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The breeze felt nice on their face. Phoenix was sprawled on the porch swing they’d built with their handler a few months back, propped up on one armrest and a pile of pillows. The sunlight that fell through the trees dappled the ground, and birdsong rang in the distance. Roxana and Reginald had gone out for groceries a few hours earlier, and by their estimation, Phoenix figured it was safe to say that the pair of them had seen a sign for something and gotten sidetracked. While they had been granted marginally more freedom from the monotony of Agency housing than Phoenix had been, they’d still both signed away most of their lives up until now and were not immune to the allure of a new thing to do. Especially now that the weather had changed into the comfortable temperatures of early summer on the coast; when there was no EOD work to be done, it was easy to put your housework down to enjoy the quiet.
Phoenix was grateful for the pleasant weather and lull in their schedule. They were only a few days off of their last mission, and nursing strained muscles, over-extended joints, and the general increase in fog that particularly TK-intensive operations still left them in for a while afterwards. They’d accepted that even after repairs, there would always be some lasting damage from how long they’d been run on overheat, but the time it took to come back up after a mission was frustrating, to say the least. Their housemates did their level best to keep Phoenix comfortable and entertained, but sometimes they just needed the space to not really worry about what they were too hazy to remember to worry about. And right now, with the pleasantly mild warmth of the sun out and a nice, crisp breeze in their hair, they felt about as comfortable and grounded as they were going to be able to get for a while. It was no challenge to let the swaying of the bench swing ease them to… well, if not quite relaxation, then about as close as they could make it without chemical assistance. Tipping the brim of their hat just a little bit nearer to touching the frame of their sunglasses, they let themself sink back into the pillows, considering a nice afternoon nap.
Before they could quite drift off, however, they were jostled back to semi-alertness by the sound of the screen door clattering open and then shut again, accompanied by the sound of footsteps. They shoved their hat back away from their face and half pushed themselves out of their pile of pillows to see Juniper standing on the porch, looking for all the world like he’d been dropped down a flight of stairs. He’d wrapped himself in what Phoenix was quickly realizing was their bedsheet (presumably the first and only lightweight blanket he’d found), and he quite clearly had not rolled out of bed for anything at all before this.
“Hi John,” they said gently, “What’s up? Do you need something?”
“…I look that bad?” he replied with a grimace “Was hoping for at least a ‘Juniper’ before you got all mushy about it.”
“Sorry for caring about my friend I guess?”
“I- uh-“ he leaned heavily on the doorframe as he fished for his sentence, “I don’t really. Feel. Good ?”
Yeah, that tracks , they thought to themself, giving him a closer inspection from where they sat, he’s missing his glasses and hasn’t gotten out of what he slept in last night . “Wanna tell me what’s wrong? Make sure we don’t need to go find a hospital-?”
“It’s. I’m fine. I think. Headache.”
“Have you had water? Or food?” they asked, immediately a little more worried.
“Nick, I tried that, didn’t work,” he groaned, halfway between whining and mumbling, “Just want somebody there.”
“Oh, dove, you really don’t sound good. Would you like to lie down with me?” they barely managed to finish asking before Juniper had shakily wiggled all five feet and ten inches of himself onto the swing, jostling them both around quite a bit before he managed to settle in fully on top of them.
“…Thank you,” He mumbled, face fully buried in their shoulder.
“Don’t get comfortable yet, I want to check you over real quick,” they said, carefully stroking his hair with one hand, “I worry.”
They rattled down the list of basic questions and checks that they could still actually use; the baseline for making sure that there wasn’t a nastier problem underlying had been moved considerably. To his credit, he humored them for as long as he could.
“Can you tell me who the president is?” they asked, fishing for as many potential cognition checks as they could get.
“Nick, can you tell me who the president is?” he fired back as he slid down into a more comfortable position.
“Absolutely,” Phoenix lied, internally cursing whichever hit to the head wiped that information. He just looked at them skeptically before laying down properly, resting the uninjured side of his face on their stomach.
“I promise I just feel gross. ‘m not dying about it.”
