Chapter Text
Hector van den Broek was a 42-year-old man from the Netherlands who spent most of his time in the UK, for business reasons. Business reasons meaning selling drugs. He made thousands of pounds off selling cocaine that was cut with a large amount of levamisole.
"Levamisole is usually used as a medication against nematodes," Merlin told Harry through the glasses' comms, "But it has lots of side effects, such as vomiting or diarrhoea right up to dyspnoea or lung oedemas. If it's ingested regularly it can even weaken the immune system. Recently a lot of van den Broek's customers started showing stronger symptoms, so we're guessing he started to use even more levamisole."
"So I will try to make him sell me some of his cocaine, lure him somewhere quiet and eliminate him," Harry closed the mission file while finishing Merlin's sentence, and the tech wizard agreed with a soft hum.
"A bit harsh, isn't it? We could just deliver him to MI6, you know."
"Arthur's order, Harry. Try not to question it for once, will you?" Merlin sighed. He was probably already afraid Harry would go off to do his own thing again, and Harry rolled his eyes at that. But instead of arguing with his handler he just watched the scenery rush past him through the car's window on his way out of London, to a Gala van den Broek attended.
***
"Relax, bruv. Imma be aight, okay? It'd be suspicious as fuck if we'd be here together."
Eggsy looked around the empty bathroom while he hissed the words into his phone. He had checked every stall before answering his mobile so no one would overhear what had to be his third conversation about the same topic with Jamal.
"Really, Jamal, he'd kno' we fucked him over if he saw us together. I'll get our money from the rich bastard 'n then I'm outta here 'n we're gonna be 1.5 thousand pounds richer. Just calm down 'n let me do the dirty work."
A few months ago the trio had been deprived of £1.500, when Eggsy and Jamal had cheated their way through another Poker game, but instead of giving Eggsy the money he had won not-so-fair the other guy had to be a sore loser, threw a tantrum and stormed off - with his money. Luckily Eggsy always made sure to get the names of the people he played with; that's how Ryan found out he would be here.
Now Eggsy only needed to find him and get their money, and then he'd be out of here in no time and enjoy a nice, cold pint at the Black Prince with his friends.
If only it would be this easy. This Gala was full of people, too many people, really; Eggsy kept bumping into shoulders and had to squeeze past small groups. And trying to find one specific person in here was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
He gave his second emptied flute of champagne to a waitress and walked two steps backwards, when he bumped into the next person.
"I'm so sorry, I should've watched where I was goin'," Eggsy quickly apologised and turned around to throw an apologetic smile towards the man.
"Eggsy?", a surprised expression spread on Harry's face when the boy looked up at him, and Eggsy couldn't suppress the laughter that bubbled up in his chest when he recognised Harry.
"Ya stalkin' me now, guv?" Eggsy cocked an eyebrow at Harry, but his amused grin made it clear he was just joking.
"I could ask you the same," Harry responded.
"Well, I asked first," Eggsy's grin widened and he winked at Harry. He was just about to say something else, when his eyes trailed off and he stopped mid-movement, his hand raised halfway and his mouth slightly ajar.
"Sorry, 'Arry, but I gotta go. I got sum business here," Eggsy blew Harry a kiss, the cheeky bastard, and then just went off. Confused Harry watched him go, and in the same moment he realised where exactly Eggsy was going Merlin's voice in his ears came back to life.
"Isn't that lovely. Your favourite gambler has 'business' with Hector van den Broek, a renowned coke dealer. Splendid choice of a lover, Harry." Merlin's voice was overflowing with sarcasm and Harry made a low, unimpressed grunt in response.
"He is not my lover, Merlin. Stop saying things like that."
"Whatever you say, Harry. Now, if you would please go and stop whatever foul deals are made there that would be lovely."
Harry did so without any further arguing with Merlin and approached the two. Eggsy had already successfully engaged van den Broek in a conversation and the closer Harry came, the less it looked like Eggsy was striking a drug deal. It rather looked like he was blatantly flirting. Exactly how he had been flirting with him, or with Harrison Eldridge, just a few weeks ago.
Harry felt a pang of jealousy, which was ridiculous. Him and Eggsy had met only three times, he was half Harry's age and Harry definitely didn't have any sort of emotional attachment to the boy. So why would he be jealous?
