log; zarina and snape Who: Severus Snape and Zarina What: Working When: Tuesday Where:[Pharmaceutical Company] Rating/Warnings: Status: Complete.
Severus Snape had been attached to a one-armed man for a number of days. It was interesting, and he was glad that it was over. Though he hadn’t had the worst week of his life, it definitely wasn’t the best one, either. Work was interesting as well, as the company had brought in a paid intern in his department. Severus had seen promise in the girl’s enthusiasm, and noted straight away that she had intelligence and curiosity. Those were qualities that he admired in an assistant.
He arrived to work a few minutes early, dropped the children off at the on-site day care, and headed up in the elevator. He was carrying a coffee and a breakfast wrap, as the mornings with his children were always hectic. He had to finish his breakfast in the lab.
Coffee in her one hand, smartphone in the other. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Zarina hadn't really been watching where she was walking. She was far too engulfed in her goal to burn all her lives in Frozen Free Fall before she got into work and it wasn't exactly a long walk into the building.
She had thought there was another step or two until she reached the curb. Since it was only her second day she should have been paying more attention. The curb jumped out at her and took her by complete surprise. The coffee shot out from her cup and landed on her shirt. Again. You would think Zarina would have learned by now. This happened to her all the time.
Putting her game on pause she headed into the building and put her belongings down once she made it upstairs.
"Morning," she greeted digging through her purse for her pack of tissues. Once she found it she pulled one out and started wiping at the coffee stain.
Severus had put his bag and jacket away, and was wearing his lab coat. He was finishing his breakfast and coffee, leaning against one of the counters, when Zarina came into the lab. She had coffee down her front. For the second day in a row. He raised an eyebrow, and tossed his paper towel into the trash can nearby.
“Good morning.” He said. He lifted his coffee for a sip, watching her dig through her purse and start wiping her shirt. With one wave of his wand he could make that stain disappear… but she wasn’t a Dreamer. He didn’t want to terrify her. “We have spare shirts in the locker room.”
"Really? Thanks," Zarina responded before heading over to the locker room to fix her shirt fiasco. She should have thought ahead and brought a spare shirt just in case. Actually a spare outfit change. You never really knew with Zarina. It wasn't that she was clumsy per say. It was that she rarely did just one thing at a time or she was already progressing to something else. And maybe she wasn't incredibly observant when she was focused on other things.
When she returned she was all smiles and energy. It was her first week and she possessed that new job enthusiasm. She took a sip of her coffee before pouncing on her co-worker with a number of questions.
"Have you worked here long? Do you like it? Is it a good place?" she questioned, looking over at him.
Severus nodded. The young woman seemed nice enough. He finished his breakfast while she was off changing her shirt in the locker room, then turned to his current experiments before she came back in.
Others may have found the questions to be irritating, or too many all at once. Severus didn't mind. He was encouraged by the curiosity and enthusiasm.
"I have worked here for quite some time. A decade, maybe? It's a good place to work. They take care of their employees. I've been treated well." There was a day care and the like. Severus had had good experiences with the company.
Plenty of others have found Zarina annoying or irritating with the numerous questions she asks. She wasn't trying to be a nuisance or nosy but she couldn't reign in her curiosity most of the time.
"A decade. Wow. That's a long time." To hear that he had been with the company that long was reassuring. Z had heard stories from people who hated the companies they worked for. "That's good to hear." The last thing she'd have wanted was to relocate to the other side of the country only to find out later she'd made a mistake.
She sat down to look at what they had given her to start. Zarina started to read it and every so often she'd look to where he was working. "What are you working on over there?"
Severus nodded once. It was a long time. His life had been pretty stable and secure. Up until his wife left him. Now he was trying to find his new equilibrium… whatever that meant.
“Yes. My current experiments line this wall,” Severus said. He motioned for her to join him, then started to explain what he was working on, and the sciencey stuff of all of it. Which compounds combined with others, for what purpose, etc. He really got into the zone when he was working with chemicals or potions.
Zarina got up to join him at the first sign of an invitation. She was eager to see what he was working on.
“You’ve got a bit going on there,” she murmured. She listened as he talked, looking over his current experiments Somehow she managed to resist the urge to touch things. They weren’t her experiments and papers after all.
“Who’s that?” Zarina asked, noticing a picture near his belongings. She was incredibly nosy.
Severus glanced over. There was a photograph of his two children sitting by the windowsill. Before it came to live there, she’d had a picture of the whole family. But since his separation from his wife, he didn’t want pictures of her around as much anymore. Funny, that.
“My daughter.” Severus said, moving over. He lifted the picture and held it out so that Zarina could see. “Daisy. She just turned four. And David,” he pointed to the infant. “He was born in May.”
"Four is a great age," Zarina said. A couple of her friends at home had children around or near that age. They were a lot of fun to hang out with. They said some of the funniest things! "They're beautiful," she told him.