Fic for cerealkiller0 Part 3
Recipient: cerealkiller0
Author: TBA
Disclaimer: Author doesn't own the show or the characters and isn't making any profit.
Title: Theory and Application (Part 3)
Pairing: Don/Colby; Don/Ian; Don/Colby/Ian; a 'blink and you'll miss it' mention of past Don/Ian/OMC
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Summary: Solving bank robberies, tracking down fugitives, sleeping with a member of his team - it’s all in a day’s work for Don Eppes. So a visit from an old friend shouldn’t change anything, right?
Author's Note: A huge thanks you to my beta for her clear-sightedness and enthusiastic encouragement throughout the writing of this.
********
Colby had drawn the short straw and been sent on the beer run after work. By the time he turned up at Don’s apartment with a couple of six packs, Don had just finished changing the bedding and Ian was - Don hoped - choosing pizza from one of the frankly impressive number of takeout menus that Don had amassed.
“Changing the sheets, huh, Eppes?” Ian greeted Don as he entered the kitchen and put Colby’s beer in the fridge. “Think you’re gonna get lucky tonight?”
“I’m counting on it,” Don said with a grin.
“Really? And what makes you so sure?” Ian pressed him back against the counter, delivering teasing little kisses between his words.
“Pizza, beer - you’re a sure thing, Edgerton,” Don said, settling his hands on Ian’s hips and tugging him closer.
“Is that so?”
“Yup,” Don replied, lips busy on Ian’s neck. Maybe it wasn’t the best comeback in history but he was making up for it with the way his hands were tracing the muscles in Ian’s back in just the way he knew Ian liked.
Ian encouraged his head up and gave him a proper kiss, one that had him forgetting for an instant about pizza and beer and everything that wasn’t Ian’s mouth.
Then Ian pulled away with a smirk. “Dream on, Eppes,” he said. “Pizza and beer? You’re gonna have to do better than that.”
Turning away, he started leafing through the takeout menus.
“Vietnamese good with you, Granger?” he asked, and it was only then that Don noticed Colby was standing in the kitchen doorway. Standing in the kitchen doorway looking awkward, in fact; he was doing that thing he’d started doing for a while after the freighter, hunching in on himself as if pretending he wasn’t really there.
“Yeah, sure,” Colby said, and Ian promptly stuck a menu into Don’s hands.
“Majority decision,” he said. “You get it ordered while I take a shower.”
He waltzed out of the kitchen, delivering a swat to Colby’s ass on the way past. “Sort your boyfriend out, would you, Granger?” he said. “He thinks pizza counts as a meal.”
Don had forgotten how damn infuriating Edgerton could be.
“What d’you want, Colb?”
Colby came over to look at the menu Don was examining.
“I’ll go with the special, whatever it is,” he said.
His lack of enthusiasm made Don look up at him. This was food they were talking about.
“You okay?”
“Sure,” Colby said. “You want me to order?”
“It’s okay, I got it.”
After he’d placed the order - it would be half an hour, they reckoned - he grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and went to join Colby on the couch. Except Colby wasn’t on the couch. Glancing through, he could see Colby digging around in his duffel in the bedroom, so he shrugged, put the beer on the coffee table, kicked up his feet and channel surfed till he found something worth watching.
Ian came through a little later and sat down beside him, taking a beer with every appearance of satisfaction - a satisfaction which soon faded when he saw what Don was watching.
“Stargate Atlantis? Really?”
Don shrugged. “It annoys Charlie,” he said. “Apparently the wormhole physics are ‘entirely implausible’. And they get to fly spaceships and shoot aliens.”
“Well okay then.”
It was the commercial break before Don realised Colby hadn’t joined them. “You seen Colb?”
“Think he’s in the shower.”
“Huh.” Don checked his watch. If he wanted to shower before the food got here he’d better get a move on. Might actually save some water too if he joined Colby.
Sure enough, from the bedroom he could hear the hiss of the shower going, so he stripped off and walked into the bathroom, which was filling nicely with warm steam. Colby had his eyes shut against the water and Don watched him for a moment, seeing the economical moves with which he was rubbing the shower gel over himself, like it was a job to be done. He figured he could do better than that.
Colby jumped when Don stepped in next to him, elbows and shoulders knocking together in the really far too small shower - when he’d bought the apartment Don hadn’t thought to check out the shower to ensure it would easily fit two large FBI agents. That had obviously been an oversight on his part. The good part about it not being too big was that it meant they had to stand pretty damn close together, which made soaping up Colby easy as well as fun. He rubbed the gel in small circles, his fingers sliding over Colby’s slippery wet skin, and felt Colby slowly begin to relax. Huh. He hadn’t realised Colby’d been so tense. Obviously he’d had one of those days.
Once he was fully relaxed - most of him; one part of him was beginning to look a little far from relaxed - under Don’s hands, Colby returned the favour, taking his time and working with the care that had been lacking when he’d been washing himself earlier. By the time they turned off the shower and got dressed, dinner was just being delivered.
There might have been a bit of shoving over the cartons laid out on the counter, which may or may not have led to the junior agent on the scene sighing dramatically and threatening to put the senior agents in time out on the naughty step. Which would perhaps have been more effective if Ian hadn’t looked up with a glint in his eyes, wanting to know more about the naughty step because it sounded like fun.
And after they’d eaten and drunk and watched a documentary on F-22s because fighter jets were cool, Don leaned over to kiss first Colby and then Ian, and after that it didn’t really matter what was on the TV.
**
Don woke up with sunlight falling across his face, diffused by the blinds but bright enough to bring him out of the best night’s sleep he’d had in a while. He turned over to see Colby tucked into Ian’s side with Ian’s arm over him. It had seemed natural to put Colby in the middle again last night, just as he’d been earlier when Don had slid into his ass and Ian had fucked his mouth, though Don wasn’t sure quite why. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes. Maybe he and Ian needed a buffer between them at times.
Ian was awake now, and no matter how often it happened Don would never get used to how lightly he must sleep because he always came to within seconds of Don waking, even when Don tried not to move.
“Coffee?” Don said quietly, his voice rough with sleep.
“Sounds good,” Ian said and even Colby seemed to agree, stirring and mumbling something into his pillow as Don got out of bed and pulled on some sweats. Or maybe that was not so much the mention of coffee as it was whatever Ian was doing under the covers, because when Don came back through from the bathroom it was clear that Ian’s hands were busy and Colby was a lot more awake than he had been. Don smirked at the dazed look on Colby’s face and the slightly pleading gaze he turned on Don. He wasn’t without sympathy - having the full force of Edgerton’s attention when you were scarcely awake was not something to be wished on the faint-hearted - but as this time he wasn’t the victim for once, he intended to enjoy it.
He went into the kitchen and flicked the coffee machine on, but instead of waiting for it to complete its cycle he went straight back to the bedroom. It was just as well he did because he found Edgerton was now attacking Colby with a single-minded determination, one that Colby wasn’t objecting to in the least if the squirming going on under the covers and the way they were locked together at the mouth was any indication.
“Hey,” Don said in protest. Colby froze for an instant, but Ian looked up with a very self-satisfied expression - and Don knew that anybody who’d had Colby squirming like that underneath them would feel self-satisfied.
“Kind of got my hands full here, Don,” he said. “Maybe you could oblige.”
So Don pulled back the covers completely and oh yeah, that was better. He could see it all now: the long lines of Ian’s body, the strength in Ian as he held Colby who was turning himself inside out trying to move, to do something.
Don was getting hard and he pressed the heel of his hand against himself through the worn cotton of his sweats before sitting down on the couch which that suddenly not quite so stupid interior designer had insisted he had in his bedroom.
