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Eggsy watches Mr Tall Dark & Handsome heading his way from the other side of the street. He’s been working the newsstand for three months now and the highlight of his day is the appearance of the fit older gentleman wearing an expensive looking suit and carrying an umbrella whether it’s raining out or not. He usually stops at Eggsy’s stand to pick up a copy of the day’s newspaper on his way to work at the tailor shop across the way. He always has a charming smile and a “good morning” for Eggsy, and Eggsy is pretty sure he’s in love.
At least, he’s in love with the fantasy he likes to spend the rest of the long morning imagining. In his fantasy world, the man is kind and funny and had swept him off his feet, they’ve been happily dating for months, and Eggsy knows everything about him. In the real world, Eggsy knows what newspaper the man reads and that he probably has a small pet of some kind that occasionally leaves fur on his trousers (he’s studied the well-fitting trousers pretty closely), and that’s it.
But today is going to be the day. Eggsy is going to say something more than “Have a good one” and strike up a conversation with the man. Their grand romance has to start somewhere, after all. Unless he looks really busy today or something. Like he had yesterday. And most of last week. Eggsy firms his jaw. He can do this. Probably. Maybe. He perks up as he spots the man getting ready to cross the street.
Suddenly he sees a van swerving around the corner on two wheels. Heading straight towards Mr Tall Dark and Handsome, who doesn’t appear to be paying any attention. Eggsy doesn't even think, he vaults over his stand and starts sprinting and yelling at the same time. The man looks up at the van barreling down at him and freezes. Eggsy tackles him and they go flying to the ground. He hears a dull thud as the man's head bounces off the curb next to them. Pushing himself up on his palms, he leans over the man. Unconscious!
He frantically tries to remember the first aid training from that one CPR course he took five years ago. He's pretty sure he's not supposed to shake anyone with a potential head or neck injury, but he really kind of wants to right now. He settles for lightly patting the man's face. “Hey, can you hear me mate? Please wake up? Please.” He can hear a bystander on the phone with emergency services and, thank god, sirens in the distance. Before he knows it, the paramedics have arrived and the same bystander is breathlessly recounting the story of the dramatic rescue to a police officer taking notes.
“Hop in,” says the medic once they get the man loaded in the ambulance, and Eggsy does, without thinking about it.
“His vitals look OK,” says the medic, “but we still won't know what sort of damage the knock on his head might have done until we get him scanned.” Eggsy nods weakly. “Can tell you one thing, he's looking a lot better than he would have if you hadn't pushed him out of the way of that truck.” Eggsy tries for a smile. “Now what can you tell me about his allergies, health conditions, that sort of thing?”
“Um...”
When they arrive at the hospital, everything is controlled chaos. Eggsy is left clutching the man's overcoat, probably the most expensive piece of clothing Eggsy has ever touched. He watches as the staff roll the man down the hallway past a set of double doors. He feels lost. It's silly, he doesn't really know the man, but he's always felt like they had a connection, and he can't just go back to work not knowing if he'll live or die. He sighs. “I was gonna marry that man.”
He hears a gasp from the nurse cleaning up the remnants of the triage scene. He looks to find her clutching her heart like it's about to burst. “You're the one who saved him, right? I heard the dispatcher talking about it,”
“Uh, yeah, I pushed him out of the way--”
“Of course you'll need somewhere to wait while they get the scans done. Follow me, I'll take you to the main waiting room. Once they get him admitted, I'll come get you and bring you to his room.”
Now is probably the time to mention that he's never said more than “That'll be 1.50” to this man. On the other hand, he really does want to make sure the man will live to be tall and handsome another day. And if he happens to wake up while Eggsy is there, what could be a better icebreaker than “Hi, I’m the man who just saved your life?” Eggsy follows the nurse down the hall.
A few hours later, he’s starting to think this is not the day for the start of something beautiful after all. The nurse had brought him to Harry’s room and left him, inexplicably, with a plastic bag containing Harry’s belongings. Harry Hart, according to the ID in his wallet. Has a nice ring to it.
After spending an hour or so memorizing the fall of Harry’s hair on his forehead and listening to the heart monitor beep, he’d weakened. Rifling through the bag, he’s learned where Harry lives, that Harry is a member of the sandwich of the month club at the cafe down the road, and that “Mr Pickle III” (canine) has an appointment at the vet’s for a check-up next week.
He lets out a sigh. It’s probably time to head out. He’s starting to feel guilty about the level of detail he’s learned about Harry’s schedule and head CT, considering he doesn’t know the man. Eggsy can leave a note with his phone number, maybe. He’s started looking around for a pen and paper when he hears a commotion down the hall. A cacophony of raised voices, and it sounds like they're headed his way. He wonders if it’s too late to hide in the bathroom.
“Just like Harry to try to get out of inventory by getting hit by a van”
“Where is my baby boy?”
“Don’t be stupid Uncle Chester, you know he’s more likely to just mysteriously be a couple hours late than arrange a car accident”
“He’s probably just faking it for the attention- am I right, Harry? Harry?”
“What did that doctor say again about intracranial pressure? Does his head look lumpy to you?”
