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It was rather late when Niall made his way back to his office, well past six actually, and he was drunk. It seemed like the President just wanted a drinking buddy for the evening and Niall had become that, whether he wanted to or not. And despite knowing that Thea may have still been waiting for him in his office as he had instructed, Niall found himself unable to leave until six hit.

Since it was late, he figured she would have probably left, maybe with Luana and Milo, so he didn't rush back to office, spending most of the walk trying to reflect on all that the President had said to him. However, as he turned into the hallway that led to his office and saw the lights were still on, Niall lowered his shoulders.

Mrs. Railer would have certainly been gone by now, so he knew almost instantly that it was definitely Thea. Of course she would have stayed and waited. He thought before he cursed himself for making her wait so long.

He quickly made his way into the main waiting room, shutting the door behind him before swinging the door to his office open. As expected, there she was pacing near his desk.

Thea's face was flushed with concern, her fingers knotted together over her stomach as she paced and at the sight of him, her eyes widened.

"You're still here?"

"Of course I'm still here!" Thea responded, looking maybe even a little annoyed. "You told me to wait! What happened? Is everything okay?"

Niall had to clear his head, he had to shake away the fog caused by the whiskey. "Yes, yes, Thea. I'm sorry, I was with the President," he said, stepping forward, an excitement rushing through him as the reality of the situation finally began to hit.

They had succeeded. Everything they had worked for for months... they had succeeded. "It worked."

"It worked?" She asked. "What do you mean?"

"You've saved his life!"

Her lips parted as her breathing quickened and her eyes watered. "Really?"

"Yes," Niall said, sounding breathless. Saying it out loud somehow made it hard for even him to believe. "And the President has given me full authority over Rue... you didn't just save his life... you've done so much more."

The tears escaped from her eyes as she let out a relieved sigh before she dashed over to Niall. Jumping in his arms, she landed so hard against his body that he, unable to hold himself up, fell backwards onto the floor, Thea still in his arms.

The fall didn't hurt at all, and even if it did, Naill knew he wouldn't have really cared. Feeling her in his arms was worth it, especially since she was practically sobbing in joy and he could feel her relief in her embrace and the warmth of her tears against his skin.

It was comforting.

When she pulled away to look at him, sitting up on her legs and almost looking desperate to know whether or not she heard him right, Niall found his mind beginning to fog again... he found it difficult to hold himself back.

"Really?" she asked, her hands on his shoulders. "Rue's going to be okay?"

"Yes."

"And... under your authority... does that mean... you could even free him?"

"Potentially... yes. It's possible."

She looked up for a moment, taking a deep breath before looking back at him. "I thought I messed everything up," she said. "With what I said..."

"No, you did an amazing job, Thea," Niall responded, reaching up and placing his hand on her wet cheek, wiping her tears away. "Better than I could have imagined... even the President was impressed."

"Really?"

Niall chuckled. "Yes, Thea," he responded. "Really."

He watched her as she smiled, clearly in shock but happy nonetheless. It was a genuine, full smile and it was lovely.

Niall always thought Thea was pretty, from the first time he saw her all dressed up and proper at that interview for the Elorian Times to even now, looking exhausted from the lack of sleep over the last week and her cheeks and eyes red from the tears. She was still pretty.

But really, now more than ever, he actually found her to be rather beautiful. Sitting there on the floor of his office and in between his outstretched legs, smiling at him with pure joy... she was so beautiful, even though she looked exhausted, with red eyes, swollen cheeks and a large scar on her left ear that he never really noticed before.

It was strange... how beautiful and young and vulnerable she looked right now, despite only a few hours ago she was standing in front of some of the most powerful men in the nation, accusing them of starting the Civil War and not attending their high school language classes. As a smile grew on his face, he was reminded of the first time they spoke... when she thought he was going to kill her so she stood her ground.

At first, he wondered which side of her was the real her... but then he realized that that wasn't a worthwhile question. She was both.

People could be both.

And Rue was right... she was almost there. She was almost at that ideal of an Elorian woman who knows what she is... she was so close, and the thought of what would happen when she made it there excited Niall.

Rue was right about her.

And he was right about other things too.

Without thinking too much about it, Niall leaned forward and kissed her.

It was only after his lips touched hers that he really accepted how long he had wanted to do this... how much of him actually wanted to kiss her. Even right before the meeting, he had wanted to kiss her when they were outside alone, but tried to deny it. Even the night before, when she put her hands on his chest and told him that she wouldn't forgive herself if she let Rue down. He wanted to kiss her... but he tried to tell himself he was stupid for wanting such a thing.

