Numb3rs Fic: Stealing Hearts

[dizzydrea]

Written for numb3rs100 Prompt #430 – Stolen

Title: Stealing Hearts
Pairing/Characters: Colby/Ian
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Colby never has trouble chatting up the girls at the bar.
Word Count: 300
Spoilers: Season 1-6
Disclaimer: Numb3rs belongs to The Barry Schindel Company, Scott Free Productions, CBS Television Studios and a lot of other people who aren't me. I'm doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

Colby never has trouble chatting up the girls at the bar. He's charming, sweet, funny without trying to be. But whenever Ian comes around, his tongue feels like it's been tied into knots, and his voice, normally modulated and easy, turns into the squeak of a teenage girl.

He tells himself that it's just that Ian is a sniper god, that the man is so calm and self-assured and unflappable. He feels inadequate standing next to all that, wrapped in a package that makes is mouth go dry and his throat close up.

It doesn't help that Ian simply smiles knowingly every time the conversation tapers off and Colby struggles for the next words.

"What's the matter, soldier boy?" Ian will say. "Cat stole your tongue?"

There's something in the air between them, and the playful way that Ian utters those words only accentuates it. It's a pull, like Ian is the sun and Colby's orbit is helplessly decaying. He can't resist, and the longer it goes on, the more he doesn't want to.

It gets to the point where Colby would rather face down a group of armed bank robbers than sit in a room alone with Ian. He avoids the man, because as much as he's attracted to him, his lack of… anything intelligent at all is starting to get embarrassing.

And then Ian takes the choice right out of his hands.

They're at the Craftsman, celebrating a successfully closed case, when Ian grabs him around the wrist as he passes, tugging him into a dark corner, pressing him back into the shadows and stealing a kiss. Or two. Or ten.

Colby would object, but he's too busy enjoying himself to care.

And Ian's smile, at once sweet and knowing, is worth all it took to get here.

~Finis