salute [h.s]

the one where louis meets eleanor

can we maybe start over?

december 25 - work holiday party

1D Fanfic/Salute Extra

Louis/Eleanor

*

December 14, 2011

She didn't know why she was here. She was definitely not in a holiday spirit and the decorations hung around the main lobby of H branch (personnel — a department headed by a real witch of a woman and full of sex-crazed junior agents who would not stop making passes at her) were making her nauseous. The only people who were talking to her were the male agents who thought they could score with a lonely girl on Christmas Eve. She knew though that there were plenty more talking about her because of her reputation around this god forsaken place. A reputation she did not deserve and that made her so angry she could barely contain it. And she was known for being calm and in control.

Eleanor was pretty sure she was going to kill Liam Payne for making her come to the party. She would have been perfectly fine to stay at home, alone with a bottle of cheap red wine and Holiday on repeat. Nothing could cure a bitter heart like Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. He'd managed to guilt her into it somehow. Because she was working as a liaison to MI6 with the JIC, and because she'd formed One Direction just under a year ago, she was spending a lot more time at MI6 so someone had put her name into the Secret Santa draw. She'd gotten a spa gift certificate for the woman she'd drawn and had been hoping to just give it to Liam and Harry to deliver. That certainly hadn't happened.

So here she was, standing alone by the buffet table, trying her very best to not eat her feelings as she watched people she barely knew mingling. Liam was dancing with some girl he'd just met that he fancied himself in love with and Harry was nowhere to be found. Probably off making some mischief of his own.

"Eleanor, right?"

She turned slightly to see the newest contender for her attention. Tall, broad shoulder, classically handsome. She hated him already. "Can I help you?"

"I just wanted to come and ask for a dance."

"No."

The man seemed startled by her abrupt refusal. "What do you mean, no?"

"Oh sorry," Eleanor said with a feigned giggle, brushing his arm in a gesture of flirting that made her want to throw up. The agent ate it up, a smug smirk crossing his face as he puffed his chest up. "I meant to say no fucking way."

The agent choked on his breath a bit and then his face hardened, a sneer curling over his lips. He gripped Eleanor's forearm tightly, yanking her into him. She stumbled, falling against him and was trapped there before she could manage to slip away. Up close, he was much taller and much broader than she had first appreciated. She thought, maybe, she'd made an impulsive judgement brushing him off so callously. She'd meant every word but she should have considered the consequences.

"You can't speak to me like that," he hissed at her.

"I can speak to you however I like," Eleanor snapped back as she tried to pull her arm free from his bruising grasp. "Let me go. Now."

The agent tugged once more and she was forced back toward him, cowering under his dominating stare. She tried to look fierce, to remind him that she was his superior and he better watch it but she hardly thought she was convincing when he had a foot on her and was towering over her. "I thought I'd do you a favour, baby girl. Give the frigid ice princess a good time, fuck some fun back into her. But you're not even worth it. Manning was right to drop a wet blanket like you."