#Merry Christmas!!! 🎄❤⚔

[elizabeth-mitchells]

(i swear) i thought i dreamed her

Andromaquynh Secret Santa gift for @aw-hawkeye-no​ Merry Christmas!!! 🎄❤⚔

(you suggested AUs, "modern, fake dating," and i just ignored the comma and did both lol i really hope you like it!!)

and a lot of love to @thirst-teenth for organizing this event and just being great ❤

Do I know about "fashion stuff"? nope. Do I know about "CIA stuff"? not really. did i completely ignore both just to bring you fake dating fluff and humor, quynh bullying andy, and andy being a complete mess for her? absolutely!!! so here it goes

Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Words: 5975

“Did you hire me to play the part of your fucking bodyguard?”

“No… I’m a humble fashion designer, I’m not meant to know the very best secret agent the world has to offer... I hired you to play the part of my fucking wife.”

Quynh is an Intelligence agent suddenly on the receiving end of some serious threats that demand the presence of one particular special agent. Andy isn't thrilled to play bodyguard, but soon she will find out it might be the very best job of her entire life.

Most times, when Andy had to visit James Copley’s office, she found it amusing. She would tease him for the walls covered in what she called conspiracy theories, and she’d think he looked so small behind his big desk. This time, however, she found the space suffocating, and his presence was nothing short of annoying.

“I don’t work like this, Copley,” she shook her head at him, “I don’t work with Intelligence, I don’t do undercover missions, and especially, I don’t play bodyguard for the rich ones.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” he tried to insist. Copley was pretty much squirming in his seat. Andy was sitting on a chair on the other side of the desk, tense and angry, but she was as confident as he was uncomfortable. “Listen, Andy,” he tried again, “This is the kind of job you need after… you know. It’ll be good for you to stay out of high-risk missions for a while. And, anyway, it’s all I can get for you for the time being.”

She scowled at him, “Is it CIA?”

“Not exactly. Outside work. We call it freelance now.”

“Sure,” Andy rolled her eyes, “What exactly will it be then?”

“I think it’s best if she tells you in person,” Copley had the nerve to smile at her, as if Andy wasn’t going through one of the worst moments of her career and settling for a job she didn’t even want in the first place. Her frown must have conveyed that exact emotion, because the man in front of her had the decency to look a bit embarrassed, if only to cover his amusement. “She asked for you specifically.”

Andy frowned all the way back to her apartment, and her expression only eased when she settled down on her couch, ready to skim through the pages of her new employer’s file. However, she found herself completely engrossed in every bit of confidential information she managed to learn about Quynh. An agent of International Intelligence, linked to every major organization but not committed to any, with an interesting and impressive cover job as a fashion designer turned CEO of her own company with headquarters in Vietnam. The woman was a lethal weapon in designer clothes, designed by herself also, and just the thought of her threatened to drive Andy crazy. Thinking of how she could possibly hold a meeting with the head of the CIA right before a fashion show, and why exactly would she need Andy, a special agent with war experience who rarely wore clothes that weren’t some type of uniform.

Andy could admit she was intrigued by this job and maybe even Quynh in specific. What she wouldn’t ever admit to anybody, was the way that night her mind decided to craft a beautiful, breathtaking, completely unexpected, and detailed dream about Quynh.

--

Andy wasn’t nervous, she would have strongly denied that to anybody who asked. As she stood alone in the elevator that would take her to Quynh’s office at the top of a building that surveyed everything about the woman’s fashion company, Andy swore she was feeling just… uneasy. She wasn’t used to working without a team. She wasn’t used to working in any way that wasn’t direct action against a threat. Worst of all, Copley hadn’t explained much more to her before she left her office. The conversation she was about to have could change everything.

When Andy entered the office, she noticed two things. One, the space was beautiful, elegant, but surprisingly welcoming. Two, she was all alone.

“Hello?” she said, and cleared her throat.

Suddenly, a door at the side of the room opened and from it came out the most beautiful woman Andy had ever seen and wouldn’t admit to that very fact. Quynh was wearing a perfectly tailored white suit and she looked nothing short of magnificent.

“Welcome,” Quynh stepped forward and offered her hand in greeting, “Andromache, right?”

