*Edit 11/14/2019* Fixed merged words and missing italics.

Title: Infiltration

Genre: Romance, Friendship, Kinda-Humor

Pairing: Lance x Anna

Rating: T

Warnings: Language, light but overt sexual themes


"This is a terrible decision. Never mind them finding out we're spying, she's going to murder me over the punch; probably with a punch. And it will have been over something incredibly stupid like 'pass me the dipper, dear.'"

Matt snorted out a gush of water and began coughing and pounding his chest. Despite the display and obvious discomfort, he soon began roaring with laughter. "I hope that does happen!" he wheezed mopping the tears on his cheek with the same napkin he'd used to wipe his chin. "It'd serve you right after all the years needling her that the final straw happens when you don't even mean it!"

"Glad to know you'll delight in me dying during a stupid recon mission," Lance muttered as he tried hopelessly to brush his hair to lie flat then began tugging on his shirt collar.

Matt snorted again and stood up to knock Lance's hands aside and deftly straighten the collar himself. "Quit messing with it, you're just going to make it worse, and Natalie will kill you long before Anna gets the chance to if you pop a seam now because you're a nervous wreck."

Lance stared at his pale reflection, feeling nauseas. "I can't do this, Matt," he mumbled "I- I hate crowds. I'm going to open my big fat mouth in a fit of panic and say something stupid that blows our cover, and it's going to get us both killed. I mean, at least I'd deserve it, but Anna sure as hell doesn't, so maybe she'll kill me over the punch and I won't have to-"

Matt grabbed the dress coat from the chair and threw it at the rambling gunner, cutting him off with a sleeve in his mouth. "Lance, relax. You know you don't even have to talk much at all to anyone besides Anna. You guys are just gathering information on the next trader's cargo, not staging a crazy rescue, or establishing any lasting business relationships."

"And we're back to Anna punching me over the punch," Lance laughed hysterically. "Seriously, you might as well start ordering a coffin for me now."

"I'm pretty sure you told me at one point that funerals are a pointless waste of time, and you wanted to be burned with your stuff so no one else could have it," Matt refused calmly. He helped Lance into the jacket, straightened the lapels, then rested his hands on the gunner's shoulders. "You'll be fine. Anna's got your back, and we both know she isn't rash or stupid enough to kill you in the middle of a crowded ball when she's your official date-"

"Please don't call her my date where she can hear you."

"-she'd wait until you're alone in the woods," Matt continued with a laugh to his words. "Besides, Natz and I will both be relatively nearby to bust you guys out if things actually do go south, remember? It's just one night—and only a few hours of one night at that. So take a couple breaths and man the fuck up, wuss."

Lance tried to do exactly that but ended up taking a dozen rapid inhales in the space of one regular breath. The next thing he knew, Matt was pressing a pillow to his face to stop him from hyperventilating while muttering wordless hushes. What felt like forever later to Lance, but was in reality only a couple minutes, the gunner was slumped in the chair, breathing properly with Matt studying him worriedly.

"...Maybe you're right," the swordsman muttered. "This is a bad idea, even if it was your idea."

"My idea was to send you and Natalie in. And it would have worked if you hadn't gotten yourself arrested literally one day before we were in the clear, and needed Natalie to magic you out again," Lance shot back with much less bite than he had intended, and instead sounding tired. He shook his head when Matt winced, and rubbed both hands over his face. "Sorry. It wasn't your fault that they think stoning a couple kids to death for half a loaf of stale bread is okay. You did the right thing by intervening."

"That doesn't change the fact that you're too worked up to blend in," Matt pointed out quietly.

"It's just the anticipation," Lance promised with an uncertain gleam in his eyes, like he was trying to convince himself of that, too. "I mean, I honestly don't like crowds, but I'll be fine once we get this thing going. Probably."

Matt raised his brows skeptically, but nodded before turning to go. "And with that glowing assurance, let me go see what's taking the girls so damn long."

