The night prior has echoed and refracted in your mind over and over again. Harry, your partner, had kissed you. It wasn't just any kiss...it was passionate and you could still feel its after effects even now, a day later.
You're not quite sure how it had escalated to that so quickly but you aren't going to exactly complain either. Last night had seemed like an impossibility. You specifically can recall when you'd asked Harry to dinner, casually, six months into being partners and him turning you down. You had thought that the lingering looks and shy smiles, your banter back and forth was a hint towards his blossoming feelings towards you because, hell, you were so undeniably attracted to him and you really hoped he had caught on.
It seemed though, the minute you'd asked him to dinner, that things had suddenly changed. He had been kind about it, as kind as he could have been, but you distinctly remember him gripping the edge of his chair and looking horrified for only a second before gently telling you that he had dated a coworker before and it hadn't ended well. So, you placed your feelings for gentle Harry into a box inside of yourself, something that you only peeked into every so often when you were alone and weak.
You had accepted that you'd be friends only, work colleagues before anything else, and that was that. The decision had been made and yet....five years later...you'd only done what you always did when he had a migraine. You rubbed his temples and tried to make him laugh because that always worked. Only once did you have to rub his neck to release the tension built up there but that had only been one time and he had never reacted this way. He had always just thanked you and said that he didn't deserve you and that was it. You'd tuck the kind words into that little box in your chest and lock it away for a day when you felt especially bad about yourself.
So when sweet and gentle Harry eagerly pulled your mouth to his you were completely blindsided. If you hadn't known better, you'd almost say he was another man entirely. Gone was the gentleness that you'd grown to adore about him and in its place was a desperation, a desperation for your kiss and you didn't exactly know how to handle it nor recover from it. Were you supposed to pretend it never happened? Was it business as usual between the two of you?
You realized you were going to get your answer when the double doors to the precinct opened up two hours after your shifts began and in walked that handsome partner of yours.
Upon first glance, he seemed fine, but as your eyes raked down to his hands, you noticed dark bruising along his knuckles and sat straight up as he approached.
"What happened? Are you alright?" You ask calmly and are only greeted with a defeated, "m'fine," before Harry sits down across from you.
Looking closely at him, you can tell that once again he did not sleep well, and you wonder if maybe he'd gone to the gym to box and that's why his knuckles look the way they do. Something seems off about him though, but you don't inquire anymore. Harry didn't like to be made a fuss over, so you sat back and began to work on the documents of evidence from the crime scene the day before.
No DNA evidence was retrieved from the scene and the victim's autopsy report came back cleared of any sexual assault. It had been consensual...again. You were about to make that fact known to your partner when you heard a slight cracking of knuckles from across your desks.
"So, Shepherd...are we going to pretend last night didn't happen or are we going to acknowledge it...get it out in the open?"
Your mouth is hanging open and you know this because Harry is looking at you with a giant smirk that tells you that you look like an idiot. Snapping your jaw closed you sit up straight and run a hand through your blonde hair.
"Um...out in the open would be nice." You are hesitant, not quite sure where this is all coming from as just moments ago he looked like he might collapse into a dream state any minute and now he was looking at you like you were his favorite dish. Harry's fingers played deftly with his rings, and you noticed the nervous gesture before bringing your eyes back up to his dark ones.
"Did you like it?" He asked, leaning forward onto his elbows to try to get closer to you. A flush of red rose onto your skin and you know Harry noticed because the shit eating grin upon his lovely mouth tells you so. Of course Harry noticed. He always noticed.
"Did you like our kiss Theron? I won't be asking again." The confusing brunette across from you continued to lean forward as you leant back in your seat to escape him. You were quite certain that you were in a fever dream. Your partner, Harry Styles, would never talk to you like this. This was almost...seductive. Harry didn't have a seductive bone in his body. Not that he couldn't be with someone else but that was just it...he was never this way with you of all people.
"I-I don't know what you mean." You are in a panic and Harry can tell.
