[A/N: All I can say in my defense for the extreme delay in finishing this is: I promise I have many more ideas and a month's vacation to work on them. I dedicate this chapter to Kate, my bae, my Tumblr soulmate, and the one person who likes every fic idea I come to her with.]
Defeat
The elevator's ring once again announced her arrival. The doors slid open almost silently and she stepped into the room once more. Before she could get her bearings, she felt a hand slide around her waist and a hand grasp hers.
The shock of this unexpected circumstance left her face bare. She peered confusedly at Niles as he gracefully danced her towards the makeshift dance floor near the windows where a few couples were swaying closely to the string quartet.
Her confusion merged seamlessly into doubt as she felt his hand slide down to rest on her hip in a way that perhaps antiquatedly but nevertheless effectively proclaimed her as his. This new pressure forced her hips to align with his and they began to sway in unison, their movements as in sync with each other's as though they'd been dance partners for years.
A short moment of silence lasted an eternity as Niles watched CC benignly and CC eyed Niles warily. The two waged war with each other, the awkwardness of their quiet draped over their shoulders like heavy coats, as Niles expected CC to ask what he was doing and CC figured Niles would explain his inexplicable actions.
Both won this battle, incidentally, as the backer from earlier sauntered past Niles and clapped him on the shoulder, tossing "Between the shoulder blades, huh?" over his own shoulder as he went by.
Suspicion joined CC's confusion and doubt on her face. Niles sighed and said, "Don't ask."
"About the drunk belligerent or about Derek and his shoulder blade comment?" CC asked, indifference pushing past the other emotions and staking its claim on her face. But Niles knew how to read her voice at this point.
He smirked. "Such a comedian. You can ask about me but before you do, no, I am not drunk," Niles responded. His hands shifted slightly, getting a more comfortable grip on both her hip and her hand, and CC wondered if a body heat sensor would read her as crimson red wherever his hands were.
"All right," CC said, tossing her head back to move stray hairs that weren't even out of place. "Why are you here?"
Niles cleared his throat. "Well, I…that is to say, I mean to…I…"
Realizing he seemed on the verge of making some sort of proclamation, CC hurriedly amended, "I meant why are you here, and not-not catering the dinner or sweeping the floor?" Unnerved by his stuttered response, CC's insult fell flat.
"Something distracting you, Babcock?" Niles asked, moving his fingers and grazing them over her bum.
CC narrowed her eyes and Niles felt her turn icy. "This is a very funny game, Niles, but this is a business event and I'd rather not let colleagues see me plumbing the depths of society for a dance partner."
"No, don't misunderstand me," Niles said hastily, moving his hand back to rest on her hip. That certainly didn't help her, as there seemed to be something more erotic about his hand holding tightly to her hip than his fingers gently grazing her behind, but he didn't need to know that.
"Then you might want to explain yourself," CC replied.
Niles itched to point out to her that at no point had she stepped away from him or stopped dancing with him, but he quelled it: that was not his mission. He was here to surrender, to lose, to admit defeat.
"You win," he told her.
CC stared at him blankly. "If that's your definition of explaining yourself—"
"Come on, Babcock. You know what it means. I approached you. We're dancing here. You win," Niles elaborated.
CC continued to look at him, but Niles thought he detected a glimmer of something else in her eyes. "So you're saying…"
"Are you being intentionally difficult or are you truly that dense?" Niles snapped. A flash crossed CC's eyes and Niles almost growled in frustration; this woman would never, ever make his life easy. He stopped dancing and pulled his arms away from her. CC almost protested but stopped herself when Niles instead grabbed her right hand in both of his and held it up to his lips. He pressed a soft kiss against her skin that caused tiny fireworks to erupt in predictable and not-so-predictable places. "You win. I admit defeat. This is your victory, Babs."
"My…victory?" CC repeated. "Stop speaking in metaphors, Niles!"
"This isn't a metaphor. We've been dueling and battling and wrestling," Niles waggled his eyebrows, "for years. Sometimes I won and sometimes you won. More often, I probably lost. But now, officially, you've won the war."
