Maya Elliot wasn’t an auror. She didn’t have the auror training or the respect. She wished she was an auror. She wished she’d gone straight into auror training out of school like her plan had always been. Bug and her own immaturity had messed that up for her. So instead of solving crimes and catching dark wizards, Maya was solving paperwork issues and catching the inappropriate advances of a couple of the dark wizard catchers.

Unsurprisingly, Maya tended to avoid the auror headquarters while to work, unless specifically advised that she needed to do something there or to visit a certain auror that she was perhaps developing a very minute, small and barely noticeable crush on.

So this morning, in one hand Maya had the parchment she’d been asked to deliver to Auror Bailey in arm and in her spare hand she held a mug of fresh coffee for the very nice auror she totally didn’t have a crush on.
That would all have been fine as she stepped between cubicles to deliver the coffee, tall heels guiding her way. Unfortunately a hex (or most likely booby trap from a certain Child, sent her flying forwards. Coffee flew into the air, parchments scattered everywhere and and the young Miss Elliot landed hard on the floor after letting out a yell of shock.

From where Adon stood, entering the office for the day, coffee, papers, and cloak in hand, he had a perfect view of it all: the approach, the falter, the fall.  Nothing like an early morning crisis to get the blood pumping.  Adon had made a run for it as she began to teeter, attempting to salvage something.  That something he had managed to salvage seemed worse than nothing, somehow.

Adon assessed the situation, the handle of the coffee mug caught on one finger.  His own, paper cup had burst in his hand at the surprise and sudden rush of trying to salvage, ah... anything.  Adon processed: shirt drenched, shoes splashed with coffee, floor wet with coffee, papers splattered with coffee. "Well, I caught it, at least," he said optimistically, a smirk on his face as he wiggled his mug-adorned finger. "On me, mostly but...."  Not exactly what he'd wanted when he had been contemplating a double espresso earlier.  But he had come out relatively well: he was not the one who had just taken a hard fall on the marble.

"Here," he said more reasonably, quickly draping his cloak over his cubicle wall.  Craning around the barrier somewhat, he was able to drop the case file back onto the desk.  Hands once more freed, he held a hand to help her up.  "You first--papers after."   It was a shame she wiped out so close to his cube, too; she'd almost made it all the way.

Provided she had even been coming to see him, he corrected himself.  He was taking it for granted, making unjust assumptions, that she'd been running coffee for him again.  She probably did that for several of the Aurors.  The ones who truly looked like they needed a cuppa.  Adon hadn't been sleeping much lately.  He was sure it was not only Maya who had noticed.

"I know it's going to be hard to believe but... I'm going to need more coffee."  He pulled at the cloth clinging to his abdomen. "And a new shirt."  Luckily he had that in the lockers by the training room.  It'd just have to be a business casual sort of Wednesday.

"How about you? You alright?" he said, eyeing her briefly up and down.  His eyes lingered on the shoes.  Having dated enough women like Raizel Cohen and Thea Nurin, he knew of the delicate and expensive love-hate relationship between women and footwear.  "Hopefully no new shoes needed?" They didn't look like a heel'd snapped off or anything. Satisfied she'd pull through, he handed her the empty mug and began to stoop to gather up pieces of paper. " Though," he threw over his shoulder, "if they're culpable, I'm happy to detain them for you--wrestle out a confession." He cast an innocent smile back at her. "I've gotten stranger inanimate objects to talk."  Too bad they usually didn't qualify for testimony in court.

"Well, I caught it, at least," From her position on the floor, Maya cringed at the voice she heard. Out of everyone in the office to see her take a nose dive to the marble floor and lose all of her dignity, it had to be the gorgeous Auror Adon Eleor with the dreamy eyes and flawless smile. The situation couldn’t have gotten any worse. Why must it be the dreamy auror to catch her coffee all over him and watch her fall with the grace of a drunken hippogriff.

A warm hand took hers and he helped her onto her feet as Maya longed for a timeturner to go back and avoid the horrific accident. Regardless, with what little gracefulness she could muster, Maya rose to her feet and straightened her dress, pushing the floating fabric down past her knees once more. She didn’t look up at Eleor’s face for a good moment as she spoke, far too embarrassed to even contemplate conversation.

The dreamy voice mulled over the need for more coffee and a new shirt and finally Maya did look up from under a mass of long dark hair, biting her lip and looking a mixture of guilty and embarrassed. As dark eyes travelled up Adon’s body, they took in the wet shirt clinging to flesh, clinging to muscle.

