The sound of hysterical laughter wafted out from down the hallway to greeted Grimoire on the other side of Dr. Trisha Solace's door. The young man whipped his head around to see Aramis bent over in a nearby doorway, gasping for air with a gigantic grin on his face. Grimoire glared at him, "You knew that would happen and you let me go in there anyway," he accused his new acquaintance.

The goateed man straightened himself up and wiped away a few tears from his eyes, "You!" Aramis continued to chuckled, despite his best efforts, "That was priceless, the best one I've heard in months!"

This is not the afternoon that Grimoire had planned. He frowned and shuffled away from Dr. Solace's door, approaching where Aramis loomed down the hall. "That's entertaining to you?"

Aramis' dark eyes twinkled with a dash of mischief, "Oh, don't be like that. I couldn't spill the beans and give you an unfair advantage over the rest of the poor suckers who try to waltz in here like it's just any job. Most people come up here just as oblivious as you, experience THAT," he motioned toward the room from which Grimoire had retreated, "and never show their faces here again."

The young Valentine heir raised an eyebrow over his crimson eyes. He had never been accosted by a tiny blonde like that before, but unfortunately that encounter was not the worst he had experienced. Grimoire could think of several dozen instances in which his family had been more abrasive than Dr. Trisha Solace. At this point, the initial shock had ended "Never?" he repeated, "After a little thing like that?"

Aramis, too, had ceased his laughter and regained his composure. "Well, yes. Trisha is Head of Research. After being put in their place by what would have been their immediate supervisor, most just accept that this isn't the place for them and move on." He smirked and leaned against the wall with his shoulder, crossing his arms on his chest, "Of course, there are those sick bastards that do come back for another thrashing and a few of them even end up in the Shin-Ra Research Division."

Grimoire pondered a moment and looked directly at Aramis with a sense of purpose, "What kind of coffee does Dr. Solace like?" Aramis Crescent chuckled again, "Kid, Trisha hates coffee. She says it messes with her 'facilities' and the like."

A hand found its way onto Grimoire's head and scratched it in confusion. "So if I returned tomorrow with a cup of coffee like she told me…?"

"You, sir, would get brownie points for showing up again, but ultimately you would have to suffer through the rest of the week before she decided to keep you around or not. That is, if you don't duck out of here first."

There was a pause and the young man tugged at his cloak as he headed for the elevator, "I will see you tomorrow," he vowed as he passed the researcher to make his exit. Aramis called after him, "Hey, Grimoire!" The raven-haired youth turned his head to gazed back at him.

Aramis gave him a friendly smile, "I look forward to it." The ends of Grimoire's lips pulled upward, despite the fact that this man had fed him to the wolf that was Dr. Solace. "Oh, and one more thing: She likes peppermint tea."

"Thanks," he replied with a nod and genuine gratitude, and entered the chrome box that would lower him back down to the streets of Midgar.

"… Helping out a candidate, Aramis?" a voice muttered from behind, as he waved to Grimoire as he disappeared. The twenty-two-year-old jumped, "Trisha, don't DO that!"

The blonde woman's lips thinned as they stretched into a downward curve. "You don't usually offer the candidates advice." She narrowed her emerald eyes at him suspiciously and a swift finger jabbed at her subordinate's ribcage, "Why now?"

Aramis winced slightly from the pain and shrugged, "Well, he didn't try to punch me for being the complete ass that I am. He's also obviously not from around here. He dresses like my grandfather."

"I suppose if that's something to which one pays attention," Trisha sighed with disinterest. "Don't think that I will hire him simply because you've taken him under your wing, though."

The man bowed dramatically, "Of course not, my lady. I only wish to serve." His facetiousness was met with eye-rolling. "Cut the crap and get back to work. Clyde and Avira have been looking for you. If you haven't been with them all afternoon, what do I pay you for?"

"For my fiendish good looks, naturally," Aramis flashed his teeth sheepishly as he sidled away from her and toward the labs further down the hall. Trisha scoffed, but let him go. It wasn't worth the effort to shout at him down the corridor. Reaching out her hand, she opened the door to her office and stepped back inside and with the weight of the endless possibilities that tomorrow held in her mind, clicked the door shut behind her.