Work Text:
At that moment he hated the fact that the door to his quarters slid open and closed automatically. He hated everything right now, but that was besides the point. A regular door he could have slammed, would have slammed. It may have seemed petty or childish to other people, but it would have been something relatively non destructive that would have helped him calm down even if only a little. Instead the door closed calmly behind him and he simply stalked through it overly dramatically.
His thoughts shifted away from his hatred of the door, to the silence of the room. He had expected to find Jack here, on the couch, watching some stupid thing or another. That was normally what had happened when he came back from a mission that they were not on together. He was supposed to slam the damn door closed, storm over to the couch and be teased and then cuddle with the only person who could soothe his temper when it got this bad. He hated having to search for the man. His temper flared even higher when his search of their shared quarters revealed no sign of the asshole. He was about to storm back out into the base when he heard the door open softly.
“Musta been one helluva bad day,” The deep voice calmed him almost instantly. So much so that he briefly forgot his irritation at not being able to find the man speaking immediately upon his return. That burning anger faded even further when he met those blue eyes. Jack’s eyes still sparkled when he smiled and Gabriel was still practically powerless against them.
“I’m surrounded by idiots,” Reaper snarled, the heat behind his words already cooling under Jack’s influence. The silver haired fox approached him confidently, unafraid of the smoke billowing off him or the fury in his voice. Those rough, scarred hands reached up to his face and slowly grasped the mask that it hid behind.
“You don’t need that here Gabe,” If anyone else had tried this, anyone, they would have been dead before they even laid a hand on him or his mask. Jack though, he could touch him like this without consequence. “There we go,” Jack hummed as their eyes met. “You really shouldn’t hide your handsome face,”
He opened his mouth to reply, to tell Jack to shut up. The words never left his mouth; Jack closed the distance and kissed him instead. He probably should have pushed the old soldier away and said what was on his mind. Instead, he leaned into the annoying man, deepening the kiss. Before he knew it, Jack had led the two of them to across the room and Gabriel found himself lying on the couch, another man on top of him, staring down at him adoringly. He allowed himself to relax into the cushions.
The holoscreen turned on at some point. Reaper wasn’t paying attention at the moment, too busy making out like he was a damned teenager. Another time and he might have let his pride push the man on top of him away right now, but he needed this and no amount of worrying about keeping up his image mattered right now. It was not like Jack was intimidated by the Reaper anyway. His pride would have just gotten in the way. He would much rather relax on a couch with Jack and what he eventually identified as a Laker game that had been turned on in the background.
The next few minutes passed in a soothing blur that ended with him lying down, his head in Jack’s lap, watching a basketball game while his lover stroked his curls soothingly. Gabriel watched the game while Jack pretended to be interested, stealing glances at the spectre’s messed up face and kisses on occasion. The smile that Jack wore, the one reserved only for Gabriel, was infectious and he smiled back, despite himself, whenever their eyes met.
His form had mostly stabilized by the end of the game, his body no longer billowing smoke. It didn’t even matter that his team had lost, the time spent just watching it with Jack was more important than the damn Lakers. He could have simply fallen asleep then and there if he hadn’t noticed a spot of dried blood on the other man’s face.
“What happened to your face?” Gabriel asked, choking back the rising anger and concern he felt in equal measure at the thought of what might have occurred.
“What's wrong with my face?” He replied somewhere between confused and amused, feeling around to see if anything was amiss.
“Blood,” Gabriel gently wiped it away with his thumb.
“Oh, it’s not mine at least,”Jack replied simply, suddenly lost in thought. “Probably from one of your little grunts getting in my way earlier.”
“Jackieee,” His reprimand was somewhere between exasperated and amused.
“What?” The little shit replied, face innocent, clearly hiding a grin. “They’re alive and will be out of the infirmary in, like, a week,”
“How many times have I told you to stop taking our people out of commision,” Gabriel sighed, knowing that it was not likely to sink in the thousandth time anymore than it had before.
“They’ve gotten better about not making themselves targets, but some of them just won’t learn to stay out of my way,” Jack nuzzled into his neck, ignoring the irritation on his face.
“They only get in your way when you're doing something you shouldn't be doing,” He tried his best to sound put upon, while Jack merely shrugged.
“As if those goons could stop me from doing anything Gabe,”
“That's not the point Jack,”
“It's not your point,” Jack corrected. “It remains my point.”
Gabriel rubbed his temples slowly. He was about to say something when the door to their quarters buzzed and stole his attention. He turned towards the door, ready to storm over to it and rip whoever was bothering them in half, but Jack motioned for him to relax and moved to handle it himself. Despite Jack running interference, Gabriel replaced his mask, uncomfortable with the thought of anyone else seeing his face. Reaper glided behind Jack as the grunt was handing the man a box, towering above them as a menacing smoking figure. Gabriel would give him points for mostly maintaining his composure, though the young man’s eyes betrayed the fear he felt.
