Work Text:
Shortly after Rick vacated the guest house, Juliet proposed blocking out Saturday mornings for some guaranteed alone time. More specifically, a time to go nowhere and do whatever they want. They were always working or seeing friends and now that they didn’t need to sneak around, it was important to her to make sure they still had some regular time set aside to explore and enjoy each other.
Naked.
The First Saturday….
“You seriously want to put this in our calendar?”
They’re in Higgins’ bedroom getting ready to meet their friends for an evening sail on the TR Belle. Well, she’s getting ready. He’s already dressed, sitting on the bed thinking about creative ways to take off the bra and panties she’s walking around in when they get home tonight.
“Magnum, it’s just practical. If it’s in the calendar, we’re more likely to keep to it.”
“C’mon Higgy, dates are supposed to be romantic not practical.”
”There’s no reason they can’t be both.”
“Frankly, I’m offended that you really think I could possibly forget that every Saturday morning I get to spend hours lounging in bed with my gorgeous girlfriend?”
She raises an eyebrow remembering all of the times he’s forgotten things, “Nice use of flattery and yes, I absolutely do believe you’ll forget.”
“Highly unlikely,” he watches her slip the sundress over her head, assessing that it will be very easy to take off of her later as there are no tiny buttons in sight.
Zeus and Apollo, snugly on their beds, watch the conversation like a game of catch they weren’t invited to play.
“Magnum, it’s like scheduling a date night. Lots of couples do this. We, already do this with lots of our other plans.”
She closes the distance between them and he stands to fasten the hook of her dress around her neck and clasp the necklace she’s chosen for tonight.
“To be clear, you’re the only one in this relationship that does that.”
From his position behind her, he misses the well earned eye roll but not the message in her tone, “EXACTLY and I do it so that you remember we have those plans.”
Ignoring the truth in her statement, Magnum simply turns her around to face him when done with his task, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and smiling as she slides her palms up the front of his shirt.
She makes him so damn happy.
“Either way, I just don’t think we need to be scheduling sex in our calendar like it’s some random business meeting.”
“Fine. We’ll try it your way.”
She finishes straightening his collar and drops her hands signaling she’s ready to go.
Satisfied that he’s bested her, he lets her go just as his signature smirk appears.
“And when that fails miserably, we shall do it my way.”
She presses a chaste kiss to his lips and walks out of the room taking great pleasure in the opportunity to wipe the smirk off his face.
The Third Saturday…
A couple of weeks later, they’re leaving La Mariana, their usual Friday night gathering spot. It’s earlier than usual because Higgins took a tumble down a flight of stairs this afternoon courtesy of a suspect and Magnum was worried she had a concussion. The compromise to them staying home entirely was an agreement to leave early.
“Alright TM, we’ll see you guys in the morning for brunch at Mahina’s place?” TC’s loud voice easily heard over the music.
From her seat at the bar, Higgins tilts her head towards Magnum, an amused look on her face, “Saturday brunch? That sounds lovely.”
Caught red handed, Magnum’s mouth hangs open without any sound coming out. It’s a look they’re all too familiar with from him.
Rick throws his hands up, “Dude, you forgot to tell her, didn’t you?”
“I may have,” sheepishly looking at his now beaming girlfriend, realizing this is the second week in a row that he’s made Saturday morning plans, “I could’ve sworn I mentioned it.”
“No. No. I would have definitely put it in the calendar.”
“Seriously, you really need to start putting these things in the calendar man. You know you’ve got one right there in your phone.”
His more organized half assures everyone it’s fine and they’ll be there in the morning. The two head out to the parking lot hand in hand.
They're barely seated in the Ferrari when Magnum concedes, “Go ahead, say it.”
She looks over at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “Say what, Thomas?”
He doesn’t like this role reversal as she revels in his defeat. Maybe he is a bad influence on her.
“That this is why we should block out Saturday mornings on the actual calendar.”
“That is a brilliant idea! We definitely are going to start doing that.” She does little to disguise the delight of victory in her voice.
“You really don’t have to enjoy this so much.”
Looking at him in a mocking attempt to convey some sense of humility using her most respectable accent, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He shakes his head as he starts the car and drives home.
That was the last Saturday morning he ever double booked.
The Sixth Saturday…
With their morning dates calendared, Saturdays have become his new favorite day of the week. Higgy proving yet again that she’s just a little bit better than him.
He knew, if all went well, being with Higgins would make him happy. She was everything he wanted and more. He just had absolutely no idea how the combination of him accepting that he deserved true happiness, a relationship with his partner and unlocking that one last guarded layer of themselves would make on their lives and fundamentally change his idea of what it actually meant to be happy.
Turns out pretending you don’t love the person that you spend the majority of your days and evenings with isn’t the path to happiness. That’s especially true if you also managed to miss her when you weren’t together. Still, he wasn’t prepared for the impact no longer putting distance between them, emotionally or physically, would have on his life.
How much lighter he feels in every aspect of his life.
How her touch calms him.
How hearing her voice changes the course of a bad day.
