Give and Take [s/a]
Title: Give and Take [s/a]
Author: minus_four
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Gabe/William
POV: 3rd
Summary: In which William gives blood whilst visiting Gabe, and then whines a lot because he did it wrong. Luckily, tolerant!bf is tolerant.
Disclaimer: I just made this up with my brain and wrote some words using familiar names. That's all.
Author's Notes: Random, random ficlet which came from me jumping on a comment convo between wecantwin and skipstoomuch. As it turned out 'blood donation' was to do with vampires anyway *facepalm* but nevermind lol. 1.5K of random fluff type fic.
For the first few seconds after picking up the phone all Gabe hears is a muffled exchange down the line before he eventually manages to pick out William's voice, and right away Gabe can tell he's tired and definitely has his cranky hat on.
"No, it's fine. It's cool, okay? I'm calling Gabe, like I said." There's a short pause then, someone else saying something Gabe can't make out. "I'm calling Gabe!" He hears William yell, and Gabe quickly decides to stop just listening and say something himself.
"Bill?"
"Gabe?"
"Yeah, it's me." Gabe frowns, just thinking to himself that William shouldn't sound confused right now. "You called me, remember?"
"I called you!" William says, sounding somewhat triumphant. "See," he goes on, sighing down the phone line, "they took my blood."
"What the - Oh." In just over a second Gabe manages to both start freaking out and then rememeber. "Blood drive was today," he adds for pretty much no reason, then mentally kicks himself as he thinks about the entire One Slice of Toast that William had grabbed before leaving Gabe's apartment that morning after they'd spent most of it lazing around in bed. Not exactly a decent breakfast, especially with William's metabolism. "Idiot," Gabe mutters under his breath. "You okay?"
"No," William says, sad and pathetic, and Gabe can hear him pouting for god's sake. "I feel sick and I want to go home but they won’t let me but I don't want to stay here anymore." It all comes out in one long sentence, so un-William like that it's almost as worrying as it is cute.
"Okay. Just." Gabe is already walking over to the kitchen counter to grab his keys as he speaks, mentally tracing the distance to the donor place at the same time as kind of cursing the fact he'd walked by there with Bill the day before, prompting William to donate today. "Have a cookie, and some juice, and I'll be right there." Gabe pauses, listening for some kind of agreement from William, but all he gets is the sound of the dial tone following a half-audible mumble of a 'love you, 'Banti'.
And that'll do.
-
When Gabe gets to the donation centre he walks straight past the first area where people are signing in and being screened, then slightly slower past the main donation area as he scans the space, finally locating William at the far end of the large room, sat on a gurney-type bed in the corner and - Gabe can see when he gets closer - looking around dejectedly and clutching a half eaten cookie.
Either William had already eaten at least one and moved onto this one, Gabe thought, or he really didn’t learn from the whole one slice of toast for breakfast thing.
“You took so long,” he grumbles as Gabe walks up to him, and Gabe just sighs to himself, shaking his head as he reaches up to card his fingers through William’s hair where it’s longer in the front then lets his hand naturally drop to stroke down William’s cheek.
“I know. I’m so mean,” Gabe says, somehow keeping his voice normal, and William just nods. “Come on, I’ve got a cab waiting outside.” Gabe glances over to some girl with a clipboard - a volunteer, he guesses - who gives him a nod and makes a mark on the clipboard.
He holds a hand out as William slides off the bed and stands up, changing his mind and slipping his arm around William’s waist instead when his skinny boyfriend sways on his feet slightly, closing his eyes for a second.
“C’mon, silly Bill,” Gabe says just under his breath, shaking his head again as William immediately rests his head on Gabe’s shoulder, just making a quiet, incoherent groan about something or other Gabe doesn’t catch.
He just keeps walking slowly, taking Bill with him, and while they make their way out of the building Gabe reminds himself to never let William do this again, or at least not without remembering himself that it’s happening so he can take William out for a decent breakfast next time and go with him (this time ignoring William’s bitching that he does know his way around this part of the city now and he doesn’t need Gabe to baby-sit him, okay?).
