On a Valentine's Day

The day seemed longer, for some reason, the fact that the Alpha had decided it was a day to stay in, a day to relax inside well away from anything to do with the ministry. He didn't want to deal with any of the things that went along with the holiday everyone seemed to be celebrating. He didn't want to taste the candy hearts or smell the roses and chocolate that plagued the air on this such an occasion. He had barely tolerated the holiday in the years before he became head auror, and now he could barely deal with it.

Some part of him mused that throwing himself at his work was a very Kallie-like approach to things, but he was no longer listening to that part. She was not something he should be dwelling on, not anymore, and definately not on a day like today.

He was somewhat surprised he wasn't drunk already. It was nearly noon - he could hear the flirtation with his secretary that was going on through the door; evidence of the lunch hour - and he could almost pretend that every time he glanced up at the door it would open and his Volchonka would be there, perhaps with Evalina, and they would spend the day together.

It was hard to ignore that the Minister and his deputy Auror were probably out doing something heart-wrenchingly adorable together.

Taking a small sip of the strong alcohol he kept beside him on most days, the Alpha gazed down at his work, frowning slightly. He even needed a distraction from this. Hunting down the bastards that had kidnapped her was still a high priority - they already had suspects, and a lead - but on a day like today... he wasn't feeling it. He wasn't feeling much of anything.

He needed a distraction.

There were many things that Vera was, however one of them was not subtle. Anything she did, she did it big, or she didn't do it at all. After all, what was the point? If you were going to do it might as well throw your all into it.

Her bright heals, clacked against the floor as she waltzed passed the woman who blinked wide eyed at her, dragging herself away from the young man leaning on her table long enough to utter some attempt to stop her, that Vera just waved off.

"Don't mind me! I'll let myself in, keep up the flirting - he's cute." She flashed the two a wide grin before pushing open the door, and walking right in. The door was already slamming shut by the time she had thrown herself into a chair across from his table, legs hanging over the side, long hair sweeping the floor, and was knocking back the drink she had stolen from his table.

"Are you actually working? I think my last rant over corrected if you're working at a moment like this," her grin was wide as she swept over his features. It had been too long since she'd last looked at him. Tossing a box across the table she shrugged, "Have some chocolates.. Larry gave them to me.. oh wait, maybe his name was Karl... Robert?"

She shrugged and grin.

"Well the last time you saw me I didn't have two ki- Vera!" As if just realizing who he was talking to, Brock looked upward, a grin splitting across his features even as he caught the chocolate. "There you are! I was wondering when you'd get back from... where ever you went. Where did you go? They wouldn't tell me." He pouted, before turning his attention to the chocolate. He noticed that it was in the shape of a heart and wrinkled his nose distastefully, sliding it away.

"No thanks on the chocolate. Unless you want me poisoned or something. That stuff is disgusting."

"You should date people with more memorable names." He noted, poking the box of chocolates with the end of his ballpoint pen. It shifted slightly, but ultimately went nowhere. "Take it away! It's polluting my airspace!" Pouting at the heart shaped thing as if it had personally wronged him, the man poked it again, acting much more like a three year old than a thirty some odd years old man.

His eyes returned to her, and he raised an eyebrow. "What? No hug? You're gone for ages and I get nothing? I see how it is." His voice was teasing, but there was some undertone there, something that sounded suspiciously like... something he didn't want to think about.

"Grow up will you," Vera rolled her eyes as she took the chocolate back, grabbing the first clean container like structure from the man's desk she saw, and dumped the chocolates in. She grabbed the card from the top of the box before she brought out her wand and promptly burnt the offending object - like she didn't know it was the box, not the chocolates that were making him act like a two year old. Examining the card she slid the glass of chocolates back across the table. "Oh, his name was Carlos," the woman frowned and shrugged. "Karl was sort of close. What's fun in remembering their names?"

She raised an eyebrow, even as she pushed down the raise of hope that jumbled in her. He wasn't thinking of anything more than a friend would. She knew that, and yet she'd still came back. Vera knew if asked she'd always come back.

Turning so her bare feet - her shoes had already clacked to the floor - were on the ground, she gave a passive shrug and pushed herself out of the chair, "Oh you know, I was around. Travelled a bit, America, that place that's above it, settled down somewhere unbearably hot. Apparently we had a rogue wolf problem they thought my presence would help." She spoke, knowing perfectly well he'd know none of this; she had made it clear that she hadn't wanted him to know. If she knew he didn't know where she was, then Vera could pretend that was the reason he wasn't chasing after her, not because he was always chasing someone else. "But I'm sure you never really bothered to ask. I always turn up again don't I? Like a bad penny."

Instead of stopping when she came to stand beside his chair, she promptly flopped herself into his lap, her grin bright again as she looked up at him. Vera knew she might be pushing her luck, but she was a luck pusher, there was nothing else to it. Taking in his features again for a brief moment, she had thought she had remembered them perfectly, but there was just some things even memory couldn't keep; the woman wrapped her arms around him, her cheek resting on his shoulder of its own accord and a moment just like that, just taking in the way he felt, smelt - just taking in him. Who knew if anyone would bother calling her back next time.

"I missed you."