Harry came to a halt closely behind Eggsy and cleared his throat to steer van den Broek's attention towards himself.
"I'm very sorry to interrupt your conversation like that, but I have a very important matter to talk to you about, Mr van den Broek, and I would appreciate it very much if you could just spare a minute for me," he said with a charming smile on his lips, but van den Broek didn't look very impressed. He had looked more than pleased by Eggsy's flirting, and Harry obviously wasn't welcome to disturb them.
"And who are you?" van den Broek asked, suspicious and still not really pleased.
Well, shit. That was unfortunate. He wasn't here as Harrison Eldridge, he had another cover, which wouldn't be a problem - if Eggsy wasn't standing right beside him, quite literally shoulder to shoulder.
But he couldn't just switch to Harrison Eldridge either, because that name wasn't on the guest list. So he had to just go with it and hope for the best.
"I'm Gavin Woodward, very nice to meet you, Mr van den Broek," he offered his hand for van den Broek to shake, and he did so. Harry was lucky, at least a bit, since Eggsy just looked at him strangely, but didn't comment on it. Harry thanked him internally for that.
"Anyway, I'm currently in a conversation with this young man. I will come to you as soon as I'm finished here, Mr Woodward," van den Broek said and all but shooed Harry away with a gesture of his hand.
Harry tried to get his attention again, but van den Broek pointedly ignored him, so he had to wait, whether he liked it or not. If he insisted on talking to the man now, it could make it impossible for him to finish his mission.
But when van den Broek and Eggsy still talked after half an hour, Harry reached the end of his patience. He had to find a way to get Eggsy away from him.
He looked around, trying to find something to catch either Eggsy's or van den Broek's attention enough to draw them away from each other, when one of the two people he had been talking to interrupted him.
"What do you say about this, Mr Woodward? Do you enjoy a game of Poker every now and then?"
Harry wasn't religious. But this, this was a gift from God. With a warm smile and a nod he answered: "Yes, indeed, I do. But I know someone who can talk a whole lot more about Poker with you than I can. Do you see the young man over there? His skills at Poker are terrific, you should talk to him."
The two men followed Harry's finger with their eyes and soon they spotted Eggsy, who was just taking a glass of champagne off a waiter's tray.
"Really? That could be very interesting, I think we will talk to him right away."
"Yes, please do, I'm sure he will be thrilled to talk to you," Harry lied and watched the men walk over to Eggsy and van den Broek, where one of them just slung one of his arms around Eggsy's shoulder, said something to van den Broek and more or less dragged a very confused looking Eggsy with him. For a few seconds Harry's and Eggsy's eyes met and Harry could see a look of suspicion cross Eggsy's face, to which he just responded with a self-satisfied smile. Eggsy seemed like he wanted to shout something over at Harry, but before he could the two men had him out on a balcony and out of Harry's eyesight and earshot.
***
Fuck Harry. Eggsy had been this close to get the money from van den Broek, be it by him actually handing it to Eggsy or by pick pocketing him, he nearly had it. And then Harry had obviously sent those two men over to him to engage him in a conversation about Poker.
Eggsy didn't know why Harry would do this, what could possibly be so important that he had to talk to van den Broek right now? Couldn't it wait until Eggsy had his money?
And what was that whole "Gavin Woodward" thing anyway? Why did he give him a wrong name? Or did he give Eggsy a wrong name?? Fuck, whichever it was, Eggsy didn't have the time to think about it now. He needed to get that money and then get out of here as fast as possible. He still had to take a cab back to London, and he wanted to be back home again before early morning. So he made a quick excuse to the men and went back inside, where he soon enough spotted Harry - Gavin? Whatever. - and van den Broek talking.
Okay, he needed a plan to get rid of Harry long enough to take the money from van den Broek, then Harry could talk to him as long as he liked to. But how could he do that? What could possibly keep Harry's attention long enough? He didn't know the man well enough to answer this question, he wasn't even sure anymore if he actually knew his name for Christ's sake, so how was he supposed to manage this?
But when his eyes fell onto a waiter, Eggsy started to grin. Why search for something to catch Harry's attention, if he could just force him to leave?
