It was strange, having to control my laughter like that. I couldn't recall the last time I'd laughed that hard, especially at the Colonel.
"It's human nature to make mistakes, Lieutenant. You know that, right?" he retorted, glaring at me as I finally stopped laughing. I cleared my voice, making sure I wouldn't laugh anymore.
"I'm aware, sir. But there are no mistakes quite as stupid as your own," I continued to tease, watching him let himself smile again. He pinched the bridge of his nose, glancing at me standing on the opposite side of his desk.
"I think I may have an open position for first lieutenant," he smirked, straightening the phone on its receiver.
"Oh, come on," I sighed, letting my eyes smile for my lips. "You know you love me."
"Quite right, Lieutenant," he nodded, and I furrowed my eyebrows. It suddenly felt like I was about to pull the trigger. My heart began to race, my hands curled together, and my eyes opened as wide as they possibly could. Just as I was about to move away and assess what was making me feel so strange, he began laughing. I regained my calm, giving him a nod.
"Good joke, sir," I spoke dully, the sound of my heart still lingering in my ears. "But those kinds of jokes are only made on occasions, if I'm correct." I was trying to hint at him that the word 'love' should not be carelessly tossed about. My words jumbled together, as I was still trying to figure out what had made me become so unstable.
"To brighten someone's mood, I would think," he contemplated, turning his chair to stare out the window. He hadn't really caught onto my implications, but before I could correct him, he continued.
"And often moods around here are less than bright." I focused more on the fact that he'd probably meant me instead of the fact that his voice was frantic. I briefly wondered if he was also trying to tell me something in code. Were we being listened in on?
"They have their reasons as I have mine," I countered, knowing that he knew as well as I did how work could be stressful. He nodded, sighing as he turned back to look at me.
"I'm not usually the charitable type," he started, meeting my eyes for only a few seconds at a time.
"Sir?" I waited for his answer as he stood from his chair.
"But I could stand to lighten a spirit or two," he spoke enthusiastically, placing two determined fists on the desk.
"And if I'm going to become president, I might as well start the people of my own country," he told me, stepping around to walk away from me. He approached Styles, clapping a hand on his shoulder before leaving the room without another word.
.
I tried to put the whole thing out of my mind, running errands for everyone in the squad for the rest of the day. But the next day at lunch, he seemed happier than usual just reminding me about all of it.
"She didn't even care that I was going to replace her," he joked with Malik. The second lieutenant politely laughed along with him, mostly giving me sympathetic looks. I only continued eating.
"You really should eat, sir," I spoke up at one point. "You've been eating sweets this entire week." He chuckled.
"You don't have to get upset with me, Hawkeye," he teasingly pouted at me. "You know I love you." It was that again after all.
"Sure, Colonel," I nodded, more interested in my food.
"I said I would try to lighten spirits!" he laughed at me, seeming to be a great mood himself. He turned to Payne, smiling.
"I love you, man." For a few moments I considered that he could be drunk, with all that talk about spirits, but I'd been with him all morning and no alcohol was present.
"Colonel?" Payne asked worriedly. "Are you feeling okay?" His only response was to laugh loudly, making me roll my eyes.
He is just joking around, I told myself. He would get bored with the whole game in a few days. I'd hoped it would be sooner than later.
But as the days dragged on, nothing seemed to change. He was persistent, I'll give him that. He would make sure to say it once at some point in the day, even if it was the last time we would be seeing each other.
The worst part wasn't that he insisted on saying it, but that when he got lazy, context went away. All he would say was 'I love you.' Notes on my desk, in the hallway, after I got him his coffee. I tolerated the joke, letting him know that I would try to brighten my mood. That seemed to satisfy his own attitude. At least it only had to happen once each day.
After a while, I went along with it, smiling at him so he would move onto Tomlinson or someone other than me.
"I think you're coming to resemble an obsessive schoolgirl, Colonel," I said to him at one point as I skimmed through a recent report about a serial killer. It didn't sound that serious, but he'd wanted me to look it over.
"Malik is in a great mood today because I bought him a fancy bottle of wine," he shrugged, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "I've succeed with one person, but I'd hardly call it obsessive," he spoke, waving it off. I chuckled.
"One person won't make you president." He looked back up at me, smiling as another dose of enthusiasm light up his face. He acted of I'd said something revolutionary. And to him, it probably was.
"You're right," he nodded, standing with a grin on his face. "Cancel all of my meetings today. I'm a man on a mission." I rolled my eyes, hearing the door open as I reached for the phone to call everyone who was scheduled that day.
He didn't return to the office at all, but I could hear his laugh from wherever he was in the building. Lunch rolled around, and I noticed he was with a very particularly large crowd of women. Styles spoke up.
"Doesn't look like he'll be getting any work done anytime soon," he chuckled, and I sighed.
"He has a meeting today with Lieutenant General Grumman that is too important to miss," I told them all.
"He probably thinks what he's doing is work. Calling it his presidental campaign and all," Payne breathed out. We all sighed, wondering when the Colonel would stop playing childish games as such.