"Does that mean…" CC began slowly.
Niles sighed, dropped CC's hand, and placed both of his on the sides of her head. CC had a split second to register what was about to happen, and both of them realized that she wasn't going to resist. He brought his lips to hers and kissed her in a perhaps more chaste way than of late but the very public nature of this display made it different, made it more.
He kissed her for longer than was necessary but CC knew why: years of secrecy made even one moment of openness precious. She also suspected that he wanted Nanny Fine and Maxwell to see, and in the waning moments of the kiss, CC granted that she probably did as well. Really, if they didn't have even one iota of a clue at this point, CC wondered if this kiss would help. When they separated, neither could help the small complicit smile they shared between them. A loud, exaggerated gasp from the direction of the buffet told CC that Fran had, indeed, seen.
"Maybe I won, but I'm thinking you won something here tonight, too," CC remarked as Niles slid his hands down her shoulders and arms.
Niles let his gaze travel pointedly down her silhouette. "I'd say I did."
CC cocked her eyebrow and eyed him coolly. "I don't recall saying I'd have you or accept your sad little surrender."
Niles let his both of his hands land lightly on her hips and she recognized the familiar look take over his face. What a wonderful surrender it was. "May I suggest we go somewhere more private to discuss the terms of my cease-fire?"
His desire sparked hers even more and she readily agreed—though pretended to deliberate it for a few agonizing seconds, of course. But as they prepared to leave and headed for the elevator, Niles paused to ask if she wanted to say goodbye to any backers. CC's answer was to grasp his hand and jab her finger at the elevator call button.
When the valet returned with her Mercedes, CC wordlessly slid into the passenger's seat and Niles, eyebrows slightly raised, climbed into the driver's side. He considered making a wry comment but it died in his throat as he clicked his seatbelt into place. The car's silence felt oppressive. It took Niles a few moments to place it, this sense of awkwardness, before he realized its cause: never before had they been alone with the silently-agreed-upon destination being her penthouse (or, more specifically, her bedroom). Nor had they ever been together after a very public display of affection.
This was completely uncharted territory, a parcel of time and space granted by their amnesty agreement. Niles wondered if CC sensed it too and momentarily thought that she was as cool and unaffected as she played at until he noticed her fingers grasping her clutch a little too aggressively.
The short car ride stretched on endlessly in the hush of her car and just as Niles was about to comment on something, anything, to break the quiet, a laugh bubbled out of CC's throat. It was her genuine laugh, the one he loved the most, with just a hint of sadism woven into it.
Contagiously, Niles began chuckling too as he slowed to a stop at a red light, just two blocks from her building. "What is it?"
CC continued laughing, bending over to press her face to her clutch. "You left Kathryn at the party." Saying it aloud caused another peal of laughter to erupt from her mouth and CC set her elbow against the car door, resting her forehead in her palm.
Shaking his head a little, Niles responded, "She didn't arrive with me." Niles turned to look at her, smiling at how openly beautiful her entire countenance was when she laughed.
"Still, I just can't help," CC said with a slight gasp, "thinking of her looking around for you, and you're gone." The last vestiges of her hilarity came out as sporadic chuckles. "I'm sure she thought she'd leave with you."
The light turned green and Niles accelerated gently. "No, I'm sure she didn't." He felt CC's eyes turn to regard him.
"Yes, because you're often so clear in the boundaries you set for your relationships," she remarked dryly.
Niles was saved from responding to that—indeed, from even having to think about all that she meant by it—by the necessity to ask another question. "Where shall I park?"
CC carefully pressed the tips of her fingers to the skin around her eyes, checking for smudges, and replied, "In the garage."
"There's a garage?"
"Yes. Under the building. Where did you imagine I parked? On the street?" CC laughed derisively.
Niles rolled his eyes. "Oh, heaven forbid you should be forced to mingle with the peasants of Manhattan." As Niles neared her building, CC pointed to an alley right next to it. "I'm just surprised that I never knew your building had a parking garage."
