Chapter Text
It’s cold in Thomas’ room when he wakes up, the bite of winter in the air even with the curtains drawn, and he nuzzles into Ned’s chest, sliding a leg between Ned’s thighs as he tries to steal a bit more of his warmth. A glance at the clock tells him it’s eight, which is around when they usually wake up on the weekends, but they’d been out late the night before after Thomas and James’ show, and besides, today is a special day.
He holds Ned close, letting himself drift in and out of sleep until Ned starts to stir too, tightening his arms around Thomas and mumbling nonsense into his hair.
“Morning, love,” murmurs Thomas, and Ned makes a pleased humming noise in response.
Still they allow themselves to wake slowly, keeping bodies close as their clothes disappear and their hands wander, open mouths pressed to skin or panting against each other. When Ned eventually pushes inside Thomas, the two of them lying face to face, Thomas’ leg thrown up over Ned’s hip, it is slow and gentle, an exploration of intimacy rather than lust. When they reach their peaks together, it is with the other’s name on their lips and each bit of themselves pressed together and given over to each other.
Between the cold outside their little cocoon and the kisses they can’t stop pressing to each other’s lips it takes a long time before Ned pulls back out of him, before they’re finally able to pry themselves out of the warm embrace of the bed and into Thomas’ bathroom for a shower, where they go right back to kissing under the hot water, unhurried and languid in the way only a weekend morning can be. By the time they’re finally out and dressed and down in the kitchen it’s well after ten.
Thomas makes them breakfast, not allowing Ned to do so much as make the tea, and they’re just finishing eating when Sol and John come downstairs dressed in their running clothes, a clearly half awake Tommy trailing behind them wrapped in their dressing gown.
“Morning,” says Sol, leaning down to smack an extremely noisy kiss to the top of Ned’s head. “You two have big plans today?”
“Dunno,” says Ned. “Thomas won’t tell me.”
“Course he won’t,” says Tommy with a snort. “Tom’s great at surprises, but he’s going to be smug about it all day.”
“If you’re going to be rude then maybe I’ll stop working on the dress I’m making you,” says Thomas, both of them knowing full well he won’t.
“Do you all mind?” asks Billie, flinging open her bedroom door dressed in nothing but a tiny and particularly flouncy nightgown. “Some of us are trying to sleep.”
“Oh please, you haven’t been asleep for hours,” says Tommy. “I don’t know how you always forget my room is right above yours. Is Douglas still here?”
“It’s Magnus, actually?” says the man finally stepping into view behind Billie, fully dressed, “and I was just leaving.”
“Ah, sorry,” says Tommy. “Sometimes the ceiling muffles the specifics of Billie’s pornstar moaning.”
“I’ll call you?” Magnus asks Billie softly, and Billie agrees, sending him on his way with a pat on the arse. Thomas wonders if this one will actually show up a second time. He doubts it, but Billie seems happy with her casual flings and one night stands, and it’s the longest he’s ever seen her go without ending up in a relationship with another horrible man, so he’s chosen not to say anything about it. For a minute Thomas had hoped she might end up with Tom Hartnell for real, but it seems that whatever had happened there (and is continuing to happen occasionally, judging by how often Thomas runs into Tom in their kitchen) had been strictly casual. After his first slight disappointment though, Thomas finds he doesn’t mind too much; he thinks having three couples at work might be too much.
He’s at Discovery full time now; the party had drawn enough attention that they’d been able to bring on three salaried staff members, plus paying Billie hourly for the time she spends there on top of working at the salon.
Thomas had quit his social work, Tommy had quit the restaurant, and Ned, after several intense phone calls with his parents and more than a few existential crises, had finally quit Erebus and joined Discovery as their new head of PR.
It had been just in time; not a month after the pride party Lady Silence had released another article, this time a full takedown of Sir John, detailing all his money laundering, tax evasion, and general financial failings. Sir John had been fired in disgrace and was still pending trial, and Graham Gore, having no desire to be yet another straight, cis man in a line of straight, cis men in charge of Erebus, had convinced Admiralty to bring on James Fitzjames as their new Editor in Chief. The magazine is still recovering from the Sir John drama, but Thomas and Ned had seen Henry the night before at the show and he’d said they were currently on track to have the best January sales since before Sir John had taken over. Then James had planted himself in Henry’s lap and Henry had stopped paying much attention to anyone else.
Thomas and Ned go to the farmers market first, because it’s a Saturday and that’s what they do. Thomas sends Ned to go get them ciders while he picks up the last thing he needs for Ned’s surprise, and then they spend their morning wandering, holding hands and stealing kisses. They return to their bench in the park after, which they’ve thoroughly reclaimed from their first trip there by now, Ned having dragged Thomas there on their second date, sitting him down and kissing him so thoroughly that Thomas had nearly forgotten how to breathe. They split the orange cake that Ned had gotten for them at the cider stall, and Ned licks the glaze from Thomas’ fingers before nipping playfully at them, and Thomas, not for the first time in the last six months and certain it won’t be the last, asks himself again how he managed to get so lucky. He’s in love — really in love for the first time in his life, and tonight he’s going to take Ned out for a gorgeous dinner at Ned’s favourite restaurant and he’s going to tell him.
For now, though, they have another stop to make.
Once the cake is gone they drop their groceries at home before Thomas leads Ned to the tube station.
“Are you taking me to the office?” jokes Ned, and Thomas squeezes his hand and laughs.
“It’s still farmer’s market time,” he teases back. “You know the O word isn’t allowed.”
They get off a stop before the Discovery offices anyway, and Thomas takes Ned around the corner to where his friend Will Strong’s shop is.
“This is us,” says Thomas, nodding at the building. “Now there’s no pressure, of course. I made you an appointment for your ears but if you don’t want it I’m sure I could find something else I want to—”
He looks over at Ned, who’s grinning up at the sign above them that reads Half and Half: Piercing and Tattoo.
“It’s perfect,” says Ned. “Thank you.”
“I have one more thing for you, before we go in,” says Thomas, reaching into his pocket for what he picked up at the market. He presses it into Ned’s hand, and Ned unwraps the tissue paper carefully to see the jewellery inside, the delicate gold hoops with the chain connecting them that he’d fawned over all those months ago.
“They sold the original ages ago,” Thomas explains, “but I asked them about it and they made me another. You’ll have to wait until you get a second set in your lobes of course but—”
Ned cuts him off with a kiss. “I love it,” he whispers against Thomas’ lips. “I love you.”
Well, there’s one bit of Thomas’ carefully planned surprise ruined. For once, he can’t find it in himself to care.
“I love you too,” he says, getting a hand into Ned’s hair and kissing him back fiercely. “So much.”
They break away quicker than Thomas wants to, neither of them wanting to be the couple making out in the middle of the sidewalk, but their smiles stay, soft and happy and unguarded. Thomas feels, maybe for the first time in his life, that everything is in the right place.
“Should we go in?” asks Ned.
Thomas leans in and kisses him once more, quickly. “Yeah, c’mon,” he says, taking Ned’s hand again. “And hey — happy birthday.”