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Mark walked into the Commissary to get himself a cup of tea and noticed Illya sitting by himself at a table at the rear of the room reading the New York Times. Oh, I didn’t know he was back in town. I want to have a word with him. He paid for his tea and strolled towards the blond. “Illya, got a minute?”
The Russian looked up and replied, “Of course, Mark; please, sit.” He folded up his paper and sipped some of his coffee. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, Mate, I want to tell you a couple of things. One, April’s told me that you two are seeing each other.*
“I am glad you know. Napoleon guessed some time ago that we were.** I did not think it was fair that Napoleon knew and you did not, but April had to be the one to decide to tell you. I assume since you felt the need to tell me you know, that the second thing you want to tell me is an opinion about April and me that you wish to share. What is it?” Illya’s facial expression didn’t change, but Mark could swear the blue eyes studying him had turned into liquid ice.
Bloody hell, he swore to himself, but it was too late to back off and he really didn’t want to, anyway. “My opinion is,” he started slowly, “that I think you are a good bloke and April tells me that you two get on well. I hope that continues to be the case.”
“I see.” Illya leaned forward and folded his hands together on the table. “Tell me, Mark; I am inferring from your words and your tone that you would have an issue with me if April and I stopped getting on well. Am I wrong?”
When the smaller man had leaned forward, Mark had not moved. The tension surrounding the two might have gone undetected if they had been at a regular coffee shop, but sitting in the part of the cafeteria favored by Section IIs, they might as well have been shouting at the top of their lungs. It didn’t matter that no one could hear the conversation; everyone knew there was a serious disagreement.
“You’re not wrong, Mate. As an agent, my partner is as tough as they come. She always has my back. But as a woman, she has a soft side that can be badly damaged. If you ‘urt ‘er, I will take it personally because I always have ‘er back.”
Illya grinned a grin that did not reach his eyes and, if anything, made him look even more dangerous. “I am only entertaining this complete invasion of my privacy because you are April’s partner. However, I am only entertaining it this one time. To put your mind at ease, I will tell you that I am not someone to take a woman to my bed who I do not care about; she is important to me. That is all I will tell you. April is free to tell you whatever she wants.” He reached for his cup of now cold coffee and drained it. “If you approach me to discuss this aspect of my personal life again, I will be forced to remind you to whom you are speaking.”
Mark’s eyes widened in surprise. “The Second – in – Command of Section II? You would pull rank on me?”
“Not at all. I would remind you that you are speaking to Illya Kuryakin. You would not like that, at all. Enjoy the rest of your day.” And with that, the Russian gathered up his newspaper and rose to leave. As he walked away, some eyes followed him while others remained on the Brit who sipped his tea thoughtfully.
The HQ grapevine lit up like the Fourth of July as everyone waited to see what happens next.
April approached the office door and knocked twice. She saw the small red light above the pneumatic door flash green at the same time she heard the occupant say “Enter!”
She pushed the button that caused the door to slide sideways and stepped through. “Napoleon?”
“Hi, I’m afraid you just missed Illya, but he’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
“Actually, I was waiting until he left. I wanted to speak with you specifically and off the record.” She sat at Illya’s desk and watched as the CEA closed the folder he had been reading and focused his attention on her.
“Since this is ‘off the record,’ does that mean we are talking about my partner?”
“And mine. You probably haven’t heard anything, but the gossip grapevine has been buzzing for a few days about an alleged conversation they had in the Commissary. I’ve been hearing bits and pieces; no one knows exactly what the argument was about, but everyone seems to be in agreement that it was an argument.”
“Ah. You think this ‘argument’ had to do with you.”
“I’m sure of it, Darling. I told Mark that Illya and I have been seeing each other and he told me that if Illya hurt me, he would have to answer to him. I have a strong feeling that Mark told Illya exactly that the other day.”
Napoleon’s eyebrows raised. “Illya is a very private person; if that was the gist of the discussion between them, he wouldn’t have appreciated it and would have let his displeasure be known.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing, Napoleon. If they don’t mention it to us, I don’t think we should mention it to them. I just felt you should be aware.”
“Since we’re off the record here, April, I want you to know that I would never use my position to punish you if things between you and Illya go south. Beyond the fact that it would be completely unprofessional, Illya would kill me for getting involved. Besides,” he grinned, “you’re my friend, too.”
“How about Mark? Is he your friend?”
Napoleon’s grin disappeared. “As much as you are, so the same goes for him. However, having said that, I can’t allow Mark to go after Illya in defense of your honor.”
April stood to leave. “I’ll handle Mark, Darling. I’d better go before he starts wondering where I’ve gone off to; I said I was going to pick up our reports from the secretarial pool. See you later.”
The CEA went back to reading his reports. The last thing I need is Mark and Illya at each other’s throat.
An hour later found Napoleon dictating a memo to Christina from the secretarial pool to announce the date and agenda of the next Section II meeting when someone knocked on the door once again. “Just a minute!” he called. He finished his dictation and instructed her to bring it back for his signature before she left for the day.
“Of course, Mr. Solo,” she said with a toss of her hair. She opened the door to reveal Mark Slate standing there patiently waiting for entry. “Excuse me, Mr. Slate,” she said as he moved out of her way.
“Come in, Mark,” Napoleon said as he sat up straighter. “How are you today?”
