Work Text:
Felix hurriedly walked back to the apartment with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his khaki-colored shorts. He'd been lucky so far to stay out of sight from any onlookers, now, all he had to do was avoid Locus.
Locus should have been out right now, doing some mundane task like buying groceries or whatever the man had mentioned in his last text message. If that was the case, Locus should have been gone for quite awhile; at least enough time in which Felix could get home, wash his bloody hands, and hide the equally bloody knife hidden in his backpack. He'd been smart enough to keep the blood off his clothes but might have gotten a little too carried away with the target and gotten his hands dirty.
The apartment building was empty inside, quiet. Just how the merc wanted it. He and Locus had talked once about getting a house somewhere but that conversation had fallen to the wayside some time ago along with talk about their relationship and other things.
Just as the merc rounded the corner, he ran into Locus.
The man returned his surprised gaze with a puzzled one of his own, arms full with two brown, paper bags and a key half-turned in the door handle.
“You're home early,” Locus remarked listlessly, fully turning the key and unlocking the door. Silently Felix followed him inside, giving only a small shrug as his response. It wasn't like he could tell Locus he'd been out killing someone as a hired hand…
“Yeah, I had to run back home...I forgot something.” the merc lied easily, heading towards their bedroom with his hands still burrowed in his pockets. Calmly he walked into the adjoining bathroom there and closed the door, rapidly cleaning his hands as best he could. Once the blood was gone, he reached into his backpack and grabbed the knife he'd stolen from the target’s house. It was a simple steak knife, and he'd dropped it into a Ziploc bag on his way out to avoid dripping and leaving a trail. He'd also wiped away fingerprints as best he could before he left.
Felix took the bag, wrapping the excess around the bloody blade and put it with his things under the sink. Locus hardly ever went into his stuff, and putting it here would give him enough time to hide it later. All he needed to do now was change clothes which he simply walked out and did, grabbing his backpack off the bed as he went back out towards the kitchen.
“Different outfit?” Locus asked, causing the merc to freeze...fuck, Locus knew.
“Yeah,” Felix drawled out bored, mind quickly searching for a good enough excuse, “Asshole bumped into me and spilled coffee on my shirt so, you know, it's pretty much ruined. You should take me shopping again some time...I could buy a pretty new outfit to wear for you.” the merc offered playfully, leaning over the kitchen counter with his chin in one of his hands. Internally, the merc was about to start sweating bullets. That was a close one.
“I've got to leave tonight, remember?” Locus supplied never stopping in his task of putting things away in various cabinets and the fridge.
Felix frowned, “Oh right...the ‘business meeting’. Mrrrr, you should stay here with me tonight.” he groaned out softly. It wasn't fair Locus was leaving on a night when Felix had just finished a job; he was always in such a good mood on those nights.
“I can't.” Locus replied simply, “That's why I also bought you food for at least three days while I'm gone. I don't want you calling me about how you're dying from hunger.”
Felix mimicked Locus’s talking with his right hand, something that had become a bit of a habit, whether Locus was looking or not. Pushing off the counter, Felix walked around it and forced his way into Locus’s arms to hug him
“I can take care of myself.” he pouted, looking up at the much taller man.
Locus smirked, “Really? I still have those voicemails.”
“Asshole.” Felix frowned before pushing himself up onto practically the tops of his sneakers, and pulling Locus down to kiss him.
Much too quickly, Locus peeled him away, “Felix, go back to work.” he reminded as Felix huffed and headed towards the door.
Once outside the apartment, the merc’s phone buzzed. He texted the information that the previous target had been taken care off and that he was free for more work. Locus being gone for three days was a blessing and a curse. Aimlessly, Felix walked back out of the apartment building and tried to make plans on what to do with the rest of his day. ‘Work’ was a sham, a front he'd created to give himself an alibi in case anyone started poking around.
Felix’s phone buzzed again as he headed down a stretch of sidewalk, this time with information regarding a new job. The info came with a picture message and an urgent warning for him to wear his armor. The armor in question was no doubt the power armor the merc had stashed in a storage locker some time ago, and he usually only wore it during extremely dangerous missions...which meant this was going to be fun. Slightly trembling from excitement, he opened the picture message and was met with the sight of a black helmet - a green x painted almost ceremoniously across the visor.
The instructions below the photo were brief and straight to the point: kill on sight, bring back helmet as proof of death
~*~
Felix arrived back at the apartment late that night. He'd spent a good majority of the day retrieving his armor from the storage unit and transporting it to his vehicle.