Eggsy counts two men about Harry’s age, one woman old enough to be Harry’s mother, two men the same age as her, and one woman Eggsy’s own age, all following the same nurse into the room. Loudly.
“And who the hell are you?” This from the tallest of the men, bald with a very intimidating stare aimed straight at Eggsy. Right. It's too late to run. Eggsy opens his mouth, but the nurse beats him to it.
“What do you mean who is he….it’s Harry’s fiancé!”
Chaos, and this time it is not controlled.
“Fiancé? I didn’t even know Harry was dating anyone, did you?”
“Oh, this is wonderful news, I had started to think he would never settle down, what with, you know…”
“What? That’s outrageous! I absolutely forbade anything of that sort, and Harry knows it! I said he can see who he wants but only if he’s discreet about it! We have an image to uphold at the shop, and this, this...” This from one of the elderly men, sneering at Eggsy.
Eggsy, who had been holding his hands up in the air trying to get everyone’s attention to correct the nurse’s mistake, slowly lowers his hands. For a split second he considers just once not stirring up trouble for the hell of it. Instead he grabs Harry’s hand in both of his and smiles brightly.
“Thrilled to meet Harry’s family at last,” he says, making direct eye contact with the old man.
Eggsy closes the door of the unsurprisingly nice townhouse behind him and collapses against it. He’s starting to think that maybe pretending to be a stranger’s fiancé in front of said stranger’s entire family and a full staff of medical professionals wasn’t the best life choice he’s ever made.
It had been pretty funny at first, sure. Every time he opened his mouth, that old man Chester had turned a darker shade of red. He’d thought they were going to have to call a code at one point. But then the neurologist had come in to give an update on Harry’s condition. As Eggsy watched the family hug each other as they learned that Harry was in a coma with no indication how long it might last or what the long term damage might be, it didn’t seem so funny anymore.
When Harry’s mother Violet wiped her eyes and said “What are we going to do about Mr Pickle?” Eggsy jumped at the opportunity to both help them out and get out of the immediate range of any probing questions.
“Don’t you worry about that, I’ve got a key to Harry’s place, Mr Pickle is in good hands with me,” he promised. He loved animals, it was the least he could do for inserting himself into the family’s tragedy for a laugh. Not that it was entirely his fault. After escaping with a promise to check in tomorrow and a slightly awkward kiss to his “fiancé’s” cheek, he tracked down the nurse who got him into this mess for a quick “what the fuck”.
“But I heard you say you were going to marry him!” Hard to argue with that, really.
Back at Harry’s, he hears the skittering of nails on hardwood as a tiny terrier comes racing around the corner to investigate the intruder.
“You must be Mr Pickle, hey? What a handsome little pup you are, yes you are!” At least a good tongue bath from a friendly dog could be counted on to make a ridiculous day a little better.
With a little prompting, Mr Pickle leads him to his food and the food dish, and Eggsy takes him out for a quick walk.
That taken care of, he figures it’s OK to take a quick look around. Has to get to know his future husband, after all. He tries to look for signs of an actual girlfriend or boyfriend, but it looks like Harry lives alone, and the pictures he sees seem to mostly be Harry with his family and friends. The decorations are a little fussy for his taste, and a million miles from what Eggsy is used to, but nothing too outrageous. Until he stops in the loo and finds “Mr Pickle I” proudly displayed over the toilet. He’s starting to have second thoughts about his hasty engagement.
The next day, Eggsy stops by the hospital to visit Harry after work, bringing the cheerful quilt he spotted in Harry’s bedroom to brighten up the hospital room. That was something a loving boyfriend would do, right? He doesn’t even know Harry, not really, but he really wanted his family to like him. He’s not sure why, he just knows he’s already starting to feel guilty enough about the situation to give him a stomachache . He’d stopped in to feed Mr Pickle that morning, and the sad whimper Mr Pickle gave when he raced circles around the house but couldn’t find Harry had broken his heart a little.
He pokes his head in the room and is relieved to see just Roxy in there. She’d seemed pretty cool yesterday and friendlier than some of the others for sure.
“Hey, Eggsy, right?” She smiles as he cautiously comes all the way into the room. “You can come on in, no change since yesterday, so at least he’s not doing any worse. How is Mr Pickle doing?”
“Missing Harry, but he was in good spirits this morning,” Eggsy says as he spreads the blanket out on Harry’s bed, now starting to feel a little silly about it. He takes a seat in the chair next to the bed and reaches out for Harry’s hand before thinking better of it and just giving his arm a little pat. Maybe if he’s lucky they’ll assume he’s acting awkwardly because he’s not used to being in the same room with Harry’s family, not because he isn’t used to being in the same room with Harry. “Nice tunes.” It looks like Roxy has her phone plugged into some speakers playing soothing classical music.
“Merlin did a bunch of research last night after we left, apparently they’ve done some studies and classical music can help with his brainwaves or something? I don’t buy it and I don’t think Merlin does either, but we figured it couldn’t hurt. And Bach is his favorite.”
Eggsy nods knowingly. Hopefully. “Merlin’s the bald one, yeah? Heard all the stories, it’s nice to be able to put faces to all the names,” Or names to all the pictures he’d seen as he’d creeped around Harry’s house last night.
