[Axis Powers Hetalia, America/England: Codename 2/?]
Title: Codename Chapter 2/?, Alfred versus the Computer 2/3 [FF.net Link] [ Previous Chapters]
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Genre: Action/Romance
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: America/England, Estonia/Ukraine, Prussia, Japan, Seychelles, Norway
Word Count: 3,975
Summary: When computer geek Alfred inadvertently downloads government secrets into his brain, the two countries behind the secrets send agents to keep a watch on him. One of them is MI-6 agent Arthur Kirkland, who is about to turn Alfred's life upside down in more ways than one.
Notes: Written for socialholic as part of the usxuk Secret Santa. She asked for The first time they meet - in an AU. This AU is based of the American TV series Chuck in the premise and setup, but I will be veering heavily from that show's plotlines.
Human names used:
Ukraine: Katya Chernenko
Monaco: Ingrid Grimaldi
Seychelles: Evangeline (Eva)
Norway: Nikolas Thomassen
Denmark: Derek Densen
“I have one more question then…”
Alfred had been talking with the two agents for quite some time at the kitchen table. They’d explained to him what Project ALLIES was, how it was made of encoded images and how now that he had viewed those images there was a possibility that the computer was basically…inside his head.
Arthur, who had insisted on making the tea lest anyone ‘butcher it’, had added that there was a possibility that this ability would wear off after a few hours of being exposed to it. But since no one had ever tested it, they weren’t sure. So until they could confirm or deny if Alfred’s capacity to put names to faces uncannily like he had earlier was a fluke or a consistent new skill, they would be keeping a watch on him.
Alfred was more worried about the fact they were taking his precious hard drive, even though they assured him they’d return it once they made certain all traces of the email and the program it created to display the ALLIES code was deleted from it permanently.
But despite all they’d explained, there was still one question nagging away at him.
“I will answer it for you, if I can,” Arthur replied. The two agents were just about to leave and he’d caught them heading out the door with his hard drive.
“How did Eduard get caught up in this? That password the program asked for…only he could have come up with it, so it couldn’t be someone using his name…right?”
Vash sighed, looking to Arthur to explain.
“Your friend, Alfred, is a CIA agent. Possibly rogue. We have yet to confirm if what he said about Russian spies attempting to steal the project was true or not. If he tries to contact you again at all, you must tell us right away. Please, promise us that.”
“Eduard? My computer savvy roommate from college? A spy?” Alfred laughed, “No way! He and I used to spend hours reenacting Star Wars scenes with action figures. He can’t be a spy!”
Arthur gave him a look and Alfred blushed, realizing how dorky what he’d just admitted was.
“Well believe what you want, Alfred. But if he shows up or contacts you,” Vash gave him a smile that came across more intimidating than reassuring, “Let us know, got that?”
“Right,” Alfred agreed.
“I’ll be seeing you later,” Arthur said with a wave.
Alfred blinked. “Wha- you…”
“To return your computer. You must not act like you recognize me though. It’s for the safety of our cover and you.”
Pushing aside that little feeling of disappointment that it was just that, Alfred sighed. “Right. See ya.”
As the two agents left, door swinging behind them, Alfred flopped down on the couch.
“Eduard von Bock a spy. Just no freaking way!”
-------------------------------------
Katya felt as if her heart hadn’t stopped hammering since she’d left Eduard standing on that dreary rooftop the night before.
But she’d done everything she could. Even if she kept telling herself she should have done more to help him, there was only so much she could do without also putting herself at danger of being labeled rogue like Eduard currently was. They needed at least one of them to be safe in the CIA’s eyes, and Katya had lost the coin toss on that.
So she’d calmly played the part- the distressed partner so torn over Eduard going rogue. She’d answered what questions she could about the intel she’d received, but was still (in their eyes) horrified to find out that her partner had acted on them so rashly.
Brushing the tears from her eyes, she politely requested a short leave of absence until she felt she could bring her emotions into check. Ingrid Grimaldi, her boss, had granted it. And so, she packed her bags and flew out that morning for…home.
She’d found a note in her bag that morning that just read Where we shared our first kiss, outside cover, and she just felt like following it.
And so she went to the last place she’d ever considered ‘home’- a small quaint apartment she still kept up rent on in San Francisco. Eduard and she had been on a six month mission there once, and she’d just become too fond of it to let it go.
So with her bags in hand and her mind still in a million places at once, she’d opened the door to her apartment.
It took every ounce of strength and years of training to prevent her from crying out in shock. But once the door was shut, she dropped her luggage at once and rushed over to the bloody man on the couch.
“Eduard, oh goodness, Eduard!”
He forced a gritted smile through his pain. “I see you got my message, Katya.”
She pressed a quick kiss to his forehead before rushing to grab her first aid kit from the bathroom.
“Oh Eduard, you fool. You were never that good at your first aid classes, were you?”
He cracked a half-smile at that. “Much better with computers. All that flesh and blood confuses me, give me circuit boards and encoded programs to crack.”
Shooing his hands away from where he held the towel to his wound, she started to bandage him up properly.
“I take it you did a rush job on it, came here as fast as you could before anyone started tracing you, and then decided to bleed on our good towels?”
