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From the official lab notebook of the MI6 Quartermaster: Short term requisition for tech from R&D. The number of missions over the holidays this year is thankfully low and we have a surplus of tech currently available. R asked why I needed all the equipment and I may have blushed and told her it was none of her business. I’ll return it all as soon as I’m done with it. But I think she’s onto me. Can’t be helped. This is important.~~~“You can’t come in! Go away.” Q yelled as he leapt towards the door and closed it hard before James could get inside. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand next to the bed. James was early. Startled, James caught himself with his hands on the doorframe when the door was suddenly slammed in his face. “Did you really just tell me to go away? What the hell Q!?” “Yes, go away.” Q had his back pressed to the door to make sure James didn’t try to open it again. He wasn’t about to let James ruin his surprise. “Why can’t I come in?” James leaned his forehead against the door. “I’m really fucking tired and I just want to go to bed. Let me in Q.” “Not yet,” Q said as he looked around the bedroom. James banged his head against the door and Q could feel it in his back because he hadn’t yet moved. He knew James well enough to know he wasn’t going to just walk away. “When?” Q heard through the wood of the door. “How long do I have to wait?” Benji was once again chasing wires under the bookshelf making Q dart over and grab him. He jumped over the box still in his way by the bed and with Benji tucked under his arm he reached for the doorknob. The door opened just enough for two hands holding a squirming, sable furred, green eyed cat to be pushed through it towards James. “Here, take him!” James reached to catch the nearly flying feline, Benji scrabbling up the front of his wool suit coat. “Q! Damn it!” “Twenty minutes!” Q called out knowing James wanted an answer, before saying, “maybe thirty.” “What the hell are you doing in there!?” James said gruffly, turning with the cat in his arms to head back towards the living room. Then he looked at the green eyes that were staring back at him. “Welcome home James,” James said sarcastically to himself, “I’m happy to see you, I’ve missed you.” He continued. Then he looked at Benji. “You were in there. What’s he doing in there?” Benji just slow blinked at him before turning to squirm away and pounce on Penny who just ignored the energetic spring that bounced off of her. James grabbed a beer from the fridge, but then spotting the rum egg nog he changed his mind pouring a glass before plopping down on the couch next to his girlfriend, Ellie the sleeping tabby. When she opened her sleepy eyes to glance over her shoulder and noticed who it was, she stood, stretched, turned and climbed into her boyfriend’s lap. She loved James more than anyone else. “Ellie, love, what’s Q doing in the bedroom?” It was Christmas and James had hurried back from a quick trip to Amsterdam, three days gone and he had been looking forward to greeting his boyfriend with a kiss, and he hoped a luxurious lay, followed by a long night of sleep with Q sprawled over the top of him. But now he was locked out of the bedroom and sitting on the couch with a cat in his lap, listening to Q bang around down the hall. He set the timer on his watch for thirty minutes, carefully, aware that if he set it wrong the alarm was rather loud and he didn’t really want to have to flee the flat due to explosion. He leaned back and closed his eyes thinking a thirty minute nap might not be a bad option at the moment. But Q had been right with his first estimate and it only took twenty minutes, not thirty. He threw open the door expecting he might find James in the hall and was surprised when he didn’t, and then was equally surprised that the flat was quiet. “James?” he called out and got no response. Treading quietly down the hall he peeked into the living room and smiled at the sight, James asleep, head tipped back onto the cushion, Ellie in his lap, Penny and Benji on the cushion beside him, the empty eggnog glass still in his hand. “Oh love,” Q sighed as he reached for the glass, seeing James’ fingers flex in his sleep before going lax. Q reached for Ellie, lifting her from James’ lap as he quietly shooed the other two off the couch as well. Then ever so gently he climbed into James’ lap, straddling him, his knees on either side of his hips as he leaned in, wrapping his arms around James’ neck, his lips finding the soft spot behind James’ ear. James wrapped his