I realize I am a terrible person! I am so sorry for taking so damn long to update but life has been a certain kind of stress (HELLO SENIOR YEAR!) It has also been an interesting experience having beta with me- Thank you Lioni Williams for helping me out and a special shout out to Kiss my Quill for offering to be my beta. I love you both and everyone else who puts up with my shenanigans! I hope y'all enjoy this chapter and continue being such amazing readers :)
P.S. I haven't seen the movie yet so no spoilers. I'm willing to discuss it with anyone when I see it. Just check my profile and I'll update there.
I love you all,
Elizabeth.
Elaine sat in the corner of the kitchen. The day was still early and everything had a mellow ease and blueish hue. She took an apple from the bowl in front of her and munched on it as Eggsy and Lukas argued in French.
"Va te faire foutre! Cul." Lukas spat indignantly.
"Te m'en fou." Eggsy answered with ease.
Lukas scoffed and waved a spoon threateningly at him, which Eggsy dodged. Elaine just sat and wondered occasionally what they were arguing about. From the sounds of it, they were insulting one another, but in that way very good friends insulted each other. Eggsy leaned against the doorway of the tiny kitchen and hurled more insults at Lukas while he made coffee.
"What are you guys fighting about." Elaine asked, unable to quench the curiosity.
"About how much better I am than him," Eggsy said. "He just keeps admitting how great I am and takes no compliments for himself!"
Elaine smiled at his antics.
"Arrogant fils de pute." Lukas mumbled under his breath as he poured the coffee into three mugs.
Eggsy was dressed for the day more casually than she was used to seeing him, but still handsome, nevertheless. But a more tired kind of handsome. His hair was a mess and there was the shadow of a bruise on his jaw, his knuckled were busted open and the bags under his eyes had receded back and dulled but still visible. Elaine had overlooked his precarious state when they first set out for Paris, but as the shock and euphoria cleared away, Elaine became more aware that Eggsy was running away from London just as much as she was.
"Sweet Elaine, why are you with with bastard?" Lukas asked as he set the first mug in front of her.
She filed away her curiosity of what Eggsy was running away from in the back of her mind and put on a smile for Lukas. What was the harm in playing along with Lukas's charming insults?
"Why shouldn't I be with him?" Elaine asked, turning towards the Frenchmen and feigning concern.
"Ah! I am so glad you asked!" Lukas shouted. He promptly sat down beside her and caressed her cheek. "You don't really like him, right?"
"Oi, who's she been snoggin?"
Lukas ignored the Brit. Elaine decided to play along.
"This dofus doesn't know Monet for fingerpainting! How can he know a beautiful woman from one that is not? Your beauty would have been painted by Michelangelo if he had seen a vision of your strawberry locks. Van Gogh would have cried to see your cheeks peppered with freckles like the starry night sky. Gatsby would do nothing but gaze longingly at your wide emerald eyes. So don't be with this dofus."
Eggsy scoffed.
"Stop it! You're making me blush!" Elaine laughed, covering her cheeks.
"Oi, a'right, I don't like the way this is going, yeah. I think we've better be off." Eggsy said, stepping out of the doorway towards the two of them.
"Shush, I am wooing my second wife." Lukas said.
"Only your second one? How old are you? 27? I don't think you're helping your case, monsieur."
"Yeah, well tha's another reason to stay away from this dog; there's not a loyal bone in 'im." Eggsy approached the table and leaned over towards her with a charming smile. "Whereas I am loyal as a bulldog."
"He looks like one, too." Lukas stage whispered to Elaine.
Eggsy took a dish towel, wrung it and snapped it at Lukas. Elaine started laughing when Lukas began shouting angrily at Eggsy in French. He only got angrier when all that Eggsy responded with was a smug look.
"I think our hospitality as ended, darling." Eggsy said.
Elaine agreed and Lukas said something about English ego.
Eggsy laughed and followed Elaine out the door of the apartment and into the morning air. Just as they had walked out, Lukas said his goodbye and kissed Elaine on the cheek. Before pulling away, Lukas warned her to 'be careful of the tailor. Danger follows him.' She didn't know what to make of the warning but Lukas said it with a smile, though Eggsy didn't look amused.
"French humour." Eggsy mumbled when Elaine asked him about the encounter.
Elaine let the matter drop from her mind and focused on taking in the sights around her.
"What should we do today?" Elaine asked, excitedly pulling Eggsy closer after traversing a block. Eggsy let her tug him with a smile, any unease melting away.
"How about we take a tour of the 12th?"
"I don't know what that means, but I'll follow you." Elaine said, bouncing on her toes.
Eggsy twirled her into an embrace. He set his arms around her shoulders and gave her a lopsided grin.
"Breakfast first." He said.
Elaine wrapped her arms around him, as well.
"Breakfast first." She agreed.
They both smiled into one another's lips and Elaine knew there was no sensation like french kissing a handsome brit while embracing in the crisp morning air of Paris. Everything about the moment was natural. Eggsy's hands running down her back and through her hair was natural. The way his lips pulled at hers was natural. And the way Elaine's heart raced was an exercise she had missed for most of her life. She was perfectly, divinely, naturally, happy.
