Work Text:
It was a known fact on base that low-light was an insomniac, so it didn't surprise you when you caught sight of a figure sitting alone in the dark in the common area.
“Evening.” you whispered as you walked past, heading towards the counter for a glass of whatever you could find in the fridge. He hummed in response.
“Mind if sit here?” you motioned to the couch near the armchair he occupied, the dim light from the kitchen illuminating you enough, and he noticed the handful of files in your arms.
“It’s a free country.” you laughed through your nose and sat down, angling the papers so you could read them. Furrowing your brow you began reading the reports you were meant to have read much earlier. A few minutes later came a quip from the shadowed man,
“Sure fire way to ruin your eyes fast.”
you looked up at him in surprise, almost forgetting he was there.
“Yeah, yeah, i know. Didn't want to bother you with any more light. I can never concentrate on anything in my quarters, thought maybe out here i could finally get these damn things read.” motioning annoyedly at the small stack of files and folders on your lap. “Ill uh, find somewhere else, don't worry.” before you could stand fully, he spoke up again.
“Siddown, turn the light on. Not like ill be sleeping out here anyway.” already feeling guilty about the intrusion, despite this being the commons, you reached and turned the table lamp on next to you, illuminating the couch area well enough for you to read. You glanced at him briefly, sitting there stone-still, his goggles and hat still on his head.
You read for awhile after that, the room completely silent aside from the occasional flipping and turning of pages. Sighing after finally finishing one of the thick folders and tossing it on the floor next to you, before you opened the next, low-light spoke again.
“You always stay up so late working?” it sounded like more of a statement than question.
“Eh, depends how far behind i am on paperwork stuff. I've always been a night owl, regardless.” he hummed.
“Not a very good habit to have in the army.” you gave him a look of uncertainty. If he was making some kind of joke it was not very obvious.
“Not really, no. but I've never been able to fix my sleep schedule.” you swallowed somewhat awkwardly. “Best to just get used to the lesser sleep, i guess.” he didn't respond.
You felt somewhat unsure about continuing with your reading. Checking your watch, it was approaching 3AM, and despite the resistance you felt about going to sleep, it felt like low-light was hinting at you to leave. Chewing your lip, you stacked up the papers in your lap, and grabbed your empty mug to put away. He didn't give any hint that he even noticed you leave, but you made your way back to your quarters swiftly, deciding to read those papers tomorrow, granted there was no cobra attack to call you away from it. Well, maybe you almost wished there would be.
-
There was, in fact a cobra attack the next day. But despite last nights hopes for one to get you out of reading, it was feeling more like a curse. Trying to trudge your tired body through a forest to intercept the cobra forces felt like a losing battle. Before long, it had gotten dark, and contact had yet to be made. It was you, low-light, and a few others in a squad. The cobra troops were running late, very late. But they needed to be intercepted, so the squad decided to sit and wait instead of wandering in the dark any longer. You ended up sitting next to low-light in the bush that was declared the ambush hold, struggling to keep your eyes open despite the anticipation of cobra. Nearly nodding off, you snapped your head up, cursing under your breath. Regret and frustration coursed through your veins at your ill-preparedness for the mission. A sleepy soldier is not an effective one, more like a burden.
Sensing your closeness to dozing, low-light leaned in, close enough to feel his breath on your ear, and softly whispered.
“Sleep. Ill keep an eye out. Ill need you alert when they come.” quickly snapping out of your shock, you nodded rather shamefully and rested your chin on your knees, hesitantly allowing your eyes to close, feeling low-lights shoulder brush and nestle in against yours. Your ears burned, but that wasn't something to focus on right now.
-
It was still dark when low-light shook you awake, putting his finger over his lips in a shushing motion, then pointing to a small opening in the bush. You locked in immediately, readying your weapon when you heard the muffled steps of the cobra troops you had all been waiting for.
The battle was brief, the ‘secret’ shipment that the cobra troops had was secured, and your squad was on their way back to base, ready to get some shuteye. All except for you, of course. Your little bush nap had refreshed you plenty. Great for the battle, not so great for having to sleep when you finally returned to base. When you finally did and everyone was debriefed on the cobra attack, you went and tried to track down low-light. You found him walking around the perimeter of the base.
“Low-light! Wait up!” you jogged over to him, and he only slowed his pace slightly so you could fall in with him.
“I just wanted to thank you, for having my back out there. I’m honestly a bit embarrassed, having to nap in the field. But i appreciate it.”
“Don't mention it.” he smiled subtly and kept walking. You caught up again,
“Only problem is…im not very tired anymore. Doubt ill be able to sleep anytime soon. Mind if i join you for awhile?”