Being able to watch Edgerton fuck somebody, when that somebody wasn’t you and you didn’t have to concentrate on not flying apart, was a revelation. No matter how much Colby begged - and he was begging so fucking prettily right now - Ian did things his way, and in his own time, as focused and deadly in bed as he was with a gun. Don’s hand was inside his sweats, his cock hard and hot in his hand.
Finally, Edgerton pushed into Colby where he had him pinned down on his back. Colby gave a long drawn-out groan as Ian slid home fully. Ian’s cock moving into and out of Colby was nearly enough to bring Don off, let alone Colby who was making noises that Don knew meant he didn’t have long at all. His eyes were screwed closed, and Don couldn’t be sure but he thought he heard the choked-out sound of his name. He left his sweats in a pile on the floor and got onto the bed where he leaned down to kiss Colby. He knew that with Ian it sometimes felt like you were going to break into so many pieces that you’d never find them all again. Colby was almost too far gone to kiss back but he made a valiant effort, all need and heat and desperation, choked off little sounds ending up in Don’s mouth.
“I got you, Colb,” Don said, his hand soothing circles over Colby’s chest, and Colby came, helpless high pitched noises tearing themselves out of his throat.
Don was almost shaking with need as he knelt up, hand closing around himself, his eyes meeting Ian’s intent gaze as he went back to jerking himself off. He was aware Colby was still somehow trying to meet Ian’s thrusts and that Ian’s movements were becoming irregular as his eyes moved hungrily over Don. As Ian came, Don lost it all over Colby.
Once Ian had gotten rid of the condom - Don making a mental note that he really
needed to empty his trash can before the maid service next came - they lay in a sated heap on Don’s bed in silence for some time, Don’s fingers idly moving through the come on Colby’s chest, mixing his with Colby’s. Then he leaned over towards Ian, who met him halfway, and they kissed hard until it ended the same way as usual, with neither sure who had won.
Ian bent down and kissed Colby then, slow and easy. After that it was Don’s turn to roll tight against Colby and kiss him. Colby opened up straightaway for him, just as he always did, and Don lost himself exploring Colby’s mouth.
He had no idea how long they’d been kissing before he realised that Ian was gone. He put his head down on the pillow next to Colby, and let his eyes slowly close.
He came to some time later, with a familiar smell tickling at his nostrils. Colby was stirring too, and within seconds sat up with a speed Don didn’t normally associate with him and mornings.
“Is that bacon?” Colby asked.
Don’s mouth was watering. “Reckon so.”
And for what was possibly the first time ever, Colby was out of bed before Don.
“Shower,” Don said.
“Bacon,” Colby said.
“Shower first.”
He pushed Colby in the direction of the bathroom. It was like trying to move a warm, muscled, and reluctant brick wall. “Believe me, you’ll thank me. And don’t worry, I’ll save you some.”
Finally Colby gave in, and as he started on what was probably going to be the shortest shower in history, Don quickly washed, pulled on some jeans and went through to find Ian was cooking up a storm in the kitchen. There were eggs and grits and mushrooms and tomatoes and bacon and pancakes, and Don knew damn well that not one of these things had been in his apartment when they’d gone to bed.
He poured a coffee from the machine and sat down at the breakfast bar, giving a satisfied little groan as he sniffed the aroma coming from his mug. “Made a grocery run?”
Ian glanced up from the stove. “It’s a mystery to me how you’re not running the Bureau yet.”
“Hey, some of us still haven’t had coffee,” Don said. “Anyway, you might want to be polite seeing as I think you’re just about to get upgraded from legend to god.”
“Legend?”
“Didn’t you know? Colby ran your fan club out in Afghanistan. They had these cute little badges with your name on and slumber parties and everything.”
Ian looked delighted, not to mention proprietorial. “You mean I’ve got my very own groupie?”
“He’s not yours,” Don bit out before he knew what he was saying. And shit, where the hell had that come from?
He winced and raised his coffee mug in apology, more than a bit embarrassed. After subjecting Don to a searching look, Ian nodded and turned back to the stove.
It looked like Ian didn’t need to make any claim to Colby, Don thought, given the look of awe and delight on Colby’s face when he walked into the kitchen two minutes later to be handed a heart attack on a plate.
“You got plans for today?” Don asked once they’d all settled in the living room to eat. Don only had two stools at the breakfast bar, which he now thought possible grounds for action for discrimination against the kitchen fitters.
“Thought I might head down to the range,” Ian said. “I fancy a nice soothing day.”
Colby looked up briefly from his beloved bacon. “I’ve got laundry to do, and mail to pick up.”
And then his face brightened suddenly as if he was remembering something.
“Mail, huh?” Don asked. “Anything in particular?”
“No.” Colby dug his fork into his pancakes with ferocious concentration.
“Granger, how the hell do you survive undercover with a game face like that?” Ian wanted to know.
“So what is it?” Don pushed. “Another army doll?”
“I’m sorry, what?” It wasn’t often Ian Edgerton looked confused. Don treasured the moment.
“Army dolls,” he said with a nod in Colby’s direction. “He’s got a whole collection of them.”
“They’re military action figures,” Colby protested.
“Well okay then,” Ian said.
He waited a beat for Colby to relax again before asking, “You got any sniper dolls?”
Don smirked as Colby choked. He was so damn easy.
********
“Have you heard from Charlie?” Ian asked Don, grabbing them each a bottle of water from the fridge.
“I spoke to him this afternoon but he hasn’t got anything he’s ready to share with us yet. Nothing definite, he’s just really excited about another way he’s thought of approaching it all. Something to do with windmills, I think.” Don sounded about as confused as Ian felt.
“I guess we don’t have to understand it to use it.”
“I know, but I don’t understand why he gets so excited over it, almost compulsive, you know? I mean, it’s math. How exciting can it be?” Don frowned at his bottle as he twisted the top off.
“You’re asking the wrong person. But you know what it’s like, putting evidence together and knowing a picture’s emerging. Are you telling me you stop and go home when that happens, Eppes? Maybe the two of you are more alike than you know.”
“What are you, my shrink?”
“You’ve got a shrink now?”
“I live in LA. What do you think?”
Ian’s lips twitched briefly. Don really wasn’t as subtle at redirection as he liked to think. Or maybe he was, because he chose that moment to take a draught from his water bottle, putting the long line of his throat on display.
Ian moved forwards, into Don’s space, his hands resting lightly on the counter either side of Don.
“I think there are other forms of therapy,” he said, leaning into Don but not quite touching.
“Oh yeah?” Don’s lips were millimetres from his. “What did you have in mind?”
And that was all the invitation Ian needed, taking Don’s mouth in a kiss that had adrenaline pumping through him in seconds. They stumbled their way to the bedroom, leaving a mess of discarded clothes in their wake. It was hard and it was fast, just how it always was between them, but while Don might have won, Ian hadn’t exactly lost, not with Eppes fucking into him the way he did.
********
It was late evening by the time Colby got to Don’s. He hadn’t intended to be so tardy but there’d been a good swell running and it had been a while since he’d had a chance to get out there on his board. He’d also needed the peace that he found when out on the ocean, where there was space to think.
When Don had asked him about Ian joining them, he hadn’t realised that would mean that Edgerton would become a fixture for the entire time he was in LA. He also hadn’t expected that, far from Ian joining them, it would end up feeling like Colby was the one joining Don and Ian. Watching them teasing and kissing in the kitchen last night had made Colby only too aware of how effortlessly easy their relationship was, and how very different it was from the way things were between Colby and Don. Worse, it had made Colby realise how little there actually was between him and Don. Then there was the fact that when the two of them were together they seemed to operate on a whole different level of sexual intensity to the rest of the human race. Which was understandable, given they were Don Eppes and Ian Edgerton, but that didn’t really help Colby.
