FIC: Prove It, Part 5 (F/M)
Title: Prove It
Rating: R
Genre: Humour, smut
Fandom: A-Team movieverse
Warnings: Language, slash, sex
Summary: For a prompt on A-Team Prompts: Face wants to help Murdock get laid. Murdock shows him that he needs no help in that department, thankyouverymuch.
(PART ONE) (PART TWO) (PART THREE) ( PART FOUR)
Face tensed as he heard footsteps approaching his door. He was feeling much better, thanks to painkillers and eggs, but being able to move your eyes without wanting to die and being up for one of Hannibal’s Talks were completely different kettles of fish. One wasn’t even a kettle of fish: It was a kettle of... Wait, the Hannibal talk was the fish one, because fish stink and no one likes being around a seafood market, and the other was, like, a kettle of... pie, or something?
See, this was why he wasn’t up for a conversation with the Colonel. He’d need at least two functioning braincells and his were too tied up reminding him to be embarrassed and/or horny at any given moment to do anything else. At times like this, Face thought he could understand how Murdock felt when his brain wouldn’t do what he wanted it to. Scary.
As Face was having his mental crisis, the footsteps faded away. So Hannibal wasn’t going to talk to him. Not yet anyway. That could be a bad thing in the long run - if Hannibal was simmering, who knew what he’d come out with when he finally unleashed? - but at least it was a problem Future Face would have to handle. Present Face sighed in relief.
Then started violently at a knock on his door.
“Face? Can I come in?”
Murdock. Damn him and his light footfalls!
“Yeah, sure, buddy,” the conman replied, hastily straightening his doona and wishing he’d thought to take the time to dress himself in something better than his sleepwear-
Wait, was he preening? For Murdock?
Fuck that. As the door swung open, Face yanked the bedcovers into disarray again.
Murdock closed the door behind him, eying Face warily as the sheets settled back onto the bed. (Face’s yank had been quite hard. Army strong!)
“Uh, is this a bad time?”
Face shook his head. “No, no, it’s fine.” He hated this feeling. It’s how he’d imagine he would have felt around girls as a teenager, had he not spent his teen years being effortlessly cool and sexing every attractive person he wanted from the time he was 14. Stupid late-onset awkwardness.
“Good.” Murdock hesitated before sitting next to Face on the bed. Well, yeah, thought Face. The ship of “personal space” between them had well and truly sailed, even before last night.
Face’s stomach sank as a thought occurred to him. “Did Hannibal tell you to talk to me?”
“What?” Murdock seemed genuinely surprised by the question. “Oh! No. No. No no. He, uh.” Murdock ran a hand through his hair. “No.”
Face raised an eyebrow. Murdock could be the worst secret-keeper in the world. Especially when he didn’t want to keep the secret. “What did he say?” the blond prompted.
As predicted, Murdock sighed and relented instantly. “He said that I could always go to him if I needed someone to talk to.” Face shuddered. “Yeah. He was more concerned about the fact that we’re teammates than the Phillip Morris aspect of the whole thing.”
It took Face a second to get the reference. “I would have just said, ‘The amount of cocks,’ but sure.”
Murdock let out a short laugh. “But how do you know how many is TOO many?”
Face didn’t pause. “Depends on the kind of broth you wanna make.”
“Oh god. That’s bad, Faceman.”
“It’s bad, but it can be oh-so right.” Face reddened a bit. He’d meant that as a snappy line, but it had come out all wrong. The delivery was off and it sounded… kinda gay. “So, uh, the talk was okay then? I don’t need to wrap my belongings in a rag tied to a stick and run away from home?”
Murdock giggled. “Your stuff wouldn’t fit in a rag on a stick.”
Face could see where this was going. Ha ha, he had a lot of bathroom products, ha ha. “Yeah, very funny…”
Murdock refused to be headed off at the pass. “You’d be like, ‘Oh I need THIS jacket for the summertime, and THIS one for the evenings, and what if it gets a bit chilly? I’ll need THIS cardigan-‘”
“I don’t wear cardigans!”
