Hale shifted forward but the corridor was too narrow, forcing him back against Elliot. "Not exactly a lot of room here, Shaw."
"I'm aware." Elliot tried to adjust his position and felt Hale tense.
"Stop moving," Hale croaked.
"I'm not?—"
"You are." His voice was strained. "And if you don't stop, we're going to have a problem."
Elliot went completely still.Oh. "Copy that."
"Thank you."
A door opened ahead of them. They moved instantly, breaking apart and clearing the new threat, putting some much-needed distance between them.
The four of them cleared the rest of the building in record time. Found all the hostages, eliminated all the threats, and reached the extraction point with twelve minutes to spare.
Sergeant Kowalski nodded, making notes on his clipboard. "Good work. Fastest time today. Hit the showers."
Elliot and Hale walked back toward the barracks in tense silence. Other teams were still running the exercise, voices echoing from the building behind them.
When they reached the barracks, Reed was outside, cleaning his boots. He looked up as they approached, eyebrows raising. "Damn. You guys finished already?"
"Yeah," Hale said, voice smooth. "It was fine."
"We got lucky,” Elliot added.
Reed studied them for a moment, and Elliot had the uncomfortable feeling that Reed could see exactly how wound up they both were. But he shrugged and went back to the task at hand. "Nice work."
The barracks was mostly empty—everyone else still running exercises or on other assignments. Elliot grabbed clean clothes and headed for the showers, desperate to get a minute to think.
He stepped under the spray, trying not to think aboutthe way Hale had felt pressed against him for the past two hours. This was getting out of hand. Fooling around in storage rooms was one thing, but getting all riled up and distracted during exercises was another.
They'd established rules. Just physical. No complications. Elliot could handle this.
By the time evening formation rolled around, he had mostly convinced himself that was true.
Elliot was woundup bad when free time started at 1900.
He paced around the barracks for fifteen minutes, watching it thin out as the other guys drifted off to the rec room. Hale caught his eye once across the length of the barracks, and that was all it took for Elliot to calculate the fastest route to the second floor storage.
The small and poorly lit room proved accessible if you knew which corridors to take and when, private enough if you were careful.
Elliot had been circling the tight space for maybe three minutes when he heard the door.
Hale stepped inside and seemed to take him in: the flushed cheeks, the tension Elliot hadn't quite managed to neutralize.
Hale’s lips quirked up. He was obviously amused, the idiot. "God, you're wound up tight. Need me to help you with that?"
“Fuck off, Hale.”
"I'm serious. It's a genuine offer."
"I know it's a genuine offer." Elliot crossed the distance between them and got a hand on Hale's collar. He kissedHale hard enough that he made a startled sound before kissing him back.
They stumbled backward. Hale's back hit the iron shelves with a clatter, causing toilet paper, soap bottles and random cleaning supplies to rain down around them. Elliot pressed against him and kissed him deeper, tongue sliding against Hale’s.
"Lights… are not… out yet—" Hale rasped, when Elliot moved to his throat. He tilted his head back anyway, giving Elliot better access, which rather undermined the objection. "Someone might?—"
