torchwoodinstitute | Free Happy Market

Entry tags:

Free Happy Market

Who: Mohinder Suresh, Gabriel Gray, Jack Harkness, Others
What: Mohinder’s been busy while Jim and Gabriel were away
When: August 14th (whoops, time travel on those manipulators are extremely difficult to predict sometimes)

“Whoever has been putting Euros in the Free Happy Market machine really needs to stop,” Mohinder said, clipboard under his arm as he raced across the testing unit where the seemingly innocuous vending machine was plugged in. “Someone get me more plastic bins!” The machine had been dispensing orange foam for the last three minutes in a steady stream that was coating the floor and the table and chair legs in a semicircle around it. While three minutes didn’t really seem like it would be a long time in the grand scheme of things, it was enough to ruin everyone’s shoes.

Luckily, the foam didn’t seem to be toxic or acidic. It wasn’t turning anyone funny shapes or leading them to rush to the medical theater. That didn’t mean that Mohinder was pleased to have to play janitor, however. Running turned into sloshing and he turned just in time for Kaylee to hit him in the face with the bin he had requested.

“Awful sorry Mohinder!” she called, but she was giggling and Mohinder was too annoyed at the machine to be angry with her. Besides, it was almost impossible to be angry with her. Picking up the bin from where it had fallen to the floor, Mohinder shoved the mouth against the machine’s dispenser...only to have the thing shut off and chime merrily to signal that it had completed a transaction satisfactorily.

He sighed and set the bin beside three others, the former contains full of foam, and plopped down into a chair. “Yen. Only. From now on. I mean it,” he was saying before a familiar figure appeared on the second floor landing overlooking the testing room. Mohinder was on his feet at once.

Three weeks ago, Gabriel left on his first mission. Three weeks ago, Mohinder threw himself into his work. Three weeks ago, he was suppose to be right back. Mohinder smirked. “You’re late!”

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When Gabriel found out the manipulator had put them back three weeks later, he was a little put out. He'd asked to try again, but of course they had to recharge again. Ugh. He had no idea these things were so inaccurate.

By the time he made it to the testing room, seeking Mohinder out, he'd regained his composure. Seeing Mohinder set the world right again, and he grinned widely as he made his way down the stairs. "I know! It was only a day for me- those manipulators are more finicky than I was led to believe. Are-" He stared pointedly at the vending machine, then back to Mohinder. "Everything okay, here?"

Jack hadn’t bothered to apologize to Gabriel when he finished the debriefing. He’d more or less just sent Gabriel on his way and told Jim to help him with the snowglobe containment. It was all part of the job. Perhaps siccing Gabriel on Jim hadn’t really been, but Jack seemed curious. Gabriel might be the only person that could even begin to read the fixed point in time thanks to his abilities. Even so, the Captain’s motivations were still mainly his own.

Looking exasperated, hair having grown back out to more acceptable lengths and the bruises gone from his face, Mohinder shook his head up at Gabriel.

“Oh, everything’s perfect here. It would be even more perfect if—“ He turned, and noted that he was now alone in the room. His lips pursed as the other researchers fled his not quite frightening wrath. Mohinder breathed a slightly disgruntled sigh and sloshed away from the mess. He was not cleaning this up. He mounted the winding stairs leading around the wall to where Gabriel watched from the mezzanine and pulled off his orange stained lab coat. “Only a day? Really? That’s annoying. I’m afraid to report that I’ve already settled into the house. And finished decorating. I hope you don’t mind.”

Three weeks was fairly unacceptable, but Mohinder was at least looking a great deal better. He'd probably healed up entirely from their time capturing Doyle. Jim looked a good deal worse, but at least Jack didn't seem to blame Gabriel for that.

"Not at all," Gabriel replied when Mohinder talked about decorating, and that was apparently all the time Gabriel could last before he reached in and pulled Mohinder into a hug. He needed the contact after the long, confusing day he'd had. "I'm glad you've made yourself comfortable. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've done with it." After a moment of debating whether kissing would be too unprofessional, Gabriel compromises with a peck on the lips and lightly running a hand through the man's hair. "I missed you."