A small smile played at his lips when she said ‘our’ towels and he inwardly decided to replace them when had the chance. Laying his blood-stained hand over hers where it was laid against his bleeding chest, Eduard replied, “Ah, you know me too well, Katya.”
“So what happened? I thought you had a bullet proof vest on.”
“Did. That’s why I’m not dead.”
Katya’s eyes welled up at that, and Eduard quickly amended.
“It was Major Zwingli from the NSA. You know how he loves using bullets that tear right through vests. Just deep enough to bleed a lot, but it didn’t go too deep, so don’t worry.”
Katya let out a visible sigh of relief at that.
“You were so lucky then…”
He pushed aside his tattered and bloody shirt until a gold chain with a charm dangling from it showed. “It was thanks to your lucky charm, Katya.”
With a watery smile, she picked up the small Ukrainian trident charm and wiped the blood from it.
“Let us hope your friend is still safe. Alfred, right?”
Eduard nodded, sitting up a bit more now that his chest was properly bandaged. “I can’t contact him yet, but…if what you overheard was right, that British agent should be keeping Major Zwingli in line. Al’s a great guy, I’m sure he can handle it.”
Katya smiled, sitting beside Eduard and pulling him into a gentle embrace.
“I’m certain any friend of yours must be good at keeping his calm in dire times, Eduard.”
-------------------------------------
“Alfred?”
“Ahh! What?!”
Alfred almost jumped out of his skin as Kiku, one of his fellow Nerd Herders, approached him with a malfunctioning printer. The poor Japanese-American broke into a peal of apologies, as usual.
“I am terribly sorry for disturbing you, Alfred. It was never my intent to impede upon whatever it was you were doing. If you will just excuse me and my ill timing I will…”
Alfred put his hands on Kiku’s shoulders and smiled. “Kiku, it’s okay. You just startled me a bit. Don’t worry about it, all right?”
“But Alfred, I just want to apologize for startling you and…”
Tapping the shorter man on the nose, Alfred wagged his finger at him. “What did we say at the Nerd Herd meeting about you and your apologizing?”
Kiku bowed his head. “Oh pardon me, it must have slipped my mind that I was supposed to try and stop that. I am so sorry I…”
This time Alfred put his finger on Kiku’s lips and he stopped.
“Yes. Sorry. Err.”
Alfred laughed, “You’ll get the hang of it some day, Kiku. Don’t stress over it.”
If there was one thing keeping Alfred from completely and totally freaking out right now, it was the comfort of being around his coworkers at the Buy More. He was the lead of team Nerd Herd and pretty much let them do a lot of things he shouldn’t, as long as they got their work done on time.
Evangeline, Eva as most everyone called her, was an African-American who had a fiery temper if anyone dared lure it out. Luckily, outside Gilbert, they were all smart enough not to do that. She was currently eating her favorite food, even though it wasn’t anywhere near her lunch break, oyster fritters.
Gilbert, of course, was off on one of the computers they were supposed to be repairing, seeing if there was any porn on it. This, Alfred had discovered quickly, was his favorite pastime.
Sadly, Eva and even Kiku would usually flock around if Gilbert found something really good.
Kiku was probably the hardest working of the group. So much so that Alfred often had to remind him to take breaks and not to work overtime.
And so, Alfred wasn’t too surprised that Kiku was the only one actually working on fixing any of the broken electronics at the moment. Glancing to the printer he held, he smiled at him.
“Need any help?”
“I remember this model had a glitch we’d previously diagnosed, and I couldn’t remember if it was the paper jamming inside the wheels or the ink cartridges not fully inserting into their slots.”
Alfred flipped open the top, stuck his hand down into the printer and pulled out a handful of shredded paper that looked like confetti. “Paper jam,” he replied with a grimace. “This model just loves to eat paper.”
Kiku gave a bow of his head, “Thank you most profusely for your assistance, Alfred. I will try and remember that next time.”
And before Alfred could remind Kiku he didn’t need to be so formal, the shorter man had already retreated back to the workstation counter to begin repairing another broken computer.
With a sigh, Alfred went back to what he was doing when Kiku had first startled him. Staring out at the sales floor, and trying to make sense of all that had happened that morning.
Mostly his thoughts kept coming back to the British agent, how grumpy and scowling he seemed in person in contrast to those images in his mind of Arthur smiling. Alfred felt himself start to smile a little at the thought.
I wonder what it takes to get him to smile like that…, he pondered.
He’d found that trying to figure out Arthur seemed much easier than trying to make any sense of Major Zwingli. And it was definitely less disheartening than thinking about how Eduard was apparently a spy, how his life was apparently being monitored and how his precious hard drive was probably being dissected at that very moment.
Thinking about Arthur, and this strange insight he had about him, was much safer.
Except for that part where he saw you naked, a little voice in his mind remarked.
Alfred flushed to the tips of his ears at the thought and had just started to try and will it away when someone approached the Nerd Herd counter.
He looked up and his eyes locked with a familiar set of green.
“Ar--” Shit, I’m not supposed to act like I know him! “Arrrre you finding everything all right today, sir?”