“Its a free country.” he smirked and kept walking, and you fell in step with him.
Another long silence fell between the two of you. The base had gone quiet, no doubt most were in bed by now. Stars shone above the two of you in the clear sky. You had no idea what time it was by now, walking around the base perimeter was almost entrancing. Soon enough, you let out a yawn, and prayed the tiredness was finally catching up with you.
“I think I'm gonna go turn in now. You coming?” you felt sort of weird adding that last part. Why would he go just because you did. Whatever. He looked at you briefly then joined alongside you back to the base entrance. On the way back you felt bold enough to ask.
“You probably get asked this all the time, so..sorry, but do you really not sleep at all at night?” you caught the faintest sound of a sigh from him and immediately wished you never asked.
“Depends. Some nights i cant get a wink. But i can usually squeeze a few hours here and there.”
“I see. That must be hard.”
“Its boring is what it is.” you thought for a moment before answering. He was a somewhat hard man to read.
“Would it make it any less boring if you had someone to hang out with, sometimes? Um, only if you wanted, of course. Don't want to intrude.” clenching your fist at your side you prepared for him to reject your offer. Embarrassment welled up in you as he took his sweet time to answer. Just as you were about to make your exit to avoid any kind of unpleasant response, he finally answered.
“Might be nice. I guess i can take you up on that offer.” the corner of his lip quirked up when you stared at him in shock. Before you could answer, he was opening the door to his quarters, and you snapped out of your haze.
“Goodnight, y/n.” he shut the door, and that was the last you saw of him that night.
-
Over the next few weeks, you joined low-light on many a night walk around the base. It became somewhat of a routine for the two of you. You came to find that low-light was not much of a talker, but he seemed to enjoy it when you would ramble on about Skystriker specs or whatever mechanical work you’d done recently. Before all this, you couldn’t read him at all, but now his subtle expressions and mannerisms were quite familiar.
At some point, the two of you had started to stick around each other during the daytime too. It started with asking to join him at the lunch table, which of course, he replied the same way he always did, and from then on where he was you wouldn’t be too far. The rest of the base had begun to notice a change in low-light. What went from a grouchy, unreadable, scary guy, slowly grew to be more friendly, although maybe he was still scary. What the rest of the base also came to realize was the blatantly obvious crush you seemed to have on the sniper.
The weeks of night walks and meals shared turned to months. One night, when you had gone to the usual meeting spot, he was no where to be found. Used to the night walk regardless, you set out on your own, accompanied only by the half-full moon. As you rounded the back of the base where the trees were denser, you heard the brief sound of steps you couldn't quite ignore. Without a second thought you hopped the fence to take a look-see. It was probably just an animal, but you couldn't shake the feeling. A short ways into the bush, it became eerily silent, and you suddenly felt the terrifying absence of a weapon on your person. Normally you would never be this stupid. Not ever. Deciding to pretend to lose interest in the investigation and return to base, before you could even turn around, a hand was over your mouth and another gripping your arm firmly. A scream tried to make its way out of your throat, but was silenced by a gruff, familiar voice right next to your ear.
“Bit foolish to come out here without a weapon, hm?”
Your entire frame sulked in relief, but the hands did not remove themselves.
“The hell are you doing out here alone, unarmed? Trying to get yourself hurt?” his voice was so close to your ear. You shivered. shaking his hand off your mouth and taking a gasping breath, you lean back into his chest ever so slightly.
“I. i don't know what i was thinking. I heard a noise and…I didn't think.” your cheeks heated up.
“What are you doing out here alone, anyway?” he released your arm.
“Training.”
“At 1am?” he looked at you, expressionless, and you pursed your lips, remembering who you were talking to.
“What kind of training?”
“The usual.” very specific.
“Ill leave you to it.” he grabbed your hand before you could turn, and held up his rifle.
“You ever shoot one of these?”
“Of course. a few times, at least.”
“You any good?”
“Debatable.” he laughed softly and the sound echoed in your ears, the roughness sending another shiver down your spine. He motioned for you to follow him deeper into the woods. If it was anyone else this might of felt strange, maybe even suspicious. But you followed obediently because it was him. Eventually you came to a small outlook surrounded by bushes. He set up his rifle near the edge and lay down, patting the empty spot on the blanket beside him for you to follow. You did, and then his hand was on your back, pulling you into his chest.
“There, take a peek. See the targets?” you hummed in affirmation. He placed his other hand over your grip hand on the gun, helping guide you. Your face was heating up, you thanked the blanket of night for hiding it.
