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Agent Louis Tomlinson’s chest was heaving within the confines of the gold gown she was wearing. Her knuckles throbbed and the wind whistled across the now broken window, five stories above the dark alley behind her apartment building. The blonde wig from the disguise she had been wearing at the party was laying limp over the side of the porcelain tub.

Gingerly, she stepped towards the ledge, but when she looked over, there was no grisly sight waiting for her there.

Her attacker had slipped away.

“Damn,” she swore as she leaped back. She didn’t think he would come back, she had walloped him pretty good. 

As the adrenaline fizzled in her blood she remembered what had warned her to his presence in the first place. The gunshot.

All at once the hair on the back of her neck and her arms stood up. With shaking hands, she turned to the bathroom door. The weapon she had secured was disabled on the floor next to her but she made sure to keep an eye on it as she opened it slowly. She didn’t want to obliterate the Upper East Side just yet.

Her heart fell as she saw Colleen lying motionless on the bed with a single, round wound in the middle of her forehead. 

Colleen had been sick, under the weather when Louis left on her mission earlier in the evening. She was probably asleep, docile as a lamb, when the assassin meant for Louis had killed her instead.

Everything crashed through Louis all at once, the fear for her life, the exhaustion, the difficulty of having to evade her fellow agents at the party, her grief. Her knees went weak and she sank down onto the mattress of the murphy bed where Colleen’s legs were still neatly tucked into the covers.

Soon Louis would need to get up, retrieve the weapon, and scrub her entire existence from the apartment so there was no trace of her ever having lived there. For now, though, just for a moment, she let the sobs take over her body and she cried.

Two weeks later, Louis had her feet kicked up on her desk pretending to do her crossword puzzle while she watched her fellow agents wander around the bullpen in the secret headquarters of the Strategic Scientific Reserve.

One of her closest friends from the war was a man named Luke Malak, America’s sweetheart, millionaire inventor. The only problem was, according to the press he was “missing.”

He wasn’t, in fact, missing Louis had seen him the night before in his laboratory in Brooklyn. The laboratory had been raided three weeks earlier and all of Luke’s inventions stolen by unknown parties and he had in all effect hired Louis to find both the weapons and the perpetrators.

That was all well and good and should have been an easy assignment, except her roommate had been killed, and now in order to help, Louis had to conspire with his butler to conceal Luke’s whereabouts from the same agents that were trying to find him. Agents that she worked with every day.

They were misogynistic pigs most of the time, but they were still her colleagues.

She didn’t understand why she was so respected in the war, and given the freedom to run her own missions behind enemy lines on the European stage, but as soon as the war was over she went back to being a glorified secretary instead of the spy she trained to be.

It was probably the lack of uniform. It also probably didn’t help that Louis managed to wear tailored slacks and get away with it, threatening the other agents’ fragile masculinity.

She sighed and looked around the room once more at the men who had their heads shoved so far up their asses they wouldn’t be able to find Luke if he was deposited on the doorstep of the “telephone company.” Finally satisfied that they knew nothing, she decided it was time for lunch.

Louis tucked her newspaper under her arm and exited out the side entrance. As much as she hated to think about Colleen, she needed a new place to live that wasn’t a hotel under an assumed name the way she had been for the past two weeks.

A few doors down from the office building of the fake telephone company, there was an automat where she could get a reliably good meal for a few coins dropped in a slot. Because it was automated, there were only ever one or two waitresses on hand at any given time to serve drinks at the bar.

Louis retrieved her sandwich and brought it back to take her seat at the bar.

Almost immediately she was met with wide green eyes, shining in the fluorescent lighting, and curly hair that was supposed to be pinned back neatly but almost always escaped.

“Alright today, Lou?”

Louis forced herself to smile at Harry, her favorite waitress. “Alright, Harry.”

Harry reached over the counter and filled her coffee cup without asking. As a trained spy, Louis always found that there was something both comforting and concerning about someone else knowing a crumb of information about her. 

The world wasn’t going to end, it wasn’t a threat to national security that Harry knew how Louis took her coffee, it actually made Louis’ stomach flutter. But the first couple times she poured without asking it also made the hair on the back of Louis’ neck stand up.

Her instincts told her to run. They told her to find a new place to eat, a new automat where she could just sit in the corner and no one would ever learn her name. But if she did, she would never again get to watch the way Harry moved.

Her uniform was cut close to her body, the princess seams on the bodice highlighting her natural gifts, and the tight A-line that was a little too short and showed off her legs. The pale blue and pink fabric of the dress shouldn’t have been flattering on anyone, but somehow on Harry it made her shine.

