It's depressingly easy to do, in the end. Usmaan isn't really there any more, behind those staring eyes. 

He's sprawled on the couch now, his hand lazily tangled in Raina's hair, talking shit. "Yeah, man, he needs to take it easy for a while. Working himself too hard. I'll keep an eye on him, keep everything running smoothly, not a problem." He gestures expansively with his whisky. 

He waits until the party has dispersed.

His, er, date is very discreetly putting together her own report on what the hell is going on here. He'd be a fool to trust her or Khan completely, but it's all about defence-in-depth, they probably won't both betray him in the same way at the same time. 

"So," he says thoughtfully, eyes on Agan.

From what he can tell, the boy is... troubled. He feels uncertain around Khan but is trying very hard to hide it. And... it's hard to be this specific, but he gets the feeling there's something else bothering him, not just whatever it is that has Khan so rattled. "This is sudden."

His eyes drift to Agent Khan. 

Oh, Shoaib has her number, alright. It's a subtle reprimand and a tease all at the same time, and she loves and hates how he can do that all with a few words. She still has so much to learn from him.

She looks up at Carter and shrugs. Their plan is fucking crazy but she feels like it will work. 

"No better way to follow this than from the inside. We saw an opportunity and we took it." 

"Sir. I acknowledge the unconventional nature of the operation here, but this whole mission has been all about unexpected developments - there's something going on here, the Soviets are tied up in it, we gotta act."

A tiny, tiny ghost of a smile at Khan. 

...The boy hasn't actually taken his hand out of her hair. People very often do have trouble completely coming out of character but-

-no, not her, surely. Agent Khan doesn't have such weaknesses - does she?

...The thing is, he isn't wholly sure it would be a bad thing if she did. In espionage there are many more claims of expertise, than expertise in truth; he at least knows enough to know how much he does not know. He really cannot say if Khan being more whole again as a person would be bad or good for her ability to do her job. 

As long as she doesn't lose sight of what is important.

"Well. I have no corrections to offer you then, Agent Khan, Agent Agan. But I will expect a full debrief. At the earliest opportunity."

Raina nods curtly. "Understood, sir," she says, her eyes blinking slowly. They feel heavy with sleep, and she's too tired and shaken to stop Carter from what he's doing. 

And it feels nice.

They lounge for a few more moments after Shoaib says his goodbye (with a very knowing look at Raina that she's unable to decipher) until she finally hails herself off the chaise, adjusting the fabric of her dress around her. She stumbles, unsteady, adrenaline leaving her in a rush and leaving behind bone-tiredness. 

He rolls easily to his feet, a little awkward now that everything is silent. "This place is pretty big," he says, to fill the void. "It's not gonna be a problem, but I've swept the place for bugs and things, pretty sure it's clean. If you wanna stay. Usmaan's not coming out of his study, I don't think, and there's some of the suites with locks on 'em."

She shakes her head hurriedly, immediately. "There's no fucking way I'm staying here. Not ever."

The fearful look she casts at the study tells him enough. "I'm going home. We can meet up and discuss this all tomorrow. Shoaib is going to want an airtight report on everything."

She glances at him, waiting. 

He looks back at her. 

Now that there's quiet again - now that the rush has died down - the reality of this night's work, and what they've agreed to do, sinks into him. 

He drifts closer to her without even realising. 

Her eyes shine so bright, like this - he resists the urge to cup her face in his hands -

For a long moment he says nothing. 

Her eyes flicker to his, down, back to his, flurried with indecision. 

She's done far too much tonight that she shouldn't have. 

"Are we ready for this?" 

"For what?" he breathes.

"This shit show we're getting into. There's no going back now, it's too late."

She inches closer, her breaths coming shorter, her chest rising and falling with them.

"It's... It might be too much to handle. What if we find out it's all for nothing in the end?" Raina murmurs. 

She has to tilt her head up to look him in the eyes now. She's so close. 

He wets his lips.

"What if we find out it's not?"

Raina's heart teeters, skipping a beat at the scent of him, rich and spicy and weathered after a night of partying and schmoozing. 

She's on the very end of a cliff, balanced on the edge of a knife, staring into a yawning abyss. It has very pretty blue eyes, and a rakish smirk, and an annoying accent over honey-smooth words. 

What if it's not?

It's only been a few weeks, but she trusts him. So immediately that it scares her. She's always had to keep her emotions tightly bound to her but he has a way of riling them like she's never experienced before, and it makes her feel alive. Like a wildfire of a girl, spitting and dancing and crackling and burning.

Her hand reaches up, a dove-like thing, to brush a lock of hair away from his brow. It sparks an insatiable hunger in her gut that yearns for more, for him, for everything. 

"We burn with it." 

He looks down at her, acutely conscious of the place where her hand touches his skin. He smiles a little bit, more softly than he usually does. It's easier now. 

He really doesn't like it when she looks scared. It makes it feel like there's something somehow wrong with the world. 

"I think," he murmurs quietly, his eyes drifting down to her lips, "we're gonna be fine."

She drops her hand slowly, breath fluttering past her lips. It hangs again at her side, resisting the magnetic pull to where it should be. 

Raina looks up at him, beyond words for the moment.

It's his move. She won't stop him. 

Too fast for her to see, he catches it, pulls her an inch closer - 

- wraps his other arm around her back, as though to lift her closer - 

- and pulls her in and kisses her. 

It's soft, and warm, and sparks that hunger in her, one that pushes her to the tips of her toes, that makes her press harder into him, dig her nails into his arms, grab the back of his neck and pull him closer.

Oh, god, gods, Allah and Jesus, this is such a bad idea, this is-

- it's still not close enough, she wants more, she wants it all, she wants to feel his hands hot on her bare skin, wants to hear him say her name -

- a groan tips out of her mouth and she dives deeper - 

He groans into the kiss and plucks her off the ground by her hips, holding her up with one arm as he tangles the fingers of his other hand in her hair, deepening the kiss - her legs wrap around him - he can drive her up against the wall and kiss her there -

Her back hits the wall and it slams her into her senses. She drops abruptly, landing delicately and pushing him away. Her breaths are irregular, and she won't look at him, but her cheeks are flaming. 

Oh, gods. Shoaib is somewhere winning a bet and also writing her death certificate, she just knows it.

She is. An idiot. A repressed, fanatic, idiot who has climbed the first handsome man she's seen like a tree. 

Silently, she pads over to the couch, retrieves her heeled sandals, and exits the house without a word. 

You know what, no, actually. 

He lopes after her. 

"Raina. What's wrong?"

Raina shakes her head, fights a shiver at the cold and hearing her name on his lips. "Don't. We shouldn't. Besides how many rules and policies we're breaking - it's just a terrible idea. A mistake!"

She's reaching, and she throws her hands into the air. It is so much easier to convince herself she's just repressed and a little stir-crazy. "We can't. Please let me go home alone." 

He has the gall to laugh, low and deep. "At home I'd say, it's a free country, but - well. When have you ever cared about the rules? I ain't stopping you, y'know. You're a good liar. I figure you know you're lying to yourself now."

She scowls, her steps turning more to stomps. "There are thousands of reasons I do not want this, and I do not want this to continue. This was a lapse in judgement."

That much, at least, is true. They barely know each other, beyond this sizzling attraction between them. It's probably just because they're young and... virile.