Written for the Secret Santa exchange on Discord
A spalsh of colour
Taking a vacation was a foreign concept for Sledge. He was a hard working man and when he wasn't being deployed, he was at the base training, running drills for the recruits, or filling up paperwork and finishing reports. Sledge was accustomed to juggle his personal life with work. This precarious equilibrium worked because Maestro was the same as him and probably, because they worked for the same organization too. The notion of having a relationship with a civilian was laughable on so many levels, but the most important reason he couldn't picture such scenario was that Sledge didn't want to imagine his life without Maestro being an important part of it.
The problem with vacations was that when somebody got so much free time, they didn't know what to do with it. At first it had been a blessing, true. It came as a surprise when Six called Sledge to her office, to inform him he was long overdue for some rest. He had two weeks' worth of vacations yet to use, alongside with operator Martello, she added with a faint smirk. In that moment Sledge was ready to hug Six and believe in the existence of miracles. Maestro did hug and kiss him when Sledge told him of their newfound vacations, while loudly praising Six for it.
Maestro suggested using their time to go visit his family. Knowing how much said family meant to him, Sledge readily agreed and oh-so-selflessly resigned himself to spend a week surrounded by wonderful people and eating excellent food. Such a cruel destiny. For the next couple of days, they alternated between packing their bags for the trip and being lazy together in bed, enjoying the luxury of free time. After thinking long and in depth about all the options, Sledge left Diana with Montagne and Bandit and promised retribution if she had a single hair out of place, when he came back.
The week with the Martellos came and went like a dream. On their return, the first thing they did was to collect Diana from a harried looking Bandit, then it was home, sweet home.
The following day was used to relax, but after that, all the free time they had once seen as a luxury, now turned into heavy sentence. Three more days until the vacation were over. As pleasing as it was to read a nice book and cook together, they already did that during their every day routine, just less of it, usually.
"We should paint the bedroom with a more pleasing colour than that drab white. What do you think, luce dei mei occi?"
The comment came out of the blue, being as they were seated on the couch, Diana sleeping at Sledge's feet while they watched a movie. The idea had its merits, the room needed a new coat of paint anyway and he'd been thinking of changing the colour. "Sure. Something that's not too dark."
"Perfect!" Maestro beamed at him, putting his arm around Sledge's shoulder and bringing him against his side. "I was thinking of a soft yellow to make it warm like your smile."
Ah, the reason behind that idea was now apparent for Sledge. Maestro's brother had bragged endlessly about how he painted the family residency all by himself, and admittedly the result was a pretty and vibrant house, warm like a cloudless sunny day. Such a stark contrast with the neutral colours of their apartment, where the array of tonalities ranged from white to grey to some faded blue. Sledge was fine with a splash of colour, provided it wasn't a garish hue. Not that Maestro would pick a horrible colour, the man took pride in what he called his impeccable taste, and Sledge had complete trust in him.
"We can go buy the paint tomorrow morning" Sledge suggested, getting comfortable and leaning against Maestro. The movie was mostly forgotten at this point, both of them engrossed in their conversation, excited by the possibility of actually having something to do the next few days beyond languishing bored at home. "By night the paint should be dry and the room usable again."
Their painting adventure was off to an auspicious start. They had chosen a soft creamy yellow colour, after Maestro insisted on seeing every yellow, beige and ochre paints available. Since they were at it, Sledge also purchased a glossy wood varnish; the doors needed some maintenance too.
Once at home, first order of business was to varnish the doors of the kitchen and bathroom, which didn't take them long. Then they moved into the bedroom. All the furniture was piled at the centre of the room and covered with plastic sheets, to avoid any painting accident. And as always when it wasn't a matter of life or death like in the field, Maestro ran his mouth freely, let it be with anecdotes, jokes or just singing. Halfway through painting the second wall, Sledge was hit with a stray thought that made him pause.
"... the recruit, you know, the ginger one who looks like that singer? He turned pale as a ghost and… Are you alright, caramellino?" Maestro no doubt noticed that Sledge had stopped painting and was now smiling at the wall.
"Perfect," Sledge reassured his partner. He left the roller in the paint tray and approached Maestro. "I was just thinking how my life has changed in one year."
"A change for the better, I hope."
Despite the light tone Maestro had used, Sledge could detect a faint worry underneath. Since there was no way Sledge could convey in words how overwhelmingly glad he was for all those changes, in particular the one standing in front of him, he opted to show it with a kiss.
