Hello hi just wanted to slip in a little spytalia update and actually keep progress for this fic at a regular pace. It's been like three years and IDK about anyone else but I'm still in love with this au and want to commit to finishing this fic series. Plus I want to cheer up Surya hope you're feeling better.

Also, this chapter is pretty cute and sometimes it's fun to write silly, goofy fluff involving Kuzey and Peter. In fact, out of the context of the fic you could almost believe this was a romantic comedy. Shame i don't like romantic comedies and this is actually a sad spy fic.

But for now it's nice to write some wholesome TRNSea. Also, the song I had in mind for this chapter is 'still in love with you' by Electro Velvet, but feel free to imagine a different song here.

...

The stupid wig was itching again.

Peter tried his darndest to not scratch too hard though, in case he moved it too far without noticing, and how exactly do you explain wearing a brunet wig whilst clearly having healthy locks of blond hair? What could he even use as an excuse in that situation? As he waited patiently at his table for his date to arrive, Peter took a moment to inspect his reflection in the back of his spoon- just in case.

Finding no problem whatsoever, he settled back into his routine of fidgeting constantly and taking in his surroundings.

This restaurant would make up part of his job expenses, and thus Peter decided to choose the fanciest, most expensive place that he'd longed to visit for years now and oh God Andrei had looked on the verge of slapping him when Peter had mentioned the name. What was his problem? He wasn't paying for it either. It did reflect badly on him, Peter supposed, Andrei's agents taking the piss like this, but oh well. Peter risked his life on a daily basis for the entire world and he deserved some compensation. And he would most humbly accept a nice meal with an attractive man as compensation.

Said attractive man was running rather late though, and Peter couldn't help worrying. Getting stood up by the date he was supposed to be spying on? Peter would be the laughing stock of the secret agent community!

Why was everyone staring at him? Did he have something in his teeth? Was his wig askew? Or maybe it was simply the fact that he looked pretty damn much like he'd been stood up, and would soon be walking home alone with a broken heart. Well, that was what it would look like, in reality it would be more frustrating than upsetting, surely.

A commotion from across the restaurant caught his attention, and he looked up to see a rather flustered Kuzey gesticulating wildly to the maitre de, who gave a hefty sigh and pointed towards Peter's table.

"I'm so sorry," he gushed after navigating a sea of tables and annoyed diners- and almost elbowing an old lady into her soup- "work kept me late and I got lost-"

"Hey it's fine," Peter waved a hand, standing up to pull out Kuzey's chair for him. The man, however, did not seem interested in being seated anymore.

"Um," Kuzey glanced downwards, letting a moment of confusion linger on Peter's face before giving an awkward cough. "You know your shirt is inside out?"

Well, on the one hand, that explained a lot. On the other… "Wait? Really?" Peter glanced down to find that- yes- he, in his hurry to get there early, had somehow managed to throw his shirt on inside out. No wonder he felt stupidly uncomfortable, and no wonder everyone was staring at him like he was the biggest pleb to ever be let in the establishment.

"Oh bother," he groaned, throwing his arms in the air and making a grand show of being embarrassed. He'd have to slip into the bathroom to change later- right now he needed to keep Kuzey's attention long enough to convince the man to stay- at least for the first course.

"Hey don't worry about it," Kuzey tried to throw him a reassuring smile, "I can see you're nervous; it's… endearing." He accepted Peter's offer to hold out his chair, sitting down graciously.

"Thank you," replied Peter, taking his own seat, "good day at work then?"

"Long," Kuzey blew a tuft of fringe from his forehead, "then baba wanted to know where I was off to and I had to tell him it was a date." The man grimaced at that; "but that just led to more questions."

"I know how you feel." Peter himself had found it hard to tear himself away from Tino and his excited babbling over his son's mystery guy. He eventually silenced the old man by explaining the entire situation and no, he should not start making plans for son-in-law two. It had been dejecting to see Tino's plans for the inevitable wooly jumper gift unravel in his eyes- the same look as when he found out that Kumar had died.

"Parents, huh?"

