This conversation was going nowhere fast. This was definitely not going to be pretty. She had already started bracing herself for an all out nose-to-nose argument. If it got the whiny man-child to go away it would be worth it. She was fairly certain she had never met someone that aggravated her so much that she was wondering just how rude it would be for her to drown herself in their clients' kitchen sink. She folded her arms across her chest as she leaned back against the counter in front of him. "I was just reminding you that you have a damn good hard working auror at your disposal. Though if you continue pushing my buttons you'll wish I was an amateur." She added with a slight shrug. Why the hell hadn't he left yet? For the love of Merlin this wasn't like it was the first day he had to work with her. Granted that night had been extremely awkward for her though she had quickly figured out that he was the most annoying man on the face of the earth. If a one night stand was immanent why did it have to happen with the biggest tool in all of Russia?

A large cocky smirk moved across her face when he realized he really couldn't dispute her reasoning as to why it would be extremely difficult to get rid of her. Sure he was her 'superior' during this detail, and she knew she irritated the hell out of him but he had to realize that she did make his life a little easier when it came to their actual duty. She scoffed at his next comment and shook her head. "You need me. I'm not going anywhere. What are you going to tell the head auror, that you are dismissing one of his best aurors because of your inability to keep it in your pants?" She challenged trying to push him a little harder. "No, I'm fairly certain I've never given anyone the trouble you say I give you. Then again I've never had to work with a man so aggravating that it makes me want to leap off of a building into a pool of rusty steak knives." She said casually as she ran a hand through her hair In minor irritation. That shag was definitely not worth the hell she had to put up with now.

She could tell she struck a nerve with her comment on protecting the family. For a moment she internally cheered thinking that was enough for him to want to just leave and not deal with her anymore. It apparently wasn't. He wasn't easy to ruffle which was even more annoying. When he challenged her she raised her eyebrows and laughed lightly. "I don't think it would be proper to destroy a client's home by tossing you about. Whether you decide to challenge me physically or magically things would be broken. Besides," She paused to take a sip of her coffee. "i don't want to chance seriously injuring you the evening before an event.... Darling." She added the last bit with a snicker. She had started using the 'term of endearment' while they were out seeing as calling him by his surname would be strange. Though now she did it at random times in an attempt to annoy him.

"So you would rather spend an evening arguing with me then just going away and saving us both the irritation? You must be a glutton for punishment." Now she was most definitely irritated though she didn't show it opposed to a very subtle twitch in her left eye. She knew she should just keep her mouth shut before she said something outright inappropriate, though she felt her resolve crumbling as her mouth opened once again. "You know you were far less aggravating when you were on t-" She stopped abruptly hearing a noise from outside of Anastasia's room. While she was sure it was the girl's cat she swiftly made her way out of the kitchen and up the stairs to see exactly what she had guessed. She cracked the door to Anastasia's room to let the cat in, doing one quick visual sweep before gently closing the door and making her way down to the kitchen. She was thankful the feline had interrupted her mid sentence hoping Petrov hadn't caught on to what she had been about to say. Persephone walked back into the kitchen and grabbed her coffee from the counter as if nothing had happened before glancing at them man from the corner of her eye. "Ready to leave yet?" She asked really hoping he would feel awkward enough to go away.

This was one example of why he wished it were acceptable to get her removed from the case, no matter how good she was. They were both distracted—at least slightly, by their arguments when they should be fully focused on their work. If she had just gone to sleep because her damn shift was over, then he would be able to concentrate, instead they were both awake and security was potentially compromised due to this irritating conversation. Nikolai was more than capable of multitasking, able to pay attention to his surroundings as well as different conversations, and he supposed that she was more than likely able to do the same. But for all he knew, it was equally possible that she couldn’t—and that meant that her presence at the current time was useless, “I’ve had plenty of hard-working aurors at my disposal—most of which actually do what they’re told,” he replied, raising an eyebrow. It seemed she was counting herself as a better auror than his other options, but it was equally important to understand and recognize the chain of command. Her not doing so didn’t make her much better than an amateur, really.

