Chapter 37 #3
“Marks, you fucking bastard.”
Zenko didn’t so much as blink. “Boss.”
Shaun bit the inside of his cheek hard enough to hurt, because Noble had purple paint dripping from the end of his nose and enough silver glitter stuck to his face to keep the bastard sparkling until Christmas.
Max had turned away beside him, shoulders shaking, and Shaun finally lost the battle.
A laugh escaped before he could stop it.
Noble’s attention shifted straight to him. “Something funny, Shaw?”
“Not a fucking thing.” Shaun fought to get his face under control and failed miserably when another piece of glitter slid down Noble’s cheek. “Sir.”
“Uh-huh.” Noble wiped his face again before looking down the line of operators standing in front of him. “Anybody want to tell me who the fuck thought that was a good idea?”
Zenko remained perfectly still in formation, but Shaun caught the twitch at the corner of his mouth. “Negative, Boss.”
“Of course.” Noble dragged his shirt up and wiped the worst of the paint from his face before looking at the rest of them. “Ladies, today we party, tomorrow we go back to work. What do you say?”
“Hooyah, Boss, hooyah.” The response came back as one before Noble finally waved them off, and the formation dissolved into laughter, complaints about ruined clothes, and a mad scramble for whatever beer had survived the fucking war.
Castiel headed straight for the grill while Roman started collecting the empty containers, and Max disappeared toward the table with a handful of napkins.
Zenko broke formation the second Noble dismissed them and came straight to Shaun, glitter still caught in his hair and purple paint smeared across one cheek. He wiped a streak of paint from Shaun’s jaw with his thumb before grinning at the mess covering both of them.
“You good, babe?”
“Yeah.” Shaun grabbed Zenko by the front of his ruined shirt and pulled him close, kissing the corner of his mouth despite the glitter that immediately stuck to Shaun’s lips. “You know, for a bunch of highly trained covert operators, you fuckers are really bad at behaving like adults.”
“Took you long enough to figure that out.”
Zenko slipped an arm around Shaun’s waist and leaned against him as Castiel shouted that the burgers were ready. Shaun looked across the backyard at the men laughing around the grill, at Noble still glittering despite his best efforts to wipe it away, and then back at the man holding him.
“You’re happy?” Zenko asked, his voice quieter beneath the noise around them.
Shaun turned in Zenko’s arms and rested his forehead against his. “Yeah, babe. I fucking am.”
Zenko smiled, and Shaun kissed him again before pulling him toward the table.
“Now come on. Your family is waiting, and apparently I bought enough food to feed the entire freaking task force.”
“That’s because you married into Red Squadron.” Zenko slipped his arm around Shaun’s waist and steered him toward the others, where Castiel was already yelling that anyone who wanted a burger better get their ass moving. “There’s no escaping us now.”
“Who the fuck said I wanted to escape?” Shaun grabbed two beers from the table and handed one to Zenko before dropping into the chair beside him.
Roman immediately started giving him shit about the amount of glitter still stuck to his hair, and Shaun flipped him off without hesitation.
Somewhere along the way, these men had stopped being Zenko’s team and become people Shaun wanted around his table, in his house, in his life.
He looked at Zenko beside him and knew there wasn’t anywhere else he’d rather be.
Zenko caught him staring and nudged his knee beneath the table. “What?”
Shaun smiled and reached across to lace their fingers together beneath the edge of the table, keeping hold of him while the backyard filled with laughter and the smell of food coming off the grill.
“Nothing. I was thinking I got pretty fucking lucky.”
Zenko squeezed his hand, his smile turning soft as he leaned closer. “Yeah, you did.”
“So did you, asshole.” Shaun lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss against Zenko’s knuckles before settling back in his chair. “You’re stuck with me.”
Zenko looked at him for a long second, then brought their joined hands to his mouth and kissed Shaun’s fingers. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Shaun smiled as Zenko leaned against his shoulder, their hands still locked together beneath the table while the men around them argued over burgers and beer.
Tomorrow would bring work, orders, and whatever the next mission demanded of them, but tonight belonged to them.
Zenko was his, he was Zenko’s, and whatever the future brought them, they would face it together, always.
Thank you for reading Zenko and Shaun’s story.