flames and embers.

He squints at the screen because he can’t really read it, but he’ll take her word for it, as always. “I think that’s as alone as we’ll ever get,” he mutters, pulling her closer. “But I’m all right with that. Especially since it’s to ensure your safety.” Grayson thinks he can keep her safe on his own, but it’s not something he’s willing to risk, especially while he’s already injured. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” he clarifies with a slight smile. “You can hurt me whenever you want.” Ruby would never do so purposely, which is why he’s so willing to be hurt, because he knows that she won’t and there’s no actual threat. “I’m just being realistic, Ruby. It’s a fresh wound, it might bleed sometimes, even from me twisting my shoulder the wrong way. But that doesn’t mean anything’s wrong, I’m just healing.” He swipes a reassuring kiss across her knuckles before leading her...somewhat onto the dance floor. Grayson still isn’t fond of drawing attention to himself, but when he wraps his arm around her waist, it’s easy to forget about the rest of the room. “Do you want to leave after this dance?”

"One of those things only happens once a year.” Grayson would probably want to go to SXSW for the films? Who can say. “I don’t think you’d be heartless not to fly all the way out here for just a few days. I’m assuming.” If anything, Grayson has a great excuse to not be there, but he’d do anything for Ruby and he doesn’t want to feel like a burden. Worst case scenario, he probably would have insisted she go alone and not worry about him. “Yes and yes. I’m not interested in field work, for the time being.” Or ever, though a change of heart isn’t impossible. “Do you spend much time in an office?”

“Well, cheers,” he says wryly, because he’s pretty obviously in the same boat, which isn’t much of a loss. Plus, arguably, pain medication is better than alcohol. “Bit cowardly to avoid your biggest threat instead of trying to outwit him, wouldn’t you say? But I can see how that might have presented too much of a challenge for you. And that’s the least of your cowardice. A lesser spy might consider dating the president’s daughter to be an excellent play, but I think it’s rather lazy and unnecessarily involved. Choosing to hurt someone and play with their emotions when you could have simply been more clever.” Grayson had tried to keep the Georgetown students at a distance, because he felt terribly guilty lying to them with every breath. He assumes Cole hadn’t faced that same issue. He takes a step closer, his voice eerily calm. “When you pry into secret affairs, then are clumsy enough to have them leaked, there are consequences. Someone is dead, my girlfriend was assaulted, and I was shot while trying to...” Protect her, yes, but also while in the process of celebrating the one good thing in his life, which is his relationship. “Ruby and I don’t get to be normal, we accept that. But you should have known better.” Cole’s notes had secret written all over them, especially considering how messy they were. He can’t even fathom how he’d lost possession of something like that, but it’s the only explanation.

"i don’t know that it’s either.” every job has the boring bits, he’s almost certain. he doesn’t find his job entirely dull and it keeps him busy, which has been fairly crucial while living alone and over an hour away from his girlfriend. “err...i don’t know, i don’t watch a lot of it.” especially the thrillers and he certainly hadn’t taken spies on film during his one year at gallagher. “at the risk of sounding biased, i did like london spy.” he’s not all that concerned about being offed and shoved into a trunk himself. “and killing eve...both are bbc affiliated, but to me that just means less episodes and more thought put into storylines.” a lot of spy content comes off as sensationalized and cheesy. “physically, yes. that’s all right, i didn’t stop you.” lord knows he could have! “considering it happened yesterday and i nearly bled out...yes, it hurts. i wasn’t scared for myself.”

“Perfect timing, then, isn’t it?” He says gently. Personally, Grayson does find the end of the school year to be the only bearable time to be at Gallagher. It has nothing to do with the free alcohol, which he can’t drink anyway, due to his pain medication. “I hope not.” But he’s trying not to get his hopes up too much, because he wouldn’t even blame her parents for wanting her somewhere a little less secluded. One assumes they’ve upped the security detail for Ruby, despite Grayson’s assailant being dealt with. He’s not the type to assume that one man down means there’s no longer any threat posed to his girlfriend. “This will sound hypocritical coming from me, but...don’t be too careful.” This could almost be a double entendre if they had gotten that far but lol. “Mm...I think you’ll know if you’ve hurt me if you see blood.” Because he can’t promise her that; he’s fine with being hurt if it means acting like everything’s okay, at least for the night.

“right,” he echoes. unsurprising that she’d remember a detail like that, given the alumni crawling all over campus for much of her time at gallagher. “they’re like tv in all the boring ways.” they’re not shooting at each other from speeding cars most of the time. “a lot of former agents have written books, some of which end up becoming shows.” like mindhunter! “you’d learn more from reading those memoirs than from spending a semester at gallagher where everyone’s lying to you.” gallagher students don’t know anything frankly. “ian fleming wasn’t even a james bond type,” he comments with a snort. personally, grayson prefers chitty-chitty-bang-bang. “well...i’m actually not sure how much i can say. which has nothing to do with spies.” being a first child is far more secretive, with a long list of things to never be discussed publicly. “but i got shot in the process of protecting ruby.” he shrugs, mostly with his good shoulder. “i don’t think the president will be informing the public on what happened.” and well they are in a very public location currently!