As Niles paused to let two people cross in front of the alley, CC turned and batted her eyes playfully. "You've never stayed the night before."
Niles merely cleared his throat and bit back a goofy grin. So he was staying the night, then.
CC directed him into her assigned parking spot and they rode the wood-paneled elevator up in quiet, although the Beethoven streaming in from invisible speakers provided a short reprieve. As they entered her Penthouse, an orange blur streaked up to meet them and pawed frantically at Niles's leg.
"Well, hello, Chester," Niles said, squatting down to greet the Pom. Chester licked his hand excitedly while CC shut and locked the door. After Chester said a sufficient hello to Niles, and ran in several ecstatic circles around him, the pup turned to greet CC.
"Oh, don't even bother," CC said, waving off the dog. Undeterred, Chester ran back to Niles and welcomed the butler's petting.
Niles glanced up and saw CC watching them, a smile in her eye if not on her face. Another silence descended upon them—though this time, their eyes were still locked and a knot of awkwardness gripped each of them right in the gut.
Then, all at once and at the same time:
"In all the years we've known each other, I don't think we've ever been this quiet around each other," Niles said quickly.
"So, is this how it's going to be now? Awkward and quiet? Was this the intention of your 'surrender'?" CC snapped.
Both paused and tried to figure out what the other had said. In an attempt to make up for the rather accusatory tone of her own inquiry, CC cleared her throat and asked if Niles would like a drink.
"Allow me," Niles said, ever the butler. He walked over to CC's wet bar and began mixing their drinks. When he turned around, he saw CC slightly bent over and scratching under Chester's chin. He smiled at the sweet moment and returned to her side.
They sipped their drinks for a moment before CC downed hers and asked Niles, "So is this how it'll be now? Awkward and quiet?"
Niles thought for a moment before responding, "What would you prefer to be doing?"
CC cocked an eyebrow and gave Niles a small smile. "Well, at any other time in our past, you would have been inside me by now."
"We could certainly arrange that."
"Such a master of seduction," CC remarked, taking his drink from him and taking a sip. "I suppose my actual question was…what was your purpose in saying what you said, and doing what you did, tonight?"
Niles considered her and took his own drink back, finishing it. CC made a noise of protest so Niles took both of their glasses and headed back to the wet bar. Chester followed him part of the way and then settled on the couch. Niles found it far easier to talk to her when he couldn't see her, so he fixed the drinks slowly. "Do you remember the night of your awards ceremony? When I escorted you?"
"My mind isn't as debilitated by old age as yours is, Niles, of course I remember," CC replied.
This, if anything, gave Niles the courage to return to her side and say what he wanted to. Whatever changed, he and CC would never change. He should've known. "Cheers, Babcock." They tapped their glasses together and took the obligatory sip before Niles continued. "I suppose after that night, things felt different. No," Niles quickly amended, "that night, things felt different. So the thought of continuing as we'd always been doing felt a little less…fulfilling." He looked into CC's eyes to gauge her reaction and found her looking at him thoughtfully. He raised his eyebrows, silently asking if she understood, and she nodded softly.
"Well," he continued, "I felt a little unable to accept that there really was only sex between us, especially after that night. So…" Niles tapered off, unsure of what else to say.
"So what is there? Between us?" CC asked, hiding a portion of her face behind her glass as she drank from it again.
"There is…something," Niles said.
"Something," CC repeated.
"Absolutely," Niles affirmed.
CC nodded. "I can live with that."
Niles watched her for a few more moments, hoping she understood the magnitude of what Niles felt was in that 'something.' At the same time, he was in no way prepared to voice it, or give a name or a word to it, and he knew she was even less so.
In turn, CC watched him and smiled. "Is this where you tell me how special I am to you, Niles?"
He laughed at the tone of her voice and set his empty glass on the side table near the couch where Chester slept, unaware of the considerable upheavals taking place in his owner's life. "No, Babcock…I think you already know."
