Who the hell even funded these?

“DID YOU AUTHORIZE THIS??!”

David flinched at the sound of door slamming against the wall and the angry voice of her co-leader. Even the (not so chocobo) chick, who had gotten used to pretty much everything, jumped from the man’s hair and flew to the top of a tall bookshelf. She had the common sense to run away from pissed off young women. “Care to elaborate, Steph?” David managed to catch the object flying towards him just before it hit his face. He studied the box in his hands. “This… is an action figure of you…” The man faced Steph, and raised sole eyebrow in a silent question. At least for the next three seconds until he burst out laughing. This time he wasn’t able to keep one of the boxes from hitting him.

“Christ, no need to be like that.” David took another look at the figure, while the original Asian stayed put, leaning against the doorway, arms locked across her chest.

The man had to admit the figure was pretty good work. It even came with few pairs of changeable hands, laptop and…

“Hey, removable beanie hat! That’s pretty cute-“

*whack*

Another package dropped on the desk after it’s flight was stopped by… well, David.

“STOP THROWING ECHO PEOPLE AT ME GODDAMMIT!”

“THEN START TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY!”

Steph moved across the room and slammed her hands on the desk, startling David. Suddenly the man saw his life flash before his eyes. That…couldn’t be a good sign. He held his hands up to surrender. “Okay, okay, I swear I didn’t know about this. Hell, it’s the first time I even hear of fan- merchandise for ECHO. Believe me.” Steph kept the eye contact for few more seconds, then leaned back.

I didn’t even know we were famous enough for this…?

We are, sis. We are.

“GUYS! IT’S HERE!”

Steph let out annoyed sigh. “Kay, we’ve talked about this. No running while inside the building. We have enough property damage as it is and-“

“SERIOUSLY?! SHOWMESHOWME!!”

“…Nevermind…” Steph moved some of her paperwork to make room for Kay and the package she was carrying (along with newly arrived Erin and Ally, who were both reaching for the said package.) It wasn’t anything company related, she would have known, but at the same time, the cardboard box was big enough not be just some regular private mail. Kay carefully lowered the box onto the table.

“Open it, open it or I do it!” Erin was practically squealing, and Kay actually had to struggle to push the girl away. “I’ll do it, just gimme some space.” She pried the tape holding it shut away, and finally opened the box. Steph curiously leaned over to take a look at the content.

“More boxes?” She reached for one of the smaller packages, gently swatting Kay’s hand away when the girl tried to block her. It seemed to be made from slightly flimsier cardboard and see-through plastic. Steph slowly turned the box around. Her eyes narrowed.

“You didn’t.”

"So I was thinking I'd edit this part of the song and then maybe..."'

David actually wasn't paying any attention to what the younger man was saying, merely just watching him as Lucas went through their next assignment. They were (once again) in David’s office, that being the one place that had both working AC and table not covered in empty soda bottles and pizza boxes. David knew he had to figure out how to keep the building clean now that housekeepers(read: backups) had been... Well, let go.

It was middle of summer, temperature going over 30 celcius degrees. And even though all working ACs in the building were on full power, it was still agonizingly hot. Partly for the fact that no one there got anything done in that heat, David has given them a day off. Unsurprisingly, no one objected. One could only guess where they had vanished. 

---

“This heat is killing meeeee…” a certain young Englishwoman was trying her best to find some more shade, crawling under a table. She had shielded her eyes from burning sun, blindly and desperately reaching for a water bottle on the floor nearby.

Another young woman pitied her friend, picked up the water bottle, and offered it to the other.

“Really, Kay, it’s not that bad”

“Easy for you to say, Mish. You’re used to heat. But where I am from, there’s rain, clouds, rain, coldness… Did I mention rain? Not some heatwave like in some… Some…

“Sauna?” Someone offered.

“Yes, that’s what I meant!” Kay beamed. “Thanks Ma- Wait, May?” She looked rather surprised, after all, she had seen the redhead vanish some time ago, along with the older Englishwoman, Sophie. Now they were both back, each having case of beer in their hands, the redhead grinning madly.

“You didn’t… I thought you were banned from drinking in the proximity of ECHO building?

