WK short: Shed a Little Light

Author: Mice

Category: XF/LGM slash, Doggett/Byers

Rating: R for a few dirty words

Summary: Doggett and Jimmy Bond have a chat

Archive: Basement, Lone Slasher, Countermeasures, XFMU, LGM Fanfic Bunker, Glass Onion, FHSA, WWOMB, all others ask.

Spoilers: Do they even have those anymore? JTS does NOT exist.

Disclaimer: We deserve 'em more than CC does. They still belong to him, though.

Author's Notes: This was written for an opening line challenge on the DoggettSlash list. The required opening line is Doggett's first line. It's a story in the Well Kept Series, set about a
month after WK3: Metal & Bone, which is a story I'm working on but haven't finished yet.

Shed A Little Light
by Mice

LONE GUNMEN OFFICES
TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND
EVENING

"Come hell or high water, I'm gonna make you love me," Doggett muttered to himself as he watched Byers with the other Gunmen.

The trio were hacking again, at his request. This time it was relatively simple. No supersoldiers, no mutants, no strange occult involvements. It was a relief. He'd had enough of the spooky weird shit lately. All he really wanted this time was the dirt on Kersh's most recent evaluation of the X Files division for the Bureau. The Deputy Director had been tight lipped about the whole thing. This wasn't unusual, but he'd had another run-in with the man last week over a case, and he was worried that Kersh would use the quarterly evaluation to vent his frustrations.

Doggett shook off his anxiety, letting his eyes wander over his lover. It had taken a while, but he felt he was finally close to breaking through the barriers Byers kept around himself. They'd been slowly and carefully cultivating a trust between them, and the shy, quiet man had been opening up more lately.

He resisted an urge to walk over and run a hand through Byers' dark hair. When they were playing it was his right, but at the moment they weren't. Byers was working and didn't generally care for distractions when he was so tightly focused on a task.

Jimmy Bond came over and sat next to him. The boy wasn't much use for this sort of work. Doggett wasn't entirely sure why the guys kept the kid around at all, actually. He seemed to get them into more trouble than he was worth most of the time.

"You love him, don't you?" Jimmy asked.

Doggett looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, his heart skipping a beat in his surprise. He'd never said anything about it to anyone. He hadn't even really said anything to Byers about it, letting silence cover his feelings. The thought of talking about it was a little disturbing, but he didn't reckon it would kill him. He nodded. "Yeah."

"He's a great guy," Jimmy said softly. "I'm glad he's got you. Seems like it's helped a lot."

"Oh?"

Jimmy nodded, looking over at Byers. "He seems happier now than when I first met him. He smiles more than he used to. It always seemed like he was really sad before, but he never wanted to say anything about it."

Doggett thought about it. He'd always taken Byers' quietness for granted, thought of it as part of the man's inherent shyness. He knew about his lover's paranoia and fears, but Doggett had also
seen the man smile and laugh with him, seen the sharp sense of humor and desert-dry wit under the buttoned down exterior. He hadn't thought his own presence might have made Byers a happier man.

"You sure about that?" Doggett asked.

"Yeah," Jimmy said. "I think you've been really good for him. He needed somebody like you. You're real steady, reliable."

Doggett tilted his head. "You do?"

Jimmy grinned. "Yeah. I mean, he's real close to the guys and all, but he always seemed real lonely to me. Sometimes I think he was a little jealous about Langly and Mr. Skinner, but he
hasn't seemed that way since you started seeing him."

Doggett was beginning to appreciate why the guys might actually want Jimmy around. The kid was a good judge of character. If he wasn't quite so... innocent in other ways, he might have made a good profiler. "How do you know this stuff, anyway? Johnny been talkin' to you?"

Jimmy shook his head. "Nah. I just listen. I watch a lot. You can see a lot sometimes when people don't think about you being there. I see the way you guys act together. After everybody got back from that supersoldier thing a month or so ago, you were acting different. You look at him different."

Doggett considered what Jimmy said. That mess had been a turning point for him. He probably had been acting differently since then. Of course, getting hospitalized did tend to shift your perspective on certain things. Byers had been there for him, was there when he'd first come around. The relief he'd felt at seeing Byers when he opened his eyes had given a very sharp focus to the shift in his feelings for his sub.

Uncertainty had become love. It was a feeling he hoped Byers would return, but he doubted it would be soon. Doggett knew Byers still had a lot of things to sort out, and the foundation for their trust was only now really beginning to solidify.

"You think he..." Doggett started but couldn't finish the question.

Jimmy looked at him and smiled. "Not yet," he said, "but I think he will."

Langly straightened up in his chair and turned, waving them over. "Hey dude, we got your report."

