My FIRST West Wing fic. So review or I'll never do it again!
Story set shortly after the beginning of the Bartlett administration (pre-series).
Sam smiles out the window at the dark blue sky. The sun hasn't quite come up yet, and he's glad. When it does, it will be time to jump out of bed and shower and read the Post and skim the Times and cease thinking romantic, contemplative thoughts.
Because that is what he is doing, make no mistake about it, thinking all the thoughts that live in the back of his head and his lymph nodes and behind his right ear and wherever else they get tucked away during the day. Thoughts about how glad he is they never had to deal with awkward almost-there stages or worry about what to do when (when school's over, when the campaign ends, when one of us gets a job offer somewhere far away) or secretly be afraid the relationship would never survive the pressure of his high-profile job with insanely long hours. Because they naturally fall in step with each other, and have since they became friends during Sam's pre-law-school internship, and have similarly stressful jobs and a million other coincidences that had no right to happen.
But, really, he thinks, it's not just circumstance. CJ and Danny work together and have no school/campaign/work baggage and live in the same city and God only knows how long it's going to take them to get together. The thing, he decides, is that he and Josh are both fixers. Josh wanted Sam to move to DC after law school, so he found someone worth believing in so Sam didn't have to taint himself with "dirty, useless political maneuvering". Sam wanted to be a part of achieving what Josh believed in, so he left with Josh after only nine months with Gage Whitney. After that night, Sam never wanted to leave Josh's side for a moment, so he always booked them a single room with two (easily pushed together) beds on the campaign trail. Josh couldn't stand the idea of being far away from Sam after the closeness of the trail, so he found and refused to leave an office closer to the communications bullpen than Leo's office. They work later than even the press and the assistants, so they can walk back to Josh's apartment (or maybe drive to Sam's) and even hold hands when the weather isn't bitterly cold. They fix it, make it all work out, because all the laws of gravity dictate that arms go around waists and lips meet necks and ears before latching onto each other.
Of course he'd have liked to be able to kiss Josh when the last cabinet member got confirmed. He'd love to be able to move in together, to dance together at all those stupid fancy fundraisers, to get heckled by CJ and Leo and President Bartlett. They'd be supportive, he knows they would. But the entire idea terrifies Josh, who alternates between thinking it will marginalize them to thinking it will lose them their entire lives. So instead he doesn't mention it, tries not to fantasize about it, and makes a point to wake up twenty minutes before the alarm goes off so he can count his blessings before he has to count the flaws in the President's next address.
Sam smiles again, and lightly runs his fingers over Josh's stomach, careful not to wake him. He needs these minutes, just like Josh needs the time before he falls asleep, after he thinks his lover has drifted off. Morning talk radio breaks the silence and Josh burrows deeper into Sam's arms. He leans over and whispers in the older man's ear, "Wake up, sleepyhead. It's time to fix the world."