“That would be me, yes,”
Eggsy jumps halfway to his feet, realizing that he’d probably stolen Merlin’s chair. Way to make a good impression on the family.
“You can sit back down, son,” Merlin hands Roxy a cup of tea and sits down in the chair next to her. “Sorry, I would have gotten you one if I’d known you’d be stopping by for a visit.”
Is his tone vaguely...accusatory? Why wouldn’t he be stopping by to visit his beloved fiancé?
Merlin narrows his eyes slightly at Eggsy. “So, Eggsy. Harry hasn’t mentioned you at all. Tell me how the two of you met.” It’s not a question.
Eggsy tries desperately to maintain normal eye contact like someone who is not a liar. He’d practiced his story last night. “Well, I started working at the newsstand on the same block as his tailor shop. He always stopped for the paper on his way to work and we got to chatting one day and one thing led to another.” He figures he ought to keep the story as close to what could have been the truth as possible.
Roxy smiles encouragingly. Merlin does not. It’s a good look on him, actually, but Eggsy can’t quite appreciate it right now. “And how long ago was this?”
Is it really healthy for the patients to have the heat turned up so high? Eggsy is starting to sweat a little bit. “Oh, I’ve been working there four months now, I guess. I know it seems fast, but when you know, you know, right?”
“Hm. I have to say, you don’t look like Harry’s usual...type.”
“Oi, what’s that supposed to mean?” Last night he’d considered whether trying to play up the sugar daddy angle might lead to a higher stroke risk for Chester, but he does not care for the way Merlin is looking him up and down right now. It’s giving him a weird feeling in his stomach, at any rate.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it,” says Roxy, with a pointed look at Merlin. She glances back at Eggsy. “It was just a bit of a surprise, that’s all. He usually dates men closer to his own age”
Eggsy takes a deep breath. The plan was not to get worked up, the plan was to get Harry’s family talking so he could learn as much as he can about his supposed fiancé. He winks. “What can I say, I’m irresistible. You know, Harry hasn’t talked much about what he was up to when he was my age. I would love to hear some embarrassing stories of dumb shit he did when he was younger”
“Oh, tell him about the time you guys got banned for life from the laundromat! I love that story,” says Roxy, excited.
Merlin looks like he wants to protest, but then he looks over at Harry and his face softens. “That debacle was pretty much all this bastards fault, that’s for sure...”
An hour later, Harry is still sleeping peacefully but it turns out Merlin and Roxy are pretty good company. And they don’t appear to have noticed that Eggsy isn’t sharing any Harry stories of his own, which is good news. A nurse stops in to check on Harry and remind them that visiting hours are ending.
“Oh, we’re supposed to meet up at Violet’s for dinner, we need to leave now anyway,” says Roxy. “Eggsy, you have to come with us.”
Eggsy should make up an excuse, the more time he spends with the family, the more likely it is they’re going to figure out he’s a lying liar who lies. But he can’t remember the last time he’s laughed this much, and the only thing waiting for him at his cold, lonely flat is a frozen dinner. He caves. “Yeah, sounds great, thanks.”
Merlin watches from the car as Eggsy lets himself into Harry’s flat. The boy had asked if they could stop by to pick up Mr Pickle on the way to dinner.
“He seems really nice,” says Roxy from the passenger seat. “I don’t understand why you were giving him such a hard time earlier, just because he’s a little younger and maybe not as posh as Harry.”
He’s half Harry’s age and he’s wearing a tracksuit. “He’s a perfectly pleasant young man, absolutely,” replies Merlin. “But if they’ve been dating for four months, hell, if they’re engaged, why hasn’t Harry mentioned a single word about him?”
“Maybe he was worried about being judged?” Roxy looks at him with a raised eyebrow. “And look how Uncle Chester flipped out”
Merlin certainly wouldn’t have judged him for dating Eggsy. The appeal was easy to see, the lad was good looking and his smile as he laughed at the silly laundromat story had made Merlin forget his plan to question Eggsy more thoroughly.
“Are we talking about the same Harry Hart? It’s more likely he’s dating Eggsy specifically for the purpose of giving Chester a heart attack.”
“You’ve got a point there,” Roxy laughs.
Eggsy was back at that point, opening the back door and laying out a towel for Mr Pickle to jump on. “Thanks, guv. This guy was looking real depressed when he couldn’t find Harry this morning” Merlin watches in the rearview mirror as Eggsy gives Mr Pickle a smooch on his furry little head. At least that was one thing Eggsy and Harry had in common.
What Merlin can’t figure out is what Eggsy might be after. Was he hoping to rob Harry’s place? If that was the case, he could have already done it, having snuck out of the hospital room yesterday with the keys. Was he planning some long term con? Hoping to worm his way into the family until suddenly he needed money for a series of manufactured emergencies? Maybe they’d hooked up recently and Eggsy was hoping to cash in now that he saw his chance. Merlin continues to ponder as Roxy and Eggsy chat.
He watches the lad closely during dinner. Eggsy stays pretty quiet at first, except for a few enthusiastic compliments about the food. He stays engaged with the general conversation though, and laughs and smiles often.
