Chapter Text
Everyone, except One and Seven, was inside the building where their target was supposed to be.
The Ghosts were dressed up for this mission as they had to blend in with a lot of rich assholes. So One had taken them, one by one, into the most expensive stores to shop for clothes.
Almost everyone loved the outfits. With the exception of Four, of course.
Billy would prefer hoodies and sweatpants any day of the week instead of these high-end, uncomfortable clothes. But, through no lack of trying, he couldn't avoid wearing them.
In conclusion, Four was stuck in this mansion that was built to resemble a fucking labyrinth with the most shallow, fake, just plainly terrible people AND to top it all off, the Ghosts had yet to see their target.
"Keep your eyes open, guys." One's patronising voice came through everyone's comms.
"Oh, why didn't I think of that?" Four mumbled, rolling his eyes as if One could see that, while 'admiring' another pure silver ashtray that was set on the table.
"I saw that." Came the firm reply, which did bring a small smirk to Four's face, if he was being honest, "Four, I'm gonna need you to put down that ashtray and stop fucking taking shit! Someone might see you."
Again, only mumbling came through to One but this time it was unintelligible. One preferred not knowing what kind of curse Four had put on him, honestly.
The rest of the Ghosts were trying to stifle their smiles at the interaction when suddenly Two spoke;
"He's here."
Everyone sobered up instantly and looked around to see the target for themselves.
"Left corner by the entrance door." Two said as she could see that the others couldn't find the target.
"I'm moving in." Three said determined but One's voice and Two's hand on his arm stopped him before he could take a step.
"No, Three. Not yet."
All of them followed the guy with their eyes as he made his way through the crowd, taking a drink in his hand and greeting everyone, obvious for anyone to see that he was planning on staying exactly where he was.
—
After a few tedious hours of waiting for their target to do something, anything, the Ghosts were pleased to see that the guy was excusing himself and going for a door on the right side of the building that the team knew there to be hallway and an array of guest rooms behind.
Since Four was the closest to their target, he made to follow him.
Silently Billy trailed a few feet behind him, going in after him almost immediately after the door leading to the hall was closed.
For a couple of still moments, Four couldn't see anything or anyone. He figured that the guy went inside a room.
He held his breath as he tried to pick up any sounds that would betray the guy's position, but nothing could be heard.
Suddenly, all the air in Four's lungs rushed out of him as his back hit painfully the wall behind him. He didn't expect to be face to face with their target like this, but there he was.
The bad guy was holding tight on Billy's suit jacket's lapels, keeping him immobile with bruising force.
As Billy's hands shot up to take a hold of the guy's wrists that were holding him pinned, he did something baffling.
Four was unable to move from the shock he felt as the guy's lips met his with a crushing force. No matter how hard Billy tried to pull away from the violent kiss, the more the target held him in place.
But the lips and the force Billy felt in his chest were gone just as unexpectedly as they'd come. The hands stopped holding him back and now was Four's chance to incapacitate the guy but for the life of his, he couldn't bring himself to move whatsoever.
The guy retreated hastily into the main hall, after throwing a malicious grin at Billy, who was stuck there, dumbfounded, back against the wall and breathing as if he'd run a marathon.
In his shock, he had failed to notice that One's voice that came out of the comm in his ear didn't exist anymore.
Ignoring the lightheadedness Billy felt, he pushed himself off the wall he was straight out leaning on for balance now and focused all of his attention on getting the fuck out of that place.
As soon as he walked out of the hallway's door, he grabbed a glass of champagne to wash down the bitter, metallic taste his mouth had in a single swift gulp and without paying any attention to his team who was throwing him looks of concern, Four made his way outside and round a corner.
Breathing in the clear and crisp night air, Billy let himself slide down the building's side and onto the ground, letting a long and heavy sigh leave him.
After a couple of minutes of Four gathering his breath, he heard footsteps nearing where he was sitting.
"We were wondering where you'd gone off to, kid." Three said reaching him and helping him up by extending his arm.
Four didn't mention the dizziness he felt as he got up.
Billy also saw Two and Five walking with the bad guy between them, holding him still. They had tied his hands behind his back and gagged him and yet when his eyes fell on Billy standing there, there was still a dangerous glint in them.
He ignored it, whereas Javier shot the guy a murderous look even through he didn't know what had occurred.
In fact, the only thing that any of them had heard from Four's comm was a thud and a sharp gasp before it was disconnected and seeing Four practically running out.