Sitting out on the water in the dying sun, Colby had thought that maybe he should just save himself any further humiliation and call it quits now. But he wasn’t quite ready to do that yet because he was a tad on the pathetic side and this was Don.
Don, who opened the door to him shirtless, in black jeans with the top button undone. He looked rumpled and satisfied, leaving no doubt at all in Colby’s mind what he’d spent at least part of the evening doing. With Edgerton, and without Colby. Colby’s heart plummeted but Don’s face lit with a smile and he pulled Colby in by the front of his shirt, closing the door behind him before pushing him against the wall. Don kissed him slow and deep, mapping his mouth as his hands were moving over Colby’s body, like he was reacquainting himself with it. He was loose-limbed and relaxed, and there was an openness there that Colby wasn’t used to. Right now he didn’t care even if it was due to Edgerton - Colby could definitely get used to Don being like this.
Don eventually drew back slightly to nip at his lips, before slowly pulling away entirely.
“You hungry?” he asked. “There’s leftovers if you want something.”
“Yeah, that’d be good.”
He kicked his duffel into the corner and followed Don to the kitchen, where he found him getting plates of what looked like real food out from the fridge. Jasmine rice, and chicken in sauce, and -
“What’s that green stuff?” Colby asked.
“Huh? You mean the broccoli?” Don looked adorably confused with his dishevelled sex-hair and his brow furrowed and goddamn Colby did not just think of adorable and Don Eppes in the same sentence.
“I dunno,” he said. “It looks like broccoli, but what’s it doing in your apartment?”
“Hey, I cook,” Don said.
“Sure,” Colby agreed absentmindedly, helping himself to a plate and starting to ladle out spoonfuls from the various dishes. “Not like this though.”
“Yeah, Edgerton got bored of shooting things, I think. I came back and he was doing this whole Masterchef routine.”
“Didn’t hear you complaining at the time.”
Colby looked up to find Ian leaning against the kitchen doorway with his arms crossed, highlighting the muscles in his arms and his bare chest. He too was wearing only a pair of jeans. Colby was beginning to approve of the dress code round here. He came over and kissed Colby hello, so thoroughly that Colby almost forgot to hold onto his plate.
They found a channel showing one of the Bourne movies, but while eating his seriously good impromptu meal, helping it down with wine from the bottle Don had opened, Colby couldn’t shake the feeling that he was an antelope that had been cut out from the herd and caught between two big cats. Two big cats who were currently lazing around, but never quite taking their eye off their prey. It wasn’t long after he’d finished his meal that he realised he was going to be dessert.
He tried to give as good as he got but he was outnumbered and outmanoeuvred and ended up pinned down between them on the couch, panting against Don’s neck as he came all over Ian’s hands.
They spent the rest of the evening in as relaxed a tangle as Don’s couch would allow. Colby was relieved to find that their closeness seemed to be smothering his earlier doubts.
********
Ian had somehow got last dibs on the shower on Sunday morning. That had the drawback of the bathroom already being a little steamy and soggy from its previous occupants but the benefit of being able to take as long as he liked and use every last drop of hot water if he wanted.
After amusing himself trying out the different settings on the showerhead - it had eight; Eppes could be a bit precious, though Ian had to admit the pulse massage was pretty awesome, meaning he soaped up all over again just to get the full benefit - he finally managed to pull himself away and went in search of coffee. Don and Colby were leaning against the counter in the kitchen, with Colby devouring a stack of toast. He pushed his plate over towards Ian in invitation when he saw him. Ian appreciated that for the sacrifice it was and took just the one piece to chew on while he poured himself a coffee.
Colby shoved the last pieces of toast into his mouth and turned to rinse out his mug in the sink.
“I’ve got to go,” he said, once his mouth was more or less empty. “I’ve got a ball game down the Center with David and some of the kids.” He looked over at Don. “See you at work tomorrow?”
“Come round later,” Don said. “I’ll be back here by nine.”
Colby ducked his head, but Ian was pretty sure he saw the hint of a pleased smile round his mouth as he picked up his duffel and left.
“You’ve got plans then?” Ian asked Don.
“Dad has me and Charlie and Amita round for dinner every Sunday to lecture us on marriage and grandkids.” Then he frowned. “That’s not fair,” he admitted. “The lecturing is a by-product. He just wants us to spend time together when there’s less chance I’ll get called away by work.”
“Granger doesn’t go along?”
“No.”
“Your dad - ”
“Dad’s fine with the whole thing about me liking guys. He just doesn’t need to know about this.”
Ian sipped at his coffee. He’d seen Don getting increasingly gun-shy when it came to relationships. He couldn’t really blame him given how disastrous his track record was, but he hadn’t realised how bad things had gotten. Looking now at Don’s tight unhappy face, Ian wondered if he should say something. He wasn’t exactly the best person to talk about relationships but at least he wasn’t in the middle of one and trying to fool himself that it didn’t exist.
“Look, if I tell Dad or Charlie then it becomes this thing,” Don said at last. “And then it all ends up a clusterfuck, like always.”
He rubbed his hands wearily across his face, the cost of every single one of his many clusterfucks showing.
Ian took the coffee pot over and gave him a refill.
Don kept his eyes fixed on his mug. “Only time it’s not gone wrong is with you.”
“That’s because I’m never here more than a few days.”
Don huffed what might have been a laugh. “Yeah, probably. Because if you were here… I don’t know. We’d most likely end up killing one another.”
“Because you don’t know how to back down, and I won’t.”
“Yeah.”
They were silent for a while.
“It’s been different this time,” Ian said at last, offhandedly.
“Yeah.”
Ian sipped at his coffee again.
Don finally unpeeled himself from the kitchen top. “I should go,” he said. “I said I’d give Dad a hand at the house today. There’s a spare key on the hook if you need one.”
Ian nodded. He’d been planning on spending the day walking the area that Charlie’s hot pocket analysis (damn it, Granger) had identified, getting the feel of the place, the hideouts and the ambush points and maybe getting a bead on Marriott. It was good to know he had somewhere to come back to.
**
It was a little after nine when Ian answered the knock on Don’s door. Granger was there, with that ever-present duffel over his shoulder. Would it kill Don to let him leave it here? Given their conversation this morning, yeah, Don probably thought that it would.
He let Colby in and noticed the way he immediately glanced around the apartment.
“Don’s not back yet,” he said.
Colby nodded, looking somewhat awkward and unsure of himself. It might be because for the first time they were alone together without Don, but Ian suspected it had more to do with the fact that it was Ian who’d been making himself at home in Don’s absence while Colby was treated like a visitor. Saying that Don had a few issues was akin to saying Charlie quite liked numbers.
Ian liked Granger. He’d thought he was a good man for Don to have on his team - being ex-military meant he didn’t shy away from mixing things up when necessary. That, his tendency to make smartass comments, and of course the whole spy thing had been all he’d known of him before the last few days. Now he could add to the list the fact that he was easy to be around, that something about him seemed to have worked its way under Don’s skin, and that he was delightfully slutty in bed. And also that having him there seemed to have changed the dynamic between Ian and Don in an unexpected way that Ian was still working on figuring out.
Determined to make the situation more natural than it felt right now, Ian sat back down in front of Discovery channel. Colby joined him, beers from the fridge in his hands, seemingly with the same intent.
“I love shark week,” he said, passing a bottle over to Ian as they settled to watch a tiger shark taking a seal apart with brutal efficiency.
“I wouldn’t mind going swimming with sharks sometime,” Ian offered.
Colby looked at him doubtfully. “I can see how that would work for you but I think anyone else would just get eaten. I think I’ll stick with dolphins. They’re friendly.”
