AN: Okay, I am absolutely in love with a web series called "Chronicles of Syntax." It started off a bit cliché but it gets better each week, and the characters are so interesting I can't help but write about them. If you like sci-fi action films, I would suggest you give it a shot. This is just a collection of little drabbles that I'll update randomly whenever the muse strikes me.
Companionship
They had no one else but each other. For the longest time it had been only them, with the occasional appearance by Kelly and a disembodied word from her absent father. It had been eighteen months since Steven had been brought into the Agency, and every lead since then had been a false alarm. She had no one else, and neither did Steven anymore. It was just them, and Sian tried to convince herself that that's why she cared so much.
It wasn't that they had gotten on instantly. She was short-tempered, and he was awkwardly frank, and it had led to more than one misunderstanding. He had a tendency to make observations aloud without thinking about them first, and she had little patience for him and his elitism. They tolerated each other - at best - for months.
Then while out hunting down a possible call, they were ambushed by the Dogs. It had only been Fenway and Hemlock back then, but it had still been more than enough of a fight. Steven had been one swing of Hemlock's knife away from death before Sian had gotten away from Fenway and stepped in. She managed to knock them both out and was left to half-carry the wounded genius back to headquarters on her own.
The incident changed them both. The brush with death gave Steven a new appreciation for the younger Agent and the work she did, and he reciprocated with his respect. Whatever orders she gave, he followed unwaveringly. In return she started to keep her temper in check when he began rambling, and offered him self-defence lessons. From that day on they worked as a team, and suddenly things didn't seem quite so hopeless.
Steven became her support as she tried not to crumble under the pressure; from her father, of heading the Agency, of a strength and power that frightened her, of an uncertain future they were trying to escape. On the reverse side, she was there when he panicked, when he became frustrated with elusive answers and when the darkness of his past came back to haunt him.
Their trip to recruit Kairan Fischer was the first time in months that they had been separated. When Steven volunteered to go to the basement, her first reaction was worry. Instantly her mind was filled with the memories from that alley, of Steven bleeding on the ground with a blade at his throat. She had to shake those away though, because things had changed since then. He had changed. So she nodded and let him go, but not without a cautioning word at the door.
"Be careful," she said softly, not wanting the kid to overhear.
"I'm always careful," Steven responded with the faintest flicker of a smile. He met her eyes, gave her a look full of meaning, and they parted ways with the lightest brush of hands.
Steven knew how to take care of himself. She knew that, and she told Kai as much. It didn't stop her from drumming her fingers against her thigh anxiously as she stood guard at the door. He'd be okay. She just had to keep telling herself that until he got back.