(no subject)
For ten days, Gaeta doesn't think of going to Milliways. The Marine escort grates on the edges of his nerves, but he bears it with the knowledge that his punishment could be -- and probably should have been -- much worse.
For ten days, he has much better things to think about, anyway. It stays confined to brief moments that make him feel like a teenager for how surreptitious and stolen they are: a kiss here, a touch there. He sits crosslegged on Louis' bed with much more familiarity, feet completely bare now as they talk and laugh between his shifts.
Gaeta feels, too, like they've pushed off in one of the boats Louis steered as a child: navigating together in the dark, uncertain of the route, confident of how they'll find their destination all the same in the end.
Naturally, Dee catches on the earliest of anyone. "So," she says to him with a wicked grin as they pass by each other in the corridor.
"No," he counters immediately -- but he's laughing a little, and mirroring her grin long after she's walked past.
On the eleventh day, he shakes hands with the Marine as soon as he's off duty (you're free to go, the soldier says in half-joking tones, and they salute each other before parting ways), and heads down to the rec room for no other reason than because he can.
For ten days, he has much better things to think about, anyway. It stays confined to brief moments that make him feel like a teenager for how surreptitious and stolen they are: a kiss here, a touch there. He sits crosslegged on Louis' bed with much more familiarity, feet completely bare now as they talk and laugh between his shifts.
Gaeta feels, too, like they've pushed off in one of the boats Louis steered as a child: navigating together in the dark, uncertain of the route, confident of how they'll find their destination all the same in the end.
Naturally, Dee catches on the earliest of anyone. "So," she says to him with a wicked grin as they pass by each other in the corridor.
"No," he counters immediately -- but he's laughing a little, and mirroring her grin long after she's walked past.
On the eleventh day, he shakes hands with the Marine as soon as he's off duty (you're free to go, the soldier says in half-joking tones, and they salute each other before parting ways), and heads down to the rec room for no other reason than because he can.