So just another Jo/Zaf drabble (let's face it, they're adorable and no one can convince me otherwise) which I wrote ages ago but just found in an old maths jotter while trying to find notes on the Maclaurin Series. Love it when that happens! I do not own Zaf (unfortunately) because if I did, I would certainly not be writing fanfiction about him, if you know what I mean. Anyhow, on with the show. Hope you enjoy: remember to tell me how I've done! :)
Originally, Zaf thought the Grid was a great place to work. It was spacious, high tech, and there were always free sandwiches in the break room, even at peak time for lunch. Ever since he had accepted Adam's offer to stick around, he'd been completely content in his job and his workplace, despite the things they were forced to see and the things they were forced to do every single day. The Grid was a family, so secure in the shared philosophy of good and the united love of the wonderful country they all served that it worked in fluid symmetry, everyone giving and taking in equilibrium. Then she came along, and she ruined it all.
The local goddess with the bright smile, and the golden hair which always caught the bluish lights in the archive room oddly, and came out a dull copper, but shone white against the strong bulbs in the situation room. Suddenly, the Grid felt smaller, the space between desks next to insignificant. It was cramped, and suffocating to work in her presence, distracting at best. Her knowledge increased every day as she learned and she grew, and soon she knew more than he did, although he couldn't remember exactly when she surpassed him. Instead he scowled as he stood aside as she fixed the faults in his system and flew through background checks like he did cups of coffee.
There were still the sandwiches, Zaf supposed, but they never tasted as good when she was around. She managed to ruin even a BLT, something that Zaf never thought was humanly possible.
She ruined his professionalism, too. The first time she touched him it was innocent and pleasant, sweet to the point of naivety, and not intimate in the slightest. But then she saw the look on his face, and the tension in his body and she knew it meant something more to him. She learned she could do something else than make him smile, make him feel even better and he realised that there was a small part of her which enjoyed breaking all the rules. Adam noticed their synchronised absences on the Grid within a few days, but seemed to find it more amusing than anything else. Which he shouldn't have, Zaf decided. Jo was ruining his life and that was in no way amusing.
Zaf used to love his job. Love it, in capital letters, italics, with a giant red flashing underline. Now though, it's just his job because there's something more. It's just an unnecessary distraction; a way of getting paid at the end of the month. It takes him away from her so while he doesn't resent it - he could never resent what he does for his country - he curses it sometimes for taking the focus away from her beauty and her strength. He can't wait to go home at the end of the day to see her in the room she finally accepted at his apartment. Even though they always use his room anyway.
He wonders sometimes exactly when his priorities shifted. It was probably sometime between their meeting and her moving into his apartment. Maybe it was when their fingers first brushed as she passed him a file, or perhaps when he carried her to the ambulance after a street-wide explosion which left him with cracked ribs and a serious concussion. Most likely though, it was before all of that. Sometimes he thinks that his priorities changed the second that she leaned over his worktop and smiled brilliantly, her lips curving to utter two simple words:
"Free sandwiches!" before tossing him a BLT, taking her cress sandwich back to her seat and throwing a cheeky grin over her left shoulder.
Yep. He's pretty sure it was then.