The day after the Christmas celebration, was low energy for all of you. Sabo made coffee for you and Dadan, and you hugged him for being so cute that he started squirming in your arms. You helped the boys make the easiest breakfast you could manage, and did as little as humanly possible. After all the commotion of the party even Luffy was subdued.

You: How's the manor?

Marco: Half a disaster. We got most of it cleaned up before bed though.

He sends a short video of the long dining table that still needed to be broken down, and the bags of trash needing to be hauled out. A few of his brothers waved blearily as he passed by them, plates and bowls with leftovers for breakfast on them. From the looks of things no one had finished a first cup of coffee, let alone woken up properly.

They had likely all been up until nearly 3am.

You: All that footage, and none of your beautiful face?

Marco: Handsome, maybe.

You: Need an extra set of hands to come help?

Marco: Nah, rest easy pretty bird.

Marco: I'll be at the store tomorrow, you're welcome to come help out, or just hang out.

Grinning you type in a sassy response.

You: Decorate your back office, maybe.

Marco: I would risk the store, please don't tempt me.

"What's it mean to decorate the back office?" Sabo questions quietly, looking at your phone from over the couch. He's curious, but also trying to keep Ace and Luffy from hearing.

"With annoying things like wrapping stuff in foil and individually wrapping all his pens." You lie as smoothly as you possibly can.

Sabo looks around and leans in, his face going pink. "I thought you were talking about adult stuff."

You laugh, ruffling curly hair that's destined to be amazing wavy locks one day. It's good to be reminded that children are dangerously attentive. Ace and Luffy come over to see what you're laughing about, and you end up pulling the boys into your camera range and sending pictures of the four of you making silly faces. You take a couple dozen pictures before you run them off to put away their gifts, and get their room cleaned up, but you only send a few to Marco.

Your day is a delightful collection of sending texts to Marco, lounging, and helping your mom make dinner. You don't often spend an entire day in your pajamas, but it felt good to do almost nothing all day.

The next day, after breakfast, you get a phone call from a number that you only knew for sure was from the city. It wasn't Candy Land's extension, so you weren't worried about answering it.

"Hello?" You answer tentatively, wondering who would be calling you from a number you didn't know, just a couple days after Christmas. It was, at least, not the weekend yet.

"Hello, is this Miss Curly (Y/N)?" The question comes from a cheerful, and professional voice. It's clear and full of maybe a little too much coffee.

"This is, what can I do for you?"

"Wonderful! My name is Wanda, I was hoping to have a few moments of your time, Miss Curly, my boss is Inuarashi, from the Zhou Conglomerate, and we were hoping we could get your hiring process started, if you weren't against the idea?"

"Huh? No, I'm not... against it, but I haven't even been interviewed." You stammer.

"I mean to take care of most of that over the phone today," she offers easily. "Interviewing was part of what I wanted to do today. The primary part honestly, since the rest can come after. Mr. Inuarashi and Mr. Nekomamushi just wanted to get things going as soon as they could."

"I... uh, sure. Sure." Getting up off the couch you head into Dadan's den, since her and the boys will know to leave you be while you're in there. "I've had breakfast and coffee, I'm happy to do this as best I can."

Wanda's smile comes through her tone. "Perfect. The owners were nearly flooded with letters of recommendation and phone calls on your behalf over the holidays. Coworkers from your previous job, your boss, several small businesses in the city."

"Letters? Calls? Wha- how?" You sit down in the room, feeling a little disoriented. "Aside from my boss I don't think anyone else was aware that I was looking for another job."

"Oh, hm." Wanda goes silent for a moment. "Well, I... guess the news hadn't gotten outside the city. But news broke that Charlotte Perospero had been caught with... other people... and that you had broken off the engagement. Katakuri said he was doing everything he could for you.

"Since his mother had gone on quite the public tirade, I think people simply assumed you had also tendered your resignation as well." She explains. "I know the truth, Miss Curly, and while I am sorry you weren't able to stay where you wanted, if it isn't too presumptuous of me to say, I am grateful to know you'll be joining us."

"I...she? ... Wow. I didn't know." You take a moment and Wanda goes quiet. "I... whew. You know, um, if you don't mind, I think I'm going to make a cup of coffee before we get started."

