The sun was setting over New Babylon, and once again, Walter and Viv were loitering around in a corridor somewhere. They both had absolute reams of work to do, but right now, both had decided to take a coffee break. The conspicuous absence of coffee anywhere within the corridor bore testimony to the fact that they were simply skiving their duties like the uninspired employees they were.
"I'm bored." Walter yawned.
"Let's have some fun." Viv said with a furtive glance down the corridor
"How?" Walter asked absently, beginning to contemplate the possibility of returning to his work.
"Here comes Leon, just follow my lead." Viv whispered, as Leon appeared from the darkness of the main corridor.
"Greetings fellow employees of God on Earth, the most supreme, amazing, brilliant Potentate. That shining examp-" he said expansively, with the adorably happy smile he got when talking about Nicolae.
"Yeah ok Leon, greetings, to you too. Seen Suhail lately?" Viv interrupted his grandiose introduction, absolutely sure that if he was allowed to continue, Leon would talk for hours on his favourite subject.
"Not recently. Why?" Leon asked, a little put out about not being allowed to continue his speech about Nicolae.
"Oh, nothing, he's in your old position right?" Viv asked innocently, but behind the vacant face, she was scheming.
"Well there was a gap after I got promoted" Leon beamed, and he looked perfectly ready to launch into a speech about how awesome it was to be promoted to a place so high up in the ranks, so close to Nicolae.
"I heard Nicolae is very complimentary." was Viv's casually crushing remark.
"Really? About Suhail?" Leon sounded disbelieving. It was at this point Walter finally caught onto what Viv was doing.
"Oh yes, the other day I heard his Excellency remark on what a 'fine figure of a young man' he was." he added, and Viv winked at him.
"He said that about Suhail…?" Leon's face fell.
"Oh you should hear the rest of it…. Suhail this, Suhail that." Viv said in the tone that gossipy teenage girls like to affect occasionally.
"He never said anything like that about….me." Leon sighed, his eyes wide. He looked as though he was about to cry.
"Now you come to mention it, he didn't did he?" Walter said, in a mock-thoughtful voice.
"You don't mind though do you Leon?" Viv chipped in, although it was very obvious that Leon did mind, in the highest degree.
"I think they're having a 'private' meeting at the moment." Walter continued, and it was very obvious what he meant.
"My little Nicky huh?" Viv giggled.
At that moment Leon managed to lose all the eloquence that had possessed him before, until he was reduced to opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish, in the effort to say something.
"Something wrong, Leon?" Viv asked cruelly.
"No…" Leon said, with a little catch in his voice, "I'm just going to go and slam my head against this wall."
"Have fun." Walter waved him off down the corridor.