New Fic: The Right Time Part 1/2
Title: The Right Time
Fandom: DWP
Pairing: Andy/Miranda
Raiting: PG13? There's some swearing, but that's all.
Author's Notes: This is a christmas gift for jesi76082 . I hope you like it, since I'm not at all sure that I followed the prompt very well. The prompt was:
What I want:
FANFICTION- Miranda/Andy...preferably while Andy is still working for Miranda. I like the chase to be long and drawn out, with the clues of their eventual getting together getting more and more obvious to each other as the fic goes on. I'm not really into smut, so none of that if you can hold yourself back lol (it's hard, I know.) I like a little bit of angst...maybe with Miranda and Andy realizing they love each other but neither willing to give into it for various reasons (though eventually they would get together, of course.) I like Stephen, Nate, and ex-husbands to be minimal, but I like when Lily acts as the best friend in the story.
Okay...if that was overly specific...I'm sorry. ( :
But as for the actual plot- be creative! I love it all!
A huge thank you to grdnofevrythng for organising this exchange. It's been great fun. And thanks also to outuendo_11 for my amazing gift. And I'm going to shut up now so you can read this wierd story...
***
Andy felt Emily’s eyes on her over the top of the computer screen. She sighed internally, and met her gaze.
“What, Emily?” Andy almost felt bad for snapping, but since she had come back from Paris, Emily had been getting on her nerves even more than usual with her manic jealousy.
“Nothing.”
Andy rolled her eyes and turned back to her screen, her fingers hammering onto the keyboard with a little more force than normal, but after about five minutes, she felt herself being watched again.
“What?”
Emily cleared her throat, and sat up straighter in her chair. “I was wondering,” she began, and Andy was intrigued by the forced polite tone, “whether you might be able to do me a favour.”
“A favour?”
“I’m flying to England over Christmas, and I was hoping that you might be able to look after Hugo. My hamster.”
Andy forced herself to suppress a smirk, and instead put on a serious face. “Your hamster?”
“Yes.” Emily looked extremely uncomfortable. “My neighbour usually looks after it, but she’s going away for the holidays as well.”
“Sure. I’m staying in New York anyway.”
“Great, great. I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t desperate, you know.”
“Of course.”
“Ok, so I’ll bring him in next week and give you instructions on how to care for him. He’s quite easy to look after, really.”
Andy nodded, and Emily, who was making a face like she’d just eaten something extremely sour, excused herself to go to the bathroom.
Andy smiled. She could only imagine what it had cost Emily to ask this favour of her.
***
That afternoon, Andy was preparing to leave with Miranda for her meeting at Calvin Klein. Andy couldn’t help but notice that Miranda was wearing a particularly flattering suit that day. Miranda was always dressed to kill, but, walking behind her as she was, she had a full view of how nicely Miranda’s curves were on display.
Andy swallowed. Really, she had quite a nice job, if you ignored the terrible hours and the low pay. In what other job were you surrounded by so much beauty everyday?
Granted, Miranda could be difficult. But Andy could proudly say that she was beginning to get the hang of reading Miranda’s moods, even before Miranda herself did. Things were working out quite nicely, she thought.
They turned the corner, and Andy was distracted briefly from the hypnotic sway of Miranda’s hips in front of her (the suit Miranda was wearing was really very flattering), by the excited chatter of Serena and Emily down the corridor.
Andy rolled her eyes. If there was one thing Miranda hated, it was approaching holidays distracting people from their work. There were no festive decorations around the office, and Andy wouldn’t really have noticed that it was close to Christmas except for the orders she had to pass on to the personal shopper Miranda had hired to buy her various presents for her, whenever she changed her mind about what she wanted to give someone.
Andy wished she could hire a personal shopper for her Christmas shopping. She’d had barely any time to herself these past few weeks, as so many things needed to be finished before the holiday, and she was leaving it extremely late.
Then she had tried to imagine Miranda doing her own shopping, and was sure that her head had nearly exploded. Still, it wasn’t fair at all.
Emily and Serena came into sight, and they moved away from each other guiltily as they saw Miranda stride towards them.
“Emily, I am obviously giving you far too little to do if you have time for idle chatter. I want those skirts, and push up the run through to tomorrow at 10. If they’re not ready by then, they’re all fired.“ She turned to Serena as Emily scuttled off. “Serena, if you like working in this city, you will think of better ideas than the ones you delivered this morning by tonight. Have them delivered with the book. That’s all.”
