Work Text:
The first rays of the morning sun were already seeping through the blinds of the finance department office and Brienne and Jaime can only look at Pia, as the frantic team lead gathers her things. After fourteen hours of working, Pia can now finally go home, while the two assistant managers looking on still have to stay and finish up uploads and emailing of files to Essossi clients.
"I am so so sorry, guys," Pia mutters while looking at the tiny mirror on her desk and frowning at the dark circles under her eyes. "I can't wait for you to finish uploading before I go. My kid's graduation pictorial is at eight and..."
"Go home, Pia. It's not as if this is the first month-end close we're left here," Brienne reassures the obviously guilty single mother before going back to typing.
"I know. But still..."
Still... This is the first one you'd be left alone together after that night you two drunkenly snogged the hell out of each other in front of the finance team. Brienne knew these were Pia's unspoken words. Fortunately, the woman left them unspoken.
"I-I would've stayed and made you coffee if it weren't for my... I mean, you guys have been here since 7 am yesterday." Pia alternately looked at her and Jaime, who sat on the other side of Pia's desk.
7 am yesterday till half past six today, and we haven't spoken a word to each other.
Brienne pretends to look back at Pia, but really, she just wants to steal another glance at Jaime. Her heart jumps up to her throat when Jaime's green eyes caught her own.
"Just go." Jaime's voice sounds more firm than Brienne had managed. He'd talking to Pia but his eyes holds Brienne's stare. "The rest of the team did leave as soon as they finished too. It just so happens we're not done here yet."
Pia doesn't have to be told again, and leaves her colleagues to their remaining tasks. And their staring competition.
Brienne obviously loses.
"Jaime, I've seen your confirmation email to Jorah earlier," Brienne says as soon as the sound of Pia's heels are completely gone. "Your job here is done. You should head home too."
"And risk you dozing off while still at work?" he replied, flashing a smirk just before looking back to his laptop with a yawn.
"Really? I'm not the one about to split my mouth from yawning. Besides, even if I do fall asleep, the upload will finish by itself. The only reason I can't leave yet is because I need to shut down everything after."
He shrugs.
So this is how it goes. We'll pretend we're back to bickering as if that night didn't happen?
Brienne notices how exhausted Jaime looked. His hair is slightly askew from constant scratching (a weird habit he does whenever they had to have all-nighters), necktie completely discarded and first two shirt buttons undone, giving her a peek of his muscled chest. The tired look isn't enough to make him look any less delectable to her, though. In fact, it's the only thing that keeps her alert now, what with her heart beating like crazy every time he caught her eye in the last two hours and unknowingly showed off that patch of skin.
No wonder I gave in to stupid urges that night even with only a few drinks.
Before he could catch her stealing glances, she picks up her phone and turns on some random music from her phone. She then checks the progress of her upload. 70 percent. She'll have to wait for about another half hour.
"At this rate, I'll be too tired to immediately fall asleep, Tarth," Jaime speaks again, as nonchalant as he could pretend to be. He doesn't bother with the pretense for long, though, since he wheels his chair to the small space by Brienne's desk. When he gets near, he looks at her laptop to check the upload progress then sits down. "Besides, when have I ever let you stay here alone when the guard on duty is that Giantpain-in-the-ass?"
Oh, that's why he's staying?
"Tormund, Lannister. His name is Tormund."
"Yuck, don't say our names in the same sentence, Brienne."
She glares at him, ready to call him out for the rudeness but before she could speak, she realizes how close he'd sat himself next to her, left arm slung on her backrest and right hand fiddling with her phone.
Although she wants to move her seat away, he's holding on quite firmly to her chair, while his other hand keeps clicking "Next" on her music player until it stops on that one song she had once prayed she'd never have to hear while he's around. He looks a little surprised when he hears the intro.
Seven help her, she can never not sing with the stupid song.
I know I stand in line
Until you think you have the time
To spend an evening with me...
She bites her cheeks to stop herself from singing along.
And if we go some place to dance
I know that there's a chance
You won't be leaving with me
Ironically, it isn't her who sings that entire verse.
Jaime does.
Gods, she never knew his sexy speaking voice extended to a core-melting singing voice.
He pauses the song.
"This song played that night," he murmured, green eyes once again commanding her blue not to look away. "In the cab. When I went home. Alone."
Brienne swallows hard. "Well, would you have rather gone home with... Uhm, not alone?"
Even the notion of him wanting to take her home with him that night feels too ridiculous to speak of.
"I'd rather have not gone home at all. Or gone someplace else where the Sinatras wouldn't be singing as if they'd foreseen the events of that night."
"We were drunk," is all she manages to say.
"Apparently not drunk enough to keep you from dashing as soon as you heard the hoots of our stupid colleagues." The anger in his voice makes it sound deeper, and by the gods, sexier, she couldn't chastise him for calling their teammates stupid.
"I'm sorry. I-It... I didn't mean to leave you alone after embarrassing you."
He's mad because of that, right? Because I left him alone to deal with the shame when it was me who kissed him.