How each day he wants to be the man she deserves.
How knowing she is choosing to love him makes his life better in unimaginable ways.
How seeing those same things in her makes him even happier.
How thoughts about what their life might be like down the road, if things turn out how he believes they will, now have free roam when they were previously dismissed as fantasy.
All of this contributes to his current state of happiness which is incomparable to anything he’s felt in the past. That and he had no clue how important being with Higgy would feel.
Long before they were together, she was one of the most important people in his life. One of his best friends. His business partner. The person he prioritized over any of his romantic partners, whether he realized it or not. He thought being together, it would be the same, but now she’s catapulted to the very top of that list. Her happiness and safety forever tied to his own.
And it is completely different.
He had been blindsided when, that very first morning together, it felt like something had shifted. Not just in their relationship, but in his whole world. When he fell asleep that first night, he worried Higgy’s brain would win out. That she would overthink things and be gone when he woke up. That, as much as he wanted to make love to her, not talking before was a mistake. Waking up with blond curls in his face and her sleeping peacefully under his arm felt like the Christmas morning of his dreams. He knew then, they would be okay. Better than okay, but this was almost too easy and felt too good.
He likes waking up before her and that’s what happened today. To his surprise, she enjoys sleeping in and she sleeps soundly. Before they were together, she was always up very early and he knows she suffered from bouts of nightmares and restlessness as he often did. Turns out finding the person who is your safe space is the best sleeping cure of all.
When he came back up to bed, two mugs of coffee in hand, he wasted no time peppering her with kisses and soft touches until she was awake too. Her smile when she opens her eyes in the morning is something he doesn’t take for granted. Often prompting a silent promise to never give her a reason to let another man wake up to it.
Coffee, cuddling and sex. In the time they’ve been together, he’s learned every inch of her - from the way running his hand through her hair released the tension of her day to that ticklish area on her back that makes her giggle in a way that’s light and carefree to the slightly crooked broken pinky toe from elementary school soccer or as she’d say - primary school football. The map of her body is burned into his brain and every new discovery fills him with excitement.
He swears he’ll never recover from the way she says his name or looks at him when they’re intimate. It’s like an unbreakable magnetic pull that he has no desire to resist.
Sometime later she went downstairs for breakfast. When she came back with fruit, yogurt and a random half of a burrito she found for him, he knew he had no one to blame but himself since he’d been the one to forget to pick up the weekend groceries. Truth is, food was the last thing on his mind on Saturday mornings. He was too distracted by her habit of walking casually around the guest house without a stitch of clothing on. Completely unexpected. He loves that she feels free enough to do it.
And now here they sit, still naked, surrounded by rumpled sheets. Her on his lap with legs wrapped around his waist, his hands teasing her body as she nips at his ear.
“Kissing you,” he kisses her soft lips three times.
“Yeah,” as his lips leave kisses down her neck, she thinks Saturday morning stay at home dates are the best ideas she’s ever had.
“is one of my favorite things to do.”
His lips capture hers again, this time for a long lingering kiss that leaves them both breathless.
He still sometimes can’t believe his luck. That he’s the man she’s chosen to let kiss her whenever he wants. The only man allowed to touch her like this now and, if his lucky streak continues, forever.
Higgy leans in slightly until her nose meets his, “That’s good news because you should know that I don’t plan on letting you kiss anyone else.”
She may trust him implicitly, but he enjoys it when she makes it clear that he belongs to her and no one else.
When his lips meet hers for another kiss, the huge smile she feels against her face makes her even happier.
For so long she thought the idea of them as a couple was an impossible outcome. She had spent hours ticking off all of the things that wouldn’t work. All of the things that would be ruined. She still can’t believe how wrong she’d been. How close she came to never having this life with him or closing the door on the future that awaits them. Being with him is one of the easiest things she’s ever done. Even better, she knows what they have is solid and real, and when she her thoughts are free from worry, she also knows it’s permanent.
“So I wanted to run something by you.”
“Magnum, you really want to talk…now?”
Talking was the last thing she wanted to do. They’ve been together for months and they still can’t keep their hands off of each other. She keeps waiting for that desire to lessen but it doesn’t. If anything, she wants him more now than ever.
He kisses her knowing it will not do anything to quell her impatience, “Yes, now.”
Wrapping both arms around his neck, her forehead wrinkles in disapproval as her eyes shine with seduction, “But I thought we were going to, you know,” she raises her eyebrows.
That’s his Higgy, as impatient in the bedroom as she was interrogating a suspect.
“We will. Just consider this more foreplay.”
He laughs at the groan that escapes her.
“More like torture.”
“You’re insatiable.”
“At the risk of inflating your oversized ego, you really only have yourself to blame, Magnum.”
A smile is on his face in an instant,“I promise I’ll make it up to you for waiting.”
His hands move up her sides, stopping just below her shoulders to pull her in to him until she’s pressed flush against his chest so he can kiss her pout away.
Dissatisfied, she relents, “Fine. I’ll make sure you keep that promise.”
