A/N: A quick oneshot, dashed it off on the train this morning. (Will get back to the new WIP I'm working on shortly, I hope!) There are a few cliches in here, but damn it was fun to come up with. *G* Hope you guys enjoy!

Two's Company

by LillyPilly

Nate watched as Sophie sped up ahead of him as they rounded the corner, jogging the last few yards to meet Parker who was already waiting a little way down the richly carpeted hallway.

"You guys get the keycard?" the younger woman asked.

"You need to ask?" Sophie produced it from somewhere on her person -- considering the dress she was wearing, Nate wasn't going to even speculate where -- and handed it over.

As he joined the two of them, Parker looked around Sophie at him. "I could have got in without this, you know."

"I know. But this way's quicker, right?"

Muttering something under her breath, Parker knelt down before the impressive-looking security lock beside the door they wanted to get through. She had the bottom panel of the device open at once, and started doing something to the insides. "I mean Hardison could even have done it," she said, her words becoming clearer, yet still muffled around the keycard she was holding in her mouth.

"Hey," Hardison said, his voice sounding indignant over the earpiece Nate was, as always, wearing. "I can hear you, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Parker said, as if that was the whole point.

Over her head, Nate met Sophie's eyes and they shared an amused look.

There was a little spark from under the electronic keypad. Parker shut the panel and grabbed the card from between her lips to use it.

"Oh-oh-guys-guys!" Hardison said urgently, staying her hand. "Hold up, two guys -- security, looks like -- coming up the stairs, be there in like thirty seconds."

"We're not exactly supposed to be in this part of the house," Sophie pointed out needlessly.

Parker shrugged as she stood to face them. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Nate rolled his eyes, then cast his gaze quickly around and spotted their only option a few yards away down the opulent, if sparsely-furnished, corridor. "Parker, can you get out of sight?" She just looked at him. "Right. Well you can come and get me and Sophie when Hardison gives the all-clear." He grabbed Sophie's wrist and pulled her after him.

"And what are we -- oh." Sophie stopped as she caught on. She sighed. "Not exactly dignified."

He yanked open the door of the closet, quickly appraising the interior. Small, cluttered, but with enough room for the two of them to fit without too much trouble. "Jail," he said, stepping aside to let her get in first before following, "Is a lot less dignified."

"I wouldn't know, I've never been."

A second later Parker pushed the door fully closed, leaving them in complete darkness but for a sliver of light showing under the door. There was no handle on the inside of the door, Nate had checked for that as soon as he'd opened it. Essentially, they were stuck in there until Parker came back for them.

It was awkward for the first minute or so, as they arranged themselves more comfortably, murmuring apologies as they inevitably elbowed and stood on each other's feet, shuffling around amidst random items, a vacuum cleaner, a crate of something, other detritus stacked haphazardly on the floor of the closet. There were a couple of heavy garment bags hanging up, and these they pushed to either side to give them a little more standing room.

It wasn't bad, once they were organised, Sophie's arm brushing his as they stood side by side. They just had to wait.

"Parker?" he checked in.

"Shh. The guards are right underneath me," she whispered back, barely audible.

She was up somewhere out of sight, at least, he gathered. Beside him, Sophie heaved a quite pointed sigh.

"It won't be long," he said placatingly, keeping his own voice low.

"Uh, guys," Hardison said, "Okay, the two guards are like taking a coffee break or somethin' down at the end of the corridor. Just sit tight."

"Won't be long?" Sophie softly echoed his words, bumping her shoulder into his.

"Might have spoken too soon," he stage-whispered.

She sighed again, still keeping her voice low. "In prison there's usually at least room to sit down."

"Maybe in those cushy British prisons of yours," he joked. "Really, you've never spent a single day in jail?"

"I've certainly been arrested several times. But the officers involved were never very good on following through."

This, he knew quite well. From what he knew of her long, illustrious criminal record, most of the time she'd never even stuck around long enough for the handcuffs to come out, let alone for any charges to be filed. He turned his head to look at her, just seeing an outline of where her head was in the dark, really. "Can't blame a guy for trying," he murmured.

He felt, rather than saw, her turning to mirror his posture. "No, you get a gold star for effort, though." He could tell she was smiling, too, just from the sound of her voice, it was full of warmth, and he decided there were a lot worse places to spend a few minutes than stuck in a closet with Sophie.

Suddenly, she sucked in a startled breath, her whole body tensing up beside him.

"What?" he said.

"I just felt something move," she said. She jumped. "There, right by my foot!"

"Sh, hey, Sophie," he tried to remind her to keep it down, "There isn't anything --"

She yelped. "There it is again!"

And suddenly she was climbing past him to get to his other side, shoving him between her and whatever danger she had to be imagining on her side of the closet. He put up his arms to help her manoeuvre past, wincing as she trod on both his feet in quick succession.

