Error ☾𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄☽

Chapter 20: What's A Little Flirting Among Friends?

Gretta shuffled around in her bed, frustrated.

It was 6 o'clock, the room fully concealed in darkness and Gretta couldn't go back to sleep.

"Hey...Elliot? You awake?" She whispers into the darkness, to the bed a few feet away from her.

There's a groan heard and some shuffling before he replies,
"Yeah. What is it?"
"...I can't sleep."
"Hmph. Didn't take you for an insomniac." He jokes and Gretta cracks a smile of her own in the darkness.
"Yeah, I don't know. I keep waking up. Must be the new location or something." Gretta guesses and Elliot hums in agreement to tell her he's listening.

A second later, his lamp turns on and Gretta glances over as Elliot rubs his eyes. He's wearing a plain black t-shirt from what Gretta can see and he looks tired.

"Guess neither of us can go to sleep now." He says as he notices her staring. She blushes and suddenly becomes fascinated by the ceiling.

"I guess not." She replies, feeling self conscious.

Eventually, Gretta huffed, pulling the covers off to reveal her pajamas which consisted of a pair black pajama shorts and a camouflage crop tank top.

"I can show you where they're going next if you want." Elliot suggests, referring to Gretta's mom and Carmen.

Gretta shrugs, before nodding as a silent yes and walks over to sit on the floor by Elliot's bed. He pulls up a digital map on his phone and shows her

"You can sit up here...if you want." Elliot says hesitantly. Gretta doesn't anything but gets up on the small twin bed anyway.

"Wow...it looks nice." Gretta says once she's seen some pictures. Elliot nods in agreement.

Gretta glances over at him and then shuffles closer. He's not paying attention to her, continuing to scroll through the pictures himself. She hesitantly snakes her arms around him, hovering above Elliot's waist.

"Is this okay?" She whispers. He turns to look at her, briefly glancing down and then nods.
"Yeah." Gretta smiles triumphantly as she snuggles in closer and rests her head on his shoulder to watch the images flick by on the screen.
"Thanks." She says to him after a moment has passed. Elliot shrugs.
"It was nothing. You're a nice heater." They both snicker like little kids at that, sleep deprived and feeling punchy.

"You look pretty." Elliot says suddenly and Gretta looks surprised.
"You're giving me a compliment?"
"What? I can't compliment...uh...you?" He fumbles over his words.

They hadn't talked about their label for each other yet, but Gretta changes the subject quickly.

"You're pretty handsome yourself." Gretta says and Elliot allows himself to give into an urge he feels and kisses her nose.

Gretta smiles at him and he smiles back.

"You're sweet." She says, pecking him on the lips. He huffs at her, rolling his eyes to pretend that he's actually bothered before they settle again.

They stay cuddled there for a few minutes before Gretta's eyes start to slowly close and she falls asleep.

ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.

Gretta woke up a few hours later, a warm and solid body keeping her pinned to the bed. She should've gotten up before anyone noticed...but she didn't.

Instead, she carded her fingers in Elliot's hair and watched as he breathed in and out.

Their legs were tangled together and somewhere in between them, Elliot had dropped his phone down after he fell asleep.

He shuffled slightly, pushing his nose into her neck until settling down again.

Gretta gently placed her arms around him and closed her eyes, content to lie there for a few minutes.

Unfortunately, the nice bliss was immediately interrupted by a blaring phone.

Gretta frowned, side-eyeing her phone across the room as her alarm went off, signaling it was around 8 o'clock.

Elliot groaned at the sound and Gretta huffed.

"Sorry." She apologizes in a whisper, subtly pushing at his shoulders for him to move over.

She got up and turned off the alarm before coming up to stretch.

"You want breakfast?" Elliot asks, once he's rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

Gretta nods, grabbing the door handle.
"Sure."

Author's Notes

The safe house being in Morocco probably doesn't make much sense (logistically anyway) since it takes a long time to get from there to Libya. About 8 hours. But this fic is based on a video game so we might have to suspend our realism for a bit (will I let it go? No, not at all, but I think my hands are tied).

I also had to look up weather and given that (Morocco is hot and dry during summer and cold and wet during winter) I'm claiming that the Bureau is here in fall which is said to be a pleasant time when it's not too hot or cold (would've set it during spring but Auf Wieder Slain would've never happened that way since Oktoberfest takes place from September to—shocker!—early October).

ALSO, the Russia's cases were released during December so that's also a nice justification too.

Anyway, moving on from the way too much research I've made for this fic and explanations—

Originally, when I was keeping Gretta in Europe, her and Elliot had a discussion on time zones because I had to figure out the time between where they were and where Grace was...I wasted that opportunity now but it's okay since I changed it to them being awake really early in the morning instead.

And I like this scene because it lets them have some time together and navigate their relationship. Also, remember, again, everyone consent is important :)

(They still need to figure out their official labels but they will work on that soon, I promise!)

There wasn't as much flirting as the title suggests but I got distracted by binging House of Anubis :3

In all seriousness, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Another filler because I need a break from writing a thousand+ words of dialogue lol

BatgirlGeek❤️