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The air was freezing.
It hurt to breathe, like inhaling ice. It was the kind of weather that turned throats dry and lungs into aching caves, like their insides were getting decorated with crystals with every shaky intake of breath.
It felt that way for Commander Reyes too, even though he was a super soldier and all that shit that SEP stood for. So if the weather was difficult for him, then his henchmen must feel it all the more as they sat there, in a foxhole hidden between hills of snow and even more snow in the fuckass of Nowhere, Alaska.
Whoever thought that having a secret criminal meeting out there in the wild white was a wise decision, would have to meet the other end of Gabriel's frozen fist right in the teeth, once the mission to dismantle the illicit traffic of omnic components ended.
Actually it wasn’t a bad move on their side. It would be difficult for the law enforcement to disrupt their nasty business when their butts turned into icicles and white was the only color that could be seen for miles. But Gabriel, as a true L.A. Man, born and raised, felt very much entitled to not appreciate these efforts.
The winter gear he was wearing seemed to be doing little to ward off the cold. The small stripe of skin that peeked out from between the black goggles and the white balaclava felt so cold that he feared it would never recover from frostbite. He even had to give up his beloved beanie for this mission!
Not to mention everything was so damn white. Gabriel felt like he would get blind if he had to look at it any longer. Once the mission was be over, he was going to give Jack a piece of his mind about setting up missions in places where days were as short as blinking and nights lasted for far too fucking long, and freezing your dick off was a possibility. Blondie could solve this kind of troubles by himself next time, that'd teach him.
Speaking of the man, he hadn’t been in contact with Gabriel in a while and he was getting worried about it. Just a bit. Did communications suffer from the cold, too? He hoped not. Gabriel didn’t want to be the one to singlehandedly pull his team’s ass out from the literal ditch in case problems arose.
As if summoned by Gabriel’s thoughts, the intercom in his ear buzzed, warning him of an incoming call from the headquarters. If that made Gabriel smile fondly under the balaclava despite his freezing muscles, well, no one would get to see it. He pressed the button, light static cracks answering him at first before the channel stabilized on the proper frequency. Gabriel did a swift job on lowering the piece of cloth that covered his mouth so his voice wouldn't be muffled. He could already feel his mustache turn solid and frozen like the snow surrounding him.
On the other end of the line, Jack was talking in his best business-like voice, sharp and straight to the point. The usual military jargon almost sounded like harsh poetry coming from him, and Gabriel answered in kind, keeping his responses short. Was the mission cleared? Negative. Was the target spotted? Negative. Was everyone on the team safe? Affirmative.
From an external point of view they must have looked the epitome of professionalism. Seasoned soldiers egregiously carrying out their mission, almost like machines built for that reason, no inflection or feeling in their voices.
Reality was far from that image. For starters, Gabriel was freezing to the bone. Then, he missed Jack and was certain it wasn’t a one-sided sentiment. They had been thrown in mission after mission lately, not to mention all the paper work and their different schedules. It was hard being unofficial lovers under Overwatch and the whole world’s scrutiny.
Gabriel was taking all the comfort he could from those few, impersonal lines. It wasn’t like they could chat freely, or say sweet nothings over the com. The risk of somebody listening in was always high and in that case there would be not much difference between friend or foe. Anything that was not according to standard procedure could prove to be suspicious. Scandal material. Not to mention possible enemies using that new-found weakness against them. There were too many possibilities that could develop into negative scenarios. Even the encrypted line was not 100% safe when it came down to that kind of backstabbing risk.
When Gabriel did not immediately hear the familiar click signaling the end of the call after his last word, it was a surprise. Even more so when after a few seconds of silence, it was replaced bu a different sort of noise.
A continuous sound, modulated in Jack's rich timber. Jack was humming something, no words but a melancholic tune. It awoke something in Gabriel, an emotion that went straight to his heart warming it with longing and making it ache at the same time with melancholy. He recognized the melody, of course, from the many times he had sang it to Jake over the years, time after time again. Memories of them laying naked in bed after some delicious sex, limbs still entangled and skin sticky while Gabriel murmured those sweet words against Jack's shoulder; or of those rare occasions when they were able to play pretend, simply two normal men in a relationship, Gabriel idly singing the old song as he washed the dirty dishes from the previous day in the sink and Jack still lost nursing his morning coffee, hip leaning on the counter.
Once, Jack had asked him about the lyrics, and what they meant. He still hadn't learned enough Spanish to get around something as simple as that song, so Gabriel had translated it for him. The longing, the tantalizing heartbreak. He had found the disc in his grandma’s collection when he was still a child, not tall enough to reach her hip and not yet grown up enough to understand what those feelings could be. Gabriel found that out much later, when life put a fair man with a heart of gold on his path and he fell in love with him - and he fell hard. Afterward, he kissed the laughter on Jack's lips.
In that precise moment, too Gabriel wished he could have been kissing Jack instead of listening to the few notes of the hummed chorus. He caressed his lips with his fingers, imitating the gentle touch of a lover they were missing. It was not the same. Jack's mouth was not made of kevlar, thankfully. And sure the two things tasted nothing alike. Oh, how Gabriel was going to kiss him at the first opportunity, to get a definitely better taste on his tongue.
The melody didn't last much, just enough to give Gabriel an idea, without arousing suspicions from the highers ups that might be listening in. He needed to congratulate Jack on finding such ingenious secret code, and also not leave the man hanging on the other end of the line without an answer.
Humming back few notes of the same song, the beginning of the following verse, Gabriel hoped Jack understood. The desperation, the need, the burning desire. Everything he hoped to convey without words.
With a click, Gabriel ended the conversation.