"They probably decided that they have to curl every last hair individually."

Matt's laughter echoed back to him followed by a low whistle and a, "Damn, Anna. You'll clear up Lance's stage fright."

Lance blinked twice in confusion and stood to step into the hall, idly adjusting his jacket to hang straight. Matt was leaning in the door way of the next room down and nodding admiringly at whatever was within. A peek over the swordsman's shoulder had Lance's breath catching in amazement.

Natalie stood back, scrutinizing her work with pursed lips before nodding, but that wasn't what held Lance's eyes. Before them stood Anna transformed.

Gone were the rough travel clothes, leather belts and pouches, and menacing war bow. In their place, an airy evening gown swept low across her collar bone, following and emphasizing the subtle curves of her body to spill around her ankles, held up by twin delicate loops on each shoulder. The fabric was a deep emerald green, the exact shade of her eyes, accented with glittering golden thread in whimsical curving designs at her waist, along the neckline, and stretching up from the hem of the skirt. Delicate gold bangles clinked on one slender wrist as the ranger subconsciously pulled at the folds of the dress, matching a smooth golden necklace and glinting loops in her ears. Her hair had been carefully curled and styled in a half-bun with loose curls trailing down the nape of her neck with a few twirls framing her slender face, while her bangs had been swept to one side, held in place with a glittering clip. And looking at her face...

"You're wearing makeup?" Lance dumbly blurted out before slapping a hand over his own burning face. He found himself wondering if maybe it was too late to take another shower and enslave his hair into laying straight for once in his life.

Anna quirked a tiny smile of amusement, and indeed, Natalie had brushed her skin with a light blush, and carefully colored her lips with pale pink, while her eyes and brows had been lined, and the lids dusted with a faintly glittering powder. The effect enhanced the natural beauty of her delicate features while making her eyes stand out even more.

"This nightmare is almost worth your expression when you walked in," Anna chuckled tightly. She spun once on light, slippered feet, briefly flashing a long vee of skin down to the small of her back, and held out her arms. "Well? Think I'll pass muster?"

"I think Lance is one lucky man tonight. And he'd better keep an arm on you, or you might blend in better than we hoped and you wind up married off somehow," Matt joked with an honest smile that grew wider when Anna merely chewed on the corner of her lip. "Seriously, Anna, you look amazing. Are we sure it's not safe for me to take her in there and maybe out to someplace more quiet?"

"Matt, it's a disguise, not an attempt to impress you two blind knuckleheads," Natalie scolded with a scowl while Anna blushed a bright pink. Still, she smiled brightly at the ranger. "But he's right. You're going to turn heads in there, Anna. You look like a million gold. And it is so not fair that you can be that slim without any corset."

Anna heaved an exaggerated sigh and let out a shuddering laugh. "Thank the gods for that. I like my guts not squished."

She smiled and essayed a shallow curtesy that, by Natalie's approving nod, had been heavily practiced to be perfectly smooth, and batted her lashes—which had been curled, Lance noted helplessly, and were longer than he'd ever noticed before—at her date for the evening.

"Well? Does this 'sweaty barbarian' meet your standards?" she asked teasingly with a confident grin that grew when Lance could only stare dumbly at her, mouth completely dry. Her eyes raked across him and she arched a smooth brow and lowered her lashes slightly as she purred. "You certainly cleaned up enough to meet mine, though you might be a little... overdressed."

Lance was sure his heart had stopped, and he was equally sure whatever came out of his mouth in response wasn't coherent in any language. He cleared his throat and tried for a smirk, and prayed his voice didn't sound as shaky to them as it did to him. "The dress looks good on you—almost as good as it would on the floor."

"Oh, yuck, save that talk for a room after the dance, and well out of my earshot," Natalie muttered, pulling a face while Matt covered his laugh with a fit of coughing, and excused himself to check for the carriage.

