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"He blew me off."
Roxy's voice was tinny through the tiny microphone. She sounded frustrated. Who wouldn't? She was dressed to the nines, cleavage on display, complete with seamless cover story. She had been prepping for this role for weeks already, and the target had blown her off.
"What do you mean he blew you off?" Eggsy's voice came filtering through several seconds later, incredulous.
He was on the other side of the room, working on approaching another target. The young man was turning slightly to look at the man in question.
Merlin gripped the edge of the table. Their intel was supposed to be complete. What had they missed?
"He brushed me off!" Roxy replied through clenched teeth and a forced smile. "Showed him the girls and crossed my arms, then gave him the bedroom eyes. He smiled and shook his head then fucked off!"
She excused herself from the group of people she was chatting with, then lifted some champagne from a passing waiter.
"Eggsy, meet me at the entrance in five." She whispered. If it didn't work today, there was always the next party. Though, this time, they would have to try a different approach.
"Let me try something." Eggsy said. Instead of moving towards the exit, he was weaving through the crowd, towards Roxy's target.
"Eggsy?"
Before Merlin or Harry could say anything to stop him, Eggsy had stumbled and bumped into their target.
"Fuck!"
Julius Higgins swore as Eggsy jostled his wine glass, sending a huge splotch over his jacket. Harry closed his eyes and grit his teeth.
"Make your excuses and get out of there!" He hissed into the intercom but Eggsy didn't acknowledge him at all.
"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry, I'm such a klutz, I'm sorry." Eggsy rambled, grabbing a tissue to wipe at the wine.
Julius Higgins looked furious at first, but one look at Eggsy's earnest expression and he softened.
"I'll pay for the dry-cleaning." Eggsy continued, keeping up the wide-eyed innocent boy act.
"Oh it's not a problem." Julius waved it off. He flagged down a waiter and handed over his jacket.
"I'm Gary, Gary Hart." Eggsy said, holding out his hand, scuffing his shoes a bit.
"That can't possibly work." Roxy hissed over the comms. To everyone's growing surprise, Julius Higgins actually did take Eggsy's hand with a big smile.
"Julius Higgins, pleasure to meet you."
Eggsy's tongue darted out, wetting his lips. He blinked twice, hand lingering for just a split second.
"Um, I should go." He said, shuffling his feet in embarrassment.
"Why are you so nervous? You should stay." Julius said, taking Eggsy's arm. Eggsy gave him a tiny shy smile.
"I don't want to embarrass myself anymore." Eggsy said, taking another step forward and stumbling again. Julius wrapped one arm around Eggsy's waist.
"First time at this sort of event?" Julius prodded. Eggsy laughed, looking nervous.
"It's that obvious?" He bit his lower lip and toyed with his cuff links.
"Well, yes. But don't go. I'll show you around." Julius said, guiding Eggsy towards the open bar.
Eggsy turned slightly and winked at Roxy. She gave him an incredulous look. Target swap? Fine by her.
While Roxy sought out the secondary objective, Merlin and Harry were stuck listening to the conversation between Eggsy and Julius Higgins. They didn't actually expect Eggsy to be able to garner the man's attention.
Julius Higgins, 30 years old, looked like he could be a hot teacher. He was, on the surface, just an accountant. Rumour had it, he was the accountant of several key players in the weapons race. Even more rumours had it, he was the one who brokered the deals.
Roxy had gone in knowing full well she might have to sleep with the target to get him to talk. Harry and Merlin had briefed her, debriefed her, counselled her and made sure she understood exactly what she was getting into.
Eggsy had gone in with only an approximate knowledge of what Roxy would be expected to do. He had absolutely no training in this regards.
"Have you done this before?" Julius was asking, his fingers were working at Eggsy's shirt.
