xvii. YOU'RE NOT MY BOYFRIEND
"Why the tootsie roll do you always get on my nerves?" I groan while setting up my computer. "Seriously, it's like the Director is trying to punish me by grouping us together all the time."
"You're not a walk in the park either, Cupcake. Every time you open your mouth, my lifespan decreases about six months," Ace retorts.
"If that were true, I'd never stop talking."
"Shut the hell up."
Small lights flicker in and out of the dark room as we begin to bypass security measures in the mainframe. Ace starts to hack into the left side while I take the right. I dig around for the CPUs and connect my computer to the hardware.
"Aren't you just a Prince Charming? You always say what every girl wants to hear," I sneer.
"I might be a goddamn prince but just look at me, I'm pretty goddamn charming..." Ace follows up the uncalled for comment with a wink.
"You're about as charming as anthrax."
"At least I'm not the human equivalent of HIV."
"Are we now just naming STDs you have?" I smile. "Well in that case, you forgot chlamydia, syphilis, and herpes. Shall I continue?"
"So creative. Don't think too hard again, you might sprain your brain," Ace spits.
I roll my eyes so far back I get a headache.
With five minutes on the clock, I'm two-thirds of the way through. I look over to see him working slightly slower than I did. A smirk tugs on my lips.
"But seriously," Ace states. "I don't want you to have to kiss anyone for a mission. Especially Ethan."
The return to a more serious conversation slightly surprises me. After all, he had just compared me to HIV.
"You know you're not my boyfriend, right?"
"I'm your supervising officer though."
Ace said that fact as if it should explain the limitation he put on me.
"I didn't realize being my supervising officer suddenly meant you could control my every move," I mock.
He furrows his brows in disappointment in my direction. Suddenly, we heard footsteps approaching closer and closer to the room.
"Shit," Ace whispers. "Come over here."
He grabs me by my wrist and pulls me to the maintenance closet in the left corner. The space was cramped, so Ace and I are uncomfortably shoved together in the small space.
We hear the door creaking open and footsteps enter into the mainframe room. I'm completely physiologically frozen as the footsteps walk around the room.
The only movement I could feel was the steady rise and fall of Ace's chest. Strangely enough, the feeling was unexpectedly comforting.
Blue light from Ace's computer illuminated the closet. He was lucky; Ace could still reach the mainframe since his cord was connected. He started to hack again, whereas I couldn't, since the closet we were stuck in was out of proximity from the side I was assigned to.
"This is cheating! I would have won the bet if we weren't interrupted," I whine.
Ace smirks. "Sorry Cupcake, but it looks like I'm about to win."
Sure enough, he shuts his computer off after two minutes. Even in the dark, I could imagine the incessant smug look plastered all over his face.
"I finished my side first, so I won, and I have the perfect dare for you," Ace winks.
I jab him in the stomach. Losing was not something that came easily to me, but with him, I was somehow always one step behind.
The footsteps on the other side subdue and eventually the person leaves. With two minutes left on the clock, my hands quickly fly through the keys to finish downloading.
"Alright, mission completed," I confirm. Ace takes the computers with downloaded information and we leave the mainframe room together.
"Good luck, I'll see you in an hour," Ace nods.
We part. Ace leaves through the window to meet Skye on the roof. Just as time runs out, I quickly run back into Ethan's office and pinned his badge onto his jacket.
Not a moment too soon, Ethan enters his office once again.
"Sorry about that, Ava," he sighs apologetically. "I had some important clientele, you know how it is."
A mischievous grin forms on his face. "Now where were we?" Ethan whispers while closing the space between us.
"I actually just got a phone call from my firm," I cooly respond. "But since it seems like the universe wants us to be together, Mr. Tansin, I'm sure I'll see you again."
I leave the building with my target gaping after me.
~
"Good work everyone," the Director smiles. "Tomorrow, we'll have the information stored in the mainframe processed and we will prep our next move."
A wave of relief washed over me. With the information from the mainframe and Eve Miyazaki's USB, the CIA finally seemed to be one step ahead of Thirteen. We had a real, concrete chance of catching him.
"Good news deserves celebration. I'm going to get blackout drunk tonight, anyone care to join?" Xavier asks.
"Sounds like my type of night," Skye chimes.
Even Chase, the gang leader who can't hold his alcohol, nodded in contempt.
"What about you two?" Chase asks Ace and I.
"Actually," Ace smirks, "Octavia and I are going to stay in tonight; she's been drinking too much recently."
I glower at Ace. He was referring to the bet we had made earlier, and because I lost, he was owed a dare from me.
Skye looks between us. "Alright, just be safe kids," she teases.
My face scrunches in disgust. "It's not like that. Ace is just a smug asshole who won a stupid bet."
"Whatever you want to believe, Cupcake," he winks.
Later that night, the Director temporarily turned off the shock on everyone's trackers and my teammates had left the penthouse, leaving only Ace and I in the desolate prison.
What Ace wanted me to do worried me. I trusted him enough to know he wouldn't push me past my boundaries, but at the same time, he was a complete wild card.
We were slumped against the couch eating takeout whilst watching an episode of Avatar the Last Airbender. Being with him felt nice, you know, when he wasn't annoying the shit out of me.
"What do you think is the best element?" Ace asks between mouthfuls of Americanized Chinese food.
"One hundred percent water," I state. "You can heal, water is everywhere, and bloodbending."
"Wrong answer," Ace exclaims, "earth is the best element. Just look at Toph fucking Beifong."
I chuck my fork at him across the couch. Ace swiftly catches it and then goes to turn off the TV.
"Now as for that bet," Ace says with his lips tugged upward.
I let out a sigh of defeat. "Fine. What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to do many things, Cupcake."
Ace suddenly closes the space on the couch between us. I'm immediately uncertain of how to proceed due to the undeniable feeling of intimacy of our close proximity, which also had the unfortunate side effect of making my breath visibly shallow.
We stay like that for a moment, observing one another. His pupils were slightly dilated, but they nonetheless retained their distinct golden glow.
Ace tucks a stray strand back into my ear, and then he gently lifts my chin to meet his gaze.
"Take out your contacts, Octavia Snow, and let me see you."
Octavia [whispering]: "Vote if you think Ace can be kinda cute... sometimes..."
Ace: "What was that?"
Octavia: "I said vote if... if you like fries fries."