Alfred forced a smile but his face, he was certain, was still semi-scarlet.
Arthur, who was blending in easily in his pressed tan slacks, green argyle sweater-vest and a pair of glasses perched on his face, gave Alfred a slight smile. Alfred wondered if the glasses were part of the cover or if he normally wore them, then shook himself back to the moment.
“Hallo, I’ve just moved here from across the pond and my boss over at the Tea for Two cross the way said you could help me. I’ve got this computer, see…” He lifted a hard drive up onto the counter and Alfred blinked. It was his harddrive, he knew because he’d doodled the rebel alliance symbol from Star Wars on the side in sharpie. “Can’t seem to start the bloody thing up since I got settled. Thought you might have a look at it, hmm?”
Alfred laughed nervously, “Right, no problem err…”
He expected a false name. Something plain, yet dashing. Like James Bond or something. Instead, he got…
“Arthur. Arthur Kirkland.” He gave Alfred a pointed look when he widened his eyes in shock.
Lowering his eyes, he cleared his throat and slid a business card across the counter. “Um. This is my contact info. Can you let me know when it’s fixed? I’ve got to get back to work.”
Alfred went to take the card and in his hurry, ended up planting his hand right atop Arthur’s. They both blushed and yanked their hands back. Finally, Alfred managed to pick up the card.
It was a card for the shop, Tea for Two, with Arthur’s name written at the bottom. Then, in small pencil it read, “Come over and see me on your break. I’ll fix you something to drink.”
“So can you fix it?” Arthur prompted, looking uneasily at Alfred’s coworkers.
Alfred just gave him an awkward grin and said, “Oh yes! Yes of course! Promise ya, it’ll be done in no time!”
“R-Right,” he replied, his blush rising. Alfred wasn’t sure why, but he had a sinking feeling it had to do with his fellow Nerd Herders behind him. “Thank you, um…?”
After a moment, Alfred caught on. Duh, we aren’t supposed to know each other. “Alfred. Alfred Jones, at your service.”
A hint of a smile tugged at Arthur’s lips and he gave him a piercing look. “Right then. I’ll be seeing you, Alfred Jones.”
And with that same little wave he’d given him that morning; Arthur turned around and sauntered out the automatic doors of the front door. Alfred’s eyes watched as he crossed the parking lot to the small strip mall adjacent to the Buy More, entering the Tea for Two and…maybe he was imagining it, but he could have sworn Arthur paused one moment before going in the door to shoot a look back across the parking lot at him.
“Someone’s got a boooooyfriendddd!” Gilbert’s loud voice sing-songed right behind Alfred.
“Al, promise me you’ll get him to shave his eyebrows down after a few dates, okay?” Eva added.
Alfred felt his face burning, about to snap at them, when Kiku quietly added.
“Alfred was just giving him good customer service, that is all.”
Gilbert snorted. “Good customer service, is that what we’re calling it now?”
Eva laughed, “If that’s the case, Gilbert gives out the best customer service in the store!”
“I wasn’t flirting with him!” Alfred interjected, while Eva and Gilbert kept laughing. He looked to Kiku for support. “I wasn’t!”
“Well, um…I’m sorry to say but…” Kiku picked up the small business card and a little smile quirked at his lips, “you did get his number. That generally doesn’t happen unless some exchange of flirting is occurring, Alfred.”
Snatching the card from Kiku before either of the others could catch sight of the invite over for a drink on his break, Alfred tried to will down his burning cheeks. With a huff, he grabbed up the hard drive.
“Get back to work guys or Ludwig’s going to make us work the Customer Service desk again.”
With groans at the words ‘Customer Service desk,’ they slunk back off to their workstations, Kiku lingering behind.
“Alfred?” He asked tentatively.
“Huh?”
He smiled. “Good luck.”
Alfred waited until Kiku had turned to walk away before growling in frustration and thudding his head down against the counter.
He didn’t like Agent Arthur Kirkland like that. No way at all!
-------------------------
Arthur Kirkland was, to say the least, a bit rattled.
“Jolly good show, old boy. Act like a ruddy school girl, why don’t you…” He grumbled to himself as he put his nametag back on and returned to the register at the Tea for Two.
After giving over their briefing that morning to Miss Grimaldi, head of the CIA and proprietor for this mission, she’d informed them to set possible covers into place in the situation that this case ended up being a long one. Arthur had easily secured the job at the tea and coffee shoppe, and was quite happy with his luck in doing so, while Vash was putting in an application to work at the Buy More itself.
That wasn’t the problem.
Alfred Jones, at your service!
The blue eyed blonde’s jovial proclamation echoed in Arthur’s mind and he felt his cheeks heating up as it did. Blast it all, why of all the covers had they picked this one?
Logistically, he could see why. But as for how he personally was going to deal with it. Well, he’d right well shown that when he started flipping out when Alfred had dropped the towel, hadn’t he?
Arthur sighed, scrubbing the counter a little harder than he needed to and earning a strange look from his manager.
Nikolas Thomassen was someone Arthur felt he wasn’t going to have too much trouble getting along with. He was quiet, hadn’t asked too many invasive questions, and had pretty much just told Arthur to do his job and left him be.
