authors note: originally written and posted on AO3 on June 27th 2016.
Brackish Okun had only been awake for a few hours and he would not stay put. It didn't matter how much Milton Issacs had begged for him to at least wait for the medical team to get a better look at him, he simply did not want to stay put. He at least stopped for a minute to put on some pants—grumbling about how Milton failed to tell him that his butt was hanging out earlier. There was so much that he had missed! So much to get caught up on!
It wasn't exactly a mystery why Brackish had failed to even notice his lack of clothing.
Once his partner was in his khaki brown slacks, suspenders and lab coat, Milton felt his heart flutter. Even if his hair was more white and wrinkles decorated his face, Brackish had looked just like he did before the War of '96. It was kind of unfair how age didn't effect him as much as it did Milton, who was noticeably fatter and balding as his lover had pointed out. He apparently still looked good though.
Milton let out a content sigh as he smoothed out the wrinkles in the front of the pristine lab coat that Brackish wore. A smile appeared on Milton's lips as he listened to Brackish go on and on about how excited he was to see the rapid advance in technology and that he couldn't wait to see more.
"I just wish that I could've seen the beginnings of it! Maybe even work on integrating it into our own technology—gosh, it must've been incredible!" Brackish said excitedly, words running together as his jittering hands slid on the wool scarf that was made just for him.
The other man hummed in delight that his partner had decided to keep wearing the scarf. He still worried that the wool would itch and scratch Brackish's neck, but there weren't any signs of it being irritating. Unless he was too excited to notice how irritating the brown wool was against his skin, which Milton had now considered a likely possibility, since Brackish didn't seem to notice the breeze against his bare back earlier.
"What else have I missed?!" Brackish said, his hands grabbing onto Milton's before squeezing them tight. "Baby, I've been gone for twenty years! Alien guns and intricate space travel can't be the only things!
Milton blinked, a million things that had happened in the last twenty years ran through his mind. Where to even start? "Well. They made three more Jurassic Park movies." He said jokingly, a wide yet closed mouth smile appearing on his face. That was apparently enough to send Brackish in another excited frenzy, though to be fair, that was his default setting. Milton would've been worried if he wasn't at least a little excited. "We'll have to watch them when this is all over."
"Of course!" Brackish brought Milton's hands closer to his smiling face, pressing a light kiss onto his lover's knuckle. "Anything else that's huge?"
Milton's hands squeezed Brackish's as a thought came to mind. He swallowed, eyes flickering from Brackish's shining ones to the tile floor below them; should he bring it up?
Well, there wasn't any reason to not bring it up...
"...We can get married now." He said, voice trembling as his grip grew tighter and tighter. His heart pounded in his chest, both drowning out and somehow adding to the silence that fell between them in the room. Was that too much? Was it too soon? The other did just wake up...
Brackish lowered their hands so that they weren't in the way of his face and smiled. "Well, we better kick some serious alien ass so we can get this marriage on the road!"
Warmth filled the sterile hospital room as they stood in place for just one more minute, basking in possibly the last quiet moment they'd have together during the attack. They both had another reason to work their hardest to ensure the world's and their survival.