Elaine knew this was it. She was a taken woman.
They broke apart, staying close enough that Elaine had to tilt her head back to gaze into his eyes. When Eggsy went for another kiss, Elaine started laughing.
"Wha? Is my snoggin' that bad?" He asked, pulling back and trying to look offended.
"Other way." Elaine smiled and rose on her toes to give him a peck on the lips.
He made a funny face which made Elaine Crinkle her nose in amusement and soon they were walking again to find breakfast.
Roxy had called Eggsy four times. None of the other Kingsmen had seen him and she was starting to get a little worried about the way she handled his actions in Prague. She called him again, checked the video feed of HQ, she even stopped by his apartment, all with no luck.
A couple hours passed and she thought to check airport surveillance. What she found was not good. Of course he would make the idiotic mistake of taking her away. Hesitant to inform Merlin of Galahad's indiscrecion, Lancelot had limited courses of actions she could take. She thought it through in the gun range and finally came up with a solution. And Eggsy wouldn't like it, but it was his own damn faut.
What love did to men.
"So," Elaine said. They had finished breakfast and were now walking hand in hand through a lovely park settled at the outside of the city. "I think we need to address something."
She avoided his eyes, focusing on the path in front of them. She didn't know what he was going to do and she certainly didn't want to discuss her problems. But they had to talk about it.
"Alright." Eggsy said.
They walked towards a bench planted between two oaks and settled on it, both of them stiffening. The light atmosphere they had enjoyed dissipated and the ease between then stirred.
"I think we both ran away from things. When we left."
Eggsy nodded. The caramel, crinkling trees above them dropped their leaves around them like a halo, adding to the peppering of gold and orange on the path.
"I think we did." Eggsy said, looking forward into the park. "You wanna talk about it?"
Eggsy turned to face her, his eyes searching her own.
"Well… I think," Elaine wrapped her jacket tighter around herself. She was now pinned down under Eggsy's gaze and she couldn't muster the courage to tell him she was a suspected terrorist. Who was actually her sister. And he would side with his Uncle and who ever the creepy guy with the horn rimmed glasses was. "I think Paris and everything has been amazing. But, we're here for the wrong reasons. Just blinded by the freedom of a quick getaway. And, I like you,"
Elaine blushed, not exactly sure where they stood.
"I like you as well." Eggsy assured with a smile, making Elaine relax.
"I like you and want to travel with you for the right reasons. And don't say you weren't running, because I know something's up when you show up with bruises and a limp. So, that all." Elaine ended dumbly.
Eggsy nodded again, shifted his eyes away from her's.
He was probably thinking about why he ran. That's what Elaine was doing. What would he do when he found out the authorities thought she was a terrorist? Was she on the run? Would she be jailed when she got back to London? Was anywhere safe? Maybe she should just end things here and now before they got messy.
Eggsy broke her out of her thoughts when he laced their fingers together and bumped her shoulder.
"You're right. I was runnin' away and I'm sorry this is a botched trip what with this cloud over us. But lemme tell you something; if I were to run away with anyone, it'd be you."
Elaine smiled, bumping his shoulder back.
"This isn't botched. We're having a good time." Elaine assured.
"I guess we are. And I'll try to help with anything you're running away from. You don't have to talk abou' it, but I'm here." Eggsy said, giving her hand a squeeze.
Elaine melted into a pool of butterflies at Eggsy words and suddenly everything didn't seem so catastrophic. Before she became too sentimental, she cleared her throat and looked over the city before her.
"Isn't Paris a city of museums?"
"Tha's what I've heard." Eggsy said, shifting to grab her bag from the ground in preparation to leave.
Elaine smiled, grabbed her purse and his hand and began walking with him back towards the city.
Eggsy and Elaine sat together outside the Louvre and watched the crowd in front of them. They had spent an hour or so walking through the exhibits, Elaine amazed both by the artwork and Eggsy's surprisingly funny commentary. But once the crowds go too overbearing, they headed out and sat by a fountain bundled in their jackets and Eggsy quickly decided they needed coffee, which Elaine was all for. So she sat by the fountain and watched Eggsy buy their beverages.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and, assuming it to be Maisey, answered it without checking the caller id.
"Hey, Maz."
"Lainey."
Elaine jumped up, her heart racing and her chilled shivering replaced by hot rage.
"Why the hell are you calling me, Greg?" Elaine demanded, her voice shaking.
"Where are you?"
Elaine let out an incredulous scoff. Eggsy was walking back and Elaine had no idea why she hadn't just hung up as soon as she heard his voice. But she wanted him to know she was angry.
"None of your fucking buisness." Elaine kept her voice down, but Eggsy had gotten closer and quickly caught onto the panic in her voice.
"You need to listen to me, Lainey. You're in trouble."
Before she could muster a response, Eggsy set down the coffee and put his hand on her back, concern shading his eyes.
"Is it Greg?" He asked. "Lemme talk to him."