“You can call me Andy,” the taller woman replied, feeling a sense of pride at the way Quynh stared at their joined hands, held for a moment longer than necessary, and took a deep breath when she finally stepped back.

“Andromache, please sit.”

Although she did as asked, Andy had to hold back a frown. “What’s through there?” she nodded at the door from which the other woman had come out of.

“You’re not meant to know,” Quynh replied, sitting down on her own chair. She leaned in forward and rested her elbows on the desk in front of her, then rested her chin on her folded hands.

Andy met her eyes, dark and beautiful, and took a deep breath herself. “Okay. What sort of Intelligence you work for?” she asked.

“Also not meant to know.”

The answer made Andy grit her teeth, but she refused to look away from the other woman’s smug smile. “Fine. What’s my mission then?”

Quynh leaned back on her chest and smiled, “Your goal would be to fall madly in love with me.”

“Okay, you know what-”

“Hey, no, no, I’m sorry!” Quynh allowed herself one chuckle but then trained her face to seriousness when she noticed the other woman’s hand on the chair’s armrests, ready to flee the building. She stood up and walked around her desk to lean against it and stare at Andy. “I’m sorry. Listen, do you… did Copley tell you I asked for you specifically?” she tilted her head in wonder.

“Yes,” Andy nodded, and attempted to relax again on her seat, “Why is that?”

“Because I saw you in a dream,” Quynh grinned.

“Fucking…” Andy mumbled to herself and jumped out of her seat, determined to escape before she said something she could get in trouble for.

“Okay! No! Please… listen,” Quynh reached out and wrapped her fingers around Andy’s wrist, stopping her in place and soothing her temper. They were both standing up then, leaning against Quynh’s desk. Quynh took a deep breath, and talked to Andy with sincerity in her voice for what looked like the first time in the entire conversation. “I heard what happened to you. Betrayal. I can relate,” she met Andy’s eyes, and saw at once how guarded the other woman was, and how intently she was listening, “I got a death threat. A dozen of them, whatever. I believe it comes from someone in my inner circle. Someone that wants me to stop playing with the big names of the CIA and friends. But someone close enough to know where to follow me during my day job.”

When she was done, Quynh had allowed only a hint of fear to show on her eyes, but it had been enough to ease the tension from Andy’s shoulders. She knew, at once, that she couldn’t have refused the job, not even if she had actually wanted to say no.

“Did you hire me to play the part of your fucking bodyguard?” Andy said, calmly, amusement just barely there, but enough for Quynh to notice and relax too.

“No… I’m a humble fashion designer, I’m not meant to know the very best secret agent the world has to offer,” Quynh replied, sending a smile in Andy’s way. Then she sat down on one of the chairs on that side of the desk, nodding her head, inviting Andy to take the other chair. Quynh added, imitating Andy’s words back to her with a teasing grin she couldn’t hold back, “I hired you to play the part of my fucking wife.”

--

“Why can’t I wear my own suit?” Andy called out from inside the bathroom of Quynh’s bedroom. She had silently marveled at absolutely everything about the other woman’s home. Quynh didn’t hold back on elegance and comfort but, just as her office, it surprised Andy with how genuinely serene and practical most of it felt, nothing exaggerated but just a very beautiful place to live. Quynh might play the part of a wealthy CEO, and she might have more power than Andy could imagine, but she remained an intriguing woman.

“Because your suit makes you look like a waiter, Andromache!”

Quynh was also, by Andy’s standards, a little shit.

In response, Andy made it a point to kick the bathroom door. “I said you can call me Andy,” she grumbled, fixing the collar of the very expensive, very unique suit Quynh had chosen for her to wear to whatever event the woman was dragging her to as a grand introduction to the woman she had secretly married during a romantic spur of the moment kind of situation, as they would tell the press.

“You are playing the role of my wife, Andromache, you will have to wear the best of the best I’ve ever designed!”

Sighing in defeat, Andy walked out of the bathroom, feeling personally attacked by the number of buttons her shirt simply didn’t have for her to cover the better part of her torso. However, she stopped in her tracks, a victim of a much more aggressive attack, the sight of Quynh’s exposed back as the woman just finished pulling up her backless red dress. There was a tattoo there that all at once made Andy thankful for her mostly open shirt since she started to feel a little too warm in her clothes.

