Chapter Text
Quesadilla.
It was a really stupid name now that Pac thought about it. Surely they could've made a better name for a City. Especially the Capital City. Literally anything would've been better. So many things would've made more sense. Why would anyone actually want to name an entire City after a food item?
“Can you fix that?” Mike asked, stirring him from his thoughts and looking down to look at the creation they were building now.
Well, Mike was building. Pac wasn't supposed to be helping. He wasn't supposed to be doing anything aside from standing guard at the door and making sure that no one broke into the chambers of the kingdom's most renowned scientist and tried to either steal his work or kill him. Mike argued that he was the same level as him, which he was, but he didn't need to be in here and honestly for the plan to work he shouldn't be. Even if his skill set was virtually the same this was what got him here because the kingdom had only really wanted Mike, which worked out for them. He still missed creating things most days.
“You know I'm not supposed to.” Pac sighed. He usually refrained from at least helping Mike while he was working. He'd come in to help after a guard rotation if the person guarding Mike wouldn't say anything but Pac was usually the one here as their schedules matched up like that. Mostly because they'd tweaked the schedule themselves.
“I know but it's something small.” Mike said, dismissing his concerns. Honestly, it was never something small with Mike. He knew that it wasn't actually something the king wanted that Mike was working on but rather something to help with their heist.
He was already standing inside the laboratory. Which was more than he was definitely supposed to be doing right now. He was just lucky that the only person who ever caught Pac doing something other than his job was Cellbit and the archivist had long since given up caring on what the two of them did, considering their past. Cellbit had to know that the two of them weren't supposed to be here and were probably up to no good but he also wasn't supposed to be here. Palaces never hired ex-cons without some lying after all. Occasionally Richarylson wandered up here to scare Pac but so far everything had gone fine so far.
Pac looked down at the mess of things that Mike was doing. Technically, neither of them were supposed to be doing this to begin with because messing with magic was mildly illegal (Unless the Government did it) but Mike had pulled some strings. He was good at the building part of what they did but the magic part was more of Mike’s specialty. He wasn’t sure why Mike thought this was a good idea. He honestly wasn't even sure what Mike was trying to make but hopefully it would be helpful.
“So, draw this?” Pac asked, looking at what Mike had sketched in his notebook.
“Yeah, I messed up some of the details.” Mike said, waving his hand around, dealing with some metal shape thing. It was too confusing to be named a shape.
Pac nodded and picked up the piece of chalk, beginning to fix the problems that Mike had made. Mostly because he was occupied, doing whatever he was doing. He hadn’t been told what contraption they were working on this time. Mike just seemed very intent on building this little thing. He wasn’t good at fine details as he didn’t have steady hands for it. Maybe Mike shouldn’t have asked him to do this. This was a pretty bad idea on both of their parts. It would work though. At least hopefully.
“What is this for by the way? You never told me.” Pac asked as he cleaned up the lines.
“Well, it’s an experiment. I want to see if it works.” Mike said. That got Pacs’ attention. He liked when they did experiments. It was a lot more fun than standing outside the door and making sure no one messed with Mike.
“Oh, what’s it gonna do?” Pac asked. Sometimes he wished he was allowed to stand in the room instead of outside it so that he could see what Mike was doing and help him more but that simply wasn’t possible.
“Best case scenario, it works like some kind of teleporter.” Mike said looking up at him with excitement in his eyes. Way stones were something that the Royals had absolute control over and only let certain people use them, even then they were exorbitant amounts of money. The fact that Mike was building something against them while they unknowingly supplied them their wages and funds to do it made it even better.
Pac grinned, “Oh I love this already.”
“Worst case scenario, it blows up, but y’know that’s happened plenty of times.” Mike said. Plenty of things had blown up in this room. Usually only small fires that Pac could help put out before anyone realized what had happened. It would be fine.
“Eh, It’ll probably be fine.” Pac said, finishing the rough edges on the chalk drawing. He’d been helping Mike with this when he could, but he hadn’t known exactly what they were doing, just doing what he’d been told to do, and expanding upon it when he thought about it. This was fun. God, he'd missed making things so much.
It was a shame that the Royals didn’t want to supply both of them the funds to create new technology. They could’ve gotten so much more from Pac and Mike before they inevitably stole everything and fucked off to another country.
That was always the fun part of their heist missions. He had to admit this one was a bit more elaborate than others considering they’d already been here and infiltrated for quite some time. It helped, even if it was hellish to process because they thought he was dead, that Cellbit had been working here already as an Archivist. It made their infiltration easier. The longer they stayed though, the longer they could take care of Richarylson. Which was a nice thought.