“Are you looking for a new place?” Harry asked as she dropped a sugar cube into Louis’ coffee, startling her out of her reverie.

“What?” There was no way for her to know that.

Harry tapped the classified ads that were sitting face up on the counter where Louis had clearly circled some. 

Oh.

“Um, yes.” Louis hesitated. “I lost my roommate.” She didn’t really want to expound on that, but she didn’t want to be rude.

She needn’t have worried.

“Ugh, I know what you mean. My first place I was living with a girl from Queens. It was fine for the first six months and then, bam! Engaged.”

Louis found herself laughing at the seriousness in Harry’s tone, like the betrayal still stung after all those years.

Harry took the paper from her and started looking at the listings. She mumbled a few things about the vocabulary realtors used to trick people and upsell their listings before dismissing it outright and getting a mischievous look on her face before placing the paper back down next to Louis’ elbow.

“Anyway... The girl down the hall from me just moved out.”

“Oh, really?” Louis was unsure of where this was going.

Harry shrugged. “Yeah, couldn’t hack it, I guess. Women’s dormitory, you know.”

“Ah,” Louis said knowingly. In all reality, she was worried Harry was going to suggest she take the spot. She couldn’t have that after Colleen. The thought of the same thing happening to Harry, lovely Harry, froze her blood.

“It’s over on 63rd, and all the girls are great. Plus, I would be your neighbor, which is not nothing.” Harry crossed her arms over each other and leaned on the counter with a put-upon cherubic smile. She looked like she was joking, but Louis could tell the offer was real.

“I appreciate the offer, Harry, but I’m afraid I’m a lousy neighbor.”

Harry scowled. “Come on, Lou, that’s not true.”

Louis searched for what she could say that would dissuade Harry but not hurt her feelings. The problem was Louis would love to live with Harry in a nice, quiet women’s dormitory. It sounded like heaven, something she could only have in her wildest dreams.

Fortunately, Harry was quickly called away by another customer. The lunch hour had picked up, and Louis was almost done with her own meal. Harry stayed busy enough that Louis only managed to wave to her on her way out and that was that.

After an afternoon of her own brand of secretive sleuthing, trying to track down Luke’s weapons without her colleagues cottoning on to what she was doing, Louis was exhausted when she finally made it back to her hotel.

There were three suitcases worth of clothing and jewelry, all her worldly possessions packed into those three cases.

As she tried to fall asleep that night she decided she needed a change. She was going to take Harry up on her offer. They would be living in separate rooms, there was nothing to connect them, plenty enough distance that potential enemies wouldn’t know Harry was important to Louis.

And Louis would finally have a real place to live.

Harry wasn’t being very subtle as she pretended to listen to Louis’ interview with the mistress of The Viridian. Louis could see her from where she was standing, but Mrs. Warren couldn’t.

Louis held herself still as Mrs. Warren asked her question after question about her cover job at the telephone company and her personal relationships. Again, as a spy, everything about her interrogation rankled. She hated people knowing personal information about her, no matter how false.

Once Mrs. Warren confirmed that she had passed the interview, Harry burst from behind the large, fake, palm frond in the lobby.

“I can show her to her room!” she said excitedly.

Mrs. Warren stopped short and held her hand to her breath in surprise. “Oh, Miss Styles. A little decorum, please.”

Harry stood still but her teeth still gleamed a brilliant white in the overhead lighting. Louis stifled her laughter as much as she could. She didn’t want Mrs. Warren going back on her word.

Reluctantly, Mrs. Warren gestured for both of them to follow her as she led the way up to the third floor listing out rule after rule for living in the building. Things like dress code in common areas and meal times for the dining room.

“And most important of all, no men above the first floor,” she stopped and eyed Louis shrewdly. “Without exception.”

“Yes, of course, ma’am.” Louis agreed. It wasn’t as though secret male rendezvous would be a problem for her anyway, but somehow she didn’t think Mrs. Warren would find comfort in that.

“Very well,” she replied as she opened the door. “Here is your room.”

Done with Louis, she promptly turned on her heel and went back downstairs, leaving Harry and Louis to their own devices. 

The room was modest, but had everything she needed. A small washroom and a large bedroom with ample closet space and a neat little vanity. The wallpaper looked like something her mother would have picked out when she was their age, but that was to be expected for an old building like the Viridian.

“This is so exciting,” Harry clapped her hands together. “I’m right next door if you need anything.”

