Title: Waiting

By Saone

Summary: While waiting for the outcome of a challenge Methos’ mind goes places it shouldn’t

(Richie/Methos)

Rating: PG13-R-ish

Disclaimer: They’re not mine

Feedback: Yes please

Distribution: Richie/Methos archive, WWoMB, anywhere else just ask

Notes: Not quite a first time story, but they will get there, especially if the Fossil has any say in the matter.

Waiting

By Saone
**********

How does MacLeod constantly get himself into these situations? It’s got to be some kind of curse, I just can’t see any other reason for it. Every week, it seems, the man has another crazy coming after him. Not even my five thousand year old head has that many people after it.

Of course the option of running had probably never entered into that thick Scottish head. Oh no, that wouldn’t be honorable. Fuck honor! The man’s lived for five centuries, when’s he going to learn it’s all about survival?

Survival. Right. This coming from a person siting on the aforementioned Boyscout’s couch waiting for his return like a damned dog while watching his capricious student wear a hole in the rug. I’ll take hypocrites for a thousand Alex.

"You know, that isn’t going to make him come back any faster." I couldn’t help it, I had to say something. Watching Richie pace was starting to really grate on my nerves.

"Right, cause lounging on the sofa and sipping a beer is a productive way to spend time." He snorted and walked over to the window.

I bite my lip to keep in whatever retort had formed on my tongue. It just wouldn’t do to get into a fight tonight, not with him. Even if he is an insolent jackass.

Hmmm, that’s something that might help pass the time. I’ll just start a list to describe the petulant child. Rude? yes, that fits. Uh, surly? I do believe Richie possess surliness in spades. Disrespectful, arrogant, uncouth, beautiful, supercilious, insole-wait. . .

Beautiful? Where the hell did that come from? Okay, so Richie is attractive, if you like that handsome, muscular type. But, he’s also. . . um. . . not very nice, and. . . what was I saying?

Damn it.

He looks so young. He is young. Joe said Richie was barely nineteen when he died. Chronologically he’s only in his early twenties. He’s just a baby.

I wonder what his skin tastes like?

Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT! To paraphrase modern vernacular, you can’t go there, Old Man. I mess with Richie and Mac’ll take my head, *after* Joe puts the rest of me through a blender. Nope, the kid is
definitely Off Limits.

Ah, but if things were different. In a different time, a different culture, that exquisite young redhead would have come moaning my name by now.

Wonderful.

Just wonderful.

Now I have to get up from my comfortable position on the couch before Richie turns around and asks why I suddenly have a hard on. Bloody traitorous subconscious, what part of ‘off limits’ don’t you understand?

I walk behind the island in the kitchen and my eyes helplessly drift back to the figure still staring out the window. Even from across the room I can sense how tense the muscles in his neck and back are. My hands actually itch with the want to knead into his flesh.

Gods, you’d think that in five millennia I might have been able to learn how to control roughly two and a half decades of hormones?

I bet he smells good.

"Oh, that’s it!" Shit! I think I said that out loud.

Richie turns to me, a frown on his youthful face. "What?"

Yep, that was out loud. Okay, don’t panic, just make up a good excuse, you can do it, you’ve had lots of practice.

"I can’t stay here any longer." Dammit, does my voice usually sound that low? "I’m going home, call me when Mac gets in."

I’m actually proud with how steady I am as I walk over to the lift. I turn around and just before I close the grate I give Richie what I hope seems only like a cursory glance. The look I receive in return is so intense it makes me shudder. My mind tries desperately to analyze the emotion on his face even as my finger pushes the down button.

The gears shift to life and I descend.

He knows.

He knows I know.

My life has just gotten decidedly more complicated.

**********
The End - for now.