Chapter Text
equanimity
/equa•nim•i•ty/
noun
- calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation.
༺𖤐༻
Five knew the moment he made eye contact with the plaque on the door in front of him that read ‘The Handler’ upon the door he was in for some annoying news.
Each time this woman has called him to this room it was to assign him a partner. And each time that partner never made it back from their missions, he figured she’d give up by now.
His first mistake was believing she would give up. As he entered the large room, his hands found the old comfort of his pockets as he looked at the woman at her desk.
“There he is, the man of the hour!” The Handler chimed, smiling widely as she stood up to welcome him inside. She had the worst news he could possibly imagine in that elderly head of his, and she couldn’t wait to share it.
“Look, I’ve told you this before, I don’t need a partner.” Five stated plainly, wanting to get to the point so he could leave. He was 58 years too old to be dealing with small talk.
The Handler chuckled, giving Five a look of disbelief as she sighed. She picked up a manilla folder containing the information she was about to explain to him, placing herself against her desk. “Sit down, Five.”
Five weighed his choices for a moment, pondering on what would happen if he didn’t sit down. Despite her friendly demeanor, she was the farthest from it. He decided that the quickest way out of this conversation and in the comfort of his own bed would be to obey.
The Handler watched him sit down with reluctance, but she smiled nonetheless.
“If I haven’t made it abundantly clear, I work alone or you don’t get the pleasure of employing me at all.” Five made sure to preface, hoping she would give up on the topic before she even began to discuss it. All of the other agents were worlds apart from him, he had no interest in being partners with one of them.
“Then I suppose you won’t have the pleasure of making it home to your little family.” The Handler chimed innocently, thinking there was nothing innocent about her tone. “Don’t you get lonely, Five? I mean, come on! Maybe the reason you’re so uptight is that you don’t have anyone to chat with after a long day’s work!”
“Chats aren’t really my thing.” Five replied, glaring up at the woman. He made sure his dissatisfaction with her was imminent.
The manilla folder within The Handler’s grasp was beginning to drive him insane. There was no name located on the folder, nothing written on the outside to indicate who he was about to be paired with. He was tired of waiting.
“You never know. With the right person, they could be.” The Handler chimed, waving the folder in the air before opening it.
“Yeah, well, it’s not like I can exactly say ‘no’ to this partnership anyway so why don’t you just tell me who you’re enlisting as my next victim.”
The Handler turned her lip up in delight, happy she had won him over so quickly without him putting up too much of a fight. She was finally wearing him down.
“She goes by Eight. I’m sure you’ve heard of her, she has quite the reputation. I figured since you two have numerical ways to address yourselves you’d be the perfect duo for your line of work.”
All the things Five knew about Eight, he learned entirely against his will. Someone would talk about one of her successful missions whenever he was in the cafeteria. He’d hear murmurs in the halls about her on his way to the bathroom. He couldn’t even get a snack from the vending machine without hearing a rumor about her. There wasn’t a place in this building where he didn’t learn something new about the girl. Based on the knowledge he unfortunately held, he knew one thing; he did not like her.
Just when he was about to protest, The Handler spoke up again.
“More importantly, I think of her as a daughter. Make sure she doesn’t get herself into any trouble or wind up dead somehow. She needs someone like you to… keep her grounded.”
Five glared at The Handler as he began to think over his choices. He didn’t plan to leave the commission so early, but this situation was about to drive him over the edge. He was not a babysitter, he had more important matters to deal with. He was getting back to his family, one way or another. “And If I say no?”
“Do you truly wish to find out the answer to that?”
Five rolled his eyes in defeat, sighing before standing up and snatching the folder away from The Handler. He left the office as the woman continued to speak to him, ignoring every word of it. She got what she wanted out of him, she won.
༺𖤐༻
Eight was called to her mother's office like she was every evening. She would have dinner with The Handler and her sister, Lila, just like they usually would. She had a feeling, however, that something wasn't right. She knew whatever it was making her feel this way was not going to be good.
She opened the door to reveal her adopted sister grinning at her, which she only could assume meant disaster was about to strike.
"Oh, my sweetling! Mother was wondering where you had scurried off to. I have some news for you." The Handler spoke, revealing their dinner at the table before sitting down. She motioned for Eight to sit down, keeping her eye on her.
Eight furrowed her eyebrows carefully before taking her seat slowly. "What kind of news?"
"You're gonna love it." Lila chuckled, beginning to stuff her face with food. The Handler had already filled her in on the new partner situation. Eight also recently told her about her secret infatuation with the concept of Five. Neither of them had seen the man in person, but they had heard plenty to keep their imaginations running with ideas.
Lila knew Eight would hate this assignment, so she would be prone to yelling at their mother. When Lila said Eight would love the topic, she truly meant she would love it.
