Fic: Five Romance Novel Beginnings Gabe and William Never Had (Gabe/William, 3500 words, FRT)

[rsadelle]

Title: Five Romance Novel Beginnings Gabe and William Never Had
Author: Ruth Sadelle Alderson
Fandom: Bandom - Cobra Starship/The Academy Is
Pairing: Gabe/William
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 3500
Disclaimer: Not real, never happened.
Summary: Five romance novel beginnings Gabe and William never had.
Notes: I've been reading my way through the Gabe/William tag on Delicious and lamenting the fact that so many of them are things where Gabe and William are the "of course they're getting together in the background" couple. I want an epic romance novel AU for them! This is not really that. Instead, it's five ways that story could start. You may also be interested in the Alternate Scenes for this story.
Thank-yous: Thanks to schuyler for naming the snake and M for advice on coffee shops.


1. Contemporary

William's not a total innocent, okay? He's had his share of make-out experiences, and a boyfriend for a while, before it ended badly. But he's not, you know, into hooking up with people randomly. Or even looking for a boyfriend right now. His friends tease him about it and he shrugs it off, but it starts to get annoying after a while. So when this guy, flashy watch, loud tie, sly grin, comes up to him in a bar and says, "I'm Gabe, and you're going to let me buy you a drink," and Mike laughs, William just smiles back and lets Gabe get him another beer, and it has nothing to do with the lightning storm of awareness that prickles under his skin when Gabe looks at him.


2. Secretary

"Gabe," William yells. "I need-" The words are barely out of his mouth before Gabe is sliding into his office and putting down a stack of things on his desk.

"You need to stop freaking the fuck out," Gabe says. "Hold still." He undoes William's tie and slides it off. "What have I told you about trying to dress yourself? Where did you even get this thing anyway?" Gabe stares at the (perfectly normal, by the way) tie, and then drops it on the desk. "You know better than to buy your own clothes." The stack of things he's brought in includes a tie he slides under William's collar and ties into a perfect knot.

"That's not really the best way to talk to the guy who can fire you," William says. Gabe's actually taller than him, but William has his chin tipped up so he's out of Gabe's way and Gabe has his head ducked so he can see what he's doing, so he's actually looking down on Gabe as he says it.

"You can't fire me." Gabe smoothes William's collar over his perfectly tied tie - William doesn't even need to look to know that - and William doesn't wait to be prompted before he holds his hands up for Gabe to switch out his cufflinks. "I know where they keep the Post-its."

The instant Gabe lets go of him, William starts fidgeting with his cufflinks.

"Stop that." Gabe pulls William's hand away and puts a stack of file folders and reports in it. "Get to your meeting. Knock their socks off."

William does.

***

"Okay, God," Sisky says. "We get it already. Gabe's the best thing in the whole world."

William pouts at Mike and Michael and Butcher, but they're all nodding along with Sisky.

"Enough, already," Mike says.

"But," William says, "it's Gabe."

"Why, yes, it is," Gabe says from behind him, and William half turns in his chair to look up at him. He's seen Gabe outside of work before. He's even seen Gabe in casual clothes before. But he's never seen Gabe in these kinds of casual clothes in a bar before. He's in jeans slung just low enough on his hips, a black t-shirt with a brightly colored design that should look ridiculous but doesn't, and a hoodie with gold stars all over it, and he's grinning down at William. He's suddenly no longer the executive assistant who organizes William's life with total confidence and efficiency, but a really hot guy William might consider picking up if they'd met in a club.

"Gabe," Michael says very seriously, and Gabe stops looking at William to look at him instead, "why does Bill even own that sweater?"

There is nothing wrong with William's sweater. It's green, soft, and warm despite the places where the knit is deliberately loose, and it's one of his favorite pieces of clothing.

"Every man," Gabe says as if he's delivering the wisdom of the ages, "deserves to keep one or two of his favorite pieces of clothing." Somewhere in William's closet are a bright yellow t-shirt he hardly ever wears anymore and an even warmer sweater that's too big and made up of blocks of brightly colored yarn.

William's heart feels too big for his chest.

He reaches out and wraps his hand around Gabe's wrist. "Gabriel Saporta," he says earnestly, "you make my whole life better."

Gabe looks surprised, and then he smiles, not a grin, but a real smile, and says, "You bet your ass I do."


3. Pretending to Be Together

"So look, just play along, okay, please?" The guy in front of Gabe is looking at him pleadingly. He has a stutter so it took him forever to get the question out, which means there's no way he's going to be able to ask someone else. Plus, this is exactly the kind of thing that arouses Gabe's insatiable curiosity. As an added bonus, the guy is somewhere on that line between adorable and totally hot.

