When it comes to a certain double-oh, Q has very little in the way of defenses. He also doesn't seem to be able to tell the agent 'no'. So while he may not have wanted to rush into a physical relationship, and in one way they did not, Q can't deny that he craves the intimacy that Bond is so well equipped for. One night turns into two, and then two or three times a week depending on how long the agent has between missions. Also assuming that the boffin gets home at a decent hour and isn't bone-tired.

By now, when he's not on a mission, Bond practically lives with Q, having been given a key officially and no longer having to use the emergency key. It's something that he's never had - even with Vesper - this open trust and close domestic intimacy that transcends anything that goes on in the bedroom. It's settled him some, given him a reason to keep coming home and made him take less risks. Though with Q in his ear, he can hardly go wrong, having had a better success rate with the new Quartermaster.

The ghosts are finally being pushed away and laid to rest and Bond is finding the idea of a future with the witty young boffin to be something very nice indeed. There are still moments of frustration however, and this night is one of them. Q told him that he would be home around 7, so for once Bond cooks, intending to have an intimate night in leading into a lazy, rare Sunday in which both of them have managed to get a day off. Now, however, it's nearly 8 and there is no sign of the boffin.

"Q, where are you?" Bond asks testily over the phone when he finally calls the younger man, glaring at the wall for lack of a better target, while he leans his hip against the counter, his free arm crossed over his chest.

"Bloody hell, what time is it?" Q asks as he glances at the clock, then sounds a little sheepish. "I'm sorry, James. Something came up with 002's mission and I wanted to make sure that the data packet she had to receive in the morning was going to be accurate. I suppose I didn't realize what time it was. I really must set alarms." he says with a little sigh, moving around and packing up his things quickly.

"I made dinner. Should reheat alright. Do you want me to come pick you up?" Bond asks, always worried and overprotective about Q traveling home on the tube, especially since he was almost hit by one not too long ago and knows how fragile the underground system is.

There's a slight pause on the other end of the phone and a slight huff of amusement. "That is incredibly sweet, James. To think, a year ago I would never have thought you capable. I'm sorry for being so late. But you don't have to pick me up, I know the Darfur mission was rather hard on you, so you should be resting. I can make the Tube in time for the last run." The young man reassures with a small smile on his face, and a rather happy tone, even if he shakes his head in exasperation at his double-oh.

"We have a car service for a reason. You are far too valuable an asset to be taking the tube home. Despite what you might think, I am intimately aware of how dangerous it is." James says in a slightly irritable tone, pushing away from the counter and pacing back and forth a little. "For once would you listen to me and take a bloody car." he says firmly with a small frown, finally ending up near the windows and looking out. "It would be faster anyway, at this time of night." He says as a slight afterthought.

Hearing the concern in Bond's tone and shaking his head a little, Q smiles. "I have been taking the tube for a year. No one knows who I am, as I've told you countless times, no one knows what Q looks like." He points out, snorting a little for a moment. "And I very much doubt anyone would pick me out of a lineup as Q. There are some advantages to looking as unassuming as I do." He says thoughtfully after a moment as he puts his jacket on and grabs his bag to slip out of his office. "Goodnight, R." He says to his second-in-command before he starts to head toward the exit of the building, eager to be home and in Bond's warm arms.

Growling a little in frustration, Bond runs a hand through his short hair. "I swear, Q.. if you didn't come home because of the bloody Tube.." He mutters, letting it trail off threateningly. "Especially when we both have a day off tomorrow.. which I thoroughly intend to take advantage of." He says with only a slightly suggestive note to his tone because he intends to do much more than make love to his Quartermaster. He just wants to spend a lazy day in bed with him, cuddling and talking. As odd of a thing as that might be for him to admit even to himself. "Honestly.. will you ever listen to me?" He asks, still frustrated and leaning his forehead against the glass of the window for a few moments, closing his eyes before he lifts his head away.

"As if something as simple as the Tube could keep me from coming home." Q says with a small snort, shaking his head for a moment. "I am quite looking forward to tomorrow as well." He says honestly as he exits MI6 and out onto the city streets, glancing around the relative quiet for a moment before he heads toward the closest Underground station. "What would you do, James? Come after me?" He asks with a small laugh. "I listen to you all the time. Just not when you're being pigheaded about something. Which is a great deal more than you listen to me." He points out in a firm tone, referencing the fact that more than once Bond has decided to go his own way instead of doing what Q told him to do.