Andy gave Serena, who looked like she was about to have a panic attack, a sympathetic look, and hurried after Miranda who had just stepped into the elevator. She hovered outside it for a brief second, and then Miranda rolled her eyes and actually reached out to pull Andy inside.
This was one of the Miranda’s newest oddities; she wanted Andy in elevators with her. This was also not the first time Miranda had touched her like this. She seemed to have become fond of gently pushing Andy around, whether it was towards the car or into the elevator, or whatever. Andy didn’t mind this. She assumed that this meant that Miranda was comfortable around her, and she was glad because after the disaster that had been Paris, she knew she would have to win Miranda’s trust again.
She glanced towards Miranda, who was staring straight ahead.
“What are you doing for Christmas?”
Andy was so shocked at the question that she almost choked on her own spit. Disgusted at herself, she tried to give a reasonably intelligent answer.
“I’m staying in New York, and celebrating with my best friend Lily.” She glanced at Miranda, and her eyes widened when Miranda jerked her head slightly for her to elaborate. “My parents are visiting my sister in Australia this year. She’s a doctor there.”
“Why aren’t you going with them?”
Andy felt distinctly uncomfortable. It was extremely odd to be having this kind of friendly conversation with Miranda.
“I can’t afford it. My parents would pay, of course, if I asked them, but I don’t want to take money from them unless I have to. They’ve already done so much for me.”
Miranda nodded. Andy was surprised that she had seemed genuinely interested in her answer. Then again, Miranda wasn’t the type to ask something just to make polite small talk. She always had a reason.
She glanced at Miranda again, and this time, Miranda caught her looking and gave her a challenging look. Andy suddenly felt that it was extremely important to stop Miranda from saying what she was going to, because she knew that it would be harsh and cold and probably not genuine.
This was one of the things she had begun to observe about Miranda. It was a theory of Andy’s that Miranda didn’t actually mean half of the insults she said. She probably didn’t even think about them anymore. For this reason, she quickly cut off whatever had been about to come out of Miranda’s mouth.
“What about you? What are you doing this Christmas?”
The minute the words left her mouth, she felt like she wanted to sink into the floor, but Miranda just gave her a confused look, like she couldn’t understand what on earth Andy had just asked her.
“Just a quiet Christmas with the girls. Their father has them for New Year.”
Andy couldn’t believe that Miranda had actually answered. “That sounds nice.” And it did. Andy knew that, whatever Christmas was going to be like this year, it certainly wouldn’t be quiet. Lily was throwing one of her legendary parties, and while Andy was sure that she would have fun, she was also wistful when she remembered the quiet family Christmases of her childhood.
“That reminds me,” Miranda suddenly told her as they reached the ground floor, “I need you to pick up the dresses for the girls for New Year from James Holt. Richards’s girlfriend has insisted that she pick the dresses, and I am not having my girls dressed like Lindsay Lohan. They’re ten year old girls, not pole dancers.”
Andy swallowed. “Of course not, Miranda. I’ll pick them up tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” Miranda muttered as she strode out of the building and into the waiting car, and Andy tried to close her mouth again. That had probably been the weirdest elevator ride in history.
***
The next day, when Andy returned from James Holt with the dresses, she noticed Miranda staring at her from her desk.
“Andrea?”
Andy hurried into Miranda’s office. She hoped this wasn’t another errand, because Emily was still in the Art Department, and there was no one to mind the phones.
“Is that the skirt from the October issue?”
“Erm, yes?” Andy hated how timid she sounded, but her clothes were the only thing she still panicked about. Learning about Miranda’s moods might have taken her a while, but she now knew that she could read them. Dressing fashionably, however, was still hard.
“I seem to remember that I paired it with a different shirt.”
Andy swallowed. “Yeah, but I thought it was a little daring.” That had been an understatement. The shirt was light blue, silky, and extremely low cut.
Miranda rolled her eyes, but Andy was sure that she didn’t mean this in a nasty way. In fact, she was almost sure that Miranda was amused.
“Fashion, Andrea, is about taking risks. Your clothes complete who you are. They are your signature. Especially at Runway, it is important to dress inventively. As for your worry that the shirt may be a bit daring, let me tell you that as long as you wear it confidently, it will be just fine.”
