Agatha showed up for work the next day wearing a long, lacy white skirt, tan-colored boots with a wool trim, and a matching scarf and jacket to fend off the cold. She knew Mr. Paladino was busy, but as she walked in through the front door into the firm office, he looked at her once and nodded. With a satisfied smile, Agatha strode into her tiny office where a stack of papers was waiting on her desk to be filed.
It was Christmas season, and Agatha reveled in watching the snowfall, and the little children running around in the streets throwing snowballs at each other. She finished her work quickly, and sat at her desk with a hot cup of coffee to keep warm, occasionally answering a few phone calls. Business was usually slow during the holidays, because even though you could sue for anything in America, you couldn't sue someone while you were in the Bahamas or Cancun. Not with a lawyer from this firm, anyway.
Before she knew it, a few hours had passed, and Mr. Paladino swung by her office to treat her to lunch. "I've got a craving for some nice soup or something." He told her, obviously as cold as everyone else. Somewhere in her mind, Agatha knew that it probably wasn't right to keep accepting his charity, but she didn't know how to refuse. In her haste to put things away to leave quickly, she knocked over the mug of coffee. She stamped her foot on the ground in frustration, though she was thankful that it hadn't spilled on any of the papers.
"I'm such a klutz today. My fingers are cold, so they don't respond too well when I try to do things. Simple work like filing papers is OK, but…" she trailed off, leaving the sentence open. She grabbed a few paper towels to soak up the coffee, then carefully took the mug and put it in the office sink in the lounge.
"Well, hopefully you'll warm up a bit after we get some food into you." He smiled, walking with her out the door. They decided to walk, in case something happened again. Noting her scarf, Mr. Paladino said, "Hey Agatha, what did the big furry hat say to the warm wooly scarf?"
Oh no, it's a "joke". She thought with a mental grimace. "I don't know, what did it say?" she asked, trying to humor him.
"'You hang around while I go on a-head.'"
Agatha paused for just a second, in pure horror, before pointing at some random point in the distance. "Hey, Simon! What's that over there?"
"Where?" he immediately turned around like the serious, gullible man he was, and Agatha crouched down to gather up a snowball. "I don't see anything…" She took a few steps back as Mr. Paladino started to turn back around, and right when he was facing her again, she threw the snowball at him. It shattered against the front of his navy blue long-coat with a resounding SMACK! He looked really stunned for a few seconds. "You just hit your employer with a snowball!" he gasped, looking rather appalled.
Agatha immediately felt sorry. "You're right, I shouldn't have—" SMACK! Her jacket had a dark, moist spot where her employer had just hit her with a snowball. "I was about to apologize!" she made another snowball and threw it at him, though he deftly avoided it this time, brandishing another snowball to throw at her.
--
After several minutes of a snowball fight, with 2 supers running down the street throwing snowballs at each other, Agatha finally collapsed into the snow, laughing and panting at the same time. "I haven't run that fast for so long since we ran into Baron von Ruthless at the track field last year." She waved her legs and arms up and down to create a little snow angel, then got up to admire her handiwork.
"It's almost as beautiful as you are." Mr. Paladino said softly. Her scarf had loosened while she was running, and he tenderly tightened it, keeping her warm. Apparently, he had totally forgotten about lunch.
Agatha took a few steps towards the sun, and then turned around again. The Boss looked entranced, as if the snow angel had come to life before him. "Hey, Mr. Paladino! I have a question." She said warmly, laughter in her voice.
"And what's that, Ms. Somer?" he replied, squinting a little despite his sunglasses.
"If Apogee were to ask Gazerbeam to go to the Superwoman with her, what would he say?" she asked playfully. Despite his seriousness, Mr. Paladino understood what she was saying and smiled.
"Well, I think he'd say yes. Who could refuse the goddess of the sun, after all?"
Agatha couldn't help but smile at that comment. "And what if Apogee said that she knew what her feelings were?" she queried, walking towards him slowly and gracefully.
"I think Gazerbeam already knew about Apogee's feelings, even before she did." He answered, grinning in her direction. "Women aren't too good about hiding how they feel, of course."
Agatha stopped, just a pace or two in front of him, and put her hands on her hips. "Is that a fact? Well, Gazerbeam knows about Apogee's secret identity and all."
"'Superladies, they're always trying to tell you their secret identity,"he grinned, taking her arms in his hands and smoothly sliding his arms around her waist. "They think it'll…strengthen the relationship or something." He said the latter in almost a whisper. "To quote a very street-smart super, of course." Before he could say anything else, Agatha gently pressed her lips against his in a soft kiss.
"Apogee thinks Gazerbeam talks too much." She teased. Mr. Paladino held her close to him, rocking her gently as she laid her head against his chest. And despite the freezing temperature, she felt warm.
--
It had been four days since Agatha's last encounter with Crescentia. Mr. Paladino told her that the Nox-Sol jewels were being relocated again, so she was probably having trouble finding out where they were. It seemed pathetic to Agatha that the jewels had to be hidden and re-hidden over and over just so that Crescentia couldn't get her hands on them.
"Why not spend more time trying to find her?" she asked him one day, curious. It seemed as if not much was being done to capture her, even though she wasn't doing much other than trying to nab the jewels.
"She's not exactly a top priority. Crescentia's intent is to take the Nox-Sol jewels. She has her reasons for doing so, and I don't think she's necessarily a villain. She obviously doesn't have much intent to harm others or steal anything else," he shrugged.
Abashed, Agatha replied, "Crescentia harmed me!"
Mr. Paladino froze, and Agatha realized that she hadn't told anybody about that first night when she had met Crescentia. "She hurt you?" he asked, tone harsh.
"Well…" she hadn't exactly intended on telling anyone about it, either. Agatha had been snuck up on and beaten up in the worst way possible. "I…ran into her one night and she used her powers on me. I got knocked out."
"Is that why you called in that sick day two weeks ago?" he seethed. Agatha paused, then nodded yes. "That lowlife…"
"I'm still alive!"
"I didn't realize that she'd hurt you! This makes her more of a priority." He explained, though his tone wasn't too comforting. He turned away, looking as if he was about to walk off.
"For the NSA or for you?"
Mr. Paladino quickly turned around, and she was sure that he was looking her in the eye through his sunglasses. She imagined that it was a look of the utmost tenderness, and then he turned away again. Even if it was just her imagination, she wished it was real.