“Oh,” Quynh sighed when she turned around and stared at Andy. Andy, who made herself believe Quynh was looking her up and down so intently just because she was studying the clothes she had created and already knew perfectly, except for how well they’d fit a tall, irritable, professional, and unfairly gorgeous type of soldier with earnest green eyes that made Quynh feel just a little unsteady on her feet. “You look good,” she finally added, purposefully looking away, very professionally.

“You too,” Andy nodded, looking the opposite way, very seriously too.

It would have been easy for any kind of onlooker to determine that both women were thinking the exact same thing. This job would be entirely much more difficult than they had anticipated.

--

There was a red carpet and a small army of photographers ahead of them. The unfamiliar territory made Andy uneasy, that’s why she was standing so goddamned tense, and not at all for the way Quynh was holding her arm and standing so close, getting ready to step into the spotlight.

“Why a movie?” Andy whispered, genuinely curious and also trying to distract the other woman from the big event ahead of them.

Quynh sighed and turned to look at her with a smile, “I’m a woman of many talents.”

“You produced this?” Andy frowned.

“I did,” Quynh grinned, stood taller, and tugged Andy forward, “Now hush, we are about to go out. Look pretty for the cameras, alright? Do you think you can smile?”

“No.”

Her blunt answer made Quynh laugh wholeheartedly. The result was both women stepping on the red carpet smiling much more genuinely than they would have expected.

All things considered, Andy thought she did a decent enough job playing a fake wife. Although she also tried to play undercover bodyguard and kept an eye out for any remote threat to Quynh’s safety, she could hardly keep her eyes off her own fake wife. She listened intently when Quynh talked about her job, and she smiled when Quynh talked about them. It was difficult to complain about any of it when Quynh looked at her with that perfect smile of hers. She held Quynh’s hand as often as possible too, for safety reasons, obviously.

--

Back in Quynh’s apartment, as both women got ready to sleep, they reflected on the events of the night. The premiere of a movie was an event completely new and strange for Andy, who entertained herself by sharing a constant commentary about everything around her. The cameras captured about a dozen shots of Andy whispering in Quynh's ear, while she laughed happily at whatever the taller woman was criticizing. Even during the movie, they talked to each other enough to be shushed by a stranger halfway through.

Sitting on her bed, Quynh wanted to be embarrassed by how easily she had grown comfortable with Andy, of how much she had enjoyed a little company. But her thoughts were interrupted by the same women they were filled with. Andy came out of Quynh’s bathroom looking almost completely normal, with sweatpants, a t-shirt, and holding her suit folded on her hands, but there was a gun lying on top of the suit. The sight of it was an unpleasant reminder of the one and only reason Andy had been there with Quynh the entire night.

“That was a nice first date,” Quynh smirked, trying to shove down the feeling of disappointment upon remembering she was paying Andy for all of this.

“It was fun,” Andy replied softly, a little distracted by the sight of Quynh sitting on her bed, wearing silk pajamas, and her hair a little messy. The reminder that they had failed to discuss sleeping arrangements startled Andy like a bucket of cold water falling on top of her. “I’ll take the couch,” she blurted out.

“Are you sure?” Quynh sent a small frown her way.

Andy, already starting to walk away, granted her a smile, “Yes, your couch is unnecessarily large, it’s almost a bed for two.”

“Andromache, is that an invitation?”

“Uh,” Andy turned hastily away from Quynh’s teasing smile, making a beeline for the couch and stumbling a little on her way, enough to drop her gun and whisper “Fuck,” while the beautiful woman making a mess of her thoughts only laughed at her a short distance away.

--

Andy had traveled in the best and worst planes the world had to offer, anything to get to a mission, even if it was at the end of the world. That didn’t mean she liked planes though. The private plane flying Quynh, her fake wife, and her team overseas was impressive, but wasn’t the exception. And, apparently, Andy wasn’t the only one that disliked it.

After Andy took her time making sure the plane and its staff were completely safe, they were getting ready for taking off when Quynh stood in front of Andy’s seat, pointed at the window seat beside her, and asked, “Can I sit there?”