Upon realising how long she was staring, the witch’s eyes snapped up and she finally made eye contact with Adon. She didn’t get a chance to apologise because the wizard kept talking, making jokes about her shoes, trying to make her feel better when she just wanted to run away and hide from the embarrassment.

“I don’t think that will be necessary.” The witch finally spoke before frowning. “I’m so sorry, Sir.” She took the empty mug in her hand and followed suit, leaning down to grab the scattered papers, some of them covered in coffee. “Shit. Carstairs will be mad.” He already thought she was useless.

Even though he knew that Adon was a complete coffee snob who couldn't take a sip without criticizing the tannins or the brewing process or whatever, JJ still felt compelled to bring him a mug. Perhaps it was a habit from his trainee days, but JJ told himself that it was because they were partners on Level Two, and partners look after each other. A big part of having each others' back was to make sure there was a steady stream of caffeine coming in... Especially when everybody was overloaded with cases.

Maya Elliot seemed to have the same idea; JJ prayed that she wouldn't bring it to Adon so that he could.

And then she fell.

He watched it happen in slow motion-- the coffee spilling mostly on Adon. He winced in sympathy.

"TIMBER!" JJ thought belatedly-- then heads turned their way.

Merlin's balls, he'd said it out loud. Horrified, he looked from Adon, to Maya, and back again. Time to change the subject. Maybe if he pretended it didn't happen, everybody would forget about it. "I brought you coffee." He held a mug out to the other auror. "And I wasn't so busy swooning that I couldn't keep my balance, either."

Shit. He did it again. Maya could probably kick his ass-- he never underestimated petite women with big tempers. Growing up with seven sisters taught him better.

"Sir?!" Adon repeated in amusement. "Maya," he sighed, shaking his head.  She was flustered.  She didn't need him correcting her on top of that.  "Don't worry about it," he said simply.  Even though the papers were nearly gathered by now, Maya Elliot was fretting. 

"Yeah," Adon agreed grimly.  "He hates when we Aurors screw the paperwork up. We're probably why he can't have nice things." That and angry, rampaging, 15 year-old abductees blasting holes through the Department Head's walls.  "You'll tell him I'm sorry I spilled on this?" he asked, face pleading before risking a wink.  "My cup just... kinda exploded there. Well--you saw it."

And so did someone else.  Their most audible spectator:  Mr Hungry Hungry Hippo.  To be fair, though, he was trying to do Adon a good turn.  But that was quickly undercut by... whatever the hell his issue was with Maya Elliot.  Poor girl. 

"I brought you coffee."

"Yeah. Thanks for that," Adon said, his tone flat. It was unjust.  They could recover from this with dignity.  With determination, he fixed a smile on. "I was just saying that I neede--"

"And I wasn't so busy swooning that I couldn't keep my balance, either."

Adon's grit teeth were on open display now, his smile now stretched to a grimace.  He rose to his feet, a bit more quickly than intended.

"Here," Adon said, shoving the stack of sopped sheets of parchment against his partner's chest with such force that even his partner--with the build of a stocky rhino--would need to take a step back to recover.  "Hold these, will you?  I spilled my coffee all over them."  At this point, it was hard to say whose coffee it was, though Bassir had made it quite clear it was none of his own.  Nimble as a cat, that one.  "Understand?" he belabored, eyebrows raised expectantly. It was a cover story.  Would he need to spell it out for him?

The TIMBER was hard to ignore but Maya tried. In all of the current embarrassment she really didn’t need JJ sticking his nose in and making things worse. He was so obviously still bitter about being dumped years ago. Besides, she was distracted by the kindness of Adon Eleor and his charming smile as he suggested it was his fault. It would have been great to thank him verbally but JJ decided he needed to get himself involved and sloped over with an insult. Maya grit her teeth and rose, some of the files in her own hands.

“Are you sure it wasn’t Auror Bassir here who spilled it all?” Dark eyes fixed JJ with a glare.  He really had to accuse her of swooning?? “He has a habit of barging into situations.” Her look was full of suggestion. Suggestion to get lost and leave her in peace with the auror with the charming smile and sexy accent.

Taking a step forward, Maya grimaced and grabbed the nearest thing to her; Adon's muscular, damp arm.
“Ah! You couldn’t go and sort that parchment out could you, JJ? I fear I’ve twisted my ankle.”

