Awkward Office Encounters

Part 1 of 3

by

Silver-Eyed Rukia

Rated: T

Pairing: Lapidot (hinted)

Note: Please ignore any mistakes. Or point them out and correct me, whatever you prefer.

Cover art by: scribble-box on tumblr (scribble-box. tumblr. com)

The moment the dark-haired rookie stepped foot out of the elevator and into the office she felt like she had just ran face first into a brick wall. The heat that greeted her felt so dense that she was playing with the idea of trying to cut it with a knife just to see if it worked but ultimately decided against it and instead opted on heading straight towards her desk and the small desk fan she knew was waiting for her. She already heard Amethyst and Pearl arguing before she could see them and when she rounded the corner to enter their only with partitions separated office area she immediately had to stifle her laughter upon seeing why the pair was arguing.

"Amethyst, I can't believe you went through my things without asking again!"

The short, stocky woman with the long, flowing hair rolled her eyes and gave the rookie a short wave as she entered before her attention returned to the tall agent in front of her.

"Well, excuuuuse me P but it's not my fault the air conditioning decided to take a dump on one of the hottest days of the month. I forgot my deodorant and I bet you don't want me smelling like I just finished wrestling with Jasper the entire day, eh?" Her full lips turned into a smirk when she saw the strawberry-blonde throwing her arms into the air in frustration before groaning out a "Fine" in accepted defeat. Amethyst finished applying the roll-on she had "borrowed" from Pearl's desk and grinned before tossing the container into one of her already overflowing drawers.

Garnet, who had watched the exchange in silence, looked over to the dark-haired woman and nodded in acknowledgement at the "Good morning, boss" directed her way. Lapis Lazuli was the newest addition to her well-functioning team and even though she had been coming here for over two months now she was still testing the capabilities of the rookie when they were out on the field. The tallest of the four stood from her chair and walked around her desk, opting on leaning against it to position herself more to the center of the office and get everyone's attention.

"I got word from Director Diamond that our new forensic scientist is scheduled to arrive today. She's fresh out of University, has a master's degree in forensic science and an already too long to count list of other scientific and technological achievements." The dark-skinned woman looked at her team before dropping the last bit of information she deemed necessary to share with them. "And she's 23."

Pearl's surprised "What?" was quickly drowned out by Amethyst's loud laughter, followed by a snarky "She's even younger than you, rookie!" directed at Lapis who was still somewhat awkwardly standing in front of her desk. She tried to force down the blush rising in her cheeks, silently thankful that she had opted on wearing a skirt on this really hot day instead of her preferred jeans before she finally went around the piece of furniture and placed her backpack on top of it before sitting down. Only for her to jump back into a standing position with a yelp when her bare legs came in contact with another person's skin, eyes darting to the leg area beneath her desk to see someone crawling around the floor with various cables and wires surrounding them.

"Oh yeah I totally forgot to tell you, rookie. The IT department sent us the head of their nerd brigade to fix our overheated systems," the shortest of the team grinned and pointed at the person under Lapis' desk. "Hopefully you didn't choose your skimpy underwear today." Pearl snorted and quickly hid her face behind one of her fashion magazines while Garnet only shook her head, the tiniest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

The tanned woman's embarrassment quickly turned into anger and she grabbed the poor technician's shirt, practically dragging them out from beneath her desk and lifting them into a standing position in front of her. She was just about to unleash her unbridled rage, which in all honesty was just embarrassment but she had a really bad temper, when she noticed that the person wasn't a guy, but rather a somewhat small, blonde woman with glasses sitting atop of her messy, barely in a ponytail contained hair, looking at the dark-haired agent with frightfully widened eyes.

"I didn't see anything, I swear", she blurted out, palms facing her captor's front in an attempt to show that she wasn't trying to do anything. Amethyst, who had watched the entire scene unfold, was already lying on her desk from laughter while their boss had quietly returned to her duties without uttering a single word at the exchange and even Pearl was still audibly giggling behind her magazine.

"No, I wasn't your fault, I thought you were a…well, a guy. Most of the people they send us from IT are guys so… sorry", Lapis said before letting go of the poor woman's shirt, blushing slightly when she noticed two deep emerald irises still looking at her. Damn, this girl was beautiful, even if she looked like she was having a really bad hair day. Her eyes unconsciously ran the technician up and down, noticing that despite it being such a hot day she was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and an ordinary pair of black jeans, both a bit ruffled up from scooting around on the floor for who knows how long.

"Yo nerd, what's your name?" Amethyst asked and wiggled her eyebrows at the rookie, making kissy faces behind the blonde's back. Said woman turned around shortly after the special agent had stopped with the ridiculous faces, obviously highly uncomfortable with being so close to a total stranger before answering.

"P-Peridot, ma'am."

"Ma'am?!"

This time Pearl couldn't hold it in anymore. She let the magazine fall flat on her desk before giving a laugh, looking at her shorter teammate rather smugly when she saw that Amethyst was clearly not amused by that comment.