If Gabriel didn’t mind being covered in orange foam, Mohinder didn’t mind the displays of affection in the work place. Honestly, he’d been missing for just over three weeks. If Gabriel thought he’d get away with a peck? No. Draping his lab coat over the railing, Mohinder stood on his foamy toes and wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s neck. There was no escape…

Well, unless Gabriel decided to use one of his many powers to push him away. The geneticist was fairly certain that would not happen, however.

There was a curving smile to the second (and not a peck) kiss, Mohinder leaning heavily into Gabriel. “You’ve only been gone a day. I have missed you,” he clarified. “To the point of bothering Captain Harkness so often I was sure I’d be fired.”

Every touch to Mohinder’s clothing would tell Gabriel the story that he had been beside himself with worry.

Well, if Mohinder wasn't going to avoid it, then Gabriel surely wasn't. When Mohinder kissed him so enthusiastically, he reacted in kind. Being back with Mohinder felt like it wiped all the grime off of his mind, even while his pants collected bits of orange foam.

"Good," he said. "Jack should be bothered, as much as possible. He teamed me up with James Kirk, and- well, we got the job done." He full-on pouted a moment before pulling back to look at Mohinder with vaguely worried eyes. "What has he had you up to? Vending machine repair?"

"I want to hear all about it," Mohinder said, for as much as he loved to talk, he was always interested in what Gabriel had to say and in the things Gabriel did. It was no wonder that Mohinder was so important to him. No one else ever devoted so much attention to him before in his life in such a healthy way.

His adopted mother... Well she was a different story.

Mohinder didn't take Gabriel's hand. His was too sticky. He did look like he wanted to though. It had been a hard three weeks. "And that down there... It's amazing! It came in two weeks ago and dispenses everything from the most benign of snack foods to... Well. That."

Gabriel broke into a smile of immense gratitude when Mohinder said he wanted to hear about the whole thing. He still wasn't used to that, he guessed. Or maybe it was just that they had finally been separated for a significant amount of time.

He leaned over to look at the vending machine, narrowing his eyes at it. "I hope you haven't eaten anything out of it, in that case," he said, although he sounded uncertain about it. He probably would have.

"As for my trip, we went to Japan. Tokyo. I'm not sure if you heard what we were retrieving? It's a snowglobe that stores nightmares. Someone there wanted to break it, and it doesn't do very well with that. We managed to track it down and get out of the building without causing any major problems." He looked very proud about that. Of course, this was the easy stuff to talk about.

"You're the one with the sweet tooth," Mohinder commented before he lifted a finger to cause Gabriel to pause. "I need much more detail than that! But not here. I'd like to have a dining partner that isn't a little pink bear for once. And I could use a shower." Mohinder flipped up the edge of his cuff (oh he had a manipulator too) and made a call to someone named John. "Tell Jack that I'm going home. And that someone needs to clean up test unit five. He's not answering or I'd do it myself. Thank you!"

There was just the faintest of replies back from a soft British voice, male, but nothing further.

He nodded for Gabriel to follow him, though they ended up walking down the stairs side by side because it was difficult to keep his eyes from a man he had spent a great deal of time trying not to think the worst about.

"You must be exhausted. So we'll just pick up some take away? I was fancying some biryani. I found a remarkable tikka restaurant nearby that has the most delicious lassi!" A day with Jim Kirk, who barely spoke, probably had promised Gabriel's ears not to be annoyed by Mohinder's constant jabbering.

Gabriel would be immensely surprised if he ever found Mohinder's chattiness annoying. His boyfriend was talkative, especially when he was happy, and of course Gabriel loved just hearing his voice. This was all like a breath of fresh air after Japan. "Let's get take away, then. That sounds great."

The time difference was throwing him off somewhat, though. Mohinder had plenty of time to get settled here, and he still didn't know where most everything was. "Who was that you were talking to? And who was that, working with you on all that orange goo? I've hardly met anyone here yet."

He'd be content to make small talk until they left the Hub. He figured Jack was talking to Jim at the moment, but still didn't want to risk running across the guy while going into any heavier details.