When he was trapped in an argument such as this, it was common for him to ponder just how much he’d rather have an amateur auror than a more experienced and annoyingly intuitive one with good ideas. Nikolai could teach an auror everything he knew and have them at a good skill level; but it was impossible to teach being easy to work with, and she was frustratingly impossible to work with. Of course, she’d probably say the same about him, pretty much completely proving his point, “Trust me, that’s not at all the problem,” Nikolai replied, dryly. If he had thought that he’d be tempted to have sex with her again when seeing that they’d be working together, he probably would have had her reassigned before she could even begin work on the case. That would have been professional, after all, but he knew that he would be sufficiently able to avoid another encounter. The more he got to know her, the surer he became of that. Nikolai chuckled under his breath at her comment, pausing to take a sip of his coffee before replying, “Well, if you plan on doing that, let me know so I can have your replacement ready,” he stated. There was no way that he was more aggravating than she was, he mused, wondering how it was possible that a woman this irritating was seemingly unaware that she made him want to Avada himself on a daily basis. There was no way that he was the only one that couldn’t tolerate her presence, but none of his other employees seemed to have a problem with her—though he’d blame that on the fact that they were quick interactions.

Frankly, it was becoming amusing to him that DiTraverso thought she’d stand a chance in ‘tossing him about’ the home. Physically speaking, her brief training in Russia was meaningless, because he’d had no problem subduing her within moments if it came down to it. Magically speaking, the woman was probably unaware of his ability to use wandless magic and he was sure that he could have her out the room that way as well, “I would hate to burst the bubble of your arrogance but I could have you out the room in a heartbeat, with one hand tied behind my back,” he replied, shrugging. It was something he would be more than happy to prove to her, if only to show her that she wasn’t nearly as invincible as she thought she was. He hid his grimace at her irritating pet name for him, shaking his head, “Oh, I’m not worried about you injuring me, sweetheart,” Nikolai said, wishing that the story about him being her boyfriend didn’t work so damn well, as it was nearly torturous. Just one more reason that he was sure that she was purposefully this aggravating.

“Just doing my job,” he shrugged, though he would really rather her just leave and save them both the irritation, “Since it’s you that’s impeding on my shift, I’d argue you’re the glutton for punishment,” Nikolai countered, as she was seemingly going to continue to forget that she was the one that wasn’t supposed to be currently working. He raised his eyebrows at her next comment—well, the beginnings of it anyhow, though even it being cut off didn’t prevent him from realizing what she had been about to say. DiTraverso was lucky the damn cat had saved her from saying that. Nikolai had just been refilling his mug with coffee when she entered the room again, so clearly Nikolai had been right about it only being the cat, “My shift’s not over until the morning,” he said, carelessly, before turning to face her again, “Your attempts at aggravating little comments aren’t running me out of the house, if that’s what you’re expecting.”

This was absolutely exhausting and she absolutely should have known better. She had done enough research on Russian culture to know that this stubbornness was actually quite normal. Though he seemed not to follow the other norms in the society, like being respectful to a woman. Well he had never been outwardly disrespectful to her, but then again there was only one time she could think of where he had followed more cultural norms, and that was when they were blissfully unaware of the other’s career. She knew she could be difficult at times. While she was English, her Italian heritage was more shown than anything else. Women were strong and a force to be reckoned with. It was the matriarch of the family that was in charge a goof bit of the time, though there was always an air of love and admiration between all parties. No, she didn’t like taking orders, but when asked to do something in a certain way she complied easily. ”I’m not disagreeing that I can be a little difficult to work with, but I don’t take orders. Talk to me like I’m a decent human being opposed to your lackey. The sooner you realize that the easier things will be on you.” She said with a shrug.

She raised an eyebrow at him as he had obviously misunderstood what she had said, or he was trying to insult her in some roundabout way. ”I didn’t say it would be a reoccurring problem. I was simply stating that while you say I’m the one causing problems because of our little tryst, I believe you are slightly guilty of doing it yourself. You were the one that felt it necessary to bring it up during this conversation.” She added. She wasn’t exactly sure if that was the case. Part of her doubted that since she had a feeling even if they hadn’t slept together she still would have found him extremely annoying. She turned away slightly to gather herself as she felt a smile trying to come through at his comment on getting a replacement ready. It was aggravating that his comment had amused her.

