Guys guys GUYS WAKE UP PLEASE I HAVE *screams*
Ok so I asked Sera for a personal N/M LT scenario omg omg I need to scream with everyone LOOK :
“Another successful mission!” Farah announces, falling into the armchair as the group make their way into the living room of the Warehouse. “All thanks to Liz.”
Elizabeth shakes her head with a smile. “I wasn’t doing that mission alone.”
“You might well have been,” Mason scoffs, throwing an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders and dragging them both down to sit on the sofa together. She lays an arm across his lap as pride shimmers in her eyes.
Nate manages to keep a smile pressed onto his lips as he watches the easy intimate gesture between them…even as it crushes his chest.
A hand lays gently on his shoulder, and he glances around to look at Adam. The team leader pinches his brows together in a silent expression of ‘Are you alright?’
Nate nods, forcing the smile a little higher.
Adam thins his lips but eventually lets it go.
Farah hunches forward with a bright laugh, bringing Nate’s focus back to the room.
“You’ll be taking over Adam’s job soon,” she jokes.
Elizabeth’s beautiful brown eyes flicker wider before she chokes on a tense chuckle. “That’s not—”
Farah throws her hands up. “Oh! Or maybe you’ll get to be a handler of another team?”
“No.”
The word expels from both Mason and Nate at the same time and with the same amount of unexpected force.
Nate’s breath stutters as Elizabeth looks to him with a deep frown, almost seeming to have expected it from Mason but not him.
He holds her gaze as it searches his. Part of him wishes she didn’t see so easily into him—that she couldn’t read him better than anyone he’s ever met before—but the sensation of being laid bare to someone is also freeing in a way he never knew.
Perhaps that’s why he found himself falling for her before he could catch himself.
Swallowing down his emotions, he pulls his mask back in place, and Elizabeth’s face scrunches into further confusion before glancing away.
Mason shifts even closer to Elizabeth, brushing her hair back over her shoulder and subtly tracing his fingertips down her neck.
She shivers happily.
Nate looks away.
“It was just a suggestion,” Farah huffs, flopping back and folding her arms.
“You’re happy here, aren’t you, Lilibet?” Nate asks.
He looks for a reaction at the nickname only he uses for her. He’s certain he sees her pulse tick a little faster…but perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.
She nods with a smile. “Very happy.”
“Good,” Mason says. “Because you know we couldn’t do without you now.”
“You managed without me before you met me,” she replies, leaning into Mason and spreading a hand on his chest.
Envy spikes like cold daggers through Nate, and he shoves his hands into his pockets, clenching them tightly. It’s an emotion he resents. He is happy for Mason and Elizabeth. They make each other happy.
So why isn’t he happy about them being happy?
Ugh…He groans at himself inwardly and strides across the room.
“I should get started on the paperwork,” he mutters as an excuse for his hasty exit.
“I can start that later—” But Adam’s offer fades into nothingness as he marches out of the room.
Nate had hoped that not being in the couple’s presence would help lift the weight that has his heart beating so achingly slow. But instead, without Elizabeth near, it only feels more like a ragged wound.
But then it suddenly soothes.
And soon he realises why.
“Nate?”
He spins around at the sound of Elizabeth’s gentle call. His name on her lips does things to Nate that he knows it shouldn’t. But he can’t stop it.
She closes the gap between them. “Are you ok?”
He sucks in a breath, his reply stuck on the inhale.
I’m not ok.
I’m only ok when I’m with you.
I need you.
I’ve fallen for you.
Tell me you’ve fallen for me. Even just a little—
“I’m fine,” he replies, the words tight as he forces them out. He takes a step back and pushes his fingers through his hair. “I’m fine,” he repeats. It doesn’t make it anymore true.
Then he turns and walks away, before all the confessions that want to spill forth fall from his lips and ruin everything.