Eggsy waited until the waiter finished his route through the people and went back to the bar to refill his tray with new glasses of champagne, and then went off to ask everyone if they wanted a glass again. Eggsy waited, and waited... Until the waiter walked past Harry and van den Broek. This was the moment Eggsy fell into action; he hurried towards them, pointedly looking in another direction, and ran straight into the poor waiter who lost his balance. The tray that had been resting on one of his hands slid off, champagne filled glasses went flying right towards Harry, emptied themselves on his suit and then shattered on the floor.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" Eggsy gasped and steadied the waiter with a firm grip on his arms, "I didn't watch where I was going, this is my fault, I'm sorry!"
"It's alright, don't worry about it, Sir", the waiter stammered, visibly puzzled by what just happened.
When Eggsy turned to look at Harry, he was met with a more than unimpressed stare. If looks could kill, he would drop dead on the spot. Harry was dripping wet with champagne, some even got into his hair and made it stick to his temples and his glasses had little drops all over them.
"Oh no," Eggsy said, suppressing a laugh, "I'm sorry, Mr...Woodward, was it? You should go to the bathroom quickly and try to dry it off."
Harry gathered himself for a few moments. Eggsy was sure he'd love to wring his neck right now, but instead Harry cleared his throat and put a strand of hair which had fallen into his forehead back in place.
"Yes. I will do that. Excuse me, Mr van den Broek."
When Harry walked past him, Eggsy could hear him whisper: "I'll send you the dry cleaner's bill, you cheeky brat."
Eggsy quickly bit his lower lip to stop himself from laughing and turned it into a charming smile when he approached van den Broek.
"I'm so clumsy sometimes," he said with a dramatic sigh and combed a hand through his thick blond hair.
Van den Broek eagerly let Eggsy involve him in a conversation again and enjoyed the young man flirting with him. Eggsy on the other hand could really go without it, but the idiot had forgotten who Eggsy was, so he just went with flirting instead of confrontation to raise his chances of getting a hold of the money van den Broek owed him - and maybe even a credit card or some jewellery as a compensation for the trouble he went through.
***
Angrily Harry scrubbed at his soaked dress shirt with a paper towel and ignored the laughing in his ears.
"That was a clever move, I have to give the boy that," Merlin told him, "He's really giving you a hard time. I like him."
"Kindly fuck off, Merlin," Harry grunted and raised his face towards the mirror to give Merlin a good view of his annoyed reflection.
"I will, as soon as you finished this mission, Galahad," Merlin sounded way too smug when he said this and Harry's reflection looked even more annoyed, before he looked down onto his shirt again. It was absolutely in vain, the shirt was ruined, but he couldn't go back outside with a champagne-soaked shirt either, so he took a new paper towel and kept on scrubbing.
When Harry left the bathroom Eggsy and van den Broek were talking again, but to Harry's great satisfaction Eggsy didn't look as flirtatious as before, but rather frustrated. So he didn't get what he wanted either.
Good.
"Galahad, it's getting late. You need to eliminate van den Broek now or he might leave before you get the chance."
"I know," Harry muttered and made his way over to his target, "I will get Eggsy out of the way and then it'll be over quickly."
When he arrived he smiled at van den Broek, but put his hand on Eggsy's shoulder.
"Would you excuse us for a moment, Mr van den Broek? There is something I would like talk to this young man about." Before any of the two could react, Harry grabbed Eggsy's shoulder firmer and dragged him with him, away from van den Broek and outside the building. The front garden was quiet and dark and Harry walked past bushes and trees, where no one could overhear them. When Harry came to a halt, Eggsy shoved him away.
"What the fuck's yer problem, Harry?" Eggsy hissed, "Or Gavin, or whatever the fuck yer name is."
"What my problem is? I was not the one deliberately running into waiters to ruin someone's suit."
"Oh yeah, boo-hoo, cry me a river. I got business to do, and if ya'd just gimme five minutes wifout fuckin' interruptin' I'd be done 'n outta here in no time 'n ya could do whatever ya want."
"Business?" Harry asked and crossed his arms in front of his chest, "Just call it by its name: drug deals."
Harry immediately regretted saying this. Eggsy's face went from angry, to confused, to offended, to very angry in a matter of seconds, and he grabbed Harry by his lapels.
