Work Text:
It starts in the car, fifteen minutes after they leave the courthouse.
"I can't believe you are willingly defending that man," he begins, and Lee represses a sigh and keeps his hands on the wheel.
"Everyone deserves a good defense. Innocent until proven guilty, remember?"
"The evidence clearly shows what he is." He glances at Richard, fairly vibrating with tension in the passenger seat. "You may have gotten the phone tap tossed," and Lee really is rather proud of that one, "but there is enough left to prove he did it."
"Then there's no reason to worry, is there?"
Richard snorts. "I'm not worried about my case," he informs Lee. "What worries me is the fact that you're not concerned with the fact that he's guilty. He's a known criminal, Lee!"
Lee hums agreeably. "Then, if he's a known criminal and you don't catch him for this, he'll be picked up for something else. Something you can actually, you know, prove."
Richard makes a strangled little sound and remains silent the rest of the drive. He does slam the car door when he exits, and heads straight into the kitchen. The loud clattering of pans dissuades Lee from offering his meager assistance, however -- the last time he did with Richard in a similar mood, they ended up with a scorch mark on the wall.
Instead, he uses the time to take a long, relaxing shower, and doesn't venture back downstairs until he hears the sound of silverware being placed on the table.
He enters the kitchen just in time to grab their drinks, and they sit down in utter silence. Richard's face still looks stormy and his wine goes down quicker than usual. Lee chews slowly, swallows, ventures, "The chicken is nice. What did you put in the sauce?"
The fork is slammed down and Lee gets a withering glare for his trouble. "Don't you care at all about that poor girl?"
He knows the question is rhetorical and doesn't bother answering it. Instead, he reaches for Richard's clenched fist, curling his own loosely around it and stroking his thumb over the tense fingers. He waits for them to unfurl and, with a small smile, raises the hand to his lips. A butterfly kiss is placed on each knuckle, gentle and lingering, and by the time he reaches the thumb, Richard's anger is fading and he's beginning to relax, as he always does. Lee hears a soft sigh, glances up to see Richard's pained expression, and lets go of his hand.
"I'm sorry," Richard murmurs.
"It's fine, I understand." He smiles beatifically, takes a sip of his cold beer. "You know what this means though." Richard looks confused, and his grin grows. "Somebody will be spending tonight on the couch."
Richard looks at him as if he's grown a second head. "You can't be serious."
"I really am." Richard continues to stare. "Look, they're your rules! You said 'no work-related talk at home'."
When it seems like he's about to start arguing in earnest, Lee raises an eloquent eyebrow. "You made me sleep there just because I forgot to put my shirt in the laundry basket last time. One shirt. Don't think for a moment that you're getting out of this."
Richard broods through the rest of dinner, but Lee is fairly sure it has more to do with the couch than the case this time.
Their bed is a sprawling, comfortable thing. The mattress is soft but not too soft, the pillows delightfully plump, and when it's cold Lee wants nothing more than to spend all day huddled in the downy comforter.
The point being, Lee loves their bed, would spend much more time in it if he could. And yet, he can't seem to settle down tonight.
He tosses the comforter off and stares up at the ceiling. His arms are spread wide, with nothing obstructing them on either side. And that, he thinks with no small amount of irony, is probably the problem.
Because the thing he likes most about their bed is currently spending a very uncomfortable night on the couch.
It isn't as if they usually spend the whole night in each other's arms. Richard likes his space and Lee (usually) respects that. But the bed feels cold without Richard in it, the room too still without the quiet sound of his breathing. The bed seems unnaturally big, and Lee would almost trade a night on the couch for this.
He turns over again with a sigh and screws his eyes shut. This is the right thing to do, he reminds himself. Richard had no pity on him the last time, or the one before that, or any time, really, no matter how much he complained about his aching back. This'll be good for Richard, give him a taste of his own medicine.
He will definitely not give in, even if he doesn't sleep a wink all night.
The feeling of fingertips gently running along his hairline stirs him. He furrows his brow and the caresses stop abruptly.
"You realize," Richard's gravelly, amused voice rumbles next to his ear, "that this defeats the purpose of punishment?"
With a half-hearted grumble, Lee burrows closer to Richard's sleep-warm body. "I'll just spank you instead. Or something."
Richard's shoulders start to shake, and Lee lifts his head a little to glare. "Stop moving so much," he orders, and Richard finally subsides with a wide grin. He puts his head back on Richard's shoulder and closes his eyes, sighing a little when long fingers start to card through his hair.
"I never realized how uncomfortable this couch is," Richard muses quietly, and Lee resigns himself to not getting any more sleep. "It's really not fit for sleeping. I'm almost sorry I sent you out here so often."
He draws back a little to look at Richard. "Only almost?"
The prosecutor smiles fondly. "Well, you did come here to sleep even though you had a perfectly good bed to yourself. Perhaps you don't find it so horrible."
"You're hilarious," Lee says flatly. Richard's grin says that he knows. "Maybe now that you've tried it out, you'll stop making me sleep on it."
Richard snorts softly. "Or maybe you will start acting like a responsible adult." His tone seems to suggest he doesn't think that very likely, and Lee is about to take offense because he is perfectly responsible, being messy doesn't mean he isn't an adult, but then Richard says, "I admit, I do feel a little guilty for making you spend so many nights here. I didn't realize..."
"Realize what?" Lee prods.
Richard laces their hands together and brushes a soft kiss over Lee's temple. "How lonely it can get."
Lee bites back a grin. "You seemed to be sleeping just fine when I came down to join you," he points out.
"It's been a difficult week." And Lee knows that -- he lies next to Richard after all, and can tell when he's had a sleepless night. He cuddles closer, rubs his nose against Richard's neck before following the same path with his tongue.
"I think we need to decide on a different punishment."
Richard chuckles. "And what would you suggest?"
With a wicked grin, Lee shifts so that Richard is on his back beneath him, and straddles his hips. "I vote spanking," he murmurs with a leer, and then bends down to swallow Richard's laugh.