#positive feedback loop of soft r76 content

[blackwatchbastard]

Long Time No See

Rating: T Chapter(s): 1/1 Relationship(s): Gabriel Reyes/Jack Morrison Warnings: N/A Words: 3,335 Additional Tags: Sap and Fluff, Kissing, Established Relationship, Long Distance Pining, Soft Old Men

Summary: Neither of them ever really did enjoy the time apart. But it makes for some damn good reunions.

A/N: That good ol’ long distance pining and cute reunion shit I said I was going to do ages ago because of @mysadtwodads2

(ao3)

Another mission, another month apart. Jack felt the dread boiling in his gut the closer they got to the airport. Really, as far as Blackwatch assignments went this one was a cake walk. But he wasn’t worried about Gabriel being able to handle himself and his agents, he was more worried about what one would consider lesser issues.

“You’re going to be able to sleep alright, right?” he asked, one hand on the small of Gabriel’s back as they approached his gate.

Gabriel shrugged and leaned to kiss his temple, eyes on the message he was typing in his data pad. “No.” he replied casually, “You know how it is.”

Humming in agreement, Jack leaned against Gabriel’s side. When he finished his message Gabriel stuffed the pad in his hoodie pocket and turned his attention to the sulking man stuck to his side.

“You look how I feel.” he said, teasing, and ambled to a stop outside his gate to wrap his arms around Jack’s shoulders lazily. Jack pressed in and kissed the corner of his lips, feeling him smile under the gesture, and felt fingers winding into his hair.

“Must feel bad, then.”

“Terrible.” Gabriel confirmed. Then, “You have to remember how to smile while I’m gone, alright? No frightening the children with your moods.” Jack wrinkled his nose. “I mean it.”

“I’ll do my best.” Jack replied blandly.

Gabriel grinned and pressed a noisy kiss to his lips before heading for his plane. “All I ask.” he shot back playfully, “See you in October.”

Jack watched him go with a lump in his throat he couldn’t swallow and then headed home. He spent the next week or so wrapped up in a botched Overwatch mission, paperwork flying in and out of his office at breakneck paces, and by the time things slowed down he barely realized how little he and Gabriel had been able to speak. He managed to steal a rare day off and, after finagling around the time zone issue, set up a chance to talk properly that evening.

Gabriel looked exhausted on the feed. Thick bags under his eyes and laying in bed even though the international time clock told Jack it was near noon where he was. But he still smiled when he saw Jack; that sappy mellow thing he didn’t realize he was doing. If Jack’s desire for the ability to reach through the phone hadn’t been strong before it was then.

“You alright, babe?”

Gabriel bit back a yawn and said, “No,” because there was no sense in trying to fib his way out of it. The question was admittedly a bit of a trap.

“What do you need?”

“Sleep.” Another muffled yawn. “Jesse told me to lay down and do mission notes later because I was being quote ‘a cranky baby’ unquote.” He threw his voice a little to mimic McCree’s drawl and Jack snorted. “Haven’t made any progress yet.”

Jack watched him adjust his position irritably and hummed in consideration. When Gabriel settled down he asked, “Anything I can help with?”

“Come turn me into a human body pillow like you love to do and I’ll be asleep in minutes.”

“Second best option?” Jack ventured.

“You could try snoring?” Gabriel offered, “That helps.”

Jack snorted. “You make me sound like a wonderful bedmate, you know.”

Gabriel laughed and melted a little into his pillows. There was a moment of consideration, then he said, “Your voice helps.”

“So the sounds of gravel and smoker’s regrets is going to soothe you to sleep?” Jack teased. Gabriel just nodded and squeezed his eyes shut. “Alright, whatever floats your boat, sunshine.”

So he spent the next hour or so on the phone, chatting with Gabriel until he drifted off. Then a brief period after just watching him sleep (just to be sure he was out for good, of course, no sap there) before he finally forced himself to return to his evening.

The rest of the time apart drew on as slowly as one would expect. But they both did their best to stay busy between small chances to talk. And as soon as Jack had a time and date for Gabriel’s return flight he put in for the day off and glared down anyone who tried to argue against it. A few days later and he was headed for the airport.

The minute Jack rounded the corner and spotted Gabriel, lost in his data pad and dragging his luggage, his heart bloomed in his chest. Truthfully, he looked like a mess. Bags under his eyes, wrinkled old hoodie, sweats, ratty slip ons, and that ‘I slept on the window’ look to his beard.