It seemed like he was the arrogant one in this situation by underestimated her. She looked him up and down making a show of it to make it absolutely clear that she was assessing the situation and sizing him up. ”Physically you have the advantage of being twice my size and decently strong. That I won’t dispute. Do I think you could actually remove me from the room if necessary? Absolutely. Do I think it would be over as fast as you anticipate? Not at all. Sure you’ll be able to get me out of the room, but you will require a great deal of healing afterwards.” She said matter-of-factly before cringing ever so slightly as he called her sweetheart. He’d be daft to think he could just muscle her around or even use magic to get her out without getting badly injured in the process.

”You act like I’m hanging about just to irritate you. I would much rather not be around you more than absolutely necessary. But if Anastasia gets up in the middle of the night and asks for me I don’t see you going to wake me up. When I tell someone I’m doing something I bloody do it. I don’t go back on my word.” She genuinely did not feel like dealing with the man, and had Anastasia not mentioned her staying up Persephone would have gone right to her room to catch a few hours of sleep. She was exceptionally thankful that she hadn’t been able to finish the sentence she had been delivering as she could only imagine it would have made things worse. Though she could tell by his expression that he knew exactly what she was getting ready to say.

She scowled as he was still refusing to leave. Persephone thought for a moment figuring if he wouldn’t go away it was a good opportunity to discuss a few work related issues that were starting to pop up. At least now they had acknowledged the elephant in the room so it shouldn’t be as difficult to speak about. Well since you refuse to leave there is some business we need to discuss before the event tomorrow.” She said changing her tone so that it was far more formal. What they needed to discuss might be a bit more uncomfortable. ”Mrs. Belikovsky brought it to my attention a few days ago that some of those close to the family are whispering that the nanny looks like she’s on the outs with her boyfriend. This is a problem we need to discuss and fix. As much as it pains me to say, I need you there with me for those events.” She took a sip of her drink waiting to see if he had anything to really say on it before she continued.

The entire way that an auror department worked was by a chain of command, and there was always one in charge. At her age, there was no doubt in his mind that she was not the auror in charge of the British Ministry of Magic. So Nikolai really had no idea why she was so horrible at even accepting that she had to take orders. This was his company’s case that the Ministry had sent an auror to assist on and she was acting morally offended that she had to do what he said. It wasn’t like he went around barking orders every second of the day; he was a relatively easy-going person to work with to anyone but her, apparently. Strict, but not at all hard to work with unless he was dealing with an impossible brit with too much attitude to fit in the entire damn room, “My apologies, I had no idea that your delicate sensibilities were so easily offended by the way I speak to you,” Nikolai replied, smoothly, hoping his words were enough to irritate her into leaving. This line of conversation was certainly capable of pissing her off, “I brought it up in conversation because, since you are assisting my company on my case, it’s important to know if you’re incapable of working for or with men you’ve had sex with,” he told her, which was a reasonable enough excuse, “If you find yourself incapable of working this case because of me, I’d rather have you reassigned before something goes wrong.” He simply found it improbable that her actions had nothing to do with the encounter they’d had months back.

She honestly thought that she would injure him if he attempted to make her leave the room, and that clearly meant she was putting more stock in her abilities than she should. Nikolai almost wanted to do it just to prove that she was wrong, but he supposed that she was right in this not being the best location or them to act like that—no matter how much her ego apparently needed deflating, “If you think a couple months or weeks of physical training here has prepared you to even leave a mark on me, you’re wrong,” he told her. Nikolai knew that she wouldn’t at all believe that he’d grown up on a farm, but doing all that labor manually had meant he’d always been strong—it had just been unfocused for a while. But with working undercover for the gang, and his work as an Auror, Nikolai knew that he had years more practice not only because he was older and thus had worked longer, but also due to his outside training. He would credit it mostly to his work undercover, and since she more than likely didn’t know about that, Nikolai supposed it made sense that she thought she stood a chance. After all, she probably had her training from Aleksey, and he was about Nikolai’s size but not nearly as focused. Her arrogance was one of the main reasons that she was so impossible to be around.

