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“You okay, Mav?” Bradley cups the side of his neck as they pull apart from their long, beautiful, much needed, never thought they’d get there again, embrace; a frown of concern furrowing his brow.
”Yeah, I just—“ he sniffs; wiping the sweat from his face and looking around. “Was kinda hoping someone might….y’know…be here.”
Didn’t matter that the man wasn’t on the carrier when they left; Mav knows he’d find a way to be there. With Ice’s help probably. God bless him.
"Oh?" Bradley swipes the bristles of his moustache; brown eyes cautiously hopeful at being able to ask information and actually get a response. "Who?"
"Slider. I, um, kinda married him?"
Bradley blinks at him; trying to process this new development, adrenaline coursing through his veins and a cacophony of celebrations around them. "You don't sound so sure about that."
Mav huffs out a laugh. "Okay, no I did marry him. A good 15 years or so ago actually."
"Wow. How did, uh, that happen? You were just friends when...uh...before."
Bradley winces at the mention of their estrangement but Mav is just so happy to be alive, have Bradley in his life, that he waves him off with a soft smile. "Yeah we were friends. Still are. Even if he pisses me off a lot of the time." Mav snorts and runs his fingers through his hair; the aches from the mission making themselves known but he doesn't want to go to medical just yet. Not until he's sure Slider isn't here. "He'd say the same about me. We got drunk one night probably about a two years after you'd left and we, uh...fucked. And then that kept happening and before we knew it we'd been exclusively together for like two and a half years so we decided to get married. Ice thought it was a joke at first until he saw the certificate. And yeah, I can understand him thinking we'd do a prank like that. But there's no one else I want to fall asleep next to or wake up entangled with and at the end of the day that's everything really."
Bradley looks at him in a way that has Mav ducking his head; cheeks blushing pink. "Sorry," he says. "Probably a bit of an overshare."
"No, no." Bradley shakes his head; grinning at him. It's so good to see his face not clouded by anger anymore. "It's really sweet actually. And I'm glad you had him all those years. I never wanted you to be alone."
The like I was goes unsaid, but Mav hears it all the same.
Mav cups his face in his hands and knocks their foreheads together gently. Bradley shudders out a breath but he's okay.
"We might not have been together but you were never alone, Bradley, okay?"
Bradley jerks out a nod and Mav spots Slider behind his shoulder. He can't stop himself from grinning like a loon.
”He’s behind me, isn’t he?”
”Like a pantomime villain, mmmhmm.”
Bradley claps him on the shoulder and takes Mav’s helmet from him. “Go greet your husband, Mav. He’s probably been going crazy wondering if you were going to come back.”
Mav swallows again; chest tight as he remembers, just for a moment, how he almost didn’t make it back. But he did. Because of the boy in front of him. “Thanks to you, I am. Your dad would be proud, Baby Bird.”
”I know.” Bradley winks and Mav squeezes his bicep. Then he heads in the direction of his husband, picking up speed with each step until he was full on running. Doesn’t matter that he probably shouldn’t be running, because he was starting to ache like fuck, he just needed to touch Slider. Feel him. Smell him. It’s been three weeks but it’s felt like three decades.
”Sli!” He cries out; launching himself into Slider’s arms. His husband catches him effortlessly, lifting him up and swinging him round so his boots graze the tarmac. His arms wrap around Mav’s back and he’s pulled in so tight; nose tucked in against Slider’s pulse point. His woodsy cologne and a hint of sweat teasing his nostrils. “God, I’ve missed you.”
Mav clings to him; tears spilling down his cheeks. Relief that he gets to hold the man he loves in his arms again.
”Not as much as I’ve missed you, Babygirl.”
Slider kisses his temple and then seeks out his mouth; licking into the wet heat, and kissing the breath from his lungs. Mav whimpers into the kiss; slipping his palms under the hem of Slider’s sweater; kneading the layer of fat on his hips.
”You gave me at least another twenty greys hair, Mav.” Slider sets him down; giving his ass cheek a squeeze before resting his hands on Mav’s trim waist.
Mav narrows his eyes in consideration and studies his husband’s grey hair. “Oh yeah. I can see them.” Slider playfully taps his side. “They look good. You look good.”
Slider inhales deeply and shudders out a breath; nosing at Mav’s cheek. “Not as good as you. Never thought I’d see you again. Didn’t think even you could pull off so many miracles.”
”I had help.”
He turns to glance at Bradley who was leaning into Natasha’s side; Jake with his arm around both of them. “Told you he never stopped loving you, Mav.”
”I’m happy to be wrong for once.”
Slider scoffs. “Just the once, right. Like you’ve never been wrong before.”
”I’ve not! I’m always right.”
“Except when you’re wrong.”
”I was right that we should get married!”
Slider opens his mouth to respond, and then closes it again. Cups Mav’s cheek and kisses him again. Mav forgets they’re not alone on the deck when he does that. “You’re so fucking infuriating, Princess, but goddamn, there’s no one else I’d want to live my life with.”
”Same here, Kerner.”
His husband leans in; breath ghosting over the shell of his ear. “Think we can sneak away for a little bit?”
”I’m meant to be going to medical…”
”Since when do you do what you’re meant to?”
”Pretty sure Bradley is going to drag me there himself if I don’t go.
”I’ll make sure you get there, but first,” Slider rasps his tongue up the length of Mav’s neck. “I’m gonna suck your dick until your knees give out, baby.”
”Don’t think it’ll take much,” he huffs out a weak laugh. They already felt like they might buckle just from having Slider so near after three weeks without him. But he lets his husband steal him away, because he yearns to be alone with him as much as Slider does.
The rasp of his flight suit zipper is loud in the empty room they find, but Mav doesn’t care. Just cares about being alive and back with Slider and alive.
And as Slider wraps his lips around Mav’s dick and sucks him wet and sloppy, Mav doesn’t feel like he had a near miss with death he just feels loved and grateful to be alive, and that’s exactly what Slider knew his husband needed.
(Just like Mav knew Slider needed to marry him all those years ago.)