The final few parts of the sigil like thing were drawn and he laughed a little now that he realized this was even better than their original plan. This would give them a foolproof way to leave after they’d gotten what they were after. He knew the guard schedules because he was a guard and Mike could get them out here. It was wonderful. Albeit being a guard was boring as hell, he was the one better suited for the job. It worked better this way.
“Okay.” Mike muttered, lifting up the thing of metal he’d been working on. The problem with being inventors was he didn’t truly know what Mike was holding up. It was something new. “Moment of truth.”
Mike moved the thing onto the chalk that Pac had drawn and they watched and waited, seeing the metal begin to glow a nice blue. He was expecting it to be green considering that Mike had been the one to build it but he’d been the one to fix and draw the sigil, Pac supposed. That would make the thing blue, so that made sense. He watched as the metal began to sputter and he internally groaned. This didn't work.
“Alright.” Pac muttered, reaching forward to break the chalk line so that nothing would happen to them.
Before he could, the thing exploded, just like the worst case scenario was supposed to be. Usually, if anything exploded it was much smaller than this, and didn't do much damage. The explosion threw him back, slamming him against the wall. He was wearing armor and was lucky enough for that to shelter him from too much damage. His head hurt but he could manage. Mike was not but he hit the door which was wood. That was a much better alternative to hitting the rocky surface of the walls. Still, Mike was much more vulnerable than him at the moment.
Pac laid there for a moment trying to orient himself as his ears rang. The explosion probably caused some fires that he needed to put out and make sure Mike was okay but he couldn’t get himself to stand up. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, finally getting a ragged breath after a few moments, breathing in smoke. Coughing a few times, he forced himself to at least roll over so he was on his side. His head was pounding and he could feel some blood on the back of his head.
The room was covered in blue flames. Which was not good considering that was a symbol that magic had been involved. Magic that could be traced back to him. He needed to get Mike out of here now. Pac pushed himself up and held on to the wall, trying to walk towards where he could see Mike’s body. The room was spinning but Mike was unconscious so he wasn’t getting out of there on his own. He had to get Mike. He managed to make it to the door, grabbed Mike’s body, pushing the door open, dragging him out of the room. It was much more difficult than it should've been.
Mike started coughing so at least he wasn’t unconscious, but he had a few burns on his arms and legs, and Pac knocked a small fire on his shirt out. He made sure he was okay before getting up to go assess the fire. At least, he tried to. A few more guards came running up behind him, looking at the damage before sending for water buckets so nothing was too lost. Some new guard was given that task and they were probably talking to Pac. He couldn’t really hear them over the ringing in his ears.
He stumbled forward, nearly tripping, trying to help before someone grabbed him and led him to a wall, sitting him down. He blinked as they snapped their fingers in front of his face, peering at him as tried to figure out who it was. It wasn’t Etoiles or Roier or anyone he recognized. Or maybe that was because he couldn’t see right and everything was blurry. Pac could feel his eyes starting to shut, slipping closed. He couldn't go to sleep. That would make everything worse.
His body would not give out on him now. No, he needed to make sure Mike was okay. He fought the instinct to pass out, and tried to see if Mike was fine. He was being picked up. Then he was being carried. He could move on his own. Which he probably couldn’t actually based on the fact that his knees kept buckling under him. His hand burned. The next moment, he was being placed on an infirmary bed with Mike on the one next to him.
Pac stared up, still unsure as to who had even brought him here. Etoiles had been carrying Mike apparently since he was in here, stark white hair clear when he took his helmet off. The guy that had carried him was ushered to stand next to the door as the doctor started to look over Mike. Etoiles was pretty good with field medicine and so the next thing he knew, Etoiles was helping him to take off his armor so that they could get to a few burns that had apparently gotten to him by his armor getting pretty hot. They hurt a little but it was mostly bruises from hitting the wall.
They were just regular burns. They didn’t seem too bad. Pac also couldn’t really process what the hell was happening. Etoiles was wrapping up his burns after putting some salve on it. He looked at the back of his head, determining him fine.
“What happened?” Etoiles asked after a few minutes.
“Things didn’t work right, and so it exploded.” Pac muttered, rubbing his head. It hurt but he'd deal.
Etoiles looked at him, giving him a look. They both knew what Etoiles was really asking.
