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Henrietta ‘Hetty’ Lange knew everything. Or at least that was what her children and agents believed. There were two specific agents who would argue with anyone who tried to state differently. Now, she was also the cause of a lot of things, and one such thing was matchmaking.
She had always had an invested interest in making sure that Callen got to have a family, the one problem was the fact that he couldn’t leave him in one home for too long a period of time. She had to balance her desire to give him a family with her responsibility to keep him alive. That was why she eventually invited him into her own home, that was why he was invited into her family, even if it was only for a few months.
At that point in time there was another boy in her care, a boy who, similarly to Callen, she had an invested interest in. Mike Renko, her other project, he had had a rough upbringing, not as rough as Callen’s, but still rough. She had had a feeling that both of her boys would be able to help the other, she hadn’t been sure what their bond would be but she had hoped that she would give them each a confidant.
Now, it was over a decade later and as she looked at both of her boys walking through the door into the LA Special Operations Field Office she couldn’t help but smile. She hadn’t expected both of them to land up under her command in NCIS. Callen, he had jumped from federal agency to federal agency, country to country, but somehow, he always came back to LA and to her. Renko had spent more time than she could count undercover and out on loan to other agencies, but now they were both back under her watchful eye.
She could see the bond that they both had, the bond that they had had all those years early, but they had never explored. She knew what it could end up being, she had let them both explore life, love and family without her subtle guidance, but they had never had the kind of bond that they shared with anyone else. She wanted them to be happy, and if that meant that she had to meddle, and cause a few unfortunate circumstances, well she wasn’t opposed to it. Not if it was going to bring the pair happiness and a real family.
--
“I could murder that woman!” Mike groaned as he dropped his bag down behind the door and shifted his shoulder to prop Callen up a bit better. The safe house was meant to be a small apartment, an ideal spot for him and Callen to lay low for a day or so until they could be extracted.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Callen laughed before he groaned and pressed his arm tighter around his ribs. Their exit from the group they had been trying to infiltrate had been anything bar smooth, and unfortunately for Callen, he had been the one to take the brunt of it, having decided to try and convince a young boy that he had a life ahead of him and it was for the best to leave.
“No I wouldn’t, but she knew what she was doing with this,” Mike muttered in resignation before he took a small step forward and tugged on Callen to get him to follow. Mike wasn’t one to admit his feelings, he wasn’t one to feel confident admitting to love or any emotion really, and he knew that Hetty disapproved of that fact. And that last thing he wanted was to be in the current situation.
“What’s so wrong with this?” Callen queried as he glanced around the small, one room safe house. “It’s better than some of the places I’ve stayed. It’s even got a bed,” he joked, however it didn’t go over as well as he had intended it to.
“Yeah, but there’s only one bed,” Mike answered back as he started to make his way around the room securing it. He didn’t want to look at Callen, not now when he was trying to process the fact that he was going to spend at least the next twenty four hours with the man, in a very small room, with only one room. Mike was man enough to admit that he wasn’t sure how he would handle it, especially without admitting his feelings to man.
“It’s fine, I’m good with the floor.” As soon as the words left Callen’s lips, Mike was spinning on his heel to face him with an incredulous look on his face.
“No, you’ve got bruised ribs at the least, a nice gash along your leg and probably a pretty decent concussion. You’re getting that bed,” Mike pointed out as he indicated each of the points of injury that was clear to see. He knew that Callen was trying to avoid the tension in the situation but Mike honestly wasn’t sure how to respond. Not at the present moment at least. He needed time to process everything that was running through his mind first.
--
“Mike, for fucks sake, just come up here. We’re both adults,” Callen groaned as he pushed himself up onto his elbows in order to look down at Renko who had insisted on sleeping on the floor. He had spent the better part of the last hour listening to the other man tossing and turning as he tried to get himself comfortable.
“Callen…”
“Mike, c’mon, or neither of us are going to get any sleep tonight,” Callen argued around a yawn as he swung the covers on the bed back to indicate the space for Mike. It was an unusual move for either man, but between the action and the late hour, Mike pushed himself up to his feet before sauntering his way around to the other side of the bed.
“Only for tonight, and you don’t tell Kensi, deal?” Mike insisted as he relented and settled his body onto the bed and lay down as stiff as a board to ensure that there was plenty of space between him and the other man.
“Deal,” Callen sighed as he shifted so that he had his back towards Mike, allowing him to maintain the space between them if he wanted.
--
Something felt different as his eyes finally drifted open. It was a bad sort of different but it was different nonetheless and that put Mike on edge. He couldn’t quite place his surroundings as he woke up, which was something that he hadn’t experienced since he was a teenage and spent six months in the case of Hetty Lange before he was eventually placed with the Schmitt family. It was a nice difference though.
The only problem was, the more awake he became, the more aware he was growing and as he started to wake more, he realised that there was another body pressing against him. It was a feeling that he had become unaccustomed to, but he was also enjoying it. He liked the feeling of hard lines and muscles pressing against his own, the only thing he didn’t like was the fact that he was scared to look.
There was a part of him, a large part of him, that was scared of the consequences of opening his eyes and finding himself asleep with someone like Kensi or Callen. The fear for different reasons but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to deal with it.
“Worry quieter, Mike. I’ve not slept like this for years,” Callan’s husky and sleep laced voice danced around his ears, allowing his mind to balance carefully on that point between consciousness and unconsciousness. It was only after a moment or two of the words repeating that he realised that Callen was burrowing back in against him.
“Maybe, Hetty knew what she was doing, this one bed thing isn’t so bad,” Mike muttered before he burrowed his own body into Callen’s. His lips grazed against Callen’s neck, and as he did so, Callen relaxed against his body, fully trusting him. “We need to speak about this, G.”
“Later. Sleep now.”