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Main Character: Chris
Genre: Slash
Universe: ATF
Pairing: (Vin/Ezra)
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This is the place where I acknowledge that I don’t own the already copyrighted material and remind folks that the following is a labor of love and involves no monetary benefit.
Many thanks to Mog, for allowing the use of her sandbox. Thanks and much love to my beta-reader, Raisa-sama.
Senior Agent Chris Larabee stared out his office window, gazing blindly at the endless blue Denver sky. The events of the morning continued to replay in his head. And it had all started with a phone call.
“Hello?”
Chris had been confused. Checking the caller-ID, he knew he hadn’t misdialed.
“Ezra?” he asked.
“Yes?”
“Why are you answering Vin’s phone?”
“What?!” There was a pause. “Well, it’s obvious that there has been some sort of mix-up, that I should be in possession of Mr. Tanner’s property. You know, this wouldn’t happen if we weren’t forced to have identical cell phones.”
“Ezra.”
“Yes?”
“I’m hanging up now.”
Chris had immediately called Ezra’s cell. Two rings followed by Vin answering.
“Yeah?”
“Vin? Did you know you have Ezra’s phone?” Chris asked.
“Do now. Y’know, we wouldn’t have this problem if you didn’t make us all get the same damn model.”
“Vin.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m hanging up now.”
Whatever the original reason Chris had for calling Vin was forgotten entirely. It had been something mundane, something that could have easily waited until Chris saw him at the office, but whatever it was didn’t matter at all now. Right now, Chris couldn’t think about anything except figuring out what felt so off about the whole thing.
The most likely explanation Chris could come up with for this bizarre episode was it being a form of protest, that his agents were trying to get him to relent on the standard-issue phones, but he didn’t feel that was really it. The way Ezra had sounded when he learned he had the wrong phone gave Chris the impression that this was completely unintentional. There had been genuine surprise, and something akin to fear, in Ezra’s voice.
Perhaps that was it. Chris couldn’t place why Ezra would be scared to have mixed his phone up with someone else. What was he hiding? He wasn’t under currently and whenever Ezra did go undercover, he never used anything but burner phones. Chris doubted that anyone outside of Team 7 even had Ezra’s cell phone number. It wasn’t that Ezra didn’t trust Vin; Chris though the two had a really good relationship.
Chris considered the bond between the two southern agents. They might have been from different parts of the southeastern United States, but Chris had come to learn that there were some things only Vin and Ezra shared, and it was because of their regional origins. The whole ‘sweet tea’ thing was still a mystery to Chris. And why were they constantly blessing his heart? So, despite the differences in their economic and education backgrounds, there were plenty of small, random things that Vin and Ezra connected over, proving that they were much more alike than some realized.
Then there were the big things his agents shared. They were excellent at reading people. Both of them were suckers for kids. Neither could deny a lady’s request. They were introspective, thoughtful, and very private about their feelings. And they were so married to their friends Chris was surprised they didn’t wear rings. At one time or another, Vin and Ezra had each taken bullets for every member of Team 7. Not that they hadn’t all taken bullets for each other, but Vin and Ezra seemed to do it early and often.
“Hey, stud,” Buck said, breaking into Chris’s thoughts. “Brought you some coffee.”
“Thanks,” Chris said. “Come on in.”
“You okay?” Buck asked, handing Chris a black mug printed with friendly red letters that said: Not a people person. “You keeping thinking that hard and you’re likely to pull a muscle.”
Chris shot a quick glare at his friend and took a sip of coffee. “Have you noticed Vin and Ezra lately?”
“Dunno. What about them?”
“They’ve been carpooling a lot recently, right? And they’ve been pulling plenty of pranks together as well. Seems to me like they’ve been pretty close,” Chris said.
“Yeah, so what’s the problem?”
“I’m not sure. Something just feels off,” Chris said, taking another sip.
“Oh, well,” Buck said. “That’s probably just ‘cause they’re sleeping together.”
It was only due to the grace of some good fairy that Chris Larabee’s sinuses escaped a scorching from the hot liquid.
“Buck,” Chris choked, putting his mug down. “If you make me spit coffee out of my nose, I will shoot you.”
Buck laughed for a moment before seeing the deadly serious face of his friend. “Come on, Chris. You’re trying to tell me that you didn’t know?”
Chris remained silent.
“Really?” Buck asked. “You didn’t know that they are, well, you know, together? I’d thought that Vin would’ve told you by now.”
“When it comes to the love-lives of my agents, I have a personal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” Chris said.
“Even mine?”
“Especially yours. You’re the reason I instated it.”
“Wow, Chris. Y’know, I’m almost offended.”
“Yeah, sure. How long have Vin and Ezra been together and how do you know about them?”
Buck thought a moment as he sipped his own coffee. “I noticed shortly after the Clarkson case, so it’s been about seven months or so.”
“Noticed? Noticed what?” Chris asked.
“You know that glow you get after a really good roll in the hay? Not just a nice itch-scratch, but one that’s so good it leaves you a little love-drunk,” Buck said. “So, one Friday morning those two just waltz in here, and I swear, they’re shining so bright I almost need to put my sunglasses on. Well, I think ‘Good for them. Musta found some nice little fillies last night,’ though I was a tad hurt that they didn’t invite me on their damsel-hunting outing. And that’s when I remember Vin telling me the day before that he was giving Ezra a ride home since the Jag was in the shop. Now, maybe I’m not the fastest on the up-take, but I did think it strange for those boys to be out cruising bars on a Thursday night.”