Louis smiled and laughed at her over abundance of excitement, before oohing and ahhing appropriately as Harry showed her the features of the room.

Despite her initial misgivings, she had to remember that the war was over. She had made the mistake with her old apartment of returning still dressed in her disguise for the evening, and someone had clearly followed her. With Mrs. Warren’s level of security and declarations that the building was impenetrable to men and the sheer amount of rooms to choose from, it would be next to impossible for someone to attack within the walls of the Viridian.

Louis let herself relax a little as she watched Harry. They would be fine.

Almost exactly one month later, Louis’ heart was pounding as she ran for the back kitchen door of the Viridian. 

Shit, shit, shit. The word kept repeating in her head over and over again with every footfall. She needed to retrieve some of her things before her colleagues went looking for her there in her room.

She wasn’t sure how, but one of the other agents she worked with at the SSR figured out that she was the one feeding information to Luke. There was a name for that: aiding and abetting. It was a crime. Luke’s innocence didn’t matter, their friendship didn’t matter. What mattered was the fact that she had actively helped a fugitive escape their custody.

None of her colleagues knew where she lived, she had her old hotel listed on her personnel form still so she figured she had about an hour, maybe two before they found her. Just enough time to sneak in and get some of her things that she couldn’t live without.

Either way she didn’t want to be seen entering or exiting the building. The dumbwaiter from the kitchen let out right in front of her room and Harry’s door was right next to the back staircase. As long as she didn’t linger in the hallway very long, and there was no one else around, she should be able to get in and out of the building quickly enough that no one saw her.

It was three in the afternoon, so the kitchen was deserted when she picked the lock on the service door. There was a clear path to the dumb waiter, so she took her opportunity and contorted her body into the small space. She reached back to the button panel and felt along the buttons until she felt the one that was embossed with a three and pressed it, pulling her hand back just in time before the two doors slammed shut.

When she reached the third floor she paused for a moment and held her breath to listen for voices or footsteps in the hallway.

The coast was clear so she darted to her room and unlocked it quickly.

She took a moment to surveil the area. They hadn’t gotten there yet. Without another moment’s hesitation, she rushed around getting everything that she needed or that could implicate her in anything and loaded them into a brown leather messenger bag that she could wear over her shoulder.

As soon as she stuffed her favorite tube of lipstick into the pocket, she heard Mrs. Warren causing a commotion. 

“No men above the first floor!” The sound was muffled but the stampede of footprints was growing closer.

Shit.

Louis only had one choice, and in all of her escape plans it didn’t even rank in the top ten. 

Saying a prayer for the first time since she was under heavy artillery fire in Nazi occupied France, she unlocked her window and climbed out onto the ledge.

In truth, she had to complete the fluid motion, get her footing, and close the panes snugly behind her before she could lean back against the wall of the building and really assess the position she had put herself in.

There she was, three inches away from falling three stories down onto the streets of New York City.

Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest she swore she could see it.

She calmed her breathing down one breath at a time. In, out. In, out. 

The door to her room burst off the hinges inside, it must have been violent enough to make such a terrible noise. She couldn’t stay where she was, and she hoped to God Harry was home.

Louis shuffled step by step, inch by inch until she had made it a couple feet towards the window to Harry’s room. She only had six more feet to go.

Some of the ledge crumbled under her foot and she gasped, but kept her weight pinned against the structure behind her. As she tried to steady her heartbeat again, she heard the latch of Harry’s window. 

“Oh my goodness, Lou? What are you doing?”

Harry was hanging out of her window scantily clad in just her brassiere. It was fancier than anything Louis had seen in years, again since her time in France, actually, and because Harry’s torso was pressed out onto the ledge her ample breasts fought to stay contained in the barely-there fabric. The garment wasn’t exactly made for support.

Louis couldn’t tell if she was in heaven or in hell and suddenly between the adrenaline and the arousal all of her clothing felt much too confining and tight.

Lest she forget, there were federal agents currently searching through her things.

“Harry,” she said breathlessly as she clung to the building and forced herself to look away. “How are you?”

“Miss Styles!” The booming voice at Harry’s door was definitely Agent Thompson. “Federal Agents!”

In the midst of everything Louis’ gut rolled with jealousy at the idea of Thompson seeing Harry like this.

“They’re here for me,” Louis whispered desperately pleading with Harry to help her. 

The agents knocked again.

“Miss Styles?”

Harry kept her eye on Louis as she shouted back. “Hold your horses, let me get decent.” She held a finger over her lips to signal for Louis to stay quiet and Louis breathed a sigh of relief.

