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It’s all rather embarrassing, really. Considering the fact that not only was he a veteran agent who survived a literal bullet to the head, he’s the new Arthur to boot. It wasn’t that he was being an arrogant difficult prick as Merlin so helpfully phrased it. It was just that he honestly did not see the point of having security details to the point of getting a personnel to follow him whenever he leaves the HQ or the shop. Merlin of course had pointed out that the previous Arthur was murdered in the same dining room Harry spends most of his time now. Harry had rebutted by saying that whilst he has no immediate plan of selling out everyone in the world for the illusion of a new world order, he was quite sure that Eggsy would never poison him thank you very much.
There was of course the elephant in the room where both men knew that Eggsy would instead put a bullet in any one’s eye if they so much as looked at Harry wrong. But that was a different matter altogether and best to be discussed under the influence of liquor.
The point was that Harry woke up in what looked like a vault that was bare of everything safe for a bed that was bolted to the ground and a plastic bottle of water tucked neatly in the corner with a pack of digestives biscuits of all things. He sighed softly and pinched the bridge of his nose, already feeling a headache coming on strong from the left side of his brain.
A quick sweep of the inventory of the cell told him that he’s well and truly fucked in the sense where he will never get to hear the end of this from Merlin. Harry walked up to the metal door nonetheless and frowned at the little metal latch that would pull down enough to allow someone to peer into the cell.
Harry checked his pockets as the painful absence of any form of weapon on his person was deemed to be a fact that refused to acknowledge until a full check of his person was done. The result of it had him considering his options that consisted of an impressive selection of the buttons on his suit jacket, technologically advanced lint in his trousers pocket and a very deadly lozenge wrapper.
Oh, yes.
He would definitely have this fort-knox level door open in no time at all, perhaps even make it back from wherever the fuck this place is in time for Kay’s Peru mission debrief. If he’s really creative with the lozenge wrapper, he might as well entertain the idea of tea with Eggsy before his boy leaves for Iceland.
“Oh piss it.”
Harry Hart most definitely did not let his aching head fall forward and his forehead knock on the cool steel in frustration. Of course, in line with that blasphemous thought, Harry Hart most definitely and without a doubt did not jerked back when the latch fell down to reveal his protégé who peered in through the opening and proceeded to dazzle him with a bright grin.
“You know that Merlin aint never gon’a let you live this down, right?” Blond head cocked to the side and the bright grin tamed to something cheekier. “He’s cackling in me ears right about now, if you’re curious.”
“No, I am not.” Harry barely managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He stepped closer to the door and took notice of Eggsy’s rosy cheeks and a fine mist of blood on the right side of his face. “I keep telling you to pull away as you slit the throat and not a moment later. Eggsy, honestly.”
The young man pouted and he looked to be about ready to argue when he swivelled around and shot his gun down the corridor. Harry heard four thuds of bodies hitting the ground and he folded his arms neatly across his chest. Eggsy raised a finger in ‘a moment please’ gesture and disappeared from Harry’s limited view to his utter annoyance.
Unfortunately for Harry and fortunately for his protégé, a gentleman is always patient; more so when he’s asked to wait whilst his would be rescuer wreck havoc on the mercenaries outside. He really did roll his eyes however, when Eggsy ran past his door and shot a quick grin at Harry, all cheerful glee and childish excitement as he caused further pandemonium on the other side of the corridor. About twenty seconds into waiting, Harry began to tap his Oxford against the floor with an impatient sigh. In between the deafening sound of an explosion and the familiar rattle of a semi-automatic, he made a half hearted metal note in his steadily pounding head to review Ector’s formal request to drop the new recruits in a rain forest and have them take each other out in a friendly game of survival.
Ector made it explicitly clear that only paintball guns shall be used, of course. No explosions or bear traps, and he had promised not to light a bush fire to spice things up. Nothing too traumatic and the aim were to maim, not to kill.
“Right then, guv.” Eggsy skidded back into view. “Out you get then, just need to wait on Merlin to get the code.”
“Took you long enough,” Harry dropped his arms and straightened his cuffs. “And by the sounds of it, you didn’t hold anything back. Not,” he raised a pacifying hand when he heard Eggsy took a breath. “a criticism at your method, Eggsy. I didn’t mean anything by it and I am –as always- very impressed.”
Harry quietly let a breath that he was holding when Eggsy’s face relaxed, his lips pulled to reward the younger with a small smile. He watched as Eggsy cocked his head slightly, probably on purpose to let Harry know that he was listening to Merlin, before he chortled. “Merlin said to tell you that I aint a puppy and you needn’t give me a ‘proverbial ear scratch’ every time I pull off a clever trick.”
“Tell Merlin that it’s in his best interest to hurry with the code and have me out of this cell or else risk the prospect of overseeing Ector’s formal request in action.” Harry smirked, knowing full well that Merlin heard him. The pleasant burst of laughter from Eggsy warmed Harry all over and his fingers itched to reach through the latch window and press them against the corner of Eggsy’s squinted eyes.
