losttheright | (no subject)

It seemed like a good idea. That's how she presented the idea to Lee, anyway, when she first asked if he'd want to go with her to the annual holiday party for the mayor's staff and other City Hall employees. She'd have been going by herself otherwise, and though it's not really like she'd have had a problem with that, this way, she can introduce him to some of the people she knows, ones it might be useful for him to have met if he keeps moving forward with trying to get representation for people not from Darrow. Besides, she thinks a lot of them will want to meet the person who helped her try to keep everything afloat during the week and a half no one can account for, when just about everyone was gone, and God knows she could use some good company to get her through the night. She works day in and day out with these people, and she likes most of them well enough, but she really doesn't want to spend an entire fucking party doing her job.

So it's mutually beneficial, at least as far as she tell, and that's the important part. It isn't, however, why she puts so much effort into it, and neither is the prospect of being around her coworkers all night. They've seen her at her worst, so while she'd want to look nice regardless, she wouldn't necessarily see the need to go all out. Molly isn't entirely sure why she did, but she's glad for it. She's wearing something more revealing than she has in almost a fucking year and a half, and no matter how nerve-wracking that is, it's relieving, too, a step forward in its own right. For that alone, she's sure it'll be worth it, even if she's pretty sure that, heavy coat or not, she's going to freeze by the time she gets back to her building. At least, if the past couple months are any indication, she'll have a pretty damn good way of warming up again after. That is, if she can manage to keep a couple of her friends away from her plus one.

For now, keeping warm isn't a concern, anyway. It's warm enough inside, her hair falling in soft curls over her bare shoulders as she sips at a glass of champagne. The party will start winding down pretty soon, she thinks, but few have left yet, drinks are continuing to be served, and several people are still on the dance floor, and she isn't too eager to leave quite yet. The only thing she is in a hurry for is to get back to Lee, after having been dragged away for a work-related conversation far too serious for this setting. Making her way back to his side again, she smiles brightly. "Hi," she says. "Sorry about that. You weren't too bored without me, were you?"

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Even as she tries to tell herself that it doesn't matter, that it's just a fucking book, and nothing that would make any difference either way, Molly can't pretend that she's not a little relieved that it seems to go over well. The truth of it is, it does matter to her. She might not have the first idea what she and Lee are doing — even less so, after the way tonight has gone so far — but that doesn't make him any less someone who means a lot to her. That she's evidently gotten something right here is a pretty damn good feeling, even if it is something small in the grand scheme of things.

"Well, merry Christmas," she says with a small smile, just this side of wry, perfectly aware that it doesn't mean to him what it does to her. She could leave it at that, and for a moment, she intends to, but then figures, to hell with it. Holding back, dancing around subjects, certainly ones of this nature, that's never been her. There's no reason why it should be now. Maybe this is the perfect opportunity to get some clarity here.

Resting her hand against his arm, she exhales on a quiet laugh. "Can I ask you a question? That... might also be kind of awkward and imposing?"

"Awkward and imposing?" Lee asks, and he can't help the skeptical and amused look that comes to his face. Whatever it is, it doesn't stand much of a chance of ruining what has been a pretty great night. Not that the laugh that accompanies Molly's question makes him think that it might.

He pauses, and takes a second to brush a few strands of Molly's hair back, behind her ear, "Well, how can I say no? Shoot."

"When you invited me to that party, were you asking me on a date?" Molly asks, figuring she might as well not dance around the subject any longer, mouth curved in a small smile, wry but fond. It's not like it should really matter, and in a way, it doesn't. Given everything, though — what her friends said to her, what they asked him tonight, the way things have been for the past few weeks now — she might as well figure this out now, before they go any further. "You know, just so I have some idea of what I should wear."

Lee realizes then that he hadn't exactly said. He thought that maybe it might have been clear, but now that he thinks about it, he never actually called it a date.

"That's what I had in mind, yeah," Lee admits, and though he doesn't think it shows, he worries that it's a fact that might change things. Because he and Molly haven't gone out of their way to put words to exactly what they're doing here.

"Does that change your answer?"

It isn't until he's answered that Molly realizes it's what she was hoping he would say. She would have been fine, of course, if that hadn't been the case. What they've been doing these last couple months has suited her perfectly fine, and she's made a point, not just with Lee, but in general, of not reading too far into shit like this. What it means that she's so pleased to have been right, she doesn't know, but she can stop to figure that out later, if she needs to at all. Right now, it's enough.

"Of course not," she says like it ought to have been obvious, leaning in to kiss him briefly, mostly to keep her smile from growing too wide, a ridiculous impulse that she manages to stave off. Whatever she thinks of his response, she isn't looking to embarrass herself now. "I didn't want to assume, is all."

"I think you can go ahead and assume," Lee says, and even though they haven't put a label to what they're doing, at least not beyond knowing that they're going out on an actual date, they've been sleeping at each other's apartments more often than not since everyone disappeared. Whatever this is, it's definitely grown beyond assumptions at this point.

"I'll have to keep that in mind," Molly replies, smiling up at him, though it's short-lived. Now that that's settled, now that she knows just what's going on here, there's nothing to keep her from easing a little closer and leaning in to kiss him again, slow and soft and lingering this time. It wouldn't have mattered either way, or so she tells herself, but still, she can't pretend like she's not pleased to know where they stand with this. That she really wouldn't have assumed doesn't make a difference now.