The lights were all down. The director, the chief and his secretary, and the hunters had all gone home. Michael was the only one left, and he was finishing up his work for the night. He stood up and stretched, going to look out the window before he returned to his screen where he would search the internet for his own pleasure.
Robin was standing there when he turned from the window.
"I brought donuts," she said, holding up the box.
Well, there went some of the options for recreational internet viewing. Of course, there were still millions of options that he wouldn't feel guilty looking at with Robin there.
When Robin came back with coffee, she went straight to her own computer and turned it on.
For a while they didn't look at each other, just typing, working, reading and viewing. The coffee and donuts had been gone for five minutes when Michael was aware of Robin standing from her chair and coming to stand behind him.
"Something on your mind?" he asked, turning from his screen to look up at her.
"Have a look at the security feed," she suggested.
Michael looked at her curiously, but with a shrug he turned back to his screen and carefully hacked into the security feed. The director was supposed to be the only person who could access the security cameras at any time, and if he found out that any of them had gone near them for even a second, then there would be trouble.
On the screen before him now, Robin was sitting at her computer. Every camera angle of the office had Robin at her computer with her back to him, and him at his computer with his back to her. It was perfectly normal, except that he could feel her arms gently wrapping around his shoulders.
Michael checked the system. It was working, actively recording, the clock ticking over as it was supposed to, it just wasn't showing the things that were really happening in the office.
"Did I leave a trail?" Robin asked quietly.
Michael's eyes widened at her soft question and he turned sharply in her loose hold to fix his gaze on her. "No," he answered.
Robin smiled in joyful pride.
"Robin, how did you do this?" Michael asked. "For that matter, why did you do this?"
"With some difficulty," Robin admitted, backing off slightly. "As for why?" she dropped one delicate arm from around his shoulders and trailed a pale hand from Michael's knee to nearly the crux of his trousers. "Because I don't want the director to review the night and find out that I'm 'fraternizing' with one of my co-workers," she whispered, her lips brushing the very outside edge of his ear.
Michael shivered at her touches and swallowed a moan, gasping and letting his head fall back onto Robin's shoulder. This was something that he had never expected to happen. If he were to pick someone that Robin would hold an interest for in this way, he would have said Amon first – she followed him around like a puppy when he was here. Even Sakaki had more of a chance with Robin in his mind – his motorcycle was something like her vespa. Both of them were able to go out with her, unlike him.
"Robin," he said, his voice hoarse to his own hearing. He lay a hand over the one of hers that was resting tantalisingly on the fabric of his pants and drew it away. "Why are you doing this?" he asked again. "Why not with Amon? Or even Sakaki?"
Robin pressed her lips to the skin just behind Michael's ear, her nose brushing his earlobe before she drew ever-so-slightly back so that she could answer him.
"Because neither of them make me want to do this," she answered, "and you have been toying with me since the day I got here."
"I haven't," Michael denied as her hand escaped his hold and returned to stroking where his leg joined to his abdomen, from crux to hip and back. "Besides, I would have thought you liked Amon, if you would have picked anyone at all."
"He's my partner," Robin answered. "Nothing more," she explained, drawing back the arm still wrapped around Michael's shoulders to catch his chin and turn him to face her slightly as she leant forward over his shoulder until her lips hovered barely an inch above his. "And you have," she added, referring to his denial of toying with her. "I never dropped anything in my life until I met you."
Michael's eyes widened at this revelation – he had just thought her a little clumsy when she had first arrived at STN-J – and then he could feel the heat of her mouth against his and the burning emotions behind them, and his eyes fell shut as he allowed himself to return the gently searing touch that was her two soft pillows of flesh massaging against his own. He gasped when Robin released his lips at last, and then moved around his chair and sat across his lap, her skirts rustling softly as they settled down his left side where both of her legs hung by his. Robin had one hand still cradling his face, and the other, which had been stroking his thigh joint so teasingly before, now dragged up his stomach and chest until it reached his necklace and began to toy with the pendant.
"Then, once I'd had enough of fumbling every time I looked at you, I brought donuts and made a dedicated effort to actually get to know you, and I was drawn to more than just how attractive you are on the outside, but also on the inside as well. There's just so very much to go crazy about you for, Michael," Robin explained, and her voice was almost-husky, but also pitched like she was stating the obvious to a friend who was a little slow and didn't seem to understand what they were being told.
In part, Michael supposed, that was somewhat true of the situation that they were currently in.
"Before I came in tonight I called Father Julianos, who raised me," Robin continued, snuggling herself against him and tucking her forehead against Michael's neck, letting the hand that cupped his face to take over the task of fiddling with his pendant, while the had that had been doing that task before dropped down to rest upon his knee. "I had to tell him that I was not going to become a nun, like he had wanted me to be. I wouldn't be able to. He wasn't very pleased, and said that he would be arriving here tomorrow morning to meet the person I would give up convent life for."
"So tomorrow I'm meeting the parents?" Michael finally managed to choke out, having been completely incapable of speech until just then.
"Singular Michael," Robin corrected absently, "but I suppose so, yes."
"Does he know that you're here right now?"
Robin smiled and hummed against the skin just below Michael's neck. "Oh yes," she answered breathily. "I told him exactly what I intended to do tonight. That's why he'll be here tomorrow instead of next week."
Michael had a sudden – brief – vision of a scene from a spaghetti western movie, of a father carrying a large and intimidating shot gun as he threatened the young man who had slept with his daughter, ordering him to marry her or suffer the rather obvious consequence. Then Robin was pulling softly at the skin of his neck with her lips, trailing one hand down his chest, and shifting how she was arranged on his lap slightly so that her other hand could rub circles on his inner thigh just above his knee. All thoughts of anything but her were rapidly disappearing as something completely other began to make itself known.
He didn't care any more. This could potentially be the very best thing that was ever going to happen to him. He raised his own hands to stroke Robin's shoulders and slide under the black straps of her over-dress so that he caressed the charcoal-grey fabric that covered her.
Robin's touch left Michael's knee, and he watched as her pale fingers began to unfasten the collar of her grey dress, continuing down until she hit the top edge of her black over-dress, which she also fumbled open with the one hand. Michael's gentle massaging of Robin's shoulders soon had the fabric pulling away from her skin, revealing her pale skin to his orange-tinted gaze.
"Michael," Robin called, drawing his attention away from her neck and the very first teasing glimpse of the skin of her breast. "Do you want me too?" she asked, cupping his jaw in her hand and locking her ocean green-blue gaze upon his own blue eyes through his tinted glasses. For the first time that night she sounded unsure.
At this point, Michael thought it was a somewhat redundant question, but to not answer the beautiful creature currently sitting in his lap would have been rude, especially considering that she was currently sitting in his lap. He raised his own hand to the back of Robin's head and pulled her closer to him gently, kissing her lips softly and briefly. He pulled away again and took a deep breath so that he could answer her question properly.
"Robin," he began, closing his eyes to calm and order his thoughts into something cohesive. "Since the day you arrived, I have felt the same way about you as I have felt about my freedom from the day that I first came here," Michael said.
Robin blinked at him, confused but willing to hear the rest of what he had to say.
"I long for my freedom, but it is beyond my reach. I have dreamt of you, but I was so sure that my dreams were as close as I was ever going to get," Michael explained.
Robin's face softened in understanding, a small smile taking easy residence on her lips and lighting a small glow in her eyes.
"Then maybe your freedom isn't so unobtainable either," she suggested before she kissed him again.
~The Beginning~