Work Text:
He lay sprawled on his stomach, his mask and coat abandoned so as to give the Engineer better access to his skin. The metal table was never as cold as it should be. Midnighter had spent as much time there as any of his teammates after a fight and he would often distract himself from the million different what-ifs that always ran through his mind post-battle by calculating the exact temperature and reasoning the most likely explanation for it. (81.6% that Angie did it on purpose to make her teammates more comfortable while injured but only if she had preprogrammed the nanites to react that way in every similar situation because sometimes she didn't have the time or attention to tend to banalities like surface temperature.)
He ran the numbers again because it was better than figuring the likelihood that this could have ended badly. (There was a 49% chance that one of his teammates would have been killed if the imposter had acted only slightly differently, though the numbers fluctuate based on who and how and increased to 58% if he included Mindy amongst them. Only a 17% chance that Jenny was ever in any real danger but a 67.45% reality that the imposter would kill Apollo while he was down rather than risk a second confrontation.)
Angie was still working on something on the other side of the medbay, so he mapped her movements by sound and the air currents.
The medbay doors slid open with a soft hiss of air that most of his teammates couldn't even hear and he recognized Apollo without needing to open his eyes.
His husband was in loose cotton and barefoot against the metal floor, so he'd just come from the gym. Midnighter could smell his sweat and feel the slow rise in the ambient temperature of the room.
Apollo bent down and pressed a kiss to the top of Midnighter's head, stroked a finger down the back of Midnighter's neck, tracing the same path Angie had only a few moments earlier with a cotton swab and disinfectant. He lingered only a moment and Midnighter could feel his decision to leave in the hesitation of the finger on his skin and the way Apollo's feet moved against the floor.
There was a 82.3% certainty that Apollo was unhappy with him despite the fact that he'd come. He'd have come regardless, Midnighter was sure. Apollo knew how Midnighter felt about people cutting him open.
He didn't let himself figure the odds as he reached out and snagged Apollo's arm before he could turn completely away. It was cheating to know the end of this before it happened, and it wasn't fair to either of them if all he did was play Apollo by the odds. He might have an advantage but it was no greater than the one Apollo had over him. All he could do was what was right and hope that one day he didn't succeed at driving Apollo away.
The skin under his hand was warm, even through his gloves. Apollo wasn't emitting any great amount of heat, but he wasn't running on empty either. He'd had a chance to recharge after the fight with the imposter.
Midnighter can admit to a certain fierce pride that Apollo hadn't actually thought Assassin 8 was him, even for a minute.
"I did miss you," he confessed. He listened to the slight change in breathing from the other side of the room that meant Angela had heard and was now pretending not to listen. He knew what the odds were that Jenny would hear every word of this conversation as soon as they were done without having to calculate them. Those two were gossipy old hens. They were lucky he liked them.
Apollo's body language hadn't been unwelcoming, but with that confession the muscles beneath his hand relaxed slightly. Midnighter slid his hand down to tangle his fingers with Apollo and tug him back toward the exam table. Firmly enough to make sure Apollo knew his presence really was wanted. Gently enough that he could break free without having to use his strength against Midnighter.
Apollo let himself be tugged until he leaned with one hip against the table, his free hand combing through Midnighter's hair. "Well, that's good, at least. I do worry." He sighed, a slow exhale of breath that didn't sound sorrowful so much as resigned. "You're getting very good at leaving."
It was possibly the cruelest thing Apollo could have said, even though they both knew it was only the truth.
He brought their joined hands to his mouth, pressed his lips against Apollo's knuckles, traced his tongue over skin he hadn't tasted in – weeks, not since after Dubai, not since this Lucas Trent nonsense had started. He wondered, briefly, what he'd have done if it had turned out to be real.
Tried to convince Apollo that small-town life sounded good, probably. He wondered what Mindy would have made of his husband and was forced to admit they'd have teamed up on him in a half a second flat.
"Whatever I was trying to leave, it wasn't you," he said finally.