“Everything is intact right?” Jack ignored Gabriel’s dramatics and asked in a voice that seemed to scare the man more than the Reaper did.
“Yes sir,” The man stammered out quickly. Gabriel wasn’t really sure how to take that exchange. Jack held no official rank here, yet was being treated like he was in charge. He wondered if this was a widespread phenomenon and if he should worry about it or not. “They were very careful checking for anything dangerous before handing it to me,”
“I would hope so. I know who was involved,” The man gulped, his heartbeat increasing. Apparently he really was more afraid of angering Jack than Gabriel and that was interesting. Upon opening and inspecting the contents, without allowing Gabe to see them, Morrison nodded approvingly and the agent, who still hadn’t left, let out a sigh of relief.
“Anything else you need sir?” Reaper was about to respond, to send the agent away, before he realized that the question, and the salute that accompanied it, were aimed at Jack again.
“Yeah,” Jack replied, reaching into his jacket for a relatively small glass bottle. “This is for Cortez. I want you to deliver it to her,” The grunt nodded, grabbing the proffered bottle. “I also brought something else with me and I want it brought up here immediately,”
“Umm,” The man was suddenly extremely worried again. “That’s highly unorthodox…” The words died in his throat under Jack’s glare.
“Just tell them that I will come down for it personally if it’s not here real soon,” The grunt nodded in recognition and retreated quickly, before the old soldier could make things more difficult on him.
“You’re being saluted now?” Gabriel asked as soon as they were alone, his tone painfully neutral.
“Its very easy to train your men,” Jack replied with a shrug. “They’re used to being made to avoid punishment. Just needed a little time to condition them to understand that I am another dangerous person to placate,” Gabriel let out a put upon sigh, while Jack just laughed, removing his mask and kissing him again.
“What’s in the box?” He asked instead of continuing a line of questioning that was sure to stress him out more. Jack smiled, that wonderful brilliant smile of his.
“It was going to be a surprise,” Jack walked back towards the kitchen. “But, I’m making food for a proper date night.”
“So, like our one day honeymoon on base?”
“Yeah that one,” Jack replied with a pained smile. “Thought you needed something nice to eat and drink. Plus, we deserve a real date,”
“Not really in a good state for that right now Jackie,” Gabriel gestured to the smoke still slowly billowing off of him, despite having calmed down considerably since he had returned.
“Brooks should bring something for that relatively soon,” Jack replied, unpacking his supplies around the kitchen. Jack began preparing to cook a rather large and somewhat complicated meal, undeterred by Gabriel’s unstable state.
“Brooks?”
“Yeah, the agent that brought this up here,” Jack explained without shifting his attention from the work in the kitchen. “He was assigned to deal with me as some kind of punishment a few months ago,”
“Must’ve really pissed people off,” Jack turned to face him, the most overly dramatic pout Gabriel had ever seen on his face. He managed to maintain the expression long enough to pull a chuckle from Gabriel.
“It worked out for everyone. I can deal with him and people rarely get hurt this way,”
“He has to deal with you though,” He teased the soldier with a smirk.
“Yeah,” Jack conceded. “But he also has avoided any active battle zones since he started this gig,”
“Really?” Gabriel asked, slightly incredulous.
“Yeah. Apparently dealing with me without incident is more important than any active mission that comes this way,” Jack replied with a chuckle.
“Dealing with your grouchy ass is more dangerous than most the people we face Jackie,” Gabriel Joked.
“I checked the casualty count and while not true, it’s not too far off,”
“Should I even ask how you got a hold of that information?”
“Physical access to the system makes pretty much all your security precautions moot,” Jack kept working on food while he spoke. Gabriel collapsed back onto the couch, absentmindedly watching what remained of the post game show.
“I am going to have to have a strict review of proper physical security protocols for the entire base aren’t I?”
“Or you could just grant me access and I wouldn’t have to break into it,”Jack replied simply. Honestly, Gabriel wasn’t really opposed to that, though it would look bad and he wasn’t willing to deal with that right now. Jack would just have to keep breaking in to get any useful information.
“So who’s Cortez?” He asked, changing the subject again.
“Head of requisitions. Always nice to know the people who handle equipment Gabe,” Jack informed him, answering his follow up question immediately.
“And the bottle?”
“250 year old Cognac. Good stuff. Expensive.”
“And you just gave it away?” Gabriel called out dramatically. “That would have gone well with this whole date night thing,”
“Got something better for us,” Jack replied, catching Gabriel’s attention. “Check my jacket!” Gabriel groaned as he stood, moving over to where Jack had stripped his heavy combat clothing earlier. A search of the large inner pocket inside his Jacket revealed a padded package that upon opening revealed a strange looking crimson and silver bottle he did not recognize.
