Title: Breaking Protocol
Author: tromana
Rating: T
Characters: Unspecified M/F
Summary: They hope that no one else notices.
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Notes: I'm not sure how well this works out. I also would have tried so that it could have applied to any coupling, but that would have literally driven me mad. I'm interested in who you see this as being, too.
Breaking Protocol
They hope that no one else notices.
The furtive glances, the gentle brush of hands, the half-smile traced across their lips.
She feels like a hypocrite. She spouts off rules and regulations like no tomorrow, yet here she is, breaking the very actions she condones. When they are away from prying eyes, he smiles and wraps an affectionate arm around her shoulders. You can't help who you fall in love with, can you?
He's proud, proud that he's finally, finally with the woman he loves. Damn the rules. Damn the consequences. Damn the fact that they're putting both their jobs on the line for something that might not even work out in the long run. Besides, he's the happiest he's been in a long while and still can't quite believe he's dating someone so beautiful and intelligent as she is.
She is concerned - concerned that the others will work it out and report them to Minelli. She doesn't like causing trouble, that's not what she's here for, and doesn't want to lose the respect of the others in the unit. He tries to comfort her. The others are too wrapped up in their jobs, he says. Their unit is too busy for them to notice their liaisons. They'll be fine.
He wants to shout out about their relationship from the rooftops. It's not as if they'll be able to keep it secret forever, after all. He knows the rest of the team wouldn't go running to the authorities about something like this. On the contrary, they'd probably be supportive so long as they didn't flaunt it in the office.
He makes an effort to show more physical gestures at work. She brushes him off each and every time. She's not ready for this yet. He gets the message and backs off. Their illicit affair will continue under smoke and mirrors for a while yet.
They will tell the rest of the team eventually. They will. They just want to be sure that this is exactly what they both want first.