Feeling slightly more in his element with that, Lance held out an arm and tilted his head back slightly, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders. "Ready to shamelessly eat food not meant for us, and equally shamelessly eavesdrop on polite society?"

Anna's teeth flashed briefly in a wide grin, and she daintily tucked her arm into his once she stepped into the hall. "I thought you'd never ask."

They passed Matt on the stairs, who flashed them two thumbs up and a wide grin, and entirely missed the whispered betting match he promptly started with Natalie the moment they were out the door.

As planned, a carriage waited for them at the end of the short walk, and they both took simultaneous deep breaths. Lance helped Anna up into the carriage before climbing after her with a murmured direction to the driver, then settled across from her in a plush seat. The carriage rattled to life with the snorting huff of the horses, and several minutes passed in silence.

"Don't think for one second that just because I'm in this getup means they won't find your body if you make one wrong grope," Anna warned with an overly cheerful little smile.

Despite that having been a point of panic for him earlier, Lance felt an immense tension drain out his body. This was familiar ground, something he could handle, and he let out a short laugh. "Yeah, Matt and I covered that while I was getting dressed."

Anna huffed a laugh of her own and shifted in her seat to peer out the dark window at the passing lamps that grew more frequent the further they traveled. Subconsciously, her right hand came up to toy with the bangles on her left wrist before sliding higher and holding her upper arm.

"I'm nervous. I've never done something like this before," she admitted softly with a worried frown. "What if this isn't enough of a getup to fool them?"

"I don't think you need to worry about that," Lance assured faintly as he guiltily swept his eyes across her while she was distracted. "If anything, I'm the one who should be worried about not looking good enough."

"Natz told me that people tend to focus on the women at these events. As long as you're wearing an appropriate suite, and a shirt to match your date, you'll pass muster," Anna replied immediately. Her fingers rubbed at the fabric of her dress. "No, the eyes will be on me, and if I'm not..."

"Anna, trust me, you look great. Honestly. You could give Natalie a run for her money on her best days, easy, right now."

"Yeah, I swear she worked some illusion magic on this, but she kept insisting it's just powder, creams, silk, jewelry, and perfume. A different kind of illusion magic, I suppose." Anna laughed nervously and darted a brief glance at him before looking away again and thanking the dimness for hiding her flush. "It was, um, really flattering... the way you were looking... at me... by the way. Thanks, for the confidence boost."

Lance's own cheeks were flaring as he thought of how he'd gaped at her like he'd never seen her before. The better part of valor here was definitely taking the thanks and running, since he'd expected her to beat him black and blue for gawping at her like that. Figuratively running, of course.

And in a way, he hadn't seen her—not like this. Anna immersed herself so fully in her life as a ranger, adventurer, fighter, and hero, that he'd never seen her indulge her more feminine side. He'd considered what she might have looked like if she took the same pains with her appearance as Natalie did, but those fantasies paled in comparison to reality. He'd always known she was beautiful in a wild, exotic way—he wouldn't have spent so much time hitting on her if she weren't—but the vision that sat before him now was definitely something out of an old fairytale of a maiden princess.

"You're welcome," he belatedly grunted out. "It's a confidence boost to me, too, to know you've got us covered on that front."

Anna smiled at him, her eyes catching the light of a passing street light just right to practically sparkle and glow, and his breath caught in his chest and stayed there long after the light passed. Suddenly, he realized the real issue he was going to have tonight wasn't getting info and getting out alive and unmanned, it was going to be keeping his attention on his surroundings rather than glued to his teammate and friend.

OOOOOO

"It's not working. They're all staring at me. I think they know the truth," Anna said anxiously, just barely remembering to keep her voice to just above a whisper.

Lance offered her a reassuring squeeze with the arm he had around her waist and guided a little ways out of the crowd, firmly away from the dance floor, and towards the refreshments table. "I don't think you understand how gorgeous you look right now. Of course they're staring," Lance muttered out of the corner of his mouth. He swept up a slender flute of golden champagne and offered it to her. "Here, this'll help settle your nerves a bit."

