"Can you guys SHUT UP?!"
Raven stood up as he said this, hitting the 'save' button on his document and poking his head outside his office doorway. Honestly, had his co-workers no shame?
Elsword was pressed flat against the wall, giggling. His blond sidekick, Chung, was looking around nervously next to him.
"Sorry, Raven," Chung said sheepishly. "We were just..."
"Filling someone's workspace with balloons again?" Raven asked, then wished he hadn't when a mischievous grin spread across Elsword's face.
"Better," the redhead said, smiling like the Cheshire cat.
Raven sighed and sat back down, staring at the unfinished contract he was writing and trying to block out the noise. He wished he could close the door, but Elesis had taken all the doors off and stashed them somewhere. Nobody could get her to say where they were, not even Add.
Aisha passed the doorway, talking with Ara about something. Raven only caught a few words - "Eve," "Chung," and "hack." Then the girls were gone, down the hall. He didn't really want to know what they were talking about.
One sentence later, Rena tapped on Raven's doorway. She popped her head in without waiting for a response.
"Can you help me with my computer?" she asked. "I can't get it to work."
Raven stared. "I just checked it an hour ago."
"Two hours," Rena corrected. "And I know, but it's weird now. It shuts down every time I go to open a browser."
"Did you ask Eve?" Raven rolled his eyes. "She is the tech specialist. Or even Add probably knows more about computers than I do." Damn Elsword, he thought – the prankster had used the same trick on his own computer last week.
"Eve was writing code when I looked. Or at least, that's what it seemed like. Add... Well, you know Add."
"Getting fawned over by the UPS lady?"
"The UPS guy, actually."
A grin filtered its way across Raven's face. "His fanclub has expanded, mmmh? Bet Elesis isn't too happy about that." Elesis made no secret about her crush on Add.
Rena returned the smile. "No, I don't think she is."
Elesis tapped Elsword on the shoulder. "Hey, little bro."
Elsword turned and scowled, with a pad of Post-it notes in his hand. "I'm not your brother, for God's sake! Just because you tutored me in high school-"
"Don't care," Elesis said dismissively. "But don't you wonder what would happen if you left off covering Ara's office with sticky notes – which she won't be too happy about – and rigged something in the hallway to trip the UPS guy instead?" Elesis tilted her head, making a show of looking curious.
"You just want him to stop paying attention to your crush, don't you," Elsword taunted.
"Yep," Elesis said bluntly. "But it'd also be REALLY funny."
"We'll do it," Chung said confidently, still covering Ara's laptop with Post-it notes. He stuck the last sticky note on the electronic and straightened up. "Hope we don't get in trouble for this..."
"We won't," Elsword reassured Chung, industriously wasting sticky notes on the fox prints hanging on Ara's wall. "We've done loads worse stuff, remember?" The pad of Post-it notes was tossed on Ara's paper-covered desk as Elsword turned out the door. "We'll go rig something in the hallway. Just make sure Ara doesn't come in here, we're not done."
"Don't worry," Elesis said, grinning as Elsword and Chung walked out. "She's busy."
"So, can you do it?"
Eve looked up from her coding as Ara leaned over her. Aisha was watching from the corner, eyes wide, and Eve could tell that this meeting would be available through the gossip channels tomorrow.
"I could," Eve replied softly. "But it would take time away from my work."
Ara sighed, straightened up, and dug in the pocket of her dark pencil skirt. She came up with a wad of cash, which she tossed on Eve's desk.
"Here. Now will you hack Chung's computer?"
Eve picked up the money, shuffling through it and counting it. When she was done – it was about 25 dollars – she looked up at Ara.
"Is this all?"
Ara glanced at Aisha in a help me sort of way. Aisha shoved herself off the wall and came over to Eve.
"If you do it, I'll tell you who's been sneaking into your office at night," Aisha said, grinning. She had seen Add bending over Eve's laptop after the techie had left the office late at night, and had saved the tidbit of gossip until now.
Eve paused for a moment, then saved her code. "Get out. I expect that information in an hour's time, that should be more than enough for my hack to take effect."
"Yes ma'am," Aisha said, beginning to walk out and pulling Ara with her. "Come on. I saw doughnuts in the kitchen," she told Ara.
Elesis watched Ara and Aisha disappear into the kitchen, then locked her ruby gaze back onto the UPS guy. He was just leaving, giving Add a parting wave. Add didn't seem impressed.
Come on, she thought as the man walked down the hall, shifting his packages from one arm to the other. As he pressed the call button for the elevator, Elsword and Chung jumped out from both sides and threw buckets of ice water over him, drenching his packages and his clothing.
Loud cursing could be heard from the end of the hall. Ara and Aisha poked their heads out of the kitchen curiously. The UPS guy was staring at the floor, a stream of curses spilling from his mouth as he regarded his soaked packages. His hair and clothes were dripping wet, and ice cubes were scattered in the puddle of water around him.
Elsword and Chung dropped the buckets and shoved past Ara and Aisha, into the kitchen. Aisha absentmindedly grabbed a convenient yardstick and whacked Elsword on the head.
