salute [h.s]

harry felt surges of affection for piper

the five times that Harry felt surges of affection for Piper

1.

He was having a shit day. The worst. Everyone in this entire building was completely inept and he was surprised that anything ever got done successfully with the group of idiots that were in charge around here. He was about five seconds from just quitting and the only thing stopping him from doing something he would regret was the woman waiting for him downstairs.

He stormed into T branch, catching stares from most of the employees and scaring off a poor junior tech that yelped and leapt out of his way. He ignored them, searching for the familiar shock of red hair.

She was standing around the big circle of screens at the far end of T branch. She was yelling at some senior agent that Harry recognized from Q branch who was trying to tell her she was wrong about her coding and, like the stubborn self-confident woman she was, she proved him wrong by typing out some code that lit up the screens.

And she was doing it all wearing one of his dress shirts tucked into a pencil skirt.

When she caught sight of him in her peripheral vision, she looked up distractedly and said, "oh, hi Harry baby," not caring that they were surrounded by her superiors and that just last week she'd been uncomfortable holding hands.

She let out a startled little yelp as Harry swept her into his arms but he silenced her by pressing a firm kiss against her lips. When she pulled away with a startled gasp, he smiled wolfishly at her. "I -"

"Hold on," she said, pressing her fingers to her lips to shut him up, "let me just finish this."

And she turned away to finish typing her code, ignoring the gaping stares and focusing on impressing the hell out of everyone with some fancy code that he had no hope of understanding.

A senior agent quirked his brow at Harry as if to say her? and he nodded. Because Piper, that brilliant and vivacious woman, called him hers and he couldn't be more proud.

2.

"I brought you this."

Harry looked up from the stack of papers he'd been filling out for his debrief of his latest mission. It was near seven in the morning and he'd been here all night being interviewed and questioned. He was so tired and he just wanted to go home.

Piper looked rested and he resented her for it for about a second until he saw what she was holding in her hand. "A crepe?"

"From the cafe near my place where we went for ice cream. They make the best crepes." She held it out and he took it, opening up the takeway box.

"Is this - is this banana chocolate?"

She nodded brightly. "It sure is. Your favourite, right?"

He hadn't ever told her that he loved bananas. It was something she'd just picked up on her own from watching him, from noticing the little things.

While he sat there awed, she reached over to peck his cheek quickly. "I don't want to disrupt your work. I just thought you'd forget to eat so I stopped in on the way. See you later?"

Before he could stutter out an answer, she ran off to her days work, giving him a quick wave before the door shut behind her. He was stunned sometimes, by these little things she did. She was truly one of a kind.

It was the best damn banana chocolate crepe he'd ever had.

3.

He jolted awake into full awareness within seconds, his eyes trained on the water-stained ceiling above him. He wasn't sure what had woken him but his instincts and years of training had taught him to be vigilant so he froze, using his senses to scan the room from where he lay.