Going To Meet The Man (Lukretia & Taylor)

Hilde quietly watched the scene, carefully nibbling on a leafy piece of lightly dressed salad as the two exchanged pleasantries. When Taylor left and Lia looked back at her, the blond German blushed. "Danke..." She muttered softly. "It's very nice, thank you again." Hilde then turned her head and looked carefully at Lia. "Ms. Cross..." She asked, slightly hesitantly. "The two of you seem like you could get along quite well if you desired to. What has Ms. Parker done to keep you from being your usual cheerful self to her?"

Lukretia raised an eyebrow as Lia ducked her head back in. She smirked at Lia. "Frauline hase." She began. "Do you think zat i vould let anything you or zat brat say get to me? I did not hire you for your mouth, I hired your for your body. For your skills." She grinned slightly at Lia. "Allowing you to jabber on like a fool is ze bets thing I can do to help our relationship. You vill get to feel better about getting avay vith talking to ze 'bossman' like a crass dunderhead und I am zat much more eager I am to spar vith you. So you see, it is vin vin!" She smiled cheerfully and looked back down at her desk. "You decided not to arrange a play date vith your little friend, frauline?"

Lia's ears twitched noticeably at Lukretia's rejoinder. After her last rather humbling sparring session, that did not really sound like a 'vin-vin' situation. "Eh, right. Uh, sure thing, bossman," Lia mumbled. "Just didn't want you to think I'm a general purposes jerk." Even though you totally deserve it. She clicked her tongue and fired a finger gun at Lukretia. "And her? We already had our playdates. We... aren't compatible. 'sides, last I heard she and the champ are like this." Lia crossed her fingers. "So she's got some extra muscle to cover all the checks her mouth writes... or something. Means she has no reason to ever stop being annoying." Lia rubbed the back of her head, "And, uh, don't think I fit in that well with that crowd... at least while sober."

Lia sighed, "And, seriously? Exterminator? Let's try to avoid any sort of killing slash violence related nicknames for my job. Tila Tequila was just about to go apeshit on us and as to-ho-hotally awesome as it would be to taze her ass, not cool to do on the property. On the streets? Can totally drop someone in the alley and nobody gives a shit... But... yeah..." Lia realized how much she rambled, "Think nicer, bureaucratic, neutral words. I'll give you a list... once... I think some up. Yeah, stay frosty, chief."

Shutting the door and turning back, Lia addressed Hilde, "Okay, and you were saying..." She trailed off, froze, and then gave Hilde a double take. "Wha-ha? Her and me? Get along? You're talking about your nutjob of a sister right? Because Tifa is a total fricken psycho. I mean, it's like everything she says is 'like, totally, laaaaame' or she just yells and whines and tries to fight you and then runs off crying. It's really pathetic. She's like this to EVERYONE. I swear, Champ's got superhuman patience to put up with her." Lia put her hands on her hips and glanced out the window, "And I already tried extending the rabbit's foot of friendship to her and she spat on it, so, yeah. Not happening."

Lukretia merely looked on at Lia's ramblings with unimpressed eyes. Whatever she was trying to say, Lukretia couldn't even really understand it and the fact that German was her native language had nothing to do it. no amount of English would help Lukretia understand Lia's moon-speak. With that in mind, She waved Lia off. "I'll consider vat you have said, meine Hase." She added simply as Lia closed the door.

Hilde blushed as Lia turned back to her. "Well... I don't expect too many people to get along with Lukretia. You do quite well though. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you might actually like working with us." She smiled softly at Lia. "And Ms. Parker... well..." Hilde put a finger to her lips. "She's never been like that to me." She thought. "But um..." She looked over Lia. "You're such a strong and proud woman so I could see how the two of you might clash. I think that Ms. Parker just wants to be accepted and in a place built on egos, that's a hard thing for others to allow without feeling invaded upon themselves. If... that makes any sense." Hilde lowered her head quietly.

"You can certainly be a ray of sunshine in someone's life, if you wish to. I would say there's a certain doctor I know who definitely thinks that. You are curious of Ms. Tanikaze's patients but to be able to be so close with Chesna... you too have the patience of a saint." Hilde reassured Lia with a hopeful smile.

Lia pursed her lips but gave Hilde an even response. "A job's a job. I like my work." Lia cursed herself. Not only was her reluctance to be here apparently obvious to the whole enterprise but now she was appearing to enjoy it enough to convince Hilde otherwise. Stupid stupid STUPID! I can't unfuck this fuckup. Not one faux pas but two. In the environments she was used to working, she would have had a much deserved bullet in the head by now.

More importantly, she did not trust Hilde. This was a den of vipers and even the demure, put-upon woman could turn out to bite you. When it came to matters of her employment here, she could not appear the odd man out. That was blood in the water to people like these. "Lukretia is... different but I'm having fun all the same."

Lia shifted her stance and glanced out the window. The 'if' in Hilde's statement was the important thing. That did not really make much sense. Still, she did not want to press the point. "Maybe you're right. I don't know..." She offered to just try to wrap up that part of the conversation. "Bah, Chesna's good people. If you can get past the creepy-rapist thing or the gangly, greasy, zombie look she has sometimes or the constant smell of rubbing alcohol." Lia winked at Hilde, "And since I'm practically the only person in the world who CAN get past all that, she can't do any better so she knows she can't be TOO big of a dick to me." Lia rubbed her hands together, "Leverage, baby, that's how the best relationships work. Especially between psychos and emotionally stunted girls in rabbit ears."

Lia clicked her tongue, taking a few steps toward the door to the stairs. "Anywho, you've got my pager. I'm going to go through Bossman's appointments again, make sure I didn't miss nothing, then I'm going to the gym. Remember, I can clear the steps up here from the gym in 32 seconds aaand my treadmill has eyes on the elevator to boot. I'm sure the midget has a laser dot on the window no matter what anyway but gimme a ring if anything looks out of the ordinary. Ciao, Hildebaby."