If it hadn't been for the roller that Maestro still held in his right hand, the kiss would have probably gone further than what Sledge initially planned. They got carried away, Sledge putting his arms around Maestro's neck and deepening the kiss, their bodies flush against each other. High-pitched barking made them snap back to the present moment. Diana sat on the room's entrance, looking expectantly at them.
"Are you jealous, principessa?" Diana padded up to them, her paws making a soft clink-clink across the wooden floor. Maestro bent down to scratch her head with his other hand, the one that didn't have specks of paint on it. "Or just bored?"
Satisfied with the attention received, Diana went to play with the loose ends of the plastic sheets covering the furniture while the two men continued painting the walls. Neither Sledge nor Maestro were keeping an eye on her, and that was a fatal mistake since Diana was in a playful mood. She trotted up to Sledge, but he was busy painting, so she came up to the ladder to sniff the paint. In fact, she put her front paws inside the paint bucket, knocking it over. It fell on top of Diana, coating her in yellow paint and startling her.
The bucket hit the floor with a loud noise and as Diana jumped scared, paint splattered everywhere, drawing Sledge's and Maestro's attention. All they saw was a trail of yellow paw prints leading out of the room, the perpetrator long gone from the crime scene. Twin cries of "Diana!" and "Principessa!" were uttered before both of them rushed after the runaway corgi. They found her in the living room, shaking off the excess paint on her fur and spraying it everywhere before she jumped on the couch. Sledge quickly snateched her up, but she already left a dog-sized imprint of yellow.
"I'm going to wash her before she tries to lick it off." Sledge held Diana firmly so she couldn't escape, and she looked extremely pleased with herself.
Maestro nodded, eyeing the couch with a grimace. "And I'll clean this disaster."
Sledge marched off to the bathroom. He carefully washed Diana until the paint was gone, while she looked way too cheerful about the situation. After drying her up with a towel, Sledge carried her in his arms, thinking what to do with her to avoid another incident like this. He set her food and a water bowl in the kitchen, since locking her up for a while seemed the most sensible idea.
"This is for your own safety," Sledge said to her before closing the door. Diana wagged her tail at him, laying on the floor like the perfect picture of innocence.
Before going back to paint the room with Maestro, Sledge examined the damage done to the couch. While Maestro had cleaned most of the paint, the corgi-sized stain remained a different colour than the rest of the lovely blue couch. It was nothing they couldn't fix later, like all the yellow droplets scattered around the floor or crusting the chairs' legs. He went back to the bedroom and grabbed a roller with a sigh, eyeing the splatter of paint on the floor here too. Another thing to clean later.
"Where's the adorable little devil?" Maestro asked him, finishing a perfect stripe of colour on the wall.
"In the kitchen, to avoid more accidents." Sledge resumed working right where he left, helping Maestro finish the current wall before moving to another one.
They continued painting free of interruptions, until they were about to start the last wall. Maestro stopped and turned around, looking at Sledge with his eyes open as saucers. "The kitchen you say? Did you close the door, caro mio?"
What a strange question; of course he did. Otherwise Diana could stroll out of the kitchen anytime, and the idea was to avoid another incident. "Yes, I…" The realisation hit Sledge: He had closed the door. The door they had varnished not too long ago. Once more, they both went running out of the room.
The kitchen's door looked shiny with the recently dried varnish, and when Maestro tried to open it, it wouldn't budge. Impatient, Sledge waved him away to give it a try himself. Sledge put his whole weight behind his attempt at opening the door, hitting it full force with his shoulder. It was the equivalent of starting a car and, since it wasn't moving yet, suddenly accelerating to maximum velocity. An effective, but also exaggerated motion. The door swung open and banged against the wall on the other side, dramatically revealing Diana, who was looking at them with her tongue out. Crisis averted, the door hadn't got glued strongly to the frame. As a precaution, the door was left ajar, and Sledge prayed, it was deterrent enough for Diana to not slip away. They were now free to go finish painting the room, hopefully without any further interruptions.
The bedroom looked lovely with the new yellow colour, much cosier than before, however, they were far from done with the house work. After putting out of Diana's reach the remaining paint and the rollers, they still had to clean the mess of yellow stains on the floor of the bedroom, andthe now dry trail left by Diana, and all the droplets stuck on their furniture. As gratifying as the end result was, Sledge was starting to ponder if the effort was worth it. Once they were done for good with all the extensive clean up, Sledge stretched to work out the knots from his back and shoulders. He was as tired as if he'd been training all morning.