CC blushed attractively and set her empty glass next to Niles's. "We've been having sex for nearly 15 years, you know. You can call me CC."
Niles stepped up to her and placed his hands on either side of her head. "Ok, CC." He kissed her softly and carefully and far more gently than she needed at the current moment. He pulled away just as CC had decided to kiss him more intensely and he ran his hands appraisingly over her dress. "You look so beautiful."
CC felt rather than heard the truth in his voice and knew, in that moment, all of the things Niles wanted to say and though she acknowledged that she was in no way ready to hear or discuss it, she also knew she felt it, too, that the 'something' was indeed perfect for her right now.
Niles grabbed her hand and indicated that she should twirl in front of him. "It really is a magnificent dress. Are you sure you didn't wear it for me?"
CC glanced at him witheringly. "Please. I wore it for myself."
"Taking yourself out before a night of battery-induced fun?" Niles teased before he pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder and his fingers lightly searched for the zipper on her dress.
"Watch it, Lysol. It could still be that for me," CC warned.
"Now that," Niles said as he steadied her with one hand and pulled the zipper down her side with the other, "is something I wouldn't mind seeing."
CC flushed at the thought, cataloging it in her mind for future use, and then shivered slightly as Niles carefully pulled the chiffon off her shoulder and pushed the dress down. As he did so, he revealed a low-cut tight lace slip that stopped at the top of CC's thighs. "I'll remember that."
Niles's eyes darkened. "Please do," Niles muttered. He continued running his hands over her, now keeping his hands within the confines of the slip. His hands grazed her breasts and, finding them only separate from him by a thin scrap of lace, Niles groaned out, "Are you certain you didn't wear that dress and this gorgeous thing for me?"
CC smiled at him mischievously. "I'll probably never tell you."
"I'll think what I'd like, then," Niles mumbled as he leaned in to kiss her shoulder. He trailed his kisses lower and kneeled before her, grasping her hips and burrowing his face against her torso. Just as Niles made the executive decision to hoist her slip up over her hips and make her come, a loud gurgle sounded in his ears. Niles looked up at her inquisitively. "Did you eat dinner?"
CC looked down at him. "That's what you're thinking about right now?"
Niles stood up and grasped CC's hips firmly. "Yes. I have plans for you this evening, and you'll need your energy." He leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. "I'll go get you something."
CC sighed as he walked off towards her kitchen and she attempted to quell her desire for the moment. Carefully lifting her dress, she walked into her bedroom to hang it in her closet.
By the time Niles returned to the living room with two plates of pasta, CC's slippered feet were resting on the edge of her coffee table with Chester curled up on her lap, now covered with a gray cotton robe. Niles cocked an eyebrow at her attire.
CC shrugged. "You took too long. I wanted to be comfortable."
"Well, here, eat this," Niles said, handing her one plate and sitting down next to her. He wondered if he'd ever tell her she looked even more beautiful, if such a thing were possible, than she did in her gown.
CC peered curiously at her plate as Chester, miffed at being displaced, balled up next to CC's hip on the couch. "I had pasta?"
Niles nodded as he began twirling it around his fork. "I found it at the very back of one of your cupboards."
"Hm," CC mumbled. "Maybe it was there before I moved in." Niles eyed her dubiously as he paused before taking a bite. "What? I don't cook."
"Then you're lucky you have me," Niles said, giving her a large, goofy smile.
"You'll never hear me say it," she muttered as she forked some of the pasta into her mouth. A few moments of comfortable silence past, punctuated by the muted sounds of the television and the clink of forks on plates. "Ok, this pasta may be as old as you, but this is a damn good dinner."
Niles smiled. "What a twisted compliment."
"I learned from the worst," she replied, her lips forming a smile around her fork. More ravenous than Niles, CC finished her plate before him and set it atop the coffee table. She leaned back against the couch, her head resting against the cushions, and kicked Niles's feet off the coffee table when they came to rest next to hers. "Shoes off, Butler Boy."