“’…and THIS pair of cufflinks, ooh and this cravat, and how many ascots is enough ascots?’”
“WHAT? Shut up.”
“’And maybe I should take BOTH pairs of Edward Greens because the brown ones are less formal…’”
“Brown isn’t always less- Shut up.”
“I’m just saying-“
“No!”
“-you have a lot of stuff.”
“Yeah, thanks, I got that.”
“No problem.”
Face sighed and resisted the urge to stick his tongue out. For many reasons, that wouldn’t be an appropriate course of action. “My hilarious possessions aside-“
“They are hilarious.”
“Shut up. That aside, it’s all good with Hannibal?”
Murdock’s smile fell slightly. He looked away. “Uh, yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck and laughed. It wasn’t a real laugh. “Uh, he was. Don’t tell him I told you this, okay? But I think the he was kind of in protective father mode.”
Face was stunned. And stung. He didn’t really know what to say. “That’s… Okay.” He ignored the sudden nausea that washed over him. He asked for it, really. After all, he did sleep around, and he joked about it just as much as anyone else. But for Hannibal to think that he’d treat his best friend like that… Face breathed hard through his nose, trying to quell the flurry of emotions that were trying to rise up. He thought Hannibal knew him better than that. He thought Hannibal thought better of him. “I deserve that, I guess. Did you… What did you tell him?”
Murdock blinked. And stared. “Face, he wasn’t protective of me.” The “you clueless idiot” wasn’t spoken, but it was heavily implied by the Southerner’s tone. “He was making sure you were okay.”
Face took his own turn at blinking and staring. “Oh. But. Why?”
Murdock looked at him with a kind of cautious pity. Only the clear affection in his eyes stopped Face from being offended. “He saw who dragged who out of that room, Faceman. Ain’t a question about whose great idea it was.”
Face only just stopped himself from saying something mortifying and corny like, “It was an incredible idea.” Best to survey the lay of the land before verbally offering himself on a silver platter again.
Murdock continued. “And, well, we all know what you’re like, Face. You keep things casual. You don’t shit where you eat.” It was a diplomatic (generous, even) way to phrase it. “I think Hannibal was worried that I’d overstepped your boundaries, you know. Friend, teammate, sex thing.”
“Tiger?” Face couldn’t help offering. Murdock just shrugged, his crooked smile far too tense and small. “You didn’t- Everything that happened was consensual, Murdock. Especially after this morning, I can’t believe I’m even clarifying that.”
“I know,” Murdock assured him. “Hannibal did have a point though. I didn’t think about what I was doing and it could have really fucked things up. He’s right about that. I shouldn’t have risked it. It was impulsive.” His eyes were wide and earnest.
Face was, once again, flabbergasted. “Are you apologising to me for dragging me into your bedroom and fucking my brains out?”
There was a thunderous bang on the adjoining wall between his and BA’s rooms. Oops. Too loud. Sorry, BA.
He lowered his voice. “Seriously. What the fuck? What horrible Opposite World have I woken up in? You don’t apologise for awesome sex.” He struggled very hard to not shout that last part.
Murdock twitched a bit. “No, I’m… It was a pretty stupid thing to do.”
Face wasn’t getting this at all. “Because we’re teammates? Fuck that. We both enjoyed it, right?” Murdock nodded. “How’s enjoying something together meant to wreck our friendship?”
Murdock smiled a bit. “I think it’s a bit more complicated than that, for most people.”
Face frowned. “Is that what it’s about? I sleep around so I must not understand the possible fallout from sex with someone you’ve met more than once?” He was getting loud again, but couldn’t give a shit. “I just hump everything I see and I don’t understand basic human emotions?”