Merlin is determined not to be swayed by the smiles this time, though. He asks Eggsy a few questions about himself, and Eggsy shares a little bit about his family (just his mum and a younger sister, moved far away a few years back for unspecified reasons), his job (not terribly challenging but a good way to meet people), and his hobbies (parkour?) But somehow every time Merlin tries to steer the conversation back to his relationship with Harry, Eggsy is able to change the subject.
Merlin finally corners Eggsy after dinner, as they all gather in the living room for dessert. Merlin knows he can look a tad intimidating at times and isn’t above using that to his advantage. He heads over to where Eggsy is standing off to the side of the room, watching everyone else exclaiming over the Christmas cookies Violet decorated. He leans down to whisper low in Eggsy’s ear. “I am watching you, boy. I don’t think you are who you say you are and you need to know that if you hurt this family, I will hurt you.” He watches Eggsy shiver out of fear. Good.
Eggsy sits in the uncomfortable hospital chair next to Harry’s bedside, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. “Harry, I don’t know if you can hear me or not. According to wikipedia you are straight up asleep, but according to that soap opera my mum used to watch when I was little, you can hear everything I’m saying. Either way, maybe you can help me figure out what the hell I’m doing.”
“I’ve fucked up, Harry. I’ve fucked up big time. I am so sorry, by the way, for all of this. Well, not for saving your life, I guess. Feel pretty good about that. But everything else. I’ve got your mum practically planning our wedding, I’ve got your uncle ready to disinherit you probably, Merlin is ready to murder me and hide my body where it’ll never be found. On the plus side Roxy is planning to take me to play paintball with her mates next weekend, so that’s something”.
“I know I should come clean because the longer I let this go the worse it’s gonna be when it all comes out, but your family has been so nice to me.” He straightens up a little. “Your mum actually teared up last night talking about how happy she was you finally found someone. I’m gonna break her heart, and then Merlin really will kill me.” He pauses. “Maybe when you wake up they’ll be so excited you’re OK they’ll forgive me when you’re all ‘Eggsy who?’ Best case scenario.”
He hears a throat clear from the doorway behind him. He freezes, then slowly turns to see Champ, the family friend who was the same age as Chester but much more chill.
“Uh, how much of that did you hear?”
“Enough, Eggsy,”
Eggsy starts to get up out of the chair. “Great. If you can give me a head start before you tell--”
Champ shakes his head, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell them anything.”
“You’re not?”
“Not my place, far as I’m concerned. I think you should tell them, because you’ll lose a lot of that stress real quick. As an old man, I can tell you that the truth is going to come out sooner or later no matter what you do. But I think you’re a real nice young man, you’ve been a big help to the family looking after Harry’s house and his dog.”
Eggsy collapses back into the chair, relieved.
“And to be honest son, I’m really enjoying watching Chester’s eye twitch getting worse each time he sees you.”
Eggsy laughs. “You and me both, bruv.” He actually feels better now, having someone to confide in who isn’t in a coma. “Hey, can you fill me in on some of the background? I keep thinking any minute they’re going to expect me to know something Harry would have told me. Like, Merlin is Harry’s step-brother, right? So what happened to his dad?”
Champ, bless him, gives Eggsy the run-down.
Eggsy cautiously peers into Harry’s hospital room, hoping to see Violet, Champ, or Roxy. His heart skips a beat when he sees Merlin instead, tucked into the corner working on a laptop. And now staring steely-eyed at Eggsy. After Merlin had pulled him aside at dinner the other night, Eggsy had felt hyper-aware of the man for the rest of the night. Eggsy would prefer it if Merlin were a little less handsome, it might make him easier to ignore. And Eggsy needs to be able to act as relaxed as possible if he wants to avoid suspicion. Today he has a plan for avoiding conversation though. He nods at Merlin and holds up the newspaper he brought with him.
“Thought I’d bring him his paper since he’s missed a fair bit of the news by now.”
He sits down in the empty chair closest to the bed, clears his throat, and begins to read the top article. After a paragraph or two, Merlin finally turns his gaze back to the laptop.
After a few articles, distracted by trying to add his own news commentary, Eggsy has almost forgotten Merlin’s there. He’s describing the picture that goes with an article on fishing rights in the north sea, “OK, so picture the saddest fucking boat you’ve ever seen, and this boat is a little sadder than that. Then there’s an old man standing there in a sweater that looks like it might have been knitted out of fish scales and used netting,” when he hears what sounds like a snort from the other side of the room. He looks up and Merlin’s eyes are focused on his computer, but the edge of his mouth is turned up the tiniest bit. Eggsy’s own mouth turns up a bit, and he goes back to describing the fisherman to Harry.
Eggsy whistles as he heads down the hall to Harry’s room, greeting the nurses and other hospital workers as he passes. It’s strange that the highlight of his day is now the time he spends with an unconscious man. It’s been weeks now with little change in Harry’s condition.
