A/N: So I didn't have internet for four days and had to take it upon myself to find entertainment somewhere... which was a very bad idea for me.

He wasn't exactly her type of character or even someone she would've considered to be in her field of… looking, if that was a word to use. If anything, on any other basis or at any other time, she would've set him on the lower end of her list.

But things always seemed to play out in a 'fate's a bitch' kind of way; then again she supposed a lot of it was just a play back on her. It wasn't like she had all too much luck on her side anyways… at least not when it came to finding a qualified bedmate-slash-possible significant other. She wasn't exactly looking for anything long-term but… a little extra company now and again wasn't sinning anyone. Now, she had had years of fallouts and outright breakdowns but he seemed to be able to keep her content with their pacing for now. There weren't breakouts of closures or distancing problems… they were able to keep a healthy balance for a longer amount of time than anyone else before them.

She had always kept her standards high and refused to let them drop; she had always assumed that she let her guard on those standards falter slightly when he was around, like she was giving him a brief chance. But the more times they found themselves situated together, the more she was coming to realize that perhaps it wasn't something simple like a drop of standards; it was something more complicated… something like she had merely misjudged him from a distance.

She wasn't someone to easily admit mistakes, but he was one case where she forfeited that act of pride almost willingly.

It was just that soft touch of his skin against her own and her flesh brushing over his that stirred some kind of suppressed feeling. Whether it was his name or the taste of his skin… it just felt good on her lips. That burning rush of heat and almost eagerness that came from the sound of closing doors behind them left stirring, cluttered beats in her heart; just the thought of having him to herself nearly put the fragile organ into a cardiac arrest. It almost seemed to bear its own weakness at the startled clumsiness in the given situation, but it was a flaw they both shared vulnerably with one another.

It was a shared fall from grace that landed them both in tangled sheets and late nights filled with unfinished paperwork.

But it seemed to be a greater sin to simply ignore the would-be twist of opposite flesh and the heavy rush of hot lips and impatient tongues. The mask of darkness was usually enough to hide their cross of arms and legs, to hide the temporary marks that bled across easy, open skin. While it wasn't technically written down anywhere and not technically against the books… it was still more fun to keep their activities a secret; it was almost a game in trying to keep up a normal façade in the face of the public, in the face of their co-workers. So far, they were winning but it was getting more and more difficult each time. There were those subtle drops in his words when he spoke to her out in the open that teased the situation further, and she was almost more than willing to follow through each time. Sometimes, it was easy to simply say the words and walk away with little hesitation. Other times, the subtleness seemed to be dropped all together and the harsh brace of every word made her want nothing more than to throw him down and have her way with him. At first, at the start of this whole experiment, it was easier to simply ignore one another but with every passing night of open embraces and tightened flesh, it was leaning towards the latter of the two.

They weren't exactly people of commitment outside of their work.

But it seemed like they were both destined to change that factor on the other.

The months that had passed from the very start of this engagement to their evolved state now felt like it had done more physically for her than anything else. She usually held her mental and emotional state out of such… contact and didn't allow herself to get attached to anyone specific. It had been so easy to before but now he was making it more and more complicated for her to keep up with.

"Being in love means you give someone every possible chance to hurt you… but you know they won't."

The door squeaked lightly as she slid it open and quietly stepped into the conjoining bedroom; watching as a few wisps of steam managed to escape from behind her and disappeared into the newly opened room. A brief chuckle escaped her as she moved to brush aside her still wet bangs from her face. She had gotten up much earlier this morning, trained for a while and came back in for a quick shower. He was still asleep. That was one of the many differences between them. Where she enjoyed getting up at the crack of dawn just for a few extra hours of training, he preferred to wait for a little while longer; he wasn't a morning person on his own but would get up if it were called for. Today was to be considered a vacation day for them… and it was easy to see that he was taking advantage of that.

A few steps brought her closer to him as hands moved to brace against the empty space at his sides; lips lightly brushing against the smooth curve of his shoulder. The wet tips of her hair skimmed across his skin and seemed to bring forth a faint stir from him. "Do you expect to keep in bed all day?"

A brief groan escaped him as his body tensed into a small stretch, eventually forcing him to roll over to face her. Her hair had left small droplets of water to follow the curves of his shoulder down to the dip of his collarbone. "That's all depending."

"On?"

"Are you going to be in it with me?"