Hope glared at the young man sitting in front of her desk.

He simply stared back at her, his eyebrows raised in amusement. "Why do you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you," she growled, snatching up a pencil. She pressed down on it, hard, and the lead snapped. "What makes you think that?"

Hart smirked and took a pen from Hope's desk. He twirled it absently. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe it was that glare that you were giving me just a moment ago. And that pencil that you broke in frustration? It gave me a hint."

"Psh. I don't hate you. It's more of..." she paused for awhile, searching for the right word. "Despise. Yes, that's it. I despise you."

He chuckled lightly, as if being despised was as enjoyable as winning the lottery. "And that's so much better than hate."

"Oh, yes." Hope reached for the pen Hart had been playing with, and plucked it from him. "If you don't mind," she said curtly. "You see, despise is a higher level of hate. Hate is slightly less passionate. Below that, you will find acquaintance, and after, actual like. Not that you will ever need to know that stuff. I'm fairly certain that you will stay in despise."

Hart sighed, but looked anything but upset. In fact, he was grinning. "I see. But, I ask you again, why do you hate me so much?"

"Remember what I said earlier? I don't hate you, I despise you."

"Of course. So then, why do you despise me so much?"

"Aren't you here for my job?" Hope asked, glowering at him.

"Why yes, I am. What has that got to do with anything?" Hart leaned towards Hope.

"You, plus stealing my job, equals detest. Understood?"

Hart laughed softly and put his hand over Hope's, which was resting on the desk. "You are the funniest person I have ever met."

Hope smacked him. Hard. "Stop that! Don't touch me!" she snapped. She mentally threw up and imagined the Vespers throwing him out.

Hart looked up innocently at her. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean—" Hope broke off as the door to her office cracked open.

Her boss, Gloria poked her head in. "Hello, love! Are you two becoming well acquainted?"

Hope flashed her a smile, wiping the scowl off her face. "Yes, very well thank you."

Hart was as equally placid. "Hope Cahill is quiet lovely. For instance, did you know that she has levels of relationships?"

Hope flushed, but did not lose her composure. "And did you know that Hart finds twirling pens like a thirteen year-old enjoyable?"

Gloria positively beamed. "Oh, good! You two are getting to know each other! I can't believe that I was actually worried that Hope would hate you!"

Hart smiled wryly at her. "Oh, no. How could sweet, innocent, little Hope Cahill hate someone like me? We are getting along very well. Isn't that right Hope?"

She forced a grin onto her face, nodded, and laughed unconvincingly, something that Gloria always fell for. "Me? Hate? Why would I hate him?"

Gloria giggled and nodded. "Yes, you're right. I shouldn't have worried. Now," she said, briskly changing the subject. "It's time to do some work. For this project, your main task is to research."

"Research what?" Hart inquired curiously.

It took all of Hope's willpower not to slap him across the face. It was her job to ask, not his.

"Our archaeologists have found dinosaur bones in Europe. We wanted to bring them over here, but the Europeans claim that since it was found on their property, it should belong to them."

"Well, technically, it does," Hope interjected pointedly.

"But you're missing the whole purpose! What about the time and effort that we've put in it? We were the ones who found it, not them! It belongs to us!" Gloria argued passionately.

Hope did not respond. She knew better than to argue with Gloria when she became like this. She simply stared up at the ceiling, watching a fly collide into the lights over and over again. She wondered if it was attempting suicide.

Hart, unfortunately, did not know any better. "What would we do with it?"

"We would put it in our museum!"

"Maybe they have a museum that they would like to put it in too."

"But we worked hard on it!"

"They can pay you."

"It belongs to us!" Gloria insisted.

Hart sighed, and to Hope's relief, said nothing more.

"So," she said wearily. "What was it you want us to research?"

Gloria, who was red in the face, took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself. "Yes, yes, the research. I need you two to look up arguments. We want to keep the bones, and we are willing to go to court for their sakes."

"But Gloria," Hope interjected. "I'm not a lawyer. I'm an archaeologist!"

"I realize this. I also understand that Mr. Trenurt over here—" she said his name bitterly, "— is not one either. But we are putting every spare person we have on this."

"Gloria—"

She stood up and walked towards the door. "Just do your best, alright?"

"Gloria, I refuse to work with this person."

She stopped, and turned around slowly. "Hope," she said in an ominous voice. "Do you realize that I am your boss? And that Hart is your rival?"

Hope stiffened. But despite that, she did not show how she felt. She simply nodded carelessly. "Of course I understand that."

"Then, I am sure that you understand how important those bones are to us!" Gloria smiled maliciously. And with that, she left.

Silence.

Then, "she's crazy."

Hope nodded. "You bet she is. She can get like that. Sometimes, I wonder if she's really some Lucian cousin I don't know about…"

Hart raised an eyebrow. "Lucian?"

Hope mentally did a facepalm. How could she have slipped up? And what was she doing, chatting idly with a Vesper, for Madeline's sake?

"One of my cousins surnames," she lied smoothly, returning to her curt manner.

Hart nodded, looking suspicious but did not question her. "Well then. I suppose that we should divide the work between ourselves."

She gritted her teeth in response, and abandoned her blunt way of speaking. It was impossible while talking to this guy.

"Fine. I'll research the opposing side, and you do ours," she snapped, hoping that it was clear that he was not going to be the leader.

Hart smiled sweetly. "Of course your majesty."

"Don't call me that!"

"Yes, your majesty."

Hope just groaned and prayed that he would get fired by Gloria, fast…

A/N: Been awhile since I've updated this, I know. :P But I'm sure none of you suffered. (I think).

I tried. I honestly tried, okay? Please, please, don't yell at me. But feel free to throw in flamable things into the fire!

I think (THINK) that all the punctuation is fine. I think the spelling's okay too. But the writing? Nah.

Bye!