Work Text:
“Why are you naked?”
It’s kind of a silly question, and could have been prefaced by good morning. Pete doesn’t stop his workout.
“I’m not naked. I’m wearing a tank top.”
“Hmm.” In the window, the reflection of a bed-haired Vegas shuffles into the living room. “Don’t you own, like, ten of those? You didn’t have to steal mine.”
“I didn’t want to wake you up, so I picked one at random.” Pete throws a glance over his shoulder, “but it’s true that this one is a little tight, now that you mention it.”
“Please. You’re not that buff.” Vegas flops on the couch. He rarely bothers to strive for elegance when they’re alone, but there’s a certain grace to his movements anyway, innate or practiced until it became automatic. Pete doesn’t know. Maybe they’ll talk about it one day.
“Buffer than you are,” he says instead, because riling Vegas has always, always been fun.
“And in the nude in front of the patio door, for everyone to see.”
Bait not taken, then. Fine. Pete huffs. He’s facing the garden. Everyone, here, only means the one person who’s already seen all there was to see, up close and personal, multiple times. In fact, Pete’s pretty sure he still has forensics-usable toothprints on his left cheek.
“Can’t a man be naked in his own home?”
A rhetorical question, sure, but the lack of response unsettles him nonetheless. Pete sets his dumbbells down and turns.
Vegas is staring at him with soft eyes.
“What? It’s not that weird. Our junk needs to breathe too, you know.”
Vegas doesn’t even raise an eyebrow. When he speaks, his voice is even softer than his gaze. “I think it’s the first time you called it home.”
It can’t be true, can it? It’s their house. It’s their home. Surely he’s said so before. Hasn’t he? Was Vegas quietly waiting for that validation, for yet another reassurance? Pete clears his throat. “Well, it is. My home. And I will walk its grounds butt-naked if I want to.”
“As you should.” Vegas laughs. It’s another soft thing, small and private, not intended for mass consumption. Pete wants to eat it. “I’m a firm believer in nakedness in the house. But I was hoping you were trying to seduce me first thing in the morning.”
Pete takes the time to consider that. He knows he looks ridiculous right now, but. But.
“Would it work?” he asks, and if he fails at not sounding hopeful, that’s all right. He’ll let Vegas win that one.