Murdock looked distressed. “No, Face. No! None of us would ever say that.” He took Face’s hands in his own. “Please don’t think that. Hannibal was just worried, and then I got worried, because sex CAN fuck things up. Everyone’s got their own baggage and expectations… I mean, look at this morning. We obviously had different ideas about what it was going to be…”
Wait, so now Face was the chick? He pulled his hands away, glaring. “I don’t get it. Am I a shallow playboy who just pumps and leaves or am I a lovesick idiot?” He knew he was being dramatic, but he was offended and didn’t care.
“Face, please,” Murdock begged, frustrated and upset. “That’s not what I’m saying. There was the potential for one, or BOTH, of us to get hurt in this. Or just make everything uncomfortable and fuck things up. This conversation wouldn’t be happening for one thing, and this conversation sucks.”
He put so much emotion into the word that Face couldn’t help but lower his defences slightly. “Why are we having this conversation?”
“Well, I wanted to-“
“You don’t need to apologise. I’m sorry for chasing you around with my boner this morning.”
“That’s okay. You’ve done worse.”
“Yes I have. That’s the point. So. We’re clear? We both enjoyed last night and we’re still friends?”
Murdock nodded. “Yeah.”
“You’re not gonna flake out on our next mission because you’re thinking about my sexy abs?”
“Tempting, but no.” Murdock’s voice was teasing, but not sarcastic. “You not gonna do a slow-mo dive in front of me at a stupid moment because I am your lover?” He pronounced the last word “luffer” in an accent Face couldn’t pick.
“I’ve already jumped in front of a bullet for you,” Face pointed out.
“It wasn’t in slow-mo,” argued Murdock. “And you didn’t scream my name, or, “Noooooo!’ when you did it.”
“What, so it doesn’t count?”
“Motivation was different.”
Face sighed. “Fine. I promise that any time I save you from dying, it’ll be strictly as a friend and teammate and nothing to do with your amazing cock.”
Murdock turned red faster than Face would have thought humanly possible. “Ah. Yeah, okay. That works.”
“Hey, sorry.” Face didn’t want things going weird again. “I’ll stop joking about it.” He watched Murdock carefully. “Do you want to just pretend it didn’t happen?” There was no rancour in his tone. If that’s what Murdock wanted, he’d respect that.
Murdock scratched at his arm and didn’t meet Face’s eyes. “No…” He sounded unsure. “I don’t know, Faceman. What do you want?”
“You know what I want,” Face answered simply, honestly. He’d told Murdock that this morning.
“No, but,” Murdock looked around the room as though the walls would tell him what to say. “What would that be? Like, an arrangement? Would we just be each other’s port in a storm in small towns, or would we… I don’t know.” He broke off, looking annoyed, and scratched his arm again.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, man,” answered Face carefully. “I can’t say what it would be yet. It was really good. I’d love to do it again, but not if it screws up anything between us.”
“I just.” Murdock’s eyes were horribly vulnerable. “I wouldn’t like either of us to be hurt.”
“You think you would hurt me?” Face drew a gentle line down Murdock’s cheek with his knuckle, encouraging the other man to look at him. “Or that I’d hurt you?”
Murdock gave a slight shrug. “Both, I guess.”
“Why would I get hurt?” Sometimes Murdock responded best to direct, solid questions. Probably a by-product of countless psychiatric interviews.
Murdock squirmed a bit. Face stroked his hand lightly - permission to speak freely (and possibly offend). Face was a big boy. He could take it.
“I don’t want you to feel rejected,” Murdock finally blurted. “You’re such a good person, and you’ve had that too much. If this doesn’t work out, or I don’t, or something happens. I don’t want you to go through that shit again.” He turned his hand, gripping Face’s fingers firmly.
Face shook his head, genuinely bewildered. “You could never hurt me.” Murdock scoffed. “No, I mean it. You wouldn’t let that happen. Whatever else happens, you wouldn’t. I trust you. And I mean, it’s not like we’d be dating.”
Murdock gave Face a look that the blond was sure he was supposed to understand. “Faceman, come on. We’re already kind of dating.”