“You know many dolphins?”
“Some days they’re out there in the surf,” Colby said. “Some days I just sit on the board and watch them playing.” He paused for a minute before gesturing with his beer as he spoke. “It’s quiet out there. Easy. Free. Brings everything back to basics, you know?”
And Ian did know. With their job, they needed something to do that, or the job would eat them alive. Colby obviously had his surfing and Ian had his wilderness, but he didn’t know what Don had to keep him balanced. Don could get pretty close to the edge at times. Ian did too, but he always knew exactly what he was doing. Don was another matter - it would be all too easy for him to fall.
“You ever take Don surfing?”
Colby looked surprised at the question. “Not really,” he said. “We’ve gone sometimes but I don’t think it’s really his thing. He likes it fine, but it - it’s a sport to him. Like baseball, he wants to be as good at it as he can be.”
“So what is it for you?”
Colby seemed to struggle to put it into words. “It reminds me there’s something bigger out there. I guess like Larry and his stars, you realise how things just keep on turning, regardless. Everything gets put in perspective. And when you catch that perfect wave, you can’t do anything except be in the moment.”
He flushed slightly and looked down, as if unused to sharing such private thoughts. Ian could understand that.
“Sounds like the way the backcountry is for me,” he said.
Colby nodded slightly, Ian thought as much in acknowledgement of his openness as what he had said.
“D’you ever get tired of moving round all the time?” Colby asked
“You mean do I want to settle down somewhere, have the daily commute to work and the standing order at the grocery store?”
Colby shrugged. “Some people like that.”
“Do you?”
Colby turned his bottle round in his hands as he considered the question. “I think maybe I do right now. After everything, it feels…”
He tailed off, apparently unable to find the words he wanted, but Ian thought he knew what Colby meant: he needed to know he was no longer down the rabbit hole where nothing and nobody had been what they seemed.
“How about you?” Colby asked a little abruptly. “Do you want that?”
Ian had been asked that question a lot over the years, but he didn’t usually answer it.
“I like the freedom,” he said after a moment, “But the hunt’s the reason why I do it. So long as that’s there, that beats any amount of settling down.”
Then he glanced at Colby and told him something he’d only just admitted to himself. “It might be nice to have a base, though.”
And at this rate, they were going to start braiding one another’s hair any minute now.
Taking a swig of beer, he steered back to less dangerous waters. “It’s good to visit civilisation occasionally - you get proper showers and don’t have to worry about waking up to find a moose sitting on you.”
“Does that happen to you often, the moose thing?” Colby asked.
“It’s been known.”
The door opened, and Don came in looking a little harried and glancing at his watch. He relaxed when he saw them both there, and then his face brightened as he saw what they were watching.
“Oh hey, sharks.”
He nudged Colby over towards Ian so he had room to sit down. The couch really was too small for three grown men, unless those three grown men were very familiar with one another.
“How was it?” Colby asked.
“Rib eye,” Don responded, as if that answered the question. Judging by Colby’s expression, it did.
Ian sat back on the couch, enjoying the warm solidity of Colby’s thigh pushed against his and remembering just how easily and eagerly those thighs had opened for him that morning when Ian had licked Colby’s nipple and then bitten down on it. Ian’s hand started to work its way up under Colby’s t-shirt, trying for the same effect again, this time running the edge of his nails over Colby’s nipple. Colby made a strangled sound and sure enough, his legs parted.
“Sharks,” Don said meaningfully, nodding towards the TV and for all the world sounding like a weary parent chiding naughty children. But Ian noticed that his hand was now on Colby’s thigh, his thumb digging into the muscle while his fingers were playing with the inseam of his jeans.
Ian pulled the front hem of Colby’s grey t-shirt up over his head and down his back, just far enough that his arms ended up restrained, while serendipitously baring his torso. Ian was nothing if not efficient. Given that Ian was unacquainted with mercy and that Don appeared unable to resist the temptation Ian had laid out next to him, Colby ended up helpless beneath their combined onslaught.
“One time, just once,” Colby got out in a series of gasps, “I’d really like not to be the antelope.”
“Sure Colb, whatever you say,” Don agreed, before his mouth covered Colby’s, swallowing whatever other crazed delirium might have emerged.
“Definitely slutty,” Ian said admiringly as he watched the way Colby, his arms still pinioned, offered up his body, mutely begging for anything they wanted to do to him. “I like it.”
Don murmured his agreement against Colby’s ear. And after that it wasn’t far to the floor where there was far more room than on that damned couch, and more than enough room to demonstrate to one another, and Colby, just how much they approved of his sluttiness.
“I think I’m getting too old for sex on the floor,” Don grumbled as he wandered in from the bathroom, naked and stretching his body carefully, one hand to his back.
Ian kneaded Don’s shoulders briefly, then flicked him on the ass. “Stop being so precious,” he said. “Granger’s the one who ended up with the rug burn.”
“I’m sure the skin will grow back. Eventually,” Colby put in on his way to the bathroom, toothbrush clutched in his hand.
“Yeah, but he enjoyed getting it.”
“And you enjoyed putting your back out from what I could tell.”
Don smirked as he got into that ridiculously-sized bed of his. “At least I didn’t do it for real this time.”
Ian grinned at the memory, even as he pulled the covers down and encouraged Don over onto his front. “That did spoil the mood a bit. Not to mention having to explain to the doc just how pretzeled up you’d been when it went.”
Don groaned as Ian’s hands started working on him, and then he laughed slightly. “Her face when she finally got it…”
“I thought Mitch was going to put his own back out he was laughing so hard.”
“Oh yeah, Mitchell,” Don said. “I’d forgotten he was with us. Damn, that was a good weekend.”
Ian nodded, and Don groaned again as Ian’s long fingers found the knots in his muscles that certainly hadn’t been put there by a bit of energetic sex. Probably down to that stressful team of his.
“Those were the days, when we were young and free,” Don sighed.
“Yes, granddad. Young and idiotic is how I remember it.”
“The point is, young,” Don said. He paused. “You ever wonder how we got to here?”
“I wonder how we’re both still breathing sometimes.”
“Oh yeah, yeah, that’s better.” Don wriggled happily under Ian’s ministrations. “Hey, you know what, you should stay on as a consultant in LA - I could do with your massage skills on call.”
Ian was finishing off now, long, slow sweeps over the smooth skin of Don’s back, and Don seemed to be melting under him.
“I’m not sure the Bureau would write off a masseur against your team budget; the professor was hard enough to get past the bean counters.”
“Yeah, but once they knew about your magic touch - Ow!” Don rolled over, rubbing his ass and glaring at Ian, who had just delivered a stinging slap.
“You pimping me out to accountants now, Eppes? You’re not exactly making it sound irresistible.”
Ian pulled the covers back to get in on his side of the forty-three acre bed, and that’s when he noticed Granger standing in the middle of the bedroom, looking uncertain. Just once, Ian would really like not to see that look on him. He held the covers open in invitation.
“You coming, Colby?” he asked.
Instead of climbing over Ian to get into the middle, where he’d slept every night so far, Colby slid onto the bed next to Ian, effectively forcing Ian over toward Don.
“Night,” Colby said firmly, and pretended to go to sleep.
Don was already more or less asleep for real, which left Ian stuck in the middle. Also, for the record, unlikely to get a single second of sleep with Don on one side beginning to snore softly because he’d fallen asleep on his back, and Colby’s shoulders forming a tense and unhappy line on his other side. He didn’t know what had upset Colby, though it was a safe bet it was Don - the man sabotaged his relationships like nobody else Ian had ever known.
Ian sighed as Don snuffled and then started snoring again and Colby tensed up even more. He’d never thought he’d long for the days of waking up to a moose crashing ass-first through the tent wall.