"The fuck did ya just say?" He asked, yanking Harry closer to himself, "Ya think just 'cuz I'm not a rich bastard wif a fuckin' silver spoon up my arse I'm a fuckin' drug dealer? That what ya thinkin'?"
Harry looked more than surprised by Eggsy's outburst and bumped into the younger man when he pulled at his lapels. "Well, what kind of business would you have with a drug dealer if not that?" Eggsy faltered and his grip on Harry's suit loosened lightly. "Drug dealer? The fuck ya talkin' 'bout? That guy owes me money from a Poker game, I don't know nuffin' 'bout drugs."
"Well, I have to apologise then, but I have to go back inside now and I want you to stay away from van den Broek until I'm done talking to him. Did you understand me?" Harry put his hands over Eggsy's to loosen them from his lapels, then turned to go back inside and finish his mission, but Eggsy held him back.
"Wait, wait, wait, hold up. First of all, that was sum shit apology 'n I'm not lettin' ya get away wif that. 'n second, how the fuck do ya know van den Broek's a drug dealer then? I thought ya was a business man? Ya doin' drugs or what? That why ya gave him a wrong name? 'cuz ya tryin' to get yer hands on sum drugs wifout damagin' yer reputation?"
"Now your imagination is running wild, I am not a drug addict," Harry said with a deep sigh, "Just do what I told you."
"Fuck off, I ain't no child!" Slowly but surely Eggsy was losing his patience with Harry. He was acting like a complete wanker right now, first he accused Eggsy of dealing drugs and now he acted as if he was his boss.
"Listen, Eggsy, I really don't have the time to- Shit!" Behind Eggsy Harry could see van den Broek hurriedly leaving the building, before he disappeared behind some bushes.
"Merlin, the target left the building, where is he headed?" Harry started walking, completely ignoring Eggsy who stared at him confused and asked: "Merlin? What the fuck ya goin' on about now? Are ya high?"
"He's headed towards his car. Be careful, Galahad, he has at least two bodyguards with him," Merlin warned his friend, while he used CCTV cameras around the property to keep an eye on van den Broek.
"Understood," Harry only said and made his way further in van den Broek's direction.
"What the fuck? What's happenin'?" Eggsy demanded to know, but Harry only told him to stay behind. Of course Eggsy didn't care.
"Just tell me who the fuck ya are. I've seen a lot o' business men, but ya sure as hell ain't one," Eggsy remarked with a raised eyebrow and walked right behind Harry, if one could still call it walking, as Harry was half-running by now.
"Eggsy, I said stay behind, this is nothing you should get involved in," Harry warned, but Eggsy only scoffed at him.
"Yeah, no, whatever ya're up to, it can't be worse than what I've already seen," Eggsy said and Harry responded with a half-grunt half-laugh, but didn't stop walking.
They rounded a corner and entered the parking area of the property, where Eggsy and Harry only got a glimpse of van den Broek before his car's door was thrown shut and the man disappeared.
"Fuck!" Eggsy cursed, "Now he's gone, 'n my money wif him. That's all yer fault."
"I'm sorry, but your money is not my biggest concern in this matter, Eggsy," Harry said disinterested and reached behind his back and under his coat. Eggsy didn't know what exactly he had expected Harry to pull out - but it sure wasn't a gun.
He made a surprised sound in the back of his throat and jumped a step backwards.
"Whoa! Jesus, why do you carry that??"
But instead of answering Harry raised the gun, aimed for the wheels of the car and shot. In the same moment the car started to move and Harry missed, and the only thing he achieved was getting the two bodyguard's attention who were waiting for the car to drive away safely before they would follow in their own.
Harry cursed as the men pulled out their own guns and he threw a quick glance over his shoulder to Eggsy, who was shocked into silence and just stared back at Harry. He extended one hand and shoved the boy behind him, so he would be at least a bit save from the following bullet rain towards them. Harry tried to shoot the car's wheels two more times before it was too far away and he had to fight off the bodyguards. They were slowly approaching Harry and Eggsy and the older man sternly told Eggsy: "Now do as I tell you for once and stay behind, find a place to hide," before he went off towards the bodyguards.