“What is this?” He called out, eyeing the peculiar bottle and label curiously.
“World’s rarest and most expensive bottle of Scotch. Only three of them left in the world,”
“And we are going to drink one tonight?”
“Yep!” Jack called back, oddly happily. “A ten million dollar or so evening,”
“And where did you get that kind of money Jackie?”
“Grabbed it from the president of Lumerico earlier this week,” That caught Gabriel’s attention.
“What were you doing there?” Gabriel made his way into the kitchen, placing the bottle on the counter while Jack finished mincing some garlic.
“I had some unfinished business and figured it was a better use of my time than waiting around for you to get back,”
“So you assassinated the head of a major international corporation?” Jack laughed, he stared at the soldier, unamused.
“Nah. Just broke into a secure network, planted a nice rootkit and bugged a few buildings.”
“And stole a ten million dollar bottle of liquor,” Gabriel added.
“Yep. It would just be wasted on scum like that,”
Jack was not wrong about that, though many years ago the boyscout would never have stolen, even from someone like that. The man was absolute scum, but it was still jarring sometimes, dealing with Soldier: 76 instead of Jack Morrison. That big heart of his was one of the reasons he had loved Jack, but things had changed in the last few years. 76 managed to walk a line somewhere in between caring too much and being utterly ruthless that struck a nerve with Reaper in all the right places.
A buzz from the front door interrupted his thoughts and he stalked over to it, replacing his mask for the second time in under an hour in order to answer the door. Brooks apparently, had returned dragging, of all things, a person, bound in chains, with a bag over their head and from the sound of it, also gagged.
“Who is this?” The agent saluted Reaper this time, body tense. It was genuinely difficult to tell who the man was more afraid of, him or Jack.
“We don’t know,” Brooks admitted, voice surprisingly calm. “The soldier brought him in. He hasn't been interrogated or identified yet,”
“And why is he here?”
“The soldier requested he be brought here,” Jack had demanded it really, but that was besides the point. The grunt knew nothing so Reaper waved him off, allowing him to retreat.
“Jack!” He called out to the kitchen as he dragged the prisoner through their quarters. “Who is this?”
“Remember that mission in Hyderabad last month?” Jack asked without looking up from what he was measuring.
“Yes. What about it?”
“A Vishkar goon hit you with one of their weird beam guns and you were complaining about lingering pain for a week,” Gabriel briefly wondered why the hell Jack was bringing all of this up before realization dawned on him.
“I'm not even sure I want to know how you found out who shot me,”
“Simple. I asked, then hurt some people and asked again,” Jack replied nonchalantly.
“Why would you go through all that trouble?”
“Someone shot you,” He replied simply, as if it was the only natural response to the situation. “Besides,” Jack continued after a moment’s silence. “I wanted to make sure those little machines of yours had something to eat so that you could enjoy the date night with me,”
Again, the ruthlessness that Jack managed to show nowadays never failed to send a shiver of excitement down his spine. He smiled as he dragged the man across the small hallway towards his interrogation room.
“Wait,” Gabriel called out, halfway down the hall. “How the hell did you manage a kidnapping in India and stealing from Lumerico in the week I was gone?”
“Oh, I just took an Orca,” Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned.
“Should I ask how you got access to one?”
“Probably not,” Gabriel could hear the grin in his voice even though he couldn’t see it. He didn’t press the matter. They would deal with it later, or at least he would tell Jack not to do it and the man would ignore him. There was no point ruining a nice evening with it right now. “You worried about it?”
“I have to deal with other people questioning your motivation,”
“I’m on your side Gabe. You should know that,” Jack replied simply, not skipping a beat in his cooking. Reaper had no real way to respond to that. He trusted that Jack was being honest, but he knew the man was most dangerous when he was using words. Jack had the amazing ability to speak nothing but the truth, but still pull one over on everyone involved. Jack seemed to take his silence as some sort of agreement because he changed the subject. “Make sure to have your fill in your little dungeon. I don’t want the husk disrupting our evening.”
“Yes dear,” Gabriel called back, rolling his eyes even though Jack couldn’t see him. He would worry about what Jack’s goals were later. Right now he had a date to get ready for.
The man’s death was quick and even relatively painless as Gabriel absentmindedly allowed his nanites to feast on the poor schmuck. It only took a few minutes to drain the man until he was nothing but a dessicated husk. By the time he was finished he really did feel better, more in control. Gabriel managed a very human and stable form now that he was calm and had gorged a little. The date might have been a good idea afterall.
