TWELVE




ASTRA HART'S confident persona had shamelessly faltered after walking up fifteen flights of stairs, "why the fuck didn't we get the lift?" She was practically doubled over in agony by that point, gasping for air couldn't save her now.

"You're the one that said you could walk up twenty flights, no trouble." He shrugged, "I told you not to."

That was true, but there was something in the way he'd said sure you can, like he was daring her which made her positively snap and rise to the challenge. "I blame you."

Why wasn't he tired yet? "Yeah, yeah. We're nearly at your apartment so quit complaining." If he were any other man, she would've made him carry her up the remaining three flights. But she couldn't be certain that he wouldn't drop her and leave the blonde dead at the bottom of the stairwell, so she held out for the final flights, collapsing onto the nearest chair the second she walked through the door.

"Oh," she said, swinging her head around from where she lay, "this is quite nice."

Morgan couldn't help but hum in agreement, it was nicer than his place, that was for sure. "Courtesy of the FBI."

"I'll send them a friendship bracelet, too." She huffed, "when I get around to making them, that is. Oh you know what, I've been meaning to ask."

She kept finding ways to pique his curiosity, walking over to the fridge, he urged her, "go on."

"Am I getting paid for this?" Derek Morgan let out the most obnoxious laugh that Astra had ever heard in twenty-two years of living. What a dick.

"No, obviously not."

She wanted to throw the vase next to her right at his stupidly smug face and kick him until he fell down, "so how am I meant to afford the materials for these bracelets? Oh! And I was planning on buying you all coffee every morning, how am I going to do that now?"

"Are you asking me to buy them for you?" He raised his brow, almost as if he was considering it, giving Astra a sliver of hope before crushing it to the ground. "Because I wouldn't hold your breath."

Astra's had slammed her head back into the sofa cushion in defeat as she let out a disappointed sigh, "I guess I'll have to steal then. . ."

His face was overcome by another smug grin, he just couldn't refrain himself from making the obvious comment, "wouldn't be the first time." Well, she had walked into that one on her own.

"Perceptive." She dropped the topic quickly she'd come back to it when he decided that he liked her, like most people ended up doing Astra Hart was ready to drift off into a restful sleep when her mind began to race, "are there cameras in here?"

Derek halted in his unpacking of the food shopping, the fridge dinging as if to tell him to say something. "Why would there be cameras?"

Astra was still looking around the room, squinting at every crevice to check for a flashing light, her hands fidgeting together Derek had begun to pick up on her anxious habits. "Because. . . So are there or not?"

"Obviously not?"

She needed to get a closer look at him, to make sure he wasn't lying. "And you're not lying to me?"

By the time he replied with an affirmed no, Astra was in his face, eyes meeting his ( though they began to drift around the room, an attempt to appear as though he too was searching for cameras, when he felt her gaze on him for a little too long ) like she was studying him, determining if he was trustworthy or not. With a nod of approval, she said one sentence that Derek Morgan was sure he would never forget. "I've never had an apartment without security cameras before."

He watched incredulously, entranced in her movements as the pretty blonde girl looked around the well-furnished room in awe, it's wooden furniture evoked a homely atmosphere, something she'd lived her entire life without. "Never?"

She hummed, "well, the Black Wolves always had cameras in every room I think there was one in the bathroom, but Enzo never admitted anything he wanted to watch me at all times, it was. . . Well, anyway." The way Enzo's name slipped from her tongue with such ease had her convinced that he really was the culprit behind the security cameras, like it was him, not Kai Walker, who surveilled her every move.

They fell into an uneasy silence, she'd noticed that he never quite knew what to say when she revealed something about her past, always contemplating whether to dig further or not. "And then my grandpa was a security freak, too, so there were cameras in most rooms growing up." She was still admiring the place, Morgan had never seen something so beautifully tragic. "This is weird, though. It feels too private."

In all due time, there would be no more uncomfortable silences between the two, but for now, the only words of comfort that Derek Morgan could muster were, "I can guarantee that no one will ever watch you again."

She laughed did she believe him or not? "how long are you staying for?"

"I'll leave whenever you want." He replied, doing his best to ignore the question tugging at the back of his mind. They weren't friends, far from it, so he had to refrain from asking. But alas, Derek Morgan was never good at denying himself of what he wanted. "You said you lived with your grandpa?"

"Oh are we sharing late night stories now? Alright then, I'll go first." She reacted unlike how Morgan expected. Not like he thought she'd kick and scream and throw him out, but he figured there would be something more hostile in her demeanour. Then again, this was their third ( did the interrogation count? ) conversation, what did he really know about her? Why exactly had he been so hostile in the first place? He truly had to stop psychoanalysing every person he met, it was becoming a habit he couldn't break.

"My parents died in a crash when I was younger," she admitted, in the same easy manner one would say their age and occupation. "So I went to live with him in LA until he got sick. But I told the DA all of this, surely they told you all, too?"

"They did." The girls grandpa was in critical condition but she was dead-set in her demands that he too, needed to be under government protection. The Black Wolves held him over Astra's head, the DA had informed them. "But I didn't know you lived together."

"I guess I refrained from telling them that," she'd completely forgotten everything she'd said in the last few days, if she was being honest. "Well then, you must know that's how they trapped me in their gang, right?"

"It was brave of you," he blurted out, dear god what was he saying? Joining a gang, brave? But there was just that look in her eyes that told him she wasn't lying, a look she'd only showed now a look that made him believe every word she said, stringing him along, forcing him to say something, even if he made a fool of himself. The look that, unbeknownst to him, Astra Hart had used countless times to get what she needed.

"Well that's a first," in her disbelief she let out a breathy laugh, "don't you hate me, Derek Morgan?"

"I dislike you," Morgan admitted, because there shouldn't be lies between co-workers, or whatever they were considered to be. "But you were what, seventeen?"

"Sixteen." Astra corrected, leaning back onto the arm of the sofa as Morgan sat on the seat across from her. Things were getting interesting, she thought.

"Okay, sixteen. And you did all of that for your family." It was admirable. Maybe not brave, he'd perhaps been too brazen in his words. But there was a certain admirability in the way Astra would ruin her life for someone she loved. The flicker of doubt in his mind sizzled out before he even knew it was dying. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

For the first time in their brief acquaintance, she was the one at a loss for words. "You may not like me, Morgan, and I don't like you." She affirmed, they would surely never be friends, "and you're still an asshole, but not as much of a dick as you initially seemed."

"Same goes for you, Astra Hart."

















authors note.
love a bit of progress

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