“Go ahead.” you squeezed the trigger, and grazed the side of the target set up however many hundred feet away. He pat your lower back.
“Close but no cigar. Not bad for a grease monkey.” you scoffed, but you were just too distracted by his hand on your back. It felt as if he were burning a mark into your skin. It was getting hard to bear but you didn't dare move in fear he'd remove it.
“Hey? You good?” his unusual worried tone snapped you out of your trance. He rubbed his thumb in a circle on your back.
“Sorry. Sorry. I'm fine.” very convincing.
“You wanna go back? Don't worry about me.”
“No. I'm not tired yet.” a sudden surge of bravery or stupidity, whichever it was did not matter, shoved words out of your mouth.
“Does physical activity help you fall asleep any better?” you wondered if jumping off the outlook would be enough to kill you.
“What kind of physical activity?” playing coy. His light, falsely innocent tone almost annoyed you but you were just too hot and bothered to care. Turning in his grasp, you placed your knuckle under his chin gently and whispered,
“If I'm being stupid, please stop me before I embarrass myself any further.” a couple agonizing seconds passed with no answer, so you took the final leap and leaned forward to kiss him.
He leaned into it, pulling you closer by your waist. Snaking your hands around his neck, you tilted your head, deepening the kiss for a few moments before pulling away.
“Low-light. I guess there's no better time to say this, but um.” you paused, looking to the side, feeling somewhat shy suddenly. He grabbed your chin gently and made you look at him.
“Go ahead. Speak.” your stomach did a backflip at his almost stern order. Biting your lip you continued.
“W-well.” you swallowed. “I have a crush on you. I guess I have for awhile.” you scrunched your eyes shut.
“Heh.” he rubbed his thumb along your jawline, “Crush? what are we, teenagers?” you planted your fist on his shoulder with no real force.
“Don't make fun of me! What else am i supposed to say?!” he laughed and you felt the warm vibrations from his chest into yours. You relished the feeling.
“I'm just kidding.” he pecked you on the lips, “guess I have a crush on you too.” your eyes widened. Even in the dim light, his cheeks looked darker, and he was smiling with is teeth.
The warm fuzzy feeling in your chest was starting to get overtaken by the persistent feeling in your gut, then low-light dragged his hand from the small of your back down your ass and thigh to pull your leg up over him by your knee. Your arms were back around his neck, pulling yourself closer into his embrace, lips back on his again. His tongue swiped across your lips, and you opened shyly. He licked around the inside of your lips before biting your bottom one, earning a small gasp from you. You felt him smile against you.
His kisses slowly trailed away from your mouth, going along your jawline, then nipping at your ear. You couldn't help but giggle. Next, to your neck, featherlight touches with his lips, then he latched on and sucked. You squirmed a bit, already knowing it would no doubt leave a mark for tomorrow. A problem for future you. Before you noticed what he was even doing, your shirt was unbuttoned, and a warm hand was snaking its way towards the hook of your bra. He undid it one-handed with ease, and was next lifting you to tug your shirt and said bra off, leaving you exposed to the warm night air. He was kneeling between your legs at this point, looking down at you like a hunter would his prey. Once again the shyness crept up on you, but before your arms could cross over your chest, low-light was holding both wrists away. Even with his goggles it was blatantly obvious he was drinking in the sight of your naked chest.
“Bit unfair, isn't it?” you mused, snapping him out of the trance. His lip quirked up,
“Feel free to have at me.” you smiled before sitting up, and pushing him down to sitting on his knees. Undoing the various buckles on his jumpsuit, you peeled the layer back and down his arms, then pinched the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled up. He assisted in the removal, then finally it was your turn to gawk. He was predictably well toned, various small and some large scars dotted his arms and torso, along with a generous dusting of curly blond hair on his chest and leading down his stomach to his waistline.
“Like what you see?” falling onto your back again, you nodded maybe a bit too enthusiastically. He smiled.
“I want you.” you suddenly gushed without thinking. The empty feeling in you was getting too hard to ignore.
“Your wish is my command.” if the statement caught him off guard, he gave no signs. leaning over you slightly, he traced his hands down your thighs, gently spreading them apart.
“Wait.” he released his grip within a second and gave a questioning look.
“Lean down.” he obeyed, and you reached up to take his hat off, letting his golden curls free, then reached for his goggles. He stiffened, and you paused.
“Is this ok?” he was quiet for a moment then nodded. You brushed your thumb across his cheek, then lifted the eyepiece onto his forehead, then tugged the band off his head, carefully placing them down on top of his shirt to the side. He raised his thick eyebrows and rubbed his eyes before looking at you again. His brown eyes looked nearly black, accentuated more by his pupils widening in the dim light. With one hand you pulled him down by the neck gently and kissed his forehead and the dark circles under his eyes, slithering your fingers through his curls. He sighed contently.