Even in the morning, he smells so good. Her fingertips trail up and down arms sculpted by all those endless hours paddling in the ocean. She constantly wants to touch him and is not at all pleased about this interruption.
With her so close, he can’t resist playfully biting her shoulder. Now that people know they’re together, he’s been much less careful about marking her skin and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Ohana.
Rick and TC had teased them mercilessly the last time. Unbeknownst to her, Magnum had left a love bite, as he likes to call them, near her belly button and the crop top she'd chosen to wear out showed it off nicely.
“Magnum, I’m going to kill you if anyone sees that again.” She’s trying to seem annoyed, but he knows better, the sparkle in her eyes betraying her.
“Totally worth it.”
He smiles against her shoulder as he gently kisses the spot he marked.
“You taste too good.”
“Alright, get on with talking already so we can get onto other things.”
“And you're so bossy.”
“I’m serious Magnum, focus.”
This time when he tries to kiss her she leans her head back, raising an eyebrow as a warning, “Get. On. With. It.”
“Okay, okay.”
His hands are at her waist stroking up and down against her soft skin.
“So, hypothetically speaking, if two people have said out loud that they couldn’t imagine their lives without one another. “
“Yeah,” her voice is soft as her hands make their way up his body to the back of his neck.
“And then those same two people begin a romantic relationship which is going very, very well.“
She’s looking at his handsome face intently, trying to focus in spite of his roaming hands.
“And the sex is incredible,” whispers it into her ear as his hands move along the outside of her thigh before making their way to her inner thighs, dangerously close to an area that will make the rest of their conversation incomprehensible
That low, sexy voice and his hands make her whole body heat up, “Thomas, I’m not going to be able to focus on this little talk if you keep your hands down there.”
He grins proudly, mercifully moving his hands back to her waist.
“Is it safe to conclude that those two people are in love?”
Higgy leans back putting both hands flat against his chest.
She hadn’t been expecting that.
Confused, she asks,“Wait, what?
“Is it…”
She shakes her head, “No, I heard you.”
He laughs, “Ok, and?”
He waits as she lowers her eyes letting his words sink in.
Looking back up at him, “Magnum, are you saying that you’re in love with me?”
“Not exactly, no.”
Despite her best efforts, she cannot wrap her mind around what he is trying to communicate, “Well….then…who are you even talking about?”
“Us. Higgy, I’m talking about us.”
She squints, lips pursed, really confused now, “But…”
“I’m not just saying that I’m in love with you. I’m saying that I am madly in love with you and want to spend my life with you.“
“Oh,” it comes out as a barely heard whisper just like that day on the hospital balcony.
She looks so beautiful in this moment, he presses his lips against hers in a soft kiss that slowly becomes one sharing every promise for them that he’s been holding in his heart.
As their kiss ends, she leans in, resting her forehead against his as she tries to gather herself.
He wraps his arms around her waist, holding her tighter as if telling her he'd never let her go.
Both a little breathless.
“Are you certain?”
She doesn’t know why she’s asking the question - she already knows the answer. Has seen it in his eyes for quite awhile.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more certain about anything ever.”
He kisses her again and she rests her hand against the side of his neck.
“Thomas,” overwhelmed in the best way, it’s all she can manage to say.
“Unless, of course you say jolly good again because then I’ll definitely need to reconsider.”
She smiles remembering those conversations that feel like a lifetime ago. In the car. At the park. Missed opportunities and lost moments that haunted her as time went on. Now she appreciates they’ve helped get them to this very moment.
She leans into him so her head is against his forehead again, “Hmmm, what if I say ditto?”
“I’ll accept it.”
“That hardly seems fair.”
“Really? You want to do that now?”
She giggles at the familiar question. The sound is soft and shy in a way that lights up her face and his heart.
“No, no I don’t.” shaking her head playfully and kissing him.
The way she kisses him tells him everything he needs to know. This time, though, he needs to hear her say the words. Feels like it makes her officially his - forever.
This time when their kiss ends, she’s looking right into his eyes, arms looped around his neck.
“Well?”
“From the situation you described, it seems that love is the only logical conclusion.”
He smiles, kissing her so sweetly that his lips barely brushed hers.
When he pulls back, she looks from his lips to his eyes. Those eyes that make her feel like she is the only thing that matters. That everything is right in their world.
She rests her hand against his chest, “I love you too and you make me very happy.”
“You love me too?”
“I believe I just said that, Magnum.”
“Well then, I think we should celebrate.“
“By doing what?”
Before she can say another word, he flips them so she’s on her back under him.
“By extending our date so we can make love all day.”
“All day?”
“I told you I’d make waiting up to you.”
“You really think you’re up for that?”
“Uh huh,” he kisses her, “it’s the perfect time to explore the endurance, creativity and flexibility of this relationship.”
“You sound awfully sure of yourself.”
Looking down at her, his face turns serious. No smirk. No sexy smile, “No Higgy, I’m just very sure of us.”
And just like that she’s lost again in that face she adores that’s her present and her future. The face of the man who renewed her faith in forever.