Of course, most of the time Eggsy’s not alone with Harry. He’s gotten to know Harry’s family pretty well by now. If he’s honest, that’s what’s kept him coming back every evening after work. So far he’s managed to avoid revealing how little he knows about Harry by asking tons of questions of everybody. Percival’s taught him how to play Parcheesi and more about fabric sourcing than he ever wanted to know. He’s helped Violet hold her yarn while she knits and listened to endless stories about Harry as a small child. He’s sat side by side with Roxy while they emailed memes to each other, and he’s learned tons about the effect of educational spending on foreign policy in sub-Saharan Africa (her thesis subject). He’s even hung out with Chester a few times, mostly just holding Harry’s hand while Chester fumed.
He thinks his favorite might be Merlin though. After a few days of Eggsy visiting every day and bringing the paper and Merlin’s favorite tea (Eggsy is not above a little bribery), Merlin seemed to relax a little. Merlin’s job apparently allows more flexibility than most, and he’s there most days Eggsy stops by.
Merlin occasionally offers his own commentary as Eggsy reads the news to Harry. Sometimes Merlin reads to Harry himself, mostly whatever fiction he’s in the middle of. After the first time he listened to that, Eggsy pretended to have a sore throat for the next two days so Merlin would read him the newspaper too.
He’s learned a fair amount about neurobiology too, actually. Since the accident, Merlin’s been researching traumatic brain injury fairly extensively and he likes to talk about what he’s read with Eggsy. It’s a nice change. A lot of people assume that because Eggsy doesn’t sound like the man on the six o’clock news he must be stupid, but Eggsy actually does have an opinion about the seat of the mind, thank you.
He breaks into a grin when he walks into the room and sees Merlin there today. “Hey Merlin! How’s Harry doing today?”
“Doing about as well as can be expected. No better, no worse. How was work today?”
“Same, pretty much.” He clears his throat. “Actually, you know, it was pretty chilly, throats feeling a little scratchy. Maybe you could read the headlines today if you’re at a good stopping point?” He looks pleadingly at Merlin.
Merlin tries to look stern but his eyes are smiling. “Fine, but Harry’s probably sick of my voice by now. Don’t know why you bring that paper everyday if you don’t want to read it.”
Eggsy settles down into the chair and closes his eyes to listen as Merlin starts to read.
He’s actually started to doze a little bit when he hears the rustling of Violet coming in and setting down her bag.
“Hello, Merlin. Eggsy, I was hoping to see you. I wanted to check in with you about Christmas plans. You said you weren’t going to be able to travel to see your mum this year, so you can join us for dinner, right?”
Eggsy startles. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“Don’t be silly.” She combs a loose bit of Harry’s hair back over his forehead as she smiles at Eggsy. “You’re family now.”
Merlin adds “We’d love to have you there, Eggsy.”
Eggsy feels that little bit worse about himself every time he remembers he’s wormed his way into this family under false pretenses. But surely it would only ruin everybody’s holiday if he came clean now, right? He can’t resist the lure of a nice Christmas dinner when the alternative is hoping that the chip shop on the corner isn’t closed for the day.
“I’d love to be there. What can I bring?”
Merlin brings in the last of the plates from Christmas dinner and stacks them next to Eggsy, who is helping with the washing up. It’s strange how well he seems to fit in the family, when they hadn’t even known he’d existed a month ago.
After seeing Eggsy visit Harry in hospital faithfully just about every day since the accident, Merlin no longer doubts that the lad truly cares for Harry. Eggsy made them all laugh by filming a video on his phone of Mr Pickle barking up a storm at the mailman, and playing it for Harry to hear since they couldn’t bring Mr Pickle in to visit. But when Roxy asked if he had any pictures with Harry, Eggsy said he wasn’t much of a photographer.
When Eggsy was chatting with Percival about the tailor shop, Chester made a snide comment about how little Harry had told Eggsy about the business. Eggsy just winked and said they didn’t do much talking when Harry got home from work. Merlin had found it difficult to focus on his own work after that.
But for all of his suspicions, Merlin has genuinely enjoyed the time they’ve spent together, watching over Harry. Merlin finishes clearing the dishes and tells Eggsy “Leave the rest of those for later, time to open gifts now.”
Eggsy follows him into the living room where everybody has gathered around the tree. Merlin goes to help pass out gifts but pauses to watch when he sees Violet approach Eggsy with one. Eggsy looks stunned as he takes the brightly wrapped box from her. “For me?” he said.
“Of course!” she replies. “I told you, you’re part of the family now”. Merlin watches with a smile as Eggsy unwraps and opens the box to reveal a lovely warm hand-knitted scarf. It had been Merlin’s suggestion. Poor lad clearly wasn’t staying warm enough in his newsagent stand. Everybody exclaims over the knitwork but Merlin can see Eggsy’s eyes starting to well up a little. He grabs the nearest box to him and glances at the label.
“Roxy! I’ve got a gift here from Santa that we all want to see you unwrap.” Everybody looks over, away from Eggsy who gratefully steps off to the side to wrap his new scarf around his neck and sniffle a little.
