XXVI
Defense
"Ouch, that is going to hurt in the morning…"
Bond ignored the sideline commentary from Eve as he moved to offer a hand to help pull Q back up to his feet. At Q's request, he'd been teaching the Quartermaster to defend himself, something that M had apparently been considering anyway if the two of them were going to go 'public' with their relationship within MI6. Not that Q would be threatened inside MI6, but there was always the risk of information leaking out, and Bond wanted that peace of mind before he left on another mission. Word had gone around, and Eve, Alec, Tess, Will, and Thomas had invited themselves to watch the session.
"Let's try that again," he said, resisting the urge to check Q over for bruises; they had to remain professional while both or one were still on duty. That had been one of M's stipulations, there was still work that they needed to do whether they were together or not. "This time, surprise me. Feint if you have to," he said, checking Q's stance over before stepping back.
"Is this still the situation in which I am cornered?" Q asked, raising an eyebrow as he failed to hide the slight disdain in his voice.
"We'll be doing the scenario in which someone is pursuing you later tonight, I don't want an audience for that," Bond said, allowing the mask to slip for a moment while ignoring Alec's snickers from the sideline. Satisfied at the small smile on Q's face, he swallowed and said, "That means first punch, Q. And try to remember that there's no other way than past me for your escape. Use everything in your arsenal in a coordinated escape, and then run." He pulled the sidearm, lifted it for Q to see, and then said, "This is unloaded, are you willing to continue with this aspect of the exercise?"
Q nodded; this may have been the fifth time they were about to run the exercise, but Bond needed to make sure Q knew everything before they started. Placing the sidearm into the holster that 004 had snatched on her last mission from the enemy, Bond walked away from Q a bit, planning to charge the quartermaster as he'd done the last few times. So far, Q had done the few techniques that Bond had taught him, but needed a little more force behind his punches. He had used his lithe form once against Bond, throwing the agent off guard for the briefest of moments but Q had missed the slip and ended up flat on his back again. Even now, as Bond turned to face the quartermaster, he could see that Q was already trying to analyze his weak spots and Bond guessed that he was trying to figure out the best way to get the gun out of Bond's possession… as he'd done for the last three out of four times.
Bond made eye contact with Q and said, "Ready?"
The other nodded mutely.
Bond tensed, drawing the wait as he counted down from ten in his head. Q, he noticed, tended to get a little jittery when the tension started to get to him (a habit carried over from watching too many suspense movies in his downtime), and Bond knew that the opponent would see it as a sign of weakness. He made a mental note to do something about it before charging, Q jumping a little when he moved.
For a few seconds, it looked like Q would stand his ground and try to disarm him again.
It wasn't until Bond was almost to him that Q unexpectedly charged toward him, causing him to slow down out of surprise. Before he could react, understand what the hell Q was doing, the quartermaster jumped onto him, sending htem both backwards to the ground. Bond was about to shove Q off and tackle him when Q bent over and kissed him hard, sending unexpected bolts of pleasure down Bond's spine and scattering his thoughts to the wind.
Then he instinctively froze when he felt the cold barrel pressed against his temple.
Q broke apart, remaining on top of him but still looking quite satisfied as he looked down at Bond. "I disarmed you," he replied smugly, lowering the sidearm to better prop himself up around Bond, his warmth delicious and comforting against Bond's body.
"Fucking hell, Q. If you do that during a real mission I might just have to kill the attacker myself out of jealousy," he said, grinning as he ran a hand through Q's hairs. Then, when Q closed his eyes at the sensation, Bond smirked and promptly flipped them over, palming the gun out of Q's hand as he did.
Q shrugged nonchalantly, shifting his hips discreetly and Bond stifled a groan. "Either way, my problem would be solved, now wouldn't it?" he asked, pouting softly.
Resisting the urge to take those kiss-bitten lips again, Bond rested his forehead and whispered, "I don't do well with competitors, intentional or not."
"Mm, do you get jealous easily, Bond? Or is that a dumb question?" Q asked, smirking as he trailed a hand up Bond's arm. He looked to the side abruptly, swallowed guiltily, and then said, "Perhaps you can answer me later, you know, when we have less of an audience."
Bond didn't hold back the growl, but looked anyway to find that both Will and Thomas had disappeared, Tess was sitting there with her mouth hanging open in shock, and Alec was shaking in silent laughter against Eve's shoulder. Turning back, he leaned impulsively forward and bit the skin at the juncture of Q's neck and shoulder. "Not here, not here, but definitely later," he murmured against the sweaty skin.
"I think you've mentally scarred Will and Thomas for life now, I don't think they were expecting the session to get this heavy," Q muttered crossly, but the smile tugging on his features betrayed his lack of real anger. Leaning forward, he kissed Bond on the nose and then said, "Up. We have to either finish or I have to shower to get back to the branch for the tests."
"Oh, we'll finish all right. Later tonight," Bond quipped before rolling off Q. He frowned, analyzing the fight that had led up to Q's victory, and then asked, "You were faking the jumpiness, weren't you?"
"Bond, this was the fifth time we were about to do this exercise. Of course I was faking it, I knew what was going to happen," Q said airily as he brushed himself off. Helping Bond up, he said, "For what it's worth, I'll be ready to practice again this evening, now that I'll be studying your fighting style until then."
"What, you don't get enough just watching me on missions?" Bond teased as they headed to the showers.
"Are you kidding? If I'm not monitoring for threats, I'm staring at you, not your fighting style," Q teased before kissing Bond, moving quickly away when Bond tried to capture him. "Do try to keep up, double-oh seven," he teased, winking before disappearing into the locker rooms.
Bond gave him thirty seconds before pursuing. There really was no way he could to let Q go now. Or ever.
He found that the prospect didn't frighten him as much as it used to.