Andy looked at her very seriously for a moment that would have been longer if she wanted to tease the woman that had been teasing her nonstop since they first met but, she noticed the genuine and unusual apprehension in the other woman’s face.

“Haven’t we been married for a full week already?” she answered with a playful smirk, “You don’t have to ask.” She nodded to the place beside her in invitation. There was a part of Andy’s brain overthinking why Quynh, who had known her only a week, would sit beside her, instead of literally next to anybody else in the entire plane filled with people she knew and trusted and had worked with for years. A matter of safety, purely logical and professional reasons, Andy’s mind decided, shutting off the insistent little questions that her mind had about every little thing Quynh did. The problem was, now Quynh’s hand was gripping the armrest between them, and it took everything in Andy not to reach out to her.

“I hate planes,” Quynh confessed, breaking the silence, “I mean, I’m a little fascinated by them but, it just doesn’t feel right to be so far away from the ground, you know?”

“I know,” Andy replied, doing an almost inhumane effort to keep her voice steady even though the plane was starting to move, “If it were up to me we’d still travel on horses.”

That got her a laugh from Quynh. “Okay, that might be going too far,” Quynh said, meeting her eyes for the briefest of moments. She looked down at her lap quickly though, afraid that the other woman would be able to read in her eyes the answer to the question Quynh couldn’t stop asking herself, Why did she feel the need to sit beside Andy?

However, then the plane was leaving the ground behind, and Andy was as tense as Quynh, her chest tight and her logical thoughts nowhere to be found. She reached out in instinct and, without any of them acknowledging it, they held hands tightly the entire time until they were well past the worst of it.

The rest of the trip ended up being uneventful, technically, even if Andy’s heart got little to no rest. She got to witness Quynh glued to her laptop and talking to members of her team, as busy as if the whole world depended on her, and as confident as if she could fit all of it in the palm of her hand. If that wasn’t enough to make Andy’s chest tighten in a whole new way, then she got to watch the adorable way in which Quynh fell asleep for the second half of the trip. Nose wrinkled and little sighs escaping her now and then. The only thing Andy was sure of was that she was in some serious trouble if Quynh didn’t stop being so perfect at everything she did.

When they arrived at their destination, Andy was taken by surprise when Quynh approached her with a shy smile. “I’m sorry, I must be terrible company,” she said, looking up at Andy.

“Not at all,” the taller woman replied sincerely. She was delighted to see Quynh’s smile grow but, when she took a step forward to leave the plane, Andy had to reach out and carefully grab her wrist, stopping her. “I should go first,” she said as an explanation.

“But the cameras,” Quynh frowned, apparently an expert at walking down from planes while being a famous woman, because of fashion, surely not because of her involvement with the CIA and company.

“I always go first,” Andy insisted, but managed a reassuring smile, “for your safety.”

Quynh sighed, accepting the logic. But then, the least she could do was help a little. She reached out and stole Andy’s sunglasses from where they hung by the collar of her black t-shirt. Then she gently put them on Andy’s face, smiling at the result and holding back from moving Andy’s hair off her forehead. Except, she failed at holding back, and her fingers did brush Andy’s hair away, sending electricity up both their bodies.

“Okay,” Andy mumbled, turning away and putting all her effort in not shaking as she walked to the door of the plane, where she was ambushed by flashing lights. She scowled at them, and surveyed the scene, careless of how odd she might look up there, until she remembered she did this for Quynh’s safety. Quynh. Quynh, who had an image to keep. So, Andy turned around and offered her hand to her wife, putting on a smile for her. Quynh was surprised, but didn’t hesitate with the offer and, as she descended from the plane, her smile was more than a little effortless.

--

The next days passed by flying. They were in America, and Andy expected their days to be filled with all the interviews and movies and fashion shows that are included with one half of Quynh’s life. And they were, all of those things happened, but there was so much more too.

In the most random of moments, without consulting anyone but Andy, Quynh would pull the two of them into a different room of the hotel they had checked into, or into a fancy restaurant as often as into an unassuming cafe. There, men in suits would be waiting for them, with questions, answers, new instructions, orders, apologies, or gratitude and respect for whatever Quynh had succeeded at pulling off secretly and while keeping up a whole different life too. A few times, they were men that had actually given jobs to Andy before, even Copley showed up at one point. Once, it was a man Andy had fought against, and it wasn’t exactly the most comfortable meeting any of them had experienced in their lives.

