I'd had a crush on Daniel pretty much since the day I'd met him. He was handsome, and funny, and a total sweetheart. Who could ask for anything more?
I carefully took Daniel's right wrist in my hand, then started trying to unlock the cuffs. My hands were shaking just a little bit, and the handcuffs were beat to hell and absolutely needed to be replaced, so it was taking much longer than I wanted it to.
"So..." I said, trying to ease the tension a little as I worked at the lock. "Any idea why Jack and Peggy did this to us? They're kind of the last people I would've expected a team-up from."
"Yeah..." Daniel sighed, and I glanced up at him to find him staring at me, an emotion I couldn't quite place on his face. "I... I don't know what they were thinking."
The lock finally clicked on the handcuff, and I met Daniel's eyes with a triumphant smile. He had a similar smile on his own face, and as we stared at each other and the moment stretched on, I became painfully aware of just how close together we were. He was officially free from the desk, and yet neither of us had moved to step away from each other. That, combined with the furious blush on his face and the way he was looking at me... the pieces finally clicked into place.
"Y/N... listen, I know this might not be a great time, since we're both locked in here for who knows how much longer, but I feel like I should tell you-"
"Daniel. I know." His eyebrows went up, and he blushed a little deeper as the realization continued to wash over me. I'd been so stressed and blinded by my own feelings that I hadn't even noticed Daniel's until now. "It took me an embarrassingly long time to see it, but... I know.
And I feel the same."
"Yeah?" asked Daniel, a breathy hope in his voice.
"Yeah."
Daniel smiled, and so did I. Cautiously, he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer, and I wasted no time wrapping my arms around his neck. After entirely too long dancing around each other-enough time that Jack and Peggy had actually teamed up to do something about it-we were finally doing something about our feelings. And it felt great.
My lips had just barely brushed Daniel's when the door to the interrogation room went flying open. Daniel and I whirled to find Jack standing there, holding the door wide open.
"FINALLY! Glad this plan worked and the two of you finally stopped being idiots," he said. "But the whole point of this was so none of us had to see you two being all lovey-dovey in the office anymore, so get out."
"Jack-!"
"Nope, c'mon. I'm giving you the rest of the night off to finally go on a date together, so let's go."
"Jack, that's actually... kind of sweet," I said, taking a half-step towards him. He just huffedand rolled his eyes, then held the door open a little wider.
"Yeah, whatever. I finally got Carter to go home and get some sleep, so you two just get the hell out of here so I can have a few peaceful hours of work for once, alright?"
Daniel and I exchanged knowing smiles, then headed out the door past Thompson together.