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James Bond’s world had been black and white for as long as he had been alive. Even when he met Vesper Lynd, the woman he thought would be his forever, he did not see colours. He didn’t mind, he had never been one of those who believed blindly in soulmates. He was happy to share his life with someone he loved, no matter if they saw colours. Of course, the whole thing had ended in disaster, in his heart being broken, in him grieving, in him struggling to bare the weight of the betrayal.
He stopped believing in soulmates. If Vesper hadn’t been the one, if he had been tricked to love so much only for it to end in betrayal… He would rather spend the rest of his life alone. He was getting old, anyway; maybe he was one of those who never got to see colours. He was fine with it. He had made his peace with it.
After everything, after being offered the easy way out, he found himself returning to MI6. He couldn’t bare the thought of M being in trouble and not being able to help, it turned out. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but it was the worry over M that led him to return, to insist on being put back in active duty. He had lost enough people, he was damned if he was going to lose his surrogate mother as well.
So here he was. Waiting for the new Q. He couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t meet in the makeshift Q-branch, but it wasn’t for him to question the decisions of those superior to him. And so he sat there, in front of the painting of the great old war ship being towed off seas to retirement (yes, he understood the symbolism, thank you very much).
“Always makes me a little melancholy… The grand old warship being ignominiously hauled away for scrap… The inevitability of time, don’t you think? What do you see?”
Was someone reading his thoughts? Bond glanced beside himself, seeing the profile of a young man. Some university art student shooting his shot with him, no doubt. It wouldn’t be the first time. Had he not been on a mission, he might have indulged him.
“A bloody big ship… Excuse me.”
Bond went to leave, and then:
“007. I’m your new Quartermaster.”
Bond stopped in his tracks and sat back down. He turned towards the man beside him, now fully looking at him.
“You must be joking.”
The man turned to face him properly.
“Why? Because I’m not wearing a lab coat?”
As their eyes met, everything Bond had to say in return died inside him. Suddenly everything around him sparked into life. Colours spread out around him, things he had never seen before, every painting on the wall coming alive in a way he could never have imagined. ‘So that’s blue’, he thought as he looked at a painting, the sky being coloured the hue he knew was called blue. The ship in the same painting was… brown, he guessed, the colour of wood. He looked back into the eyes of the other man, wondering what the bright, jewel like tone of them was. It had to be green; he had only ever heard of eyes being blue, brown or green. They were brilliant, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
They stared at each other for a moment, both of their eyes wide, taking in the new sight that was someone’s eyes, in full colour.
“Because you still have spots”, Bond finally said, trying to regain control. The man before him smiled, lips – red- looking so gorgeous he wanted to kiss them.
“My complexion is hardly relevant.”
“Your competence is.”
They went through the pantomime, the act of a double-oh agent meeting a Quartermaster. They bickered and bantered, all the way giving each other knowing looks. Those looks only two people who had just met their soulmates could exchange.
“Good luck out there in the field. And please return the equipment in one piece”, Q said in the end, the smile on his lips far wider than the formal setting required. It was telling to no one but Bond: he knew what it meant; bring yourself back in one piece, I want to get to know you. You are my soulmate.
“Brave new world…”, Bond muttered to himself, unable to wipe the grin off his face. Whatever he was going to face, it didn’t matter. He’d come back home to a world full of colours, full of Q. He’d come back home to a soulmate.