Right now though…
“I’d prefer if you didn’t take out your computer woes on our countertop, Arthur.”
Arthur flushed, quickly turning towards the voice.
“Oh right. Sorry. Just a bit worked up, that’s all. Had a bit of a…a…” he floundered for a word and ineloquently settled for, “a thing with one employee. That’s all.”
Nikolas raised an eyebrow. “Please tell me you aren’t talking about Derek.”
He shook his head. “N-No. It was…an Alfred?”
The mental image of the nervously flushing blonde popped back into his mind and Arthur had to resist the urge to bash his head into the register in frustration.
“Ah. Well if you want to avoid a headache, don’t bother with Derek.”
“R-Right. Shall do.”
The small jingle of the shoppe’s bell drew both their attentions and Arthur felt his heart lurch when he saw who it was.
Standing there wearing an uncertain smile, his black tie a bit askew and his nametag a bit crooked from the jog across the parking lot, was none other than Mister Alfred Jones.
“Uh, h-hey Arthur you um…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Wanted to talk?”
Nikolas gave Arthur a knowing look and rolled his eyes. “Fifteen minute break starts now, Kirkland.”
Arthur bustled out from behind the counter and shooed Alfred over towards the furthest table away from the registers. He’d already checked the whole store for possible bugs from anyone who might have recognized him as a spy and so it was now just important to remain out of earshot of other civilians.
“Just sit right here, I’ll get us some tea.”
He was just about to dart off when Alfred caught his wrist.
“I…don’t drink tea. Got any good coffee?”
Not really having the time (fifteen minutes, Christ that wasn’t much!) to try and sway Alfred towards the better and more refined drink, he nodded and rushed off. He’d have to ask Nikolas what putrid flavor of sludge was considered ‘good’ by taste buds that weren’t his own tea-preferring ones.
Asking his manager quickly what the best coffee in the house was, Arthur quickly whipped up a cup of his favored tea (Yin Hao) and had Nikolas make a cup of white chocolate mocha for Alfred before rushing back over to the table.
“Right, I must talk fast because I have to be back on the clock in…” He glanced down at his watch. “seven minutes. So listen up, I have a lot to say about our current situation with the…project.”
Alfred gave an awkward smile at that and Arthur wondered if for one brief moment if he’d mistaken the request as a legit, well, proposition, rather than a code to get him alone to talk about the mission.
He felt a little bad, blushing a bit as he continued on. If things didn’t change soon well then… Arthur shook his head. He wouldn’t bring it up with Alfred unless it came down to it. That was that.
“Oh okay. So uh…what’s up?”
Taking a deep breath, Arthur began to explain.
“As you might have guessed by my new employment, we are putting our covers into place should the need arise for us to stay and protect you. Have you had any other flashes since the one on Major Zwingli’s name this morning?”
Alfred shook his head in the negative. “No, but I’ve been shut up in the Buy More working so…”
Arthur sighed, “Wouldn’t matter. Even small words or phrases might trigger you, given the complexity of the project. It saw patterns in the combined information that no one else could. If we can make it the rest of the day without an incident, Major Zwingli will be reassigned. If we make it a week, I’ll go home and you’ll be given a number to contact in case of an emergency.”
He nodded slowly at that, obviously a bit overwhelmed by it all. Quietly he asked, “And if I do see something?”
Arthur took a deep breath. “You’ll be protected fully by me and Major Zwingli until the effects wear off. You cannot tell your friends or family anything for their own safety, the less they know the better. You will be given a cover so you can be seen with us by other spies and not questioned and…” he flushed, thinking over what that agreed cover was, “and will provide us with any information you flash on so that we may take appropriate actions to deal with it.”
With an unreadable expression, Alfred took a sip off his mocha. “So either I wake up tomorrow like this was all some crazy dream or I’m stuck with you for…however long?”
He lingered on the words ‘stuck with you’ in a strange way and Arthur felt thoughts he’d rather keep repressed prickling at the back of his mind.
“Basically. Given the fact you’ve yet to flash again, it seems tomorrow this will be all but a bad dream for you.”
Alfred gave a wry smile and stood up, a dollop of whipped cream from his mocha on his nose as he quietly said, “I’d best get back to work.”
Arthur nodded, feeling cold despite the warmth of the tea in his belly. He watched Alfred’s back go towards the door, knowing that this would probably be the last he ever saw of him.
That’s when Alfred stopped, his eyes going wide as he snatched up a lone newspaper sitting on one of the tables.
“Uh…Arthur?”
He dashed over, looking at him expectantly. “Yes?”
He swallowed. “What’s my cover?”
Arthur flushed, “No need to if…”
“It says that this General of whatever arrived in town this morning but…” He locked eyes with Arthur. “Somehow I know he got in last night and that,” Alfred swallowed hard, “someone’s planning to bomb his speech tonight.”
Green eyes went wide, Alfred’s actions were all too clear to be him acting just to get more of the limelight of spy work. Clearly, Alfred had seen something- one of those crazy patterns that project ALLIES was created to find, that no one else could.
