Yo me again lol, after reading that lil comfort Simon fic u did me , was curious to how the other 141 boys + König would react to sad fem reader just wanting to be held 👀
141 + König & How They Would React to You Wanting to be Held
You know I got you!
Captain Price
He's a big teddy bear, forreal now. Like always giving the best hugs, and always encourages you with little pats on the back, his voice as smooth as honey when he asks you if you're okay.
He always knew when you were having an emotional day, and was always ready to be your support.
Hates seeing you cry, it nearly brings this old man to tears.
But he enjoys holding you, enjoys being the one that makes you feel better and back to your normal self.
In fact, he was about to check on you before you knock on his office door.
You meet his eyes with your swollen ones, slightly puffy from stuffing your face into your pillow while you cried. Before you could say anything, you could hear the concern in his tone.
"You a'right there, kid?" he tilted his head, putting all of his attention on you.
You bit the inside of your cheek as you thought about it. "Not really."
"Ah, I knew it," he chuckled as he leaned back in his desk chair. "Wanna talk about it?"
"No," you shrugged. "'M fine. Jus' wanna be held. Could you help me with that?"
He pat his lap as he belted out a hearty chuckle. "Right, come on, then."
This. This is what made him happy. It made his day when he made yours better. He gently patted your back while you got comfy, resting your head on his chest for God knows how long. It just felt nice to be in his strong, warm embrace. For Christ's sake, the man even put out his cigar to attend to you - fully.
You went to sit up but he pulled you back into his chest. "Nope, not done holding you yet." He didn't say it outright, but he needed it, too. Plus him holding you there while you playfully tried to get away made you giggle, which he loved to hear.
John 'Soap' MacTavish
Absolutely elated that you wanted him to hold you.
100% will put down anything he's doing to make you feel better.
Really good at comforting you with his words, he's so selfless.
He knew when you were sad, but never pushed as to not intrude in your personal space and privacy, but if you ever needed to talk, he was more than happy to lend an ear.
"Easy there, lass," he laughed as you plopped down on the sofa next to him, playfully pushing his arm away to lay on his chest. He gratefully pulled you into a tight embrace, and although it was an awkward position, holding you felt natural.
"Thanks, Johnny," you smiled, sinking down further where you lay on his belly. He swore besides Ghost, you were the only other one who could get away with calling him 'Johnny'. "You're really comfy."
"Aye, I bet y'are comfy there," he chuckled. "Did somethin' happen? Can tell yer sad, lass."
"Nothing happened, I suppose. Just... sad. You know?"
"Yeah."
"What do you do when you're sad, Johnny?" you asked.
"Usually go make you laugh," he smirked. "Always works. Seeing you smile makes my day."
"How sweet, but now I'll think every time you joke with me that you're sad," you frowned, looking up at him.
"Ah, it never lasts long, don't worry, bonnie," his eyes sparkled as he looked down at you with a wide smile plastered across his face.
Kyle 'Gaz' Garrick
A literal cuddle bug.
Was shy about holding you at first, but felt pure bliss when you two embraced.
Doesn't always know what to say, but he holds you so tight your brain shuts up.
When he does talk, his voice is very smooth.
You can hear his heartbeat fasten while you lay on his chest.
He was laying on the couch, minding his business, almost dozing off at the comfort of the sofa until he heard footsteps, specifically yours enter the room. His eyes widen as he sees your slumped shoulders, feeling your sadness radiate off of you. Concerned, he sits up. "Hey, you okay there?"
"Never better," you joked, tip-toeing a few inches closer to him. "I... have a question."
"I might have an answer, shoot."
"I was just wondering if you could hold me?" you asked nicely.
For a minute he sat there, looking you up and down as if 'are you sure?' and stammering as he found his words, shifting on the couch thinking of a comfy way to hold you. "W-would you like to lay on top of me?"
"As long as you hold me tight for a while, it doesn't matter."
It may have been awkward at first, but you two soon found comfort. You softly chuckled as you heard how fast his heart was pacing, poor guy was so nervous. Of course he liked you, but he didn't expect you to come to him to make you feel better.
He calmed down eventually, wrapping his arms around you tightly. "Starting to feel a little better?"
"Yeah, actually," you sigh. "Comfy... Might fall asleep."
He laughed as he agreed.
Simon 'Ghost' Riley
As per my last little one-shot, he never hesitated to hold you or even listen to you, give you advice when you sought it. He was a great Lieutenant first, but an even better friend, partner.
God, did he hate to hear and see you cry.
You were too good, too amazing to feel sad, and he wished he could take it all away. He'd take it away and go through it himself if he could.
You were always afraid you made him mad, but it was quite the opposite. He was proud you came to him. It helped his sense of responsibility, and helped him more than he thought it would, or could. Quite therapeutic for the two of you, if I must say.
You two understood each other on a different level than the others.
You didn't come to dinner, and that's when he knew you needed him. First off, you needed to eat. But more importantly, you needed to be mentally okay to eat proper. He excused himself from dinner before coming to your door, softly knocking 3 times before coming in worried.
