Normally when Antonis arrived for work the building was already pretty busy, but as it was still winter break none of the students were back in yet. It was nice to get a few quiet days between his own return and the students. It gave him time not only to catch up on his own work and emails, but to do some damage control.

He arrived in the office to find Zachariah and Natasha sat at their desks chattering away as they took turns - or more rather knocked each other's hands out of their way - scribbling over some kind of diagram in one of their notebooks. Sofia's skateboard was propped up against her desk but there was no sign of the other two. He greeted them as he moved to put on the kettle, they both returned the greeting. "How was your holiday?" Zachariah asked, leaving Natasha unguarded with the notebook, Antonis hid his smile by turning to the kettle.

"Good." Antonis hit the power button on his computer as he searched for his mug. "Yours?"

"Eventful," Zachariah decided.

"You keep saying that, yet you won't tell me why!" Natasha objected from where she was still scribbling.

Zachariah turned and his retort died on his lips as he noticed that she'd undone all of his previous corrections. He cursed as he swatted her away from the diagram, making both Natasha and Antonis laugh. Zachariah scrutinised the mess carefully for a moment. "No."

"But the increase in -"

"If you wanted to blow the department up you should've done it before we came back to supervise you," Zachariah interrupted Natasha's objection swiftly and she deflated in defeat, huffing out a breath in pretend annoyance. Both men knew her too well to think she was seriously annoyed. "So, if Toni wants to finish making the coffee and pass out the treats then I'll tell you about my Christmas."

"Zach!" Natasha scolded.

"My mamá is too good to you," Antonis chuckled as he reached into his backpack to produce a box and passed it to his friends.

"That's because she hasn't met us," Natasha laughed as she took the box to stop Zachariah scoffing all of the melomakaronas in one sitting. Antonis' mother always made a batch for him to take back with him after he visited for the holidays, and ever since he had explained that they were a hit with all his friends she had started making two.

Not long later and they were gathered around the meeting table with sweets and coffee - Natasha had been and called Sofia in from the lab, Joseph and Olivia weren't due back in yet - and Zachariah finally decided to divulge the events of his holiday. "Okay, so - and don't say a damn thing Tasha - I'm giving up smoking, because my sister's having a baby."

There was a stunned silence for a moment before Sofia squealed and hugged him. Natasha and Antonis shared a rather amused glance as the latter clapped Zachariah on the back. "That poor kid doesn't know what's coming…" Natasha joked.

"Hey!" Zachariah objected.

"She has a point," Antonis said as he shrugged. "Your bedtime stories would be engineering tutorials."

"More like the CPC catalogue," Natasha muttered into her brew. Zachariah glared at them both as Sofia and Antonis chuckled to themselves.

"I'm not allowed to mould my own niece or nephew how I want?"

"I think your sister gets to determine that." Natasha giggled.

~-x-~

A couple of days later and they were all back from their various trips - those that had been away anyway. The difference in the atmosphere of the office had almost instantly changed. Antonis knew he wasn't the only one who noticed, but he suspected he was the only one who cared. The only problem was that he didn't know how to fix it.

By mid afternoon he was working on one of the wipeboards with Natasha, or at least they had started out working, by now Natasha had resorted to doodling in the blank spaces around their working and he was trying to clean them up before they lost track of the important scribbles. He knew she took that as a challenge and by now was stepping around him each time to find a new space and a new colour to play with. He was only able to halfheartedly glare at her, mostly he was just desperately trying not to smile at her mischief.

He also knew that she was behaving this way because she secretly wanted to deny what was going on in their office.

Sofia and Joseph were chatting away whilst they were working, their conversation picking up and trailing off as their focus shifted between each other and their work. Antonis and Natasha were occasionally chipping in if they had an opinion, but for the most part were focused on their own conversation and work. Until the lab door opened and Olivia and Zachariah returned from where he'd been giving a quick tutorial on some of the engineering basics she'd need going forwards. The fact that everyone fell silent as the door opened wasn't unusual, the uncomfortable silence that followed was.

It had been this way in the few weeks leading up till the winter break and when most of them would be taking some time off to visit their families. Then they had been concerned but also knew that it was still too fresh to deal with and they had hoped that the break might be enough for everyone to process what happened. Hopefully enabling some kind of return to some sense of normalcy. They had been mistaken. Antonis didn't miss the way that Olivia almost shrank in on herself as she took her seat next to Sofia.