********
Author: TBA
Disclaimer: Author doesn't own the show or the characters and isn't making any profit.
Title: Theory and Application (Part 3)
Pairing: Don/Colby; Don/Ian; Don/Colby/Ian; a 'blink and you'll miss it' mention of past Don/Ian/OMC
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Summary: Solving bank robberies, tracking down fugitives, sleeping with a member of his team - it’s all in a day’s work for Don Eppes. So a visit from an old friend shouldn’t change anything, right?
Author's Note: A huge thanks you to my beta for her clear-sightedness and enthusiastic encouragement throughout the writing of this.
********
Colby had drawn the short straw and been sent on the beer run after work. By the time he turned up at Don’s apartment with a couple of six packs, Don had just finished changing the bedding and Ian was - Don hoped - choosing pizza from one of the frankly impressive number of takeout menus that Don had amassed.
“Changing the sheets, huh, Eppes?” Ian greeted Don as he entered the kitchen and put Colby’s beer in the fridge. “Think you’re gonna get lucky tonight?”
“I’m counting on it,” Don said with a grin.
“Really? And what makes you so sure?” Ian pressed him back against the counter, delivering teasing little kisses between his words.
“Pizza, beer - you’re a sure thing, Edgerton,” Don said, settling his hands on Ian’s hips and tugging him closer.
“Is that so?”
“Yup,” Don replied, lips busy on Ian’s neck. Maybe it wasn’t the best comeback in history but he was making up for it with the way his hands were tracing the muscles in Ian’s back in just the way he knew Ian liked.
Ian encouraged his head up and gave him a proper kiss, one that had him forgetting for an instant about pizza and beer and everything that wasn’t Ian’s mouth.
Then Ian pulled away with a smirk. “Dream on, Eppes,” he said. “Pizza and beer? You’re gonna have to do better than that.”
Turning away, he started leafing through the takeout menus.
“Vietnamese good with you, Granger?” he asked, and it was only then that Don noticed Colby was standing in the kitchen doorway. Standing in the kitchen doorway looking awkward, in fact; he was doing that thing he’d started doing for a while after the freighter, hunching in on himself as if pretending he wasn’t really there.
“Yeah, sure,” Colby said, and Ian promptly stuck a menu into Don’s hands.
“Majority decision,” he said. “You get it ordered while I take a shower.”
He waltzed out of the kitchen, delivering a swat to Colby’s ass on the way past. “Sort your boyfriend out, would you, Granger?” he said. “He thinks pizza counts as a meal.”
Don had forgotten how damn infuriating Edgerton could be.
“What d’you want, Colb?”
Colby came over to look at the menu Don was examining.
“I’ll go with the special, whatever it is,” he said.
His lack of enthusiasm made Don look up at him. This was food they were talking about.
“You okay?”
“Sure,” Colby said. “You want me to order?”
“It’s okay, I got it.”
After he’d placed the order - it would be half an hour, they reckoned - he grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and went to join Colby on the couch. Except Colby wasn’t on the couch. Glancing through, he could see Colby digging around in his duffel in the bedroom, so he shrugged, put the beer on the coffee table, kicked up his feet and channel surfed till he found something worth watching.
Ian came through a little later and sat down beside him, taking a beer with every appearance of satisfaction - a satisfaction which soon faded when he saw what Don was watching.
“Stargate Atlantis? Really?”
Don shrugged. “It annoys Charlie,” he said. “Apparently the wormhole physics are ‘entirely implausible’. And they get to fly spaceships and shoot aliens.”
“Well okay then.”
It was the commercial break before Don realised Colby hadn’t joined them. “You seen Colb?”
“Think he’s in the shower.”
“Huh.” Don checked his watch. If he wanted to shower before the food got here he’d better get a move on. Might actually save some water too if he joined Colby.
Sure enough, from the bedroom he could hear the hiss of the shower going, so he stripped off and walked into the bathroom, which was filling nicely with warm steam. Colby had his eyes shut against the water and Don watched him for a moment, seeing the economical moves with which he was rubbing the shower gel over himself, like it was a job to be done. He figured he could do better than that.
Colby jumped when Don stepped in next to him, elbows and shoulders knocking together in the really far too small shower - when he’d bought the apartment Don hadn’t thought to check out the shower to ensure it would easily fit two large FBI agents. That had obviously been an oversight on his part. The good part about it not being too big was that it meant they had to stand pretty damn close together, which made soaping up Colby easy as well as fun. He rubbed the gel in small circles, his fingers sliding over Colby’s slippery wet skin, and felt Colby slowly begin to relax. Huh. He hadn’t realised Colby’d been so tense. Obviously he’d had one of those days.
Once he was fully relaxed - most of him; one part of him was beginning to look a little far from relaxed - under Don’s hands, Colby returned the favour, taking his time and working with the care that had been lacking when he’d been washing himself earlier. By the time they turned off the shower and got dressed, dinner was just being delivered.
There might have been a bit of shoving over the cartons laid out on the counter, which may or may not have led to the junior agent on the scene sighing dramatically and threatening to put the senior agents in time out on the naughty step. Which would perhaps have been more effective if Ian hadn’t looked up with a glint in his eyes, wanting to know more about the naughty step because it sounded like fun.
And after they’d eaten and drunk and watched a documentary on F-22s because fighter jets were cool, Don leaned over to kiss first Colby and then Ian, and after that it didn’t really matter what was on the TV.
**
Don woke up with sunlight falling across his face, diffused by the blinds but bright enough to bring him out of the best night’s sleep he’d had in a while. He turned over to see Colby tucked into Ian’s side with Ian’s arm over him. It had seemed natural to put Colby in the middle again last night, just as he’d been earlier when Don had slid into his ass and Ian had fucked his mouth, though Don wasn’t sure quite why. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes. Maybe he and Ian needed a buffer between them at times.
Ian was awake now, and no matter how often it happened Don would never get used to how lightly he must sleep because he always came to within seconds of Don waking, even when Don tried not to move.
“Coffee?” Don said quietly, his voice rough with sleep.
“Sounds good,” Ian said and even Colby seemed to agree, stirring and mumbling something into his pillow as Don got out of bed and pulled on some sweats. Or maybe that was not so much the mention of coffee as it was whatever Ian was doing under the covers, because when Don came back through from the bathroom it was clear that Ian’s hands were busy and Colby was a lot more awake than he had been. Don smirked at the dazed look on Colby’s face and the slightly pleading gaze he turned on Don. He wasn’t without sympathy - having the full force of Edgerton’s attention when you were scarcely awake was not something to be wished on the faint-hearted - but as this time he wasn’t the victim for once, he intended to enjoy it.
He went into the kitchen and flicked the coffee machine on, but instead of waiting for it to complete its cycle he went straight back to the bedroom. It was just as well he did because he found Edgerton was now attacking Colby with a single-minded determination, one that Colby wasn’t objecting to in the least if the squirming going on under the covers and the way they were locked together at the mouth was any indication.
“Hey,” Don said in protest. Colby froze for an instant, but Ian looked up with a very self-satisfied expression - and Don knew that anybody who’d had Colby squirming like that underneath them would feel self-satisfied.
“Kind of got my hands full here, Don,” he said. “Maybe you could oblige.”
So Don pulled back the covers completely and oh yeah, that was better. He could see it all now: the long lines of Ian’s body, the strength in Ian as he held Colby who was turning himself inside out trying to move, to do something.
Don was getting hard and he pressed the heel of his hand against himself through the worn cotton of his sweats before sitting down on the couch which that suddenly not quite so stupid interior designer had insisted he had in his bedroom.