Niles complied and toed off his shoes, loosening his tie in the process. When he finished his meal, he took both plates and CC listened as the water ran in the kitchen. Her utter contentment and full stomach sapped all of her energy, and her eyes fluttered shut just as the water turned off and Niles walked back into the living room.
He smiled to himself as the glare of the television illuminated CC's profile, casting shadows over the couch. His original plan didn't have CC asleep quite yet—unless from a pleasurable exhaustion, of course—but admittedly, things rarely went according to plan. Seldom had Niles been quite so happy about it as he was now.
Chester stirred, stretched, and hopped off the couch, suddenly full of energy. He ran straight to Niles and stood on his hind legs, scratching Niles's knee.
"What's wrong, Chester?" Niles asked the pup. In response, Chester yelped and Niles quickly shushed him. "You'll wake up your mum."
"He has to go o-u-t," CC told him, her eyes still shut.
"Outside?" Niles asked. The word caught Chester's attention and he began barking incessantly.
CC sighed and sat up, her eyes a little bleary. "Why do you think I spelled it out, Lurch? To test you? I already know you can't spell."
"I can take him downstairs. Where's his leash?" he offered.
CC eyed him suspiciously and stood, walking past Niles and towards the terrace door. "I don't take him downstairs every time he has to pee. Mutt has to pee 8 times an evening. He's got a puppy pad on the terrace." She slid open the glass door and flipped on a light; sure enough, Niles saw a small blue mat in the corner on which Chester already stood. "And stop being so helpful. It's…off-putting."
Niles laughed and watched her as she watched Chester, arms wrapped around herself against the evening chill coming in through the open door. He felt a sudden desire to embrace her and wondered why it required less courage to kiss her passionately than to hug her spontaneously.
Chester scampered back into the penthouse and hopped hopefully around CC's feet. "Yes, yes, you were a good boy," CC granted. She walked towards the kitchen and retrieved a small treat from the cabinet. "Here you go." Chester claimed his prize and ran off with it to enjoy it in privacy.
"What shall we do now, then?" Niles asked, wondering not for the first time what CC did when she and her free hours weren't being filled by him. CC shrugged and, with an indiscernible look in her eye, slid her hand into his. Niles immediately linked his fingers with hers, as easily as if his hand had been doing it for years. Although, Niles reasoned, he had wanted to for years, at least.
"Let's watch a movie," CC suggested, walking back to the couch and pulling Niles with her. She flopped down onto it, moving immediately to tuck her feet under her and lean against the cushions in the most comfortable position. Niles stood uncertainly in front of the couch. CC looked up at him. "This is a couch, Niles. You bend your knees and then you sit on it. On the whole, they're quite comfortable."
Niles laughed at his own idiocy and sat down next to her. "I'm sorry, Miss—CC. I'm not entirely sure how to act."
CC raised her eyebrows at him. The cocky, self-assured butler who had no qualms about bending her over a desk and making her scream didn't know how to act? This was new. "Why don't you just act the way you want to act? You always did before."
"Not always," Niles pointed out.
CC laughed gently. "Ok, fair enough. I guess there were some times when you had to exercise some self-restraint. Like when Maxwell and Nanny Fine came home when we were kissing in the living room."
Niles laughed at the memory as well. "That's true, but that isn't what I meant." To illustrate his point, Niles grasped her hand again and leaned forward, pressing a sweet kiss to her temple.
CC blushed as she realized his true meaning. He leaned back on the couch and tugged her gently to lean against him. Chester returned to the living room and investigated the seating arrangements before jumping onto the couch and settling in the small couch space between Niles and CC.
Flipping through the channels to find a movie, CC absently stroked Chester's head with her free hand. "He's jealous."
"He'll adjust," Niles replied with confidence, pressing his lips to the top of CC's head.
CC's choice in movie proved to be moot as she and Chester fell asleep against Niles fifteen minutes after it started. The film didn't hold Niles's interest for much longer than that, as he felt his eyes growing heavy, so he turned off the television and maneuvered himself so that he could slide one arm under CC's leg and the other behind her back. He whispered an apology to Chester for disrupting his sleep, but the Pom jumped back onto the couch in the warm spot previously occupied by Niles.
