67: tucking their hands beneath the other person’s shirt, just to watch them break the kiss and gasp in surprise at the sensation of cold/warm hands on their skin
With GerryMichael because as a fellow tall people I know Michael's hands are unbearably cold from lack of circulation but his face is easy to go red 🥰
Tall people with bad circulation 🤝 office workers working in cold offices
Michael wondered if Gertrude would let him help her kill Elias.
It was only a matter of time. He’d had his eyes wrenched open, no longer blind to reality. He knew who they were working for, and while he didn’t necessarily like it, he knew Gertrude hated it. She was not quiet about her criticism, and while he was glad she wasn’t keeping him in the dark anymore, it was still quite a thing to listen to his boss openly plot murder.
He didn’t care if Elias was dead at her hands- really, the Head of the Institute was just as guilty as the others, and worse. What Michael did resent was the relentless busy work that he was being assigned, probably to keep them busy so they couldn’t plot their boss’s demise. The amount of incoming statements was so relentless, they nearly didn’t have room to put them all. Gertrude was busy with her own plots, so she was no help, of course. And Elias’s ever-so-helpful suggestion of “digitizing” the hand-written statements just meant more work for him.
Michael groaned as he flexed his fingers against the keyboard. He was a fast typer, but the statements were usually rambling, and the handwriting nearly illegible. The Eye helped a bit, but that left him with an awful headache at the end of the day, and exhausted beyond belief. He was even beginning to have dreams about the statements, which was incredibly annoying since he couldn’t even have a break in his sleep.
The most current annoyance to him, however, were his fingers. He felt like he couldn’t warm them up, they were like stiff icicles against the keys, and blowing on them or tucking them against his chest made no difference. Fingerless gloves might help, but he didn’t have a pair on hand, and he’d been too tired to knit recently, so he couldn’t whip up a pair either. It wasn’t enough to slow him down, but it did make his mood worse, and he was more than ready for a break.
“Gerry,” Michael sighed, leaning back limply in his chair to watch his boyfriend descend the stairs with a bag of takeout. “My love, the light of my life, the greatest joy, my absolute treasure-”
“That bad, huh?” Gerry grimaced, crossing the distance between them to drop a kiss on top of his head. Michael just groaned, long and whale-like, and spun his chair around so he could bury his face in Gerry’s chest. “I’m sorry, love.”
“It’s awful,” Michael moaned, slinging his arms around Gerry’s waist. “It’s like they don’t realize someone’s going to actually read what they’ve written. They don’t even try to make it legible.”
“Ugh.” Gerry leaned over him to peer at the papers next to his computer. “Their handwriting is worse than mine.”
“And it’s so pointless! It’s just busy work.” Michael leaned back so he could see Gerry’s face. “Next thing you know, that bastard’ll have me recording them or something.”
“I’m sure you’ll do a fantastic job regardless,” Gerry assured him, staring down at him with a terribly fond expression. He raised his hands to cup the back of his head, gently rubbing the tension away. “You’re too damn good for this place.”
“Flatterer,” Michael rebutted, helplessly charmed. Gerry just smiled and bent down to kiss him, so soft but full of meaning. Michael kissed him back, feeling all of the tension drain right out of him, leaving him soothed and relaxed. It meant everything to him to have Gerry by his side, sympathetic and caring and exactly what he needed the most. As if Michael couldn’t possibly be more in love with him.
And to show his appreciation, he rucked up the back of Gerry’s shirt and plastered his hands to the small of his back.
Gerry yelped and jumped away, gaping at Michael incredulously as he fell into giggles. “What the hell?” he gasped, sounding aghast and offended. “Why are your fingers so cold?”
“Because its cold down here!” Michael pointed out. “And my jumper doesn’t cover my hands.” He wiggled his fingers to prove his point, and Gerry rolled his eyes, coming back to take his hands in his.
“Poor guy,” he commiserated, rubbing his hands and bending to breathe warm air over them. “I have some fingerless gloves back ho- back at Pinhole, I’ll run over and grab them for you.”
“Thank you,” Michael murmured, touched that Gerry would step foot back in that place for him. Over the past few months they had been removing Gerry’s clothes and personal items and relocating them to his flat, slowly moving him in where he belonged. Michael couldn’t help but feel a deep stir of pleasure at the thought, of getting Gerry away from that awful place for good. It’s what he deserved.
Gerry knelt next to him, tucking his cold hands under his chin as he smiled at Michael, happy and content. “Can you take a break for lunch? Get out of this basement for a bit?”
“Of course.” Without looking, Michael put his computer into sleep mode and guided Gerry back to his feet, pulling him in for a hug. This time, when he cold hands wandered under Gerry’s shirt, he didn’t pull away.
![[Image ID: A guide to writing alt text on images. At the top, it says "Writing Alt Text" in big white text. It then lists off five major steps to writing alt text. Identify who, expression, description, color, and interesting features. It then shows an image of a capybara, with a sample alt text that reads, "A capybara looking relaxed in a hot spa. Yellow yuzu fruits are floating in the water, and one is balanced on top of the capybara's head." with each block of text color-coordinated to show which of the five steps it corresponds to. At the bottom of the image is the word "Puzzle" stylized into a logo. End ID.]](../media/1ee6616facee3ddaad693bef6bbf122b48267425.png)