He hadn't realised he had zoned out until Natasha clapped her hands together, efficiently calling for everyone's attention as she took the couple of steps from the wipeboard to lean on the meeting table. Antonis was briefly surprised that she didn't just straight up sit on it, but he knew that look on her face. She wasn't going to stand for this to continue, though he was worried about the methods she was about to employ.

"This is ridiculous," Natasha announced. "We're adults, we shouldn't be acting like children about this. What went down with Allerton was stupid and entirely her fault, whatever emails she may or may not have received from us are irrelevant. Any good supervisor would not only have had that information anyway, but would have come to us about any demo - especially when it involved funding." She paused mid rant to glare around the group. "So, if you are going to insist on making this workplace uncomfortable for each other, you better bring me some damn good evidence or so help you…"

"We're just going to ignore that someone ratted us out to Allerton?" Joseph asked.

For a second Antonis thought he was going to have to intercept the pen that Natasha still had hold of unless they wanted it to find it's mark - literally - on Joseph. "Oh, for fucks sake," Natasha muttered instead. "No one ratted anyone out. In any other department that kind of information would have been freely shared. The way we deal with Allerton is self-preservation, it's not a fucking war."

"That's a bit rich," Zachariah muttered, before raising his voice as they all turned to him. "You're the first to start an argument with her."

"Yeah and when have I ever judged any of you for doing differently?"

"You do sometimes forget to reassure people of that," Antonis said quietly. He could've sworn he briefly saw betrayal in her eyes before she nodded as if relenting that he had a point.

"Is it that simple?" Sofia raised her eyes from her knees.

Natasha took a breath as she considered the question. "Yes," she decided, "because if we don't act like a team, then there's nothing left here to salvage."

~-x-~

"Thought you quit?" Zachariah turned sharply at Natasha's teasing tone as she and Antonis arrived at the pub. He was currently huddled up just outside to get his fix before heading inside. Now that they were into winter properly it was freezing and even the layers he had piled on weren't enough for him to want to linger.

"Chemicals." Zachariah lifted the electronic cigarette he was using and Natasha made a point of wafting his fumes away from her. "I know, it's just to wean me off the nicotine. I'm not going to keep it forever."

"She is just unhappy she can no longer nag you to quit," Antonis joked, making Zachariah laugh and Natasha glare. "Meet you inside?" Zachariah nodded and both Antonis and Natasha headed inside to find themselves a table and some menus.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

None of them dared approach the elephant in the room until they had all taken a long sip of their respective drinks. "How's the mood after she bollocked everyone today?" Zachariah asked Antonis. Natasha didn't even have the heart to pretend to glare at him for that.

"Stunned but I think they know Nat is right," Antonis shrugged. People couldn't help but relax around Antonis, he was just too nice and too calm, so he usually had a pretty good idea of where problems were brewing. Though it was a little trickier right now as people were still shaken from a perceived breaking of trust.

"You're right too, we need to remember that this isn't a war. There aren't sides," Natasha said as she picked at the label on her bottle. "We did what we did with Allerton because we knew the need for damage limitation, but we can't hold it against the others if they don't see it that way. It certainly isn't fair if we start treating some people like crap over it, especially without proof of what they've done."

"She really is judge, jury and executioner, isn't she?" Zachariah turned to Antonis before yelping in pain as Natasha kicked his shin. Antonis simply chuckled.

"She is also right," Antonis said. But both him and Natasha knew Zachariah had been joking. "Our office has always been a fun place to work, for everyone. It should stay that way."

Natasha raised her bottle to that and they all took another drink as a melancholy silence fell over them again. Antonis remembered when Natasha had been determined to hate him when he first started, but even then she'd never been vindictive or tried to make him uncomfortable, she'd just refused to - or tried to - engage with him socially. This latest atmosphere had been entirely different, it had been judgemental and unwelcoming. "Was I the only one hoping it would all go away over Christmas?" Zachariah whispered into his pint.

Antonis shook his head. "No," Natasha confirmed, even she had been hopeful and she was normally the first one to call wishful thinking naive.