"Nate!" she hissed, clutching his arm.

"What? I don't even -" He heard it this time, a tiny, faint scrabbling sound. Her hands tightened around his bicep. "Okay, so it's just a mouse or something. You know, we kind of need to keep it down."

"Yeah, you guys are being loud," Parker said. "I can hear you from out here."

"Y'all okay in there?" Hardison added.

While Nate resented the implication that the noise levels had anything to do with him, in this particular case, he decided not to point that out. The scrabbling came again, louder, and Sophie let out a squeak and all but climbed into his arms. He really did not need this right now. Especially not since she was gripping his shirt front so tightly it was threatening to cut off his airway. He pried her hand loose from his collar, and took a breath. "Cockroach, maybe?" he tried.

"Like that's any better?" she demanded shrilly. "Have to be one bloody big cockroach!"

"Guards," Hardison said. "You know, with the tasers and the night sticks?"

"Whatever it is, it can't hurt you," Nate said reasonably. Logic -- it was a last ditch attempt.

Her next words pretty much confirmed that reason was not going to cut it in this situation. "Nate," she said, her tone deadly serious, "If that thing runs up my leg, I am going to scream this whole place down."

There was a cough over the earpiece. Eliot, off in another part of the mansion, wasn't in a position to speak freely, but apparently wasn't able to stay out of the conversation any longer. "Do I need to come rescue you guys from the little mouse?" he muttered.

"Yes!" Sophie said. "Please do."

"No." His hands loosely framing Sophie as she stood tense and almost vibrating with barely controlled panic at his side, Nate turned and gripped her shoulders firmly. "Listen, just calm down," he began.

"You calm down."

"Right." He sighed. Nope, forget the authoritative thing, too, he thought.

This time, when he heard the scrabbling, it was right under their feet, and came accompanied by what might have been a small furry form brushing past his ankle. He gritted his teeth and didn't react. It wasn't pleasant, but he could live with it. Just so long as it didn't go near Sophie -- but the thought came too late.

Another rustling sound, and this time Sophie sucked in a deep breath, getting ready to make far more noise than they could possibly get away with making. He didn't think, he just clapped his hand over her mouth before she could let it out, his eyes had adjusted by now and he could just make out the features of her face enough to actually find her mouth to cover it without any trouble. Startled by the action, Sophie didn't scream, but she did grab his hand and pull it away from her face.

"I felt it," she hissed, "It was on my foot." She started trying to scramble past him again.

"Nate." Eliot's voice came quiet but with an urgent note of warning.

"Yeah," he acknowledged.

It was time for Plan B.

She was right there, squashed up against him voluntarily as she edged past him, and so it was easy. Where his hand had found its way easily enough, unerringly he covered her mouth again, only this time with his own. She made another startled noise at the contact, but a quieter one that turned into a gasp. With her lips parted in surprise he deepened the kiss, his hands coming up to cup her face, holding her gently in place. Frozen for the first few seconds, he soon felt her start to respond, and her hands loosened from the death grip she'd been maintaining on his suit jacket, in order to press a little closer.

He tried to think clinically about what he was doing. Professional, rational, like he would approach any required task while in the midst of a job. This wasn't romance, this was a strategy for getting Sophie out of her panicked state and, well, shutting her up basically. Nothing more. It had worked pretty well, too -- she was quiet, and fairly distracted, he thought. Which left him with the prospect of stopping, mission accomplished

The other option, of course, being... not stopping. Continuing, not because he needed to, but because while this might not have been about romance, that didn't mean it wasn't something else. And it really was something else, Nate thought, as Sophie sighed into his mouth and tilted her head. She was so warm and inviting against him -- why would he stop? Why would he ever stop?

He stopped.

He dropped his hands from her face and inched back, not even able to take a proper step away, but putting what distance between them he could in the confined space. Sophie -- all he knew of her reaction in the darkness was a few seconds later, when her hands fell away from his chest where they had been resting till then. It was never more apparent how much he relied on seeing her face, reading her expressive eyes in order to tell what she was thinking at any given moment.

There was a silence between them filled only by the sound of two people breathing.

"Well," she said. "Wow. That was low."

"Uh, yeah. Sorry." Except for the part where he wasn't.

"I mean, really low, Nate, even for you."

"Wait, what'd he do?" Hardison broke in. "Didn't quite catch it."

"Hardison, just focus on what Parker and Eliot are doing," Nate said. "We're fine in here for now."

"Oh, we are?" Sophie said.

"You are?" added Hardison.

"Yep." He possibly sounded more confident than he felt. There had been an odd note to Sophie's voice when she spoke. One he knew to be wary of.

"I suppose that's all right, then," she said lightly -- deceptively so.

"You have to admit, you were really freaking out," he got exactly this far through his explanation before she pounced.

