Work Text:
Jon’s phone goes off just as he finishes his statement. He turns it off quickly and starts packing up to leave, putting everything for the current statement back in its folder. He sets the statement to the side and grabs his cane from where it’s leaning against his desk. He pushes himself to a stand with a groan and slides his coat over his shoulders. Jon quickly checks his pockets, muttering ‘cigarettes, lighter, phone, keys, wallet…’ and grabs his back.
He closes down his office and walks out, turning off the light and locking the door behind him. Martin is no longer sitting at his desk and his things have been taken, meaning he’s gone home for the night. However, Tim and Sasha are both still sitting at their desk. Sasha is on the phone and typing at her laptop, asking questions. Tim is sorting through stacks of papers, though it doesn’t seem like he’s actually doing anything more than just shuffling papers around to look busy.
Tim looks up at him and tilts his head, “Leaving already? It’s a normal time of night.”
Jon sighs at the archivist’s statement--and the fact that Sasha got a small smile on her face at his words, “Yes, I do have an event that I need to get ready for. I’d rather not be late.”
“Jon actually has plans?” Tim pushes. Sasha ends her call with a kind goodbye and puts the phone down, typing out a couple closing statements.
She smiles at her boss, “That’s impossible. I bet you’re going to watch a movie or something and want to make yourself not sound lonely.”
“I don’t care about being lonely, Sasha.” Jon sighs.
“Then where are you going? What is this ‘event’ you have?”
“If you must know,” The shorter rubs at his temple with his free hand, “I have a date. That, once again, I’d rather not be late to, so if you would excuse me.”
“You have a date!?” Tim shouts, standing up abruptly. His chair teeters behind him but doesn’t clatter to the ground, “Jonathan Sims has a date!?”
“Yes, Tim, I have a date. Is that really all that shocking?”
Sasha snorts, “Yeah, it is. You’re the type of person I would expect to be lonely forever, no offense. You’re just very… prickly, and more in love with your work than anything else.”
“I’m prickly?” Jon pushes before shaking his head, “I’m not more in love with my work than anything else-”
“Yeah Sash, have you seen him with cats?”
“I guess so.” Sasha shrugs, “But you really have a date?”
“Yes,” Jon sighs, “It does happen to be our anniversary and I don’t want to make him wait too long. He knows I’m a very punctual person.”
“Anniversary?” Tim chokes on air, gazing at Jon with wide eyes, “And, I’m sorry did you say ‘him’?”
Jon furrows his brows, “Of course I said him. Did you honestly believe that I was interested in women?”
“Fair point.” Sasha says, standing up and starting to collect her own things, “You should probably get going.”
The shorter checks his phone and nods, “Yes, I should.” He turns and starts walking out of the archives, throwing over his shoulder, “Whichever one of you leaves last, make sure to lock up.”
“Make sure to tell us about your date!” Tim calls back.
“I won’t.” Then Jon walks out of the archives and into the cool street. He makes his way to the tube to head home, grabbing out his phone to send a text Martin’s way.
Jon
I’ve just gotten onto the tube. I don’t intend to take that long at home.
He gets a thumbs up in response and slides his phone back into his pocket.
The walk home after he gets off the tube doesn’t take that long and Jon finds that there’s an unusual pep in his step as he walks along the sidewalk. When he gets home, he places his bag gingerly on the coat rack and walks into his and Martin’s room and starts changing into a better date outfit.
It’s not much different from his usual attire; a cropped pinstripe vest over a looser white button up with his top button bravely undone and a pair of dark jeans ripped at the knees. He pulls his necklace from under the button up and slips his ring off of it and onto his finger. He throws another necklace on and pulls his hair out of its tie only to tie it back up in a half-bun. He puts in a pair of diamond earrings and throws his coat back around his shoulders. After that, he grabs whatever he needs and walks out of the flat once again, texting Martin that he’s on his way.
