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‘’Eggsy, my lad, good job!’’ beamed Merlin and clapped Eggsy on the shoulder. He was looking decidedly like a proud father and it was slightly unnerving. Still, Eggsy returned the smile and accepted the bear hug. He’d never really noticed just how fucking tall Merlin was before.
‘’Don’t get all soft on me now, Merlin,’’ he said and gave a thumbs up to Harry, Roxy and his mum who were waiting for their turn to congratulate Eggsy on finally getting his MSc.
His mum was genuinely teary eyed when Merlin finally released him. ‘’Look at you, all grown up, baby.’’
‘’Mum, come on – ‘’
‘’Off doing your science and things your old mum knows nothing about. I’m so proud of you, love.’’
If she didn’t stop soon, Eggsy was going to cry, too, and he promised he wouldn’t. Though he would never admit it out loud, he had already cried at Roxy’s graduation last year – unlike Eggsy, she got shit done on time – because she’d looked like an actual goddess when receiving her degree with distinction and Eggsy had been just so damn proud of her, okay? But he’d promised himself, he wouldn’t cry at his own graduation, because that was just lame.
‘’Daisy’s finally gonna have someone to look up to now. Oh hell, I hope she takes after you, not me.’’
‘’Mum! Mum, it’s okay. You’s done what you could and always have and Daisy’ll turn out brilliant. Even I turned out pretty okay, didn’t I?’’
His mum didn’t say anything in return, but he was enveloped into another hug. It was less crushing than Merlin’s, but then again, his mum was not a 6’2’’ Scotsman who was surprisingly fit for his 50 years and a cushy desk job.
‘’I still can’t believe you fistbumped the dean, you egghead,’’ said Roxy when Eggsy’s mum finally let him go. Eggsy just shrugged, because what can you do – his palms had been sweaty as fuck, so he found a way to disguise the fact. Bloody genius, if you asked him. He still got a hug from Roxy too and that alone should’ve made him the single luckiest guy in the whole department, because everyone had a crush on her. Everyone. Not that Eggsy blamed them, but his tastes were somewhat different.
‘’What, no hug from my man?’’ he asked, looking at Harry who was still standing two steps away. He knew that Harry was a little wary of showing affection in front of his mum, but come on – this was Eggsy’s graduation.
Despite his obviously faked exasperation, Harry complied and pulled Eggsy into a hug – before picking him up and spinning him around, right there in front of everyone.
‘’Harry, what the fuck?’’ asked Eggsy when he was finally safely back on the ground.
‘’You wanted a hug.’’
‘’Why do you have to be so extra all the time, Harry?’’
Harry did that little head tilt thing that, as Eggsy had learned, was the gentleman version of a shrug, because apparently shrugging was rude. But he was smiling at Eggsy, obviously proud, and really, Eggsy knew that he’d receive Harry’s congratulations later.
‘’So, how’s the application for the PhD programme coming along?’’ asked Merlin.
What application? Eggsy hadn’t even thought about going straight onto postgrad. His plan was to work for a year or two, maybe see if he could get a teaching gig on the side, publish a few articles, travel. Merlin, of course, didn’t know all that, because he had never asked before now. He’d just assumed that Eggsy wanted to do his PhD right after his master’s, which was sweet, but no.
‘’Uh, Merlin, I don’t think I’m gonna do it right away. I was thinking about working and teaching for like two years and then seeing if I wanna do it.’’
‘’You what?’’
‘’I’ll still keep working in the lab though. And, uh… Stay at Wentham? Yeah, I guess I’ll stay at Wentham, because like hell I’m going to Cambridge,’’ said Eggsy, trying to appease Merlin and make light of the fact that Merlin was looking at him like he had insulted his mother. ‘’No offence, Harry.’’
Harry lifted his hands up in a ‘’none taken’’ gesture. ‘’Really, Merlin. You and I both did our PhDs in our thirties. Eggsy’s got all the time in the world.’’
‘’And I’ll still be a part of the team of the running projects!’’
Merlin didn’t look very appeased, despite Eggsy’s and Harry’s best attempts. Roxy bit her lip nervously while Eggsy’s mum just looked confused.
‘’Only if I’ll let you, lad.’’
--
Eggsy still didn’t know if Merlin was genuinely mad at him by the time he got to the airport. He really wished he did, especially if they were going to spend the next 3 days in nearly constant contact. Granted, Harry and Roxy were coming, too, so at least they weren’t alone, but to be honest, the stressful uncertainty dampened Eggsy’s excitement over attending his first real conference a little.
But only a little because it was held in freaking Nice in July and they were going to do an oral presentation and honestly, Eggsy was beyond hyped. He had even managed to convince Harry to stay for a day longer, because fuck if he was going to France with his fit as fuck boyfriend and didn’t even get a nice day at the beach out of it.
In the taxi on his way to Heathrow, Eggsy resolved to ask Merlin the moment he saw him. Really, Merlin couldn’t hold not wanting to do his postgrad right away against him. Because he was going to get his PhD eventually, but just like Harry said, he had all the time in the world to go back and do it; it didn’t have to be now.
When he got to the airport, he discovered that both Merlin and Harry were already there and had bumped into someone they both knew, so Eggsy decided to be polite and proper just this once and refrained from interrupting.
--
‘’To conclude,’’ said Eggsy, taking over from Roxy and switching to the final slide, ‘’while the full implications of our work are not entirely clear yet, it is a promising and innovative idea that deserves to be researched further.’’