"God, you piss me off," Apollo complained, but he settled more of his weight against the exam table. "You couldn't have said that before you took off for a couple of months and got yourself a new life?"
"How much of it did you know about?" Midnighter asked. "The Lucas thing?" He wasn't angry – if he ever had been, it had been and gone so fast it hadn't been worth processing.
Apollo leaned down and kissed the back of his neck this time. "I didn't. Not until it was over and Jenny confessed her sins. I thought it was just another cover identity. Just another mission."
That meshed with what he'd figured. Jenny wouldn't have wanted both of them to hate her, but mostly she wouldn't have wanted Midnighter to hate both of them. She'd kept Apollo out of the loop so Midnighter wouldn't lose him too. His kid was brilliant but so fucking stupid sometimes.
"Angie said you approved," he told Apollo, pressing another kiss against his fingers and raising his voice enough that Angie didn't have to pretend she couldn't hear him.
"You leave me out of this," the Engineer called back from where she was fussing over a tray of instruments, none of which are actually necessary for the procedure. "I know better than to take sides with you two."
Apollo raised one finger to brush against Midnighter's lips. "I did. I knew you hadn't been happy here. With the way things were. If a new identity and a new home base could change that... And Jenny liked Mindy. Said she was good for you."
Jenny had given him to Mindy, when she thought Midnighter would hate her for what she'd done. Made Mindy her replacement. It hadn't occurred to him to wonder if maybe Apollo had been preparing to do the same thing.
"Don't think it was mutual," he said finally.
Apollo squeezed his hand tightly for a second and said in voice heavy with weeks of worry, "You're good for me, you know."
He almost opened his eyes, but instead he just shook his head and squeezed back. "You just think so because you're a terrible judge of character. Everyone says so."
It was meant to make Apollo laugh and it did.
Angie choose that moment to move toward the exam table and Apollo's fingers smoothed through Midnighter's hair as he tensed. Not enough that he worried Angie would notice, though she was unlikely to take offense if she had. Just enough for Apollo to feel beneath his hands.
The odds that Angie was going to hurt him were slight – .83% that she had decided to eliminate him of her own free will, 2.78% that she was a shape-shifter or something similar, 3.29% that she was brainwashed or being controlled, although that number jumped to 4.98% if Jackson King was mad at them again. (If Jackson really were trying to kill them he'd have controlled Jenny and the Doctor first, or Midnighter himself, eliminate the three most dangerous members. He'd try to reason with Hawksmoor, Angie and Shen, but he'd have Apollo put down hard and fast because he wouldn't have any other choice after taking out Jenny and Midnighter. Apollo might have cultivated a reputation as a big, dumb, blond but he'd made damn sure that people knew to include the words dangerous and loyal in that description as well.)
The odds were slight but far from zero. And even if he trusted Angie, he couldn't stop himself from figuring all the hundreds of ways that letting her cut him open might end badly.
With Apollo there, the odds that anything would happen dropped to .024% because Apollo would kill Angie if he had to and because even Jackson King or shape-shifting assassins knew better than to take the two of them on together.
Midnighter should have remembered that himself. The Lucas thing – the Harmony thing, the Anthem thing, the Mindy thing – all of it might have gone better if he'd had Apollo with him.
"You ready?" Apollo asked him.
Something cold sprayed against the back of his neck – aerosol anesthesia. It didn't work on him, but he'd told Angie it lasted a few seconds before wearing off. It made her feel better about cutting into a teammate.
He gripped Apollo's hand tighter as his reply, and Angie cut into his skin. He could feel the cool metal of the scalpel, the tingling in his skin as his healing factor kicked in. She had to be fast; his healing factor could start eliminating small wounds like that one in just a couple of minutes.
The comm implant that gave him door capability and let the Authority communicate with him anywhere in the world was the size of a tic tac. He didn't quite bare his teeth as he felt Angie slide it into the hole in his skin, but it was close. Apollo's hand stroked his scalp soothingly, reminding him he was safe, and then Angie was pressing the edges of the incision together and slapping a small piece of gauze and some adhesive on top.