“Mike wanted me in there in case anything went wrong.” He answered. It wasn’t entirely a lie. That was part of the reason that he’d been in there but it wasn’t the whole truth. Not like Etoiles would say anything but there were other people in here right now. Etoiles knew what he meant.
He glanced over at Mike, who’d gotten quite a few burns, but those were being bandaged and seemed like they weren’t as bad as they could be. Mike was just partially unconscious because y’know his head hit the door. Mike didn't look as great, and it worried him.
“I’m surprised you aren’t under as well.” Etoiles commented.
“Armor.” Pac said. He supposed he’d also flown considerably less when the thing exploded.
“Yeah, you still hit the wall.” Etoiles said. Referring to the fact that his head had hit the wall, and had been bleeding a little.
“I don’t know man. I’m just not.” He huffed, glad that at least his vision was clearing up and he could hear again. That was good.
Etoiles nodded, and patted his shoulder, “I’m gonna go see if I can salvage anything.”
Pac said goodbye to him and Etoiles left, leaving him to recover for a bit while Mike was treated. He knew what Etoiles was really doing. Making sure there was nothing damning about what they had been doing. Hiding the evidence if there was any. Etoiles was a really good friend. They should let him in on more than just the fact that they were doing things they weren't supposed to and were here on false pretenses.
Pac glanced at Mike and resolved that it might’ve been better to take a nap while he waited. The mysterious new guard was still standing at the door, so he’d be fine. Besides, Etoiles wanted him to rest based on the fact that he’d been asking about why he wasn’t unconscious. A small nap would be fine.
xxx
Pac knew this was coming. He and Mike had gotten their stories straight the moment that they woke up. They had to since this time the Captain of the Guard would probably want to talk to them. Mike was working on what the King asked. Pac was guarding and went inside when Mike asked to make sure that he’d be okay if something happened as Mike was going to test something. The thing exploded, shocking both of them, and that’s how they both ended up in the infirmary. Nothing else happened. There was no reason to suspect them of anything.
Etoiles walked them there when they were called in. Pac wasn’t even officially in his armor and Mike was limping as he walked but he was grinning like he’d figured something out. Which they had. Even if it had failed, they knew they did something wrong so it needed to be tweaked. It might work though. Then they’d do great. Everything would be great. This was why he loved science.
Pac was trying to hide a smile. Etoiles knew that they had what they were going to say down. They both did and honestly, Pac was very tempted to tell Etoiles about their plans. Even if Etoiles only knew they were hired under false names.
They were taken into a room where the Captain sat and next to him stood a few people that had been talking to him. Honestly, they’d all taken to calling him Cucurucho because that was better than admitting that he was a piece of shit captain that didn't deserve the title he had and it should be Etoiles but no, the king favored Cucurucho. It was amazing that he didn’t recognize them when he hired them considering he’d been the one to arrest them. That had been the best part about this.
“I have been informed of an explosion that harmed the both of you.” Cucurucho said, eyes glancing between both Him and Mike. He noticed how Cucurucho said informed, which was because he wasn’t there because he never was unless you were doing something wrong. Mike didn't even report to him. This was pointless.
“Yes.” Mike said.
“And why did this happen? Your job is to stand outside and not interfere with his work.”
“I was requested to enter so as to protect him in the case of the experiment not going correctly, sir.” Pac answered. There was no reason to have this meeting but according to Etoiles they needed to have it.
“If it’s something so dangerous maybe you shouldn’t be doing it.” Cucurucho said.
“Frankly, that’s not your call. I am building and making things for the king himself. What he wants, he gets. I follow his orders, not yours.” Mike said, flatly, clearly trying to keep a grin off his face.
“It’s my business when my guard is not where he’s supposed to be and gets hurt, but if that’s what happened…” Cucurucho trailed off as if to prompt for further explanation. There was none as the both of them stayed silent. Etoiles coughed a few times but he could see that the man was smiling. Cucurucho sighed. “Alright then, Gabriel, You will be placed somewhere else for the next few days and when you return to your post guarding Lorenzo with someone of my appointment accompanying you.”
Pac nodded, being reminded of the fake name he’d picked out when signing up for this job for the heist. Mike had at least picked a fun name. He couldn’t remember why on earth he’d chosen Gabriel. No, he remembered now. Why the fuck had he done that? Mike surely remembered and now was gonna tease him about it since he remembered. He didn't want to be reminded of a brief crush he'd gotten when first arriving in the city right now.
