Day 1. Holding Hands
Artie sat down with a weary sigh in his plastic swivel chair. Having sent all of the agents on their own respective missions, Pete and Myka to Albuquerque and Claudia and Steve to LA, he had the Warehouse to himself. Unfortunately, this meant that he had to take on their usual duties. He had been cataloging inventory all day, and was rather foot sore. His segway had stopped working halfway through the day and he had been forced to walk from row to row. "I'll have to get Claudia to fix that when she gets back..." Artie muttered to himself, shuffling around the portfolios that went with the Albuquerque mission. Other than the usual Warehouse sounds, the office was quiet. Trailer dozed quietly in the corner and Artie couldn't bring himself to disturb him for a game of catch. Instead, he settled on the idea of rearranging his desk drawers. Upon opening one, though, Artie began to reconsider. The drawer was crammed full of papers and odds and ends from missions and other things that were years old. Claudia had more or less stopped the use of paper in the Warehouse, keeping everything to the computers. More eco friendly, perhaps, and it certainly cut down on this sort of mess. Artie removed the top layer of papers, setting them on the floor next to his chair so that that they would be easier to go through. But something shiny caught his eye. Underneath the stack of papers had been something he hadn't seen in months.
His bedazzler.
Beside it was the belt that he had made for Claudia, as if it had been tucked away and hidden on purpose. Frowning, Artie picked up his bedazzler once again, setting it on his desk and leaving the stack of papers forgotten on the floor. Upon rummaging through other drawers, Artie slowly found the rest of the bedazzling kit, which had apparently been hidden from him. He spread everything out, all of the rhinestones and studs, next to the bedazzler itself. Next, Artie found something to bedazzle. Something that would be seen as an act of revenge for hiding the bedazzler from him in the first place.
Claudia's fingerless gloves, which she had so carelessly left next to her computer, would do nicely. Artie set to work, bedazzling the wrist of the gloves with gaudy pink and silver rhinestones in an alternating pattern. The bedazzler hummed under his hand, sounding happy to have been found and used again.
The door to the Umbilicus opened quietly, letting in the voices of Claudia and Steve who were apparently in the middle of a conversation. "Sorry we didn't check in there at the end, but we thought we would surprise you." said Claudia, gesturing to Steve who held up a silver neutralizing bag. "We got it without much of a problem actually and what are you doing?" she said, changing gears mid sentence upon noticing the bedazzler.
Artie smiled, tossing her the new and improved gloves. "Oh. You didn't." she whimpered, turning them over in her hands. "Oh, but I did! And that's what you get for hiding my things! In the future, I hope that this will serve as a lesson as to why that is a bad move on your part!" said Artie, sharing a glance with Steve who seemed torn between a sympathetic expression for his friend and all out laughter at the absurdity of the situation. Claudia advanced towards Artie. "Give it to me." she said, grabbing for the bedazzler. Artie snatched the machine up, holding it protectively in his hands. "No! It is mine and you will not touch it!" he shouted, shouldering away Claudia's attempts at taking his bedazzler from him. "I'll get you back for this." she said, pointing a finger at Artie before storming back out of the Umbilicus. Steve sat the artifact down on Artie's desk, glancing at the remaining rhinestones. "Listen...Artie... If you could leave my stuff out of this? I'm trying to break a stereotype here, so bedazzled boots might not help." Artie made no response, other than shuffling around the container of studs with his finger. Steve decided not to press his luck and exited the office. Artie patted the bedazzler happily. This afternoon turned out to be much more productive than he had imagined. He could keep this particular hobby up for awhile...