Literally. Flung herself at him, arms around his neck, mouth plastered to his. The weight of her threw him off balance and he stumbled over the clutter at his feet, catching himself with a hand against the back corner. She pressed forward, pushing him into the side wall of the closet. One of the garment bags dislodged from its hangar and fell over their heads briefly before sliding to the floor. Unmindful of such petty distractions, Sophie seemed far more intent on driving him out of his mind with the heat of her mouth, the seductive slide of her tongue against his. This went way beyond what had just passed between them, this was a searing, deeply sensual kiss, the likes of which he suspected she might just have been saving up for him since the day they'd met. Certainly a thousand giant rats could have run past just then and he wouldn't have blinked an eye.

Yes, he'd suspected -- had seen it all there in her eyes a time or two -- the force of nature that was this woman in his arms. He held her close, pulled her closer still. It was all he could do just to keep up under the onslaught. Her hand slid down his chest, under his jacket, stealing around his side, her palm warm through his shirt. She moaned softly into his mouth, the sound of it turning his knees to jelly.

Altogether, it probably lasted a few minutes, no more, but it felt endless. Occasionally in the background, he heard one of the others saying something which, under the circumstances, he would have been hard-pressed to repeat back. None of it mattered in the moment. But all too soon the door to their dark little cavern of solitude was being flung open. The kiss ended abruptly, and Parker stood there as they were caught startled and squinting in the sudden light, still moulded to one side of the closet -- not to mention each other.

Parker stared at them impassively for a few seconds. "It's safe to come out," she said needlessly. "Hey, can I see the mouse?"

Nate cleared his throat. Sophie drew her hand out from where it had been teasing his waistband at the small of his back, and lay it flat on his chest.

"What's happening?" Hardison demanded. "Got a tight window here, people."

"Nate and Sophie are making out," Parker responded. "Think I should give them a minute?" She didn't blink at the two matching frowns suddenly aimed her way. "I could come back."

All that could be heard over the earpieces at that was a choked off laugh, quickly covered by coughing.

"No no," Sophie said hastily, pushing herself away from him and stepping out past Parker into the hall. "We're quite finished."

"We are? Right, we are." Giving himself a mental shake, he followed her out, though less gracefully. "So..."

"Well thank god we're out of there," Sophie said. "Thanks, Parker," she added, and then abruptly left them behind, heading back towards the main wing of the house. "Nate," she called over her shoulder, "We've been too long, we should be getting back. Parker can handle it from here."

Nate shut the closet door and looked at Parker, opening his mouth to ask. But Parker was already back over at the securely locked door, and she waved a hand at him. "Don't bug me, I'm working."

Both women were right -- Parker knew what she was doing. He left her doing her thing in order to hurry after Sophie. "Thank god we're out of there?" he quoted back at her as he fell into step beside her. "It wasn't that bad, was it?"

She cast him a look, her expression unreadable. "I don't do vermin."

"That's funny," Hardison began, laughter still thick in his voice, "Because -"

"Shut up Hardison," Nate cut the young man off, really not interested in whatever bad joke he was about to make. He took out his earpiece altogether, indicating for Sophie to do the same. She rolled her eyes but complied, and he took them both and shoved them in a pocket. "I actually wasn't talking about the mouse."

She raised one sleek eyebrow. "Weren't you?"

They walked on in silence for a minute or so. At one point Sophie hooked her hand around his elbow, and they nodded politely, playing their parts as they passed one of the other guests.

"So this is punishment for getting you stuck in a closet with a little pest problem," he guessed. No, not a guess, he knew it. She was flustered and covering for it by blaming him for everything.

They were almost back to the party now, plenty of people around, and Sophie hid her reply behind a hand. All he heard was something about cheap tricks and what did you expect?

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" he murmured, inclining his head towards hers while keeping his expression bland.

"Me! Who kissed who first?" she hissed back.

He frowned, confused, distracted, still more than a little stuck on those endless minutes in the closet when she'd been plastered against him, and now well on his way to irritated on top of everything. "So what you're saying is --"

Suddenly she rounded on him, stepped close and brushed up breathtakingly near for a moment just so that she could speak directly in his ear. "I'm saying, Nate," she breathed, while he stood very still and tried to remember what they were even talking about. "I'm saying, next time you want to get stuck in a closet with me? Make sure we're alone." Then she was swivelling away, and he only realised as she raised a hand to the side of her head that she'd lifted one of the earpieces from his pocket.

"Parker, are you in?" he heard her murmur once the piece was back in place.

"Alone?" he said to himself dryly, fishing the other earpiece out and giving it a hard look before discreetly positioning it back in his own ear. "When are we ever alone?"

He didn't need rodents, he had a team.

But he knew, smart, resourceful guy that he was, that somehow he'd manage it. After all, the kind of business they were in, there were any number of reasons why two people might end up hiding in a closet -- and he was nothing if not motivated to think of a few.

fin.