“Now leave.” Cucurucho said, waving them off, going back to talking to the others. They were some other staff. Ones he definitely shouldn’t be talking to but was. Oh well. He wasn’t going to do anything about it, lest he get fired. He needed to stay in the job so this heist would work. As long as they weren’t caught, they’d be set for life. It was gonna be great.
Pac and Mike left with Etoiles trailing after them. Etoiles seemed to be trying not to laugh at the names that they'd both picked out. To be fair, they were pretty random. They just chose some random names that sounded good enough to use. Well, Mike's had been random. They did have to fake an identity here after all. That was the only way that this would work.
“I still forget that you have that god awful name.” Mike cackled.
“Yours isn’t much better.” Pac scoffed.
“At least I didn’t name myself after a guy I liked.” Mike retorted.
“You what?” Etoiles cackled.
“Shut up.” Pac huffed, shoving Mike's shoulder playfully. He didn't actually shove him but succeeded in getting his point across.
“Who did you meet named Gabriel?” Etoiles asked.
“Some random innkeeper, okay? It was months ago. I made a horrible decision.” Pac said. One little crush. One. That had backfired so much. This was so stupid.
“Oh I know and I'm not letting you live that down.” Mike laughed.
“Okay, Lorenzo.” Pac retorted, making fun of Mike's name. It was actually an okay name compared to Pacs.
They made it to the stairs that led to the Guards quarters. Technically, Mike wasn't supposed to be staying with them but they'd gotten special permission via Etoiles when he'd woken up to Pac having a panic attack in his sleep because of a nightmare. Those were rare nowadays but they always showed up when Mike wasn't there. It was better to keep them together.
“I like that name. It's better than Gabriel.” Mike teased. Pac stepped forward to help him walk down the stairs. A couple of the burns were on his legs and therefore he couldn't walk the best right now without being in pain. Luckily, it wasn't that bad. It shouldn't scar according to the Doctors.
“I think they're both stupid.” Etoiles commented, and he reached back to try and whack him. It didn't work and Etoiles just laughed. “Are you two gonna make something explode again when Pac gets put back on duty?”
“Yeah, if things go shittily again. It wasn't supposed to do that.” Mike huffed.
“It definitely wasn't.” Pac agreed, letting go of Mike as they'd reached the bottom of the staircase.
The three of them walked back to their quarters. The barracks could've been better but the rooms were spacious. As spacious as they could be with four people living in a room. Mike opened the door and collapsed on Pac’s bed, not bothering to try and get up on his own until he nudged his foot and Mike moved, climbing up to his own bunk with ease despite his burns. He would've just sat next to him but Mike looked like he needed to lay down. Pac sat down on his bed, leaning back so that his back was on the wall. Etoiles stretched and pulled up a chair instead of sitting on his bed, and sat on it backwards so his arms could rest on the back of the chair.
They weren't supposed to have a table in here. Probably because usually there wasn't room but Pac had gotten bored at some point and put the beds on top of one another, making bunk beds. It gave them more space and as long as Cucurucho never realized that they'd essentially doubled the space in the room, they'd get away with it. That guy was a stickler for the rules and yet he'd never once seen the guy wearing a suit of armor. Or fight. He shouldn't be in the position he was in Pac's opinion.
“So, why do you need the fake names anyways?” Etoiles asked, glancing between them. He seemed curious. They could only be here for a few minutes before people started harassing them about being elsewhere. Well, Etoiles had to be somewhere else. He and Mike were on bedrest until tomorrow, and Mike didn’t exactly have a place to work right now.
If Mike was sitting next to him, he would've looked at him to make sure that telling Etoiles was okay. Mostly because it was a pretty big secret. If something about it came out about it, because there were eyes and ears everywhere, they'd get arrested and probably executed this time around. Frankly, Pac had put too much work into this thing to get arrested now. He didn’t want to deal with dying right now.
“We got arrested.” Mike said casually. Seems that they were gonna tell Etoiles at least that part.
Etoiles blinked, as if trying to process what Pac and Mike had said, “You got arrested? So you decided to make fake names to work for the people who arrested you?”
“Yeah. It worked, so here we are.” Pac shrugged.
“But why?” Etoiles asked.
“Trying to build and invent with no money is hard. We get funding this way at least, and we take shit from the Royals. It’s good this way.” Mike said. It wasn’t the entire truth, they were also here to rob the place.