Being able to watch Edgerton fuck somebody, when that somebody wasn’t you and you didn’t have to concentrate on not flying apart, was a revelation. No matter how much Colby begged - and he was begging so fucking prettily right now - Ian did things his way, and in his own time, as focused and deadly in bed as he was with a gun. Don’s hand was inside his sweats, his cock hard and hot in his hand.
Finally, Edgerton pushed into Colby where he had him pinned down on his back. Colby gave a long drawn-out groan as Ian slid home fully. Ian’s cock moving into and out of Colby was nearly enough to bring Don off, let alone Colby who was making noises that Don knew meant he didn’t have long at all. His eyes were screwed closed, and Don couldn’t be sure but he thought he heard the choked-out sound of his name. He left his sweats in a pile on the floor and got onto the bed where he leaned down to kiss Colby. He knew that with Ian it sometimes felt like you were going to break into so many pieces that you’d never find them all again. Colby was almost too far gone to kiss back but he made a valiant effort, all need and heat and desperation, choked off little sounds ending up in Don’s mouth.
“I got you, Colb,” Don said, his hand soothing circles over Colby’s chest, and Colby came, helpless high pitched noises tearing themselves out of his throat.
Don was almost shaking with need as he knelt up, hand closing around himself, his eyes meeting Ian’s intent gaze as he went back to jerking himself off. He was aware Colby was still somehow trying to meet Ian’s thrusts and that Ian’s movements were becoming irregular as his eyes moved hungrily over Don. As Ian came, Don lost it all over Colby.
Once Ian had gotten rid of the condom - Don making a mental note that he really
needed to empty his trash can before the maid service next came - they lay in a sated heap on Don’s bed in silence for some time, Don’s fingers idly moving through the come on Colby’s chest, mixing his with Colby’s. Then he leaned over towards Ian, who met him halfway, and they kissed hard until it ended the same way as usual, with neither sure who had won.
Ian bent down and kissed Colby then, slow and easy. After that it was Don’s turn to roll tight against Colby and kiss him. Colby opened up straightaway for him, just as he always did, and Don lost himself exploring Colby’s mouth.
He had no idea how long they’d been kissing before he realised that Ian was gone. He put his head down on the pillow next to Colby, and let his eyes slowly close.
He came to some time later, with a familiar smell tickling at his nostrils. Colby was stirring too, and within seconds sat up with a speed Don didn’t normally associate with him and mornings.
“Is that bacon?” Colby asked.
Don’s mouth was watering. “Reckon so.”
And for what was possibly the first time ever, Colby was out of bed before Don.
“Shower,” Don said.
“Bacon,” Colby said.
“Shower first.”
He pushed Colby in the direction of the bathroom. It was like trying to move a warm, muscled, and reluctant brick wall. “Believe me, you’ll thank me. And don’t worry, I’ll save you some.”
Finally Colby gave in, and as he started on what was probably going to be the shortest shower in history, Don quickly washed, pulled on some jeans and went through to find Ian was cooking up a storm in the kitchen. There were eggs and grits and mushrooms and tomatoes and bacon and pancakes, and Don knew damn well that not one of these things had been in his apartment when they’d gone to bed.
He poured a coffee from the machine and sat down at the breakfast bar, giving a satisfied little groan as he sniffed the aroma coming from his mug. “Made a grocery run?”
Ian glanced up from the stove. “It’s a mystery to me how you’re not running the Bureau yet.”
“Hey, some of us still haven’t had coffee,” Don said. “Anyway, you might want to be polite seeing as I think you’re just about to get upgraded from legend to god.”
“Legend?”
“Didn’t you know? Colby ran your fan club out in Afghanistan. They had these cute little badges with your name on and slumber parties and everything.”
Ian looked delighted, not to mention proprietorial. “You mean I’ve got my very own groupie?”
“He’s not yours,” Don bit out before he knew what he was saying. And shit, where the hell had that come from?
He winced and raised his coffee mug in apology, more than a bit embarrassed. After subjecting Don to a searching look, Ian nodded and turned back to the stove.
It looked like Ian didn’t need to make any claim to Colby, Don thought, given the look of awe and delight on Colby’s face when he walked into the kitchen two minutes later to be handed a heart attack on a plate.
“You got plans for today?” Don asked once they’d all settled in the living room to eat. Don only had two stools at the breakfast bar, which he now thought possible grounds for action for discrimination against the kitchen fitters.
“Thought I might head down to the range,” Ian said. “I fancy a nice soothing day.”
Colby looked up briefly from his beloved bacon. “I’ve got laundry to do, and mail to pick up.”
And then his face brightened suddenly as if he was remembering something.
“Mail, huh?” Don asked. “Anything in particular?”
“No.” Colby dug his fork into his pancakes with ferocious concentration.
“Granger, how the hell do you survive undercover with a game face like that?” Ian wanted to know.
“So what is it?” Don pushed. “Another army doll?”
“I’m sorry, what?” It wasn’t often Ian Edgerton looked confused. Don treasured the moment.
“Army dolls,” he said with a nod in Colby’s direction. “He’s got a whole collection of them.”
“They’re military action figures,” Colby protested.
“Well okay then,” Ian said.
He waited a beat for Colby to relax again before asking, “You got any sniper dolls?”
Don smirked as Colby choked. He was so damn easy.
********
“Have you heard from Charlie?” Ian asked Don, grabbing them each a bottle of water from the fridge.
“I spoke to him this afternoon but he hasn’t got anything he’s ready to share with us yet. Nothing definite, he’s just really excited about another way he’s thought of approaching it all. Something to do with windmills, I think.” Don sounded about as confused as Ian felt.
“I guess we don’t have to understand it to use it.”
“I know, but I don’t understand why he gets so excited over it, almost compulsive, you know? I mean, it’s math. How exciting can it be?” Don frowned at his bottle as he twisted the top off.
“You’re asking the wrong person. But you know what it’s like, putting evidence together and knowing a picture’s emerging. Are you telling me you stop and go home when that happens, Eppes? Maybe the two of you are more alike than you know.”
“What are you, my shrink?”
“You’ve got a shrink now?”
“I live in LA. What do you think?”
Ian’s lips twitched briefly. Don really wasn’t as subtle at redirection as he liked to think. Or maybe he was, because he chose that moment to take a draught from his water bottle, putting the long line of his throat on display.
Ian moved forwards, into Don’s space, his hands resting lightly on the counter either side of Don.
“I think there are other forms of therapy,” he said, leaning into Don but not quite touching.
“Oh yeah?” Don’s lips were millimetres from his. “What did you have in mind?”
And that was all the invitation Ian needed, taking Don’s mouth in a kiss that had adrenaline pumping through him in seconds. They stumbled their way to the bedroom, leaving a mess of discarded clothes in their wake. It was hard and it was fast, just how it always was between them, but while Don might have won, Ian hadn’t exactly lost, not with Eppes fucking into him the way he did.
********
It was late evening by the time Colby got to Don’s. He hadn’t intended to be so tardy but there’d been a good swell running and it had been a while since he’d had a chance to get out there on his board. He’d also needed the peace that he found when out on the ocean, where there was space to think.
When Don had asked him about Ian joining them, he hadn’t realised that would mean that Edgerton would become a fixture for the entire time he was in LA. He also hadn’t expected that, far from Ian joining them, it would end up feeling like Colby was the one joining Don and Ian. Watching them teasing and kissing in the kitchen last night had made Colby only too aware of how effortlessly easy their relationship was, and how very different it was from the way things were between Colby and Don. Worse, it had made Colby realise how little there actually was between him and Don. Then there was the fact that when the two of them were together they seemed to operate on a whole different level of sexual intensity to the rest of the human race. Which was understandable, given they were Don Eppes and Ian Edgerton, but that didn’t really help Colby.
