Season Content Notes: violence, sex (implied), knife play (implied)
Victor
Victor found Karen in the bedroom-turned-armory & surveillance center, checking over the weapons. They didn’t have a full load out, and they’d all done some field maintenance at the hotel. But time, tools, and a flat surface to work on meant they could do a better post-combat check.
Benj passed Victor on his way out. “Viewing station is set up. Gonna see if Leyla’s free to take a walk and get the camera’s set up.”
Victor nodded to the other man, glad that he’d have some actual privacy for this conversation. Familiar with Karen’s methods, he grabbed a gun from the ‘not checked yet’ line up on the bed, and carried it over to the dresser where she was working.
They worked together quietly for a few minutes, but for once the silence didn’t feel companionable, it felt wrong. But Victor didn’t know how to break it.
Karen
Karen was used to Victor working with her on maintanence. All the team were good with weapons, or they wouldn’t be /on/ the team. But Victor knew guns the way Karen knew knives. Friends, more than tools.
This time, though, Victor was acting weird. She couldn’t figure out what about it was wrong, but she felt it. Almost like a timeline that wasn’t lining up, but not… quite.
“Is something wrong, Victor?”
He sighed, and put the gun he was working on down. “Yeah, Karen. I messed up. Trying to figure out how to apologize.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know.”
Karen glared at the table, not sure what to say, but knowing that she was angry, that she was tired of no one explaining.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize until yesterday that…
He stopped, sighed. Karen twitched her shoulders and pulled out Nastasia’s mother’s knife. She wasn’t supposed to carve up the dresser, but she had grabbed some scrap wood out of the van she could play with.
“Karen, you were right about upstairs forcing Marcus to retire and breaking up the team. And as much as I love this team I was waiting for that day.”
Karen froze. It was a reaction she’d carefully trained into herself. When you use sharps, freezing is a much better reaction to be startled than anything else. She needed words, but she didn’t have them, didn’t know how to express the pain and confusion. But before she could, Victor kept talking.
“Honey, I’ve been waiting for them to break the team up, because the day they did it, I was going to ask you out.”
What!
She was so shocked it took Karen a minute to realize she hadn’t spoken outloud.
Victor was saying something, but she wasn’t really hearing him. The knifeblade bit into the wood creating resistance, slowing her thoughts down. The timeline formed almost without her thinking about it. If they hadn’t met Nastasia, if Victor was serious, if had been waiting, then it would have been at least another year or two before Marcus was forced intl retirement or a desk job, and…
“Why didn’t you say anything? I… I thought…”
“I heard. What you said yesterday,” Victor set down the gun he had been working on and Karen could hear him swallow. “Karen, I… ifi could go back and change it… I just… I didn’t think it would change anything. This team, it means so much to you. And as long as we were on the same team, the company’s rules meant we’d lose our jobs if we were anything but teammates and friends.
“And if… Karen it’s not… what if you had said no? What if my asking made you uncomfortable,a nd then you were stuck on the team with me? I didn’t… I didn’t want to ask when you wouldn’t feel free to walk away. That’s… I mean, people do that, but they’re generally shitty people.”
“Oh.”
Karen didn’t know what to think about that. Victor had been trying to protect her. Victor had hurt her trying to protect her. Victor /liked/ her. Victor, with his beautiful silence and his guns that played so well with her sharps, and his eyes that /saw/.
Victor liked her.
What did that mean? What now?
She looked down. As they often did, her hands had continued without her, carving away bits of the wood. This time the shape was beginning to look like a face…
“Nastasia…”
Victor chuckled. “Is the one who told me to stop being foolish and talk to you. That we’re both sotii and she’ll have a thousand nights with you, she was okay with my taking this night. If… if that’s something you’d want.”
Oh. Oh, this wasn’t… this was more. An invitation. But…
She looked up at him and his eyes… oh she could drown in his eyes. Usually she hated eyes, they told her too much, saw too much, exposed. But Victor’s eyes had always been comfortable. Had welcomed rather than intruding. Was this why?
“What do you want?”
“Just to have some time with you. However you want to spend it. Sit up late looking at stars? Just chill here taking care of weapons? Go to bed and get to know each other a bit more intimately?”
She didn’t drown in his eyes. She couldn’t. Not when they cradled her so gently.
“I’d like that. The bed, I mean.”
Victor grinned. For once she understood what people meant when they said someone’s face ‘lit up’.
Then he stopped, hunched in out himself and said, “Can I ah… ask a favor?”
“Yes…?”
“Would you… mind bringing your sharps?”
Karen blinked. Looked down at the knife in her hand. Looked up. Victor knew her. He knew she brought her sharps everywhere. So why… oh. Oooh.
To her surprise, she realized she was smiling. “Yeah. I can do that.”
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