Roots of Thougts

Mason had been in and out of meetings all day and he was feeling very irritable. He was hungry and had a headache but there was still work to do, he looked at Bryan who was slumped on his chair looking like he was about to pass out and felt like laughing. He had forgotten that his new assistant had been with him all day, perhaps doing the most work. "Hey Bryan before you pass out, can you hand me the file on yesterday's pitch?"

Bryan groaned and stood sluggishly heading to the file cabinet, he opened it at the same time he realised something, he never got to finish organising the files. "Um, boss? That might take a while" he said cautiously. Mason glanced up curiously and saw the cabinet with files strewn haphazardly in it "Bryan what the hell is that?" He said anger starting to rise in him

"Well I know it wasn't this messy but I wanted to create a much easier system and I started thinking I was going to finish it today and then today turned out to be so crazy and I didn't get the chance" he replied waiting for Mason to explode.

Mason closed his eyes and took deep breaths, he was so close to snapping but it wouldn't be fair to take the day's stress out on Bryan. He sighed and relaxed back on his chair "Can you just finish up with that? The mess is driving me crazy" he said making sure to keep his voice level and chuckled inwardly as Bryan sighed with relief. He turned towards the cabinet and started to move files around, placing them in sections he had previously labelled. He picked an old looking file and was about to shelf it when an old photo fell out. It was a much younger Lisa, dressed as a witch and Mason crouched beside her wearing old Jean shorts, tank and a costume that looked like a cage. "Well well well, what do we have here" he said smirking as he held the photo up. Mason was at his side in a flash, he grabbed the photo from Bryan and crouched looking at it "Oh my God Bryan I thought I'd never see this again" he whispered as he looked at it stroking Lisa's smiling face in the photo. Bryan crouched in front of him watching Mason smile for a while "So I'm guessing you didn't throw that in here to bury it from the world" he said making Mason glance up

"Oh of course not, Lisa chewed me out when I said I couldn't find it anymore. She also thought I threw it away, said I was burying evidence but that was impossible because the image is forever buried in her mind" he replied laughing a little. Bryan leaned over and glanced at the photo again, there Lisa was smiling widely at the camera l and holding a sack that was half full, Mason was also smiling but his eyes were on Lisa instead and he seemed satisfied. "That's a very happy witch" he commented quietly

"Yeah" Mason replied, he was quiet for a while before he spoke again "Lisa wanted to go trick or treating with a couple of friends from school, they had a whole theme and group costume planned out weeks before Halloween. She asked me if she could go and I said no because I felt it was dangerous out there especially for young girls and I didn't trust anyone to keep her safe. I told her I'd buy her any type of candy she wanted, hell I said I'd buy an entire candy store if that was what she wanted. I guess I didn't actually understand what it meant to her, she threw tantrums, refused to eat, threatened to run away but I didn't actually break until Halloween itself when I found her in a closet watching a video that her friends had sent her. She was crying silently like she didn't want anyone to know and I felt like a rotten human being. It wasn't about the candy, she just wanted to have some fun with her friends. So I decided to make up for my dumb move, I took her to a store to get costume, they only had two left and she made me dress up too, a little revenge of hers I guess. Everytime we went up to a house, she'd make me crouch so that it'd look like I was really caged and she'd proudly say tell the house owner that she's having me for dinner soon but she needs candy to lure more kids in the future, y'know referencing Hansel and Gretel. By the end of that night, I was sore, I don't think I've ever done so much squats in my life but she was happy and that made everything worth it. This photograph, as embarrassing as it is is my favourite of the two of us. It's a reminder that I would do absolutely anything for Lisa, anything just to see her smile"

Bryan was watching Mason intently the entire time he was telling this story, he almost felt like he was invading a private moment as his boss talked while smiling at the photo, the man may be difficult to understand sometimes but it was obvious that he loved Lisa and Bryan secretly wished he had someone like that, someone that would think twice about making sacrifices small or large for him.

"That is a really beautiful story man, I have to say, anyone looking from the outside would think you're just a strict dictator but Lisa really is lucky to have you. No one will protect her like you're doing and that's truly impressive. To think I've always believed that siblings are meant to hate each other" Bryan said as the two of them chuckled silently.

"Yeah I think Lisa is handling the hate side of the relationship. I swear that girl would fry me for breakfast if she could" Mason joked

"I don't think so boss. I think Lisa loves you just as much as you love her, you both just show it differently" Bryan responded seriously as they both fell silent.

After a while, Mason realized they were still standing there, he cleared his throat and moved back to his seat with the photo in his hand "I think we should be heading home now Bryan, we've had a long day. You can just finish that up tomorrow morning"

"Oh that's fine, I'd rather just get it over with today" He replied without looking back from what he was doing.

"Suit yourself" Mason said as he shrugged, he opened an empty drawer on his desk and dropped the photo inside making a mental note to get it framed. He packed up his things and left Bryan in the office, said goodbye to Ben and headed home. Throughout the drive, he thought about what he had said to Bryan, he said he would do anything to make Lisa smile but was that really what he's doing? Maybe Bryan wasn't too far off the mark when he said Mason seemed like a dictator, Lisa and Evans had insinuated the same thing too. Perhaps he was doing too much, telling himself that he was just trying to protect her even when he did something that didn't make her happy. He really was overprotective and it opposed his intentions, he had to do better.

Lisa wasn't home when he got home, apparently she wasn't back yet. He went to his room for a shower and change of clothes planning to wait in the living room till his sister came back but he was so exhausted he fell asleep instead. A knock on the door, telling him dinner was ready woke him up, he had been asleep for almost an hour