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Q blinked awake slowly, pulling the duvet tighter around himself and shifting into a more
comfortable position. It felt colder than usual and the room was pitch black and silent, no rays of sunlight peeking through the blinds or birds singing outside.
He sighed and sat up, looking over to the alarm clock on his bedside table. Three in the morning. Q lay back down, hoping to get some more sleep. He shuffled over slightly, reaching an arm across to the other side of the bed, his hand came into contact with rumpled sheets, still slightly warm.
He pushed back the duvet and got out of bed, shivering slightly as the cold air made contact with his skin. He opened the bedroom door silently and noticed light coming from under the kitchen door.
Once he was in the kitchen, he saw James sitting at the table, his back towards the door. Q walked towards him quietly and placed a hand on his shoulder.
James jerked sharply away from the touch, hissing quietly, and whipped his head around to look at Q. “Do you have any idea how cold your hands are?”
Q let out a quiet laugh “I wouldn’t be cold if you hadn’t decided to get up in the middle of the night.” He glanced around for a moment, trying to figure out what James had been doing, there wasn’t anything sitting on the table or any of the counters. “What are you doing, anyway? Are you alright?”
James sighed and grabbed one of Q’s hands, pulling him closer, wrapping an arm around his waist and leaning his head against Q’s chest. “I’m fine. I couldn’t get back to sleep, that’s all.”
“You should’ve woken me up, you know I don’t mind staying up with you when you can’t sleep,” Q pulled himself away from James, grabbing the man’s hands to pull him up from the chair. “Come on, let’s go and watch something on the TV.”
James let himself be pulled through to the living room and onto the sofa. Q turned the TV on and started scrolling through channels. “I don’t think there’s going to be anything worth watching,” James stated, leaning against the back of the sofa and watching as Q fruitlessly searched for something interesting to watch.
“Well, if someone hadn’t decided to get out of bed at three in the morning then this wouldn’t be an issue,” Q gave up on scrolling through the TV channels, deciding that Netflix would most likely be a better bet for something to watch.
“Should I put on something we’ve already seen or something new?” Q glanced over at James, waiting for an answer, “I think something new would be nice.” James’ words were slightly mumbled, a tell tale sign he was getting tired. Q turned back to the TV, scrolling for a few minutes until he found a film that looked interesting.
Half an hour into the movie, James had laid down on the sofa with his head resting in Q’s lap.
Q’s eyelids felt heavy and he’d started to slouch against the arm of the sofa. Every few minutes he could feel himself starting to drift off, and had to force himself to sit up properly. He didn’t really want to fall asleep on the sofa, as tired as he was. The back pain when he woke up wouldn’t be worth it.
“You can go back to bed if you want.” Q glanced down at James, “I think I’d rather stay here with you, actually.” James sighed, pushing himself up into a sitting position, “Q, you really should just go back to bed. You have to get up early tomorrow.”
“I’m not going back to bed, it’s cold. Besides, I’m perfectly happy here,” Q could hear the tired quality in his own voice, his words slurring together slightly. “You’re half asleep, just go back to bed.”
Q directed his best attempt at a glare towards James, “Do we have to have the same conversation every time?” Now that James had moved half way across the sofa, he was starting to get cold again, which was at least making him feel less drowsy, “You know I’m not going to leave you sitting up on your own all night.” James sighed, sounding resigned, and stood up, “Alright, let’s both go back to bed.” He grabbed both of Q’s hands and hauled him upwards.
Q yawned and leaned against James, the cold feeling worse now that he was standing up. James chuckled gently and tried to move backwards slightly, towards the living room door. “No,” Q mumbled, wrapping his arms tightly around James. He felt James tense slightly “Christ, how are you constantly cold?”
They stood like that for a moment before James pushed Q away from him. “Come on, you’ll be warmer in bed,” he grabbed Q’s hand gently, interlacing their fingers and leading him through to the bedroom.
Q found himself drifting off quickly once he was settled, the warmth that James seemed to constantly radiate was far too soothing for him to stay awake for long. It made a nice change from the faint chill he’d been feeling for the past hour.
