Author: Regency

Title: This Kiss

Rating: General/Teen (PG at best)

Pairing: Eggsy Unwin/Harry Hart

Summary: Harry and Eggsy are not in love. Honest, they aren't, and they'll prove it with a kiss... In retrospect, they could probably have gone about this in another way.

Author's Note: Written based on a couple of Tumblr posts I saw that were about kissing. I thought they were cute. *shrug* Follow me at sententiousandbellicose to get the skinny.

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters recognizable as being from Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015). They are the property of their actors, producers, writers, and studios, not me. No copyright infringement was intended and no money was made in the writing or distribution of this story. It was good, clean fun.

The very idea was ridiculous. Harry was aware of that. How else could he describe a scenario in which he was attracted to Eggsy and Eggsy was attracted to him without either of them being conscious of the other's interest? They were spies, being aware of the unknown was in the job description. Merlin was wrong, plain and simple. Nevertheless, when Eggsy had come to him with that pinched, pained look on his face Harry had been helpless to refuse him comfort.

"What if Merlin's right and we been wastin' time we coulda been spending together?" He was seated, cross-armed, on the edge of Harry's desk, effectively preventing Harry from working as they talked, not that he would have. He never could entirely divide his attention when Eggsy was near.

"You and I already spend an inordinate amount of time together. Were we any more joined at the hip, strangers might mistake us for a married couple." He intended it as a joke to lighten the mood; the flicker of an unreadable emotion in Eggsy's eyes told him it didn't quite land.

"Don't think that'd be so bad."

"Maybe not, but it wouldn't be the truth either, would it?"

Eggsy shrugged minutely, a rude gesture made handsome in his fine shirt, emphasized by his lack of jacket and folded shirtsleeves. He was every inch a knight in armour, but he was still Eggsy underneath it. Eggsy was the stuff of Kingsman down to his bones; Harry could scarcely have loved anyone different.

"What is it you want, exactly? Merlin's misconception is obviously bothering you." Eggsy's jaw clenched visibly on words bitten back. "I'm listening."

Eggsy took a moment to control his breathing, easing the flush rising up his neck to his ears. Although Eggsy was slowly learning to lie with his body, it still turned coat on him more often than not.

"Did you ever think about me...like 'e said. Like, I dunno, more than a protege?"

Harry set down the pen he hadn't used to initial a single page in fifteen minutes, and laced his fingers together on top of his desk. He had wondered when it would come down to this.

"I think of you as a friend and, increasingly, as an equal. You're easily the best of us."

Rosiness warmed Eggsy's face all over again, a sort of breathless wonder at Harry's praise he would grow out of someday but Harry hoped not too soon.

"That all?"

"Are you asking if I've harbored romantic feelings for you?" At Eggsy's reluctant nod, Harry replied, "Not with any kind of expectation. I've had a lifetime of experience assessing odds. The odds of a mission turning out of my favor. The odds of my lovers becoming fed up with necessary half-truths and severing ties. The odds of someone very young and filled with potential wanting more than the moment with me."

"I wouldn't-"

"That wasn't an accusation," Harry placated, "merely a point of fact. I know where my desires lie and they're at the same place as my emotions." His heart, unwise as it was. "It would be foolish to pursue a liaison with someone who doesn't feel the same. I'd rather spare myself the heartache and our friendship the strain." Because despite the disparities in their life experiences and age, Harry did consider Eggsy a dear friend, one he would be reluctant to risk for a passing fling.

Eggsy sucked his teeth, meditative.

"That's a lot of assumptions you're makin'. Ain't you supposed to be a spy? How've you not seen that I've been gone over you since you told me I was full of surprises and you meant it."

Harry had meant it, very much. But to say he was skeptical would be an understatement. Harry didn't doubt his attractiveness, he doubted his luck, which Eggsy must have picked up on because he rose to his full height as if preparing to face a daunting challenge head-on. He doesn't even need a sword, Harry mused, stupidly fond.

"What if you kissed me and it felt like somethin' you might wanna do again. That'd be okay, wouldn't it? That'd make this, us okay."

"It isn't that simple, Eggsy. Given our positions, our relationship, it can't be."

"It can, though. You're lookin' for a reason to say no and I'm giving you a reason to try. I'm askin', Harry. Don' make me ask again."

"Is that an order?"

A hint of Eggy's usual bravado shone through. "Consider it a humble request from a grateful knight."

"Isn't this is the part where you kneel for your king?"

Eggsy did, one knee braced against Harry's chair and the other one the ground. For the hundredth time, Eggy rose to the occasion and Harry need only ask. "As you wish."

"You've seen Princess Bride, but not Pretty Woman."

"Get off it, I watched that with Rox while you were cooling your heels in a coma. You missed out."

"More than I would have liked to." It seemed as though Harry was always missing the important milestones where Eggsy was concerned.

"That's what you don't get: I never mind waitin' when it's you."

Harry kissed him before he could say any more. He didn't trust the next words out of his own mouth if Eggsy kept talking. Their lips caught on each other, one chapped and the other softer, the contrast wasn't what it might have been, but it was something, brief and chaste, glancing. Harry withdrew, more intent on Eggsy's parted lips than he'd dare acknowledge before a jury of his peers. That hadn't been right-but almost.

