Work Text:
Happy Birthday
Alex looked perplexed at his desk piled high with presents - some carefully packaged and complete with bows, others haphazardly wrapped and held together by tape - and what was a truly excessive amount of sweets for one person: were people trying to give him diabetes?
Not that people were supposed to even know that it was his birthday; surrounded by spies or not, Alex had managed to keep such an information secret since he had started working for MI6.
Only six people in total knew about the date.
His father was dead and he didn’t believe in ghosts speaking to the living.
His mother and Frances definitely wouldn’t have gone out of their way to inform his colleagues about such a trivial thing.
That left his lovers.
Alex raised his eyes from the garish display and fixed his gaze on Danny - there was no use in glaring at James, the man would have just infuriatingly grinned at him, and Q would have just stared back at him for however long it took to one of them to concede defeat “What is this? And why are you here in MI6 for that matter?” It wasn’t that Alex wasn’t happy to see Danny, but a chill still ran down his spine at the memory of what the secret service had tried to do to the other man - how they had tried to hurt and break him.
“Q cheated and let me in with his ID” Danny smiled nervously, letting his glance briefly swipe over the vast array of presents on the desk - maybe they had gone a little overboard when telling people “Uhm.. happy birthday?”
“From half of the agency?”
“Just from Q-branch, Moneypenny, Tanner and M” Q quipped, stepping closer to Danny to pull him against his side in a comforting manner “Blame me, not Danny - it wasn’t his idea”
“And me” James added, throwing Danny a wink “Now, stop being grumpy and open one of those pastry boxes: I haven’t had breakfast yet and I’m starving”
“I thought these were my presents”
“You don’t like celebrating, anyway”
Alex sighed heavily “And yet, you made sure to tell everyone” he pointed out even as he heeded to James’ request and started opening the closest box, a reluctant smile tugging at the corners of his mouth when the fragrant scent of macarons filled the air - someone definitely had noticed that he tended to eat more than his fair share whenever he brought Q some “Touch the coconut ones and you’re dead”
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning” James teased but he grabbed a strawberry macaron and bit off the upper lid.
“You can’t it eat like an oreo, you heathen” Q complained, taking one for himself while Danny drifted behind the desk to sit in Alex’s lap and tucked himself under his chin.
“Forgiven?”
Alex sighed and kissed Danny’s mop of unruly hair “Promise me that I’m not going to walk in on a party at lunch time?”
“I swear this is all we’ve got” Danny promised “We just want you to feel appreciated and loved like you deserve: you mean so much to a lot of people, not just us”
It wasn’t an idea Alex could imagine himself easily getting used to but he did acknowledge that his lovers’ intentions had been good “Forgiven, then”
“Good, let’s open this presents!”
“Christ, James, you’re like one of those kids who are jealous they don’t get presents when it’s their sibling’s birthday”
“Maybe I am” James grinned, tugging Q in his arms “What are you going to do about it?”
Before Q could answer, Alex cleared his throat “Please, we’re at work: keep it PG-13”
“As if we haven’t had sex in MI6”
“Disgusting”
Q laughed “We keep a list of all the places that still need christening, don’t we? What’s on there?”
“M’s desk-”
Alex leaned over and stuffed a coconut macaron in James’ mouth: he didn’t need to hear more - he couldn’t be blamed for things he didn’t know.