Surprisingly, the other things were more difficult. It was Andy’s job to make sure that movies’ premiers were safe and that no one dangerous could sneak into one of Quynh’s fashion shows. The death threats continued to come just as often, and Andy was getting closer to figuring them out, but she wasn’t there yet. In the meantime, she had to dress up following Quynhs instructions, she had to hold her hand in public, and she didn’t have to put too much effort in smiling whenever their eyes met.

It was mesmerizing, to say the least, watching Quynh work. She was professional, and passionate, a little too honest, but fun and caring and charismatic. She was talented and challenging and so outstandingly beautiful that it was getting increasingly difficult for Andy to deny she may or may not have accidentally caught feelings for her. The soldier attempted to cope by reminding Quynh, at every chance she got, that she didn’t want to be there, hated the fancy clothes, the cameras, and the pretending. The problem was, not all of it was pretending, and the few times Quynh let a little bit of hurt show because of Andy’s words, then Andy had to pretend she didn’t notice it.

There were some things Andy genuinely didn’t notice though. She hadn’t yet learned to see past Quynh’s teasing and humor and find the sincerity hiding under the surface. She still called her Andromache, not so much because she had asked to be called Andy, but because it was an excuse to say her name, to watch her reaction, to be the only one who called her that. When they were in public she called her “wife” as often as possible, not to play some part for the cameras, just because she loved to watch Andy blush. Andy, who was supposed to be an intimidating special soldier but lighted up like a kid whenever Quynh surprised her with the best pastries each city had to offer. Andy was hilariously uncomfortable with the fancy clothes, and adorably clumsy when talking to Quynh’s acquaintances, it never failed to make Quynh’s eyes go soft with endearment. And Andy had no way of knowing some of her clothes were things Quynh had stayed up late to design especially thinking of her.

Two moments stood out from the rest. Two times both women got maddingly close to absolute honesty, to crossing a beautiful line they were both dying to cross but stupidly waiting for the other one to take the final step.

First, there was one special interview in Vietnamese where Quynh felt so comfortable it was a little too easy for her to let down her guard. The interviewer, unsurprisingly, asked her about her unexpected marriage and her mysterious wife. Quynh gave the usual, prepared answer but, with a little bit more prompting, she kept talking.

“What I love about her? Everything of course. Um, the unexpected things, mostly. She makes me laugh like nobody else, mostly without even trying, I just like making fun of her,” Quynh laughed, and her eyes moved around the room for a moment, searching. She found Andy’s face, mostly inexpressive at the moment but still breathtaking, and the language barrier was enough to kick down the last of Quynh’s hesitation. “There’s more too. There’s no one like her, really. She… she’s beautiful, intelligent, so thoughtful, and inspiring, and… she makes me feel safe.”

The interviewer then asked her what she’d like to say to her wife, but Quynh almost didn’t hear him. She was too preoccupied with sudden panic burning inside her because, right at the last sentence she spoke, she stared again at Andy’s face, no longer expressionless, but quite the opposite. Eyes big, lips slightly parted, too many emotions, too much understanding. Quynh wanted to scream at herself for not thinking about the chances that the world’s best special agent would obviously happen to be fluent in a dozen languages that happened to include Vietnamese.

“I’d want to tell her, um,” Quynh stuttered, looking for the right words, the perfect fake smile and laugh to hide behind, “that I don’t completely regret our marriage.” She chuckled along with the interviewer, she went on with the interview, and not once she dared to look back at Andy again.

Then there was the second big moment, save for a hundred little moments, when Andy and Quynh’s little act of pretending was almost brought to a sudden ending. It was a special night after an extremely long and busy day, not just for Quynh, but also Andy, who was closer than ever to uncovering the source threatening Quynh. The result was Andy looking about ten times more exhausted than Quynh had ever seen her, dragging her feet across the hotel suite with her hair messy and bags under her eyes.

“Andromache,” Quynh called her from her place already in bed, “We can share the bed, you know?” She suggested, willing her voice to remain steady even under the stare of Andy’s green eyes filled with surprise. “I can tell you’re exhausted,” she managed a chuckle to lighten the situation, downplay her suggestion, hide her hope, “It’s not a big deal, come on.”