“David doesn’t have to know, right?” The blond grinned just as wolfishly as the finn next to her, setting the drinks down.

Mish looked confused. “Why were they banned? I’ve seen Lucas drink on many occasions, and no one ever complained.”

Both older women looked too sheepish to actually be innocent, while Kay just looked away, fortunately forgetting the heat for a moment.

Well, you weren’t here back then Mish… I’d rather not talk about but these two caused quite a havoc… I’ve never seen either David or Steph so furious.”

“Not our fault!” May hold her hands up in defense. “Not entirely at least…” She added when saw Kay raising her eyebrow. “I couldn’t have known that Sophie would decide that the room needed some candle light just right then…”

“And how would I be able to know that May actually could move that fast… She was in the other side of the room when I checked… And you too missed the curtain catching fire. Sophie continued, her voice slightly accusing, but gaze averting her co-workers.

Several people of Project ECHO were scattered across the mess hall, each one more or less wondering how they would avoid the wrath of the dark haired Asian in the middle of the room. Erin, Kay and Liv had moved their chairs closer to each other, Sofia and Piff quietly conversing, May typing on her laptop, occasional pointing something to Lucy, the two women smirking to each others. Mish and Ally tried their best to amuse themselves. Julia was leaning against the doorframe, eying the three people who had caused this mess. David, the man looking like he would like to be anywhere but there. Lucas, who was trying his best to disappear. And Steph, currently looking rather annoyed. Only people missing were Reika, Kori and Sara, who were fortunate enough to have missed this because of their holiday.

“Hey, Steph? Mind telling us what’s going on already?”

“Yes, I suppose everyone’s here now” David’s second in command, Steph, agreed. She honestly didn’t like this at all, but David had bring this to himself.

“By our company’s regulations, it should be brought to your attention that xNicolau92, David and Lukenix, Lucas-“

“Wait, are you saying what I think you’re saying…?” “She means they’re gay” May helped from sidelines, her gaze never leaving her laptop.

“WHAT?!” about half of the people in the room shouted.

“Well, you know, sometimes men doesn’t find women sexually interesting, instead preferring men to-“

“THANK YOU MAY! I’m sure everybody in this room knows what it means. I’d say it’s the fact that…”

“You did have Lucas half-naked in your office, hands tied with your belt…”

“Steph, could you please spare us from details…?” Kay was hugging her knees, trying to ignore the slight dizziness she was feeling.

David was beginning to feel like he would lose the last remnants of his sanity, alongside the brown of his hair, if this would keep going. Yes, they didn’t act quite professionally, and he might even deserve some scolding from Steph, but this was ridiculous. The whole ECHO (well, at least the ones who were present in the building at the time) had been gathered to the dining room, some of they sporting looks of slight panic and horror on their faces (mainly Erin, Kay & Mish), while some looked more disinterested of the event (Julia, May). And then there were furious ones. Well, that was just Steph actually…

David rubbed his temples, feeling slight headache coming. “Steph please, could you tell me again, why is this necessary?” he motioned towards their employees.

”Well David, considering your… interest toward one of your employees apparently isn’t purely professional-“

“I wonder how she came to that conclusion?” Steph heard one of their girls, Liv whisper to Erin, both of them fighting laughter. The mean looks Steph gave to them made them calm down.

“Put it simply, if you’re comfortable having a relationship with Lucas, you also should be comfortable with discussing about it with everyone, don’t you think so? Or what do you think, Lucas?”

Almost everyone had forgotten about the blond, uncharacteristically quiet, sitting in the corner, trying not to attract any attention.

“Well…?” Steph crossed her arms across her chest, waiting for his answer.

“I suppose that’s only fair…” Lucas mumbled, avoiding David’s gaze like a plague. ‘I will hear about this later…”David will have my ass” is something the certain straightforward redhead would say I think…’ He imminently regretted that thought. It truly wasn’t the right thing to think right now.

“So…” Sofia started “What you’re saying is that David and Lucas have an affair?” She sounded quite amused, as if she wasn’t really believing what she heard.

“I wouldn’t call it an-“ David tried to protest, but was instantly silenced by Steph.

“Shoulder your responsibility, boss.”