Eggsy looked around frantically and decided to walk back to where they came from, but his curiosity got the better of him and he stopped behind the corner they had rounded and peered around it. He watched in a mixture of awe and shock as Harry beat the two henchmen to a pulp with just his bare hands and the handle of his gun, without fatally injuring either of them, even though both him and the men were armed.
This, Eggsy had to admit, was disturbingly attractive.
He jumped and barely suppressed an embarrassing squeal when someone right behind him cleared their throat and put a hand on his shoulder. When he turned around he was faced with a young woman around his age, neatly dressed in a suit, probably bespoke judging by how well it fit her, her hair in a tight ponytail and a small smile on her lips.
"Eggsy?" she asked and he looked at her warily.
"Yeah. Who're ya?"
She extended her hand and after he hesitated for a few seconds, Eggsy shook it. "I'm Lancelot," she answered, though Eggsy doubted that was her real name.
"Lancelot, what are you doing here?" Eggsy turned towards Harry's voice that was now closely behind him again and looked at the man from tip to toe. He didn't even look exhausted, there were two strands of his otherwise neatly combed hair falling into his forehead, his tie was slightly out of place and his Oxfords weren't as shiny as before - and was that blood on them? - but other than that, he looked perfectly in order.
"Galahad," now the young woman turned towards Harry, "I'm here because Arthur sent me."
Eggsy looked to and fro between them, getting more confused the more they spoke.
"Why would he? I have this under control."
"Do you? Where is van den Broek then?" Merlin scoffed through the glasses' comm and Lancelot, who obviously heard him too, couldn't suppress a small, amused grin, "He's on the run. Percival is on his way to catch him." She nodded in agreement.
"I'm here to pick you up, Galahad. You, and Eggsy," when she said that, both Harry and Eggsy looked at her in surprise.
"Wait. What? I don't even know who ya are or what ya're talkin' 'bout, I ain't goin' nowhere!" Eggsy stuttered and made a step backwards. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you go, it's an order. Please just get in the car, I don't want to force you," Lancelot replied while a black car slowly rolled onto the parking area and towards them. She had said all of that with a gentle smile, but her eyes told Eggsy she would be more than willing to force him to do what she wanted. And something in Eggsy told him she would be successful.
Eggsy looked at Harry, Gavin? Galahad? This was getting more and more confusing, and then at Lancelot and the car, bit his bottom lip and slowly started to walk towards the parked car.
A satisfied smile spread on Lancelot's lips which vanished as soon as Harry started whispering to her. She listened to him, then shrugged and nodded towards the car.
"I don't know what Arthur wants from him, but he seemed angry," she answered, but other than Harry she wasn't whispering. Eggsy tried not to listen, since it didn't help with his nerves, and just sat in the car, shortly followed by Harry and Lancelot.
The whole drive, and it was a long drive, an awkward and tense silence stretched between the occupants of the car. Eggsy stared out of the window and watched the landscape outside slowly change, until there were only big stretches of field and trees. At some point he started to wonder if those people were kidnapping him. Would they try to blackmail someone and get money? Because that wouldn't work. His Mum didn't have anything and Dean would probably just write them a thank you-note for taking Eggsy. Would they sell him? Would they kill him? He had seen that at least Harry was perfectly capable of doing so.
I had sex with my murderer. The thought ran through Eggsy's mind, shortly followed by how this would make a fantastic book title. Great, at least there was a title for his biography if someone decided to write one.
"Calm down," Lancelot said after what felt like an eternity and Eggsy looked over at her. She could probably see he wasn't very convinced not to be nervous.
"We're no bad people," she added and Eggsy scoffed.
"Yeah. That's probably what any murderer says before they lure their victim into an dark alleyway," he said sarcastically, but that only made Lancelot smile even more.
"Well, we already have you in our dark alleyway, metaphorically speaking," she said, so calmly it made her even scarier, and she quickly laughed when she saw how Eggsy's eyes grew wider and his expression turned to something resembling panic.
"It was a joke!", she exclaimed, "A joke. Calm down. We won't hurt you. I was trying to tell you that there is no need to lure you in when you're already in the car with us."
Next to Eggsy Harry gave a small huff of amusement and Eggsy looked at him angrily, then he stared out of the window again and pointedly ignored both of them.
After some more time had passed a big manor appeared in Eggsy's eyesight and he quickly looked over to Harry and Lancelot who weren't paying him any more attention, then back out of the window.
