Work Text:
Beginnings
James looked up from his book when Danny let a box slam down on the coffee table, an eyebrow arched inquiringly to prompt an answer out of the younger man while he slipped his index finger between the pages to keep his place marked.
“It’s a puzzle” Danny answered, sitting down on the carpeted floor.
Q let out a small but delighted noise, shaking himself out of his light dozing in order to crawl out of James’ lap and get closer to the coffee table; James gently held him by his hipbone, steadying his uncoordinated movements and making sure that he wouldn’t topple over in his half-asleep state.
Danny opened the box and immediately Turing came snooping, paws curiously sorting through the coloured pieces “How do you usually sort them?”
“By colour” Q hummed, absentmindedly pushing away Turing’s head, wanting to avoid the cat accidentally swallowing one of the pieces which would have made their lazy afternoon quite a lot less enjoyable “Landscape?” he asked, curiously looking at the pieces almost as if attempting at making a sense of the image with a glance - just like he did when he saw an equation and his brain wouldn’t need more than a handful of seconds to go through all the calculations and get to the result.
“Even better” the other said “ It’s a reproduction of The Fighting Temeraire - I think we should keep our own copy here at home”
“That blasted painting” James let out in a fond groan and sat up, leaving his book abandoned on the sofa so that he could lean over and start to sort through the pieces; he honestly couldn’t remember the last time he had sat down to put together a puzzle, probably sometime before his parents had died: James hadn’t been much for childish pastimes once he had found himself an orphan filled with resentment and grief.
“You should also separate the ones that are part of the frame from the others” Alex pointed out as he entered the living room, a plate full of freshly baked biscuits in hand and Pampuria following him, clearly aiming at the plate’s content. He sat down next to James, moving the book aside after slipping a piece of paper between the pages and closing it, so that the spine wouldn't get all creased “They're the easiest pieces to isolate” Alex offered as an explanation, narrowing his eyes as he focused on the pieces in the box and grinned when he singled one out thanks to one of its edges being completely straight and held it up triumphantly “See?”
James smiled; he loved seeing Alex and Q's formidable brains and logical way of thinking applied to the most simple things “So, what strategy do you suggest?” Had it been for him, James would have simply upended the box and started putting together the pieces that clearly stood out as belonging together.
Which, he supposed, was quite an appropriate metaphor to also describe the different ways they went about missions and work in general - analysis versus instinct.
“For tonight, we should sort the pieces in different groups” Danny piped up from around a bite of biscuit, his hand outstretched over to Pampuria so that she could lick at the crumbles sticking to his digits.
Alex nodded “Four groups”
“Five” Q hummed “Frame pieces. Ships pieces. Sea pieces. Clear sky pieces. Cloudy sky pieces” he listed, lifting a finger up for every main item present in the painting as he easily recalled them.
Alex bumped his and James’ shoulders together “You look for the frame pieces”
“Because they're easier?”
“And because you don't know the painting that well” Danny added with a grin before cramming the other half of the biscuit in his mouth.
James shrugged “Fine. Less work for me”
Pampuria jumped on the coffee table and mewed out aloud, swiping angrily at the pieces with her floofy tail, scattering them around to attract their attention.
It had taken them two evenings to separate all the pieces in five piles and, by the time they were ready to start on the frame on the third night, a mission had landed on James’ lap and, as usual, Q appointed himself his handler to make sure he'd make it back home as unharmed as possible.
Neither Danny nor Alex were in the mood of starting on the puzzle on their own; without the specific intention of making it so, it had become an activity that the four of them could do together - another way to share an interest and time with the others and to deepen their bond.
So, that evening - and for the following week - Danny and Alex cuddled, read and caught up on Tv series with Q whenever someone at work managed to send him home for a while.
When James finally came back, bruised and too wired up to stand their touches, opening the slightly dusty box seemed the best thing they could do to spend time together without risking overwhelming and triggering James. They worked quietly, silence broken only by a few murmured words.
For once, Alex had decided to let his ‘No smoking indoors’ rule slide and even if he'd done so for James in case he wished to do so to decompress a little, soon enough Q and Danny too were sharing a cigarette between them. Alex wrinkled his nose a bit at the smell of burning tobacco, but nothing could put a damper on the relief he felt at the fact that James was back at home safe.
Q squinted at the scattered pieces on the lid of the box before shifting his gaze to the coffee table on which the frame had been proudly completely put together, looking to and fro from one to another in an attempt at finding a piece from where to start; they had decided to begin from the sky, Danny having managed to persuade them that it was the easiest part and that working their way down from that would be better - Q wasn't quite sure about the reason why, but he hadn't complained: they needed to start from somewhere, after all.
James chuckled and dropped a kiss over the untidy mop of Q's tangled and unruly curls as he leaned over and grabbed a piece just from under the younger man's nose and slotted it neatly into place “Someone needs to get stronger glasses” he teased in an almost singing voice.
That and an outraged noise coming from Q, they prompted a hearty laugh out of Danny who, rather gleefully, added another piece to the puzzle.
