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Abolish found himself being woken up by the loud buzzing noise of the ship's communicator. He had landed his small shuttle on a distant and isolated moon while waiting for his next assignment. And decided to take a quick nap; sleep was a necessary activity if he wanted to perform his best on any given job, after all.
"Abolish, son, are you there?" A voice immediately recognised as Morcant's rang through the communication.
"Yes, Commander," Abolish responded like it was second nature, his voice showing no trace of his recently interrupted slumber.
"Good." Morcant stated before seemingly posing for a moment, almost as if he didn’t want to say what he was about to say, "I’ve got a new assignment for you.“
That statement hung in the air for longer than Abolish thought it should, so after a few seconds he let out a hum, encouraging his commander to continue.
"We've intercepted multiple of the coven’s communications that mention some sort of secret super weapon whose plans have been completed and construction is beginning. The counsel has decided to send you in to retrieve these plans so our specialist can find a way to counteract it,“ Morcant explained while sending abolish all of the data connected to the mission.
As Abolish scanned the documents, he immediately understood where his commander's hesitance came from: the plans were being kept in a secret security room located in the coven’s headquarters. In other words, a seemingly impossible place to penetrate, not to mention the fact that if something went sideways during the mission, he'd be fully on his own. But Abolish wasn’t the type to back down from a challenge, especially one like this.
Like any other problem he had faced in the past, he just needed to break it down into an attack plan. First he needed to find the current whereabouts of the coven’s base of operations, which would require a decent amount of research considering that their headquarters was in constant motion. Abolish’s supposed that was the point of using a spacestatiton as a base of operations, non of your enemies ever truly know where you are.
After that he would have to somehow get aboard the station without anyone noticing. Perhaps hiding aboard a cargo ship could work, if he managed to exit it before the security inspection.
Then he'd have to find his way through what could only be described as a maze of rooms and hallways to find the secret room where the plans are without raising any suspicion or triggering the alarm and break into it before escaping with his life, like he just said, easy.
"You can refuse the mission, Abolish. You don’t have to…" Morcant‘s voice rang through the communicator again, something akin to hope lingering in his voice.
"I accept,“ Abolish interrupted without hesitation. This kind of mission was exactly what he was here for.
"I feared you would say that,“ Morcant said with a sigh. "Be careful and don’t get yourself killed, Abolish. that is an order from your commander!“
With that, the broadcast went quiet, and Abolish was left to figure this out on his own. just how he liked it.
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It only took Abolish two days' worth of time to formulate his plan and one day's worth of waiting before starting the execution. It turned out that using a delivery vehicle for the entrance would require way too much time, as it seemed that the delivery came from everywhere all over the galaxy, without any kind of concrete plan or schedule, at least not one Abolish had any access to, but then just when he was about to call his commander to report his mission would take longer than expected, Abolish stumbled upon something. something useful.
Mr M, the romance author, was having an open signing in anticipation of his newest book: the third part of Twilight. To any normal being with even a bit of taste, this would be unimportant, but to one of the covens' heads, this would be the event. Shelby, one of the coven's strongest, was probably Mr M's biggest fan. How did Abolish know? He had had the unfortunate pleasure of having been temporarily travelling aboard a coven ship…. And Shelby had been in charge of keeping an eye on him. Shelby, four hours into that trip, had started rambling about Twilight. They didn’t even finish talking about the first book during the rest of it.
Back to the point at hand, which was that there was no way in this universe that She would purposefully miss it, giving Abolish the chance to sneak onto her ship while they were at the signing and hitching a ride back to their space station, and that was exactly how Abolish managed to get on board without being noticed.
After that it didn’t take much longer before he ended up aboard the coven’s space station. It took even less after that before he found the entrance to the security room where the plans were in… it felt almost too easy. Not that Abolish had the time to properly dwell on that thought; the mission came first. Whatever feeling he's got in the back of his mind will have to wait.
Once he worked around the lock on the door, which still seemed too simple, he entered into the room, with the door quickly shutting behind him. Before the distinct sound of a lock closing could be heard behind him, the door must relock itself automatically. Abolish didn’t even have time to properly adjust to the darkness before the room lit up, as if someone had just switched on the lights. The unexpectedness of it all left Abolish completely stunned, with the light fully clouding his vision.
"Finally. I've been expecting you, doll~" An accented voice that Abolish would recognise anywhere in a heartbeat rang out. This whole thing had been a trap.
As Abolish's eyes adjusted to the light, he managed to properly take in his surroundings. He wasn’t inside some super secret vault; instead, the room seemed more like some kind of fancy office. Right in the middle of Abolish's view stood a table with a red plush chair in front of it. And behind the table sat the man that had tricked him: Scott Goldsmith, the coven’s leader with a triumphant smirk on his face. A perfect picture of beauty, as he always was.