JJ realized that at the moment, he was clearly suffering from a debilitating case of foot-in-mouth disease, brought on by being in the presence of a woman he fancied. He and Maya had dated at Hogwarts, though she dumped him for an older man with tattoos. Bug. He was totally over that old hurt, but when Maya started working in the office, well... He found that he was developing feelings for her all over again. Maya was a different person now, but there was still that sense of the familiar.

Now, JJ knew what he said was wrong. But JJ also expected Adon to be a mindreader, and to back him up. Couldn't he see that JJ liked to drop off the occasional muffin for Maya in the morning? Didn't he see that he made an effort for his paperwork to be extra organized if he knew she would be handling it? No. Because Adon was an unfeeling, unobservant turnip with no respect for bros.

That grimace was so condescending and arrogant. He could feel the heat rising in his face. The auror gritted his teeth, inhaling sharply.

When Adon straight up shoved him, it took all of JJ's self control to keep from punching him right there. What the hell was his problem? As if he hadn't humiliated himself enough-- Adon had to contribute to it in front of Maya. A younger JJ would have flipped a desk, but he was an adult now. Adults don't go around hitting people and making messes.

His brow furrowed with concern when Maya limped forward. Now he felt more like an asshole than before. "Of course I'll sort them for you." Not Adon. Moments before, he had been contemplating setting them on fire, or throwing them back in his fellow auror's face. "Sit down-- do you want me to help you to your desk? Bring you a chair?" He glanced down at the pocket of his robes where he kept his wand. "I can do small healing charms, if that'd help...?" He pointedly was not looking at Adon.

“Are you sure it wasn’t Auror Bassir here who spilled it all?  He has a habit of barging into situations.”

Well, okay, now.  Turns out, Maya and JJ had a bit of history. Adon had guessed from Bassir's hurt barbing of the woman that it'd been something superficial: she'd probably turned him down for a date or something, and he was still sore about it.  But Bassir'd done something to her, too.  It took a bit more than just a first date for the feeling to be quite so, well, reciprocated.

"Ah," Adon eyed JJ, who looked fuming enough to provoke another timber and knock him full over.  "Quite sure it was me."  Perhaps that would smooth things out a bit.

But now, no. There was a hand squeezing his bicep. You're in over your head, Eleor...  Adon shifted his arms to steady her--hands clasped around her forearms.  "You alright?" He frowned in concern.

At least the push had seemed to rattle enough sense back into the kid to be a touch civil.  From the way he'd entered the scene, Bassir needed to be doing all the apologizing and fawning he could just to make it up to her.  Adon'd let him.  It of course didn't prevent JJ from acting like a butt-hurt kid, as far as he was concerned--it didn't take an perceptive skills Auror to sense the frostiness cast this way---but he was a kid.  Adon could hardly expect less from a man who ate vinegar crisps for breakfast.

He'd let all this slide.

"Do you want me to help you to your desk? Bring you a chair? I can do small healing charms, if that'd help...?"[/o]

"Thanks, JJ, that'd be great." Adon said, casting his partner a smile which was, predictably, ignored.  With pointed, husky surliness.  "Never had as much of a knack for healing, myself," he gave a reassuring smile to Maya as he, carefully, handed her over--quite literally--to JJ.  She'd not like this turn of events, but it was only temporary.  A person could tolerate almost anything so long as it was temporary.  JJ needed the chance to apologize without him there.  If he was smart.

"I'll just go grab a change of clothes from the practice rooms," he said, gesturing vaguely across the office.  "Be back in a moment." Hopefully before the two tore each other apart, if amends could not be made.

JJ Bassir was a child. Adon Eleor was a man. This was exactly the reason she dumped JJ back in school. She’d wanted someone with a bit more maturity who took like more seriously. Despite him now being an auror, Maya wasn’t seeing that and she grew irritated at his presence when the gorgeous Iraeli auror was stood beside her willing to come to her ‘rescue’.

"Sit down-- do you want me to help you to your desk? Bring you a chair?" Maya opened her mouth to refuse but Adon stepped in and agreed to it being a good idea. Before she knew it she was then being passed over to be taken by JJ’s less than nimble hands.

And just like that, helpless against it, Maya watched Adon walk off in search of coffee free clothing. That left her alone by the edge of the cubicle with her ex-boyfriend who still seemed to be rather bitter.

“I’m not so sure I want you pointing your wand at my ankle.” Maya commented to the auror, looking less than impressed she’d been left with him. She started to limp towards the entrance to Adon’s cubicle to sit down.