The applause was politely subdued, but it still felt damn good. Eggsy was pretty sure that he saw some people nodding in agreement throughout the presentation. Merlin and Roxy looked similarly pleased with their performance.
‘’Thank you for your interesting presentation, misters – um, Merlin and Unwin, miss Morton,’’ said the moderator, stumbling slightly on Merlin’s name, even though she had introduced him before. ‘’We now open the floor to audience questions for 15 minutes. As always, please keep them precise and to the point. Longer questions can be discussed later in private.’’
--
‘’Lemme go back!’’
‘’No, Eggsy,’’said Roxy and Merlin in unison.
‘’But I want to punch that twat!’’
The people coming out of the lecture hall gave them strange looks.
‘’Who does he want to punch?’’ asked Harry, who had finally decided to join them again after his plenary session.
‘’No one,’’ said Roxy severely, just as Eggsy said, ‘’Some Harvard twat who said that Roxy couldn’t have done the simulations because she looks too good to be that smart or some shit.’’
Eggsy was fuming. How dare that prick insult his best friend? He will punch him, he really will. Eggsy might have had a rough start at Wentham because the elitist twats didn’t like his upbringing, but the rest of the community was alright. But the shit Roxy got for being a bird? A thousand times worse and Eggsy was not going to stand for it.
Even Harry frowned at it. ‘’I’m sorry to hear that, Roxy. You’re a talented, hard-working scientist and he’s a massive idiot.’’
‘’It’s alright,’’ shrugged Roxy. ‘’It’s not my fault he’d never seen a woman in real life or something. But he was a massive dick about it, that’s for sure.’’
‘’Yeah, he was! And that’s why I will punch him.’’
‘’Eggsy, no,’’ said Harry, Roxy and Merlin. ‘’I’m sure that Roxy is capable of defending her own honour,’’ offered Harry.
‘’Damn right,’’ said Roxy primly.
‘’Well, he also said that our method was expensive and not innovative enough to justify the cost.’’
Harry was silent for a moment, his eyebrows rising in disbelief. ‘’Alright, Eggsy, show me where he is. I will punch him.’’
‘’No, Harry!’’ said Merlin and Roxy.
‘’Yes, Harry!’’ crowed Eggsy in delight.
--
‘’Hey, Merlin?’’ asked Eggsy over a pint later that night.
‘’Yes, lad?’’
‘’You’re not actually mad at me for not wanting to do my PhD right away, right?’’
Merlin looked down at his beer. ‘’Nah, Eggsy,’’ he said eventually. ‘’Harry is right; it’s hypocritical of me to give you shit over it when I didn’t start my thesis until I was, what – 33? So no, I’m not mad at you.’’
‘’Good to know. I got real worried for a moment.’’ It was like a huge weight had been lifted off Eggsy’s chest, although he’d briefly forgotten it while he and Harry taught the Harvard twat some manners. ‘’But you’ll still let me stay at the lab, though?’’
‘’Yeah, of course I will.’’
‘’Neat.’’
‘’It’s just that if you were a PhD student, both you and the lab would get a nice stipend.’’
Eggsy hummed. Research money was nice, but he couldn’t be bought just like that. Still, he was curious. ‘’Yeah? How much?’’
‘’25 thousand pounds a year for both you and the lab.’’
Well shit. That was a lot of money for doing his PhD. ‘’Wait a minute. You want me to do the degree now so that the lab could get funding? Merlin, is that all I am to you?’’
Merlin looked decidedly unimpressed by Eggsy’s theatrics. ‘’Shut it, Unwin. You know damn well I actually care about you, you arse.’’
‘’You care about my arse? Merlin, I’m sorry, but I’m in a committed relation-‘’
Merlin groaned. ‘’Listen here, you little shit. You’re brilliant and you know it. If you applied that brilliance in postgrad, you could get private stipends as well. You could be getting close to 40k a year for doing your damn thesis. And the lab would get a nice little bonus, too.’’
40k was well above the average salary, wasn’t it? While he could get the doctoral stipend every year, the private scholarships tended to change from year to year, so it would probably be smart to grab what he could when he could.
‘’You know what? I think I might go for it. Do you have any idea how many trainers you can buy for 40k?’’
‘’You mean Harry doesn’t want to play sugar daddy even with his Cambridge salary?’’
‘’Fuck off,’’ said Eggsy, but he was grinning. Yeah, come to think of it, doing the degree now wasn’t a bad idea. Roxy was doing hers, after all, so they could still hang out. He’d still get to teach, too. He’d have to publish articles anyway, so really, he would be doing everything he’d planned on doing, but he’d also be getting some sweet, sweet PhD money.
‘’So you’re going for it?’’ asked Merlin.
Eggsy finished his pint and nodded.
‘’The deadline was yesterday.’’
Eggsy felt the elation drain out of him. Couldn’t Merlin have told him that before? ‘’What the fuck, bruv?’’
‘’I’m kidding, it’s tomorrow.’’
‘’For real?’’
‘’For real.’’
Eggsy looked at his watch. It was 11 pm so he had just over 24 hours to get his shit together and submitted. He left Merlin sitting at the bar without a word. He had stuff to do.
--
‘’I thought the whole point of staying a day longer was that we could go to the beach,’’ said Harry. Eggsy held up a finger and kept typing. He only looked up after he’d finished his sentence.
‘’Is there wifi at the beach?’’
‘’No, I don’t think so.’’
Eggsy shook his head. ‘’Then I’m staying right here until my application is so fuckin’ bangin’ that they’ll accept me without an interview.’’
‘’Of course, darling.’’