Vacation
The scientist yawns as he messes up yet another equation and scribbles it out, smearing blue ink across the standing whiteboard and wishing he was back in bed. To be perfectly fair, he had spent the last five mornings yearning for exactly the same thing, except aforementioned bed hadn't been quite so appealing considering it was, in fact, a tent. And once he was up and stumbling across a busy campsite to find what claimed to be the toilet block, Eve would never let him go back to sleep.
Some things don't change even back at work.
Luckily, the person who typically bestows upon any orders upon him and the other employed underlings is in pretty much the same frame of mind this particular morning, if a little less on the wistful side. Katherine swishes from the door, marches to her seat at the desk next to his and plonks her briefcase-come-rucksack on top of the keyboard, sitting down uncharacteristically heavily and glaring at the computer screen as it drowsily boots up.
"Hey, Katherine," Nick tries greeting anyway, although he knows it's not the greatest of moves on a Monday morning, after they've both had a week off and are likely to be bitter about the fact. "How was your holiday?"
"Awful," Katherine replies bluntly.
"Oh." Nick tilts his head, stares at the algebra that seems to swim lengths up and down the white sea, teasing him with its front crawl. There's not much else to say.
Katherine bashes out her password into the computer like it had done her a personal offence. "How about you?" she inquires somewhat sullenly.
He considers lying, figures it's not worth the effort. "Really good," he agrees hoarsely. Scribble, scribble. The letters smirk at him, telling him that he's not getting out of this one all that easily.
Her sigh is visible, her frown guarded. "Good," she agrees, after a long moment.
Nick chances a look around. Katherine's still glaring at her screen, tapping a finger impatiently on the keyboard. The obvious thing to do would be to drop it. To change the subject. Maybe start up a controversial topic, get them yelling in each other's faces. That always lightens up a gloomy Monday mood, at least where the rest of their office is concerned. "It can't have been that bad," he says instead, silently cursing himself for it. "You weren't working, at least. Where did you go… London, wasn't it?"
"Nearby, yep." Katherine doesn't sound that enamoured with the fact. "Yeah, a holiday on your own is great. Wandering around London in the rain is also great. Trying to avoid all areas of conversation with your relatives when they choose a day for you to come and visit is equally great." Her chin drops onto her clenched fist. "It was pretty great, all things considered."
"Sounds it."
Katherine flares up at his somewhat sarcastic tone, although that hadn't been his intention at all. "Of course you can't imagine a really bad vacation. Even if there was some kind of national disaster and your tent was soaked through by flooding, you'd probably find some way to have a good time with your family." The envious note that she puts on the last word makes her feelings clear.
"You should come with us one time." Nick gives up on making any sort of sense out of the scrawled equations in his own handwriting on the whiteboard and sits down at his desk, affording Katherine a tiny smile as he does so that lets all the fire out of her stiffened countenance. "I mean, I'm not offering a rain-free zone, and I can't promise the tent will stay up, or not be flooded for that matter, but you don't stand a chance of ever being alone, not on our family holidays."
She looks at him for an even longer moment, seeming to weigh whether he was being genuine or not. In the end she decides that apparently he is, and smiles cautiously. "Yeah. Maybe I wouldn't mind braving a national disaster in a drenched tent if I could evade having to go see my own family in a city for a week."
"Then it's sorted, then." Nick grins at her look of surprise. "Just watch, I'm telling Eve when I get back. And then she'll never let me drop the idea. You're coming on the next camping weekend whether you like it or not, Dr 'I've never been camping' Calvin."
The scientist pulls a face that she doesn't mean a word of, although this particular Monday is suddenly appearing a lot less infuriating than it had originally started out being. "I guess it's a deal."