Work Text:
Jeff has started to become tired of Dinesh’s incessant ramblings.
Ever since their first night as roomies, the man has been asking for bottles of beer and vodka in vain attempts to look cool. Jeff hoped that Dinesh would run his mouth again and slip out another company secret, but lately, all he’s been getting is how amazing of a coder Gilfoyle is, and how much of a dick Gilfoyle is, and Gilfoyle this, Gilfoyle that.
This particular night, Dinesh is singing karaoke – badly, very badly – and Jeff is sitting in the middle of the sofa, palms around a half-empty cup of soda mixed with gin. God, I need a raise, he thinks, taking a long gulp in hopes of knocking himself out cold.
Anything would be better than this hell.
And an hour later, Dinesh is sprawled out in his sofa again, knees folded to make space for Jeff in the corner. Unsurprisingly, the name Gilfoyle leaps out of his drunk tongue, and Jeff says,
“Just fuck the guy already.”
He means it as a joke, as a way to make Dinesh shut up. But the glassy look that passes by his drunken eyes almost makes him look sober. He half-smiles nervously, and it takes Jeff a second to realize what was going on.
He shouldn’t have said anything at all.
+
Becky’s fingers are starting to feel numb as she continues clicking keys on her keyboard. A can of warm Pepsi sits beside her monitor, begging to be thrown away. But she’s almost done with her story for the day, and she doesn’t plan on ruining her momentum any time soon.
A classical acoustic tune serenades her ears, but the volume is turned down enough for her to hear if someone’s calling for her. Becky hears people talking, but they’re not talking to her, in particular.
“How long have you been writing that?” It was Gilfoyle.
Slowly, she mutes her headphones. She keeps her eyes glued to the screen.
“Goddamn two days,” Dinesh replies, annoyed. “And before you say a fucking thing, yes, I’m almost done.”
This isn’t really an odd occurrence. Pied Piper’s two CTOs have always been up on each other’s necks, and the tension between them have been obvious since day one. Becky found it hard to figure out if they genuinely hated each other’s guts or not, but she’s seen (and heard) enough from the both of them to conclude that they just like pretending to be disgusted by each other’s presence.
Gilfoyle slides out of his chair and walks to the office kitchen. Out of the corner of her eyes, Becky can see Dinesh’s eyes follow him, his typing slowing down a bit before he catches himself and continues with the work.
When Gilfoyle returns, he places a hot cup of coffee on Dinesh’s table, right beside his keyboard.
“Drink up, princess,” Gilfoyle says.
Dinesh eyes the drink before asking, “Did you poison this or something?”
The other man doesn’t respond. He sits back on his chair and takes a sip from his Satanist mug. Dinesh finally grabs his mug and takes a drink. And Becky swears, from her angle, as he takes a second sip, she can see a small smile form on his face.
+
Her new Tesla is cool as hell. And the best part is, she isn’t even paying 60% for it.
Priyanka sits at the driver’s seat of her car as she waits for another co-worker to finish at the bathroo.. The parking lot is almost empty, aside from two or three other vehicles, one of which belongs to one Dinesh Chugtai. The front of his car is all fucked up, and apparently, it was the result of trying to outrun Gilfoyle at the road near the building.
Speaking of the devil. Dinesh and Gilfoyle walk out into the garage. From her angle, they probably can’t even see her, but she sees them clearly.
They’re talking as they come closer to Dinesh’s car, and Priyanka’s lucky she’s good at reading lips. She can see them talking about ‘the apartment,’ ‘video games,’ and… Gilfoyle either said ‘angry bread’ or ‘empty bed,’ because whatever came out of his mouth makes Dinesh stop dead in his tracks.
Dinesh shrugs, says ‘sounds good to me,’ before he and Gilfoyle climb into his car.
+
When he arrives at work the next day, Gilfoyle is there. And Dinesh has taken up the empty desk behind him.
This is an unusual sight, but Danny just shrugs it off and walks over to his workstation.
Ever so often Danny would go to the kitchen or to the restroom, and he’d catch Dinesh sliding over next to Gilfoyle to talk to him and check his code, and vice versa. Danny thinks the world may be ending, because ever since he worked at Pied Piper, he’s never seen them work like that before. Sure, they still continue to bicker (he heard Dinesh say ‘fuck you’ to Gilfoyle, but it didn’t sound menacing or offensive. It sounded almost fond), but nothing over the top.
This is weird. Danny has gotten so used to the two of them constantly battling it out that small acts like this feels so foreign.
But as he continues watching them over his monitor, Danny can’t help but think that whatever happened between Dinesh and Gilfoyle, it was for the greater good.
+
It’s a normal work day.
As normal as fifty zombie-looking engineers with baggy eyes and piles of energy drinks in their work stations can be. Richard is holed up in his office, typing away as Holden delivers him a can of Red Bull every five hours. Even Jared is looking extra scary, big blue eyes glued to a screen filled with graphs and numbers.
Dinesh stands up and drags himself to the kitchen – the first person to even move from their wired position in two hours. He takes two mugs from the cupboard and proceeds to brew some classic coffee. He pours the hot liquid into Gilfoyle’s mug before his own, adding some cream and sugar to his brew.
There’s some leftover sandwiches from his lunch, and although he doesn’t feel at all hungry, he puts it in the microwave to let warm it up.
Dinesh scoops up the two mugs on his left hand, the handles balanced between his fingers, and takes the plate of sandwiches on his other hand. He doesn’t feel the following eyes of several of his employees as he puts down the plate on Gilfoyle’s desk and hands Gilfoyle his favourite black coffee.
Gilfoyle smiles and says, “Thanks, babe.”
Before Dinesh could even go back to his seat, a loud clang echoes around the room. Startled, he turns to an overly excited Holden, holding a large stick beside the vibrating gong. As if on cue, the whole office dissolves into applause; some, even opting for a standing ovation. Richard walks out from his office, startled by the noise, and Jared moves to stand beside him. Gilfoyle, confused, rises from his seat.
Dinesh lamely points at the gong. “What the hell was that?”
“The engineers had a bet,” Danny explains, looking a tad bit happier than his usual sour look. “Within a month, one way or another, you’d finally out your relationship to the office. Turns out we’re right, three weeks too early.”
After a beat, everyone returned to their designated positions. Apparently, the engineers were more frustrated at how long it took for them to come out than they were excited at the revelation. Dinesh hovered beside Gilfoyle, warm coffee in their hands, as their four eyes followed Danny’s retreating figure.
“Wanna fire him?” Dinesh asks.
“Nah,” Gilfoyle says, looking at him. “Let ‘em have this one.”
Dinesh turns to him for a moment before walking back to his computer. “Next time I hear that gong make a single fucking noise in this office, I’m definitely firing him.”
“Sure, babe,” Gilfoyle sits back on his chair, knowing perfectly well Richard won’t allow it. “Whatever you say.”