"Yeah," Peter rubbed his chin, "so what does your dad think of me?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of you yet," admitted Kuzey, "but I thought it would be best not to let slip any… details about you just yet."

"And your mum?"

"Lives in Cyprus. We don't get along anyway."

"Right, I see," Peter decided not to pry further; dysfunctional family life was hardly second date conversation material, and he wasn't interrogating the man just yet.

"And what do your dads think of me?"

Peter thought about that for a moment. To be honest, both his dads thought Kuzey could be dangerous, but it was probably best not to say that. "My isi- my Finnish dad- was very excited about the news. I'm sure papa was too- hard to tell with him."

"You're from Finland?" Kuzey's eyebrows shot up, "I don't think I've met anyone from there before."

"No but my isi is," Peter smiled, "I'm actually English- my papa adopted me during his time living there when I was little. I don't remember a lot about my home country though, having grown up in Sweden most of my life- papa being Swedish."

"I see."

"I guess isi would technically be my step-dad." No need to bring up the disaster that was Berwald's first marriage though.

"Oh, right. Brothers and sisters?"

"I'm one of six," Peter grinned at that, "two of us are adopted though. Three belong to papa and one to isi. They liked collecting children. And you?"

"Wow that's a big family. How do you find the time for each other? I have a sister and two brothers and they all drive me mad."

"Big families have their merits, I suppose," Peter shrugged, "you know, if you're in need of bone marrow or a kidney."

"Or someone to take the blame for you," Kuzey added with a smile.

"Yeah everyone still thinks it was Lars who shoved that meatball in the video player."

"It's great at work too," added Kuzey, grinning briefly before his smile fell.

"You work with your siblings?" Now they were getting somewhere.

Kuzey looked away. "Erm, yes." He picked up his menu and tried to look like he was browsing through the appetisers.

"All of them?"

"Baba too."

"Wow, that must be fun," four new names of Commonwealth members? Boy, was he good. Maybe Andrei would reconsider that raise now.

"Yeah, sure," Kuzey sighed, "oh, you never told me what you did. Must be something big to afford places like this."

Peter leaned in closer. "I'm a government spy."

Kuzey scoffed. "Okay, be serious now."

"Oh, nothing too fancy," Peter waved a hand, "stocks and shares, very boring."

Kuzey perked up at that. "That's not boring at all; what have you bought stock in?"

"Um, Lidl," he tried, "Aldi. Nothing too major."

"Reckon I'd be able to buy in?"

"Maybe. I'll have to see," Peter hoped he wasn't sweating too profusely. "But I still live with my parents so don't expect the biggest profit."

"Right. So what are you having?"

"Roast beef sounds good," Peter glanced down at the menu- it would probably be too small to fill him up, but taste insanely good. That was how it worked in these fancy restaurants, right? "You?"

"Might try the duck a l'orange, to be honest. And oysters for appetizers," he grimaced for a moment, "maybe we can go Dutch; don't want you forking out for someone you hardly know."

And like every other time he'd heard the phrase 'go Dutch', Peter had to resist the urge to put on a ridiculous Dutch accent. "It's fine. I don't mind paying."

That didn't seem to help the situation, in all honesty. "Look," Kuzey was, once more, avoiding eye-contact, "if you do pay, you're not going to expect me to do… you know, anything I'm not comfortab-"

"Oh heavens no!" cried Peter, "look, I just wanted to make a friendly gesture, nothing ulterior about it." Well, not in that sense anyway, and he hoped he didn't sound like he was lying.

...

"That was… not as good as I'd been expecting." Maybe Peter had idolised that restaurant for too long, because the food was not to the standard he'd set. It was good, make no mistake, but he wasn't sure he'd gotten his money's worth. Kuzey seemed happy though.

"I didn't think I'd ever like anything flavoured with orange again," he explained, "but that was alright."

"Not an orange fan?" Peter loved his fruits and vegetables like he was an evacuee living off rations.

"My brother sold them," Kuzey rolled his eyes, "damned fridge used to be full of the things."

"Cucumbers are better anyway."

