Work Text
Q didn’t sleep well. A constantly changing schedule and the old habit of working whenever inspiration struck had left him with worse insomnia than most of the actual agents he protected. When he did sleep it was precious and anything that interrupted it would have to face his wrath.The hiss from the front door and the end of his own bed were what woke him. Angry whispering from the front room made his blood run cold. As silently as he could Q pulled the lock box from under his bed and opened it to grip his palmprint encoded gun. Every breath sounded too loud and his own heartbeat was threatening to drown out his hearing and leave him even more blind to the situation than the darkness had left him. “Q! Get your bloody cat,” James Bond’s voice said, sounding strained and angry even at a whisper. Q opened his door the rest of the way to see Bond losing a fight to Turing lit by the street lights. For a long moment Q was frozen by the sight. He flipped the switch making Bond flinch when the lights came on. “Turing, it’s okay,” he said going to where the tabby had his claws in Bond’s chest. “What are you doing here?” Q asked. “Turn the light off. Close the blinds.”Q finally got Turing off Bond with Lovelace circling Q’s feet. Bond went to the blinds and pulled them shut while Q flipped the lights back off. “What’s going on?” Q looked at the time on the microwave. 3:07. “It’s three in the morning.”“Mission went bad. Give me the gun.”“It’s not encoded to you. Where’s your gun? What do you mean the mission went bad? Eight hours ago everything was fine and you were in St. Petersburg.”“And now I’m in London.”“007, did you lead people to my home?” Q’s voice was tight, on the verge of snapping at Bond.“I lost them first.”Q waved his arms around in the dark. “You don’t seem to confident in that.”“It’s called being careful. I just need a place to lie low for a few hours.”“You’re joking. Why here?”“Because your stiches are straighter than Moneypenny’s?”The irritation flared into real anger for a second before dying back down. “Get in the bathroom.”A few soft steps later the bathroom light turned on and Q took a few deep breaths. He shut the bathroom door behind him when he followed and saw Bond already sitting on the closed toilet with his shirt off. A few minutes of silence and Q was putting the first stich through a laceration on Bond’s shoulder. “Why are you here?” Q asked without taking his eyes off his work. “There are people in Medical who would happily stich you up.”It wasn’t like they were dating. They had only slept together twice. While Q’s feelings tended to run wild and get the better of him, he knew Bond didn’t want those feelings. Casual was just what they were. “Maybe I just missed you.”“Ha. Next time try the truth.” Q tied off the fourth stitch and started to clean up. Bond was quiet for a long time. When he spoke again it was rough and quiet. “I needed to be safe. I know I’m safe with you,” Bond said. Q wished he hadn’t pushed. This lie was worse than the last. “Fine. Don’t tell me. What do you need?”“I’m not lying, Q. I just need a place to lie low until the home office can tie up those loose ends you’re so good at taking care of.”Q rubbed at his forehead as he left the bathroom to find his work laptop. He set himself up on his bed with the laptop in the still dark room. Bond watched him from the bedroom door. “Get some rest, Bond. I have work to do.” A part of him wished he would have been surprised when Bond climbed into the other side of the bed and seemed to fall asleep in seconds. While Bond slept Q continued to work, chatting with the techs who had been running support when Bond’s mission had gone sideways. Bond had left a trail back to London that Q set to erasing before trouble found them. As it turned out the whole situation was much bigger than Q could handle on his own since Bond had burned himself to protect a deep cover agent they had in an organization that was butting heads with the one Bond had been sent to disrupt. When Q finally got to the point that the situation was as handled as he could get it from his laptop and without Mallory giving some sort of guidance of what to do about the contact Bond had had with the other agent sunshine was starting to creep through the crack in the bedroom curtains. He’d have to leave for the office in a little over two hours but he could get an hour nap in before he had to get ready. Bond’s back was still turned to him and Q allowed himself a moment to watch. Careful enough not to wake the agent he put his hand on the agent’s shoulder in comfort. Who he was comforting was unclear.As soon as his hand touched the hot skin of Bond’s arm through another hand captured his. The blankets rustled in the quiet as Bond rolled over to look at Q.“See? Safe,” Bond said. Q felt anything but safe as he slid down to finally rest. These were dangerous waters Bond was inviting him into and he wasn’t sure bond could even see how dangerous it was for Q.“Two guard cats and a quartermaster to take care of me.”“Your quartermaster whishes you would take care of yourself so he didn’t have to wake up at three in the morning to clean of your cyber footprints leading home.”Bond smiled. It was sleepy and open and it made Q’s heart clench. “I’ll think about it. For the sake of that precious brain of yours.” He wrapped his arms around Q and pulled them close together, stealing a kiss as soon as they were close enough. “Get some rest.”