Eggsy didn't need to command him to try again. He dragged Eggsy, still kneeling, between his legs, bringing them chest to chest, if awkwardly leaning and unbalanced, a perfect summary of how they'd been from the start. But unbalanced didn't mean undesired and leaning only meant that someone, somehow had to stretch, to change.

Harry darted forward to meet Eggsy's impatient lips and kissed him as though Eggsy would never have to ask again. He swept a hand down Eggsy's iron spine and sank his fingers into Eggsy's mussed hair. He sampled the riches of Eggsy's mouth less like a pillaging conqueror than a lover praying for one more hour before wretched dawn tore him away. He kissed him as though they had an audience when the only audience was Eggsy, himself, and time. Eggsy moaned at the heat of his tongue, arched into Harry's body, his valiant heart beating a telling tattoo in response to the drum roll resounding in Harry's chest. He hooked an arm over Harry's shoulders, tipping himself precariously for more contact, to reach Harry's nape where the skin was surely flushing ruddy pink beneath his collar. Harry only hoisted him closer, angling Eggsy forward till he came over breathless trying even to touch, only to dip down and kiss the breath from his lungs regardless. Eggsy got his own back in teeth, sweet as they were stinging by the bite. Harry laughed, lost his own breath, stole Eggsy's, and began again. This kiss wasn't a fight, it was a resolution. Harry was resolved, god help him.

He lost his glasses is in the armistice. Eyes shut in the aftermath, he didn't miss them.

Eggsy sank down onto his haunches, each arm anchored to Harry's thighs, his chest heaving as his breathing returned to normal. He worked his jaw and gingerly licked his lips. They were redder than their usual color, as pomegranate to grapefruit, more tempting than legend and deadlier still.

"What sayeth the king?"

But Harry could think of nothing to say, only of something to do. He took Eggsy's hand, still attired with mission accouterments, and he kissed Eggsy's signet ring, as a knight might if he loved his king, as Harry could only do so loving Eggsy.

Eggsy rose to his knees and turned his hand in Harry's hold to drag his thumb over Harry's lips. This touch ignited Harry's nerves and his audacity.

"Eggsy," he warned, voice worn jagged. If Eggsy pushed any farther there would be no coming back from it. Up to now, this was a challenge, a choice to meet Merlin's machinations directly and put an end to all the gossip fodder. Harry had foolishly not expected to want so much more than the inch of a mile he had given himself.

Eggsy took a slow, shuddering breath. "You can say you don't want me like that. I won't get mad."

Harry cupped his chin. "I wouldn't lie to you."

With this kiss, Harry knew that if he did not love Eggsy already, he would. Like the rising of the sun, it was inevitable. But ever a contrarian, Harry tried to resist.

"You can do better than me. You will do better than me someday if you wait."

"I've waited years to do better and you told me that I didn' have to wait no more, so I'm done waiting. It's you or it's nobody."

Harry couldn't think of the words to say that he would never let Eggsy go once he had him. He would if it came to it. He'd gnash his teeth to do it, tear himself to ribbons and rebuild himself out of gunmetal and shatterproof glass to survive the aftermath, but he would do it. He couldn't deny Eggsy so much as a kiss, how could he ever, even deeply in love, deny him his freedom?

Harry tasted Eggsy on his lips.

"Please."

Eggsy pushed him back into his chair and crawled into his lap without relinquishing Harry's lips once he'd taken them. For a moment, Harry was struck dumb, still. Again, he got to have this again. Eggsy was everywhere, light fingers and teeth, hushing Harry's idle complaints with caresses that left Harry befuddled and swaying forward for more. Harry was his creature utterly and completely, his clinging worshiper, heart and soul committed to the cause of drawing ragged pleas from Eggsy's mouth and being exorcised in return.

Eggsy released him, mouth first and body second till they were a handspan apart and Harry still couldn't take a deep breath. Eggsy's lips were glossy-slick and ruby red. Tempting. Harry was tempted. He would always be tempted from now on, now that he knew how Eggsy's lips felt against his. How could he ever be selfless knowing?

"Not too friendly, that kiss," Eggsy pointed out, his smirk wise and his words true. Harry no longer cared for wisdom or self-preservation. He cared about Eggsy and stealing every moment he could with him in his arms, his lap, his bed. Anywhere.

"My feelings for you are not at all platonic." He traced the swell of Eggsy's bottom lip, keen to discover once more whether it tasted as he remembered from seconds ago.

"Now, 'e says it!" Eggsy exclaimed, triumphant. He gave Harry a sweet peck on the lips as if he did it everyday, as if he'd dreamed about it just as often, like Harry had. "I got eyes, Harry. I figured out you fancied me a while back. Just needed you to say it."

"Why?"

He ran his hand down Harry's rumpled tie in a vain effort at making Harry presentable. But Harry knew better; he'd never be fit for polite company again. "A gentleman always asks. Didn't you say that?"

"I suppose I must have." Harry tugged Eggsy as close he could. "May I kiss you again?" he asked, well aware of Eggsy's answer before he even spoke.

"Yes, Harry."