Harry likes the color of your skin, the way the blood runs to your cheeks and neck so easily, so deliciously. He's waited such a long time to be able to see you this way, with his own eyes, and now that he is here witnessing it for himself...he isn't sure he ever wants to leave.
"Would you like me to remind you of exactly what I mean?" His voice is low, husky, and drawled. Those vowels being lulled and strung together by his accent in a way that is almost foreign to the way Harry usually spoke.
Warning sirens are blaring in your ears and you know that something is not completely right.
You have a stare off with the man across from you and you watch as his thumb reaches over his pointer finger and cracks the knuckle there slowly. Your eyes flick back up to his and his smirk is unwavering.
"Our unsub, or rather, unsubs are going on dates with these girls and it's consensual." You decide to steer this conversation back to the task at hand and you don't miss the gleam in Harry's dark green eyes at the switch in topic, nor the heavy sigh and eye roll he lets out at your abrupt transition.
"Yeah, yeah, the man loves consent. So?" It is your turn to roll your eyes and Harry notices. He bites his bottom lip to keep himself from smiling but he loves your fervor. He lifts his coffee mug up to his mouth as you continue to survey his every movement.
"So....I think we are dealing with twins."
Coffee is sprayed across your desks.
"Twins?!" Harry has caused a bit of a scene from his spewing his drink across your desks to reaching an octave in his voice that no one, not even you, knew he could reach.
"Yes...it makes sense. The submissive unsub lures the victims in with his charm," Harry is now wiping down his desk with a small napkin as he stares at you like you have a third head, "and then the dominant one comes in, looking exactly like the sub, gets to screw the poor victim and then bam!" you slam your hand on your desk making Harry jump slightly, "...he chokes them out and they die and he's left satisfied while the submissive feels bad about it and leaves a sunflower behind as a token of his empathy."
You are quite proud of yourself. For years you have studied forensic science and criminal psychology and the psychology of it all was your favorite. Why did people do the horrible things that they did? You'd been asking yourself that question since you were a little girl when tragedy had befallen your own home.
But that was something you'd locked away in your memory bank...something you never visited unless it was absolutely imperative.
Harry is looking to you now as if you have just told him that you ride a unicorn to work every day but you still slot your arms together across your chest in triumph just the same. Sure, it was a lot and clearly circumstantial but it was a hell of a theory.
"You....," you begin to worry that he isn't following along...that this time you truly have over done it and Harry cannot follow you down this rabbit hole when he suddenly looks up at you with shimmering eyes and says, "...you are so fuckin intelligent....I swear to God." He brings his fist up to his mouth and bites down on it like he is keeping himself from saying something else. The behavior is very, very, incredibly strange...not one you've seen exhibited by your friend before but you allow it....for now.
"uh...thanks? I guess...?" You watch as Harry brings his hands together as if in prayer and looks up to the sky murmuring to himself something along the lines of, "I swear I'll be a good boy..." but you can't be sure...you never did trust your ears and you still aren't even sure that any of this is real.
"So...I think we need to look in our database for identical twins in the area. Anyone with a background in sexual assault or BDSM and go from there." Harry lifts a gorgeous dark brown eyebrow at you and clicks his tongue against his teeth as he rubs his middle finger across his bottom lip.
"I thought we were working with a consensual king?" He playfully asks and it is your turn to lift an eyebrow at him. Who was this and what had they done with Harry?
"We are...but it doesn't hurt to look."
"Okay darling...I'll check out the BDSM lead...see where that takes me." His eyes widen suggestively and you resist the thrill that runs through you at the idea of Harry surrounded by whips and chains.
"Uh...sure. I'll uh...I'll call you if I get anything from the database then." You clear your throat and come to standing, grabbing your cross body purse before pushing your chair into your desk.
"And I'll call you if I need a hand or an extra pair of cuffs." Harry winks at you...actually winks at you...and you watch in awe as he saunters away, his hips swinging in a way you'd never noticed from him before.
"What the absolute fuck?" You whisper to yourself as you gather your dignity and whisk yourself away from the conjoined desks where the most confusing morning you've ever endured just occurred.
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Author's Note:
Oooooooooooooop
>:)