LOG: Unluckiest day of the year, plus awkward. [Thread] [Gamma, Uni] [Closed]

[cueitup]

WHO: Gamma, Uni
WHAT: UNI SENT OUT AN SOS.
WHERE: The Tower, Millefiore & Company.
WHEN: Friday the 13th, late afternoon.
RATING: G (maybe).
WARNING(s): EXCESSIVE CUTENESS. LOTS OF FLAIL.

Comments

/organize "dungeon raid"

[onlyluminous]

Uni had been occupied with... trying to take her mind off everything that had been going wrong all day. At that moment, this consisted of obsessively aligning and realigning a section heading in a galley proof, eyes almost crossing with the effort to manually calculate distances and parallels. She was ensconced with a sheaf of proofs and her laptop in a large, overstuffed armchair near one of her floor-length windows, shoeless feet tucked up under her and a thick coat draped over her shoulders. Clearly, she had no intention of budging until everything had been dealt with. As thoroughly as possible.

(If she were to be completely honest she was as much motivated by her desire to see things right as her... reluctance to go out of her office when the infestation of vermin had not been completely expunged from the building. Uni did not mind mice when they came singly or in pairs, but this was a horde of tiny, squeaking bodies.)

She turned her head at the sound of the door opening, ready to -- well, maybe not scream at her assistant, but

[cueitup]

Uni could never look terrible in his eyes, although the way she was at that moment came pretty close. It was incredibly worrying. (He'd hug her if he could.) Gamma strode over immediately, flustered, all apologies.

"It was hell in the floors below... seemed like everyone needed a piece of me. That, and my phone only started working now. My account on the network refused to register for a good long while."

[onlyluminous]

Uni shuddered. (Ordinarily she would have been able to suppress it. But it had been a terrible day, and talking to people took more out of her than she liked to admit.)

"It's been awful everywhere," she said, setting the galley proofs down. "There were mice even here..." Another shudder. "But it's all right. I'm sorry if I worried you."

[cueitup]

"It's my job to worry about you a little, you know."

He spoke to her lightly, as he started bustling around, setting things in order - he knew how important it was for Uni to have her miniature universes up and functional when she was distressed, and a part of that included tidying up the place and eliminating all mess.

"Let me check around for more of those buggers."

[onlyluminous]

There had been a time, Uni remembered, when in a similar situation she could have very easily held up her arms for a hug. They had long passed that point -- were in entirely uncharted territory -- but it did not keep her from holding the image quite firmly in her mind. She doubted she could have done it now, and for some time she had been distressed by that, but Uni had her goals fixed very clearly in her mind, and -- initial confusion notwithstanding -- was determined to move towards them.

So then.

"I don't think there are any more mice here," she said, allowing her lower lip to jut ever so slightly as she watched him. "This was the first place Maintenance cleared."

Uni hesitated, then swung her stockinged feet down and padded up to him. "What was that crash, Gamma? In your first voice message?"

[cueitup]

"Oh, they did?" Gamma popped his head out from the cabinet that he had been inspecting, blinking at the girl as she approached him--

And then he heard the rest of her words. Uh.

"...Er."

Now how exactly one told the girl he cared very deeply for (okay, screw it: loved) that he had tripped over a pile of papers, tumbled into a potted plant and crashed headlong into the curtains of the nearby window (promptly ripping them straight off their pole) without looking like a total idiot was beyond him.

SO CUUUUUTE. SO CUUUUUUTE, GAMMA.

[onlyluminous]

"Hmm?"

Uni blinked up at his hesitation, then took his sleeve and tugged him gently in the direction of the set of couches that had been set there in a hurry to replace the ones that had been... moused all over (poor Maintenance, having had to import furniture from her apartment). "Come sit and rest a bit, Gamma," she suggested. "I'm not the only one who had a tiring day." Besides, she thought, you're so very tall, and I'm so stressed my neck hurts when I look up at you.

But she would never add that. Uni had learned the value of restraint. Especially, especially when it came to Gamma.

HE'S ADORKABLE.

[cueitup]

"...Well... all right."

He let himself get tugged because he really couldn't think of a way to protest that wouldn't seem like he was dodging something, or that wouldn't seem rude.

(Something he'd never say, though, was how amazingly cute Uni looked when she looked up, up up at him while she was talking.)

"I'm really okay though."

HE ISSSS

[onlyluminous]

"So then," Uni said, settling herself on the couch and rearranging the coat over her shoulders, "what happened?"

It was really rather silly of her to be so affected by his presence. Not logical at all. But she couldn't deny that she felt the stress -- and worry, and annoyance -- of the day draining away from her already. There were a countless things that needed fixing and she would have to make a report on this to Byakuran-sama, which needless to say would not be a very pleasant thing to do, but for the moment he was here, and she was... quite completely safe.

[cueitup]

"With the crash? Uh... it's nothing important."

He really hoped she'd drop it. There was no good way of saying it.

[onlyluminous]

Uni frowned slightly, but lowered her gaze. Restraint, Uni. Restraint.

"You weren't hurt, though?" she said, eyes turned to her fingers picking fretfully at a pillow tassel.

[cueitup]

"Nope."

And he smiled at her, as bright as he could, because he had spent his life reading her actions and knew what all the little gestures of the moment were pointing towards.

[onlyluminous]

"Good." She caught the edge of that smile just as she lifted her eyes -- and couldn't quite help smiling back. The fact of his presence was really too much to resist.

Uni exhaled, stretched a little, and finally let go of the PDA she had been holding on to for hours -- ever since things had started to unravel at the office. "This day has been... crazy," she said, letting herself vent, if only a little, all its attendant stress. "I hope Security has been all right."

[cueitup]

"To be honest with you, we haven't. Still trying to figure out how the hell all those mice got in, and tempers are running pretty high with all the stuff that just had to happen today."

Gamma suddenly wanted a cigarette. Talking about everything he had to attend to but hadn't really thought all that much about was like realizing, on his own, just how terrible his day had been. Although, it had been like that for everyone.

"We'll be fine though, Princess."

[onlyluminous]

"I'm sorry to hear that," Uni said, patting him on the arm. It was a familiarity she did not often take -- mostly because she was unsure of how it would be received -- but today was a special circumstance, she thought. The shock of sudden relief was wreaking havoc on her usual composure. "Are you sure it's all right for me to have asked you here, then, Gamma? I shouldn't be keeping you from work--"

[cueitup]

"It's fine, it's fine!"

Gamma waved her off, instantly ashamed of having made her think that she was being a bother. She could never be a bother. Everything he did revolved around her, really.