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"Alright, Muscles, you if elbow me one more time, I'm going to pull out the hair on your head one strand at a time."
"Hey! You said you'd stop calling me that!"
"All's fair in love and being sore, Mister Vega."
James grinned at the back of Steve's head and decided to do something that he was somewhat sure he would regret later. With a quick stretch of his arm, he lightly (or as lightly as someone of Vega's size and stature could) jabbed Cortez right under his sore ribs.
His reward was his bedmate trying to jump right out of the bunk with a hiss that would make even a Vorcha back away in fear. "I swear on everything I hold dear, Lieutenant, I am going to-"
He didn't get much farther than that before one of James' large arms grabbed him around his waist and pulled him until Steve's back was flush against Vega's chest. "Nuh uh, all you're gonna do is stay still and rest up. You're still injured."
He could tell the playful tone in his voice was really getting under the shuttle pilot's skin. Steve growled but didn't put up too much struggle since, well, he couldn't. The man could hardly raise an arm without wincing in pain. "A Harvester and a shuttle crash is not going to keep me from kicking your ass, James."
Vega shushed him and kissed behind Steve's ear before playfully biting the tip of it. "Don't worry, once you're all healed up and I'm done doin' all the stupid press bullshit for, y'know, savin' the galaxy, you can beat on this ugly mug all you want."
"...well, no one said it was ugly."
"Yeah?"
"That's as close as a compliment as you're getting right now. Now move that tree trunk off me so I can actually get comfortable."
"Nope."
"God, I hate you."
"No, you don't."
"Okay, I don't. But I really feel like I should."
~
"C'mon, bud, you need to get some shut-eye."
"Can't." Steve replied groggily, still staring at his data pad through eyes that were hardly open. "Need to finish this first."
"Esteban, all that paper work is gonna be there when you wake up." His tone changed to be a bit more firm. "You're goin' to bed one way or another so don't make me carry you."
Cortez just grunted and kept at it. That is until James sighed, stood up, grabbed the Lieutenant by the arm and proceeded to fireman carry him to their bedroom. Steve didn't protest, in fact, he just ran a tired hand through Vega's hair.
"It's getting shaggy." Steve mused. It almost sounded like he preferred it that way.
"Uh huh." James plopped him down, chuckling to himself when Cortez' body bounced on the mattress before he rolled onto his side. Toeing off his boots and stepping out of his pants, he climbed in right behind him and wrapped an arm over his Esteban, ready to sleep.
That is until the orange glowing light started emanating from right in front of Steve.
"Goddamn it, Esteban."
"Shh, I'm almost done."
~
“James Vega, if-”
“I didn’t do it.”
Steve stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide out of surprise before narrowing down to a squint. James apparently was aware that he only used Vega’s full name on two occasions: when the marine did something that made Steve need to use as many words as possible to express how much he loved him and when he’d succeeded in doing something that pissed him off.
“Alright,” Steve crossed his arms over his chest. “What is it that you didn’t do?”
“Uh…” James had a goofy grin on his face as he shrugged, “There’s a ton of stuff that I don’t do, Esteban.”
“Don’t I know it."
“Hey, what’s that mean?!”
Cortez rolled his eyes. “Never mind about that. What’s important is what you did do. In this case, you called up all the news crews and told them you were being shipped off planet for an assignment? On your birthday?”
Vega snorted. “M’not bailing on my party, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Oh, I knew that wasn’t the case. All of our friends and family, though? They weren’t exactly in the know.”
“Oh.” James’ face fell as he realized he might not have thought his plan all the way through.
“Yeah, ‘oh.’ I just spent the last hour and a half calming everyone down and letting them know everything was still on.” The hard look on Steve’s face softened when he saw the apologetic one on Vega’s. “It’s a good thing you’ve got me.”
“Are you kiddin’?” James, sensing the fight (if you could even call it that) was over, came in close and wrapped his arms around Cortez’ waist, giving his hips a squeeze. “It’s a great thing that I’ve got you, man. I, uh, I love you. You know that, right?”
Steve punched him in the shoulder just hard enough for him to feel it. “You’re not finding out what your present is until the party so stop with the mush, Mister Vega.”
“What? A guy can’t confess how he feels about his guy without it be-”
“Nope.”
“...how about a hint? C’mon! I saw you start to crack a smile when I said it! That’s gotta be worth somethin’!”
~
"What does that even mean?"
"Beats me."
James frowned, looking at all the anonymous messages Cortez had gotten. Steve put a hand up and held onto his wrist- it was his way of showing Vega that he was thinking too hard about it since the big guy would always run his fingers over the scar on his lips when he was worrying about something. James just quietly acknowledged it with a grunt and brought it right back up. "At least my pick up lines aren't that bad."
The silence in the room spoke many things after that statement was said.
Vega pivoted on the heels of his boots and looked over at Steve. "Wait, you're not saying- nah, Esteban, my lines aren't that bad." A quick pause. "...are they?"
Steve gave him a small smile, reaching up and patting him on the cheek. "I'll put it this way: It's a good thing I already knew you and was half in love with you when you started using those on me."
"Hey!" James shoved the hand on his face away. "I'll have you know that, before you, those lines worked some magic!"
"Definitely didn't need to know that but was the magic trick making women disappear after you said them?"
The silence that followed that let Cortez know Vega was pouting. Except Steve couldn't actually call it pouting without making James pout harder as he proclaimed that he wasn't pouting.
Steve chuckled. "The important thing is that you've got me now and you can say as many of your horrible lines as you want and I'm not going anywhere."
"Just for that, I'm gonna give you my A material for the rest of the night."
"...and since I set myself up for that, I guess I'll just have to deal with it."
"You're a good man, Esteban."
"Yeah, you picked good."