He sighed as he spotted you in fetal position, holding your knees to your chest.
"Darlin'," he sat down. "Why didn't you come to me?"
"I didn't want to bother you," you whispered.
"W-why would you have bothered me?" It almost offended him you'd think you were a bother to him. You were anything but that.
"Don't know, I'm sorry," you apologize.
"No don't be-" he sighed, laying behind you, shifting behind you. He pulled your back into his broad chest, looking over at your beautiful face that he wished was smiling and happy. "Hey."
"Hey," you chirped.
"Now I'm goin' to hold you here until I can make you laugh, am I clear?" he chuckled, his voice raised in concern. "Let me make it better, luv."
"You always do, Simon," you start to smile. "Always. Thank you."
Alejandro Vargas
Such a romantic mannnn 😍.
A natural flirt, trying to take your mind off of whatever was bothering you which you refused to ever tell a soul.
Quick to ask if anyone hurt you and if he needed to take care of it, anger seeping through quickly before he learned that you were just sad and needed to be held.
You come up to him, frown on your face and your eyes still wet from just crying.
"Mi amor, who hurt you, huh?!" he cupped your face, his voice raised as he felt adrenaline rush through his veins.
You shook your head. "No one. Can you just hold me? It'd be really nice right now."
"Si, of course, of course," he rasped, guiding you to his room with his hand on the small of your back. "Hermosa, you should not be feeling so sad."
"I-I can't help it, I wish I wasn't," you complained.
He laid you down in his bed where he lay next to you gently. Not leaving any space between your bodies, he pulled you to lay on his chest. "Are you okay? Do you need anything - water, a snack, a hot or cold cloth, huh? Nothing for the princesa, yeah? Alright, okay, now come here, just lie there and look pretty, okay?"
You snuggled into him, cherishing his scent as he calmed you. He breathed deeply as he realized you just... needed this. It's been a while since he's held anyone, so this was much needed for him, as well.
König
Our shy little baby 🥺.
Hated when you were sad, but he was far too anxious to push it or ask about it unless you came to him.
He'd find himself pacing, hoping you were truly okay.
He wanted to knock on your door, hold you so close and pluck all the sadness out of your brain.
While everyone else was on a mission, you stayed back along with König, and while you felt like you needed someone, you didn't want to bother him, but you figured why not? The worst he can do... is not be there for you, which, to be fair, wasn't his responsibility, but it would sure help.
You knock on his door shyly, quietly and would be surprised if he even heard you. He opened it shyly as well, his eyes looking far down until they finally met yours. "Oh, uh, hi!"
"Hey, König... Can I come in? It's okay if-" you hold your hands up as if you were trying to defend yourself, not sure if you're making him uncomfortable.
"Ja, come in," he opened the door fully. You look around his tidy room, and set your eyes upon his humongous bed. You stand awkwardly there as you two look at each other nervously.
"I'm just going to ask it, so, König, I have a question..." your eyes met the ground.
"Okay..."
"Would you be willing to hold me? I'm- I feel sad and I just-"
He shook his head eagerly as he made his way to his bed, patting it, inviting you to join. "Of course, Schatz, come, sit."
You waddle over to his bed, having to jump to get on it. He was nervous because of his size, most people were scared of him based on it alone, but here you were, asking him to hold you in your time of need, making him feel proud.
He scooted up, patting his chest excitingly waiting for you to lie on it. He seemed more excited to hold you than you were excited to be held by him. The quietness was peaceful, and it wasn't long before you found yourself falling asleep on him.
He hummed, chuckling as he felt himself drifting off into a slumber himself. For once in a very long time, his anxiety dissipated for a moment, as long as you were there laying on him. He wished he could do this more often, for you and himself. He wondered if this would have helped him during his anxiety attacks.
A/N - I hope this is something along the lines of what you were asking for! I apologize, I wrote this while I'm halfway falling asleep so if I lost it here and there I am sorry and can redo it if you want :) Thanks again for another request, please don't hesitate to send as much as you would like <3
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Why Can't We Be More? - Chapter 1
Kyle Garrick has never considered Alex in a romantic context. They were little more than coworkers. And Alex was an ex-double agent as well. There was simply no room in Gaz's head for romantic feelings. Until there are and he spirals very quickly into a crush.
It starts so simple, too. So stupid. It starts with a mission. A mission where he and Alex are sent to pretend to be married so they can catch a potential double agent who might be able to deliver missile locations to them. However, this mission is... weird. And all four catch onto it very quickly.
--
As Gaz stepped into the room, he watched Alex, who had gone in barely a moment before him, walk around the room and expertly secure it. Of course he knew what he was doing, he’d likely done this several times before. Gaz had never done this.
This was a covert mission where they were tracking down a suspected double agent, supposedly working with a terrorist by the name of Hassan Zyani. Basically, they were undercover. As a married couple, which… Gaz didn’t really understand either.