"Is that the brit?" Greg asked aggressively. "Tell him I wanna rematch. Bastard tore my shoulder out."
"Good. You deserved it, asshole." Elaine managed to bite out. Her hands were now shaking.
Eggsy held his hand out and Elaine thought be would be a better voice of intimidation to scare away Greg. Elaine handed Eggsy her phone and he immediately put up a cold expression.
"I think I've made myself pretty clear, mate." Eggsy said, the harshness in his voice sounding foreign.
Elaine wrapped her arms around herself and attempted to listen to the other side of the line, but it was too faint.
"Obviously she's in danger if you're still after her." Anger started to work it's way into Eggsy's shoulders. "Well, that;s bloody fine 'cause we're outta the country at the moment… like bloody hell… well I'm more than qualified to protect her so sod off."
Eggsy hung up and gave the phone back to Elaine. Anger rolled off him in waves and Elaine worried about what the call meant.
"He can't get me." Elaine said, more to herself than him.
Elaine stared at the phone, waiting for another call to light up the screen. Eggsy wrapped his arm around her waist and handed her the coffee.
"He can't." Eggsy reassured. "Let's just move on."
After walking for a bit and letting the situation dissipate, Elaine considered Eggsy with a curious smile.
"So, you're more than qualified to protect me?"
Eggsy grumbled something and took a long sip of coffee.
"Can you define 'more than qualified' for me?" Elaine asked, smiling when Eggsy gave a rubbish answer that was clearly fictional.
"Super secret spy mode. I see." Elaine joked.
Eggsy laughed with her, but there was a feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her that something was off. But she ignored it.
Bedivere filed papers in the archive room in the basement of HQ.
His father had been an archivist and avid historian, so the smell of old card stalk and the deep narrow corridors of cabinets and shelves had a calming affect on his tight nerves. It had been two days since he fought Galahad in Prague and Bedivere almost considered apologizing. Almost. As of yet, Galahad had steered clear of him and Bedivere wouldn't have it anyother way.
Although, a lack of an annoying Galahad meant he was most likely preoccupied by Evie; which seemed far worse that dealing with the nuisance himself.
Shaking his head to get back to work, Bedivere once again dived back into the heaps of redacted files and folders of intel. He didn't mind the work. After all, he had started at the Kingsmen as an archivist and the remembrance of new beginnings and nights helping his father was mind clearing.
It was 1:26 am. The worry clung to his stomach despite the mellowing job. Thoughts of terrible things happening to his loved ones bubbled up to his ears and spilled out his eyes and made him abhor even the idea of sleep. So he ignored to bubbling, clawing worry and focused on the task at hand.
He set down his last file when the metal door to the basement opened and the clicking of heels followed. Below the harsh, fluorescent light, Roxy entered.
They were silent for a moment, Roxy studying Bedivere in his sleepless state and eyeing the desk cleared of files.
"You need sleep." She leaned against the desk he sat at and leveled him with a worried look.
"I count redacted sheets of intel, not sheep." Bedivere sighed, running his hands over his face.
"Then by the looks of it, you should be sleeping like a rock.
There was a heavy silence between them as Bedivere pulled at the cord to the desk lamp.
"What's Galahad's status?"
Roxy shifted uncomfortably, avoiding Bedivere's eyes.
"I came here to console you, but I guess you don't know." Roxy said.
The weight behind her words making Bedivere's stomach clench. He rose with a slow gravity out of his seat.
"Know what?"
"Galahad ran away to Paris with Evie."
Bedivere took a moment to compose himself internally. Ignoring Lancelot's protests, he called the pilot and went to pack his bag.
In the middle of the day in Amsterdam at an unremarkable hotel that was tucked away in the corner of the city, a woman entered and requested a room. Like the hotel, the woman was unremarkable. Small, dark hair, and carrying one mager bag on her shoulder, the woman walked to the front desk with a slow, confidant gait. She leaned against the counter as she waited for the attendant to find her a room.
"Name?"
"Theodora Wyndham."
"What brings you to Amsterdam?" the attendants asked as he handed her a file to complete.
"The flowers. Tulips, really." The woman answered, giving the attendant a hesitant smile, like she wasn't accustomed to showing warmth to people.
"Very good." he said, dropping any pretense to conversation as he put in a room on the computer. He took the file, typed a few things into the system, then handed her a key with directions on where to go.
Once she got into her room, she collapsed on the bed, opened her laptop, and checked the site she had been following for the past few days. Looking over the information provided a couple of times, she sighed before opening up her bag, pulling out a gun. She would need to clean it soon. She looked back at the site.
ELAINE DANIELLA. LONDON. 800,000$. Dead or Alive.
Every other digital existence of her target had disappeared except this one. Teddy Wyndham would rektify that.
Huffing, she clicked onto another page.
The airfare from Amsterdam to London was nothing compared to the 800,000 that would soon be transferred into her account. Without hesitation, she bought a ticket then spread out on the bumpy bed. Starring at the ceiling, she wondered what Elaine would do once she got to London.
"Goodbye, Ms. Daniella."