so clear, had put my fur on end. Seeing him leaning out of his window, tail swaying in relatively wide swings behind him, did nothing to help settle it. How much of our discussions had he heard?

"Our IT chap here is getting on with unplugging my equipment. A few minutes is all he needs, apparently."

I didn't know what to say. From having all sorts of fun ideas and images swirling around my thoughts, my head had gone completely blank. I sneaked a look at Manny, then at Rik. Both their jaws hung wide open. Clearly, my brain hadn't blanked out alone.

"Well?" the Maleni fox chimed, smiling wide and putting on a ridiculous level of cheer. "And here I was under the impression that you were in a hurry."

The others stayed silent. I cleared my throat and managed to say, "Uh, we'll go grab a transport case... for your office. Load up all your furniture. Equipment."

I shifted to turn and rush over to our van, to leave this conversation, and this situation. The manager stopped me before I even started making tracks with the simplest statement. "Oh, by the way, I think you forgot to close my window."

I winced so hard that my face nearly folded. Damn it. I did forget, didn't I. Back to that window I glanced, opened as wide as it'd go, filled by a fox firing the deadliest, most triumphant glare you could possibly imagine. "Oh... Did I?"

"Mmhm." He huffed a laugh drenched in, leaking sarcasm, idly admiring the claw of his index finger. "So, once you _have_grabbed that transport case, I really _would_appreciate it if you _didn't '_crowbar the whole damn office' out."

My blood ran cold. At least, it would've if my heart hadn't fucking stopped right there and then. Frozen up just like Manny, just like Rik. Godsdamn it. "I-"

"And the less said about where you might want to put me, the better." The manager's smile grew to damn near Visoka-sized. "Something I'm _positive_your supervisor would agree with me on, don't you all think?"

The three of us stood there like awkward statues. Only the breeze brushing through the trees broke the silence. I looked at Manny, who glanced at Rik, who in turn stared at me. The fox at the window chose to break the thickening ice with an even colder remark. "Oh, and trust me, I'd do far worse than just 'biting something'... Unless you meant to finish that thought with 'off'."

"I'll get the case," Manny blurted.

"I'll tell the boss we're good to go," Rik soon added.

They rushed away towards the van together, abandoning me to this Maleni who looked his proudest yet in his pristine business suit. As hard as I tried to find some words, an excuse, all I managed was a weird, mumbled, "And I'll..."

"You'll...?"

"...leave you to it."

"Ah." He clapped his paws together and smirked. "How splendid of you."

I turned tail and ran, not walked, across the crunchy asphalt. The van needed my attention too, I reckoned. Maybe what we'd already packed up needed rearranging. Correction, what we'd already packed up_would definitely_ need rearranging. Enough to keep me busy while waiting for that manager to clear out of his old office... whenever he was good and ready.

The longer I waited for 'whenever' to come around, the more I figured I'd make sure to be the one who packed his stuff away. Y'know, stuff like that fancy-looking desk. I wondered how fancy it'd stay if it got banged up, maybe squeezed a little too tight. Accidentally, of course. Hah. Wouldn't it be a terrible shame if that pint-sized prick had to discover the answer...