I stare down at the typed words in front of me, the curve of each syllable echoing in my mind as my eyes dart across the page, absorbing every sentence. I can see the bottom of the page from the corner of my eye, and it is with a silent breath of relief that I finish reading the report and place with the other read files on my desk. The room is strangely silent for this time in the afternoon, usually my thoughts are met with the sounds of flickering pages or the sudden ringing of a telephone, even the occasional conversation carried from across the room, but I am currently alone, so no other noise but the steadiness of my breathing is filling the room. That is, until the door opens and Warner strides into the office.
"Hey, how was the meeting with Alia?" I call, looking up from my desk. Since it was established that we weren't under direct attack after assassinating the supreme commander we immediately got to work on our plans for the future. All of us left over from Omega Point came together to decide how we should divide the work and it ended up accordingly. I, as self-appointed leader, would be creating plans for improving the sector and working on our alliances and relations with other sectors, Warner continued to oversee what was happening on base while being in charge of civilian welfare and safety, Castle started working on plans to improve our resources and environment, using his previous work from Omega Point and also set up a training programme here on base for any gifted people who may come forward, and Kenji is in charge of the war effort, mostly involving our sectors security and plans for defeating those who fight us. Everyone else either works in one of those departments or all of them, Alia focusing on design. So far she's designed new weapons, materials fit for living shelters, and a lot more.
"Good," He replies, turning around momentarily to smile at me before heading towards his desk on the opposite side of the room. "Later this afternoon I need to place a request for raw materials so she can make some prototypes and then I'll have a further meeting with her about mass production." he explains, dropping a thin file onto a pile of others and heading back in my direction, stopping just short of the boardroom table. "She's incredibly talented, I seriously wonder what she sees in my brother."
"Aaron," I scold playfully, trying to mask the snicker rising in my throat.
"What? There's no denying that the man is an idiot," He replies, and I cover my mouth with one hand so he can't see the small grin forming.
"I wasn't," I say in response, trying to force the grin into something less amused. Not that it fools him, he gives me a rather self-satisfied look before heading back over to his desk. My eyes rolled before I even wanted them to.
"Oh by the way, the driver sent to pick up the commander of sector 49 got back to me while you were gone, they should be on base shortly," I inform him, looking down at the scrap of paper bearing the message in my loopy handwriting. "Should we hold the meeting here or prepare another room?" I ask.
Warner shoots a pensive glance towards the boardroom table, which is stacked high with files and folders and covered with documents strewn haphazardly over the hard wood. The mildly displeased look on his face tells me his answer before he opens his mouth.
"I think it best that we prepare another room, the utter lack of space on this table creates neither an appropriate meeting area nor a good impression," He says, his nose still slightly wrinkled as he studies the table.
"Yeah, you're right," I agree. "I tried to shift some of it earlier but struggled balancing the files in my hands." I could still feel the paper cuts stinging my palms from where an attempt to move a pile of reports went awry.
"I could help you with that after this meeting, how long do we have for preparation?" he asks.
"I would guess around half an hour," I reply, giving him my rough estimate.
"Okay, where are the production reports that we need for the meeting?"
"Somewhere in there." I reply sweetly, pointing to the massive pile of papers scattered over the table. Any trace of positive emotion on his face dies the moment the words leave my mouth.
"Excellent." He mutters, heavy sarcasm dripping from his words as he eyes the table with displeasure. I know the disarray of the files must be bothering him.
"I think I know where about though, I moved them because I knew that we needed them," I remember. The irritated frown on Warner's face starts to slowly disappear.
"Great," He replies, sounding much more genuine. We both then set to work trying to find the files, which I remember placing in a pile to the left of my desk. After a while of sifting through the stacks placed around the left end of the table I eventually find them stuffed in a manila folder, buried under several reports on the safety of unregulated turf.
"I've got them," I announce, holding the folder up for Warner to see. "I'm just going to put them on my desk and out of the way." He nods in acknowledgement.
"I'm just going to put a book back on the shelf and then we can start preparing the meeting room," He says, moving over towards his desk and picking up the old, worn hardback book that he had been reading for the past few days and moving towards the wall of bookshelves that ran along one side of the office.
"Okay," I say, listening out for the moment when the noise of his footsteps gets swallowed by the thickness of the rug covering the floor, and smiling with satisfaction when it happened. I hear him slide the book into place on one of the higher shelves and turn around, grabbing additional materials off my desk ready for the meeting preparation.
"Hey, what room do you think we should pick to hold the-" I wonder aloud before my train of thought gets cut off completely by a very sudden and rather loud thud. I instantly turn around, noting first and foremost that I can't see Warner.
"Aaron?" I call, slightly alarmed.
"I'm fine," An annoyed mumbling sounds from behind the boardroom table, and I make my way around the large piece of furniture to find Warner lying face first on the carpet, his cheeks slowly reddening and a large bunch in the carpet obvious behind his feet.