However, when she pulled away from him, looking at Niall with a look of shock, Niall felt his face begin to burn.

No.

No, he shouldn't have done that.

He shouldn't have kissed her.

But then she took his face in both her hands and kissed him again.

An explosion of emotion filled him and he felt warm all over. Niall's heart was beating fast and hard and he wondered if she could taste the whisky on his lips. He hoped she could... just in case this all went wrong, just in case this was wrong... at least he could blame it on the alcohol.

But as he ran his thumb along her jaw and felt her lips moving against his, he knew it didn't feel wrong. It felt gentle and sweet and the light floral scent of whatever fragrance it was she used made him a little dizzy.

Though he used one hand to hold himself up while the other was already against her cheek, he wanted to touch her... more. He wanted to feel her against him and to run his fingers through her stunning black hair, to make her his.

But just as his hand slid to the back of her neck in the hopes of pulling her closer to him, his thumb grazing gently over her scarred ear, Niall suddenly heard the sound of the waiting room door click open.

Thea heard it too, pulling away instantly and just as Niall leaned back, his office door opened too. "Nai–"

It was Julian.

It took him a second to realize both Thea and Niall were on the floor to the right of him, and when he did, he blinked and then cleared his throat. "Excuse me," he said, stepping back and shutting the door behind him.

Niall had been slapped back into his senses, a rush of both horror and embarrassment filling him at the same time.

Thea looked just as horrified, her darker skin reddened as she chewed on her lip.

She didn't look at him.

"You can..." Niall cleared his throat. "You can go see Rue tomorrow morning... to share the news."

She looked at him now, a small smile forming on her face before she gave him a quick nod. "Okay."

"Goodnight, Thea."

"Good night," she stood, rushing to grab her things from his desk.

As she made her way to the door and opened it, Niall pulled his legs in, sitting cross legged on the floor and wincing a little when she heard her voice again. "Night," she said to Julian.

"Good night," he responded, rather pleasantly.

Niall heard her heels clacking against the floor as she left, and when the door shut behind her and she was gone, Julian walked in.

Niall closed his eyes tightly as he heard Julian crouch down next to him. "I suppose it's safe to assume that things went well with the President?"

His cheeks were blazing and he didn't look at his friend. "Yes," was all he could say.

Julian nodded. "So this is what you do when you find a woman 'interesting' and 'intriguing,' huh?"

Now he rolled his eyes and stood up, walking over to his desk. "Shut up, Julian."

Julian stood too. "You've got lipstick..." he gestured to his own mouth.

Horrified, Niall used the back of his hand to wipe at his lips but almost immediately remembered that Thea wasn't wearing lipstick... or at least, none was left on her lips since she first put it on that morning. When he looked back at Julian, he saw the man grinning, a rather unusual sight to see. "So you did kiss her."

Niall grabbed a pen and threw it at him.

When Thea woke up the next morning, despite barely being able to sleep, she rose with a mix of emotions, though the most prevalent one was pure excitement. Yesterday could not have gone any better than it had... with the meeting... with the decision about Rue... with the events that occurred with Niall... Thea was absolutely ecstatic.

She practically danced her way to getting dressed before leaving bright and early to rush into work so she could finally go see Rue to let him know what had happened. To let him know that she had succeeded and that he would live.

After seeing Niall the night prior, Thea had gone out with Milo and Luana to share the news about Rue with them and celebrate, so she was excited to see them today too, knowing quite well that everyone was going to be in a splendid mood.

And then, of course, there was Niall.

She was more than a little excited to see him.

As soon as she got into Achlis, she found that she was rather unbothered by the usual stares and eyes as she walked happily through the halls. She had convinced the President of Aiveria to spare the life of a Crow... what did it matter if some strangers who had nothing better to do with their time wanted to gossip about her.

But then again, maybe the gossip would be a good thing in this case... she couldn't wait for everyone in Achlis to hear about this.

When she arrived at her office with Milo, she found that Milo was already there, grinning at her with utter joy despite the fact that he had piles and piles of newspapers to catch up on from the week prior since he hadn't really had a chance to work at his own job while helping Thea.

Thea had promised to help him, and despite the intimidating amount of work in front of them, she was still motivated. Milo had done so much for her, so she was more than happy to do the same for him.

