[9th September]

Anya was excited and nervous. Her hand ran through her middle length red brown hair. She would start her new job today and she hoped she wouldn't mess up and that her coworkers would be chill. She took a sip out of her cup full of hot chocolate to calm her nerves.

It was a sunny and quite warm morning in September and Anya stopped at the huge fountain in the middle of the park she was walking through to reach her new place of work. When she saw the ground of the fountain covered with coins which sparkled due to the first sunrays reflecting on the water surface, she fidgeted in her pocket for a coin of her own which she eventually tossed into the fountain - for good luck. She was just about to resume her way when something big and furry skidded past her and landed in the fountain with a splash drenching Anya's upper body in the process.

Ben was late. He had promised Cian to be professional and that meant he had to be in the Lair early today but he had run late after all. So he had shifted into his Snow Leopard form, clamped his small workbag in his mouth and ran the whole way. On the home stretch - the park around the corner - he misjudged his speed, didn't make the turn and tumbled into the big fountain, splashing some woman in the process. He tried for a charming 'Sorry' smile - which derailed because of the bag he carried in his mouth - and ran off.

The shifter - at least Anya presumed it was one because it carried a bag - shot her what could be anything from an apologetic look, a sneer or a laugh, and ran off. "So much for my first impression…" she grumbled looking in the direction the huge white/grey cat had vanished. Had that been a freaking Snow Leopard? A smile appeared on her lips while shook her head in slight disbelieve "At least it was a cute cat…" she wrung out her shirt, shouldered her bag with a sigh and made her way to her new place of work.

When Anya entered the spacious office floor, her new boss came to greet her, but paused "Are you alright?" he asked worried looking her up and down "Yes, it's just water…. I had a little… adventure with a fountain on my way." She gave him a grin "If you point me to a restroom I'll dry off as much as possible." She asked.

"I can do you one better, come." Cian answered with a smile and motioned her to follow him. In his office he took a spare shirt out of a cupboard and offered it to her "Advantages of working with shifters. We store spare clothes about everywhere. Restroom is there."

"Much appreciated thanks." Anya took the shirt and went into the direction her boss had gestured. Within five minutes she was dressed in Cian's spare and he led her to a door labeled 'DEV-LAIR' which made Anya smirk.

The inside of this Lair consisted of two desks facing each other, a cupboard/shelf combination and a small couch with a little table in a corner. The slightly bearded man, who was obviously her coworker, stood in the middle of the room in his boxers and had a towel across his shoulders. He was tall - well for Anya most people where tall but taller than Cian - had dark skin, short dreads, the golden eyes of a shifter to go with his tattoo and looked slightly shocked at her. He was in the middle of putting on his jeans.

Cian groaned and looked at Anya "That… adventure at the fountain… did it involve a reckless snow leopard by any chance?"

In a split second decision she went for 'not getting her new coworker into trouble' and feigned ignorance "It was too fast, sorry." She answered but her new coworker just narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion before looking at his boss sighing "It was me. I was late. Sorry." He shrugged. He wouldn't fall for a woman's games or owe one ever again. They didn't know each other - if she covered for him she definitely would want something in return.

"I'll… wait outside for a moment, ok?" Anya kept the grin from her face and stepped back outside. He probably felt embarrassed enough without her watching him get dressed. She wondered why he hadn't gone with her not remembering him. He had looked at her with so much distrust she wondered what that was all about.

"It was a bloody accident, Cian." Ben sighed when Cian threw the shirt waiting on the couch at him "I believe that but the timing was horrible." The redhead grumbled.

"I said I was sorry…" Ben pulled the shirt over his head "…and she is still here…" he added. He would have found it ridiculous if she would run off because of this - it was only some water for god's sake. She wasn't made of sugar.

"I hope it stays that way…" Cian turned and poked his head out the door "Introductions take two…" he smiled apologetic to the waiting Anya who entered the Lair again.

"… Ben Logan, my single developer and this is Anya Jarret hopefully still your new coworker."

"Hi…" Anya offered her hand to Ben who, after a second, took it. "Hello…" he answered a bit reluctantly "I've prepared your laptop with all the basic tools… feel free to customize." Ben continued with practiced professionalism "I'll give you a quick tour of the processes we use and find you some tickets to help you get familiar with everything…" he added and suppressed an annoyed sigh when Cian jumped in "Maybe Anya can give you a hand with Hardigan? There's a deadline for it next Wednesday." He proposed.

"Cian, I'll already cut it close. I'm definitely not gonna make it if I have to explain the project to her first." Ben glanced for Anya who fortunately didn't look offended or disagreed. Cian nodded slowly "Then…" he looked between Anya and Ben "...have fun." He bid his goodbye and Anya booted her Laptop and let Ben run the quick tour for her.

Over the next days, Anya tried to settle in. She liked the work, the projects seemed interesting… the only thing she was irritated with was Ben. Not that he was hostile towards her - not at all. But it was a kind of cold professionalism. He was perfectly polite, answered her questions but did not get engaged in small talk and not even swore once - which creeped her out. It felt like he was restraining himself from his normal behavior because of her or maybe it was only the deadline stressing him out. She had decided on being patient and observing until an occasion would arise to show him she wasn't offended the moment she heard swearing or was teased.