It’s a short walk to get to the restaurant that he and Martin will occasionally visit. Upon walking in, he sees that Martin is sitting in a private booth in the corner of the room. The hostess smiles upon seeing him and silently leads him back to the table that his husband is sitting at.
Martin smiles when he sees him, “You look good, Jon.”
“Thank you Martin.” Jon smiles softly, tilting his head a bit and gazing over his husband, “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“Don’t flatter me.” The taller says, swatting at his arm.
“I mean it.” And he does, Martin is wearing one of the knit sweaters that he made on top of a black button up paired with black slacks. His usually unruly hair has calmed down too. Jon accentuates the words with a kiss to his husband’s lips.
Martin decides to change the topic, face bright red, “Did you have any issues with Sasha and Tim?”
“They pestered me about it once I told them that I was going on a date, but they let me go otherwise. I have a feeling that I’ll be facing some issues with them tomorrow.”
“Well, let’s not think about that, yeah?” He wraps his arm around Jon’s shoulders, “Let’s just enjoy tonight. Have some lovely dinner then go home and cuddle.”
“You act like we don’t do that every night. And have for literal years.
Martin laughs lightly, “And? It’s perfect. We have no reason to break our routine if it works so well.”
“We’ve grown quite boring, haven’t we?” Jon snorts, “When we met we were going out and partying-”
“And you were in a band, jumping around on stage and performing.” Martin says, humor sparkling in his eyes. He loves the pictures that he has of Jon dancing around one stage, even before they were dating.
“-yes, that. But now we’re in our thirties, not even that old compared to some of the people that we work with, and we’ve likely got the most boring day to day lives. We aren’t even doing anything big to celebrate our anniversary.”
“Would you like to change that?” Martin hums, tilting his head a bit, “We can always go to the pub down the street and dance to the local bands playing. Or we can go and get a bunch of alcohol from the store down the street from our flat and get absolutely wasted. Maybe we should go skateboarding at the skatepark that you used to hang out at.”
Jon pushes lightly at his husband, “Shut up. I don’t mind doing this, it was just an observation. Though, I wouldn’t say no to us picking a bottle of wine and settling down to watch a show before we go to bed tonight.”
“Then we can do that.” Martin nods, waving over the waiter and getting their orders taken down for them, getting a bottle of nice wine for them to share. Their dinner goes well, the two of them happily chatting away about their days and trying to stray away from too heavy topics that involve their work. Martin tells Jon about the encounter he had in the library with Sasha's annoying ex that assumes that she’s now dating any guy that she talks to and Jon tells Martin about Tim’s amusing revelation that Jon is, in fact, gay.
When they finish with their dinner, they head out and start walking back to their flat, stopping by the 24 hour store by their building to grab another bottle of wine before heading inside and making quick work of getting to their house. When they get in, Martin takes the wine bottle to the kitchen while Jon shucks off his coat and shoes, fetching their bottle opener and pouring both of them generous glasses.
The two of them cuddle on their couch, nursing their glasses of wine and watching a show, occasionally commenting on something happening or if an aspect in the show is illogical.
They finish the night by migrating into their bedroom and falling asleep in each other’s arms, pressing kisses to each other’s faces and lips and telling the other just how much they love them. It’s sweet and it’s theirs.
The next day, they do as they normally do, with Jon getting to the office at an ungodly hour in the morning to unlock everything and get himself some coffee--as much as he enjoys tea, coffee wakes him up well in the morning and Elias, shitty as he is, has an impeccable taste in good coffee--before retreating into his office and getting himself ready for the day of reading horrid statements.
Martin comes in about an hour later, his voice echoing alongside Sasha’s as they walk into the office together and settle themselves at their desks. Jon can hear them talking through the door, which he always leaves cracked open for Martin to stop in and give him the breakfast that he prepared before leaving the flat, and he overhears Sasha telling Martin about his weird, timely disappearance the previous day as they walk into the break room.
