Title: A New Beginning in Rome
Fandom: James Bond, Hint of Sherlock
Relationships: James Bond/Q
Tags: Q is a Holmes, Getting Together, Fluff
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Discussion of Canon Typical Violence
Summary: Q was shocked to see James across the seating area, just as much as he wasn't.
Word Count: 1,976
Spoilers: Up Through Skyfall
Beta: Grammarly



Q never cared much about vacations before. They had always been something that he hated when it was him and his brothers on vacation with their parents.

They had never been allowed to act like the rest of the children. Food fights were unheard of. Playing in the sand just to play wasn't allowed.

Q would rather just stay home and be allowed to wander where he wanted as long as he wasn't under foot of anyone in the house.

So when he was forced to take a vacation, he had nearly just decided to stay home but then he had not been able to keep everyone else at bay then. Moneypenny stopped by three times a day to make sure he was actually relaxing. Tanner was by every evening with dinner. It wasn't relaxing.

Mallory had forced three weeks on him, and it had only taken three days for Q to decide he didn't want to hang around at home.

There was something satisfying about the email he had sent out to all of them about it all as well. The threat of quitting if anyone bothered him about work had been truthful. Q loved his job, and he would just leave it to head to MI5 if anyone at MI6 pissed him off.

That was why sitting and staring at James Bond as he flirted with a waiter made Q feel slightly off-footed. He knew that Bond was on a two-month medical leave. His shoulder would take that long to heal after the torture he had endured during his last mission until Q could get him out of there.

Bond had been gone from London for two weeks, and beyond his daily check-in with Moneypenny to make sure no one had kidnapped him, he had been unwilling to say where he was.

Rome was an interesting city for Bond to be sitting in.

"Are you ready to order?" the waiter asked in Italian as he came over to Q again.

"Yes, sorry," Q answered back in Italian. He rattled off his order, watching the waiter's eyebrows rise as he spoke flawless Italian.

"Right away, sir," the waiter said before leaving.

There was little Q could do for his accent, but at least he could speak Italian as close to correct as possible. His brothers were better at masking their British accents.

Q looked at his tablet and then looked away toward where Bond was still flirting with the waiter. He wasn't flirting like he did on missions; this was his honest flirting. The kind that was always startling when Q saw him use it out and about.

A message popped across his tablet, drawing Q's eyes down to it.

/You could always come over or invite me to your table./

Q felt the little quirk on his lips at Bond's message. He looked up to find Bond looking at him. He wasn't shocked Bond had spotted him. Bond was trained to notice someone like Q before Q was supposed to notice him.

"A drink for you, sir," his waiter said as he returned.

Q looked at the drink sat down in front of him. It smelled like tea, which was not on offer at this place. No, they had just coffee. Q picked it up and inhaled the scent of bergamot and a touch of lavender and vanilla.

"And who ordered this?"

"The gentleman across the way through my co-worker."

"I see, and there was no message?"

"No."

Q lifted the cup, and he saluted Bond with it. Bond lifted his espresso cup and did the same.

"You can tell him unless he wants to keep on talking through our tablets like strangers, he's welcome to join me. It might save your co-worker from his advances."

"Oh, no, they flirt like that every single day. He's harmless, as I am sure you know."

Q nearly snorted into his tea. No one who knew James Bond would ever call him harmless, but he guessed that in a place like this, it was best for people to think he was.

The waiter walked across the outside seating area and leaned over to say something into Bond's ear.

Bond grinned, and he nodded before picking up his cup of coffee and grabbing the laptop bag on the chair beside him. The table was pretty empty other than that stuff. Q wasn't sure if he had already eaten or hadn't yet. He wasn't too upset by sharing with Bond.

At least maybe then, he would be ignored for the most part by the waiter.

"Quin," Bond said as he laid his things down. He pressed a kiss to Q's cheek before he sat in the chair beside Q.

"Is that the laptop from Russia?"

"You wound me."

"Japan?"

"Ethiopia," Bond said. He touched the bag. "With a few parts scavenged from others over the months, I've been able to figure out how to replace them.

"I worked a month on that laptop."

"Yes, and that's why I didn't destroy it, but I also knew you knew it was still alive and kicking."

"Yes, well, I guess that means I can stop waiting for them to pop back onto the system and fully destroy their connection.'

"I'm shocked you didn't already."

"Oh, they would not connect, but I would know it. You messed with it to where I wouldn't know."

"Yes, using that lovely program from the Mexico mission."

