december 23 - putting up the lights
1D fanfic/Salute Extra
Harry/Piper
*
"Ready to go, petal?"
Piper looked up from her computer with tired eyes, pushing her hair from her face was a lazy swipe of her hand. Harry was walking the last couple of feet toward her desk, looking like a fresh burst of sunshine to her overtired mind. He hadn't been working today, judging by the black jeans and red flannel shirt he was wearing under his wool coat. Her brain acknowledged that he looked good enough to eat but her tired body couldn't even manage a lazy smile.
"More than you'll ever know."
Harry gave her a simple grin as he crossed the distance between them and leaned over, his palms flat on her desk. He bent far enough that he could touch his lips to hers gently. "I'll drive you home. And feed you."
"Are you human?" Piper asked, nearly on the verge of tears because she was so exhausted. "Because I'm pretty sure you're an angel."
Harry rolled his eyes but his right cheek was dimpled with a sideways smile so Piper knew it was an endearing sort of eye-roll, not an irritated eye-roll. "You say the strangest things when you're tired."
"I think if we're being honest, I say —" she yawned loudly into her hand " — strange things all the time."
Harry was giving her that look, that fond sort of smile when he thought she was being cute. "Oh, my cuddly little bear," he said as he crossed around her desk and bent behind her, wrapping his arms over her shoulders in a backward hug. She leaned back, her head knocking against his shoulder, and let her eyes drift shut for a moment. She felt Harry ghosting his lips gently over her jaw and then he pressed his lips to the spot on her neck, just under her jaw, that always drove her wild. "I love it when you get like this, all sleepy and pliable. I just want to wrap you in blankets and hold you until you fall asleep."
Piper wasn't sure if he was joking but she jumped on the idea. "Please do," she said insistently as she spun her chair toward him, knocking him in the knees in her effort to mold herself to him. "Please do that right now."
Harry chuckled, letting one of his hands drop from around her shoulder to cup her cheek tenderly. He smiled brightly at her, his eyes crinkling a bit, the green of his irises almost grey in the washed out light of T branch. He leaned in to press his lips to hers so gently and so tenderly it almost felt like they weren't there at all, that she was imagining the whole thing. "Come on, sleepy head," he said as he took her chair in his hands and spun her so she was facing forward again. "Do all of that shit you have to do to power down and then let's get out of here."
Piper would have said something snarky about the power down process he was alluding to except that he had a point. She was totally paranoid about her computer (it was a computer scientist thing) and there was no way she was leaving for the night without securing it in at least five different ways. It did take a bit of time to get everything in place. Harry, to his credit, didn't say a word, just let her tired brain focus on the task at hand so she could get it done faster. He didn't need anything to distract himself. He just spent the five minutes it took to power down leaning against the desk in front of Piper's, arms crossed over his chest loosely, watching her closely. He seemed to like watching her work for whatever reason. She didn't mind. It was nice having him around no matter what he was doing.
"I think I'm almost done —"
Piper and Harry both looked up as someone came striding into T branch purposefully. The man was obviously a senior agent judging by the polished suit he was wearing. It took Piper a moment to recognize him as C's assistant. Something about this didn't feel good.
He scanned the room, looking at the faces of the few agents that were still kicking around and the one that was working night shift tonight. "Please don't be looking for me," Piper groaned under her breath. But of course, the man's face lit up the moment he laid eyes on Piper. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath, forcing herself to sit up straight and smile as the agent approached.
She shouldn't have been surprised that he greeted Harry first with a degree of surprise that she found offensive, as if he couldn't fathom what Harry would be doing in T branch. "Agent Styles," he called brightly, giving Harry a strange little bow.
"Agent Christoff," Harry said with a respectful nod.
Having gotten the important pleasantries out of the way, C's assistant turned to Piper with a sort of haggard expression. "Agent Stone, so glad you're still here." Nope, this seemed all wrong. This seemed like she was about to be asked to do something she didn't want to do. "You have a degree in engineering, don't you?"
