This is based off a prompt I found here. ‘’I saw you trying to hit the “door close” button in the elevator but I made it in and then I pushed every single button to make you later for work, but now we’re stuck in this fucking elevator as it stops at every single floor and I don’t know what to say other than “you started it” AU’’
I thought it might be fun with Mariza...
Maria’s not sure if her immaturity is wrought from a bad mood caused by four sick days in a row, or if she’s forgotten how to deal with human beings during her solitary confinement, but she’s only a little sorry anyway.
She’d ventured out of her front door, finally, for a nice walk and some grocery shopping, happy to see an elevator had already been called. She quickened her pace, enjoying the feeling of being able to breathe out of both nostrils, excited to feel the warmth of the sun on her skin, pleased to see the woman who’d entered the elevator just before hitting the door open button-
Wait.
Maria takes her last two steps in a wide skip, dropping her good mood and her foot, letting the latter fall between the doors before they have a chance to close.
She sends her presumed neighbor a, “what the hell, I saw you hitting that door close button don’t think I didn’t” look. It’s a lot to say in one glare, so Maria thinks she had better augment the point.
She reaches past the woman, who doesn’t move from her position so near to the buttons- only boosting Maria’s confidence that what she is about to do is the right decision- and sweeps her hand against all of them. She misses floors 3 and 11, but gets all the others below their shared origin of floor 15 and their shared destination of the ground level.
Maria considers jabbing the two she missed, but the woman’s appalled look is immediate and she doesn’t really want to get beat up in an elevator.
The blonde turns toward her, eyes narrowed dangerously, mouth open slightly.
Maria shrugs, face adopting a rather chill expression as the doors ping open to floor 14.
Her companion eyes the number of buttons still illuminated, not budging as her escape route slides shut. It opens again, and she twitches slightly, before seeming to make up her mind, leaning against the wall and fixing a calm expression towards Maria. The blonde rests her hands against the back of her neck.
Maria read in a magazine once that such a posture portrays confidence and it is good to use in meetings- she wonders, for a moment, if the other woman has read the same issue, before she catches sight of nicely defined biceps, now quite visible.
Yeah, Maria’d be confident, too, if her arms looked like that.
There’s an extra moment of closed time, as the elevator rattles past floor 11 without stopping.
Maria wonders if she’s going to be beat up by a beautiful blonde with nice arms in an elevator.
It pings open on 10, but no move is made by either of them to get out. They share a look that makes Maria quite uncomfortable, but doesn’t seem to bother the blonde.
At 8, a brunette enters, not noticing the stiff atmosphere or the fact that almost all of the buttons are lit until it is too late. Maria sees her consider getting out at 7, face falling when the door closes and she is stuck once again between two strangers with attitude problems.
Blondie has not decided to take up any less space, so Maria and their prisoner are left occupying the same, small amount of room in the corner. Maria’s mouth twitches up in a smile. She hopes the blonde doesn’t see.
The resilient newcomer manages to last until floor 5 until she cannot take it anymore, making a quick exit. Maria’s smile returns with a snicker and she dare not look to her right.
Neither of them leave.
The elevator rattles past 3.
Maria risks a glance.
She’s being ignored.
Finally, the ground floor arrives, and Maria finds herself a little disappointed.
“Riza?”
Maria steps out of the open doors and sees the familiar face of her neighbor, Rebecca Catalina, who acknowledges her with a slight wave but continues to talk to the blonde.
Oh hell.
“I thought you were getting the car?” Rebecca says, “what took you so long?”
Riza pauses a moment, mouth twitching up in a slight smile. Maria thinks she should exit quickly, but her feet feel stuck to the floor.
“I was... Held up.”
Rebecca takes a look toward her neighbor, then towards her friend, her frown turning quickly into a familiar smirk that Maria does not like the look of.
“I have been trying to convince Riza to let me set you two up for forever,” Rebecca laughs, “funny how that worked out on its own.”
Oh God.
Riza exhales loudly through her nose.
Oh God. She could flirted with the hot blonde with the nice arms, but no, she just had to become her nemesis, huh?
Maria’s look of dread becomes apparent to Rebecca in a moment, who looks to the blonde, then back to her questioningly.
“Eh, she hit the door close button,” Maria explains, voice quieting as she gets to her role in this, “so I decided to hit all the other buttons to ruin her life.”
Rebecca laughs- loudly. Maria knows she would, she worded it a certain way on purpose. Even if her chances for a date are shot, she’d like to keep her friendly neighbor on her side a little bit.
“Are you always this dramatic?” Riza asks; Rebecca giggles some more.
“Not usually,” Maria says, adopting a rather innocent tone, “I’ve been unwell.”
“I told you she was funny,” Rebecca whispers loudly to Riza, still apparently gunning for this to work out.
The next moment of silence is interrupted by Maria’s involuntary snicker as a familiar brunette walks past, avoiding eye contact as she clutches a package to her chest. She takes a careful look at the buttons as she enters the elevator, leveling a look at Riza and Maria just as the doors slide shut.
Riza’s not smiling, but her tight-lipped expression has Maria suspecting that she’s holding one back at the very least.
“You are a bit funny.” Riza deadpans.
Maria’s face breaks out into a goofy grin.
“Well, I’m sorry about earlier,” she offers, ignoring Rebecca’s attempt to sign something behind Riza’s back, “if you ever want me to pay you back with dinner...”
Rebecca drops the unintelligible gestures and gives her a thumbs up.
“Will we have to stop at all the restaurants on the way there?”
“All but the 3rd and 11th,” Maria confirms.
This last statement seems to win Riza over, as she drops any more signs that she might be peeved about the elevator, taking a business card from her handbag and holding it out in front of her. It inches closer to Maria, as if she is going to stick it down her shirt if it isn’t taken quickly enough. Maria takes it from her hand with a wide grin.
Riza shoots her a smile using mostly her eyes, before turning to Rebecca and leading her out the front door.
Maria stuffs the card in her pocket, giggling stupidly as she wonders how much time she should wait before she can leave out the front doors without running into them again before she is ready.
Mariza valentines for the lovely strongholdqueen and soldierunderfire for doing this ship so ridiculously well. I was going to send them individually but I thought I'd just post instead.
