* * *
"Ruby!" Manager Vladimir exclaimed. "Why, what are you doing here?"
"Found her in the washroom."
"Which one? The one with the 'Wreck-It Ralph' I've been hearing about?" Juliet asked whilst coming out from the printing room around the corner. Today, her hair was tamer than usual, and even her freckles seemed to let up a little.
"Yup!" Rouge replied dryly, sliding into her messy work bureau. The heavy workload carried on from yesterday, meaning there was little time for taking the usual 1-hour breaks—not even cleaning up one's personal workstation. "She's the 'Revengeful Ralph' everyone's been running from like the crackhead down at the seven-eleven—"
"I am right here!" Ruby sterned. Her best friend, who was supposed to support her, no matter her outward disposition, was selling her off in the most unplacatable manner ever.
"No offense," was what she summed it off as. And as far as apologies went, that had been the worst one Ruby ever received from anyone; it was so monotonous and footling.
"Ruby?" Gideon at first puzzled but followed up with astonishment. "You came in today? Did hell freeze over?"
"Ruby's here?" Arian came running in.
"Ruby!" Elena frenzied over to the frizzy-haired guest of honor who perked her cheeks up, turning bright pink from both embarrassment, elatement, and incoming disaster. Her heart always found rest when surrounded by its most beloved treasures, but, not-so-much huddled in their inevitable, life-sucking group hug speeding her way—which to no avail, transpired at lightning speed.
"Um, guys! H-hey! I SAID HEY! I can't breathe! Stooooop! A-AIR! Oh my lord—"
Noticing that they were about suffocating their friend to death, the first one to break away was Elena; squealing with a mixture of excitement and disappointment while she did. "Right! so sorry!"
"Thank you!"
Arian pulled away as well, "Yeah, sorry about that," and she took the opportunity to load up on much-misplaced oxygen.
After that tumultuous event, coming in from the lunchroom, Blaze cradled a cup of hot ginger lemon tea and some madeleines from earlier on a small tray, offering them to a physically famished Ruby Rose.
"Here you go."
"Pardon?"
"You probably didn't eat this morning... seeing how you showed up early. Plus, your hangover from last night must be nagging at you."
"My mind didn't even go there,"—It had been hell-bent on committing felony towards David marquis—Ruby happily accepted the gesture, impassioned with rapture. Sweets were her ultimate weak spot despite copious dental advisions otherwise, due to a mouth already riddled with filled-in cavities. "I can't begin to tell you how hungry I am after all the ordeal this morning. Anger surprisingly uses up a lot of energy."
"Anger?"
"Hmm-hmm," she mumbled a reply absentmindedly, viciously devouring petite madeleine in between inaudible sentences. "Wow! These are really good! Did you make them?"
"Really? No, I didn't—I haven't tried them yet."
"IF YOU'RE JUST GOING TO LAY BACK AND EAT WANNABE FRENCH MADELEINES, PLEASE GET YOURSELF A TAXI—TOO 'HIP' FOR THAT? AN UBER—AND SEE YOURSELF OUT OF THE PREMISES RIGHT AWAY, MISS ROSE!" Vladimir roared across the office. It was only on the rarest occasions that his voice turned abrasive and hard; bellowing beyond the walls of the tech department. Seeing Ruby loitering about and doing nothing must've triggered this odd, primitive instinct.
"YOU'RE SO MEAN, MANAGER V!" She doubled back on the vigor. "DO I REALLY MEAN NOTHING TO YOU IF I'M NOT A WORKING STAFF?"
"YES!"
She gasped a gasp of utter disbelief—she also choked on her chymed-up madeliens.
Who on earth was this man? She didn't think she had ever met or known him her entire life!
"Don't mind him," Blaze clasped a firm grip on her as support from the aftershock. "He was actually vehemently against your new replacement in today's executive team meeting."
"I don't believe you."
"My word against no one's," she insisted. "He said, and I quote, 'Her skill set isn't the only thing Ruby offers in our sector. She's like family to us', end quote."
"He also said you were a valuable asset he could hand unwanted workloads," Rouge—out of nowhere—joined the cultivating conversation, ending her desultory comment with words no less trivial than earlier. "Just saying."
"Haha. And if you don't disappear this instant, I won't be 'just saying' when I punch you in ya balls!"
"I'm not even gonna bother to correct that statement."
But the threat worked. Rouge sucessfully ran away instantly upon seeing Ruby's combat stance.
"How do you guys even know all this anyway? It's not like you are allowed at department meetings."
"Don't ever underestimate my bunny's ears! I could hear all right outside the room." Elena gloated, priding herself with the uncanny characteristic.
"With the doors closed?"
"Four walls, no cracks!"
Ruby gave a dramatic gasp in awe. Half from the shock that her friend could have settled for a multitude of spirited jobs, like detective work, journalism, or god-knows-what-else in place of boring office work. And the other, because... there was no way Elena Miller wasn't superhuman!
"Never again, sensei!" she followed up with a bow, playing her apprenticeship role to utmost perfection.
"You were talking about how you were angry about an ordeal this morning. What was that all about? Is that why you clocked in today?"
Blaze chimed in, supporting a just as innocuously curious Arian. "I'm nonplused about that too."
"Tell us!" Elena practically barked.
"Riiight..." Ruby brooded on each word, feeling betrayed in the treats which seduced her into spilling inapt information... and how Blaze fed them to her... those tempting extorters! "That."
