Hey guys! Finally getting back into writing some Bond :D I fully intend to get back into my Title Rehaul Bond series soon too, but for now I have a fic that I've been meaning to write since I watched No Time To Die. This fic is heavily inspired by the movie, specifically the scene where James and Moneypenny show up at Q's home, 00Q is all I could think about during that scene honestly.
First chapter is rated T, but the second chapter is M for smut. Do with that info what you will.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this, let me know if you did, much love xox
XOXOXOXOXOX
"I should warn you, he's been dating someone," Moneypenny announced quietly, intentionally avoiding looking at James, and instead watching her shoes as they walked down the hall to Q's flat.
"Who?" James responded, not quite keeping the jealously out of his voice. Double-oh-six had always been keen on Q, if he was dating James' Quartermaster heads would roll.
Moneypenny shrugged, eyes glancing over her shoulder – James already knew that they weren't being followed – "I don't know, some guy, I haven't met him."
"So it's not serious then?" he inquired, coming to stop in front of a familiar door. Surely it wasn't serious if Eve hadn't met the person, her and Q were good friends after all.
"All I know is that it's only been a few weeks, and he's the complete opposite of you…" she answered as she knocked on the door, effectively ending the conversation.
James hummed low at the information, unsure what to make of it yet.
After a few moments the door flung open, and Q stood in the frame, apron over his button up and skinny jeans, hair perfectly tousled. He was an absolute sight for sore eyes, god help him, James' heart actually skipped a beat.
Q looked stricken as he gasped, "It is you."
"Hello, love," James greeted his Quartermaster sweetly, attempting to sound somewhat casual.
A sharp stinging erupted on his cheek, accompanied by a loud smack as Q's open palm collided with James' face. James stood and took it, he deserved that, he knew it. It was the fierce kiss that followed the slap that truly surprised him, but that was over just as quickly, and then Q stepped back and started yelling at him instead.
"How bloody dare you, James Bond!?"
"I'm sorry, Q," James apologised, still reeling.
"Sorry? Sorry!?" Q crowed, "They replaced you at MI6, I thought you were properly dead this time, not just taking one of your impromptu vacations. I fucking mourned you, you wanker!"
"I-" James started but Q rounded on Moneypenny next.
"And you! Did you know he was alive?"
"Hey, don't put this on me," Moneypenny held up her hands defensively, "I only found out today, thank you very much."
"I didn't want to leave you, Q," James said, bringing the attention back to himself, "I still love you, you know, nothing has changed."
"Everything has changed, James. I'm-I'm seeing someone…"
"Is it serious?"
"It might be," Q tilted his nose up, playing coy.
"Dear Quartermaster, you know the effort I put in to gain your attention initially, what makes you think I wouldn't go twice as hard this time?"
Q's mouth moved up and down exasperatedly.
"Perhaps we should move this conversation inside the house…" Moneypenny suggested flatly. There was someone coming down the hall after all.
"Julian?"
"He knows your real name?" James all but growled incredulously.
"Well, I'm not Q to everyone, James."
James heard his first name, but it was the same tone he used when he called the agent Double-oh-seven, something that he could no longer do since he'd been officially replaced.
"Hi, Justin, um, I'm very sorry, I'm afraid we're going to have to reschedule…" Q side eyed James, "a work thing has just come to my attention, and I need to deal with it."
"A work thing?" James huffed sourly under his breath, noting that Moneypenny was right; the guy looked far less like James, and a lot more like Q; dark hair, cardigan, lanky, attractive…
"Oh, okay, I understand."
"I'll text you later," Q promised.
"No, he won't," James countered being obscenely petulant.
Q inhaled sharply through his nose, glared at James and then turned back to Justin, "Yes, I will."
"Uh, yeah, okay. Well, good luck with your work thing," Justin said awkwardly, glancing at James and then quickly to anywhere but the agent. With a wave of his hand to Q, Justin left, the pep clearly gone from his step.
"Get in here, now," Q hissed as soon as Justin was gone from sight. Once they were inside and the door was closed, he let James have it, "You've got some bloody nerve, showing up here after all this time and then acting like that!"
"Well, I'm just a work thing now apparently…" he shouldn't have said it, but his feelings were all over the shop, and usually that didn't translate well for the secret agent.
Q made him regret it instantly also, "You don't get to take that tone with me, you left me, remember?!"
"Not intentionally…" he sighed, "I didn't mean for any of this happen, Q," James' fist clenched and unclenched at his side a few times, he needed to get himself in order or he was going to fuck this up for good. "I'm sorry, you're right, I'm being a prick."
"Damn right you are," Q confirmed immediately, then his brows furrowed, "Why did you come back now?"
James gave him the short and to the point version about their mission, Moneypenny chiming in with a titbit here and there.
Q threw his hands in the air, "So you're not even here for me, un-fucking-believable. Just another means to an end."
James thought he heard a slight crack in Q's voice, saw a quiver of his lip, watched his eyes go momentarily glassy, and he hated himself. Hated himself for every ounce of pain he'd caused the man he loved.
"It's not like that, Q," James hurried to assure him.
"Then what is it like, James? Because it sounds like I wasn't even a priority until you realised you needed my skills."
"The mission is the mission, that's not us, you know that," it was how it had always been, whatever happened on a mission was MI6 secret agent Double-oh-seven, not Q's boyfriend James. It was how they made it work.
