salute [h.s]

wwpd

what would piper do

december 20 - shopping for presents

1D fanfic/Salue Extra

Harry/Piper (where Piper does not make an appearance)

*

Harry had to admit that, for once, he was uncertain. He didn't like being uncertain. It wasn't a feeling he was very familiar with. He'd become an expert in his job over the last five years since he'd first been through basic and now he could run through any mission with almost complete confidence. That sense of control extended past his work to his life at home and in almost every domain, he was able to remain calm, collected, and confident. He prided himself on it.

Piper threw all of that straight out the window.

It wasn't that she took it away from him, per se. It was the complete opposite really. Piper made him feel stronger, made him feel like more than himself. She had absolute faith in him and his abilities. She looked up to him. She trusted him completely. She wasn't afraid to make herself vulnerable in front of him even when she closed herself off from everyone else. She'd spent years hardening herself because of her circumstances and the way people viewed her because of them but when she was with him, she let herself be natural, be just Piper. That trust was indescribable.

The thing was, that kind of blind faith required a certain degree of reciprocation. Usually, Harry would have been balking because his lifestyle didn't allow for that kind of honesty. He couldn't open himself up to the people in his life that weren't connected to his work. It was for their own good. The only way he could guarantee their safety was to keep them at arm's length. It was the reason he hadn't seen his family face to face in nearly four years. Liam had always said he should date someone from within MI6 so that there didn't need to be secrets but to Harry, that was even worse. The women at MI6 seemed to see him as some sort of plaything. Maybe it was because he was a senior field agent that spent all his time in the field and therefore he must only want a sexual relationship but they were never in it to commit. Harry had gotten used to that. He'd gotten used to the idea that he was only good for a quick fuck. He'd mastered that persona ages ago and he'd never left his dates unsatisfied.

And then Piper had been dropped into his lap.

He never expected to be attracted to her in the way he was. He'd flirted on the phone because he'd been running for his life and fuck, he was scared, not something he was used to feeling. He'd just been trying to keep himself distracted from the direness of the situation. He hadn't expected the person on the other line to be a feisty woman who managed to be both professional and hilariously abrupt at the same time. She'd been a quick learner and uncovered a lot more about him than he had expected. Her mind was impossibly sharp and so quick. By the end of the phone call, he knew he had to meet her. He had to put a face to the voice who had charmed him to the core.

When he had first laid eyes on her sitting at her desk in T branch, fighting with that idiot field agent, he'd lost his footing. He'd forgotten all the suave things he had been intending to say because, fuck, she was gorgeous. Even angry, she sort of knocked him back a step. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were bright, and her hair — god, that hair. He'd never had that feeling before, the one where you feel like the ground is falling out beneath you because your world is rocked so strongly. Before she even said a single word to him face to face, he knew that Piper Stone was going to change him.

Which was probably why, a month and a half into this relationship (which, was really being generous), he'd just bought Piper diamonds.

Not a ring. Not yet. Yet? he thought to himself as he hurried down the street, brushing past frantic shoppers looking for that last minute gift. Did that imply a future? He'd never had a relationship where he had to consider a future before. He'd never wanted a future. He might have been a bit annoyed when the women at MI6 treated him like a passing fancy, a fuck him and chuck him sort of situation, but it worked in the long run because no one expected a commitment.