"Yes, and I rather learned my lesson on that point." James admits as he moves back to the food, heating up the oven and popping the plates inside to at least keep them warm. "If you didn't come home? Yes, Q, I just might try and follow you. It honestly scares me how much you mean to me." He admits in a quiet tone.

This causes Q to pause, and he smiles a little before he shakes his head. "Oh, James.." he says in a gentle tone. "I wouldn't want that, you know. No matter what happens to me, I want you to keep living. I imagine you would feel the same if you were to die in the field. You would hardly want me following after you, and I would not want that for you, either. We cannot control our fate." He says before he thinks about it for a little longer. "I'm going into the station now, I'll call you when I'm off." he says with a shake of his head.

"Alright. Be careful." Bond says before he hangs up, not wanting to go into the rest of the stuff right at the moment. That is what the lazy Sunday in bed is going to be about. Feelings. Not something that has ever been particularly easy for him to talk about, but he knows that there are some things that he wants to talk to Q about, some things that he feels need to be said.

~oOo~

The next morning, Bond wakes up first, smiling a little as he feels the weight of Q against him. Sometime during the night they must have changed positions, going from Bond's preferred position of spooning to him being on his back and Q curled against his chest. Sliding his fingers up the smooth, pale skin of Q's back, the agent lowers his head a little to take a deep breath of those dark, soft curls and plant a soft kiss there.

The movement is enough to wake Q, who shifts, rubbing his cheek against Bond's chest in a very catlike gesture before he stretches languidly, back arching a little into the agent's touch before he relaxes and takes a deep breath. "Good morning, 007." he says playfully with a slight smile, turning his head to look up at the older man with unfocused green eyes, his glasses sitting on the night stand.

"Morning, Q." James says quietly with a smile, lifting his free hand to brush it against the brunette's cheek gently, feeling the barest hint of stubble there. He's fairly sure the younger man would take a month to grow a proper beard. Tearing his attention away from those beautiful green eyes, Bond looks over at the window, the rain coming down steadily and tapping against the windows. "Sounds like the perfect day to spend in bed." He says quietly, looking back at Q and leaning down to give him a light kiss.

While Q does respond to the kiss, he pulls away quickly and makes a face. "Morning breath." He grumbles before he slowly sits up, stretching again and then slipping out, digging into his drawers to find some fresh boxers and a shirt before he disappears down the hallway to the bathroom.

Chuckling a little, James stretches, noticing a few aches and pains that have been rather insistent, before he gets out of bed and finds a shirt and boxers for himself as well before he goes to the kitchen, getting tea, juice and starting some eggs and toast for them both, knowing that Q takes a bit to wake up before he's ready to face anything, and he's useless without his cup of tea.

Q trudges out and pokes Bond in the side. "I'll finish up here.. Breakfast will be in bed." he declares before nudging the agent again until he can take the spatula and such from him.

"Alright, alright.." Bond says with a smile, leaning over and placing a kiss just below Q's ear against his neck, then he goes to take care of his own things, finally returning to the bedroom to find Q in bed with a tray sitting in the middle, glasses on, tea in one hand and a piece of toast in the other. "Started without me?" he asks with amusement as he goes to sit down on the other side of the tray from Q, slipping back under the covers. He waits a beat before leaning over and giving him a more proper good morning kiss.

"Oh, shut up, James, and eat your breakfast." Q says in exasperation, but he is trying to contain his smile of amusement. Still, he doesn't stop watching Bond until he eats, and then he goes back to his own food, rather content to sit there and eat.

When the food is all gone, the tray is brought back to the kitchen by Q, and then he slips back into bed, sliding over to cuddle up against the older man. For a little while, there's nothing spoken between the two just lazy kisses and soft caresses exchanged.

"You scare me, Q. I'm not sure what I would do without you. You give me a reason to want to come home.." Bond murmurs as they lay on their sides, face to face, and he strokes back the boffin's hair gently, stroking down his cheek lightly before exchanging a few more soft kisses. "The last time I felt like this.." He trails off for a moment and looks away.

"Vesper." Q says understandingly before he smiles sadly. "I'm not her, Bond. There's several reasons I'm not a field agent, and one of them is that I'm a bloody awful liar." He says with a small smile. "I think this time you chose someone as far from Vesper as you can get." He notes with a sly smile before he puts his hand over Bond's heart, feeling it beat against his palm. "I'm glad you've stopped trying to kill yourself on missions. I know what you do.. what we do. I will be professional when you're on missions, but it's difficult, knowing when I give you your kit and send you off, you might not come back." He says quietly, moving a little closer, tangling their legs together under the covers.

