Work Text:
Bloody hungries. Bloody snow. Bloody New Year's Eve. Bloody Reno.
"Elena, report."
Eight days of no contact and Tseng's voice is clipped and businesslike in her comms earpiece. Her heart aches. The soldier's gunshot is still flaring in her ears.
"False alarm." She's breathless. Snow is melting an icy trail down her back. "It was just a hungry. A baby, probably got dropped into the trees by another monster."
She touches a careful finger to her throbbing bottom lip. The little bastard drew blood after plummeting down on top of her. It’s now snuggling against her red bomber jacket as she cradles it in one arm, giving every impression of being a cute, turquoise fluff-ball.
"Good thing too," Reno's voice comes over the comms, smug and loose with alcohol. The sound of party chatter drifts from the background. "Tseng's got his hands full in all the right ways up here."
Elena doesn't want to think about what he means by that, but she finds herself turning to look up at the lodge's long, curved windows all the same. The warm glow is spilling out onto the snow below. Tseng isn't there. Something sinks, she doesn't know why; he'll be inside close to Rufus after the security alert. That's his job.
But it still hurts. Eight days away in New Mideel and it feels like he gets to be close to everyone except her.
"Piss off, Reno," she mumbles. It doesn't escape her notice that Tseng hasn't offered Reno any chastising remarks in response. Probably because his hands are full elsewhere.
Warmth, chatter and music wash into her as she steps inside the lodge. Perfume and the scent of alcohol linger in the air. Elena stamps her snow-caked boots on the mat, skin burning, lip throbbing.
She crosses the abandoned reception area, her attention drawn to the open double doors of the event room where Rufus is hosting his New Year's party. Her eyes scan the guests before she can stop herself but she wills her legs to keep moving towards the bathroom along the adjoining corridor. Maybe she's just too used to always seeking him out in a crowd.
And a little too good at finding him.
She stops like she's forgotten how to move. Tseng is staring back at her from almost dead opposite and it takes her a heartbeat to realise that she's looking at him over a woman's bare shoulder. He's got one hand around her waist, hers on his shoulder, their other hands clasped together as they move rhythmically—intimately—to the slow, undulating bass.
His partner turns her head, probably aware that his attention is elsewhere. She glances at Elena for a moment, eyes narrow, the corner of her mouth pulling into a smirk before she faces forward again. She leans into Tseng as if to whisper in his ear, her lovely, perfect Wutaian cheek pressing against his.
The ache in Elena's heart flares harder. She bites her lip and tastes blood.
Her feet are moving once more. It's best she heads for the bathroom before she does something she regrets. Like proving how the ability to break a person's neck with your bare hands is much sexier than porcelain-doll beauty.
The silence in her earpiece is deafening.
It's nearly five minutes before the bathroom door opens and Tseng slips inside. Four minutes and thirty seconds too long.
Elena's eyes slide towards the door and back to her reflection in the mirror. She won’t give him the satisfaction of looking at him so she focuses on dabbing at her swelling lip with her thumb. He's looking at her, unmoving, and she's aware that she's smearing blood around more than getting rid of it.
"Let me." He's close all of a sudden, his fingertips light on the back of her hand. His touch sends things, electric things, coursing through her. Damn him.
"Haven't you got somewhere else to be?" It comes out harshly but she's done trying to hide her feelings. His fingertip touch on her hand turns into a firm grip.
"You weren't supposed to be on shift tonight." Yes, well, that would teach her to make and lose stupid bets with Reno. A twinge of guilt snatches at her.
She sighs and lets her arm go limp in his grip. "I know, I should've known better."
Tseng hums in agreement, a warm and soft sound that makes her want to hold him close after so much time apart.
"I was worried when I heard the gunshot." Elena looks at him properly for the first time. His usual mask is gone.
She isn't sure where it comes from but she can't stop herself. "So worried that you—how did Reno put it? Had your 'hands full' with that smug princess?"
Jealousy isn't attractive but she needs him to know how much it hurt. She needs to know he's missed her as much as she's missed him.
Tseng twists to pull a paper towel out from the nearby dispenser. He folds it and runs it under the tap.
"She's not a princess." He takes her chin in one hand and turns her head towards him. Elena tries to jerk away but he holds her fast. She tries to glare an answer out of him but his eyes are focused on her lip. He dabs gently at the wound and she supposes it's soothing. "She's a potential investor."
Heat prickles in Elena's cheeks. So that was it.
"She might as well be a princess for all the red carpet Rufus will roll out, then," she says, not quite managing to get her mouth around a direct apology.
Tseng drops the now bloody paper towel into the sink and takes hold of Elena's shoulder, not letting go of her chin. He tilts his forehead down to meet hers, fingers caressing her cheek and into her damp hair.
"Your jealousy is wasted on her."
A smile pulls at Elena's mouth and makes her hiss as it tugs on her lip. "Prove it."
She closes her eyes as Tseng's breath catches against her lips.
A bump at the door sends them springing apart. Another stolen moment they couldn't quite catch.
"G'night gorgeous," Reno slurs a sloppy salute to Elena as he drifts down the last few steps leading from the lodge. Most of the guests—mostly couples—have already left in nauseatingly cheerful dribs and drabs following Rufus' predictably over-the-top fireworks display.
She raises a hand to flash him the middle finger and realises only then that her fists are tight. What if Tseng has already left too? But she would've noticed, she's been freezing her butt off out here half the night, pretending her reasons for scrutinising every soul that comes and goes from the lodge are entirely professional.
A short and sharp vibration against her side makes her jump.
Tseng. Meet me upstairs.
Elena looks up at the lodge, eyes scanning along the decking outside but it looks deserted.
She heads for the main door when she reaches the top of the stairs but the sound of hard-soled shoes chafing on wood catches her attention. Someone clears their throat, a low, masculine sound that pricks the hairs on the back of her neck.
He's leaning on one hip against the railings, arms folded across his chest.
"Tseng?" Her smile feels too wide but she can't help herself. He's smiling back, mostly in his eyes, the warm glow from the windows accenting his jaw.
It's only when he reaches towards the railings that she notices two glasses of what looks like champagne. He steps closer and passes her one.
"Happy New Year, Elena," he says, clinking his glass against hers and taking a satisfied sip. "I missed you. A lot."
The chill of the champagne does nothing to take the heat that's building in her.
Elena swallows a sip. "Really," she says. It's an invitation, not a question, and she can tell he understands by the way his eyes linger on her as he sets his glass aside. He moves closer still, pausing to brush a tuft of turquoise fur from her sleeve with a frown. Her mouth twists as she suppresses a smirk.
He tilts her face upwards with a finger under her chin. "Yes. Really."
Her back bumps against the wall of the lodge as Tseng's lips finally close over hers, warm and hungry with pent-up desire. Her arms find their way around his neck, her glass still in hand.
A scream, shrill and female, emanating somewhere from the direction of the guest lodgings, breaks the moment. Tseng is suddenly on alert, his muscles tensing beneath Elena's fingers.
She can't hold back anymore and an inelegant snort escapes her.
Tseng raises an eyebrow and considers her carefully, one hand still on her waist.
"Ifrit's burning tits, that hungry from earlier escaped into the guest lodgings," Reno's voice flares over their earpieces. "I doubt that Lau woman will be investing now after it's chosen her bed for a nest. Effing priceless!"
Neither of them say a word. Elena can feel herself starting to shake as she tries to squash down a laugh. She loves it when a plan comes together.
Tseng's eyebrow lifts impossibly higher. "You didn't?"
Elena shrugs and pulls him closer, her lips stopping millimetres from his. "I missed you too."