It was apparently on Shepherd’s orders… Gaz thought Shepherd was homophobic, so that surprised him as well. Not that he’d voiced any of this outloud, of course. Orders were orders, he’d accept that. Even if the idea of a fake marriage to Alex of all people made him a little uncomfortable.
Gaz hadn’t even dated much in the last ten years, let alone… got married. Also, he was fairly certain Alex was straight.
Gaz secured their weapons, placing two guns in the safe that the hotel room had come with, while Alex set up a laptop on the coffee table. As soon as they were in the room, they were to set up the laptop and contact Laswell and Price, who were in a much smaller, less nice, hotel nearby to monitor them.
Ironically, the explanation he’d been given for why they were pretending to be married made Laswell and Price’s monitoring feel… redundant. Supposedly, Alex was the main one to be doing the work here. He would be trying to feel out the target, Matthew Shoemacker, and seeing if he knew him from his time as a double agent.
A Russian double agent. Which… Gaz was still probably recovering from the shock of that reveal. He still remembered Alex showing up while they were about to leave. Or, rather, Farah dragging him like a wet cat and throwing him at them. He was still shocked she could lug such a giant man around. It’d honestly been kind of pathetic on Alex’s part. Impressive on Farah’s.
Poor Alex, poor being used lightly, was still recovering from being blown up and trying to get used to his prosthetic leg. He remembered poor Malika following after her, trying to plead with her girlfriend to calm down. But, Farah was not to be calmed. He hadn’t even understood most of what she said, considering it was in Arabic, but… He’d tried his best.
From what he could make out, she’d basically screamed at them to take him, that he was dead to her… And the rest he didn’t really understand until it’d been explained to him, later. Alex had been a double agent, working for Russia the whole time. Supposedly, according to Alex, once he met Farah and all of them, he’d fallen in love with the cause and switched sides.
Price had been entirely unwilling to hear him out, but Shepherd had decided Alex was useful, so they’d been made to work with him. Gaz… didn’t really care, honestly. Maybe that was out of character for him, but he’d been sort of exhausted by that mission and hearing everything… It’d just worn him out more.
So, he’d made his peace with it. When Alex was pleading his case, he’d mentioned his family as being the reason he’d done it. Of course, Gaz had gotten most of this second hand from Laswell. Price barely acknowledged Alex beyond barking orders at him and snapping at him. Regardless, Alex had mentioned a family and that was the reason he’d done this. So… Gaz had grabbed onto that. Alex had done what he had to, to survive. He was sure.
He was back on their side. Maybe Gaz found himself slightly hesitant around him… But, Alex was actively setting up cameras around the room so that they could be adequately monitored by Laswell and Price, who he was sure had already set up a sleep cycle.
Oh, right, Gaz, the reason they were pretending to be married. Anyway, Alex was seeing if he recognized Shoemacker, the supposed double agent, from any deals or meetings or… well, anything. He had experience with Russia, so he would be able to pick anything up, should Shoemacker be a double agent. But, he couldn’t be trusted to do that, alone. He needed someone there to keep him in check. That was Gaz’s job. Easiest explanation for why they were there together? It was their honeymoon.
Oh yeah, that was the other thing. They didn’t actually know if Shoemacker was a double agent. He might, might be a double agent. And he might, might be working with a terrorist named Hassan Zyani. Who might, might have stolen some missiles. And Shoemacker might, might know the locations of them.
This entire mission hinged on a lot of mights. That didn’t feel like a real word anymore. And of course, the other half of their taskforce, Johnny Mactavish and Simon Ghost Riley, were actively in Las Almas, Mexico, working with Colonel Alejandro Vargas to track down the terrorist that may or may not have missiles.
Gaz had a lot of confidence in this mission. Oh, totally. Utter and complete confidence. From the sounds of it, though, he wasn’t the only doubtful one. Price had not sounded convinced while briefing him and Alex, and Alex had had a lot of questions. Which, Laswell had been open in stating she didn’t fucking know, either. So… But, Shepherd was confident, apparently. Optimistic.
That was good enough for them.
Once Alex was finished setting up everything, he watched him reach up and touch his discreet earpiece, designed to look like a bluetooth earbud, which was pretty cool. Or would be, if Gaz hadn’t already accidentally had his fall out… four times… One of which broke the damn thing and they had to replace it.
“We’re set up.” Alex nodded to Gaz, who came over to the couch and sat with him.
“Perfect, you two.” Gaz heard her over his own earpiece, first, but he saw her speak on the laptop. She was sitting on a couch, like them, beside Price, who looked deeply unhappy. Shocker. “I can see your cameras, go over where you put them for me so I make sure they’re in the correct spots.”
“Right.” Alex nodded and then sighed, “I put a sound bug in the bathroom, under the sink. I didn’t think you two needed to watch us shower-”
“You are correct.” Price nodded.