"Ah, yes, alcohol, the age-old elixir of bravery for men and women world over. What could go wrong with loosening our lips some, eh?" Anna joked with a nervous smile, though she accepted the drink all the same and took a sip. She wiggled her eyebrows some when Lance rolled his eyes and sipped his own glass. "Or are you maybe hoping to loosen some other inhibitions? Planning something salacious with your date tonight?"

Lance barely kept from spitting his mouthful into Anna's face, but it was a near thing, and he was sure his face was matching his hair. "What the hell, Anna?" he hissed once he swallowed, though still managing to muster a smile like she'd said a joke, and he could only hope it didn't look like a manic serial killer's grin.

Anna's own grin widened, and her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Well, what am I supposed to think? You're here on a date with a 'gorgeous' young thing, if rumors and opinions are to be believed, and now you're offering her drinks? Anyone would doubt your intentions."

"Y'know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were already drunk, and on only one sip," Lance snorted before he downed the rest of his champagne and set the empty flute back on the tray. "In light of that, I'm cutting you off.

"It's the panic," Anna confided, abandoning the remaining drink as she leaned back into his side when he wrapped his arm around her waist again. "I think it's getting to me."

Lance cast her a brief glance before returning his eyes to the crowd to try and spot their targets. "You gonna be alright?"

"Probably. I'll try to keep the weirdness between us."

"Like that's anything new. C'mon, I think I see some of them over there by that balcony door."

Anna nodded ever so slightly and followed Lance as they surreptitiously moved through the crowd, pausing to exchange vapid pleasantries that she simple smiled through, and murmured thanks and refusals when men informed her how 'ravishing' she looked, and how they knew some quiet corners, before moving on. It didn't escape her notice that Lance's hand on the small of her back tensed ever so slightly with each offer, and she subtly pressed against him in reassurance. And then they were through the worst of the crowd, and lingering beside the door.

"So... giving up a life of fighting on the road to become a noble hussy is seeming like a promising venture," she noted faintly once they paused.

Lance choked on a laugh. "Noble hussy? Pretty sure that isn't the phrase they used. 'Ravishing vision of ephemeral beauty that they would be blessed to simply graze but once with a kiss,' however..."

Anna subtly elbowed him. "Stop before you make me snort."

"And the vision is lost," Lance lamented blandly before opening the door and bowing her through.

The balcony was abandoned, as they'd hoped for on a fairly chilly night, which gave them the opportunity to steal to the other entrance to the space where Anna cast a quick spell to enhance their hearing.

"...is inbound. The gold is expected to arrive any day now, and they've agreed to our terms. With the checkpoint at Stone's Crossing under our command, and Franks Trading Co. under our thumbs, the fools won't know what hit them. We'll have a hundred archers ready in the pass."

"Bingo," Lance breathed.

Anna nodded silently and shut her eyes to focus in on the mutters, and drive out the clamor from the rest of the party.

"Any further word on the other issue?" a second voice asked after a few moments.

"Issues, you mean?" the first voice corrected sourly. "No, nothing since that botched arrest yesterday. I was sure they would show tonight, but the guards report no one matching the descriptions trying to enter, legitimately or otherwise. We'll have to wait for him to slip up again."

"That has to be Matt they're talking about," Anna murmured. "I guess that settles whether or not they slipped away unseen successfully."

"Yeah, but we already knew that."

"That woman he was with... the sorceress... could she not have charmed the guards, or produced a glamour?"

"Y'know, Natz could probably manage that kind of magic if she put her mind to it. Might not be a bad plan—certainly a lot less flashy for getting Matt's ass out of trouble," Lance mused quietly.

Anna was about to reply when the voices stopped mid-speech negating their companion's concerns. The door rattled, and she realized instantly that somehow they'd been spotted or overheard, and they needed to make themselves scarce, or inconspicuous, or...