His various senses had practically returned to normal, along with his solid body. He could smell what Jack was cooking now. The scent of spices fills the air, a wonderful scent that would no doubt be wonderful to eat as well. Without really thinking about what he was doing, Gabriel wandered into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around his soldier, refusing to let go, forcing Jack to drag him around the kitchen to get things done. The man complained but made no real move to push him away, just griped about him being difficult.
Gabriel only disentangled himself from the man when Jack gestured for him to set the table. Setting everything that they needed up took only several moments really: plates, silverware, and napkins. Still waiting for Jack to bring the food over, Gabriel reached for his own little surprise. A nice romantic set-up of candles that he had saved for just such an occasion, though he had intended to spring a surprise date on Jack at some point, but this seemed as good a time as any.
“Oooh candles,” Jack commented with a smile, as he began to serve the two of them.
“I know how much you love that sappy shit,” He finished lighting the last of the four of them and sat himself down, awaiting Jack to sit down so they could eat together.
“And I know you love yourself some red pozole, just the way your abuela always makes it,”
“I still can’t believe she shared her secret family recipes with you,” Gabriel said, taking a deep whiff of the food. It smelled just right and hopefully tasted just as good.
“We got married and you sure as shit weren’t going to be able to do anything with them,” Jack finally finished bringing everything to the table and sat down across from him. “We decided together to never allow you within 5 feet of a stove.”
“Hey, I make amazing macarons,” Gabriel defended himself.
“Yes, you’re allowed near the oven as long as you are supervised,” Jack snorted while Gabriel pouted in response.
He decided against rising to the man’s teasing anymore than he already had. He was having the nicest time he could remember in years and he was not going to let his temper ruin that and getting into an argument over his bad luck in the kitchen was definitely not something he wanted to deal with at the moment. So, instead he grabbed for the bottle of scotch that Jack had stolen.
“Wait,” The soldier interrupted before Gabriel could pour himself a glass. “I've got just the thing for that,” Jack practically bounded all the way to their freezer, returning and dropping something into his empty glass. A trio of small plastic owls stared up at him, his confusion must have shown on his face. “They keep your drink cold without watering it down,”
“Cartoon owls though?”
“Yeah. Adorable little barn owls. They reminded me of you,” Coming from anyone else he might have taken that as an insult, but the smile on Jack’s face was so earnest he knew there was no way it could be one. He poured himself a drink without complaint, the little owls doing their job of being fake ice cubes surprisingly well.
“It’s pretty good,” He responded after a moment, inspecting the glass he had just emptied.
“10 million good?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Nah, but pretty good nonetheless,” He replied, pouring Jack one and himself another.
“I think it was more than worth ten million dollars of someone else’s money,” They shared a soft laugh at the idea as Gabriel refilled Jack’s now empty one. Neither of them were going to get drunk from just one bottle, even with how strong this stuff was, but it was a nice accompaniment to a good meal.
He lost himself in the food and conversation. Nothing important, talk about the game, what had happened on Reaper’s mission. He could open up to Jack, but the man also managed to pull him into easy conversation in a way no one else has ever managed. By the time they are both stuffed, Gabriel could hardly recall the anger that had led him here. Instead, he interrupted Jack clearing the table and dragged the man with him to their bed.
“Someone’s eager,” Jack’s voice was sultry, succeeding in exciting Gabriel and getting him to overlook the absolutely smug grin that the man wore at the moment.
“Don’t tell me you weren’t looking forward to this all night,” Reaper practically growled back, dragging his willing partner back onto their bed.
“I can’t wait to take care of you the way you deserve Gabi…” A loud buzzing interrupted them before things could go even further, the communicator in his coat was calling him. He groaned when Jack managed grabbed the communicator before Gabriel could.
“Unless the base is burning to the ground I am personally going to shoot whoever called and interrupted us after I made it abundantly clear not to, I don’t care who it is,” The line was silent for a moment, as if the person on the other end was gauging how serious the threat was. “And yes that includes you Sombra,” He added to the silence. The line went dead shortly afterwards.
“Do you have to cause a scene Jackie?” Gabriel mock chided.
“It’s fun,” He replied with a shrug.
“Yeah, but I have to deal with everyone complaining about your shenanigans,” Gabriel couldn’t find it in himself to whine at the moment, but that didn’t stop him from complaining in general.
“It's a small price to pay,” Jack bragged, a grin on his face as he leaned back down to kiss Gabriel, before retaking his place on the bed.
“Sometimes I wonder,” Gabriel teased back with his own smirk.
“Oh?” The silver fox replied in mock surprise. “Do I need to work even harder to show my worth?” Jack’s grin was downright devilish.
“Why don’t we see what you can do.” He allowed himself to be tackled back into the bed.
“I’m sure you’ll approve of my plans for the night,” Gabriel wasn’t going to disagree with that.