Day 9a: Hanging out with friends.

Sebastian was… surprised by the email. A pair of his old army buddies were back in London for a couple of nights and wanted to meet up for drinks. It would be nice, to get away from the job and catch up with his old friends. He just didn't know how to tell Jim that he'd already said he would go. A few years ago the idea of asking permission to meet his friends would have pissed him off but by now he was used to it. Jim was, and would always be, possessive. He liked keeping Sebastian close and was unashamed of it. So Sebastian was even more surprised, and pleasantly so, when Jim merely enquired as to where he was going and waved him off with an agreeable hum.

In hindsight he should have seen it coming.

Sebastian had had enough to drink that he was pleasantly tipsy, knowing better than to drink anymore. Jim got pissy if he was drunk, something about not being any use if he wasn't in control of himself. When the door to the pub opened and Jim strolled in wearing indecently tight jeans and a thin tshirt he thought, for a moment, that he'd had more to drink than he'd thought. There was no way Jim was in the pub, dressed more casually than he'd ever seen him- excepting one job that he wasn't supposed to talk about.

"Sebby!" Jim sounded surprised and delighted to see him but Sebastian knew that smirk. He was planning something. "When you said that you were abandoning me for a drink I didn't realise you were going to have company. I do hope you weren't going to come home drunk." Sebastian didn't have to look up to see Matt and Luke's raised eyebrows. The sniper sighed and was about to reach over and pull up a chair when Jim dropped unceremoniously into his lap and leaned against his chest.

"What're you doing here?" Sebastian asked in a hushed whisper, hands coming up to balance the criminal as he shifted to get comfortable. He couldn't push him off, not unless he wanted to wake up with a certain part of his anatomy missing. The Irishman hummed, taking Sebastian's hand in both of his own, playing with his fingers and doodling on his palm as if it was something he did every day.

"I came to find you, tiger." Jim said lightly, "Had to make sure nobody is going to steal you away. Aren't you going to introduce me?" He was acting innocent and cutesy, the possessiveness hidden just below the surface in his tone. Sebastian rolled his eyes in annoyance, pinning one of Jim's hands to his thigh.

"Fine, Jim this is Matt and Luke. We served together in the army. Matt, Luke, this is Jim. He's my… boss." There was a moment's hesitation before the last word, Sebastian honestly had no fucking clue how to describe their relationship any more. Apparently boss was a bad choice of word as Matt's eyebrows shot into his hairline.

"Your boss." The scepticism was flooding off Luke in waves. He opened his mouth to protest that Jim didn't usually act like this but a delighted giggle broke the silence.

"Well… sometimes. Sometimes I let Sebby boss me around." Jim ducked his head slightly, giving the sniper a coy look from under his eyelashes. There was genuine amusement dancing under the surface and Sebastian longed to smack it away.

With a hard squeeze to his hand, Sebastian leaned in, breath ghosting across Jim's ear as he whispered. "How about you let me boss you around and shut the fuck up." A shiver ran down Jim's spine- probably unnoticeable if he wasn't curled against Sebastian- and he stiffened, moving to stand up. "C'mon kitten." Sebastian drawled, enjoying himself now he'd found the upper hand. "I thought you wanted to meet my friends."

There was a note of challenge in his voice, he was playing against Jim's refusal to lose and they both knew it. There was a moment where Jim was obviously contemplating his options before he settled back down in a surprisingly submissive way, nuzzling into the sniper's neck. "You're a dead man, Moran."

Sebastian just laughed, tracing idle patterns into Jim's thigh as he turned back to the conversation. Oh, this could be so much fun.