Gabe spends the cab ride home praying that Bill doesn’t puke as he mumbles a series of whining complaints into Gabe’s shirt, his brain half focused on murmuring comforts and shushes into William’s ear, and the other half coming up with ideas as to what favour he might get in return for this because seriously, who doesn’t really eat before giving blood?
“Only you, Bilvy,” Gabe says under his breath, just to himself as he turns slightly to plant a kiss on the top of William’s head, muttering “Failboat” into his hair just as the cab pulls up outside of Gabe’s apartment building.
-
“You gonna sleep with me then?”
Gabe just looks at William as he snickers to himself where he’s laying on Gabe’s bed, dressed in t shirt and pyjama pants. He raises both eyebrows at Bill, giving him a ‘what the fuck?’ look because apparently blood-depleted William kind of equals drunk William. It wasn’t just because of that, either. It was also the way he dropped that need William seemed to have for everything he said to sound intelligent and put together but also, you know, the way Gabe had to coax him into eating a hastily thrown together sandwich and drinking a decent amount of water before he went to sleep so he didn’t feel sick when he woke up.
Gabe knew he was just as bad though, if not worse, when William was the one who stayed vaguely sober and had to deal with similar stuff, plus Gabe’s ramblings about how fucked up the world is, and he is, and the most fucked up thing was their situation. With Cobra being so busy these days and William’s Chicago Commitments (Gabe couldn’t call it anything else in his head without wanting to punch things) they barely saw each other these days.
They deal with it, though, Gabe thinks to himself as he puts a fresh glass of water on William’s side of bed before crawling onto it himself, because the alternative of never seeing each other at all was much worse than making plans and having dreams they knew might never happen. So they deal.
As soon as Gabe settles down on the bed, just lying on his back, William moves over and rolls onto his side, putting his head on Gabe’s chest. Gabe automatically drops his arm from where he’d had it resting behind his head, securing it around William’s body.
“You realise we’ll have spent pretty much all day in bed today, now,” Gabe tells him, and William lifts his head enough to turn and look at Gabe, giving him enough of his patented ‘bitch, please’ expression for Gabe to know he must be feeling a bit better by this point.
“Yeah, because that’s so unlike us,” William shoots back, smirking at Gabe before he lets his head fall back down to snuggle into Gabe’s hoodie. “The only difference is that we’re not naked right now.” Gabe just laughs, not able to really deny that in any way. “Ughh,” William grumbles after a second, shifting his body even closer to Gabe’s and burying his face in Gabe’s side, like it’ll help. “Jason used to give blood and he never reacted like this,” William says, the words muffled by Gabe’s hoodie.
“He probably did his research and actually ate first,” Gabe states neutrally, keeping his voice matter of fact so as to not make Bill feel any worse just now. “Plus, y’know, he is like… twice your size, mi quequito arcoiris.” Gabe huffs out a laugh, because A) William really is completely ridiculous, and B) he knows what’s coming next.
Without moving his head or looking at Gabe at all, William just lifts an arm, flailing it in the general direction of Gabe’s head until it makes contact with his face.
“’m ‘ot!” comes the muffled response, and even though Gabe knows what William said he can’t help having just a little fun at his boyfriend’s expense.
“Sorry, didn’t catch that.”
“Mmph.” William huffs, pushing himself up again enough so he can speak clearly, giving Gabe a glare at the same time as failing to stop himself smiling. Ridiculous, Gabe thinks, smiling back even as William retorts with a tone in his voice which almost manages to register as annoyance. “I am not your little rainbow cupcake.”
Gabe just laughs again as William drops his head back down with a sigh, half heartedly punching Gabe’s chest a couple of times. “Yeah, you really are.”
“Whatever.”
Gabe tilts his head to get a better look at William’s face as the word is distorted by a yawn, and he just smiles to himself as he watches William’s eyes close, the muscles in his face relaxing as Bill gives in to the drowsiness he’d had to keep at bay until now.
And maybe he wouldn’t be calling in that favour, Gabe thinks as he just lies there, feeling the movement of William’s chest against his, slower now as William starts to fall asleep. Because really Gabe knows, in the end, this is what it’s all about.
