Snow began falling outside, fat flakes drifting past the windows like holiday wishes. The building’s systems hummed around them, creating a cocoon of shared purpose as they worked. Daniel seemed to anticipate her needs before she voiced them, passing documents just as her hand reached out, completing her legal citations through some frequency she kept forgetting to encrypt.

The elevator chimed again, this time with an almost discordant note. Roma’s voice preceded him, carrying that artificial warmth that always set Juniper’s teeth on edge.

Two deliberate taps on the doorframe. “Trick or treat.” A pause, just long enough to unsettle. “Working late?”

Roma appeared in the doorway, his towering frame filling it with practiced precision. Radiating the look of a devilish figure who gave out only tricks, never treats. His eyes were too wide, too bright - that ruthless gaze making his polite smile look painted on beneath his bold features. He leaned against the knock down frame with casual dominance, spine impossibly straight despite his lounging pose, one shoulder dropped lower than the other, his body angling just so like a serpent about to uncoil.”