Abby was supposed to have left the ARC hours ago, but she'd had to stay late. The newest addition to their little menagerie, a juvenile Stygimoloch, had eaten something he wasn't supposed to, and she'd had to do surgery to remove it. Turned out to be a spare set of keys, and when she asked who they belonged to, one of the soldiers had said in a dazed voice, "Been looking for those buggers all day."
She was riding the Tube because her car was in the shop still, and Connor had gone home long before, so it was just her. As she reclined in one of the less-than-comfortable seats, reading her neglected book and waiting for her stop, she thought she heard Stephen's voice, but she knew that he'd left hours ago, too. Shaking her head, she declared herself officially exhausted and refocused on her book. A few moments later, she heard him again, this time accompanied by a much more familiar voice. This time, she glanced up from her book and turnt slightly in her seat to peer behind her.
In the end of the Tube car, Stephen was sitting in the last seat, stretched out with his legs across the seat and his back to the wall. And laying halfway atop him, with dark-haired head nestled comfortably on one shoulder and the tracker's arms resting around his waist? Connor Temple.
Abby's eyebrows met her hairline at speed, and it was all she could do not to call out to both of them. Connor had suggested to her once that maybe Stephen was gay, but she never actually thought it was true, and since when had Connor stopped fancying her like she'd hung the moon? When had any of this happened? Shaking off her thoughts, she refocused on the two men. They hadn't noticed her yet, and now they were talking to each other.
Connor had his back to Stephen's chest, his head rolled back against the other man's shoulder, his hands resting over Stephen's arms, still curled around his waist. "You know we were supposed to get off six stops ago, right?" Connor asked.
"Yeah, and your point is? It's warmer in here than it is outside," Stephen countered.
"And it'd be warmer still at your flat, Stephen," the geek chortled.
Stephen shrugged, then lowered his head slightly to press his nose into Connor's dark hair. "But getting off at the next stop means I'd have to move, so would you, and I, for one, am not particularly inclined for you to be moving anywhere. What's the matter, Temple? Don't like sitting with me?" he teased.
Connor laughed again, a soft, warm sound. "We're not so much sitting as laying, and this isn't sitting, okay? This is public cuddling."
"'Public'? There's two other people in the car, Connor."
"Yeah, that's public."
Stephen smiled, and Abby felt a little twinge of jealousy in her chest. She'd never seen him smile like that before. He lightly rubbed his cheek against Connor's hair, looking for all the world like a big cat. "Ashamed of me, super-geek?"
Connor snuggled closer to him. "Never, mighty hunter. But I do got to get home before Abby does, or she'll wonder where I've been, and there's not too many excuses available at two in the morning," he said.
"Yeah, alright. After this next stop, though," Stephen mumbled, eyes closed as he hugged Connor a little tighter, like a human teddy.
Connor laughed. "You're a hopeless cuddler, Stephen James," he said, then closed his eyes, head falling back on Stephen's shoulder again. "After the next stop, then," he relented.
She was supposed to get off at the next stop. Abby glanced at the two men, then smiled. She slid a little lower in her seat so they wouldn't be able to see her startling shock of hair, opening her book to the dog-eared page. She supposed getting home could wait a little whilst she caught up on her reading.