arms around Q without even waking. His body so used to being close to Q it was muscle memory. Q felt him sigh, James’ nose burying into the small gap between the neckline of Q’s t-shirt and the crook of his neck to find the scent of his warm skin, inhaling as he hugged him tighter. Q relaxed into him, his arms going soft as he hugged him close, feeling the even slow thump of James’ heart beat against his own. He had intended to greet James a bit more energetically, welcome him home with a lusty kiss, which always made James laugh. But the quiet of this was wonderful and Q decided to enjoy it for as long as he could, this peace, this calm between the two of them because usually life with James was anything but calm. He felt James deeply inhale again, and then felt his hands start to move slowly over his back and he knew James was awake and completely aware of what was happening. But Q still didn’t move, didn’t pull back, absorbing every moment of being close to James like this, and James didn’t push, just slowly trailed his hands along Q’s spine, breathing in the scent of his skin in the curve of his neck. Obvious to both of them as their hearts started to beat faster, they began to shift, James’ hands sliding to the hem of Q’s shirt, slipping underneath to trail his nails over Q’s skin making Q shiver in his lap. Q arched closer, curling his neck back as James’ ran his nose along his skin, nipping at his adam’s apple making Q swallow hard, his elbows balanced on James’ shoulders as his hands ran through the short hair on the back of James’ head. James’ rolled his hips beneath Q, pressing up making Q roll down against him with a huff of desire. James tugging now on the back of Q’s shirt, “off, take this off.” Q reached back for James’ hands with his own, separating their bodies as he rounded his lower back to duck his head and bring his mouth to James. He kissed him, a warm press of his bottom lip to James’, his mouth opening to share the heat of his breath, before feeling James tug his hands free to wrap around Q’s waist and pull him tight to him once again. But Q again rolled his back to tug away, “not here, slow down.” He sat back on James’ legs, his hands pressed to his shoulders to keep his distance. James groaned at the rebuff. “But I want you. I come home and you tell me to go away and now I find you in my lap and your saying slow down.” “I know,” Q laughed lightly, “I’m sorry I told you to go away. I want you too. I missed you.” He leaned in again to languidly kiss his boyfriend before finally retreating, whispering warmly, “Happy Christmas, love.”“Happy Christmas,” James replied, his hands slowing as Q sat up straighter. “Your present is in my jacket pocket.”“Yours is in the bedroom.” Q smiled and raised his eyebrows to taunt him. James laughed and pulled Q’s hips back into his lap, “not possible, as you are currently here.” “I’m not your present,” Q laughed. “You are the only present I want,” James said, his voice heavily tinged with lust as he leaned in to kiss Q yet again. “That’s very sweet,” Q replied. “It’s not sweet,” James replied, “I plan to do very naughty things to you.” Q laughed and pulled back, climbing from James’ lap. “Then I think you’ll like your present even more. Come be naughty with me.” He reached for his hand to tug him to a stand. “Really?” James smiled. “Really,” Q snickered. And then James’ alarm went off making the cats scatter and Q laugh as James grabbed it to push the button and make it stop. ~~~James’ jaw dropped open when he walked in the bedroom. “What did you do?” Q turned and bounced onto the side of the bed, leaning back on his elbows, pleased with himself. “Like it?” “Seriously, what did you do?” James was currently investigating the various cameras that were positioned around the bed. “Are we going to…” he started. “This is your Christmas present,” Q said, doing his damnedest to not go shy about this. “You’ve told me more then once that you wished you could see what we looked like when…”“I didn’t think you’d ever take me seriously.” James looked at him, surprise still all over his face. Q suddenly flushed in embarrassment, “if you didn’t really mean it, if you don’t want to…we don’t have to… I can…”“NO!” James nearly shouted, “I do! I really really do. I just didn’t think…”“So…” Q hesitated, but he didn’t get to finish his sentence because James dived onto the bed pushing him back onto it, climbing between his legs to pin him down and kiss him. “Wait,” Q squirmed, twisting his mouth away, “the cameras aren’t rolling yet.” “This is the warm up rehearsal,” James laughed, kissing Q again. “I can’t believe you are going to make a porno with me.” “I’m not, we’re NOT. This isn’t going to be like that.” Q huffed against James’ neck as James nibbled on his tattooed bite mark. “But there are cameras, how is this not…”“Because I refuse to play to them James, this isn’t about performance. Please understand that. I don’t care about getting the best angle, I don’t want to see us like that. I just want this to capture us, I want this to be about intimacy.” “But we ARE going to take our clothes off right? And we ARE going to fuck? Because if you had something else in mind…”James pushed back onto his elbow to look down at his boyfriend.