[ PRP ] Paperwoes (Vash/Cassie)

[Carhop Cavalier]

Paperwork, it was always paperwork. Gordon, take these papers over there. Cassie, run this folder to this Hunter. Hey, kid, get me a cup of coffee. Cassie rolled her chocolate eyes every time she was handed another stack of files, but she knew that the work had to be done. Two years just observing s**t at bases didn't earn anyone a promotion. So, dues had to be paid and Hunters had to get their files and their coffee.

Maybe she'd dump the piping hot cup of coffee in her hand on the next Johnson that came by and barked at her, though. Maybe she would lace the papers with glitter glue, just to annoy the recipients. Maybe, just maybe, she'd even write secret messages in invisible ink on the manila folders precariously stacked in her left arm.

Or, maybe she would dump everything on the floor as she smacked right into another human, distracted by the concocting of her silent vengeance and blinded by god-awful beige.  

[and be blue]

Between the pair of them, they had enough paperwork to keep people busy for weeks. Vash's was mission reports, filled out and ready to be delivered. He'd spent the last forty minutes sorting them by type of mission, making sure that they were fully filled out and ready for delivery.

Now they fell: folders opening and papers scattering, shuffling their respective work together and leaving them with another hour or so of sorting. Vash made a sound, abandoned as all hope of recovery fluttered around the pair of them, and didn't quite lose his balance.

It was unclear whose fault it was, but for the moment he just stood, mouth slightly parted, expression sliding through frustrated to furious.

Carhop cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

The cascading paperwork would be comical to onlookers, much like a scene in a cheesy rom-com style of movie. This was not a rom com, though, and neither Cassie or the other Death Hunter were laughing. Hot java was all over the carpet and Cassie's stockings (thankfully black didn't stain), her own stack of files regarding potential recruits now mingled with what looked like mission ********." She spat, instantly sitting on her ankles to begin the arduous clean up. She ******** hated paperwork. "I'm so so sorry. Like, so sorry." Cassie really wasn't. It was his fault, probably. She was blinded by beige, after all.

"Um, I'll look through this pile and you look through that one?"

and be blue

 

[and be blue]

"...son of a..." Vash just stood and stared down at the piles for a long moment, while she poked her way through them -- his eyes scraping around them to find a couple other trainees standing and watching and maybe they wanted to laugh, even if it wasn't particularly funny.

With his jaw set, Vash dropped to a crouch as well, fidgeting in his skinny jeans to get comfortable. His movements were jerky, starting to page through the piles.

"You always run everywhere?"

carhop cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Cassie stopped everything she was doing to just glare at the other Hunter, chocolate eyes searing a white hot hole in the bridge of the man's nose. "Excuse me?" Cassie scoffed, lips pressing into a thin, white line. "I was running? No, no, I was walking, and blinded by the stacks and stacks of paperwork you assholes kept piling on my arms." Cassie's gaze swept around the corridor, glaring at two in particular who had given her more than their fair share of papers to deliver.

"Honestly, you should have been watching where you were going."

and be blue

 

[and be blue]

Vash's eyebrows twitched down to scowl back at her, thoroughly, offended by the suggestion that somehow he was in the same group as the bossy Death Hunters with their vague warnings and piles of paperwork. He reached out to slap a folder that was his own and dragged it in closer to him, shaking his head as he did.

"You stacked them poorly, and you're blaming me for that?" He added it to his stack with sharp, angry movements. "If you're too dumb to make a window, how'd you even get here?"

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Cassie gave the other Hunter the most incredulous look she could manage, sliding a pile of her own folders and loose papers towards her. "A window? How the ******** am I supposed to make a window?!" Her voice was a scathing, whispering hiss, eyes alight with indignation. "Should I just scrawl some levitation runes on the middle folder? Earn a degree in architectural physics and build a manila parking garage so I can see through?"

Oh, she wanted to slap this boy. So condescending, so hostile. Typical, entitled man. "Dumb? You think I'm dumb? Buddy, you're barking up the wrong tree." Cassie was surprised at how much this was escalating. Usually she would just apologize and move on, but this man was a particular sort of a*****e. "If you know what's good for you, you'll apologize, shut up, and grab the rest of your paperwork."

and be blue

 

[and be blue]

Instead of replying, Vash just stared at her frostily for a very long moment and then slowly, pointedly, he began to restack the papers. This time, instead of just making one big pile, he made two smaller stacks of folders with a gap in between, and a roof of more paperwork on top. A window, in the middle.

Of course, it also made the whole thing slightly more wobbly, but maybe that was a sacrifice worth making.

"I'm not the one barking here."

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Cassie gave the other man a long, slow, smoldering with the hatred of a thousand white hot burning suns, glare. She inhaled sharply, considered punching his stupid a** tower of paperwork, decided against it, thought of doing it to his face, and decided against that. She would not let him control her emotions.

"Eat a d**k, asshat." Cassie glowered, slamming her stack of papers and envelopes hard on the ground, willing his damn stack to fall.

and be blue

 

[and be blue]

For a moment -- just a moment -- the towel held: its somewhat precarious stacking withstanding the force of her anger. Then it shivered, gave a twitch, tilted slightly to one side, and came down in a fresh tumble of paperwork that made Vash hiss out a breath and struggle to catch it before it went far. It turned his teasing, frosty expression into something really furious.

He reached out to snatch a file out of her pile -- his, he thought -- and scowled at her.

"Really mature."

carhop cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

A smug smile spread over Cassie's face, glad to have proven her point. "See how easy that fell? No imagine trying to walk with it." Unless this guy had impeccable balance - something Cassie didn't - the entire construction would have been absolutely doomed from the start.

The expression faded, and Cassie's hand immediately slapped the man's wrist when he grabbed one of her files. No way in Hell was she going to get in trouble over this kid's mistake. "Hey now, don't go touching my s**t. Grubby hands to yourself." She hissed and snatched her file back, along with an extra that clung on.

and be blue

 

[and be blue]

"That one's mine." It was sharp and annoyed, his eyes flicking up onto her face. He'd tried to be chill -- chill for him, at least -- but now it was fraying into real annoyance and anger, more than just the superficial. He scowled at her, his head tilted to the side and his eyebrows pulled down, looking young and petulant.

"Stop being an idiot. They got mixed up when you tripped me. Mine have the green post-its on them."

carhop cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Cassie gave him a hard glare, but then looked down to see that there was, indeed, a green sticky note on one of the pages she'd snatched from the other Hunter's hand. An angry, embarrassed, blush took over her face, and Cassie shoved the paper at him. "Well, so ******** sorry, then."

She was tired of this long winded drivel, and the stupid look on his face. "Would you stop calling me an idiot? Mistakes and accidents happen, you know." She rolled her chocolate eyes, gathering up all the things that didn't have green post-its. "It wouldn't kill you to be a little more understanding of that old ;s**t happens' adage."

and be blue

 

[and be blue]

"You called me an asshat." There was real indignation behind it, as he looked at her -- and her carefully stacked folders. He took the paper back and then, pointedly, gave her pile a smack to send it tumbling sideways.

It was petty. It was stupid. But for a moment, there was a flash in his eyes that was satisfied. These days, Vash didn't get to feel powerful very often.

Carhop Cavalier