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Lincoln had a big problem – literally and quite figuratively. He was in love with Mack and was sure the other man didn't feel the same, especially since he still didn't really like Inhumans too much. How could Mack ever love him too? So he kept quiet about it and pretended like he wasn't falling apart at the seams. The others working at the Playground kept asking him what was wrong but he continually waved off their concerns because he figured he could handle it on his own.

Then Skye cornered him one day in the hallway. "Shouldn't you be off doing fire-y earthquake things with Ward?" he deflected.

Skye rolled her eyes at him. "This isn't about me, Lincoln. It's about you and how you're madly in love with Mack."

Lincoln's mouth dropped open. "I don't know what you're talking about. Madly in love? Madly in love? I don't think so. You have no idea what you're talking about."

She tapped her foot on the floor. "I think I do. You're head over heels in love with him and the only one who doesn't see it is the other idiot in love with you. You're a fucking doctor, Lincoln. Tell him the truth already."

"He's in love with me?" Lincoln couldn't believe that.

Skye blew out a breath. "Why am I surrounded by idiots?" she moaned dramatically. "Yes. Get with the program, Campbell."

"You know he doesn't like Inhumans too much," he tried.

She looked down at the floor and started mumbling to herself. "Why me?"

"Skye!"

"Lincoln, you must not have been paying too much attention lately since you've been in a state of panic, which understandable, but we're all sick of this. Do we have to lock you in a closet? Weirdly enough, it worked for May and Coulson and now those images have traumatized me forever because they're seared in my brain."

"Skye, focus," Lincoln snapped.

Skye laughed. "Sorry. You should see the look on your face right now. Go be with the man you love and have lots of wild electric sex, Sparkichu."

"I told you not to call me that," he whined just as she started to depart. Lincoln took a deep breath and tried to go over the pros and cons of revealing his feelings for Mack but found his mind couldn't focus. "Maybe I should do this." He shuffled his feet for a few seconds before heading to the garage to find him.

Fitz scurried away as soon as Lincoln entered, and he wondered if Skye had texted him about this or anything. He wouldn't put it past her. "Hey, Sparky. You okay? You look a little pale." A concerned Mack tried to check him over despite Lincoln's protests.

"There's nothing wrong. I'm just here because I want to be." He cringed at the nervous laugh that came from him. Lincoln really needed to stop blowing this.

"Okay… You up to helping me or is there a specific reason you're here?" Mack was panicking a little because he didn't like the look on Lincoln's face. The other man should never look this worried because that meant some bad shit was about to go down.

"There's a specific reason. I'm just working my way up to it."

"Well, tell me whenever you're ready." Then Mack went back to working and Lincoln tried to pretend like he wasn't admiring his ass. Shit, had he always been this obvious? No wonder everyone else already knew.

Lincoln decided to go for it and if Skye was wrong, he'd make sure she knew about it in great detail. "I'm in love with you. What about you?" The hell was the matter with him? Why had he plunged ahead like that? And were his palms sweating? He was not a teenage boy, damn it.

Mack dropped the wrench in his hand and grinned. "What about me? Lincoln, I've been in love with you for a long time and was just waiting for you to catch up to your own feelings."

He did a double take at that as a grin widened his face. "Wait, really?"

"Really. Now you going to kiss me or what?"

Lincoln couldn't wipe the smile off his face and he grabbed Mack's shirt to pull him in for a kiss. "We're going to have to send Skye some chocolate or something," he muttered when they pulled apart.

He snorted. "She's never going to let us live this down, is she? She'll hound us about this once she stops squealing."

"We really need to get back at her and Ward one of these days. She has some nerve talking about walking in on Coulson and May having sex."

"Lincoln, I don't know about you but I don't want to talk about them right now. I want to go back to kissing you."

"Same here." Lincoln leaned in for another kiss and they only pulled apart when another agent walked in to check on something. "I didn't think I could ever be as happy as I am right now," he admitted.

"I know what you mean." Mack felt like a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders and he really couldn't wait to tell the others about their relationship (he expected a lot of taunting but that was nothing new from this group of people).

After Mack finished up with whatever he was doing (and Lincoln unabashedly continued to check out his boyfriend's – holy fuck, his boyfriend – ass), the new couple walked into the kitchen hand in hand.

Skye was the only one in there and she nearly dropped her coffee cup when she saw them. As predicted, she squealed, nearly bursting their eardrums, and then ran to hug them. "It's about time you two finally pulled your heads out of your asses. And Jemma will be pleased that she won the pool."

Lincoln threw his hands up in the air. "Why am I even surprised at this point? It's all any of you do."

"Lincoln, you're part of a few bets," an amused Skye pointed out.

Mack laughed. "She's got you there."

"You're supposed to defend me," Lincoln grumbled but they could all tell he wasn't actually mad about it.

"Sorry."

Word spread like wildfire throughout the base and everyone knew about Mack and Lincoln's relationship within three hours. And Jemma didn't even look the least bit guilty taking her money off Lance's hands when she got called out for betting on the pool.