Chapter Text
Shaw walked out of the bathroom roughly towel drying her dark hair, ignoring the agitation it caused her throbbing headache. It had been a long time since she had woken up with a hangover that she could feel in every bone of her body, it didn’t help that she had found herself passed out on the cold tiles of the lavish bathroom floor either, where she had momentarily found herself unable to place where she was. But the moment she pulled herself to her feet, and caught sight of her dishevelled reflection in the mirror it all came flooding back. Las Vegas. The number. The drinking after the number was safe.
Feeling her stomach growl Shaw decided food was the best next step, but as she turned the corner she realised she was not alone in the ridiculously large penthouse suite of the hotel. Root was asleep, spread out across the king sized bed, butt naked, a sheet tangled around her legs.
Shaw’s jaw fell open as she stared at Root from a safe distance.
Root she thought, of course Root is here, she came with me. But the agreement had been separate rooms, which only meant one thing. Root had decided to stay over, or this wasn’t her room. Shaking her head Shaw decided food was still the best option, either that, or she would go and find a bottle of whiskey. But as she took a step her foot met with several empty champagne bottles which clattered over at full volume.
Rolling her eyes, she quickly stepped around them and tried to tip toe away from Root before she woke up, but she was too late.
“Hey, Sameen” Root’s voice mumbled from the bed and Shaw desperately tried not to turn around.
“Root” she replied in acknowledgement but continued to make her way towards the bar. Shaw dug around the mini fridge for anything that wasn’t alcoholic settling on a packet of M&M’s shovelling several into her mouth and staring out the window at the view of Vegas.
“You’re not gonna share?” Root’s voice came from behind her and by complete habit she spun around, immediately being confronted with Root’s willowy figure wrapped in nothing but a sheet.
Shaw stared at her for a moment in disbelief. “Put some clothes on.” was all she could think of saying and of course that only made Root smirk.
“Why? Is it bothering you, Sameen? It’s nothing you haven’t seen before” she responded, toying with the layer of the sheet that fell down the middle of her body.
“It’s not bothering me” Shaw snapped, “we’re out of food and I’m starving.” She forced herself to look away from Root, annoyed that the hacker could still look so good when she was so obviously hungover.
“Are you asking me to breakfast?” Root’s annoyingly chipper voice asked from behind her.
“No, I’m telling you I’m going, and if you want to come I’m pretty sure there’s a rule against showing up in a sheet” Shaw said ditching the pack of m&ms and hunting around for her jacket.
“Why are you so grouchy Sam? We had a good time last night” Root said dropping the sheet in the middle of the floor as she began following the trail of her clothes back towards the bed.
“Enlighten me” Shaw said still searching for her jacket.
“You don’t remember?” Root called out.
“And you do?”
“Well, actually no, not really” Root shrugged as she remerged buttoning up her jeans with Shaw’s jacket under her arm. “But I woke up naked and you’re hungover so it must have been good” she smiled and held the jacket open for Shaw, who gruffly snatched it off her and tugged it on as she marched towards the door.
“I thought we talked about this Root” Shaw said waiting for her at the door as Root hopped towards the door pulling on her boots.
“Talked about what, sweetie?”
“The sex thing” Shaw said aggressively tapping the elevator button.
“You mean, the sex thing that we’ve being doing for the past six months?” Root smirked as the doors dinged open and they both got in.
“Yes, we’re done with that” Shaw said staring vacantly at the carpeted wall.
“I’m not so sure about that Sam” Root said, the lift stopping as more people got in. “I mean I’m feeling a little sore from last night, which means we’re obviously not done”
Shaw glared at her. “We’re done.”
“It’s okay to be scared, Sam” Root continued, completely oblivious to the other people that were piling into the elevator at every stop. “I mean just having sex with someone for six months is kind of crazy, and I know you don’t do feelings like everyone else but we don’t have to stop if you don’t want to, I enjoy it, I think it’s good for us”
Shaw avoided looking at the small crowd of people who were glancing between herself and Root with wide eyes.
“And besides, we’re perfect for each other” Root shrugged nonchalantly. “I have a headache” she said less than a few seconds later and pouted.
Thankfully for Shaw they finally reached the lobby floor and she practically bowled the others out of the way to escape the confined space, taking quick steps trying to walk faster than Root. But Root’s long fucking legs caught up with her in no time and she could feel the dark eyes looking at her.
“Sameen,” Root said and Shaw fixed her stare onto the restaurant that was rapidly approaching.
“It’s too early for this, Root” Shaw muttered.
“It’s never the right time for you” Root said folding her arms across her chest and stalking along beside Shaw.
“Maybe I just don’t want to talk about it,” Shaw commented and Root glared at her. “In an elevator full of people” Shaw added and Root rolled her eyes.
“It’s none of their business, Sam” Root said.
“Look, Root” Shaw came to a stop and faced Root. “We had sex for several months, and now we don’t, what is so hard to understand about that?”
Root stared at her for a moment, words playing around on her tongue as she carefully chose what to say whilst Shaw stared at her the way she always did especially after they had just had sex, there was something different about the way they looked.
“I just think there’s more to it than that” Root shrugged as if it wasn’t bothering her.
“There’s not” Shaw said, “Now can we eat without you harassing me about this or should I take you back and duct tape you to a chair upstairs?”
Root quirked an eyebrow and Shaw just rolled her eyes storming off into the restaurant. Root was close behind her and they sat down at a table without saying another word to each other. They stayed in silence until they ordered, and avoided looking at each other until their food arrived, even though Shaw felt Root’s eyes grazing across her when she thought Shaw wasn’t looking. She hated feeling like she was letting Root down, but this had never been anything other than a sex arrangement. They had both agreed to that, but now something inside her churned when she looked at Root who was so clearly bothered by their arrangement.
She looked at Root who was reaching across the table with her fork to stab a piece of bacon off Shaw’s plate and suddenly she saw it. Everything inside her stopped for a moment. Then suddenly her arm shot out and grabbed Root’s wrist with a steel grip.
“Ouch” Root gasped wiggling her wrist around trying to release it. “Sam it’s just one piece…” but her voice trailed off as she saw what Shaw was staring at.
“What is this?” Shaw asked unable to move her eyes off the sparkling ring that had taken up residency on Root’s wedding finger. “Root!” Shaw insisted when Root said nothing.
“I don’t know” Root said softly pulling her wrist away as Shaw’s grip loosened. “I was going to ask you about that.”
“About why you suddenly have a wedding ring on your finger? Because I sure as shit have never seen that before” Shaw said staring at Root.
“Well, you don’t have one” Root said, “So, I don’t know who I married.”