“Ah, fair, fair.” Etoiles mused. It was also a new opportunity for them. Almost half of the staff in the castle weren’t even from here. Everyone present included but they’d lived here long enough to not trust the government working here. It’s why they could trust Etoiles, they could tell that he wasn’t here just to be a guard to the royals.
The door slammed open and Pac's head snapped to who had entered. The final man that stayed in the room and a half-decent friend of theirs, Roier. He usually had later shifts than them, but based on the way he was grinning, they were not going to talk about the normal stupid shit they did. They were going to talk about the fact that Roier was doing something very illegal. The door was shut behind Roier as he sat down on his bed, grin never leaving his face. He had a letter in his hand and they all knew who it was from.
“Oo, Roier, do you have another letter from your secret man?” Etoiles teased.
Roier, out of concern for whoever he was talking to, had never told any of them who it was, but Pac wasn’t an idiot. He saw how Cellbit always perked up at any mention of Roier, and how Roier always got the same soft smile when talking to Cellbit as he did when reading the letters. He didn’t care much about Cellbit but he made Roier happy so he was happy for both of them.
“I do.” Roier said, handing the letter over to Etoiles to let him read it.
Roier didn’t let them read all his letters, only some of them, and he was even more secretive when writing them. Pac understood why. They weren’t exactly supposed to get into any relationships being guards so that they wouldn’t get distracted from their duties. Roier had managed to find someone anyway.
“What did he say this time?” Mike asked, looking down from his bed. Pac knew because the bed above him creaked.
“It’s another love letter.” Etoiles laughed with mirth. Pac grinned and moved forward, gesturing to Etoiles to let him read the letter.
Etoiles moved it, showing it to Pac, letting him skim over the contents. It was another small poem written for Roier and given to him, slipped to him however Cellbit got them to Roier. He didn’t really care all that much but he was happy for Roier.
“He’s so sweet sometimes.” Roier said, sighing and falling back on his bed like Princesses from fairy tales. “I wish we could actually be together, y’know?”
“Yeah, I get that.” Mike agreed, taking the paper from Pac’s hand to read.
Mike read it and handed it back to Pac to give to Roier. Roier tucked the letter where he tucked the rest of them and ran a hand over his face.
“Anyways, I heard that you’re getting someone else stationed with you Pac.” Roier said, moving the subject off of himself.
“Yeah, Hopefully it’s you or Etoiles, but he’ll probably put someone I’m not tempted to talk to with me, and will make sure I’m actually doing my job.” Pac said. It was an unfortunate thing, but not something that would set back the plan too far. He was actually needed to make sure nothing blowing up hurt Mike fairly often.
Roier sat up, “Here by the way, it was on the floor. Didn’t burn but I don’t think you two wanted anyone to look at this.” Roier tossed a notebook on Pac’s bed.
He turned and stared at the cover. He was well aware of what was in that notebook, hidden within actual science and calculations. Guard schedules, placements, and other things that they needed to know to get everything out of here alongside themselves safely. Mostly, the thing that had caused the room to blow up. Not that he’d known that at first, but he knew what was in there and now Mike’s mad writings made sense.
Pac’s mouth felt dry as he picked up the notebook gingerly and said, “Thanks, Mike you definitely need this. It’s got some good shit in there.”
He passed it up to Mike, feigning a relieved look on his face. Etoiles was relaxed, stretching his arms since he did need to go do work soon while Roier stared Pac down, trying to get him to break. Roier had definitely looked in the notebook. Who wouldn’t? He’d assumed that it had burned but it hadn’t. At least Roier had been the one to find it.
“Alright, well, I’m off. Post by the gate until tonight. I’ll be back after sunset. See if Jaidens makes the good shit for dinner tonight, I want some.” Etoiles said, getting up and grabbing some of his stuff. “Pac, I’ll keep you updated on who is gonna get placed with you. Maybe I can pull some strings for you.”
They said goodbye to Etoiles and Pac looked at Roier who continued to look at him. He looked like he wanted to say something about the notebook but was conflicted on it.
“I hope you guys are successful with that by the way. I think it’d be good to knock a monopoly out of the hands of the King.” Roier said after a few moments, moving so that he was laying down so he could take a nap.
Pac sighed in relief and laid down as well. Roier wouldn’t say anything. Not that he thought that he truly would. Everything would be fine. He was more worried about the guy who would end up being stationed with him when he went back to guarding Mike in a few days. That was going to be an actual issue since the guy might force him to do his job for once instead of helping Mike. That was going to be a minor setback, but he’d deal.
This would all be fine.