"You're always in my ear, and that helps me focus, gives me strength on missions, Q." Bond says quietly as he kisses him for a few moments, before he rests their foreheads together. "Even if you have bloody awful fashion sense." He teases with a little smile.

Giving the blond a bit of a shove to the chest, Q laughs a little and shakes his head. "There is nothing wrong with my fashion." he says more seriously. "It suits my needs, and it seems to have been just fine because it certainly attracted you, now didn't it?" he asks with a slight smirk.

Rolling them over to pin the younger man beneath him, trapping his arms above his head, James growls playfully. "You're mine. Luckily I have rather singular tastes and your fashion repels most people.." he says before he smirks a little. "Should I make it more obvious, make sure everyone in Q-branch knows that you're taken?" he asks, lowering his head to kiss along Q's neck.

"Bond." Q says warningly. "James, don't you dare!" He says a little more urgently before he starts squirming a little to get away from the onslaught of kisses, afraid that the agent might make good on his word. "The last thing that I need is to go into work, looking like a bloody teenager with a love mark on my neck!" He says, as he continues to squirm and try and free his hands. "James! Release me!" He says firmly, with as much of an imperious tone as he can muster under the circumstances.

Giving the man a soft bite where his neck joins his shoulder, James finally releases his wrists, grinning a little as he slides his arms down the skinny but surprisingly strong arms to rest on the bed on either side of him in order to keep his full weight off the slim figure beneath him. "I think it would be rather amusing, actually." he says with a small smirk.

Now that his hands are freed, Q shifts a little, hooking one leg around Bond and pushing quickly while the agent is distracted and flips him onto his back. "Well, that wasn't very smart of you, Bond.. you're letting your guard down." He says from his perch above Bond, resting his hands on the agent's chest and looking down at him.

"My guard is down around you far too often, Q." Bond allows, stretching out and putting his hands behind his heads. "What shall you do with me now? I am at your mercy. Be gentle, Q." he says in a fully playful tone, smirking slightly as he watches the younger man.

"Well, there are many things that I could do with you, Bond.." Q says as he leans over, hands on the agent's wrists to hold him there, but no match for him if he really wanted to be free. Teasingly, he brushes his lips across Bond's lightly, pulling back when he tries to lift his head and get more contact. Finally, Q allows a firm kiss, pulling back and sitting up after a few minutes. "That's a rather good start, I think.." he says with a small smile.

"Tell me your name." Bond says out of the blue, a little breathlessly as he lowers his hands to Q's waist and pulls him down, one hand sliding up his back to rest between his shoulder blades. "Please. Tell me your real name, Q." he says quietly.

A pained look crosses Q's face for a moment and he sighs, resting his head on James' chest and listening to his heartbeat for a moment, arms curled under him. "You know I can't, James.. Besides, I left all that behind when I became R, and then Q." He says as he closes his eyes for a moment. "That man no longer exists, you know that." he says as he lifts his head to look up into those icy blue eyes that mesmerized him even on their first meeting, to the point he could barely look at the older agent.

James watches him for a few moments, before he sighs a little. "I hate calling you Q sometimes.. because it's as much your title as it is your name. I want to know everything about you. Not just the you now, I want to know who you were, how you became Q, and how you became so bloody brilliant with computers.." He says gently as he strokes his hand through those dark curls, his thumb stroking over Q's prominent cheekbones slowly.

Closing his eyes for a few moments under the caress, Q sighs a little, looking up into the agent's face, remembering his file, all the pain that he'd been through, the trust issues. And somehow, the agent has trusted him, of all people, to open his heart to and bare his soul. And now he wants to take it even further than that. He wants to bare his heart to Q as well. How could he not want to reciprocate, to tell him everything?

"I want you to know me as well, Q.. everything. And I'm willing to tell you anything you want to know." James insists as he looks down into the vivid green eyes of his lover, his Quartermaster, and if he were honest with himself, his heart.

Shaking his head a little with a rueful smile, Q pushes himself up so that he's sitting on Bond's legs, finally moving off to the side and stretching out beside him, propping himself up on his elbows. "I wish I had some way to resist you, James. But I just can't seem to help myself." he says with a small sigh, "So for now.. let us pretend that the world doesn't exist. That we are two normal blokes.. lovers trying to get to know one another.." he says quietly, leaning over in preparation to whisper his true name in Bond's ear. "And hopefully.. just this once.. I might even believe it."


This took me a long time to get to a point where I could end it, which is why it is insanely long, haha. I hope you enjoy it, thank you for following and such so far, the next chapter will be the last though, so thank you all!

Reviews/Comments welcome!