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The secret admirer thing began on an otherwise normal day. Horangi had just gotten back from a mission debrief, only to find that tucked in with his other paperwork had been a note.
Horangi
I find myself terribly attached to you. I’m not very good at feelings, or talking to people, so for now this will have to do. I hope your mission went well.
Your Secret Admirer
Horangi admittedly wasn’t entirely sure what to do with this information. At first, some hopeful part of him had wondered if it was König writing the notes. And why wouldn’t it be? He was a terribly anxious man when it came to socialising - almost an entirely different man on the battlefield than on base - and they were close.
But Horangi was pretty sure that was just his own crush talking. Just because he was terribly attracted to the other man didn’t mean that the feelings were requited. Still, he held onto a little hope for it, keeping the note on him at all times after that.
It wasn’t König though, but he could live with that. He didn’t need to requite his secret admirer’s feelings, just like König was under no obligation to requite his own.
He got confirmation that it wasn’t König when the second note arrived.
This time, it had been stuffed into the book he had been reading, a handful of pages ahead of where he was up to. Whoever his secret admirer was, they were paying enough attention to know what book he was reading then.
“What’s that?” König had asked as he entered the common area to find Horangi turning the note over.
“Secret admirer note,” said Horangi, “it’s the second one in about a week. Not sure who they’re from though.”
König looked a little surprised, but laughed anyway. “Isn’t that kind of the point, Liebling? It is a secret admirer after all.”
“I guess,” said Horangi, a little annoyed that he didn’t know what König was calling him. Recently, the man had taken to calling him various names in German, refusing to translate for him. He couldn’t even manage to translate them himself half the time, the spellings all impossible for him to work out well enough for Google to figure out what he was trying to say.
“Don’t look so glum,” said König, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually.”
“Yeah, I guess.” said Horangi. He didn’t have it in him to tell König that it was less who was sending the notes that had him like this, and more just the fact that it wasn’t König.
But the man had been too surprised for it to be him, which meant that Horangi had someone pining after him that he’d have to let down gently, eventually.
The third note arrived in the middle of a mission, which was less than ideal. It was just him and König, which meant that his admirer had managed to stash it away in Horangi’s gear deep enough that he hadn’t found it until halfway through. It was a little impressive, honestly.
Horangi
I hope this can cheer you up on a stressful mission. You are incredibly skilled, and I have no doubt that you will get through this with ease. It’s almost over, and then you can relax back at base for as long as you need.
Your Secret Admirer
He wasn’t sure quite how they had managed to not only hide it so well that he only found it halfway through while digging through his gear, but also knew that he would find it close to the end.
He tried not to think about it too much for now though. They were still on a mission, and Horangi wasn’t going to let himself die because he was distracted thinking about whoever kept leaving these notes.
“Horangi!” called König, sounding a little distressed. That wasn’t good. König may be a stressed person on base, but he was all cool, calm and collected on missions. If he was stressed out now, that meant that something was very wrong.
“Coming!” he replied, grabbing the pistol from his waistband just in case. This wasn’t supposed to be a high combat mission - just get in, get some intel, get out - but Horangi had a sinking feeling that they might be about to deal with some.
“Scheiße!” he heard König hiss. Definitely combatants then.
By the time they had finished dealing with their unexpected AQ guests, there was no chance of exfil getting in before morning. The area was bad enough to fly - Price had explained - and under the cover of night it was even worse. So they’d just have to hole up at the designated safehouse until morning.
Horangi could live with that - neither of them were injured, thankfully, so it was just a quiet night in for them, as far as he was concerned. The hike up to the safehouse wasn’t long, and the two of them quickly settled into the tiny house for the night.
Horangi took on the cooking, letting König sweep the house and check what accommodations they were afforded.
“Only one bed, unfortunately, Stubentiger.” said König. There was another of those German words - that one he had been able to look up, because it seemed to be a favourite of König’s. Why on Earth did the man like to call him a housecat so often?
“That’s alright,” said Horangi, “I’m happy to share, if you’re comfortable with that.”
Horangi felt the tiniest bit of guilt suggesting it, seeing that he had a horrible crush on the man, but he could behave himself. He was a grown man, he could do boundaries. It wasn’t like he hadn’t shared beds with half of the bloody team on missions like this before. This was just par for the course, and it would look much weirder to König if he didn’t offer than if he did.
“If you’re sure,” said König, “I do not want to make you uncomfortable.”
“The only way you’d make me uncomfortable is by making me sleep on the couch - which I will do if you want me to, by the way - so don’t worry about that.”
“Okay,” said König, “we will share.”
“Great,” said Horangi, “now get over here - I need to know if your tastebuds can handle more spice, given it's the only real flavour we have here.”
They whiled away the evening over dinner, chatting and laughing. It was nice, and reminded Horangi of exactly why he had fallen for König in the first place. But eventually it got late enough that they needed to turn in. König was the first to go, heading into the tiny bedroom and stripping down to just his bottom layers.
After a moment, Horangi followed suit, before the two climbed in to bed. It was a tight squeeze - König barely fit in the standard issue beds on base on his own - but they fit, and Horangi wasn’t going to complain when König had his arms curled up around him.
“Let me know if you’re uncomfortable at any point,” said König, “wake me up if you need to. I don’t mind, Liebling.”
There was that name again. When he got back to base, Horangi was going to ask someone else what it meant. There were enough languages spoken on base that surely someone would know.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” said Horangi, “but the same goes for you too. Wake me up if you need to.”
“Of course,” said König, “sleep well.”
It didn’t take long for the other man to drift off, but Horangi found that sleep didn’t come all that easily to him. He didn’t know if it was the adrenaline of the mission, or the fact that König was curled around him, only holding him tighter now that he was asleep.
“Schatz,” mumbled König, and Horangi turned in his arms to face him.
His eyes were still closed, and Horangi realised the man was sleep talking. It was cute, even if he had no idea what he was saying.
König continued to mumble away in German for a while, and Horangi wondered if it was about him. He caught enough Lieblings and Stubentigers that he figured it was more than likely, but as to what exactly König was saying? It was a complete mystery.
“Stubentiger,” König whined out, a little louder than he had been previously, “come back to bed. Miss you.”
Now that was interesting. Was König dreaming about right now? It seemed strange, but Horangi wasn’t one to judge. He knew that his dreams could be weird enough as it was, so maybe dreaming about the present moment was a little more normal.
“Liebling,” said König, “c’mere. Love you.”
Oh.
That was new.
Maybe König was his secret admirer. It would explain the note showing up on mission, and the hesitance to just talk to him about it. Maybe König’s surprise had been less that Horangi had a secret admirer at all, and more that he was reading it in front of him.
Everything made more sense now. He was starting to wonder about just what the German words that König kept using were. He always assumed they were teasing nicknames, but he was wondering whether maybe “house cat” was a term of affection.
After a moment, Horangi carefully pried himself out of König’s grip. He wasn’t going to leave him alone for the whole night - not when he had heard how distressed the man had been that he had done so in a dream - but he had a very important task to do before morning.
Hunting around for a while, he found some paper and a pen, and got to work on a note of his own.
König
I suppose you must not have noticed, but I’ve had a crush on you myself for a long while now. Your company never fails to cheer me up, and so I’d love it if you'd give me the gift of going on a date sometime.
Your Not So Secret Admirer
Horangi
Carefully stashing the note into one of König’s pockets, Horangi climbed back into bed. He didn’t need to do much more for now. He had his admirer wrapped up around him, and soon enough, König wouldn't have to keep that a secret.
Things were good. He could finally rest now.