Andy was tempted to ask whether, if she wore her favourite cerulean sweater with confidence, Miranda would find it acceptable as well, but then she caught the facial expression on Miranda’s face. It was almost eager. Andy realised that to Miranda, she was probably some sort of Barbie doll which she liked to dress up.
“Alright, I’ll wear it tomorrow.”
“That’s all,” Miranda dismissed her, but Andy could see that she was pleased.
Strange.
***
Miranda came to work slightly early the next morning, so she was there even before Emily. Andrea was, however, as she saw that her computer was already buzzing, and Miranda assumed that she was out getting coffee.
Although Andrea did most of her most important tasks and generally was treated like the first assistant, technically she was still her second assistant, and she still got her coffee every morning. Miranda was glad, because somehow Andrea always managed to get her coffee to her much hotter than anyone else. Maybe she could walk faster because her heels weren’t as high.
Miranda sometimes questioned herself about why she hadn’t made Andrea her first assistant yet. She was better at her job than Emily was, that much was certain, and deserved the promotion.
But deep down, Miranda knew that she was doing this for selfish reasons. She knew that Andrea was just biding her time at Runway, waiting for the right opportunity to move on, and an official promotion would make it much easier for her to find work. And it might be a wake-up call for Andrea, realising that she had been with her long enough to deserve this promotion. Miranda was aware that Andrea would not stay forever, but she would miss her around the office.
If she let Andrea go before she revealed her feelings for her, would she want to return to her world? She couldn’t tell, because her unpredictability was both one of her most alluring and most irritating qualities.
Because of these worries, Miranda had decided that it was almost time for her to reveal her feelings to Andrea. She was just waiting for the right time.
Sometimes she was almost sure that Andrea knew already.
In Paris, after she had revealed that Stephen had left her, she had almost thought that Andrea had been about to kiss her. She had handed her the seating plan, and locked eyes with her, and Miranda had leaned forward and so had Andrea. And then Andrea’s phone had gone off, and Miranda hadn’t seen her again until the next morning, when Andrea had frantically tried to warn her.
Miranda had considered trying to find out how Andrea had discovered Irv’s plan, but then she had seen Christian Thomson giving her heart broken looks across the room, and had decided that she didn’t want to know.
She had also decided not to tell Andrea what she was going to do, mainly because she wasn’t sure that she would be able to pull it through as well as she had planned it if Andrea left her beforehand. To her relief and surprise, she hadn’t left her at all. Miranda had seen her consider it, hesitate at the bottom of the stair, and then she had felt Andrea’s presence behind her.
Maybe she knew that she needed to keep her job to pay the rent now that her boyfriend had left her. Maybe she was scared of what Miranda might do. Miranda hoped that it was because she didn’t just want to leave her stranded in Paris in the middle of Fashion Week.
Andrea had stayed, and Miranda had decided to treat this like the second chance that it was. She had been trying to be nicer to Andrea, and she knew that she was getting more comfortable around her. A few days ago Andrea had even asked her a personal question. They were making progress, but soon, greater steps would be called for.
She heard Andrea enter, dump her bag on her desk and then she staggered in, coffee in hand. Miranda’s mouth went dry.
The clingy silk left very little to imagination, and Miranda imagined herself kissing down from the pale neck to the v of her breasts. The room felt very hot suddenly.
She cleared her throat, and tried to pretend that she was not ogling her.
“Well, the colour suits you. And it matches the skirt better.”
Andrea blushed. “Yeah, I mean, it’s nice, but still…”, she plucked at it and looked uncomfortable.
“Andrea. It’s perfect. That’s all.”
Andrea gave her a dazzling smile, and looked like she was about to thank her. Miranda quickly cut her off. “Get me those dresses.”
Andrea nodded, still smiling, and hurried off. Miranda made a mental note to make Andrea more compliments. She just had to make sure no one else was near; otherwise they would probably think she was sick.
For the rest of the morning, she couldn’t get Andrea’s blushing face out of her head.
***
Miranda was typing an email to Irv later that day, when she heard Andrea come back from lunch. She was on her cell phone.
“No, I can’t Lily, I’m sorry. I’m waiting for the book tonight. Wait, hang on.”
