-5-
Elena was watching Tseng from just outside his office, a hobby of hers. The man got so absorbed in his work, he never even noticed her standing just across the way. Elena had tried many times to categorize just what it was that she found so attractive about her superior, but she couldn't just peg one thing.
There was his hair, which Elena found to be gorgeous. So long and black and shiny, yet always neat and out of his face. Then there was the small tilak on his forehead, and his large brown eyes that Elena felt were she allowed to she might gaze into for hours. Elena also loved the way that he was so good at his job. Tseng had been a Turk for longer than almost anyone in the company, and Elena felt there was no better man to head up the Department of Administrative Research. And then there were the little things, the way he would bite his lower lip slightly as he typed, his dry sense of humor, the way he carried himself when he walked.
"You should just go get him, Laney," she heard a voice whisper in her ear suddenly. Elena jumped and then wheeled around on the redhead standing behind her.
"Don't you have something better to do Reno? Like your mission?" Reno merely stuck his tongue out at the blond woman.
"My mission is none of your concern, and just for your information it's the kind you have to after work, yo. Nah, this is a far better usage of my time."
Elena rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Do you enjoy ruining my day?" she said, truly bewildered as to his motivation to annoy her. Reno shook his head, laughing.
"Laney, I'm not ruining you day, I just want to help you, yo!" he said. "Tseng would rather die before admitting it, but I've seen the way he watches you at staff meetings. You just need to give him an opportunity to get to know you better, something that is never going to happen if you never talk to the guy!"
Elena was slightly scared by how much sense that almost made. There was no way that Reno, of all people, could give good relationship advice. But before she had a chance to respond to this, Reno was pushing her into Tseng's office.
"Reno NO! I don't want-- what are you--?"
But then Reno had run off snickering and Elena was alone in Tseng's office with the very man who made her knees go weak. She looked up at that man, who was now eying her dubiously.
"Reno... I just... I'll go now, I'm sorry, sir," she said, her skin flushing extremely red. She did not look Tseng in the eye. Just as she was turning to leave when he surprised her by replying.
"Yes, that man can be quite troublesome," he said. Elena looked up. Tseng was smiling at her. She tried to smile back but she could feel her face getting hotter and hotter. But then Tseng's brow furrowed. "Elena, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."
"Yes?" she said breathlessly.
"Would you- what I mean to say is might you- consider doing something outside of work with me?"
Elena felt her heart skip a beat. Okay, she'd forgive Reno this time. But only this once.