Jack Morrison had never been more in love.

“Gabe!”

Gabriel dropped his arms and glanced around rapidly as soon as he registered his voice, eyes going wide. When his gaze fell on Jack’s he instantly broke into a grin. Like sunshine on flowers.

Jack stuck his arms out and Gabriel stuffed his data pad in his hoodie pocket before abandoning his suitcase and breaking into a run across the space between them. He dove into Jack’s arms and dissolved into laughter when Jack hoisted him off the ground and spun, face squished against his shoulder. His feet hadn’t even hit the floor before he was kissing Jack, one hand grabbing a handful of his hair to keep him in place.

They both sank as Jack set him on his feet again, Jack leaning into the kiss and grabbing handfuls of Gabriel’s hoodie. He pulled him as impossibly close as he could manage and hunched awkwardly as he tried to chase Gabriel’s mouth when he finally retreated for air.

“Easy, tiger,” Gabriel drawled when they finally broke apart, “act like you haven’t seen me in years.”

“Felt like years.” Jack mumbled, pressing his lips to Gabriel’s temple instead. Gabriel laughed and nudged his chest.

“Like that could happen. You’d die with me gone that long.”

“I would.” Jack didn’t even hesitate that reply. Instead, he ducked to press his face into the crook of Gabriel’s neck and breathed deeply. His shoulders went slack, tension leaving in waves, and he lingered a moment before he felt the other man shift with a faint chuckle.

“I can’t smell nice. Been hopping planes for the past 48 hours.”

“You hungry?” Jack asked, swapping subjects rapidly, “Tired?” Gabriel shrugged and Jack felt his fingers tease back into the hair on the nape of his neck. “Wanna go home?”

“Home sounds good.” Then, “Also, I’d go toe to toe with God for some good pad thai right now, if you can stop by the place we order from on the way.”

“I got it.” Jack said. He shifted, arms looping around Gabriel’s middle and hoisting him off the ground again–this time met with some protest. “I got it.”

Gabriel squirmed a bit but seemed to give in and swung his legs around Jack’s hips to keep from getting drug across the airport. Jack just did a quick loop to grab his suitcase, one hand squeezing at his thigh as they set off for the car.

“Clingy. Act like you missed me or something.” he teased when he felt Jack’s chin dig into his shoulder. But there wasn’t even a little bite to it–all pure adoration. Didn’t help that Gabriel was still combing absently at his air the whole time.

Jack just chuckled faintly and rolled his eyes. “Oh? What gave you that impression?” he asked.

He could feel Gabriel smiling when he pressed his lips to his cheek. Made the whole attempt at teasing hold even less water.

“Oh, just a hunch.”

They’d been apart for years. Years. The last thing either of them had in mind was splitting up when they finally got to be together again. Once they’d figured everything out and got to be in each other’s company it wasn’t on the radar.

But duty had a habit of calling when they wanted to hear it least. And as much as Gabriel had been annoyed about Sombra’s multiple messages that morning he couldn’t exactly deny her. He had promises to keep.

Jack saw him off at the helipad, toting one of his bags for him and wrapping a scarf around his neck while he tried to go over the details Sombra had sent and eat a bagel at the same time. They were both unhappy about it but it wasn’t expected to be that long.

“Sombra promised it’d be a week.” Gabriel reminded him when he caught Jack making those damn puppy eyes again. “One week, old man. You’ll survive.”

Jack tugged at the ends of his scarf and puffed out a sigh. Pointedly, he didn’t look at Gabriel this time when he asked, “You sure about that?”

“Yes, I am. You’ve survived worse.”

To punctuate his point, Gabriel took Jack’s chin in his hand and traced the scarring cutting through his lip. The response was a quick kiss to the pad of his thumb and another eyeful of those awful sad dog eyes.

“Not like I’m happy about this either, babe. She’s taking me to Russia again. Gonna freeze my damn ass off.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jack tugged at his scarf again, pulling him closer, and Gabriel got the message. He ducked in for a brief kiss and, based on the fact he probably tasted like cream cheese and the transport copter was starting up in the background and kicking up dust and his coat tails, it was best to keep it that way. Even if Jack pressed after him when they parted, kissing the corner of his mouth and his lower lip before finally slacking the hold on him.

“Be safe.”

“Yes, dear.”

“Call me when you can.”

“Of course, baby.”

