Title: Distractions

Summary: Eduard works (somehow) within a cramped cubicle in a rather interesting work place with a beautiful coworker not even five feet from him and…a wood ceiling. What the hell? "…I really need to stop getting distracted if I'm going to finish this… Goddamn solitaire." Estonia/Fem!Canada; genderbending, workplace AU.

Warning: Estonia/Fem!Canada, stupid and cracky and lolwutthismakesnosense plotline, genderbending, a ceiling, hetero pairing (oh my!), workplace AU, Fem!Russia, bro-in-law-like relationship!Poland/Estonia, semi-hinted Poland/Lithuania (you can just pretend they are, like, idek, roomates or something?).

Disclaimer: I do not need you anymore, go away. Every time I see you, it reminds me of how much a failure I am. /sob

Prompt 5 of 64: seize the day

A/N:

There weren't that many Estonia/Canada stories…so I did what I had to. :| There will be more from me because this pairing is cute (and I really want to practice Eduard's character).

In case anyone here cares, Estonia and Canada have a relatively good relationship from what I've read. You'd have to look it up to confirm it yourself and learn in exactly how and in what area (diplomatic, trade, historical, recognition, etc.), because I don't want to give out false information on accident. : )

Madeleine – Canada

Anya – Russia

Eduard had honestly been trying to work. It had been going really well for a short while. In his tiny cubicle, trying to simply get through the same old boring weekday, Typing at his computer and drinking bad coffee and thinking "if only" thoughts and wishing he had taken that scholarship and gone to that university and taken up that job offer and gotten the hell out of this insufferable city.

But life is what life is, and life right now was a seven-by-ten cubicle from five to nine. Life was passing bars at night and wanting to get some drinks, but remembering work in the morning. And right now life was a steady obsession with a beautiful girl sitting not even five feet away.

Said beautiful girl was currently typing away in the cubicle adjacent to his. She paused to move hair from her face and rub at her eyes behind her glasses, smearing her mascara slightly, but she seemed not to notice.

Eduard moved his gaze from the blonde to his half-started document, willing it to finish itself so he could go check on his lunch in the cafeteria fridge, hoping Anya wouldn't get to his rhubarb pie before he could again.

After staring blankly at the document alined next to a rather unorganized spreadsheet, Eduard pushed himself away from the screen and rolled on his chair the five-or-so feet to the other side of his cubicle. He stared at his computer screen from there, squinting slightly behind his spectacles.

A minute later and he was slumping deeply into his plastic arm rests, gazing restlessly at the ceiling.

"Wood," he muttered aloud, focusing his eyes at the odd choice of ceiling decoration. Rather than a plain white (or even speckled) paint above his and his coworkers' heads, was wood. Light brown panels interlocking

Oak maybe?

No, that was too dark.

Mahogany?

Wasn't that a red color?

"Eduard, what in all sweet, delirious fashion's name are you doing?" The speaker smacked his gum loudly and stood in Eduard's cubicle doorway (could it even be graced with the pleasure to be called that?), hands on his hips.

Eduard did not reply, merely gazing at the other from his peripheral and then going back to the unknown-wood ceiling.

"You're not going to ignore me."

But Eduard did, unsure as to why, but just not quite feeling like complying to the simplest of demands.

"Like, oh my God, you are impossible sometimes. You better not be such a bitch during dinner tomorrow. Toris will probably cry." Felix rolled his eyes and flicked his hair as he turned. "See ya, pussy."

"Trap."

Now what was he to do? He could always stare at the ceiling some more, but he had a feeling he'd need to stare at it in the future, so he would save his "wood gazing" for later.

Maybe he'd get his lunch before Anya did.

Yeah, he'd do that. Then he'd work, and look up what different types of woods looked like.

—

Back in his cubicle (cage), Eduard stabbed at the burnt crust remaining in the crevices of the tinfoil plate…or would it be a bowl? Pie plate? Was rhubarb pie even in the category of pies? He bit on the end of his plastic fork, watching its blurry reflection in the tin curve and bend.

He had managed to save his poor rhubarb bake just in time. As soon as Eduard had walked in the room, Anya had been finishing a conversation with the sandwich boy on different types of meat and their appeals.

He'd warmed his wonderful lunch in the microwave and gotten out of there before Anya could ask him to another dinner with Natalya (last time hadn't gone so well, he'd barely managed out alive).

Now, he was to work. He looked up at his screen, spotted the solitaire game icon in the corner, and told himself he'd just play a little while.

—

Five hours of solitaire, minesweeper, checkers, and Freecell later had Eduard regretting having a late lunch. Eight o'clock and hardly anything to show for the day.

He huffed at the yet another "You Lose" screen and clicked the red "x" in the corner of the game window, slapped himself and opened the document he was to finish.

Eduard was unaware as to how he had caused Madeleine to seriously reconsider working late after he had proceeded to mumble under his breath and slap himself repeatedly to get the "work flow" going.

The work flow's viscosity was equal to that of frozen maple syrup.

Eduard groaned and allowed his head to drop, colliding with the keyboard.

It was nine-thirty, most everyone had cleared out, gone home, gone to get drunk and recover in faster time than Eduard thought humanly possible.

