Work Text:
Barney listens to the low rumble of the truck pulling up outside, followed by the hitch of the parking brake and then abrupt silence as Gunnar cuts the engine. There’s two heavy bootfalls after that, and the driver’s door – quiet, but not quiet enough on a still night like this. Finally, the steps up and his keys in the deadlock, and he’s inside.
Barney doesn’t feel… relieved, exactly – he wasn’t worried, but when he hears the tiny click of the door and the lock setting back into place as Gunnar closes it gently behind him, he feels something.
Gunnar’s footsteps over to the bed are light; moving carefully, efficiently, in the near dark. Then he sees that Barney’s awake and cracks him a smile. “Hey,” he whispers.
“Hey,” Barney replies. “How’d it go?” He’s asking, but he already knows. If it hadn’t been fine, Gunnar would’ve called him a long time ago.
“Clockwork.”
“‘Course.” It was an easy job; time consuming, and awkward hours, but easy. Safe. Barney doesn’t know why he’s been lying awake all this time, waiting for the truck, those steps, that smile…
“I woke you. Sorry.”
“‘S okay. You tired?”
Gunnar rolls his shoulders. “Fuckin’ shattered. And cold.”
Barney looks at his watch on the box by the bedside. 4am. “Thought you were the iceman?”
Gunnar smiles again. “Keep it quiet that I’m not.”
“Come to bed.”
He’s already stripping layers off, unbuckling and unlacing – methodically setting aside knives and guns. Barney watches him walk into the bathroom, silhouette framed in the door as he ducks a little out of habit. He’s big. He can handle trouble. Barney doesn’t have to think twice about him, he reminds himself.
When he comes out again, Gunnar’s hairline is wet and pushed back and, bare chested, Barney thinks that’s as handsome as he’s ever seen him look. He’s capable. He’s here, perfectly safe. And he’s mine.
“You okay?” Gunnar asks, catching him staring.
“Yeah, just lookin’.” Shit, it’s fucking primal. That’s why he’s felt like this tonight, Barney realises. He watches out for everybody, but they’ve taken everything a step further, and now he can’t help himself. He wonders if Gunnar feels like this when he’s out alone. He’ll ask him sometime. Maybe.
“I can debrief in the morning; it’s basic, nothing to forget,” Gunnar tells him. “Right now…”
“Huh. It’s fine,” Barney interrupts him. “Job’s done for tonight.”
Gunnar gets in under the covers and pushes right up to his side, one long leg hooking over Barney’s, and his jaw settling into the crook of his neck. Barney feels his hand come up and splay over his chest, and he suddenly wants to laugh. They’re an ugly jigsaw, but the pieces all fit.
His lover weighs heavy as his body relaxes into sleep, but Barney doesn’t roll him off. For everything he’s said before about not wanting anyone to get close… now he’s got to eat those words, because it seems that he can’t have Gunnar close enough.
fin