"Yeah, sure," Gabe agrees, and the guy looks kind of pathetically grateful.

"Thank you," he says on an exhale. Then he glances over his shoulder. And then he plasters himself to Gabe and kisses him.

It's a good kiss. The guy knows what he's doing, and he's tall enough that Gabe doesn't have to bend. And then the guy opens his mouth against Gabe's and Gabe forgets the party, forgets that this is a favor for some guy he's never seen before, forgets everything except the perfection of the guy's mouth moving against his.

He whimpers when the guy pulls away, and fuck shame, Gabe doesn't have any reason to be embarrassed about making that kind of noise when that kind of kiss ends.

There's a guy standing behind the guy who's no longer kissing Gabe, and new guy has his arms crossed and is glaring at them.

"Um, hi," Kissing Guy says. He snuggles up to Gabe, fitting under Gabe's arm like that space has always been there, just waiting for him.

"You going to introduce me?" Glaring Guy asks.

Kissing Guy tips his head like he's thinking about it, and then he says, "No," and tugs Gabe away, around the corner into another room where he unfairly steps away. "So thanks."

Gabe reaches out and runs the pad of his thumb across the guy's lower lip. "I assure you," he says just loud enough to be heard over the noise of the party, "it was definitely my pleasure."

The guy's eyelids dip and come back up again, lashes brushing against his cheek. It's just as entrancing as everything else he's done.

"Mine too."

There is no way - no fucking way - Gabe is letting this guy get away from him. He puts an arm around the guy again, tucking him back into that space that seems made for him.

"Maybe we should get our stories straight, in case he comes back."

The guy's mouth widens into a bright smile that makes him even more beautiful. "Maybe we should. I'm William."

"William," Gabe repeats, just to taste the shape of it in his mouth. "Gabe."

"Gabe," William says. Gabe's name sounds as good on William's lips as William's tasted on his own.


4. Barista

Gabe took his job as seriously as anyone could take being a barista. But sometimes, sometimes you just had to get down. And any time "SexyBack" came on the sound system definitely counted as one of those times.

Luckily, on this particular day, he was on shift with Nasty Nate, who was always amenable to a little grinding - and not only of the coffee bean type - behind the counter.

Of course, the thing about taking his job seriously - and Nate, too, believed in the sacred duties of the caffeine provider - was that when the bell over the door rang, he did at least have to look up and see who was coming in and if they had to be helped that very minute. Sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn't.

This guy was new. Gabe would have remembered him if he'd been in before. Tall, whip thin, long limbs, soft brown hair framing his face and falling to his shoulders.

Nate tried to step away, but Gabe just looped his arms tighter around him.

"It's JT," he announced to the customer. "Can you wait until the end of the song?"

The customer smiled at him, and, wow. Gabe wouldn't even mind having to cut JT short if he couldn't wait.

"Sure," he said, and Gabe was maybe in love with him for not being demanding. Maybe. Just a little bit. "I don't want to interrupt your music time." Maybe more than a little bit.

"No, wait," Nate said. He pulled a Sharpie out of his apron pocket without losing the beat or ceasing to touch Gabe. Nasty Nate had come by his nickname honestly. "We can totally take your order now."

The customer looked a little doubtful. "Large house dark roast."

Gabe's arms were longer, so he grabbed for a large cup, and managed to make the movement match the beat.

"Name?" Nate asked. He hadn't lost the beat yet.

"Bill."

Gabe almost stopped dancing, which did make Nate stumble. Gabe grinned at the face Nate made at him, and said to the customer, "You don't look like a Bill."

"William, actually," Bill/William said. "Bill's usually easier for things like this."

Gabe wrested the cup and pen from Nate's hands. He added three letters and handed them back.

"Billiam?" Nate read.

"The B was already there." Gabe flashed a grin at Bill/William. "You don't mind, do you, Billiam?"

"Usually it's just William," William said, ducking his head and tucking his hair behind his ear.

"That'll be two-ten," Nate said, "and a couple of minutes."

William counted out three ones and put them on the counter.

"Sit down." Gabe waved at the nearly empty store. "I'll bring your coffee and your change out to you when the sexy is all the way back."

William's lips quirked up into a smile again. "Keep the change. Bring the coffee."

Gabe saluted. Nate put the cup down on the counter and the Sharpie back in his pocket, and Gabe focused back on grinding into him instead of watching William choose a place to sit.

When "SexyBack" ended, Gabe let Nate go to restock the cookie trays and took two cups of house coffee over to the table William had chosen. It was in a corner that let him see the whole room and much of the sidewalk outside. William had a book open in front of him, and was looking at that rather than the view.

