gas pedal [ondina]

[Deleted]

Kassian was taking another night at the Ministry. It was typical of him - coming to work early, leaving late, and putting his nose to the grindstone for every moment in between. Kassian much preferred being at the Ministry, because his apartment was, in a word, lonely. It was easier to avoid how empty his life was when he wasn't home. At work, his life wasn't empty - there was always something to do, and if he thought only about the things he did, Kassian could trick himself into thinking that he was making a difference. The only bad thing about making his work his life was that everyone seemed to think that because they were his colleagues, they deserved some of his life, his story. They asked questions about his past and about his present and about his future. Kassian couldn't decide which of the three he loathed the most. In the past, there was death. In the present, there was death. In the future, there was death. He didn't want to see any of it, but he was forced to. Kassian let out a heavy sigh, louder than he had intended, and glanced around surreptitiously to see if there was even anyone left to hear him. He sighed again, more quietly this time, and then returned to the papers in front of him.

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

EVERYTHING SEEMED TO BEGIN WITH 'OPPORTUNITY'. It was how Ondina had gotten her internship, her father's kindness and desperation for her to succeed. Her impatient desire to get a foothold in some kind of power position. But, she was just an intern, and for the most part all Ondina had done was deal with other wizard's paper work. So, when opportunity called, Ondina answered.

It was just a small step up, and a tiring one at that, but Ondina was stubborn. When her superior had asked if she had time that evening to stay late and proof read some trade forms before they were sent away, she had agreed, smiling behind gritted teeth. By the time she was done her eyes ached and she had two paper cuts. But, at least her make up was still in place. Checked continuously in the reflection of a polished brass lamp.

From behind her tiny little desk, Ondina stamped the last of her papers and began to clear away her things. She was finally done, but a lift of her head told her it was dark outside already. She felt like the only person in the whole of the Ministry. If she could confirm that, well... she'd have a right good look around. Alas, she pulled on her leather gloves and wrapped a light scarf around her neck to keep out the chill, resigning herself to simply leaving.

However, just as she left her desk, manoeuvring through the halls of her floor, she heard a sigh from a cracked doorway up ahead. So she wasn't the only one left on the floor. Tugging at her glove lightly, Ondina suddenly had a sway in her hips as she slowly made her way toward the open office door. But rather than simply walk past, she stopped, shifting the door wider with the toe of her booted foot and peering inside.

"I thought I was only the sad sack working away daylight, tonight..." Ondina said in greeting, her voice low and breathy. She tried to make it sound sultry, but it was really due to a chronic lack of air and a hard working effort to use as little as possible. "Must me exciting if it's keeping you." Ondina shifted a little on her tip-toes, acting as if to peer over a shoulder much too far away. It was supposed to be cute, approachable, a practised act. But she really did want to know...

@kassian

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

People at the Ministry sometimes worked odd hours, and chief among those were the various interns. Some of them worked odd hours so that they could work a second job – a sentiment that made Kassian rather sad, but one he also understood – but others worked crazy shifts in a desperate attempt to get ahead in their chosen field. Kassian appreciated the ambition, he really did, but he also thought that some of the interns needed to learn how to balance their work and home lives. His balance worked for him because he had no home life – he barely even had friends, so no one was constantly pestering him to work less so that he was available to hang out more. All this to say, Kassian wasn’t all that surprised when he noticed that there was another person in the area, and that said person was an intern.

Her voice was low and breathy, and Kassian wondered, for a moment, if the girl was trying to seduce him. She did realize that he was almost twice her age, right? She said that his work must have been exciting if it was keeping him up, and he blinked at her. “Not exciting, exactly, but important.” He answered. Most of Kassian’s work involved summarizing various incidents and offering advice on how to proceed in other areas, so it wasn’t the kind of work that brought glory or fame… but it was important to keep the Ministry in good standing with their international counterparts.

Ondina Nell Weasley

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

ONDINA HAD BEEN READY TO LEAVE, but suddenly that eager feeling drifted away. Maybe it was because it was late, and people tended to be a little looser after sunset. Their tongues unrolling in the dark. She leaned against the door frame, her head tilted so that a tumble of red hair fell over one shoulder, the curls a little flatter than they'd been that morning.

"Important," Ondina echoed, because long ago she'd realised that most of the time people just needed to hear their own words back again to say a little more.