Sitting out on the water in the dying sun, Colby had thought that maybe he should just save himself any further humiliation and call it quits now. But he wasn’t quite ready to do that yet because he was a tad on the pathetic side and this was Don.
Don, who opened the door to him shirtless, in black jeans with the top button undone. He looked rumpled and satisfied, leaving no doubt at all in Colby’s mind what he’d spent at least part of the evening doing. With Edgerton, and without Colby. Colby’s heart plummeted but Don’s face lit with a smile and he pulled Colby in by the front of his shirt, closing the door behind him before pushing him against the wall. Don kissed him slow and deep, mapping his mouth as his hands were moving over Colby’s body, like he was reacquainting himself with it. He was loose-limbed and relaxed, and there was an openness there that Colby wasn’t used to. Right now he didn’t care even if it was due to Edgerton - Colby could definitely get used to Don being like this.
Don eventually drew back slightly to nip at his lips, before slowly pulling away entirely.
“You hungry?” he asked. “There’s leftovers if you want something.”
“Yeah, that’d be good.”
He kicked his duffel into the corner and followed Don to the kitchen, where he found him getting plates of what looked like real food out from the fridge. Jasmine rice, and chicken in sauce, and -
“What’s that green stuff?” Colby asked.
“Huh? You mean the broccoli?” Don looked adorably confused with his dishevelled sex-hair and his brow furrowed and goddamn Colby did not just think of adorable and Don Eppes in the same sentence.
“I dunno,” he said. “It looks like broccoli, but what’s it doing in your apartment?”
“Hey, I cook,” Don said.
“Sure,” Colby agreed absentmindedly, helping himself to a plate and starting to ladle out spoonfuls from the various dishes. “Not like this though.”
“Yeah, Edgerton got bored of shooting things, I think. I came back and he was doing this whole Masterchef routine.”
“Didn’t hear you complaining at the time.”
Colby looked up to find Ian leaning against the kitchen doorway with his arms crossed, highlighting the muscles in his arms and his bare chest. He too was wearing only a pair of jeans. Colby was beginning to approve of the dress code round here. He came over and kissed Colby hello, so thoroughly that Colby almost forgot to hold onto his plate.
They found a channel showing one of the Bourne movies, but while eating his seriously good impromptu meal, helping it down with wine from the bottle Don had opened, Colby couldn’t shake the feeling that he was an antelope that had been cut out from the herd and caught between two big cats. Two big cats who were currently lazing around, but never quite taking their eye off their prey. It wasn’t long after he’d finished his meal that he realised he was going to be dessert.
He tried to give as good as he got but he was outnumbered and outmanoeuvred and ended up pinned down between them on the couch, panting against Don’s neck as he came all over Ian’s hands.
They spent the rest of the evening in as relaxed a tangle as Don’s couch would allow. Colby was relieved to find that their closeness seemed to be smothering his earlier doubts.
********
Ian had somehow got last dibs on the shower on Sunday morning. That had the drawback of the bathroom already being a little steamy and soggy from its previous occupants but the benefit of being able to take as long as he liked and use every last drop of hot water if he wanted.
After amusing himself trying out the different settings on the showerhead - it had eight; Eppes could be a bit precious, though Ian had to admit the pulse massage was pretty awesome, meaning he soaped up all over again just to get the full benefit - he finally managed to pull himself away and went in search of coffee. Don and Colby were leaning against the counter in the kitchen, with Colby devouring a stack of toast. He pushed his plate over towards Ian in invitation when he saw him. Ian appreciated that for the sacrifice it was and took just the one piece to chew on while he poured himself a coffee.
Colby shoved the last pieces of toast into his mouth and turned to rinse out his mug in the sink.
“I’ve got to go,” he said, once his mouth was more or less empty. “I’ve got a ball game down the Center with David and some of the kids.” He looked over at Don. “See you at work tomorrow?”
“Come round later,” Don said. “I’ll be back here by nine.”
Colby ducked his head, but Ian was pretty sure he saw the hint of a pleased smile round his mouth as he picked up his duffel and left.
“You’ve got plans then?” Ian asked Don.
“Dad has me and Charlie and Amita round for dinner every Sunday to lecture us on marriage and grandkids.” Then he frowned. “That’s not fair,” he admitted. “The lecturing is a by-product. He just wants us to spend time together when there’s less chance I’ll get called away by work.”
“Granger doesn’t go along?”
“No.”
“Your dad - ”
“Dad’s fine with the whole thing about me liking guys. He just doesn’t need to know about this.”
Ian sipped at his coffee. He’d seen Don getting increasingly gun-shy when it came to relationships. He couldn’t really blame him given how disastrous his track record was, but he hadn’t realised how bad things had gotten. Looking now at Don’s tight unhappy face, Ian wondered if he should say something. He wasn’t exactly the best person to talk about relationships but at least he wasn’t in the middle of one and trying to fool himself that it didn’t exist.
“Look, if I tell Dad or Charlie then it becomes this thing,” Don said at last. “And then it all ends up a clusterfuck, like always.”
He rubbed his hands wearily across his face, the cost of every single one of his many clusterfucks showing.
Ian took the coffee pot over and gave him a refill.
Don kept his eyes fixed on his mug. “Only time it’s not gone wrong is with you.”
“That’s because I’m never here more than a few days.”
Don huffed what might have been a laugh. “Yeah, probably. Because if you were here… I don’t know. We’d most likely end up killing one another.”
“Because you don’t know how to back down, and I won’t.”
“Yeah.”
They were silent for a while.
“It’s been different this time,” Ian said at last, offhandedly.
“Yeah.”
Ian sipped at his coffee again.
Don finally unpeeled himself from the kitchen top. “I should go,” he said. “I said I’d give Dad a hand at the house today. There’s a spare key on the hook if you need one.”
Ian nodded. He’d been planning on spending the day walking the area that Charlie’s hot pocket analysis (damn it, Granger) had identified, getting the feel of the place, the hideouts and the ambush points and maybe getting a bead on Marriott. It was good to know he had somewhere to come back to.
**
It was a little after nine when Ian answered the knock on Don’s door. Granger was there, with that ever-present duffel over his shoulder. Would it kill Don to let him leave it here? Given their conversation this morning, yeah, Don probably thought that it would.
He let Colby in and noticed the way he immediately glanced around the apartment.
“Don’s not back yet,” he said.
Colby nodded, looking somewhat awkward and unsure of himself. It might be because for the first time they were alone together without Don, but Ian suspected it had more to do with the fact that it was Ian who’d been making himself at home in Don’s absence while Colby was treated like a visitor. Saying that Don had a few issues was akin to saying Charlie quite liked numbers.
Ian liked Granger. He’d thought he was a good man for Don to have on his team - being ex-military meant he didn’t shy away from mixing things up when necessary. That, his tendency to make smartass comments, and of course the whole spy thing had been all he’d known of him before the last few days. Now he could add to the list the fact that he was easy to be around, that something about him seemed to have worked its way under Don’s skin, and that he was delightfully slutty in bed. And also that having him there seemed to have changed the dynamic between Ian and Don in an unexpected way that Ian was still working on figuring out.
Determined to make the situation more natural than it felt right now, Ian sat back down in front of Discovery channel. Colby joined him, beers from the fridge in his hands, seemingly with the same intent.
“I love shark week,” he said, passing a bottle over to Ian as they settled to watch a tiger shark taking a seal apart with brutal efficiency.
“I wouldn’t mind going swimming with sharks sometime,” Ian offered.
Colby looked at him doubtfully. “I can see how that would work for you but I think anyone else would just get eaten. I think I’ll stick with dolphins. They’re friendly.”
“You know many dolphins?”
