"Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks!" Lotor shouted from his darkened bedroom, wringing his phone in his hands, twisting the device until the sound of the screen cracking snapped him from his furious trance.
"Uh-oh, he's using his boarding school swears again." Ezor mumbled from the corner of the couch she was comfortably nestled into, her girlfriend's head resting in her lap. "I wonder who called him Legolas this time..."
Zethrid quirked her eyebrow as she scrolled through her phone. "Uh, babe? I don't think it's gonna be that simple this time." She whispered, turning her phone for Ezor to see.
"Oh. Yeah. This could be bad."
"Axca, get me my backup phone!" Lotor called from his room, not even making a move to get up and get it himself.
Axca, however, only rolled her eyes.
"Axca!" Oh, great. Now he was whining.
She huffed. The young woman stood up from where she sat, throwing her magazine to the coffee table. "I'm not getting you your backup phone!" She called into the room. "You're emotional and you're not thinking straight. If you post anything now, you'll just look petty. Again. Your mom hired us to keep you safe and your reputation spotless, so that's exactly what we're going to do." Axca huffed as she snatched the remains of Lotor's broken smartphone from his hand.
"Okay, fine. Back to the drawing board, I guess." Lotor huffed as he let himself fall backwards onto his bed.
"That's more like it. Make sure to run your next master plan by us before you put it into action." With that, Axca turned on her heel to leave the man in his bedroom. However, she stopped in her tracks and sighed. "Look, it's not like we want to be this hard on you, Lotor, but your family really can't use any more bad press than they've already had. It's really not fair that your parents' company's credibility rests on your shoulders as well, but that's just the way things are right now."
"That's the way things have always been." Lotor mumbled, smiling bitterly. "I'm sorry, Axca. About earlier. You're just doing your job, and you're doing it well."
A tender smile crept to Axca's lips at that. "You're not doing so bad yourself, Lotor."
"Thank you."
The new year had just started, and everyone in the management department of Altea Infrastructure knew what that meant. New policies for the many counties the company worked for, and the permits they needed in order to do that work. All week long, project managers, secretaries, Hell, even Coran and Allura, were on the phone with county clerks that were in no particular rush to explain their new policies to them, frantically taking notes as information came in droves or not at all. There was no in between.
'Nightmare week', as most people at Altea Infrastructure's management endearingly called it, had been an idea of Alfor, Allura's father, back when the company wasn't as big. The idea was to get as much information as possible on new policies for the permits the company needed to do its work in the very first week of the year. That way, project managers wouldn't have to look for the information later in the year when they would need it, but have the information at their fingertips almost immediately, which would make for more accurate quotations being sent to counties and clients and a more streamlined process throughout the remainder of the year. Kind of like ripping off a band aid.
Allura sighed in frustration, pinching the bridge of her nose when she was put on hold for what had to have been the fiftieth time that day. That was, when her phone rang as a second call came in. "WHAT?!" She snapped into the receiver after snatching the horn from the machine not too carefully.
"Uh, Allura?" Her secretary tried.
"Oh my god, Shay, I'm so sorry. I'm just wound a little tight, I guess. I was so looking forward to going out to dinner with Shiro tonight, but at this rate I'll miss it by…" She glanced at her rose gold wristwatch. Shit. "Three hours." Allura huffed as she buried her face in the crook of her elbow, leaning over her desk.
"Missing dinner in general will do that to a person, but I get what you mean." Shay chuckled, friendly as ever. This woman must have been an angel that somehow got stranded on Earth, Allura reasoned. "Speaking of which, there's a delivery boy here for you. Said he brought noodles and dumplings from your favorite place."
"I don't remember ordering dinner, but at this point I'll eat anything. Send him in."
"That's the spirit." Shay encouraged. Allura could hear the smile on her face before her secretary hung up.
When only a few seconds later, the hardwood door to her office opened, she should have known what Shay was up to. In the opening of the door stood none other than Shiro, holding a thin plastic bag in one hand, and sheepishly waving with the other, and when Allura looked further, she saw her secretary wearing a mischievous grin on her face, giving her boss the thumbs up.
Allura smiled and shook her head in what had to be disbelief. "Takashi Shirogane, you are a sight for sore eyes." She said as she stood up to make her way over to him, softly kissing him on the lips before nudging the door closed with her foot. "I'm so sorry, I didn't have the time to call you. How long were you waiting for me?"
Shiro thought for a second. "Hm, maybe five minutes? Coran managed to get a hold of me, so I got the three of us dinner. I already delivered his, but he insisted I eat mine with you. Oh, and I gave the prawn crackers to your secretary, if you don't mind."
"Not at all. It's the least we could do."
"So, how is 'nightmare week' coming along?" Shiro asked curiously as he placed the bag with their dinner on Allura's desk, pulling up a chair next to hers when the woman sat down herself.
"Well, we're not as behind on things as we have been other years, but it's only Monday. A lot can happen in a few days." Allura sighed, ignoring the red lights on her telephone in favor of taking a bite out of a pork bun. "Oh my God, this is exactly what I needed." She said as she leaned back against the tall backrest of her chair. "Thanks, Shiro."
However, their moment of reprieve was cut short when Allura's phone started ringing again. A quick glance at the display had her groaning in frustration. "Oh, no. Not her."
