James' POV
When he had requested help, he had not expected that his old friend would have found his mate or that his mate was a genius too. After all, John was just as much a flirt as him, maybe more of one since he earned the nickname Three Continents Watson for his time spent with female shifters during their heats. Though he rarely, if ever slept with human females, something that had confused the agent until the wolf explained that he preferred females who understood nothing more would ever come of it. As long as his wrist was bare, he could bed any female he wanted, and he had always picked up on the undercurrents between the wolf and cobra, always wondered if they were lovers who worked off their stress on each other.
Somehow the wolf's dark-haired mate had flagged a cab nearly as soon as he raised his arm for one. What a trick, cabs tended not to be that easy for him, immediately after he flagged a second cab, directing him, Q, and the stocky red-head into one car while they got into the other with Q's friend. Once in the cab, the ride is quiet, apparently neither Q nor the red-head wish to speak with each other or him. However the red-head keeps giving him peculiar looks that is making him feel like he is under a microscope of the unpleasant kind.
When they get to the restaurant, he is unsurprised that to see that it is run by shifters according to the marks on the necks of several of them.
The six of them are seated at a table near the back door and the waitress brings them a large pitcher of lemon water and the glasses before giving them some time to decide what to eat. Once they have decided, what they want, he feels more than sees as the wolf summons the waitress who takes each of their orders before vanishing into the back.
"So do the round robin," he prompts the wolf with a grin.
Chuckling, the blonde nods and does so, "This is my mate Sherlock, his brother Aragorn," he motions to the pair, "that's Shalen," he motions to the red-head, with a smirk he finishes, "that's Kris and James," motioning first to Q and then to him.
"How do you know that?" Q demands, eyes wide as he stares at the wolf.
The wolf grins at him, replying questioningly, "You want the nice answer that does require thought or the truthful answer that's going to bother you?"
"Truth, always the truth," his hacker replies firmly.
"Your mind, I shuffled through it earlier while we were coming through the building." the wolf responds.
He just about spits out his water, he was not expecting that answer. He thought the wolf had said you do not discuss their world with the humans? Yet there are four of them at the table and he was discussing it with ease.
Relax James. Sherlock belongs to the Watson pack. Aragorn is well aware of the non-human community since the silent one beside him is a full immortal. The only one who doesn't know is your partner, and since your thoughts say that you want more than just a causal bedding. He hears the wolf tell him privately, well, best to let him know.
I'd ask how but I know better, he replies, using the link established by the wolf. I thought humans are not allowed to know?
Those not tied to our world we tend to keep in the dark, but there is no reason to keep yours in the dark. Besides, the wolf smirks at him, he wants more than a causal tumble as well, he probably would have confronted you already, but you're a bit of a skirt chaser. Pausing he glances between the two of them, eyes lingering on his hacker before returning to him, Does he even know that you actually like men as much as women? Because I can see in that boys mind, and he's young but not stupid, well worth the effort put forth, though you would have to communicate a bit better.
I … he doesn't actually know what to say. He has spent years chasing skirts and sex, whether it was from a friend, foe, or just a causal tumble. During all that time he had not desired to settle with one person as much as he does with his hacker.
Face it, you don't just want the sex, you want it all, the sex, the cuddling, the love, the being there for each other, the right to protect. The wolf drives the point home with a soft voice that brushes against him in truth.
He can feel his skin heating as he blushes for the first time since he was a teenager.
"James?" his hacker inquires, voice mildly concerned as the smaller man glances at him.
"I'm alright," he replies, flashing a smile towards him that he hopes does not show what he was really feeling.
"Don't worry about him. From the looks of it John just gave him a lesson about himself. Including the fact that he wants to have a more than sex relationship with you, why John felt the need to do it telepathically I do not understand." The older one of the brothers remarks making his hacker blush as much as he is.
"Sherlock!" the younger brother groans, rolling his eyes.
Glancing at the wolf the elder asks, "Bit not good?"
"Yeah, bit not good," the wolf responds.
"So, Kris, since everyone now knows your first name, how's it been?" the younger brother asks glancing at his hacker and ignoring his brother's comment.
"I have been enjoying my job," his hacker replies, "working on a new game code. I'll send it your way when it is ready to be played."
