Daani Johal (princessdaani) wrote in 20somethings, @ 2022-01-17 22:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | c: daani johal, d: 2028 01, ~ complete, Ω: rp |
RP: A conversation of coworkers?
Who: Daani Johal & Dante (NPC)
What: Newer colleague interactions
When: Early January (backdated), late morning
Where: MoM, ICW Translators offices
Warnings: Fetishization (internal), manipulation (Dante is creepy af)
Completion Status: Complete
Daani had worked more than most over the Christmas break. Since her mum had always offered to work holiday shifts for celebrating colleagues she had been inspired to do the same. And with the office quieter anyway a lot of what she’d done was a backlog of written translations.
Now the office was getting back into the swing of live meetings and the corresponding live translations alongside regular research, prep, and remembering to give your brain a break.
She was just sitting back with a mug of tea for five minutes trying to digest the meeting she had just finished translating for, before she got on with checking through some translations her colleague had done the day before. She spotted Dante coming in her general direction, which wasn’t too surprising. Since she had ended up giving him the novice’s guide on how to use the translation department and specifics on identifying Asian languages he’d often come to see her for advice. He’d even been kind enough to leave her a gift at one point to thank her for all her help. Plus his boss had been in the meeting which just finished, which meant there might be questions about the meeting, or translations.
She didn’t bother giving him more than the barest of smiles, but she did give him a nod and tilt her head in question. “How may I help you?” she asked, “or is this a friendly visit?”
—
There had been more than one time he'd regretted accepting the transfer to this department, but as Dante made his way toward Daani's desk, he couldn't help thinking that she was one reason to appreciate the transfer. It wasn't that the work was difficult, it was that it was tedious and boring, though good luck getting him to admit that he was only doing it because he'd failed to qualify for any of the positions he'd applied for with the DMLE.
Dante resisted, barely, smirking when she greeted him first, and he leaned a hip against her desk. His robes were a deep, rich blue, open rather casually at the front and showing his black trousers and pressed white button-up. "Just a friendly visit this time," he answered. "Did you have the opportunity to enjoy the holidays?" he asked a beat later. He didn't know what sort of holidays Buddhists celebrated. Or was she Hindu? Maybe there were other options; for all he knew, she could be a Christian! If nothing else, there'd been New Year's, though he felt a burst of jealousy at the thought of her sharing a midnight kiss with another bloke.
—
She took a sip of her tea, not willing to forgo her moment of relaxation, her spine having automatically straightened at the approach of another person. She was actually wearing robes today in a heather grey with some dark purple detailing at the edges. It was mostly because they were slightly warmer and the Ministry building generally expected people to be wearing robes and therefore heated accordingly.
“I did, thank you. We had some lovely family meals, although I’m used to them not being on the days most people expect because my mother is a healer and has always volunteered when others were celebrating so they didn’t have to,” she said. “I enjoyed watching the fireworks at New Year, I gathered up a few people and we went to Brighton which has them out towards the water which is particularly beautiful.”
“Did you have a nice break? No emergency call-ins I trust?” she hadn’t heard of anything major going on with the ICW, but not everything filtered through to the translation office if mostly English speaking countries were involved.
—
Dante only half-listened to her answer, enough to gather that she'd not spent the holiday in the warm embrace of some other bloke. Good. "Brighton is fantastic for that, yes," he agreed. He'd gone there a couple years for the display, and he mentally cursed himself for not having done so this time. He could have bumped into her there, entirely coincidentally, of course. But it was good to learn what sorts of places she enjoyed.
"It was quiet, which was wonderful on the work front, though not as desirable personally. Which… is probably not appropriate to say at work. My apologies," he said graciously, hoping it might endear him to her more. He couldn't help himself. She was so bloody gorgeous, exotic really, and she'd been kind and helpful since his transfer. Could anyone fault him for setting the groundwork?
—
“I just mentioned my family, so that’s okay.” None of her colleagues were her closest friends, although she definitely got on with the majority well enough. And most spoke about their families and outside interests a little. It was their clothing the section head was most pedantic about. “Although I admit I missed there being more people around,” she gestured to the wider translation room, which was characteristically muted in volume, but relatively full of people. “A lot more having to make my own tea,” she joked. There were a few other tea fiends in the office and they did tend to switch out making a pot via a system of silent signals about who wanted another mug.
“How full is your upcoming schedule? Is your boss on a lot of committees this season?” Daani had given up trying to track which places the British representatives had seats because it was an exercise in pointless frustration. She just showed up when she was needed with the vocab prepared, and did the translations that came across her desk.
—-
His lips curved up in a warm smile, taking immense pleasure that she reassured him. That had been the entire point of his apology, of course, and he did so love when women cooperated with the script. And then she asked him questions about his work, and Dante shifted to stand a little more comfortably, happy to indulge her curiosity, especially if it served to further lay the groundwork.
"It's definitely busy in the coming months…" he began before telling her a little bit about the projects that would be coming up, focusing on the ones that he might be able to manipulate her into helping him on. With any luck, she'd be begging him to take her by spring.