Roxy woke up with her blonde hair matted to her face and something warm-blooded pressed against her back. She kicked at it, smiling when she heard the familiar groan of her best friend, Eggsy.
"Oi, da fuck I do to you this early?" Eggsy moaned, stealing her blanket. He buried himself into his side of the bed.
"I locked the door last night," she said, stretching out like a cat as she brushed her hair to the tangled mess it normally was. She absently scratched at the mountain landscape tattooed on her right hip.
"Came in through the window," Eggsy said, waving a hand out toward her living room.
Slowly she sat up and rubbed at her face. Part of her wanted to restate that she would give him a key. Tell him that he's a moron for climbing in a window on the sixth floor without any kind of fire escape as a safety net. Instead she nudged him again.
"I'll make pancakes. You gonna sleep or grab a shower before I feed you?" she asks, pulling her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
"Didn't come for ya food," he grumbles. She yanks up the blankets and slaps his arse hard. He jolts, rolling off the bed in the flurry of blankets and howls, until he lands in a heap. His swearing comes out in half-mumbled sentences so she can't hear him, until he just flips her off.
"Shower," he grunts, head buried under it all but legs sticking out of a pair of white pajama bottoms that have red lipstick prints all over them. She narrows her eyes, because those are hers and he's stretching them out again.
"You need to use my washer and dryer?" she asks, pointedly.
"Already in the dryer," he says and heaves himself up. She can't help but stare at his back. In a way, it is her punishment to see it. More bruises color his ribs and lower back. The scars are a mess along his shoulders-lines and round puckered spots- some healing, others still red and angry. Roxy takes it in, and refuses to look away until he's closing the door on her loo, still grumbling about her mothering.
She'll take the grumbling if it means he'll get to enjoy a shower for the first time in two weeks. Hopefully, he hasn't been that long without a decent meal but she figures it probably has.
Shaking her head, Roxy gets herself out of bed. She has pancakes to make.
-
"Your Dad gonna stop by?" Eggsy asks, stepping out from her bedroom, dressed again her pajama bottoms-flamingos this time, but with the added white tank he's pulled from the dryer.
"He's on a mission to see about a kidnapped professor," she says, turning off the grill as she serves up the last of the pancakes to a plate.
"He doin' okay?" Eggsy asks, sitting down and accepting a cup of tea she offers up.
Roxy shrugs to answer the question. It is a sore spot, but she knows he won't push it. They both understand the sting of absent father-figures.
"How's Daisy?" she asks, because if they are poking each other's sore points, she knows his just as well as he knows hers.
"Better. Mum is giving her the meds I knicked," he traces his thumbs around the lip of the mug, before taking a sip.
"I'm glad the code to the A and E worked," she says, and he nods his thanks.
"Well, eat up, I'm going to get a shower." Roxy drops three pancakes to a plate and pours syrup over them, knowing Eggsy won't resist if the food could potentially be tossed.
"Ta, Rox," he says, low and quiet, before shuffling over to her kitchen table to the cleared off chair and portion of table that she's always considered to be his. Her eyes slide down to his sock covered feet and sighs, but nods. She takes her tea with her into the loo, and turns on the shower.
It doesn't take long, he always scarfs down his food, and sure enough just as she takes her second slow swallow of tea, there is faint thud of her window shutting.
"Six years," she mutters to herself, and leaves the loo to go check the kitchen. The plate is clean, save for a few drops of syrup and sitting in the sink. Roxy pulls open the oven and sighs when she sees the stack of leftover pancakes there. There is a piece of paper propped up against them, reading in loopy handwriting, "Happy Home Day".
"Happy Home Day, Eggsy," she says. Six years, Roxy thinks, six years since her dad showed up with a bleeding young man and dropped him in her proverbial lap. She had stitched him up, put him back together and kept him safe until he was able to run away. Eventually, he had come back, but made it clear, when she offered to let him live with her, that he would never put himself in that situation ever again. He didn't want a home, but on the one year anniversary of the day Eggsy had been kicked from the only home he had ever known, Eggsy came back to celebrate their little family holiday- Home Day.