"Um, yes."
"Does that happen to include any training in electrical engineering?"
Only a Masters degree but whatever. "Sure."
C's assistant sagged down a bit, relieved by this news. That only set Piper on edge more. "Good, good," he said as his frown turned up into a grin. A sly grin. Nope, she definitely didn't like this. "Then I have a job for you. It is of utmost importance," he added when he saw the rejection primed on her face, "and is essential to national security."
Great. How the fuck was she supposed to say no to that? "Alright, what is it that I have to do?"
*
"This was not what I was picturing when they said they needed a minor electrical problem fixed."
Piper was currently hanging by a harness from the side of Buckingham Palace — you heard that right, fucking Buckingham Palace — attempting to fix the Christmas light display on the building. The image was of snowflakes on a pink background and it was projected onto the front of the building. The problem, it seemed judging by Piper's cursory examination, was an error in the fuse box that was shorting the whole demonstration. Somehow she'd found herself hanging off the side of the building, her thighs aching from the stupid harness keeping her airborne.
"It'll make a great story," Harry called down to her. When she sent a withering glare in his direction, he gave her an innocent shrug. "How many people can say that they repelled down the face of Buckingham Palace to save Christmas?"
That actually made Piper smile and even though she was sort of petrified that she was hanging from a building by a glorified piece of string, she had to admit that this was a once in a lifetime experience. As in, she never wanted to do this again so this was going to be a once in a lifetime event. She certainly wasn't tired anymore.
She flipped open the fuse box on the wall and surveyed what she was working with. She flipped some switches back and forth to see if anything on the box was still working. When all the surveillance lights around the building went out, she figured that it was just the Christmas display not working. She flipped the switch back on before someone from the Queen's personal guard took her out for fucking with the lights.
"Shit," she muttered to herself, "I'm going to have to take this whole fucking thing apart."
"What was that, petal?" Harry called from above, his body hovering over the top of the building, his hands curving around the edge of the roof. He didn't seem phased at all by the fact that one slip and he would be tumbling right off the edge. Of course, he was harnessed in as well, his rope attached to a heavy metal loop on the roof just like hers was but he'd probably crack his skull hitting the side of the building if he did fall. She thought he could afford to look a little more concerned. As usual, he looked completely unruffled. Mr. Suave.
"Nothing, just —" she sighed heavily as she tried to stick her fingernail under the cover of the fuse box to try and pry it off " — if I knew they wanted me to do all this work, I would have brought along some tools."
"Can you use something else?" Harry asked, his voice getting a bit quieter as he shuffled back on his knees, searching through his pockets. "I've got my keys, or anything that's in my wallet —"
"Your transmitter!"
"My transmitter? Why would — oh, right, the case." His face appeared over the edge of the roof and then he said, "here petal, catch!"
She barely managed to get her hands coordinated in time to attempt to catch the transmitter as it fell down toward her. It ended up slipping right past her fumbling hands and hit her hard in the sternum, bouncing off. She just managed to snatch it before it went sailing to the ground. "What was that!" she snapped up at Harry as she tightened her grip firmly. "I could have dropped it! Then what would we have done?"
"Not sure," Harry shrugged.
"If Louis could see you right now, shrugging at the idea of your transmitter ending up smashed to bits, he'd kill you with his bare hands."
Harry scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. I'd like to see him try."
Piper dutifully ignored him because he was being a shit. Instead, she pulled out the various bits hidden within the phone case/swiss army knife until she found a blade. She jimmied it under the edge of the fuse box cover and managed to pry it off. She counted down to the right fuse, the one she suspected had blown, and stuck her fingers into the hole to attempt to pull out the cords.
"Careful," Harry warned from above her as he leaned out farther to supervise. "They might be live still."