"Sweet. What type of game?" the second hacker questions curiously.
His hacker grins, answering, "A first person shooter game."
Both hackers chuckle at this before the other hacker asks, "What, you don't get enough of it at the office?"
"Well it's one thing when I have to design weapons and tools that I know will probably never be returned because someone doesn't take care of his equipment, it is another thing to create a game where I don't have to worry about the stuff going missing or being destroyed." His hacker replies.
"Still can't manage to keep you gun?" the wolf asks him with a smile.
Grinning charmingly, he responds, "Well, you know, the heat of the moment and all that."
Shaking his head with a chuckle the wolf remarks, "A bit not good there James, supposed to love and cherish it as an extension of yourself."
"Says the guy who used to carry around three of them just to make sure he always had one," he retorts still smiling.
"Actually, one was for me, two were for Eric, he had a bad habit of breaking them, which is why I didn't get him nice guns, only functional ones." The wolf states as the waitress comes to set their food down.
Nodding, he remembers some of the various ways he had seen the cobra destroy things and understands exactly where the wolf was coming from. "So Sherlock, how long have you been with John?" he changes his attention to his friends mate while the two hackers roll their eyes at him.
"Long enough to wonder why he never mentioned you if you are really a friend, he mentioned the other human from his military days but not you. Why?" the detective asks watching him as he considers the implications.
Shrugging he responds, "Because we're not supposed to acknowledge those that we have done secret missions with. Besides, I think he keeps most things to himself, he's always been closed mouthed when its most annoying."
"Very true," the detective murmurs thoughtfully.
"You said you knew my name because you read my thoughts, how?" his hacker eventually asks.
He knows that the wolf's response is telepathic because of the wide eyes his hacker suddenly has. "How?" the younger man breathes in shock.
"Wolf shifter, elite to be exact." Flashing a grin the wolf continues, "You wondered how he did not die when he was shot, that's because he's not fully human either. Though," the wolf's attention turns to the red-head, "What would the human child of an immortal who cannot die of unnatural causes be classified as?"
"Gifted," the stocky red-head replies, "Explains why something felt not human about him." Looking at him speculatively the red-head asks, "Do you know your lineage?"
He gives a small shake of his head, "Not a clue, didn't even know I was not human until I should have died on that mission that I met the military pack during. John here is the one who explained it to me."
"One of the Dusk lines," the wolf remarks eyes flickering to the red-head.
"Hmmmm, I believe I will see if any are missing." The red-head remarks, "I'm primary Shadow, but my grandmother was a Dusk child of the third line, Ivory, which means we may be related."
"Oh," he murmurs, shocked. To nights dinner has been a learning experience for him between John's revelation about his hacker wishing for a real relationship to the fact he might have family. It's just been a bit much, particularly after the day he has had. Perhaps he should take a vacation.
The rest of dinner goes moderately smoothly, the two brothers and his hacker take up most of the conversation with him occasionally flirting though he is too lost in thoughts to do a good job at it. After dinner he is surprised when they step out of the restaurant to three waiting government issued cars. He had thought that they would have to arrange their own rides back to London.
"So hey, stop by the flat some time and I will finish the repairs to your shoulder, hip, and ankle. Don't know why you bother with human doctors and healers when they do not do nearly as good of job," the wolf grumbles as he gives him a quick hug.
"Yes sir," he responds, only partly sarcastic.
"Careful you, or I will have him make sure your next job is somewhere ice cold and isolated, believe me when I say he'd do it too." The wolf jokingly tells him.
"Thank the crab-arse for me would you? Made my life a lot easier tonight." He replies, feeling a smile tugging at his lips at the cobra would ship him to the arctic.
Nodding, the wolf climbs into his black car after bidding the others farewell, his mate close behind.
Turning his attention to his hacker, he tries not to listen in while the two computer geeks say goodbye. There seems to be a closeness to them that makes him wonder, though the guard seems to be more than just your run of the mile guard. Then the two of them are in their car and taking off.
"Come on James, you can explain to me what they were talking about with immortals and gifted. Something tells me you know," his hacker tells him as he slides into the backseat of the last car.
Smiling, he nods and climbs in after him, thinking, this might go easier than I expected. Thanks John.