“Yes, yes,” Q went still underneath James. He turned his head away not able to hold James’ gaze. “Bugger, maybe this was a bad idea.”“No, no,” James said quietly, “I understand what you are saying.” “This is for you, for when you are away, for when we are apart…” James leaned down to kiss him, quieting the words coming from Q’s lips. “I love you.” He whispered when he pulled back.“I love you too,” Q answered. They studied each other, eyes locked until Q finally smiled, “so shall we?” James snickered, “absolutely.” Q climbed from the bed turning on the cameras one by one, little red lights glowing. “I’m going to edit this for you, my goal is to have it ready before you go on your next mission.” He adjusted the lighting in the room to make it bright enough for the cameras but not so glaring that it would feel intimidating. James lounged on the bed, waiting for him. So many years as a spy and James knew part of the reason he loved his job was because he was a voyeur. The idea of watching the two of them together already had him so hard he was having to calm himself down or they wouldn’t get enough footage to make this worth the effort. “What if I just want ALL the footage from ALL the cameras?”Q paused to look at him. “Seriously?” “Maybe,” James smiled. “I’ll keep all the raw footage,” he rolled his eyes. He hit record on the last camera. “Ready?”James just raised his eyebrows in challenge and then hooked a finger to draw Q towards him. “Come here,” he said softly. Q took a breath to find his courage before slowly climbing onto the bed, his cat like tendencies taking over as he crawled his way up the bed to James. James was leaning against the headboard of the bed and when Q reached him, climbing into his lap to straddle him as he had done in the living room, James bent his knees to force Q’s hips even closer as he slid down James’ thighs, James’ arms wrapping around him to slide up his back, one hand immediately tangled in Q’s brunet waves as he pulled him in for a searing kiss. The desire between them ratcheted quickly, James tugging on Q’s t-shirt to get him undressed, his teeth on Q’s collarbones, nibbling his way across his shoulders, his fingers already finding Q’s button and zip on his jeans. Q panted a reminder to James’ ear, “you know the faster you make this happen, the shorter your film.” James’ hands immediately came to a stop, his fingers twitching with want before nodding, his forehead resting on Q’s shoulder briefly before looking up to catch his gaze, “good point,” he acknowledged before wrapping his arm around Q’s waist and easing him back until they lay flat on the bed, Q now pinned below him. James looked down at him, “let’s stretch this out a bit shall we?” And stretch things out they did, until both men were exhausted, damp with sweat, loose limbed and panting. “Fucking hell…” James exclaimed. Q just giggled. Turning to his side to throw a leg over James, his hand sliding up James’ chest until he could curl his fingers around James’ jaw, his fingers brushing through the stubble on his cheeks. Q’s neck was still tingling from the brilliant stubble burn from James’ amorous affection. He knew he should climb from the bed to turn off all the cameras before he fell asleep, the post sex endorphins swamping him already. But the media cards could hold hours more footage, no reason to rush, and Q was actually enamored with the idea of fast forwarding the hours that they slept, always curious to figure out how James managed to keep Q close when Q knew he tended to be a sprawler when he slept alone. James dozed beside him, fingers slowly growing still as he caressed Q’s thigh, hitched high over James’ waist. Then he turned to Q, his eyes still closed to whisper, “can we keep a camera so you can make this a live feed? I want to watch you sleep when I’m away.”“No,” Q shook his head, leaning in to kiss James’ temple. “Why not?” James chuckled, his eyes opening to look at Q affectionately, “afraid we’ll get hacked.” “No, I’m not afraid of that actually. More worried you’d just broadcast it given your history.” Q teased him.