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Things were always different in the morning.
Doc hadn't noticed at first, but now he picked up on it quite regularly.
The medic huffed. "'Malley…" he grumbled, aching to stretch his bones, but unable to move. "'Mal, wake up." A sleepy groan was his response. Doc sighed, resigning himself yet again to the task of getting his AI out of bed.
"O'Malley," he whined, glancing to the alarm clock. 6:58. He usually woke a couple minutes before the alarm. That way, he could avoid waking to the loud beep. Not only was the noise harsh, and even violent by Doc's standards, but the blaring beep tended to put O'Malley in a nasty mood. And such moods usually ended in a very broken pile of ex-alarm clock on the floor.
6:59. "Mmngh," Doc groaned, using all the strength he could gather in his sleepy muscles to push himself into a sitting position.
"Ugh, c'mon, five more minutes…" O'Malley would have rolled over, but he was too sleepy to take back control of the body.
"O'Malley, we have to get up," Doc mumbled, flicking off the alarm and feeling around the nightstand till he found his glasses. "You know how the minions get when we have a late start to the day. And Lopez is probably already down there making breakfast, c'mon…"
"Nngh, fools…" O'Malley grumbled, not yet awake enough to sound menacing.
"I don't want to keep Lopez waiting, that wouldn't be nice."
"He puts motor oil in the coffee machine."
"He's just trying his best." Doc sighed, trying to steel his patience. "O'Malley, please let me use my legs."
"Our legs," the AI corrected.
He gritted his teeth. "Fine, let me use our legs."
O'Malley yawned, stretching his arms out to the side. "You're much less patient in the morning, you realize that?"
"I just want to get the day started."
"Oh please. You won't even cooperate through the day, so why should I bother?"
"I can't stay in bed like this. Come on…"
"Mmm, no." A wicked smile grew on their face as O'Malley lay back down, curling up with a pillow.
Doc growled. "O'Malley, no." He narrowed his brow as he slid his glasses on. Then he reached past the nightstand. "I didn't want to have to do this, but…"
O'Malley winced, watching as his hand reached for the window pulley. "No, no, no, no!" He cried in agony as the shades shot up, filling the room with bright morning sunlight. "Jesus! Why? God…"
Doc squeezed his now watering eyes shut, feeling a headache starting to come on. "If you'd just gotten up, I wouldn't have to do that."
"Ow, my eyes!"
"Our eyes," he bitterly corrected.
"Well look who's being bitchy this morning," O'Malley muttered, rubbing his face. He sighed, giving control over to Doc. "Oh, fine, whatever."
"Thanks," Doc mumbled, finally able to stand and shuffle over to their private bathroom. O'Malley refused to sleep with clothes on, so Doc had nothing to remove besides his glasses before stepping into the shower. Doc sighed tiredly as O'Malley stretched their muscles under the warming water, rolling their shoulders and rubbing the sleep from their joints.
"Mmh," Doc grunted. The touch felt good, even if it was by his own hands, a light massage to start the day. O'Malley closed his eyes, slowly working out a knot in his shoulder. "That feels nice." O'Malley pursed his lips in agreement. "Thanks," Doc mumbled when O'Malley finished, reaching for the body wash.
***
"I don't want to wear briefs!" O'Malley pouted, throwing the offending undies across the room.
Doc huffed. "Well I'm sorry," he spat, pulling a different pair of briefs from the drawer. "but I don't have a decent pair of boxers. Because I don't like boxers."
"They're comfortable!"
"They don't give any support!" Doc grumbled, pulling on the underwear and shuffling through the drawers for a clean pair of socks.
"Don't you know briefs lower your sperm count?"
"Why do you care about my sperm count?"
"Ugh, these are so constricting!"
"My body, my rules," Doc said, then cut off O'Malley's defiant retort with, "At least for this, okay?"
O'Malley sighed, "Fine, but you should at least try boxers. Aren't you all about equal opportunities? Give it a chance."
Doc muttered a maybe as he tugged on his socks.
***
"O'Malley, stop that." Doc glared at the mirror, unamused as O'Malley entertained himself with the shaving cream.
"Come on, we need a more evil look!," the AI said, spreading the lather on his face by drawing a handlebar moustache. "See? That's better… oh, but we'd look like Reggie… that's unfortunate." O'Malley squinted at the image contemplatively, until Doc took over and spread the cream properly on his face. O'Malley sighed, t'sking at the sight in the mirror. "Somehow I don't think the full beard look works on you, DuFresne."