"Where are we?" he asked eventually and this time it was Harry who answered: "Kingsman HQ."
Not that this information helped Eggsy in any way, but neither Harry nor Lancelot were willing to answer any more questions and with a frustrated sigh Eggsy watched the building come closer, until the car came to a halt right in front of it.
The three left the car and entered the building, and Eggsy carefully walked behind Lancelot and Harry. He took in every detail around him and nearly ran into Harry when they stopped in front of a big wooden door.
A man was standing in front of it. He was hugging a clipboard to his chest, was dressed in a woollen jumper, but just as impeccably as the other two, and pushed the glasses on his nose up while he looked at Harry, with a kind of punishing stare. Only now Eggsy noticed all three of them were wearing similar glasses. Not the same, but very similar.
"Galahad, Arthur is awaiting you and Mr Unwin. Lancelot, you are dismissed."
"Yes, Merlin," Lancelot said, nodded and turned around, smiled at Eggsy and then made her way down the hall.
As soon as she was gone Merlin lowered his voice and his look darkened.
"Arthur is extremely angry, Harry, you have allowed yourself too many mistakes."
"I know," Harry replied and rubbed the bridge of his nose between two fingers, "But what does he want from Eggsy?"
"I don't know. You'll have to find out," Merlin said and glanced over Harry's shoulder at Eggsy, then back at Harry, before he turned around and opened the door.
Eggsy was hesitating again, he really didn't want to go through this door; whatever was awaiting him behind it, it wasn't good.
Harry was already inside when he noticed Eggsy still standing outside of the room, so he went back, put a hand on Eggsy's lower back and pushed him forwards. Eggsy tried to struggle but gave in eventually.
The inside of the room was just as posh as the rest of the building Eggsy had seen yet. The walls were lined with book shelves, there were small tables with crystal glasses and jugs with some kind of alcohol in them, and a globe right next to one of two old but comfortable looking armchairs, right in front of a fire place.
One of the armchairs was occupied by an old, mean looking man who glared at Harry and Eggsy when they entered the room. That was probably Arthur then, Eggsy guessed.
Merlin stood behind the empty chair, his face carefully neutral and looked over at Arthur when he gestured towards the chair opposite of him.
"Have a seat, Mr Unwin," he said, his voice calm unlike his clearly angered expression and Eggsy threw an uncertain look towards Harry, who in return just nodded at him. So he went over to the chair, slowly, carefully, and sat down with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He didn't like this Arthur-guy one bit. Eggsy felt a bit better when Harry came to a halt behind his chair too and, hidden from Arthur's eyes, lay his hands on the back of the chair and pressed two fingers gently against Eggsy's neck. Merlin looked at Harry disapprovingly, but didn't comment on it.
Against Eggsy's assumption, Arthur just spared him one more short glance before he started speaking to Harry. The calm in his voice was gone, instead it had a dangerous growl to it.
"I demand an explanation for this outrageous behaviour of yours, Galahad. How could you endanger a mission like that? You should pray Percival can finish what you messed up, or this will have consequences. I'm tired of accepting your inappropriate behaviour," he said and Harry only lowered his gaze and nodded silently, "And all because of some young thug!"
"Oi!" Eggsy's protest was completely ignored, only Harry pressed his fingers a bit harder against his skin and Eggsy pressed his lips to a thin line.
"I apologise, Arthur," Harry said calmly, "I realise my behaviour has been less than acceptable the last few weeks. But Eggsy should be no problem to us; after all we can use an amnesia dart to make him forget what he has seen."
"Amnesia what?!" Eggsy sputtered and turned to look at Harry in horror, but again he was ignored.
"The dart will only erase the last few hours of his memory," Merlin remarked, "I can't guarantee he would forget everything he has seen tonight."
"This is not enough!" Arthur said, "Not only has he seen too much, he also stole highly dangerous equipment from Galahad, and Galahad would find some way to ruin it again, even if we erased all of his memory. The boy's memory is not the problem, it's his existence!"
This sentence made a cold shudder crawl down Eggsy's spine and he slowly looked back at Arthur.
"Wait, what's that supposed ta mean?" He asked. But, oh, how he wished he wouldn't have gotten an answer this time.