Author: minus_four
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Gabe/William
POV: 3rd
Summary: In which William gives blood whilst visiting Gabe, and then whines a lot because he did it wrong. Luckily, tolerant!bf is tolerant.
Disclaimer: I just made this up with my brain and wrote some words using familiar names. That's all.
Author's Notes: Random, random ficlet which came from me jumping on a comment convo between wecantwin and skipstoomuch. As it turned out 'blood donation' was to do with vampires anyway *facepalm* but nevermind lol. 1.5K of random fluff type fic.
For the first few seconds after picking up the phone all Gabe hears is a muffled exchange down the line before he eventually manages to pick out William's voice, and right away Gabe can tell he's tired and definitely has his cranky hat on.
"No, it's fine. It's cool, okay? I'm calling Gabe, like I said." There's a short pause then, someone else saying something Gabe can't make out. "I'm calling Gabe!" He hears William yell, and Gabe quickly decides to stop just listening and say something himself.
"Bill?"
"Gabe?"
"Yeah, it's me." Gabe frowns, just thinking to himself that William shouldn't sound confused right now. "You called me, remember?"
"I called you!" William says, sounding somewhat triumphant. "See," he goes on, sighing down the phone line, "they took my blood."
"What the - Oh." In just over a second Gabe manages to both start freaking out and then rememeber. "Blood drive was today," he adds for pretty much no reason, then mentally kicks himself as he thinks about the entire One Slice of Toast that William had grabbed before leaving Gabe's apartment that morning after they'd spent most of it lazing around in bed. Not exactly a decent breakfast, especially with William's metabolism. "Idiot," Gabe mutters under his breath. "You okay?"
"No," William says, sad and pathetic, and Gabe can hear him pouting for god's sake. "I feel sick and I want to go home but they won’t let me but I don't want to stay here anymore." It all comes out in one long sentence, so un-William like that it's almost as worrying as it is cute.
"Okay. Just." Gabe is already walking over to the kitchen counter to grab his keys as he speaks, mentally tracing the distance to the donor place at the same time as kind of cursing the fact he'd walked by there with Bill the day before, prompting William to donate today. "Have a cookie, and some juice, and I'll be right there." Gabe pauses, listening for some kind of agreement from William, but all he gets is the sound of the dial tone following a half-audible mumble of a 'love you, 'Banti'.
And that'll do.
-
When Gabe gets to the donation centre he walks straight past the first area where people are signing in and being screened, then slightly slower past the main donation area as he scans the space, finally locating William at the far end of the large room, sat on a gurney-type bed in the corner and - Gabe can see when he gets closer - looking around dejectedly and clutching a half eaten cookie.
Either William had already eaten at least one and moved onto this one, Gabe thought, or he really didn’t learn from the whole one slice of toast for breakfast thing.
“You took so long,” he grumbles as Gabe walks up to him, and Gabe just sighs to himself, shaking his head as he reaches up to card his fingers through William’s hair where it’s longer in the front then lets his hand naturally drop to stroke down William’s cheek.
“I know. I’m so mean,” Gabe says, somehow keeping his voice normal, and William just nods. “Come on, I’ve got a cab waiting outside.” Gabe glances over to some girl with a clipboard - a volunteer, he guesses - who gives him a nod and makes a mark on the clipboard.
He holds a hand out as William slides off the bed and stands up, changing his mind and slipping his arm around William’s waist instead when his skinny boyfriend sways on his feet slightly, closing his eyes for a second.
“C’mon, silly Bill,” Gabe says just under his breath, shaking his head again as William immediately rests his head on Gabe’s shoulder, just making a quiet, incoherent groan about something or other Gabe doesn’t catch.
He just keeps walking slowly, taking Bill with him, and while they make their way out of the building Gabe reminds himself to never let William do this again, or at least not without remembering himself that it’s happening so he can take William out for a decent breakfast next time and go with him (this time ignoring William’s bitching that he does know his way around this part of the city now and he doesn’t need Gabe to baby-sit him, okay?).