Eggsy starts walking faster as he heads down the hall. He can hear voices, loud and excited, coming from the open door of Harry’s room. Has something happened? He walks in and then comes to a complete halt. All of Harry’s family are crammed into the room, huddled around the hospital bed. Harry himself is awake, sitting up in bed against a pillow, looking tired but smiling at everybody. Violet calls out to him. “Eggsy! We knew you’d be on your way home from work. Look who it is, Harry!” Every person in the room turns to look at Harry. Eggsy can feel them holding their collective breath. He’s had nightmares that start like this.
“I’m sorry, have we met before? I’m afraid I’m still not quite feeling my best right now,” says Harry politely.
Everybody in the room starts talking at once.
“Harry! It’s Eggsy, your fiancé!”
“Oh my god, he’s got amnesia!” Violet actually clutches her heart and collapses back against Roxy.
“What else can’t you remember, Harry? How many fingers am I holding up? What’s my favorite color?”
Merlin just frowns and starts typing furiously on his laptop, as if google is going to fix this situation.
Champ takes Eggsy by the shoulder and nudges him through the crowd to Harry’s side. Champ nods at Eggsy encouragingly. Harry, bewildered at all the commotion, looks up at Eggsy. His eyes are the large, trusting eyes of some animated woodland creature.
Good thing Eggsy always identified more with the villain, cause he’s about to be the bad guy. He doesn’t know quite where to start. He hadn’t thought he’d have to do the explaining, when it came time. He figured he’d just be tossed out on his arse.
He looks over to see Violet, who sent him home last night with a box of leftovers, actually dabbing away tears with a handkerchief. Everybody is too emotional right now. He’ll explain the situation to Harry privately, later when they’ve all had time to calm down, and they can stage a nice quiet break-up. But for right now, “We’ve been dating for months, Harry. You asked me to marry you. You really don’t remember?” Good thing he knows how to make his eyes look large and trusting too.
Harry darts his eyes to the side where his family is staring at them both, then back to Eggsy. He gives a smile that he probably intends to be reassuring. “Of course, Eggsy. My dear, it’s all coming back to me now. The head injury, you know, things are still a little fuzzy.”
Eggsy hopes his smile is more believable than Harry’s.
Eggsy crouches down to let Mr Pickle jump up and give his face a few licks. “Hey buddy, I know you’ve been missing your daddy, but he’ll be back before you know it. He’s awake now!” Eggsy laughs as his tone makes Mr Pickle start to spin in excited circles. He picks the pup up and gives him a smooch. “I’m gonna miss you so much, Mr Pickle.”
It was stupid to have become so attached to the dog, when he knew he wasn’t really dating Harry, that none of this was real. He starts carrying Mr Pickle towards the door and pauses to look at the pictures lining the side table. Stupid to get so attached to everybody, really.
He picks up a picture of Harry and Merlin, standing side by side in sports jerseys, looking a little muddy but happy. It was time to stop lying to himself. It had been fun to daydream about falling in love with Harry, but it hadn’t been Harry that he’d fallen in love with, in the end. It was Merlin.
And now it was all about to come crashing down. Maybe Harry would be willing to go along with his ‘fake an end to the fake engagement’ plan, and Merlin and the rest of the family wouldn’t hate Eggsy forever. But there would be no reason for them to keep in touch with Eggsy, and that would be the end of things. He sets the picture down, buries his nose in Mr Pickle’s fur and gives him a big squeeze. Mr Pickle is a good dog, and doesn’t protest.
Merlin uses his spare key to let himself into Harry’s flat. He’s here ostensibly to pick up a few things for Harry but he really wanted to check on Eggsy. The man had practically fled the hospital room after Harry had woken up not recognizing him at first. “Eggsy?” he calls out, stepping into the hallway. “Oh,” he spots him standing next to the hall table, clutching Mr Pickle like his life depends on it.
“Hey, Merlin,” Eggsy clears his throat and sets Mr Pickle down. “Me and Mr Pickle here were just getting ready to go for a walk.” He doesn’t look at Merlin as he says this, fiddling with the leash instead.
“I wanted to make sure you were ok after that scene back there in the hospital room.
I know it seemed like Harry didn’t recognize you right off, but he did just wake up from a coma. It’s the traumatic brain injury talking, not him.”
“I know, Merlin, I remember all that stuff we talked about, I just…”
He still looks heart-broken and Merlin can’t take it anymore. He pulls Eggsy into a hug and holds him tight. Eggsy wraps his arms around Merlin and hugs him back tighter than he was hugging Mr Pickle a few minutes ago. Merlin closes his eyes and tries to memorize the feeling. He knows he’s let himself become too attached, and he knows there’s nothing he can do about that now. He allows himself one more quick squeeze and a deep breath, then pulls pack and puts his hands on Eggsy’s shoulders, holding the boy at arms length. He looks him in the eye.
“It’s going to be fine, Eggsy, you’ll see. Harry just needs a little more time to let his brain recover. And even if Harry had somehow forgotten you entirely, he’s not a stupid man. He’d just need to spend five minutes with you to fall in love with you all over again. Now, how about I join you and Mr Pickle on your walk? Harry sent me to pick up a few things because apparently the selection of grooming products at the hospital leaves something to be desired, but I think he can wait a bit.” He smiles at Eggsy and gets a wobbly smile back.