"Who is 'her'?" Shiro asked, reaching for the horn, taking hold of it but not yet lifting it off the machine.
"Some clerk down at city hall whom I snapped at for one second just before lunch, and she's been working against me for the last six hours."
"So, 'bad cop', huh?" Shiro joked.
"I guess you could say so." Allura sighed.
Then, a mischievous smile came across Shiro's face. "Watch this. You might wanna get your notes ready." He lifted the horn off the machine and pressed a button to put the call on the speakers. "Hello, this is Takashi Shirogane speaking on behalf of Allura of Altea Infrastructure." He all but purred into the receiver. "Sorry I took a while, I'm not entirely sure how this phone works yet. How can I help you?"
Allura quickly stuck another pork bun in her mouth and pulled her laptop into her lap. She made a point of it to hide her face behind the screen; If Shiro's tone managed to make her blush like this, she couldn't imagine what it did to the middle aged lady on the other end of the line.
"Well have I- Where is miss Altea? I have the information she asked for."
Allura was about to speak up when Shiro waved his hand at her, urging her not to say anything.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I'm afraid Allura is in a board meeting and will be for the next two hours. Unless you're prepared to wait that long, I'm sure I could relay the information to her. Let me just get my notes real quick, miss…?" Shiro trailed off, gesturing for Allura to take the notes she needed.
"Mrs. Sanda." The clerk emphasized.
Okay, so maybe she wasn't as into Shiro's attempts to get in her good graces as they thought she was, but nevertheless, Shiro got Allura farther than she came with the woman on her own.
"Sorry, mrs. Sanda. Wouldn't want to make your husband angry."
"Wife."
Oops. "Alright, I have my notes." Shiro looked up when Allura handed him a sticky note with questions. Nodding, and reading them off one by one. "So, how exactly is your permit policy changing, and will it have any impact on our scheduled maintenance work on the internet cables running under Park Avenue?"
Shiro let out a deep sigh as he placed the horn back on the machine, roughly an hour later. "Wow, I don't think I can remember the last time I've been on the phone with someone for so long."
"That's what you're surprised about?" Allura asked, eyes wide with disbelief. "I can't believe you got through to her!"
Shiro laughed and shrugged. "You can be bad cop all you want, but if there's no good cop to even things out, you're not going to get the answers you need. First lesson at the academy." Though the smile on his face quickly dissipated when his eyes fell on the bag of food that was still standing on Allura's desk, cooling down. "I think our food is as good as cold."
"No need to worry. Ko's food is still pretty great after it's cooled down. Here." Allura said, offering Shiro a soup dumpling between her chopsticks.
Shiro smiled broadly as he ate the dumpling off of her chopsticks, leaning further to give her a quick peck on the lips, only to pause. "Holy shit, this is amazing." He spoke through a full mouth."
"Told you." Allura giggled. "I still have three more calls to make. Would you mind sticking around to help me with those as well?" She asked as she flashed Shiro an apologetic smile, holding up a potsticker for him.
He let out a hearty laugh. "Yeah, of course." He said as he took the dumpling Allura offered. "By the time we're done, we should be all out of dinner."
"Alright, let's do it then!"
Keith nervously stood in front of Hunk's family's front door, holding a bouquet of colorful flowers for the other man's mother. That was normal, right? Keith had never had dinner with a boyfriend's family before. Truth be told, he never thought he would. Up until a month and a half ago, Keith wasn't even sure he was capable of love at all!
He sighed as he finally brought himself to ring the damn doorbell. A few moments, there was nothing. Then, he heard the door to the hallway open, followed by stumbling and the playful laughter of children. Oh boy, this would be a handful.
Eventually, the door was opened by a pair of girls. Twins, ten to twelve years old. They looked like the rowdy, tomboyish type from what Keith could tell. They each wore bandanas around their foreheads, matching Hunk's. They had to be his little sisters.
"Henry! Your boyfriend's here!" The one on the left called into what Keith presumed was the living room.
"'Henry'?" Keith snorted, hiding a smile behind his hand. Was that really Hunk's name? It wasn't long until the man himself came to the door.
"Thanks, Hannah." He said as he carefully nudged the girl out of the way and pressed a quick kiss to Keith's cheek. "Hey Keith."
"Hey Henry." Keith joked, making the girls chortle, a dopey grin spreading across his own face as he patted the man's chest.
"And thanks for reminding me why I always introduce myself as 'Hunk'." He chuckled. "Come on in!" He said as he ushered Keith inside and closed the door behind them. "So, you've already met Hannah and Heidi."
"Hi!" The girls said in unison, each raising a hand to greet Keith.
"Yeah, I'm not gonna be able to tell you guys apart." Keith admitted, scratching the back of his neck apologetically.
"That's okay. Most of our teachers can't, either." The one on the right (Heidi?) said as she patted Keith's shoulder reassuringly.
"We usually react to the other's name too." The one on the left (who, by principle of elimination, had to be Hannah) finished, giving Keith a big smile and a thumbs up.
Hunk only smiled, placing a hand on Keith's hip. "Ready for the rest of the family?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." Keith smiled as Hunk took his hand, leading him into the living room.