"This is different, I thought you were dead!" the genius yelled, hands trembling.
James took a step toward the younger man, "I'm sorry, Julian, I mean it," he reached out for Q, if only he could hold him, assure him of everything, it would all be okay.
Q pulled back out of James' reach, he sniffled and then swallowed, turning slightly away, his voice was distant as he said, "I'll help you with your mission and then you will leave my flat and forget my address."
"Q…"
"I mean it too, Bond."
XXX
Two weeks later – a very long, insane, two weeks later – James broke into Q's flat, half dead, still bleeding, and passed out as soon as he collapsed onto the lounge.
Q wasn't home at the time, but James was sure that his alarms would have gone off since James' key didn't work anymore – his handprint was still in the system though. It would be obvious that it was him who had broken in so it was unlikely that Q would send half of MI6 to his flat to arrest or kill James. It was one place in the world that he felt safe, even though realistically it wasn't any safer than any other agent's apartment, but this was home for him, Q was home for him, and that was where he was safe.
James woke up, god knows how long later, to a warm damp cloth dabbing at his bicep where there was a long gash. He inhaled sharply through his teeth, making a noise of pain as he became more aware.
"Oh, don't be such a baby, it's not even deep," came a familiar voice from right next to him.
"Mmm, hello, darling," James greeted the man groggily, blinking away from the bright ceiling light.
"I'm still mad at you," Q told him sternly, but there was a soft edge to his voice.
"I expected you would be," James acknowledged.
"Furious, in fact," he reiterated in a tone that was far calmer than his words.
"Of course," the secret agent accepted soberly.
After a few moments of silence and a couple more dabs with the cloth, Q divulged, "I ended things with Justin."
"Oh," James turned his head to look at the Quartermaster and cocked an eyebrow, "so…"
"So you'd better bloody work hard for forgiveness, James, and if you ever do anything like this to me again, I will hunt you down and kill you myself."
"I promise you, I'll never leave you again," James assured the younger man, hoping he would believe the sincerity in his words. There was a hint of scepticism in Q's expression though, and James' charming armour started to clink down around him, "In fact I'll be around so much that I'm worried you might get sick of me."
"Is that so?"
"Well, I can't see myself travelling much anymore now I'm retired, especially since you don't like flying," James informed him casually.
Q dropped the cloth, "You're not being reinstated?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I told them I was done, for good this time," he sat up stiffly and with a grunt, shifting his feet from the cushions to the carpet, and took Q's hands in his own, "I've already lost too much time with you, Q, I regret that more than you know. I fucked up big time, but I'm going to earn your love back, I'm going to be here every single day for the rest of our lives earning your love, and making sure that you know just how much I love you in return."
"I never stopped loving you," Q admitted quietly, looking down at their hands, a watery smile just visible.
"I know, and I missed you like crazy, I thought about you every day, pictured you in my mind. I wanted to be here with you, Q, I wanted nothing more."
"Then why weren't you?"
James chewed his lip for a moment, then sighed, "It was safer for you. For the first time I was worried that I couldn't protect you, so I 'died' and when MI6 found me and pulled me back in, I did it for a chance to make it safe for us to be together again. I told them if I made it out the other end alive that I was properly out, and they agreed," Q's expression was suddenly stormy, but before he had a chance to unleash thunder and lightning upon James, he added, "I couldn't have lived with myself if I was the reason for your death, and I had no time to talk to you about it, I had to make the decision in the moment, and I did what I thought was right."
The tension seeped out of the younger man, "It would've been nice to at least know you were alive."
"I didn't know who I could trust, besides you of course," he brought Q's hand up to kiss the back of it, "so I couldn't risk sending any kind of message, and technology is your thing, not mine."
"I…ugh…I understand, and it's somewhat a romantic notion I suppose, but I'm still cross with you, and the whole situation," the genius reiterated.
"That's okay, you're allowed to be," James said softly.
"You're being awfully agreeable…"
"I'd rather have you pissed at me, than not have you at all," he told Q honestly, staring directly into the younger man's eyes.
Q's gaze darted from one of James' blue eyes to the other a few times, James suspected he was trying to detect anything deceiving in them, but he was being one hundred percent genuine; there was nothing dishonest to see.
"Oh, bollocks," Q declared, and then an arm snaked around James' neck, a fist gripped the back of his hair, and Q crushed their mouths together. James gripped Q's chin between his thumb and forefinger, kissing him back equally passionately, his tongue seeking out permission to slip between soft lips.
They kissed at length, relearning each other's mouths, lips, and tongues, and when Q finally pulled away to lean his forehead against James', he panted, "God, I fucking missed you, James."
"I'm here now, you won't have to miss me ever again," James spoke softly, punctuating the words with another kiss, this one chaste but lingering. "I love you," he purred, his lips still close enough to brush Q's.
"I love you too…which is very conflicting with how angry I am at you," Q admitted incredulously.
James just grinned smugly, feeling a little more confident that things were going to work out.
"Oh shut it, you very well know how you affect me," the genius huffed good naturedly, then tapped James' thigh, "alright, c'mon then, let's get you properly cleaned up. To the bathroom with you."
"Yes, dear."
Q rolled his eyes, "And do try to behave, James."
"Yes, Quartermaster."