He'd received another text message a few hours later; this time it was directions to a locale that the client had lured the target to. Apparently, the target thought himself a mercenary too and Felix chuckled.
He showered, then dressed lightly. Normally he slept in just his underwear, or nude if he could get away with it, but he really needed to get rid of that bloody steak knife. Retrieving the bag from under the counter, he broke the blade from the handle - the bag now dyed in dried blood crackled beneath his touch. Using latex gloves he kept beneath the sink, Felix pulled out a pair and headed for the front door.
Lately, he'd noticed a neighbor of theirs had had a certain routine and he'd studied it meticulously in case the need for a “fall man” ever arose. He wasn't worried about being caught, oh no, he never did. Still, causing some bedlam while Locus was gone wouldn't hurt anything. Easily, he picked the lock on their neighbor’s door and let himself inside. Immediately heading for the nearest trash can, he removed the knife blade and set it on top of the plastic bag. Honestly, he hated trash picking but it was a necessary evil, he decided as he combed the trash back a certain degree before dropping the bloody blade inside.
Felix left the apartment in mostly the same way he'd entered, quietly and without being noticed. Eh, now he was kind of bored. The merc headed for the trash chute and chucked the handle inside it. As for the plastic bag, he'd just burn it in the fireplace soon.
He calmly walked back home to their apartment like nothing was wrong. He locked up for the night and and stripped back down again to fall into the bed, face first onto Locus’s side of the bed to be precise. Sighing happily, he breathed in the trace scent left behind on the pillow and ‘snuggled’ further down into the blankets and reveled in the comfort he found.
Reaching for his phone, Felix started to text Locus; searching for something good to say as he lay there waiting for sleep to take him. He settled on something simple, which in his case was along the lines of ‘hey, I'm bored, pay attention to me’. The merc honestly hadn't expected the man to text him back so quickly but Felix's joy was cut short by the short reply of ‘busy’, no punctuation following it. Felix pouted and threw the phone on the other pillow, remarking to himself that Locus was gonna owe him big after this.
He didn't even get to tell him about the fun thing he got to do tomorrow.
~*~
The abandoned building, the meeting place, was just as he remembered from previous visits. Literally nothing had been done to deconstruct the condemned structure which made it a perfect place to lure targets to and slit their throats. Or shoot them. Honestly it was dealer’s choice here given the seclusion as well as the multiple floors to traverse.
However, that was also a danger. With so many floors and nooks and crannies, it would be easy for his guard to slip and someone get the jump on him. Regular targets were never a problem for him, but other mercenaries…they were dangerous, unpredictable, and basically thought just like him; any dirty or unfair means of winning was certainly going to be used.
Felix crept as quietly as possibly through the mess of dilapidation around him, rifle swung across his back and trusty knife in hand. For once, his mind was fairly clear and his mouth remained shut. One wrong move, one errant sound, and he could find a bullet in his back.
Turning his sensors on wasn't a hazard to his mission, it just made things less fun. Why have some high-tech machine point out your target when you could just play cat and mouse with the guy? Felix only hoped his target was having just as much fun as he was; it was practically brimming from within him and causing his arms to tremble.
Suddenly there was a noise, a shuffling of metal and fibers, and Felix rolled to his right to avoid a well-aimed shot. He grappled up into one knee, slipping the knife into its holster on his back and slinging the rifle back into his hands. With the speed and precision of an expert (of which he no doubt was), Felix had his rifle up and pointed in the direction the shot had come from.
There was no one there. Or rather, the person that had been there had disappeared into the thin air.
“Oh, you wanna play, huh?” Felix mumbled under his breath as he fully climbed to his feet.
“Hey now,” he began as he aimlessly walked towards the spot where he'd been ambushed, “that was really sloppy, you know? I mean, if it was me I'd have just kept shooting. A whole spray of bullets. But I guess that's hard to do with a sniper rifle, huh?” There was honestly no point in being quiet anymore, not after a confrontation. Now all that was left to do was irritate, annoy, and draw the target back out.
Felix rounded a corner and threw his rifle back up instantly; the man opposite him, clad in black and green armor, did the same with his sniper. It was like something out of the old west, ‘a showdown at noon’ or something where they both had each other under a gun. It was...so stupid. So stupid in fact that Felix couldn't stop himself smiling and then eventually breaking out into raucous laughter.
