Authors Note: The story's point of view/focus will be switching fairly often, but not to worry. I will label it on the top of the Chapter so you will all know.
Disclaimer: I don't own James Bond; all recognizable characters do not belong to me.
Prologue:
"You look beautiful tonight, Evey."
Evey smiled sweetly before giving him a smirk, "Just tonight?"
"Well, you look beautiful all the time, but I thought you look especially dashing tonight." Q smirked at her.
"Dashing?" Evey laughed, leaning forward, placing her elbow on the table so to lean her chin on her hand. "Well, in that case..."
"Gorgeous, magnificent, elegant. Call it what you will, you are beautiful."
"You look quite dashing yourself, Mr. Q." She said, blushing slightly, before sighing. "I love y—"
There was a loud bang, then an explosion blasted through the windows next to the couple.
Q quickly jumped up and grabbed Evey by her arm before diving to the ground with him on top of her.
Chapter 1: Evey
Q POV:
"Good luck out there in the field, and" Q paused as he spoke to James Bond, "please return the equipment in one piece." He said before leaving the MI6 agent sitting on the bench as he strode off to tour the rest of the gallery.
Lately, Q had not been able to find time to really enjoy himself, let alone visit an art gallery and just walk around. The recently appointed MI6 Quartermaster would find himself buried in his work, coding, decoding, hacking, and updating security systems amongst other things. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he got to have an evening where he wasn't the last to leave the Q division.
He walked around the gallery, taking his time to study the artwork and read the historical facts.
He was looking closely at a piece he recognized to be by the post-impressionist and symbolist artist, Redon. He read the title, 'Ophelia among the Flowers, 1905-1908'. The colors were bright and vivid, the flowers unorganized and unidentifiable, though they did resemble that of strawberries and lilacs, Q thought. Ophelia's head is facing the flowers, as though studying them and captivated by their beauty. It was, of course, inspired by Shakespeare's Ophelia from his play, Hamlet. The piece itself was created with pastel, which complimented the style of the flowers as well as the blending of colors in the background.
"Beautiful isn't it?"
Q turned around to see a woman, one of the gallery guides, talking to a small group of people.
"Look at the bright colors, the lack of detail, yet capturing the essence and image. Post-impressionism, like Impressionism, was a French phenomenon that had included French artists. The most well known being Seurat, Gauguin, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and the famous Dutchman, Van Gogh, who had done his major art work in France. Their careers had spanned from 1880 to about 1905, after Impressionism had triumphed over academic art."
Q found himself walking towards the group, discreetly joining. "The Post-Impressionists' styles derived from their forerunners' breakthroughs. Instead of the "brown gravy", so to speak, of historical painting done in feebly lit studios, their canvases shone with rainbow-bright color patches." The woman spoke eloquently and informatively, though she seemed like she were speaking of her own observations rather than from what she had read from a pamphlet or book. "Yet the Post-Impressionists were dissatisfied with Impressionism. They wanted art to be more substantial, not dedicated wholly to capturing a passing moment, which often resulted in paintings to seem slapdash and unplanned." Q listened intently on what the woman was saying, but before long, he started observing her.
She looked young, probably a little younger than himself. She had hazel eyes. She also had dark brown hair that fell in waves just past her shoulder. She had fair skin, and he could see a splatter of light freckles across her face. She was petite, significantly shorter than his 5 foot 11 frame, though she looked definitely over 5 feet…His mind trailed and he was studying her. Her movements, gestures and the way her expression changed when talking about the different artists and their styles, how her eyes brightened significantly when talking about Van Gogh…
Q's mind returned to what she was saying, surprising himself with how easily distracted he had become with woman whom he had never met.
"—is, I think, one of the most important and impressive artist movements so far." She said.
"Now, looking at this painting, can any of you tell who the artists is by its style and its subject?"
No one spoke for a moment, "Bathers at Asnieres by Seurat." Q spoke, people turning to look at him. "It's use of vibrant colors and pointillism is a give away, as well as the forms positions—as they are all at profile view, which is explained by Seurat's influence and inspiration from Egyptian art…" Q noticed some of the other people in the tour looking at him, clearly impressed. Q suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.
He didn't know what had made him speak aloud; he usually refrains from bringing unnecessary attention to himself. Perhaps he had been trying to impress her. He looked at the tour guide who had finally noticed him, and smiled at him, "That is absolutely correct." She said before continuing on.