Doc tried to ignore him, picking up the razor and starting around his mouth. He didn't have to shave often, his hair didn't grow very fast or dark, but if he let it go for too long he did end up looking rather scruffy. Soon his mouth area was clear, and O'Malley paused, squinting in the mirror. "Sideburns? Going for the Civil War General image now?"
"O'Malley, quit it," Doc rolled his eyes, mildly annoyed.
"Hmm, you're right," O'Malley mused. "You're much too cute to pull off facial hair."
Doc pouted, trying to stay somewhat annoyed with the AI, while being thankful for the white foam still hiding most of his blush.
***
"I still can't believe you wear makeup," O'Malley said, as his counterpart poured a few drops the pale skintone liquid onto his fingers.
"It's just a little coverup," said Doc. Living with O'Malley was, to put it lightly, stressful, and left Doc with dark circles under his eyes that he didn't like to be seen with. "I don't want to go around scaring people with my face. Even if you do."
"More than Tex ever wore," O'Malley teased, but smiled as Doc rubbed the color onto his face. "And what about the lipgloss, hm?"
"That's just chapstick!"
"No, chapstick is a solid that comes in a stick. What you use is a gel that comes in a tube. Lipgloss."
"My lips dry out easily! It's for medical purposes."
"And the fact that it makes them shiny and kissable has nothing to do with it?"
"Shush up."
"And what about the cherry flavor?"
"Shush up!"
***
"Come on, just let me do it!"
"O'Malley…" Doc tone was warning, but he gave a resigned sigh.
"You're no fun in the morning, you know that?" O'Malley teased, reaching up to play with Doc's hair.
"You seem to be having plenty of fun yourself."
"And I here thought you were supposed to be a morning person." O'Malley reached for the black plastic comb, then looked at it thoughtfully. "Hmm, maybe you could pull off some facial hair…" O'Malley gripped the comb, holding about an inches length of it just under their nose. "The Hitler!"
"O'Malley!" Doc scolded angrily, color rising to his cheeks.
O'Malley laughed. "I'm just kidding! Please, that's been done. I plan on making my own evil image."
Doc mumbled something along the lines of, "not funny," and O'Malley continued combing his hair, still damp from the shower. He cocked his head to the side thoughtfully, then ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand up in long clumpy wet spikes. "There we go! I like that look," O'Malley grinned, and Doc rolled his eyes. "That's scary, right? Maybe we need gel…"
"Come on, it looks silly, just do it right."
O'Malley ignored him, trying out menacing faces with his new hairstyle. He glared, grinning wickledly and letting a maniacle laugh bubble in his throat. "Mmmwahahahaha! Mwa haha!! Mwahahahahaaa!!"
Suddenly, his face broke, and Doc snorted, then giggled, then laughed. "You… you look ridiculous!" he laughed, eyes tearing. O'Malley smirked, brushing the hair back to normal.
***
Doc sighed, rubbing his lips together to spread the lipgloss ('chapstick!,' he mentally reminded himself). He frowned in the mirror, giving himself a good once-over to determine if he was ready to be seen by the waking world.
"You know, it does make you look rather kissable," O'Malley mused, reaching up to run a thumb over his glossy lower lip. Doc blushed, turning away from the caress of his own hand. "I'm serious. Better hope Lopez isn't as suave today as he is with that tank-woman."
His lips twitched into a half-smile, that fell when he saw his own- no, O'Malley's- eyes in the mirror. There it was, this unspoken connection that wavered between them each morning, a kind of tension he could see in his own reflection. He looked away.
"Hey," O'Malley grunted, turning back to the mirror, then in a voice all too gentle for the AI, "I mean it."
It was soft and quick, might not have happened but for the smear of sticky gloss left on the glass where his lips had met- a kiss with his own reflection. Doc blinked, blushing, and wiping the smudge off the glass. He reached for his glasses, sliding on the thin wire frames that were his face to the rest of the world. "Come on, we should get down there."
O'Malley blinked behind the lenses. "Yes. I suppose so."
Doc quietly pulled the door to their bedroom closed behind him and O'Malley began walking down the hallway, ready to start his reign of terror for the day.
But things were always different in the morning.