Office Torment
Rating: PG-13/T
Genre: Romance/General
Summary: Fill for a prompt from the spn_balthazar community. "Atropos and Balthazar flirting in an AU school or office setting." I went with the office-setting. Bit of fluff, or as fluffy as things between these two can realistically get.
Author's Note: This is kind of a companion story to Office Shenanigans, because I reference a thing or two in here from that, but eh… I gave the impression in that particular fic that Atropos was not so fond of Balthazar's advances. Interpret it how you will.
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural. It belongs to Eric Kripke.
()()
"You know there's a no-touching rule. I could sue."
"Pfft, you love it."
As it was, Balthazar's hands were around her waist now. If they strayed any lower she'd have to put a stop to this. Or drag them into the nearest closet, whichever came first.
Atropos' head leaned forward against her will as Balthazar dropped his own atop hers, and she twitched slightly as a signal to get off. But Balthazar was very much like a cat: Limber, agile and so unbelievably full of himself that he rarely acquiesced to a request (or demand) until you begged for it.
"Smith's going to have a cow if he sees you slacking off again."
"The hell with him. He's probably getting his daily blow-job from Wesson right about now."
Atropos snorted, but just managed to bite down on her lip before it could completely escape, resulting in the sort of giggle-snort that made her look like a teenager. On the whole, she was a very mature woman; sometimes too mature, and Balthazar delighted in making her composure slip every now and then, even if it irritated the ever-loving hell out of her.
"You shouldn't say that. I'm surprised he didn't toss your ass out after that last incident." About a month ago, when Mr. Smith had caught Balthazar relating to Castiel and Rachel the details of the supposedly sordid affair between Smith and Wesson.
"Because his conscious could not bear him firing me when he knew that I was speaking the truth."
"Sure. That's why."
"Maybe I'm just fun to be around."
This time Atropos let the snort escape, and she pushed Balthazar's arms off of her so that she could stand up, walk over to the printer, pull out the still-warm sheets and make for the door.
"Not even a good-bye?"
"Not even a good-bye." Once her back was too him, Atropos allowed herself a small smirk. Stringing Balthazar along was fun; he wasn't the kind to give up easily, and Atropos was not the kind who was inclined to give him his way- at least not without a fight.
This thing they had had been going on for a while now, just short of a month; Suffice to say, his initial advances- like pretending to drop a fork under the table at lunch and then using it as an excuse to get a peek up her skirt- had not pleased Atropos in the slightest. She had actually just managed to be talked out of a sexual harassment suit.
Balthazar was cute, and so maybe she had a bit of a complex of her own, where she couldn't stand to just idly sit by and let him flirt with her and not do anything back or perhaps combat him. If she participated, she might be able to learn ways to make him behave more seriously, or at least to make him shut up.
Her destination, a conference room where she expected to find Mr. Adler, was in the center of the floor: The walls were almost all plate glass, and for the life of her, Atropos assumed that it had to be an aesthetic choice rather than a practical one, because the only practical use for clear walls that she could think of was being able to tell if the employees were slacking off whilst you were in a meeting.
Atropos tapped on the glass next to the door, which was open. Mr. Adler was in the room with Ms. Shakti, going over some papers. Between the two of them, Shakti was the better boss: She was tough but fair, whereas Adler was just a dick. Atropos had never done anything to personally draw his ire, but a dick is a dick.
"Mr. Adler? I had the printouts of those emails you wanted." Adler looked up.
"Ah! Thank you, Miss Moira. Kali, these are those messages from the timber company in Toledo-"
Atropos fell into a familiar state of hearing-but-not-really, the kind secretaries excelled at when they had no use for what was being said but didn't want to appear disinterested either. Her eyes scanned over the cubicles and desks outside of the conference area, observing the techies in the yellow polo shirts, the executives in their suits, the Balthazar grinning at her from the space directly behind Adler's head-
Oh no.
Oh God no.
He wouldn't.
He was crazy, idiotic, but not that crazy and not that idiotic.
Balthazar's devilish grin suggested otherwise.
Atropos shook her head softly, too horrified to actually convey the rage she knew she was going to feel once her brain caught up with the situation, begging silently that he not do whatever it was he was about to do-
He was Balthazar, so he did it anyway.
The blonde man breathed on the glass, fogging it up sufficiently before drawing a little heart in the space with an arrow through it. He fluttered his eyes and made a kissy-face at her, pantomiming lovesickness.
Adler and Shakti had yet to notice. Adler was directly in front of Atropos, between herself and Balthazar, whereas Kali was to Atropos' left. They were both too busy looking over the papers Atropos had brought in to notice Balthazar or her reactions to what he was doing.