As the clock hit the hour, signaling to get back to work, I made my way over to him.
"Colonel," I called, seeing him turn to me with raised eyebrows, some woman's hand on his chest.
"You have a meeting you'll be late for, sir." He sighed, briefly winking at the woman.
"I told you to cancel all of my meetings. Did you get distracted by something?" he asked, giving me an arrogant smirk, more than likely meaning himself.
"Jealously is your flaw, not mine," I spoke firmly but without venom. I knew he would never, but he could have reported me for unacceptable behavior if he'd really wanted to.
All he could do was stare at me, the ladies eyes around him doing the same.
"Sir," I saluted, walking out of the room quickly. I felt extremely frustrated, but it wasn't because he was skipping his duties. That was a daily routine. But it was the way he'd implied that I'd be distracted by such a childish thing. My job was my life. Nothing would come in between me and serving my superiors.
But hiding the fact that I was upset was harder than I thought it would be. Throughout the rest of the day, including the meeting that the Colonel eventually showed up to, I was trying to figure out why I was so unsettled.
Three hours before the end of the day, I left 'sick,' but that meant I would have to report it to the Colonel.
"You're not feeling well?" he inquired of me. I nodded. "You did seem distracted." I looked down at him, sitting there smugly in his chair. I wished he hadn't said that.
"Well, have a good rest of your day, Lieutenant," he told me nearly sincerely. I slammed the door so hard on my way out that I startled myself.
.
That day marked the end of the week, but starting off fresh did nothing for my mood. Over the next couple of working days, I realized the whole thing was infantile.
I got back to normal, and surprisingly, so did the Colonel. It was the norm that I would have to apologize if I'd done anything like that to him, but that time, he forgot about it almost immediately. But he stopped with the obnoxious 'love' jokes, as well.
So maybe the whole misunderstanding was for the best.
Most daily events returned to normal, and I didn't speak of the presidental promotion. Neither did any of the squad. We forgot about it like it was a bad dream, welcoming its disappearance silently but collectively.
We were disappointed quickly.
Not even a week later, I heard Styles groaning as he walked into the office.
"Something wrong?" I wondered, hoping no one had been murdered again.
"The Colonel's back to his nonsense again," he sighed, landing hard on his chair. I let out a sigh as well, but before I could even brace myself, Theo stalked into the room.
"Why should I have to follow your orders?" he yelled, and the Colonel followed behind him, closing the doors quietly.
"Make any more noise and you'll get both of us in trouble, Cadet," he glared, glancing at the two of us.
"If I want to do something that benefits myself and what I need to get done, why can't I if it's not hurting anyone?" Theo continued. I'd always admired him for following his dreams, but he did need to quiet down.
"Do whatever you want to. But don't blame me if you get yourself killed," the Colonel sighed, watching quietly as Theo threw open the doors and stalked out again. I stood to push the doors shut once more, giving a sympathetic look towards him.
"He's in a bad mood today," I spoke, wondering why he'd been so riled up. I'd let those thoughts distract me from remembering what the Colonel was up to again.
"Everyone is," he exhaled, but I saw him smirk at me from the corner of my eye. "You know I love you." I raised one eyebrow, shooting a look at Styles.
I looked right at him, trying to be annoyed and trying to be angry, but I knew he was really attempting to make us all cheer up.
So there I was once again, trying to control my laughter.
"Back to your presidental campaign again, sir?" I asked, and just as he was about to answer, the alarm rang out. Without even thinking, all of us began running towards the armory. That specific alarm meant everyone needed to be ready to be dispatched to handle a crime within the city.
The three of us - Malik, Payne, and Tomlinson quickly arriving behind us - gathered our weapons. I made sure I had my guns, and the Colonel was sliding on his gloves.
I took a little longer than usual, all the soldiers around us flooding out of the room. I finished, seeing the Colonel was still latching the locker shut.
"C'mon, we need to go," I called, waiting impatiently at the entrance. It wasn't like I wanted to hurry out and possibly kill someone, or something, but I was needed. We both were.
My impatience boiled into frustration as he uttered, "I love you," just loud enough for me to hear.
"Sir, now's not the time!" I exclaimed, walking back over to him and locking it for him. "Plus, you've already said it once today," I murmured, pushing the key back into his hand. I resumed walking to where we needed to be, knowing we'd be scolded for tardiness.
"For claiming the sight of a hawk, you sure are blind to what's right in front of you," he chuckled, smiling at me. I looked down at my gun, confused as to what he could possibly mean.
"Lieutenant," he spoke, stepping closer to me, not meeting my eyes. "That time I actually meant it." As he walked out into the brightness of day, it became clear to me, my finger already on the trigger of my gun.
Niall had been campaigning for more than president.
.
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thanks to Riva_TheVamps for requesting this! I'm so so sorry to everyone for the long wait! I'm back to daily (or close to daily) updates now that I'm not writing this monster lol
I love you all so much! I almost have 100K OMG THAT'S SO FREAKING AMAZING
THANK YOU SLFNSDLGJNDFL
Mel xx