“This is unfair!” Q cried out and, immediately, Pampuria jumped up on his lap as if to comfort him - though, everyone knew that she just wanted an excuse to dig her little sharp claws into someone. Or so James claimed and his judgement couldn't really be trusted when it came to Pam.
“Or maybe you're just distracted” Alex said in a soothing manner, fingers steepled under his chin as he observed the portion of puzzle they had completed; after glancing at the watch on James’ wrist, Alex decided that it definitely was time for a break - it wasn't as if they had a deadline to respect “Time to go to sleep”
James frowned “It's only ten and a half” he said, aware of sounding a bit like a kid complaining about curfew.
“I'm horny” Alex retorted, arching an eyebrow as if to challenge the other man to contradict him.
“Definitely bed time!” James concurred, tugging Q up from his spot on the floor and hurried towards the bedroom “Come on, Danny! You can put everything in order tomorrow morning!” he shouted as he unceremoniously dumped Q on the bed, who let out a surprised shriek.
Alex wasn’t exactly surprised to hear that noise turn into an obscenely loud moan.
“Are you really horny?” Danny inquired, studying Alex’s face to read his real thoughts in his eyes; he might have been a spy, but Alex never felt the need to keep up masks around the house, where he was safe and surrounded by people who cherished and loved him.
Alex pulled DAnny in his arms, fingers gently wrapped around the back of his scalp so that he could tilt the younger man’s head upwards in order to kiss him “Well, not exactly horny but I wouldn’t say no to a little tumble in the sheets” he whispered, lips brushing their way up from Danny’s cheekbone to his temple.
Q let out another indecently loud moan and Danny snorted fondly “Let’s go then or Q will have all the fun” he encouraged, standing up and leading Alex to the bedroom.
Both their lovers had already lost their clothes, now strewn all over the room; James had his head buried between Q’s smooth thighs, clearly making an extremely good use of his tongue if the way the younger man was thrashing on the bed was of any indication.
Admittedly, it was a sight that Alex would never tire of: it always managed to make him feel both aroused and deeply ashamed of himself, mind instantly filled by slurs he tried to drown out - Danny’s mouth sucking a hickey on the side of his neck was definitely helping and Alex let his head fall to the side, giving the other more space to work on. Now that he thought about it, between James’ mission and the puzzle, Alex couldn’t remember the last time they had sex all together and he found that he had missed the shared physical intimacy.
“Come here” Q panted, green eyes wide open behind his smudged glasses and his whole torso stained a dusty pink by a flush “Please, come here. I need you”
“You’re so beautiful, little love” Alex whispered, bending down to directly kiss a moan away from Q’s spit-slicked lips while Danny plastered himself to James’ back , digits tenderly fluttering over over puckered scars and faded burn marks; he had never been attracted by scars - he had never found them particularly exciting or disgusting - but Danny knew how self-conscious they could make James sometimes and, if there was something Danny really cared about, it was making his lovers feel comfortable and at peace with themselves. Only that mattered.
James was too tired to actually focus on the puzzle, but he wanted his lovers to keep going at it so, he had his head in Alex’s lap and enjoyed the caresses to his hair while they sorted through the pieces. He hadn’t been sleeping well lately, his subconscious bringing up some truly gruesome nightmares that had forced James to spend sleepless nights on the sofa with the cats to avoid disturbing his lovers’ rest - or, worse, hurt them: sometimes, the images were so vivid that he couldn’t help lashing out in self-defence.
James raised his gaze, eyes looking for Q’s face, and he felt his stomach lurch at the sight of the bruise just under the other’s left eye, glaringly purple against his pale skin; victim of a rather crude dream and somebody’s threateningly wandering hands, James had struck out in panic and almost broken Q’s nose with a single blow.
As if perceiving how troubled he was feeling, Alex slightly increased the pressure of his digits on his scalp, trying to drown out the thoughts whirling around his brain with a soothing massage. It helped, a little bit. Not to the point that James could forget about hurting Q in such a way.
Quietly, Danny started to hum a slow song and James, consumed by tiredness, let his eyelids fall closed.
“And here we are, the last piece” Danny said proudly. It had taken them a little over three weeks to complete the puzzle, it felt good putting in place the last piece, even if Danny had to admit that he would miss the evenings spent together in such a way.
There was a frame ready for the completed puzzle and, amidst some colourful swearwords and cursing, James had hammered the necessary nails to later hang it to the wall.
Q’s eyes twinkled with mischief behind his glasses “what do you see?”
James rolled his eyes at the cheeky question, remembering in every detail their first meeting “A bloody big ship” he obliged, prompting a delighted chuckle out of Danny as he slotted the last piece into place.
“We need one of Lambeth bridge too” Q observed “We can always go and take a picture, if we can’t find a puzzle: there’s loads of places where they print pictures on blank puzzles”
Danny cocked his head to the side with curiosity “Why?”
“Because that’s where we met the first time, Danny” Alex realised after a second “That’s where we began”