CC stirred as Niles lifted her into his arms. "The movie," she mumbled with a yawn.
"We'll finish it later," Niles said softly as he carried her into her room and deposited her on what he knew to be her side of the bed. He pulled the covers over her shoulders and grinned as he watched her burrow into the plush pillows.
After turning off all of the lights and brushing his teeth the best he could without an actual toothbrush, Niles undressed down to his boxers and slid into bed beside CC.
"Goodnight, Babcock," he whispered in the dark, softly kissing her shoulder and drifting off to sleep with one hand on the small of her back.
…
The morning sun shined through her large windows, but it was the warmth of a hand on her hip that awoke her. She rolled over onto her back, his hand now settled on her stomach, and admired the effect of the sunlight on his dark blonde hair. It wasn't the first night they'd spent together—she had unwittingly fallen asleep in his room before and once, after too many drinks, he'd passed out on her couch—but it was the first they'd spent in her bed and the first time she didn't feel the pressure of discovery urging her out of bed and out of the room.
Though pleasant, this brought its own challenges. What would they do that day? What would he say when he woke up? CC let her brain crowd with questions before she stopped and told herself the same thing she'd told Niles the previous evening: act the way you want to act. So how did she want to act?
CC's eyes roamed down and admired the muscles in Niles's back. Her mind rewound a little further to what Niles had been about to do before he heard the sound of her hunger the night before and she smiled. She knew how she wanted to act.
Sliding closer to him, CC pressed her lips to Niles's and slid her hand down his back to grasp his bottom. He stirred and tightened his arm around her, sleepily returning her kiss and then resting his lips near her ear.
"I request to always be woken up like this," he muttered in her ear, his voice deep with sleep.
"If I always do, who will give me a sexy wake-up call?" CC asked, sliding her hand down his torso.
"We can take turns," Niles replied. "CC, love, I'd like nothing more than for you to continue, but you fell asleep before you could brush your teeth last night and—"
CC's cheeks colored and she dashed out of bed, slamming the bathroom door shut. He heard the tap running and considered that, had he been more awake, he could have worded that more tactfully.
Enough time had passed for Niles to begin to worry that he had in some way offended her when the door opened and CC reemerged, clad once again in her lace slip from the night before. She'd taken down her hair from its updo, and her hair settled in messy waves about her face and shoulders. Niles suspected she'd applied some more makeup as well.
She climbed back into bed and straddled Niles's hips. "Is this better?" she asked, breathing on his nose.
Niles laughed. "Much. But I daresay I could even get used to that."
"My morning breath?" CC asked in disbelief. Niles nodded bashfully. "Niles, that's disgusting. Is this who you are now? A lovesick puppy who teases me occasionally?"
Niles pretended to take a minute to consider this before responding, "I'm afraid so."
"Ugh, me too," CC said, though the smile lighting up her face belied whatever words she spoke to the contrary. She leaned forward again and kissed him, mentally laughing that she'd been worried about how he might have acted this morning. "Your morning breath, though…did you eat something dead last night?"
"I could respond to that, but I won't," Niles said, and CC laughed slightly at the thought of what he could have responded. "In any case, it isn't my fault. I didn't even have a toothbrush last night, but I tried."
CC slid off of him and gestured to the bathroom. "In the drawer to the right of the sink, there's a new toothbrush. Feel free."
"So generous. Is this who you are now?" Niles asked.
"No, my actions are selfishly motivated. I need you to brush your teeth."
Niles playfully smacked her bare thigh and left to brush his teeth. As he returned, CC glanced over at his suit, lying wrinkled on the armchair in the corner.
"You don't have any other clothes, do you?" CC asked.
"I won't need any today," Niles assured her as he slid back onto the bed, pushed CC's slip over her hips, and continued his ministrations from the night before.
As Niles tugged her breasts free and CC arched back into the pillows, she reasoned that this might have been the sweetest victory she'd ever won.
