The Audience

Her arms crossed over her chest, Skye paces in front of his bed, from wall to wall, all the while muttering to herself.

"That guy's pretty smart, I'm not saying smarter than me, but pretty smart, building a firewall like that…"

He sits on his bed, following her with his gaze, almost as if he was watching a very slow tennis match. He doesn't really understand a word she's saying, but it doesn't bother him much.

"I could try to find a backdoor. Or build it for myself? It would be difficult, but it wouldn't be impossible…"

He's smiling softly—she's entertaining to watch. Her little twitches, the miniscule shifts in her expression. There's a crease between her eyebrows, one he likes to kiss smooth, but now even that seems amusing.

"Maybe I could approach it from the hardware side? No, that's just stupid…"

She's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. He knows that, of course he knows that, but in moments like this, it just hits him. Not because she's struggling with a problem, but because he knows she's going to solve it.

"Or I could create a trojan. Or code something that seems harmless enough that the system would let it pass through, but—"

"Skye."

"—it'd give me inside access—"

"Skye."

"—and then I could crack it from the inside. Yeah, that'd—"

"Skye!"

She stops in her tracks, startled and finally quiet, and looks at him, her eyes wide with surprise. The corners of his mouth turn upwards.

"Yes?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

There's a small pause, no longer than a second, and then she grins. The next moment she's diving for him, sitting down on his lap and her arms winding around his neck. And then she's kissing him.

He'll never tire of her.