Wesley was feeling a bit rushed that morning. He'd told Harry that he would have to come early in the morning, and the fact of the matter was that this was really not an ideal situation to have her be with him. Honestly, he didn't know why he didn't just suggest to pick her up after, but the idea of having her around, of being able to spend more time with her, won out so easily in his mind.
She quite frankly made him all out of sorts.
So at 5 in the morning he drove up to her house, finding her waiting for him in the still darkened morning, looking cold and small in her huge hoodie as she leaned against the porch's stairway wall. He immediately got out of the car and met her halfway, placing his jacket around her.
"You should have waited for me inside," he lightly chastised her.
"I'd rather leave here without them awake," she told him dryly, though she did pull his jacket a little more around herself, trying to ward off the cold. She yawned a little, blinking sleepily. "So where are we off to for your appointment?"
"Union Allied Construction. I have to work some things out for Wilson there, hopefully quickly."
She gave him a suspicious look, but thankfully didn't ask any questions.
"Want to look like my personal assistant?" he suddenly asked teasingly, intriguing her. At her curious nod, he pointed towards the back of his car. "I have a suit your size you can change into. You can change in the back of the car; it'll be warmer. I'll just wait out here until you're done."
Grinning eagerly, she slipped into the back of the car, while he turned to face her house, lightly glaring at it. Just as he was contemplating doing something to wake the Dursleys up and ruin their sleep, Harry called out from behind him and he turned and noticed she had already moved to the front seat of the car and was ready to go. He slipped into the driver's seat and then faced her, mouth opening to say something snarky when instead he found himself examining and admiring the fitted suit on her.
Harry looked quite professional and could actually pass as a personal assistant. But then the thought of her being his assistant combined with how she looked right then made something in his stomach clench; a feeling he wisely ignored as he forced a smile on his face.
"You look nice. The look suits you," he complimented simply and then started the car.
She blushed a little, back to grinning. "This seems kind of fun and exciting, especially getting to pretend to be your personal assistant. I don't think I'd mind getting to do this more!"
"Careful, I might actually put you to work," he told her sarcastically.
"Hey! Don't sass me, mister!"
And Wesley laughed, the feeling he'd had earlier disappearing fully, which he was grateful for. Soon enough, he'd gone further into the city, where they were lucky enough that there wasn't traffic yet and arrived at Union Allied in no time. Wesley managed to find a good parking spot quickly, and then he was leading her into the building.
"Should I keep quiet?" she whispered to him.
Wesley glanced at her. "Probably. But I doubt you'd say something offensive or rude."
"What if I say something unprofessional?" she raised an eyebrow at him.
He shrugged. "I doubt it too, but I believe after dealing with your family for 15 years, you'd have enough patience to deal with these incompetent idiots."
Harry snickered under her breath, her emerald eyes twinkling in mischief at him. He memorized the look and set it with all the other memories he'd associated with her.
Wesley informed the right people of his presence and headed to the top floor unimpeded, where he could find one of the heads of Union Allied, along with the secretary's desk. Seeing as it was so early, the secretary wasn't there yet. Therefore, seeing as it was sent late last night, after she'd left, this left him plenty of time to remove the email and any evidence of it before she could open it up and read it. He eyed the name plaque on the front of the desk: Karen Page.
"So what are we here for?" Harry asked as she looked around curiously. Wesley took that time to head to Page's desk and sit down in front of her computer, turning it on. He had all the passwords needed, courtesy of Miss Page's boss.
"I just need to check on something and then talk with at least one of the bosses here," Wesley told her, already entering the password and logging in successfully. He then went to go to the secretary's company email and tried to log in, only to realize that she must've changed her password as the one her boss had given Wesley wasn't being taken in. He lightly cursed under his breath and gritted his teeth.
A hand on his shoulder made him give pause, and he looked up at the owner of the hand to see Harry looking down at him in worry.
"Everything alright?" she asked, voice soft, and he really appreciated how much more open she was now compared to how she was in the beginning towards him.
He gripped her hand on his shoulder and gave a small smile. "Just a small bump. I'll figure something out."
He saw a strand of hair having fallen forward onto her face, and he reached up slightly to push it back and behind her ear. Her face colored a bright red at the action, and he couldn't help gazing into her emerald eyes for a moment. He'd always noted and couldn't help focusing on how vivid and bright they always seemed...
The computer next to him sparked angrily and then the monitor screen messed up before turning black, while the system unit sparked again and then obviously fried, with smoke coming from it. The two of them jerked away from it in surprise, staring at it in shock.
"What in the world?" Wesley stared, while Harry turned even further red and kept quiet, moving slightly away from the computer even more. Still, Wesley couldn't help grinning at his luck, standing from the chair and leaning over the computer, poking at the smoking chassis. Though it was hot to the touch and slightly burned his finger, he was very certain that there was no saving the thing and that no information could be retrieved from it. Even if there was a possibility, the secretary wouldn't be able to look at it now and her boss could now find a way to access her email and manually remove the email himself, without her getting in the way. He would just have to inform Page's boss of the fact her password had been changed and that her company computer was invalid for some reason, and keep her from accessing her email before something could be done.
"You look happy?" Harry asked, giving him a strange look. Still grinning, he laughed in delight and pulled her into a hug.
"Happy is an understatement. I believe that my problem has at least been temporarily solved."
Unsure what he meant, Harry just gave him a confused smile and went with it. Wesley told her to stay a moment and he went to go looking for Karen Page's boss, informing him of the situation and getting a promise that he would resolve the situation and make sure that email would never be known, much less opened.
