So It Begins…

[Fiona Hathaway]

Fiona had arrived late for the third time that month, as did Lewis, after her of course, as they always planned. Over the past few months Fiona had heard whisperings, rumors about Lewis and herself but had denied them or simply told them off and that they should mind their own business and do their own work. She had no idea however that everyone knew about their involvement together.

“You’re late,” Fiona smiled up at Lewis from the desk she has barely sat down in, opening the file James had given her and debriefed her on a new assignment. Fiona amused herself easily with that little statement seeing as they were both late and she had recently that morning left Lewis’ bed. “Want to go on a treasure hunt?” she asked with a playful smile, then handed over the open file. “Apparently a magical object or device of some sort was stolen from the Ministry last week by Nicholas Blake a former Auror turned Deatheater and general all around criminal.” She said gesturing to the pictures of the object, “They’ve figured out that the device is being held in a secure vault that has been set with numerous fail safes so the easiest way to get to it is to retrieve the key first.” she continued, “James wants us to go to Italy to retrieve it,” she pointed to a man, “from this man, Ivan Starkova. He is Blake’s right hand man and will have the key code in his possession, we are to download it from his computer, but there is one or rather two catches, we also have to get his finger print and a scan of his iris or retina because those will also be needed to securely open the vault without triggering any of the failsafe’s,” she told him, “In about thirty minutes we are to go to the tech department to be debriefed by Marshal, Martin and Andrew on their gadgets that will help us to duplicate such things.” Then she shook her head, “If you weren’t late I wouldn’t have had to do your job for you,” she teased, usually it was Lewis relaying their missions to her not the other way round, though she did actually listen during meetings.

((ooc: Hope what I wrote was alright Emma, if not I can change anything.))

[Lewis Michalka]

“Mmm? Yes I rather am, aren’t I? And I think we all know who is to blame for my poor timekeeping as of late,” Lewis noted, looking at her knowingly with the hint of an amused smirk as he lingered in the doorway of her office, having fetched coffee before turning up to work himself after Fiona. The thing was, their cover was well and truly blown – no one actually thought it coincidence any more that they both kept turning up late, he wasn’t entirely sure people had even fell for it the first time it had happened. But Fiona, as far as he could tell, was blissfully unaware that the entirety of the Auror department knew of their relationship and he didn’t really fancy being the one to inform her of this little development as she seemed to be refuting the sly comments quite nicely really, if completely needlessly.

Moving over the threshold of the room he closed the door to with his elbow and then crossed to her desk to hand her a coffee, “A treasure hunt? Now that does sound promising,” he admitted, choosing to lean his backside against her desk, leaning/sitting close beside her effectively but facing her as she handed him a file. “Does it not worry you that Aurors seem to have an extraordinary propensity to turn Deatheater? Or is it in fact more worrying that the Ministry seems to remain unsurprised by such things?” Lewis murmured thoughtfully as he quickly scanned through the file, getting abreast of the matter at hand as she continued to speak. “Italy huh? Well now I shall have to thank James for his inadvertent extraordinary generosity, I love Italy,” he remarked lightly as he took a sip of his own coffee, smiling over the rim of the paper cup as she teased him again about his lateness. “You know… I’d say if anything… it was rather your fault I was late at all. An innocent bloke such as I would have ordinarily been happy to roll out of bed, make breakfast, take a shower and dress and then head off to work promptly and efficiently… but no… a certain someone has to lie there next to me, looking extremely beautiful, distractingly so in fact, in the morning. And what is a man to do in that situation? Leave the woman to go to work? I think not!” he exclaimed jokingly, in a highly affronted manner, before he grinned mischievously, the smile reaching right up to the small crinkles in the corner of his eye.

[Fiona Hathaway]

As Lewis sat on the side of her desk, his hand leaning against it, Fiona not so absentmindedly slid her hand towards his. Their fingers barley touching as she explained the extent of their mission, or at least what had been given to her thus far.

“Oh, no, Nicholas Blake was turned long ago. It seems only the older generation have turned, the reign of Volemort as it were,” she said looking up at him then and smiled realising he was joking, and gave a small chuckle, “Oh,” she said, “Yes it is somewhat worrisome, do you think we’ll be next?” she teased. “I know,” she added with an expression on her face that told him she was pleased with herself. They were going to Italy on a mission, together, alone! It couldn’t have been better. Well it could, if they weren’t chasing after some silly key code. However Fiona didn’t mind, she had other games in mind other than a simple treasure hunt. They were staying overnight after all.

“No certainly, we couldn’t have that,” she laughed biting her bottom lip. All she wanted to do in that moment was kiss him. “So,” she drew her attention away from him glancing down at the file again. “My alias is Kate Jones,” she said pulling out a blonde wig with bouncy curls from a case given to her by James along with the rest of her clothes from the tech department and held it out to Lewis, “How do you like blondes?”

[Lewis Michalka]

Lewis glanced down imperceptibly as Fiona slid her hand towards his, moving his own a fraction so that their fingers were now touching, entwined very slightly where they rested on her desk. “Oh? Well then I should certainly have been turned already,” he claimed, fixing her with a serious look, before the smile won out when talk turned to the rather fortuitous location of their mission. “You know… I think we really ought to really sample Italy, case the joint so to speak, make sure we don’t leave any stone unturned etc. etc.”