Returning his hands to your thighs, he continued his mission. Leaning down, kisses dotted between your breasts, trailing down to your stomach. Then he brought his fingers to your belt buckle, undoing it quickly, and dipping his index fingers into your the waist of your cargo pants. Tugging gently, he lifted your hips just enough to slip them under your ass, and swiftly peeled them down your legs. You managed to kick off your boots quickly, then your pants were being tossed into the pile next to you.
Only in your underwear now, the cool air of the night kept you from overheating off your own blush. You squirmed as he rubbed rough circles into your hips, shimmying his knees back to allow his face closer to your core. In another swift movement, your underwear were off, and your legs were being spread open. His index prodded at your lips, testing the waters.
“Already so wet.” he muttered deeply.
Before you could even react his tongue was dragging up your slit, ending with a hard kiss against your clit, earning a sharp gasp.
“Ah! Low-Light!” you called out as he sucked rather harshly. Swapping back and forth between licking and sucking, you were already starting to build up a charge. You moaned as he got to adding a finger, then two into the mix, bringing you closer to the edge. You snaked your fingers into his curls and tugged, drawing a low moan out of him, the vibration from his lips shooting through your core. Another slow pump and a short suck pushed you over the edge, your thighs shaking.
“I’m gonna-” he shoved his open mouth over you as you came, lapping up your juices through your release. Panting and sweaty, you looked down over your body to where he was resting his dripping chin on your thigh, looking right back up at you proudly.
“Low-light…”
“Yeah?”
“You are quite good at that, I must say.”
“I try.” you could hear the smirk in his voice even after you shut your eyes and laid your head back down.
“You done already?” he asked, a calm drawl in his voice. Sitting up quickly, you blurted out,
“Not even close!” his lip quirked up,
“I mean. You haven’t even gotten anything yet.” he dragged a flat finger across his lips, wiping away you and popped the finger in his mouth, swirling his tongue around it and pulling it out with a pop. Your cheeks felt hot again. He smiled.
“I wouldn’t say nothing , but I suppose you’re right.” Your eyes raked over his body, stopping at the prominent tent in his pants. Wobbling a bit as you got onto your knees, you crawled towards him, sitting in front of him. Placing your hand on his chest, you trailed your fingers along his toned muscles and scars, petting his chest hair, featherlight. Slowly, you made your way down to his stomach, then brushed your fingertips ever so gently onto his cock through his jumpsuit pants. He stiffened, a soft sigh breathed through his nose. Placing your whole palm on him you rubbed, just shy of the friction he needed. Grunting in desperation, he grabbed your wrist and pressed your hand harder down, and moved his hips ever so slightly. He looked down at you with his eyebrows furrowed, a concentrated look in his eyes, like he was trying to hold himself back. Removing your hand for only a moment, you climbed into his lap. He leaned forward and caught your lips in a rather ravenous kiss, your lips getting sucked and tugged by his teeth. Reaching between the two of you and undoing the remaining zipper of his jumpsuit, you pulled back the waist of his boxers to allow his cock to spring free, a generous amount of precum already dotting the tip.
As much as you would’ve loved to lap it up, you needed him inside you, and no doubt he wanted the same.
“You ready…?” he asked, the pant in his voice making you clench around nothing.
“Yeah.” Giving him a couple slow pumps with your hand to spread his precum along his length, you raised your hips, guiding his desperate head into you. You bit your lip as he stretched you. He was quite thick, it was going to take a bit of adjusting to accommodate him comfortably. He groaned long and deeply as you sank down on his cock, but he held still until he was fully sheathed inside of you. The stretch burned for a moment, but as you steadily raised and lowered yourself shallowly a few times, it quickly morphed into pleasure. Low-light groaned, his hands gripping your hips tightly again before carefully lifting you up and shoving you back down, hitting just the right spot inside of you. Crying out, your arms found themselves around his neck again.
Slowly but surely his pace picked up, as did the force at which he pushed you down on his length. Nails dragging across his shoulders, his hips raised to meet you.
