Diana brushed her hair out of her eyes and glanced up from her paperwork. Immediately her gaze was captured by a pair of pleading, bright blue eyes.
Help me, Neal mouthed from Peter's office.
Bored?
Neal nodded minutely. Very.
Diana smiled sympathetically and shrugged. Neal increased his begging expression, then jumped as Peter apparently noticed his lack of attention, turning back to face him.
With a discontented sigh, Diana surveyed the work in front of her and rifled through it until she found a thick, troublesome-looking file. She stood, straightening her jacket, and walked up the stairs to Peter's office.
"Agent Burke?" She asked, knocking on the door before opening it. "I've got an analysis here that's giving me some trouble, do you think I could borrow Neal for a little while?" She didn't glance at Neal, trying to maintain a professional exterior. Peter raised an eyebrow curiously.
"As long as you return him in one piece," Peter said. "I may need his devious mind later." Neal feigned shock.
"Devious? Me?"
"Yes, you," Peter said drily, giving him a look that said Behave, or else. Neal responded with an innocent grin and quickly exited Peter's office before the agent could change his mind. Diana grinned at his obvious relief.
"Thanks," he said, smiling appreciatively. "Honestly, I thought I was seriously wondering if dying of boredom was actually possible. He drones on about some mortgage fraud case and hands me a stack of files that could probably rival the eiffel tower, then expects me to come to a conclusion about it all." He rolled his eyes lightly, eliciting a laugh from her. "With my devious mind."
"Can you blame him for saying it?" Diana asked. "Remember the... incident last week?"
"What incident?" Neal asked brightly. "All I remember was a slight machinery malfunction."
"Sure," Diana allowed, rolling her eyes in imitation of him. "You can pass that one off as a malfunction. But what about the coffee thing? That was definitely your devious mind at work."
Neal shrugged. "Maybe I hadn't made coffee in a long time."
Diana looked at him flatly. "Whatever you say. Well, time to brush up your skills. The pot is empty, and we can't have that."
"Oh, we can't?" Neal quirked one eyebrow.
"No," Diana said seriously. "All these hard-working mortgage fraud investigators need their caffeine."
"Especially Agent Monotone," Neal said, nodding with equal seriousness. Diana smirked.
"Right." She glanced at the file in her hand while Neal made a new pot of coffee. The office pot always tasted better after he used it, which really made his "excuse" that much weaker.
"Here you go, on the house." Neal handed her a steaming mug of coffee.
"Thanks," she said drily, putting the file down to take it. "I sure appreciate the thought."
"Just for you," Neal said, smiling charmingly at her. She sipped it and watched as Neal added some strange mix of creamers to his.
"Do that to mine," Diana requested. "...Please."
"Thanks for the please," Neal said with a slightly exasperated look. "I do owe you one, though, don't I?" He took the coffee and gave it the same treatment.
"Yeah, kind of." Diana took the modified coffee and raised her eyebrows. "Hm, this is good."
"Good," Neal said, smiling. They chatted quietly and drank intermittently. Neal took a large sallow and almost choked on it as Peter suddenly appeared at his shoulder.
"Difficult file, huh?" Peter asked with an unreadable expression. Neal jumped and swallowed, spinning around guiltily.
"We were just... getting some extra energy to tackle it?" Neal suggested.
"Nice try," Peter said, shaking his head at Neal. "But no. Finish your... whatever that is, then come back to the office." He raised an eyebrow at Diana, who blushed slightly.
Neal nodded and watched the agent walk away slowly.
"You got the look," Neal said in a quiet, gleeful voice. "He actually gave it to someone other than me! You were actually in trouble for something!"
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Diana said drily. "That makes me feel so much better."
"Oh... Sorry." Neal grinned apologetically.
"It's okay," Diana said. "At least I didn't get the head shake."
"Hm. The look versus a head shake."
"A deep debate for another time." Peter apparently hadn't actually gone back to his office. He snatched Neal's now-empty coffee mug, putting it in the sink, and led the consultant back to the office. Diana followed somewhat guiltily, and a hint of conversation floated down to her.
"...well, Captain Obvious, next time your little Pranking/Ditching meeting involves coffee, I'll crash it."
"You're very welcome to attend. Only I don't know where you're getting the Pranking part from," Neal said innocently.
"Mhm. Well, use some of your creative energy to find a solution here."
"Oh, fine," Neal said. They went back into the glass office and Diana held back a laugh, sitting down at her desk again. She glanced up to see Neal gesturing animatedly about something and grinned to herself.
Neal was certainly entertaining when he was bored.