For the rest of the tour, which wasn't that long because he had caught it near the end, Q stayed quiet, choosing to listen to the woman's voice as she spoke both emotionally and intelligently about art. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that she was an artist herself.
She would occasionally check to see if the group was listening, asking questions and letting them look around by themselves if they started to get bored. Q would hang on to every word she said, though. Not finding himself the least bit bored between her stories and facts and opinions. Their eyes would occasionally meet, but she would turn to the paintings before they lingered too long.
"Thank you very much for joining us for the tour, you were a wonderful group. The National Gallery is open every day of the week, so come and visit any time. If there are any questions and inquiries, feel free to ask the information booths and check the brochure stations in each room." The woman said, giving everyone a small smile, Q noticing but her eyes lingered a little longer on him. "Have a lovely evening."
As everyone dispersed, Q and the woman stayed behind. Q started to walk away, wanting to approach her, but holding back from doing so, so he turned to one of the rooms. He quickly realized he had walked into the Italian Renaissance. He walked over to a Beccafumi painting, the Story of Papirius, he believed.
"Domenico Beccafumi. His works exemplify the peculiar spatial and lighting effects of different mannerisms." Q recognized her voice, but nevertheless turned his head slightly to see the woman who had been giving the tour next to him. She was facing the painting with a small smile on her lips. "He truly is an artists of the Mannerism movement."
She turned to him and smiled wider, "Hello, I'm Evey, Evey Mallory." She said, holding out her hand.
"Adam." He replied, shaking her hand, happy to have finally matched a name to her face.
"I noticed you joined us pretty late in the tour, I was wondering if you'd like one on what you missed." Evey asked
Adam refrained from grinning, "Yes, that would be lovely, thank you."
They strolled around the gallery, stopping every so often as Evey would speak about a specific painting, artists or movement. Adam would listen, sometimes giving his input. They would occasionally argue their opinions, and laugh when they realized the other had a valid point. It wasn't before long that they abandoned the topic of art and started talking about each other.
"You seem to really know your art." Adam said
"I'm actually a curator here, but they needed someone to fill in for one of our guides and I offered. How was I? I'm thinking of doing it more often." She asked, he noticed her start nibbling on her bottom lip. She was nervous.
"Very informative, and very lovely." He said, scolding himself mentally at the slip.
Evey giggled, relief washing over her features, as well as a slight blush. "Thank you. You know, I noticed you know a fair share of art history."
"A hobby. So are you an artist yourself?" Adam asked her.
"Yes, I am." Evey replied, grinning. She was happy that he asked, "At least, I like to think I am."
"Let me guess, Cambridge."
"Yes! Actually Cambridge for History and Art History, and UCL for art and design. Are you a Cantabridgian yourself? "
"Yes, actually." Then they began talking about their time at Cambridge.
The two sat on one of the benches in the center of the Romanticism era, just talking and laughing. Well, Evey would laugh, Adam would give small chuckles and smirks whenever she would blush or say something funny. She would give her rebuttal, making him blush as well, though he would be was far better than her at hiding it.
Evey looked down, then at her watch. Adam looked at her as her eyes widened and expression fall. "Oh, damn. Its almost 9. Closing starts in a few minutes." She said, slowly standing up.
"I better get going as well, work in the morning." He said, following suit.
"Well, it was lovely meeting you." Evey said, smiling at him.
"And you as well, Evey." Adam replied, nodding at her. As she was about to turn, he said, "If I were to ever…need information about a painting, when could I find you?"
Evey laughed, amused though a little relieved as well. "I work Mondays through Fridays, except Tuesdays."
"Have a good evening, Evey."
"And you as well, Adam." She smirked before walking towards a door labeled Employees Only.
Q smiled to himself as he left the London National Gallery and made his way to his car. It seems he would be returning to inquire about that painting fairly soon.
Authors Note:
'ELLO AGAIN! I hope you enjoyed it.
How did you like Adam as Q's name? (His surname will come later. But it won't be Holmes, as cute as I would find it.) I know people tend to make 'Q' his name, but it's really just his codename for work. How did you like Evey? There is little shown about her and Adam's personalities, really, but I'm heading there.
Please review for your input; I do enjoy it when people do that. :) I like to hear from you all, as well as correct any mistakes I have made or am given encouragement. A pat on the back would be greatly appreciated.
*All information about artists and art are from my art history class' lectures and notes.
Thank you for reading! I hope you stick with me throughout all of this!