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The elevators to the mezzanine level of the Eastey Agency opened, the lunch rush crowd spilling out towards the cafeteria. Among them, Agents Syrus Holt and Kit Sparks who were animatedly having a rapt conversation.
“You’ve gotta be shitting me.” Kit looked up at the older agent with absolute disbelief. “Never?”
“Never.” Syrus concurred with a bemused look. “Plain old coffee is enough for me. That much caffeine and my heart would give out.”
“How the fuck do you even function?” Kit continued to look absolutely flabbergasted at their partner’s revelation. “I need like two Monsters alone to feel awake.”
Syrus just gave the younger agent a pained smile. “Who said I was functioning?”
Kit’s face split between amused and worried but before they could respond, another voice called out from down the hall. “Agent Holt?”
Syrus’s dark eyes flickered away from his partner’s and towards the sound of his name. Walking towards him was one Agent Whittaker, with the rest of Rogue Team a few steps behind. “Agent Whittaker, Rogue Team, good to see you.” Syrus replied when they were all in hearing range.
“Could I… borrow you for a second, Agent Holt? I was hoping you might have information concerning one of our upcoming missions.” Whittaker’s voice was slightly hesitant, but there was a determined look in his eyes that made said request sound rather important.
Syrus raised an eyebrow at the other agent, stealing both a second glance at Rogue Team and then one at his partner - who was looking annoyed by the whole interaction. “Sure. Agent Sparks, could you keep Rogue Team company for a minute?”
If looks could kill, Syrus would have just gotten headshot. He gave his partner a patronising expression that probably could only be described as ‘play nice’, before the two senior agents found an alcove to have a low conversation in.
Kit watched the two of them suspiciously for a moment before Agent Damien Edgecrest rapidly closed the distance between them and spoke up. “Agent Spaarrrks! Good to see you again, friend. Did you happen to see the new flamethrower they got in the Armory?”
That question was just distracting enough that it caused Kit to break away from staring at the older agents. “...Why would I want to use a flamethrower?”
“Because it’s cool?” Damien almost sounded offended by Kit’s response. “I’ve been begging Whittaker to let us check it out for every mission we’ve been assigned but he keeps saying ‘Now is not the right time for it, Damien’.” Damien attempted to mimic Whittaker’s accent and deeper voice but neither sounded good coming out of his mouth. “So I was hoping someone had a chance to try it out!”
Kit just openly stared at the other agent for a moment longer than comfortable, before their warm brown eyes slid over to where Agents Raven Eugenia and Aiden Brightwood were standing. Raven offered them an almost apologetic smile but before she could insert something into the conversation, Aiden interrupted her with a question about coffee or something food related. “Flamethrowers really only have fringe uses, Edgecrest. Are you trying to fight a hair demon or something?”
“There’s no such thing as a hair demon…” Damien’s matter of fact tone would have been kinda sweet if Kit wasn’t so annoyed with him not getting the hint. “Though I guess Levi’s hair was kinda… ‘hair demon-y’.” The other agent went so far to put air quotes up as he said “hair demon-y”
Kit rubbed their hands over their face, trying so hard not to grip it in frustration. “I’ll stick with my M4, thanks.”
“You’re missing out!!!” Damien continued, as if trying to convince Kit how cool it was. “I mean if you or Agent Holt could get it checked out maybe I could-”
But it was at this moment that Syrus stepped up to Kit, cutting into the conversation with a “Ready to go, Sparks?”
“Oh thank fuck.” Kit immediately turned away from Damien and took off towards the direction they were heading.
Syrus gave the rest of Rogue Team an apologetic look before speeding up his steps to fall in line with his partner. “They’re not that bad.” Syrus commented when they were out of earshot. “You gotta give them a chance.”
“Rogue Team is fine, it’s just Edgecrest. Did you hear him? He was going off about how we should all have fucking flamethrowers like it’s the new M4 or AK47!”
“They’re magical, Kit. Guns are not their wheelhouse or did you forget our group training session last month?” Syrus gave them a knowing look. “If you could shoot fire from your hands, would you want to use a “boring” old M4?”
Kit’s face soured. “Look, I’ll continue to play nice since you’re fucking his boss and all, but I don’t gotta be happy about it.”
Like a record scratching, Syrus made an odd choking noise and came to an abrupt stop. “I… I’m sorry, what?”
Kit came to a stop a pace ahead of him with a look of confusion on their face. A quick glance back at Rogue Team before their warm brown eyes leveled with Syrus's dark ones. “Please… please tell me you’re fucking Whittaker and I’m not being nice to Edgecrest for no reason?”
Syrus’s eyes were wide and his mouth opened and shut a few times as he struggled to come up with something to say. Then a deep inhale and that stern expression Syrus got when he was serious about something came over his face. “Agent Sparks, I think you are fundamentally misunderstanding the relationship I have with Agent Whittaker.”
“Misunderstanding?” Kit’s voice was incredulous but they kept the volume down. “Sorry, how many one on one spar sessions have you guys had the past two weeks now? Three? Four?” Syrus’s eyes flickered off to the side at that comment. “If I’m noticing the tension between you two, the whole damn Agency can see it.”