Eight hummed quietly, shaking her head at Lila’s mischievous behavior. She never truly loved anything their mother did, so she wasn’t shocked by Lila’s comment. That doesn’t go without saying Eight didn’t appreciate The Handler. She was forever grateful for the woman. She saved her from a situation she never truly understood, even now as an adult. The story of her youth was never explained to her, so she didn’t want to begin to think of asking now. She could only hope her job well done within the Temps Commission made the woman proud to have saved her from it.
She picked up her utensil, ricocheting her gaze between the two before commencing to eat. Whatever her mother had to say, she assumed it would wait until after dinner.
She was wrong.
The Handler chuckled, pouring her girls each a glass of water before leaning back in her chair to deliver the news. "You're going to be partners with Agent Five."
Eight began choking from the news, grasping the table in an attempt to get a bit of fresh air into her lungs so she would live to scream at her mother for this mistake.
Lila began laughing at Eight’s reaction, not taking her eyes off the action.
The Handler quelled Lila quickly, waiting for Eight to alleviate to comfort once again so they could continue this conversation.
“Mother! Agent Five? If you want me dead, you could have just said so.” Eight spoke sarcastically, knowing the history behind Five and his past partners. Her mother had to be a sociopath to do this to her.
The Handler shook her head, waving a hand of dismissal at her daughter. “Now, now. I have already given him explicit warnings about your safety. I need him to keep you from harming yourself for this cause, and I need you to keep him from straying too far from his contract. There is nothing to fear, I think this could be a brilliant thing."
“Brilliantly hilarious.”
“Lila!”
Eight was beginning to wonder if the last couple hours of her life would be spent listening to her family argue. She loathed this scheme of her mother’s with her entire being.
She could only begin to wonder what the infamous Five thought of the assignment.
༺𖤐༻
Five sat in the cafeteria, alone much to his delight, reading over the file that was given to him by The Handler. If this girl was going to be his partner, he needed to see what he was going to be dealing with.
After a couple of minutes of reading, he wished he had remained blissfully ignorant of the information.
Eight was a twenty-one-year-old dumpster fire. He wondered how someone so young managed to catch the eye of The Handler, let alone be dubbed as her daughter. As his eyes skimmed the sheet he began to slowly understand.
Every single one of her missions had been successful, except one. No information was presented as to why this specific mission failed, but he was intrigued regardless. Most agents here he considered dumb as a bag of rocks. Much to his own dismay, he found himself engrossed in the file, not being able to tear his eyes away as he read.
He was so enthralled, in fact, his ears neglected to hear the steps approaching him.
"Oh, god. You're an old man?"
Five closed the file with quick ease, meeting the gaze of the young girl before him. The picture in the file matched her description perfectly.
"Nice to meet you too." He scoffed, getting up to make himself a shitty coffee. He knew they would have to meet eventually, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. Damn The Handler.
Eight was in complete shock to find out that one of the Temps Commission's best agents and one she held in personal high regard was a nursing home patient. She had heard plenty of stories about Five, and she figured he was some smoldering twenty-something man with a tragic past that made him shut off from the world. How wrong she was. Damn The Handler.
"I'm not gonna partner up with someone who uses a breathing machine to sleep at night." Eight scoffed, crossing her arms, and shook her head. "Not to mention what I heard happens to your partners."
"Do you think I look forward to this permanent babysitting gig? If your age wasn't the problem, your mouth certainly is." Five sat back down with his cup of coffee, opening the file again.
”Permanent babysitting gig— Who’s doing the babysitting here, grandpa? As far as I’m concerned, I’m not so sure you can even wipe your own ass. Why did you agree to this?”
He planned to just ignore her, but her looming personality made that impossible. He could hear her foot tapping against the ground, he could feel her stare piercing a hole straight through him. It had been five whole minutes and he already couldn’t stand being in her presence.
”What?” Five snapped at her, rolling his eyes as he looked up to meet her sharp gaze. If she got one thing from her mother, it was that haunting stare.
"Are you losing your hearing too, old man? Why did you agree to this?" Eight contested, not wanting to leave this room without knowing the truth behind the matter.
Five scoffed out of frustration, returning his eyes to the sheets before him. Not only did the folder contain contents of her life, but it also held information on what their first mission as a pair would be. "Did you get agree to this?"
"No."
"And yet here you are, I'm in the same boat as you. Now, we can either sit and bicker like a bunch of five-year-olds, or we can discuss how to handle this assignment we've been dealt with. As annoying as you are, I respect your skills enough to ignore that irritating trait. Like it or not, we're the best this shithole has to offer."
Eight hummed in response, mulling over his words before deciding he wasn't entirely wrong. Setting her crushed dreams aside, she took a seat in front of him so they could collaborate.
This wasn't about her.
This wasn't about him.
This was about making her mother proud. She would be damned if this stopped her from doing just that.