"You'll have to sit down for that one," Mohinder grinned, stopping off at the shower room, which he stepped into fully clothed and stepped out again looking spotless, "I'll tell you later. And away from here. It's so mental!"

As if stepping into a closet marked Shower Room in girly handwriting and returning a moment later completely clean wasn't mental? Three weeks was a very long time for Mohinder to get use to everything...

And for Gabriel to miss out on everything. He wasn't looking at a bruise face and split lip. He wasn't looking at hair he had shaved down to nothing. Mohinder had flourished again overnight. And it was overnight for Gabriel.

One mishap took three weeks of Mohinder's life away from him.

Mohinder took Gabriel's hand and dragged him off towards the heavy doors leading back to the tourist shop.

Gabriel raised his eyebrows when Mohinder stepped in and out of the shower room. He was very curious how that worked. But he'd hold off until later. "You seem much happier here," he said, trying to look on the bright side of missing three weeks. "It's probably the lack of being held hostage. And being paid probably helps, too, I bet."

But his heart wasn't really in joking around, because he knew he was going to have to talk about that with Mohinder. The time thing. He didn't want to. A small, scared part of him was worried that Mohinder would hear about Jack's method of leaving everyone early and decide that would be good for them too. He squeezed Mohinder's hand as they left the tourist shop.

He knew his worry was tangible, so he went for distraction. He spoke as if he were continuing his story from earlier. "So Jim punched me in the face a bunch of times. We got thrown off a train. At least I got to test out my regeneration properly. I still haven't really gotten used to that."

Mohinder's first reaction, even in jest, wasn't to ask Gabriel what he had done to cause the other man to hit him. He just arched both eyebrows, scanning over Gabriel's face for signs of injury that he knew wouldn't be there and squeezed Gabriel's hand even harder, as if he was afraid that he wasn't really there.

"I hope you punched him back," Mohinder said. He didn't advocate violence but... Well, righteous revenge was in his nature. "Did you tell Jack?" Knowing Gabriel, he likely did not. Mohinder really couldn't blame him for that either, but it did anger him to think that Gabriel had been assaulted.

"I didn't bother. My guess? Jack wanted to see if Jim would let off some steam." Gabriel shook his head. "And I didn't punch him back, either. I didn't want to break the orb. I don't know what good it would've done, anyway. I think he punches a lot better than I do." He patted his jaw for dramatic effect.

"We separated, and both spent the last few hours by ourselves. I ordered watches. Jim apparently got in another fight." Gabriel shrugged. "I guess I really hit a nerve, asking about that half-human I look like. Got too curious." He stared down at his feet while he walked, appreciating the sympathy. "That's the weird thing- we worked really well together. Maybe that made it worse on him. I figure he must've been really close with the half-human, and lost him. He tried his best to pick apart our relationship..." He was trying to figure it out again, and that wasn't going to get him far.

Mohinder had been doing a little work here, between freaking out and periods where he was just trying not to freak out. JC was a wealth of information. Kaylee even more so. Everyone seemed to like the young woman and even Mohinder found himself telling her things he might not tell anyone else without a little prodding.

"I don't think 'really close' is the proper term," Mohinder said, his voice dropping already into lecture mode. "I suppose 'mate' is better, but there are still errors there with the translation. The man you resemble is...was...from a telepathic race of extremely logical beings. They form intellectual bonds, eschewing all emotion when possible, though the bonding itself is extremely emotionally complex from what I gather. There may well be residual pieces of him inside of your not-quite friend, adding further complication. Jim was forced to leave his mate, which is why Jack brought him to Torchwood."

There, that was a mouthful.

Mohinder moved just a little closer to Gabriel. "It must have been a shock to him to see his other half in you and be reminded of his loss. Not a good reason to hit you, however. Perhaps he was trying to see the boundary of our relationship to...indulge in what he's missed..?"

Even here, Mohinder was more informed. Gabriel found himself frowning, and he gave Mohinder an apologetic glance. "I feel like I'm still being kept out of the loop," he murmured, as a half-hearted attempt to explain. "That would make sense. I bet being extremely logical pushes all your emotions out of the way- the telepathic connection must be intense." He didn't know why Jim couldn't have just told him that, but he was increasingly aware that getting along with Mohinder didn't mean he understood the hearts of most people any better.