Deft hands were instantly on his shoulder, expertly massaging him. "It was impressive seeing you bash the door open with such force, sole mio. I hope you didn't hurt yourself."
A smile bloomed on Sledge's face. Maestro had seen him take hits during combat training, he'd also seen him lugging his giant hammer around and use it to bash in walls, and yet he still worried that a simple push against a door could hurt him. It was endearing, and the massage the Italian was giving him felt fantastic. Coupled with Maestro's blatant admiration of his strength, a certain plan was taking shape in Sledge's mind.
"How about we take a nice shower? Together." He turned around, putting his hands on Maestro's waist. Maestro's devilish smirk spoke volumes of what he thought of that idea. That was as good as a yes. The Italian's expression shifted into surprise when Sledge picked him up in a bold display of his strength. They didn't make it very far, Sledge stumbling under the weight of Maestro, but neither cared about that.
They reached the bathroom still laughing about how Sledge nearly tumbled to the floor before dropping Maestro, all because Maestro kept kissing his neck and distracting him. The clothes went off in a hurry as soon as they were in front of the shower, hands gliding over every bit of exposed skin. While Maestro always loved showing Sledge how much he worshipped his muscular body, Sledge never shied away of admiring Maestro's powerful physique either.
Stepping into the shower and turning on the water was just an excuse to touch each other to their hearts' content. Not that they truly needed an excuse, but the relaxing effect of the hot water and Maestro's hands softly digging into his back and shoulders had Sledge melting into the Italian's arms. Those clever hands glided smoothly over Sledge's wet skin, reaching over to massage his crotch and play with the nest of curls on the base of his cock. Bold as always, Maestro cradled Sledge's testicles and slowly stroked the base of his shaft.
Two could play that game, and Sledge batted his hand away to turn around. Maestro's look of confusion was quickly replaced by lust once again when Sledge closed his fist around Maestro's dick. He stroked Maestro slowly, teasingly, just to see him struggle to copy his drawn out movements. The man was usually so impatient and Sledge enjoyed watching him squirm from time to time, instead of getting swept in the whirlwind that was Maestro. The length on his hand was hot and twitched every time Sledge stopped stroking it to massage the head.
"You're killing me, tesoro." Maestro's groan was muffled by the sound of the water falling down on them. As tempted as Sledge was to drag this for a while, Maestro's hand on his cock made a pretty convincing argument, tightening the hold on each upstroke and toying with the beads of precum leaking from the slit.
It was an unfair race, both knew each other's weaknesses and were shamelessly exploiting them. Sledge got closer to bit and suck at Maestro's neck while he stroked his erection faster and rougher. Maestro was moaning in his ear, one hand bringing Sledge closer and closer to the inevitable fall while he groped his ass with the other. Their lips met, exchanging kisses open and desperate, while he thrusted into Maestro's hand with abandon. It was rare that the other man would comply without trying to take the initiative, and Sledge enjoyed this moments more than he ever imagined.
"This is just a taste of what I want, Adrianito," Sledge panted against his skin. "I have plans for tonight, so many things I want to do to you."
A moan against his lips was all warning Sledge got before Maestro spilled over his fingers. He followed suit, grinding his hard cock against Maestro's palm and coating his skin with white strands. The other man looked at him with a lazy smirk.
"And I can't wait to see what are those ideas of yours, vita mia."
The warm spray of water cleared all evidence of their passion while they clung to each other, still kissing lazily. The rest of their shower went slowly too, massaging each other as they spread the soap on their bodies. There was no need to rush, they had all the time in the world to enjoy. At least they thought so, until a loud thumping noise followed by barking, caught their attention.
With just a towel around his waist and weary of what he might find, Sledge rushed to the source of the noise. The bucket of paint they left on top of the ladder had toppled, the lid had opened in the crash and yellow paint spread out on the wooden floor like a cartoonish depiction of lava. Diana was merrily jumping on it like when she played on puddles of water, her paws and legs covered in bright yellow.
"We're cleaning and polishing the floors this afternoon, Adrianito," Sledge yelled so Maestro could hear him. It was rather unnecessary, because Maestro was already on the doorway, clad only in a towel too.
"What are we going to do with you, principessa?" Maestro sighed, eyeing the giant spill of paint waiting to be cleaned. Again.
Sledge sighed too, he had a feeling tonight they'd be too tired to put in action any of his ideas. Diana looked at them and barked excited, rolling on the yellow mess. At least she seemed to be having fun.