"You can pitch in any time you want Aile." Vent grunted as he moved around several boxes around Giro Express for inventory.
"No thank you, you're doing quite fine." Aile replied as she took a big bite into the apple she was snacking on. "Carry on."
"Giro's gonna be mad at you when he finds out you didn't help." Vent told her with a huff as he set down a particularly heavy box.
"Excuse me!" Aile said, rather angerly and defensive, "I did all the paperwork because you said (and I quote!) 'We've been with him for ten years now, and I still can't figure out this junk. Aile, can you do it for me if I do the legwork? I'll owe ya one!'"
"I don't remember saying that..." Vent mumbled.
"Sure you don't." Aile said sarcastically before taking a rather large bite out of her apple. Vent continued to work as Aile purposely made rather noisy bites into her apple. Each crunch made Vent flinch, and it made him more and more angry the closer Aile got to the center of the apple because she was trying to purposely place emphasis on each crunch. She only stopped crunching when she had finally reached the core.
Aile turned to look at Vent. His back was turned to her, and a sudden idea hit Aile like a brilliant streak of light through the sky.
"Applecore." Aile said to no one in particular as she tossed the applecore in the air to catch it again.
"Baltimore." Vent replied absentmindedly.
"Who's your friend?" Aile then asked in an almost mocking tone.
"I am." Vent said with a shrug, not thinking at all about the old playground chant. With one more tiny toss of the applecore in her hand, Aile then aimed the core to the middle of Vent's head and chucked it as hard as she could toward him. Vent, completely unaware, turned around at just the right time that the applecore smacked him in the eye. Vent let out a yelp in pain as the applecore simply bounced off his face and make a small thunk on the ground. Aile covered her mouth in an attempt to hold back her laughter.
"Think that's funny, do ya?" Vent asked as he used one eye to cover his injured eye and the other to pick the applecore back up. "Let's see how you like it!"
"Vent!"
Aile and Vent turned to look at the door. Giro had appeared at just the right moment to get Vent busted- and they knew it.
"She hit me first!" Vent immediately said, dropping the applecore and uncovering his hit eye to reveal a rather interesting bruise to raise his arms in the air defensively.
"I do not particularly care what kind of relationship you two decide to have," Giro started to say, the naturally soft tone in his voice sounding rather dangerous at the moment, "But as long as you are working with me, you will never try to hit a lady. Understood?"
"Yes sir..." Vent agreed. From the corner of his eye, he saw Aile chuckle a little. Giro had ears of his own too, and he turned to look at Aile with a rather stern expression. This time, it was Aile's turn to throw her hands up in the air defensively.
"He turned around, and that's where it smacked him" Aile said.
Giro looked at Aile quizzically, then turned to Vent. The bruise was rather funny in the way it was shaped- Vent's rather apathetic face almost made it more humorous than what it should have.
"You hit him rather hard Aile." Giro said as he turned to the girl again, "But you have an amazing sense of timing if that were the case."
"Thanks!" Aile said enthusiastically as Vent's jaw dropped in justified anger and confusion.
"I still expect inventory to be done before the end of the day." Giro reminded them both before leaving. With their mentor gone, Vent almost picked up the applecore again to chuck it at Aile with all his might without thinking of the consequence.
"Giro likes you more." Vent muttered with anger as he slowly started to get back to work.
"You think so?" Aile arrogantly inquired as she started to get up to help move boxes as well. "I don't see it."
Vent grumbled his answer, but said nothing further.