Work Text:
Get It Higher
by Pirate Turner
"Come on, do it!"
"I'm going as fast and as high as I can!"
"I need you to go harder!"
Their sentences were punctuated by grunts as they gave the session all they had, sweat perspirating and slickening their bared flesh.
"Come on, Vin, come on! Just a little faster! A little higher! There! There! You got the speed, just give it some more humph!"
"Humph?" A voice whispered outside the door. "Since when is that a word in Mister Larabee's vocabulary, or any one's for that matter? It is indeed hardly a word . . . "
"Sh, Ezra! You're gonna get us found out!"
"Come on, Vin! A little higher!"
"I'm going as high as I can, Chris!"
"You can go higher! If Buck can do it, you can do it!"
"Bucklin?!" The retort was swift and filled with jealous suspicion that all the men could hear clearly in the sharpshooter's voice.
Buck shook his head outside the closed door, his mustache quivering slightly. "I swear, Kid, I ain't been doin' that -- !"
JD glared furiously at his partner, but Nathan stepped between the two. "Both of you, be quiet! You're gonna get us found out and get us all in trouble!"
"You brought us into the lion's den," Josiah's deep voice whispered nervously. "Would you just as soon have our heads bitten off, Brother Dunne?"
"Heck, a lion ain't got nothin' on Chris when he's pissed," Buck remarked, "but I swear, JD, I ain't."
JD swallowed hard and nodded his head nervously, but his glaring eyes bespoke his remaining suspicion. Buck swore silently to himself that if the revelation of their whereabouts would not enrage Chris, he'd damn sure have a word, and probably a fist too, with the man he called his best friend for giving his lover any reason to doubt his loyalty.
Vin's voice rose again, and all five eavesdroppers peeled back away from the closed door. They gazed together at the door knob, fear that they'd be found out by an enraged Tanner, who some said could be worse than a furious Larabee, clogging their throats and widening their eyes. "You talk like he's some kind o' damn expert at this!"
"What can I say?" Chris had never been one to bother much with pretense. "He and I did this many times before JD became his partner!"
JD trembled so that Josiah's large hands clamped protectively down upon his arms and pulled him back into the deeper part of the closet they'd all managed to scrunge into when they had heard footsteps outside. They nearly tripped over the boxes of decorations and gifts they'd thrown haphazardly into the back of the closet, but Josiah held to JD, knowing that the younger man would not be able to control his fury by himself. He kept one hand over his mouth and prayed that JD would be granted patience he'd never been known for.
Buck looked at JD, his own eyes glistening with a mixture of fury at Chris and sadness to see the toll their leader's betraying words were taking on JD. "I ain't," he promised in a husky whisper as he stumbled his way toward the two, bumping into Nathan and accidentally knocking him into Ezra, who promptly complained of the dust on his haberdashery, "done any such a thing with Chris for years before you came into our lives, JD. I swear I ain't!"
JD ripped his mouth free of Josiah's protective hand. "You damn sure better not be lying about this one, Buck!" The fury in his glare made Buck's heart ache even more, but he knew soon things would come right. Just as soon as they could get out of this closet, he'd find a way to make Chris tell JD that they'd not been together for years, not since before he had decided to try to go straight with Sarah.
"I ain't, pard; I promise. You're the only one for me." He tried to touch him, but JD pulled further back into Josiah, refusing for even that small amount of reassurance.
"This is getting good!" Ezra's excited whisper turned the others' ears back to Vin and Chris' now rising conversation.
"HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW HOW MARY DOES THIS?!"
"I did it with her." There was a pause, and then Chris' voice rose in hurried, apologetic explanation. "Once, Vin! Just once!"
"Well, maybe you should do it with her instead!"
All five mouths in the closet's shadows again dropped wide open.
"I don't wanna do it with her! I want to do it with you!"
"Well, evidently I'm not good enough for you!"
"I didn't say that!"
"You didn't have to! You said everything else!"
"I was just trying to give you some tips to help your performance!"
"Your performance wan't that great either, Chris! Hell, I know JD could've done better!"
This time, it was JD's turn to look at Buck with wide eyes of innocence. "Buck, whatever the Hell they're talking 'bout, I ain't done any damn such thing with Vin! Hell, I ain't ever even kissed the man! Ain't wanted to!"
"I believe ya, Kid. Now do you believe me?" He held out his arms, and JD went gratefully into them.
Even as JD and Buck embraced each other, however, there was a slamming of objects outside the door that could only lead the eavesdroppers to believe that one of the men was throwing something. "Vin, ya didn't have to throw the damn thing!"
"You're lucky that's all I threw!"
The five looked at each other with wide eyes and speechless, frozen tongues. "You want somebody to do ya so much better? Go get JD or Mary or Buck or, Hell, Chris, just shove the damn video game up your ass!"
Immediately, it was all the eavesdroppers could do not to burst into laughter. They covered their mouths with clenched hands, some biting down on their tongues to keep silent. There was the slamming of feet against carpeted floor as Vin stormed out of the office and Chris followed behind him. As Chris' voice calling Vin's name faded into the distance, the five slowly stepped out of the closet. They stretched their muscles, and Josiah ambled over to the door to peer outside the office. He looked back at the others with a wink, and then all five burst out laughing.
Their laughter shook them so badly that their hands trembled as they worked to hang up the decorations for the surprise anniversary party they would soon be throwing their friends, that was, if the video game did not break them up first. Not even one of the men thought such was a possibility, however, for Chris and Vin had been through far worse together and always came back to each other. Their laughter filled the office, and their smiles were more dazzling than even the radiant rays of the setting sun.
The End