"There never was a weapon, was there?" Abolish asked coldly as he moved forward before taking the seat in front of the desk, as it was clearly meant for him, and Abolish might lack a lot of things, but manners aren’t one of them.
"Not in the way you expected, no." Scott confirmed as he moved to lean on his desk in a manner that could only be described as seductive. It was commonly known among Abolish's organisations that Scott used his charm and an excessive amount of flirting to get his way and manipulate others. That was something Abolish had always been very aware of every time he interacted with the other. Something that used to fully pass him bye. When did that change? When did Scott’s stupid existence make his heart beat faster?
"So, what do you want? Let’s not pretend you didn’t want me here for a reason,“ Abolish stated, as he kept his voice strictly monotonous.
"Just as sharp as ever it seems," Scott said as he tilted his head in a way that Abolish's mind could only describe as endearing. Abolish didn’t trust himself to keep his voice flat, so he just stayed quiet, forcing Scott to continue with an almost annoyed sigh.
"Fine. I want you!" The statement was delivered completely seriously, no hint of Scott's usual flirting demeanour… Wait, what did he just say!!!
"Pardon me,“ Abolish said way too quickly, as his face turned hot. He must have heard him wrong.
"I said that I want you, Abolish Veylocke." Scott repeated the statement with even more confidence than before. His eyes smilingly lighting up at the sight of Abolish losing his composure, something he had only ever seen once before.
Abolish wanted to call Scott out, call him crazy for thinking Abolish would ever agree to that. That Abolish would ever fall for his stupid charms. So why wasn’t he doing that? What was wrong with him? Why could he only open and close his mouth? Why was no noise coming out?
"I've wanted you since our time on that desolate planet,“ Scott confessed without ever breaking eye contact.
Abolish remembers the time Scott talked about very well. The coven had planned some kind of invasion; the reasons for it were something Abolish never even tried to figure out. So obviously he, along with some of his fellow agents, was sent on a mission to stop them. What they didn’t know at the time was that Scott Goldsmith himself was leading the attack. Abolish only found out after boarding the commed ship Scott was leading to stop the attack at its source.
That's when their fight on the ship’s bridge broke out. A fight during which Scott tried to flee using the ship's hyperspeed settings. A fight during which Abolish had heavily damaged the cockpit. Both of those combined led to the ship malfunction in the middle of nowhere before crashing on a desolate and, as Scott and Abolish quickly learned, dangerous planet. The ship was beyond repair, and neither communicator was even close to having some kind of signal. They were stuck. And alone. Very unlikely to survive. So they struck a deal; they would work together until help found them, and then they would take the other and drop them off at some rest planet or something where they could contact their respective people from. In other words, both would be getting back to where they wanted to be, even if Abolish wasn’t sure Scott would keep his word or if Morcant would honour the deal when he found him.
Over that time, against all of Abolish’s training and better judgement, he let his guard down… He started finding himself staring at Scott whenever the other was looking the other way or while he stayed up to watch and Scott slept, but not because he didn’t trust him, more because of how it made Abolish's gut go all warm and fuzzy. He started actually listening when Scott talked, his voice turning from annoying to comforting. The whole time Abolish just kept screaming at himself that Scott was just using him, that all the things he said meant nothing; yet he couldn’t help but react… on the inside at least.
Around day seven of it just being them, Abolish had an unlucky encounter with a Rabat creature that inhabited the planet, ending with a heavily bleeding gash on his right leg that left him unable to walk. The moment after it happened he knew exactly what it meant: he had become a liability. And his training was obvious for such situations: you leave the liability behind or end their suffering right then and there if you feel particularly kind.
Yet, Scott had done neither. Instead, he had administered first aid and stopped the bleeding by using the sleeves of his shirt he ripped off as makeshift bandages. After that Scott had picked him up in a princess carry and taken him back to their base. The whole thing had made Abolish's Brian stop working. No one had ever done something like that for him before. After that, he knew he was fully screwed.
But surely that whole thing had to be some kind of manipulation tactic. Even if Scott continued taking care of Abolish, forcing him to heal which left Scott on his own to figure out how both of them would survive.
About another few weeks later, they were finally found by a coven scout ship, which led to the second instance where Scott had shocked Abolish. He had kept his word and taken Abolish to a safer planet that he had called Morcant from. Since then Abolish had always looked back fondly to that time; it easily became his most cherished memory. Abolish had long admitted to himself that the reason for that was that he liked Scott, which was bad. Scott Goldsmith didn’t actually like people; he just used them. And now Scott was here saying that he felt the same as Abolish; it simply couldn’t be true.