"Who has the degree in electrical engineering here, huh?" Piper snapped at him, her eyes drifting up to narrow in his direction. "Or would you like to switch places? Because I'm perfectly fine with letting you hang here instead while I —" A zap of electricity stung her skin and jolted up her hand before she had a chance to pull it away with a hiss. "Oh, whoops. That is live." She could practically feel Harry's smug, satisfied I'm always right face. "Don't! Do not say anything."
"I didn't say a word," Harry called back and she could hear that smugness in his tone instead. Prick.
She flipped the main breakers that shut off all the power in the fuse box and then turned on the essential lights one switch at a time until only the blown fuse was left. With that done, she pulled out the cord she'd been fishing for earlier. Harry's phone case came in handy once more because there was a wire cutter that she used to strip the wire causing the trouble. "Toss me down one of the replacement fuses, would you?" she called up to Harry before tucking his transmitter down the front of her coat for safe keeping so she had two free hands.
"Incoming," Harry warned her, giving her time to free up her hands so she could catch it. She tore the plastic off and tossed it aside, hoping someone who worked for the building would clean it up in the morning. Working quickly, she cut off the blown fuse with the wire cutters and then spliced in the new fuse, manipulating the different wires.
"You know, this is sort of hot, petal." She glanced up briefly and saw that Harry was leaning over the roof edge once more. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively when he saw she was looking. "I never thought you'd be so... industrial. I'm finding it oddly attractive."
"Oh shut up," she snapped at him as she shoved the fuse back into place. "Stop distracting me."
Harry did his best to keep quiet but that stupid cheeky grin stayed on his face the entire time. Piper felt her neck getting hot and knew she must be blushing too. She attempted to threaten her hormones into submission before she got back up onto the roof or she'd never hear the end of it from Harry.
She fit the cover of the fuse box back in place and then flipped the switch experimentally. "Let there be light," she said as one by one, the Christmas light display began shining brightly, the snowflakes decorating the front of the building. She was practically blinded by it and shielded her eyes as she looked back up at Harry. "Pull me out of here before these snowflakes are permanently etched on my retina."
Harry took her rope in hand and began slowly pulling her back up as she placed her feet flat on the building and walked up the wall. It seemed effortless for him to support her body weight and she marvelled for a moment at how strong he really was. If he thought her tinkering with the electrical system was hot, it had nothing on how hot she thought he was when he was being all strong and masculine like this. Fuck, she was so hot for him.
He took her forearms in his hands, one by one, as she came even with the roof edge, and then he was helping her safely onto the surface. It felt nice to have her feet back on a flat surface but her legs were a little shaky from being suspended in that harness for so long. Harry seemed to sense it before she even said a word, circling his arm around her waist and walking with her toward where their lines were attached to the hooks in the roof.
"Good work petal. You've saved Christmas."
Piper scoffed. "I hardly think so."
Harry began to loosen the pieces of her harness, first at her waist and then at each thigh. She could only watch as he bent and shimmied the harness down her legs. When he ran his hands up her thighs, over her work trousers, she might have actually whimpered. "Um, your phone," she said as she fumbled for it down the front of her coat where she had stashed it. "Before I forget."
When Harry's hand brushed hers as he took it back, she felt a sting on her finger and yanked her hand back with a hiss. Harry immediately snatched it back, sensing something was wrong. As he forcefully unfurled her fingers, his eyes landed on the end of her forefinger on her right hand which was red hot and would probably be blistering in no time. "You burned yourself."
"It's not a big deal," she said with a shrug to cover up the fact that, now that she'd noticed it, it actually really fucking hurt.
"Petal," Harry cooed as he lifted her hand to examine it closer. "Let's get you home and I can take care of that for you." There was nothing in the world Piper wanted more. Harry being all doctor-y and first-aid savvy was really hot. "I'll kiss it better," he added as his head lowered close to hers. She gasped in a breath as his lips got closer until they were hovering just over hers. When he spoke, she could practically feel the vibrations on her skin. "I'll kiss it better all over."
"Then what are we waiting for?"