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"Hi there~".
Elena's innocent, not so discreetly triumphant smile was all Ch'en needed to realize that she had just walked into a trap. With her next, chilling words, Elena made perfectly clear that she wouldn't have let her walk out of it just as easily.
"I've made some coffee. Would you like some?".
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"I've... I've never been able to put that much faith in anyone, not even…".
It wasn't anything special. In her mind it was so easy to repeat those words. They were something natural. And yet, as she spoke, Ch'en quickly found her breath running short, her voice trailing off until it turned into a low whisper, too low to be heard anymore.
To her surprise, Elena remained unusually quiet, a somewhat restless curiosity written all over her face.
It really wasn't anything special. It was just what she thought. It was strange, and a bit irritating, but it made her feel…comfortable. There was nothing wrong with telling her that.
"Amiya trusts you completely…". Ch'en still remembered how, just as she spoke those words, she couldn't help but feel a faint sense of jealousy stirring in her chest.
"...it makes me wonder, what if I had someone like that by my side…". Elena didn't answer at the time, simply listening with a faint smile on her lips. Just a few days later, Ch'en was informed that Elena had asked for her to be assigned as her assistant.
"Amiya is terrifying if she catches me slacking off. The worst you could ever do is being an insufferable pain in the ass". Elena's words were as honest as she could afford to be, her candid and unapologetic smile promising nothing but tribulations and headaches in Ch'en's near future. Pinching her nose as the first of those migraines rushed over her, Ch'en tried her best to hide the smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Just a bit.
She had wondered if, perhaps, she could have come to trust Elena the same way Amiya did.
"This really shouldn't be so hard".
Ch'en let out a defeated sigh, the sensation that she had just made a fool of herself only reinforced by Elena's shrewd smile, any trace of the nervous, almost childish curiosity that she had worn only a few minutes before vanished.
"I wouldn't be so sure. You've got a knack for making things harder for yourself. It's actually pretty impressive".
Elena's gentle, witty voice only served to make the mocking undertone so much more obvious. Ch'en couldn't even remember since when she had started to find that habit of hers mildly irritating instead of simply detestable.
Elena's attention seemed to shift, her hands playing absently with the mask she usually wore, her eyes covered by a few strands of messy hair.
"I'm glad, though, to hear it. It makes me happy".
Elena's tone was filled with a strangely quiet cheerfulness. It was rare for someone aside from Amiya to hear her speak like that.
It wasn't supposed to be anything special. She just wanted to speak her mind properly.
The words still stuck in her throat, Ch'en could only remain silent, unable to reply as white hot anger filled her chest.
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"Why have you been avoiding me?".
Ch'en pretended not to hear the question, trying instead her best to not show the feeling of restlessness that had been piling inside her since she had entered the room. Had she been asked to point out the cause, she would have begrudgingly admitted that it was Elena.
Sitting opposite to Ch'en, Elena was sipping her coffee while waiting for a reply, her usual uniform discarded and her long hair left untied, falling down her shoulders. In a few words, she was looking disturbingly casual, an impression broken only by the cheeky smile Elena was trying to hide behind her mug.
Still refusing to answer Elena's question, Ch'en decided to stall for time with a subject she was more comfortable with.
"Shouldn't you start to get prepared for the meeting?".
Elena's expression shifted, what Ch'en could have only described as a slightly apologetic look appearing for the briefest moment in her eyes.
"Ah, yes…that".
As she watched Elena's witty smile disappear, Ch'en could only take a deep breath before speaking again.
"There is no emergency meeting, is there?".
Hiding once again behind her mug, Elena feigned indifference while pretending not to notice Ch'en's sharp glare.
"We are having a meeting right now though-".
Raising on her feet, Ch'en turned her back to Elena and walked towards the door, ready to leave the room without wasting any more time.
"Can we stop the whole hormonal teenager crap and sit down so we can talk like adults?".
Stopped in her tracks by Elena's upset tone, Ch'en turned around to see the girl glaring angrily at her, her body tensed up as if ready to sprint on her feet to follow Ch'en if necessary.