Maybe his coworkers weren't human, though. That British guy always did seem a little…in the head. But that could easily be explained by him not only being British, but also those ginormous dead caterpillars on his forehead. When Eduard had questioned the man (in all seriousness and concern) about getting them checked out, he had gone insane and began throwing rocks at him (which oddly smelled of burnt bread and cranberries).

Eduard slapped himself again when he realized he had let himself wander off again.

"I really need to stop getting distracted if I'm going to finish this," he mumbled to himself, finally dead set on finishing the project. "Goddamn solitaire."

His hands hovered above the keyboard before they began pressing keys hesitantly, pace slowly growing momentum. Which quickly came to a crashing halt as he misspelled word after word and name after name and mixed zip codes with phone numbers.

It was a shame, he sighed, it had been going so well. Today just wasn't his day. Eduard settled his hands on the sides of his keyboard, leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. A quick tap on his shoulder brought him back to the seven-by-ten cubicle with pictures of his brothers and friends and that cute little kitty bobble head he had received from Kiku settled next to his monitor.

He opened one eye to look blankly up at the intruder.

"Madeleine."

"Ah, yes…I don't mean to be r-rude or anything, eh, but I was wondering if…if…if…" she went on like a broken record, stuttering and looking every which way, playing with the Canadian tie secured around her neck. He didn't want to push her, so he waited. "W-w-would you like some h-help? I don't mean to sound condescending o-or for it to seem as if I might be undermining your intelligence and masculine ability to do anything you set your mind to, but it just seems as if you are having some troubles with which I might be able to help! B-b-but I can't say for certain! I-I might just end up making things worse a-and…and…and…I-I'l just be quiet now, eh." She scuttled back to her cubicle, making a mess of her papers as she tried to get things into her suitcase.

"Madeleine?" Eduard smiled, loving when he could see her stop and peak at him through her blonde locks, trying to act as if she totally wasn't. "Would you mind? My hands just can't seem to do much of anything."

Madeleine set her things back down slowly, tucked her mass of hair behind her ears and approached Eduard with all good intentions. "I will do my best." She rolled her chair behind her, and Eduard scooted himself over to make room for her. "Do you mind giving me a brief summary of what I am doing, eh?" She sat herself down in front of the monitor.

Suddenly, she was all business, eyeglasses set precariously on her nose, tipping just on the edge of helpful, and eyes scanning the documents laid out on his screen. He sat silently next to her, eyes flickering from her to the screen and to her hands, clacking away at the worn out keyboard. He answered her questions, helped organize the documents, and eventually got lost in the work.

—

"I–I think we're done, eh." Madeleine leaned away from the screen, voice tinted with astonishment.

"Wow," he whispered, stretching and cracking. "I couldn't've done it without you," Eduard praised, smiling as he gazed upon the beautiful (finished) work.

"Ah, well, now that that's finished…I'm so hyped, I don't think it'd be safe for me to drive home." Madeleine let out a small laugh, rubbing at her strained eyes. She muttered an "oops," and dragged the side of her finger under her bottom lid, wiping away the smudged makeup.

Eduard nodded in agreement, folding his arms across his chest, carelessly stretching back in his chair, his head lolling back.

The friggin' wood ceiling.

"You ever noticed that?" he asked absentmindedly. Madeleine threw him a curious look. He pointed to the ceiling, she looked up.

"Wait," she paused, squinting in the dim light from the computer screen, "is that…wood, eh?"

Eduard nodded. "I've been trying to figure out what kind of wood it is. Any guesses?" He watched her frown and stand up. She walked over to her desk and bent underneath it, head and upper torso disappearing behind her computer tower. Eduard adverted his eyes, like the gentleman he was, despite everything Felix might say.

Madeleine rose from under her desk, blowing at strands of her in front of her face, holding a cord in one hand and a lamp in the other. She hurried back over to his cubicle, bending down once again to plug it in (Eduard, despite his best efforts, could not advert his eyes). She stood again, turning on and angling the lamp head to shine upon the ceiling.

She finally settled back in her chair, head leaned back and hands folded in her lap as she studied the ceiling with all seriousness.

"Oak?" she suggested, shrugging slightly.

"I thought so, too." Eduard agreed. "But then I changed my mind."

"Elm, maybe?"

Eduard took a moment to stare at the small area of wood that was illuminated by the lamp. "Actually, that sounds right."

Madeleine scrunched up her nose. "Nah, it's probably poplar, eh."

"No, no, no," he shook his head. "Poplar is too light."

There was silence.

"Maple."

"Definitely maple."

"It's obviously bamboo, aru."

A/N:

Trap – man who dresses like a female

God, Eduard's personality is impossible, I tried to keep him from being OOC, but from the few scenes I have seen of him, I couldn't really get much about his character. Tried to make him seem as professional and suave as I could. :\

…Anyone want to see a certain pairing in one of the upcoming prompts? Crack, canon, straight, homo, genderbent, incestual—I really don't have any no-nos. ; ) Even if you don't want a couple, but just a family or a friendship kind of relationship centered fic. I'm going to limit it to three for pairings and friends—families and groups (FACE would count as a group or family, depending on how you request it).

Hit me up, eh?