It was about an hour into their work when Julian dropped by to let them know that the General would be holding a quick meet up in his office around ten in the morning to discuss the meeting and the next steps and that news excited Thea even more.

This would be the first time she would be seeing him since the kiss.

Thea's heart raced and her cheeks burned as she and Milo made their way towards Niall's office right before ten, and when they arrived, she waited rather anxiously until Niall called them all in.

Her heart was still pounding when he opened his door and stepped out of his office. She watched him as he held the door open for the shorter head of the Intelligence Division, who she recognized from the meeting yesterday, while he said his goodbyes to the General before rushing out rather quickly.

"Come in, everyone," Niall then said as the man vanished behind the office doors.

Thea noticed two things at that moment.

The first was that Niall looked surprisingly exhausted. He clearly hadn't slept and she wondered why... shouldn't last night have been the first night in a while that he relaxed? He had gotten what they had been working for... Rue was saved.

What kept him up?

And the second thing she noticed...

Well, he didn't look at her.

Not once.

Not even when she walked past him as he held the door open for them. Not even when they took their seats in his office and he congratulated them all for their hard work. Not even when he praised Thea directly for her performance in front of the higher ups.

Of course, Thea didn't need to be as smart as her brother to figure out that something was wrong. Clearly, he did not feel the same way about the kiss as she had. Her pounding heart remained, but her feelings changed. Instead, she was now nervous.

After explaining to the team that Niall was still figuring out the next steps and would keep them posted, he gave them the orders to use the time they have for now to catch up with all the work they had put on hold for Rue. He then dismissed them.

Everyone seemed excited and enthusiastic, clearly not noticing whatever strange tension was present between Thea and Niall.

However, as Thea walked towards the door, she herself pondering what could have happened since the kiss last night to now... what would have made Niall act this way... Niall called her. "Theavi," he started, looking down at a notebook in front of him which he was flipping through. "Can you hold on for a moment... I want to speak to you."

A rush of nervousness overwhelmed her.

This did not feel good yet she smiled and nodded. "Sure."

When the room had cleared out and Julian, the last person out, had shut the door, Thea found herself standing rather stiffly, wringing her hands together and waiting for the embarrassment to unfold.

Niall didn't speak right away. Instead, he stared down at the pages in front of him before letting out a silent breath and finally looking up at her. "I..." he hesitated and then had to look away again. "I... apologize for last night."

Apologize? Thea thought. She didn't want him to apologize.

"My actions last night were largely inappropriate... we were both high on emotions and I was also drunk... it's not an excuse but it's the only explanation I have."

Thea was dumbfounded. Sure, she expected some form of rejection, but she certainly hadn't expected it to go this way. Frankly, she was hoping he would say something that would anger her... something that would make him the jerk... something that would give her a reason to not be so embarrassed.

But he was apologizing.

How could she be angry with that?

"I'm your superior... you work for me," he continued, standing rather still and looking rather cold. "Obviously my actions were unacceptable."

Her brows rose.

"It won't happen again," he finally said. "My hope is that we can move forward as if it didn't happen."

After saying that, he waited, and Thea figured it was her queue to speak up. "Yeah..." she started. "It's alright... you don't need to apologize... like you said, we were both high on emotions."

That was all she could say.

"Good," was Niall's response. "I thank you again for your good work and I'll leave you to head out. I'm sure you're excited to go see Rue and pass on the news... I didn't tell him yet."

That was it?

He was just going to apologize for it happening and assure her that it wasn't going to happen again? She felt like a fool... mostly because she didn't want that. She wanted him to kiss her again. She wanted it to happen again and again and again.

She was finally accepting that she was falling for him and the kiss had consolidated those feelings... and now he was taking it back?

She felt like a fool.

In response to his words, Thea gave the General a tight lipped smile before nodding. "I'll be on my way then."

Niall nodded back. "Good... enjoy your day."

Thea didn't fail to notice the absolute awkwardness, and in an attempt to get away from it as quickly as possible, she nodded her head once more, turned and left.

Niall slumped down in his seat as soon as she was gone, his face hot in embarrassment and the back of his neck, his underarms and his palms sweating.

How was it that this conversation seemed to be more challenging than literally any he's had before? He has, in the past, stood in front of the most threatening, hardened men who would be more than happy to kill him, yet not broken a single sweat, but here he was, drenched and suddenly exhausted after speaking to a girl.