“I didn’t even know that he was dating someone. Especially long enough that its their anniversary. That’s at least a year.”
“I’m not that shocked about it.” Martin hums, though his voice is quiet. Despite that, Jon could pick out his voice in a room of screaming people because he’s come to know his husband’s voice so well in the past years that they’ve known each other, let alone been together. He can also practically see the mans’ shrug.
“You’re not? What about your whole crush on him?” Sasha pushes, her voice practically booming compared to Martin’s soft one, “You’re just okay with him dating someone when you feel like that towards him.”
“I don’t mind, really.” Martin says softly, “If he’s happy, then what can I do about it?” And his words make Jon laugh because Martin is saying this knowing that he’s the one that makes Jon happy. He’s the one that makes Jon go home each day and wants to take care of himself.
A couple minutes later, there’s a soft knock on the door and Martin walks in, closing the door behind him. He hands the now-warmed breakfast to Jon and leans down to press a kiss to his husband’s temple, “I might stay in your office for a while. Sasha and Tim won’t shut up about you leaving for our date. They’re upset that I’m not caring about it and are about to start insisting that you come out to tell them about it.”
“Curse me and my bad habits of leaving late.” Jon sighs, “If I left at a normal time everyday, they wouldn’t be shocked about my leaving yesterday.”
“Yeah, well. Maybe it’s a good thing.” The man says, leaning against Jon’s desk, “Now we can start hinting to them that it’s me you’re married to, and start hinting that you’re married at that.” He reaches forward and pulls the necklace with his ring on it out from underneath Jon’s shirt, toying with the small thing before allowing Jon to take it from him and tuck it back into his shirt. Then he stands up and presses one more kiss to Jon’s forehead, “I should go before they start getting suspicious. I’ll see you later.”
“See you.” And with that, Martin walks out of the office, shutting the door tight behind him. The day goes by fine, with Jon able to read most of the cases he has set aside for the day without being disturbed by Sasha or Tim, his only interruptions being Martin bringing him tea and dragging him out of the office for smoke breaks or getting lunch.
When Jon does go to get lunch, he attempts to avoid every question that Tim and Sasha throw his way about his date the previous night, usually by ignoring them and making it incredibly obvious that he doesn’t want to talk to them about it. Once he’s finished with the food that Martin had made for him, he rushes back into his office and gets back to work almost immediately as an excuse.
It’s only until later, after a horrid case, does Jon emerge from his office, though it’s only in favour of calling Martin into his office. Martin stands up from his desk and rushes into the room, closing the door behind him while Jon collapses onto the couch that he has in there. Immediately, Martin is rushing over to Jon, sitting on the couch with him, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just… I read a case and it…” Jon shakes his head, “It shook me up. There’s a recording that went along with it too.”
“What case was it?” Martin asks, standing up and walking to Jon’s desk, going through the files.
“The Laura Popham one.” Jon says, closing his eyes and attempting to forget the particulars of the case. Martin skims through it really quick, with Jon watching his facial expressions as he gets to each different part of it.
Eventually, Martin finishes the case and he walks back over to the couch, sitting down and pulling his husband into his arms, “That’s rough, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, I just… I need a minute or two.” Jon shakes his head, “I don’t even know why it got to me so bad but…”
“You’re not perfect. You’re fallible,” Martin reminds him softly, “I know that you pretend that a lot of the cases are fake or explainable, but we both know that you believe them. We both know that they can get to you, you should let them sometimes. It’s not good for you to deny everything.”
“I know…” Jon shakes his head once again, “Can you just… hold me for a while?”
“How about we go for a smoke, get you out of a cramped space for a little bit and into some fresh air, then we can come back in and I’ll hold you. Does that work?” After a couple seconds, Jon nods and Martin pulls him out of his office. Together, they leave the building after telling Sasha, who’s the only one sitting at her desk right now, that they’re going out for a smoke. Neither of them pay mind to her questioning tone -- she had clearly figured that Martin was being called into Jon’s office to get yelled at, so her confusion as to why the two of them are going out for a smoke is understandable -- when she responds.
