Chapter Text
11:50am
Brian was home on a mandatory day off since the previous day had been an… incident.
He didn’t mind much, sleeping in far too late was a nice change, even if he did wish deep down he could be at work.
He liked his coworkers, at least a few of them. Though he was forced to be closer to Derek since both of their assigned targets seemed to be glued at the hip.
Until yesterday. The incident.
Russia was dead.
Derek had been put on leave “until further notice” despite everyone knowing there was nothing he could have done to stop what happened.
Brian doesn’t want to think about how a personification of a healthy country could die, he wasn’t the type to rave about what this could mean for the country.
He was worried about the two most affected people.
Derek, and his own target, the United States personification.
Brian feels a headache beginning to bloom at his temples, a pulsing ache that seemed to be pushing him to call Derek, to invite him over, to make sure he wasn’t stewing in this mess alone.
The phone rang twice as usual, before that familiar soft voice rung out.
“Sweeney residence, this is Derek.”
“Hey Der’, so I happened to order too much pizza, could you come over?”
He almost face palmed himself at how stupid the excuse was, and the silence over the phone stretched for a moment.
“I… sure! Sure I’ll be right over..”
The phone clicked and beeped, and Brian sighs in relief that it had worked.
—-
12:15
Twenty minutes later, Brian had managed to quick deliver pizza to further push his lie, the apartment was quickly tidied as well, mostly pushing things into the closet and praying.
There was a light knock on the door, two taps, and Brian opened it, leaning against the doorframe in nothing but pyjama pants and a deep brown hoodie.
“C’mon in, your lettin’ the heat out.”
Derek scurries in, pushing a piece of blond hair behind his ear, mumbling an apology for being late before he’s interrupted by Brian.
“Der’, please. Getting extra time to clean is never not positive.”
“You… you mean never negative?”
“Said what I said. Now! Pizza!”
Derek seems to let out a breath, it was just the two of them for once, and Brian always had a way of taking peoples minds off hard things.
—-
~5:00pm
They were on the third Iron Man movie when Brian’s phone rang.
He grumbles and picks it up.
“Hey.”
“Roan, you’re needed for surveillance on your target, he just incapacitated the intern we had. Sending you the location he was last spotted.”
“Are we serious?”
The phone hangs up and he sighs, looking to Derek who had a piece of pepperoni pizza halfway into his mouth.
“Work?”
“Yeah, come on, we got a country to spy on.”
——
They found America right where they were told, the same bar he’d come to with Russia what seemed so long ago. The two men picked a table close, but not too close. Trying to stay out of line of sight.
“He’s really hurting…”
Derek sounds empathetic, Brian just scoffs.
“Those two might have hung out but all they did was he-“
He gestures to America.
“Would get upset about something, and Russia would give him a pacifier or something.”
Derek looks worried still.
“They relied on eachother, Brian. It’s like losing a family member. If I died would you be so casual?”
“Touché.”
The personification of intrest looks back at them, seemingly noticing they’re there. It took him a while to notice, he’s probably drunk.
“We have line of sight…”
Derek says quietly.
“He doesn’t look mad. Shit- do you think he even has anyone to take him home?”
Derek shrugs, Brian grumbles a curse under his breath.
“Time to break a whole lot of regulations. Hell- it’s my day off who’s gonna stop me?”
Derek tries to quietly tell him to stop, but Brian is moving with courage he doesn’t have, sitting across from the drunken country.
“Hey buddy, think it’s time to stop.”
His heart is racing, he knows that literally an hour ago this same man brutally injured another agent just because he wasn’t Brian.
“You look a liiiiittle worse for wear.”
The country mumbled something, face pressed against the table, Brian grabs the other man’s sunglasses since they look close to snapping, but America grabs Brian’s wrist in a firm grip.
“D’n’t touch.”
Brian gulps, looking to Derek with panic.
“Yep! No touching, alrighty-o.”
He pulls his hand back slowly, treating the other country with the same care as a feral animal, bht signalling for Derek to come over.
“So buddy, you think it would be alright for me and my friend here to call you a cab?”
The country hums, sitting up, theres a bruise on his cheek from laying on the table.
“Don’t wanna go home yet. Waitin’ for him.”
Brian feels a wave of awkwardness, not wanting to ask who “he” is.
“Uh, alright… well how about we send you home and me and my pal will wait here until “he” shows up, then you can go freshen up at home huh?”
Derek had been listening since Brian called him over, and nods.
“Just, please don’t tell anyone we did this, we both could be fired.”
America snorts, finding that funny apparently, looking up through skewed glasses.
“So theres no downside t’ telling then?”
Brian snorts at that despite himself, feeling the tension drain out of the air.
“No buddy, no downside.”
——
9:45pm
The apartment was quiet, Derek had gone back to his home, and Brian was lying on the couch, the paused movie still on the screen.
It was cold in the apartment but he needed fresh air so the window was cracked open, and he was curled in that same hoodie from before, with his legs under a blanket.
The perfect way to end a chaotic day.