"Her? Ma'am? Not in a million years."

The pair sparked another heated discussion and even though Peridot was highly confused about it she certainly appreciated having the attention lifted from her. She sighed and wiped at her forehead, gloved hands itching to finish her work and get back to her new workplace when she realized that she was still standing in front of the stranger and that the space between them was still so small that she could still smell her rather intoxicating perfume.

"Uhm…can I resume my previous task now?"

Lapis blinked, having spaced out looking at the adorable woman in front of her and just nodded dumbly as she watched her finish fixing some wiring or whatever it was she was doing before she crawled out from beneath the desk again but this time, instead of nearly being pressed against the rookie, she opted on standing in front of the desk from the other side. The rest of the team, minus their boss who was honestly just used to this commotion by now, was still caught in their heated argument and Lapis used the distraction to talk to the blonde woman in private for a moment. She felt like an utter ass for being so rude to her without any reason.

"Hey, uhm, Peridot was it, right? Look, I'm really sorry about earlier and I would like to make up for it. Do you like Mexican food? I know a really good restaurant downtown if you're interested."

The blonde scratched her head and finally pulled her glasses down onto her face, nodding before looking at the slightly taller woman with a crooked smile. "Affirmative. I shall inform you about my contact information after your regular work schedule."

Lapis raised an eyebrow at the odd speech pattern and the fact that this woman was wearing long clothing and gloves on a scorching hot day but decided to not say anything about it. Yet. She wanted to get the date over with first. 'Wait, date?'

"I'll be here until around 8. I have to finish some reports, so…I'll see you later, then?"

Peridot nodded and blushed before walking out of the office area, her messy blonde shock of hair disappearing out of sight when she entered the elevator that would take her down to the basement. The dark-haired woman sighed and plopped down on her chair, a ghost of a smile visible on her lips when she realized that she was going to have a hopefully nice dinner with a really cute blonde. She had a weak spot for fair-haired women.

"Hey rookie, you really hit it off with the nerd", Amethyst snickered and made a rather vulgar gesture involving two of her fingers and her tongue before Garnet smacked the special agent upside the head after having gotten up from her chair to get more coffee from the coffee shop just outside the base.

"Uncalled for."

"Heh, sorry boss."

A cleanly shaven but generally unkempt looking man interrupted the conversation with a fake cough, having entered the office without anyone noticing, and instantly earned four different types of glares directed at him that he seemingly ignored with ease.

"I'm Lars from IT. We had some hardware problems until now so we couldn't send anyone up here to help with your overheating problem. I got a few minutes to check up on it now though."

Pearl stood from her chair and eyed the young looking man before pointing at the wiring covering nearly their entire floor.

"The problem has already been fixed by a charming young woman from your department minutes ago, we don't need your assistance."

"Woman?" Lars raised an eyebrow. "We don't have any females in my department, but if your problem's fixed I don't need to waste my time up here any longer." He shrugged before leaving as quietly as he had entered, leaving at least 3 of the special agents utterly confused.

"If Peri-whatever her name is wasn't from the IT department, then where the heck did she come from?"

Just as the leader of the team was about to leave the office and finally get the coffee she had gotten up for in the first place she turned around and addressed her entire team, face nearly unreadable behind her trademarked pair of shades.

"The new forensic scientist's name is Peridot by the way. I forgot to mention it."

Just as Garnet exited the with partitions separated office she heard a crash from where Amethyst had fallen off her chair in laughter at the horrified expression on their youngest team member's face, followed by Lapis' devastated exclamation of "I just made a fool out of myself in front of a genius. I just asked her out on a date, too!" The elevator arrived and the boss stepped inside, grinning when the doors closed with a ding.

"This is going to be really interesting."

A/N: The whole idea and the characters are losely based off NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service), one of my all time favourite TV shows.

If anyone watches it, Garnet is the boss like Gibbs, who loves coffee, protects her team and doesn't use more words than necessary. Amethyst is the joker like Tony, annoying her teammates with her childish humour but deep down she is very loyal and has a heart of gold. Pearl is a bit like Kate and a bit like Ziva, she cares a lot about what people think of her and how she looks but she can be absolutely lethal and is a quick thinker in dangerous situations. Lapis is more Ziva than Kate, but also kind of a mix of both, she has a really bad temper, being the newest agent she also relies on the others but she is a strong and very proud woman. Peridot is the awkward geek like McGee who aced through school like a child prodigy but lacks social skills but has a very upbeat personality when she talks about things she loves like Abby. Plus she loves forensics and science. I hope the explanations are at least a little helpful for anyone who doesn't know the show :)

I couldn't get this idea out of my head so I just had to write it down. It wasn't supposed to be more than a one-shot actually but I think this won't be enough to explain everything so I decided to make it a two-shot. First time writing an AU for Steven Universe so I hope it isn't too bad.

Phrase of the Day

We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

~Fyodor Dostoevsky

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