A/N: Born from my utter obsession with these two beautiful guys, and their touching story. I still cry everytime I watch this episode.
Just wanted to make a small note - I was hugely inspired to write this after reading the two Jimmy/Coop oneshots written by dress-without-sleeves. I hope the similarities between our stories are taken rather as a compliment than an insult, her words just really reached me, and were stuck with me for hours afterwards. Please, if any Jimmy/Coop fan has yet to read her stories I advise you to, they are simply wonderful.
A F F E C T I O N For Dress-Without-Sleeves, Brian Hallisay and Shane Johnson
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"You wanna come over? I thought you were going on a date, Coop?"
What would be the point, thought Coop rather bitterly to himself. Those women didn't mean anything, their companionship was all well and good he supposed, but they weren't tall with chestnut brown hair and piercing blue eyes that saw right into his soul.
They weren't Jimmy Bruno.
Coop smiled gently and shook his head of fair blond hair,
"I'd much rather eat your wife's cooking," he said with a cheeky grin plastered on his face.
Jimmy laughed, his azure eyes lighting up in amusement at his partner's ever forward and honest manner.
Coop felt a weight in his heart, one not at all unfamiliar, and wished to God it would go away. The longing to reach out and touch Jimmy's fair skin was almost unbearable.
It wasn't as though Coop lacked contact with his partner, they were together almost everyday, working together to fight that never ending battle against the wrong in the world. Sometimes their hands would brush over stacks of paperwork, or in the heat of the moment during a bust, and Coop would tremble.
And there was those other moments of interaction, arms around shoulders and slaps on the back, gentle punches on the arm as they fell about laughing and sloshing rich foamy beer across the floor, in that manly way that men often did.
But what Coop really wanted – craved – was affection. Just one affectionate touch, from the man who had stolen his heart. Coop knew for certain it was stolen; the only time it ever truly beat was in the presence of that one person. It raced and leapt and ached; ached so much that some days Coop wondered if it would be less painful to just cut it out.
Just. One. Touch.
"Coop? Buddy, you alright?"
He blinked his heavy lidded eyes, and registered his partner's gentle voice, asking him with a heartwarming concern.
Coop looked up into Jimmy's eyes and smiled with all the conviction he could muster,
"Of course! Come on, don't we got shins to bust?"
He pulled his gaze away from those worried eyes that he could drown in, and hit the gas, wondering when he'd started losing himself in his daydreams.
Probably when I handed over my heart and forgot to mention it, thought Coop, suppressing a self-mocking laugh.
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Coop couldn't remember the last time he'd been so damn angry. It was as though the whole world had turned to white noise, and all that was left was Jimmy's beautiful blue eye, and his own white knuckled fist. Before he even knew, his clenched and shaking hand was colliding with the object of his hatred and affection.
Jimmy fell backwards from his chair, and somehow through the rage Coop knew his eye was going to bruise. And then he pulled back his arm and punched him again, to make sure it did.
"You're right, that was fun," Coop spat angrily.
He barely heard the muffled "Go to hell" escape Jimmy's lips, before he'd leapt up and was wrestling with his partner.
Coop could feel his own heavy breathing, lungs crying for oxygen, gasping for air, choking on all the words stuck in his throat; words like "You fucking bastard, I love you", and any number of contradicting shit that meant nothing and everything.
He could feel Jimmy's strong arms pushing at him, feel the cold sweat on his skin, and felt his ragged breath ghost along his own flesh.
That fine line between sex and violence became so blurred by Coop's desire that he couldn't remember for the life of him what side he was on anymore.
Maybe that was why, when they pushed apart roughly moments later, Coop gulped in two, three, breaths of cold air, and then before the adrenaline could even begin to subside, walked forward and pulled Jimmy into a kiss.
It was only seconds, but it felt like an eternity. The feel of Jimmy's warm, soft lips on his own was like ecstasy. It was a rough and desperate kiss, bruising and full of all the longing Coop had held in that past year; that long and torturous year.
And as roughly as it had begun, it was broken.
Jimmy's face was a slide show of emotion, his eyes always slightly shocked and uncomprehending. His hands shook by his side, his lips still tingling from the contact.
Then suddenly he was stepping forward, wrapping his trembling fingers around Coop's neck, his body pressed close, his lips finding his partners again.
And there it was, that touch, that affection, this sweet and beautiful kiss that was everything Coop had only dared dream of. Coop released the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
That one moment, frozen in time; Coop wished the clock would never tick again. His fingers fisted into his partners shirt as he savored every taste and touch, barely acknowledging that desperately needy act, and caring even less. This was everything he'd wanted, more perfect than he'd dared imagine, and he knew in his heart it would never be like this again.