Aaron pondered for a moment on whether or not he should take his foreign friend up on his offer, but then remembered the last time he had been caught slacking off while on duty. It wasn't actually with Samuel that time. Rather, Aaron had fallen asleep while covering one of his colleagues shift and Yates had caught him and given him a piece of his mind.
"We best not," he answered. "Remember what I told you what happened last time Yates caught me?"
Aaron ended his sentence with a chuckle as he watched Ichiro and his new partner depart the party. He glanced at Samuel, who had also noticed the duo, and turned his nose up at the idea. The officer yawned and continued to keep watch over the party as it slowly died down and he was eventually dismissed by his commander.
He returned to his room, and went straight to bed. He'd been up since 6am, and would have to be up at the exact same time the following morning. He despised the early starts, but once he got started, it was fine. Aaron liked his job anyway, and counted himself lucky he was not one of the maintenance crews taking care of the tower's sewer pipes. Swiftly, Aaron dozed off.
The next morning...
Beep, beep, beep... Those sounds drove Aaron insane every time he heard them. Each morning, he contemplated picking that damn alarm clock up and hurling it at the wall. Many times had he been woken by the droning screech, just to go to a debrief by Yates, who seemed to have a dislike for Aaron and tore him a new one every time he walked into the room.
Slowly but surely, Aaron got up, showered, got dressed and had breakfast. The clock on the wall informed him it was now 06:43. He had plenty of time to get from his floor to the third. He always took the stairs down to the third floor. Aaron had a particular hate for enclosed spaces, namely the grimy, unkempt elevator that ferried people up and down.
At 06:50, Aaron stepped out of his door, with all his necessary components in place, and started his descent to the third floor via the stairs. The general buzz of the tower was now beginning, with residents going about their daily routines. A gaze out the window showed that it was now pitch black outside. Almost as if a switch had been flicked and all light had gone.