“One time, one time I sent that wrong group text…” James huffed, “you’ll never let me forget that.” He squeezed Q’s thigh tight with his fingers making Q jump at the press in his muscle. “Stop!” Q laughed, pulling his leg down. “No, that’s not the reason. It’s okay. You just can’t have a live feed of me sleeping, because I don’t often sleep in here when you are away.”“You don’t?” James said. “Where do you sleep?”“In my office, I bring the cats to MI6, or on the couch, if I get much sleep at all.” Q answered honestly.“Why?” “Because this bed feels very big when you are not in it with me, and it’s just a reminder that you aren’t here. I stay busy, and I…”But James cut him off with a kiss. “You know I would be in this bed with you every single night if I could,” he whispered against his ear when he pulled back. “I know,” Q nodded. “And you are here now, so I’m happy.” “Are you?” James asked beaming. “I am,” Q smiled, then leaned in to kiss James warmly. “Now go to sleep.” James nuzzled closer, turning Q in his arms to tuck him against his chest. “Are we leaving the cameras on?” “I’ll turn them off later, I’m too tired to move,” Q answered. Q should have realized that James would just take that as a challenge and that Q would end up with even more video to edit when James decided to wake him up ever so slowly to entice him into a middle of the night tryst.~~~When Q handed James the e-tablet James knew, even though Q was doing his best to keep a straight face, his countenance calm. It was the blush on the bridge of his cheek bones that gave him away. “I’m assuming this is for my eyes only?” James said with a wink. “All of your documents and files are always for your eyes only 007,” but then Q couldn’t help the little curl at the corner of his mouth. He looked down quickly to hide it, then lifted his head, “but yes, perhaps you should take extra care with this set.” ~~~James had been looking forward to this for two weeks. But he was unprepared for what he saw when he finally was in the privacy of his hotel room. It was beyond gorgeous. Watching Q respond to him, the way their bodies moved together, the flex of muscles, the arching of backs and hips, the angles of limbs, the sounds of their breath, the rustle of sheets, the sighs and the groans and the laughter, oh the joy of the laughter and sounds of encouragement. It was almost too much. The way Q had pulled all of this together, the different view points, the soft light, it all captured the easy way they had learned to move together, to anticipate the others needs, the push and pull as they took turns leading and following. The anticipation James could read in his own body, hardly comprehending that he was watching himself, the two men on film so in tune, so sensual. James had to hit pause, take a deep breath, scrub his hands over his face and pinch the bridge of his nose forcing his vision clear. He had never seen himself like this. James knew there was lots of footage of him with people he had fucked as part of his job. He had seen plenty of it himself as he reviewed tapes for reports. Sex was mechanical, sometimes perfunctory and often messy. But not this, this wasn’t just sex. James watched as Q arched in his arms, the muscles in his back tensing. James couldn’t see himself, but he knew full well what was happening in that moment, the memory crystal clear. The gentle way Q touched him when it was over, the way they held each other. James knew this was what love looked like and to see it so clearly he was breathless. When it was done James lay on the bed trying to understand what he was feeling. It was erotic, there was no doubt about that, his pants which lay damp and coated beside him on the bed, now discarded left no question, but there was more here then he could understand. He was emotionally exhausted and suddenly desperate to have the man who shared the screen with him beside him, tangible and real. An ache he couldn’t push away sat heavy in his chest, he finally found his mobile and rang him. “Q,” he said quietly.