"Not really I mean there was this boy in school but we never-" Eggsy rambled. Julius growled, leaning forward to suck a hickey into Eggsy's neck. Merlin and Harry were treated to a view of the ceiling. Eggsy reached up, pulling off his glasses and discarding them on the table, facing the wall. The video was reduced to wallpaper only.
"Does it hurt?" Eggsy's nervous tone came from the general vicinity of the bed.
"I promise to be gentle." Julius said. The bed creaked and there was a rustle of clothing. Eggsy whimpered and then moaned softly. It was followed by a growl from Julius and then the sound of something being uncapped.
"Ow!"
The plaintiff whimper from Eggsy made both his mentors wince in sympathy. That short amount of time was definitely not enough for a proper prep.
"That's it, that's a good boy." Julius praised. There was another muffled complaint from Eggsy, but it turned into a soft moan.
"Mm please." Eggsy begged.
"You're so cute." Julius said with a laugh.
"I'm not cute!" Eggsy protested softly. "Sh- shut up and move!"
"As you wish."
The brief conversation trailed off into creaking sounds and soft moans from both parties.
"I can't believe I'm listening to this." Roxy complained from the other side. She was most probably in one of the adjacent rooms. "I can't believe you gave him training for this and didn't tell me!" She accused Merlin.
"Uh." Merlin said.
"Uh? You mean he didn't know?" Roxy asked, aghast. Harry had to force himself to unclench his fingers from his umbrella.
"I wasn't aware he knew how to seduce men." Harry admitted through clenched teeth.
Their attention was drawn back to the conversation on the other end of Eggsy's glasses.
"Oh gosh, I was bad wasn't I?" Eggsy stammered. The shyness didn't mesh with Harry's impression of the boy, but then again, Harry hadn't known that Eggsy knew how to seduce a man either.
Julius laughed.
"Well it wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst."
"Average?"'
"Well above average." Julius assured him, making Eggsy laugh.
A beat of silence, then Eggsy spoke up again.
"I should go. I'm making you waste your time on average-ness." Eggsy said softly. The worst thing was that Harry couldn't tell if it was an act or not.
The rustle of sheets again.
"Come on, stay a little longer."
"I shouldn't. I'm going to be in trouble. I don't even know what you do and you know about me and my parents will kill me if they found out."
"Tell them you made a friend!" Julius persuaded.
"Are we friends?"
"Well seeing that we just had sex, I would hope so." Julius laughed again. Harry wanted to punch him in the face.
"I guess I could stay a bit, at least for a while longer." Eggsy hedged.
"Good, now come back to bed."
Soft laughter, then a wet smacking kiss.
"You need to relax." Merlin advised Harry. Sure, neither of them wanted to listen to their newest recruits seduce a target. Yet somehow it was affecting Harry a lot. Maybe because it was Eggsy doing it.
Harry clenched and then unclenched his fingers again.
Eggsy was good at it. That was the entire problem. Between bouts of sex and conversation, Eggsy had somehow managed to coax Julius Higgins into admitting that he dealt with illegal imports, had a meeting the next day, and could broker a deal between just about anybody. He had also promised Eggsy a ride in his private jet next time, indicating that he wanted there to be a next time.
He had also hinted at the fact that the most important documents were hidden on his yacht, which was rigged to blow if anything went wrong. There were also hints of secrets, pointing the Kingsmen into the direction of blackmail on at least seven different parties.
It was five in the morning before Eggsy managed to extricate himself from Julius's arms after tiring the man out with another bout of vigorous sex.
He entered HQ with an exhausted huff, dumped his jacket over the back of the nearest chair, and then flopped down into it.
"He's got stamina. I'll give him that." Eggsy said.
He looked a mess. His shirt, which had been pulled on in a hurry, was buttoned up all wrong. The rumpled fabric did nothing to hide the hickeys all along his throat and neck and shoulders. There were finger shaped bruises on his wrists and on his hips.
"I can't believe you pulled that off." Roxy trudged in behind him, shaking her head. She had managed to recover a USB drive off the secondary while waiting for Eggsy. She tossed it to Merlin.
