Opposites Attract

Late One Night

"It's nearly three in the morning, why are you up?" Selene made her way slowly over to the desk that she knew had belonged to Jeff. She draped her arms over his shoulders, leaning down to kiss the top of his head.

John tipped his head back, letting it rest against the soft fullness of her chest, his arms covering hers where they rested across his chest.

"I like being the only one up sometimes, it's quieter, more like I'm used to."

She nuzzled his neck, dropping a light kiss on the edge of his jaw. "Want me to go back to bed and leave you to your peace?" She'd fallen asleep with him sitting up in bed next to her, quietly reading and woken to a distinct lack of warm, snuggly body beside her. It hadn't been hard to find him.

"No, you don't count as someone I need peace from."

"Well that's a declaration of love right there." Swinging his chair around she perched herself on his lap. "So what are you working on?"

He span the chair back to face the desk and tapped the map in front of him, pulling up a few highlighted amber alerts he was obviously keeping an eye on. He had a news channel on in the background, the feed showing nothing more than a run down of the latest celebrity marriage break up, the details of an upcoming event at a botanical garden for charity and the news that Denmark had elected a new Prime Minister.

"Everything looks fine at the moment," she commented.

He nodded, tapping a couple more icons and swiped another page out of the way.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" he made a note on his tablet, not looking up.

"About why you can't, or don't want to sleep."

He gave her waist a playful squeeze. "Maybe you were snoring and kept me awake."

"Lies!" she hissed in mock horror.

He smiled but didn't offer any more information. She kept quiet, the news reporter continuing to drone on in the background the only noise in the room. One of the amber alerts blinked out, no longer an issue but he still checked it, obviously trying to distract her from her questioning. Oh how he underestimated her.

"Local authority dealt with it," he commented absently, almost as if he were talking to himself rather than her as he swiped it away with a wave of his hand, before falling silent again.

She checked the map feed herself, having grown accustomed to deciphering his icons and notes that seemed to be forever popping up. One caught her eye, a small flashing exclamation mark that he seemed to not have noticed, which was strange in itself. John noticed everything.

She narrowed her eyes, getting a read on his energy. His was pulled in tight to his body, a sure sign that he was hiding something.

"You OK, baby?"

"Hm?" he turned his head to look at her. "Sorry, yes, I'm fine."

"I don't believe you."

"I don't know what to say to that."

"You could start by telling me the truth."

"I am," his eyes slid back to the projection in front of him.

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?"

She unwound his arm from around her waist and got to her feet.

"I called bullshit."

"Yeah, I heard you."

"Is that it?"