Bond wasn't awake when the mid-morning winter sun that was streaming into the room woke Q. He fumbled about for his glasses, which seemed to have fallen off his face during the night, finding them under his pillow; thank goodness he hadn't bent them. Q got up to pour himself a glass of water from the kitchen, deciding he'd better get one for Bond too. When he returned to the man's bedroom, the intense gaze of Bond's steely blue eyes stopped him at the doorway.
"Here, I thought you might want to take some painkillers when you woke up." Q walked over and placed the glass on the side table, watching as the man took out a couple of the painkillers and popped them in his mouth, but instead of taking them with the water he ground them down with his molars before swallowing. Is that the way real men take painkillers so as not to look wimpy? "Perhaps not, then."
Q's efforts didn't go to waste though; the blonde drank down the whole glass of water before flopping back down on the bed, flinging an arm over his eyes. "Close the blinds, will you?" His voice was gruff, and even though Q rolled his eyes at the demand, he did as Bond asked. "Come back to bed."
"Are you going to be making demands of me all day, 007?" Q asked as he lay back down, feeling as awkward as he had felt last night.
"Yes." Only a blind man would miss the smirk on the agent's face.
"We should think about doing your paperwork."
"Paperwork," Bond scoffed. "Bloody waste of time."
"I'll be able to do most of it from what I remember you telling me from last night. You can fill in the blanks." They lay in silence for a couple of minutes; Q staring at the ceiling chancing glances at his Alpha.
"Bond?"
"Mmm?"
"What am I doing in your bed?"
"At the moment you're lying on top of the duvet talking incessantly to me even though I'm making it quite obvious that I'm trying to sleep."
Q was pretty sure Bond could hear his eyes roll as he let out a sigh before muttering, "Incessant? Bit of an over-exaggeration."
"You're here as I can't be bothered moving and I'd quite like you within my sights for a day or so," Bond informed him, choosing to ignore Q's comment.
"That's a... reasonable explanation."
"Q?"
"Yes, Bond."
"Go back to sleep."
Later, well around midday, they got up and moved to the living room. Q turned the heating up and Bond brewed the Earl Grey. They settled on the sofa with the teapot on the coffee table keeping warm with a green woollen tea cosy. They were seated at opposite ends of the sofa; Bond on his phone and Q writing up the man's mission report with occasional input from the agent himself. "Done. I'll just email this to Mercer then, shall I?"
"Please do. Then delete my number from his phone."
"He's texted me a few times too."
"Dare I apply the word incessant to his texting." Q laughed then; Bond wasn't one to let something just slide. Once the email was sent Q placed his laptop on the coffee table waiting for the inevitable reply.
"I saw Skyfall, you know, in your file when I was laying the tracks for Silva. It was a beautiful house. I'm sorry you had to blow it up."
"I'm not." Bond flicked on the telly.
"Bad memories?"
"Memories."
"I'm still sorry." Q poured himself another cup as Bond's attention was captured by BBC News. He was beginning to think that the man had a slight obsession with knowing what was going on in the world at all times.
"Is that the sort of place you would like to live?" Bond spared him a thoughtful glance. "We could, if you wanted?"
"Live at Skyfall..."
"Skyfall's gone. I meant a house like that?"
"In London?" Q frowned. What was the man talking about.
"Outside of London." Bond gave him a sidelong look.
"But what about work? We couldn't live outside London; the commute would be too much if there's an emergency." Q imitated picking up his phone and holding it to his ear. "Hi M. Oh, the Queen's been kidnapped; how terrible. Yes, your Quartermaster and best double-oh will be there in around 50-90 minutes, depending on traffic."
"You won't be working when you..." Bond trailed off, frowning at Q.
"When I what?" Q's heart did a little flip, hoping that Bond wasn't suggesting what he thought he was suggesting.
"When you..." Bond was cut off when Q jumped, up spilling his tea on the floor.
"Don't say it." He held his hands up as Bond stood up too. Q felt like a bucket of cold water had just been thrown over his head.
"Q? What's wrong with you?" The blonde's frown had taken on a level that Q had never seen before.
"I can't, Bond. I'm not..." He waved his hand about, trying to grasp the word. "Ready! I'm not ready for that."
"You're not?" Bond picked to cup up from the floor. "Sit down."
Q did. He sat down and watched Bond clean the spilt tea up and mulled their discussion over. Bond expected him to quit work?
"I'm not giving up my career, James." Bond gave him a withering look clearly saying he'd had enough of the conversation. He left the room to take their tea set to the kitchen. Q's blood was boiling. Did he really have any say in any of this?
"I'm going for a shower," Q shouted into the kitchen, before fleeing to his room and slamming the door behind him. Would Bond really make him have children and give up his career to bring them up?
When Q finally emerged from his room much, much later, Bond was sat patiently waiting for him on the sofa.
"I think we got our wires crossed somewhere."
"I don't think we did. You want us to move out of London to bring up your children. You want me to give up my career. I know I can't deny you your wishes but it doesn't mean I have to like them." Q stared his Alpha down, red cheeked, and breathing erratically.
"Calm down and shut the hell up for one god damn minute." Q did. Well he didn't have a choice there either, did he. "I thought you were bringing up houses as a way to suggest having children. I didn't realise you where so against it... Omegas want children - it's the way they're programmed. I just wanted to provide for you," Bond reasoned.
"So you're not going to get me pregnant," Q squeaked uncertainly, sitting down heavily.
"Not if you don't want me to, no." Bond let out a short laugh. "I have to confess that I've never had much desire to sire children."
"Well, that's a relief." It felt as though the tension left him at once and he moulded himself more comfortably on the chair. "You'd expect me to leave work though, if I did have kids?"
"No, of course not. I just assumed that's what you'd want to do. I thought I was telling you what you wanted to hear." Q nodded in understanding. An Alpha would do almost anything to make their Omega happy. He supposed it was actually quite touching that Bond would have children with him just because Q wanted them... Stupid, but touching.
"And you don't want to move out of London."
"God, no."
"Oh... Well, good." Q nodded. "Oh, before I forget. The car's ready to be picked up."
"We'll collect it in the morning." And just like that it was business as usual... Well, apart from Bond climbing into Q's bed later that night with a shrug at the Omega's questioning look. "I still feel as though another Alpha's going to climb through your window at any given moment."
"Alright, but if you're not over it by tomorrow night, you're on the floor."