While considering whether she should leave or not, Ch'en found herself thinking how much Elena's expression reminded her of an angry puppy.
"...How did you even convince Closure to falsify a meeting request?".
Taking back her seat, Ch'en asked the first question she could think of, watching as Elena got up from the other side of the table only to sit again right beside her, her expression suddenly turning pained.
"I bribed her, of course. I'll live of instant-noodles for the next four months, thank you very much".
Despite herself, Ch'en couldn't help but laugh, Elena's affronted expression making it impossible for her to stop her lips from curling into a smile.
As silence fell once again between them, Ch'en realized that the sense of uneasiness that had bothered her until a few moments before had completely disappeared. Instead, she quickly recognized growing in her chest a somehow upsetting but familiar feeling of complicity.
"Did you make up all of this just so you could get an apology out of me?".
Openly mocking, Ch'en's comment earned her from Elena a low scoff, the Lupo's still upset expression clear in Ch'en's mind even without looking.
"Not really. It just pisses me off quite a bit to be ghosted out without even knowing why".
Ch'en never particularly liked having to admit to be wrong. Even more when that meant that Elena of all people was in the right.
"I just needed time to think".
That was part of the truth. For the past two weeks Ch'en had tried to make sense of her thoughts. She had been angry, and restless, but most of all she had been mad at Elena for making her feel that way.
Lost in her reflections, Ch'en felt as if broken out of a spell by Elena's voice.
"Okay. A penny for your thoughts then".
Her thoughts.
With the memory and frustration of two whole weeks brought back to her mind and swelling up in her chest, Ch'en decided to start with something that she had wanted to say since the first day she had met Elena. Something simple.
"You are a jackass".
Though surprise colored Elena's expression, it quickly disappeared as a wicked looking smile twisted her lips as she leaned back on her seat, a wordless invitation for Ch'en to continue.
Matching Elena's smile with one of her own, Ch'en felt more than happy to oblige her.
"You are bratty, petty, you are always slacking off on work, you are foul-mouthed and a chronic liar…and you are not even good at lying!".
Ch'en could almost see the gears moving in Elena's head as she prepared to retort in kind. Before she could, Ch'en realized that there was one last thing she wanted to get off her chest.
"And your coffee is the worst I have ever tried! You just need to use the machine for it! How can you possibly mess that up?!".
Elena's patience snapped at once.
"You really wanna go low, Fruit Ninja?!".
For the successive ten minutes the two kept hurling insults at each other, their voices rising until they were perfectly audible all the way out of the room and down the hallway.
For someone with amnesia, Elena seemed to know a surprisingly great amount of Syracusan curses.
Out of breath and feeling suddenly tired, Ch'en's head fell on the table, her mind barely registering as Elena took back her seat next to her, her face morphed into a childish pout.
Ch'en felt like screaming, a sense of finality overcoming her as she barely managed to push past her lips a few more words.
"Why you…".
Her voice, muffled and too quiet to be heard properly, were still enough for Elena's to turn around, her skin flushed and her breath still short.
"What now?".
Ch'en raised her head, her chin resting over her hand as she stared defeated at Elena, her skin red all the way from her neck to the point of her ears, sweat sticking a few strands of hair over her forehead.
"...I think I love you".
Elena's reaction was immediate.
Tears seemed to well up in her eyes, her skin assuming an even darker shade of red as she gasped for air, her mouth moving without a single word coming out as she quickly darted on her feet, her back turned towards Ch'en so to hide her face. A couple of times she tried to put together a few words before stopping herself, her voice low and quivering.
Finally turning around, Elena's eyes were wet, red and swollen.
"You are going to buy me lunch until I don't get all my money back!".
Too spent to reply, Ch'en could only nod in agreement while doing her best to ignore Elena's bizarre sense of priorities, as well as her obvious attempt to appear less shaken than she was.
Still restless, Elena started to move around the room, stubbornly doing her best to hide her expression from Ch'en. Finally stopping, Elena straightened up before turning around, tears finally freely running down her cheeks and staining her flushed skin, her voice high-pitched and enraged.
"ALL OF THIS JUST BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T ASK ME OUT PROPERLY!!".