Gabe put the cup with "Billiam" written on it in a combination of his and Nate's handwriting in front of William, and his own across from it. William's legs were stretched out under the table, and he was deliciously tall, so Gabe stretched his legs out into the aisle when he took the chair across from him. William looked up from his book.

"Generous tip." Gabe thought it was a good opening.

"Consider it a bonus for the entertainment," William smiled, and that time it was directed only at Gabe, "Gabriel," he read off of the cup Gabe had deliberately turned toward him.

"Usually it's just Gabe, but since we're going with long names." Gabe tapped at the name on William's cup.

William pulled his cup away from Gabe's hand and sipped from it.

Gabe grinned at the look on William's face, a disgusted wrinkling of his features. "Should have left you room for cream, huh?"

William ducked his head and tucked his hair back again. "I keep trying to like it black." He got up, though, and went to the condiment bar to add a liberal dose of whole milk and an almost equally large amount of sugar. The look on his face the second time he tried it was one of almost smug satisfaction.

Gabe's heart skipped a beat.

"William, William, William," he said when William sat down across from him again. "You are the loveliest thing to ever grace our humble establishment."

There went the head ducking and hair tucking again. And, oh, if he was going to do that every time Gabe flirted with him, he was never going to stop.

Gabe reached across the table, took William's hand between both of his, and put on his most earnest expression. "Run away with me. I know I'm only a humble barista, but if you'll just be mine, I'll do everything in my power to make you happy."

That time, the head ducking and hair tucking were accompanied by William pulling his hand back and the beginning of a flush across his cheeks. He shook his head a little, more amusement than refusal, and turned back to his book.

Gabe would take what he could get. He sipped his coffee and watched William read until Nate insisted he get back behind the counter so Nate could take his own break.


5. Witness Protection

"You've got to be kidding me."

"What? No." Assistant Director Wentz-call-me-Pete actually looked affronted. "Gabe's one of my best agents."

William glared at the man Pete had introduced as Special Agent Saporta. "He's wearing a purple suit." William didn't know anyone who wasn't a rapper could even get a purple suit. "I thought the idea was to protect me, not make me so conspicuous we can be seen from space."

"Baby," Saporta practically oozed sleaze, "I'll take it off for you. Besides," he added with the flash of a grin, "Pete only assigned me to you because I'm the only one of us taller than you."

William crossed his arms. "No way." No way was he entrusting his safety to some sleazeball of a peacock. The Carloni family wasn't anyone to fuck around with. "No fucking way. You find someone else."

Saporta's hand closed over William's forearm. He tried not to notice how warm Saporta's skin was, or the way it felt like he was going to have Saporta's very fingerprints etched on his arms forever.

"I know you're scared," Saporta said, "but I'm very good at my job. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

William tried not to feel comforted.

***

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. When Pete had said they had a librarian in protective custody, Gabe had expected a quiet, mousy woman. What he'd gotten instead was a mouthy guy who, despite the expected brown hair and plastic-framed glasses, was hotter than sin and twice as tempting. He was going to be one of the difficult ones. Gabe loved the difficult ones.

"Here's how this is going to work," he told William - Beckett, he needed to think of the guy as Beckett. "I'm going to change into something that makes me look like less of a Fed," Beckett snorted at that, but, come on, a purple suit was still a suit, "and then we'll head out to the safe house. There'll be a couple of teams following us, but if they're any good, you won't see them." He raked his eyes down Beckett's body, not to ogle him - much - but just to see. "Pete says your place isn't safe, but you should be okay in my clothes for a few days." Beckett had started to relax, but stiffened at that. Gabe smirked at him. "Don't tell me you don't want to get into my pants."

Beckett turned his glare back on Pete. "I can't testify for you if I'm in jail for killing a federal agent."

Pete was not as fond of the difficult ones as Gabe was and tended to deal with it by ignoring them when they were being difficult.

"I sent Nate to your place to pack a bag," Pete said to Gabe. "He'll meet you at the safe house."

That was good, but there was something else that was more important. "Is he going to feed Britney while I'm gone?"

"I don't know." Pete never paid attention to the important things. "You'll have to ask him."

"Britney is my snake," Gabe explained to Beckett. "Well, my other snake," he added with a leer that was more than sufficient to get his point across.

Beckett's face twisted into something that was probably somewhere between pained and disgusted but which Gabe chose to believe was actually just him trying not to laugh.