He leaned back in his seat, running his fingers through his hair before unbuttoning the coat of his uniform and taking it off. As expected, the white shirt underneath it was drenched in sweat and he was rather uncomfortable as he sat there, turning his spinning chair so that he could face the window. His mind was filled with the wide eyed Thea... the look of shock and maybe even annoyance on her face as he spoke.

Of course he was lying.

Sure, he was sober now despite being exhausted from the fact that his wandering thoughts kept him up for most of the night... but despite being sober, he didn't actually regret kissing her. He clearly had feelings for her that he was refusing to accept, but the one thing he was being serious about was the fact that he truly did believe that his actions were not appropriate.

He was her boss.

If she wanted a career here in Achlis... if she wanted to be taken seriously... well, any form of an intimate relationship with the General of the Aiverian Army and the Deputy Secretary of Defense would not be helpful. Achlis was toxic... if people found out, they would be ruthless.

Any successes she had would not be her own.

No one would take her seriously.

All of her wins would suddenly be attributed to her relationship with him.

It was this that Niall spent all night thinking of. Sure, Julian had said it wouldn't matter after the meeting with the higher ups, but he was wrong. He wasn't factoring in the fact that she would still be working here. Her role would not end with Rue.

Niall was her boss and his job was to support her growth... to protect her, even.

And having any form of intimacy with her would not help that cause.

As Niall lingered on that thought for a moment longer, avoiding the urge to reflect back on the feeling of her lips against his, there was a knock at his door.

Mrs. Railer did not wait for him to answer, instead, she opened the door rather gently and peeked her head in. "Niall," she called.

Niall turned his chair to face the door.

"You should clean yourself up... you look a little disheveled," she started, and though she was trying to be helpful, Niall was a little annoyed with her words. "Rivier called and asked if you're in your office. He didn't tell me why he asked and just hung up after I answered but I believe it's safe to assume he is on his way."

Niall's reason for feeling annoyed shifted to Rivier. "We don't have an appointment," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

"I'll warn you, love," she started, stepping into the room and watching as Niall stood and put his coat on. "He seems upset."

"Of course–"

"Niall," Mrs. Railer called, rather firmly.

Naill paused and looked at her, a little surprised by her seriousness.

"He also sounded... a little drunk."

Niall's brows furrowed.

"I think you are in for some trouble."

At first, Thea wanted to hold off for an hour or so before going to see Rue. Though she was excited to see him and couldn't wait to share the news, she also knew that Rue somehow had the ability to read her like an open book and would probably be able to figure her current emotions out in a heartbeat.

She was already embarrassed enough... the last thing she wanted was for Rue to find out.

However, the reason she ended up going up to the prison not soon after her embarrassing talk with Niall was because surprisingly, the usually not as intellectual Luana figured out something was up and was being extremely persistent. Luana, who was scheduled to be with Thea for the next few hours to escort her to the prison and back, was not letting off, and the only way Thea knew to avoid the conversation was to be locked in the prison cell with Rue for some time.

And so despite still feeling humiliated, she had soon arrived at the prison.

Ultimately, it seemed like coming to the prison was the best idea, seeing that as soon as they entered the prison, Luana was too distracted to continue being persistent.

Thea too was distracted, noticing instantly that the atmosphere in the prison was oddly different. Usually, the atmosphere was rather cold, with the officers looking at both her and Luana with annoyance or distaste. They didn't like the two Elorian girls, of course, but aside from the looks and snide comments, it didn't worry the two at all.

Aiverian State Police Officers were known for being rather pompous jerks and both Thea and Luana were used to it.

Today however... was different.

At first Thea thought that maybe the atmosphere was different because all of these officers had heard about Thea's team's rare win, but by the looks of things, it didn't really look like that.

Instead, the men seemed pleased.

Why on earth would they be pleased? The thought that a prisoners' life had been saved should not have pleased them.

"Weird," Luana muttered before the two of them continued to the elevator.

By the time the two had made it to Rue's floor, however, Thea had already forgotten about the Police Officers. Frankly, she had forgotten about the whole thing with Niall too. What was on the forefront of her mind was Rue... how was he going to react when he found out she succeeded? And she still needed to thank him for that poem he wrote her... the one that helped her.

She was smiling widely now as Luana used her keys to unlock the door, and when it swung open, Thea held her breath, suddenly lost for words and only wanting to rush in and hug him.

But the second she was able to see him, she froze.

And then she screamed.