Alina took a bite of flapjack as Brian mentioned talking to the Minister. She swallowed slowly, before biting her lip. "Well, I think in future the circumstances will be quite different, and easier..." She left it there, not wanting to go into the reasons why her husband had found her promotion so difficult to come to terms with. It wouldn't surprise her if Brian could guess now.

She eyed the papers in his hand, and raised an eyebrow. "More work?" Alina groaned, before laughing. "Well, its a good job I've pretty much done this report then..." She looked curious. "I know you have to see Theo first, but is this Conference related?"

Alina frowned slightly, but it wasn't long before she was smiling again. It wasn't part of her nature to be down. Especially since she knew that there was nothing wrong. "Goodo. I'll have to pop along and give one to Ian later." She put the lid on the tin for the moment, and put it away. "As for tempting recipes, I'm sure I could pass a few on." She eyed Edward, before laughing. "Cookies always good down well..."
Alina felt his hand move, and she moved her gaze to meet his. She grinned, before turning back to the conversation. "New boss?" Alina questioned. She had haalf heartedly applied for that position, not that anyone knew that, so she was interested to know who had taken it up.
Ah, banter between guys. Alina laughed as Brian said about not biting. "Glad to hear it!" she said, taking a sip of her coffee. "Poor friend?" Alina asked teasingly. "You really should make more excuses to come up here then..."

Brian was shaking his right foot as he leaned back of the table on his elbows. The cool cucumber is finally back. It had been a long time since he lost his coolness last time. He nodded at Alina's assurance, "I hope so, otherwise everyone should face the consequences, including me.." he said as-a-matter-of-fact. He very well knew his top official the Minister.

When Alina asked about the work, "Oh..I completely forgot that. No..It's not about conference, It's for our employees...just for some change," he said and put the folder on the table which was neatly arranged and categorized. "Conference is going to start, and I'm assigned for take care of the foreign ministers in the Arrival area along with my fellow Liaison Cambell," he informed them, "And I need to hurry. I dont like to let Cambell tobe alone since she's new to the department.." he smiled as he ran his hand through the hair.

He took notice of both Alina's frown and Edward's silence. He knew the reason and didnt want to increase it. Honestly he had liked the current atmosphere better than the one before. He decided to ease it more as he said, "Yeah, I just wanted to surprise my mom with my cooking skill...she always using to tease me on that department. But not her fault, I dont even know how to cook the single breakfast.." he laughed as his shiny wheet teeth sparkled.

"Aw..bear my funny jokes." he paused " I'll come here if i have some time to relax but only if you promise to offer me some coffee. I hope Alina would not mind it.." he was teasing her more.

Edward smiled back at Alina and turned back to Brian. "I'm not worried about you biting her. I'm worried about you biting me." He laughed with a smirk on his face as he talked to his friend. He walked over, gave him a nice brotherly hug and sat back down and took a bite of his flapjack and sip of his coffee as he listened to Alina and Brian chat about thier respective outlooks of ministry things. As a security guard, the inner machinations of power held little appeal to him, but he didn't mind listening.

Brian hugged back his friend, felt so happy. There you're my friend! He smiled, "Hahaha..I dont like to bite guys," he winked , "Only the opposite gender.."he said both at Edward and Alina as his smile grew to a laughter. He noticed that Edward was getting bored of their work related talks. He moved to him by his side, "Hey man, getting bored of official talks?" he gently punched his shoulder.

Edward smiled and shook his head. "No. Not bored. Just listening. One of the good things about working in Security is that the political intrigue is kept to a minimum."

Brian tilted his head, he had been busy all over the day for the conference with usual office stuffs, but not tired. The British minister's urgent message was the only odd thing so far. He nodded his heae at Edward, "I agree. Dont your department busy with this?" he asked still wondered, there was no other secuirty persons other than one who was appointed to escort the Indian Minister.

Edward listened to Brian's question. "Yeah. A little. We haven't gotten a direct assignment. Mostly the aurors handle dignitary protection."