With a deep breath and heat rising up his neck, Arthur mumbled out.
“Your cover is…is as my boyfriend.”
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Genre: Action/Romance
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: America/England, Estonia/Ukraine, Prussia, Japan, Seychelles, Norway
Word Count: 3,975
Summary: When computer geek Alfred inadvertently downloads government secrets into his brain, the two countries behind the secrets send agents to keep a watch on him. One of them is MI-6 agent Arthur Kirkland, who is about to turn Alfred's life upside down in more ways than one.
Notes: Written for socialholic as part of the usxuk Secret Santa. She asked for The first time they meet - in an AU. This AU is based of the American TV series Chuck in the premise and setup, but I will be veering heavily from that show's plotlines.
Human names used:
Ukraine: Katya Chernenko
Monaco: Ingrid Grimaldi
Seychelles: Evangeline (Eva)
Norway: Nikolas Thomassen
Denmark: Derek Densen
“I have one more question then…”
Alfred had been talking with the two agents for quite some time at the kitchen table. They’d explained to him what Project ALLIES was, how it was made of encoded images and how now that he had viewed those images there was a possibility that the computer was basically…inside his head.
Arthur, who had insisted on making the tea lest anyone ‘butcher it’, had added that there was a possibility that this ability would wear off after a few hours of being exposed to it. But since no one had ever tested it, they weren’t sure. So until they could confirm or deny if Alfred’s capacity to put names to faces uncannily like he had earlier was a fluke or a consistent new skill, they would be keeping a watch on him.
Alfred was more worried about the fact they were taking his precious hard drive, even though they assured him they’d return it once they made certain all traces of the email and the program it created to display the ALLIES code was deleted from it permanently.
But despite all they’d explained, there was still one question nagging away at him.
“I will answer it for you, if I can,” Arthur replied. The two agents were just about to leave and he’d caught them heading out the door with his hard drive.
“How did Eduard get caught up in this? That password the program asked for…only he could have come up with it, so it couldn’t be someone using his name…right?”
Vash sighed, looking to Arthur to explain.
“Your friend, Alfred, is a CIA agent. Possibly rogue. We have yet to confirm if what he said about Russian spies attempting to steal the project was true or not. If he tries to contact you again at all, you must tell us right away. Please, promise us that.”
“Eduard? My computer savvy roommate from college? A spy?” Alfred laughed, “No way! He and I used to spend hours reenacting Star Wars scenes with action figures. He can’t be a spy!”
Arthur gave him a look and Alfred blushed, realizing how dorky what he’d just admitted was.
“Well believe what you want, Alfred. But if he shows up or contacts you,” Vash gave him a smile that came across more intimidating than reassuring, “Let us know, got that?”
“Right,” Alfred agreed.
“I’ll be seeing you later,” Arthur said with a wave.
Alfred blinked. “Wha- you…”
“To return your computer. You must not act like you recognize me though. It’s for the safety of our cover and you.”
Pushing aside that little feeling of disappointment that it was just that, Alfred sighed. “Right. See ya.”
As the two agents left, door swinging behind them, Alfred flopped down on the couch.
“Eduard von Bock a spy. Just no freaking way!”
-------------------------------------
Katya felt as if her heart hadn’t stopped hammering since she’d left Eduard standing on that dreary rooftop the night before.
But she’d done everything she could. Even if she kept telling herself she should have done more to help him, there was only so much she could do without also putting herself at danger of being labeled rogue like Eduard currently was. They needed at least one of them to be safe in the CIA’s eyes, and Katya had lost the coin toss on that.
So she’d calmly played the part- the distressed partner so torn over Eduard going rogue. She’d answered what questions she could about the intel she’d received, but was still (in their eyes) horrified to find out that her partner had acted on them so rashly.
Brushing the tears from her eyes, she politely requested a short leave of absence until she felt she could bring her emotions into check. Ingrid Grimaldi, her boss, had granted it. And so, she packed her bags and flew out that morning for…home.
She’d found a note in her bag that morning that just read Where we shared our first kiss, outside cover, and she just felt like following it.
And so she went to the last place she’d ever considered ‘home’- a small quaint apartment she still kept up rent on in San Francisco. Eduard and she had been on a six month mission there once, and she’d just become too fond of it to let it go.
So with her bags in hand and her mind still in a million places at once, she’d opened the door to her apartment.
It took every ounce of strength and years of training to prevent her from crying out in shock. But once the door was shut, she dropped her luggage at once and rushed over to the bloody man on the couch.
“Eduard, oh goodness, Eduard!”
He forced a gritted smile through his pain. “I see you got my message, Katya.”
She pressed a quick kiss to his forehead before rushing to grab her first aid kit from the bathroom.
“Oh Eduard, you fool. You were never that good at your first aid classes, were you?”
He cracked a half-smile at that. “Much better with computers. All that flesh and blood confuses me, give me circuit boards and encoded programs to crack.”
Shooing his hands away from where he held the towel to his wound, she started to bandage him up properly.
“I take it you did a rush job on it, came here as fast as you could before anyone started tracing you, and then decided to bleed on our good towels?”