Apparently, Anastasia had more sway in what his auror did than he did, he mused, wondering if he should tell the girl that and see what she thought. DiTraverso apparently thought that just because he was big and Russian, that people were always afraid of him—and yes, he supposed they were to an extent, but last he checked Anastasia was just as fond of him as she was of the Brit, though apparently DiTraverso’s head was too far up her ass to realize that. If he gave Anastasia what he wanted DiTraverso to do, Nikolai was certain that she’d do it. And she said she didn’t take orders, “Then by all means, go play nanny—somewhere else,” he replied, gesturing toward the door. She would be not nearly as hard to deal with if she was in Anastasia’s room.

The fact that she was the one managing to look pissed off that he wasn’t leaving was almost amusing if it weren’t so damn frustrating. She was the one that was meant to be off the clock and he was the one that was supposed to be there, or was she forgetting that? Absolutely the most aggravating woman on this entire continent, at least, he thought, raising his eyebrows at her next comment, though it didn’t surprise him. How anyone could think they were dating—that was the surprising part. The fact that some of the friends were finally catching up really only made sense, but he didn’t particularly want to contemplate what they would have to do to keep up the charade, “I’m not surprised that there are whispers at this point,” he stated, waiting for her to continue and get to the point she was trying to make. Hopefully, DiTraverso would have an idea of what to do because he could admit that any foreseeable option that he was coming up with had to do with making their dating more believable—and that didn’t sound like anything he would want to do.

Her eyebrows shot up as her fists clenched at her side. The man was playing with fire now. Would it be proper for her to full on deck her superior? Probably not, and it was taking every fiber of her being not to do it. ”Your voice and your mere existence is enough to offend every sensibility I have.” She ground out. She wasn’t standing very close to him, though she took a small step back to lessen the chances that she would close in and assault him. She silently vowed to never go out drinking by herself again as he continued to speak. Apparently intoxicated Persephone had horrible taste in men. ”If that were really the case you would have asked me if I had an issue with working with you right off the bat instead of waiting months later to remind me that we slept together and ask if that would cause problems.” She challenged. She knew that eventually they would have had to acknowledge what had occurred, but it was a terrible time to do so. Though part of her knew that the fact that they slept together did have some bearing on how she dealt with him. She never had issues with her boss back home, or even her superior there in Russia. ”They’ll think you’re bloody mad to dismiss me. You are probably the only person in this field of work, in this area, that takes issue with me. But if you want to tell them you couldn’t even handle a twenty-nine year old witch half your size that’s on you.” She said with a smirk. She knew that was in no way the case as she was now just taunting him.

Persephone was finally starting to relax slightly and the urge to hit the prick wasn’t nearly as strong as it had been. She laughed. He really did think he was invincible. ”I will hand it to the Magical Law Enforcement here, you lot don’t mess around when it comes to training. I promise you have been laid out several times by aurors your size. They don’t exactly go easy on anyone. That being said, I can take down, if not seriously injure most of the aurors there. I may not be perfect or invincible but I can hold my own. Do you really think they would send you someone who wasn’t skilled in both magical and physical aspects?” She paused for a moment, an inappropriate comment lingering in her head. She laughed slightly at the thought bringing the mug back to her lips. ”Haven’t I left marks on you before?” She mumbled into her cup. He was going to try to piss her off to get her to leave and that wasn’t going to work. She decided at this point maybe the key to making him bugger off would be to make him as uncomfortable as possible.

”Nope, I think I’m just going to sit in the kitchen drinking coffee and aggravating you. She said with a shrug when he pointed to the door. The nanny bit didn’t really bother her. She was a very family oriented person and if the worst he could do was call her a nanny because she cared about a child enough to go the extra mile and inadvertently piss him off, then so be it.