“The Clarkson case,” Chris muttered. “That’s when Ezra pulled his shoulder out last, right?”
“Yeah, and he got real grumpy afterwards.”
“I remember,” Chris said. “Vin told me he was going to talk to Ezra, see if he could pull him out of his funk.”
“Well, he certainly got him out of his funk,” Buck chuckled. “Though I’m not sure how much ‘pulling’ there might have been.”
“Buck.”
“Yeah, stud?”
“Get out of my office.”
<><><><><><><>
Chris stared blindly at the seemingly endless paperwork spread across his desk. Try as he might, keeping his mind focused on work appeared to be an impossible task at the moment. Chris swiveled his chair around to stare out of the window, effectively giving up the pretense of work.
The same questions kept running through his mind: Why hadn’t they told him? Why hadn’t Vin told him? Was he really that scary and unapproachable as a boss? Well, yeah, probably, but that never seemed to stop Vin from telling Chris the truth. They were too good friends to let something like scary, unapproachable, seniority get in the way of confidences.
That was the moment Chris realized what had bothered him from the very beginning. One of his best friends had been keeping a secret from him. Perhaps not purposely, he couldn’t remember Vin ever lying about having a relationship with Ezra, but Chris was upset that Vin had never shared that piece of information. Of course, Chris admitted, he’d never given Vin the opportunity to tell him anything because he had never asked. No time like the present to bite that bullet.
Chris didn’t have to wait long before the agent in question passed by his office.
“Vin? Got a minute?” Chris called out.
“Sure. What’s up?”
“Get the door,” Chris said.
“Okay,” Vin said slowly, closing the door behind him as he entered the office. “There something wrong?”
Chris gave a small groan as he rubbed his temples. As much as Chris felt that he needed an answer, he really did not want to be asking this. “Are you sleeping with Ezra?”
Vin kept a level gaze. “Yeah. What of it?”
“Why haven’t you told me?”
“You’ve got that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy of yours,” Vin answered.
“Well, I’m repealing it,” Chris said. “I feel like I should know if my agents are having an office romance.”
“Do Ezra and I look like the romance type?”
“Shut up, you know what I mean. I need to know if there’s something going on that might impact the rest of us.”
Vin leaned back against the closed door. “Has it? Ezra and I started having sex seven months ago. Has anything changed around here?”
Chris thought for a moment. “You’ve been coming in later than usual.”
Vin hung his head, waiting for the list of reprimands to continue.
“Of course,” Chris added, “you’ve been dragging Ezra in earlier than I ever expected to see him at work, so I’ll concede that it isn’t the worst thing to happen.”
Vin looked up, an eyebrow quirked.
“The two of you have been getting into a lot more trouble in the office,” Chris went on. “You know, they’ve had to install extra fire extinguishers on this floor.”
Vin tried to keep the grin off his face.
“But, you two have been keeping each other out of trouble in the field, so I guess I can live with the trade off,” Chris finished.
“Anything else?” Vin asked.
“I’ll probably come up with some more stuff,” Chris said. He stared at the sharpshooter. “Seven months, that’s a long time. Are you two actually dating or just fuck buddies?”
Vin’s eyes became hard and icy. “Am I just your gun buddy?”
“What?”
“When you and me get together, just the two of us, sometimes we go to the practice range,” Vin said. “Does that make me your gun buddy?”
“No,” Chris replied. “We have more than that. We’re friends.”
“Yeah, like I’m friends with Ezra,” Vin said. “Only when he and I get together, sometimes we have sex.”
“Still don’t see how that’s not just fucking.”
“It ain’t ‘just fucking’ when you love them.”
“Do you love Ezra?” Chris asked.
“Hell, yeah,” Vin said. “He’s my family, just like the rest of y’all.”
“Do you love us, too?” Chris tried to suppress a smirk.
“Course I do. Just don’t want to sleep with y’all,” Vin said, not bothering to hide his own smirk, before his face grew serious. “I haven’t dated anyone since I joined the team. Haven’t wanted to. The six of y’all became my family and I didn’t want anyone else. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything anymore. Y’all give me everything I need.”
Chris was silent as he contemplated this simple declaration that more or less summed up his own feelings toward the six men he considered his family. Not that he wouldn’t still give his right arm to have his wife and son back, but somehow these surrogate brothers made the hole in his life a good deal smaller. Maybe it was because he spent too much time wrapped up in himself, but it had never occurred to Chris that the others might need their little family as much as he did. He was glad that at least Vin did.
Suddenly, Chris found that after a morning spent being plagued by questions that only led to more questions, he had all the answers he needed. Except for one.
“I gotta ask,” Chris said. “What happened this morning?”
“I was at Ezra’s place. He grabbed my phone by accident,” Vin said. “Made me answer his so you wouldn’t know we were together.”
“Ezra doesn’t want me to know?”
“He didn’t think you’d want to hear about us that early in the morning.”
Chris nodded. “He’s right. I wouldn’t have.”
Vin smirked. “I don’t see what the problem is. It wasn’t like you called while I was sucking his toes or anything.”
“Policy reinstated. Get out of my office.”
“Chris.”
“What?”
“You’re all heart, Cowboy.”
“Out!”
Chris shook his head as Vin flashed him a mischievous grin and disappeared out the door. The leader of Team 7 glanced briefly at the endless blue sky before returning to work and his contentedly abnormal life.
fin