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It starts out as a normal evening at the bar. Everyone’s there, or everyone who matters and is available, anyway. Thomas couldn’t handle it being a constant thing, but times like this, when he can look around and see Higgins, Rick, TC, Kumu, Katsumoto, all the people who make life worth living, it’s pretty great.
So he’s relaxed, because he doesn’t have to worry about anyone he cares about going off and doing something stupid--and really, maybe he should consider collecting friends who are a little less prone to trouble, but that seems like too much work. He’s on his way back from the bar to a table when Higgins finds and stops him.
Magnum manages not to cringe at the annoyance on her face. He also manages not to grin. “Hey, Higgy, what’s up?”
“You know ‘what’s up,’ Magnum.” She crosses her arms and waits.
“Is this about borrowing your laptop again?” Magnum asks as if he’s just remembering. “Because I put it back, like you asked. I even made sure I didn’t get any food in the keyboard this time.”
“Magnum…”
“Okay, look.” Magnum sighs and drops the posturing. “I’m sorry. Something came up, and you weren’t around to ask, and I knew it was only gonna take like five minutes, so I didn’t want to bother you with a text.”
Juliet has already dropped her shoulders in a way that lets Magnum know he’s forgiven, even though her arms are still crossed and she’s still trying to frown at him. “And what, might I ask, came up? Because I tried to access my history for a site I forgot to bookmark last week, and my entire history had been wiped clean.”
Magnum does wince this time. He’d only meant to erase the browsing history for today. She’d gotten back to Robin’s Nest just as he finished his purchase, though, and he must have clicked the wrong option in his hurry. “Sorry about that. It was just… sensitive information.”
“Sensitive information that you can’t share with your partner?” Her lips twitch. Despite the stern words, she doesn’t seem actually upset.
“I don’t tell you everything, Higgins.” He shifts his weight from one foot to the other and takes a sip of his drink. “Besides, it wasn’t work related. I probably would’ve told you that.” He really doesn’t want to tell her that he used her computer to buy her a gift. It’s perfect, though, an ornament of two dogs that look exactly like her boys, except they’re wearing Santa hats.
Magnum is pretty sure they’d rip a Santa hat to shreds if he tried to put one on either of them in real life.
The auction was expiring, though, and Juliet’s computer was right there.
“It wasn’t work related.” Higgins sighs and drops her hands to her sides. She’s looking at him in that way she does sometimes, like she might be as fond of him as she is exasperated by him. “Thomas--”
He doesn’t get to hear what she’s going to say, because Rick speaks up from behind the bar. “Quit hogging the mistletoe if you’re not gonna use it.” He points directly above Magnum and Higgins, and sure enough, there’s a sprig of greenery right above where the two of them are standing.
Juliet looks, too, then looks back down at Thomas, her lips pressing into a line.
He holds up his hands. “Hey, don’t look at me. You’re the one who stopped to talk to me right in this exact spot.”
Not that he’d mind kissing Higgins, if she were into that sort of thing, but he hasn’t had to trick a woman into kissing him yet, and he’s not about to start with someone he--
Well. He’s not about to start with Higgins.
His retort is audible enough that their friends all laugh and go back to whatever they were paying attention to before, and somehow, that makes Magnum uncomfortably aware of the fact that they still haven’t moved out from under the mistletoe.
And Higgins is looking at him consideringly, like maybe she doesn’t find the idea of them kissing under the mistletoe quite as hilarious or unlikely as everyone else does.
Huh.
Magnum shuffles half a step forward, experimentally. She doesn’t go anywhere, just raises an eyebrow at him. He cocks his head at her, sending the unspoken question (or is it a challenge?) back in her direction.
In answer, Juliet sets a hand against his chest and leans up to press her lips to his. It’s quick, just two or three seconds maybe, and chaste, but it isn’t cold, and it doesn’t feel like it’s just a peck under the mistletoe. It’s enough that in those few seconds of contact, the noises around them… Well, they don’t quite fade to nothing , because he’s too well trained for that, but Magnum would swear the noises do genuinely fade.
When he opens his eyes (when the hell did he close them?) and looks into Juliet’s, it feels like his world is rearranging. He knew she was beautiful, of course; he’s neither blind nor stupid. He knew he cares about her and considers her one of the people he’s closest to. He’d even occasionally thought about kissing her.
He hadn’t thought about kissing her and meaning it, like how that kiss just felt, because they’re already close enough that adding in kissing means potentially moving into a relationship with some pretty serious emotional ties from the beginning.
Judging by her face, her mouth just a touch too slack and her eyes a little wide, Juliet is sorting through this same thing, or something like it. Then she blinks and pulls herself visibly back together. Spell broken, Magnum looks around to make sure nobody noticed the kiss. Amazingly, nobody has.
“I would appreciate it,” says Juliet before turning and walking toward the table that was originally Magnum’s destination, “if you would refrain from using my laptop for personal use. At least without asking first.”
“Whatever you say, Higgy,” Magnum says, his voice probably a little louder than it needs to be. The two of them sit. For a minute, Juliet won’t meet his eye, just stares at her drink. Somehow, that gives Magnum the courage he needs to talk. He lowers his voice so that she’s the only one who can hear him over the happy sounds of the bar. “We gonna talk about that kiss?”
She matches his volume, but her tone is light, and she finally meets his eyes. “What’s there to talk about? It’s a common holiday tradition, Magnum. Surely you know that much.”
He could let it go, and he considers it, he really does, except... “That didn’t feel like tradition.”
Higgins looks away, then back again as he waits. Finally, she exhales. When she speaks, it’s so quiet he can barely hear her. “Did you want it to be tradition? Or do…” She swallows and falls silent, but she holds his gaze.
They talk fine without words, anyway, and have for a long time. If Higgins had no interest in kissing him, she wouldn’t have done it. And if Higgins only meant it in the spirit of tradition, she wouldn’t be struggling right now, and she’d have told him to keep his lips to himself or something like that. Instead, she’s looking at him like she’s just offered her heart and she’s waiting on an answer.
Magnum lets a smile pull at his lips. “You know I’ve never been one to follow tradition just for tradition’s sake, Higgins.” It’s not until he says it that he realizes exactly how much he wants this, wants her . But they’re in a bar, and they’re surrounded by their friends, and they can probably talk through this back at the house. For now, though, it’s enough to make sure they’re on the same page. “Mistletoe seems like a good enough tradition, though. Maybe we can hang some back at Robin’s Nest.”
Maybe we can kiss again?
“Maybe we can, Thomas.” Juliet smiles and relaxes, and Magnum feels as warm as if she’s touching him. “As long as none of it is over my laptop.”
He laughs, loud and genuine, then holds up his glass to clink it against hers. “Deal.”
And when they get home later that night, it turns out they don’t even need the mistletoe, after all.