Work Text:
Feast
Since his nausea had slowly abated, James had gotten used to find on his desk all kinds of little treats: triple chocolate muffins - the one from Starbucks that had always made James salivate, even before he had gotten pregnant; homemade ginger biscuits covered in a thick layer of frosting; coconut macaroons that melted on his tongue and that his students watched him eat with the kind of longing one would see on a kid's face; small sandwiches packed with shrimps and tomatoes; fruit salads with mangoes and grapes - it only lacked vodka to be perfect but James greatly appreciated the effort; cold pasta dishes in neat Tupperware boxes thay made his mouth water to the embarrassing point that he had to gulp the excess saliva down.
And while James was annoyed to no end by most typically alpha behaviours, he was just loving Q's need to stuff him to the brim with the most genuine and delicious food he could find: he liked to eat and he had no qualms about polishing three full meals per day, plus the copious snacks that punctually landed in the vicinity of his bottomless stomach.
The only thing James was missing was eggs: despite the morning sickness having disappeared, he still was bent over the toilet whenever he smelled anything with eggs in it - and James really loved their child but he promised himself he would cure them of their hatred for eggs because he wasn't giving them up for the rest of his life.
He had given up active duty, alcohol and the occasional smoke for them and he would probably make sure to steer clear of the last two items even after the birth but eggs?
James wanted them back.
He craved them.
And his stomach couldn't even stand it if one was cracked open too close to his sensitive nose.
James had endured a lot of torture in his life as a secret agent - he'd fallen into bad hands often enough and had had to endure whatever they put him through in order to survive and go back home to his lover - but the knowledge that Q had eaten a delicious omelette for lunch had almost brought him to tears.
It must have been the pregnancy hormones - or so he hoped because realising that he had an unhealthy obsession for eggs was mildly embarrassing and definitely scary.
James cupped his swollen belly as he sat down to his desk: at four months, he was showing slightly more than omegas usually did because of just how much he ate - and he had no intentions of tailoring his diet until Doctor Brown told him so.
Even if he did feel a little self-conscious about how his shirts and trousers tugged at his transforming body.
James pushed the thought at the back of his mind with a shake of his mind and focused on the box in front of him, grinning at the fluorescent blue post-it on which Q hastily had scrabbled an "I love you, see you at lunch" - that was another good effect his pregnancy had had on his mate's life: sinve Q wanted to personally make sure that James ate enough, he had started having more regular meals too and the sight of his lover stuffing his face full with pasta made James feel warm and happy.
He curiously pulled the lid open and as soon as the scent wafted up to his nose, James had to bite back a pleasured moan while he suddenly remembered that his mate had visited his relatives the previous afternoon, while he was stuck teaching a handful of kids how to properly shoot with a high precision rifle. James' senses were assaulted by the unmistakable vision of Q's grandmother's Dolmakadia: grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs and covered in Greek yoghurt - paradise for his tastebuds, put shortly.
James whipped his mobile out and dialled his mate's number, smiling as he heard him pick up "You do know that I would elope with your grandmother if I could, right?" He said in lieu of a greeting.
"Oh, I know" Q snorted "For the record, she totally would take you in"
"I'm her favourite" James preened.
"It's not likely had many partners before you"
"I still am her favourite"
"Of course, my love" Q agreed and even if it might have sounded condescending, James easily could hear the smile in his voice "How are you doing?"
"Good. Better now that I'm stuffing myself full of your grandmother's food" he grinned "Now, go back to work"
"Yessir. See you at lunch.."
"..barring any international crises" James completed Q's sentence for him "I know, don't worry: if the third world war happens, I'll bring some ramen to you"
"Oh, you do know the way to my heart" Q said before cutting the call off.
James put his mobile down so that he could focus on his snack; he would have to make sure he visited Q's grandmother as soon as possible to personally thank her for all the food she pushed on them - and especially on him, since they had brought her the pictures of the ultrasound which she had promptly stuck to her fridge with a broccoli-shaped magnet that glowed in the dark.
Uncaring of the yoghurt that got on his fingers, James grabbed the wrap and brought it to his lips to take an abundant bite - it was the closest thing to a spiritual experience he had ever felt.
"Can I have a bite?"
James raised the middle finger of his free hand "Fuck off, Eve"
Eve pouted "Come on, don't be mean"
"I'm pregnant" he reminded her but he moved his paperwork aside, so that she could sit on the edge of his desk "What do you want?"
"Couldn't I just be visiting my godchild?" She inquired, swiping a bit of the Greek yoghurt with her finger and stuck it in her mouth, moaning at the taste: she had travelled enough to know what the real stuff tasted like.
James produced a pack of saltines of offered it to her, so that she could use them to gather as much of the dressing as she could "Who did exactly tell you that you're going to be the godmother?" He teased - if anyone was going to be tasked with the responsibility of taking care of their child, it would be Eve: she was fierce, strong, nurturing "So, what do you want?"
"M sent me to ask you for one of your protégés to join the mission in Nairobi" she informed him "Do you have anyone ready?"
"Do you have any specific characteristic you need?" James himself was surprised by how easily it came to him, training new agents and playing on their strengths, making sure that they got assigned to the right missions for them.
Eve leaned in and opened James' laptop, ignoring his protesting noises when she easily typed in the password and accessed his email "There, those are the specs"
James popped the last bite in his mouth and retrieved a napkin from the stash he had become used to keeping in his first drawer, squinting at the screen "Mostly recon"
"But possibly with a lot of risk, if things should go wrong" Eve concurred "Considering no mission to Nairobi ever went as planned..."
"...you need someone extremely skilled, smart and quick"
"Essentially"
"Emily might be best suited for this. And she's fluent in Swahili, that can only be useful out there"
Eve nodded "Send me her file, I'll pass it on to M" she bent down and kissed James' cheek "Thank you"
"I'm just doing my job"
"And you're very good at it"
By the time lunch break rolled around, James was starving: he didn't know whether it was because of the baby or because he had gotten used to eating so often, but the fact was that he would have eaten a whole cow by himself and well, it showed.
James regarded himself in the mirror of the elevator and with a heavy sigh, he admitted to himself that it was time to go to the tailor: the jacket couldn't hide much any longer and while he wasn't ashamed of his bump, he would have liked to be able to actually button up his jacket and wear a waistcoat from time to time - and once he had given birth and went back to his shape, he could always have the new suits tightened and tailored to his body.
The elevator doors pinged open and James walked in Q-branch, a frisson of satisfaction going through his veins as he admired the way some of the more skittish minions looked down to the ground as he walked past them: good, they still respected him then. It put a little spring in his step and he wound his arms around Q from behind, hugging the alpha close to his chest as he landed a kiss on the side of his neck "Hello"
Q jumped a little as arms suddenly hugged him but he smiled as soon as he was enveloped by his omega's scent and warmth "Hello" he murmured "You sound chirpy"
"I am, I guess" James shrugged as he turned the younger man around and bent down to kiss him, tasting the bitterness of Earl Grey still lingering on his lips "Get me some food" he whined in a low voice, so that nobody else could hear him "We're starving"
"And we definitely can't let that happen" Q said solemnly "I've ordered sweet pork and corn soup"
"I love you very much"
"Me too, James"