“Okay. Okay. Get your blanket- which you absolutely stole from my fucking bed, you ass - and get comfortable,” they said, moving a hand to gently run their nails over his shoulder before putting two and two together, “And I will just. Slide my hat on over here so you stop getting flashbanged by the sun. With no glasses to keep you from scrambling your eyes.”
“Maybe so,” he mumbled, getting comfortable under their hand, “Still feel pretty dogshit.”
Juniper wrapped his arms around their midsection as though they were a pillow and pulled himself closer to them, sending a brief shock of anxiety through them, in spite of their best efforts. He pulled back slightly, before relaxing again with their mumbled reassurance that they were ok. Phoenix plopped their hat on top of him haphazardly, in an attempt to keep his face out of the sun, and continued to scratch his back absentmindedly. As they gently rocked back and forth on the swing, both slowly dipped into a nap.
…
Phoenix wasn’t sure how long they slept there for, just that the sun had moved and it had gotten noticeably colder outside. It still wasn’t unpleasant, though, and they laid there, not processing, for a while longer before waking up properly. Their neck was sore from the awkward position they’d fallen asleep in, on top of the aches in their knees and shoulders, but the fog in their brain had cleared up a little bit. Their free hand was still draped over Juniper’s back, and he was still tightly clung to them; as they shifted their hand to stroke his hair, he groaned and tried to wiggle in closer. It took only a few minutes of gentle coaxing to get him to sit up for long enough that they could go find the both of them some painkillers, some water, and a sandwich to share. When they’d finished their little quest, they returned to the porch to find him once again wrapped up in the sheet and half dozed off, hat still tipped over his eyes.
“Hey turtledove,” they whispered, tapping his hand to bring his attention back onto them, “Let’s get us both fixed up, and then we can go back to sleep. Sound good?”
At his grumbled response, they passed him a glass of water and tipped a few Tylenol caplets into his other hand. They took their own dose, and then passed Juniper half of the sandwich they’d taken out of the fridge. When they sat down on the swing to eat, he leaned against them as soon as they’d gotten themself steady. They tipped their head so it rested on his shoulder as they slowly ate in silence together. Out in the driveway, a handful of small birds twittered at one another as they hopped about, picking at what remained of a package of sunflower seeds that had torn open while Phoenix and Roxana had been unloading groceries a while back. With the much less intense evening light still illuminating the yard, it was still not too cold, although they imagined they’d have to go fish up another blanket from their bed whenever they got around to taking the dishes back inside. But it was… nice. It was nice. A gorgeous evening, someone who cared for them at their side, and the knowledge that their partner and their friend would be home any time now. It didn’t make the fog in their head any thinner or the ache in their knees any less present, but it made it a little easier to put up with. Apparently, Juniper was in the same boat, because they felt him relax against the backrest of the swing, giving them an opening to sit back up and move their dishes inside, in spite of the pathetic face he made as they stood up.
Of course, when they returned (second bedsheet in hand), Juniper had sprawled back out along the length of the swing. He blinked at them and shuffled so his back was pressed against the backrest again, and he half gestured to the space next to him with an arm still wrapped in blanket. They sat down, their own blanket draped around their shoulders like a cloak. Juniper made a halfhearted attempt to pull them down with him, earning another gentle ruffle of his hair before they complied and let him pull them in close.
“Ohhhh, I get a warm bird to keep me company while I recover,” Juniper mumbled, as Phoenix wiggled under his free arm, “A tired little bird. Finally home safe.” He paused to fix the blankets around them both, making a little cocoon that was just warm enough to make Phoenix feel incredibly sleepy, “ There we go. Cozy tired agent.”
Phoenix just hummed as they threaded their arm under his and accepted that they’d been trapped into what was probably leaving nap territory and becoming proper sleep.
“I see, you’re a tired little bastard. Incredibly clingy.” he said, voice soft as he squeezed them closer and buried his face in their hair.
“Asshole,” they said, pushing their face against his shoulder, “Love you.”
“I love you, too, you little menace.”