Face’s mouth fell open. “No we’re not!” he spluttered.
“Sorry, Face, but it’s true. Look at us. We’re talking about our feelings, holding hands.”
Face tried to pull his fingers out of Murdock’s grasp. “That’s - ow, let go! - that’s circumstantial evidence.”
Murdock clung on. “We eat together, live together, work together, go out together, sometimes shower together…”
“Alright, alright! Point taken.” Face looked down. Somehow Murdock had entwined their hands so their fingers were interlocking. “Oh, fuck you. Fine. Alright, boyfriend. Why would you get hurt?”
The mirth slipped from Murdock’s face a little. “Oh. Um. Okay.” Now it was Face who wouldn’t let go. “Well, you know how you are, Faceman. One smile from you and anyone’s heart would start to flutter. I don’t know if I’ve got enough tinfoil to make armour against that.” He gave an embarrassed, apologetic smile. “I can do a casual fuck, don’t get me wrong. But, I think, not with you. You’re my best friend, Face. I already love you more than I love salt ‘n’ vinegar chips. I think if I let myself feel more, well. It just wouldn’t be good for me.”
Face felt so stupid. So very, very stupid. “You’ve thought about this before, haven’t you?”
That look of rueful apology again. “A bit, yeah.”
Face didn’t think about what he did next. Which was obvious, because it wasn’t necessarily the most tactful thing to do under the circumstances. He leaned forward and put a soft, chaste kiss on Murdock’s lips.
It only lasted for a few seconds before they both pulled back. Murdock didn’t look angry, which was good.
Face bit back on the urge to apologise. That would get them nowhere. Instead he looked his friend in the eye, fingers still entwined. “I love you, Murdock. Not just because you love me.” That earned a small smile, at least. “I didn’t know.”
Murdock shook his head. “No no, it’s not like that. I haven’t been pining away for you or anything. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“Maybe the odd shower fantasy or two...”
“Seriously?” Face was flooded with relief. “Thank god. I thought I was the only one.” He looked at his best friend and felt a surge of pure affection. “Murdock, I think, if this isn’t too lame to say, I think we can make this work. Look at us. Less than twelve hours after absolutely mind-blowing sex, we’re hashing out all the issues that arose from said mind-blowing sex. We are, like, the kings of open communication. If it fucks up, it fucks up. We’ll make sure we don’t hurt the team, or our friendship.”
“You can’t promise that, Face. And I think this was exactly what Hannibal was talking about NOT doing for the sake of the team.”
“Hannibal can’t tell me who to fuck.”
“That’s pretty much what I said.”
“See? We’re perfect for each other!” At Murdock’s laugh, Face continued, encouraged. “Murdock, I know it’s weird and sudden and definitely the backwards way of doing things, but I want to try this. I do. I think that’s why it feels right, because there’s no one else I’d consider doing this with.”
“Faceman, that’s easy to say when we’re in the middle of Assfuck Nowhere.” He paused. They both giggled. “You know what I mean. What about when we’re in the big cities again and there’s 36-24-36s as far as the eye can see?”
“I don’t want them,” stated Face stubbornly. “I want you.”
“Since yesterday.”
“Yesterday was when I learned that I could get my best friend AND incredible sex at the same time. What could those 36s possibly offer against that?”
“I’ll be sleepy sometimes,” countered Murdock. “It won’t just be jizzing all over the place all the time.”
Face shrugged. “So? I’ll jerk off. I know what a relationship is, you know. I have been in them before.”
Murdock eyed Face with a challenging look in his eye that sent shivers down the conman’s spine. “Okay. So. This really what you want to do?”
Face nodded.
“Test drive first?” suggested Murdock. “Three week trial, see how we go?”
“Sounds good.”
“Alright then.”
They shook on it.
Face laughed in relief. “Finally!” He shoved Murdock unceremoniously onto the mattress. Grinning wolfishly, he crawled up the pilot’s body. “Now that we’re official and everything. My turn.”
(PART SIX)