"I wish I could say the same..." Ondina sighed dramatically, running her hands over the length of her scarf.  "The best thing they let us interns do is stamp trade forms." She gently tugged one of her gloves off, revealing milky hands with red painted tips. "The ink stains your fingers something awful." And she showed him, the pads of her fingers dusted a little dark. She was getting comfortable. 

@kassian

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Kassian just nodded when the girl repeated what he had said, unsure of why she felt the need to echo him. He considered repeating the word back to her, just so she’d realize how ridiculous it was. But Kassian, for all his flaws, wasn’t a cruel person, even when situations made him uncomfortable… like this one was quickly beginning to. Kassian wasn’t sure if he was reading too much into it all because he was starved for physical affection, but he didn’t really care. Even if the girl was trying to flirt with him, he wasn’t going to fall into bed with her. She was practically a child still!

“Everything in a department is important.” Kassian responded gruffly when the redhead said that the only thing they let interns do was stamp forms. He was of the opinion that every job contributed to the overall workings of the Ministry, from their plethora of interns all the way up to the Minister of Magic. Everyone had a purpose, like cogs in some great machine. “There are spells that will clean the ink off.” Kassian offered. She was not the first person to have ink on her fingers, after all, and they were magic.

Ondina Nell Weasley

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

ONDINA WASN'T FLIRTING SO MUCH AS SHE WAS FISHING. It just so happened that sometimes the two went hand and hand. She tended to be a fairly forward person, with a concise idea of what she wanted. And this just so happened to be one of them. She wanted to know what he was working on, and why'd he'd stayed late.

"Sure." Ondina said, rolling her eyes a little as she smiled. Everything is important! You all mean something to the Ministry! Tag lines for shitty jobs, she reckoned. "Mine just so happens to be a little tedious at times." Ondina shifted her gaze to the door she'd toed open, looking for the brass plaque that adorned most these days, disregarding his comment about the ink on fingers. "What about your work, Kassian?" She drew out his name like it was familiar. "I doubt they stick you with trade forms." 

@kassian

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Kassian took a deep breath in, and let it out through his nose. It appeared he was not going to be left alone anytime soon. The girl was persistent, he would give her that. “So does mine.” He replied. Everything that was worth doing ended up being a little tedious sometimes, at least in the Ministry – everything had to be recorded and documented, so that if something bad came of it, at least there would be a record of where things had gone wrong. Not even Aurors could escape doing paperwork.

Kassian’s shoulders tensed slightly when he heard the girl say his name, wondering how she had learned it before realizing that it was literally written on his door. He needed to stop being so paranoid, Kassian told himself. “I work with international incidents. Anytime a magical citizen under the Ministry’s jurisdiction is involved in any incident outside the United Kingdom, I have to make a record of it, and sometimes follow up.” He explained. His job would be changing when he took over for Padma as the head of the department, but that wasn’t news he was going to be sharing with anyone, let alone an intern whose name he didn’t even know.

Ondina Nell Weasley

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

THE SIGN ON THE DOOR SAID THAT KASSIAN ANZURES. Shiny, polished brass. She hadn't taken much account of the department. Passing it without thought every day as she clocked out. But tonight had been different, with only one single person on the floor, it made Ondina stopped. And she was interested. Very interested. 

"Wow," Ondina said, a lilt of enthusiasm in her breathless voice. "That doesn't sound tedious at all." It really didn't, she looked down at the ink on her fingers before looking up, a practised, half alive smile on her face. "And like, by incident, you mean crime?" She asked, purposefully sounding a little dull and stupid. Better men like Kassian saw her as nothing but an empty vessel. The type of girl who didn't even clean the ink off her fingers before she left her desk. "You must be a busy man these days."

@kassian

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

The girl said that his work didn’t sound tedious at all, and Kassian just raised his eyebrows at her. She obviously didn’t know much about bureaucracy, because even the most exciting things could be made tedious with enough repetition and enough paperwork. She asked if incident meant crime, and Kassian shrugged. “Kind of. Anything that someone witnesses that would have to go on the record for MACUSA, or the French Ministry, or what have you, also needs to be recorded here.” Sometimes that meant crimes, but it could also just mean that they were at the site of something else of import that happened, and needed to be detained for observation or questioning. Kassian couldn’t think of any particular examples, but assuming that all international incidents involved crimes of some sort wasn’t true – accidents happened, too. Kassian shrugged when the redhead said that he must have been a busy man these days. “You can always be busy here, if you look hard enough.” There was always more work to be done in the Ministry, and Kassian always had time to do it, so he was busy – but busy by choice.

