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The worst thing about Nahla Ake was that she knew exactly what she was doing to him. Zeeren reflected on this, as he watched his fellow chancellor languidly stretch out on his couch. Legs thrown over the back, arms stretched out beyond her head, a puff of unbrushed blonde hair haloing her. She looked more comfortable in his office than he ever had. As he busied himself pouring tea, she arched her back just a little bit and leaned into her stretch with a hum of contentment. Like she couldn't imagine a place she would rather be. It was decadent in a way that his austere ready room rarely experienced outside of splurges in fancy tea leaves and he was quietly enjoying it.
He knew that she had left the ball in his court. If he asked her to stop, she would stop. If he completely ignored her, she would stop. He knew and trusted this. After their talk in the turbolift about the Kometa Fish Incident, they had both made an effort to get to know each other and establish a working relationship that was based on respect, not rivalry. Their personal quirks tended towards the exact opposite of each other, but they had found ways to be colleagues and then friends, even with that fact. When he wasn't in the mood for her games or borderline flirting, she would stop pushing and get down to business. When she needed to be close to someone to ground herself, he would stand closer than was his usual habit. Towards the end of the year, he had even been experimenting with being the first one to reach out.
The thing about getting to know someone so well was that he also knew that they were both acutely aware of how things had been changing between them, and not just in the way they had intended. It had been a month since they had seen each other. She had spent the end of summer break on Bajor, visiting her friends and young students, while he had been on a training mission with a group of third year cadets. They had both made excuses why they absolutely needed to check in with each other. Every other night to start with. Questions about the upcoming school year, debates about space allocation. Little things that could have waited. By the end of the month they were on holo every night. Not only talking about the schools, but about everything else. Zeeren's problems with a particularly explosive pair of cadets. Nahla's musings on the difference between tiny children and the young adults she was now responsible for.
It was fascinating how much you could find yourself missing a person you had disliked so very much at this time last year.
He knew if he kept making tea and not acknowledging her, she would stop making semi indecent stretching noises and they could get on with planning schedules for the upcoming school year. That’s what he should do. But it felt so good to just be existing in the same place as her. No holo static breaking up her form, no unseen interruptions from the other side calling her away for ice cream or him away for work. Just the two of them, relaxing before the inevitable chaos of the school year.
So he looked up at her, just a little. Nothing too obvious. Regarding her through his lashes while his hands went through their practiced motions. Watching the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed into her stretch, the taughtness of her stomach under her shirt. Enjoying the line of her legs as she pointed her toes and then flexed them. Letting his eyes trace up her body, lingering on that arched back and the hand that brushed her hair away from her neck. He didn’t lock eyes with her. That would have been a step too far in this game of theirs. An acknowledgement that the game was even happening.
When he felt her eyes on him, he looked back down at the now-ready tea, pretending to be absorbed in not spilling a drop as he walked their cups over. If he let his leg brush against her as he leaned over to hand her mug, that couldn’t be helped. If his hand lingered against hers, he was just making sure that she didn't lose her grip on the mug that she was now holding directly above her head.
And if, when he sat down, it was precisely the point where she could swing her legs down and rest them on his lap, well. Stranger things had happened.
He cradled his own mug in his hands, closing his eyes and breathing in the aroma. As he took his first sip, he heard her shift and then felt the gentle pressure of her legs on his lap.
He opened his eyes to find her looking straight at him, a soft smile playing across her lips and her eyes. “I loved being back on Bajor, but it’s so nice to be home.”
He let the hand that wasn’t holding his mug rest on her ankle, just where the silky fabric of her pantleg ended, “I was just thinking the same thing.”
They both knew they weren’t talking about the campus, but there would be plenty of time to figure out exactly what that meant. Right now, it was enough to exist in the exquisite and infinite possibilities at the start of this new school year, and this new relationship. He took another sip of his tea as she drank deeply from hers, their smiles hidden behind their mugs, but their eyes firmly locked together.