Gabe spends the cab ride home praying that Bill doesn’t puke as he mumbles a series of whining complaints into Gabe’s shirt, his brain half focused on murmuring comforts and shushes into William’s ear, and the other half coming up with ideas as to what favour he might get in return for this because seriously, who doesn’t really eat before giving blood?
“Only you, Bilvy,” Gabe says under his breath, just to himself as he turns slightly to plant a kiss on the top of William’s head, muttering “Failboat” into his hair just as the cab pulls up outside of Gabe’s apartment building.
-
“You gonna sleep with me then?”
Gabe just looks at William as he snickers to himself where he’s laying on Gabe’s bed, dressed in t shirt and pyjama pants. He raises both eyebrows at Bill, giving him a ‘what the fuck?’ look because apparently blood-depleted William kind of equals drunk William. It wasn’t just because of that, either. It was also the way he dropped that need William seemed to have for everything he said to sound intelligent and put together but also, you know, the way Gabe had to coax him into eating a hastily thrown together sandwich and drinking a decent amount of water before he went to sleep so he didn’t feel sick when he woke up.
Gabe knew he was just as bad though, if not worse, when William was the one who stayed vaguely sober and had to deal with similar stuff, plus Gabe’s ramblings about how fucked up the world is, and he is, and the most fucked up thing was their situation. With Cobra being so busy these days and William’s Chicago Commitments (Gabe couldn’t call it anything else in his head without wanting to punch things) they barely saw each other these days.
They deal with it, though, Gabe thinks to himself as he puts a fresh glass of water on William’s side of bed before crawling onto it himself, because the alternative of never seeing each other at all was much worse than making plans and having dreams they knew might never happen. So they deal.
As soon as Gabe settles down on the bed, just lying on his back, William moves over and rolls onto his side, putting his head on Gabe’s chest. Gabe automatically drops his arm from where he’d had it resting behind his head, securing it around William’s body.
“You realise we’ll have spent pretty much all day in bed today, now,” Gabe tells him, and William lifts his head enough to turn and look at Gabe, giving him enough of his patented ‘bitch, please’ expression for Gabe to know he must be feeling a bit better by this point.
“Yeah, because that’s so unlike us,” William shoots back, smirking at Gabe before he lets his head fall back down to snuggle into Gabe’s hoodie. “The only difference is that we’re not naked right now.” Gabe just laughs, not able to really deny that in any way. “Ughh,” William grumbles after a second, shifting his body even closer to Gabe’s and burying his face in Gabe’s side, like it’ll help. “Jason used to give blood and he never reacted like this,” William says, the words muffled by Gabe’s hoodie.
“He probably did his research and actually ate first,” Gabe states neutrally, keeping his voice matter of fact so as to not make Bill feel any worse just now. “Plus, y’know, he is like… twice your size, mi quequito arcoiris.” Gabe huffs out a laugh, because A) William really is completely ridiculous, and B) he knows what’s coming next.
Without moving his head or looking at Gabe at all, William just lifts an arm, flailing it in the general direction of Gabe’s head until it makes contact with his face.
“’m ‘ot!” comes the muffled response, and even though Gabe knows what William said he can’t help having just a little fun at his boyfriend’s expense.
“Sorry, didn’t catch that.”
“Mmph.” William huffs, pushing himself up again enough so he can speak clearly, giving Gabe a glare at the same time as failing to stop himself smiling. Ridiculous, Gabe thinks, smiling back even as William retorts with a tone in his voice which almost manages to register as annoyance. “I am not your little rainbow cupcake.”
Gabe just laughs again as William drops his head back down with a sigh, half heartedly punching Gabe’s chest a couple of times. “Yeah, you really are.”
“Whatever.”
Gabe tilts his head to get a better look at William’s face as the word is distorted by a yawn, and he just smiles to himself as he watches William’s eyes close, the muscles in his face relaxing as Bill gives in to the drowsiness he’d had to keep at bay until now.
And maybe he wouldn’t be calling in that favour, Gabe thinks as he just lies there, feeling the movement of William’s chest against his, slower now as William starts to fall asleep. Because really Gabe knows, in the end, this is what it’s all about.