The day had been busy so far, and it didn't seem like it would get any better. Hugue glanced at the man sitting behind the desk as he quietly put a couple of books back to the bookshelf. The books had been in William's lab, and it was obvious their owner had never remembered to bring them back here. This was, of course, nothing new - it was William after all.

William himself sat at his desk, much like he did day in and day out. Currently, he seemed to be working on another of his technological gadgets. Hopefully this one wouldn't explode when it was tested like the last one. That had made a large mess in the office, especially since Hugue had just cleaned the office right before that happened. Still, William's working inventions were always a great help to AX, so no one really got up in arms over the occasional failed experiment.

His eyes wandered over to Hugue, and he suddenly froze when he saw the younger man put a red-covered book in the shelf. "Hugue! Where did you find that? I've been looking all over for it..."

The blond started and turned to look at William. "It was in the lab." He didn't even know which book the older man was talking about, but since they were all from the lab, it didn't matter.

He watched as William circled around his desk, smiling widely. The professor picked up his precious book and returned to his desk. He moved some papers out of the way to make room, and Hugue noticed that William's dinner - which Hugue has brought in an hour ago - was still on the desk, untouched.

William began going through the book, looking with a nearly fanatic intensity for a particular part. Of course the food that Hugue had brought had gone unnoticed. Everything came second to scientific progress, at least they did in William's mind. Hugue sighed, a look of irritation coming over his handsome face.

"Professor, you haven't eaten yet," Hugue spoke quietly yet firmly. William had a habit of not really doing anything besides for working on his experiments. This was, of course, bad for Hugue's mentor, so the young man would pester the Professor about eating as often as he could. However, even that rarely had an effect on the eccentric older man.

"What are you talking about?" William questioned him, not even bothering to raise his head from the book. "Eaten? It's not dinnertime yet, is it?"

Hugue shook his head. This wasn't exactly anything new from William, and he was quite used to it. In fact, it was the answer he had expected to hear. "It's past dinnertime."

The Professor stopped reading and looked at the younger man, frowning. "What kind of rubbish is that, Hugue? It can't be that late yet! I just had lunch an hour or two ago!"

William then looked out the window. Darkness had indeed already fallen, the professor not even noting when Hugue had turned on the lights. He had been so caught up in his work that he hadn't even realized what how late it was getting. William shrugged, returning to his book. "I'll get right on dinner, after I find this page..." With that, he was lost to the world again, absorbed by the experiment.

Hugue sighed and picked the plate up. "I will go warm this. You'd better eat it when I came back."

The older man mumbled an unclear reply and continued reading. He hadn't actually paid any attention to Hugue's words, but it wasn't like he remembered the food anymore. He didn't even notice that the blond left, nor did he acknowledge that Hugue returned about ten minutes later.

By the time Hugue returned, William had already started tinkering with the machine on his desk, occasionally looking at some diagram in the book he had been reading from. Hugue sighed, putting the food on the table. He then returned to cleaning, finding the weirdest things in random piles of books. However, this was William that they were talking about, and Hugue had long since stopped being surprised by the scientist.

The only real animated movement that Hugue saw after that was when he came across an odd piece of machinery. William just happened to look up when the younger man had picked it up. William got up from his desk again, going over to Hugue.

"Yes, this is exactly what I need to regulate the energy output!" He then relieved Hugue of the duty of taking care of the odd machine, returning to his desk as if nothing had happened.

Hugue blinked once and then returned to cleaning. He had to wonder if the older man would ever find anything from the room without him. Cleaning didn't actually help; it just meant that the room would stay organized for about a day or two.

He frowned when he realized the food had gone untouched again. He folded his arms across his chest and glared at William. "Master. Your dinner?"

"What- oh, right, food! I was just about to eat," William said. Hugue knew he was lying, not that the older man knew he was doing so. He didn't say anything though, just watched as William started eating.

"My, Hugue. This is still warm! Didn't you bring this in an hour ago?" The older man grinned and continued eating, and Hugue didn't know if he was supposed to laugh or cry at this point.

William finished off the dinner, noting how good it actually was. Then again, the food that Hugue usually brought him, that had actually been eaten, was always very good. The young man always seemed to be there for the professor, even if he impeded William's scientific progress. And besides, cleaning the office let the scientist have more time for experiments as well as give the younger man something to do. The dishes forgotten, William returned to his experiment.

Hugue sighed and continued cleaning again. Occasionally he would check on the professor, who seemed to be working tirelessly on his experiment. That also got Hugue thinking about something, so once he finished putting some books on the shelf he turned towards the scientist. "Master, when was the last time you had some sleep?" Hugue asked, a little bit concerned. He already knew the answer, although hearing it come from William would make him feel a bit better, although only a little bit.

"Sleep? Last night of course!" William replied and then mumbled something about something not being right with some part and something being loose. Hugue couldn't make out anything of the last part, really.

He stopped to think for a moment. He had cleaned William's bedroom earlier, and the bed had been neatly done, with clean sheets and everything. Which meant the last one to touch it had been himself - yesterday afternoon. This in turn meant...

"Where, may I ask?" He inquired.

The older man looked at him, a little annoyed from the fact that his experiment had been interrupted. "What kind of question is that, Hugue?"

Hugue shook his head, giving a sigh of vexation. He then looked at William again, not really caring at this point if he had interrupted the experiment. "You've been napping in here again, haven't you? You know how bad that is for your back, Master! I believe it's time for bed."

Without another word, he walked behind the desk and gently grabbed the professor. William tried to struggle out of Hugue's grasp, but it was to no avail.

William was led out of the office rather unceremoniously, ranting about how his experiment wasn't done and how Hugue was about to set back scientific progress by twenty years if he made the professor go to bed. Hugue had, of course, heard all this before, so he paid no real heed. He switched the light off to the office as he left, dragging the professor to his bed. Besides, a good night's rest would probably help William fix his experiment, although the older man would probably never admit that.

Author's notes:

We were bored.

- Elmina & Fenril Knight (April, 2006)