She really did not want to have this conversation, but it had to be done. They had been a ‘couple’ far too long into this detail for them ‘breaking up’ and him still hanging around to be an option. They would have to make it realistic and that was annoying to say the least. She had been wracking her brain for the past few days and hadn’t come up with any other possible avenues to take. Persephone sighed running a hand through her hair. ”If you could pretend I wasn’t the bane of your existence we wouldn’t be having this issue. The fact of the matter is, out in public we’re a couple and unless we can keep the charade going we’re going to be screwed on other options so that we can both be present when needed, not just one or the other.”

She sat down her coffee cup to approach him but stopped about two feet short of him. ”I figured out some subtle changes we can make that will take some suspicion off of us. Unfortunately, one portion of it will include some form of physical contact, but we’ll start with a proximity exercise first. I’m going to move in close to what is considered a social norm for lovers when just speaking to each other. Do you think you can handle that, or are you going to whine about it?” She asked raising her eyebrows at him. If they could maintain that kind of proximity without looking like they were in excruciating pain, they wouldn’t have to do very much in the way of subtle physical contact. Maybe as a bonus this would be too much for him and he'd leave.

He couldn’t help but smirk when it became clear to him that he’d managed to piss her off with the first comment he’d made. She’d obviously been trying to get a rise out of him near from the beginning of this conversation, with no success; but he’d angered her with the first comment that had come to his mind, “That’s impressive—I’m hardly even trying,” Nikolai said, his smirk widening. Perhaps she would actually try to hit him; that could be amusing on more than one front. He shrugged, casually, knowing that she had brought up a good point—not that he would tell her that, “Thought I’d give you a chance to prove it for yourself; but clearly, that’s not going too well,” he added. Every word the woman spoke was a test of his patience, and he tried to remind himself that calling in the Ministry had been protocol, and that there was nothing he could have done to prevent this. It wasn’t as though he could have said ‘no irritatingly stubborn and generally infuriating British women,’ as a prerequisite for the Ministry sending someone over. Nikolai scoffed at her comment. Anyone with damn ears in this area should take issue with you, he thought, shaking his head, “It’s lucky I really don’t give a damn who thinks what of me,” he shrugged, knowing that if he were to dismiss her, he wouldn’t care if anyone thought he was crazy or thought that he couldn’t handle her. Anyone who knew him knew exactly what he was capable of handling.

“You’ll forget that I’ve been doing this far longer than you have,” he told her, shooting her an amused look. He hadn’t been ‘laid out’ since he was an amateur himself, back when DiTraverso was probably a damn first year. And even then, it had been a rare occasion. Nikolai shook his head, unsure if he found himself more or less amused that she seemed to seriously think she would stand a chance against him, “I’m sure you’re skilled in both magical and physical aspects,” he shrugged, as clearly they wouldn’t send her to him otherwise, “But there’s a difference in skilled, and being able to even slightly stand a chance against me and I don’t need to see you in action to know you wouldn’t.” He supposed that came off rather arrogant, but this was one aspect of his training and life that he was fully confident in—well, that wasn’t precisely true. He was overly confident in almost all areas, this one was just one he was particularly confident in. With all the work he’d done, in the Auror department, in the gang, in his business and just in damn general, he was well aware that his arrogance was warranted. At first, Nikolai was almost certain he had misheard her comment, but found himself amused by it nevertheless. She had most definitely left marks on him, but that was probably something better left unsaid, particularly due to the memories that came along with. It really was too bad that she was so damn annoying.