***

Living in a safe house was the most boring thing William had ever done. He'd only been there two days and he'd already read five books and rearranged the place's bookshelves seven times. (He suspected Gabe was messing them up just to fuck with him, but it gave him something to do, so he wasn't going to pick a fight about it.) It was made worse by the fact that he was wearing Gabe's clothes, using Gabe's shampoo, and running into Gabe every time he turned around.

Gabe was an incorrigible flirt, but he also had definite opinions about Sartre ("I'm an educated man, my friend"), commandeered the remote to watch Gossip Girl ("Best show on TV"), and carried a picture of his snake in his wallet ("My pride and joy").

It was harder and harder to resist the attraction.

Gabe was expounding on his love for all things pop music when he paused and cocked his head. And then pop music loving Gabe was gone and serious federal agent Gabe was there taking his place.

"Get down," he snapped, and William scrambled out of his chair. Gabe tackled him all the way to the ground at the same time there was a loud pop and something stung his shoulder.

"Stay down," Gabe ordered. He peeked around the edge of the chair. Shots were still sounding from the front of the house, and they'd been joined by shouting. William thought he recognized Suarez and Blackinton's voices.

"We're going to move." Gabe's low voice rasped across William's ears. "Into the kitchen, and then I'll go first out the back door. Stay low and move fast."

William could only nod.

Gabe grasped his hand and gave it a quick squeeze. "You can do this. We're going to be fine."

***

The backyard didn't have any trees or bushes, nowhere for anyone to hide. It was empty. Gabe stepped out onto the back step. No one shot at him.

"Okay." He ducked back inside. "We're going to run. Straight across, over the fence, out to the street."

William nodded. His eyes were huge, his breath coming out in pants. Every one of Gabe's cells was throbbing with the need to protect him.

Gabe took a deep breath and pushed William out ahead of him. They raced across the lawn, Gabe boosted William over the fence, then threw himself over after him. They ran through the neighbor's yard, through the gate, out into the street. Gabe fumbled the keys that hadn't left his possession for an instant out of his pocket and pushed the buttons to unlock the doors and start the ignition.

"Into the car."

Gabe threw the car into gear and waited just long enough for William to get his door closed before he peeled away from the curb. He flicked the switch for the radio even as he took a turn that would take them away from the safe house.

"I've got Beckett," he barked into the radio. "We're fine." He glanced at William and then did a double take. "Shit. You're bleeding."

William blinked at him and then looked down at his arm where blood was seeping through his - Gabe's - shirt. Gabe alternated watching the road with watching William push up his sleeve.

"It's just a scratch."

It was a deep scratch, but it would hold until they got somewhere else.

"There's gauze in the glove compartment," Gabe told William. Over the radio, he said, "Beckett's shot, nothing serious. Going silent. We'll call in later." He flicked the radio off and focused on getting them away and safe.

***

The getaway car William hadn't even known about had a duffel bag and a first aid kit in the trunk. Gabe brought them both into the motel room he'd checked them into.

"Sit down." Gabe pushed him down onto the edge of one of the beds. "Can you get your shirt off?"

William's shoulder was starting to throb and it was still bleeding under the gauze, but he managed to lift his arms enough to get the shirt off.

William looked away while Gabe cleaned and bandaged his arm. They'd shot him. They'd fucking shot him. The reality of that was starting to sink in.

"Hey," Gabe was saying, "hey, it's okay." His hand was in William's hair, and William tipped forward so his forehead was resting against Gabe's stomach. Gabe's arm slipped down around his back and his other arm came around William too. "It's okay," he kept saying. "You're safe."

William put his arms around Gabe's waist. He was solid and warm and alive.

"They tried to kill me." William didn't know his voice was going to shake until he heard it come out that way.

"I won't let them." Gabe's arms tightened. "I won't." William hung on and absolutely believed him.

Comments

[schuyler.livejournal.com]

I love you so much and getting you into this fandom was totally my good deed (to the fandom) for the year.

[rsadelle]

♥ I love you too, and I'm having so much fun with this fandom now.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

These are great. I loved "Billiam" (hee!) and Gabe's purple fed suit and the whole secretary scenario a lot.

[rsadelle]

Awww, thank you! Sadly, I can't take credit for "Billiam" - it's at least mildly canonical. I love secretary romance novel AUs! I want there to be mooorrrrrre of them.

[pr-scatterbrain.livejournal.com]

These all rocked - all would make awesome epic romances (and I agree, Gabe and Willian need more of them).

[rsadelle]

Aww, thank you! (I'm totally waiting for someone to write them a good romance novel AU. Someday it'll happen, right?")

[katelynelaine.livejournal.com]

asdfghjkl; I love them all!

[rsadelle]

Hee! Thanks!