“No, we couldn’t,” he agreed certainly with a short nod of his head, grinning in amusement as she bit her bottom lip in an undeniably seductive way before he abandoned his coffee cup on her desk. “So…” he repeated, holding her gaze until she looked away from him purposefully, “Blonde you say? Well… my entire family is blonde, I’m not adverse to them,” Lewis pointed out light heartedly, taking the wig from her hands and moving to place it on her head gently. Touching one of the bouncy curls he pretended to scrutinise her face, as if judging how it suited her, before smiling, “Well it’s not your usual look but I think the Ministry would struggle to make you look anything less than gorgeous. And yes that is my lengthy way of saying how amazing you always look. And yes this could stray into vomit-inducing sappiness so I’m going to stop right now.”

[Fiona Hathaway]

“Mmm yes, we absolutely sample Italy,” she gazed up at him with a suggestive expression, “The restaurants especially, you know how criminals love restaurants,” she teased.

“Hmm, well that is a relief,” Fiona said removing the wig from the case beside her. She laughed then as he placed the wig on her head gently, not at all attached as it should have been. A few strands of her brown hair fell out in the front into her face. Standing up then she removed the wig from her head and set it onto her desk. “I like when you get sappily romantic, until you say you’re getting sappily romantic,” she said leaning over her desk to kiss him creasing his rambling with her lips.

[Lewis Michalka]

“Certainly they do. I mean if we’re talking Venice for example… La Bella Luna is bound to be a haunt for criminals, what with its impressive menu, good wine selection and candlelit terrace. All the criminals love Venezia… its grand canal… elaborate masks… the gondolas. Clearly we need to investigate it thoroughly. And don’t even get me started on how all the criminals adore Florence,” Lewis warned seriously, looking to her then with a mischievous smile. Mostly he was just a lover of Italy and he would certainly give any kind of tenuous reason he could think of as to why their mission needed to last longer.

His hand dropped back to his side once more as she stood up and removed the wig once more, watching her as she did so before smiling as she leaned in to kiss him, undoubtedly as a way to get him to be quiet. Responding tenderly as her lips moved over his purposefully he then broke away, not without some internal anguish over that decision to be sure, and asked thoughtfully, “So sappy is good? Just so I know where you stand on it because I’d never had pegged you as the kind to not vomit when it reached a certain level of sappiness. Or is it just romantic rather than sappy? I should really write this kind of thing down,” he continued jokingly, looking down at her with a sort of infuriatingly charming smile that meant she really couldn’t get mad at him for such a comment.

((ooc: Would you like me to bring someone from the department in on the scene, just to make some kind of knowing comment that makes Fiona realise everyone knows about the two of them? I'm thinking the likes of Derek or to make it extra weird because even they know, maybe Sarah, Callum or Harry?))

[Fiona Hathaway]

Fiona simply smiled over at Lewis.

When he broke away from their kiss to speak however she shook her head, “Shut up,” she said grabbing the front of his shirt as she pulled him into a kiss once more. It was then that she heard the click of the front door knob being turned and she immediately pushed Lewis away from her, with almost so much force that he probably nearly fell backwards. She pretended as though she was very intent on the files in front of her. “So as I was saying this is the guy who…” she looked up from the file. “Oh hello there,” she said taking another long drink from her coffee.

((ooc: Sure that sounds good. ))

[Derek MacKinnon]

Twisting the door knob of the door to Fiona’s office, Derek didn’t even think to knock. Really, he should have, especially considering that Fiona and Lewis were together together now, and god knows what they got up to in their offices. Point is, Derek had done similar things in the past in similar locations so it wasn’t that much of a stretch. And yet, it slipped his mind as he strode into her office that day. “Top of the class nonchalance displayed there, Hathaway, why didn’t you continue your acting career?” the man asked mockingly, referring to (of course) the fact that he’d walked into her office just in time to see the two of them springing away from each other like magnet poles repelling each other. Or rather, like Fiona purposefully pushing Lewis away from her when moments before she’d been clinging onto his shirt forcefully – he could tell by the crease on the front of it (he could be observant when needed). “Look, don’t mind me guys, carry on,” Derek shrugged as he moved into the office, “I just need yer signature on these reports Fiona,” he explained, handing her the file he’d carried tucked under his arm in which there were various sheets she needed to sign off as a matter of mere formality.

Waiting on her whilst she did so, he folded his arms casually, looking sideways at Lewis, “So… uh… how’s it all going with you two, Michalka? No gory details please, mate,” he joked good-humouredly. Then, casting a glance at Fiona he looked between the two of them, “Wait, shit. She does know that pretty much everyone knows, right?” he checked with Lewis in a stage whisper as Fiona seemed a tad surprised at Derek’s insinuation that there would be some kind of ‘gory details’ involved. Letting out a groan, he realised he’d put his foot right in it. No one, not even Lewis it seemed, wanted to be the one to clue in Fiona on the fact that the entire department knew they were an item, despite their, at times, convoluted attempts to hide it. Turning now to Fiona he held his hands up in a show of defence, or perhaps surrender, and continued as usual in his admittedly brash but unfalteringly honest manner, “Look, I’m just gonna say it, darl, everyone knows and I mean… everyone. Just thought I’d throw that out there so you don’t need to spring to opposite ends of the office in an effort to keep it ‘on the down low’. Everyone knows, everyone. So put your time and energy into other things rather than working out complex excuses as to how you could both feasibly turn up late for work on the same mornings, yeah?”