Handing Maya off to him was probably the best thing Adon could've done to help give JJ a chance to redeem himself. Even if taking his arm looked like the last thing she wanted to do. He carefully led-- or tried to lead-- her to the chair at Adon's desk. God, she was so grumpy.


“I’m not so sure I want you pointing your wand at my ankle.” God, this woman sure knew how to make him concerned and irritated at once.

"So you'd rather limp around the office? Don't be ridiculous." JJ replied dryly. He'd never been bad at healing charms. He'd had to use them plenty of times in the field, especially during his hitwizard days. Plus, there was the issue of his experimentation with magical fire... He had to balance his reckless hobbies out with damage control.

Granted, Maya knew him mostly from his Hogwarts days.... She didn't really know he had gotten his shit together-- or at least more together than it was when he was sixteen. "I'll just use episkey. I'm not going to take all the bones out of your ankle." Still, JJ waited for permission.

Between the both of them at Hogwarts, Maya had always been the more likely to become an auror. She’d been the one dedicated to the cause and the most focused. JJ had been the one more interesting in blowing things up and fooling around than hard study and concentration. She’d liked guiding him in the right direction and she’d really liked him. He was quirky and funny with that charming smile.

Maya had outgrown his charm by the end of seventh year and had wanted someone far more mature. Unfortunately mature had been the tattooed wizarding butcher who had ended up getting her pregnant and leaving her. JJ would certainly have been the safer option.

But now the safer option was getting in the way of her befriending and flirting with the exotic option and Maya had quickly become irritated by it.

In an ideal situation there was only one person that Maya fully trusted to heal her and that was her mother. This, however, was a minor issue and surely she could trust the ex-boyfriend who still evidently fancied her to put it right.

Lips pursed tightly in consideration before Maya nodded.
“Fine.” Maya paused for a moment, sat forward in the chair, uncomfortable about her ankle but also suffering from mild embarrassment.
“I wasn’t swooning, JJ.”

JJ was fully prepared to be offended by a refusal and was already thinking of ways to convince her that he wasn't going to blow her foot up when she complied. With a mild raise of his eyebrows, his surprise was subtle but not completely hidden. As stubborn as Maya inherently was, that didn't mean she was completely unreasonable.

He knelt beside her and pointed his wand at her ankle, "Episkey." The healing spell, correctly done, didn't hurt-- but produced an icy hot, then cold, sensation before the body righted itself. It was a useful spell to learn, though it only worked on minor injuries. JJ wasn't qualified as far as the more complicated injuries were concerned.

An involuntary smile spread across his face when she claimed she hadn't been swooning.

"Of course you were." He felt the smallest tinge of jealousy, "Girls always do. It's his accent and good hair. I mean... If I was a girl, I'd be swooning too!" JJ stood up before adding, "But I'm not a girl." As if Maya needed that clarification.

Adon regarded himself in the mirror.  He'd changed into a simple black tee--usually reserved for workouts, and was trying to mitigate this by donning a suit jacket atop it.  He'd be wearing the restrictive crimson cloak for the whole of the day, he could tell.  Even with the semi-wardrobe change, he still smelled of coffee.  His trousers, too--well, he wasn't about to wear his workout shirts. 

Really, it would have been better to have showered completely.  But Adon didn't know if the two would have maimed each other by then. Leaving the locker rooms, Adon was relieved to see they'd set up camp in his cube and were, to the best of his knowledge, amiable. 

"Alright, you two," he said, hand resting on his cubicle wall as he regarded them.  His eyes travelled down to Maya's ankle.  "Better?"

Well it was a good job JJ confirmed that he wasn’t a girl. Maya had really been questioning it then. At least he cleared up that question that was floating about…

“I did wonder.”

Maya was in the midst of rolling her eyes when the wizard she’d ‘swooned’ over reappeared, those dreamy eyes travelling down to her ankle. He enquired about her wellbeing and she gave a shrug.
“I don’t think he’s made it worse, at least.” ‘But I’d have preferred your healing hands all over it.’ A glance was spared for JJ before Maya pushed herself up to her feet, resting some weight on the offending ankle experimentally.

“It’s a good job you’re back, Sir,” she knew he’d told her not to call him that but she didn’t need it in the neck any more from the boss. “Auror Bassir here was having a crisis of gender. He’s…well, he went into quite some detail about why he brings you coffee every day. It’s cute.”