Alex chuckled and shrugged, before continuing. “There are two in the bedroom, one on the alarm clock beside our bed, one on the coffee maker. There’s another on the balcony, however, I had it face the street since we’re above the entrance.” Gaz watched Laswell nod along, probably looking at the camera locations. “One is stuck above our door on the outside, and one is above the closet door, facing the entrance. Two sound bugs in the room and one on the balcony, one outside the room.”
“Gaz, where did you put the weapons?” Price asked, nodding at Gaz.
Gaz sighed. “Two handguns in the hotel safe, one under the mattress, a few heavier ones in the closet, several knives in random locations, and a partridge in a pear tree.” He was quite proud at the laugh he got from both Alex and Price.
“Perfect.” Laswell smiled and then her eyes seemed to focus back on them. “How are you holding up, kid?”
Gaz knew she had to be talking to him, since she’d only ever called Alex by his name. She called Gaz kid. Both her and Price did. “I’m good.” He shrugged. “Tired, ready for this mission to be over.”
“We just started.” Price chuckled. “You can’t be tapping out, already, Sergeant.”
“I’m not tapping out, sir.” Gaz shook his head. “More… stating an eagerness to finish this job.”
“I’ll accept that.” Price nodded. “Undercover work is a whole new world, Sergeant.”
“You’re telling me.” Gaz huffed. “I ask again… Why are we here doing this?”
“Beats me-” Price started, but he was cut off by Laswell.
“Because. We can make Mactavish and Riley’s jobs a hell of a lot easier if we can get those missile locations from Shoemacker.” Laswell sighed. “They’re trying to track down Zyani and the missiles, but if we can do half that job for them…”
“And if we can’t?” Alex spoke up, raising an eyebrow. “What do we do then?”
“I don’t know.” Laswell admitted. “I guess we’ll cross that bridge if we get to it. But, for now, this is your mission.”
Gaz looked over at Alex, who just shrugged. “Right.” Gaz sighed. “Well, I’m tired. It is 22:00. I would like to shower, since I haven’t done that in a bit, and go to bed.”
“Probably for the best.” Price spoke up. “Alex has some things he needs to do, anyway. You got that bellboy costume?”
Alex’s shoulders dropped and he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I got it.”
Gaz chuckled, softly. “Have fun, dear.” He teased, earning a half shove in response.
“Whatever, darling.” Alex retorted, closing the laptop. “I think Price is taking his revenge.”
“Yeah, probably.” Gaz shrugged. Shoemacker was in the room underneath them, so Alex was supposed to use the bellboy costume to break in and bug his room. Thankfully, Gaz and Alex would not have to sift through whatever the bugs picked up, that would be Laswell and Price’s job.
Gaz was surprised when he was told he would not be breaking into Shoemacker’s room, since usually labour like that was his job. Instead, he’d been told that Alex would do that. Which was fine with Gaz, he didn’t want to get dressed up in a bell boy costume and break into someone’s hotel room. But… it’d been amusing how almost insistent Price had been on the point.
Alex, of course, was going to follow the order, but he’d been quick to point out that it felt petty on Price’s end. To which Price had just shrugged and said “sure.” Which meant it definitely was and Price was trying to throw doubt.
Gaz grabbed his sleeping clothes, shorts and a tee shirt, and went into the bathroom after leaving his earpiece on the nightstand by the bed. If they needed him, they’d both been given a cell phone, so it could be called. He was confident they’d be fine without him wearing his earpiece for at least an hour.
After setting his clothes on a little ledge thing, he marvelled at the size of the shower. The hotel room itself was a honeymoon suite, so so far everything had been gorgeous and large. Large king size bed (just one.), large couch, two large armchairs, large flatscreen tv, large kitchenette, a word he’d just learned, large bathroom.
The large bathroom had a large shower and a separate large bathtub, which was… honestly fantastic looking and if Gaz didn’t prefer showers on missions, he may be apt to try it. But, he preferred showers. Quick, efficient. Scorching hot, especially since hotels never got cold.
Which, he gladly reached and turned the water on, sticking his hand under it and smiling at how hot it was. Fantastic. When he was undressed, he stepped under the water, and started to run the washcloth over his skin.
He’d had to go to a few hotels with Price for missions and one of the best parts about them was how hot the water could go and then stay. Of course, not much was actually that bad about staying in a hotel. Besides leaving, of course.
Reluctantly, he directed his mind to the mission while he scrubbed at his skin. They were keeping their first names, but they’d gotten completely different last names. Kyle Smith and Alex Thomas. Boring last names, boring people.
Kyle Smith had grown up in Illinois, a state Gaz knew absolutely nothing about, but which Alex had assured him that no one else would, either. He’d had a boring childhood, which was apparently of not enough note that Gaz had been given no briefing on it. However, once he’d graduated high school, he’d moved to Missouri and gone to college at Mizzou. There, he met Alex Thomas.
They’d fallen in love over the course of college, and started dating sometime after it. From there, they were together for 2 and a half years before getting engaged, which they were engaged for six months before getting married.