A small smile played at his lips when she said ‘our’ towels and he inwardly decided to replace them when had the chance. Laying his blood-stained hand over hers where it was laid against his bleeding chest, Eduard replied, “Ah, you know me too well, Katya.”
“So what happened? I thought you had a bullet proof vest on.”
“Did. That’s why I’m not dead.”
Katya’s eyes welled up at that, and Eduard quickly amended.
“It was Major Zwingli from the NSA. You know how he loves using bullets that tear right through vests. Just deep enough to bleed a lot, but it didn’t go too deep, so don’t worry.”
Katya let out a visible sigh of relief at that.
“You were so lucky then…”
He pushed aside his tattered and bloody shirt until a gold chain with a charm dangling from it showed. “It was thanks to your lucky charm, Katya.”
With a watery smile, she picked up the small Ukrainian trident charm and wiped the blood from it.
“Let us hope your friend is still safe. Alfred, right?”
Eduard nodded, sitting up a bit more now that his chest was properly bandaged. “I can’t contact him yet, but…if what you overheard was right, that British agent should be keeping Major Zwingli in line. Al’s a great guy, I’m sure he can handle it.”
Katya smiled, sitting beside Eduard and pulling him into a gentle embrace.
“I’m certain any friend of yours must be good at keeping his calm in dire times, Eduard.”
-------------------------------------
“Alfred?”
“Ahh! What?!”
Alfred almost jumped out of his skin as Kiku, one of his fellow Nerd Herders, approached him with a malfunctioning printer. The poor Japanese-American broke into a peal of apologies, as usual.
“I am terribly sorry for disturbing you, Alfred. It was never my intent to impede upon whatever it was you were doing. If you will just excuse me and my ill timing I will…”
Alfred put his hands on Kiku’s shoulders and smiled. “Kiku, it’s okay. You just startled me a bit. Don’t worry about it, all right?”
“But Alfred, I just want to apologize for startling you and…”
Tapping the shorter man on the nose, Alfred wagged his finger at him. “What did we say at the Nerd Herd meeting about you and your apologizing?”
Kiku bowed his head. “Oh pardon me, it must have slipped my mind that I was supposed to try and stop that. I am so sorry I…”
This time Alfred put his finger on Kiku’s lips and he stopped.
“Yes. Sorry. Err.”
Alfred laughed, “You’ll get the hang of it some day, Kiku. Don’t stress over it.”
If there was one thing keeping Alfred from completely and totally freaking out right now, it was the comfort of being around his coworkers at the Buy More. He was the lead of team Nerd Herd and pretty much let them do a lot of things he shouldn’t, as long as they got their work done on time.
Evangeline, Eva as most everyone called her, was an African-American who had a fiery temper if anyone dared lure it out. Luckily, outside Gilbert, they were all smart enough not to do that. She was currently eating her favorite food, even though it wasn’t anywhere near her lunch break, oyster fritters.
Gilbert, of course, was off on one of the computers they were supposed to be repairing, seeing if there was any porn on it. This, Alfred had discovered quickly, was his favorite pastime.
Sadly, Eva and even Kiku would usually flock around if Gilbert found something really good.
Kiku was probably the hardest working of the group. So much so that Alfred often had to remind him to take breaks and not to work overtime.
And so, Alfred wasn’t too surprised that Kiku was the only one actually working on fixing any of the broken electronics at the moment. Glancing to the printer he held, he smiled at him.
“Need any help?”
“I remember this model had a glitch we’d previously diagnosed, and I couldn’t remember if it was the paper jamming inside the wheels or the ink cartridges not fully inserting into their slots.”
Alfred flipped open the top, stuck his hand down into the printer and pulled out a handful of shredded paper that looked like confetti. “Paper jam,” he replied with a grimace. “This model just loves to eat paper.”
Kiku gave a bow of his head, “Thank you most profusely for your assistance, Alfred. I will try and remember that next time.”
And before Alfred could remind Kiku he didn’t need to be so formal, the shorter man had already retreated back to the workstation counter to begin repairing another broken computer.
With a sigh, Alfred went back to what he was doing when Kiku had first startled him. Staring out at the sales floor, and trying to make sense of all that had happened that morning.
Mostly his thoughts kept coming back to the British agent, how grumpy and scowling he seemed in person in contrast to those images in his mind of Arthur smiling. Alfred felt himself start to smile a little at the thought.
I wonder what it takes to get him to smile like that…, he pondered.
He’d found that trying to figure out Arthur seemed much easier than trying to make any sense of Major Zwingli. And it was definitely less disheartening than thinking about how Eduard was apparently a spy, how his life was apparently being monitored and how his precious hard drive was probably being dissected at that very moment.
Thinking about Arthur, and this strange insight he had about him, was much safer.
Except for that part where he saw you naked, a little voice in his mind remarked.
Alfred flushed to the tips of his ears at the thought and had just started to try and will it away when someone approached the Nerd Herd counter.
He looked up and his eyes locked with a familiar set of green.
“Ar--” Shit, I’m not supposed to act like I know him! “Arrrre you finding everything all right today, sir?”
Alfred forced a smile but his face, he was certain, was still semi-scarlet.