Their smoke break is quick, with Martin holding Jon against his body while they both smoke their own cigarettes, neither of them talking. Jon just leans against Martin with his eyes closed and taking deep breaths between drags of his cigarette.
Eventually, they ash their cigarettes and head back inside, making their way to Jon’s office and ignoring Tim and Sasha’s questions as to why Martin is going back into Jon’s office. Once they’re inside, they make their way back to the couch and stay for ten minutes or so with Martin just holding Jon in his hands, rubbing his hand up and down the shorter’s back and muttering sweet nothings to him.
Unfortunately, Jon has to go back to reading statements and Martin has to go back to working, so they eventually have to break apart from each other. Martin presses a kiss to Jon’s lips before slipping out of his office, dreading how he’s going to have to explain the whole situation to Tim and Sasha without them getting suspicious.
~~~~~
“What are your plans for the Christmas season, boss?” Tim asks, draping himself over his desk to make sure that he fully has Jon’s attention.
“Nothing really.” Jon shrugs, “My partner and I don’t really have anyone to visit or spend time with so he and I are going to be hanging out at home most of the time. He wants to bake a bunch so we’ll end up doing that.”
“Wait, are you living with your boyfriend?” Sasha asks, “You said ‘hanging out at home.’”
“I’m… living with him, yes.”
“That means you’ve been with him long enough that you two have moved in together.”
“Yes, that is typically what it means.” Jon nods, “I find it comical how much you two underestimate my love life. What about you two, what are you going to do for the Christmas season?”
Sasha shrugs, though she does send a glare his way, probably picking up on the fact that he is wholly changing the topic, “Tim and I are planning to spend it together. Maybe we should find a day where us, you, and Martin can all get together.”
“I’m alright with that,” Jon hums, “We’ll just have to figure out a day. But, for now, I’m going home for the day.”
“Already?” Tim asks, tilting his head, “Got something going on with this boyfriend again?”
Jon hums, almost at the door, “Technically yes. He’s upset about how much time I’m spending working so he’s requiring that I leave at a normal time, at least for a while.”
“And that’s how we know that this boyfriend is good for you.” Sasha cheers, “Get home safe, Jon.”
“Of course, please whichever one of you leaves last, remember to lock up.”
“Always.” And with that, Jon walks out of the archives and leaves the building with one last goodbye to Rosie on the way out.
A couple days later, Jon is able to finagle a couple days off from work for himself and the archivists from Elias after a bit of debate and several passive aggressive emails back and forth so he and Martin can spend part of their holidays at home before they have to get ready to go to the company Christmas Eve party -- and a couple days to prep for Sasha and Tim to get wasted and harass them at said party about Jon’s partner not being at the party and running around telling people about the fact that their stoic boss is in a long-term relationship.
A couple days into their break from work, Jon and Martin are in the kitchen making homemade candy and sweets. And while Jon is stirring the caramel mixture they’re making on the stove, Martin is texting back and forth with Sasha and Tim in their work group chat, trying to figure out a good day for them all to meet. And, upon them requesting after Martin tells them what he’s up to, the taller ends up snapping a picture of the boiling pot of caramels and sending it to the two of them, and neither of them think anything about the picture.
Until Martin swears under his breath, “What’s wrong, Martin?”
“Tim noticed your hand in the picture and he’s freaking out about it.”
Jon hums, “I’m honestly surprised they didn’t put two and two together until just now. I did tell them that I was going to be making candy and cookies with my boyfriend the other day.” Then he huffs a laugh, “The poor things, they’ve been through so many revelations when it comes to my love life.” Martin laughs and stalks towards his husband to give him another kiss.
“When are we going to tell them that we’re not just dating?”
“They can figure that out for themselves.”