Loving You Black & Blue | Miguel O'Hara x Felicia Hardy

Ch. 21: Gettin' Glitchy With It

[Nueva York - Earth 928]

Miguel smoothed his aftershave over his chin, straining to listen for any sounds of Felicia downstairs. They were on Day Three of a standoff and she wasn't showing any signs of yielding. Which, he was ashamed to admit, only made him more determined to win this round.

As his suit materialized over his body, Miguel felt more so than usual that it was his armor. In this form he felt invincible. Powerful. In control. Not in negotiations with a fucking terrorist. The sound of Felicia's coffee pot bubbling to life made him tense involuntarily – suffice to say he was tightly wound.

Let's see what today's battlefield has in store, Miguel mused to his own reflection. A sudden flicker of light caught his eye. The pixels of his suit covering the back of his hand temporarily erupted in a technicolor glitch. It was only for an instant, but unmistakable. Hmm.

When Miguel came downstairs, Felicia had chosen a particularly advantageous perch on the kitchen counter. She had positioned her body between the coffee pot and his blender. A direct challenge. Despite his best efforts, Miguel couldn't help but taking particular notice of her long legs and how her nightgown had ridden up just enough to reveal a maddening peek of her upper thigh. Maybe surrender wouldn't be such a bad thing.

The lack of sex had been torture. Not that she had been deliberately withholding... he didn't think. This entire argument had started after a particularly stressful day of anomaly hunting. Miguel could hardly blame her. The novelty of moving in together and the blissed out "honeymoon phase" – for lack of a better word – had given way to reality. Felicia missed working. Miguel wasn't sure how to rectify her criminal status with the fact that he'd given her a highly valuable tech asset – and her desire to join the Society on missions was a whole other discussion.

They had argued. They'd gone to bed angry. He had respected her space. They'd repeated the cycle the following day, and the day after. Today was day three. Three days since he had tasted her. Three days since she had clung to him. Three days of no release and three days since he'd heard her scream his name.

"Good morning," Miguel said flatly, painfully aware of how close she was as he reached into the cabinet behind her to grab a cup. "Good morning," her voice was like velvet.

He wanted to retreat, prevent himself from being pulled into her orbit. But he stood his ground, standing so close that any slight movement from either of them would result in touch, as he made his breakfast smoothie. Miguel could feel her eyes on him and it made his skin hot. Felicia said nothing, casually sipping her cup of coffee.

"Well," Miguel broke the silence after taking a large gulp of his smoothie, "I'll see you later. I'm off world today, you'll have the brief in your watch. Call me if you need anything." As always, he leaned in to kiss her and, to his surprise and immense relief, he couldn't detect any of the simmering anger that he'd been feeling the past several days.

"See you soon."

There was something in Felicia's voice that both thrilled him and made him incredibly nervous. Miguel regarded her for a moment, tempted to throw pride out the window and throw her into bed. Fuck work...

*Knock, Knock*

Two polite taps on the door to the apartment. That would be Jessica. Felicia remained perfectly still and Miguel got the distinct sense that he was being assessed.

"Can we make some time to talk later?" This was as much of an olive branch as someone like Miguel could muster.

Felicia said nothing, all she offered was a soft smile and a playful glint in her eye. Good enough. Miguel stole another quick kiss before marching out of the apartment.