"Wasn't hard. He didn't glance at any of the big players, only eyed up the new meat." Eggsy said with a wide grin.
"I can't believe that worked either though. Fucker should know better than to fall for the "I'm new" trick." He laughed, then winced.
"Go to the infirmary." Harry snapped.
"What?" Eggsy squirmed into a sitting position.
"You need to get yourself checked out." Harry said. He got an incredulous look from both youngsters.
"What for?" Eggsy demanded. "I didn’t even get shot at!"
Roxy muttered something about getting shot in, under her breath, making Eggsy chortle.
"You seduced the target. More times than was required." Harry said, trying to keep his voice level. The thought of Eggsy and Julius together even once, seemed to be one time too many.
"Sex? I need to get checked out for sex?" Eggsy asked, he shook his head. "I'm not some fragile chick." He protested, then looked over at Roxy with a soft 'no offense, Roxy'. She rolled her shoulders and shot back a "none taken".
"Let it go." Merlin was saying to Harry from the background. Harry ignored the advice though.
"You weren't prepped properly." Harry pointed out. To his chagrin, Eggsy laughed.
"Was not the worst I had." He held up a hand for Roxy to high-five. Roxy rolled her eyes but slapped his hand anyway.
"Yeah at least Julius is sort of hot." She said with a grin.
The two of them were definitely NOT taking this seriously enough.
"Who was the worst you had?" She asked, toeing off her high heels. "I mean cause there was this guy at school who did not know the diff between biting and kissing."
"It's a toss up between Fatman and Hoozer." Eggsy waved his hand at Roxy with a huge shit eating grin. She snorted and motioned for him to continue.
"Fatman was just that. He was really fat. Like fucking huge. Half the time I couldn't find his dick. And Hoozer kept making wheezing sounds I thought he was going to croak." Eggsy said with a laugh. "Never could tell if he was having a heart attack or not."
"Why did you fuck them then?" Roxy asked, her eyes were bright with mirth and confusion.
"Me mam was in a bad way and needed the cash." Eggsy said with a careless shrug. He stretched out in the chair and let out a soft groan, seemingly oblivious to the instant 180 of the mood in the room.
Even Roxy was quiet. She was looking at Eggsy with a sort of surprised horror.
"Did you prostitute yourself, Eggsy?" Harry asked softly to confirm the question in everyone's mind.
"It was either that or sell drugs. I wasn't gonna take the chance that those fuckers wouldn't come after me mam and sister." Eggsy said. He didn't seem to think it was a big deal. He took one look around the room and then sat up straight with an incredulous look.
"Wait, are you all wigging cause I shagged a couple of Johns for cash?" Eggsy demanded.
"It's not proper-" Harry begun.
"You're okay with me shooting someone's brains out but I take dick up the arse for cash and it's a huge fucking deal?" Eggsy shook his head, getting up from the chair.
"Whatever, hypocrites." He gave them a disgusted look, then limped out.
Roxy shrugged, getting up from her chair.
"He's got a point." She said. "I'm going to take him out for a pint."
With that, she slipped out the door, leaving the two older men to their thoughts.
"You did the background check." Merlin pointed out gently.
Harry had done the background check. He had taken a look at everything Eggsy had ever done. But Eggsy had been careful on that front. He hadn't been taken to lock up for soliciting. He kept his nose and head down in that department.
What irked Harry wasn't that Eggsy had done it, but the fact that Eggsy had to do it. The system had failed Eggsy so completely that he had to resort to prostitution to get through.
"Look, it's his life. He's not bothered by it." Merlin pointed out. He had already plugged in the USB Roxy had given him and was extracting data from it.
"Just go home and sleep on it."
Harry did go home, but he couldn't sleep.