Louis couldn’t turn her body enough to see what was happening in Harry’s room, and she had closed the window again so she could only catch snippets of the conversation, but from what she could tell Harry was selling them a story about Louis saying goodbye.

There was no way the agents wouldn’t catch up to Louis, but she appreciated the headstart Harry was trying to give her at a moment’s notice without any warning. That was all she could ask for, really, and Harry had gone above and beyond.

To keep her mind off of the situation at hand, Louis stared out at the skyline. Not everything around was as tall as the Viridian, but she started counting the windows on the buildings she could see. It was an old tactic she had learned for withstanding torture in interrogation: concentrate on something repetitive and methodical to keep her mind off of what was going on around her.

A few minutes later the latch clicked on the window again and Harry pushed it out. She had put a silk robe on over her undergarments, but it was starting to slip open again. 

“Come in, come on, Lou. The coast is clear.”

With Harry’s help Louis crouched down to climb into her room before standing up to her full height on shaky legs. Holding still for that long had taken a toll on her body. She was lucky she was still upright.

Before she could ask to sit down, Harry wrapped her up in her arms. Everything about her was soft, soft hips, long curly hair, soft curves, silk robe. Louis sank into the feeling.

“Oh, gosh, I was so worried having you out there like that.” Harry pulled back so she could look Louis up and down before splaying her hands flat on Louis’ cheeks and pulling her in for a violent pop of a kiss on the mouth.

Louis was too stunned to say anything, feeling the ghost of Harry’s lips on hers.

That was fine, Harry had been worried, girls gave each other kisses like that all the time in fits of emotion. It didn’t mean anything.

“What can I do for you? I’ve got a cousin that can pull a car around? It’ll take him a little while to get here from Brooklyn, but he can help no problem.” 

Harry’s stream of chatter helped shock Louis back to reality. Brooklyn was fine, but Luke’s butler was closer. And, he didn’t come with any connection to Harry so she still had plausible deniability

“Oh! Thanks, Harry, but no. I have someone who can pick me up. Could you make the call for me on the hall phone?”

“Of course,” Harry replied. “What do I say?” Her big, green, doe eyes were determined.

Louis realized she hadn’t even explained why the agents were tracking her down. They probably said something vague to her as they questioned her, but still Harry was more than willing to help her. Without question.

Everything she felt for Harry was definitely inching a little too close to the heart for comfort. She needed to get out of the Viridian.

“Can you please tell Mr. Jones that I need an extraction at the Viridian,” Louis said slowly and carefully. “He’ll know what that means.” She wrote down the phone number on a spare piece of paper on Harry’s bed side table.

Harry’s face lit up and she grew mischievous. “Ooh, an ‘extraction.’ Sure, I’ll be right back.” Still barely covered up in her silk robe, Harry flung her front door open and went down the hall for the phone.

It felt a little too dangerous to sit down on Harry’s bed, so Louis finally let herself collapse onto the bench in front of her vanity. 

The clock on the shelf ticked by, minute by minute as Louis waited.

Finally, Harry burst back into the room. “He sure is a polite man for someone receiving a secret spy message,” she observed. “Kept calling me Miss Styles.”

Her fake posh British was quite funny, but once again, she had knocked Louis flat. “Um… Is he coming?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. He’s coming, but he said he has a loaf of bread in the oven so it’ll take him about an hour.”

Louis rolled her eyes and put her head in her hands. What had she done to deserve this?

When she looked up again Harry was eyeing her excitedly. “So is it true? You’re a spy?”

Louis hesitated but her lack of response didn’t stop Harry.

“I knew it! I knew there was something different about you. You always seemed way too stressed out to actually be working at the phone company.”

In her excitement her robe had slipped open again.

“Oh, um. Harry… you’re—” Louis nodded to her torso.

Harry looked down. “Whoops! Silly me,” she said as she proceeded to take the robe off completely.

That was not where Louis thought she was going with that. She could feel the blush rise on her cheeks.

“How about it, Lou?” Harry stood up and twirled around and it really felt for all the world like she was asking Louis to admire her figure. Her silk and lace brassiere was still struggling to hold her and the dainty, matching silk shorts were cut high enough in back that Louis could see the bottoms of her cheeks.

“What?” Louis replied, dumbly.

“Well, mister prissy on the phone said you have an hour, and it sounds to me like you’re going on the lam which means I might not ever see you again. Figured I should show you the goods and see what you say before I never get another chance.”

She put her hand on her hip and popped her knee like she was a pinup girl come to life straight off the page.

