business as usual
word count: 947 note: some fluffy Miles/Chris because everyone needs a reunion fic summary: Chris returns to the office after his long trek through New Zealand.
The first few days of being back in America were tough. Chris was still on leave from work. He'd been given an extra day or two to catch up on sleep and clean himself up. His entire body ached. He couldn't even bear to look at anyone other than Kerry, who was in almost the same state. He slept through the night back and most of the day after without even bothering to shower first. Chris was sore, and there was no doubt in his mind that he smelled horrible.
When he woke up, it felt like something was clawing its way out of his stomach. He rolled out of the bed, shielding his eyes from the sun pouring in from the open window. He slowly made his way into the kitchen, and he dug around for something to eat. He settled on a glass of water and burned through one of the leftover granola bars.
Chris figured that would be enough to get him through a shower, and he clicked on the shower head before throwing off his clothes. He left them in a pile by the door and stepped into the tub, sighing faintly as he let the water wash over him. He scrubbed himself down and tried to wash dirt from his hair. He listed off everything he needed to do before returning to the office, and it ended up extremely short:
Eat some more.
Shave.
Sleep another ten hours.
He considered sifting through footage they recorded for A Simple Walk Into Mordor, but that was what work was supposed to be for, right? Actually having to get things done that weren't walking up and down mountains.
Still, he took things slow on his day of recovery. He cleaned his fridge from food and sat around in a set of clean clothes, which was the highlight of his week as far as comfort went. His face slightly stung where he'd almost cut his chin, but it was smooth otherwise. He fell asleep on the couch in a tangle of the sheet he'd brought into the living room, a movie playing quietly in the background.
When he finally ran out of days to laze around and do little at his house, he still had to get ready in a rush. He heard yelling from behind the door of the Achievement Hunter's room. Burnie was wandering into the kitchen, and he gave Chris a "welcome back." Chris grinned, starting up the stairs and thanking him.
Kara and Marshall were talking, and Chris could see Marshall's hand was clearly slipping under his desk. Kara didn't seem to notice, carrying on with the one-sided conversation. Marshall's face lit up in the slightest.The door bell rang from downstairs, and Kara excused herself.
"Hi, Chris. It's good to see you back!" she said, and skirted around him to go to the door.
"Thanks," Chris mumbled, a little delayed as she had already passed. He blinked slowly, looking back down over the rail and saw Gus peering outside the door.
"What the fuck, why does this keep happening?"
"Maybe someone's playing a prank on us..."
Chris straightened and turned back to Marshall. He was smiling triumphantly, typing and returning to whatever Kara had interrupted him from.
"Is Miles here yet?" Chris asked.
"He went to the back to look for stuff."
Chris nodded, climbing down the stairs and crossing the staging area to the studio. The green screen had the lights pointed away from it, and there was a loud rustling and banging noise coming from behind the plush Mario bullet. Miles was digging through one of the cardboard boxes, picking things out and throwing them back in or setting them aside.
"Miles!"
The younger man looked up and smiled. He stretched, moving the box over and stepping out from his corner of miscellaneous items. Chris went to his side, about to question what he was getting out from the box, or maybe what it was for, but Miles pulled him into a hug and it caught Chris off-guard. Chris put his arms around Miles, grinning.
"I missed you," Miles said.
There was a second of silence. Miles slackened his hold around the other, but they didn't move away from one another. Miles pressed his lips onto Chris's, brief and almost nervous someone would walk in.
"I missed you, too. It's good to be back in the shire," he mused.
Miles snickered. "You're such a dork."
"Hey, I just got back," Chris frowned. "You're supposed to be nice to me. It's the rules."
"Oh, really?"
The studio door swung open, and they jumped away from one another, Miles going back to his box and occupying himself. Brandon was carrying another crate in his arms, making his way toward the two. Chris scratched at the back of his neck, stepping aside so Brandon could put the box down near Miles.
"Stop making out for a second and give me those plastic arms," Brandon said. Chris laughed nervously, grabbing the plastic arms from the pile and handing them over. Miles rolled his eyes and made a contorted face at Brandon.
"Griffon said she needed this stuff pretty quick, Miles," he went on, ignoring him.
"I'm almost done!"
"Chris, did you remember where you put our Nerf guns?"
"They're...uh. Should I go get them?"
Brandon waved one fake arm in the air. Miles tossed a Grifball at their heads, and Chris ducked under it as it flew past them. Brandon held out a plastic hand to him, and Chris grabbed onto it, allowing himself to be dragged back out of the studio.
"I'll be back later," Chris called out, and closed the door.