Work Text:
Elise rapped her knuckles twice on Sarah’s desk top. “Have you been here all night? You look exhausted.”
Sarah stifled a yawn behind her hand. “Not all night, but I did come in early, yeah. Had some scratch tracks I wanted to lay down and we are booked today.” She nodded at the paper coffee cup her boss held by the rim edges. “That for me?”
Elise hummed thoughtfully, waggling the cup thoughtfully between her thumb and index finger. “Would it improve your mood by a noticeable margin if I said yes?”
“Hate that you asked that, but yeah, sure. What are you about to ruin that mood with?”
Sarah wrapped her hands gratefully around the offered drink, enjoying the warmth of the cup as Elise took a slim manila folder from under her arm.
“I doubt it’s about to ruin your mood necessarily,” she corrected herself, though the way her mouth twisted skeptically as she eyed the folder belied the words a little. “But I do have some new work for you later this week.”
Sarah wrinkled her nose even as she took a sip from her coffee—plain, black. Just the way the both of them drank it. “Cutting it close on the deadline, aren’t we?”
“He’s paying the rush fee, if that helps at all.”
It did, a little. “Ugh, fine, gimme.”
Elise cocked her head down at Sarah’s ragged-looking manuscript notebook. “Trade you.”
Sarah laughed but obliged, sticking a paperclip on the page to mark her place and handing it up. “Feel free, but it’s not Syren work so you’re probably going to hate it.” She placed the manila folder next to her laptop. “It’s mostly just jotting down ideas for now.”
“Hm.” The noise was noncommittal, but the light arch of her manicured brow as she flipped through the pages of scrawled sheet music gave her away. “Well, as ever, on a technical level your musicianship is truly impressive.”
Sarah tucked a hand under her chin, giving an exaggerated flutter of her eyelashes. “You love it. It’s what you keep me around for.”
“Hm.” That one was more judgy. Sarah was still pretty sure it would win her over one of these days. “This is for that new project you’ve been collaborating on?”
“Yep. Katarina and I were up late last night hashing some ideas out over Discord—” Elise looked up sharply, brows lifting in surprise at the name. Sarah blinked. “What’s that look for?”
“Katarina... Why do I know that name?”
Sarah winced internally. She’d been shooting the shit about the project with enough of her friends now that she’d forgotten that Elise was also from Noxus. “Oh, you’d probably be familiar with her family,” she tried to gloss over it. “She’s Noxian, herself—”
Elise gave a bark of laughter somewhere between delighted and devious, a hand shooting up as if to hold the mirth on her mouth. “Surely you’re not talking about the eldest du Couteau.”
“The very one. You know her family, then?”
“Mm. Never had much cause to interact with them, personally, but we’ve had a few of their contracts come through to record here. Absolutely ruthless business, theirs. Which I can respect, I suppose.” Elise studied her from the corner of her eye, equal parts curious and critical. “How is she, anyway? To hear her parents talk, she was a maximum of two months out from death, arrest, or rehab.”
Sarah grimaced. She’d only done a cursory Google search on the whole morbid affair, but from the little she’d read, that did sound like something her parents would’ve said to save face. “She’s fine. Working as an EMT now.”
Elise’s grin was truly wicked. “Oh, they would hate to hear that,” she chuckled, finally handing Sarah’s notebook back. “Your little thing with your bandmate is cute, though. You seem a lot happier these days. Good for you.”
Sarah had started to open the folder of her latest assignment, but the strangeness of the statement had her closing it back immediately, brow furrowed in genuine bewilderment. “My what?”
“With the du Couteau girl?”
The warmth of a blush was already settling into her cheeks even as Sarah squinted, pursing her lips. “I don’t think we really have a... thing honestly.”
“No?”
The full weight of Elise’s look of amused knowing made Sarah cringe back into her office chair. Her boss was hard to lie to. “I mean like...” She floundered here, making a meaningless circular gesture with one hand as she leaned back in her seat. “I guess we’ve hooked up a few times. Mostly before we decided to work together, mind. But like, I don’t think that makes it a thing.”
Elise stared at her for a long moment, brows raised in what was either amusement or incredulity. “You’re saying multiple hookups and you don’t think it’s a thing?”
“I mean. When you phrase it that way.”
“I would love to hear how you’d phrase it so it sounded any other way.”
Sarah huffed, her blush worsening. “Listen.”
“I’m listening.”
Silence for a long moment.
Then Sarah grumbled wordlessly, flipping open the folder Elise had brought over to begin with. Elise only laughed darkly, openly delighting in Sarah’s mortification.
“Oh, to be a young single twenty-something performing intricate rituals to explain why she’s technically single,” she pretended to sigh wistfully, draping the back of her hand sarcastically against her forehead. “Honestly, I don’t know how anyone ever had the energy for that. Youth continues to be wasted on the young, I suppose.”
Sarah paused from looking over her contract to squint up at her. It wasn’t like she wasn’t aware that Elise had some years over her. That much was clear. But it was also clear that Elise went to considerable lengths to maintain her very particular look, too. Sarah had mentally tried to do the calculations a few times over the past few years of working with her, but had yet to arrive at a conclusion that sounded right.
“...How old ar—”
Elise cut a withering stare at her, belied only slightly by the amusement in her voice: “You can’t make a pass at a lady and ask her age in the same conversation, Fortune. It’s fucking rude.”
The unexpected profanity did make Sarah snort, at least. “Damn. Can’t believe I fumbled my hot milf boss just that fast.” She pretended to sigh wistfully.
Elise made a face. “Hm. I wouldn’t say that.”
“You don’t think it was a fumble?” Interesting.
“No, it was,” Elise reassured her dryly. “But I disagree with the way you said it.” She nodded down at the folder on her desk. “Stop worrying about my age and your not-thing and see to that instead. It’s booked in for Friday and I do need you in top form for it.”