“I’m fine, but if I could ‘ave a word? Off the record?”
“Seems like a lot of that is going around, lately.”
Mark looked confused. “What?”
The CEA shrugged, “Nevermind. Sit. What’s on your mind?”
Mark sat in the chair next to Napoleon’s desk and crossed his arms. “’As Illya said anything to you about a conversation we ‘ad the other day?”
“No,” he answered honestly, “What about?”
The Brit sighed. “About ‘im and April. Napoleon, I mucked it all up. I like Illya, you know that. I consider ‘im a mate, but April’s my partner. I just wanted ‘im to know…I ‘ave ‘er back.”
“And he took umbrage?”
“Oh yeah, ‘e did. Let me know that was the last time we’d be ‘aving that talk.” He uncrossed his arms and let them drop to his sides. “I want your opinion, Napoleon. I don’t want things to be weird between your partner and me. ‘Ow should I deal with this?”
“Mark, Illya’s my partner; I know more about him than anyone and I don’t know everything. He’s a very private person who doesn’t share his feelings or thoughts lightly or with just anyone. He considers you a friend, too. I doubt seriously that you have damaged your friendship. My advice to you is to drop it and not say anything. Let it blow over.”
“Will ‘e?”
“He will. He’s completely capable of holding a grudge, but like I said, he considers you a friend. Given who the subject of the conversation was, I’m sure he’ll just think of it as a misstep on your part.”
Mark thought about it and agreed, “I’ll do it your way then, Napoleon. Thanks for listening.” He stood up to go.
“Mark.” Napoleon leaned on his desk and said, “I don’t know April’s romantic history, but I do know my partner. He cares a great deal for her. If anyone is capable of hurting someone, it’s April. If she were to decide she is no longer interested, you would never know it, but he would be hurt. Whatever happens between the two of them, I’ve made a decision that I’m staying out of it unless one of them comes to me officially. My last piece of advice is that you do the same thing.”
Mark tipped an imaginary hat to his CEA. “Thanks, Napoleon. Later.” He walked out of the office and almost bumped into Illya. “’Ello, Mate,” he said without thinking and then quickly wondered how the Russian would react.
After a second’s hesitation Illya smiled shyly and answered, “Hello, Mark” before entering his office.
Mark looked at the closed door for a few seconds before continuing on his way. Napoleon is right, he thought, Illya and I will be fine.
“Hello, Napoleon. I saw Mark in the hall. Anything going on I need to know about?”
“No.”
Illya and April managed to get together for dinner and a movie the following Thursday night. The Russian was glad of it because he and Napoleon were flying to Istanbul the next night on an affair they guesstimated would have them out of the country for at least a week. After the film, they walked back to his place where Illya prepared them both a cup of tea.
As they sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch, Illya put his cup down and turned to face her. “I have something I should tell you: Mark and I had words the other day in the cafeteria.”
“I did hear something through the grapevine, but why don’t you tell me, Darling, what transpired?”
“Not much. Mark told me he knew about our…relationship and he would have your back if something were to go wrong with it.”
April’s eyes widened in surprise. “He actually said that?” At his nod, April shook her head in disbelief. “What did you say? I would imagine you would have perceived that as a thinly veiled threat.”
“I did, but I excused it because he is your partner, after all, and he should feel protective of you. However, I did tell him that was the last time I would be discussing my private life with him. If there is something he wants to know, he can ask you. You are his partner. I consider the matter closed.”
“Good.” She stood and held out her hand. “It’s getting late, Darling. Let’s head to bed.”
The blond smiled and took her hand. “So, does that mean we are going to sleep?”
April smiled and turned toward the bedroom while at the same time putting his hand on her shoulder. “Eventually.”
Two nights later…
Napoleon and Illya were bone tired. They had spent almost all day interrogating two mid – level THRUSH operatives about the Central Committee’s plan to infiltrate and then take over the local government. When they had milked them for all they were worth, they had then followed and intercepted the man both captives had fingered as their superior. Unfortunately, he swallowed a cyanide pill when his apprehension was imminent, essentially leaving them back at square one of their investigation.
As they undressed for bed Illya growled, “It is bad enough I have to share a bed with you because of Accounting’s cheapness, but this thing barely qualifies as a bed.” He dumped his clothes on a chair and crawled onto the slightly larger than twin sized mattress and pulled the sheet to cover himself.
Napoleon finished hanging up his suit, got into bed and then turned off the light. “These are the deluxe accommodations, Tovarisch. It could be worse and has been.” He settled in and got comfortable and placed his hands behind his head. He was just about to drop off when he heard his partner call his name. “What is it, Illya?”
“If, if something were to happen between April and me that caused us to no longer be…friends, I do not want you to inject yourself into it, not officially and not personally.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“Illya, I have not been your partner all this time and learned nothing. I will not interfere and I will not allow anyone else to interfere.”
Illya turned from his side onto his back. The room was pitch black and they couldn’t even see each other, even though with the Russian on his back, they were touching from shoulder to hip. It spoke to the intimacy of their partnership that Napoleon did not have to specify who he would not allow to interfere. “Thank you, Napoleon. You are a good partner and a wise CEA.”
Napoleon chuckled, “You must be tired; you complimented me. Get some sleep.” Both men turned so their backs were to each other. “G’night, Illya.”
“Good night.”