Gabriel frowned even more at Mohinder's questioning guess. "You think he was trying to see if he had a chance? I really doubt that. I was as appealing as rotted meat, as far as he was concerned." The times when Jim shut him down were far more pressing in his mind than the times they got along.

"I had nothing else," Mohinder said, pace slowing almost immediately. "You didn't come back. I waited. I stayed the entire night." Mohinder always walked the line between logic and emotion, ignoring the former to follow his heart as often as the reverse. Now, emotion was wearing out. He had held it together for so long...

Mohinder's hands shook, both now wrapped around the larger hand of his boyfriend. That slow pace nearly stopped dead as the tears made it up to his eyes.... And his voice.

"People get lost," he all but whispered. "People sometimes don't come back. The vortex collapses during transit. Jack himself said he was caught in a temporal loop for six years."

Now the Indian wasn't walking at all, head bowing as he pulled Gabriel's whole arm against him. The excitement of his return, reselling Jim's story-- it got to him.

"Half of those vaults are empty, the ones with the name plates. Half!. You didn't come back--"

Okay, enough hand-holding. Gabriel turns so he's in front of Mohinder and hugs him tightly with his free arm. He hadn't expected Mohinder to be this put out by his disappearance, even with how close they'd gotten. "I'm here," he said. "I'm back. I love you. I'm sorry I was gone so long." He rubbed Mohinder's back, holding him close.

Clearly, this was going to be a lot harder than either of them anticipated. "You know, when I signed up, I thought we'd both be going on missions together. Didn't even cross my mind that we wouldn't be." His eyes were tearing up now, too. He blinked them back. "But I had to go and make myself more durable, huh? What a stupid thing to do." He tried to turn it into a joke, but it wasn't. It really wasn't. He had Mohinder, and he'd chosen nearly an eternity of lifetime without him.

It would get easier, it had to. Mohinder knew that Gabriel could return to him within minutes…or it could take awhile if there was a malfunction. To have a malfunction on the first day, though? That had been a hard blow and Jack had been reluctant to give the angry scientist any answers. Jack hadn’t been worried. Jim Kirk was his best agent at the moment. He had just enough need to succeed and just enough lack of self-preservation to see him safely home every time. Gabriel had been in good hands.

Even with the punching.

That didn’t stop Mohinder from hating every moment of it, no matter how many interesting things Jack assigned him to. He pressed his face against Gabriel’s shoulder and fisted his hands in the back of his shirt.

“I’m not sure I could bear it if you were less resilient,” he complained. “It was my one comfort.” Gabriel couldn’t die. He’d make it back eventually.

No one paid them much attention down by the wharf. There was no one there to bother them. Mohinder could have his relieved cry and Gabriel could have his guilt.

Gabriel knew he'd been in good hands, too. The only time he'd ever worried was when he found Kirk talking to himself, but that was only because he thought the orb might've been affecting him. Kirk knew how to handle any situation that wasn't personal, it seemed.

As for Mohinder, Gabriel hugged him close and let him cry. He smoothed out Mohinder's hair and kept rubbing his back, and he thought hard about what he was going to say next.

He eventually settled on something he would never say to anyone else. With Mohinder, though, the truth tended to work wonders. "I'm scared, too," he murmured quietly into his boyfriend's ear. "I don't want you to hurt because you've gotten old and I haven't. And I don't want you to die, and I don't want to be alone." He pulled back enough to look Mohinder in the eyes. His own were full of fear and worry. "Would you let me look for something? I'm sure I could find some way to help you live just as long."

Mohinder was absolutely the sort of person to misunderstand something, go with it, and let his hands show on his face. Everything was fine until Gabriel pulled back. Mohinder had red eyes and fuller than usual lips from pressing so tightly to each other. He stiffened immediately.

I don't want you to hurt because you've gotten old and I haven't.

After all of this, he was being broken up with? Perhaps it served him right. Smart people tended to break up with him sooner rather than later. He had parted those red lips to say something when Gabriel cut him off about finding a way to make him like Gabriel.

Tears were blinked away.