When Q woke up later that morning, his first thought was that it was strange that his alarm hadn’t woken him. He picked his phone up from the bedside table and turned the screen on. He felt mild panic when he realised that it was already half past nine, he was supposed to be at MI6 half an hour ago.
“Oh, fuck,” Q groaned quietly, jumping out of bed and grabbing yesterday’s clothes from where they were strewn on the floor. He ran down the stairs to grab some fruit for breakfast and froze in the kitchen doorway.
James was standing over one of the counters, plating up some pancakes. He glanced up when Q took a few steps forward. “I wasn’t expecting you to be up yet. I’ve almost finished breakfast.”
Q wanted to be annoyed that James had let him sleep in, but the pancakes smelled amazing and James had obviously planned to bring him breakfast in bed. He couldn’t really be annoyed, all things considered. “I was supposed to be at Six half an hour ago,” Q sighed, he should probably email R to let her know she’d have to run Q-Branch for a few hours.
James shrugged and turned back to the stove to pour more pancake batter into the pan. Q walked the few remaining steps over to the stove and wrapped his arms around James’ waist, resting his chin on the man’s shoulder. “Did you get back to sleep last night?” Q hoped the answer was yes. James nodded, “I fell asleep at about five. Woke up at half past six.”
Q sighed, James’ insomnia had been better lately, but he still had nights where he barely slept. Sometimes it was just restlessness and other times it was nightmares. The nightmares were harder, sometimes James would wake up terrified and disoriented and after he’d refuse to talk about it. Those nights had become steadily less common over the last year, but Q still worried.
“You should stay home today,” James said quietly, leaning into Q slightly. “I can’t just skip work for no reason, there’s three agents in the field at the moment. And we’re still trying to fix the car you half destroyed on your last mission.”
James sighed and turned to face Q, placing a quick kiss on his lips, “Why not? You haven’t taken time off in a while and I’m sure R can manage to run Q-Branch for a day.”
“Everyone is expecting me to be there. Besides, if I disappear there’ll be a big panic that I’ve been kidnapped again.” James huffed a laugh, “Getting kidnapped twice in one year would be awful luck.”
“You got kidnapped twice in two weeks before, so it’s not like it’s impossible.” Q unwrapped his arms from around James’ waist and sidestepped around him, putting the kettle on and getting two mugs out of the cupboard.
“That hardly counts, I was on a mission.” Q chuckled, dropping a tea bag into each mug and turning around. He noticed that James had moved significantly closer to him in the time he’d been turned around. It had slightly unsettled Q at the start of their relationship, how quietly James could move.
A moment later, he was crowded against the kitchen counter and James was pressing open-mouthed kisses to his neck and the underside of his jaw. “Just stay home today, the world won’t end because you miss a day of work.” Q laughed, slightly breathless, “I really can’t today. I could probably take some time off next week if you want.”
“Shit,” Q gasped as he abruptly remembered the pancakes and pushed James away from him, he rushed over to the stove, turned it off and removed the pan. Just in time, if the acrid smoke rising from it was anything to go by.
“For fuck’s sake,” Q muttered, upturning the contents of the pan into the bin and turning to James, who was trying and failing to suppress his laughter. “Do try not to get distracted while cooking in the future,” Q tried to make himself sound annoyed, but the whole thing was quite funny, really.
“You could try to be less distracting,” James replied, giving up on trying not to laugh. He took the now empty frying pan from Q’s hand and placed it in the sink.
Q stuttered for a moment, “That was not my fault, you distracted yourself.” The affronted tone in his voice only caused James to laugh harder and Q really couldn’t be expected to resist joining in. He turned away from James to pour the water from the kettle into the mugs. As he watched the steam rise from the steeping tea and listened to James laugh, it became harder to convince himself that skipping work altogether would be a bad idea.
He sighed, trying to ignore the nagging want to stay home as he listened to James tidying up some of the mess he’d made while cooking breakfast, followed by the distinctive thunk of plates being placed on the table.
He took the tea bags out of the cups and threw them out, pouring a small amount of milk into each cup and bringing the tea over to the table.
James watched him as he pulled out a chair and sat down, “Do you want a lift today?” He looked at James over his cup of tea, taking a sip before replying “I don’t think I’ll bother going in today, actually.” James’ answering grin was enough to rid Q of any doubts about staying home.