Work Text:
Gabriel Reyes was a Californian through and through. He’d spent the first twenty years of his life in Los Angeles; the sunbaked pavement was his home, the smog of the city permanently inhabiting his lungs, and the most snow he’d ever seen had been stuck to the top of his freezer.
So the clouded sky and snow-covered plains as far as the eye could see were probably the closest thing to literal hell he’d ever experienced. Jack had warned him it would be cold, but this was absolutely ridiculous. He already missed LA, where the temperature never dipped below 40 and his abuela cooked hot meals for Christmas. Of course, it was only fair they visit Jack’s family as well for the holidays, the younger man insisting they spend New Year’s with his parents. They deserved a break. The last few months were a flurry of commotion; no longer entrenched in a war against the omnics, they were in the midst of forming a new organization. It was a stressful time--they deserve this.
Well, maybe not this exactly , he thought to himself, pulling his hat further over his ears before shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. It was almost ironic--he’d traded in bombed in cityscapes for this frozen hellscape.
Guess there weren’t any bloodied corpses lying around at least.
Gabriel shook his head a bit, bringing himself back by glaring at the practically peppy figure in front of him. His blue-eyed tormentor seemed completely unfazed by the ridiculous temperatures, gleefully pulling on his skates as the two stood by the edge of a frozen lake no bigger than a couple of city blocks.
Standing on his blades, Jack fucking Morrison, partner in more than one sense, turned to Gabriel, a wide smile cracking his stupidly red face. “D’you need help with yours?”
Gabriel eyed the slightly larger pair of skates lying in the snow beside Jack, the laces worn and the metal nicked and scratched from years of use. They didn’t look safe. He turned his gaze to the frozen surface, shivering a bit. That definitely didn’t look safe.
“No,” he said tersely, his teeth gritted in the cold. He briefly wondered how long it would take for hypothermia to set in. “I already told you, I don’t want to skate.”
“Gabe, come on,” Jack laughed, drawing Gabriel’s attention back to the boy wonder. Jack was already stepping onto the ice, gliding along the sleek surface. He made it seem so easy.
“It’s easy!”
Right.
“Says the former hockey player,” Gabriel grumbled into his coat.
Jack rolled his eyes before rapidly skating a bit further out, making a sharp stop and skating back again. The young soldier moved around the ice like he moved around the battlefield--as speedily as possible. “This’ll be a snap for you!” Jack called out, “You used to be a ballet dancer, didn’t you?”
“Ballet isn’t the same as strapping knives onto your feet and balancing yourself on literal ice!” Gabriel growled just loud enough to be heard.
“Gabe, quit being a wuss and get your ass out here!” Jack goaded. “You’ve squared off against a battalion of Bastions and you’re scared of falling over ?”
Gabriel glowered at the paler skinned man. “I don’t want to skate, Jack.”
“Sounds like you’re bein’ a chicken!”
“Well, it sounds like you’re being a fucking dick ,” Gabriel snapped from across the ice before turning on his heel. “Skate until your legs fall off, I’m going back inside.”
As his boots crunched through the snow, he heard the distinct scratching of Jack’s skates on the ice come to a halt, silence falling over the lake for a few moments before Jack’s voice carried over the wind. “Gabe, wait I’m--”
Crack!
Spinning about, Gabriel caught a brief glimpse of a blond head of hair bobbing above the ice, hands scrabbling for purchase on the deteriorating surface before any trace of the other man slipped beneath the dark blue water. He didn’t resurface. Cursing, Gabriel wasted no time sprinting back to the lake’s edge, taking only a moment to remove his boots before carefully making his way across the ice, crawling to keep his weight distributed. He took a deep breath and slipped into the growing breach.
The lake was quiet. The ice fell still.
It was so cold.
A splash, a pair of coughs and sputters and a sodden body dragging another back to solid land.
Feet meeting snow, Gabriel sat next to Jack and the duo stayed like that, their laboured breathing the only sound between them . As their breathing leveled out, exhalations visibly puffing from their nostrils, Gabriel was back to considering how quickly hypothermia would kill them now. The older man observed his partner, those puffs of breath growing slower, smaller. Maybe he was already dying.
“We-e should p-prob’ly get inside,” Jack chattered.
A relieved puff from his nose. “Yeah.”
“G-guess I’ll have to add ‘swimming’ to my list of New Year’s res-solutions, huh?”
Another puff. “Yeah.”
Gabriel decided he didn’t want to go out like that. They made the trek back to Jack’s house.
“Mom, I’m fine!” Jack protested, prying his fingers from the short haired woman’s grasp, tucking them into the blanket draped over his shoulders.
“Frostbite doesn’t manifest until later, Jackie,” the woman said, “I just wanna be sure you’re actually fine.”
Seated next to Jack on the couch, Gabe watched the exchange between the mother and her son, similarly wrapped up in blankets that she’d provided. They’d walked in as Jack’s mothers had been putting away dinner and found themselves immediately harangued to remove their sopping wet clothing--admittedly for different reasons. Jessica immediately began to look over Jack for signs of frostbite while her wife chided them both for dredging in their wet clothing.
Regardless, their clothes were hung up by the heater with care, Gabriel’s beanie included. He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt naked without his hat and he fought the urge to run his fingers over his head.