Arthur reached inside his suit coat and pulled a gun out, which he aimed right at Eggsy's face. His chair slid back an inch when Eggsy pressed his heels to the floor and his back against the cushions, and all colour left his face. "Whoa! What the fuck, put that down!" He said and threw his hands in the air. Both Harry and Merlin moved a step closer to Arthur and Eggsy when Arthur raised the gun, in aborted attempts to stop the older man.
"Arthur, please, this is not necessary," Harry tried to calm him down, "There is no need to shoot the boy."
"What the fuck is goin' on??" Eggsy asked, panic clear in his voice. Finally someone decided to let Eggsy in on what was going on, and that someone was Merlin.
"You got yourself in quite some trouble, boy. We are part of Kingsman, an international secret service agency, which Arthur is the head of. First you got yourself in enough trouble by sleeping with a well-known government employee to be targeted by us, and then you kept on interfering with Galahad and his missions, so he couldn't successfully finish them."
"So...Wait. So y'all are like...spies?" Eggsy asked disbelievingly.
"Of sorts," Harry agreed.
"And the stuff I stole from ya was sum top secret spy shit?"
"You could say that."
"Shit."
"Quite."
"I swear I won't tell anyone," Eggsy suddenly said, to the surprise of the three other men, with a pleading voice and his eyes on the gun that was still pointing at his face, "I can keep my mouth shut. I ain't gonna say nothin' to no one."
There was a tense silence in the room after Eggsy had talked. Arthur stared at him with a look of surprise, but also mistrust, and Harry and Merlin looked at each other and then both back at Eggsy.
After a few minutes in which no one said anything, Harry suddenly exclaimed: "I will make him my recruit for the position of Bors."
"What?" Eggsy and Arthur asked at the same time, while Merlin just sighed deeply.
"I didn't suggest a recruit yet, after Bors died on his last mission in Kenia a few days ago. Now I do."
"Are you insane, Galahad?" Arthur asked, getting angry again, but at least lowering the gun to Eggsy's great relief, "This is ridiculous."
"Eggsy knows about Kingsman now, he knows his way around criminals and he went through a short but considerable training at the Marines. He's more than qualified," Harry said, before he looked down at Eggsy who was staring up at him, "If you agree, of course."
"Me? Becoming a spy?" Eggsy asked and Harry nodded in response, "I... Well, I've got nothin' to loose, I guess."
"So that is settled," Harry said with a satisfied tone in his voice, "Eggsy will be my recruit for the position of Bors and is therefore no danger to Kingsman."
"You are unbelievable," Arthur growled and got up from his seat, "This is unacceptable. He will not be your candidate."
Merlin sighed again, before he said: "Well, I'm sorry to say so, Sir, but there is nothing you can do if Galahad decides to choose him as his candidate. He is qualified and it is Galahad's choice alone who he will suggest."
Arthur's face turned red from anger and he looked to and fro between Merlin, Harry and Eggsy, before he spat: "Fine. See what it gets you to recruit a thug, Galahad. This is ridiculous and you know that." And with those words he stormed out of the room. All three men watched him go and Eggsy was glad when the tension in the room slowly left with Arthur.
Merlin turned his gaze towards Harry, shook his head softly and said: "I hope you know what you are doing, Harry," before he left the room too.
After a few seconds of silence Eggsy turned on the chair he was still sitting on and looked up at Harry. "Well, I didn't think my day would turn out like this."
A low, amused laugh was Harry's answer as he walked around the chair until he stood in front of Eggsy. "I didn't think it would end with you becoming my protégé either," he admitted, "Now I hope you will do your best to not embarrass me."
Eggsy grinned at him cheekily and winked. "Yeah, 'course. So, if I'm yer protégé and ya're my mentor, does that mean we can't shag?"
Both of Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise at that question, before he started laughing again. He really hadn't expected a question like that. "Indeed, it does, I'm afraid."
"What a shame," Eggsy replied with a smug grin.
"By the way. My real name is Harry Hart. Not Harrison Eldridge or Gavin Woodward; those were fake identities for the sake of the mission."
"Alright then, Harry Hart. When this shit's over, ya gonna take me out for a date."
"Will I?"
"Yes, Harry. You will."