Probably, it was a bad idea to search out this Fatman and Hoozer, but Harry couldn't help himself. He didn't really go and stalk them, but it was a simple matter of digging around in Eggsy's past. There wasn't any concrete link between any of them, but Harry was reasonably sure of the two men Eggsy had brought up. Regulars at certain bars. Bars that Eggsy frequented when he was a teenager, whether waiting tables or bartending or just hanging out.
From there, there was a disturbingly obvious trail of men and women Eggsy saw on a semi-regular basis right after he hit his majority. The ones that had popped up before he turned 16 were a little less obvious. There wasn't a paper trail, but there were slightly bigger deposits in bank accounts, a spike in the quality of food and clothes here and there as shown in his family photos.
He looked happy though. It didn't seem to bother him. It probably didn't bother him. But it bothered Harry. It threw him off kilter to know that his protégé had been busy on the streets since just before the age of consent, selling his body to keep his family fed.
Eggsy seemed to think it was only natural.
He even dropped by two days after the incident, and told Harry straight up that Julius had called and that Eggsy was going out with the man.
And that he expected that they would end up in bed. Or maybe not even make it to the bed. Eggsy had also informed Harry that he would be collaborating with Roxy. Or specifically, Roxy's wardrobe.
Roxy took him shopping for certain items, then sent him off to one of the posh restaurants, dropping him off with a cheery 'Good luck!'.
Harry had to endure two hours of Eggsy pretending to slowly come out of his shell, being all admiring towards Julius Higgins. It had been a while since Eggsy had directed any of his admiration towards Harry, and it rankled.
Then Harry had to endure the hour long drive back to Julius's place. It had started off innocently enough with Eggsy rambling on about some electrical engineering course he was supposedly taking in university. Then he had stammered something about having a surprise for Julius.
Julius had nearly pulled a gun on Eggsy but Eggsy had acted oblivious, then let Julius have a peek of the lingerie under his trousers.
The ride had devolved into furious making out.
"You're going to ruin that umbrella." Merlin pointed out. Harry made himself put away his umbrella. The constant twisting of its spokes would render it useless in a fight eventually. And he couldn't have that.
Harry endured the making out.
Then he had to endure the way Julius called Eggsy a 'naughty boy', smacking his arse on the way into the apartment. Eggsy had laughed softly, shy and unsure all the same.
"Maybe you should stop listening." Merlin cautioned. Harry was too far gone to care. Logically, he knew this was just a job and that it didn't really mean a thing to Eggsy. His feelings were an entirely different story. It didn't sit right with him, the fact that Eggsy was schmoozing with this man, who didn't know anything about Eggsy at all.
"He seems to know what he's doing." Merlin pointed out. Harry realized belatedly that he had said the last sentence in his mind out loud.
Julius did know what he was doing, if the volume of Eggsy's cries were anything to go by.
"You know what? Get out." Merlin grabbed Harry by the front of his suit, then dragged him to the door.
"You're distracted and frankly, you're useless in this state!"
"I need to monitor Eggsy." Harry protested.
"I'll monitor him!" Merlin growled, shoving Harry outside.
He was about to barge back in, but the sight of Roxy lounging in a chair stopped him short. Harry smoothed his hair down quickly and straightened his suit.
"You've got it baaaad." Roxy said. She was playing with her tablet, sifting through the information for her next assignment.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Face it, you wouldn't give two shits if it was me." She pointed out. Harry felt his face heat up. He wasn't supposed to show favouritism, but it seemed to be very obvious.
"I get it. I mean, he wasn't briefed or debriefed on it, and he's your nominee anyway." Roxy said with a shrug. She gave him a wink.
"It's inappropriate."
"Who's going to disapprove? Us?" Roxy snorted, gesturing around her. "Half of the Kingsman are dead after that fiasco with Valentines." She raised her eyebrows at him, then turned her attention back her tablet.
"I have principles." Harry hedged, quite aware of how weak it sounded.
"Eggsy thinks you're pissed at him for taking dick up the arse." Roxy said, not looking up from her data.