"Okay then."

And that was that- they were stuck in an awkward silence. Peter's mind scrambled for something to talk about, to keep the flow of conversation up so Kuzey would think there was a spark between them, chemistry entangled in their every words. "Who do you think would win in a fight between Spongebob and Optimus Prime?"

Kuzey's only reply came in the form of a groan.

"Now," despite everything, Peter thought it wise to continue on this conversation, "I know a lot of people would say Optimus Prime, but I-"

"That's pretty." Kuzey wasn't even subtle about ignoring Peter's rambling; "hey Willie, look."

When Peter followed his gaze across the small cobblestone square they found themselves in, towards a modest fountain illuminated in the dark by sparse street lighting and the lights of the one shop left open, he had to agree. "I guess." The water twinkled in the dim light, and the way it collected in a shallow, shimmering pool was rather pleasing to the eye.

And like that, he had the cheesiest, sappiest idea possible, ripped straight from some advert he saw years ago. It was terrible, but so romantic and smooth it might just work.

"Hey, sit here," he guided Kuzey to the nearest bench, pulling out his phone and scrolling through his music player to find the perfect song- ah yes, a little electroswing ditty he knew all the words to. Then he placed his headphones on Kuzey's head and pressed play.

He started dancing immediately because he knew the music would have, snapping his fingers and shaking his hips.

At once, Kuzey was grinning at the spectacle, and Peter's smile widened, jumping into a side kick and shuffling towards the fountain. The words would have started now, and he was probably mouthing along in time to them. Hopefully. Maybe this was a little too rushed and spontaneous.

He hopped onto the edge of the fountain, shuffling along before jumping back in the pool. Kuzey was clapping along now, shrieking with laughter as Peter kicked up water and ducked under the waterfall.

He splashed a handful in Kuzey's direction, carrying on with his goofy dance as water sparkled all around him. Then he gave an ill-fated attempt at a splits-jump out of the fountain, stumbling slightly as he landed before running back to Kuzey.

Peter plopped down on the bench next to his boyfriend, mouthing along to the next line and pulling over-the-top faces as he did so. And then he was up again, kneeling down right in his face and, having run out of moves by about now, flapping his elbows like a chicken. In fact, when he got up for the last thirty seconds or so, it was mostly to flail about, unsure if he was even in-time with the music anymore.

Kuzey peeled the headphones from his ears when the music was over, and Peter came to an abrupt halt. Okay, maybe he was a little out of step. "Well that was… something." His eyes wrinkled from how hard he was smiling. "Was that planned or-"

"Did it look planned to you?" Peter flushed red as he took his phone back.

"Hard to tell when it comes to you." Kuzey stood up and- tentatively- took his hand, "but as a thanks, I'll let you walk me home."

"Really?" Peter beamed at that.

Kuzey gave him a firm glare. "You can't come in though."

"I won't even try and kiss ya."

"Good to know."

...

He better not be blushing.

Kuzey hadn't called for an elevator yet in an attempt to try and collect himself, standing in the lobby of his block of flats with a burning hot face and sudden lack of breath. Why was he getting this way, about Willie of all people? The man was a fool, a wreck of a human being that was just so endearing in his own way.

He was endearing enough to warrant Kuzey agreeing to a third date, anyhow. Willie would call him at some point, probably tripping over his words and laughing at any little thing and he'd have to pretend to be impatient and a little irritated to hide the fact that he'd been waiting for his call.

When he finally pulled himself together long enough to actually get in the lift, Kuzey sank into the opposite wall, almost sliding to the floor as he brushed a fiery cheek and allowed himself the tiniest of smiles. Fuck, he had it bad.

He tried to bring his face back to a neutral expression as he stepped in through the front door to baba's flat. Heracles' presence certainly helped bring his mood down, but not quite enough, he noticed as his oldest brother bounded over to ask about his night.

...

I actually got the dancing idea from an old ad from years ago. Don't remember what it was actually advertising, but I thought it was really cute and the idea stuck with me for years. It was like couple goals for me before couple goals were a thing.