Now, they were in Washington in some insignificant beach town which was pretty much known for being a tourist town on their honeymoon. Shoemacker was there for a business conference, apparently.
He ran Arbana Marketing, a marketing company which apparently was hired by smaller companies to run campaigns for them. Gaz really didn’t get the technicals of it, but Alex did.
Finally, Gaz got out, drying himself off and sighing as he pulled the change of clothes he’d brought in. Laswell had built him an entire wardrobe, which he would be wearing the entire time they were there. The time frame was two weeks, since that’s how long this business conference would last.
They had two weeks to prove Shoemacker was a double agent, get the missile locations, get them to Mactavish and Ghost in Las Almas and take down Hassan. What could go wrong?
Gaz shook his head, not sure he wanted the answer to that question. When he came out of the bathroom, Alex was already gone, so Gaz just made his way to the bed. He was exhausted and he planned to knock the fuck out for at least 10 hours. If not more.
They had a “date” the next day, but it wasn’t until 18:00, apparently, so he would have nothing to do in the morning. So, if he ended up sleeping late, who was going to really give a shit?
Gaz was grateful to be out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Gaz glared at the coffee machine, trying to figure out how to just run water through it. He expected it to be simple, but it was.. Weird. He had to take these weird single use filters and slot them in somewhere and apparently, if you didn’t have that, which came prefilled with coffee, you couldn’t use the fucking thing.
He had half a mind to shoot it. Or stab it, since he’d hidden a knife under the cabinet above it. It wouldn’t solve anything, but it might make him feel better.
Finally, he found a reusable filter in a drawer nearby and he shoved it in, filling the coffee maker’s tank with water, and then borderline punching the start button.
Waking up had been nice. He’d been woken up naturally around 8:00, which meant he’d gotten the ten hours he’d wanted. Alex had been already up, arranging their stuff and going through it. When Gaz had asked why, Alex had stated he was cataloguing.
Gaz didn’t see that as necessary, but when he’d put his earpiece on, Laswell was teasing him for constantly feeling the need to do that. So, it appeared that wasn’t out of the ordinary for him. So, Gaz had just shrugged and went to the coffee maker, which was where he was now.
Alex had hopped in the shower at some point during Gaz’s struggle with it, and Gaz could hear the water running.
He sighed and put his forehead against a counter, closing his eyes, and finally questioned how the actual fuck he and Alex were supposed to pretend to be in love. When he’d woken up, he’d noticed Alex’s side of the bed had been entirely untouched. So, either Alex had decided to make the bed on his side and had somehow managed to do that without waking Gaz or…
Alex had slept on the couch. Gaz had a feeling it was the latter. He hadn’t quite thought about the fact he would likely have to share a bed with Alex, yet, as he’d been trying to avoid thinking about it. Now that he was… he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He wasn’t even sure if he found Alex attractive enough to have an opinion on it.
Did he find Alex attractive? Luckily, the muse of said thoughts came out of the bathroom, so Gaz glanced over, seeing that Alex just had a towel around his waist. He almost immediately regretted it. Maybe it would have been different, had he not had the question in his mind but… fuck, he did find Alex attractive.
He was completely toned, tan, covered in tattoos… Gaz glared at the coffee pot and tried to push it out of his head. This was not appropriate to be thinking about right now.
But, like a gnat buzzing around his head, the thought nagged at him, telling him to glance over again. So, he indulged himself, surprised to see Alex looking right back at him. Quickly, he looked back at the coffee pot, busying himself with dumping the boiling water in a mug and shoving a tea bag in it.
“Did you just boil water?”
“Fuck!” Gaz exclaimed, surprised by Alex suddenly being right next to him. He accidentally spilled water over his hand and while he enjoyed scalding showers, he did not enjoy scalding his hand trying to make tea.
Alex winced. “Sorry.” He gently took Gaz’s wrist, turning on the cold water in the sink and sticking his hand under it. Gaz relaxed from the sensation and closed his eyes. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine.” Gaz shrugged and closed his eyes. “Price, did you watch him do that?”
“...Maybe.”
Gaz sighed and rolled his eyes, not shocked Price hadn’t warned him. “A bit of a heads up might be nice, next time, right?”
“Sure, kid.” Amusement was in Price’s tone and Gaz shook his head.
“Anyway, yes I did just boil water.” Gaz nodded, taking his hand back from Alex and examining it. The burning sensation had already faded and there was no redness, so Gaz assumed it would be fine. If not, he’d just wrap it and move on. “I didn’t trust the coffee they provide.”
Alex grabbed one of the filters and sniffed it, making a face. “That’s probably for the best.”
Gaz chuckled and sighed, turning back to his mug. “What do you know about the restaurant we’re eating at, tonight?”
“It’s on the higher end, price-wise.” Alex shrugged and leaned against the counter. Gaz became acutely aware, by looking at him out of the corner of his eye, that Alex was shirtless. So, Gaz did his best to focus on not turning bright red as well as focus on putting sugar in his tea. “Laswell put the outfits for the actual date in our wardrobes, which is nice.”