"Ow!" Elsword rubbed his head. "What was that for?"
"Don't push me," Aisha reprimanded him. "It's not nice. And did you do that to the poor UPS guy?"
Elsword grinned. "Don't ask me questions, I won't tell you lies," he said, then realized that Ara was glaring daggers at Chung. "Oh, no."
Elesis nearly laughed aloud. "Hey, Add, do you have popcorn?" she asked. The silver-haired man looked up, magenta eyes annoyed.
"No. Why?"
"Because I love you so much that I want to smother you with it," Elesis replied sarcastically. "No, because there's major drama going down. Ara and Chung."
"Kuhuhu," Add chuckled, getting up and coming to stand behind Elesis. Both of them watched, Elesis more focused on the fact that Add was close to her than the drama.
Chung made a sound that was almost a whimper, stepping half-behind Elsword as if hoping that the younger boy would protect him.
"You bastard," Ara said coldly.
"I didn't know it was your brother, okay?" Chung tried to defend himself against Ara's merciless stare. "It's not my fault!"
Aisha threw her weight against Ara, pushing her out of the doorframe. "Lovely seeing you boys, but don't you have somewhere to be?" she asked. "A meeting or something?" She was glaring meaningfully at Elsword.
"Uh. Yeah. Remember, we've got that... thing... that we have to do?" Elsword stumbled his way over the words, then decided to just shove Chung out into the hallway. "Bye."
Ara and Aisha looked at each other, and Aisha started to calm the black-haired girl down. Elesis stifled a giggle. Ara held grudges for a long time.
Elesis leaned back, 'accidentally' falling against Add's chest. She tilted her head up and grinned impishly at him. "Whoops."
Add looked down at her, looking disgusted, and stepped to the side. Elesis put a foot back to steady herself, and pouted. "You're no fun."
"Elslut," Add muttered as he walked away. Elesis made a hmmph noise – she had been called worse – and yelled after him. "Love you too."
Add gave her the finger without looking back, and Elesis went to find Rena.
Fifteen minutes later, Add looked up from his miniature robot as a somewhat-calmer Ara walked into her office. He winced as yells erupted from the small room, and Ara stomped out again.
Guess she found out that Elbrat and Pikachung were in there, he chuckled to himself, and maneuvered another wire into place.
The elevator at the end of the hall dinged, and Add looked up to see a small woman bounce out. His eyes widened, and he hissed loudly, "Lu! And Ciel!"
Everything froze, then people started moving very quickly. Add hid his current robotic project behind his computer. Ara rushed back into her office, and Aisha nearly spilled her coffee in the process of getting to her receptionist desk. Elsword missed the door to his office, faceplanted into the wall, and quickly sidestepped through the doorway.
Add grinned. It was so funny watching everyone run around like lab rats on caffeine. He switched his computer screen from the cameras he had planted in everyone's offices to a Word document, which he started typing industriously on. Never mind that he was simply typing out the elements in periodic order. Lu never looked at anyone's screens.
"Hey, everyone!" Lu bounced in, looking around. She was always so cheerful. Ciel was a step behind her, glaring around with an expression that said Don't screw this up. Ciel might have been the executive in charge of the floor, but Lu was the boss of the entire company, eccentric though she might have been.
Ciel didn't have to worry about people screwing up. Lu bounced through about once or twice a day, and everyone wanted to keep getting paid.
"I love this floor," Lu was sighing. "No rivalries, no drama – just everyone working and getting along nicely." Add stifled his laughter. The floor was only ever quiet for the five seconds that Lu or Ciel were there.
Lu bounced into the kitchen, stopping to look into Ara's office. "Love the décor, Aren!" she squealed as she took in the paper-covered walls. Ara's internal struggle between correcting Lu and keeping her paycheck was plain on her face, but thankfully, Lu moved on before she could decide.
Lu's disappointed squeal was heard from the kitchen. "What, no doughnuts or cookies this time? I'm shocked." Add glared at Aisha. His cameras had caught her taking the last pastry.
Aisha glared back as Ciel leaned against the kitchen doorway. "I've got cookies in my office, Lu. Homemade, too."
"Really?" Lu squealed, and bounced toward the elevator. "Love you all! Keep working! Bonuses on everyone's paycheck!" she flung over her shoulder as the elevator doors closed.
The floor was silent for all of five seconds, then the normal chatter resumed. Ara came out of her office like a whirlwind, venting her anger onto the unfortunate Chung. Chung wilted into his office chair in the face of the irate girl's yelling. Aisha abandoned her desk again, wandering aimlessly around the office. Rena and Elesis disappeared into the kitchen. Eve and Raven were the only ones working, as usual. Elsword was nowhere to be seen, probably cooking up another prank.
As for Add, he simply switched his screen back to his cameras. He wanted to keep an eye on everyone, after all, and see how they reacted when they realized everyone was supposed to be in the conference room five minutes ago. He pulled out his robot and started tinkering with the wires again, letting the noise of his friends surround him.