“Some days they’re out there in the surf,” Colby said. “Some days I just sit on the board and watch them playing.” He paused for a minute before gesturing with his beer as he spoke. “It’s quiet out there. Easy. Free. Brings everything back to basics, you know?”
And Ian did know. With their job, they needed something to do that, or the job would eat them alive. Colby obviously had his surfing and Ian had his wilderness, but he didn’t know what Don had to keep him balanced. Don could get pretty close to the edge at times. Ian did too, but he always knew exactly what he was doing. Don was another matter - it would be all too easy for him to fall.
“You ever take Don surfing?”
Colby looked surprised at the question. “Not really,” he said. “We’ve gone sometimes but I don’t think it’s really his thing. He likes it fine, but it - it’s a sport to him. Like baseball, he wants to be as good at it as he can be.”
“So what is it for you?”
Colby seemed to struggle to put it into words. “It reminds me there’s something bigger out there. I guess like Larry and his stars, you realise how things just keep on turning, regardless. Everything gets put in perspective. And when you catch that perfect wave, you can’t do anything except be in the moment.”
He flushed slightly and looked down, as if unused to sharing such private thoughts. Ian could understand that.
“Sounds like the way the backcountry is for me,” he said.
Colby nodded slightly, Ian thought as much in acknowledgement of his openness as what he had said.
“D’you ever get tired of moving round all the time?” Colby asked
“You mean do I want to settle down somewhere, have the daily commute to work and the standing order at the grocery store?”
Colby shrugged. “Some people like that.”
“Do you?”
Colby turned his bottle round in his hands as he considered the question. “I think maybe I do right now. After everything, it feels…”
He tailed off, apparently unable to find the words he wanted, but Ian thought he knew what Colby meant: he needed to know he was no longer down the rabbit hole where nothing and nobody had been what they seemed.
“How about you?” Colby asked a little abruptly. “Do you want that?”
Ian had been asked that question a lot over the years, but he didn’t usually answer it.
“I like the freedom,” he said after a moment, “But the hunt’s the reason why I do it. So long as that’s there, that beats any amount of settling down.”
Then he glanced at Colby and told him something he’d only just admitted to himself. “It might be nice to have a base, though.”
And at this rate, they were going to start braiding one another’s hair any minute now.
Taking a swig of beer, he steered back to less dangerous waters. “It’s good to visit civilisation occasionally - you get proper showers and don’t have to worry about waking up to find a moose sitting on you.”
“Does that happen to you often, the moose thing?” Colby asked.
“It’s been known.”
The door opened, and Don came in looking a little harried and glancing at his watch. He relaxed when he saw them both there, and then his face brightened as he saw what they were watching.
“Oh hey, sharks.”
He nudged Colby over towards Ian so he had room to sit down. The couch really was too small for three grown men, unless those three grown men were very familiar with one another.
“How was it?” Colby asked.
“Rib eye,” Don responded, as if that answered the question. Judging by Colby’s expression, it did.
Ian sat back on the couch, enjoying the warm solidity of Colby’s thigh pushed against his and remembering just how easily and eagerly those thighs had opened for him that morning when Ian had licked Colby’s nipple and then bitten down on it. Ian’s hand started to work its way up under Colby’s t-shirt, trying for the same effect again, this time running the edge of his nails over Colby’s nipple. Colby made a strangled sound and sure enough, his legs parted.
“Sharks,” Don said meaningfully, nodding towards the TV and for all the world sounding like a weary parent chiding naughty children. But Ian noticed that his hand was now on Colby’s thigh, his thumb digging into the muscle while his fingers were playing with the inseam of his jeans.
Ian pulled the front hem of Colby’s grey t-shirt up over his head and down his back, just far enough that his arms ended up restrained, while serendipitously baring his torso. Ian was nothing if not efficient. Given that Ian was unacquainted with mercy and that Don appeared unable to resist the temptation Ian had laid out next to him, Colby ended up helpless beneath their combined onslaught.
“One time, just once,” Colby got out in a series of gasps, “I’d really like not to be the antelope.”
“Sure Colb, whatever you say,” Don agreed, before his mouth covered Colby’s, swallowing whatever other crazed delirium might have emerged.
“Definitely slutty,” Ian said admiringly as he watched the way Colby, his arms still pinioned, offered up his body, mutely begging for anything they wanted to do to him. “I like it.”
Don murmured his agreement against Colby’s ear. And after that it wasn’t far to the floor where there was far more room than on that damned couch, and more than enough room to demonstrate to one another, and Colby, just how much they approved of his sluttiness.
“I think I’m getting too old for sex on the floor,” Don grumbled as he wandered in from the bathroom, naked and stretching his body carefully, one hand to his back.
Ian kneaded Don’s shoulders briefly, then flicked him on the ass. “Stop being so precious,” he said. “Granger’s the one who ended up with the rug burn.”
“I’m sure the skin will grow back. Eventually,” Colby put in on his way to the bathroom, toothbrush clutched in his hand.
“Yeah, but he enjoyed getting it.”
“And you enjoyed putting your back out from what I could tell.”
Don smirked as he got into that ridiculously-sized bed of his. “At least I didn’t do it for real this time.”
Ian grinned at the memory, even as he pulled the covers down and encouraged Don over onto his front. “That did spoil the mood a bit. Not to mention having to explain to the doc just how pretzeled up you’d been when it went.”
Don groaned as Ian’s hands started working on him, and then he laughed slightly. “Her face when she finally got it…”
“I thought Mitch was going to put his own back out he was laughing so hard.”
“Oh yeah, Mitchell,” Don said. “I’d forgotten he was with us. Damn, that was a good weekend.”
Ian nodded, and Don groaned again as Ian’s long fingers found the knots in his muscles that certainly hadn’t been put there by a bit of energetic sex. Probably down to that stressful team of his.
“Those were the days, when we were young and free,” Don sighed.
“Yes, granddad. Young and idiotic is how I remember it.”
“The point is, young,” Don said. He paused. “You ever wonder how we got to here?”
“I wonder how we’re both still breathing sometimes.”
“Oh yeah, yeah, that’s better.” Don wriggled happily under Ian’s ministrations. “Hey, you know what, you should stay on as a consultant in LA - I could do with your massage skills on call.”
Ian was finishing off now, long, slow sweeps over the smooth skin of Don’s back, and Don seemed to be melting under him.
“I’m not sure the Bureau would write off a masseur against your team budget; the professor was hard enough to get past the bean counters.”
“Yeah, but once they knew about your magic touch - Ow!” Don rolled over, rubbing his ass and glaring at Ian, who had just delivered a stinging slap.
“You pimping me out to accountants now, Eppes? You’re not exactly making it sound irresistible.”
Ian pulled the covers back to get in on his side of the forty-three acre bed, and that’s when he noticed Granger standing in the middle of the bedroom, looking uncertain. Just once, Ian would really like not to see that look on him. He held the covers open in invitation.
“You coming, Colby?” he asked.
Instead of climbing over Ian to get into the middle, where he’d slept every night so far, Colby slid onto the bed next to Ian, effectively forcing Ian over toward Don.
“Night,” Colby said firmly, and pretended to go to sleep.
Don was already more or less asleep for real, which left Ian stuck in the middle. Also, for the record, unlikely to get a single second of sleep with Don on one side beginning to snore softly because he’d fallen asleep on his back, and Colby’s shoulders forming a tense and unhappy line on his other side. He didn’t know what had upset Colby, though it was a safe bet it was Don - the man sabotaged his relationships like nobody else Ian had ever known.
Ian sighed as Don snuffled and then started snoring again and Colby tensed up even more. He’d never thought he’d long for the days of waking up to a moose crashing ass-first through the tent wall.
********