Wash could feel Caboose tossing and turning behind him. Occasionally, he'd get hit with a stray arm or leg, immediately followed by a mumbled "sorry". Finally, he sighed and turned over to face his partner. "What's going on, Caboose?"

Caboose pursed his lips and frowned. "Grif and Simmons are going to get married."

"Okay." Wash pushed a stray hair out of Caboose's face. "Why is that bugging you?"

Caboose huffed, holding his breath as he thought. "They are getting married because they have been together for a very long time." Mikey caught David's hand and started playing with his fingers, tracing patterns on his palm. "We have been together for a very long time."

Wash took a deep breath, thinking carefully.

"I want you to be happy, but I do not want to get married, but I do not want you to leave me behind if you do, but I-."

Wash wiped away the tears gathering in Caboose's eyes. "It's okay," he murmured, resting their foreheads together. "I'm okay with not getting married. I'm never going to leave you behind, okay?"

Caboose nodded, sniffling. "Okay." He threw his arms around David and held him close.

"Okay." David ran his knuckles down Caboose's spine. "The important thing is that we stay together. Marriage doesn't make that more or less. It's just fancy words and parties and cake and taxes."

Caboose wrinkled his nose. "You like fancy words."

David chuckled and kissed his forehead. "I guess I do. We can do that without marriage though, hm? Is that okay?"

Mikey worried his lip with his teeth, then nodded.

"Alright," David said. "Michael James Caboose, I promise never to leave you behind and to always watch after you and take care of you, no matter what."

Mikey smiled. "And now it's my turn?"

David nodded.

Mikey thought for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak. "Agent David Nehemiah Church Washington, I promise to always try to make you smile and make you sleep without nightmares and remember your birthday and talk to you when you are sad and love you forever and ever." He frowned solemnly, then leaned forward and kissed him. "They do that, too, right?"

David smiled and tugged Caboose minutely closer. "They do. And there we go, that's fancy words taken care of, and the rest we don't have to worry about. Now we're…." He struggled for words.

"Bestest friends forever," Caboose said. He pulled Wash's left hand up for inspection. "People won't know."

Wash thought for a moment, then reached under his bed and pulled out a pair of plastic jigsaw necklaces. "Tucker told me to give you this for your birthday, but I wanted to get something better so I just saved it. I think it'll work for this, though."

Caboose gingerly touched the brightly colored pendants and smiled. "They make a heart. That is so cute. I want the yellow one." He pushed the blue half toward Wash.

Wash chuckled and draped the thin cord over Caboose's head, letting his hand rest on the nape of his neck.

"You have to wear yours." Caboose tucked his half underneath his shirt and tried to wrangle Wash's over his growing beard.

"Easy," Wash chuckled, assisting and placing his over his heart, shielding it with his hand. "There we go."

Caboose grinned and grabbed his hand again. "Forever."

Wash nodded. "Forever."

~O~

A/N: Hey, there! After I published Strange Magic, I noticed there was a distinct lack of Caboosington fics, and at the moment I have quite the need. So. This collection is also going to be part of my Camp NaNo word count. This chapter (excluding author's note) brings the total to 10k words exactly for all my projects. Only 40k left! And I still have 27 days.

Read, review, just no flames, please.

Namarie!