Tuesday next week arrived and neared quitting time and Ben was aggravated. There was one problem he just couldn't get his head around and he only had about half a day left. On the plus side he started swearing by Monday which Anya enjoyed.

"Fucking maggot brained dependencies!" Ben cursed and then remembered again he wasn't alone and visibly bit back more swears. "Maggot Brained Dependencies…" Anya tasted the swearing in her mouth "Never heard that before but I like it." she grinned but only got a puzzled look "What?" Anya asked "I already started to worry… non-swearing developers irritate me." She mock-shivered and got a scoffing laugh in return "And here Cian made me promise to not scare you off with my swearing." He grumbled.

Anya frowned then fumbled in her pocket, got a D20 out and offered it to Ben "We could roll a bloody dice to establish who should be fucking more offended by this." She suggested dryly with some swears to get her point across "Me, because obviously he thinks I'm too fragile and do what? Run off just because I hear some swearing? Or you because you can't be trusted to decide on your own."

And that's when ben gave her a short genuine laugh. "You first." He asked and Anya rolled - twelve - then handed the dice to Ben who rolled a twelve too. "Huh…? What are the odds… 1/400th?" Anya mused "Now that we established where we stand on the swearing front… Wanna show me what you are stuck with? Maybe an outside view can help." She offered.

"I'm good." Ben's slight smirk he wore since she pulled out the dice vanished while he returned to his work. He knew she was right but he couldn't bring himself to admit it.

"Come on. Are you scared of me or what is it?" she snapped frustrated and knew that instant it was the wrong thing to say and she fucked it up. "You know what, Anya? Go fuck yourself." Ben growled.

Anya nodded slowly stood up and left - time for desperate measures. Ben on the other hand thought she called it a day because it seemed anyone else had already went home. Tomorrow she would complain perhaps even quit. Whatever. Stupid woman. Good riddance.

But 20 Minutes later Anya returned with Pizza. "For the record." she sighed while setting down the food and lost her jacket and bag "What kind of go fuck yourself did you mean - the literal fuck yourself which, to be honest, I always have been curious how that would look like. Or would it be more like go to hell or do you just mean I should piss off? Tell me" she kept his stare a moment "so we can sort this..." she gestured between them "out later and see how we can coexist." she had rolled her chair next to his

"For now you will let me try to help so we can get this shit fixed by tomorrow lunchtime." it was a risk. If this didn't work she wasn't sure she would ever be able to work with him. She felt relief when he made some more room for her and started to work her through his problem and his steps.

"What a tremendous fuckup. We are nearing technical impossibility territory here." Anya's head fell back against the back of her chair. She was chewing on her warmed-up Pizza while thinking in circles with all the things that had to stay the way they were and taking them into account. "No kidding…" Ben scoffed with agreement. It was nearing midnight. "Can't we refactor this bullshit so it's split up in different classes? And then we are back with the dependency fuckup, right." she grumbled. Ben, who looked at her, shaking his head "Your swearing is pathetic." he went back to their screen "I know, still learning. Might steal some from you." Anya shrugged tired turning in her chair before concentrating again. She grabbed a sheet of paper and started to scribble down the architecture. "The IDE gives you a cleaner and dynamic overview. UML, Dependency Graphs all there..." he grumbled "True. But it always looks so super logic and pristine... I never find where I went wrong there... I tend to question messy scribbles more likely" Ben was skeptical but watched her closely.

It took them the whole night and somewhen around four Anya fell asleep on her Chair. She woke up around six thirty on the office couch - Ben must have had put her there and covered her with her jacked - to the smell of hot chocolate and a breakfast burger with bacon and egg on the table before her. Ben had his own Burgers and a coffee. "Aw fuck sorry." Anya yawned "You could have woken me up." she sat up "Breakfast... thanks." she smiled at him "You brought dinner." he reminded - he didn't know what she liked but the last days she had brought a cup of hot chocolate with her. "And I fell asleep shortly after you too." he admitted which Anya took as a very good sign of trust. Perhaps that would work out after all.

Anya rubbed her eyes and took a big swig from her cup "That's good..." she moaned and looked at Ben "Where are we?" she asked coming back to the desk, unwrapping her burger and took a bite. Ben turned his screen and leaned back into his chair "almost there. Syntax error. Just before I went shuteye too..." Anya reached for the keyboard Ben held out to her and adjusted something. The next error focused on something she had written "What the heck have I thought doing that?" she raised one eyebrow in disbelief "Not much, obviously." Ben shrugged and watched her closely. "Yeah... my sleep deprived coding is worse than my drunken one... who knew." She grinned instead of bitching and Ben realized he could really work with her.

When Cian came into the Lair later he instantly realized what his developers had been doing "Pizza boxes, Breakfast burger wrappers… You two have been here all night?" Anya shrugged and let Ben answer before she said something wrong again. "I was stuck and she helped me." Ben answered "So we finished it and I don't mess up the bloody deadline." he winked at Anya who grinned back "You are fucking welcome." She bowed slightly while Cian raised an eyebrow irritated with the swearing but decided he was just happy that for once Ben seemed to get along with a coworker. "Good Job…" Cian stated "Finish up the deployment for integration and go home." He added.