Mohinder let out a long, slow, deep breath.

His stiffness faded.

"I... I wouldn't like you to be left alone either." Gabriel could so easily slip. And who wouldn't like to live forever? Mohinder obvious wasn't thinking any of this through. He nodded, quickly. "The Archive is massive. Maybe... Shanti can show us."

Gabriel was nothing if not observant- at least of things that concerned him, and Mohinder fully qualified. He noticed that the upset was more than a worry relieved. The need for a deep breath spoke to something Gabriel himself had said.

But he was on a roll and had to get the request out first. And Mohinder wasn't opposed. Gabriel let out a deep breath of his own. "Maybe. And I like to do some tests on my blood, as well." Maybe he could manage to give Mohinder the same ability, with time and patience. Mohinder had the potential for an ability, he knew.

But back to the tears. Concern had flooded his features, and he lightly rubbed Mohinder's upper arms. "Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?"

Gabriel Gray. What did Jack tell you not more than two days ago (linearly for you at least?) Did he not say that Mohinder was suppose to stay away from testing abilities? And didn't Peter warn you about that too? Yes?

It seemed like they had some selective memories, or maybe the thought of loving someone dying with every breathe they took was just a little too much for Gabriel. In a way, no one would blame him. If Jack had known how to make someone like himself before Ianto died...

Mohinder looked at their shoes, taking Gabriel's bicep in his hand.

He looked sheepish under the mess of regrowing curls. "I... I thought you might have been on the verge of breaking up with me to spare us what might come when I started to grow older." It was still a concern, though from what he had seen, most Torchwood agents didn't get passed their ten year anniversaries.

Gabriel happened to be an expert at selectively remembering things. And of course, when he did remember that they weren't supposed to be working on that, he'd rationalize it by deciding to destroy it once Mohinder had what he needed. And yes, at this point it was a need.

That was all for later, of course. Right now, he laughed with relief and shook his head. "No, no! I was worried that might be what you wanted. Jim told me that Jack did that, and I-" He shrugged. "I was worried for nothing. Sorry."

He pulled Mohinder into a hug once again, and this one was tight. "I'm not letting you go, promise," he murmured.

It made sense to Mohinder. Watching someone die slowly as their body gave out had to have been a horrible thing. And for the person aging, watching their lover stay young and beautiful, it would be just as terrible. Mohinder felt that thought click inside of him even as he pulled Gabriel into a very passionate, very public kiss.

What did he care? When he was with Gabriel, sometimes the world stopped mattering. Sometimes it disappeared. That might be a problem with his wiring, since he no longer even equated his father's (or anyone's) death with Gabriel.

A touch of Stockholm Syndrome? It was so under his radar that it literally didn't even register with him as something to think about.

Lowering himself on his heels, face still an inch from Gabriel's, Mohinder watched those pouty, full lips promise him what amounted to eternity.

"I trust you, Gabriel."

Gabriel's (very recent) bloody past was almost certainly a time-bomb for both of them, but for now he could and would ignore it. This was not something he was going to give up on, even for the reality of their situations. He'd make it all right. And if he never heard Chandra's name ever again- well, that'd be just fine by him. He was the epitome of wishing for something hard enough, and being willing to do anything it took to make it real.

He hoped it would work out this time. And how could it not? Mohinder was with him every step of the way. He'd be fine. They'd both be fine. This kiss confirmed it. He kissed Mohinder back with abandon, enjoying every second of it. When he finally pulled away, he caught a glimpse of some people hastily turning away, but it just made him smirk briefly in their direction.

He was nearly bowled over by Mohinder's declaration of trust. Having anyone's trust, much less Mohinder's, had seemed like such a foreign concept for a long, long time. He squeezed his eyes shut, just for a second, and smiled wide. "Thank you, Mohinder," he said quietly, sounding as if his voice had been taken from him. "I trust you, too. We'll figure out a way to make it work, together."

He leaned down to give Mohinder another, slightly calmer kiss. It was a confirmation of his promise, and he pulled away still smiling. "Come on, let's go home." He shifted so one arm was around Mohinder's shoulder, he'd stay that way as they walked.

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