A/N: Hey everybody - just a little something that came out of seeing that clip of season 9 that's flying around the internet - so, there are spoilers for that. This is also a bit of plotless fluff - not meant to be high art, it just wrote itself after I finished squeeing. So I hope you'll enjoy it. Thank yous and big hugs go out to ShadowSamurai83 and CatS81 for their respective roles in helping along with this story.
Title: New Day, New Do
Author: Geminied
Rating: K
Disclaimer: It all belongs to the BBC (who won't give us this following scene) and to the guy who put the clip up. I make no money from it.
Summary: It's a new day. And there's a new do.
SPOILER: season 9
Enjoy!
New day, New Do
He eyes himself critically in the hallway mirror. Does the jacket sit alright? Is the shirt without creases underneath? Even more vainly, he checks whether his hair sits alright - a move that draws a chuckle from the woman throwing odds and ends into a large handbag.
He gives her a look to which she answers with a smirking one of her own and then goes back to filling her tardis of a handbag up. Why women always carry such big bags, and why they are always full, will always be beyond him, but she has an affinity for clutter anyway, so he keeps quiet.
"You are unbelievably vain, you know? You've been in front of that mirror longer than I took to get ready today, and I've had to put on make-up," she complains lightly.
"I'm not vain, I know I look good." His answer is cocky, he knows, so he isn't surprised when she only raises an eyebrow. "Just want make a good impression."
She steps closer so that she can lean against his shoulder and look into the mirror as well. The fact that she needs to look around him to see herself is noted and chuckled on by both. She takes a look, then slips around to face him and cups his cheek. Her thumb brushes over his jaw, while her palm slowly rubs his cheek.
The sensation makes him shiver, and it's not just the fact that his naked skin is specifically tender this morning. It is, the scratch of the razor has irritated it a little, and the after shave didn't help. He'll have to remember that, again. But it is her touch, intimate, as if it has always been that way, and so he smiles and leans in.
Her eyes widen a little as she shivers as well, which deepens his smile.
"Oh, so that's the reason for your new do. And here I thought you're making an effort for me."
For a moment, he isn't sure how to take that; they rarely are this forward - which is ridiculous, considering - but he catches the imp in her eyes and shakes his head. His hand comes up to lightly trace over her hair. "Just like yours, I'd say."
"Don't like it?" She is unsure for a moment, which is something he'll probably never understand, this lack of confidence she has about her appeal.
He smiles and catches her chin with his fingers, making her look at him directly. She has blushed and damn, if that doesn't make his smile wider. "It's very you."
It wasn't the right thing to say, because her smile is still not entirely genuine and as bright as he'd like it. "Very stylish," he reiterates. "Gorgeous. You look like life itself."
"Flatterer," she counters with a fond smile, but doesn't contradict him. He'll just have to continue flattering her so that she believes it.
"Just stating the truth."
She doesn't say anything to that, doesn't need to really. Instead she goes back to the other side of the hallway and throws even more things into her bag. He wonders whether she'll upend it later on and restart when he isn't looking.
Running a hand over his smooth cheeks, he shrugs and says, "I figured it was time to shave the beard off, new start and all that."
"Taking a new leaf out of the book?" she asks and they both stop and smirk at the little tennis match of clichd phrases they throw at each other.
"If I have to go into a personal meeting with so many big heads on my first day back, I guess I had better give a good impression. Never know how long it will last."
"Never know when you start yelling and questioning orders, you mean?"
"Yeah," he admits. "Something like that."
Suddenly serious, she turns back to him. "You expect there to be something questionable." It's not a question, it doesn't need to be.
"I'm on my first day back from three months leave, which my superiors didn't want to call suspension, Grace. And I am called into the Commissioner's office first thing. Either they're going to suspend me permanently or..."
"...They have something negative to say in terms of cases, funds, equipment or personnel, which you are supposed to swallow."
He laughs sarcastically for a moment, both because she - naturally - guessed, and because he knows his superiors well enough to expect exactly that. "I expect the latter, since the Commissioner mentioned a few other attendees of high rank."
"Didn't we just miss Met-politics?" she snarks and he doesn't need to answer, but does anyway.
"Too bloody right, Grace."
Grace crosses the distance once again, this time to carefully adjust the collar of his shirt. "Speaking of impressions, Peter, you'll be late."
He shrugs dismissively. In his eyes, the big heads can always wait. Catching her hand, he covers it with his own. "You go and prepare Eve and Spence?"
"And myself too. I do have an appointment at the Home Office this afternoon and I anticipate the Secretary to ask me why I don't keep you under better control, considering that you...and I..."
"They trust me that little?" Boyd asks drolly. "I should be hurt."
"They trust me this much, that's the way you should look at it."
"Naturally."
They stand like this for a minute or two, her hand in his, her body leaned against his. His free arm has slipped around her waist. She looks healthy and relaxed, refreshed, her face alight. He is very pleased with that. She thinks the same about him. The difference will be that he'll tell her, and she won't. He does have a bit of an ego and she doesn't think it needs some extra stroking.
But that's okay.
They are standing in the hallway of her house, holding each other. And the day has just begun.
Thank you for reading. Comments would be greatly appreciated.