“You watched it,” Q said, beaming, he could tell from the way James said his name that he had. “Yes,” James laughed from the sound of Q’s voice. “Yes, I watched it.” “Both parts?” Q asked. “You must have fast forwarded, you’ve only been in the hotel two hours.” “I’ve only seen the first part,” James said. “If the second part is as beautifully done as the first, it may just kill me.” Q was quiet on the phone. He had hoped that James would be as moved by the film as he was. Editing everything together had been the most intense thing Q thought he had ever done. He saw images in his head constantly, whenever he closed his eyes. He knew it had affected him, he just wasn’t sure what James would think. He had told James he wanted this to be about intimacy, not about sex, and he didn’t want James to be disappointed when there weren’t obvious gratuitous moments. “Thank you,” James added when Q didn’t reply. James could feel the tears welling up as he lay on the bed. “I’ve never seen myself… to see us… god Q, it makes my heart hurt.” “I know,” Q said quickly, “mine too.” “You can never leave me,” James said, his voice rough with emotion. “I’m never going to feel like this with anyone else.” “I’m not going anywhere,” Q said through a difficult breath. “You just have to keep coming home.” “I promise.” James said. “You should watch the second part, when you woke me up…” Q let it trail off, he couldn’t actually put into words what he felt when he saw that on film the first time. Then he laughed and changed direction, “when you get back remind me to tell you about the moment when Eve walked in on me with your arse on my screen.” James guffawed. “You were editing this at work?” “Final edits, after hours. But I should have known better. Eve offered me 500 quid for a copy of this.” James laughed. “It’s worth more than that.” “It’s never going to be seen by anyone else.” Q added. “For my eyes only.” James flopped back onto the bed as he said it. “For our eyes only,” Q clarified. “Indeed.” James chuckled. “God, I want you here with me now.” Q sighed, “I know. But you can’t let this distract you from your job. Two days and you should be done.” “Two days,” “And James.” Q smiled as he glanced into the corner of his office at the new camera. “You have a private link in another file.”“For what?” James reached for his tablet. “A camera, a live feed, from my office. You asked if you could…”“Watch you sleep,” James finished the sentence. “Well, you need to sleep too, so not all night, please. But I realized that while I can tap into CCTV anywhere, and often check in on you, that you might want…”“I do, it makes me breath easier to see you at ease, at peace.” “I know,” Q said. “I watched the footage of us from most of that night. You reach for me, and more than once,” Q’s voice went rough but he continued, “more than once, when you rouse, you look for me… you check…” “And then I kiss you before I close my eyes again,” James acknowledged. He hadn’t thought Q would learn all of that, but it was in James’ nature to protect what he loved, and he didn’t love anything or anyone as much as he loved Q. “So now you can at least check…” “Thank you.” James interrupted. “You know, I haven’t had a live feed to watch you sleep since you quit MI6 and took the cats with you to the midlands.” Q chuckled, “cat spy cams. I forgot about that. I’ve been debating about restarting those so I can see what mischief they get up to, especially Benji.” “Do it,” James snickered, “I’m just as curious about the little monster as you are. He managed to get into my closed suit bag last week and it’s covered in brown fur now.” Q laughed, “I’ll add that to my list of things to do.” “Well, I can tell you what’s on mine before I go to sleep.”“What?” Q smiled.“Part II of you and me,” James said with a sigh. “Ah,” Q laughed. “Well, I would offer that we could watch it together, but…”“I should see it the first time by myself, I suspect.” James finished Q’s sentence. “Yes… I think you should.” Q sighed and closed his eyes, images immediately coming into view. “Q…” James started. “James.” Q replied. “I love you.” “I love you too.” Q said warmly. Then he laughed. “I have to go, Eve is standing in my door.” James laughed as he said goodbye and hit end call, sitting up to find the mini bar. The second film would be even better with a tumbler of whiskey. Q looked at Eve as he hung up the phone. “Eve?”“1000 quid.” She said with a straight face. “Not a chance,” Q laughed. ~~~From Q’s personal notebook: Contemplating an outtakes film to share with James. Because while I may not be an exhibitionist it’s clear after watching all the angles from those cameras that James clearly is. I didn’t include a single image, but apparently James thought this was a version of “The Office.” The number of times he looked directly at one of the cameras and smiled or winked is ridiculous. I’ll never tell him how many times I may have watched those moments, although I know full well he did it all for me, knowing I’d be the one to watch the footage. Cheeky bastard.