" I heard of it. But you know we need more persons to assist the foreign ministers, they asked us to provide," he said as tucked his hand to the trouser pocket. All the while Alina remained so quiet. Listening!?

"So..tell me some of your latest club visits and dart games, Edward," he asked, as he wanting a diversion from the work talks.

Alina smiled. "Well at least you guys know what you're meant to be doing at the Conference. I still haven't a clue!" She laughed. "Well, apart from write a report on some problems with patents. Which I've almost done."

She drank the rest of her coffee, and noted Brian's change in the topic of conversation. "Darts, eh?" Alina asked raising an eyebrow. They hadn't really spoken too much about his spare time activities, so she hadn't really thought about what he might be into. "Serious or pub darts?"

Edward nodded as Brian discussed the needs of the visiting minister. "I'm sure that Egypt will hand out the assignments when she gets them. Until then, I'm quite content to let the aurors do the protocol and detail stuff."

He grinned as Brian, then Alina asked about the darts. "Well, It's pub darts mostly. I'm not very good, until I've had a couple of pints put into me, but I hold my own until then. And.." he hesitated to say much as he and Si hadn't realy discussed much how to break the news to friends and co workers. "I've not been to the pub much lately. I've spent a good amount of time with my girlfriend."

Brian shook his head, "Oh..it's nothing Alina. If you have a time just visit the tenth level. You can find some funniest things too.." he laughed at the thought of what the American Minister did to him and so the Chines minister. Funny!!

His laugh stopped when he heard Edward's declaration. No..was it a declaration? He needed tobe patient to assure it. But instantly his mouth opened wide in surprise, and soon broke into a ear to ear grin. "Dude...since when?" he asked, in pure excitement. Nothing went inside his brain whatever Edward said about the conference. Who cares the conference after all! Human!!

Alina laughed. She was rubbish at darts, but had enjoyed playing it here and there during her youth. She looked at him curiously as he hesitated, but then grinned widely. "You kept that one quiet!" she said jokingly. "Good for you...you willing to share more details? Like how you met, what she's like?" She hugged Edward in a motherly fashion, she was pleased that he'd found himself someone and couldn't help but smile at the news.

"Have time? You seen this lot?" She raised an eyebrow and gestured to her desk before laughing. "I might just come and venture down for a break sometime. And what sort of funny things...?"

Brian watched Alina as she asked the same questions to Edward. Love! World's most amazing thing. Core of every human being's happy life in the earth. He smiled and watching Edward now, waiting for his reactions. Would he be blush? He chuckled and replied to Alina quickly.

"You know, The American Ministers was acted like a Match maker.." he laughed as he tilted his head. "She thought she found me and Angelina would be a perfect and cute couple.." he couldnt finish but laugh as tears popped up in the corner of his eyes.

For some reason, the fact there were people in the division made Apha's stomach turn as she stepped into it. Her hand automatically pulled down at the top that wasn't there, thanks to the robes Nicoli had put her in.

With a smile at each person, she cast a quick glance around. 'Please, don't mind me,' she told them, unable to spot anything out of the ordinary. One hand still clenched around her wand, she pursed her lips. She couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, and with the people already in here it didn't seem likely there would be, anyway. A quick, wordless spell from the wand tucked in her pocket allowed her to see the few things she couldn't, but nothing there seemed wrong either.

With a polite nod to each of them, she retreated from the room, satisfied.

Theodore entered the Patents office, with his head looking outside the door, trying to see if anyone was getting off the elevator. "Alina, love of my life," he said turning his head. His eyes widened when he saw his wife hugging Edward. He thought all this was over, but obviously not. Unless he was reading it wrong. But he never did that. He sighed, "Just tidy up. Foreign Ministers. My department. Now."