Syrus, still not meeting his partner’s eyes, sucked on his teeth. “Look… the conversation hasn’t come up yet. I’m not going to press him on it”
“Oh we are not doing this. I’m not gonna be nice to Edgecrest while you twiddle your thumbs! I’m solving this right now.” And Kit pushed past Syrus back towards Rogue Team.
“Kit?” Syrus hissed their name as they walked away and then repeated. “Kit? Kit!” louder after them.
“YO WHITTAKER!” Kit raised their voice to a near shout. Whittaker looked back towards the younger agent, who almost never called him his name, with a look crossed between alarm and confusion. Syrus flinched and came to a stop a few paces behind his partner, looking a little like a mortified deer in headlights.
“Yes?” Whittaker replied somewhat hesitantly as the group of them were now in normal speaking range again.
“So… Sy hasn’t shut up about this really fancy Italian restaurant that opened recently in town. It’s not the kinda place you can go alone, but it’s a little too fancy for my tastes. You look fancy enough to go, would you go with him so he can shut the fuck up about it?” There was a silence that followed Kit’s words, given how casual and confident they were said, allowing Syrus to get his wits about him and unfreeze.
“You do not have to answer that Agent Whittaker.” Syrus approached with his hands up defensively; then he rounded on Kit. “Agent Sparks, a word?” his tone was dangerous and low, causing Kit to look up defiantly at him. But when Syrus put a hand on their shoulder, the younger agent allowed themselves to be dragged away.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Syrus hissed under his breath as nearly physically dragged the other agent away.
Before Kit could get a world in, Whittaker called out from behind them. “Wait!”
Both of the Search and Rescue agents froze. Syrus squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before turning himself around, racking his head for some sort of apology. But Whittaker beat him to speaking. “I’d love to.” An awkward silence fell over the group again. “Go, I mean.” He clarified. “To the restaurant. With you.” He tacked on.
Syrus just stared for a moment. He could see the rest of Rogue Team almost vibrating in the background, exchanging looks, glances, and a few fragments he couldn’t hear due to the blood that started pounding in his ears. It took him a moment to process and then he snapped out of it with a “Well… it’s a date.” Syrus managed a warm smile on his face, then fumbled in his pockets for one of his business cards. “When you get back from your mission…” he started to write his personal phone number on the card. “Give me a call.” and he held out the card in two fingers.
When Whittaker approached and went to take the card from Syrus, the Search and Rescue agent moved it slightly out of the other man’s grasp. With a click of his tongue he went “Just be careful on that mission, alright? I’ll need you in uh… fit condition when you get back.” Syrus flicked his eyes down Whittaker’s form and back up, before presenting the card to the other agent again.
Whittaker looked like he short circuited for a moment before he took the card from Syrus and went “Right, of course.” absentmindedly.
Syrus gave a low chuckle that probably only Whittaker could hear before adding, “Good luck with the mission, Agent Whittaker. Rogue Team.” And with a quick glance over at the other agents, he turned on his heel and walked back down the hallway with his partner.
As they walked away Syrus could hear Whittaker say “Not a word. Not a fucking word from any of you.” to his team, causing a wolfish smile to pull up on Syrus’s face.
“Man, oh man… that was good.” Kit said, stealing a glance back.
“How red is he?” Syrus asked, keeping his eyes forward.
“Like a fucking tomato.” When Kit looked back at Syrus there was a wicked grin pulled up on their face.
Syrus’s dark eyes glinted for a moment. “Good.” a brief pause and then he added. “Thank-you, by the way. I didn’t want to push the moment, but apparently a push is what it needed.”
“I hope I get a better thank-you than that because now I have to be extra nice to Edgecrest.” Kit lulled their head back and let their shoulders sag in an exaggerated defeated motion.
Syrus paused in the briefest amount of confusion before bursting out with a genuine laugh.”That really is all that you care about, huh?”
The look Kit gave Syrus could only be described as a teenager being a little shit to their dad. “Yeah? Like sure, seeing Gramps over there get flustered is cool I guess…”
“You’ve got to stop with that nickname.” Syrus interjected, lowly.
But Kit continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “But really, needing to know how civil I have to be with Edgecrest is priority number one when it comes to Rogue Team.”
Syrus shook his head. As long as Kit didn’t actually start to bully Edgecrest, the petty high school antics could be overlooked - the older agent was sure Kit was just working through something. “Well, I’ll need your help finding this ‘fancy Italian restaurant that just opened’ since you sprung that upon me out of nowhere.” The two of them had finally made it into the cafeteria proper.
“Well… I know you like Italian, so it was the first thing that sprung to mind.” Kit shrugged and plopped down on the bar stooling.
“I like good Italian and brand new restaurants can be very hit or miss around here.” Syrus reached for one of the menus to see the day’s specials.
“It’s fancy, doesn’t that make it good?”
Syrus scoffed. “There’s a difference between good Italian and good Italian.” And when Kit gave him a look of confusion he just waved a hand. “It’s an East Coast thing. Don’t worry, I’m sure I can choke down some mediocre calamari just fine.”