"M told me you were smarter than you appeared, and you were willing to teach yourself anything you thought you might need to use at the wrong time."

"Your Italian is nearly flawless," James said in Greek.

"And your Greek is horrible," Q said back in Greek.

Bond laughed, and he picked up his coffee to take a sip of it. Q realised he had left his espresso drink. The cup was on the other table, and this was just a normal coffee cup. "Are you drinking the coffee I ordered?"

"You are happier with your tea," James said, switching to English.

"Yes, I am. how did you get that anyway?"

"The lovely man who was waiting on me was going to the shop across the street for a tea for himself, and I gave him a good tip to get you a London Fog Latte. he was more than willing. So what got you out of London?"

"As if you don't already know."

"Oh, I've ignored Moneypenny's last seven calls and the string of texts from her. If she was gossiping about that, I have no clue. I told Mallory I would only take Medical's calls, and he promised me that. Moneypenny, on the other hand, keeps calling. I figure that if the world is ending and only I can save it, Mallory would call and hope I answer."

"I was put on a three-week vacation, and Moneypenny and Tanner were pests until I left London. Tanner less so since I can usually stand him."

"Ah, I see. Well, that's horrible. So you ran to Rome to get away?"

"The vacation I hated the least with my siblings was here."

"That does not sound like a good thing."

"I guess that honestly depends on what you like. I hated the other, and there were no good memories. I was old enough here in Rome to be allowed to wander as I wanted. It was my last vacation before I started university. It was fun and something I wanted to do one day again. I just typically don't like actually going places alone. I went on a few trips here and there with friends in university, but we never left the isles."

"So, what are you planning on doing here?"

"I haven't a clue. I am going to the catacombs later today, the best tour. Other than that, I was just enjoying sitting by the poolside the last two days and doing nothing but having people wait on me."

"Hmm, as you did what?"

"Destroyed idiots in Minecraft."

"Minecraft? I never expected you to play that."

"I dabble in many games. Usually, I just build things. I have an entire city built on my server. If people piss me off, I wait for someone who looks enough like them to spawn, and I trap them in a place they will never escape and will die slowly in. Though they never die or despawn, they are trapped forever."

"How many of me are in there?"

"None but Moneypenny is in there right now. She might be let out. I haven't decided that yet."

Bond smiled and shook his head as he looked around. His eyes settled behind Q. "And here is food."

Q set aside his tablet, checking one last thing before shutting it down for the time being. He didn't trust Bond with it.

James hummed over the food settled in front of him. "This looks lovely."

"Yes, it looks very good," Q said, matching James' Italian.

"If you need anything, just get our attention."

"How would you feel about this being a date?" Bond asked.

Q picked up his fork and looked at Bond, trying to figure out what was going on in his head, but he found that Bond looked flustered for the first time ever. He wanted this to be a date and was unsure about it."

"Hmm, how about a meal between friends and then the tour of the catacombs can be our first date and if it goes well, the second will be dinner. I will not go back to your place with you after that, but you can come to mine, and we can discuss what we are going to do once we get back at Six."

"Agreed. Did you want another tea? My new friend will be getting off in twenty minutes, and he offered to get another tea for a good tip if I wanted after he was off."

"Sure. I could do with one."

James looked behind Q and nodded his head before holding up a bit of money. The young waiter came over and took it.

"Just like last time, Sir?" the man asked Q.

"Yes, it was perfect. Thank you."

"He's shy and gets flustered easily. I wasn't even flirting with him the first day here, but he was so flustered he wasn't even speaking English, much less Italian, correctly. So I have been working on getting him used to the attention. He's sweet and wants to go to London for college next year."

"I wondered as it was your normal flirting, but you were doing nothing to progress beyond that."

"I've had my eye on someone for a while now, and while I harmless flirt, I don't want to ruin what I have been building."

Q tucked into his food, and he mulled over James' words. He trusted James was speaking the truth but that James had been interested in him for a while was a shock. There was a reason why Q had known what James' real flirting looked like.

"I'm sure that your paramour will enjoy having your attention on him."

"I hope so. I've tried not to push it where it didn't seem to be wanted, but I think he honestly didn't know I fancied him before today."

"Well, I guess the trip was worth it then, even if I don't do half of what I thought I might," Q said.

The smile on James' face made him look many years younger than he was. It was a good look on him. Q looked forward to seeing the rest of James he never got a chance to.

He might have to send Tanner a fruit basket and Moneypenny some flowers for annoying him out of London.

The trip would be worth it for just the look of James looking at him like that.

The End