Ex's & Oh's [Open]

Ella barely managed to suppress the smirk that arose at the secretary's obvious unamusement. She figured it was probably best not to get on the woman's bad side so quickly when Sloane had such important business that still needed resolving.

Actually, that's a lie. The smirk managed to twitch its way onto her lips anyway, but luckily for all three of them it was Crabby-Not-Sue's back that bore the brunt of it. When Sloane turned to face her, she managed to turn down the amusement to a more generally amiable expression, still in the mindset to provide more strategic humour should it prove necessary. Her companion's next words made her think that maybe- maybe- it wasn't. If it were possible to be both careful and careless in the same movement, the shrug that lifted Ella's shoulders was one such instant.

"Yeah, I figured one of those around this place is probably enough."

And that, reader, was as close as Ella was ever going to get to baring her heart to a total stranger. Well, fresh acquaintance. Not that it was earnest, exactly- the lightness of the words and the quirk of her brows displaced some of the sobriety that inevitably accompanied such an admission. If Sloane chose to take it as an admission. An unfortunate side effect of Ella's interminable flippancy was the associated ambiguity of any half-serious statements she chose to make. In this case, the aforementioned breeziness definitely didn't help her case, but it definitely couldn't hurt the situation either.

She brushed off the rest of Sloane's gratitude with a careless wave of her coffee cup- a move that was still perhaps a little too risky, if the precarious sloshing sounds were to be believed.

"Don't even mention it. It's not everyday a tall...ish dark stranger walks smack into your life and demands your expertise, no matter what the crooks say." She grinned in an acknowledgement of the irony of the statement, the curve of her lips only growing more mischievous with the more brazen claim that followed. "Besides, you owe me the caffeine your shirt stole."

Sloane had spent the little time she had in the U.K. feeling like a stranger and an outsider, but this small interaction with Ella, a chance encounter that forged a quick bond of comradery, had made her feel almost like herself, more so than she had since she got the news about her brother. Perhaps it was that they had shared some bad luck, or they had both come into the Ministry that day with dreary tasks and hopeful hearts, but something drew her to the brunette, drawing out feelings of gratitude that weren't proportional to the favors she had done.

Sloane wasn't very in touch with her feelings, something she knew. So it felt strange to have such warm ones attached to someone that, for all intents and purposes, was a complete stranger.

The other woman's words caused a series of micro-expressions to flit across Sloane's features. An inward twitch of her eyebrows, a slight tilt in her lips, a turn of chin, all expressing the uncertainty of her instinctual understanding of the statement. She didn't know Ella well, and her humor had certainly distinguished itself as unique if nothing else, so it could be that she was just frivolously making light of the state of things. Or perhaps there was some truth in it. Sloane didn't know what to do with the statement, assuming that if she was right, then Ella's ambiguity probably meant she didn't want to pursue the subject. So she quirked her lips and settled for a humor-tinged casual line. "Even so, I'd probably be in good company."

Her lips parted further as Ella followed up her thanks with a claim of debt, something Sloane was more than okay with settling. "I'm sure I'm going to become an unfortunate haunt of this bureaucracy of wonders and competence. Run into me again and it'll remind me to pay up."

The secretary had returned, a reluctant look of polite sympathy on her face, as though she had been commanded to play nice. "Ms. Bishop can speak with you, and she'll take you to who is handling your case." Sloane thanked her and the secretary made to usher her away but Sloane glanced towards Ella, offering her a small smile. Once again, she found herself in a position of wanting to reach out, but feeling completely incapable of it. She did hope she would run into the other woman again, hopeful for someone who could tempt laughter out of her while she dealt with this dreary Skyler business. But one hardly proposed friendship after a chance encounter, especially one born out of a family member's passing. So instead, she settled with something she thought Ella might be able to appreciate.

"So, um, just to be clear. Coffee cups - upright. Not sideways." She offered a wry grimace of a smile and turned to follow the secretary to whatever new horror she had in store for her.