Drabble: A Fixer-Upper
(based off an absolutely bonkers dream I just woke up from lmao)
Rating: T
Words: 503
Warnings: Explicit language
Summary: Izumi Tanaka, the new owner of Tanaka Industries, has a lot of work ahead of her.
“So, why do we have to wear hazmat gear here again?” Izumi asked Cremini, adjusting the mask over her face as she glanced around the room. They stood in the inventory building of Tanaka Industries. Izzy had just turned of-age and had inherited the company, and she’d given the employees a paid two-week off period to make some… adjustments. She hadn’t, however, been allowed to step into the building since childhood. Many things were still unfamiliar to her, having changed quite a bit since then.
“All the data I’ve combed through shows that, at some point, the shareholders began allowing the storage of toxic chemicals on-site,” Cremini, Izumi’s assistant and partner in crime, responded. She was also in full hazmat gear, checking a handheld electronic device with a small stylus. “Luckily it’s nothing radioactive, that’s not something we would be able to fix. As well, that would have been really stupid to store where employees work.”
“It’s still stupid to store anything toxic where employees work,” Izzy groaned as they walked through the walls and walls of boxes and barrels. “Ethical issues aside, it’s not even a good business practice. They’ll be paying for workman’s comp issues for decades after.” She paused. “Or, we will, I guess.”
Cremini couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Good to know you’re thinking of the little guy, Izzy.”
“Hey, I said ethical issues aside!”
“I know, I know, just giving you shit, boss,” Cremini laughed at the woman’s response. She continued to scroll through her palm pilot as she walked. “Luckily, it looks like only a minimal amount has been leaking into the ground underneath. Move all these barrels of corrosive garbage out, rip out the flooring, give the whole area to Agave and let her grow some of her plants here for a few seasons. The place'll be good as new. The plants won’t be viable, of course, but they’ll absorb all the gunk and let us get it out of the soil.”
“A few seasons!? Where are we supposed to store actual inventory in the meantime???” Izumi groaned again, even louder this time. “Ughhhhh, why couldn’t these old dolts not fuck everything up for me?”
“Just the joys of inheriting a company that a bunch of fucked up old dudes went to town on, I guess.” Cremini grinned beneath her mask. “Just wait until you see what they did to the main building.”
A loud sigh escaped the new CEO’s lips. “Well, I guess I gotta stop considering it an ‘inheritance’. This bitch is a fixer-upper, and that money’s all going to re-working this nightmare of OSHA violations.”
“Sounds like an investment to me, not an inheritance.”
Izumi chuckled at the woman’s response. “I like the way you think. Now, let’s get the hell out of here and find a hazmat team to properly dispose of this garbage. This suit is sweaty as all hell.”
“Heaven forbid you have to get a little sweaty, Miss CEO,” Cremini joked.
“Don’t make me dock your pay, fucker.”