a/n: YAY! Here you go; a turning point in the Annie/Auggie relationship! :) Hope you enjoy and tell me what you think!
Eremite: a hermit.
Annie had to knock three times before Auggie answered the door, and even then he answered it slowly.
The door slid open inch-by-inch to reveal a drawn face; despite this, she smiled widely. "Hey, Auggie," she said perkily.
He blinked once before sighing. "Annie, what are you doing here?"
"I came to cheer you up," she said, ducking under his arm before he could protest and bouncing into his house, kicking off her shoes easily and trotting over to his couch. She sat there, unpacking her bag she'd brought onto his coffee table, waiting for him to join her.
When he didn't, she glanced curiously over at the door. He was standing in his foyer, his arms crossed firmly over his chest and his face thrown halfway into shadow.
"Annie," he said again, his voice lower this time. "What are you doing here?"
She sighed, standing up and crossing the room until she was standing in front of him. "Auggie, you have not been at work for two whole days. I'm guessing that means you've just been holed up in your house?"
His scowl gave her the affirmation she was looking for.
"So, what?" he asked, furrowing his brows. "You're here to tell me to get back to work?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed, involuntarily reaching out and playing with the hem of his tank top as she spoke. "It is so boring without you. And there's no one to protect me from Jai! He's been hovering since yesterday, ever since he realized you weren't at work. How he got that promotion, I don't know, because he never seems to be doing anything."
Despite Auggie's state of mind, her comment made him crack a small smile. "Is that all you came here for?"
She swallowed, gathering up the nerve for what she had been planning on saying since yesterday morning. "No," she said softly, dropping his shirt and clasping her hands in front of her. "I also came to tell you that…it wasn't your fault."
Auggie's smile immediately faded. She held her breath, hoping that her deductions as to why Auggie had suddenly turned into a hermit crab were correct. Ever since the mission had gone wrong, Auggie had not answered his phone or showed up at work, and Annie could only guess that it was because he felt guilty for almost getting her shot.
Auggie let out a ragged breath, stalking past her and into his living room. "Annie, I don't want to talk about that."
"Okay," she said, following him into the other room. "Then let's talk about why you've been ignoring me."
He stopped midway through the room, turning to face her. "I haven't been ignoring you."
"No, you just haven't been answering your phone when I call. I checked with Stu. You talked to him." Annie's lip jutted out, and she crossed her arms, trying not to let all of the hurt and confusion she was feeling show. "What's wrong with me?" she asked quietly, and despite her efforts, it was easy to hear the wounded tone of her voice.
She knew Auggie's bionic ears wouldn't miss it.
He sighed, running a tired hand through his hair and taking a few steps toward her. "It's not what's wrong with you, it's what's wrong with me," he muttered tensely, so quietly she almost couldn't hear it.
"Auggie, nothing's wrong with you," she said soothingly, loping over to him.
"Don't say that," he spit out tersely, balling his fists at his sides, and Annie stopped in her tracks.
"Wha—"
"Annie, you got shot!"
"It's okay-"
"You got shot!"He was shouting suddenly, his face twisted in anger and the veins in his arms bulging as he tensed his muscles. Annie stumbled backwards a few feet as Auggie's outburst continued. "You got shot, because of me! Don't act like everything is okay!"
She tried to answer, but she was so shocked that nothing came out at first. She cleared her throat and tried again. "I—Auggie, I got grazed," she corrected.
"In the stomach!"
"In the side," she said, struggling to keep her voice calm and even. "It's really more of a scratch. All the paramedic had to do was clean it a bit and put a bandage on."
Auggie scoffed heatedly. "And what happens next time?" he asked, throwing himself into his arm chair only to jump back to his feet immediately. "What happens when you don't get grazed, but you get shot in the head, because I can't see the fucking security cameras and I can't tell you when someone's sneaking up on you? What am I supposed to do then, Annie? You tell me!"
"Don't think like that!" she exclaimed, her voice rising to match his temper. "There are people who can help you watch cameras, like Jai used to—"
"It's my job to think like that! It's my job to keep you safe! And if I can't do that, I might as well not work."
Annie was the one to scoff then, striding over to him in annoyance. "So what, you're just going to quit? Auggie, there's a bigger chance of something going wrong with a different handler than with you! You're the best at your job. To quit over something as stupid as—"
His hands shot out, colliding with her arms clumsily before finding her shoulders and squeezing them tightly. "You got shot!"
"Auggie, I—"
"That is not stupid!"
"Auggie!" she cried, waiting until his breathing had calmed a little to speak. "I. Got. Grazed."
She placed emphasis on each word, relaxing a bit as he swallowed heavily.
"Do you want to see?" she asked, her eyes roving his remorseful face. He winced at her question.
"Annie, I can't—"
"You know what I mean," she interrupted, prying one hand off of her shoulder and bringing it down to her waist. She hiked her shirt up and peeled the bandage back, wincing slightly at the soreness, and placing Auggie's fingertips at the edge of the wound.