"Is 'that' bad? Or are you holding something out on us?" Gideon's eyes creased increasingly thinner and thinner with unrelenting suspicion when she failed to give—or make—any sort of a repartee; Ruby Rose was anything but a quiet individual.
"What? Never!" She defended. Friendship to her was of utmost importance! She'd figured before you could become family to someone, you have to be friends first. You would also have to be friends before becoming a lover. And before that, you would have to be a friend, to be a friend. " I would die before doing that, and then I'd die after dying after, then die after dying after dying!"
She had also convinced herself that if it made sense to her, it didn't matter much-else if other's did not get the drift.
"You see..." she paused to choose her words wisely—perhaps, cunningly if anything. It wasn't like she was trying to lie... just trying to avoid the bothersome topic. So, she had devised: "I don't think you guys will believe what I'm going to say anyway. Plus! Trust me, it's really not important."
"Hmm..." Blaze hummed her dissent. "ironically, your use of hyperbole makes me not trust you even more."
It did? Ruby queried. She had not overused it, personally.
Hyperbole or not, the sinking realization of no escape sank in quite quickly, forcing Ruby to recite her tale of woe—tweaking some things here and there to fit her argument, of course, but all-around revolving on the main casualty. She had to keep her friends on her side so condemning the stuck-up cad was an easily dealt trump card. But somehow, the effort only produced the opposite effect.
"WHAT!?" the whole office burst out in unison.
Unknown to the friend group, some nosey bunch had eared into the private conversation—as per usual—with runny mouths ready to give leeway to nasty gossip. Then—not-as-per-usual—a sudden, aberrant, hysterical laugh exploded from across the room.
"Oh my gosh, Ruby! You pretty-little-thing! I've always thought you a tad bit stupid, but on God, I never took you for a RETARD!"
"Who said that?" Blaze ordered with an unhealthy amount of death in her tone, which only spurred the outlaw's galling comments on.
"Don't stand there and tell me you 'support her'!" A tall, slim, alluring woman from within the room alighted from a chair, decided on making her faceless scrutiny public. Her eyes were a veiled blue with unspoken secrets lurking within them, and her skin was a lovely shade of brown. She had thick, full red lips and hair, and all-round, she was a classic, savvy, business lady. "You of all people wouldn't! And shouldn't!" she continued. "Especially after jawing off at her last night! So you have no right to try and play the good guy here!"
This subdued the target.
Blaze White had always been addressed as a principled somebody, and it didn't matter if you were an insider or an outsider because it would show in her actions, speech, and interactions right away. To many, it was seen as a supercilious flaw, but to her, it was what kept her together. It was just her thing. Therefore, to acknowledge that sole fact meant you've just acquainted yourself with Blaze White 50 percent through.
Leading to the point that, if there was something she hated more than anything, it was being paradoxical. So it didn't matter who this person disarming her little by little was, because they had a solid point.
"How do you even know all this?" Blaze diverted the topic at hand. "Were you stalking us?"
"Stalking!" The woman faked an indignant facade. "Why, I would never! I've got more class than that," she bubbled. "I simply attended a night out with some friends and couldn't help but notice the ruckus your table kept making. I'm pretty sure the whole food stall heard it too—quite entertaining, it was."
The winsome enchantress in question moved her attention to Ruby this time.
"You! How many bosses do you see kissing the lowly feet of their employees, huh? This is the Marquis'. The unofficial royalty of the tech world! Why a man like David would even be bothered with you simply is beyond me." She sassed further, rousing a hysterical laugh at the back of her throat—yet again. "This is kinda funny! I don't even know why I care so much."
It seemed to be a pompous trademark.
"I guess it's good for the rest of us." She grinned from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat, strutting the length of the room to devour her prey. "Someone's 'fuck up' is after all, always, someone else's promotion. Sadly, not for me—I'm no employee, you see. I was merely making a brief visit when a little birdy told me you worked here—"
Suddenly, from absolutely nowhere, a thundering slap came crashing onto her creamy-umber skin.
The whole office descended into silent, utter shock.
"Since you wanna be a stranger—which I really doubt you are—I'll make an official announcement: I'm the only bitch who's allowed to bully this girl and get away with it," Rouge said too nonchalantly. "Now, who the hell are you?"
Despite this derisive show of power, from the heightening silence, the twitchy woman laughed herself senseless all over again; for one minute straight this time, eliciting complete bafflement from half the office staff, confounding their senses. Their bodies innately refused to budge despite desperate attempts of harnessing their will; the show was simply just too good to even blink! The other half, however, raced down the company's halls, alerting every stranger of the free show airing at their department.
"S-so sorry!" She said, finally composing herself and brushing her creepily positioned red locks of hair from off her visage. "It's just... you're so freaking cute!" She posied, easing out of laughter.
Rouge's face scrunched up at the underhanded mockery. "Cute?" coursing through thick veins protruding from her head, she was tempted to disarm opposing urges to land another slap on the shrewd's face.
"Stop avoiding the question!" Ruby finally commented. Her voice, low and resolute, and eyes, cold yet blazing with unquenchable anger. "Who are you?"
"Right. Pardon me." The stranger stuck out her hand for a condescending handshake. "I'm Delancy. Delancy Dupont. The wife of Louis Marquis, who will soon be taking over this whole conglomerate!"
"WHAT!?" The office shrieked all over again.
Disbelief riddled Ruby's pale face.
"It's nice to finally meet you."