A/N: Challenge ficlet for the Sentinelthurs community on LJ with the topic: "Your mother is a very attractive woman, Sandburg."
Un-scene after "Spare Parts"

Life after Naomi
By Dany
PG-13

It was quiet in the loft; no TV, no radio, no dishwasher running – nothing but the quiet breathing of the two figures on the king-size mattress in the upstairs bedroom and the slight rustling of the sheets every time one of them moved. Which was not often, since neither of them was in any way inclined to change their entwined positions.

Jim let out a barely audible sigh and stroked his fingers through the dark curls currently resting on his chest. Nothing like basking in the afterglow of a first-time lovemaking, and boy, had this been a different kind of first time! Sex with a man! With Blair!

It had been incredible.

And it had taken a visit from Naomi Sandburg to not only finally acknowledge his feelings for his Guide but also to act on them. A grin began at the corners of his mouth when he thought back to the exchange he'd had with Blair about his mother's sleeping arrangements.

"So now that your mom's taking over your bed, where are you gonna sleep?"

"I dunno; couch, air mattress, bathtub…"

"The couch's way too lumpy to sleep on and we have neither an air mattress nor a bathtub, Sandburg."

"I don't know, man. I…I'll throw a few sleeping bags on the floor, then."

"Look, I've been thinking…since this is only for three days, you can stay upstairs with me. The bed's wide enough."

"I don't know, Jim. That's kinda weird, man…"

"Better than the floor. Long as you stay on your side and don't grope me in the middle of the night and call me Sandra or Alice or whoever."

Blair had dutifully chuckled and accepted his proposal. They had indeed stayed on their respective sides of the bed that first night and it had passed without incident. The second night Jim had awoken to find that Blair, still deep in slumber, had rolled towards the middle of the bed and was facing him. The faint moonlight from the skylight illuminated the left side of his face and he looked so beautiful and peaceful in sleep that Jim couldn't take his eyes off him. So he didn't; he simply lay there watching Blair until the younger man rolled over onto his other side again and even then Jim spent a few more minutes looking at the back of the curly-haired head until sleep finally claimed him again.

So when Blair's arm came around him in the middle of the third night, Jim didn't push him away; instead he wound his fingers through Blair's and pulled him closer, relishing the warmth and comfort of that solid body pressed up against him.

Dawn had found them wrapped in each other's arms and when they awoke, neither man moved for a long moment. When they finally did break their embrace, however, it wasn't to put distance between them. Thinking back on it, Jim really couldn't remember who kissed who first; all he remembered was that dark head coming closer, those heated blue eyes gazing at him and then those incredibly soft lips on his.

The moment was broken by the sound of Naomi rummaging around the kitchen in obvious preparation of breakfast.

Just before he reluctantly disentangled himself to join his mother downstairs, Blair had run his fingertips down the side of Jim's face. "Are we going to talk about this later?"

Jim had nodded solemnly and right after they had seen Naomi off at the airport on her way to her spiritual retreat, they had made a retreat of their own, namely right back to the loft. The subsequent talk was awkward at first but honest and feelings were laid out in the open neither man had known existed in the other. Talking had led to kissing and kissing had led to a night that ended in the sated, happy lethargy they presently found themselves with.

And Jim didn't regret a single minute of it.

"You know, you actually had me worried there for a moment yesterday."

Yanked out of his mental reverie by Blair's sudden voice, Jim was slow to catch on. "Huh?"

The head on his chest lifted, then turned, and Blair's eyes fixed him like twin blue lasers. "You kissed my mother, Jim."

"It was a peck on the cheek. I was grateful for her help in the case, that's all."

"That's all?"

"Hey, don't get me wrong; your mother is a very attractive woman, Sandburg, but I hope that I've proved to you last night who it is I'm really interested in."

"Yeah, about that…" Blair's fingers were moving across Jim's stomach and his eyes sparkled with mirth. "And I so can't believe I have my mother to thank for this."

"Well, you can thank her from me, too." Jim grinned and pulled his new lover up and closer towards him. "Later." He mumbled against his lips before he proceeded to kiss him thoroughly and with abandon and from the way Blair eagerly responded to him, the anthropologist seemed in no hurry to leave their bed to make any kind of phone call; neither to his mother nor to anyone else.

THE END