Light A Way

65

Hearing complaining, Hank naturally found himself looking around. Truthfully, he thought he was the only one still up and about. Okay, truth be told though he was shut away in his room trying to refine little side projects he had been tinkering on, but even still...the last thing he expected when finally resurfacing was low voices. For a moment he believed it was the television, but when he slowly moved forwards and peered into the living room, he was confronted with an empty space. The television sat stationary and off. Turning on his heels he walked along the corridor before stopping at the study. He eyed the crumpled pieces of paper on the floor, someone had clearly been busy.

"Don't look at me like that, you asked for my help, remember?"

"I didn't ask for your smug help."

"There's no such thing, you're being silly."

"Am not. I'm being totally valid."

"That I am not certain about." Charles said while eyeing Elsie as she stopped pacing. Sighing and hanging his head, he looked up and saw Hank loitering in the doorway. "Please tell me we didn't wake you up." Noticing how his attention had turned, Elsie twirled on her heels and looked to Hank.

"No, however I could hear you down the hall." He confessed while awkwardly pointing behind himself and at the route he took to get here. Charles and Elsie exchanged a look, she looked rather embarrassed that their discussion was so easily heard. Whereas he just nodded slowly, figuring as much really. "What are you two doing?"

"Speech writing." Elsie replied while dryly rolling a hand in the air before collapsing in a chair. "Isn't it obvious?" She asked while flinging her legs over the arm and leaning back, resting her hands on her stomach.

"At twelve in the morning?" Was the first thing Hank seemed to wish to ask.

"Hey...there's no time limit to when a speech needs working on." Elsie said with a simple shrug.
Hank frowned, her sarcasm was wearing thin rather quickly. How Charles managed to survive long with this attitude was beyond him. But then again considering their previous little squabble it seemed that perhaps enough was enough and that they had spent too long working in here. 

As if picking up on his thought trail, which wouldn't be surprising, Charles perked up from his leaning position against the desk and nodded slowly. "We were working, emphasis on were. Yet we've seemed to hit a road block." With the way Elsie bristled in her silent sitting position, Hank wanted to pitch a guess and say he was lying about something. Not that he was going to call him out on it, no way.

"How is the speech going?" Hank felt he may regret asking.

"Brilliant."

"Elsie."

"Awful," she admitted and hung her head sadly. 

"Why? What's wrong?" Hank asked moving into the room, loitering in the doorway was a little impersonal considering he was having a conversation.

With a groan she seemed to sink more into the chair and stretch out. Limply lying in the chair, she looked sidelong to where Hank now stood. "He, him...that man over there, is actually the hardest person to amuse, did you know that? It is so hard to please him." 

"Am not." Charles defended himself while walking over and looking down at her.

She snapped upright and pointed a finger at him again. "Yes you are!"

"It is not my fault you are trying to be casual in your approach. Do you not realise that you are attending a serious meeting? Some of the most important people in the country will be there, you can't just waltz in there like they're old friends and chat away like you do to us. You do that and they'll either laugh at you, or ask you to leave."