"I would suppose that would be up to you, wouldn't it? Prove yourself up to my standards...and don't let your eyes decieve you, Miss Jones - and we'll be on equal footing. Fuck things up? You'll get nothing but disdain from me."

"Now that would be a shame, wouldn't it?" she asked dryly, wondering what disdain was like, if this was the beginning of their "relationship". She was probably going to puke on him if he showed up to work looking like this every day, and she was probably going to yell at him if he showed up to work acting like a complete prick every time he talked to her. Yes, this was going to be a job of alternating puking and yelling, and she wasn't looking forward to it. Hestia loved her work, but she sensed it was going to be a lot less enjoyable now that she had little Elphie around all the time, giving her crap that she didn't always have the energy to return in kind.

She turned her head a little so that she only had to look at him from the corners of her eyes, and set her jaw. Her lips pursed together with a kind of determination. If he thought that she was going to mess up and be some skittish little idiot, he was thoroughly mistaken. She was going to give him a run for his money if there ever was one. And if she didn't, she would just...demote herself to the status of secretary and probably bash herself upside the head with something heavy.

"Don't let your eyes deceive you, Haddock," she remarked, "I am up to your 'standards'."

And you and your standards can both shove it.