This is a duplicate of what I've put on AooO but thought I'd put here too in case anyone doesn't use that. Let me know what you think! Should be a quick update hopefully :)
On reflection it was absolutely stupid of both of them to think that they could get through the next few weeks with the same disregard for each other. They were thrust together with a scenario so twisted that it could only be described as fate.
Daenerys was in the middle of her morning routine of coffee, cat feeding, jogging and looking at her stocks – okay, she had a long morning routine – when the beginning began for her. Her phone was ringing with the number she didn't particularly like answering in the morning, it could be extremely distracting. A tight sigh escaped her as she answered it.
"Yes?" She started as they always did, like it was the middle of their conversation. They never felt a need for pleasantries, because it wasn't what they were built for.
"Where are you?" His voice came out more urgent than usual and so Daenerys was assuming this was either an emergency or this was an early booty call.
"At home."
"You need to get your sweet ass over here." Ah, it was the latter then.
"Daario, I think sex before work is a bit tasteless. During work though, well, that's another matter -,"
"Get to the office. There's some good shit going down."
She couldn't show her excitement on the phone, but her heart was skipping in the way it was supposed to beat when you were in the presence of the person you loved. She only ever felt this way when it was about work; could this be the big break she had been ever so patiently waiting for?
"When you say 'good shit', does this mean I'll enjoy it?" She spoke slowly, carefully choosing her words to sound collected and professional as always when really all she wanted to do was scream expletives down the phone.
"Oh, baby," Even he was getting excited at just telling her this. She could tell he was licking his lips. "You're going to fucking love it."
"Twenty minutes," She hung up the phone right after that so she could then let out a high-pitched squeal of excitement. She picked up her nearest cat, Drogon, with a continued noise that would have upset or confused most animals.
"Your mother is going to get the greatest news today, I can feel it!"
Twenty minutes was a bit of a stretch in terms of getting to work, especially as she had a twenty minute walk there. This walk was nothing to complain about though; she was incredibly lucky to live in a beautiful flat in London centre – one of the few things she had her brother to thank for.
Twenty-five minutes later, not looking as polished as she usually did with her blonde hair tied back and her face bare, she was running through the doors of Lannister Enterprises fumbling through her bag for her electronic pass. Of course when you're running through the lobby of the biggest corporation in London, if not the entire United Kingdom, it would help to look where you're going, as Daenerys found out when she bumped right into the key counterpart to her coming story.
Jon Snow.
His name was as icy as he was to be around. His gruff, completely northern way of speaking was difficult for Daenerys to understand at times. She found herself uncomfortable around him, not because he was cold with her, as she assumed he didn't intend to be that way at all – it was more that everything about him; his looks and mannerisms were completely foreign to her. He was appealing in all these ways, but foreign like a destination that you wouldn't dare travel to despite its' prettiness.
"Hello, Jon," She was already attempting to move through the gates with her pass as she spoke, not really interested in the response.
"Daenerys," He gave a polite nod. He was always so polite, but without smiles. It was like he didn't know how to just like she didn't know how to be around him.
Due to this small disruption, she had now missed the lift and was forced to wait with others, including Jon, for the next one. He chose to stand near to her much to her dismay. Didn't he have somewhere else to stand? Or did he actually have something to say? The prospect of him wanting to say something to her was shocking.
She furiously kept pressing the button to call the lift as she realized her overly-polite self couldn't stand in silence with Jon. She would have to bring up something resembling small talk, like 'Isn't the weather great today?' or 'The traffic was terrible this morning!'
"I think you just need to press it the once." She turned her head back around to find Jon looking at her with the slightest hint of amusement. It made her even more uncomfortable when he tried to do things like that, because it always, without fail, caught her completely off-guard and she couldn't think of what to say.
The lift doors opened as some sort of response to his wit and as she stood still, he walked in before her. As she moved to stand at the front of the lift, she couldn't help but turn to see if he was still wearing that tiny smirk on his face – he wasn't. His eyes though, that were so focused on what was in front of him flittered over to meet hers. She felt the tiny, inaudible inhale she gave as she snapped her head back around with a determined focus on the doors in front of her.
Her stride became unwavering from her purpose as she left the lift. She needed to know what this 'good shit' was and so she kept her eyes trained on Daario's office waiting for him to look up and see her. It turned out she didn't really need Daario to inform her at that point though.
"Tyrion's the only one who has come in today." She heard one person whisper near her.
"They've kept it under wraps, but it's going to be all over the news by tonight." Another person said.
Surveying the office and Daenerys could see that everyone seemed to be talking about different things, but she felt like they were all related. In fact the office was busier than usual. What the hell was going on?
"Daenerys?" She swivelled around to see the personal assistant of one of the Lannisters, but she couldn't remember exactly whom she served. "Mr. Lannister would like to see you in his office."
"I'm assuming that's Tyrion?" Daenerys asked, following on with what she had heard the gossip saying. The PA gave a nervous laugh as if seeing she should have explained it further or, to Daenerys' realization, for a reason relating to what was going on.