Why would Scott ever actually think about him like that? He was gorgeous and smart and charming; he could have anyone in the galaxy if he wanted to. So why would he actually want Abolish?
"You're lying," Abolish said, though he couldn’t keep his voice from shaking.
Scott's face visibly fell as Abolish said that; his smirk was fully gone in a matter of seconds. He hesitantly tried to speak, "I- I-"
"You just want to use me like you do with everyone else, and I won't fall for it,“ Abolish stated, still shaky. He balled his fists to quickly try and keep his hands from shaking. This whole thing was just cruel. He had dreamt about a moment just like this, but he always knew that it would never actually happen; Scott would never actually like him. So why did the universe torture him like this?
"I WOULDN'T DO THAT TO YOU!!" Scott shouted as he grabbed a hold of Abolish’s fist. Abolish was stunned at Scott's outburst; the man didn’t show actual emotions, just the crafted mask he put on. It seemed like Scott was stunned too as he cleared his voice before repeating, this time much calmer and quieter, "I wouldn’t do that. I'd never do that to you, not to you.“
"Why should I believe you?“ Abolish just as quietly asked, as he unconsciously let his fists relax slightly in Scott’s hold. "How do I know you're not just pretending to like me for some kind of scheme?"
"I-I'll turn myself in." Scott stated with just a moment of thought before continuing while sounding even more uncertain than before, "And maybe you’d consider visiting me in prison. I- I don’t expect you to actually want to be with me, but maybe you could still just… I don’t know."
"You wouldn’t be going to prison, Scott; you'd be executed,“ Abolish said bitterly; he absolutely hated this idea. Scott seemed to just become sadder at that before he looked down at their still conjoined hands.
"I just – I'm not really good at this,“ Scott winced; it sounded like a confession of sorts. "I've never really wanted someone like this before."
"You are aware that our organisation has a literal list of guys you’ve dated, right?“ Abolish said to point out the clear lie that the other was trying to sell, no matter how much that realisation stung.
"You're different. It's – I don’t just want you because you’ve got power I could use or because you’re hot, even though you are. I want you because…“ Scott continued before stopping like he was ashamed or maybe afraid of what he was about to say.
Abolish swallowed the heat he felt at Scott practically calling him hot before, and against his better judgement, encouraging him to continue, "You want me because?“
"I love you," Scott said in a way that actually made it seem true. "I love the way your nose scrunches when you're calculating a situation. I love your smile and your jokes, no matter how uncommon they are. I love the way you talk and hold yourself. I love how you tap your finger against your palm whenever you're overwhelmed. I love how you don’t care about what anyone else thinks. I love how you don’t actually give a shit about any of the sweet nothings I say. I love every single bit of you, Abolish. The more I'm around you, the harder I fall. And I'm sick of pretending I'm not.“
That was definitely not what Abolish expected. Scott actually paid attention to him. And a lot of it. This was definitely not reducing Abolish's brain to mush… okay, it totally was.
"I…" Abolish hesitated with his last bit of self-restraint before he let everything out. "I like you… the you that doesn’t pretend not to care… the you that, despite the inconvenience, stays loyal. The you that doesn't use people's emotions against them. The you I met on that planet. The you without the fake mask.“
When Abolish looked back up after his words, he was shocked to find Scott's face flushed red, mouth hanging open and completely speechless. Now that truly was a sight to behold. The prettiest expression Abolish had ever seen on him. Made a hundred times better by the knowledge that he was responsible for it.
This may be a mistake, but Abolish knew exactly what to do now. He picked up his communicator and called Morcant. It barely even rang before his commander picked up. "Abolish, do you need assistance? Has it been done?“
"There are no plans, and consider this my official resignation,“ Abolish quickly said, before ending the transmission and smashing the device against the desk in front of him. If the communicator was broken, then they couldn’t track him. He wouldn't want to put Scott in any sort of danger after all.
"Just to make sure I got this right, you just…" Scott started stuttering, still in full shock at everything he just witnessed, before Abolish cut in with a clarification, "I hope you got a place in your coven for one more agent."
Scott let in a few breaths to compose himself before returning to his confident and teasing smile. "I don’t think we do, but I would love a new commander and partner, only if you want, of course.“
"As long as the position comes with a lot of you, I'll want it," Abolish said with his own teasing smile before pulling up Scott's hands that were still around his and placing a few soft kisses along Scott's knuckles. The blush he got in return made everything he just did so worth it.