Slowly he brought his other hand down to rest on the skin of her other hip, and with a shaky breath, his brown eyes questioned her, coming to rest on her left cheek.
"Go ahead," she murmured softly, attempting to ignore the unsettling feelings that were churning her stomach at Auggie's touch on her bare skin. At her words, his fingers began to gingerly explore her cut. He traced the outline of the injury, his fingers ghosting over her, barely touching. He bit his lip as he memorized the length of the nick, the width of the nick, and—very very carefully—the depth of the nick. His thumb ran over it lightly and she sucked in a breath at the chills that sizzled down her spine.
Auggie mistook it for a hiss of pain and snatched his hand away, mumbling apologies. Annie caught his hand again quickly, bringing it back to her skin.
"No, it didn't hurt," she murmured softly, and he looked down at her with something brewing in his eyes. "I was just surprised."
Auggie continued to feel, testing the difference between the texture of her normal skin and the puckering of the edges of the scrape. He seemed to decide that he liked her normal skin better and slid his hand slowly away from her abrasion, splaying his hand across the warm skin of her stomach, using his fingertips to trace trails of fire from her hip bones to her ribs.
Unconsciously, Annie's head was tilting further up, her neck craning farther, her toes stretching to make her taller. Auggie's face was inches from her own, and he seemed to know it, his breath speeding up with her heart.
"Auggie…"
His head hesitantly bent down a fraction of a centimeter, and then a fraction of an inch, and then a whole inch, and then he was just centimeters from her lips. He paused, brushing his nose along hers, listening to her unsteady breathing, before leaning in all the way. He placed a tentative kiss near the corner of her mouth, his lips pressing lightly against only half of hers, making her suck in a shaky breath. They seemed frozen there for a long time, his breath mingling with hers and his hands still canvassing her stomach—each of them waiting to see if the other would take the next step—until Auggie finally increased the pressure minutely and pulled away slightly.
"I'm sorry you got grazed," he murmured roughly, his gravelly voice vibrating throughout her whole body.
His hands fell from her, and Annie dropped back down onto her heels, feeling slightly light headed and more than a little confused.
"It's okay, Auggie, those kinds of things happen. They'll happen again," she mumbled in a high voice that was not hers. She closed her eyes, trying to regain control of her breathing and possibly her sanity. In a sad attempt to lighten the mood, she abruptly asked, "Does this mean you're coming back to work?"
His perfect mouth, that she would probably never be able to push out of her thoughts again, upturned in a small smile. "I'll be back tomorrow," he promised.
She returned his smile and he cleared his voice. "So, what did you bring in your bag?" he asked, padding over to his couch and curiously touching the contents strewn out on his coffee table. "Are these magazines?"
Annie nodded proudly, joining him on the couch, and explaining, "I wanted to get you out of your house, but I figured you wouldn't want to go to Allen's."
He nodded slowly. "True, but magazines won't get me out of my house, Annie."
"They will pretty soon. These are real estate ads, Auggie."
He made a noise of surprise and she pushed on.
"After I got back from the mission, I was all alone in my safe house—again, and I realized that I wanted a different, smaller, homier place where people can come visit all they want."
Auggie's face split into a grin again. "That sounds nice."
"That's what I thought," Annie said. "But there are too many choices, so you're going to help me decide. I think I have it pretty much narrowed down."
"Okay, let me hear the options," Auggie said, rubbing his hands together in preparation.
"One of them is a two bedroom, one bath apartment—"
"Two bedrooms?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow, and the slight teasing in his tone let her know he was already moving past his brooding stage.
"Well yeah, that way I'd have a guest room if you or the girls ever needed to stay over," Annie said, looking at the nice picture in the advertisement.
Auggie's signature smirk threatened to emerge.
"Well, I don't know about the Chloe and Katia, but I helped you pick out your bed, so I intend on sleeping in it if I ever need to," he said, stretching his arms out across the back of his couch. "It's half mine."
A giggle bubbled out of Annie, at his absurd comment. "Actually, Auggie, I'm the one that paid for it, so it's all mine."
"True, except for the half that's mine," he quipped, giving her a teasing smile.
"Whatever!" Annie exclaimed, shaking her head. "You're probably a bed hog. I bet you'd say you owned half, but you'd actually take three-quarters."
Auggie let out an indignant noise. "I am not a bed hog, Annie Walker!"
"Pinky promise?" she asked.
"Pinky promise," he confirmed, holding up his pinky. She linked hers with his, surprised to feel butterflies forming in her stomach at this simple touch. Swallowing nervously, she kept her finger locked with his for much longer than necessary—until she saw his brown eyes become inquisitive and wander over the location she sat in—before finally letting go, biting her lip coyly.
Okay, so maybe it could be half his.
a/n: I tried to make their kiss more of a "I'm really glad you're alive, because you're my best friend, but I'm not sure I'm ready to confront any feelings I may have for you" on Auggie's part. And I tried to make Annie's reaction something that would just naturally happen, because come on, if Auggie kissed you (regardless if he was just a friend or not), you'd be pretty affected too. :p Hopefully I did this justice!