“ Fuck, so tight…so good.” He moaned in your ear as you clenched around him, gyrating your hips as he hit the deepest part of you. It was getting hard to concentrate on anything now, your mind blanking, the only thing occupying was the feeling of his cock pumping up into you. You were getting close again, and so was he from the looks of it, his pace getting erratic and uneven, his pants and moans echoing through your mind. A sudden change of position shook you out of your trance as he placed you down onto the blanket and was on top of you, your knees being pushed almost to your chest. His pace sped up again, hitting your sweet spot each and every time, a moan turned squeal erupting from your mouth as you clawed at his back. He latched onto your neck again, sucking and leaving marks all over you. Between kisses he groaned,
“I’m close…where…where do you want it?” A moment of clarity washed over and you were oh so grateful to be on birth control.
“I’m on the pill. Inside.” He gave a few more rough strokes, bringing you to the edge finally before he pushed himself as deep inside of you as he could and came, a warm feeling filling you up as your second orgasm washed over you harshly. Digging your nails into his scalp, you whined into his ear, wrapping your legs around his waist and holding him savagely tight until the feeling wasn’t as intense. He groaned out your callsign into your ear, before going half limp on top of you. Enjoying the pressure of him on top, you almost fell asleep.
“Well? How do you feel? Low-Light?” he groaned and rolled you both onto your sides, sliding out of you in the process. You sighed at the emptiness he left behind, but the sleepiness was getting to you. It seemed he was feeling it to, and you couldn’t help but feel like your mission was going to be a success, fingers crossed.
Low-light lazily tugged his boxers up over himself, and reached over you to wrap the blanket across your naked form lying next to him before pulling you close to him and using his arm as a pillow. His eyes were closed but he still had some consciousness in him. You nestled into his chest, pulling the blanket closer to you.
“Feelin’...sleepy.” you hummed in contentment.
“Glad to hear that.” Leaning up for one final kiss on his lips, you plopped your head on the small mound of blanket he tucked under your head and before you knew it you were asleep.
-
You awoke after the persistent sunlight on your eyelids became too annoying to bear, yawning loudly and trying to stretch, but finding yourself locked into someone's arms. Rubbing at your eyes, you looked up to see Low-Light looking at you with hooded eyes.
“Morning.”
“Morning, Low-Light.” you smiled expectantly up at him, “So? Did you get any sleep?”
His teeth peeked through his lips as he smiled.
“Got quite a few hours actually. Uninterrupted, too, if you can believe it.” You pecked him on the chin.
“Glad to hear that.” he hummed.
“You gonna help me with sleeping every night now?” he smiled cheekily. You narrowed your eyes at him,
“We’ll see.” Your eyes widened suddenly as you caught the sun in your peripheral.
“Low-Light. What time is it?” His eyes came into focus, realization hitting him like a ton of bricks as well. He titled his watch towards him and swallowed.
“O seven hundred hours.”
“Shit.”
“Shit.” You scrambled out of his grasp, lunging for your pile of discarded clothes from the night prior, tossing him his shirt as you messily pulled on your own. Not even bothering to do up his jumpsuit, he bundled up the blanket and put away his long-abandoned rifle into its case. Finally you handed him his hat and goggles, a somewhat nervous look in your eyes.
“We are so screwed if we get caught coming back in.” he nodded.
“Not our first stealth mission.”
“True.”
Getting onto the base grounds wasn’t too hard, it was more the getting inside back to your quarters that may prove difficult. You silently prayed that you weren’t needed at all this morning. You slinked through the hallways, Low-Light following close behind. You were so close, then as you rounded a corner, Cover Girl was in your path.
“Oh! There you are! Been looking for you all over, the Skystrikers need some lookin-” She cut herself off when she finally noticed the man standing behind you silently. “Low-Light is that you?!” understandable reaction, you noted, as he hadn’t put his goggles or back on since last night. He nodded, that stupid look still on his face.
Cover Girl narrowed her eyes, looking between the two of you, a dangerously analytical look turning into a cheeky, knowing face.
“Ahhh. I see. Sneaking back home after a fun night out, I see.” she smirked rather mischievously.
“Cover Girl. Please. Don’t make that face.” She fanned her hand at you,
“I don’t know what you’re talking about! You two lovebirds run along then, just make sure to get to the hangar as soon as you can, ‘kay?” she smiled and brushed past you to leave.
“Oh brother.” Low-Light hummed in laughter.
“I’d better get going, I guess.” you pouted, turning to look up at him. Getting on your tippy toes, you placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “I’ll see you later?”
“You always seem to know where to find me.” he smiled, trudging off down the hallway, waving over his shoulder.
Groaning to yourself, you trudged into the women’s quarters and beelined for the showers. Catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror before you stepped in, you gasped at the sheer amount of little red marks on your neck and collar. Cover Girl saw them all. Groaning again to yourself, you stepped into the hot shower. She was not going to let you live in peace after that.