"All right," she said briskly. "You're back online. Want to make sure it works?"
What do you say, beautiful? Apollo asked through the radio-telepathy. Come to bed?
Yes. He opened his eyes then, pupils adjusting to the bright lights of the medbay and the gentle halo Apollo was emitting. His husband was still perched on the edge of the table, looking down at Midnighter with a ridiculous little half-smile, all fondness and none of the tightness that had been in his eyes when they passed in the hall earlier.
Midnighter pressed one last kiss against the back of Apollo's hand. "If I decide to leave again," he said out loud, knowing damn well that Jenny would hear all about it, "I'll ask you to come with me."
Apollo stood and pulled Midnighter against his chest as he rose from the exam table. "If you leave again, I won't give you the choice," Apollo warned him. "I'll give you space, but I won't give you up."
That sounded fair. Midnighter took Apollo's mouth in a lazy kiss. "Door," he said when they parted and he tossed Angie a thank you over his shoulder as Apollo pulled him through.
The Door deposited them in the middle of their bed and Midnighter shuddered as he was surrounded by the scent of Apollo on the sheets, the blankets, the pillows. He dragged his husband down against him, spread his thighs to cradle Apollo between them, and pressed his face against the juncture of Apollo's throat and shoulder, breathing in the scent of him, tasting the sweat that had dried on his skin, feeling the pulse beat beneath his skin.
Apollo ground down against him and they weren't even going to get their clothes off this time. Desire was hot under Midnighter's skin and Apollo's movements were already half-desperate. Midnighter dragged himself away from Apollo's throat, tangled his hands in Apollo's hair and dragged him down to be kissed, hard and wet. Again. Again. Apollo was gripping his shoulders almost painfully tight and Midnighter could feel the bruises forming beneath the skin already. They'd fade by morning, but the memory of them would linger. He curled his fingers against Apollo's scalp, tugged at his hair and growled "Harder," into his husband's mouth, swallowing Apollo's answering groan. "Harder." He hooked a leg around Apollo's dragging him down even as he pushed up against him. Apollo was rock hard and searing hot beneath his work-out clothes and Midnighter wanted to feel that against his own skin. But not enough to let go long enough to undress.
"Missed you," he panted. "Missed you, missed this, missed us," and he shoved up against Apollo's body, shuddering at the feel of him through layers of leather and cotton. "Wouldn't have left you, not for long. Would have come back." And he can feel Apollo start to lose it, the tremor beneath his skin, the breathless panting against Midnighter's mouth. "Would have brought you to me-" he growled and he dragged their bodies closer as Apollo ground their cocks together and came with a flare of bright yellow sunlight.
He rocked his hips against Apollo's slowly, giving him time to recover. "God, you're beautiful," he said, pressing a trail of kisses against Apollo's shoulder as he waited for him to get his breath back. "Look at you, babe. All loose-limbed and glowing. All for me."
Apollo sighed against his skin and pressed closer, rocking his hips back against Midnighter's. One of his hands slid under Midnighter's head, cradled the back of his skull, then cupped his neck, fingers pressing firm but gentle against the rapidly healing incision Angie had made. Against the implant that would let Apollo find him anywhere in the world. The implant that would always make it possible for him to come home again.
Midnighter tugged at his hair, pulled Apollo's mouth up for another kiss and shut out the computer as it figured what the odds were that next time Apollo would be the one leaving him. They were here now, the future could always be changed.
Apollo pulled back just enough to get his free hand between them. He palmed Midnigher's cock through his pants and he must have deliberately increased his thermal output because Midnighter could feel the heat of him through the leather and the groin guard. He shuddered as the heat sank into his skin and he let himself give in, coming beneath Apollo's hand.
"Welcome home," Apollo said. His fingers pressed against the implant, just hard enough to hurt a little. "Take your pants off or I'll incinerate them."
"Definitely taking you with me next time," Midnighter growled and the computer agreed.