If he had known that this couple rumor was going to begin amongst the friends of the family, Nikolai would have figured out a way to nip it in the bud, because it was incredibly irritating to deal with. The pair had a hard enough time dealing with each other on a daily basis, having to pretend that they were dating was practically torture. As if he would ever be able to date a Brit or an Italian woman after meeting this one. She’d ruined both nationalities for him, inevitably, “Perhaps if you could pretend that, what was that… my voice and mere existence didn’t offend all of your sensibilities, then we wouldn’t be having this problem,” he countered, raising an eyebrow. It was irritating to him that she considered him acting like she was the bane of his existence was the sole reason that they were having problems; when really, it was frankly because she’d came in here putting on a ridiculous stubborn front in order to make up for the fact that they’d slept together. That was where the real damn problem was. This woman was absolutely the most infuriating one that existed, he thought, though this was a thought he had almost every damn day at this point. He was pretty sure he hadn’t whined a day in his damn life. Proximity exercise, he thought, scoffing; it was a clear attempt to make him uncomfortable and it wasn’t going to work, “Do your worst,” he stated, figuring it would probably be quite amusing when she realized that none of her irritating little antics were going to work on him.

There was nothing in this world that Persephone wouldn’t give to be able to prove a point to the asshat in front of her on what would happen if he didn’t back off. She didn’t even care that he was her ‘superior’ or how big he was compared to her. ”Cazzo stronzo.” She mumbled under her breath. While she didn’t speak Italian often, it normally meant that she was heated. It did help to be able to insult the infuriating man in a language he didn’t understand.

Persephone shook her head with a smirk when he said he didn’t care what others thought. Sure they probably wouldn’t think he couldn’t handle her, but she knew questions would be raised about the dismissal if it occurred. She highly doubted he would get rid of her. As an auror or whatever he called himself those days she had no complaints. He was damn good at his job, and if she did have to do a detail that was extremely dangerous and was forced to take a partner with her she would more than likely request him. If it came down to it she had no concerns that they wouldn’t be able to suck it up and be a force to be reckoned with. ”Considering my age and when I started training I have far more experience than you think. I’ve been doing this work for twelve years. Unless you came straight to the force from school you have, at most, four years on me.” This conversation was annoying. She was getting tired of him discounting her abilities. Did he think she had never seen any kind of ‘action’ in her years? She never divulged much about herself feeling it was completely unnecessary. He didn’t need to know that she already had a body count. That wasn’t something to run around telling people.

It seemed that her comment on leaving marks was amusing to him, though he made no comment on it. Apparently she was being too tame to elicit a response. She paused for a moment trying to examine that memory to see what else she could possibly say to get a rise out of him. In retrospect it was glaringly obvious that he had been an auror at some point. She spent the whole of her adult life around aurors. They all seemed to have little mannerisms that were hard to shake. Even the act itself should have raised some form of suspicion. It had been extremely aggressive which she was sure wasn’t really a norm to do with a complete stranger, at least not to the degree they had. ”I still say you are partially guilty of having issues with me because of that encounter.” She said crossing her arms.

She rolled her eyes as Petrov challenged her. This was going to be exhausting. ”Can we attempt to be professional? This little training, or whatever you want to call it, is most likely not going to be pleasant for either one of us. We are going to have to be close, you are going to have to make physical contact with me, and I know neither one of us want to do this.” Persephone had watched how other couples had acted towards each other, and they were definitely not acting the part by those standards. It did make things easier that the culture was exceptionally similar to Italian culture. It would be easy for her to point out their biggest issues, but emulating it was going to be almost painful. She took a deep breath, gently rolling her shoulders as if she were preparing to square off with him before moving to close the distance between them. This was already aggravating as she was now only a little over a half foot from his face. ”This is the distance we need to maintain unless we are separately socializing with others. You will maintain eye contact with me during this in public.” She said raising her eyebrows as if to ask if he understood that. ”You also need to speak to me in public without being a complete tool. Or at least smile through whatever insult you toss at me. Do you think you can handle this bit?” She asked already becoming very aware of his proximity to her though she was still aggravated enough that she was able to ignore it for the most part.

