"What happened to you?" Walking into their office, Napoleon asked after he caught a look of his partner.
"Nothing," Illya growled adjusting an ice pack on his eye.
"Your eye is swollen and different shades of purple. Who did this to you?" Napoleon demanded taking the pack out of his hand.
"I do not want to talk about it. Now let me have that back." He grabbed the ice replacing it on his eye.
"Look partner. Did someone here do that to you? Are those Section Three guys giving you problems again? I told you last time I wouldn't put up with it if it happened once more."
"It is not any of the staff." A sigh accompanied the statement. "Napoleon just drop it okay. It is not something I wish to discuss."
Napoleon dropped it knowing a perfect way of finding out what was going on, but it would have to wait to after work.
/
Napoleon stopped for Chinese on his way to Illya's for dinner. Food usually softened the Russian up, and he had every intention of getting his stubborn partner to talk about how he had received a purple eye.
As he turned the last corner, he saw the Russian sitting in a lawn chair by the curb near the corner store. Before him were a group of teenagers scrubbing graffiti off the side of the building.
"You missed a spot," Illya called out to one of the kids.
"Yes Mr. Kuryakin. Thank you sir."
Napoleon walked up to the group raising a questioning eye at Illya. "What's going on?"
"These young men volunteered to clean off the graffiti on the building. "
"And why would they do that?" He asked. The boys in front of him had symbols of a gang on their backs and were not known for their community involvement.
"Because I asked." Illya said pointing to another missed spot which was immediately cleaned by the nearest boy.
"Illya why would these boys be so willing to clean it up when my guess is that they're the ones who put it there in the first place. And don't tell me it was just because you asked." Napoleon was going to get the whole story one ay or another.
"This morning I happened upon them expressing their feelings on the side of the building. We had a discussion about destroying public property. They saw it my way and agreed to remove it."
"And the eye?"
"One of them wanted to express his point. I did not duck fast enough." He blushed
As Illya finished his explanation, the boys came over to let him know that the building was done.
"Thank you. Please remember to contain your art to a more suitable canvas in the further."
"Yes, sir." They said as one before leaving.
Deciding he wasn't sure that he wanted to know how Illya had convinced the gang to clean up the mess, Napoleon held up the bag of food. "Come on Mr. Kuryakin. You deserve an award for your community service."
As they walked into Illya's building, Napoleon smirked, "Didn't duck fast enough?"
"You are not going to let me live this one down, are you?"
"Not for a long time partner." Napoleon shot back.
Illya groaned. It was going to be a long night