Daenerys followed after the PA, noticing a few people suddenly giving her attention. Daario was even finally looking up at her with an almost mischievous grin on his face. The walk felt longer than it should have been; the stares clearly impacting the length of the walk. The PA went to open the door and announce her arrival, but Daenerys got to the handle first and walked in with the hopes that it would make her look more important than she was.
"You asked to see me?" Daenerys called out to the back of the chair. Tyrion was known to sit facing the window quite a lot and due to his short height when he did that you couldn't even see the top of his head.
"Ah, yes, we've been waiting for you." We? Her eyes flashed to both chairs sat in front of the desk and she could now see someone else was sat in the room with them. She had gotten the impression outside that Tyrion was the only Lannister in today, but gossip was usually wrong.
She was ready to stride over to see when the person calmly turned their head around. Jon Snow. Again? And why? What the fuck was he doing here? Her head was spinning fast with all the possibilities as to why she was being pulled into the office, but she had to relax her face quickly as Tyrion turned around to face them.
"Take a seat, Daenerys."
She lowered herself in her seat with a forced smile, trying to ignore Jon.
"I'm sure you might have already heard what is going on today." She gave a polite shake of her head as she noticed Jon didn't react at all. Why was he here again? "Well, let me tell you, so we can get on with the real reason you're here… My sister died on Saturday night."
Daenerys hadn't expected that at all. She turned to Jon to see that he had shifted a little uncomfortably in his chair as well. No wonder the whole office was going crazy with this.
She didn't really ever see Cersei around the office, because she was just seemingly so important and so this news didn't exactly upset her, but made her think - the CEO of the whole company had just died and… and what did this have to do with her?
"I'm so sorry for your loss," Jon spoke quietly, before Daenerys had even processed the information. He said it so much more sincerely than she ever could and so she simply joined in his sentiments.
"Yes, I can't believe this, I'm so sorry." Tyrion put a hand up as a sign that he didn't need to hear them.
"Please, don't. I had no love or care for my sister." He paused, as if realizing how that sounded. "I can say that freely as she died of natural causes. A heart attack… Anyway, you'll hear all about it on the news I'm sure."
There was a silence. She hated that her head was going to this place already, but she wondered if this meant things were going to be changing around here and was that why she was here? Her heart was beating fast all over again.
"My brother, Jaime, is taking some time off work to mourn, but when he is back he will be the rightful CEO and I will be assisting him with the position. I imagine a few people will be leaving their positions soon due to… Well, quite frankly, being of their position due to my sister's choosing, but immediately we will be needing a new Managing Director to assist with what we're left with."
Managing Director? That was Tyrion's old position. That was about as high up the ladder you could get without owning the company! Oh… but Jon was here too. No, no, no, no, no.
Do. Not. Say. It.
"Now this is where it gets complicated. We want to take the company in a different direction than it was going. We want to have a great reputation again." He cleared his throat and Daenerys gripped the chair arm waiting for what was coming next. "You have both been gradually working your way up the ladder and I believe you both possess the character we are looking for, but are you there yet? We want to see. For the next month we would like you both to work in the position and then we'll decide who, if either of you, is suitable to take the position full-time."
"That's not a common practice!"
"I'm not sure how that would work?"
Daenerys and Jon's statements were blurted out at the same time when clearly what they both meant to say was 'WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?'
This rather controlled outburst didn't phase Tyrion at all, but with a quick glance at Jon she could confirm that he felt just as tricked into this as she was.
"We're simply trying to change the wheel here and give you both a fair trial. We want to see how you work together and give you tasks where you can compete with each other." To the astonishment of Daenerys, he seemed to be absolutely smitten with his own idea. "Come on, it'll be fun."
Fun? Fun? FUN?!
Yes, she was sure this was about as much fun as stapling your mouth together or giving birth or being burned alive. She couldn't fucking wait to spend quality time with Jon Snow, someone she was completely uncomfortable around, whilst the promise of a new position was dangled over her and could be snatched away by the exact same man!
"Now of course, myself, the Commercial Director, plus the Strategic Operations Director will be both training you and observing your progress."
Daenerys zoned out for a second then. Strategic Operations Director? Hmm… last time she checked that was Daario. Oh, Jon, you're going to be a squished bug at the end of this.
"Great, when do we start?" Daenerys announced with a sudden amount of enthusiasm that caused both Tyrion and Jon to jump out of being startled. Oops, Tyrion had clearly still been speaking.
"Uhm… Well, right away. There will be some intensive training today to show what is expected of you and then -,"
"Jon and I can have a meeting tomorrow morning to decide how we want to tackle this? I'm sure tonight we will have a lot of information to process."
Tyrion blinked a few times and Jon stared on at Daenerys with what looked like to her as annoyance.
"Yes, that seems logical." He nodded. "Right, shall we begin?"
Daenerys eyed Jon before giving her own agreement to this. He looked just as focused as Daenerys felt.
"Yes, let's get started."
Daenerys followed that with a nod and so their beginning had begun.