Doggett and Jimmy rose and went over to the computers.

Byers turned. "AD Skinner's comments are appended to Kersh's report. I don't think there'll be a problem."

Doggett breathed his relief and smiled at Byers. The bearded man returned it with a tiny smile of his own. Doggett let the fingers of one hand comb through Byers' soft, red-brown hair. "Thanks," he said. He leaned down to look over Byers' shoulder, slipping a hand gently down the slender, jacket-clad back. His hand caressed Byers' back slowly as he read.

It didn't take long to determine that Byers was right. Kersh was somewhat negative, as usual, but there wasn't anything in the report to suggest that the division was in imminent danger of being shut down. It had been worrying Doggett.

A few moments later, Doggett put a hand on Byers' shoulder. Byers looked up at him again. "Come have some coffee?" Byers asked.

Doggett nodded, grateful for a little privacy with his lover.

"Get me a cup too," Frohike said.

"Me too," Langly added.

"I'll get some," Jimmy said. Doggett and Jimmy shared a quick look, and Jimmy smiled at him. "You guys go sit down."

"Thanks, Jimmy," Byers said.

Doggett slipped an arm around Byers' shoulders as he stood. They walked over to the couch in the office together and sat close, Doggett's arm still around him. They shifted their weight a little, and Byers leaned into Doggett, slipping down a bit so that his head rested on Doggett's shoulder.

Doggett sighed and rested his chin on Byers' head. "You wanna come over tonight?" he asked. "Stay at my place?"

Byers' head shifted. "What did you have in mind?"

"Just bein' together for the night. Maybe have a little fun, but I'm not in the mood for anything complicated. I'd just like your company."

Byers' hand slipped to Doggett's leg. His fingers traced along the inside of the thigh, close to Doggett's shaft. "Sounds nice," he said. "I'm done with everything I had to do for this week's issue. The guys don't need me until about mid-day tomorrow."

"Tease," Doggett said. He kissed the top of Byers' head.

He felt rather than heard Byers chuckle.

"You had dinner yet?"

Byers shook his head. "Frohike probably won't start on it for another half hour or so. Did you want to stay, or what?"

"Nah, I'll take you out." Doggett put his hand on Byers' as it roamed between his legs. "I thought you didn't like the guys watchin' when we did stuff like this."

"They're not," Byers said, gesturing toward his friends. Langly and Frohike were both absorbed in the screen again, and the coffee that Jimmy had delivered to them.

"Don't tease me like that, or I'll bend you over the couch and fuck you right here," Doggett growled, grinning. "I bet Langly'd love the show."

Byers' hand stopped, and he looked up at Doggett, blushing. "I don't even want to think about that," he said. There was an odd look in his beautiful blue eyes for just an instant, but it passed before Doggett could identify it.

Doggett leaned down slightly and kissed him. It was soft and warm, comforting and stirring as their tongues caressed. Both of them made low, rumbling sounds and they wrapped their arms
around each other.

When they came up for air, two mugs sat on the coffee table in front of them. Byers looked over at his roommates, but none of them were looking in their direction. Doggett chuckled, knowing they were deliberately being ignored for Byers' sake. Now and then the guys could put aside their teasing, if they really wanted to.

"Maybe I should just have you for dinner," Doggett said, smirking.

Byers' half smile appeared again. "Tempting," he said, "but I think I'm actually in the mood for Japanese."

"So I'll have you raw," Doggett said.

Byers chuckled. "You're an evil man."

"I don't notice you objectin'."

Byers' hand was in Doggett's lap again. "I'm not. But I'd like actual food to be on the agenda too. Better now than later. I don't know any all night Japanese places." His eyes sparkled. "But maybe you can tell me what you'd like to do after dinner..."

Doggett laughed as his body responded to his lover's hand. "If I start on that, we're not gonna make it further than your bedroom," he said. "And I'd really rather do that kind of thing at my place. The walls here are too damn thin." He winked at Byers. "Let's blow this pop stand and feed you. After that, I'm gonna give you an ass full of what you're playin' with."

Byers blushed scarlet but grinned. "Now there's a promise I can live with," he said, quiet.

Doggett stood, and Byers got to his feet too.

"Thought you two were gonna have coffee?" Langly said.

"Changed our minds," Doggett said. "Don't expect him back before noon tomorrow."

"Lucky bastard," Frohike muttered.

"If you'd get a girlfriend --" Langly started.

Frohike swatted him. "Shut up, punk."

"Doohickey."

Byers grinned and he and Doggett headed for the door. Doggett's hand slid to Byers' ass. Yeah. Being in love wasn't such a bad thing. He'd find a way to make Byers love him. Maybe it would be easier than he thought.

~~End~~