“Yeah, that’d be great, thanks, Merlin”
Eggsy drags his feet down the hospital hallway, returning everybody’s cheerful greetings halfheartedly. He’s been to see Harry twice now since Harry’s been awake, but hasn’t managed to catch him alone. Instead they sit awkwardly next to each other until someone brings up the future wedding or how excited Harry must be to get home to Eggsy and Mr Pickle, at which point Harry usually pretends to be tired and in need of a nap. Eggsy’s starting to feel like a real dick.
Looks like his luck isn’t much better today, because Merlin and Violet are in the room with Harry. He sits and chats with everybody; luckily Harry seems in good spirits today. Eggsy can’t drag this out anymore. “I hate to kick everybody out, but I was hoping I could get a little one on one time with my man,” He winks at Violet. She laughs at him and gives Harry a kiss on the cheek before heading out. “Don’t do anything to wear my son out, he’s supposed to be released at the end of the week if he keeps doing well.”
As he gathers his things, Merlin has the same intense expression on his face that used to scare the shit out of Eggsy, but when he sees Eggsy looking at him he smiles. He walks over to squeeze Eggsy’s shoulder on his way out of the room. Eggsy must look more scared than he realizes because Merlin quietly says to him “Remember what I told you the other night. It’s all going to work out.”
Eggsy wants to say, thanks for everything, or I’ll miss you the most, or maybe please don’t hate me, but he just nods. They don’t look away from each other until Harry clears his throat behind them.
Eggsy closes the door after Merlin and Violet leave and turns back to Harry who is fiddling with the blanket on his hospital bed and looking uncomfortable.
Eggsy paces back and forth in the tiny area of free space beside the bed. “Harry, listen, the thing is.” A little more pacing. “You didn’t forget about me being your fiancé, because I wasn’t.”
Harry eyes snap up from the bed to meet Eggsy’s. “I was working at my newsstand and I saw you about to get hit by that van, and I did save your life, that’s all true. They let me go with you to the hospital, and one of the nurses got the wrong end of the stick, and then your whole family showed up and…”
Harry raises his hand to stop Eggsy’s rambling. “You’re saying that you and I are not engaged to be married, and in fact have never dated.”
Eggsy nods. Harry relaxes back against the pillows propped up on the bed. “I have never been so relieved to hear something in my life. No offense meant, since I woke up I have heard nothing but what a wonderful young man you are and how delighted everybody is that we are together. But I was afraid something important had been jarred loose in the accident when I couldn’t remember you”
Eggsy winces. “And I am so, so sorry about that. It’s just that, right after the nurse told your family that I was your fiancé, Chester pitched such a fit I just had to give him a hard time. And then things got away from me completely”
“I only wish I had been awake to see that. But I’ve been asleep for weeks, apparently. Why keep up the pretense for so long?”
“Have you met your family? They’re amazing. They made me a Christmas stocking, Harry. It’s obviously been a pretty stressful time for them. And I thought, once you woke up, you’d set everybody straight right quick, and everybody would be so happy to have you awake, they wouldn’t get too mad at me.”
Harry does a pretty good ‘I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed’ look. “Your logic leaves something to be desired, young man.”
“I know, believe me I know. Listen, maybe we can just tell everybody we broke up? I mean, you can tell them I dumped you, make me the bad guy here. I’d rather that than...”
“Telling them that you’ve been lying to them for weeks now?”
Eggsy slumps. “Yeah”
Harry’s face softens a little. “I’m mostly upset because I can tell that they care about you very much. I’d almost suggest that we give this relationship a real try when I get out of here.” He gives Eggsy a significant look. “But I suspect I’m not the one you really want to be in a relationship with.”
And that’s about all Eggsy can handle right now. He grabs his snapback and puts it on, pulling it low over his eyes. “Don’t know what you mean. Look, I’ll feed Mr Pickle and take him for a walk one last time tomorrow, then I’ll leave your keys on the side table. I know Merlin has a spare set. Sorry again for everything. Bye, Harry” He walks out the door.
Merlin walks into the hospital room and heads for his usual chair, already getting his laptop out to set it up. “How did physical therapy go this morning, Harry?”
“Almost made me wish I was still in a coma. But they said I was good and I’m still on track to go home by the end of the week.”
“Great news! Mr Pickle will be beside himself with joy.”
“I have missed him so. Will you be able to watch him for me for the rest of the week?”
Merlin looks up at this and frowns “Why would I need to, Eggsy has been watching Mr Pickle.”
Harry looks shifty. “Eggsy and I...are no longer together. He said he would take care of Mr Pickle this morning and then leave his keys on the hall table.”
“No!” Merlin jumps up from the chair. “What did you do, Harry?”
“What did I do?” Harry looks offended. “Why would you assume I did something?”
Merlin points accusingly at Harry. “That man was devoted to you, Harry. You didn’t see him here at the hospital, every day for weeks. He wouldn’t just up and leave you for no reason.”