Miranda quickly ducked back behind her laptop and pretended that she wasn’t listening.
“Hey Emily, would you mind waiting for the book tonight?”
“Hot date?”
“No. My friend Lily’s got love troubles, and I wanted to take her out for a drink tonight.”
Miranda took a deep breath, and told herself that she was not feeling relief. Andrea could date whoever she wanted to. She wasn’t jealous at all.
“Ok, sure.”
“Thanks, Em!”
Miranda heard Emily sniff, and then Andrea finishing off her conversation. Maybe it was really time that she got a move on and told Andrea how she felt. She was almost, almost sure that Andrea felt the same, and she knew that the longer she waited the more probable it was that she would find someone else. And that would just be unacceptable.
***
Lily was waiting outside the Elias-Clarke building that evening when Andy finished work. Her friend’s eyes went wide when they saw Andy’s shirt under her winter coat.
“Wow, don’t you look hot?”
Andy blushed. “It goes with the skirt,” she muttered. Behind her, she heard the scuttling of people speeding up, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention. She turned, and sure enough, the Mercedes had pulled up and Miranda strode out of the building. She’d been in a late meeting with Irv, and it had obviously just finished.
Just as she reached the car, she caught sight of Andy, who lifted her hand in a pathetic little wave. Miranda stopped, and then, to Andy’s complete surprise, strode towards them.
“Good evening, Andrea.”
“Hi, Miranda.”
Miranda pointedly glanced at Lily, who seemed to have gone into shock.
“Oh, Miranda, this is my best friend Lily Goodwin. Lily, this is Miranda Priestly.”
“How nice to meet you,” Miranda tossed in Lily’s general direction. Lily muttered something that sounded like ‘you too’ in response. “Andrea, I’m going to need you to come in early tomorrow, I’m afraid. Irv insists that we continue our conversation from today, and the only time we are both free is early tomorrow.”
“Of course, Miranda. I’ll be there.”
“Thank you. Have a pleasant evening.” She nodded at Lily and strode towards her car.
“Wow.” Lily stared after the car as if she’d just seen a ghost. “So that was Miranda Priestly.”
“Yep,” Andy replied.
“One question: what’s up with the way she says your name?”
Andy laughed, and pulled her friend towards the subway. Even with the prospect of another early start the next day, she was already having a lot of fun this evening.
***
Andy fell in love with Hugo the moment she saw him. They had hidden him in Nigel’s office during the day, because neither of them wanted to imagine what exactly Miranda would say to a hamster in the office.
Andy picked him up just before she was about to leave. She was wrapping her scarf around her neck when she heard the unmistakably sound of Miranda’s footsteps. No one else at Runway had such a firm, confident stride. She wondered what she was doing here. The book had been assembled extremely early, so Miranda had taken it home with her when she had left. There was no reason for her to be here so late at night.
Panicking, Andy shoved Hugo under her desk and ripped her scarf from her throat, throwing it over his cage. She then let herself fall into her seat and turned towards her blank computer screen.
Miranda entered and stopped short as she saw Andy.
“Andrea! What are you still doing here?”
“Oh, Miranda, I was just leaving. I just finished off some things for tomorrow. Do you need something?”
“I forgot the designs James sent over earlier. I didn’t think you’d still be here. The book was finished hours ago!”
“Yeah, I was just finishing up and-.“ She broke of. A distinct scratching sound could be heard, and loud squeaking.
Miranda looked utterly perplexed. “What, in the name of god, is that noise?”
“It’s Hugo.” Andy bit her lip and pulled him out from under her desk, placing the cage on the surface and puling off her scarf.
Miranda let out a little shriek that had Andy jumping almost ten feet in the air, and then she stumbled backwards.
“Get that thing away!”
Andy grabbed Hugo and shoved him back under the desk.
“What is that creature doing in my office?” She was staring suspiciously at where Hugo had just vanished. Andy had no idea what was going on.
“Erm, he’s Emily’s. I’m looking after him for her. I’m just taking him home.” She peered at Miranda, who was looking pale, worriedly. “Are you ok? Do you want a drink or something?”
“Get that thing out of here. I don’t want to see it again.”
“Ok. Sorry.”
Miranda stalked into her office, and Andy hurriedly picked up her scarf, flung it round her neck, and picked up the cage. It was going to be a fun subway ride.
