Title: Old Married Couple

Author: Perpetual Motion

iwannabedonna@yahoo.com

Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/iwannabedonna

Fandom: Crossing Jordan

Pairing: Nigel/Bug

Rating: PG

Summary: Vacation plans.

Challenge: Answer to Peja's opening line challenge on the CJS list.

Archive: My site, WWOMB, RS, anyone else please ask.

Disclaimer: Belongs to NBC. I make no money. Not even at work.

Author's Notes: For myself, because I passed 30,000 words on my NaNo last night.



Old Married Couple
By Perpetual Motion

"I'm so tired of this."

Bug glanced up from the entomology book he was browsing. "Tired of what?"

"Everydayness."

"Everydayness?"

Nigel nodded. "Yeah. We get up. We have breakfast. We go to work. We come home. We have dinner. We shag. We go to bed."

"Sorry to be such a disappoint." There was a touch of humor in Bug's voice.

"It's not you." Nigel rubbed Bug's legs where they were slung over his lap. "It's not you. It's not me. It's not work. It's definitely *not* the sex," he paused to grin wickedly at Bug. "It's just that we're in a rut."

"We? I don't recall announcing I was tired of things."

"You can honestly tell me you're perfectly comfortable having nearly the exact same routine everyday?"

"Yes."

"You're okay with a life that leaves little to be suprprised about and where wild can be classified as us ordering out Chinese food on a Tuesday when we were going to order out Italian?"

Bug made a face. "You make us sound like an old married couple."

Nigel looked at Bug, who was sitting on the couch with his legs on Nigel's lap and wearing one of Nigel's T-shirts with his pajama bottoms. He looked down at himself, in his own pajama bottoms and his own T-shirt, but with Bug's socks on. "Mahesh, we *are* an old married couple."

"We are not."

"We are. We're sitting on the couch arguing about nothing."

"We're not arguing, you're having a mid-life crisis and trying to suck me in with you."

Nigel grinned a little at Bug's tone. He was somewhere between peeved and amused, and it did great things to his accent. Nigel tickled the bottom of one of Bug's feet. "You'll have yours soon enough, and you'll leave me for some hot young thing with a better arse."

Bug finally put down his entomology book and gave Nigel a long look. "Who could I possibly know that I'd want to run off with?"

"Winslow." Nigel grabbed Bug's feet before he ended up getting kicked. "He's young. He's nubile. He's got a great mouth."

"I don't even want to know why you'd be thinking about his mouth."

"It's a nice mouth." Nigel grunted as Bug got his foot loose enough to jab him in the stomach. "Not that he's any competition for your charms and gentlemanly manners." Bug jabbed him again. Nigel got ahold of his foot by the toes and held it aloft.
"Are you *quite* done?"

Bug wiggled his toes. "I don't know yet. Are you going to gush about Winslow some more?"

"I've run out of things to gush about." Nigel put Bug's foot down, then stretched out until he was lying next to the other man, one arm wrapped around his waist. "We should get away."

"To where?"

"I don't know. Just away." Nigel started tugging up the hem of Bug's T-shirt. "You, me, a nice, quiet cottage somewhere in the middle of nowhere." His fingertips stroked the skin below Bug's bellybutton. "You can watch lots of bugs do buggy things. I could watch you."

"You'd go insane in a nice, quiet cottage."

"No more than usual."

Bug rearranged himself until he was practically nose-to-nose with Nigel. "Where else?"

"There's always London. Or Liverpool."

Bug shook his head. "I'm not going on vacation anywhere my parents can find us."

"Why not? They love me."

"In the abstract sense. I'm not sure solidifying your presence is something they want to do. No offense."

Nigel shrugged it off. "None taken." His fingers travelled upwards a few inches and started playing with Bug's ribcage. "What about India? I've never been, and I've had all my shots."

"You want to go to India?"

"Yeah."

"In monsoon season?"

"No. It's monsoon season?"

"Yeah." Bug's fingers started doing their own walking and ended up just under Nigel's shirt at his waist. "You'd spend the whole time looking like a drowned rat."

"Have you been in India in monsoon season?"

"A couple of times. It was always the best time to go visit relatives. Plane tickets are cheapest then."

Nigel watched the way Bug's eyes lit up talking about India. "Was Liverpool ever your home?"

"Most of the time, but in India, no one looked at me funny." Bug's eyes got a faraway look. "It's been a long time since I've had that."

The lightbulb in Nigel's head hit 120 watts. "San Francisco."

Bug's brow furrowed. "What?"

"We should go to San Francisco."

"Why?"

"No one will look at you funny in San Francisco. And we can be ridiculously queer." Nigel watched Bug's face intently for any sign of agreement. "Well?"

"How are you ridiculously queer in San Francisco?"

"We make out in broad daylight like crazed weasels." Nigel grinned when he saw the amusement in Bug's eyes. He had him.

"You're just looking for an excuse to wear that ridiculous rainbow shirt you have."

"Actually, I was looking for an excuse to maul you in public."

Bug shoved him off the couch.

Nigel looked up at Bug from the floor. "So, old married couple to San Francisco for vacation then?"

"Why not?"

Nigel jumped up from the floor and kissed Bug. "Great! I'll go make plane reservations." He hurried out of the room.

Bug picked up his book and started reading again. He was smiling.


END