As Atropos watched, temporarily numb from shock, Balthazar began to kiss the glass, hands pressed over his heart, all the while with that look on his face that meant he was 110% teasing her and trying to get a specific reaction from her: If it was mortification he was going for then congratulations, Balthazar, you have succeeded.
Something like a squeak escaped her mouth, and to make a bad situation worse, both Adler and Shakti looked up at her.
"Are you all right, Miss Moira?" Adler asked, but to Atropos' horror, as she tried to choke out a response, Shakti turned to her left and saw Balthazar making his little scene, and the dark haired woman made an odd sort of noise that turned into a cough, drawing Adler's attention to her. "Are you all right, Kali?"
"Fine!" Shakti assured, smiling, but shooting a look at Atropos that was both appalled and yet oddly sympathetic.
Oh right. Gabriel's got a thing for her. I forgot. Shakti was probably used to something like this; but unlike Atropos, her relationship with Gabriel seemed to have evolved to a point where she could knock him upside the head with something heavy and blunt whenever he did something unacceptable.
"I- It's- It's nothing, really, the-"
Outside, Balthazar smirked as Atropos went all red and stammering, and he wondered what kind of effort it might take to get her to such a state in the bedroom. They hadn't gone beyond the office yet, and he wondered if perhaps it was a sign of some kind of disorder that he spent so much time thinking about the thousands of ways he would like to have sex with the blonde.
Down the way, Gabriel pushed his chair out of his cubicle space. "What are you doing?"
"Bothering Atropos. Want to join in? Shakti's in there."
Gabriel smirked. "I'd love to, but I have to pass. I've still got some mandatory check-ups to do to make sure the head damage I got from my last 'piss-off-Kali-at-work' escapade has worn off."
"I love it when they get rough."
Gabriel whistled as he edged his chair back into the cubicle. "So do I, man. So do I."
Back in the conference room, Atropos had just managed to explain away her noise with a minor railing against seasonal allergies, all the while plotting an ugly, ugly revenge on Balthazar for this, because she was perfectly fine with getting felt up a little bit, but screwing with her when her boss was around was not cool, and-
"OhdearGod."
Balthazar was rubbing his ass on the glass like some kind of glitzy exotic dancer.
Atropos was to the point where she almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of this situation, but knew that doing so would definitely alert Mr. Adler that something that was definitely not allergies was going on.
"Sorry, Miss Moira?"
Atropos saw Shakti glance towards Balthazar, and then just managed to gulp back a laugh when she saw what he was doing. The woman was stone, honestly: When she met Atropos' eye, you could barely tell that she'd seen anything at all.
"Nothing," Atropos said tightly, eager for the torture to end. "Did you need anything else, sir?"
"No, thank you. I'll let you know."
"Okay."
Atropos trotted out of the room, not bothering to go grab Balthazar and throttle him; the wall was still clear and Adler and Shakti would still be able to see them, and it was not worth the assault charge. Quite. Not right now, anyway.
Besides, she had an idea.
()()
Balthazar saw Atropos perched on the edge of his desk, one arm folded behind her back, a deceptively sweet smile on her face, and contemplated bolting from the room while he still had all of his functioning limbs.
"Atropos, we learned from the unfortunate incident with Meg last week that using office supplies as deadly weapons is every bit as reprehensible as using a knife or gun." He said slowly, carefully, both hands up.
But Atropos giggled. "You wanted to take it up a notch? I can do that." She pulled her hand into view, and he found a pair of handcuffs dangling from her finger. Balthazar's eyes widened, and he slowly started to relax (and at the same time started getting very, very excited).
"Atropos." He purred. "Kinky. Where did you get them?"
"Virgil owed me a favor."
"The security guard?"
"Yup." She beckoned him closer with a finger, and Balthazar acquiesced, loosening his tie slightly as he moved. When he got to the desk, he set a hand on either side of Atropos' waist the tabletop, leaning in close to her face.
"You know, my desk isn't exactly concealed. We should head to the copy room."
"Mm?" Atropos hummed as she snapped one of the cuffs around his wrist.
"Yes, that's where Cas and Rachel always sneak off to when they want some alone time. It's the one on the-" Balthazar's mouth snapped shut when he heard the other cuff snap shut.
And it was not around Atropos' wrist: It was around the handle of his desk drawer.
Atropos blinked innocently at him and smiled.
"After that display, you're lucky you're not getting castrated." For a woman so furious, he admired at how calm her voice was. She slid out from underneath him and strolled off, heels clicking on the floor, pausing to toss a smile and a mocking little wave over her shoulder as she rounded the corner.
Balthazar took a deep breath and sighed.
"…I walked into that one."
-End