He turns around and paces a few steps, then stops. “Unless you broke it off with him. But that doesn’t make sense, even you’re not that stupid.” He turns to face Harry again, “But you did just suffer a severe head trauma.” Merlin grabs his phone. “We’re going to fix this. I’m going to get him back here, and you’re going to apologize for whatever it is you said…”
Harry has a hand rubbing his temple and looks somehow even more tired than he did when he woke up the first time. “Merlin, I didn’t say anything. I was hoping not to have to go into detail, but I see now that was wishful thinking.” He looks up at Merlin. “We were never dating in the first place.”
Merlin collapses into his chair. “But I don’t understand? You were engaged to be married?”
“In fact we were not. Eggsy confessed everything to me yesterday. It was all a big mix-up. Apparently the nurse thought that we were together, and when she said so Chester was such a prick about it Eggsy decided not to correct her.”
Merlin cannot even. “But why would he keep pretending? The man faithfully picked up Mr Pickle’s shit for weeks, Harry.”
Harry gives him a look. “Mr Pickle is a delight, anybody would be honored to pick up his shit. And apparently, Eggsy became so attached to my family, he couldn’t bring himself to tell the truth. Honestly, Merlin, I thought you would be happier about us breaking up.”
Happy to learn that he would never see Eggsy again? “Why on earth would I be happy about this?”
“Because you are in love with Eggsy yourself? Were you just going to stand by silently while I married him? Pine forever?”
That had been Merlin’s plan, actually. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Merlin.” A stern look from Harry. “Do you realize how much you’ve talked about him, just in the last few days? You used the phrase ‘sea-green’ to describe his eyes, for god's sake.”
“You’re the one who thought they were blue,” mutters Merlin. “And just because he’s not actually in a relationship with you doesn’t mean he would want anything to do with me.”
“No, but the way he gazed longingly after you as you left yesterday does. I was starting to think I had woken up trapped in some sort of soap opera. I’m still not convinced I haven’t, actually.” Harry lays his head back down on his pillow and closes his eyes. “I am very tired, I had a long morning, and I would like to sleep now. If you want Eggsy back so badly, go and get him yourself."
Merlin leaves him be. He packs his laptop back up and heads out the door. He’ll stop and check on Mr Pickle, maybe take him out for a walk. Apparently he’s got a lot of thinking to do.
Eggsy leans his head on his hand and sighs. It’s gone dark now, he hasn’t had a customer in half an hour, and it’ll be time to close up soon. He idly wonders what the point is. There’s nowhere he’s got to be this evening.
It’s been a week since he walked out of Harry’s hospital room for the last time. It wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be, in the end, coming clean to Harry. Of course, Harry was still basically a stranger to him. It would have been harder, saying the words to Harry’s mum. Or Merlin. He’s not sure exactly what Harry had told his family. He got a text from Roxy earlier in the week asking if he wanted to meet up for brunch on his day off. He texted her back to say that he didn’t have any days off coming up. He actually saw Percival on his way into the tailor shop yesterday but managed to duck behind a customer to avoid being spotted himself.
He’s jolted out of his musing as someone walks up to his stand. It’s Merlin. His heart starts beating faster. Merlin could be here to punish him for his sins, as promised. Or he could be here for another reason? He looks oddly nervous as he approaches.
“Eggsy, hello.”
“Hi, Merlin.” They stare at each other for a moment. “Here for the evening paper?” Eggsy starts straightening up his stock.
“Uh, no.” Merlin fidgets with his satchel and produces the scarf that Eggsy had gotten as a Christmas present. “You left your scarf at Harry’s.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think...Did Harry tell you?”
“Harry told me that you two were never actually together.”
Merlin still doesn’t look more angry than usual. Probably a good sign. “Yeah, I am sorry about that. I know it was ridiculous and stupid, and there’s no excuse for what I did. I hope everybody’s not too upset at me?”
“No, lad, nobody’s upset at you. Violet’s more disappointed that you’re not actually going to be joining the family than anything.” He pauses. “I was wondering if you’d still be willing to consider becoming part of the family?”
Eggsy is confused. Marry Harry anyway? To stay in the family?
Merlin rubs the back of his scalp. “I’m making a big mess of this. What I’m trying to say is, I like you very much and I would like it if you dated me instead of pretending to date Harry.”
Eggsy can’t be hearing him correctly. He feels a stupid smile break out on his face anyway. “Are you being serious right now? Yes, I would love that! You’re really not mad at me?”
Merlin grins back. “I promise I am not. Neither is anybody else. I had to threaten them to get them to stay home and out of our business, actually. If you don’t have plans tonight, we are invited for dinner at Violet’s.”
Eggsy starts shutting up his shop. “Yes, let me just lock everything up here.”
Merlin waits patiently, then wraps Eggsy up in the scarf when he’s finished. “You really do need this scarf, don’t want you to get another sore throat.” He tugs Eggsy closer and leans down just a bit to kiss him.
When they part, Eggsy takes his hand as they start walking down the street. “I never had a sore throat, you know. I just said that ‘cause I liked to hear you read the paper.”
“I’ll read to you any time you want.” Merlin promises. “You missed Harry’s extremely touching reunion with Mr Pickle, by the way. Luckily for you Roxy took video.”
Eggsy smiles up at Merlin. “I’m so glad.”