“I saw in the backstories that Alex Thomas is loaded.” Gaz nodded. He half glanced at Alex, but just his face, and chuckled. “Kyle Smith might as well be his sugar baby.”
“Yeah, odd detail, but it helps make sense as to why we can do whatever we want.” Alex nodded. “Price said you don’t do this, much, last night.”
Gaz winced and turned back to his mug, picking it up and sipping it carefully before answering. Well, actually, before dumping it right down the drain because it was garbage. “Not like this… I mean, my usual gig is running around and shooting people. Or… sneaking around and shooting people. Not setting up in hotels and playing house.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty different.” Alex nodded, crossing his arms.
Gaz snorted. “I’ve picked up on that.” He furrowed his brows and then turned and moved to the couch, wanting to sit down for a moment before complaining he was bored.
Alex followed him, though he sat on an armchair. “I didn’t get a chance to say it last night, but I can sleep on the couch.”
Gaz snorted. “And risk looking like an unhappy couple? We’re on our honeymoon, isn’t it better to share a bed? You should know that, you’ve been undercover before.” He joked.
Alex frowned. “I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“I’m a big boy, I can share a bed. I’ve shared a bed with Price before.” Gaz shook his head. “Trust me, ma-” He paused, realising he was supposed to be American. “Dude…? What do Americans say?”
“In the context you were about to use it, just say man or dude. Of course, not many use that for their partners.” Alex furrowed his brows before relaxing them and shrugging. “Just say my name. We can figure out nicknames in a bit.”
“Right.” Gaz nodded. “Trust me, Alex. I’m fine.”
Alex seemed to hesitate before just shrugging again. “Alright. Then we can share a bed. But, I take the right side. I’m also the big spoon.” He teased and Gaz rolled his eyes.
“Maybe keep your arms on your side of the bed.” Gaz shook his head and Alex raised his hands in surrender, laughing.
Alex grabbed the laptop from the coffee table and put his feet on the coffee table, making Gaz internally cringe, but he didn’t say anything, just grabbing the remote and turning on the tv, finding something halfway decent to put on.
When he did, he stretched out and leaned back, attempting to zone out. But… the gnat was there again, buzzing around his head and telling him to look at Alex. Which, he had no plans of doing, because that was weird as fuck.
So, to distract himself, he joked to Alex, “you ever been married before?”
Alex looked up, looking almost surprised and then shook his head. “No, I… prefer to ride it solo. Dating, marriage… it’s not really for me.”
Gaz nodded. “Same.”
Then, they fell back into awkward silence. Gaz was really starting to question how they were supposed to pretend to be married if they had a hard time interacting as just colleagues. In Urzikstan, it’d been easy, there was always an outside goal, but… this was different. All they really had to talk about was… each other.
Or the target, but both of them knew all of the information they could find about Shoemacker. Gaz had done some outside research on him, just researching the alias of Matthew Shoemacker, and all he’d found was a facebook account with a few pictures of the target surrounded by a few kids.
Apparently, he’d been doing shady deals for a while. Gaz had questioned, internally, why, if he was doing shady deals for a while, the CIA hadn’t bothered to take him down before this, but he was sure there was some bullshit reason.
“Are undercover missions always this boring?” Gaz asked, after a moment.
Alex looked up and then he laughed. “Yeah. At least in my experience. The slow moments are… too slow.”
“Fantastic.” Gaz sighed and turned back to the tv.
More awkward silence. Then, Alex was sighing and shutting his laptop. “I think there’s a decent ice cream place near here. At least… it has decent reviews. Do you want to check it out?”
Gaz considered and then shrugged. It was barely 11:00 and he was bored out of his mind. Anything was better than sitting here and continuing to stare at the tv. “Sure.”
So, they both stood and pulled on their shoes, Alex pulled on a shirt. He turned his back to Gaz, so Gaz had full view of the way Alex’s muscles flexed as he tugged on the shirt, though he quickly looked away and tried to push down his blush.
Fuck, what was wrong with him?
Yeah, maybe it’d been a little while since he’d gotten any action, but he really needed to get it together. This was ridiculous. So, he shook his head and straightened a little, waiting for Alex to finish so they could leave.
When he did, they finally left. Gaz tried not to think about the fact that Alex walked a bit close to him, knowing that was likely due to the cover. He smiled and waved at the lady attending the front desk before they exited and got on the sidewalk. Gaz knew what ice cream place Alex was talking about, knowing it was on the boardwalk, which he’d found out was similar to a pier.
It was only a fifteen minute walk, but that was a decent amount of time.
“You know,” Alex started. “Despite us working together in Urzikstan, I don’t really know much about you.”
Gaz frowned, since he realised he didn’t really know much about Alex, either. He stuffed his hands in his pocket. “I guess not.”
Alex smiled. “We’ve been given backstories but… they really only go so far. I can’t exactly pretend to love a backstory.”
Gaz winced, deciding that made sense. “Do you always try to get to know your partners when you’re undercover?”