He swallowed.
“Just get me out, Eggsy.”
Eggsy nodded once, his head slightly tilted once more. “Yeah, alright. Merlin’s got it anyway.” Harry stepped back from the door as Eggsy stepped forward to key in the code. Only, “Hang on.” Eggsy paused and looked curiously up at Harry; the corridor’s yellow light bulbs bathed his protégé in amber and made the green in his eyes more pronounced even behind the glasses. “If I let you out, will you give me a kiss? Always wanted to kiss a King and yous being Arthur sort of makes you one, don’t it?”
Harry promptly choked on his own tongue whilst Eggsy kept looking up at him through that blasted window with an honestly curious look on his face. The boy was –for all that Harry could tell- absolutely innocent in his curiosity with the tone he used and the way his eyebrows were slanted. There’s a myriad different ways that he could answer Eggsy’s question, but what he settled for was, “You have always wanted to kiss a King?” Yes. Excellent. Harry continued, “I would have thought you wanted to kiss princesses instead.”
Eggsy shrugged, his lips pressed briefly in a thoughtful frown.
“Well I did kiss a princess once.” Eggsy said and ducked to peer at the general direction of the door handle. Harry’s left eye, the one nearly taken out by Valentine’s bullet, twitched.
“Yeah, aight I did more’n kiss a princess, but point being is that I’ve dunnit. I can –uh- tick that one off me bucket list I spose’.” There were the sounds of buttons being punched and a tiny beep echoed through the vault. Harry’s headache came back with a vengeance and he resisted the urge to cover his left eye with his palm to stop the twitching. “But jokes, Harry.” The door swung open with a groan. “Was only messin with you.”
Harry might have wondered why Merlin was being quiet and had not asked Eggsy to pass on an insulting message or two about being kidnapped and having to be saved by one of his own Knights. He might have, but he was too preoccupied in studying Eggsy’s openly smiling face.
Eggsy, who stood by the opened door, slightly bowed and hand swept out to the corridor in a grand gesture of inviting Harry to walk out. Eggsy, who fought with Merlin to be sent on this retrieval mission because Harry knew for a fact that he’s due to fly out to Iceland and that they have Bedivere just waiting for his next assignment. Eggsy, who after Harry took up the mantle of Arthur had silently overseen and upgraded the security of the shop to the tiniest detail with Merlin in between his missions. Unlike Merlin however, Eggsy had simply nodded and backed off when Harry waved off the idea of having a small team of two guards down at the shops even though the boy himself had painstakingly handpicked the guards.
Harry sometimes caught Eggsy staring at him when he thinks that Harry was distracted with his paperwork. They would be sitting quietly in his office back in HQ with Harry behind his organized chaos of a desk and Eggsy settled in one of the aged soft leather armchair by the fireplace, a tea set still warm on the small stand in front of him. Eggsy’s stare was nothing like the uncomfortable weight that Harry often feel whenever he’s watched; but rather it was comforting and warm instead of suffocating and burning. He could just feel the worry that his boy radiated then. But here, in this cell, the worry was almost a physical presence by the way those green eyes regarded him.
There was a pinched, pained look in that young face and Harry found himself folding like a house of cards.
His feet moved forward, his arms raised with his palms opened and he caught the sides of Eggsy’s face in a gentle hold. Fingers carefully slipped Eggsy’s glasses off, folded and pocketed them in his breast pocket. Green eyes stared up at him as he crowded his boy against the door frame, his right hand moved just slightly to cushion the back of Eggy’s head. The left slid down the side of the younger’s neck, moved further down his flank and settled snugly in the small of his back in a soft whisper of fine fabric.
Harry took his time.
He allowed his eyes to roam Eggsy’s face to really take him in. Every aspect of the younger’s face was meticulously burned into Harry’s mind as he inched closer. He counted the dark whispery lashes, marvelled at the way they flutter every time Eggsy blinked. He smiled at the small, barely there, spatter of freckles across the bridge of Eggsy’s nose and he almost laughed when Eggsy scrunched his nose in response to Harry’s butterfly kisses to the little marks.
He pressed the hand at the small of Eggsy’s back and he stepped impossibly closer, so close that now that he can feel Eggsy’s surprisingly steady breaths. He counted those precious breaths with his eyes closed and his forehead nestled in the little curve of Eggsy’s nosebridge, unconsciously regulating his own breaths to Eggsy’s. Warm arms sneaked around his waist, up his torso, and warm hands splayed across his back where they pressed him closer still.
Just when it felt like there was no more air between them, Harry slotted his lips against Eggsy’s he just sighed. His body sagged with the sigh. His shoulders dropped like all the weight on them had evaporated into nothingness and the hands splayed across his back were the only thing that kept him in one piece. The hand that cushioned the back of Eggy’s head began to card through blond hair and the hand on Eggsy’s back trailed back up to cup the side of Eggsy’s neck. Harry opened his mouth enough to take in Eggsy’s bottom lip and the breathy gasp he elicited had him pull back slightly for a fraction of a second before pressing back in and coaxed Eggsy’s lips to part for him.