"Certainly, you can call me back, or I can simply wait." Wanda offers.

"Chat with me, if you don't mind. Whatever you're comfortable with, tell me about yourself, tell me about the Conglomeration." You prompt, getting up and heading into the kitchen.

You and Wanda talk for nearly three hours. In that time you make a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, and even get the water you probably needed to be drinking more of. She tells you a little bit about herself, and you share some of yourself in return. She talks about what she likes about the company, and you ask questions to dig a little deeper.

You vent about the issue with Perospero, as much as you're comfortable doing, and admit that you're doing much better now than you were before. You love the city, but getting away and getting back to where you grew up had been exactly what you needed.

Eventually you shift to the business of business and start talking about what you would be expected to do, what skills you had, experience and what your accomplishments at your current job were. Wanda gave you some hypotheticals to answers and you asked about the vacation policies and other benefits.

You weren't too worried about falling into any kind of traps. Wanda was being far too direct, and with everything else in your corner it was silly to worry about such things. A small voice in the back of your head worried you were getting this job on some odd form of nepotism, but if that was the case you'd just have to work even harder when you started.

You even sent Marco some texts while you were talking with Wanda, explaining that you were on the phone with her, and that you weren't sure when you'd make it to the store.

You: I'll still be by though.

Marco: I'd say tell her hello for me, but I don't want you to think I'm trying to win you points.

You: You didn't say anything to Nekomamushi yourself?

Marco: Nope.

Marco: I first heard of it from Katakuri. After that I was too busy to reach out, and I wouldn't have even if I could have.

Marco: I know how you would've felt.

"Your starting salary is going to be, admittedly, significantly less than what you were making." Wanda says, her voice dropping. "There are bonuses, however, and it is still competitive."

"That will be okay." You assure her. "If I can do my job well, there'll be room for growth, and I'm okay with that. Candy Land paid well, but... there was a certain level of stress that went along with it."

"But," you say after a moment's pause. "All I mean is that the salary is satisfactory, and the benefits more than make up for it. It works out even better for me, since I intend to travel a little more, and your company gives me leeway to do that by default."

"Perfect then, the last thing to consider will be your start date."

You laugh. "You don't have to step away and deliberate the results of this call with your bosses?"

"They had effectively made up their minds already," Wanda says kindly. "This wasn't just a formality, however, since you and I will be working together closely when you start here. This was truly an interview between you and I."

You look at how long you've been chatting easily with her and chuckle softly. "Okay, yeah, I can see how that would mean what it means." You agree. "Well, I'll be back on the 4th. I know it's not a Monday, but starting the 8th would work well for me. It gives me time to ensure things went smoothly while I was gone for so long, and a partial week lets me get the administrative sign-offs and meet and greets done before starting properly the following Monday."

"We'll go with that then," she agrees. "If anything comes up, you can call me and let me know. The number I called from is my personal one, so even if you need to leave a message I'll get back to you shortly."

"Fantastic. Well, this is the best way this could've gone, so thank you for making my day better Miss Wanda." You say cheerfully.

"My pleasure Miss Curly, and please, call me Wanda."

You let her know she can call you by your first name as well, and then end the call.

"Whew." Letting out a sigh you sink into the chair in the den and enjoy a brief moment to yourself before joining Dadan and the boys for lunch. You text Marco and let him know you'll be by after you eat, and tell him what the preliminary time line for your start with the company looks like.

Marco: You'll have a couple days completed before I even get there.

You: Yeah, but I shouldn't be able to get myself into too much trouble.

Marco: I'm the only trouble you need to get into 😈

You: Aren't you technically getting into me, trouble?

There's a long pause before his next reply and it's just a single heart emoji. You figure you flustered him finally, but when you make it to the store it is jam packed. How he was even able to text you at all was impressive enough.

He's filling in as a cashier and you're back to the shelves, organizing, restocking, and directing customers on where to find things. The volume of work made the day go by quickly and you didn't get a chance to really talk to Marco until the sun had long set.

The next three days were more of the same, though the frenzied flurry of the first day was never quite matched, but by the time you and Marco had any real time to yourselves again it was New Year's Eve.