With a gulp and a prayer, she twisted and yanked on Lance's collar to drag his face down to hers. His lips had just barely slammed into hers, and she was sure his teeth had just cut her lip from the clumsy and aggressive connection, when the door swung open. Luckily, Lance caught on quickly, and smoothly adjusted his head so that his nose brushed beside her, and his mouth fit more naturally over her own, rather than the squished meeting she had initiated.

Despite the danger, a thrill ran though her body at the contact, buzzing away her worries in a similar way to the alcohol. She let out a tiny noise of delight when Lance's tongue brushed her lower lip while his hand rose to press against the base of her neck, and barely heard the stilted apologies for interrupting, followed by the door closing again. Lance held her against him and ran his tongue over her lips once more before drawing back with a gasp.

"Gods, that was hot- I mean close! Not hot. Close. As in close call. Good save, Anna."

Anna blinked dumbly at him, running her tongue over her lower lip, wondering at the different taste lingering there that she doubted was from the lip paint. "I- What- You-" Her cheeks were burning despite the chilly air, and somehow she'd managed to misplace both her brain and her lungs, which was probably alright, because her heart seemed to be pulling triple duty to make up for them.

Lance's brows rose and a sly gleam filled his eyes. "Why, Anna, was that maybe a first kiss for you?"

Fresh fire scorched her cheeks and she scowled to the side as her brain crashed back into her skull. She sucked on her upper lip, tasting a bead of blood, before growling, "I hardly think you breaking my lip with your teeth counts as a kiss."

"I dunno, you seemed pretty into it after I adjusted for your... eagerness... shall we say."

"Oh, fuck you, I was bailing our asses out of a potentially messy situation, not wanting to kiss you right then," Anna hissed more from embarrassment than real anger.

Lance leaned down closer to her, his grin still wide, but somehow edged with something softer, almost uncertain. "So I guess that since your appetite has been whetted, you might want a kiss now?"

And she would never admit to him how that breathy suggestion made her knees quake. Instead, she turned to him and grabbed his collar again to drag his face closer to hers. "You get one shot to impress me, ass," she growled just shy of his lips.

"Better offer my best then, huh?" Lance purred before tilting his head and leaning the last fraction of an inch.

And while it was fundamentally the same, it was also entirely different; there was no initial burst of pain from a clumsy clash, for one. Instead, Lance's lips landed so hesitantly it was as if he was waiting for her to pull away, and when she didn't, he pressed a little harder. Unbidden, Anna let out a tiny moan when he darted his tongue across her lower lip once again, only to moan louder when he slipped past her lips at her parting to curl and brush his tongue across hers. The pleased rumble he let out at her noises danced straight down her spine to curl low in her belly. Her grip was white-knuckled in his shirt to support her failing knees, and she felt his hands curl around her waist to trail teasingly low fingers on her hips.

Then he was pulling back and brushing one last chaste kiss to her cheek, and her eyes fluttered open to gape at him in dazed wonder. His own cheeks were flushed, his eyes half-lidded, and his lips parted to let small puffs of air pass. There was a smudge of pink on one corner of his mouth, and a heated gleam in his gaze as he quirked a smile.

"Impressive enough?"

Anna swallowed once to wet her throat, once more to wet her vocal cords, and a third time to trust her voice. "How the hell am I supposed to play the beautiful, coy arm candy, when all I want now is to get a private room?"

Lance's laugh was low and surprised, but the heated gleam in his eyes darkened. "Well, we technically don't need to stay any longer now that we know what they're really transporting, and Matt and Natalie aren't expecting us back until dawn, so..."

Anna's responding smile was a sin all on its own. "I knew keeping you around for your strategies was a good plan. So how does one get a room here?"


A/N: Just had the urge to bang this out late at night, driven by plot bunnies who wanted a lighthearted romantic scenario between Lance and Anna. Not attached to any larger plots, nor is it planned to be expanded upon. Hope you all enjoyed it nonetheless!