Seven and One were waiting for the others by the car as soon as they got the information from Two that they had the target.
Seven was already in the driver seat whereas One was outside of the car still, waiting for all the Ghosts to join them.
When they reached the seven-seater SUV, they threw the tied up guy in the middle row between Camille and Amelia as Javier and Billy took a seat behind them. With Blaine and One sitting in the front row, Blaine on the wheel, they made to leave.
All that could be heard for a while was the sounds of the passing cars as they drove on until their target started breathing heavily and sputtering behind the gag. The Ghosts didn't pay much attention, thinking it a ruse of sorts, that was until the guy started having spasms, which made One look back and Five to start checking on him.
"What the fuck is wrong with him?" One asked Five quickly.
"I don't know. He seems to be having a seizure." Amelia retorted just as hastily.
Blaine parked the car in an alleyway after One told him to so that Amelia could take a better look at him.
After taking his gag off, they all saw that he had extreme salivation and that his eyes were rolling back into his head making only the white of his eyes visible. After a minute of trying to bring him to stop, Five saw him seizing up and altogether stopping any movement.
Everyone was speechless for a second as Five checked his pulse.
"Well?" Three asked eagerly.
Five breathed in deeply and answered; "He's dead."
There was a faint 'damn it' coming from Two as for the others, they only sighed.
Five went close to him and sniffed him to see if there was any sign of poison. She was right to do so as she caught the scent of bitterness.
"Poison." Amelia said softly.
"Excuse me? Did you say poison?" One said disbelieving, "Who poisoned him? I mean, we were watching his every move."
"Maybe he poisoned himself." Camille said.
"Son of a bitch." One snapped at no one in particular; "Fuck! Let's just... Let's just go."
Seven put the car to drive and started for the airport.
Through all this, Four was looking at everyone in turn, puzzled.
Suddenly, Three turned to Billy and asked him; "Did you notice anything off with him while you were in that hallway?"
"He tasted kinda weird." Four reported before he could think of what he said.
Every single one person in that car looked at him as if he was insane but Blaine was the one to speak up.
"How do you know how he tasted?" He questioned a now blushing Four.
"He- Well, he m-might have kissed me." Four stuttered his answer.
Seven was about to say something again but was cut off by Five; "What do you mean it tasted off? How did the kiss taste?"
"Almost like almonds." Billy said after a small pause.
That made Five's features to turn into distress while the others, except for Seven who was keeping his eyes on the road, tried to make sense of why that guy had kissed Four.
Four tried very hard to avoid anyone's eyes even though he knew he shouldn't be embarrassed for something that happened without him even wanting it to.
He was also trying to make his now reawakened headache and absolute need to bring his hand up to his head not show through.
"B- Four?" Five startled Four from his thoughts.
"Yea?" He barely mumbled.
"What happened exactly?"
Billy started the retelling of how everything came to be which got him a couple of sympathetic looks from Five and Two, a worried look from Seven and two very dangerous looks aimed at the dead now body of their target (that they had moved to the very back of the car to get rid of later) from One and Three.
One told Seven to stop the car, which he did quite sharply.
"I'm gonna kill that bastard." Three said angrily which was answered by Two with a 'he's already dead, idiot' in a stop-it tone of voice.
"Alright. Let's regroup for a second, guys." One decided and continued; "Now, what I want to know is why is Five looking at Four like that?"
Everyone's attention was now on Amelia's face, indeed it was odd seeing her look at Billy like a kicked puppy. She was shaken out of her thoughts but the feeling of five pairs of eyes burning into her head.
Five cleared her throat and while looking right into Four's eyes she said; "I think you were poisoned."
Billy's eyes widened and his heartbeat began racing even worse than before.
"Do you feel any dizziness? Maybe some nausea?" She continued as she took Four's wrist in her hand to check his pulse.
Four couldn't bring himself to answer because he felt as if he was choking even as his breathing accelerated. Now everyone could see that Amelia was right.
Billy had been poisoned.
Without any need for words, Blaine started the car up again and floored the gas pedal.
One was glancing back and forth every once in a while between the road and Four, who was in a middle of a panic attack and was being calmed down by Five and two.
Three was uncharacteristically quiet, holding Billy's left hand as he couldn't stop thinking how he should have gone with him in that hallway because then Four wouldn't have been hurt.
And like that they made their way towards the airport as fast as they could go.