He didn’t have to speak Italian to know that he had just been insulted, not that it fazed him in the slightest. Nikolai spoke several languages that he could insult her in if he wished to, and if he delved deep enough into Russian, he also knew she wouldn’t have a clue what he was saying. She spoke the language well enough, but it was a comprehensive language. The conversation about her apparent worth in physical fighting and strength was clearly never going to end. He chuckled under his breath at her comment, deciding there was no use telling her that it didn’t matter when she joined and how much experience she had. If she thought she could take him on for even a moment in a fight, she was welcome to try it out; but Nikolai assumed that she didn’t want to burst that bubble, apparently thinking pretty damn highly of her physical abilities. It wasn’t as though he was discounting them, knowing that she was quite correct that they wouldn’t had sent her to him if she didn’t have skill. Nikolai also just knew his own skill level, and the chances that she’d even land a hit on him were pretty low… and if she did, the chances that it would even sting were even less likely, “I’ve got more training than just auror training on my side,” he replied, knowing that his work undercover gave him even more of an advantage.

He supposed he was doing a lot better with dealing with DiTraverso when the topic of their one-night stand wasn’t on his mind. Really, he found himself in situations like that often… most nights that he went out for a drink, he ended up having a one-night stand. Of course, he didn’t actually go out all that often; but since he didn’t date, the best way for an unattached evening was out drinking. But apparently he would have to stop, because if he ever found himself in working with a previous fuck again, Nikolai had no idea what he would do, “I would have to disagree with that,” he stated, making a face. His judgment and attitude was completely unaffected by her working for him, as far as he was aware. No one had made any comments about him treating her any differently, after all, and they had all worked with him enough to know.

Nikolai knew that whoever formulated this dating rumor was trying to kill him, or DiTraverso. Clearly, they couldn’t both come out of this shit alive, and he was certain that her mere presence close to his person was going to cause her to become even more irritating. There was simply no way that even being close together was going to convince anyone that they were dating, unless they were blind. Deciding that he didn’t even have a response to her statement about acting professional, Nikolai just nodded in agreement. The sooner they could work this out, the sooner she would hopefully leave the room and he could get back to his shift in peace. Apparently, that was too much to ask for, but perhaps if he made her uncomfortable enough, she would leave—even better, perhaps she would simply make herself uncomfortable with this damn exercise and would still leave, only he wouldn’t have to do anything. As he suspected, he found himself growing more irritated the closer she got to him, raising an eyebrow at her words, “Oh, I will, will I?” Now the Brit was trying to dictate orders to him. He was just itching to replace her at this point, wondering if he still had an in enough at the Auror office to put her at her desk for a month doing nothing but damn paperwork. Nikolai would assume he still had sway enough to pull that off. For now, though, he would simply focus on making her uncomfortable until she left. Not breaking eye contact with her, he moved closer, smirking slightly. When he had leaned in enough that his lips were by her ear, he finally spoke, “Insult you with a smile? That I can handle.” Moving away from her, he returned to his previous position, picking up his coffee casually and taking another sip.

Every word coming out of the man’s mouth was bringing him closer and closer to her actually assaulting him in some kind of way. She hadn’t figured out if it would be more pleasing to hex him, or try to punch him in the face at this point. She was done arguing with him on her abilities. Regardless he would feel like he was invincible, and continue to act as if she was just another auror of average skill. It wasn’t worth it to continue speaking about such issues to the pompous asshat. She was tempted to tell him she was done and to call in a replacement. Of course that would be as good as telling him that he ‘won’ in some respect. No, he would not get that satisfaction of thinking he had pissed her off enough to give up a case. This wasn’t about him or her, this was about the family they were hired to protect. This detail wouldn’t last forever. It would at least get more experience under her belt if nothing else.

Why she had felt the need to jump into bed with someone like Petrov just had further proven to her that she could not permit herself to even be slightly intoxicated in public. She honestly had no damn clue how exactly they had even gotten into that predicament. Was he a good shag? From what she could remember she had to say yes. Was it worth the hell she had to endure now? No, not at all. Unless he was planning on sleeping with her every single time he pissed her off, it was absolutely not bloody worth it. She shook the thought from her head. For a moment she worried that maybe she had absolutely lost her mind for even thinking such a thing.