Arthur, who was blending in easily in his pressed tan slacks, green argyle sweater-vest and a pair of glasses perched on his face, gave Alfred a slight smile. Alfred wondered if the glasses were part of the cover or if he normally wore them, then shook himself back to the moment.
“Hallo, I’ve just moved here from across the pond and my boss over at the Tea for Two cross the way said you could help me. I’ve got this computer, see…” He lifted a hard drive up onto the counter and Alfred blinked. It was his harddrive, he knew because he’d doodled the rebel alliance symbol from Star Wars on the side in sharpie. “Can’t seem to start the bloody thing up since I got settled. Thought you might have a look at it, hmm?”
Alfred laughed nervously, “Right, no problem err…”
He expected a false name. Something plain, yet dashing. Like James Bond or something. Instead, he got…
“Arthur. Arthur Kirkland.” He gave Alfred a pointed look when he widened his eyes in shock.
Lowering his eyes, he cleared his throat and slid a business card across the counter. “Um. This is my contact info. Can you let me know when it’s fixed? I’ve got to get back to work.”
Alfred went to take the card and in his hurry, ended up planting his hand right atop Arthur’s. They both blushed and yanked their hands back. Finally, Alfred managed to pick up the card.
It was a card for the shop, Tea for Two, with Arthur’s name written at the bottom. Then, in small pencil it read, “Come over and see me on your break. I’ll fix you something to drink.”
“So can you fix it?” Arthur prompted, looking uneasily at Alfred’s coworkers.
Alfred just gave him an awkward grin and said, “Oh yes! Yes of course! Promise ya, it’ll be done in no time!”
“R-Right,” he replied, his blush rising. Alfred wasn’t sure why, but he had a sinking feeling it had to do with his fellow Nerd Herders behind him. “Thank you, um…?”
After a moment, Alfred caught on. Duh, we aren’t supposed to know each other. “Alfred. Alfred Jones, at your service.”
A hint of a smile tugged at Arthur’s lips and he gave him a piercing look. “Right then. I’ll be seeing you, Alfred Jones.”
And with that same little wave he’d given him that morning; Arthur turned around and sauntered out the automatic doors of the front door. Alfred’s eyes watched as he crossed the parking lot to the small strip mall adjacent to the Buy More, entering the Tea for Two and…maybe he was imagining it, but he could have sworn Arthur paused one moment before going in the door to shoot a look back across the parking lot at him.
“Someone’s got a boooooyfriendddd!” Gilbert’s loud voice sing-songed right behind Alfred.
“Al, promise me you’ll get him to shave his eyebrows down after a few dates, okay?” Eva added.
Alfred felt his face burning, about to snap at them, when Kiku quietly added.
“Alfred was just giving him good customer service, that is all.”
Gilbert snorted. “Good customer service, is that what we’re calling it now?”
Eva laughed, “If that’s the case, Gilbert gives out the best customer service in the store!”
“I wasn’t flirting with him!” Alfred interjected, while Eva and Gilbert kept laughing. He looked to Kiku for support. “I wasn’t!”
“Well, um…I’m sorry to say but…” Kiku picked up the small business card and a little smile quirked at his lips, “you did get his number. That generally doesn’t happen unless some exchange of flirting is occurring, Alfred.”
Snatching the card from Kiku before either of the others could catch sight of the invite over for a drink on his break, Alfred tried to will down his burning cheeks. With a huff, he grabbed up the hard drive.
“Get back to work guys or Ludwig’s going to make us work the Customer Service desk again.”
With groans at the words ‘Customer Service desk,’ they slunk back off to their workstations, Kiku lingering behind.
“Alfred?” He asked tentatively.
“Huh?”
He smiled. “Good luck.”
Alfred waited until Kiku had turned to walk away before growling in frustration and thudding his head down against the counter.
He didn’t like Agent Arthur Kirkland like that. No way at all!
-------------------------
Arthur Kirkland was, to say the least, a bit rattled.
“Jolly good show, old boy. Act like a ruddy school girl, why don’t you…” He grumbled to himself as he put his nametag back on and returned to the register at the Tea for Two.
After giving over their briefing that morning to Miss Grimaldi, head of the CIA and proprietor for this mission, she’d informed them to set possible covers into place in the situation that this case ended up being a long one. Arthur had easily secured the job at the tea and coffee shoppe, and was quite happy with his luck in doing so, while Vash was putting in an application to work at the Buy More itself.
That wasn’t the problem.
Alfred Jones, at your service!
The blue eyed blonde’s jovial proclamation echoed in Arthur’s mind and he felt his cheeks heating up as it did. Blast it all, why of all the covers had they picked this one?
Logistically, he could see why. But as for how he personally was going to deal with it. Well, he’d right well shown that when he started flipping out when Alfred had dropped the towel, hadn’t he?
Arthur sighed, scrubbing the counter a little harder than he needed to and earning a strange look from his manager.
Nikolas Thomassen was someone Arthur felt he wasn’t going to have too much trouble getting along with. He was quiet, hadn’t asked too many invasive questions, and had pretty much just told Arthur to do his job and left him be.