“Don’t let Sombra get you into any trouble.”

Gabriel stole a glance over his shoulder. In the window, Sombra had smooshed her face up against the glass. When she caught him looking she mimed rubbing tears away with her fist and puckered her lower lip out dramatically. Gabriel briefly stashed his data pad inside Jack’s coat pocket to flip her off. Sombra responded by clutching her chest dramatically and dropping out of view in her seat.

“That’s my girl.” Gabriel hummed, turning his attention back to Jack with a grin plastered on his face. “We’ll be fine, promise. Just a little espionage. Just like old times. Cept this time instead of a cowboy and a ninja I’ve got little miss cyberpunk.”

“Not too late to invite the ninja or cowboy, you know.”

Gabriel scoffed and freed his tablet from Jack’s pocket (begrudgingly). “No thanks.” he said, taking his duffle bag from Jack and hiking it up high on his shoulder. “Those two, and everyone else, are all you guy’s job this week. Hope you and Ana got some sleep.”

“Winston helps sometimes.” Jack ventured, grinning faintly.

“He’s too soft on the punks.”

“One to talk.”

Gabriel held a finger up to his lips. “Hey, don’t give away my secret. I’m the fun dad.”

Jack laughed and leaned in, managing to steal one more kiss before Gabriel slumped his shoulders and headed for the transport. He made a point not to look back until he was already buckled in and stuck next to Sombra (who had already started blaring Selena through the speakers somehow). Because it was usually all he could do not to visibly sulk as badly as Jack did when they were together. He waved out the window, Jack wiggling his fingers after him, and sank back once they took off.

Once they were apart, however, it was all holds off. He tossed his scarf at Sombra halfway into the trip and kicked his seat back, arms folded over his chest and ear buds jammed in. Made it a bit hard to realize Sombra was talking to him until she leaned over his face and papped roughly at his chest.

“What?”

“You gonna pout the whole time, Gabo?”

“I’m not–”

“Were you and Morrison this joined at the hip when you were younger? Or is this a thing you grew into?”

“We–”

“Is my music not good enough for you, by the way? Gotta play your sad emo shit?”

Gabriel cut his eyes at her. “It’s 1980s rock…” The first full thought he’d managed to get out. Sombra scrunched up her nose.

“Older than grandpa music.”

“Selena is from literally almost the same time period.”

Sombra waved him off easily. “Yeah, but she’s a classic.” she countered.

They spent the rest of the flight making subtle snipes at each other’s music tastes and Gabriel almost managed to shove down that dull ache in his chest once they were to work on her little project. It was easy to focus elsewhere when they had things to do. But when they hit a safe house that night and Sombra passed out on the sleeper couch, leaving him alone with a pile of blankets and pillows but no too-warm super soldier to coil around him like the world’s weirdest starfish, it came back with a vengeance.

Gabriel didn’t know what time it was back with Jack. Probably late, or early. But it didn’t really matter, he knew he was going to call him anyway as soon as he opened his eyes after trying to squeeze them shut and force sleep. It was easier to just give in and roll over, grab his data pad and punch in a video call request for ‘call-sign: Soldier76’.

(Gabriel made a mental note to have Sombra hack it later and let him change the call-sign. Something more fitting like ‘Soldier Flatass’. But, knowing her, it’d end up being something like ‘Schnookums76’. Maybe he’d try his hand at it first.)

Jack answered on the third ring with a “Hey, sunshine.” He looked awake enough, coffee cup in the frame as he greeted Gabriel and fiddled with the pad a moment before propping it on something and sitting back slightly. Gabriel took in the background a little better; warm lighting, coffee cup, and wire furniture.

“You’re having breakfast?” he asked. Jack nodded and took a draw off his coffee.

“I made pancakes.” Jack drawled.

“Asshole.”

That summoned a laugh. Jack pressed two fingers to his lips and held them to the camera. Gabriel just stuck his tongue out and flopped back into his mess of bedding, tablet held above his head.

“Mission going well?” Jack asked.

Gabriel shrugged. “It’s been okay. Bit of a goose chase but eh. It’s Sombra.” Then, “I miss you.”

“That’s just because you’re cold.” Jack teased.

“Maybe. Take what you can get.”

The other man laughed and shook his head. He looked so warm and softened in the morning light. Gabriel felt his chest tighten some and tried to ignore it. Instead, he focused on the way Jack paused to take another sip of his coffee before speaking.