“Um…” was all Louis could manage to pull out of her brain. She had been educated at Cambridge, she had risen to become an officer in the army. She was a highly intelligent, sought after agent of espionage for her country.

She had no idea what to say.

The sparkle in Harry’s eye grew as she watched Louis rake her eyes over her body and she began to approach. She kept coming closer to Louis until she had no choice but to perch herself on Louis’ knee. The lambswool of Louis’ slacks must have been scratchy on her exposed bottom, but she didn’t say anything. 

Her hands were much gentler this time as she cupped Louis’ face. She leaned down and placed her lush, pink lips on Louis’.

As a woman that preferred the company of women, Louis had a little bit of experience. Ironically, she felt freest when she was in the army, surrounded by all of the nurses and the few other enlisted women in the unit. It was much easier to find company when they were isolated like that, away from home. Even though it happened clandestinely, everyone felt more open to exploring the option.

It had been less than two years since she had landed back at home. In the beginning she craved the intimacy that she found, but as she dealt with recovering from the war and being thrust into her new job at the SSR, it was easy for that to be placed on the back burner. 

Harry was different.

As she said, Louis was officially on the lam. She should feel rushed, frantic, desperate. But when Harry kissed her, the world came to a halt.

Harry’s perfectly manicured fingers dug into Louis’ pulled back hair dislodging some of the pins.

They were still in sort of an odd position as Harry was a little bit taller than her, and when Louis pulled back to get some air, she began to stand. If Harry wanted her to admire her figure, she was going to do her damndest. 

“Wowsa,” Harry breathed. She looked as dazed as Louis felt.

Unable to help herself, Louis began leading her to the bed. She laid Harry out on the coverlet, and Harry followed her lead easily. Louis’ mouth was on her skin before she could settle down into position.

Louis leaned back and started with her toes. Placing kisses across the tops of her feet, trailing up one leg and down the other. When she crossed over her hips, she only barely brushed across the silk that covered her there before trailing back down the other leg.

Her skin was so soft and beautiful, she couldn’t believe she had gone without feeling it for so long.

“You’ve thought about this before, huh?” Harry said with a giggle. She was sitting propped up on her elbows watching her.

Louis looked up at her from under her eyelashes. “Mmm, once or twice.”

“I wish we had more time to explore, but mister prissy will be here soon,” Harry added. “So we’ve got to switch so I can have a go.”

She reached down and hooked her hands under Louis arms, dragging her up the bed so they could switch positions. Suddenly, Harry was straddling her in her silk clad panties with just a thin strip of fabric between her and fabric of Louis’ slacks.

“If I don’t get my hands on you soon, I might rip these which would be a shame since they’re so nicely tailored.” Harry’s grin quirked up as she pinched the side of Louis’ bum. She couldn’t get all the way around because Louis was on her back, but she got her point across.

Once again Louis blushed.

Harry quickly unbuttoned the fly of her slacks and pulled her blouse out of where it was tucked into them. Seeing her aim, Louis was hit by a sudden urgency to make sure this wasn’t the last opportunity they ever had to do this.

Before she could go any further, Louis grabbed her wrist. “Wait.”

“Now?” Harry asked desperately, her hands poised to surely blow Louis’ mind.

“I’m on the lam, yes. But my innocence needs to be proven, and I can’t leave New York. When Mr. Jones comes to collect me, he’s going to take me to a penthouse on the other side of town.”

Harry, sensing the importance of what Louis was going to ask, relaxed her arm. “Okay,” she whispered.

“Come with me.” Louis couldn’t believe she actually asked. It was dangerous, to be sure. But so was Harry staying at the Viridian. “It’s Luke Malak’s penthouse, he’s not using it. We can live there for awhile. I have to hide out, but you don’t.”

Harry’s eyes widened. “Luke Malak?! You know him?” she hissed.

Louis nodded. “Yes, I’m helping him.”

Harry grew quiet as she searched Louis’ gaze. “I’ll come with you.”

The relief that washed over Louis was immense. It would be scary, and she was sure she would worry about Harry’s safety tenfold. But now that she had a taste of her, she couldn’t give her up for the world.

“We can still finish this now, though, right?” Harry asked petulantly.

Louis threw her head back and laughed. “If you’d like. But wouldn’t you rather pack your things?”

Harry looked genuinely torn. “Alright. But you owe me,” she warned as she sat up straight.

Once again, Louis laughed as she exhaled. Her adventure was far from over, but now, she had Harry with her so it was about to be much more fun.