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“Oh, how will I manage?” Carter said wryly, wondering what that look had been for.

“So, because your buddies took you, that made it important?” Marco asked, apparently not willing to explain.

Carter snorted softly, glancing over the railing toward the dark sands of the nearby beach. “I woke up hungover as hell, and it took us a while to figure out we were in the most god-awful tourist trap. But the next day, I got to walk on the beach and saw the sunset, and it just...yeah. It’s the beach.”

He stopped, suddenly struck by how odd the conversation felt. Carter didn’t talk much about his teams, especially not the first one who had been the closest to a family before they’dbeen separated at the end of that deployment. And he definitely hadn’t talked about significant moments with them.

“Have you seen it here?” Marco asked.

Carter looked down at him. “Seen what?”

“The sunset on the beach.”

“No, don’t come to the beach here.”

“Well, if you’re up to it, maybe sometime soon, we could do it. It really is quite beautiful.”

Marco still didn’t look at him as they walked, though there was a slight smile on his face whenever they walked under one of the lights on the boardwalk. Carter wasn’t so blind as to understand what Marco was asking. Carter had just made Marco a part of his past and wanted to know, without pressure or demand, if he could be included in something similar, something just for them.

“Yeah,” Carter grunted, not looking at Marco now. “We could do that.”

Because what else could he say?

MARCO

It was becoming increasingly difficult to believe he’d known Carter almost a month. Ever since the first weekend, Marco had wondered what the hell he’d done to deserve such a good stroke of luck.

There had been the night at the club and its slight drama. Since it resulted in something a littlemorebetween them, though, Marco wasn’t going to complain. The following weekend had been shorter since Carter had been held over, but the two days that followed had been perfect.

With the next weekend approaching, Marco was eager for each day to end, bringing him closer to Friday, or if it was a repeat of the weekend before, Saturday. Considering Carter spent all his free time during the weekend with Marco, it left him feeling fulfilled and greedy, wanting more time.

Which was made better and worse when Carter occasionally showed up at Marco’s work or his house when he had a free hour or two off the base. Marco wasn’t sure if Carter was supposed to be doing that since he had to stick close to the base during the week, but he wasn’t going to ask. Carter tended to get a little testy if Marco started worrying about him too much, though it was growing less and less heated.

“Major Prick sent me on another shopping trip,” Carter told him on Monday morning with a sneer, holding out a coffee he’d picked up. “And since you can’t wake up when you aren’t up all night, figured you needed coffee.”

On Wednesday, he’d shown up with Thai food for lunch at Marco’s office, much to the amusement of everyone on the floor. “You haven’t had Thai in days because of me, and I’m not going to listen to you if you don’t get it soon, alright? Fucking take it already, they’re staring, and it makes my skin itch.”

Thursday, he’d shown up as Marco walked out of the office building at the end of the day. Carter had scowled at him, of course, when Marco smiled in greeting. But he’d walked back with Marco, listening to him talk about his day, and even came in for an hour to sit with him on the couch. He’d left after an hour, letting Marco doze pleasantly.

Marco had been vibrating in his skin throughout Friday. They’d yet to have an entire day to themselves, but the weekend felt like theirs. It had been bad enough that one of his fellow programmers had told him to switch to decaf while she smirked at her screen.

When Carter had finally shown up, and Marco had practically launched himself at the man, he’d thought maybe they’d have a nice enthusiastic greeting, followed by lazing around. Carter apparently had other plans, and while Marco should have seen it coming, he hadn’t expected how far it would go.

That was why, an hour later, he found himself covered in sweat, aching, and lying on a soft mat he’d dragged up from storage. The mat had been from when he’d tried to exercise at home. He couldn’t even remember what exercise fad he’d been following, but he was incredibly glad after an hour of being beaten up.

“When you said,” Marco said, chest heaving. “you wanted to teach me self-defense stuff, I thought it would be like...do this, do that, okay, good, let’s move on and have great sex and cuddle on the couch.”

“I don’t fucking cuddle,” Carter growled. The dirty liar. “And what’s the point of learning how to defend yourself if you can’t actually defend yourself with it?”

That was a fair point, but Marco wasn’t sure he wanted to agree and make it seem like he was having a good time. Carter had started with basic grab breaks and simple dodges. The problem was, he’d also, once he was sure Marco had the basics down, started applying them to enactments of dangerous situations. While Carter wasn’t being as rough as someone in an actual situation, it was close enough that Marco was beginning to wonder if a couple of ibuprofen would be enough later.

“Or,” Marco said, rolling over to push himself up, “you could try to take it easy until I’ve figured out everything you taught me. Because as much as I like the sexy kind of choking, I’m not big on this whole beating me up thing.”

Carter leaned away, taking a step back. “Beating you up? I’m teaching you how to defend yourself if someone tries to fuck with you.”

“Boy, it’s almost like I’m not a fighter,” Marco said dryly, getting to his feet.

Carter scowled, eyes getting darker. “There’s not being a fighter, and then there’s you. You couldn’t fight your way out of a fucking paper bag right now.”