James made it when he could, but mostly it was Roxy and Eggsy reminding each other that despite being essentially orphans in the world, they had homes.
Letting the oven door slam shut, Roxy stood and put her hands on her hips. It would be nice if after six years, they could actually enjoy the day together instead of Eggsy's other tradition covering their day with a cloud of darkness and grief. Since Home Day shared its date with the anniversary of his father's death.
Scratching at the shaved part of her head, Roxy turned toward her shower. He'd be back after at least, she thought and then she could continue the other tradition-patching up Eggsy when he was injured. Rolling her eyes, she thought they really needed new traditions.
-
Later that night, with three computers running, and at least that many servers carrying the weight of her hacking and wandering as she liked to call it, Roxy wasn't sure what made her tense up at the simple ding of a new email. It was getting late, she checks the clock to see it is just past midnight, and for whatever reason the 12:09 doesn't help the anxiousness curling up her spine.
Clicking on the email, she sees immediately it is from on of her father's accounts. She reaches under her desk and pulls out her handgun, not liking at all the way her stomach bottoms out and the hairs on her neck stand up.
The file inside downloads to her desktop and it immediately opens a video when it is finished. She sits back when her father's face appears, and she can do nothing to stop herself from pressing play.
"Rox," he says, and leans back a bit so the video can capture his entire upper torso. "I'm sorry to do this to you, but this has always been the only way I can guarantee our communication." He stops, and takes a slow breath.
"If this has arrived, it means that I haven't completed my last mission within my normal parameter time frame and someone has executed a delete on my mainframe's files. The short of it means, I've died. I'm sorry, darling, but the Kingsman won't be coming to notify you and I don't want to risk you or Eggsy finding out through the newspaper. You both need to know how much I love you," he chokes on the words, but then closes his eyes.
"This is being recorded two weeks before Home Day, and if it comes to you after, Happy Home Day my darlings," he smiles and looks into the camera. Roxy covers her mouth with her hand to try and stop the sounds forming in the back of her throat.
"Unfortunately, this isn't the only news I must deliver with this message. Recently, I've been investigating some strange occurrences within the Kingsman halls. Reports being mislabeled, evidence being destroyed, and illegal goods being lost. They all have seemed like clerical errors, but darling, no working for Kingsman makes errors like these. I've come to believe that there may be some sort of mole amongst our agents. I could not say for sure, but I think someone at least at my level, if not higher..." he trailed off, and rubbed his face.
"I'm sorry to do this to you, darling, but I need you to pick up where I leave off. I need you to investigate the Kingsman. The lives of my fellow agents could be at risk, and I trust you to be able to find out the offender. Roxanne," he stops, and for the first time in a while she can see the highlight of the grey at his temples, the lines etched more clearly in his face.
"I never could be the father you needed," James spoke softer, leaning in a bit. "I wanted to be, but there is something you must know about the mission that lead to me joining Kingsman... it came at the cost of another man's life. A man sacrificed himself for myself and others. He saved me, knowing that he would leave behind a son and wife, knowing I had just found out your mother was pregnant and I wasn't focused on the mission..." He shook his head.
"That man was Lee Unwin," James looks up into the camera. "I am deeply sorry, Eggsy. Your father was a brave man, and his death is on me. If I had been faster then he would have been home to keep you and Michelle safe. For that I can never atone for and must carry now to my grave. You both have become my life, and I am sorry to leave this dangerous task to you both."
There was a noise off screen and James glanced away, panicked. "I don't have any longer here. I love you Roxanne. My darling, I am so sorry to leave you like this," he cleared his throat, a tear welling up in the corner of his eye. "Eggsy, be strong for her. I can never begin to apologize for what you have suffered, but I am proud of the man you are. I love you as if you were my own. I wish I could have done more," he smiles bravely as he straightens up, hand reaching out toward the camera.
"Don't trust any of the Kingsman, Rox. Not until you find out who is responsible. My files will have downloaded to the server under Night-Wish. Follow my trail in and you will know the password. Be safe, darling."
The video closed and the screen resumed with her email at the forefront. Roxy didn't notice as she buried her face in arms and cried.