“I miss you too. Slept like shit.”

“Sombra says we’re too needy and that’s why we can’t sleep apart.” Gabriel offered, grinning faintly.

Jack scoffed loudly. “Don’t care. I’m too old to give a fuck about what it means when I can’t sleep without my partner.”

Gabriel muffled a laugh into his fist. “Same.”

Jack went to say something else but Gabriel accidentally cut him off with a loud yawn. Stretching, he flipped sideways and propped the data pad in his pillows. That whole display earned him a sympathetic little frown.

“Trouble sleeping, babe?”

“Mm.”

Jack hummed thoughtfully and propped his chin on his fist. After a moment of consideration, he asked, “What do you need me to do? Lullabies?” That one made Gabriel cringe and Jack chuckle. “Phone sex?”

“Nah.”

“Give it a few days and you’ll be harassing me at weird hours for it. I know you.” Gabriel rolled his eyes and Jack pushed on. “You can’t fool me. Just gotta hear it; I love you, Gabe, you feel so good, oh yeah, that’s–”

Gabriel flipped the tablet onto its face, hissing, and heard Jack let out a muffled laugh on the other end. When he finally flipped it back up he glared at the other man.

“No sex voice when Sombra is sleeping in the other room, asshole.”

Jack laughed again, fist stuffed against his mouth, but nodded. Took him a second to calm down before he could offer another suggestion.

“Want me to read for you?”

Gabriel hemmed and hawed and moment before finally nodding. So Jack grabbed a book off the shelf behind him (convenient for balcony relaxing) and set to work plugging through some trashy fantasy romance novel. Gabriel was asleep in no time. He woke up the next morning to a ‘good night’ text from Jack and Sombra cooking eggs in the tiny kitchenette.

By the time they headed back Gabriel felt like he was running on empty. He hadn’t slept half a shit the whole time, even with Jack’s dutiful reading, and every bit of him felt sore and tired and cold. It showed, clearly, considering Sombra even shoved his data pad at him on one occasion and told him to ‘have old man phone sex and stop being so pissy’ before leaving for the afternoon.

(They didn’t, though the thought crossed his mind. Instead, Gabriel listened to Jack go over repair reports while he fixed some tears in Sombra’s coat. Domestic bliss was all either of them ever really needed, it seemed.)

He spent the flight back bouncing his knee, much to Sombra’s loud annoyance, and staring out the window. The whole thing took too damn long. He couldn’t even really talk with Jack during the travel and it just made the whole focus even worse. If he could have at least bounced a few texts back and forth he might not have been so… insufferable.

Gabriel was out of his seat and onto the landing pad the second he could. His knee ached from the cold he’d been enduring, slowing him down a little, but the second he spotted Jack across the way he took off into a run anyway. Jack threw his arms out, grinning widely, and Gabriel collided with his chest a second later, legs swinging up to wrap around his waist in the embrace.

Unfortunately, the combination of momentum and Jack’s faulty joints made the approach a little more than either of them bargained for. Jack’s knees gave out and they dropped for the ground, both yelping and latching onto each other instinctively in their panic. There was a loud oof as Jack hit the ground and took most of Gabriel’s weight on top of him and Gabriel cringed as his knees banged against the hard asphalt ground but he sat up immediately to check Jack over. Dazed but unharmed, Jack blinked back up at him.

There was a pause, just briefly, then Jack said, “Act like you miss me or something.”

Gabriel blinked, then immediately dissolved into laughter and ducked down to squish his face against Jack’s chest. The other man laughed too, arms wrapping around Gabriel and pulling him down into a proper embrace, and for a while they just laid there laughing and hugging. Gabriel squirmed up enough to pepper Jack’s jaw line with kisses, still half crushed in his grasp, and felt all the angst and ice melting from his body with the warmth around him now.

Behind them, Gabriel heard Sombra snort loudly. “Saps.” she hissed, stepping past them headed for the base.

“Yeah, kinda,” Gabriel hummed, finally sitting up and awkwardly shuffling to his feet–pulling Jack along with him.

Jack leaned in and pressed a kiss to his temple, one arm swung around his shoulders. Gabriel tucked himself closer to Jack’s side and sighed contently.

“You missed me.” Jack said, teasingly sing-song in his tone.

Gabriel just rolled his eyes. “What ever gave you that idea?” he asked.

Jack bit back a laugh and shrugged. “Just a hunch.”