The Proper Motivation

Dressed to Impress

This is my piece for the RBB (Reverse Big Bang) 2024.

I worked on project 21, with art by Robot_Carl (AO3) - (Tumblr @robot-carl).

Although inspired by the original outlines (see above), robotcarl ended up doing a separate art for this story after realising the original picture was a little too intense for the softer feel of my work. (And after seeing the completed art, I agreed.)

I hope you enjoy reading this story! Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thank you for reading, much love!

Gavin sighed beneath the spray, slowly working the shampoo out of his hair with his face turned up. The hot water felt good after the day he'd had; well, the day they'd had. Nines was in the shower next to him, shut in his own small stall. They'd been out in the freezing cold chasing up interviews all afternoon, and it really was freezing. Minus twenty or more; he'd tried not to look. He'd quietly hoped the local criminals might take a break between Christmas and New Year, but no such luck. It wasn't all bad though. Since he and Nines had worked the Christmas shift, they'd have New Year's Day off. That was generally the way he preferred it. He didn't have kids, so why would he want Christmas Day off? Sure, he could spend the day with Elijah and Chloe, but he could visit his brother after his shift or stop in on Boxing Day. He didn't need the whole day for that.

He much preferred it this way, where he worked Christmas Day and had New Year's Day off to recover from the horrific hangover he intended to give himself. It happened every year, which was a problem the times he had to work afterwards. If he were sensible, he might do what Hank and Fowler did and leave the celebrations early when he had work the next day, but where's the fun in that? The New Year's Eve party was always a blast. They hired out a fancy dinner hall somewhere for a five course meal, and afterwards there was an open bar and a huge dancefloor. He wasn't sure how much it cost, but it wasn't the sort of place he usually went unless Elijah was paying. In fact, if Elijah was paying, they'd go somewhere better. The places the DPD usually booked were sort of fancy, but not upper class. The type of fancy you bought on a budget. Fake fancy. Fake fancy or not, the food was usually better than anything he could make, and the drink was plentiful.

Leaving the shower, Gavin headed through to the locker room. Knowing they'd be going straight from work, he and Nines had brought their evening clothes and stored them in their lockers that morning. Gavin didn't really do fancy. They were lucky he even had anything besides his dress uniform. He probably wouldn't if not for Chloe and her insistence on dressing him up like a fucking doll. She was a menace, but she had good taste. She knew he didn't do formal, so the clothes she picked were always bordering on casual, but smart enough to slip across most dress codes. This event wasn't black-tie or anything like that, but jeans and sneakers were definitely out.

In true Chloe form, she'd come through for him at the last minute with a recommendation of black slacks, a simple navy blue top, and a dark brown cotton jacket with matching brown shoes. It was freezing outside, but no way did he want to risk losing his leather jacket by leaving it at the venue, so he left that tucked neatly on the rest of the clothes in his locker. If he was sober enough, he might stop by later to get it back. If not, he could grab it on his next shift. He'd barely dropped the towel to pull on some clean boxers when pattering feet signalled Nines' arrival. Gavin paid him no mind. They'd changed here enough times to get over any modesty issues, or inferiority in his case. Nines was a marvel, in and out of clothes. It was almost like he'd been sculpted by Michelangelo himself; he was so fucking perfect. Supple skin, toned muscles, minimal body fat, and he didn't even want to contemplate what hung between his legs. In fact, he put a lot of effort into not contemplating that on a daily basis.