Ondina Nell Weasley

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

KASSIAN WAS SHAPING UP TO BE A SOBER MAN. Straight to the point, no room for nonsense or frivolity. Or maybe that was just for her. But it didn't put Ondina off. In fact, she was all the more intrigued. Whatever he had in that office, well it could be useful. She'd have to consult with Elaine, of course, but it was enough to consider. It didn't hurt that he was handsome, neither.

"Oh." Ondina said, humming under her breath as she listened with wide brown eyes. "And you write all of those reports here?" Shaking her head with a sigh, Ondina thought about her reply before she said. "No wonder you work late." The days were chock full of 'incidents' lately, international and otherwise. Although Ondina probably knew as much about those as Kassian.

In these trying times, the Ministry was a busy place to be. And a tactical one, too. "Are you almost done?" Ondina said, pushing off the frame of the door. She realised that sticking to that same topic was probably going to get her nowhere, and she didn't want him to catch that she was fishing. "I could help you clear up, if you wanted." She offered, an uncharacteristic move but one she used to her own advantage. "It's dark and I could use the company." 

@kassian

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Kassian shook his head when Ondina asked if he wrote all of the reports. There were a lot of incident reports, more than one person could reasonably handle. “I write the more important ones.” He said. It sounded rather cocky now that it had come out of his mouth, but it was the truth; little details in reports like those could make or break their relationships with foreign governments, and allowing a novice to write them could possibly put the Ministry in a tense diplomatic situation, which no one wanted. “I have nothing else to do.” Kassian said evenly when Ondina commented about working so late. That probably was a mistake, if she was still intent on maybe-flirting with him.

When asked if he was almost done, Kassian blinked. Hadn’t he just said that there was always work to be done if you looked for it? He would never really be finished – just exhausted enough that he gave into his bodily need for sleep. Ondina offered to clear up, and Kassian shook his head. “I’ll manage fine on my own.” It wasn’t like he had much that needed to be cleaned – just papers to be reorganized and sent off to their proper locations when the morning came. Kassian was about to deny Ondina outright, but she mentioned the dark and needing company, and Kassian sighed. Even if he wasn’t interested in the girl, he wasn’t about to let some kid walk home alone in the dark if he could help it, especially with the way things had been recently. “Let me grab my cloak.” Kassian said, gently stacking the parchments he had been looking at for further consideration the next day. His cloak was in the back corner of the room, and he took it off the hook before turning to the door, and Ondina. He gestured for her to lead the way.

Ondina Nell Weasley

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

HE 'WROTE THE MORE IMPORTANT ONES'. A simple sentence, but it was all Ondina needed to hear. The phrase that reeled her in and focused her attention on Kassian in a brand new kind of way. Beyond a handsome face by a flickering gas lamp. A little ways past simple curiosity for information, a feeling Ondina harboured for most superiors in her department.

Kassian was just lucky enough to catch Ondina's singular attention. Which in itself was a force to be reckoned with. She leaned against the frame of the door, and honestly didn't expect Kassian to accept her offer to clean up. Was both disappointed at missing the chance to sneak a peek and some of those 'important files' as much as she was relieved - cleaning had never been her forte.

"I don't doubt that..." Ondina muttered under her breath, casting appreciative eyes to Kassian that he couldn't see beyond stacking papers. But, when she'd asked for company on her way out, she relied on a man's innate and bothersome worry for unassuming women. She, in her thin and bony silhouette, was something to be coddled. As had been the case all throughout her childhood. Experience had taught Ondina how to use that to her advantage. Like getting a good looking and interesting man to walk her out.

Alternative motives aside, it was a win. She lounged against the door frame, humming lightly under her breath as she waited for Kassian to stack his things together and throw his robe on. "You're ever so kind, Kassian," She preened, tugging her glove back on carefully and pushing off from the frame, stepping back out in to the hallway before turning to watch him lock up. This she was careful to watch without paying too close attention. Dawdling on her feet as if to convey a slight restlessness.

"With pleasure," Ondina said with a sunny smile, so out of character but Kassian didn't know that. She swayed forward, not too audaciously, she was well practised. But soon she played her short legs, slowing her pace so that eventually they walked side by side. She looked up at him, "I'm Ondina, by the way." Introducing herself seemed a given. "Ondina Weasley." 