“Fuck,” Felix cursed, lowering the gun, “fuck, okay fine, you win. Oh man that was so fucking stupid.” he announced through bouts of laughter as he put the rifle back across his shoulders.
The man across from slowly lowered his sniper and repeated the motion in turn, “You lose.” It was quiet, but it wasn't hard to tell the corners of the man's mouth were twitching upward into a small smile.
“Oh fuck, I don't even care anymore. Come on, that was so dumb and overdramatic though? Seriously Locus, I almost lost it at ‘business meeting’ the other day...way to be obvious.” The grey and orange colored merc smirked as he removed his helmet, lightly shaking his head in an attempt to ‘fix’ his hair.
“So, I assume you did have fun doing this then?” Locus asked he walked closer.
“Eh, it was alright, I guess. Just don't forget that I was right when I said we should try something different this time.” ‘Something different’ had entailed the two of them pretending to lead secret double lives as mercenaries; first person to break the act or slip up lost and had to comply with whatever the winner wanted. Felix had been the one to come up with the idea in an attempt to keep things from getting stale. After all, the only jobs that had been available lately were of hit jobs on each other.
Before Locus could open his mouth, Felix fell down to the floor and laid there.
“What are you doing now?” Locus asked, still slightly bemused over the fact that he'd won their silly game and that this time Felix hadn't called a foul.
“Uh, I'm laying down and pretending to be dead? That's what your guy wants, right? Proof of dead me.” Felix asked, striking a very un-dead-like pose with his hands under his head and his legs crossed at the knee.
“All they want is your helmet. Get up.” Locus regretted how much that sounded like an order; this was one of the reasons he needed Felix though - not many people could understand his ways.
Felix grumbled as Locus pulled him up, their hands clasped around the either’s elbow.
“Is that all then?”
“Yeah, my guy just wants the helmet too. And don't worry,” Felix quickly interjected as he turned on his heel, “I won't scratch up the visor like last time, geez.” The grey and orange merc went to grab his helmet before returning to Locus. “I just thought about something…” he started, voice low and sultry and he snaked his arms around Locus’s neck.
“No.”
“Oh come on, we’re all alone here. It's the perfect opportunity! And, we've never done it here before.” Felix explained, as if that would somehow make Locus change his mind.
“I win, and you still get what you want?” Locus asked, staring down at his much shorter partner who was beginning to weigh him down with their embrace.
“Um, yes.” Felix responded, smiling, not a single ounce of shame to be found in his voice. “I'm still not gonna talk through movies or tv shows for a whole month. Scout’s honor.” Locus frowned behind his helmet...he hated when Felix said scout’s honor; it usually always ended with something bad happening or a giant lie.
Locus sighed and unlaced the arms around his neck, “Let's just go home.”
“You're not even gonna carry me out? But we’re supposed to be a couple and you're supposed to be pampering me.”
“In full armor? And I thought you said we were done.” Locus asked, turning to look over his shoulder as Felix continued around him and towards the building’s exit.
“Aw Locus, you don't have to sound so disappointed, I was just kidding.” Felix paused, almost as if for breath, and laughed, “Come on Locus, don't tell me you enjoyed playing pretend like that?”
Locus shifted from foot to foot, as the other mercenary continued to walk towards the stairs that lead down to the building's exit. Truly, this had been nothing more than pretend. He of all people should have known better than that. After all, Felix was an actor; he wore many different masks and blending into society like a normal couple had just been one of them, Locus supposed.
For a moment...for a split second, he had almost felt...normal. If that's what one would call it. He felt at ease, at peace, like nothing could wrong. The way they had talked, behaved, moved...no one would have thought the two killed for a living. And honestly, for the first time in a long while, Locus was okay with that thought. A life without killing, away from the public's eye...He rarely spent any of the money from their jobs, choosing instead to put it away. However, with the past month being the way it had, something had come over him, he supposed, made him spend that money he so carefully safeguarded.
“Locus, come on, I thought we were leaving?!”
Locus stared down at his hand, the new weight in his palm felt foreign and then suddenly too heavy. Lost in his thoughts, he must have pulled it out from the pouch he'd placed it in.
“Pretend?” he asked no one, using his thumb to click the latch release on the tiny box in his hand; a smallish black band stared back up at him. Closing the lid of the ring box, he placed it back into the carrying pouch he'd brought it in, and followed Felix outside.