To her surprise and delight, Andy nodded once. The taller woman walked to the bed and nearly let herself fall face first on it, groaning in pleasure at the comfort of the bed and making Quynh laugh adoringly.

They got comfortable in the bed that was luckily big enough to not make it too difficult to keep their distance from each other. Andy was pretty much asleep already, her eyes closed, her features relaxed, and the filter in her mind basically nonexistent. When Quynh wished her a good night, she simply blurted out, “This has been my favorite mission ever.”

Andy’s voice was slurred and deep with sleep, making Quynh’s heart flutter pleasantly. “Why?” she asked with a smile, staring at the gorgeous woman on the other side of the bed. There was a great spark of excitement, adrenaline, and expectation for whatever Andy’s answer might reveal. But she couldn’t deny a sense of comfort, and peace, that covered them both at the moment. Andy could fall asleep without saying anything else at all, and still, it would be a moment Quynh would treasure forever.

“You know, being-” Andy was interrupted by a yawn, which she took as an opportunity to turn around in bed, giving her back to Quynh and finding the courage to finish her sentence before falling asleep. “Pretending to be madly in love with you, that’s easy enough to accomplish.”

Andy was asleep before she got to hear Quynh whisper her name a few moments later. She didn’t say anything else, but just by the way she pronounced her name, so tenderly, adoringly, softly, it would have been enough for anyone to figure out what her real feelings were.

--

Andy hated London. She’d had mostly bad experiences there and still, her dislike for the city was far from her biggest problems at the moment. She was backstage on one of Quynh’s fashion shows and she was scowling at everyone that dared look her way. Quynh was busy, and the models demanded a lot of her time, and Andy, who was totally not jealous of the way that a young and beautiful Nile Freeman who would be the star of the evening stole Quynh’s attention, was getting restless.

It was nearly time to begin the show when Andy managed to drag Quynh to an empty hallway and whisper, with possibly too much force, “We have a problem.”

“Yeah, she’s tall and pretty but she’s been scaring my models with her angry frown.”

In response, the aforementioned frown on Andy’s face deepened. “I told you. I’m almost there with figuring out who’s after you. If something happens tonight, which might happen, I’ll know for sure.”

“Well… great. Can I go now?”

“Quynh,” Andy insisted, “I mean it. Tonight’s dangerous.”

“There have been death threats on almost every city, tonight’s not different,” Quynh sighed gravely, didn’t roll her eyes, but her expression of boredom was enough to set off Andy’s temper.

Worst of all, Quynh tried to step away, which prompted Andy to reach out and hold her wrist to stop her. “I’m saying, I’m not letting you go out there,” Andy said with finality. She was still gentle as always, but there was a new urgency in her hold, it was just proof of Andy’s genuine worry but, at the moment, to Quynh, it looked just a little too aggressive. She frowned when she looked up at Andy.

“You cannot decide that for me, Andromache,” Quynh seethed, “You’re here to protect me if something goes wrong, and I expect you’ll do your job correctly. That’s it, that’s the only reason you’re here, and not to tell me what to do.”

After a short moment that felt like an eternity, Andy replied coldly, “You’re right. That’s the only reason I’m here. Just doing my job.”

It wasn’t until somebody else walked into the hallway to let Quynh know it was time to go, that both women realized how close they had been standing, how hard they were both breathing, how badly they had just hurt each other. Quynh glanced at her assistant and nodded, then she turned back quickly to look at Andy, an apology on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t get a chance. Andy had a perfectly cold expression on her face, the worst part being the fake smile on her lips.

“Good luck,” Andy whispered to her, then leaned in and kissed Quynh’s cheek. It was, by far, the worst thing she could have done to her right then. It was the first time she did it, and the fact that the small kiss was so cold, almost carrying venom with it, it broke Quynh’s heart more than she could have put into words.

Quynh had to leave Andy there, and she had to pretend she wasn’t on the verge of tears as the show started. It proved to be a good enough distraction, but it never quite took her mind off the hurt in Andy’s precious green eyes when she had brought up the purely-work-related argument on their discussion. Quynh thought it couldn’t have been worse, and then came the ending of the show. There she was standing alone on the runway, the models walking away, she was trying to smile for the cameras while the seat reserved for her wife on the first row was devastatingly empty. Andy had left, Quynh blamed herself and, for an instant, she didn’t think it could get worse.