Right now though…
“I’d prefer if you didn’t take out your computer woes on our countertop, Arthur.”
Arthur flushed, quickly turning towards the voice.
“Oh right. Sorry. Just a bit worked up, that’s all. Had a bit of a…a…” he floundered for a word and ineloquently settled for, “a thing with one employee. That’s all.”
Nikolas raised an eyebrow. “Please tell me you aren’t talking about Derek.”
He shook his head. “N-No. It was…an Alfred?”
The mental image of the nervously flushing blonde popped back into his mind and Arthur had to resist the urge to bash his head into the register in frustration.
“Ah. Well if you want to avoid a headache, don’t bother with Derek.”
“R-Right. Shall do.”
The small jingle of the shoppe’s bell drew both their attentions and Arthur felt his heart lurch when he saw who it was.
Standing there wearing an uncertain smile, his black tie a bit askew and his nametag a bit crooked from the jog across the parking lot, was none other than Mister Alfred Jones.
“Uh, h-hey Arthur you um…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Wanted to talk?”
Nikolas gave Arthur a knowing look and rolled his eyes. “Fifteen minute break starts now, Kirkland.”
Arthur bustled out from behind the counter and shooed Alfred over towards the furthest table away from the registers. He’d already checked the whole store for possible bugs from anyone who might have recognized him as a spy and so it was now just important to remain out of earshot of other civilians.
“Just sit right here, I’ll get us some tea.”
He was just about to dart off when Alfred caught his wrist.
“I…don’t drink tea. Got any good coffee?”
Not really having the time (fifteen minutes, Christ that wasn’t much!) to try and sway Alfred towards the better and more refined drink, he nodded and rushed off. He’d have to ask Nikolas what putrid flavor of sludge was considered ‘good’ by taste buds that weren’t his own tea-preferring ones.
Asking his manager quickly what the best coffee in the house was, Arthur quickly whipped up a cup of his favored tea (Yin Hao) and had Nikolas make a cup of white chocolate mocha for Alfred before rushing back over to the table.
“Right, I must talk fast because I have to be back on the clock in…” He glanced down at his watch. “seven minutes. So listen up, I have a lot to say about our current situation with the…project.”
Alfred gave an awkward smile at that and Arthur wondered if for one brief moment if he’d mistaken the request as a legit, well, proposition, rather than a code to get him alone to talk about the mission.
He felt a little bad, blushing a bit as he continued on. If things didn’t change soon well then… Arthur shook his head. He wouldn’t bring it up with Alfred unless it came down to it. That was that.
“Oh okay. So uh…what’s up?”
Taking a deep breath, Arthur began to explain.
“As you might have guessed by my new employment, we are putting our covers into place should the need arise for us to stay and protect you. Have you had any other flashes since the one on Major Zwingli’s name this morning?”
Alfred shook his head in the negative. “No, but I’ve been shut up in the Buy More working so…”
Arthur sighed, “Wouldn’t matter. Even small words or phrases might trigger you, given the complexity of the project. It saw patterns in the combined information that no one else could. If we can make it the rest of the day without an incident, Major Zwingli will be reassigned. If we make it a week, I’ll go home and you’ll be given a number to contact in case of an emergency.”
He nodded slowly at that, obviously a bit overwhelmed by it all. Quietly he asked, “And if I do see something?”
Arthur took a deep breath. “You’ll be protected fully by me and Major Zwingli until the effects wear off. You cannot tell your friends or family anything for their own safety, the less they know the better. You will be given a cover so you can be seen with us by other spies and not questioned and…” he flushed, thinking over what that agreed cover was, “and will provide us with any information you flash on so that we may take appropriate actions to deal with it.”
With an unreadable expression, Alfred took a sip off his mocha. “So either I wake up tomorrow like this was all some crazy dream or I’m stuck with you for…however long?”
He lingered on the words ‘stuck with you’ in a strange way and Arthur felt thoughts he’d rather keep repressed prickling at the back of his mind.
“Basically. Given the fact you’ve yet to flash again, it seems tomorrow this will be all but a bad dream for you.”
Alfred gave a wry smile and stood up, a dollop of whipped cream from his mocha on his nose as he quietly said, “I’d best get back to work.”
Arthur nodded, feeling cold despite the warmth of the tea in his belly. He watched Alfred’s back go towards the door, knowing that this would probably be the last he ever saw of him.
That’s when Alfred stopped, his eyes going wide as he snatched up a lone newspaper sitting on one of the tables.
“Uh…Arthur?”
He dashed over, looking at him expectantly. “Yes?”
He swallowed. “What’s my cover?”
Arthur flushed, “No need to if…”
“It says that this General of whatever arrived in town this morning but…” He locked eyes with Arthur. “Somehow I know he got in last night and that,” Alfred swallowed hard, “someone’s planning to bomb his speech tonight.”
Green eyes went wide, Alfred’s actions were all too clear to be him acting just to get more of the limelight of spy work. Clearly, Alfred had seen something- one of those crazy patterns that project ALLIES was created to find, that no one else could.
With a deep breath and heat rising up his neck, Arthur mumbled out.
“Your cover is…is as my boyfriend.”