Alina looked over Edward's shoulder where she had been hugging him, to see someone looking around the division. She returned their smile, and nodded at their words. She assumed it was to do with the Convention, and let them get on with it. It didn't seem to take too long though, and Alina returned to the guys. Or at least she was going to, except she saw a familiar face...
"Theo!" Alina said, with a broad smile lighting up her face. In some ways she missed working right outside her husband's office, but it made it all the better when he popped in to see her. She stood back from Edward, before noting a slight change in Theo's expression. Her smile faltered slightly, as she realised how he might have just perceived her hugging Edward. Bother. She thought he'd gone past that stage.

She looked at him honestly and sincerely, hoping Theo would get the point that there was nothing there. And hoped at the same time he wouldn't think about making any sort of scene with Brian there as well. She didn't know how much of the background the liason knew, afterall. "I wouldn't exactly say it was messy," she said, stacking a couple of files as she did so. Okay, it was messy for Alina's usual standards, but for most people it was relatively neat.

Satisfied her desk looked a little less covered in reports and files, Alina walked slowly to her husband. "Anything else need sorting?" she asked, eyebrows slightly raised.

Theo smiled as Alina pulled away from Edward. At least she knew how he felt about it. He trusted her completely. But some things brought back memories of anger, and distance.

"I just want everything super tidy. Brennan would shout if nothing was perfect, especially with the visitors visiting every floor. I want mine to be the best floor."

Alina was relieved as she saw Theo's expression soften into a smile. It showed that he understood, and a dimple appeared in her left cheek as she returned a knowing smile. She shook back her curly hair, and straightened her robes as he explained.

"Understood," she said with a wink. "And its obviously the best floor anyway, but I guess a bit of tidying could make it better."

"It might be the best floor. But it isn't tidy. You should see Liam's mess," he shook his head. He usually wasn't this anal with his cleaning. But he really wanted to impress his boss.

Alina raised an eyebrow. "Liam's mess? Is it really that bad?" She shook her head. It had to be dodgy if Theo was getting worked up about it; Alina was usually the fussy one about cleaning. Either that or he was worried about the impression given to the other Ministers of Magic. Yep that was it, he didn't want Brennan on his case.

"You need anywhere else doing? It won't take me long to sort here." Alina smiled. It wouldn't surprise her if he asked for help with his office. "Oh, and are you feeling peckish?"

Theo nodded, "Worse than my study at home." He tended to just leave stuff strewn around. And moving them into the relative piles on the floor.

"I think Liam might need some help. But my office is rather tidy. I had some help earlier. We had a bit of a hurricane problem. Egypt Greenwood came and sorted it out. Head of Maintenance." He nodded vigorously, "Yes most definitely. I haven't eaten since my slice of toast at breakfast. I have been too busy with all this conference faffle."

"Wow, that is saying something!" Alina laughed. From that description, it probably meant that the desks were strewn with recent paperwork, and other bits were on the floor. Well, that was how Theo's desk was at home, she'd given up trying to try and hoover the carpet. "I'll head over later."

His next words left her open mouthed, until he explained. Ah, someone else cleaned it. That would be why...though something wasn't right. She looked confused. "A hurricane problem? Riiight..." She gave him a weird kind of look, before giggling. Maybe it wasn't worth asking for an explanation there.

Alina gestured to her desk. "Would joining us in a coffee and flapjacks suffice, or would you rather head to the cafeteria?"

He shook his head, "Don't ask. I don't completely understand it myself. I think it was a plant. Someone put it there to destroy my office."

"I think I might go and get proper food. I am not feeling coffee right now, nor for flapjack. I am in the mood for something rather savoury."

"A plant?" She looked slightly worried. "How bad did it get?" She was sure glad she was well out of the way when that happened.

Alina nodded. "I'd join you, but it seems I have work to do." She looked around the room, trying to judge how long it'd take to neaten it up before heading over to help Liam. "Feel free to bring me back a sandwich though." She smiled and batted her eyelids. "Ham salad would be good."

"Very windy. The floor was flooded. It wasn't anything we couldn't fix," Theo said. "Didn't take too long to fix either."

He shrugged, "Are you sure? I guess I can bring you back a sandwich." He pulled out the change from his pocket. "And I have enough. You are in luck. Fancy anything else?"