Maybe it was the light, maybe there were tears in her eyes, but everything was a little bit blurry, and Quynh was completely caught off guard when a strong arm came around her shoulders, quickly pushed her down and away from where she had been standing. Then, there were shots. Quickly, one after another, loud, frightening. People started screaming, jumping out of their seats, and running, it was all chaos. However, from her safe place on the floor of the runaway and out of danger, Quynh couldn’t focus on any of it. How could she, when standing in front of her was Andy in all her glory, still holding a gun and staring a little too proudly at the lifeless body of the person that had been hired to kill Quynh, hired by someone Andy had already tracked down and ordered to take down while this all played out.

“Let’s go,” Andy said, offering her hand out to Quynh, and it all felt a little like a familiar dream.

The world was still going mad around them, but once again Andy was able to hold her hand firmly and pull her away from it all, pull her right back to the empty hallway where they almost broke each other’s hearts beyond mending. As soon as they were safe and alone, Quynh threw her arms around Andy, who eagerly reciprocated, holding her as closely as possible.

“I’m sorry,” Quynh mumbled again and again against Andy’s neck until they finally pulled back enough to look at each other like they were dying to do. Quynh still looked worried, but Andy’s face was a perfect reflection of joy.

“Don’t be,” Andy answered softly, daring to touch Quynh again, this time, placing her hand delicately against her cheek, and smiling when she felt the shorter woman lean into her touch. “We got him. Everything is fine now. You’re safe.”

Quynh sighed, “I said some things I regret.”

“It’s okay,” Andy promised, “I was paranoid, and overprotective. I’ve lost people I care about during missions before, but I can’t lose you…”

The earnest look in Andy’s eyes, her sweet words, her tender touch, it was all too much. Quynh didn’t trust words to express what she was feeling for the incredible woman standing right in front of her. As naturally as if she had done it for years and years, she leaned in, and she kissed Andromache, pouring all her feelings, everything she had been holding back for weeks, into that kiss.

Andy kissed her back with matching emotions, and when she pulled back, a small sigh escaped her. She glanced quickly at the chaos still going on beyond the end of the hallway and promptly ignored it all. She rested her forehead against Quynh’s and whispered, “There’s no one watching.” There was no need to act, to pretend, to do anything, or be anything beyond their truest selves.

“I know,” was all Quynh answered before pulling Andy down for another kiss.

--

After all the acting and all the pretending was done, letting down their guard and being honest with each other came really easily for Andy and Quynh. After her safety was restored, Quynh decided to take a small break. One of her jobs, under the spotlight, often required small breaks in some beautiful place. Her other job, under the weight of the entire world, often required her to maybe disappear for a little while. That’s how she found herself in a remote place, in a mostly isolated charming little house, sharing her bed, her life, and her heart, with Andy. They were starting to lose count of the days, just focused on enjoying and getting to know each other.

They were in bed, sitting side by side, their arms intertwined. Andy was finishing off whatever dessert she had brought from the kitchen back to bed with her. Quynh was teasing her for her sweet-tooth, complaining about leaving crumbs on their bed, and leaving little kisses on Andy’s shoulder.

After a while of silently holding each other, Andy broke the silence, humor obvious in her tone as she asked, “So, do I get to keep the job?”

Quynh laughed wholeheartedly and cuddled even closer. “My heart, I am not paying you for this,” she answered.

“Why not?” Andy scoffed, bringing them both to laughs, that eventually turned into kisses, that they wished would never stop.

Eventually though, Quynh pulled back, she looked lovingly at Andy and smiled. “Andromache, I did dream of you,” she confessed, “The day we met, I said-”

Andy couldn’t help but interrupt her with a kiss. She meant to say I know, I was there, I had the same dream, I was yours since before we met, I’ll be yours forever. She might say the words someday, but for the moment, she kissed her. She might confess she looked forward to maybe calling Quynh her wife again some day soon, for real, but, for the moment, she kissed Quynh with all the love she had in her, all the love she had for her.