“I don’t usually go undercover with another person.” Alex explained, shrugging.
“Oh.” Gaz nodded and furrowed his brows. “Alright… Well, I’m not good at small talk. So, you go first.”
“Damnit,” Alex chuckled, “neither am I. Um… do you want to know the deep stuff?”
“Deep stuff?” Gaz made a face. “Like what?” He wasn’t sure he was comfortable diving too deep into that, yet.
Alex seemed to consider. “Like… what’s your favourite colour?”
“Oh, you went too far.” Gaz laughed, since he wasn’t honestly expecting that. “Green. Um… Jade green to be specific. What’s yours?” He glanced over at Alex.
“Blue. Like the ocean or… royal blue.” Alex smiled, nudging him a little. “Why green?”
“I don’t think I’ve seen royal blue.” Gaz blinked when Alex immediately got out his phone. “And, I don’t know. I’ve just always liked green. Why blue?”
When Alex had the colour pulled up, he showed Gaz. “I prefer a little deeper than that, but… it’s close enough. And, I don’t know, either. I feel like blue is a much happier colour than people give it credit for.”
Gaz stared at him for a moment before laughing. “I see.”
Alex flushed but laughed as well. “Yeah, it’s not a great explanation, but… it’s mine.”
“I get that.” Gaz nodded. “I think ocean blue is a little closer to turquoise, by the way. Like your eyes.”
Alex paused. “You noticed my eye colour?”
Gaz couldn’t have stopped himself from blushing if he tried. He turned a deep dark red, he could feel it. “It’s in your file.”
“I don’t think turquoise is in my file.” Alex teased. “I’m fairly certain they’re stated as just blue.”
Gaz winced. He hadn’t meant to notice. He’d been comparing them to Price’s to see if they were the same shade. He’d also compared them to Laswell’s. He’d been bored and Laswell was explaining something that had nothing to do with him, so he’d been comparing them in their pictures. “I was… curious, I don’t know.”
Alex didn’t seem to buy it, but, thankfully, he dropped it. “Alright, I guess.”
Back into awkward silence.
“When you’re off duty, what do you do?” Alex asked, after a moment. He was clearly trying to keep them from being too quiet, and Gaz appreciated it.
“Oh, Price and I live together.” Gaz explained. “So, honestly, whatever he wants to do, half the time. I got booted from my flat for a stupid reason, so he let me move in with him. I go to football games with him.”
“Nice to see he still watches soccer.” Laswell spoke up.
“Football, Kate.”
“Nah, it’s soccer.”
“Nice to see you two are still here.” Alex joked. “You two are so silent.”
“Unlike you two,” Price sighed, “we do not feel the need to talk, constantly.”
“They’re muting themselves.” Gaz explained, shaking his head. “They do talk constantly. Bicker, mostly.”
Alex made an “ah” sound and then shrugged.
“So… what about you?” Gaz asked, curious. “What do you do in your freetime?”
“Oh, uh… huh.” Alex frowned, furrowing his brows. “I haven’t been off duty in so long, I guess I haven’t really had any hobbies in a while. Back in college, I used to read a lot. I’d get through two books in a week.”
“Fuck…” Gaz was impressed. “I don’t think I’ve ever managed that. I was lucky to finish one in a week. It looks like we’ll have a decent amount of free time. If today is any indicator. Maybe you can pick it up. I’m sure we can find books somewhere.”
“It’ll pick up.” Alex chuckled. “I promise.”
“I hope so…” Gaz sighed and shook his head. Finally, however, they made it to the ice cream parlour, so he let Alex open the door and then he stepped in, looking around.
It was a pleasant interior, though minimalistic. No tables, just a counter and the bar thingy the ice cream was in. It was pastel, but the walls appeared to be chalk walls and were a contrasting black which honestly looked pretty nice. Gaz had to say, he really liked it.
He went up to the bar with Alex, impressed by the amount of flavours they had. He remembered briefly glancing over the website they’d had, and they had boasted at least 20 flavours. Which, considering they were a small town ice cream parlour that apparently didn’t get much business anymore… that was fairly impressive.
He asked the lady at the counter for a medium cup of mint chocolate chip, ignoring the face Alex gave him. “Would you like a waffle bowl?” She asked, getting the scoops out of the warm water.
Instinctively, Gaz looked at Alex, who just snorted and gestured as if to say “get what you want.” Obviously, Gaz was a grown adult, he didn’t need permission from Alex, but the last time he’d been to a place like this was when he was 14, coming with his foster sister, who hadn’t had a lot of money. “Yes,” he told the lady, and then added “please” to be polite before stepping back so Alex could order.
She scooped the ice cream and then set it to the side. “I’ll get you your toppings in a moment, dear.” Gaz just nodded in response, watching Alex.
Alex ordered rocky road, and appeared unable to resist commenting on Gaz’s choice. “I do not enjoy the taste of frozen toothpaste.” He joked and the lady laughed, softly.