She wasn't sure if it was really her who initiated it. But Jaime, the most beautiful man her undeserving eyes had ever seen, surely wouldn't kiss her ugly self even when he's drunk. So it must be her.
Embarrassment creeps its way back to her memory, she blindly grabs her phone and uses that chance to lean back and move her chair a few inches away from him. Failed move. The attempt even causes Jaime to pull her even closer, causing her to drop her phone on her desk.
The song plays again.
Then afterwards we drop into a quiet little place
And have a drink or two
And then I go and spoil it all
By saying somethin' stupid like, "I love you".
Brienne coughs upon hearing the words from the song. The same ones Jaime had whispered to her just before she had run out of the party. Although he wasn't singing along, it was his voice that sang those words in her head.
Jaime picks up her phone and turns it off before the song could play any further.
"See? Whoever wrote this song must've foreseen my sad fate," he says with a dry laugh.
"I said I'm sorry, Jaime."
"For what exactly?"
"For..."
"You think I'm mad because you left me alone in shame, right? Well, guess what, I wasn't embarrassed, Brienne. I never cared about what other people thought of me. I only care about what you think of me. And you obviously think I wasn't serious!"
Good thing, it was just the two of them left now because she can't help raising her voice too.
"Why else would you have said that, if it wasn't some kind of a joke then?!"
She stands up the same time he does, both of them using their towering heights to prove a point.
"I said it after we kissed, and you think I was joking?"
"Just stop mocking me, please."
She turns her back on him and heads for the door.
Her long strides take her quickly to the exit but his voice stops her just as fast.
"I know all about Hyle and Ron, Brienne!" When she looks back at him, he lowers his voice and his angry expression changes to a pleading one. "I would never mock you."
At this point, her resolve that he couldn't possibly look at her as a woman is already starting to crumble. But then the idiot suddenly breaks into the rest of the song.
I can see it in your eyes
You still despise the same old lies
You heard the night before
It looks funny and she could have laughed at him. But she doesn't. Because now, that song's not only singing about Jaime. It's she who has heard those three words before. From lying mouths.
And though it's just a line to you
For me it's true
And never seemed so right before
"It's true, Brienne. I may be a Lannister, clan of the best liars in the world, but..."
I practice every day
To find some clever lines to say
To make the meaning come through
It was Brienne who softly sings the beginning of the next verse.
Clever lines. Jaime's forte. But of course, Brienne's always too dumb to take his hints.
Jaime chuckles and nods at her before singing again.
But then I think I'll wait
Until the evening gets late
And I'm alone with you
"That part didn't fit." Jaime laughs. "I couldn't wait any longer. I had to kiss you right then and there."
"Wait. You kissed me?"
Jaime raises a brow. "You thought you did it first?"
She nods.
He sings again.
The time is right, your perfume fills my head
The stars get red, and, your eyes were so blue
Instead of 'the night's so blue', he sang about her eyes.
He stops again to say, "I did kiss you first. When I saw you in that blue dress that made your eyes get even bluer, I had to."
And then I go and spoil it all
By saying somethin' stupid like, "I love you"
"And then you left," he says regretfully. "Because I was stupid. And I say stupid things that make you want to run."
She shakes her head.
"I really do love you, though," he mutters, barely audible to her.
Brienne thinks it's now her turn to look stupid, after what she's done to him that night. She walks back to him, eyes not tearing away from him. And then she sings.
The time is right, your perfume fills my head
The stars get red, and, oh, the night's so blue
So now I'll go and spoil it all
By saying somethin' stupid like, "I love you"
He looks surprised when she sings the words.
"I love you"
Again.
"I love you"
More of a statement now than a song lyric.
"I love you"
He sings with her.
"I love you"
Enclosed in each other's arms, they both whisper.
"I love you"
As their song ends, the uploader loudly pings.
"Now that's anticlimactic," Brienne chuckles, her nose still buried on the hollow of his neck.
"That's...We can do something about making another climax."
That makes her pull back slightly from his embrace. She sees him bobbing his brows as he smiles.
"We haven't slept in over twenty-four hours."
He caresses her face, touches sending electric shocks all over her body. Yeah, it's not sleep that I need.
"I told you I'm too tired to immediately fall asleep. But we can do something first that's guaranteed to have us fall asleep after."
Her chest might burst from how much her heart pounds inside it.
He lets her go for a while and swiftly logs her out of their attendance system, sends out an email of the screenshot of the upload confirmation and turns her computer off. He does everything so quickly, she can only watch in amazement.
When he looks back at her, his breathing has gotten heavier and his pupils have almost completely covered most of his green eyes.
"Ready?" he asks.
She's too shocked at his reactions to make a proper response. "For what?"
"I'm making a different ending to that night I spoiled when I said those stupid words. For starters..."
He gathers her in his arms and devours her mouth. Ah, he did kiss me first. Just like this.
After a while she pulls away, out of breath.
"For the record, I'm happy we've finally spoiled things rotten here. Because really, Jaime, I love you."
"Doesn't sound so stupid now, does it?"
She shakes her head.
"I love you, Brienne."