Bedtime Routines

Fandom: The Losers

Characters : Jensen/Cougar

Rating: PG13 (lots of implications but nothing explicit)

Word Count : 770

Written for the prompt : Author's choice, author's choice, bedtime routine

Disclaimer : All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

Bedtime Routines

Cougar decided there had to be a bedtime routine not long after he started bunking with Jensen. He likes Jensen and he'd rather it stayed that way and he's man enough to admit that when he loses sleep for no mission related reason, he gets a little tetchy.

Tetchy is no way to deal with Jensen, because then every little quirk that is normally amusing or at most just a passing irritation blows up out of all proportion and Cougar finds himself contemplating using his sniper skills to stalk and shoot Jensen in the ass when he least expects in. All that in the hope that Jensen ends up in the medi-centre so he can get a few nights sleep. Cougar knows that wouldn't be good for team morale.

Hence the bedtime routine.

Cougar has to pay attention to his own body clock, to what he needs and he has to be able to pre-empt. He can't suddenly spring these things on Jensen, after all Jensen needs time to prepare himself.

There are two main routines Cougar follows when they're not away on a mission. There's the one for nights when they stayed in and one for the nights when they hit a bar. The nights when they hit a bar are easy, whoever is most sober carries the drunker party home and pours him into bed, with a soft kiss of affection to the forehead before deciding on whether they need to place a bucket in projectile vomiting distance or not. Of course, there's the nights when neither of them is that drunk and then routines go out the window in the fumble of hands on clothes and skin and urgency. Cougar's happy to do away with routine at times like that.

The nights when they stay in were the most in need of work, when Cougar started. He would while away the time with a program or two on the TV, some sport or a good book. He's content and relaxed in the quiet. Jensen will be elsewhere, usually their room, tapping away furiously on his laptop, emailing friends and family in far off places, chatting by instant message or webcam, hacking into the local military mainframe or the like. He's content, absorbed in his own world.

Cougar discovered early on that Jensen will tap away into the early hours without thought, without pause – just a few more minutes, just another line of code and he'd be there, wherever 'there' might be.

That doesn't work for Cougar though. They're either in this thing together or they're not; there's no half measures and so a routine was born.

About an hour before he wants to go to bed, Cougar wanders round the house, he checks in on Jensen and tells him in passing that he's feeling tired, thinking of going to bed soon. Twenty minutes or so later, he'll re-appear with two cups of his Momma's tea. Jensen never questions, so Cougar has never had to elaborate further than that. It's only his Momma's in the sense that she was the one who found the first box for him when he complained about Jensen's inability to just go to sleep at night.

He's sweetened Jensen's cup just a little with honey, in deference to his lover's sweet tooth, but it isn't much, and it isn't enough to give Jensen some false energy high that will defeat his purpose. He perches beside Jensen's laptop and they chat quietly, because Jensen is as accomplished as ever at multi-tasking and it never seems to disrupt his flow. When they've both finished their tea, Cougar leans across to kiss Jensen's forehead and whisper in his ear that he's going for a shower. It's not an invitation and Jensen never acts as though it might be. Clay might ignore a lot of things, but that would be pushing the issue too far.

By the time he gets back, he can be sure that Jensen's laptop will be turned off for the night, his towel ready for his own shower and the lights in their room will be dimmed. They'll kiss again as they pass in the door as Jensen heads for the bathroom.

When Jensen returns, there's no need for routine, they can take the rest of the evening in whatever direction they want, but they'll be close, skin to skin, warm and loved, then tired and ready for sleep.