His hand at the side of Eggsy’s neck tilted his boy’s head in the angle that he needed and he kissed Eggsy like he was the only person that mattered in the world, like he was the only person that tethered Harry to this Earth, like he was the only person Harry breathed for and lived for and fought for and eventually, the person that Harry will die for.
And he supposed that as he pulled back to look at Eggsy’s flushed face, green eyes hidden behind closed lids, that it was all true and nothing metaphorical about it. In all seriousness, the fact of the matter was, Harry had already died once –because he did, for five minutes on the table he did- for Eggsy and he had gone through hell to come back to him.
He felt Eggsy lean his entire body weight against the frame of the cell’s door and Harry followed suit, entirely covering Eggsy’s body with his own. The hands on his back followed the lines of his arms and captured his own from their hold of Eggsy’s head. Their fingers intertwined and their joined hands slowly fell to their sides. Eggsy’s face was pressed against Harry’s neck, lips pressed to his pulse and Harry in turn, pushed his nose into Eggsy’s hair.
All was silent in that corridor where the bodies of mercenaries littered the ground.
Time stood still and they breathed in each other. No words were needed to convey what they both already knew from the moment Harry was wheeled off that Kingsman plane from Kentucky with Eggsy waiting on the tarmac.
“You were gone.”
Eggsy’s voice was rough and it broke simultaneously with Harry’s heart at the word gone. “I came into HQ, ready for me Iceland mission and Merlin stood there at the tube entrance and he said, he said-“
If it was anyone else but Eggsy, Harry would have made comforting shushing noises, would probably have quietened them with words meant to reassure them. But it’s Eggsy. And Harry knew that he owed Eggsy this and that to stop him from making sure Harry knew what he felt, from giving Harry a piece of his mind, would be a disservice to the young man who had been patient with him for far too long. Eggsy never pushed Harry to talk about what happened prior and post V-day other than the absolutely necessary. He never forced Harry’s hand. God knows his Eggsy indulged him when he made the effort of shuffling missions to ensure that Eggsy receives the low to moderate danger ones. He could see the flicker of self doubt in those eyes whenever he hands Eggsy those dossiers and he would always steel himself for the indignant outbursts that never came.
Eggsy has been patient for long enough.
“He said yous was gone and Harry,” Eggsy opened his eyes, finally, and gave Harry a hard stare. “I can’t do Kentucky a second time, you get me? I can’t be sitting on my arse a thousand miles away from you, wait for you to come back and maybe this time in a bleeding coffin like you should ave’ the first time.” Eggsy’s voice was steady, but his words were vicious and Harry could only tighten his fingers around Eggsy’s. Their joined hands swayed a little when Eggsy shook them to emphasis his point.
“You don’t get to do it a second time to me, aight. You used up your one cheating death card, so when we get back to the HQ, I want you to sit down with Merlin and me and we’re gonna sort your fucking security.”
Harry sighed and kissed the frown lines on Eggsy’s forehead. “Yes, alright,” he kissed Eggsy’s nose. “I should have listened, it was my fault.” He pecked Eggsy’s lips. “I am sorry, Eggsy. I really, really am.”
He looked at Eggsy steadily in the eye as the younger stared him down, green eyes dark and stormy; skin flushed and just this side of splotchy. Harry willed his eyes to say what he could not, to convince Eggsy that he would not make the same mistake for the third time. That he would stay, for however long Eggsy would have him and even then he would always be in Eggsy’s corner with support and love.
Even as Eggsy lowered his gaze to kiss Harry’s chin before gently detangling them and fuss over Harry’s suit, Harry knew that he would have to spend however long he’s got left in his years to convince Eggsy of that. When Eggsy was done straightening his tie, Harry reached into his pocket and replaced the glasses neatly on its perch with an affectionate sweep of his fingers on Eggsy’s cheek.
He opened his mouth to speak, but Eggsy’s eyes unfocused for a moment as he tilted his head. Harry watched in no small amount of fascination as a blush practically exploded across Eggsy’s face and crept down his neck. He had an inkling of what caused this particular fetching look on his boy, but he waited for Eggsy to convey Merlin’s message.
Eggsy cleared his throat, brushed pass Harry and picked up a discarded semi-automatic to pass to Harry. “Merlin said –uh-,“ Harry smiled fondly him as he took the offered weapon, back straight and senses alert. “He said that he’s glad you ‘got your shite together, for the love of god everyone’s been suffocating in your misery’. His words, not mine.” Eggsy finished in a rush and pivoted to scan the deserted corridor.
Harry chuckled, armed and ready to follow Eggsy through the carnage. “Well then. Be a dear and tell Merlin,” he stepped up to stand by Eggsy and lightly bumped their shoulders, “That we shall be expecting him to split his winnings from the office poll and,” He peered into Eggsy’s grinning face, eyes directed at the corner of the thick black frames, “I’ve decided to give into Ector’s proposal and you’re going to be the one planning it, you smug Scottish bastard.”
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