In an extremely good mood, Wesley retrieved Harry and they went back to the car, setting off to go shopping for swimsuits for Harry. They headed to the Walmart they usually met at, and wasted no time getting to the swimsuit section.
Wesley's good mood faltered a little.
"What...kind of swimsuit should you get?" Wesley asked hesitantly.
"We don't really have a uniform yet, so for now, especially being a public school, everyone's just using whatever swimwear they have," Harry explained as she glanced at him and back to the swimsuits she was browsing through. "I don't know what I should get. A few of the girls on the team suggested I get either a two-piece or a bikini, but I don't know."
Wesley, at her words, immediately pictured her in the two kinds of swimsuits and had to take a deep breath. She hadn't even picked one and his imagination was already going wild. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he forcibly expelled such thoughts and focused on looking through the racks of swimsuits for something she could wear. He focused on the one-pieces, going with something modest. For his own piece of mind at least.
(There was a part of him that didn't want the boys in her team and in her school to see her in a revealing swimsuit either.)
"Green is always nice on you," he commented, picking out a dark green one-piece that he handed over to her. She took it from him and observed it, nodding in approval.
"I'll go try it on, see if it fits and how it looks," she said and went to the fitting room, while causing him to feel uneasy again. After a few moments, she came back out and he tensed, looking at her in the swimsuit.
Even if it didn't reveal as much skin as a bikini or a two-piece, it still showed too much to him. Especially in the way it showed off her shapely legs, and the way it formed tightly to her body, most specifically around her bosom area.
"Well? How does it look?" Harry gave him an awkward smile and turned in a circle. "It's pretty minimalist and should do the job."
He inhaled sharply and did his best to offer her a normal smile. "Good. Should work fine."
Her smile became a little more relieved. "Alright. I'll just change back and then we can go buy it."
She left him and he raised his hand to wipe it down his face, messing his glasses up from its position on his face. Taking his hand away, he noticed it shaking and he shook his head at himself.
Really now. One would think he was a 13 year old teenager.
~*~*~
"Do you have plans for your birthday?" Wesley asked her all of a sudden, causing Harry to fidget on the couch she was sitting cross-legged on.
"Not really," she shrugged. "I don't usually. My birthday's never been too big a deal."
She saw Wesley briefly scowl before it was wiped off his face and he was smirking at her.
"So you're turning 16 and yet have no plans for a sweet 16? How boring," he teased her.
Harry just laughed. "I guess. I don't really have any ideas anyway, and I've never really celebrated my birthday either. Why? You have something in mind?" she asked, not really thinking anything of it.
"Wear flat-footed shoes, flats if you have them," he said all of a sudden, confusing her. "And don't change plans on me and decide to make plans after all."
Astonished, she looked at him unsurely, but he looked back at her confidently and looking like he had all the answers in the world. She decided that he probably was going to be stubborn about this, so thought it wasn't too big a deal for her to argue on.
"Hey, can I ask you about something?" she asked, thinking back to some of the things she'd heard in school. At his questioning look, she straightened up. "What's this I heard about aliens in New York? And there's stuff about a Norse god and a man in iron and a whole lot of things I don't understand."
Wesley looked at her in surprise, not sure he was hearing right. All this stuff that's happened in America and she hadn't heard or known a single bit of it? He had to admit he was taken aback by that, considering how crazy the events were and would surely be spread around and be heard by the whole world. But by the curious and interested gaze of his companion, she really hadn't heard of or known any of that.
"Well...I'm rather surprised you don't know anything about it, but..."
Wesley tentatively began to tell her about what he knew of all the events that happened so far in the past years, expanding on who the Avengers were, and watching as her eyes widened the more she listened to him.
"Like this Man in Black I've been hearing about around school?" she asked him suddenly, and he almost tensed up at the question. "One of the girls mentioned that she heard about him saving some women a few months back, around March I think. Is he a superhero too?"
Wesley smiled thinly, remembering about the incident and how Turk Barrett had caused them a setback with that incident, though he had brought this mysterious man to Wesley and Wilson's attention.
"I suppose you can call him that, though I don't think he has superpowers like those of Thor and the likes."
He better damn well not.
"You okay?" he heard Harry ask, and he looked at her to see him looking at him worriedly, and that she'd probably noticed his irritable state.
The question was should he be truthful to her about it or keep her out of the loop?
"Just be honest with me about the basic. You don't have to give me details."
"The Man in Black interfered with business that time," he reluctantly confessed but didn't elaborate.
Harry, for a second, looked caught off guard. Then she looked uneasy before deciding on a shaky smile.
"Maybe that's a good thing," she said simply and left it at that. He released the breath he was holding and gave her words serious thought.
Instead of answering, he stood up and grabbed her hands, pulling her up after him.
"What are you doing?" she asked, stumbling a bit.
"Do you know how to dance?" he asked her without preamble.
"Uh...just a waltz? And barely at that. I had something like a ball in my fourth year at my boarding school and I was required to learn," she admitted awkwardly.
Wesley pulled her close and wrapped her arms around his neck before putting his own around her waist.
"Slow dancing is pretty easy," he muttered, starting to sway with her.
She unsurely followed his lead, but soon enough felt comfortable enough to not focus on how to move the whole time, letting herself sway with him.
"Yeah, guess it is," she gave him a crooked grin.
It mesmerized him and made him want to lean over –
Wesley gave a polite smile back.
He didn't know what was worse. Thinking about how his job made things messy between them, or how he shouldn't think or feel this way towards her.