~-x-~

Zachariah usually arrived at the lab first because he was an early bird and also because he liked to have time in the evenings to perform engineering work for students to supplement his wage.

However, he had also realised that it gave him the perfect opportunity to snoop around without anyone knowing what he was doing. Even if that was actually just verifying all of the various rumours he'd heard from the other smokers' gossip.

Because Natasha was right, it wasn't fair to assume Olivia set them up without knowing if she had. Or even why she would. And what reason did they have to trust that Allerton was even telling the truth?

Not that it was all that easy. Most of the rumours either related to who was shacking up with whom, or were rumours that had been doing the rounds as long as he'd been working there. Such as the near permanent one about funding being slashed.

"Zach, are you okay?" Sofia asked as she handed him a coffee.

He blinked at her owlishly for a moment, before realising he'd been zoned so bad he had entirely missed someone talking to him. "Sorry, did you say something?"

Sofia shook her head hopelessly. "I asked if you were okay."

Zachariah took a sip of the drink as he was reassured he hadn't been as oblivious has he feared. "Yeah, I guess… I'm just distracted."

"The smoking?"

"No, yeah, kinda," Zachariah admitted. "I just… I'm trying to work something out. Normally I'd gather evidence, or run tests, but I can't this time."

Sofia raised a quizzical eyebrow at him, as if he weren't making any sense, before shrugging it off and sipping her own beverage. "Maybe there are other ways to check cause and effect?"

Zachariah nodded along absentmindedly, not really listening, as he continued drinking. Only for what Sofia had just said hit him and he instantly retracted his mug from the sip he had been about to take. "You are a genius!" He declared with a wide grin.

"You would have got there eventually," Sofia shrugged. Zachariah shook his head at her, before offering her his mug and she giggled as she clinked her own to it.

Once he had finished his brew he went off in search of the person who he knew could provide the information he wanted.

"Peter, I need a favour."

Peter pushed his glasses back up his nose as he looked up at Zachariah. "Don't you already owe me about ten?"

Zachariah had the decency to look guilty at that. "Probably, but you know you'll cash in one day."

"Uh huh," the receptionist replied, clearly unconvinced. "Go on then, let's hear it..?"

"You remember that group of visitors that Allerton sprung on us a couple of months back?" Zachariah asked, and Peter nodded. "I don't supposed I can convince you to check if she put any meetings into your calendar that might be… interesting around that time?"

"That's it?" Peter asked.

"Wait, you're okay with that?"

"Anything that goes into my calendar is common knowledge. If it's supposed to be a big super secret meeting they don't add it to the shared ones. I just see a big block of red against meeting rooms to indicate they're taken," Peter explained, and waved Zachariah into the square of his desk.

Peter had soon narrowed it down to the right time frame and was scanning through as Zachariah looked over his shoulder. "I knew this was gonna be a bust," Zachariah muttered unhappily as he noticed there was absolutely nothing in there for Allerton.

"Ye of little faith," Peter scolded. "She may not put her internal meetings in, but the others do. Look."

Zachariah followed Peter's finger to look at the specific meeting, one marked high level business comms that a bunch of different department heads had been invited to. Zachariah's fists clenched as he resisted the urge to swear. "Why do I get the feeling that is something the rest of us aren't supposed to be aware of yet."

Peter pulled a grimace of agreement. "Is that what you were looking for?"

"Probably," Zachariah admitted. "Thanks."

"I'd say any time, but you already take liberties."

Zachariah chuckled as he headed back down to the lab. Maybe some of those rumours weren't rumours anymore.

~-x-~

"You know, I cannot even remember the last time I went to a house party," Sofia admitted.

"And you're the sociable one," Zachariah teased where he was slouched on Natasha's sofa.

"Yeah, and I am no longer a teenager," Sofia giggled, trying to take another sip from her bottle and almost spilling it because she was so slumped, tucked up against Joseph. Instead she pushed herself back upright and tried again rather more successfully.

"Seeing as my housemates owe me a few favours, figured I might as well cash in on them," Natasha replied as she returned from the kitchen with more supplies. She was carrying the bottles, Antonis was carrying the snacks.

"And why waste a perfectly good opportunity to get drunk?" Zachariah asked.