Suddenly, Miranda strode back out of her office.
“Andrea. Is that thing a hamster?”
“Yes.” She had no idea where this was going.
“Come with me. I’m dropping you off. Take that thing with you. I need to borrow it for one night.”
Borrow it? Andy scrambled to keep up with Miranda. “Miranda, the thing, I mean Hugo, isn’t actually mine. He’s Emily’s, and I’m just looking after him-“
“You’re repeating yourself, Andrea, and you know how much I love that.”
“Sorry. Why do you want to borrow him?” She quickly followed Miranda into the elevator, and made sure to keep Hugo as far away as possible form Miranda.
“Does it make noises all night?”
“I’m not sure. Probably. He’s a hamster after all. Miranda, can I ask you exactly what you want with Hugo?”
Miranda sighed as if the answer was obvious. “My girls want a thing like that. I told them it would have to stay in one their rooms, because the otherwise Patricia will eat it. I hate these things. My daughters have an extremely light sleep; they won’t be able to stand it. Therefore, this nonsense will be sorted out.”
“Ok.” Andy was sure she sounded pretty stupid and slow, but it was a confusing concept. So Miranda wanted to persuade her children that they didn’t actually want a hamster by giving them a hamster. There was only one slight catch to the plan. “Miranda, what are you going to do if the twins don’t mind having it in their room?”
Miranda smiled indulgently. “Trust me. They hate to have their sleep interrupted. And even if they don’t mind, I looked it up. Those things only live a couple of years. And they can get many illnesses. All sorts of things. Some, for example, eat something that’s gone off, and tragically fall over dead. ” Miranda gave her an evil smile, which, oddly, sent pleasant shivers down Andy’s spine.
Still, it was pretty gruesome, especially since Andy was sure that Miranda wouldn’t carry out this sort of thing herself. She’d get Andy to do it. Maybe she could persuade Miranda to stage an escape, and she could keep it. Or pass it on to Emily to be with Hugo.
She was also having bad feelings about leaving Hugo with Miranda for the night, especially since Emily adored him and Miranda wasn’t having exactly hamster friendly thoughts. She supposed she’d just have to trust Miranda.
They got into the car, and Andy peered into Hugo’s cage. He looked frightened. Andy couldn’t blame him.
***
Miranda could hear the vile thing running in its wheel through the entire car ride. She had absolutely no idea which part of the creature was ‘cute’, as her daughters had put it, as to her it just looked like a rat whose tail had been cut off.
She glanced over at Andrea, who was worrying her bottom lip. Miranda almost rolled her eyes. What did the girl think she was going to do with it? Drown it in the bath tub?
“Andrea,” she snapped, “stop fidgeting!”
“Sorry.”
“I’m not going to do anything to that thing. You will come by tomorrow morning and pick it back up.”
“Ok.” Andrea looked decidedly relived, although Miranda could not at all imagine why.
Miranda glanced back at Andrea, and saw her release her bottom lip and looking out of the window. The passing lights threw an odd sort of light on her face, making her look very pale and fragile. She met brown eyes in the window, and opened her mouth to say something, maybe about the stupid hamster, or maybe about the fact that she really wanted to place a kiss on that smooth-looking cheek and leave an imprint of her mouth in lipstick, to remind Andrea that she was hers. Then the car stopped, and she got out without a word.
It wasn’t the right time. Not yet.
***
Her girls were naturally overexcited at the prospect of having a hamster stay with them for a night. There was a loud and quick dispute about whose room it would stay in, with the compromise made that it would go in Caroline’s room, and that they would both sleep there.
Miranda was glad that the argument had not escalated like it so often did with her children. However, they had resolved it quickly, and then had taken the rodent upstairs, under strict instructions not to open the cage under any circumstances.
Andrea had left immediately after she had brought Hugo inside. Miranda had considered asking her to stay under some pretext, but she didn’t want to scare Andrea way by behaving too strangely.
The entire evening she was distracted, though not because of her usual, rather bothersome thoughts about her assistant, but by the presence of that tail-less rat in her house. She kept thinking that she could hear a scrabbling under her desk, or a gnawing sound in the corner, and more than once she went upstairs to check if it was really still there.
When Miranda was getting ready for bed and thought she saw something small and brown rushing across the bathroom floor, she had had enough, and decided it was time to take action.
Part 2