He chose to reach over and run them through Jack’s locks instead. “Thank you, Jessica, but I think we’ll be okay.”
“Oh, you’ll be coddled all night long, boys,” a voice called from the kitchen. A head of salt and pepper hair popped in, a crooked smile on Izzy’s features. “Not that I necessarily agree with that. I told you not to go out.”
“I know, Ma, and I’m sorry,” Jack conceded.
“And now you’re just paying for your mistakes,” she said, nodding knowingly.
“Oh, I’m coddling them, am I? Aren’t you making them soup to warm up, Izzy?” Jessica parried.
“Who said it was for them, this soup is for me,” Izzy said with a grin before disappearing back into the kitchen.
Jessica rolled her eyes before leaning down, whispering conspiratorially to the blanketed duo. “She won’t, actually. Probably.”
“Witness me, Jessie! It’s all goin’ down the hatch.”
“I’ll be back. Izzy, save some for me at least!” And with that, Jessica left the two men to warm up by the heater.
“Wonder how long it’ll take before we’re bantering like old women,” Gabriel snorted, smiling a bit before looking back to Jack. The younger man said nothing for a long moment, eyes trained on the drying clothing over the heater. Gabriel followed his gaze. It fell on his beanie. He ran a hand over his smooth head. Naked. Exposed.
They’d had closer brushes with death.
“Reyes,” Gabriel bristled a bit at the name, gripping his blanket imperceptibly, the younger’s tone formal and succinct. Commander Morrison.
Morrison continued. “You set up a boundary. You told me no and I didn’t--”
“It’s fine,” Reyes said curtly, refusing to revert his gaze back to his partner. “You don’t have to apologize.”
“It isn’t fine though.”
“If you’re trying to play saint, Morrison, don’t.”
“Gabe, would you shut up?”
Reyes fell silent at the man’s tone. It wasn’t harsh, it wasn’t military, not Commander Morrison. It was just Jack. Gabriel listened.
“I pushed you, back there on the ice and I didn’t consider how you felt at all and I just. Pressured you.”Jack faltered a bit. “And I’m sorry.”
Gabriel’s attention finally shifted to Jack, unsure of where to focus his gaze, darting to his hair hanging over his face, the gel washed away, to his lips, pursed and nervous. His eyes were looking for a response. Gabriel was almost disappointed when they darted away, deciding they weren’t going to get one.
“I’m, I’m not expecting you to forgive me or anything,” Jack babbled on, “You were right, I was being a dick and I’m just--”
“You forgot to thank me for saving your ass.”
Those blue eyes snapped back to his own dark ones. He gave a sly grin.
Jack stared for a long moment before giving a small snort and smile in return. He leaned forward, landing a soft kiss on Gabriel’s lips. After a few moments, he pulled back slightly, mouthing lightly against his dark scruff, “Thank you.”
Immediately, Gabriel pressed in, slipping his hand out from beneath his comforter to hold Jack’s strong jaw in his own calloused fingers. He pretended not to notice Jessica and Izzy sneaking by as the old clock in the hall began to ring. 12:00 am, January 1st.
“Happy New Year, Jack.”
“Happy New Year…”
He opened his eyes, not realizing he’d closed them.
Gabe.
Darkening skies greet his eyes behind frosted, full lashes, fighting to stay awake. Stay alive.
He’s no longer sure how long he's been lying in the cold of the howling Swiss winter. Certainly longer than an hour. He couldn't be sure--his watch stopped working after the explosion.
That particular memory, he thinks to himself, wasn’t really all that memorable, at least in the sense of enduring the cold. He’d had to live through freezing temperatures on missions plenty of times since then.
It’s Morrison , his mind supplies wryly. It’s always Morrison.
They ended their romantic involvement years ago. Not in any official way, but over the years, they increasingly stopped trying. Stopped trying to initiate intimacy, stopped trying to understand each other. They just stopped trying to make it work. No nights out, no video calls. Barely even a simple greeting outside work. They spent less time talking and more time screaming down each other’s throats.
Maybe I was an idiot to think it ever could work.
The cold is seeping into his bones. He can’t feel it--he stopped feeling much of anything a while ago. He glances down at his pinned lower half. Certainly not his legs. But he knows the hypothermia is settling in.
His beanie is missing.
The Blackwatch commander glares balefully into the darkening, clouded sky, trying to intimidate the clouds into parting to give way to clear skies and bright stars. The heavens do not obey.
He gives a laboured huff, his breath white and smoky against the sky. Not even the decency to give him one last view. No hat, no stars. No Jack.
The Blackwatch commander looks over to the pile of rubble where Morrison had last been standing. He might have made it out alive.
But Jack is dead.
Jack and Morrison are the same.
“They’re not.” His muttered protest is carried away by the wind.
He stops himself there. Thinking would get him nowhere. Perhaps if he just closes his eyes, he’ll wake up, the soft ping of a heart monitor, the smell of antiseptic in his lungs, an IV strapped into his arm…
His training is screaming at him to keep his eyes open. His eyelids feel heavy. As they slide closed, he thinks he hears the faint sound of a voice over the unnerving wind, calling out to him. ‘Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel’. Perhaps it’s a hallucination. Perhaps it’s the angel of death coming to finally collect.
Hang on, Gabriel…
He decides it didn’t matter.
“I’ll get you patched up.”