“I might if I ever had a reason,” he retorts, because he has no reason to really go anywhere outside of the states of Maryland and Virginia (and DC happens to border both). “Surely you have other people to see. You are here, right now, after all...which is mildly baffling. I know you have better things to be doing.” She’s one of the few recent alumni not currently dating a Gallagher student. “All right,” he says reluctantly, though he does consider Vida a friend, even if he often does a poor job of showing it. It’s more the fact that he can’t imagine why anyone would choose to spend their free time with him. “I’m happy for you, then. It’s...interesting, at times. I might see about switching positions. They seem keen to send me out of the office, though I’m not really considering it.”

Suffice it to say, Grayson has a high pain tolerance. Besides, he’s been raised to never show weakness, which has lead to a struggle with vulnerability overall. It’d taken him an entire semester, maybe longer, to even voice his feelings to Ruby, but hopefully he’s gotten better at that over the course of the past year. “That’s more than all right. I didn’t want to be a pessimist, but I’m a bit over Roseville myself.” Understatement! There’s probably some Gallagher estate the family still maintains in the area, which Grayson never visits. “You’re going to ask your family for permission first, though?” Don’t be a Jeanette! “Afraid?” He laughs incredulously. “Of a dance? I’m not bedridden, love, I think I can manage.”

He holds her a little tighter, almost stubbornly, because even if it hurt, it feels better to have her close. And, frankly, everything hurts with a fresh wound, so it hardly makes a difference. “I have to admit, I was hoping you’d say that,” he says with a slight smile. “I’m sure we can swing it. Of course, I know.” Grayson swipes his thumb gently across her cheek bone, leaning in to press a kiss to her forehead. “I think I can handle a slow dance, if you’re in the mood.”

“no,” he says flatly. what is a meme. just kidding, but what is that meme? “are you looking at a watch?” that’s what he assumes when anyone looks down at something invisible on their arm. this gives him an excuse to properly examine scott’s outfit...his nose wrinkles ever-so-slightly. “i can’t really tell you anything. not because it’s classified, it’s just boring. it’s a lot of paperwork.” they probably want grayson to be an nsa police officer instead but yucky! “um, yes. the internship was very easy?”

He should definitely do that actually and then tell me what his teeth taste like when Grayson knocks them all out. “What drew you in, the champagne?” He smiles tightly. “It’s a little ironic, after you spent nearly an entire school year and much of the summer blatantly avoiding me.” In retrospect, it’s flattering, except for the fact that Grayson doesn’t feel much pride in his deduction abilities. “Hm, what could possibly be on my mind?”

“hey,” he asks gently, pushing stray hair behind her ear and pulling her slightly closer. “did you want to leave early or stay until things start winding down?” he has to assume, or he knows, ruby is more concerned about the strain of the evening than he is. grayson is used to a stiff upper lip. “also...i’ve a feeling nobody’ll stop us if you wanted to leave campus, at this point.” grayson certainly doesn’t want to stay in her dorm or sleep without her, despite his injury. / @rubymeriwether​

“Not recently.” Meaning not since the previous summer, and he doesn’t have any plans to visit this year, but he might just to appease his mother. “Do you never visit yours? Because I reckon it’d be easier for you to come here.” Vida probably has plenty of other people to visit in the states -- in the DC area, even. “I think most people here could say the same thing,” he jokes, though that’s the truth. Even when he’s visited, he’s tried to stay out of public spaces. “How’s your first year post-grad been?”

“No,” he lies easily, “why should she?” Cole mentioning Ruby in any capacity annoys him, when he wasn’t necessarily annoyed beforehand. “I haven’t heard much about missions at all this year, actually.” Grayson also broke his leg during a Gallagher mission so this is plagiarism... “Not a mission.” And he leaves it at that because he doesn’t owe Cole anything, least of all explanations. “I’m surprised to see you here, if I’m being honest.”

“it’s...it wasn’t as bad as where i’d transferred from, so.” if anything, he least enjoyed the attention garnered from being both a berkshire and a gallagher, and having to fake the american accent for half his time there had also been less than ideal. “you don’t really know anything that interesting, in fairness. being a federal agent is not a private career. haven’t you seen any movies or tv shows? fbi have to flash their badges all the time.” it might be a different story if the witness protection students had also been around for the burn book. “i have a desk job at the nsa, allie, i’m by all accounts a normal bloke.” which was by design. “probably, it was romantic, and all.” she allegedly fell down a bunch of stairs and out of a window, actually, which is hilarious.