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Theron has mostly finished going through the data, now he can sit back and let his mind wander while his programs sift through the information for anything overlooked. His mind decides to wander directly to Nine as it has done, again and again, for the last week.
He might be getting a bit obsessed... maybe.
After the pirate incident – as Theron has decided to call it, Nine changed. He is just as charming and flirty and subtly funny as before. But he seems almost approachable now when before his attitude signaled “Do not touch” whenever anyone got close. It hadn't been anything overt but the difference now makes it obvious. At least to Theron it is.
Thinking back on all the time they spent together so far, Theron hasn't seen anyone but the doctor, Lokin, lay as much as a finger on Nine except in fights. Not that there are many who could lay a hand on him in a fight either.
And then came the pirate incident and Theron ended up practically glued to Nine on his swoop as they left the pirate camp. His memory of the incident is a bit spotty but he remembers that part very, very well. He also remembers that he babbled. About Nine being
so
pretty. Mortifying.
Before Theron has time to dig into the mortifying details the deep purr of Nine's big swoop bike can suddenly be heard approaching. Theron flicks the security feed up on his implants and checks the cameras. Yep, there is Nine, approaching the safe house with the doctor in tow.
As he watches them park their swoops he notes that Nine's posture is slightly off.
The sight makes something in his stomach twist and he has already turned toward the entrance as they step in. Nine just nods at him in passing as he is herded to the crappy sofa by the doctor.
Doctor Lokin places his bag on the small table in front of the sofa as Nine makes a face at him and starts stripping out of his tac jacket. Theron doesn't quite know where to look, he might have dreamed of seeing Nine strip but not when hurt. When Nine lifts his black, short sleeved undershirt and his badly bruised back and side comes into view it feels like too much and Theron turns back to his screens. It must have been explosives, Nine looks like he had been thrown into a wall. Or through a wall.
He tries to tune out the quiet voices of Lokin and Nine as he busies himself with a new algorithm. The smell of kolto is harder to ignore but after a while it dissipates and the soft rustling noises behind him stop. Someone steps out again and the safe house is quiet.
Theron keeps himself occupied long enough to lose his sense of time. When he looks up again a few hours have passed. Theron stretches his stiff back and turns in his chair.
In front of him on the armrest of the sofa are Nine's overengineered black boots, crossed at the ankle. His eyes follow the long lines of Nines leather-clad legs up to his torso without conscious thought. The black shirt is back on and a pad is lying, screen down under his hand, on his chest. Nine is asleep, chest moving slowly with each breath. Under him a cold pack is peeking out between his upper body and the sofa cushions. He looks thinner out of his armored jacket and gear and his face looks much younger when relaxed in sleep. How old is he actually?
Theron has never seen Nine sleep before. He never thought he would.
To see Nine before him like that brings such a rush of emotions that they all but petrify Theron. It feels like his chest is getting crushed from the inside. He wants to kneel by the sofa and softly touch Nine so much that it hurts.
He wants to kiss Nine awake and see him smile. Slide his fingers through that non-military hairstyle and kiss him again. But he can't know if he is welcome, if the flirting is real interest and not just a tactic to keep him unbalanced.
Nine has to know how Theron feels after that swoop ride but how will Theron know what Nine feels. Should he just ask? And how can he trust the answer if he does? They are supposed to be enemies after all, this is just a truce. How can he feel like this for an enemy agent? He knows Nine has killed, stolen and betrayed for the Empire, he is one of their best, and despite it all Theron still wants him.
He longs to crawl up over Nine, slot himself in between those long legs and..... he doesn't even know what Nine would want him to do.
That thought alone would freeze him if he wasn't petrified already.
Cipher agents are infamous for their training. The lurid holos about it and about their honey traps are not real of course, but to even become a Cipher they need to be extremely good with all the tools of an agent. What would Nines actual tastes be after that kind of training and that kind of missions?
He might want things Theron never even heard of. Not that he is a virgin or anything, he just wasn't honeytrap material, never got the training (not that SIS training is even close to what little they know about the IMP INT version). Solid tech track and fighting has worked well for Theron so far, he never felt the lack before. He does now.
With a last look at the peacefully sleeping Cipher, Theron manages to quietly get up from his chair at last and sneaks for the exit and the bench outside. All other thoughts aside, suddenly waking someone with Nines training and reflexes up might end badly, even if it is done with a kiss.