She ignored his comment disagreeing with her on whether or not them sleeping together influenced him as well. She was done arguing. Persephone would walk them through how to feign actually liking each other enough to appear to be dating and try not to attack him in the process. ”Yes, you will, or you can spend more time with me—you decide.” She said curtly. Persephone had hoped the close proximity would cause him to retreat or at least he would have stopped giving her an attitude. It seemed he was doing the exact opposite now. Her eyes narrowed as he moved in closer to her. She had to concentrate to keep herself from stepping back and swinging on him when his lips moved close to her ear. ”You don’t want to play this game with me, Petrov.” She threatened when he stepped back again. He really thought he could make her uncomfortable by getting so close. No, he had aggravated her so much that she was barely registering anything anymore. ”Physical contact is to be used sparingly. Touches on the shoulder, mid back, arm, and hand are all acceptable; touching that involves you putting your hands near or around my waist are reserved for photos.” She rambled off before moving more into his space as he had done with her. He would be the one to feel uncomfortable and leave. She was so damn done with him at this point. She slid her hands onto his chest leaning in so that her nose grazed his, her lips only hovering a few centimeters from his. ”I think your shift is over.” She whispered remaining close. There was absolutely no way he could stick around after that. Her eyebrows rose slightly as she anticipated him moving away from her at any moment. Maybe she would wait until the morning to gloat about her win… if he was lucky.

All he wanted her to admit was that she didn’t stand a chance against him in any kind of physical altercation. It wasn’t as though he was discounting her abilities, which Nikolai was sure she possessed, but unwarranted cockiness wasn’t going to help her at all either. There was a difference between confidence and a level of cockiness that would get someone injured or killed. There was no harm in her knowing her limits, after all; but he didn’t doubt that she could stare down the most dangerous man in Russia and naïvely think that she could take him on. And that kind of thinking got people killed. It was ridiculous that she didn’t realize that.

There had been a time, however long ago that seemed now, where all Nikolai did was drink. After the murders of his family and his move to Moscow, he couldn’t recall a time for nearly a year that he’d been sober. But once he had begun to move past that he had stopped the drinking for the most part. Really, he didn’t get drunk often at all now, even if he did drink casually more often than not. It figured the one time that he actually got intoxicated, he’d had sex with the most irritating woman to be born in the past century. He supposed it made sense though, as he would have had to be drunk to be able to tolerate her, or so he assumed. Nikolai wondered if she’d talked less or if he had been too drunk to notice just how stubborn and aggravating she actually was. Though her personality hadn’t really been what he was focusing on at the time, he mused, so that made a bit of sense. From what he recalled, it had been a great fuck, but it was hardly worth what was happening now. Why couldn’t she have just been a nameless woman that he never had to lay eyes on again? What were the damn odds? “Well Merlin knows I can’t handle any more damn time with you,” he muttered. Nikolai had no idea what she thought the benefits of this little exercise were. She couldn’t be in the same room as him without looking like she wanted to hex him, and that was hardly his fault or shit that could be solved by close proximity.

Apparently it would be harder to make her uncomfortable than he first thought, which was annoying; but he was sure he knew what buttons to push enough to get her to leave. It was just a matter of time, really, “Don’t I?” He replied, smirking slightly. As far as he was concerned, it was quite easy to piss her off. Hell, he’d managed that with one offhanded comment about her sensibilities, and Nikolai had been surprised she hadn’t up and hit him right then. Making her uncomfortable would prove to be far easier than that. Nikolai found himself barely paying attention to her ‘approved’ locations for contact, as he never was one to listen to directions too well. If she wanted him to play the fake boyfriend for the sake of the detail, he would do it… but his own way, making her ridiculous list of places he could touch obsolete. He didn’t react to her moving her hands up his chest, as clearly she was just attempting to play the same game with him, and that wouldn’t work. She was far too aggravating to even contemplate ridiculous thoughts about their past one-night stand. It was far from his damn mind. His eyes flickered briefly to her lips as she moved closer to him, before moving them elsewhere, irritated by his straying thoughts. However, he would never let that show outwardly, because this was not a game that she would be winning, “Not quite,” he stated, not moving away from her. She was probably only going to succeed in making herself uncomfortable by putting herself into a situation like this.