"Oh my god," I gasp, blinking as the pieces quickly click together like a child's puzzle in the back of my mind, my mouth falling open as I take in the sight in front of me.
"Nothing happened," He insists, not too convincingly. His cheeks getting redder by the second and a scowl settling over his features. What feels like forever in only a few seconds passes by and I hear the laughter that erupts from my throat before I feel it, having no indication I was about to spring into a fit of giggles at all.
Every time I try to stop I can't, they just get stronger, racking my body until my stomach muscles start to hurt and tears are brimming in the corners of my eyes. My laughter is echoing around the room, bouncing off every corner and whistling through the air. It has become its own force, completely taken over any sense of control I had, refusing to let me finish. I can picture the displeased look on Warner's face right now, every crease in his brow, the thoroughly unimpressed look in his eyes, but I can't bring myself to stop.
"I was hoping to keep some shred of dignity, it appears that is not going to happen," I hear him deadpan over my outburst, noting that he had now picked himself up off the floor and was standing opposite me, studying me with a firm scowl, and I truly feel bad that I'm responding this way but I just can't stop. I try to steady my breathing enough to get some words out, wiping the tears from my eyes.
"I'm sorry, I just-" is all I manage before they take me over again, spreading ache through my ribs and making it harder to breathe.
"You what?" Warner responds, still looking very unamused.
"I can't," I wheeze, covering my face with my hands, still struggling to suck enough air into my body to slow my breathing down.
"It wasn't that funny," He says dismissively, and I focus my attention even harder on stopping the laughter. Eventually I can feel it ease up enough that I can speak a little, showing signs of disappearing completely soon.
"I'm sorry," I breathe, directing the last push of energy into stopping the giggling completely. I turn away from him, hoping that not looking at him would help somewhat, and after a few focusing exercises and deep breaths I am finally able to stop laughing. I turn back around to face Warner, a wave of guilt pouring over me as I take in his expression. He's stood still in front of me, his brow furrowed, lips near pouting, and a sunken look in his eyes. I sigh, moving closer to him, resting my hand on his arm.
"I'm really sorry, are you okay?" I say gently running my hand up his arm and over his shoulder before resting it on his chest, a small smile tugging at the corners of my mouth when I see his face slowly begin to soften. He closes his eyes, letting a long sigh whistle through his lips.
"Yes love, I'm fine," He says quietly, almost smiling as he looks down at me.
"Are you sure, did you hurt anything?" I ask, moving a subtle few inches closer to him.
"I'm fine, I just want to forget the entire thing ever happened," He insists. I remove my hand from him, stepping a little further back with every in intention to move on from the moment before I realise just how I can use this situation to my advantage, I can feel the smirk waiting to be released, feel the buzz of mischievous energy start to run in my veins.
"Not likely," I say, the beginnings of a teasing grin curving around my face. For a split second Warner looks panicked, before his stern eyed defence face falls into place quicker than blinking.
"Excuse me," He says firmly. I'm struggling to contain another outpouring of giggles, he's so fun to tease.
"What?" I reply innocently, stepping further away from him.
"This is never being mentioned again," He states, his voice already displaying an excellent tell that my teasing is working. I pause, looking for a second like I'm actually considering his words, before meeting his flustered gaze with a growing smirk.
"No chance," I respond, moving closer now to my desk, ready to pick up the documents for the meeting and leave as swiftly as possible, anticipating his reaction.
"I do not want to be reminded of this again," He continues, almost huffing in annoyance now.
"I'll be sure to bear that in mind the next time you say that you never have accidents," I remind him, my voice sounding heavily amused. I watch him reluctantly consider the truth in my words before moving back to the other side of the table and towards my desk.
"But it does not leave this room," He requests.
"Okay," I answer, in the most unconvincing and sweet voice possible, grabbing the file from my desk, quickly preparing my hasty exit.
"Juliette," He warns, and I offer him a little giggle before making my way towards the door, flashing him a smile and a brief flicker of eye contact before I turn.
"We should probably go and prep that meeting room," I call to behind me, walking slowly towards the door now, grinning as I feel his eyes on my back, knowing how much this is riling him up and enjoying it.
"But do you agree not to mention that this ever happened?" he asks, trying not to sound desperate.
"We're running out of time," I reply, already opening the door.
"Stop changing the subject," He says sternly, I can now hear his footsteps behind me.
"I'm not," I say sweetly, slipping out of the door and snickering to myself as I move. I can just about hear the exasperated sigh flying from his mouth right now, can picture him raking one hand though his hair like I know he's doing as I begin my walk down the hallway.
"Juliette," I hear him call from outside the door. I keep walking, knowing that he will catch up with me soon and smiling at the thought, knowing that when he does this game will continue.