@kassian

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

The redhead said that he was ever so kind, and just those words were enough to make Kassian regret his decision to be a decent human being. He had to force himself to take a few breaths so that he wouldn’t say something that he couldn’t take back. The intern stepped into the hallway as he locked the door to his office, and Kassian could feel her shifting slightly nearby to him, like she couldn’t wait to be out of there. Kassian could relate, though he had a feeling that they were probably feeling restless for different reasons. He just wanted to be away from her, because she was beginning to give him the creeps.

The girl introduced herself as Ondina Weasley, and Kassian nodded to that. He knew that there was more than one Weasley in the Ministry – most notably the Minister, who had married into the family, and her predecessor, who was the current Minister’s niece. Kassian wasn’t one for nepotism, though, so if Ondina had meant to impress him with her lineage, she had failed. “Pleasure.” He rumbled in reply, since she obviously knew his name already. Kassian led them into the elevator, trying to look anywhere but at Ondina. “Why did you decide to join International Cooperation?” Kassian asked, hoping that talking about work would make her less likely to try something.

Ondina Nell Weasley

[Ondina Nell Weasley]

i dare you.

ONDINA DIDN'T THINK MUCH ABOUT BEING A WEASLEY. Unless it served her well to do so. She had thrown it out in conversation in the odd chance it would heighten his dull shine to her, but it merely seemed bounce off whatever wall Kassian had built between them. It was a difficult tight rope to walk, but this time it had failed. Ondina wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn't react. Simply continuing to walk beside Kassian at a friendly rate.

The elevator loomed ahead, and Ondina stepped in before Kassian. The doors closing. She wasn't socially inept, Ondina could tell her flirting and informal proximity to Kassian wasn't doing what it usually did. Which is to say, reel people in like fish on a hook. But, she didn't hate a challenge. She simply preferred a guaranteed win, of course. But a challenge was... well challenging. The elevator doors closed and silence enveloped them, until oddly enough Kassian broke it. He simply beat Ondina to it, but it was a question Ondina had fielded many times. Why the Ministry? Why International Cooperation?

"Well..." Ondina began, licking her lips as she considered the best reply for her company. "Politics in general have always interested me," loosely based, of course, politics meant power in this day and age and if you wanted to be heard the higher the better. "I like having an opinion and it just so happens that here - sometimes - your opinion can hold more weight than it would outside." Ondina looked up at Kassian, quirking her brows lightly. "I have a lot of opinions." Mostly concerning herself.

Shrugging her shoulders, Ondina sighed. "As for my department... well that's a little less simply put." Tongue in cheek, Ondina considered a slight wavering of honesty. "It's a huge department, with a pretty extensive wingspan across the globe." She looked at Kassian from the corner of her eye. "That, in particular, interests me about my department. Plus, there was an opening." Finished, she turned to face him more fully, the elevator almost to their floor. "How about you, Kassian?" Ondina said, quirking her brows expectantly. "Why the Ministry?"

@kassian

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Kassian was pleased that the question seemed to have directed Ondina away from flirting with him. She had licked her lips, but that was natural for someone before beginning the sort of speech Ondina had given… right? She said that politics had always interested her, which made Kassian a little wary. People who had always wanted to go into politics could be more cutthroat than the average. Kassian was hardly one to talk, since his first and only job had been with the Ministry, but he had never let himself dream anything, so dreaming of that job was kind of silly. Ondina said that she liked having an opinion, and that sometimes in the Ministry, her opinion meant more. She said she had a lot of opinions, and Kassian chuckled lowly. He could tell – but that would be rude to say.

The reasoning behind her choosing the department was a little blander, but definitely typical of someone who was a career politician of sorts. She wanted something big, and something powerful. As for having an opening, Kassian didn’t buy that – most Ministry departments had openings at any given time, since there were constantly people leaving for greener pastures. Like his Department Head. Kassian was still trying not to think too hard about his ascension. He was certain Ondina would try to capitalize on that, though. She asked why he chose the Ministry, and Kassian shrugged. “There were no better options.” He wasn’t planning on giving her his whole sordid backstory anytime soon. “As for the department, you can probably tell why.” Kassian’s accent was not British by any stretch of the imagination – it was one of the only things that he had left from Mexico.

Ondina Nell Weasley