"I did so ask." Brock countered, a small pout spreading across his lips for the briefest moment, even as his arm wound around her waist. "Zino wouldn't tell me." Pressing his forehead against the side of her face, he made a small sound in the back of his throat, the wolf form of communication coming much easier than the human form. He opened an eye to gaze up at her upon finding his eyes closed, his lungs full of her familiar scent. The truth of it was, for the longest time, Vera had been the only one there, the only constant other than Zino, and even the other wolf had kept his distance mostly. Vera had always been there.

He'd missed that.

His hold around her tightened, and though he didn't say it, he felt the same.

He'd missed her.

"So why are you here, instead of out wooing some smuck out onto a date with you?" He asked innocently, glancing at the time. Lunch. His stomach grumbled slightly, and he grimaced. "Wanna do lunch?"

She didn't pull away. Perhaps she should have, perhaps it would have been better if she had left it as a hug, and simply went back to her side of the desk, but she didn't. What was there to lose, in the long run, from a few moments of closeness. It wasn't like she had him, to lose him.

Besides, she was comfortable where she was. And Vera liked being comfortable.

"Well," she commented lightly after nuzzling her head slight against his, returning the soft, almost animalistic, mew "I'm here now - who cares about the past, right?"

It was almost hard to keep her tone causal, endlessly having to reason to herself that the question was born out of nothing more than curiosity, "Oh, I grew tired of smucks; they're all the same, nice or funny or sweet, but in the end there just isn't anything there worth sticking around for."

"If you're paying, I most definitely want to do lunch."

"Smucks can be good for somethings." Brock countered, something in his eyes flashing before he quelled it and grinned instead. "Useless mostly, the lot of them." He glanced at the clock again, and then his desk, quite certain that he no longer wanted anything to do with work.

"To lunch then!" Swinging her around him easily, he got her over his shoulder, holding her around the legs, finishing the move as he stood. "Onward!" Moving across his office, he opened the door, stepping through and whistling as if nothing were out of the ordinary, even as his secretary jolted upward, rolling her chair closer to underneath her desk.

"H-hello there Mr- Brock." She said, a pre-existing blush flaring to life as her boss appeared simply out of nowhere.

"Deedee!" He exclaimed, coming to a stop before he desk and grinning wolfishly at her. "I am off to lunch, post pone all of whatever people want to do with me today, tell them I'm on a date or something. Stress the importance and tell them not to call and collect the messages and- you know the drill. I'm done with work today and..." He leaned forward conspiritually, all the world as if he didn't have a woman over his shoulder. "Tell Chuck his robes are sticking out from under the desk. It's quite obvious actually. Amateur." Knocking a fist against the desk and calling a greeting to the boy underneath, Brock started away, a grin flitting across his lips at his secretary's giggle.

"Where would you like to go, Volchitsu?"

"I got fired for that once," Vera commented lightly to the secretary, as the passed, grin on her face wide and bright. "My boss was not a very amusing woman. Prudish as hell. Told her if she just tried it... Hmm, maybe that's why I got fired." She shrugged and laughed, "Shit of a job anyway. Later Chuck!!"

She giggled and leaned forward onto Brock as they walked away. She had no care what-so-over about the glances they were getting, or the fact that her shoes were still sitting on his office floor. Just a better excuse to make him carry her everywhere, she felt.

"I want to go... somewhere new. Exciting," she tilted her head so her long hair was dangling over him. "Surprise me, Captain."

"New and exciting..." He hummed softly, making his way through the ministry quite oblivious to the rest of the world. "I want some gold old fashioned fast food. I haven't had any in ages." Sliding into the emptying elevator - who's inhabitance gave him a knowing look and left - Brock set Vera down onto her feet, making sure that the floor was completely fine first, holding her up until he was sure.

"Surprises are surprises are... dumb?" He frowned. "I'm no good at surprises on such short notice I-" Frowning, he grinned and leaned forward, brushing his lips against hers. "There. A Surprise. Can we go eat now?"

"No fast food in ages? Good lord, I've come not a moment too soon! What have they done to you," her eyes were flashing impishly even as she had pulled her expression into one of horrified surprise, "Don't tell me you were eating something hea-"

On the ground again, she froze in confusion as he got closer, and then her brain shut down entirely as he quickly brush his lips against hers. Her heart did a funny little beat skip, where for the briefest second she was sure she might have been having a heart attack.

She had asked for a surprise, and he had certainly delivered. Even if he was currently thinking nothing of it now.

Running a hand through her hair, she tried to pull herself back together, to think as little of it as he currently was. "Yeah... yeah, we can go eat now."

She let her had drop to her side and she had to give herself a little shake, her head finally clearing, and she pulled a grin back up on her face.

"Lead the way oh great and mighty leader."

It was a slight change, the difference between standing beside her with the door closed and shifting her back over his shoulder as they opened into the atrium. "I've decided that I want American food!" He proclaimed, going off at a sprint. The workers simply stepped a side, more than used to his antics, though there may have been one flash of a camera, it was quickly repressed and dealt with.

"We're going to America for... Fried Chicken. Let's go." He slid into the floo, placing her onto her feet as they spun away.