“Do you even brush your teeth, m- dear?” Gaz caught himself, in time, and quickly rolled past it. “I’m seriously concerned you don’t, now, since mint chocolate chip tastes nothing like toothpaste.”
“I use whatever you buy.” Alex gestured, laughing. “Maybe you just have a flavour preference.”
Gaz scrunched his nose at him before sighing and relaxing, just saying no thanks when the lady asked him if he wanted any toppings. Alex also said no, and he just got out cash to pay before they were heading outside, eating their ice creams.
It was May, so the weather was pretty decent. It was warm, but so it usually was in London around this time. Laswell had compared Seaporte, Washington, the town they were in, to London a few times but… he didn’t really see it. London was a city, Seaporte was closer to a small town. Honestly, the few times he’d been to New York, he’d considered New York closer to London. It wasn’t perfect, but it was closer than Seaporte.
Alex touched the small of his back and guided him over to a bench. Gaz did a particularly fantastic job of not focusing on Alex’s hand on his back, just sitting when he got there. Alex did that whole arm over the back of the bench thing, and so Gaz decided it wasn’t really necessary for him to do anything else. They had ice cream, Alex was doing the arm thing. Surely that was enough to convince people they were married.
“You know, my wife and I’s first date was getting ice cream.” Laswell spoke, startling Gaz. “John is taking a nap, by the way.”
Gaz was a little surprised to hear from her, but he inclined his head as if he was talking to Alex. “It was? That’s sweet.” He smiled.
“Thank you. Her favourite flavour was called candy bar. It was a local ice cream parlour-”
“Parlor! That’s the fucking name of it!” Alex exclaimed. Gaz chuckled, since he’d also forgotten.
Laswell laughed on the comms. “Anyway. It was a local ice cream parlour that had unique flavours. One of them was a rosè flavoured one. Like the wine. And it was pretty… awful. Turns out sparkling wine flavour and milk do not mix.”
Alex laughed. “Yeah, I can imagine.”
Gaz shrugged. “I’ve not had too many fancy wines.” He leaned forward on his elbows a bit as he ate his ice cream. It was pretty good, too. Nothing special, but it was ice cream. It wasn’t grainy like some ice creams tended to be.
“Rosè is a bit tart, is the best way I can explain it. My wife and I enjoy drinking it and I later had a rosè flavoured sherbet that was much better but yeah, rosè flavoured ice cream was not great.”
“You know, Laswell, I didn’t know you were married.” Gaz pointed out, since he in fact did not.
“Yes. She’s a veterinarian. We’ve been married for going on 15 years now.”
Alex smiled. “I hope that’s us.” He joked, nudging Gaz.
Gaz snorted and rolled his eyes. “You can help us play pretend, Laswell.”
“I’ll do my best, Kyle.”
Gaz sighed and leaned back against the bench, though he was careful not to let Alex’s arm touch his back. That felt… wrong somehow. Like a boundary he wasn’t willing to cross. “Thank you.” He told Laswell.
Reasonably, Gaz knew those boundaries would get more and more crossed, but he wasn’t quite sure he was ready to do that, yet. He wanted to keep these small ones to himself for now. When he finished his ice cream, he ate what was left of his waffle cone and then tossed his trash in a nearby trash can, offering to throw away Alex’s as well. Then, Gaz looked over the ocean, leaning against a railing.
Alex came over to him after a small moment and sighed. He put his fingers to his lips when Gaz looked at him and then he was taking their earpieces out and shoving them in his pocket with a napkin.
Gaz frowned, surprised. “Why did you do that?” He did lower his voice. though.
Alex sighed. “I know you probably don’t want to work with me-”
“I never said that.” Gaz raised an eyebrow. “I don’t need the speech, mate. You did what you did to survive. For your family, that’s what you said, right?”
Alex paused and then relaxed. “Yes… Yes I did.” He ran a hand through his hair, spiking it up more.
“Then… that’s all I need. Price and Laswell are both being unfair. When we were interrogating someone… We took his family and we threatened them. I remember I was very hesitant during that. I didn’t like the idea of threatening someone who was, in my mind, innocent. If he didn’t give the information, we were going to follow through with our threats.” Gaz shrugged and looked at Alex. “We needed that information. We got it. We made… the decisions we made for it. That’s how I take you working for the Russians. We do what we do to survive. Or.. for greater means.”
Alex nodded. “We do. Thank you…” He turned to look out over the water as well before giving their earpieces back.
“I’m really glad they didn’t fall in the water.” Gaz sighed, when his was back in. ��You think they’d make these easier to stay in our ears.”
“What happened?” Price this time.
Alex sighed. “A stranger knocked into us and our earpieces fell out.”
“Again, Garrick?”
Gaz winced, since that would make this the fifth time, technically. “Yes, again. I’m working on it.”
“Just try not to let it happen again, kid.”
“Understood, sir.” Alex spoke, this time, though he gave Gaz a knowing look.
Gaz winced, understanding that that was probably going to happen again.
--
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