Antonis knocked Zachariah's feet off the table so that he could put stuff down on it. "Maybe you should set up the rig then?"

Zachariah pretended to grouse but stood up only to take another swig of his beer before placing it on the coffee table and heading over to the TV to properly set up the console he'd brought over. By the time he was done and he turned around to reclaim his beer, Antonis had stolen his seat. "Cold, man."

"I thought you were the nice one?" Olivia asked where she was curled up at one end of a couch, as if she could be invisible if she was small.

"Tasha's clearly a bad influence," Zachariah pretended to grumble, claiming a different seat. Natasha simply offered an innocent grin and nodded her drink towards him from where she was lounging. "Battle royale?" Zachariah asked instead of drifting down that line of conversation, offering the controller out to the group.

"Why change the rules now?" Natasha asked as Antonis claimed the controller.

As the two men faced each other off on screen, the rest of them picked their sides, hollering and drinking as appropriate until the screen declared the results.

"How?" Zachariah groaned. "How? Just how?"

Natasha laughed as Antonis put down the controller on the table in front of him to reclaim his beer. "And that is the nearest to smug you will ever see Toni," she declared.

"Have any of us ever actually beaten him?" Joseph asked.

"Certainly not drunk," Sofia added.

"Really? He always wins?" Olivia asked.

Antonis half nodded his head but raised his bottle as if in toast. Natasha giggled again as she said, "I'm pretty certain he teases Zach into thinking he has a chance sometimes."

"Would I?"

"Yes."

"Wow, maybe Tasha is right, maybe Toni is just acting the nice guy all the time," Sofia giggled into her drink, feet on Joseph's knee.

"Nope, if it was, she'd have already broken him," Zachariah retorted. It was Natasha's turn to look innocent and raise her drink high in the air above her head.

~-x-~

"Who told Tasha to invite me?"

Zachariah nearly jumped out of his own skin at the sound of Olivia's voice. Her question was barely more than a whisper as she joined him in Natasha's back yard where he was getting a nicotine fix. He still wasn't convinced about the flavour of the cartridge he'd chosen. He also wasn't quite sure how he didn't hear the door open. "No one."

Olivia scoffed as she hugged herself against the chill. "Not sure I believe that."

Zachariah raised the e-cigarette for another hit, then blowing out the plume away from Olivia as he considered his answer. "Well you should," he replied, stuffing his hands back into his pockets. An advantage of the electronic device over a lit cigarette. "Toni has a point about Tasha, she's a tough nut but on the inside she cares," he said. Natasha was gonna kill him if Olivia ever mentioned he'd said that. "She hates the way things have changed, and she's right, the best way to move past it is a bit of team bonding. Hence a drunken party and a video game session."

"To get out any bitterness in a more constructive manner?"

Zachariah laughed at the word constructive. "In a way, yeah."

Olivia nodded to herself as Zachariah took another puff on the device. "I thought you all hated me."

"I'd ask why, but I know that me and Tasha don't have any tact between us," Zachariah admitted. "We weren't - aren't angry with you. We're angry about Allerton. Tasha's right, in a normal team no one would be surprised that a team leader had the information or requested the information. The fact that we even have to think about the data we forward is frankly insane, but it is what it is."

"I've only ever had temp jobs before," Olivia admitted. "Cashier stuff." She gave a wry chuckle as Zachariah blew out another cloud of whatever it was the aerosol became when breathed in then out again. "And then this is what I end up with fresh outta uni," she muttered.

Zachariah shared the chuckle as he turned the device off and pocketted it. "As Tasha would be the first to tell you, life isn't fair."

"Am I gonna get out of this project without becoming a massive cynic?"

"Depends, are you a Toni or Tasha?"

"Can I be an Olivia?"

"Sure," Zachariah agreed. "Then what's Olivia's take on it all?"

Olivia thought for a moment, trying not to just grumble about how cold it was. "I think that you should know Allerton was asking about loyalty," she finally said. "Well, not asking exactly, but she said something about how she's being pushed to make some changes and that our loyalty will determine just how bad it'll be for us."

Zachariah took a moment to consider his reply to that. "I've heard that threat before."

"So I don't need to worry?"

Zachariah sighed, unsure if he should lie or not. "Always worry, it's your best defence."