He’d not needed the flak jacket. He’d not needed the throwing knives. He had needed more things on his desk. No wonder Marcus kept his desk so messy!

And he hadn’t pinky sworn with her. Oh, she was gorgeous and all. She was also small and terrifying in her own right - and he saw right into the temper, the desire for the paycheck he held out to her with a bored expression on his face, and the way she just sauntered in like nothing had happened at all. Spoiled brat.

He had smiled though at her promise and nodded. She’d learned. Or rather, she would learn, when she found her phone didn’t work for the next three days. It was a slap on the wrist.

Only she never used the phone to find out. But Marv didn’t know that. So all in all, it went rather well for everyone concerned. In the end, even the Goddess of Clean left and Marv was relegated to slogging through the multitudinous mail that Marcus had left behind. As well as the expense accounts, the issues with the latest damage reports, the weapons restock, the almost dead plant someone had put on to of the main office file cabinet, and the requisition/travel expense/phone record/everything else from hell and gone forms required for both Kundiman’s "vacance" and everyone’s suddenly formalized travel plans.

It was bliss. For a handful of days, he did stints of reading his newest romance novel and fixing up forms two minutes before they were needed just to piss the Big Cheese off. It was a effort in futility. The Big Cheese knew that Marv would always get it in just as Marv knew that if he didn’t get it in, the Big Cheese would send someone like Marv had been sent (only not as aggressively seeing as it was only forms - there is a sense of priority here) to make sure that Marv never forgot to turn in a form again.

Not that he needed fear as a motivator. Marv took great pride in his job and he would have been devastated to discover he’d missed a deadline.

But then reality had crashed in and Marv had been shuttled onto a plane and had settled into an uncomfortable third class seat like a very gorgeous looking ten year old (Izumi hadn’t allowed him to wear his shades on the plane) with a pout that would have looked like a sneer if he’d had the glasses.

He was on the verge of tears by the time they gave him back his computer once they’d set back down to earth (having had it taken away by Izumi again - the woman was a menace after the stewardess had had to remind him for the fifth time that electronics were not allowed on during flight) but he’d been allowed to put his glasses back on once they left the terminal and he was back to feeling spunky and cocky and altogether sure of himself. Computer under arm and dressed to the nines.

They waited in the lobby for her. Various members of the office shuffled embarrassed feet while others glared at all of the sunlight like it had offended them somehow. Still others acted as if they had every right to be standing amongst this much skin and still be covered completely. Marv posed like a model (unknowingly of course) and fixed up their reservations. They’d have to put everything into the cottage and Kundiman was the only one with all of the keys.

Of course, she also didn’t look very pleased to see them. Marv grinned as she tried to pass them off as imaginations or a bad Sex on the Beach. The Big Cheese had said not to worry about it. Marv had understood. Completely.

After Izumi’s "please continue relaxing" comment, Marv merely added at the end. "Not until you’ve lent us your key, of course. We’ve got to drop off our luggage and I have to charter a boat. And change," he gave a sexy grin at the thought of all of the paper work he could get done on the beach. Not bad. He’d even packed the potted plant, to keep it from dying while he was gone. He still had to discover who it had belonged to.

__________________

‘What will my death be like?’ he thought- and knew at once
with abrupt certainty, that it would be just like his life:
... the same balance of bearables.
~Amis