"When are you going to tell him you're pissed cause it's not your dick up his arse?" She swiveled her chair to face away from Harry.
He stood there for a long moment, mouth open and ready to deny it. The problem being that he couldn't. He wasn't all that caught up in Eggsy having sex with the target. He was caught up in the fact that he wanted Eggsy for himself. Harry sat down heavily.
"Shit."
Roxy waved her stylus at him with a knowing look.
How was it that he could mercilessly kill people without blinking, single handedly dismantle organizations, but couldn't confront his own protégé?
Harry swallowed hard, steeling himself for the conversation that was to follow. How should he present his case? Ask Eggsy to stop seeing Julius? He couldn't request that, Eggsy was so close to getting more information. It was for the good of mankind. But not the good of Harry's jealous heart.
"Merlin said you wanted to see me?" Eggsy shuffled into the room, looking tired and worn out. Julius had kept him up for most of the night, experimenting with different things. Eggsy had gone along with most of them but used the puppy dog eyes to get out of being tied down, citing childhood bully trauma.
A truly moving performance.
"It's about your past." Harry blurted out.
Eggsy's face closed off immediately. He folded his arms and widened his stance.
"So we're beating that dead horse." Eggsy said coolly.
"Why didn't you call?" Harry asked desperately. Surely he must have known that Harry would have saved him.
"Why would I call?" Eggsy shot back with a sneer "Random number, supposed to be a one call fix all. No idea if it was one use only. I was saving it for something important."
"Your purity is important." Harry blurted out, unable to think of anything but a young Eggsy, offering himself up to the wolves.
"Are ya serious? I'm in the middl'a honey pot m'sion!" Eggsy gave Harry an incredulous look. He was very upset, judging from how badly his RP was slipping.
"You were underage!" Harry protested.
"What like I wern sum horny teenager." Eggsy waved it off.
"I should have been there!"
"… you wan'ta shag me undera … Harry you sick fucker." Eggsy's eyes were wide. He took a step back, clearly taken aback.
"No!" Harry raised both hands in a placating gesture, backing away too.
"I meant, I should have been there, to take care of you and your family." Harry said, running his hand through his hair with a soft sigh.
Eggsy was still wide-eyed, but he didn't looked scared.
"Like I said. Dead horse" He said, shrugging as if it didn't bother him.
"I want to be there, in the future." Harry plunged onwards. He needed to let it all out now before he regretted it.
"I want to be there for you, whatever happens. You and your family."
The declaration was met with a shocked inhalation.
"Does that mean you aint pissed at me?" Eggsy asked, voice tiny and wobbly.
"Why would I be angry?" Harry asked, nonplussed.
"I mean, soliciting is a crime an' stuff." Eggsy shrugged again, eyes darting away. He wouldn't look Harry in the eye. "And I was a repeat offender." His voice got tinier.
"No, Eggsy no! I could never be angry at you for that!" Harry crossed the distance between them and enveloped Eggsy in a tight hug.
"I was angry at myself, for not being there for you when you needed me." Harry confessed "I should have kept a closer eye on you, even if it was just for your father."
Eggsy made a tiny sound of relief.
"Roxy kept tellin me, she said you were pissed cause you were jealous." Eggsy laughed, pushing himself away to wipe at his face.
Harry didn't reply, letting Eggsy come to his own conclusion.
"You… you are pissed cause you're jealous." Eggsy whispered. Harry looked away.
"I'm too old for you." He muttered.
Eggsy laughed, giving Harry a hard squeeze around the waist.
"Just let me nab this fucker and we'll test that theory." He said, drawing away.
Harry blinked twice, did he just…? Eggsy grinned up at him, all happy and contented for the moment. The younger man tiptoed and pecked Harry on the lips. Eggsy laughed again, then skipped out of the room.
"You better be a better lay than Julius!"
The sound of Eggsy's taunts came floating back. Harry smiled to himself. He definitely would be.